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The Real Japan Behind Persona 5


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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1410
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 11:18 am Reply with quote
Quote:
. Producer Katsura Hashino


Had to check, but yeah, the producer has the same name as D.Gray Man's mangaka. lol

Also:
Quote:
During the trial, the city of Osaka attempted to argue that Komura's abuse had nothing to do with the young man's suicide.


Is this a typo or just a legit city representative that was trying to mitigate the PR damage?
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 12:44 pm Reply with quote
Wow another article that paints Japan as this ultra unfeeling, insensitive, dysfunctional country that is somehow a unique case compared to the rest of the world. But this time, through the lens of a JRPG. As if we haven't seen this before. Rolling Eyes
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 1:38 pm Reply with quote
Paiprince wrote:
Wow another article that paints Japan as this ultra unfeeling, insensitive, dysfunctional country that is somehow a unique case compared to the rest of the world.


It's possible that you are incorrectly inferring the intent of this particular article. Nowhere does the author say that these are uniquely Japanese sociocultural issues, he's just saying that they are issues in Japan.
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tasogarenootome



Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Great article. Some really interesting perspective on this game. I'm still just on the first palace, but I remember being made uncomfortable by Kamoshida's arc. It's very cartoony in its execution, but those echoes of reality are present and strong. There were things that happened that reminded me of stories I've heard here in the US as well. To me, that made it feel well-executed and at least somewhat universal.
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falcon.punch



Joined: 07 Jan 2015
Posts: 693
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 2:32 pm Reply with quote
Great article, made me interested in the game more, even if I don't play too many RPGs, I just watch streams. (I only touched the Persona 4 Arena series, to be sincere.)

I really like the concept for itself, how the setting is portrayed.
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 2:58 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I thought Kamoshida was more based on Olympic gold medal winner Uchishiba, given Kamoshida's Olympic history is such a big focus

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masato_Uchishiba

-Stuart Smith
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rizuchan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 974
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:08 pm Reply with quote
Wish the article was a bit longer. Seemed like it was a lot of, "Hey btw some of this stuff really happened, look it up"

I think one of the things that's so great about Persona 5 is that it really does a perfect job of capturing that feeling being a teenager, and just getting to see the injustices of the world and becoming infuriated wondering why nobody's doing anything about them. (Maybe because even as an adult you still have those feelings... but without the naivete, or you're just too beaten down to try anymore.) And then, you get the power to magically fix them through dungeon crawling and RPG grinding. It's a strangely cathartic experience.

the point is, while many of the incidents in the game may have been based on real events that happened in Japan, they're mostly relevant across cultures, and I think that feeling of powerlessness is universal.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:36 pm Reply with quote
To be fair, "adults suck! Kids are the future!" is pretty much the line of all youth targeted media anywhere, ever. Doesn't achieve anything since by the time the kids are in a position to change things, they're the adults.
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SaiyamanMS



Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 302
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 4:39 pm Reply with quote
AksaraKishou wrote:
Quote:
. Producer Katsura Hashino


Had to check, but yeah, the producer has the same name as D.Gray Man's mangaka. lol

The author of D.Gray Man is Katsura Hoshino, which isn't the same as Katsura Hashino.

Anyway, I'm loving Persona 5. Just got beyond the end of the extended flashback a few days ago and working on spoiler[Shido's] palace.
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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1410
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:24 pm Reply with quote
SaiyamanMS wrote:
AksaraKishou wrote:
Quote:
. Producer Katsura Hashino


Had to check, but yeah, the producer has the same name as D.Gray Man's mangaka. lol

The author of D.Gray Man is Katsura Hoshino, which isn't the same as Katsura Hashino.

Anyway, I'm loving Persona 5. Just got beyond the end of the extended flashback a few days ago and working on spoiler[Shido's] palace.


That little letter tho...
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 5:34 pm Reply with quote
AksaraKishou wrote:
Also:
Quote:
During the trial, the city of Osaka attempted to argue that Komura's abuse had nothing to do with the young man's suicide.


Is this a typo or just a legit city representative that was trying to mitigate the PR damage?


You'll note that in anime, all the school signs have one of 市立 私立 県立 町立 or some less common choices; these say who's actually in charge of the school. Osaka is a "designated city", which means the government high schools are 市立, run by the city.

Now, legally there's a principle called "vicarious liability", which basically means, "you f*cked up by hiring this guy and putting him in this position and not stopping him from doing stuff he shouldn't have done; everything wrong he did is Your Damned Fault". I don't know the exact legal process here, but at some point the parents would have sued the responsible authority [viz, city of osaka], and at that point "We negligently permitted X, but X didn't cause Y and you're suing us over Y" would have been a reasonable defence to offer, if true or reasonably believed to be true.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 6:54 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
By the end of the game, when the protagonist and his friends are driving off into the sunset, the world is still turning. Atrocities are still being committed and people are still turning the other cheek.

Unless you're talking about the victims, which in context didn't seem to be the case, I think the idiom you're looking fore is "turning a blind eye" to them. Smile
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Lizzie_B



Joined: 14 Apr 2011
Posts: 301
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 9:37 pm Reply with quote
I know it's a game but damn who knew Japan was this messed up underneath. This makes America look good in comparison
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Great Rumbler



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 327
Location: Oklahoma
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 10:11 pm Reply with quote
Lizzie_B wrote:
I know it's a game but damn who knew Japan was this messed up underneath. This makes America look good in comparison


Nah, a lot of the same stuff [corporations running over their employees, schools covering up for abusive teachers/coaches] is pretty common in America, too.
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Scias



Joined: 16 Mar 2016
Posts: 43
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 10:21 pm Reply with quote
Paiprince wrote:
Wow another article that paints Japan as this ultra unfeeling, insensitive, dysfunctional country that is somehow a unique case compared to the rest of the world. But this time, through the lens of a JRPG. As if we haven't seen this before. Rolling Eyes


Why so salty about it? Events like this just goes to show that Japan has major issues, social and political. What's wrong with a video game criticizing the perpetrators and reasons behind these issues?

There are problems similar to this in a lot of countries around the world, but this is a Japanese video game tackling issues occurring in Japan and Japanese society as a whole.

Japan is not exempt from sociopolitical issues.
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