Comments on: Video Games: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

By: Zeke

Zeke — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:08:24 +0000

I don’t think anyone will call you racist — it’s impossible not to notice. (Also, as racism goes, anti-Japan is currently on the not-so-bad list.) One of the most jarring demonstrations of this phenomenon is live-action adaptations of manga/anime. Sometimes they turn out pretty well, but never do the actors look anything like their characters.

It’s hard to say any one thing is the weirdest thing about Japan, but this is certainly in the running. They don’t like us Westerners much, but they seem to gear a lot of their media towards us, whether on purpose or not. For instance, breast size is a huge deal in comedy anime; a girl with a small chest will usually have a bit of an inferiority complex about it. Good luck with that in real-life Japan, where nobody has any breasts at all.

999 is great. It’s a “visual novel” with a bit of old-school adventure game thrown in. Check out Time Hollow for one that’s more self-steered. Visual novels — basically Choose Your Own Adventure books with pictures — are a big deal in Japan; a lot of them are just dating games, but there are some with truly amazing stories. My all-time favourite is Fate/Stay Night, which can be bought in Japanese and patched to English. (The anime is easy to track down, but while very good, it only covers one of the three possible storylines of the game.)

By: Idahoser

Idahoser — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:01:29 +0000

“By far, you’ll spend most of the game reading … That sounds pretty boring”

wait til I tell you about this new portable solar-powered personal entertainment device… You’re going to love it! They’re called “books”

By: CarolyntheMommy

CarolyntheMommy — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 05:53:19 +0000

Every time you post about video games, a nerd gets his pocket protector.

By: artvol11

artvol11 — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:20:32 +0000

Hey look 999… *remembers Herman Cain, then is reminded subsequently of the primary, how we elected Romney and not Cain, and how we lost*…fuuuuuuuddddddggggggggggee (but I didn’t say fudge).

By: Just Some Guy

Just Some Guy — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:24:34 +0000

I think the human brain, when shown a drawing of questionable ethnicity, defaults to assuming it must be whatever race that brain sees the most often. And most anime just isn’t realistic enough to accurately look like any one specific ethnicity. So you see a light skinned human drawing and automatically think “American” while the Japanese look at the same light skinned drawing and think “Japanese”.

Okay, they actually think 日本人. Because they’re in Japan. But you get the idea.

By: FredKey

FredKey — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:48:56 +0000

Nah, you’re just racist because you don’t worship the water upon which Obama walks.

By: Mike the Canuck

Mike the Canuck — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:44:40 +0000

999? Herman Cain approves.

By: trackerk

trackerk — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:13:29 +0000

Why can’t both you and the Japanese be racist?