Japanese Culture: Gundam Exia (From: Gundam 00)

Posted on October 7, 2010 by J Sensei

The Gundam of Seven Swords

Per my earlier interview with Velocity7, I wanted to demonstrate why Velocity7 considers the first “main character mecha” of Gundam 00 to be special and unique. After all, the Gundam franchise is long and storied; to stand out takes some effort.

Technological Foundation

All Gundams in Gundam 00 are based around a super-particle that the series calls GN Particles, with no actual breakdown of what “GN” stands for. Keep this in mind when reading the rest of this article.

The Gundams of the “protagonist” organization Celestial Being use what are known as “solar furnaces” for engines, miraculous even for the futuristic setting, being nearly perpetual energy machines. These GN Drives have effectively unlimited operating time, but are limited in how much energy they can generate at any one moment. This provides the foundation for the Gundams’ astonishing abilities and weaponry.

Concept

Gundam Exia is a specialized close-combat “mobile suit” (manned humanoid combat robot) built for stealth, speed, extreme agility, situational flexibility, redundancy, and raw offensive force.

Exia was conceived as a mobile suit that would rapidly close with an enemy force, being detected only after, or just prior to, the first strike. Such a concept demands an aggressive suite of close combat weaponry.

Key Handling Characteristics

  • High speed, maneuverability, agility
  • Stripped-down armor; lower survivability if actually struck

Weapons

(In ascending order)

GN Vulcan Guns

Weak GN particle rapid-fire guns fired from the forearms of Exia.

GN Beam Daggers

Exia weapon size comparisonBeam weaponry in hand to hand weapon form functions much like a lightsaber from Star Wars, though of course these use GN particles for the blades instead. The power output is similar to a full saber, but in a concentrated, harder to diffuse (i.e. break up) form. Later, technology to manipulate beam weapon length is achieved, making these daggers obsolete.

GN Beam Sabers

Mounted near the back of the arms, these two hilts can be drawn and turned into beam sabers through the use of GN particle filled force fields. Positrons (positively charged ions) form the fields themselves. That is, when physical contact with a solid object is made, the positron field gives way and the particles burn through the offending object.

GN Blades

Lineart: mahq.net

Gundam Exia possesses two solid “blades” of varying length, a GN Long Blade and a GN Short Blade. In essence, these are used so that the Exia always has the capacity to use a blade similar to the GN Sword (below) without requiring the extra elbow room required to swing the darned thing.

GN Sword

This is a solid GN Blade attached to the “bottom” of the miniature forearm shield. It is normally carried jutting back from the shield, but at a moment’s notice, it swings into a forward position. The GN Sword and the GN Blades are coated with GN particles when active, so they are not simply solid metal in action. Rather, the solid blade serves to add momentum and power to the GN particle “edge” and greatly enhance the speed at which it does catastrophic damage to the target.

At the design stage, it was conceived as a weapon of last resort against a target that is capable of diffusing GN particles, to the point that even condensed close combat beam sabers and beam daggers would be ineffective.

I like to refer to the GN Sword as the mother of all can openers.

In the folded position, the combined GN Sword/ forearm shield exposes a short beam rifle, which constitutes the Exia’s only significant standoff weapon.

Defensive Systems

GN Shield

This simple shield system provides the Gundam Exia, with its limited armor, with something to place between itself and enemy fire and close combat weapons.

In accordance with the design philosophy, the shield has a tapered point that can be used as a physical stabbing weapon.

Conclusion: A Radical Concept

Certainly, the Exia is a concept swung very far to the close quarters combat end of the scale. As such, it was far less of a “general purpose” war machine than most Gundams throughout the franchise, while still having the air of a serious machine intended for armed conflict in a realistic (albeit not real) setting.

In other words, it is radical, but also a complete and serious conceptual design.

Fine work if you ask me.

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Japanese Culture: Anime Review, “Asobi Ni Iku Yo”

Posted on October 6, 2010 by J Sensei

So, It Was Interesting

Asobi ni Iku Yo (“We’re Coming Over To Have Fun”) has finished its run of 12 episodes. I have finally had a chance to see the end of the series and have some thoughts on it below.

There Be Spoilers Here

show

Incidentally, the core characters are actually all very nice people. Except for people who are so turned off by the inclusion of girls with unrealistically generous proportions (mainly the title character and a couple of members of her mothership’s crew, including the captain) that they can’t appreciate the humor and pure fun of the show, I’d strongly recommend this, with that caveat of course.

The HD production values are quite impressive, so by all means, take advantage of the opportunity to see something fun like this if it at all suits your interests.

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Japanese Culture: A Monster Hunter’s Life, Pt. 1

Posted on October 6, 2010 by J Sensei

Since I’m in-between projects, and I wanted an excuse to blog about this, I have started a new game of Monster Hunter 2 “Dos” . This game never reached American shores on the PS2, but portable (PSP) spin-offs have long been available. Nonetheless, the PS2 version has more graphical oomph (enhanced on my PS3 system somewhat) and has well, how to put this… considerably more difficulty, especially if you’re playing offline primarily or solely, such as I am here. The monsters have double the HP that their portable counterparts do (making portable versions easier to triumph in).

Another advantage would be the PS2 (or in this case, PS3) controller. It’s easier to use for this than the PSP’s controls. This can matter.

Anyway, one advantage I have over some people is extensive Japanese reading ability which makes my life a lot easier. I have played this game a fair bit before, though I was not a master, and even though I have an old save, I tend to forget little details which makes me replay some things if I resume them after a long period of time. So, off for my refresher course!

Putting the Gathering Into Hunter-Gatherer

So, armed with my practically newborn babe alter-ego JB, I am able to skip tutorial sections due to my previous experience. This gets me straight to the point: before one may hunt, one must gather.

Monster Hunter 2’s missions are organized as “quests.” Unlike the first game, Monster Hunter 2 allows success from “main quests” and up to a pair of sub-quests. Success in any allows a successful retirement from the field back to the village/ town that your efforts are helping to grow.

The most basic of all non-tutorial quests in the game is what is lovingly known as a shroom quest, that is, a mushroom gathering quest. Go forth, young hunter, and bring back… five Special Mushrooms. (Presumably, these are delicacies in the village, as they have no other practical purpose to your hunter.)

So, off I go on a tribal canoe in a primordial world, stopping on the shores of a solitary, jungle-dominated island at a crude wharf and base camp at the bottom of a tall cliff. This is known as the Jungle map.

Dances With Stegosaurii

So, the first order of business is to go to a gather spot. This being a video game, gathering must be done in particular places on maps. These are not spelled out for you, but in most cases, there are good visual clues (i.e. visible mushrooms on the jungle floor) to guide one to gather spots, often in the shade of rock facings.

In the first section that I am to visit beyond the base camp, I go east and somewhat north past a narrow gap between rocky places to enter Jungle 1, which is filled with thin trees, more rock facing along the east side, an impassable cliff off to the east leading back to water which I cannot pass to (or fall to my doom off of, to not make this game even less fair), and, well, a big herd of herbivorous dinosaurs minding their own business.

These herbivores very strongly resemble the stegosaurus (right). Their tails can indeed be used to whip at me to attack, but the creatures are usually preoccupied with going about their business: eating plants. Indeed, I can make out a couple of junior dinosaurs among the adults.

Now, this is a primitive world. Though these are not the monsters that are to be hunted for much of the game, these are sources of food, namely, raw meat. Indeed, one of my sub-quests is to obtain four units of raw meat. I’ll leave that for later.

My first order of business, after all, is to ignore the nearly harmless dinos (most are much more dangerous) to run over to the best “gather spots” and start digging around for mushrooms. And so, this is what I do.

Using The Bounty Of The Land

Now, special mushrooms are not the only kind available to be found. Indeed, the mushrooms I find are as follows:

  • Blue Mushroom
  • Blue Mushroom #2
  • Blue Mushroom #3
  • Blue Mushroom #4
  • “Found Nothing”

When you have “found nothing,” that gather spot is exhausted until the next trip. So, err… well, that wasn’t very good at getting me close to finishing my quest, was it? I need four special mushrooms. But, blue mushrooms have an important use.

You see, a rather large amount of the items obtained in this game are obtained as a result of combination. This is often either called synthesis or, if applied more broadly, crafting. Since I’ve played before, I know a couple of things about the combining in this game, but nothing is recorded in my in-game journals about it (yet).

アオキノコ (ao kinoko), that is, blue mushrooms, have a basic and important use: they are one of two components for creating basic healing medicines, or put in more fantasy terms, healing potions. Of course, this is a Good Thing and we want more. On the other hand, if you have enough potions, blue mushrooms are space wasters in inventory.

Anyway, let’s keep these for later and continue.

At the next mushroom gather spot, the other one in Jungle 1, I have found a 二トロタケ (nitro-take). Many Japanese mushrooms end with -take, you see. So, this is a made-up mushroom: a nitroshroom, as in, nitroglycerine, an explosive liquid used in creating dynamite. This is a mushroom that has er, non-peaceful purposes within the game, but is irrelevant to the current quest.

Before leaving the gather spot, I find another “nitroshroom” and two special mushrooms. (Yay! Closer to finishing my quest.) Having exhausted both spots, I proceed to Jungle 2, north, to search for more.

Native Wildlife

The creatures in this area (during this time, i.e. the middle of the day, and this season, the middle of “summer” so to speak) resemble primitive antelope, and as such, they tend to leap, leap around as individuals. However, these creatures can attack you if you get too close and arouse their instincts. After all, you’re just a puny human. So, while I can hunt them back easily enough, they’re a nuisance for now.

Unable to finish gathering enough special mushrooms, I go to Jungle 5, a plateau overlooking a cliff leading south back to… my base camp, should I choose to go there. No point yet, though.

This time, the wildlife is large wild hogs. I say hogs because they’re not nearly as dangerous as the huge boars that I will encounter later. Once again, I avoid them and get some mushrooms.

There! Finally, five special mushrooms!! Main quest will be complete if I cash it in. So, armed with my most basic of all weapons in the game, the Hunter’s Knife, a crude iron blade along with a matching shield, I proceed to do some hog hunting and, once the first beast is felled, I begin carving it. In this case, all it coughed up was a blue mushroom. Hungry critters.

But wait! My character is hungry too! Five real-life minutes into this, my stamina has gone down to 80%. This can be remedied by eating food, and I picked up some from the “free emergency supplies” at the base camp for newbies like me. There! A quick bite, and my stamina has been replenished back to 100%. Stamina is used for many things; today, it’s mainly for running from point A to point B.

So, not to waste time, I go back to Jungle 1 to find a more reliable source of raw meat: the stegosaurus herd. Here, using a quick-draw leap slash and a flurry of quick attacks, I take down one of the creatures. Startled by the felling of one of their comrades, several others make heavy, rapid tracks out of the area and beyond my reach while I start carving up my kill, gaining one raw meat just as…

Ouch! A giant wasp stabbed me while I wasn’t looking. These annoying insects are a plague upon hunters in this game and seem to exist only to annoy us. They break apart when killed (usually…) and don’t even leave any useful parts for the hunter.

Anyway, I finish carving and gain a Dino Bone (Small). This will be useful later, because in this game, we use parts of what we hunt to create weapons to do more hunting later. Now, these small, tough bones are of limited usefulness, but I’ll take what I can get.

A few stragglers did not heed the general evacuation call because they were too far from the rest, so I take down two and one manages to escape. I finish obtaining four raw meat slabs and can take that and leave the Jungle and get paid for my trouble but… let’s try one more thing.

Dino Meat Over A Spit

I exit Jungle 1, only to return soon after to find the herbivores having returned. With my mastery of my rather weak weapon, I gain two more raw meats and return to the base camp area.

One of the supplies donated to me from the base camp is a portable cooking set for cooking dino meat, like the meat I have just received. Thus, I set up the grill and enter a minigame that depends on timing. (Cooking is about timing, see.) If I stop the spit shortly after the music ends, it is a job well done, creating well done meat. If I am too soon, I will get medium rare meat, which can be eaten, but which isn’t 100% safe to. If I am too late, I get what I obtain in my first clumsy attempt, burnt meat, which is pretty useless.

My second attempt produces medium rare. Having only the four meats I need for my subquest left, I take my winnings to the delivery point (a big red chest at the base camp) and, with my main quest completed, I return back to the camp with a few basic reward items and a bit of stone age “money” for my trouble.

Whew!

Mind you, this is as simple as this game will ever get. Having said that, it’s also the most peaceful this game will ever get.

This is simply the calm before the storm when a player starts:

  • Obtaining bones and iron ore for better weapons.
  • Beginning to combat early, weak “boss monsters.”
  • Unlocking the most basic wyvern (dragon cousin) to fight.
  • Working one’s way up past giant gorillas.
  • Fighting dragons that breathe fire and can squish you like a bug.

And it all starts with a little mushroom gathering.

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Japanese Culture: GothLoli (Gothic Lolita) Fashion

Posted on October 5, 2010 by J Sensei

Not Quite Goth Or Lolita, Per Se

This requires a little explanation. While the term “Lolita” must necessarily hail from the famous novel, the gist is reversed in this context. Rather than little girls dressing like adults, this far more frequently involves older teens/ young women dressing like young teens.

Specifically, girls wearing Victorian style costumes evoking a mix of nuances.

What It’s Not: Sweet Lolita

So-called Sweet Lolita fashion is deliberately evocative of porcelain dolls, which typically have pastel colored, cute and innocent looking clothing. Any Victorian influences are used only in these sorts of colors, like pink (shown right.)

Makeup is also used to accentuate the effect: that of the child fantasy. That is, a child’s fantasy of a prettier, dolled-up version of herself.

Given that many Japanese girls are rather short, even many adult women can get away with this sort of thing far better than women in the West might manage to do. It’s still not exactly common.

Bring In The Goth

Gothic Lolita fashion is, as one might expect, a deliberately counter-cultural phenomenon protesting against the so-called Gyaru (read: gal) fashion craze that brought Japanese youth fashion in line with American concepts (blue jeans, short skirts, etc.) and which still echoes throughout fashion.

Put another way, this is for girls who wanted to go radically against the grain of “American Casual,” punk, and other mainstream youth styles.

The main distinguishing feature of Gothic Lolita is the use of darker make-up and clothing (shown left). The use of crosses to accentuate the look and feel is probably borrowed straight from existing Western Gothic styles.

While the style can be used by younger teens, it is just as likely to be used by older teens to look like, well, middle teens with wildly ornate, loudly black clothing compared to what is considered normal.

Cosplay (Costume Roleplay)

The term cosplay will be familiar to many who are already in-depth about anime. Read as either costume play or more appropriately, costume roleplay, this is simply the best Japanese term available for what we would call dressing up in English. Innumerable niches exist in Japan for various costume styles, all of which seem to have someone willing to dress up in a given outfit (whether this is wise or not).

For Westerners, dressing up as a “GothLoli” (or Goth-Loli) might be considered cosplay. For girls in Japan who in no way take the fashion seriously, it might be temporary cosplay to them. For instance, someone could easily put on an outfit like this just for Halloween, promptly forgetting its existence the next day.

For others, it is a sustained protest against fashion norms. Well, more power to them.

Anime Influence

Along with other styles of Lolita clothing, GothLoli is used to evoke a sense of breaking outside the norm in more than a few works of Japanese animation (i.e. anime). Victorian clothing, more broadly, evokes an ornate style that exceeds the modern norm in terms of attention to detail, style, and visual effect.

This makes the effect ideal for standing out, as demonstrated by the top picture, showing Sae from the romance video game inspired Amagami SS, currently airing. This is Sae’s last episode as the featured girl; all six girls from the original video game have their own “arcs” as if the other arcs did not exist, to allow for four-episode romantic fantasies.

Certainly, fantasy is the real theme of this.

Origin: Visual Kei Music

Visual Kei, which should be quite literally read as Visual Style, uses elaborate make-up, costumes, etc., to sell various kinds of Japanese rock music (including punk and heavy metal). Many androgynous-looking male leads are also featured.

It’s easy to see the Western influence, but it’s safe to say that Gothic Lolita is yet another form of living art that is a modern segment of Japanese culture.

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Japanese Culture: Geisha, A Term Of Art

Posted on October 3, 2010 by J Sensei

Used for educational purposes.

芸者　(げいしゃ、geisha)

Let’s start with a bang: Geisha is a gender-neutral term in the original Japanese.

This word is actually quite simple, combining 芸 (“gei,” lit. performance) with 者 (“sha,” lit. “person who does ___”). Thus, the word itself suggests a performer, in the same sense that Prince and Madonna are performers today.

This is why the term “geisha” originally applied to men when women in the mid 18th century (the 1700’s) began to adopt the term for themselves. There are male “geisha” to this day, though even rarer than female geisha; they correctly view themselves as simply following an ancient tradition that has nothing to do with “those” geisha.

But enough about them. We want to talk about the girls here, don’t we?

Kikuya, The First Geisha (In The Normal Sense)

The first woman to call herself a geisha was called (i.e. using a stage name) Kikuya, and was a smash hit around 1750. Others soon rose to fill a need for female entertainment that wasn’t part of the heavily regulated sex industry. In light of the fact that the courtesans, the Oiran, did not want any competition, the female geishas became firmly entrenched in – or one might say, trapped in – their non-sexual entertainment niche.

That is, they were performers, singing and playing the shamisen (a stringed instrument) and, well, being better eye candy than your male geisha. Thus, the idea caught on. Indeed, within fifty years, geisha became more popular than those who sold sex. (Of course, strict regulation, limited licenses, and therefore, high prices, might have had something to do with it, too.)

At any rate, geisha gradually became icons of popular culture, with the geisha look and feel transmitting throughout woman’s society in Japan. “Geisha” was a respectable occupation for women, even as Confucian ideas force-fed to Japanese society by the Tokugawa government discouraged women rising out of their designated place as commander-in-chief of the home and hearth.

Shortly after the Meiji Restoration, geisha were liberated from the Tokugawa shogunate’s laws and were permitted to engage in full prostitution at their own personal discretion. Equally, they could refrain at will.

Anyway, when the 1900’s rolled around, the government cracked down on this, probably because it was yet another “backward” Asian idea that needed to take a backseat to modernity.

Even Geishas Had To Work In Factories

For the WWII war effort, the government made no distinction between geisha and other women: if you were able, you had to work for the war effort, and that meant working in a factory. It’s hard to keep up the arts like that.

Postwar Decline

When you had every prostitute calling herself a Geisha girl to American servicemen looking to be serviced, it’s hard to maintain the dignity of an old profession. Obviously, the oldest profession had seniority here.

I mean, before the war even ended, things like bars, teahouses, and so forth, were shut down and their employees pressed into factory service. Obviously, any in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who survived had seen their world obliterated; also, the Tokyo firebombing and other nightmares made people think of things other than entertainment.

When these establishments were allowed to reopen, few women returned to the old ways, and those who did decided to completely reject Western influence and make themselves special by engaging in the really old ways.

It is from these people that the few remaining geisha of today are spiritually descended.

Along with bringing back traditional arts, these modern geisha wanted more rights for their own kind. Working in factories tends to get women demanding rights, after all.

Chiefly, this means that a geisha sleeps with whomever she damn well pleases. Hey, fine with me…

Modern Geisha: Strictly Tease

This is some commentary that doesn’t apply to geisha alone, but…

In modern Japanese society, men in the business world tend to be in a lot of high pressure situations. A quite considerable number of these men are wealthy, but are not especially good looking, are getting on in years, and are considered boring by their wives.

For these men to have a beautiful, ornately groomed woman to simply spend time with him, to listen to him, to laugh, to drink, to play the game without complaint, to simply give him the time of day and provide him with an experience from another century, is well worth the stiff price they pay for the service.

Of course, the younger the men get, the less likely they are to want to find this from a geisha per se, but this is the general gist of it. Sex isn’t the point: it’s the attention.

Put another way, yes, they’re desperate enough that feigned affection – that they know is feigned going in – is still a breath of fresh air.

So in this light, no, modern geisha are not prostitutes, and well, you can see why geisha are very eager to set the record straight about their not being prostitutes. Not in this day and age, at least.

And There, We Shall Conclude

It wasn’t my intention to leap out of the frying pan and into the fire by getting into, well, you know, Memoirs of a Geisha. I kind of want to read the other side of the story, that is, the memoir of the geisha the author of Memoirs of a Geisha interviewed, and then listed as a source, causing her a great deal of stress, leading to lawsuits, a legal settlement, and her own autobiography. Until I read both books side by side, I don’t want to say anything authoritative.

That said, it’s safe to say that performing is, literally, and linguistically, the heart and soul of the geisha.

Let us appreciate this institution for what it is: living art.

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Japanese Culture: The Legacy of Sun Tzu

Posted on October 3, 2010 by J Sensei

Sun Tzu, Adopted Guru of Japan

One rather interesting footnote of Chinese history is that the land where Sun Tzu is said to have hailed, the state of Wu, was more or less the eastern tip of China, the closest geographical point to the Japanese islands. Indeed, Chinese records state that ambassadors from Japan stated (in China) that they were descended from the “Wo” people of the state of Wu.

Certainly, there is much in common in the traditions of the people that resided in the state once known as Qi and the people of Japan. The “Wo” people were considered barbarians who had been Sinicized (made Chinese, i.e. civilized) during the wars that defined Sun Tzu’s time and were the inspiration for his writings about less devastating, more victorious warfighting.

Furthermore, like the people of Japan, the Wo people carried babies on their back, had face tattoos (Chinese influence drove that out of Japan too), ate raw fish, and were known for their superior ability to forge swords (in the style of the day, at least).

Finally, there are substantial linguistic links between Japan and Wu Chinese. One type of “native Japanese” kanji pronunciation, “go-on” (“on” for sound), is viewed as explicitly drawn from Wu Chinese.

Thus, it is little surprise that Japan has treated Sun Tzu as an adopted son… or an adopted military guru, if you will.

A Lengthy Legacy

Although overshadowed by what would be considered stereotypical Japanese courage and viciousness in battle, serious, educated Japanese warlords such as Takeda Shingen religiously studied the writings of Sun Tzu, deriving innumerable lessons about how to approach battle. Chiefly, these regarded when to fight and when not to fight.

In his long war with Uesugi Kenshin, Shingen’s fiercest battle with his longtime rival was essentially created by an error in maneuvering and communication which gave Shingen an opportunity to fight with equal chances of success or failure, with even numbers, in a particular place and at a particular time. The casualty count was easily the highest of all of their battles. Typically, both strategic masters passed on direct combat because they perceived no advantage in the circumstances, preserving their forces and their power against each other and numerous other foes for a considerable number of years.

Sun Tzu’s strategies are not really compatible with kamikazes, suicide charges, and so forth. These were desperation tactics to reverse battles that had already been largely lost, particularly on the strategic level. The consequent defeat of Japan in WWII did not diminish interest in strategy; rather, it brought about an eventual revival in interest in what we might call real strategy, the sort that prepares the ground for victory well before the first shot is fired, either literally or proverbially.

Thus:

  • Minimize Risk
  • Maximize Chances of Victory
  • Account for the Unknown
  • Seize Genuine Opportunities
  • Avoid Traps
  • Create Traps for the Opponent
  • Win.

These are the principles treasured and passed down century after century. They have become deeply entrenched in Japanese culture, even though Sun Tzu is, as people may be quick to tell you, Chinese.

His legacy, however, is much broader than the borders of China. In Japan, his legacy firmly lives on: in business, government, and military circles, and with armchair generals (players of strategic video games) everywhere.

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Japanese Culture: Hontai (Main Force – Military Lingo)

Posted on October 3, 2010 by J Sensei

A Simple Concept When Put Simply

This is an idea used in military strategy, including any video game hailing from Asia. That this is technically Japanese is almost besides the point; the idea goes back to ancient China, to the point that I saw what I would consider a mistranslation of this (well, a less than ideal translation) yesterday when reading about the Battle of Guandu between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao in the Three Kingdoms period of China.

So, let’s get this out of the way.

本体 (ほんたい、hontai)

The two sections here are “hon” (which, strictly speaking, would be read as real, but which we might view as main – bear with me), and “tai” which simply means body. But, this is not sufficient on its own. As we are discussing a military “body,” let us refer to it as the main force.

This is as opposed to detachments such as: scouting forces (偵察部隊 (teisatsu butai), lit. “reconnaissance units”), vanguard units (先遣部隊 (senken butai), lit. “advance dispatch units), and so forth.

Thus, if one barely defeats the vanguard unit, and the 本体 (= main force) arrives, you’re in a heap of trouble.

The alternate translation I saw was “main army,” which is not really a good way to put it. That’s because people will use “hontai” to refer to the main force regardless of the size, and the term could easily be applied to an army group, with a single army (or even two or three) breaking off from the main force to attack a flank.

Of course, this would work with smaller forces as well. A platoon could break off from the main force of the size of a company.

This is such a basic and integral part of Asian military thinking that it really needs to be understood. In Asian thinking, the primary host is a single force, from which components are created, split off, and re-absorbed.

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Japanese School Culture: The Sailor Fuku and the Gakuran

Posted on October 2, 2010 by J Sensei

Origin

In Japanese, 服 (fuku) simply means clothing. In the case of an individual set of clothes, we may safely read this as outfit.

Sailor Fuku = sailor outfit.

The “sailor outfit” came to Japan in the early 1920’s. Although a different school claims to have invented the sailor fuku first, the sounder claim rests with Fukuoka Jo Gakuin (a university for women, hence the “jo” part, 女 (woman)), where the principal, Elisabeth Lee, modeled the uniform after the sailor uniforms of the Royal Navy (the name of the navy of the United Kingdom).

In light of the fact that the gakuran, the stereotypical “male Japanese student uniform” used in Japan, is actually based on Prussian military uniforms of the time, uniforms reflecting a) the concept of military uniformity, b) the fact of being Western clothing, makes clear the cultural context.

A gakuran.

In fact, the Japanese for gakuran, 学ラン, is “gaku” for “study” plus “ran,” representing a pre-modern Japanese term for “the West.”

So, both the gakuran and the sailor fuku are intended to evoke Western modernity mixed with military uniformity.

Things have come a long way since then.

Wide Variations

Schools widely vary in their official uniforms, and not only do these uniforms have official seasonal variations for summer and winter conditions. In addition to this, schools without iron fisted discipline levels see schoolgirls modify their outfits by shortening the skirt (temporarily or permanently), wearing loose socks, wearing knee-length socks, and so forth. Boys may go as casual as they can in uniforms and not have everything fully buttoned and so forth.

Summer variation for sailor fuku.

School-assigned footwear is usually in the penny loafer style; that is, slip-on shoes. This is convenient in Japan where you would be taking your shoes off every time you enter a home.

In addition, and I realize this is stating the obvious, skirts are a lot shorter today compared to the 1920’s. WWII has come and gone and people want to enjoy their youth rather than feel like they’re serving in the military.

Cultural Power And Legacy

Sailor outfits are symbols of what was, to most adult Japanese people, a more innocent time, a time when the pressures of the modern world were confined to studying and when the rest wasn’t so bad.

Of course, the shorter the skirts get, the more this impression of innocence becomes associated with naughtiness and sexuality. This spin on things may be punted into the stratosphere by anime and visual novel games, but it is hardly an invention of fiction; it reflects a part of contemporary society.

Also, in modern times, 99%+ of Japanese public schools are co-ed. Therefore, boys are constantly seeing girls in sailor fuku, not only at a young age, but when there is, ah, shall we say, more to stare at.

Co-ed as the schools may be, groups teens of different genders rarely mix much (i.e. they aren’t seen going around town like that very often). There are various reasons for this, but keep in mind that public displays of affection are a much bigger no-no in Japanese society than in America. Such things are funneled into dating; this makes dating more intimate, but also keeps such intimacy from butting into the “buddy” system around which cliques form.

Thus, many boys have long memories of seeing girls in “innocent,” teasing sailor fuku but being only able to look, not to touch.

I think that this explains much about how adults look back at their school lives, about “what could have been,” and how these thoughts influence fiction in novels, anime, manga, games, and broader culture.

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Conversations: Monster Hunter (Video Game Series)

Posted on September 30, 2010 by J Sensei

A Monster Franchise

For our second “conversation,” here is IceBurner, an acquaintance of mine from the western half of the United States. IceBurner is a fan without peer of the Monster Hunter video game series, a smash hit in Japan and a growing influence on an entire generation of video games. Every new hit seems to have a “Battle Giant Monsters” gameplay element. This is not a complaint; it only goes to show the influence this series has on modern gaming culture and, if you will, digital art.

I tried to break the ice without breaking Ice himself. It can be difficult for someone to just plunge into this amazing video game world, after all.

Monster Hunter Interview with IceBurner: Part 1

Q. What attracted you to the Monster Hunter franchise to begin with?

Iceburner: On the most basic level, that it was another online 4-player team-coop action-RPG (or action game) in the same vein as Phantasy Star Online.

While that provided the initial interest, the whole hunter-gatherer gameplay dynamic, the deep action-based gameplay, and the very high attention to detail in all things captured and kept my interest.

[J Sensei: Phantasy Star Online was, as the name implies, an online action RPG that could be played as a 4-player team-coop (cooperative play) game. That universe was futuristic and high tech, taking the “photon weapon” idea (think Star Wars) and mixing it with not only melee weapons, but energy guns and “magic” (techniques) grounded in the Phantasy Star role-playing game series.]

Q. What is your favorite Monster Hunter weapon, and why?

A basic lance & shield set.

Iceburner: If you mean weapon class, then that would be lance. I found it pretty easy to use in the first Monster Hunter game. Actually when that was the only game in the series, I wasn’t very good with the other weapon types except the short sword, and that was pretty weak.

Lance’s rapid thrusting attacks and large shield mean it has an excellent mix of offensive and defensive power.  When used properly it lets you wade into battle in a way other weapons can’t match.  The requisite running lance charge is very damaging and can also be used effectively to get out of the way.

The special lance made from a ‘rust stone”, called “Undertaker” (or Underlayer in the Japanese version), also has what I felt was the coolest design.  It’s made of interlocking bands of metal which will telescope out when unsheathed.  Its tip is broken off from some fantastic ancient battle, presumably against Fatalis, the first game’s ultimate monster.  Despite this it’s still nearly the strongest lance in the game and one of the most powerful weapons overall.

With the second game, Monster Hunter 2 (dos), Lances suffered a pretty hard nerf due to their lack of an un-deflectable attack.  I wasn’t able to use them as much, but I still loved them and actively pursued building my favorites.  There was a non-broken version of the Undertaker, called “Skyscraper”, which I absolutely had to have.  Gunlance really stole the show from lances here, but I still wanted to favor them, even though they were very difficult to use.

With the third major title, Monster Hunter 3 (Tri), lances are solidly back in the game.  Attacks simply bouncing off the monster isn’t a huge problem as in MH2, and there are new moves to flesh out the weapon class.  You can now broadly swat small-fry bothering you, make a rush forward while blocking (with optional shield bash that deals KO damage), and there’s also a block-counterattack which can be used to press the attack under circumstances where no other weapon can.  Additionally, weapons in Tri can now animate during attacks, so when you charge with Skyscraper, it spins around, literally drilling into monsters.

Q. What is the monster you have most enjoyed bringing down?

Kirin, from Monster Hunter.

Iceburner: This one is pretty difficult to answer.  Each monster has its own personality and quirks, and thus own tempo in battle, and sense of reward for defeat.  I think I will have to go over this as my favorites over time.  In the original Monster Hunter, I still wasn’t very good at the game.  I didn’t really have a favorite monster to battle.

After I had played through In Monster Hunter 2 (dos), I had improved greatly.  My favorite battle wound up being hunting Kirin at the Ancient Tower.  Kirin is a small, fast unicorn-like monster that can summon lightning.  In MH2(dos), it could call different patterns of lightning without different “tells” for each, making it unpredictable.  Its collision was also pretty broken to the point where it was pretty much wearing an invisible snow plow, but I still enjoyed fighting it due to the “feel” of the battle.

In Monster Hunter 3 (tri), my favorite battle is definitely Diablos, although the game has been improved such that every monster is really enjoyable, except maybe Rathalos (who still just plays a jerky game of keep-away).  Diablos, on the other hand, is fast, powerful, very resilient, and presents limited openings.  It has some new tricks such as being able to actually cause quakes with its burrowing moves, and an insane flying tackle that’s amazing just to watch and even more fun to narrowly evade each time.  When Diablos grows weak, it still has its classic trick of berserking upon practically every hit landed.  It’s always a very challenging fight, but I feel it’s difficult in the ways that it should be.  The pace, the energy, the sense of danger, and even the music all comes together for a fun time.

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Gundam 00 In Depth: Ali-Al Saachez

Posted on September 29, 2010 by J Sensei

I think I would be inconsiderate to reply to Velocity7’s answers to my “interview” questions without explaining who this guy, Ali-Al Saachez, is.

Antagonist, And Proud Of It

Imagine, for an instant, a war otaku who’s good at the real thing. A connoisseur of death, destruction, war, conflict, and violence in all their forms. A man who seeks battle purely because he enjoys it. A man who is a shameless mercenary, not because he wants the money, but because it’s a legal way to get to kill people. A man who founded a terrorist group using child soldiers to resist the invasion of his homeland in the name of God, blaspheming that name to justify every atrocity, every murder of innocents – and who enjoyed killing so much, he adopted it as his new lifestyle.

Back in his terrorist days, his child soldiers were required to murder their own families to prove their devotion to God (or more accurately, to Saachez). One of these child killers left the nest and became the main character of Gundam 00, adopting the alias of Setsuna F. Seiei and acting to bring about an end to war. Seeing no fun in that, and truly enjoying the idea of toying with his former student (and more importantly, getting the best of his Gundam, a dedicated close combat weapon that seems to exist to goad Saachez, a close combat specialist), Saachez spends much of the show fighting Setsuna and Celestial Being, both on a tactical level (combat) and a strategic level (fostering war and conflict).

In short, Ali-Al Saachez comes off as the living embodiment of everything the protagonists are trying to stop in the world.

Due to the risk of the rest being spoilers in some way – the above wasn’t, it’s background that the show freely offers – I’ll put the rest in spoiler space.

show

So, if you went through everything in the spoiler space, you can see that Ali-Al Saachez was a very busy man, a real fountain of inspiration for psychopaths everywhere.

Small wonder Velocity7 finds Saachez to be one of his favorite antagonists. I mean, if you’re going to be a murderous psychopath, have some pride in it, you know?

Saachez cannot be accused of lacking pride in his work. Or put another way,

If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. – The Punisher

Let it be said, Ali-Al Saachez truly enjoyed his work.

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