Avoiding Orientalist Adventures

So, I lived in Japan 22 years, mastered the language, published research about Japanese culture, and learned to navigate their social rules enough to get a position as a tenured professor teaching Japanese Society & Culture classes.

You can believe me when I say most Japan-themed roleplaying misses the mark in depicting Japan. When I first started this blog over a decade in Japan, I wrote a series of blogposts on this subject called The Weird in Mystic Japan that became a 'hit' on Reddit and garnered me my first monster viewer number, over 5000 for the first installment.

(You can jump to Part One, Two, Three, Four, and Five here).

Although I am proud of those posts, they were ways to adapt Japan to AD&D in a satisfying way (to me). Ultimately, they are still 'D&D in funny hats', so for people wanting to make their Japan based game more authentic on a deeper level, here are a few suggestions.

1 READ THESE

Although it is fun to read Lustbader novels and watch movies with ninjas, the large majority of it is derivative and an exaggerated, fictionalized Japan. The following works will give you a more grounded view of Japan.

The Idea of Japan by Ian Littlewood. No other book peels away the layers of western (mis)conceptions of Japan and identifies all the tropes mapped onto Japan in response to world events (WWII, postwar slump, Bubble economy). This book is the first step in stripping away the western prejudices and Orientalist images you may have picked up from pop culture depictions of Japan.

Musashi's Book of Five Rings: The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi's Classic Book of Strategy translated by Stephen Kaufman. I have read early versions of the Book, but always found them short, almost unfinished. Kaufman's work builds on recent scholarship to provide the most complete text plus a few other of Musashi's lesser known works. He also debunks the samurai as national identity myth that started in the Edo period, was used during the war, and continues to this day. If you want to inject the true spirit of swordsmen into your game, this is essential reading.

Daibosatsu Toge (The Great Buddha Pass) - English versions of the first three books are available on the U Washington server HERE. This is the quintessential fictional representation of Edo samurai, as written by a Japanese watching his country slide into nationalism and militarism. It was serialized in newspapers from 1913 to 1944, and is the bedrock of samurai fiction. The books contain TONS of adaptable material, from sudden murders, to ninja-like thieves, lost children, dishonest merchants, physically strong but good hearted simpletons, etcetera, and you will be nodding your head as you encounter the originals that inspired everything up to Blue Eyed Samurai.

2 WATCH THESE

Although I have some fantasical suggestions such as Dororo a few years back, here are some more nitty gritty depictions of Edo Japan.

Sword of Doom - I am cheating a bit as this is a film version of Daibosatsu Toge above. But Sword of Doom is an electric, violent 1966 film starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune. Akira Kurosawa reportedly called The Sword of Doom (1966) the darkest and most psychologically complex samurai film ever made. There were two other serviceable films made from Daibosatsu Toge, but Sword of Doom is a special experience that shows the brutal truth about Japanese swordsmen.

47 Ronin - The story of 47 samurai who sacrifice their lives to get vengeance on the crafty Lord Kira whose taunts caused their beloved master Asano to draw his sword before the Diamyo and be forced to commit seppuku. The 1941 Kenji Mizoguchi is an expansive version (it has been remade many times on stage and screen), and Mizoguchi was filming at the height of Japan's wartime samurai fetish, so it really encapsulates that uniquely Japanese prioritizing of duty over humanity. Over 3 hours long, possibly on YouTube (cough cough).

Ballad of Narayama - 1983 film by Showhei Imamura, detailing the lives of mountain farmers who must make cruel life and death decisions for their village to survive. One of the two films that inspired me to go live in Japan (the other was Tanpopo). A must watch for capturing that desperate sense of being caught in Japan's vertical society and ironclad traditions.

Jidai Geki (Historical dramas) - There are a TON of these out there, from the Golden Age of the 60s in 70s with names like Mito Komon (1969) and Ooka Echizen (1970). The Hissatsu series with its myriad of spinoffs is probably the most useful for RPGs, as it shows a group of Edo citizens from various ranks working together to right a wrong or solve a mystery. Watch it to understand the invisible walls of Japanese social interaction, but also be inspired by 100s of eminently stealable plot points. There is a Jidai Geki channel on YouTube that has many of these. 

3 GET GIRI-NINJO

My game Giri-Ninjou (義理人情 or Duty & Humanity) is a rules light, storytelling game of being Edo period Japanese trapped in a rigid vertical society. Coming out next year.

Notes On Japan

 So, Japan just raised its Permanent Residence application fees 20x?!?


A few thoughts.
To be fair, it was ridiculously low. I think I paid $60. So an increase of 3 to 5 could be warranted for processing fees.
But the message of 20x increase is simple. Unless you're rich, we don't want you to stay here. And even if you are rich, we can still say no.
Funny story. When I first moved to Japan in the 90's, foreigners were rare. Japanese who saw me in the street would rush up and ask 2 questions.
1 Where are you from?
2 When are you going home?


I was shocked at first, and would reply, do you want me to go home? They would be shocked back, and apologize. I realized that they couldn't conceive of anyone leaving their home country without an idea of returning.
Japan is such a huge source of identity that many find it hard to leave. Even criminals who flee prosecution in Japan have a habit of returning to give themselves up after a few years, like the Red Army bombers of the 60's.
The flip side is that many Japanese feel stifled in Japan and emigrate to places like Vancouver. These people keep back door dual citizenship open for their kids, but again the Japanese government has stated it wants to close this avenue as well.

In a country where the population is in freefall, where big spending (and admittedly coarse) tourists are villified and hard working permanent residents who raise families and businesses are asked to pay the piper, these moves signal a very worrying us vs them mentality.
But the problem is this is always what Japanese culture has been built on - 内外, insider vs outsider. Welcome to sakoku 2.0.

Giri-Ninjou Sneak Peek - Trigger Warning

In recent years, RPGs have become very accommodating and safe for everyone.

My design philosophy for Giri-Ninjou is the exact opposite.

It is a game about the ugly side of being Japanese.

Your actions are restricted.

No one can be trusted.

It'll probably end in Death, Dishonor, or at best Enlightenment.

But you'll have to wade through a river of blood to get where you are going.

Daibosatsu Toge - The Great Buddha Pass

 I am currently enjoying the incredible warm weather and sunshine here in Vancouver. First snowless year in 47 years, with the rest of the country snowed under.

(I wanted to put a movie poster here but Blogger is having issues today)

Meh, this is all I could upload. Tilt your head right to see correctly.

While I recuperate from balancing work and writing the Nuna QuickStart, I am reading The Great Buddha Pass - a huge work of fiction from the prewar period about a wandering, evil samurai. Post Nuna, my next project is Giri-Ninjou, my rules light TRPG about Duty & Humanity among the samurai.

You can read The Great Buddha Pass HERE, and several movies have been made based on the property over the years.

2022 Directions

 Hullo,

Just thought I'd get my head together over this blog in time for the new year.

Sweet Jeebus, 2022 sounds so Cyberpunk...

So what have I got planned for the next year?

1) As you may have noticed I am on a Stormbringer kick. I think it is part my love of the old game, as well as my need to limit my focus in response to the insane real life distractions I have. I intend to continue it, but talking to JB I realize how ignorant I am of the game. I am running on 20 year old memories, while JB knows his shit.

So for a little while I'll be doing a rereading of both the Elric novels and the 1st edition Stormbringer PDF I have. It is the only way to keep the re-design on track I wager.

Thanks JB for the inspiration!

2) I have a half-finished indie game based on Japanese culture called Giri-Ninjo (Obligation & Humanity) which was mechanically inspired by Lasers & Feelings. I hope to polish it off, finish a draft, playtest, then put it on itch.io.

3) Get a better job and get sonny in a better school so the pressure is off me and I can have fun gaming & writing again.

Thanks to you few who've stuck with this blog, stay safe, and see you in the year 2022 or earlier if I have a free moment!

GURPS Ring Dream & Manga Part Two - Piledrivers and Money Shots

Welcome back to ringside!

Whereas the extensive manga seen in the first post on GURPS Ringdream set the scene for roleplaying with its wonderful fluff, the rest of the book's manga is put to use for the system's love of crunch. And oh what glorious crunch it is! Each wrestling move gets its own illustration, from Kick and Headbutt...

... to Elbow and Stomping...

...onto Double Foot Stamp and Lariat...

... don't forget Dropkick and Knee Drop...

...lest we omit Guillotine Drop and Hip Attack...

... Water Level Kick and Kneel Kick...

... Palm Strike and Rolling Sobat (?)...

... Spinning Elbow and Backfist (yawn)...

... Flying Meya (?) and Body Slam...

... Arm Whip and Waterwheel Drop...

Seriously, there's another ten pages like this, with art getting progressively porny. It could be manga fan service for fellows who like comic femdom, but it is equally plausible the creators were rabid wrestling otaku, considering the intricate descriptions of each move and its skill mods, damage, conditions of use, etc. I can imagine a group of rpg and wrestling otaku in the early 90s, visiting Tokyo pro-wrestling dojos and watching videos in preparation while taking copious notes.

But just when us laymen can take no more, they change the art style to suck us back in. There's the Can Burner (?) and Hanging Ceiling Lock...

... Flying Dropkick and Bodypress (see why I said porny)...

... Face Crusher and Flying Body Attack...

... and more but that's enough for me.

Then there's this little hex diagram of pre and post flying move positioning. Talk about excessive!

I turn to the character sheet, which has also been manga-ed up. Since many Japanese prefer playing with pregens, this statting of the introductory manga characters could let play progress right away.

What is interesting from a mechanics standpoint is the unique calculation of hit points visible on the sheet. Hit points are broken up into four limbs, head, and torso, which EACH part getting hit points equivalent to Health, except the torso, which gets HT x 2!! This would allow the massive give-n-take of damage of the genre. I dunno GURPS well enough to know if such rules exist in English versions, but they are intriguing.

Well, that's it for Ring Dream! I may post more manga rpg stuff, but expect some of my regular pop sociology and gaming over the next few weeks.

GURPS Ring Dream & Manga - Part One, Comic Life (UPDATED)

Here is another installment in my Dungeons & Manga series. However, this time I'll be going as far from D&D as you possibly can, both in terms of system and use of manga-style art.

Today I'll be looking at GURPS' Ring Dream: Women's Pro-Wrestling RPG.

Funnily enough, in my old bookstore scavenging, I have come across a fair amount of GURPS material. On the one hand are translations of books like GURPS Magic or Martial Arts, all with manga art boiled down into the pocket size versions that are still popular here. On the other are 'Japan-only' games created for the home audience. The same phenomenon happens for video games, where dating games or JRPGs might sell on the PS in Tokyo, but are never intended to go beyond Japan's borders, for both gaming niche and cultural unintelligbility reasons.

GURPS Ring Dream is one such Japan-only GURPS product. It would be interesting to see how the license was obtained...

Anyway, GURPS Ring Dream is described as a Women's Pro-Wrestling RPG, a genre represented in video games by Rumble Roses. Whereas English RPGs usually start with a blurb of fiction to set the scene, from the first page Ring Dream uses manga as the fictional underpinning to the game. The manga introduces us to Chika, the orange-haired girl who dreams of being a pro-wrestler. Allow me to translate:

Chika: (carrying two ice creams) Here I am older sister!
Sister: Look, it's starting! Hurry up! Did you get my coffee-flavored ice?
Chika: And my brown rice, green tea, and strawberry-avocado ice. It's delicious!
Sister: Chika, watch out!

(A lady pro-wrestler falls onto Chika) KER-SMASH!
Sister: Watch out! (guffaws at Chika smeared in ice cream)
Chika: (notices ice cream is all gone from her cone) Hunh?
Ring Announcer: Kumano has grabbed Ajihara's hair and thrown her to the center of the ring. Here comes the starting gong!

Downed wrestler: (groans)
Ring Announcer: Uh oh, Ajihara is completely pinned! Sonic is still outside the ring!
Chika: (spies the ice cream on top of Sonic's head) If I can just grab the scoop on top... it's do or die!
Ring Announcer: Ajihara is in a pinch!
Sonic: (jumps to her feet) Hiya!
Sister: Chika. what are you doing?
(sounds of battle as Sonic jumps in the ring and throws around her opponents)

Ring Announcer: With a Plasma Sonic Bomb and a Lobster Hold, Sonic and Ajihara win the match!
Chika: (outside of wrestler's dressing room) Thanks for your time!
Wrestler: No problem, sorry about what happened.
Sister: I was surprised that you went to Sonic's dressing room, Chika!
Chika: I've decided!
Sister: On what?
Chika: I'm going to become a pro-wrestler!
Ajihara: Sonia, who was that girl eating that load of ice cream?
Sonic: No idea...

I don't know about you, but this set up goes far beyond the pale of my GURPS experience. How would you GM this?? It sounds more like a storygame, or a Japanese storygame like Yuyake-Koyake than GURPS.

The manga fiction does not end there. After these 2 splash color pages, an entire manga chapter details life in the women's pro-wrestling dojo. Let's see what Chika goes through:

Chika: (carrying a bucket of water) I've brought back the water.
Girl 1: OK, let's clean this place up and go for breakfast!
Chika: Today's breakfast is dark seaweed broth with cucumber pickles and rice with a raw egg on top! (slobber slobber)

Chika: (notices the bucket she has spilled) Hunh?
Girl 1: Ack! We haven't gotten anything done!
Chika: I'm sorry!
Girl 1: Nothing! (smacks Chika in the ribs) Do you really wanna be a pro-wrestler or not? Unbelievable.
Girl 2: Hold it! Just because you like eating doesn't mean you don't have to hurry up and do things...

(sounds of girls scrubbing floor)
Chika: (gets slapped by both girls) Ouch!
Girl 1 & 2: Too late, we missed it! I don't want to get another convenience store meal...

Older Woman: (puts a tray laden with food down) Tah-dah!
Chika: Thank you ma'am!
Older Woman: I put aside enough for you three.
(girls hug her)
Older Woman: Cut it out you three.
Girls: I could marry you!

Girl 2: (grabbed from behind by Ms Yamaguchi) Ms Yamaguchi?
Yamaguchi: You're so slow! Eating is a part of your work, you three! OK, once you've finished let's go to the practice mat. Take your time but hurry up, chew slowly, and only have two refills or else you'll barf.
Girls: We understand!
Girl 1: (looking at Chika gobble down her food) I don't care either way, but you ever seen this girl puke?
Girl 2: She's already on her 3rd plate.

THUMP!
Yamaguchi: Hey! You there, do a proper breakfall! A breakfall!
Girls: (seeing Chika flop on the mat) Wow!

Girl 1: Chika did a true breakfall!
Girl 2: That's a first.
Yamaguchi: (grabs a girl from behind) Beginners shouldn't laugh at other beginners, or they'll learn a painful lesson! (throws the girl on the mat) You try a breakfall too! Who's next?

Yamaguchi: Next is neck muscle training!
Chika: (has girl pushing down on her head) Ack ack ack!
THUMP
(sounds of heavy breathing, running)

Yamaguchi: (breathing heavily) Ok, let's do some light stretches and end MORNING practice!
Girl 1: Chika seems to be keeping up with practice recently, even though she's still the slowest.

Girl 2: So what?
Girl 1: That girl, when she came here, she couldn't do nothing. She still can't do much even now. I thought of the ten who joined here she'd be first to quit. The only thing she is good at is running.
Girl 2: And Chika...
Girl 1: What?
Chika: (thought balloon) I feel sick but it'll be a waste if I puke...
Girl 2: She was a long distance runner in junior high.

Girl 1: Long distance runner? That is no help in pro-wrestling.
Girl: Yes, but it means she's tough.
Girl 3: It means she's had a more normal existence than us tough fighter-types.
Yamaguchi: Shall we put Chika under Eriko for training?
Manager:  Don't be stupid! It's only been a few years since Eriko debuted as a pro.

Manager. (speechless for a second) If you say that, it means you have something up your sleeve. Tell me what.
Yamaguchi: Just seems interesting.
Manager: We've decided to put Chika under you for training today.
Eriko: But...
Manager: It's decided!
Chika: (bowing) Looking forward to learning from you!

This manga is a snapshot of the Japanese apprentice system used to educate craftsmen and martial artists. Shit rolls down hill, but with a reason - to toughen you up. Unlike western RPG fiction, this manga concentrates on what would normally be downtime training to set the scene for play. Still, as nice as it is, it leaves me scratching my head on how to use this in a game.

The manga doesn't end there, but continues in set piece spreads throughout the book. I'll skip over these, however, to take a look at something far more interesting - the mangatized descriptions of pro-wrestling moves and GURPS character sheets.

But that is a tale for another time...

Next up - Ring Dream Part Two: Piledrivers and Money Shots!

Dungeons & Manga #2 - Knowing D&D Part Two

OK, let's jump right back into the action. While in part one we saw that the introductory section of the book Knowing D&D began with dynamic action scenes to capture the reader's attention, its latter half is all action art.

This second half of the text is a"replay", or the transcript of a play session. Replays are HUGELY popular in the Japanese TRPG scene, and the rationale seems to be 1) it is fun to read through someone else's session as a fictional account and 2) you can learn to run a game or play in one by reading replays.

Anyway, on to the art. In this part, instead of explaining every image, I will instead present them with questions and let you try to guess what exactly is going on.

First image - where is the best place to start an adventure?

Next, who invited a snake to this disco party?

Make the 1/2 HD mooks jump!

Uh oh, the TPK heavies just showed up...

Where does this lead to?

 Who best to find their way in the darkness...

A reward for bravery.

Splitting the spoils, making plans...

A summons!

These guys good or bad? Depends how they're shaded...

Taking the block.

Not alone!

About those goblins...

Who does your hair, Baal?

Bette Davis eyes?

Always a damsel somewhere...

She didn't see that coming...

Which edition theses guys playing? BECMI by the ads...

Anyway, so much for Knowing D&D. Excuse the photo quality, but my tablet camera at 2am is about all I can muster these days.

I'd like to thank all commenters - I didn't expect any response, especially any so soon or thoughtful. Good to know there are other people with the same interests out there in the nebulous space of the OSR.

Next in the series - scifi TRPG style, or Furries in Space!