Current Events > It's weird how few Japanese icons there are in gaming.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ryu Hyabusa from Ninja Gaiden
Ryu (no family name given) from Street Fighter
Strider Hiryu from Strider

Mario is Italian.
Link is Germanic.
Samus is white.
Master Chief is... Well, he could be Japanese. He could be anything.
Doom Guy is white.
Lara Croft is white. (Originally gonna be South American.)
Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Pikachu are all animals.
Kirby and Pac-Man are indeterminate lifeforms.

Considering the majority of video games are produced in Japan, it's a little odd that characters who are ethnic Japanese would be so lacking. I don't think any of the Persona characters have reached icon status yet. Some may be gaining though.

Of the lot, Ryu (the Street Fighter one) is easily the most famous.

There seems to be an issue with Japanese devs having no confidence in depicting their own race. But to be fair the majority of the game icons are not even human lol.

is Samue confirmed to be white, Metroid has a anime art-style so she could just be generic animu race.

Da_fureekusu posted...

Metroid has a anime art-style

I don't think it does.

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They love making characters japanese but giving them blue eyes and blonde hair

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Wii_Shaker posted...

I don't think it does.

looks anime inspired. Also her face has Japanese traits here, despite her hair color
and eyes. As for link you could say his Germanic, but his race is based on a Japanese yokai I think.

At least there are far more than Black icons in gaming.

Especially Black icons who are the actual protagonists (probably can be counted on one hand, two at most).

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Solid Snake is half Japanese.

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Does Megaman count? I also instantly thought of Isaac from Golden Sun. Cloud from FFVII has always been iconic.

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Da_fureekusu posted...

looks anime inspired. Also her face has Japanese traits here, despite her hair color
and eyes. As for link you could say his Germanic, but his race is based on a Japanese yokai I think.

That looks like Other M. The games from Retro do not look anime inspired at all. Smash Bros is sort of in-between.

Either way she's a blonde space bounty hunter. She isn't Japanese. There are quite a few anime gaming icons that aren't technically Japanese so I don't think TC is talking about that.

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Oh we arent doing any that kinda look like anime? If we arent then I got nothing really.

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Darmik posted...

That looks like Other M. The games from Retro do not look anime inspired at all. Smash Bros is sort of in-between.

Either way she's a blonde space bounty hunter. She isn't Japanese. There are quite a few anime gaming icons that aren't technically Japanese so I don't think TC is talking about that.

most Japanese games are fantasy based, so obviously the majority wont be any real world race. Just generic animu race is the point Im making.

ArianaGrandSlam posted...

Her parents names are both incredibly Anglo-Saxon

fair enough. I dont know the lore of the games too well. But a lot of time Japanese devs just throw out foreign names without it having any deeper meaning.

e.g the clear Japanese inspired samurai character in ffvi cyan, has a super Anglo last name.

Captain Falcon could be.

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ImAMarvel posted...

Are there really?

Also, Ken Masters in SF has been retconned to be half-Japanese. I also feel like TC is forgetting a bunch of Japanese fighting game characters, like Akuma from SF, Kyo Kusanagi and Mai Shiranui from KoF, the Tekken leads like Heihachi, etc. Also what about Kazuma Kiryu?

In addition, you may as well consider FF leads to be all Eurasian imo. They all literally look at least part Japanese.

On another note, that just makes it funnier when gamers get their panties in a bunch over non-white vidya characters, when it just means that Japan has always catered to the white majority when designing games for the West.

Lets be honest, how many casual people know the names you mentioned? Like you dont have to be a gamer to know who Super Mario is. But if I ask a random person who Mai Shiranui is, I doubt they can answer that

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Eh, I honestly dont know the names you mentioned except for Mai(because of Dead and Alive) and Kiryu .

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FortuneCookie posted...

Ryu Hyabusa from Ninja Gaiden
Ryu (no family name given) from Street Fighter
Strider Hiryu from Strider

Mario is Italian.
Link is Germanic.
Samus is white.
Master Chief is... Well, he could be Japanese. He could be anything.
Doom Guy is white.
Lara Croft is white. (Originally gonna be South American.)
Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Pikachu are all animals.
Kirby and Pac-Man are indeterminate lifeforms.

Considering the majority of video games are produced in Japan, it's a little odd that characters who are ethnic Japanese would be so lacking. I don't think any of the Persona characters have reached icon status yet. Some may be gaining though.

Of the lot, Ryu (the Street Fighter one) is easily the most famous.

I thought Link was Balkan?

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Did OP just imply there are no white Latin Americans?

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TC forgot about the Yakuza series.

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Japanese icons are the companies themselves.

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Talk2DaHand posted...

Did OP just imply there are no white Latin Americans?

Lara Croft was originally going to be Laura Cruz, but the studio higher-ups nixed the idea in favor of making her British. And then they changed the spelling of her first name.

Da_fureekusu posted...

is Samue confirmed to be white, Metroid has a anime art-style so she could just be generic animu race.

They went as far as to hire a white actress to play her in the Japanese commercial for Super Metroid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMUw6EiQOgQ

(And, yes, I too want a Metroid movie now.)

Solar_Crimson posted...

At least there are far more than Black icons in gaming.

Especially Black icons who are the actual protagonists (probably can be counted on one hand, two at most).

Jax from Mortal Kombat (he was my main in MK2!)
Barrett from Final Fantasy 7
(I would mention Brock from Pokemon, but he's Okinawan.)

Uh... Mike Tyson from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

Yeah, there's a long way to go.

<_<

Kiryu Kazuma is a pretty iconic one in Japan.

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The-Apostle posted...

TC forgot about the Yakuza series.

As much as I love it, Yakuza isn't really a huge mainstream series yet.

Every SMT protag is Japanese.

Also you mentioned Pikachu, and conveniently left out his trainer. Red is literally from the Kanto region.

Most of the characters you meantioned exist in a world that doesn't even have Japan, or a japan inspired locale.
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I just looked it up and interestingly there seems to be more Hispanic protagonist representation such as Dead Rising's Nick Ramos and Isabela Keyes, Resident Evil's Carlos Oliveira, Street Fighter's Vega, and Tekken's King in Japanese games than western games, which mostly have them in supporting or villainous roles.
https://www.sub-cultured.com/hispanic-videogames/

PBusted posted...

I just looked it up and interestingly there seems to be more Hispanic protagonist representation such as Dead Rising's Nick Ramos and Isabela Keyes, Resident Evil's Carlos Oliveira, Street Fighter's Vega, and Tekken's King in Japanese games than western games, which mostly have them in supporting or villainous roles.
https://www.sub-cultured.com/hispanic-videogames/

It makes sense. A running trope in western media is accent=bad guy.
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FortuneCookie posted...

Ryu Hyabusa from Ninja Gaiden
Ryu (no family name given) from Street Fighter
Strider Hiryu from Strider

Mario is Italian.
Link is Germanic.
Samus is white.
Master Chief is... Well, he could be Japanese. He could be anything.
Doom Guy is white.
Lara Croft is white. (Originally gonna be South American.)
Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Pikachu are all animals.
Kirby and Pac-Man are indeterminate lifeforms.

Considering the majority of video games are produced in Japan, it's a little odd that characters who are ethnic Japanese would be so lacking. I don't think any of the Persona characters have reached icon status yet. Some may be gaining though.

Of the lot, Ryu (the Street Fighter one) is easily the most famous.

Link seems more Balkan than Germanic, or at least Hyrule in general does.

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Imagine choosing ryu over honda.

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FortuneCookie posted...

the majority of video games are produced in Japan

I don't think that's been true since the mid 90's

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Pokemon for the first what, 4 gens? They were all based off Japanese regions.

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Kiryu kazuma is a Japanese icon

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crayola555 posted...

Kiryu kazuma is a Japanese icon

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harley2280 posted...

Also you mentioned Pikachu, and conveniently left out his trainer. Red is literally from the Kanto region.

I thought about mentioning him, but then I realized it's hard to call him an icon of gaming when

A) He appears in very little merchandise compared to Pikachu who is all over the place.
B) Most people don't even know he's named Red. They call him Ash.

I believe Chief was born on Reach. So he would be...Reach...ian?

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