One of the writers with Kojima Productions has written a politely scathing piece in which he decries the JRPG’s single-minded obsession with having overwrought teenage boys as their protagonists, suggesting that is tied to a wider lack of heroic adult male archetypes in contemporary Japanese culture.
The writer in question is Etsu Temari, a man credited with work on the Metal Gear series, and he writes the following short piece on the Kojima Productions Blog:
What is the ideal hero?
“Why are JRPG heroes always teenage boys worried about why they are fighting?”
I’ve been considering this, and I really think it’s because in today’s Japan there is no ideal of a “cool adult man.”
In works based on a shonen [boy] protagonist it’s fine to use them if they are done well, but in both reality and in fiction the “cool man” has mostly disappeared. The generations reared without ever seeing them can’t envision these men either.
I get the impression this vicious circle has indeed become something of a problem.
As a scenario writer myself, I’d like to do what I can to change this by creating new images of heroes.
Japanese discussion of his words tends to identify “because old guys don’t sell in Japan” as a key reason for this lack.
However, this rather validates Temari’s point that the lack of any marketable adult hero image in Japan prevents their usage in games and creates a vicious circle of over-reliance on shonen, even to the point that Japanese developers can now only crudely ape the manly heroes they see as critical to international success.
Having lately been criticised for always having children as heroes, not having macho enough heroes, being stagnant and staid, having ridiculous character designs, and even for not being RPGs, it seems the JRPG genre is long overdue a revolution – one which sadly is nowhere in sight, with most JRPG developers intent on milking the same tired franchises.
I’m sorry people, but when comes to matters of humanity and being a badass, solid snake has it hands down. he has gone through ass loads of character development, to such a point that he actually could not only deal with Raidens bitching and angsting, but understand him. hes not even a “manly macho man” as everyone is bitching about, hes just another fucking soldier trying to end a god-forsaken war started by pitiful old men in ages past.
Snake’s dealt with a lot of inner, and outer, turmoil, without turning into a mass of bitching angst. he killed his best friend and rival, and thought he killed big boss twice. almost everyone he knew is either fucking dead, or had betrayed him.
l♥♥i’s are pathetic, every time you play a game as a l♥♥i, no matter how many actions they go through that should develop a character, don’t seem to matter to them, leaving them the same boring character as they were at the start.
Squall wasn’t emo for starters.
Tom cruise is 50+, Daniel Craig is getting up there, Anthony Hopkins, Clive Barker, Will Smith, Hugh Grant Jude Law, Johnny Depp. I know they’re actors in real life, but they all are examples of cool adults in their films. Besides their Hollywood action careers, they have plenty of Drama credits.
What does an old guy in a Japanese film do? Whine about how old he is. Dear Japan, you’re doing it wrong.
Agreed. If kids can’t look up to adults (even fictional ones) then who can they look up to?
why JRPG heroes all emo-teenager ? i could ask same to westerner ==> “why westerner like MACHO RPG heroes ?”, if u dont like it, dont play it… shut yer trap…