Not what I need after my plane ride back from the glorious City of Wind.
Oh, for god's sake. I love the PW kink meme, I really do, but by law of averages it can bring some very dramatic fail.
Yes, but Japan is perfectly capable of drawing people who look Japanese. They chose to portray "themselves" as un-Asian.
Where do I even begin with these two sentences? It's rather notable in the wake of the racebending scandal around the The Last Airbender where that same argument was used to annoyingly bad ends, but in the Phoenix Wright fandom it is even stupider. The Ace Attorney series was made in Japan, by Japanese people, and original set in Japan. This isn't even a racism issue, this is a 'how stupid are you' issue.
Good grief. I mean, let's look at some of these un-Asian people.
Phoenix Wright, originally Ryuichi Naruhodo. A pretty basic looking gentleman. His name was Japanese and he originally worked in the city of Somewhereinjapan before localization and translation assigned him to Los Angeles. The fact that this now makes him white is probably more our problem than Capcom's.
Maya Fey, originally Ayasato Mayoi. She wears a Japanese spirit medium's kimono and magatama in nearly all appearances (bar the Tres Bien thing which was just...weird) and is from the quite Japanese-looking Kurain Village. In fact the presence of a very old Japanese spirit medium family and village in the mountains of California is one of the things where the original Somewhereinjapan peeks out from underneath the cover of localization. One simply must roll with it.
Morgan Fey, originally Ayasato Kimiko. Former head of Kurain Village, aunt to Maya Fey, and I'm pretty sure the picture speaks for itself.
Lotta Hart, originally Oosawagi Natsumi. Paparazzi/magazine photographer who, if you watch the Takarazuka musicals, is also a part-time nun. A very American woman from the Heart of the Heartland...no, wait, I mean Osaka. Osaka to the point that the developers were a little annoyed at the stereotype.
Interpol Agent Shi-Long Lang, originally Rou Shiryuu. Even in the American version he's from the small Asian country of Zheng Fa, with his English name being "a Chinese reading of the kanji that make up his name" according to his wiki entry. He has a habit of bowing at people, and his loyal pack refers to him as "Shifu", And oh, would you look at that, he's got light hair and not a trace of a slant to his eyes. How strange.
For additional interest, I dug up an interview with one of the localizers for Justice For All.
Lost: Conversely, what sorts of stuff do you add to give the Phoenix Wright dialogue a bit more of a Western flavor? Can you give an example of that?
JH: I think what makes the dialogue more Western are things like colloquial phrases, sayings, and even the odd reference to a Western movie or show. The dialogue for the most part, in my opinion, is not really country-specific, so I think what lends the feeling of where a game takes place are the little things, such as Maya liking hamburgers instead of ramen, and using American law terms, such as “pleading the 5th”. Also, the inclusion of characters of different races makes it feel more like America to me, since Japan is pretty homogeneous.
Bolding mine. The bulk of the Ace Attorney characters were drawn, originally, as Asian. They're not all Asian in the localization and some of them aren't even from countries that actually exist, but they weren't drawn specifically un-Asian. How you could so badly miss that in a series where Japanese-style spirit mediums are core to the plot is completely beyond me.
Yes, but Japan is perfectly capable of drawing people who look Japanese. They chose to portray "themselves" as un-Asian.
Where do I even begin with these two sentences? It's rather notable in the wake of the racebending scandal around the The Last Airbender where that same argument was used to annoyingly bad ends, but in the Phoenix Wright fandom it is even stupider. The Ace Attorney series was made in Japan, by Japanese people, and original set in Japan. This isn't even a racism issue, this is a 'how stupid are you' issue.
Good grief. I mean, let's look at some of these un-Asian people.
Phoenix Wright, originally Ryuichi Naruhodo. A pretty basic looking gentleman. His name was Japanese and he originally worked in the city of Somewhereinjapan before localization and translation assigned him to Los Angeles. The fact that this now makes him white is probably more our problem than Capcom's.
Maya Fey, originally Ayasato Mayoi. She wears a Japanese spirit medium's kimono and magatama in nearly all appearances (bar the Tres Bien thing which was just...weird) and is from the quite Japanese-looking Kurain Village. In fact the presence of a very old Japanese spirit medium family and village in the mountains of California is one of the things where the original Somewhereinjapan peeks out from underneath the cover of localization. One simply must roll with it.
Morgan Fey, originally Ayasato Kimiko. Former head of Kurain Village, aunt to Maya Fey, and I'm pretty sure the picture speaks for itself.
Lotta Hart, originally Oosawagi Natsumi. Paparazzi/magazine photographer who, if you watch the Takarazuka musicals, is also a part-time nun. A very American woman from the Heart of the Heartland...no, wait, I mean Osaka. Osaka to the point that the developers were a little annoyed at the stereotype.
Interpol Agent Shi-Long Lang, originally Rou Shiryuu. Even in the American version he's from the small Asian country of Zheng Fa, with his English name being "a Chinese reading of the kanji that make up his name" according to his wiki entry. He has a habit of bowing at people, and his loyal pack refers to him as "Shifu", And oh, would you look at that, he's got light hair and not a trace of a slant to his eyes. How strange.
For additional interest, I dug up an interview with one of the localizers for Justice For All.
Lost: Conversely, what sorts of stuff do you add to give the Phoenix Wright dialogue a bit more of a Western flavor? Can you give an example of that?
JH: I think what makes the dialogue more Western are things like colloquial phrases, sayings, and even the odd reference to a Western movie or show. The dialogue for the most part, in my opinion, is not really country-specific, so I think what lends the feeling of where a game takes place are the little things, such as Maya liking hamburgers instead of ramen, and using American law terms, such as “pleading the 5th”. Also, the inclusion of characters of different races makes it feel more like America to me, since Japan is pretty homogeneous.
Bolding mine. The bulk of the Ace Attorney characters were drawn, originally, as Asian. They're not all Asian in the localization and some of them aren't even from countries that actually exist, but they weren't drawn specifically un-Asian. How you could so badly miss that in a series where Japanese-style spirit mediums are core to the plot is completely beyond me.