More songs about gaming and Japan

I published a massive story last night over at USgamer that’s somewhere between a feature, a blog post, and digressive stream-of-conscious. It represents several months’ worth of note-taking at interviews, events, and even in casual conversations, with a huge amount of supporting research to make sure I had numbers and dates correct. Thankfully, it’s been getting almost universal praise, which is a huge relief. After spending so much time chipping away at and rewriting this thing, I completely lost my sense of perspective about it. All I can see are all the things I wish I had more time to refine and expand on. But it was two weeks late as it is, and at some point you just have to rip off the bandage. Hopefully it came out OK.

It’s “almost universal praise,” because — as seemingly happens any time we write about Japan — a handful of anime dudes feel like I’m attacking their Constitutional right to infantilize and fetishize young girls. I’m not, guys. Wrap yourselves in a warm blanket of moé. Follow your tsundere bliss. Idealize trembling schoolgirls to the point that you’re ruined for real human interaction, for all I care. Your fantasies and fixations are your own business. I’m just saying that all, or even most, Japanese games are not moé games, and it’s counterproductive to conflate the two terms.

Anyway, the real hidden message in this story is that a retrogame bar has apparently opened a couple of blocks from my apartment and I really need to check it out.

4 thoughts on “More songs about gaming and Japan

  1. I took a few minutes to think of an example of interesting boy x girl romance in a recent translated game. Steins;Gate might be a good choice for several reasons: 1) It’s officially translated. 2) It’s a bleak and offbeat story with no sex scenes. 3) Quite a bit of the story is suspense and speculative fiction. 4) The characters sometimes fit into archetypes, but sometimes twist them.

    I checked the reviews on USGamer for Steins;Gate (boy x girl pairings) and Sweet Fuse (girl x boy pairings). Both reviews pointed out the weaknesses in both products. At the same time, they were both mostly positive. I agree that neither story is perfect. But if a person gives me the choice of reading one or the other, I will probably choose Sweet Fuse.

  2. Hey Jeremy, great article. I indeed do dig your stuff and would like to donate. Any chance you could add a Paypal donate button? I know there is Patreon, but I like the concept of a one-off impulse donation.

  3. And the Jeremy Parish greatest hits album will be called “Sand in the jelly”
    Speaking of which, when will you have a musical post highlighting the Talking Heads?

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