The translation of what Ishiwatari says is accurate, so it's fair to call him a full-on woke agenda pusher, although the English page has undergone some extra trannification for flair. For instance the Japanese bio description of Bridget as 'A boy who...' is completely gone and Katano never refers to Bridget with a gendered pronoun yet does so 10 times in the English.
I respectfully disagree with you a little bit regarding the Japanese version.
Firstly, pronouns (and nouns in general) just get repeated a lot more in English ,because Japanese is usually a lot more context-dependent. Of course whoever composed the translation was gonna go with "she/her" for the wokie points.
The subtle distinction I'd like to point out is that Ishiwatari's original paragraph is only about pronouns. It's a bit euphemistic and stops short of anything concrete like "is a girl," whereas you can see "is a boy" (男の子である) above in the bio.
So my thinking is at least there's some nominal boundary left between "identifying as" and reality on display here. Have to take the small victories where you can get em these days.
The subtle distinction I'd like to point out is that Ishiwatari's original paragraph is only about pronouns. It's a bit euphemistic and stops short of anything concrete like "is a girl," whereas you can see "is a boy" (男の子である) above in the bio.
It seems fairly unambiguous to me. He says 'Bridget comes to acknowledge herself as a girl over the course of the arcade mode story'. He explains that in the 3rd paragraph where he says 'She tried to live as a boy but felt uncomfortable - this is where the arcade story begins' (the outcome of which he's already stated). Plus a bunch of stuff about 'facing the part of herself she'd never faced before and making a big decision'. Sounds like your standard brave tranny wahmen coming out party to me, unless the context of the arcade mode throws all of that on its head in some way I can't imagine (haven't played). Although I am aware of the backstory and the superstition stuff, because that's explained in his second paragraph, and is (I presume) considered old news now compared to the story presented in Strive.
Pronouns repeat much more in English, but even moreso when you're a trannylator trying to put a spin on things for a woke western fanbase. You could easily translate Katano's whole section using 0-2 pronouns rather than 10. They also repeat much more in Japanese when you're trying to push a point; see how compared to Katano, Ishiwatari uses 'she' and 'her' even in Japanese a lot, where he doesn't have to, except for the fact that he's hammering the fact that the boy is now a tranny.
Hmm...how do I put this. Let's leave GG aside for the moment because I'm not very familiar with the franchise either.
At my most cynical I certainly agree with you in that the developers are probably baiting this shit out to earn ESG points and maximize appeal in troon-centric markets.
But it seems to me they're subtly hedging their language so as to avoid pissing off the Japanese market too much. (which they might eventually just jump ship on and move to California like Sony...but anyways)
At the very least, where the nuance of language can't be exactly pinned down, the law of the land is still quite clear: if you want to change the sex on your birth certificate in Japan, you are required to be fully medically sterilized. Furthermore, after that, you can never be appointed as a legal guardian of a minor. Both these precedents have been consistently upheld over the past few years by the supreme court.
Maybe I'm just grasping for white pills, but I'm holding out hope that they can maintain something like that level of sanity in the face of GloboHomo.
I think I've found the Japanese version: https://www.guiltygear.com/ggst/jp/news/post-2584/
The translation of what Ishiwatari says is accurate, so it's fair to call him a full-on woke agenda pusher, although the English page has undergone some extra trannification for flair. For instance the Japanese bio description of Bridget as 'A boy who...' is completely gone and Katano never refers to Bridget with a gendered pronoun yet does so 10 times in the English.
I respectfully disagree with you a little bit regarding the Japanese version.
Firstly, pronouns (and nouns in general) just get repeated a lot more in English ,because Japanese is usually a lot more context-dependent. Of course whoever composed the translation was gonna go with "she/her" for the wokie points.
The subtle distinction I'd like to point out is that Ishiwatari's original paragraph is only about pronouns. It's a bit euphemistic and stops short of anything concrete like "is a girl," whereas you can see "is a boy" (男の子である) above in the bio.
So my thinking is at least there's some nominal boundary left between "identifying as" and reality on display here. Have to take the small victories where you can get em these days.
It seems fairly unambiguous to me. He says 'Bridget comes to acknowledge herself as a girl over the course of the arcade mode story'. He explains that in the 3rd paragraph where he says 'She tried to live as a boy but felt uncomfortable - this is where the arcade story begins' (the outcome of which he's already stated). Plus a bunch of stuff about 'facing the part of herself she'd never faced before and making a big decision'. Sounds like your standard brave tranny wahmen coming out party to me, unless the context of the arcade mode throws all of that on its head in some way I can't imagine (haven't played). Although I am aware of the backstory and the superstition stuff, because that's explained in his second paragraph, and is (I presume) considered old news now compared to the story presented in Strive.
Pronouns repeat much more in English, but even moreso when you're a trannylator trying to put a spin on things for a woke western fanbase. You could easily translate Katano's whole section using 0-2 pronouns rather than 10. They also repeat much more in Japanese when you're trying to push a point; see how compared to Katano, Ishiwatari uses 'she' and 'her' even in Japanese a lot, where he doesn't have to, except for the fact that he's hammering the fact that the boy is now a tranny.
Hmm...how do I put this. Let's leave GG aside for the moment because I'm not very familiar with the franchise either.
At my most cynical I certainly agree with you in that the developers are probably baiting this shit out to earn ESG points and maximize appeal in troon-centric markets.
But it seems to me they're subtly hedging their language so as to avoid pissing off the Japanese market too much. (which they might eventually just jump ship on and move to California like Sony...but anyways)
At the very least, where the nuance of language can't be exactly pinned down, the law of the land is still quite clear: if you want to change the sex on your birth certificate in Japan, you are required to be fully medically sterilized. Furthermore, after that, you can never be appointed as a legal guardian of a minor. Both these precedents have been consistently upheld over the past few years by the supreme court.
Maybe I'm just grasping for white pills, but I'm holding out hope that they can maintain something like that level of sanity in the face of GloboHomo.