(Apologies in advance for the "TL:DR".
Here's a quick summary:
"Japan, I love your games......but I do not love your gamers.")
6x6z6w wrote:Anyone came here because of Sankaku Complex?? lol
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2012/01/0 ... wa-shoujo/
I saw this post (which is linked above) few weeks earlier, and I somehow became curious about the game. (strange though, because the thread mostly talks about how people don't like katawa shoujo
now I guess they are wrong about it!)
I admit I am sorely tempted to do the same thing that article did and point out the constant insensitivity that many Japanese commit while using their own language, notably the frequent use of the word "gaijin" (equivalent to "outsider") rather than the much more polite "gaikokujin" (meaning "foreigner," or more literally "person from a foreign country"). But that wouldn't be entirely fair to them, since the Japanese people who are complaining MIGHT be more sensitive than your typical Japanese citizen. Unlikely, given it's 2chan, but it'd be polite to assume the best of them.
However, I have dealt with the Japanese otaku community before. I translated, into Japanese, a script for a fanmade animation meant to rally support for the cancelled game "Mega Man Legends 3." After it was uploaded on Nico Nico Douga, the Japanese Mega Man fans latched onto a sarcastic one-line joke in the video (it was referring to a different Mega Man title) and acted so outraged that they totally lost sight of the purpose of the video (which was to unify fans).
I'm afraid that the vast majority of the people who complained about Katawa Shoujo simply read the title and went off on a tirade without learning anything more about the game, let alone actually trying it. (Of course, it isn't available in Japanese yet, and very few Japanese are 100% fluent in English, so that's not
entirely their fault.) And for that matter, none of them seemed to realize (or acknowledge) that it was a Japanese doujinshi artist who came up with the idea and the concept sketches, not to mention the
actual title of "Katawa Shoujo."
They seem to think that a bunch of outsiders came in and imitated a Japanese ren ai game, making a mockery of the genre by featuring disabled girls. When really, if there was ever anything perverse about the idea of a game called "Katawa Shoujo," Four Leaf Studios did the exact OPPOSITE: they treated the subject with respect and sensitivity. And believe me, I don't take that lightly. I majored in International Studies in college, I focused on cultural sensitivity, and I took a number of classes on disabilities and language learning.
But the Japanese fans didn't bother to wait for someone who spoke fluent English to actually play the game. They heard the title, assumed the worst, and went with their first kneejerk reaction. Of course, there are English-speakers who are just as bad -- most of them can be found on YouTube -- but since these quotes came from 2chan, and KS came from 4chan, you'd THINK they'd have enough respect to do a little research. Even with those who who are horrible with English, there ARE auto-translation utilities out there on the web. I have used them to read doujin fiction in raw Japanese. It's a bit of a chore, but you can definitely get a broad idea of the INTENT of the text.
And hell, you can even glean a little bit of the story just by looking at the graphics throughout the game. Yeah, there's always sex at some point, but it should be obvious that there's a helluva lot more going on in the story.
Sigh. I am very much a fan of Japanese games, plus I find Japanese culture fascinating, and to some extent I like the Japanese people -- even though racism may be more common over there, they DO have their share enlightened people to meet and befriend. However, I must sadly admit that I have found no reason to like otaku culture very much. It may not be politically correct to say so, but I get the feeling that Japanese fans end up having more social issues than fans in other countries, because of the way other Japanese tend to apply a strong stigma to the "otaku" label. It's really not fair to them... but on the other hand, that's no excuse to be a jerk.
) and I wondered; 