Okay, I know this isn't a new topic (although some people seem to think it is) but with some of the more recent J-RPGs that have been released this has kind of been brought it back into discussion in a lot of places.

The thing is, while I'll admit that this trend has seemed to increase in recent years (handhelds, anyone?) am I the only one that kind of gets sick of all the complaining about it? I'm not saying I like it per say... but it does kind of bug me when people throw down blanket judgments about the Japanese people, saying they're perverted and such. For the life of me I just can't tolerate that because I really don't have enough information on their culture to make a decree about it being right or wrong. Additionally, using my own cultural perceptions to judge another, very different culture is plain ass-backwards.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the Japanese look at sexual themes quite differently than we in the US do? Over here I can't help but think we have a somewhat warped view of sexuality when people are more worried about it than violence... but that's nothing new....

I can't help but think someone told me that violence is a bigger deal in Japan than sexual themes. I mean wasn't the beheadings in RE4 removed over there?

Anyway, I'm sorry for rambling. Again, I'm not saying I'm completely on board with the way J-RPGs handle sexualization but at the same time I'm not going to completely admonish a game for being geared towards the norms in its original market.

I'm all for mature themed games, but when it comes to J-RPGs, there will always be an issue when you get things like this.

I think that whole "issue" with Nowi is ridiculous. First off, she is a dragon and 1000+ years old. Secondly, who cares if she looks young? I've never met a guy who said "I can't go out with that lady, she just looks too youthful". Then again, perhaps this "issue" is part of Western culture. After all, sex and nudity are such taboo subjects here in the US. My experience is that JRPGs handle sex and gender roles quite differently than we do here in the US. One thing for certain, JPRG programmers love boobs. I don't just mean boobs, but typically HUGE, unrealistic boobs. Then again, lots of guys like that so there you go. I'm not sure that counts as "oversexualization". Very interesting topic I must say! There of course has been lots of scholarly work on this, although perhaps not directly in video games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_Japan

You do know that that's a bullshit excuse, right?
The comic is even clearly making fun of that.
'It's okay if this sexily-dressed girl looks like she's 10 years old because she's actually a 1000-year-old dragon guys!"
Come now.

There's a difference between "young" and "too young"
If a clearly sexualized character looks like she's barely even a teen, it starts getting a bit creepy.

But yeah, obviously there are huge differences between the way the US looks at violence and sexuality and the way Japan does.
Indeed, decapitations were removed from RE4 (and I believe the face-melting stuff as well), and yet there are plenty of outrageously violent products coming out of Japan. I've been living here for around 10 years and I still haven't really found any kind of logic or consistency to what is and isn't acceptable in terms of violence, although it seems decapitations are largely taboo nowadays, ever since some kind of decapitation murder shocked the nation in real life.

As far as sexuality goes, yeah, they loooooove their huge boobs on shamelessly young girls. The Lolicon is strong in this one.

I have seen that before actually.

What JRPGS are you referring to, Ashley? I really hope we can bring this topic to discuss sexuality in all of Japanese games. We just had a thread on Zero SUit Samus' sexiness... JRPGs have a weird ambivalent sexuality going on which no one seems to raise a fuss about, but give a women some big tits in Dragon's Crown and get ready to read tons of crap. I think it's interesting how Japanese got influenced and are now embracing ass shots in games more (Lost Planet 2, Bayonetta 2, etc.)...

http://everything2.com/user/kaytay/writ … nese+women

Cuteness is a very good quality for women to have. But it does get creepy when adult Japanese males make this equation: extreme cuteness + teen girl + scantily-clad (see the Senko No Ronde girls). The whole "she's not a little girl thing" really does get into the whole concept of maturity [s/o: (The Crush (1993 film)]. Same thing quietly brought up with semi-recent phenomena Twilight's extremely old vampire seducing a high school girl. I guess if your audience doesn't seem to mind it's okay...

This is a good thread for our Japanese residents to comment in.

Well, what spearheaded me to post this topic was a review of Bravely Default I read were the Russian author called the game perverted. I thought it was real hypocritical of him to do so for a few reasons:

1.) If I remember correctly (and the author even pointed this out) I believe the game was altered for other territories... something about changing the clothing on certain characters or something...? This means that Square-Enix did take other cultures norms into consideration when releasing the game abroad... so I think the author should have at least given them more credit for that. God, it's not like they released RapeLay abroad or something.

2.) I think it's kind of dumb to get on your soap box over Bravely when, at least in my opinion, more "offensive" examples of this exist. I basically told the author to go play the first Xenosaga (and also look up the original Japanese cinematics with Albedo and MOMO and compare them to the American release) and get all upset over all the MOMO crotch shots in that game. Again, it's not like this is a "new" thing.

3.) While this is really apples and oranges (and I don't want to get into a political debate) I love how a person criticizes Japanese culture when anyone who has seen the news can see the "super awesome" laws the Russian government has passed regarding homosexuals lately. Again, I KNOW THIS IS APPLES AND ORANGES (and it's obvious the government over there just needs a boogie man to distract the populace from other issues) but what goes on in the government can somewhat be seen as a reflection of a country's culture.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/0 … characters

The character model in the screenshot really does look low-bit for a 3DS game. The character looks like a child doll... I can understand why people would consider it perverted to look at that for hours on end in a game. (Most likely they just want hits on their website.) If I had that going on my 3DS around other people I would certainly be looked at in a negative light. "But they're just pixels", "But it's a cultural thing". There is a certain amount of pathetic transmitted to the player.

1) Yep. People now get outraged over something they don't want in their games that isn't in their game.
2) Ah, MOMO the robot doll. The incompatibility of robots and sexuality.
3) Pretty off-topic and further discussion would derail thread.

LMAO. Another jrpg 'pixel protection' instance to add to the thread - The Image Of Tharja In A Swimsuit Nintendo Of America Didn't Want You To See
source: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/0 … you_to_see

Do people remember the brouhaha when Mass Effect was released? Apparently some (mostly religious-types if I remember) were horrified that you could have sex with an alien! Well, you can. Also, the alien is definitely supposed to be sexy. Still, this is not a JRPG so no unworldly boobies (a good thing in my opinion

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Liara_ … tasis3.png

I think movies and video games all make huge profits by selling sexy characters. Honestly, I think most of the time if you don't like it you can ignore it. The one time (well, one time that I'm aware of, apparently this may be somewhat common in Japan) I really think a Japanese game went to far is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/0 … game.rape/

"Those games are known as "hentai games." Almost all feature girlish-looking characters. Some of the games are violent -- depicting rape, torture and bondage in detail."

I fail to see how people can complain about Nowi, when you have that kind of stuff appearing in Japan!

And there's nothing wrong in that, if the sexyness is done with good taste. Which sadly both western and eastern tend to fail often. And really for eastern side, I really wish moe/lolicon-phase would go away or get smaller. I'm really bored and annoyed seeing those 1000 year old lolicon type vampires in media. But then, otaku culture there brings the money, so we won't get rid of that soon.