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Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama isn't happy just being a war crime denier, is anti-LGBT too!
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I've never understood the argument that not having children makes you a problem for society and unproductive.
Even ignoring the colossal moral issues with these jokers who think this way, it doesn't even hold up logically, even slightly. Not only are we in a period where humans are globally over-populated to the point that single child and childless families should be praised and encouraged (not enforced mind you), but you'd also have to look at famous figures through history like Leonardo da Vinci, who had no children and is widely considered to have been gay, and suggest that the lack of kids made him unproductive and useless to the human species..?
I don't even...
Even ignoring the colossal moral issues with these jokers who think this way, it doesn't even hold up logically, even slightly. Not only are we in a period where humans are globally over-populated to the point that single child and childless families should be praised and encouraged (not enforced mind you), but you'd also have to look at famous figures through history like Leonardo da Vinci, who had no children and is widely considered to have been gay, and suggest that the lack of kids made him unproductive and useless to the human species..?
I don't even...
Like others wrote. Even if Enix wanted, it's just not possible for Enix to get rid of Sugiyama. He owns the Dragon Quest music.
The best you can hope is for Sugiyama to retire.
If Roseanne can get fired from Roseanne, anything is possible. It's a matter of how important it is to a company and whether they want to make a stand.
I do think some of the posts are kind of gross though. Specifically the post where OP says he hopes to hear about his replacement after he "fucks off" from this Earth.
They could speak out against the dude, or try and combat the damage he does. Donate some sales from DQXI to pro-LGBT charity or something.
If they really can't get rid of the dude then that's their fault for allowing him to get a position where he's untouchable. Square don't get a pass here.
I mean that sort of answers the question didn't that effectively kill Roseanne. I don't think SE wants to harm or kill DQ.
Well if they feel as a company that not having that music would kill the franchise, and that the franchise is more important than taking a stand against a war crime denying activist, then they can say so and we will know. And everyone working for the company can also know that is what the management thinks. That's why the press should ask. What's the harm in asking? :)
I mean do you really think that japanese care that much about a "war crime denier". Seems its a pretty popular stance in Japan.
From big names in Japan I only really know Miyazaki who really talks about that...
I do have a legit question but if Sugiyama was working in the Western environment, can they easily terminate him? I'm basing this off from the Roseanne issue.
From my perspective and in my local working environment, at most they'll get a sanction but not terminated quickly especially if they're a regular and they're performing well.
From my perspective and in my local working environment, at most they'll get a sanction but not terminated quickly especially if they're a regular and they're performing well.
I'm not going to judge anyone for it, whether they're aware or not. We're all big boys and girls here, capable of our own decisions. You just have to decide what's more important. Enjoying a game and knowingly funding bigotry, or missing out on a potentially good game. If you want, you can take the middle road and just get the game used or heavily discounted down the line.
I personally try to avoid games with real gun brands for similar reasons, as I don't want my money to go to firearm licensing or encouraging advertisement deals. Sometimes stuff slips through the cracks, and that feels shitty, but that's on me.
I was hoping to buy DQXI (would have been my first DQ games) but after hearing this, I might buy it one day at a bargain basement price.
Age can not used as a shield for espousing and preaching such despicable ideals. I understand "perspective" but after being exposed to all the happenings all through these years one can not simply feign ignorance whilst willfully peddling and participating in malicious opinions and discussions.
I wonder how this can be brought to the attention of the wider media and more importantly this composer's employers.
Age can not used as a shield for espousing and preaching such despicable ideals. I understand "perspective" but after being exposed to all the happenings all through these years one can not simply feign ignorance whilst willfully peddling and participating in malicious opinions and discussions.
I wonder how this can be brought to the attention of the wider media and more importantly this composer's employers.
Square Enix isn't just Japan! Neither are their customers!
For war crime denial? In Germany you go to jail. That's the difference between Germany and Japan. German created a culture of nazi shaming and intolerance against any nazi stand. Japan remained sympathetic to pro nationalists who still honor their dead war criminals as heroes.
How about racism and anti-LGBT? Like voicing these out in social media?
Yet you can at least try to buy clothes and electronics (albeit with greater difficulty) born of conflict free and poor labour practicing origins. Why should a non critical entertainment or art be exempt from it?
Supporting the art provides capital for the artist to perpetuate his/her bigoted and revisionist ideals. For the sake of perspective, I am cognizant that multiple people worked on the project. However, the point still stands with regards this artist alone and making statements like "support the art, not the artist" comes off as preachy.
Dragon Quest is very much "critical entertainment" to me. If I decided to put that much pre-though in to every thing I'd ever purchase going forward, I'd have to live in a cave, drink creek water, use camp fires for cooking etc. and live like the Amish.
I began with the first Dragon Warrior on NES. It was my very first RPG and I was totally enchanted. Every piece of music, from the opening overture, to the Tantegel Castle theme, to the over world exploration theme... I loved it all. The town theme ("People") is still one of my favorite pieces of orchestrated music in the world, and hearing it makes me very happy. The seed was planted young for me, and I certainly don't hear the mind of a man when I hear that music. I hear Dragon Quest.
They're unlike America punishable in the UK and Germany p sure.
I mean Disney kicked one of their most successful directors for much less (and done years ago)
It's not exactly that Sugiyama's views aren't well known in Japan. He's still considered a living legend there and unfortunately that's not going to change anytime soon.
If that is what your truly believe then you are truly ignorant and you have priorities real skewed. Anyway, good luck with your life and I am done conversing with you.
Japan is currently in serious trouble demographically. Nationalists don't care if at this current juncture the world is more populated than ever. What matters is how the demographics of Japan will look in a couple of decades and beyond. The current situation of a vast ageing population and too few young people relative to their numbers is economically and socially unsustainable, especially as nationalists in particular stay hellbent on keeping the country a racially and culturally homogeneous society. I imagine from the perspective of a far-right nationalist like Sugiyama, Japan's demographic woes going on unaddressed will mean its inexorable march off a cliff edge. A dramatically declining population would be economically ruinous and I imagine for Sugiyama, a terrifying future where a much weakened Japan finds itself in the crosshairs of its hostile neighbour(s).
Of course, other developed countries facing similar ageing populations and population declines have addressed this matter with immigration, but that's practically anathema to Sugiyama and hardcore nationalists of his ilk. "Unproductive" to them is not maintaining the cultural and racial purity of a healthy Japanese population for the future. It's sort of like white nationalists over in the West keep bleating exasperatedly about "white genocide".
Some of these posts on questioning DQ credibility and influence for the genre is just ignorance. DQ is the don of JRPG. I don't care that most Westerners don't have nostalgia for and they think it is bad and etc but FF, PS, SMT, Pokemon, Mother and etc are DQ clone whether you like it or not.
It's interesting to see how this was hardly talked about much in the west (or that I am just not well informed)
In the asian circle his radical political stance is more or less well known, he's one of the founding members of Committee for Historical Facts, whose most noticeable action was posting this paid public comment on the Washington Post to argue against the "Truth" of Comfort Woman in WWII
http://nishimura-voice.up.seesaa.net/image/thefact_070614.jpg
his undersign is right at the end
As someone who comes from China, I can't speak for everyone else but as far as my own experience goes many of us knew about this, yet we still play the DQ games, while hardly talked about the issue. I did feel uncomfortable when some random Chinese media outlet out of nowhere started glorifying him as an artist who excels both in his art and his ethics tho, at the time of him accepting the Guinness certificate as the eldest game music composer iirc
In the asian circle his radical political stance is more or less well known, he's one of the founding members of Committee for Historical Facts, whose most noticeable action was posting this paid public comment on the Washington Post to argue against the "Truth" of Comfort Woman in WWII
http://nishimura-voice.up.seesaa.net/image/thefact_070614.jpg
his undersign is right at the end
As someone who comes from China, I can't speak for everyone else but as far as my own experience goes many of us knew about this, yet we still play the DQ games, while hardly talked about the issue. I did feel uncomfortable when some random Chinese media outlet out of nowhere started glorifying him as an artist who excels both in his art and his ethics tho, at the time of him accepting the Guinness certificate as the eldest game music composer iirc
Hate speech (or instigation ("Volksverhetzung" in German)) is punishable by law here in Germany, yes.
Though I may need to add, the most recent addition to the laws dealing with hate speech, created specifially to deal with the online portion of it, is not without controversy.
Thanks for searching the replies my dude.
If they really heared his music and didn't liked it then that's fair enough I guess.
Unlike those other items, you can buy this game used....easily.
yeah i'm judging you less on your decision to buy the game and more on your decision to hang future of dragon quest in the west and all of its developers jobs over the heads of people who decide not to buy it.
Yeah well I redacted it since it sounded bad and that wasn't my intention to make it look others bad. And I've apologized, isn't that enough?
Nobody needs to give an iota of a fuck about this man. He deserves zero respect. Z-E-R-O.
Stop worrying about how mean people are being towards him.
...which was inspired by Wizardry.
Also tbh Megami Tensei arguably doesn't take anything from DQ, it is pretty much a japanese Wizardry being a dungeon crawler.
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No ethical consumption under capitalism etc etc but there's a spectrum between "company not directly trying to cause harm" vs "company with a composer who uses his platform to deny war crimes and marginalize LGBT individuals"
There's no karma, wishes aren't real. What is real is the actual poison he spews and spreads. He has lived 87 years and he's laughing at LGBT people killing themselves who will never get the chance to experience that same lifespan. He is denying the atrocities committed in WW2 and calling the survivors, and families of those affected, liars in the process. So yes, I hope nature takes its course. He can even be surrounded by friends and family as he goes peacefully if that makes you feel better, even though the people he ridiculed never got that.
It doesn't matter if the person in question is a complete garbage, one shouldn't wish others to die because they disagree with their world view.
Can't you just completely ignore his existence? Mind you, I think that person is terrible, but still, wouldn't wish him dead. :/
Disappointing that the guys who work at Kotaku and Waypoint on here ignored the call to write something about this.
lmfao
lmfao
Of all the things in this thread you can have issues (promoting hate against LGTBI, denying the atrocities of Nanking...) and you go about some random user wishing the death of such a hateful person (something that, unlike the other stuff, has no effect at all on anyone) .
Gaming side y'all.
Gaming side y'all.
Actually curious how much power over the DQ brand does he have.
Lets say SE gives him the boot before DQ12. New composer all new ost and none of the old songs. Could Sugiyama if he got mad about it prevent old DQ titles from being sold unless they replace his music?
Lets say SE gives him the boot before DQ12. New composer all new ost and none of the old songs. Could Sugiyama if he got mad about it prevent old DQ titles from being sold unless they replace his music?
if only this sage advice could reach sugiyama-chan. then maybe people wouldn't think so badly of him.
This is a dude who denies war crimes and laughs about the high LGBT suicide rate, man. You did read those words, right? Like, they went into your eyeballs and through the ol' brain yes?
Think about how common it is in a lot of modern society for LGBT people to be treated as if they're some kind of subhuman, especially by the powerful, ruling classes. I am obviously making an assumption here about your gender identity and sexuality, and if I'm off base I apologize, but l'm assuming you haven't been in those shoes
And for the sake of disclosure, neither have I. But I can only imagine it makes you deeply, deeply cynical. When powerful people (and unfortunately money equates to influence which equates to power) are out here doing and advocating for shitty things it's understandable to want them out of the picture. And you can hope and pray that they change their views, you can argue with them until you're blue in the fuckin' face and make as many cogent points as you can and it often won't matter.
If a dumpster human can't be convinced to stop being a dumpster, if they're absolutely resolute in their garbage then it's a perfectly fair response to look forward to a time when at least one piece of powerful garbage isn't around to make things worse for less fortunate people.
Like, I get the place of compassion that you're coming from, and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. If you truly value human life though, I think it's important to evaluate why you apply that value to someone who doesn't seem to value it at all.
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Ignoring him won't stop the guy from hurting people. I agree with you that we should be careful about wishing someone dead, but this is because I feel it's more informative and helpful to say that Koichi Sugiyama is a WWII war crime advocate.
Most likely. He owns the music and the music is inserted as part of a licensing agreement. If he so chooses, he could probably revoke that licensing agreement - though I don't know how that contract is handled (probably fully in his favour should he want to opt out).
They already did... Over 6 years ago: https://www.kotaku.com/5901590/the-...nd-who-pretends-war-crimes-never-happened/amp
You know it's entirely possible to take issue with both Sugiyama's beliefs as well as thinking that some of phrasing around wishing the death of somebody is gross, right?
Like, I think some of the earlier posts (specifically the one I quoted) were pretty gross, but I also think Sugiyama's beliefs are antiquated and disgusting.
I don't know how it has to be a one or the other type of thing.
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