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Why do they keep making the same Hot Springs Gag over and over again. (Mild Spoilers for Persona 3,4 and Persona 5 Strikers)

TheGamingNewsGuy

TheGamingNewsGuy

One Winged Slayer
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Nov 5, 2017
31,789
So there is this running joke in the Persona Series as well as gaming in general that has never been funny yet they keep doing it. For those who don't know - the Hot Springs joke is when the RPG Male cast are in the hot-springs, then the female hotsprings cast come in and completly misinterpret the suitation leading to the male charcters have be brought back. It has never really been fun to me and especially in the Persona Series it was the same joke with Persona 3 and 4. Luckily Persona 5 didn't have it....but

Persona 5 Strikers Mild Spoilers

only for Persona 5 Strikers to bring it back and do the exact same joke that they did from Persona 3 and 4 only for the suitation to make less sense:



So i ask, why do they keep making the same stuopid Hot Springs Gag over and over again.
 

apathetic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,962
anime

Really wish the genre would just stop with the otaku pandering but it's deeply embedded.
 
Dice

Dice

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Oct 25, 2017
23,076
Canada
They all play out.... Almost. Exactly. The. Same.

It was barely funny the first time, and I've lost count how many times I've seen it since.

Ragnakor said:
Why are you conflating the entire genre with a running joke in a single series
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I have honestly seem it in soooo many games and sooo many anime. It's a proper codified trope at this point. And it's a gross and sleazy one to keep using on women that even seeing it just a few times is too many.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,080
Are you an expert in Japanese culture? Honor, shame and hot springs gags are a huge part of it.
 
Dr. Zoidberg

Dr. Zoidberg

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Oct 25, 2017
5,332
Decapod 10
There's some variation of this gag in a lot of anime shows as well. Hot Springs/Onsen are very common in Japan and I guess it's a cultural thing that worms it's way into a lot of media that originates there.
 
pbayne

pbayne

Corrupted by Vengeance
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Oct 27, 2017
8,646
Probably just the writers using a trope they liked from the media that influenced them/they know a part of their audience eats that shit up.
 
obsoke

obsoke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
254
It's always been a stupid trope.
Maybe the script was written by a machine learning algorithm.
 
Kurtikeya

Kurtikeya

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Dec 2, 2017
4,556
A relaxing change of scenery suddenly has the boys realize that the people they've been working with are girls, so they're curious to know what girls are like. Also, fanservice.

The only time I ever liked it was Hyoka.
 
Timelord19

Timelord19

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Aug 21, 2018
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This reminds me to the Kaguya wants to be confessed when they make fun of the trope:
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Aeana

Aeana

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,999
wait until you find out that one of your female companions actually can't cook



lmao
 
Ruisu

Ruisu

Banned
Aug 1, 2019
5,535
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It's funny? What other reason you expect? The people who put it there find it funny, a lot of the audience enjoys it. There isn't really more to it.
 
Wil Grieve

Wil Grieve

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,377
Abdul Malik Ka'bah said:
More of an anime thing. I might just refuse to purchase or watch anything with a hot springs in it.
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I have found that my quality of life and the quality of animated TV shows/games I watch/play has gone up significantly since I started applying the "Is the main character a high school student in modern day Japan?" test.

If yes, I am not interested.
 
Mullet2000

Mullet2000

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,947
Toronto
Yeah I don't get it.

Like while I think it's lame, to some degree I could understand it if a bunch of games did something different with it as some kind of running gag or something. Like a gag where they kept adding more and more ridiculous layers to the situation.

But it's the same. Fucking. Joke. Every. Time. There's no variation at all. It's the same joke. Guys try to peek across the wall. They get caught. They say it's a misunderstanding. The girls get pissed.

That's it. There's nothing else. I don't get what I'm supposed to find funny.
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
Kurtikeya said:
A relaxing change of scenery suddenly has the boys realize that the people they've been working with are girls, so they're curious to know what girls are like. Also, fanservice.

The only time I ever liked it was Hyoka.
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This is almost quite literal in Tales of Berseria.

The male and female characters swap bodies. Fortunately, the male characters weren't doing weird stuff and the girls didn't throw objects at them like in Persona 4.

I honestly wish they stopped with this, not only Atlus, but in all others Japanese videogames, animes and mangas. But we know it will never happen. In fact, you can always expect at least one of these: a hot spring episode or a beach episode.
 
Ralemont

Ralemont

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Jan 3, 2018
4,509
Bonus points for always making the women seem unreasonable by physically attacking men for a misunderstanding, too.
 
sredgrin

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Oct 27, 2017
12,276
Wil Grieve said:
I have found that my quality of life and the quality of animated TV shows/games I watch/play has gone up significantly since I started applying the "Is the main character a high school student in modern day Japan?" test.

If yes, I am not interested.
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Yeah. There was a time when I wanted more modern day fantasy stuff and boy has that fucking aged like milk.
 
Syntsui

Syntsui

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Oct 25, 2017
4,963
Persona is a series made for the Japanese audience and that audience likes this kind of stuff, it's as simple as that.
 
abellwillring

abellwillring

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Oct 25, 2017
8,969
Austin, TX
It happens in basically every long-running anime/manga regardless of genre. Mix of fanservice and humor. I'm sure Japanese people probably find it a little more amusing since bathhouse culture is very real for them. A lot of them have probably either experienced something similar or wished they had!
 
HylianSeven

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,481
Yeah, it's a really obnoxious trope.

I will say it was kind of cathartic to be on the opposite side of it in the FeMC route of Persona 3 Portable. Basically you bust the boys snooping and Mitsuru "executes" them.

Persona is far from the only series guilty of doing this, and it needs to stop altogether. Hell I was annoyed that, while not quite the same thing, Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse had a "beach" DLC, where all the characters were in swimsuits.

Since I always stan this: Persona 1 and the Persona 2 duology don't have this trope in them.
 
Shining Star

Shining Star

Banned
May 14, 2019
4,458
Wil Grieve said:
I have found that my quality of life and the quality of animated TV shows/games I watch/play has gone up significantly since I started applying the "Is the main character a high school student in modern day Japan?" test.

If yes, I am not interested.
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You really only need to do this for "male high school student." Don't deny yourself all the other good ones.
 
Finale Fireworker

Finale Fireworker

Love each other or die trying.
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Oct 25, 2017
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My understanding is that it's because a lot of this content is predicated on recognizable tropes and scenarios. It is a self-perpetuating expectation from both the audience and the creators alike. It is a compulsory inclusion. You include a hot springs scene because it is a recognizable trope. You "have" to do a beach day/hot springs episode because that is what you do. You include the gag because this is a gag people expect with hot springs scenes. It is going through the motions because this is what you are "supposed" to do.

It's like the American equivalent of "two prom dates" - it's a recognizable trope that a lot of writers do because its easy, recognizable, and plays to the expectation and desires of the presumed audience. The hot springs bit stands out a lot more to us because we are an English-speaking forum comprised of predominantly non-Japanese users so something they take for granted stands out to us bizarrely specific and repetitious. Although I am sure there are millions of Japanese consumers who are equally tired by this sort of derivative material in their media.

It sucks, of course. Don't get me wrong. But this is the explanation about as well as I can understand it.
 
Saikyo

Saikyo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,368
Is there any game or anime that the cast goes to one, relax, have fun...and dont try to have the cliche of having a peeping tom or the same old mistake?
 
RPGam3r

RPGam3r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,775
I don't attribute this regurgitated scene to Persona, or even games for that matter. This is an anime trope, and Persona is heavy on the anime side for better or worse depending on the trope/person.
 
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