I created a tumblr community for fans of Spike Chunsoft games! Games such as Danganronpa, Zero Escape, Ai: The Somnium Files, Steins;Gate, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, or 428: Shibuya Scramble, et cetera.
A place for fans of Spikechunsoft games to share their creations.
The link to join is above. If you have trouble joining, please dm me. (I'll send an invite if you like this post) If you are interested in applying to be a moderator, please dm me.
(Especially in need of someone to moderate who is familiar with the full Steins;Gate franchise and spoilers)
Breaking Down This Bizarre DRS Genocide Jack Line.
I already made my rant about Genocide Jack’s writing in DRS and while I would like to just forget that game ever existed, there is one line I just can’t let go.
In Episode 1: Monokid's Hope, Genocide Jack says this line to Yasuhiro.
WHAT DOES THIS LINE MEAN? WHY DOES SHE SAY IT?
I’m going to write a breakdown this line in it’s entirety so I can solve this fucking mystery. Be aware that this is going to be a very long analysis.
I know Genocide Jack is all about saying non-sequitur lines that are so insane that you have double take but there’s a consistent theme to her lines and this one doesn’t fit.
Her lines are about sex, death, and weird metaphors. She’s talks about snipping off body parts like Aoi’s boobs but never hair. As far as I know she really doesn’t make any hair cut jokes. The only time she does anything relating to hair is the Geno Barber Slash Lust move in UDG. (Which to me is more of a gameplay thing unrelated to the story and not an in-universe thing that is applied to her character.) And this line from UTDP.
And here, she doesn’t mention anything about cutting hair.
So if that’s the case, why in DRS does she want to cut Hiro’s hair? I can only guess that the DRS writers see Jack holding scissors and are like “she cuts hair right?” They never researched who she was beyond a base level analysis so this is very possiable.
But fuck it. Let’s just roll with this new thing that was never established for Jack in the past. And to be honest, hair cutting would be another fun thing about her. The fandom makes Syo hair cut jokes so I think the official source should be allowed to do the same. However if this was the only thing confusing about the line then I would not be making this post as it’s really a non issue Just a nitpick from the world’s biggest fan.
What IS a major issue are the racist implications that the line has.
A lot of fans, mostly poc, have pointed out that Jack calling Hiro’s dreads “nasty” is offensive and even racist as dreadlocks is a black hair style rooted in black culture. We are going to dissect this issue right now.
The first thing I did was checked the Japanese version of this this event. I believe it’s important to check the source of this scene as the English translation could have messed up in localization. So I used three online machine translators: Google translate, Translate.com and DeepL. Here’s what I got for all three.
They all call Hiro’s dreads “disturbing” so does that mean this line truly was an insult? At first I thought it was but the whole scene still didn’t make sense to me so I looked up disturbing and found this definition.
And upon seeing this, everything finally started to make sense. If we replace the initial thought that disturbing means “unsettling” and replace it with “hinderance” then the context of the whole scene is radically different. Jack wants to cut Hiro’s hair because they get in the way. That’s not her insulting Hiro’s hair. It’s a know fact that people with dreadlocks have to deal with their hair getting in their face. And there’s a line in UTDP that supports Hiro’s dreads being a hindrance to him.
But why does Sho want to cut Hiro’s hair? What is it a hindrance of? I think the answer to that is looking at the previous two lines.
All Sho knows is that she is in a weird wrestling ring and Hiro comes up to her to ask her to protect him. Sho isn’t really keen on protecting people she isn’t super close to like Komaru so she does what Sho always does, respond to people in the most outlandish ways possiable.
By cutting Hiro’s Dreads, she is removing any possibly that they will make a hinderance for him to... What else? Fight! Yes! Sho is doing the exact opposite of what Hiro wants. Hiro wants protection. Sho wants Hiro to fight. Many wrestling fighters cut their hair so it’s short and doesn’t get in the way. And the “refreshing hair” means that Hiro’s hair will be new. Which makes sense as a haircut of any kind will give you a new hairstyle.
All this time the context of this scene is a classic Sho moment. It was never her insulting Hiro, she actually wants to help him! (In her own twisted way.) Dreads that get in your face can “disturb” you, and you have to make sure your dreads don’t “disturb” Cutting them is obviously a very extreme action, which is in-character for Sho to do so it checks out. What would be in-character for Hiro to do and something I’m sure everyone does with their own dreads is put on a hairband. This is exactly what Hiro does in DR3.
“Disturbing” in this context does not mean unsettling. If you want more proof here’s all the suggested words DeepL has for disturbing.
And for good measure, I paid RushTranslate $20 to have a real human authentically translate the scene.
And yup. The word “annoying” is a synonym of hinderance. This is the true context of this scene.
This makes me so so happy. The moment I saw Jill insulating Hiro’s dreads, I knew that didn’t seem right. I know my girl better than anyone in the world and I know how she really is. What started out as Hiro asking Jill for protecting and her insulting his hair for... No reason really, was actually a lighthearted joke about Jill doing what Hiro doesn’t want and preparing him to fight in a wrestling match.
Granted, this joke isn’t really funny. Like DRS Jill is still trash in general so even knowing the full context of this joke, it’s just really weak and worded very weirdly to be funny. But at least I can say that Jill is not insulting Hiro’s hair for being dreads. That’s not something she would EVER do.
So where does that led us with the “nasty dreads” comment in the English text? Well since the real context has nothing to do with insulting Hiro’s hair, and it doesn’t make sense that Jill would insult Hiro’s hair, I will make the claim that the English translators butchered this line. They must have saw the word “disturbing or annoying” and thought that meant Hiro's hair was creepy, unsettling and bad to look at. But the word "disturbing" really meant that they got in the way, they are a physical hindrance.
I’m not sure how the English translators messed up this line here, like did they even read back what they wrote to see if what they translated makes sense? We probably won’t ever know but I can mark this as yet ANOTHER THING THEY FUCKED UP WITH GENOCIDE JACK IN DRS. Her sprites, her writing, her rank cards and now even her freaking dialogue is fucked up. WHY WAS SHE CURSED IN THIS GAME. WHAT DID SHE DO WRONG? Or was it my fault? When I wished there was more Genocide Jack content was there a monkey paw hidden near me that curled it’s finger upon my wish? Who knows, except God. And God is Genocide Jack which just adds to the insanity of this. But I still love her.
Anyway... So it turns out, Jack never insulted Hiro dreads! The English translators fucked up! Yay! Jack isn’t racist!
Oh wait! I haven’t even talked about why poc fans said the line was racist. My bad.
I had to do some research about this as despite the fact that I am black, I don’t know everything about black culture, dreadlocks especially as I don’t have that as a hairstyle. So if I mess up here. PLEASE let me know.
But what I can gather using this source listing off stereotypes associated with dreadlocks, there’s a common stereotype associated with dreads; that calling the dreads of a person who has them dirty implies that the person themselves are dirty. I believe this is the offensive term people are talking about. So when Jack called Hiro’s dreads “nasty” and then follows it up with hacking it into a “clean corporate cut” then it’s easy to see this as Jack calling Hiro’s dreads dirty and they need to be cut for not being clean and normal. The line is reminiscent of the derogatory stereotype. And since Hiro has darker skin and dreads originates from Africa in 500 BCE and is rooted in black culture, then a racist connection is easy to interpret to see. Very easy to interpret actually as poc fans have pointed out many racist things in Danganronpa and are wary when something vaguely racist is presented in new games.
And this isn’t the first time Hiro was associated with a stereotype because of his dreads. You know the popular fandom joke of Hiro smoking weed and being a hippie? That’s a stereotype of people with dreads. Nothing in the game ever hints at him smoking weed or being a hippie.
That’s where the racist accusation comes from. But wait! I just proved that the original context of the line was never about insulting Hiro’s hair so the original writers never accidently alluded to stereotype and thus, the scene was never racist at all! Isn’t that a good thing?
Well... No actually. That doesn’t fix the issue because the mistranslated text still exists in the international release of DRS. And for as that text still exists in the game, the racist stereotype can still be read. I may have been able to prove that the scene was never racist but people don’t read this post or know the true context won’t know anything. A poc can still buy DRS, get up to this point in the game, read that mistranslation and feel hurt by it. The problem still persists along as the mistranslation still persists
The only way for this problem to be solved is if Spike Chunsoft updates DRS and fixes this mistranslation. And I feel this is important for them to do as this mistranslation of a single word both ruins the context of joke and has racist implications that will hurt people when they read it.
This is the end of my analysis for the line and if you only here for that then you are safe to stop reading but for those who are still here I have a somewhat related point I like to quickly discuss.
For anyone still doubtful that the English line is racist (If you somehow read everything up to this point and still think it isn’t racist then well... I tried my best.) or you are the type that just hates how half the DR fandom calls out out every single thing as “problematic.” Well... Please just consider the following.
There are call outs made by fans that are valid. There are call outs made by fans that are not valid. And there are even call outs that are valid but the fan saying them expressed it in an unorganized, attacking manner that makes people dismiss it on the basis in how they presented it. Call outs in the third category come from fans who are often young with shallow points or hastily presented their argument that doesn’t take in account people who have no prior knowledge of what they are talking about and assumes the person already knows. Some say their argument in rude way and treat other people who don’t get it, disagree or ask questions, with hostility. It makes sense why so many older DR fans dismiss these takes by younger fans so often. But what makes this an issue is that the nucleus of the younger fan’s argument could still have merit. But an older fan assumes that nucleus wrong because of the how the younger fan presented the argument, rather than examining at the nucleus to judge if it holds water. This is an ever present problem with the fandom and why so many important discussions devolve into fighting and insults. This issue has even affected fans who are capable and willing to present their argument in a mature, informative manner, their side gets dismissed just as fast as a poorly presented one or they are treated with suspicion upon mere the mention of starting a discussion or their argument is assumed to be based on invalid arguments made before by different people.
I wish this wasn’t the case but sadly it’s the nature of the internet when above all else, first impressions are a priority when engaging with people when really they should not be the only priority. Granted this mindset exists everywhere in the internet and in real life but I am in the DR fandom so I am putting my focus here. And there is the point that younger fans with poorly presented arguments should learn to improve their presentation skills if they want to be taken seriously. That’s what adults are expected to do when writing a resume or writing emails at work. But that’s the real world with strict societal rules. The internet doesn’t have restrictions likes these and you are free to be more lax and not professional. I feel that younger fans can be given some leniency for how they present their argument. After all, they are making these arguments on the same accounts they use to relax and have fun.
My proposition is this, if you see a call out online of something problematic in Danganronpa that you never heard of, try not to immediately dismiss it as nonsense and reply with a snarky comment. Try to find the nucleus of what they are trying to say. If you can’t identify one clearly then it’s a safe bet it’s joke post and not something that represent the younger fans when they are starting discussions. If you do find the nucleus, put it in your head and think about it without even replying to the argument. Just let their thought stew in your mind for a while, try to understand why the nucleus was made, does it hold water or not, or is it a smaller underdeveloped part of a larger discussion that could be made. Once you feel like you exhausted this thought in your mind, move on. You don’t have to reply to the younger fan with your counter argument right away. There’s a chance the fan is not yet ready to have a discussion with someone who may disagree with them. Just move on and if you see another argument, consider thinking about that one too. Just keep your head full of smaller arguments that you may not agree with but you can understand how they are made, you can understand why their augment is wrong or could be right if certain bits of information was presented. If you don’t want store your brain with the nucleuses of other people you don’t have to. I don’t believe this to be the perfect solution but it’s something I like to do when I see discourse on the internet. I try to think about it in my head and not reply. (mostly due to anxiety but shhhh.)
But what I hope from such a new way to think is that people stop replying snarky comments to other people. Even if you disagree. Even if you hate their argument. It’s just an opinion on the internet. It’s not call to action and it won’t result in something bigger. Just, less rude comments being slung at people is what I want. (But of course there are exceptions to everything in life so my “don’t send hate comments to opinions you hate” does not apply to everything.)
Btw, this same way of thinking applies to younger fans too. It applies to everyone. I don’t except the hate comments to magically stop once when this is posted but even getting one person to change the way they view internet discourse would be great.
Well this is the end of this stupidly long post about a single line said by a serial killer with a long tongue. I like to express thanks for reading this far in. I hope. I won’t. Have to talk. About Genocide Jack in DRS. Every again.
Upupupu... my newest #pachinko friend made it home this weekend. Prepare to give in to either Hope or Despair this #sanjapan when I debut the #Danganronpa pachinko! . . . #dangan #ronpa #pachi #sanjapan2021 #pachinkofestival #anime #spikechunsoft #spikechunsoftdanganronpa #triggerhappyhavoc #monokuma #naegimakoto (at Lewisville, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CS7ZWz4Fx28/?utm_medium=tumblr
Such insolence! A day overdue? I have some nerve indeed...
Let's call it fashionably late, befitting of the queen of lies I'd say.
As one can imagine, a student with talent capable of toppling the gambling underworld is not one to be taken lightly. Celestia lives a life of wild risk, her poker face unwavering however daunting the challenge.
In contrast to the turbulent nature of her day-to-day, Ms. Ludenberg's motivation is fueled by a fantastical dream much like that of a fairytale. ♠
