You think you hate localizers enough but in actuality you don’t hate them anywhere near enough as you should.
For quite some time now, Western localizers have been censoring Japanese media across various forms, including anime adaptations, video games, and even pornographic eroge.
This censorship often involves altering content and dialogue to align with modern WESTERN sensibilities, straying significantly from the original source material.
In many cases, Western localization also introduces the personal political agenda of the localizers into the content, seemingly without any other motive than to promote their own beliefs to their audience or to invoke some sort of agenda.
This practice can be seen as a form of cultural colonization, where Japanese media is adapted to suit the preferences of Western audiences, or rather it’s not for Western audiences themselves but rather to suit the progressive ideologies of the self proclaimed translators themselves whilst modifying the source material to better suit ESG corporate policies of which these large Japanese companies desperately want.
But their time is numbered, localizers have found themselves under newfound scrutiny and job uncertainty as The Ancient Magus’ Bride began to be published simultaneously in Japanese and English with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Even voice actors deeply rooted in the industry now face uncertainty, as fans can utilize AI to re-dub anime with more precise translations, reverting their localization changes and providing a more authentic translation.
Though of course, companies don’t intend on leveraging AI for translations simply because of Western consumer backlash against progressive and malicious localization, more rather I perceive the Japanese shifting more towards artificial intelligence simply as a cost cutting procedure with more accurate translations being a byproduct of corporate greed.
I can’t complain about AI translations, these dickheads have had decades to do their actual job which is to TRANSLATE the source material from one language into another without their own personal beliefs and biases fucking it up for the consumers themselves, validating their job in the industry by simply translating rather than subverting.
And now fans of Japanese media can expect things to get even more progressive and worse, as Japanese developers increasingly prioritize Western “global standards.”
In an article by The Japan Times they delve into conversations with localizers from prominent Japanese game companies, exploring the evolution of localization practices over the years with topics ranging from initial challenges in translating Japanese games to recent “improvements” in the process.
Franck Genty, the senior localization manager at Bandai Namco, acknowledges that some changes in localization practices are influenced by the #MeToo movement.
Exactly why does a corporation need a “localization manager” or “head of diversity” anyway? Have you heard of this prick before because I certainly haven’t. The most successful parasites are quite clearly those that keep their mouths shut because this lovely fella has quite the repertoire.
He emphasizes the need to convey to Japanese game developers the importance of portraying heroines in attire that aligns with Western sensitivities in mind.
“We tell them that the cleavage is a bit too exposed, or the skirt is a bit too short… Before, they weren’t very flexible, but they’ve become more proactive on such subjects.”
Because of course, this is the current year, beautiful and attractive female characters have seemingly become a thing of the past as the entire industry shifts towards “realism”. But not THIS kind of realism though.
Somehow shaming virtual women for being too sexy and glamorous by bastardizing and censoring their designs are somehow helping rape victims.
The only tangible sector that still incorporates attractive female character designs in the video game industry now stem entirely from Eastern developers, with every single large scale Japanese gaming tyrant now firmly suckling at the teats of Western ESG hedge funding, more rather beauty and femininity have been regulated to Chinese or Korean developers who mainly produce low budget “gacha” mobile games selling consumers sexy women in exchange for an infinite supply of money.
As a heterosexual man I have a moral obligation to firmly proclaim that I like tits as much as the next normal person, despite firmly losing any chance of Techopse to obtain ESG capital funding.
I simply refuse to degrade myself by playing predatory mobile “games” with barely any gameplay within them just for the sake of paying money for the latest monthly drop of cleavage, I refuse to fall for such vices.
Masayoshi Yokoyama, the executive producer of the Yakuza series, discussed collaborating with localizers to remove LGBTQ caricatures and sexist clichés from their games, aligning them with modern perspectives and what he referred to as “global standards.”
“Many representations which were normal in Japan in the first Like a Dragon games are no longer acceptable today. We ask our teams in the United States and Europe to read the game’s script, and they tell us if they see things that wouldn’t be acceptable in their country.”
Though normal people would simply consider these to be various forms of self-censorship simply for the sake of appeasing woke radicals who live on Twitter 24/7, because any negativity towards a marginalized group that just so happens to be illegal to discriminate against would result in a severe boycott campaign facilitated by progressive journalist publications.
It’s nice to see confirmation that Japanese outfits need Western confirmation in regards to whether or not their games are deemed “acceptable” by their standards, and never the other way around.
Decrepit Western woke slop such as The Last of Us Part 2 can proudly feature all the transgender, lesbian sex scenes and graphic gore as much as they’d like, they never need any sort of confirmation whether or not such games would be “acceptable” by Japanese standards. But a female character having long hair, a pretty face and visible cleavage is seriously offensive.
Long story short, AAA gaming is getting worse as a whole, Japan is no longer our “saving grace” so to say, with the likes of Capcom retroactively invoking encrypted DRM solutions into their back catalogue of games for the sake of prohibiting the modifications of game files, preventing game modding communities, most likely because an abundance of game mods for their recent titles happen to be on the wrong side of the ESG fence by offering attractive character models and or nudity.
Capcom are just one of many Japanese gaming tyrants who kneel before Blackrock and their dwindling ESG funding, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, KADOKAWA even are all apart of the progressive cabal that enforces these arbitrary woke standards amongst their media, which will either result in censorship or the content media itself being designed with Western audiences in mind because of course Japanese sales pale in comparison to the “global audience.”
Japan seems increasingly inclined towards malicious Westernization for profit. Catering to those who have little regard for Japanese culture or their products, instead of remaining true to their heritage and identity, rather these Japanese gaming tyrants would rather alienate the core Japanese audience and fans to prioritize Western ideologies and sensitivities.
Senran Kagura for instance was brutally murdered by the hands of Sony Interactive Entertainment due to their imposed censorship upon Senran Kagura 7EVEN, resulting in the series creator leaving Marvelous Entertainment as a whole. The game remains in limbo as the franchise is simply whored out via mobile gacha games.
We already knew this and nothing has changed, Japan as a whole is firmly being outmatched in regards to their gaming industry by the likes of Korean and Chinese developers who seemingly have less care and consideration for the ESG chokehold when it comes to providing “problematic” feminine character designs in their games.
