Killer7 - 獅子 - "Harman, the world won't change. All it does is turn. Now, let's dance."

[EllenHouraisan]

Man, that talking head girl. She gets me.

[thatguyif]

The opening lines of Harman's conversation underlines Toru Fukushima's role in Japanese politics. Fukushima's desire to be a Tea Master recalls a time in Japanese politics where being a tea master carried significant weight. The whole scene was set in a diluted form of the Japanese tea ceremony, with the tea master serving as host. The tea ceremony was a center of political intrigue during the Warring States/Sengoku period, with much of the planning and negotiations occurring in these ceremonies. Being tea master meant you were privy to discussions occurring between the various daimyo as the civil war continued. As a result, you had significant political power based on what you heard, the potential to direct policy even. Think of it like having access to the bedchambers and water closets in European monarchies prior to the French Revolution.

As for "drinking tea out of bowls," that's actually a thing in Japanese tea ceremony. The tea used, matcha (pronounced something like maht-cha), is a powdered green tea. To drink it, you have pour hot water over the tea in a bowl, then whisk it before drinking it. You can drink matcha in a cup, but because you have to whisk it before drinking, it's not recommended.

In the name of Harman...

[raocow]

that is very interesting !

[Grounder]

YOU'VE ALL LAUGHED AT MEGAMAN DOS FOR THE LAST TIME

[thatguyif]

Oooookay

Anyway, the word "yakumo" carries a significant amount of weight. The word translates literally to "eight clouds," but given that eight is often used in East Asian languages to signify the eight cardinal and intercardinal directions, it can also be translated to "many clouds." "Yakumo" is one of the first words of the Kojiki, the oldest known and intact literary work in Japanese. The book was a compilation of Japanese myths and folklore, designed specifically to establish and justify the Yamato tribe as the ruling class of the Japanese Archipelago. It is both a religious and a political work: After all, this is where we get the idea of the Emperor being a descendant of the goddess Amaterasu.

There's a lesser point of relevance, but one that could be particular to the subject of this chapter and the game. There was a rather famous culture writer from the late 19th century, Patrick Lafcadio Hearn. Born in Greece, moved to Dublin where his family abandoned him in steady progression while still a teenager, shipped off to Cincinnati where he became an effective journalist and chronicler of black life in a city just north of the Mason-Dixon. He moved to New Orleans, where he combined culture writing with being a folklorist, becoming somewhat famous in the city in the process. But it was his move to Japan in 1890 where Lafcadio Hearn finally gained fame, becoming one of the first Western writers to provide insights into Japanese culture, including folklore and myths, along with translating Japanese poetry. It was also the place he finally found a home, becoming a citizen and marrying a Japanese woman, starting a family in the process.

His Japanese name? Koizumi Yakumo.

In the name of Harman...

[EllenHouraisan]

Dropping that deep 2hu lore, I see.

[Grounder]

Oooookay

kevin

[Peptobislawl]

Just to take the focus away from the actual events here for a second, I want everybody to notice that the Smiths have gone from literally one end of the US to the other 3 times now, once at the start of this chapter and two just now. In a world without planes no less, and remember those missiles set to impact in 18 hours and they still haven't (and spoiler alert but it's gonna be a while yet before they do).

As for the cutscenes, if you thought this was too gory, don't worry.

It's gonna get way worse.

[thatguyif]

Dropping that deep trash lore, I see.

No.

Anyway, the game doesn't really mention this at all, but the size of the yellow cores kind of matters? In short, certain cores do not react to low-level charge shots. This was evident in your attack on that Mother Smile. The problem with this, of course, is that you're not really given any indication that perhaps you should wake up another persona that can do the job. The game is very obtuse with hints and direction at times.

And I honestly don't recall a time where the game actively goes out of its way to say "wake up this persona."

I dunno if this was because the game devs just thought you would go out of your way to wake the other personas based on personal play style (thus disregarding mentalities of people like raocow who go "buster-only" in situations like this), or they just simply lacked the time to bring that up other than in the tutorial sections or the manual. Either way, it's a bit frustrating.

In the name of Harman...

[strongbadman]

One of the changes in Deadly is that the huge nests absolutely have to be taken out by Dan's collateral shot. There are other changes as well, such as making puzzles slightly less obvious, and making the heaven smiles do more damage, but I can't remember all of them off the top of my head.

[Peptobislawl]

Kevin doesn't reload, has no waver, and gets way more blood from enemies than anyone else. But his shots are very weak when they don't hit a weakspot which can get you killed if you aren't careful

[Catabo]

This Kevin Smith seems dangerous... Some kind of psychotic killer. God only knows what he's doing in that building...

meanwhile, in the building

Kevin: "I DID IT! I SOLVED THE PUZZLE!!!!"

[Shard1697]

Anyway, the game doesn't really mention this at all, but the size of the yellow cores kind of matters? In short, certain cores do not react to low-level charge shots.

Pretty sure that Dan-only nests are red instead of yellow. Much more of them with increased difficulty, for instance that nest in the garden at the restaurant requires waking up Dan on deadly.

[thatguyif]

Pretty sure that Dan-only nests are red instead of yellow. Much more of them with increased difficulty, for instance that nest in the garden at the restaurant requires waking up Dan on deadly.

Turns out the video proved otherwise...I guess for both of us?

Important thing to consider whenever you talk to Iwazaru: He never refers to the personas by name. It's always a nickname, a reference to who they are. Yesterday, you figured out that "Four-Eyes" is Kevin. Previously, he's referred to KAEDE as "the girl" and MASK as "the mask," obvious ones. You eventually figured out that Coyote is "the thief."

So, raocow, let me ask you: Who is the Hellion?

In the name of Harman...

[thatguyif]

Okay, yeah, I had remembered this fight to a degree, but not to the degree of it being a basic test of "Do you know how to wake up a persona?" (Julia, in theory, also is this test, but it's more just "Do you know which persona NOT to use?") But I guess that's what this is. It would've probably helped if Iwazaru was the one giving the hint on the boss, because he probably would've referenced the persona to use. But alas.

As you noted in the description, KAEDE is basically the persona you use in this fight, since she's the only one who can snipe. It makes the fight a lot easier, though it's by no means an easy fight with her.

Tomorrow, we discuss a bit more what the hell's going on in this chapter.

In the name of Harman...

[KobaBeach]

Dropping that deep trash lore, I see.

No.

this reply is so salty

[Grounder]

this'd be a much easier fight if they let you get a bit closer, something which is clearly physically possible for the current personality to do

[Peptobislawl]

Please wake up you other Smiths from now on raocow, having KAEDE and her scope is the intended solution here.

[Reecer7]

i completely get the "grossness". when i have to do certain precise video game tasks over and over, i get this weird discomfort in my heart. and i guess i also get it by proxy, because i felt it pretty hard in this video <.< please use kaede for my health, raocow.

[thatguyif]

this reply is so salty

Let's not go there. I've said my piece. You'll have your time the day after tomorrow.

Anyway...so Sunset, as I said before, I think is in certain ways an obtuse critique of Japan-US relations, but more Japanese politics in general. To understand the gist of it, you have to understand the state of Japanese politics at the time of the game's development. I'll try to summarize as best I can.

A lot of people say that Japan is a democracy, and they'd be technically correct. But the truth is a bit more complicated. Unofficially speaking, they are what we call a "dominant-party" system, in which one party stays in power for an extended period of time (with some interruptions allowed). In Japan's case, we have what's called the 1955 System, so named for the year of the founding of the Liberal Democratic Party, the dominant party in question. At the time of Killer7's release, the LDP had been in government for 49 of the prior 50 years, in power for 47. Outside of a brief interlude that occurred the prior decade, there had been no serious opposition to challenge the LDP's power. It is safe to say that in Killer7, the UN Party (or United Nations Party) is meant to represent the LDP.

How the 1955 System came into existence is an interesting topic. Many factors come into play. One is the fact that, prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War (which led into World War II), Japan didn't have a particularly healthy democratic system: Its voters were primarily men with property (only 2.5 million out of nearly 60 million people voted in the 1924 election, for example). Both the army and the Imperial House heavily influenced politics regardless. The aftermath of World War II, as a result, created a lot of political chaos, as there were 6 elections in the ten years after the war. That was another factor.

A more important factor, though, was the US. At the first part of the Occupation, say 1945 and 1946, the United States sought to punish Japan for its war by destroying many aspects of Japanese society that gave it the threatening power it had: Breaking up the zaibatsus (Japanese companies that functioned as monopolies), legalizing the Japanese left (which had been outlawed politically for two decades at that point), extending the vote to women. It led to the modern constitution, which contained an article (Article 9) that stipulated that Japan could not field a military at all. Finally, and important to this discussion, many of the officials who had a hand in Japanese politics both before and during the war were purged from their positions, if not thrown in jail. Many were classified as war criminals, including some Class A criminals who, had circumstances not changed, probably would've been executed or left to rot in jail.

But circumstances did change. By 1947, much of the Cold War had begun to take shape in Europe. Asia wasn't much better either, as it became a matter of if not when the Kuomintang would lose to the Communists, and the Korean peninsula became divided between Soviet and American interests. The US, not wanting to "lose" Asia to communism, did a dramatic about-face in policy in this year, known in Japanese as the Reverse Course. They allowed the zaibatsus to partially reform as keiretsus, purged any left-leaning government officials, and began persecuting the Socialists and Communists. Most importantly, though, they de-purged all those war criminals, and unlike the denazification that occurred in Germany, Japan never underwent the serious social introspection of being one of the perpetrators of WWII, so these men walked out with a clean slate and no need to repent for their crimes. These men would return to their posts and begin leading the conservative parties that would eventually form the basis of the LDP.

In 1952, the US ended the Occupation with the San Francisco Peace Treaty. However, it still saw Japan as a crucial ally in the Cold War. So it did whatever it could to ensure it stayed that way, starting with keeping troops in Okinawa. This was despite the fact that, unlike their European counterparts, the Japanese left never really had a strong connection with Moscow (or later Beijing), brief exceptions aside. So it encouraged several things either subtly or overtly, including the partial reformation of the military with the Self-Defense Forces. In the mid-1950s, the CIA bribed officials in the three leading conservative parties to merge into one big party, which they completed in late 1955 with the start of the LDP. This was to counter the power of the soon-to-be-reunified Socialist Party. As such, much of the 1955 System can stem from this overt influencing, with no serious counterbalance coming from the Soviet side. The US would also provide economic direction through the devaluation of the yen.

This created the modern dynamic between the US and Japan, which is kind of on display here in Killer7: One built on dependency. In providing Japan protection (and to a degree stability), America gets to be the benefactor of Japan's economic recovery and rapid growth, lasting over 3 decades from the late 1950s to early 1990s. Suda51 is questioning this to a great degree in Sunset, since he's basically asking the question: "What if the Americans abandon us?" He does this, having witnessed the aftermath of Japan's economic ascendance: The Lost Decade of the 1990s, the 1993 election that temporarily kicked the LDP out of power, the embrace of neoliberal policies, the scrambling of the opposition during and after 1993, North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and so on. China had only joined the WTO a couple years before this game was released, and already it was threatening Japan's economic hegemony in Asia. At this point, there was certainly an anxiety that the US would simply stop caring about Japan.

But Suda51 also shows little care for the LDP. He's deeply critical of the way it's structured. Going back to what I said about the lack of a healthy democratic system, the LDP showcases this in its structure. While it has structures similar to modern European political parties, in practice the LDP more resembles American political parties, especially those prior to the Great Depression: Decentralized, consisting of different factions, driven by patronage and political machinery. At the heart of this machine are kuromaku, or fixers, who keep the wheels greased between various factions. A friend of mine from Kumamoto once discussed these guys at length and how they make Japan what it is. While Toru Fukushima, your "first" target, considers himself an "architect" due to his hand in creating the Yakumo, he very much is a fixer at this point, and a powerful one at that.

Still, unlike the general fluid nature of American political parties in the early 20th century, the LDP is unambiguously a conservative party, its factions driven by different forms of it. This includes the highly nationalistic factions, descended from those same Class A war criminals who returned to work. For many decades they've been pushing for full remilitarization, removing Article 9 from the constitution, and so on. They also deny many of the atrocities committed by the IJA during the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII, and try to change the history books to reflect that (with varying degrees of success). Finally, they're highly traditional. The UN Party shows this in spades, through your real targets, as well as how they interact with one another. But more to the point,

they were willing to let Japan get obliterated by nukes, if only to set their revenge plan in motion

. Their very name, United Nations Party, is in fact a deceptive name: It's meant to represent the idea of "uniting" all "nations" under Japanese rule. A callback to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, no? And it's clear that Suda51 shows great disgust at all this. Thusly, he clearly makes out the UN Party to be villainous and vain, as a way to show his distrust in the LDP leading a more assertive, independent Japan.

But he also doesn't care much for the opposition either. He has good reason: The opposition in Japan under the 1955 System has been weak, incoherent, and incompetent. This was made more apparent after the 1993 election. Prior to that, the main opposition was the Japan Socialist Party. While it was the main left-wing party, it was an unhappy union between orthodox Marxists and reformist social democrats. It suffered various splits over the decades, and could never seriously threaten the LDP, even at its weakest. Harmed by both scandal and various splits in the LDP, it lost a large number of seats in the 1993 election alongside its rival. On top of that, the JSP made the strategic mistake of forming a grand coalition with the LDP in 1994, a year after the election that kicked the latter out. This would cost them the next election: Having already lost half their base in 1993, they lost another 80% in 1996, and they have never recovered. As I write this, their successor party, the Social Democratic Party, has only one person in the Diet.

What's taken its place? Various factions from the LDP had broken away to form their own parties, mixing in with former left-wing groups, breaking apart, forming new parties, ad infinitum. At this point, the only political party that hasn't been tainted by the LDP in some way is the Communist Party, ironically. The opposition is barely visible because it can't get its shit together, and even then can't escape the notion of looking like their rivals. In Killer7, Suda51 makes his distaste known in the form of the Liberal Party, a barely visible entity whose existence we only know through Fukushima being a former member and their (somewhat) incompetent assassin Julia Kisugi.

Supplemental literature indicates the Japanese negotiators playing mahjong (who call the Americans "dogs") are members of the Liberal Party, attempting to offer up the Yakumo (which they don't actually have) in exchange for intercepting the nukes.

So, to make this far more succinct: Suda51 is using Sunset as a way to suggest that it would be very bleak if the current US-Japan alliance, unfortunate as it may be for Japanese society to live with, were to end in the current domestic political climate. While also suggesting the LDP are shitbags.

In the name of Harman...

[KobaBeach]

Let's not go there. I've said my piece. You'll have your time the day after tomorrow.

what the fuck

also no the ldp are absolute shit, complete center right fuckheads that do nothing of worth from my small knowledge of like japanese politics. internet right wingers support shinzo abe for a reason

[EllenHouraisan]

texas braocow.png (59.66 KiB) Viewed 1406 times

[Reecer7]

as a texan, this is rending my mind asunder

[Catabo]

As someone currently living in that general region, "I sense trouble in the South" is going straight into the ol' meme/reaction images folder.

anti-double-post edit:

freef

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freef

1965.png (180.66 KiB) Viewed 1294 times

And this date is 昭和40年12月31日, corresponding to December 31st, 1965 (the 40th year of the Showa era). An important date for Japanese politics, maybe? The most plausible thing Wikipedia gives me for happening in Japan in 1965 is Tokyo overtaking New York City as the world's biggest city.

[thatguyif]

also no the ldp are absolute shit, complete center right fuckheads that do nothing of worth from my small knowledge of like japanese politics. internet right wingers support shinzo abe for a reason

You could've just read what I wrote, it was a pretty good primer

Anyway...Andrei Ulmeyda. A rather...interesting character. American postal worker who somehow got extremely powerful and built some kind of fake conglomerate that nevertheless printed money for the city. While his design and name are shout-outs to some anime Suda51 grew up with (Tekkaman, I think?), a lot of things about him imply that he's a Brazilian, probably pardo. The most obvious is the "Texas Bronco" shirt, with the colors matching up with the Brazilian flag. His name, written from Japanese, would be how a Japanese person would phonetically sound out the name "Andre Almeida," which is Portuguese. Moreover, his "Ulmeyda Collection" (which features a logo on the lower left corner looking like the Brazilian coat of arms in some vague sense) has two figurines that further that connection: The "Vali Tudo" figurine, referencing the sport of Vale Tudo, the immediate predecessor of modern MMA; and the Ju-do figurine, which if you squint your eyes has a Brazilian flag on it. Even if it wasn't there, the significance is still big for reasons we'll get to in a moment.

Suda51's choice of making Ulmeyda Brazilian is fascinating, because it pulls in Japan in a different way. Brazil is home to the largest population of Japanese people outside Japan itself, currently around 2 million people. They're mostly concentrated in Sao Paulo state, but they're elsewhere. Japanese culture is heavily embedded in Brazil, mostly in sport. The judoka Mitsuyo Maeda, who immigrated to Brazil in the early 20th century, introduced judo to the country through matches done at the circus (similar to how pro wrestling was a carnival sideshow at first). It became a very popular sport in the country, inspiring the Gracie family to develop an offshoot of the martial art called Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That in turn led to the creation of Vale Tudo (and subsequently, MMA). (On top of this, Japanese Brazilians have had some success in sumo.)

I think the thing that made Ulmeyda stand out was Cam Clarke's exceptional voice acting. He went all in on Ulmeyda's character having this sort of messianic complex about him. He definitely nailed down that Southern televangelist vibe that you tend to find in the States and apply to the most unlikely person to have it (i.e., a non-white (possibly migrant) postal worker), setting this tone that's extremely striking. And it's kind of the reason why, whenever I saw General Chrome in Iconoclasts, I imagined his dialogue being spoken like Ulmeyda.

1965.png
And this date is 昭和40年12月31日, corresponding to December 31st, 1965 (the 40th year of the Showa era). An important date for Japanese politics, maybe? The most plausible thing Wikipedia gives me for happening in Japan in 1965 is Tokyo overtaking New York City as the world's biggest city.

Not sure, to be honest. For what it's worth, the 51st Japanese Diet had assembled 11 days earlier, according to JP Wikipedia. It's possible an otherwise irrelevant law got passed that day.