Don’t know if anybody else pcked up on this, or if its even an old topic, but there seems to be a tradition of negative representation of (western) Japanophiles in fighting games. I dont know if this is part of a general attitude in Japanese (and greater asian) culture, but it wouldn’t surprise me, especialy after such ruthless Americanisation. It kinda reminds me of the way you often get a single dorky white guy in hiphop videos. Anyway…
Despite all the SNK spoof element, I was always struck by Dan Hibiki’s
resemblance of prolly the worlds most famous (and often ridiculed) Japanophile Steven Seagal:
Sodom’s character design was always a very appealing one back in early 1990 when Final Fight arrived in our local arcade. But it wasn’t until his SFZERO revision and his comedic obsession with Japanism that I really latched onto him as a fave character. It was his victory quotes in the Japanese editions of the ZERO series that did it for me. As a Japanese language student, I find Japanese puns (especially really bad ones) to be a source of great amusement, and Sodom’s attempt to phonetically render Japanese syllables with similar-sounding English words (that make no sense when strung together) really appealed to me.
Galford D. Weller – and, to a lesser extent, Earthquake – would probably also qualify, with their somewhat-unorthodox portrayal of ninjutsu and the ninja archetype. While Galford does have his serious moments, he is often played for laughs – certainly moreso than the always grim and serious Hattori Hanzo.
Another fave of mine is Yukinoue Hizumi, the “ninja otaku” from Groove On Fight.
Speaking of Japanophiles. Chipp Zanuff from guilty gear definitely fits in. His terrible american accent in his Japanese speech occasionally interrupted with “goddamn” and “bullshit”.
Besides that he’s obsessed with becoming a real ninja, his endgame pictures clearly show this. So I think he difinitely fits in the catagory
Yeah, those are great. “DIE JOB DEATH CAR” is the one I always remember (“Daijobu desu ka?”). I remember stumbling across some Japanese websites that actually had lists of all of his quotes and their “translations”, but I can’t remember if I bookmarked them or not.
japanophiles are people who are OBSESSED with jpn culture. just because you practice a jpn martial art doesn’t = japanophile. if that were the case, practically all fighting game characters would be a japanophile
I don’t know there’s something about him which makes him look quite obsessed with the culture and stuff, but I’m not sure what it is. So you’re probably right
I remember stumbling across some Japanese websites that actually had lists of all of his quotes and their “translations”, but I can’t remember if I bookmarked them or not.
