So I got part of Avenue Q stuck in my head, and you know how people say something was "a product of its time" when talking about racism, sexism, etc.? It is occurring to me I finally get that. Because while sometimes it's just...wrong and was always wrong, I have to wonder how many people who either weren't into pop culture in the late 90s/early 00s or simply weren't alive then don't realize Christmas Eve is supposed to be poking fun at weeaboos. The show was written at a point in time where America just kind of went crazy about Japanese pop culture for awhile. Like. Everyone. Everywhere. A major pop singer (Gwen Stefani) literally paid for a group of "kawaii girls" to follow her around as part of her image, and Smile.dk (which had zero Japanese members) debuted with a song called "Butterfly" in which the singer "searches for a man all across Japan, just to find my samurai" and featuring some non-lyric vocalizations that I genuinely hope weren't supposed to sound like Chinese tonals because they really sound like someone botching Chinese tonals (and, you know, assuming All Asian Nations Are Japan). Pikachu was on the front of Time magazine, most of the weekday afternoon programming block on Cartoon Network was anime, kimono-style tops (although usually facing the wrong way) were a huge trend, and for those who still wanted tees or regular shirts with long sleeves, well...

Do I have any idea what that says? None. Did I own one of these? I did not--I owned three of them. All three of mine looked like lacquer boxes with koi or traditional flower designs. I found out later the writing on at least one of mine was complete gibberish. The designer just picked some kanji they thought looked cool. And yes, basically every top I owned that wasn't one of these was a kimono-style. Wearing chopsticks in your hair became A Whole Thing if you weren't flatironing your hair (and yes, people used actual chopsticks, not hair sticks--I'm not even sure hair sticks were really a thing in American fashion until this point). On the internet side of things, 2channel was possibly getting shut down and 2chan sprang up, and quickly got so popular in the western hemisphere that we got--yep--4chan, the same year Avenue Q debuted. 4chan is weeb culture, or at least, that's how it started. (In fact I think it's also where "weeaboo" was coined.) A couple of years later, MCR would include Japanese verses in a song just...because. Because that's what we were like at that point in time. 1998-2005 (or so) was when America had its own taste of Japonisme. And into all of this you get Christmas Eve. Who's loud, and brash, and assertive--not at all a docile me-love-you-long-time weeb fantasy. Her English is a little broken, but she's not stupid--in fact as far as we can tell she's the most educated person on Avenue Q (Kate and Princeton both have BAs and Rod probably has a master's in business, but Christmas Eve has two separate master's degrees, which she earned in her secondary language). Her accent is thick, but there's literally a song ("Everyone's A Little Bit Racist") where some of the characters get called out on laughing at her for it. And--crucially--the white man she marries is so far removed from anything related to pan-Asian culture in America he doesn't know he shouldn't call her Oriental. Is this absolutely terrible given he's marrying a Japanese woman? Yes. Is it kind of baffling that another character immediately says "the term is Asian-American," since Christmas Eve refers to herself as Japanese? Also yes. Is it weird that a guy who (according to the timeline) was born in 1970 would be using Oriental? Extremely. Is it a dig at the exoticizing that was going on at the time? Absofuckinglutely. (And that's why that anachronism is there. It's very much pointing out that society was treating Japanese pop culture the same way our Victorian forebears treated Japan in general in the Meiji era.) And like. I'm not saying Christmas Eve is some kind of unproblematic depiction here by any means. Even in 2003 her accent was...icky, and now it's downright unacceptable. And there's the question of whether they fell into one stereotype ("Asians are so smart!") while trying to mock another ("if you can't speak English you must be stupid"), and whether that's an acceptable trade-off. I'm not even going to get into her name being a Christmas cake joke because....look, I could sit here and explain all the puns in the names but that's a whole other post and it's literally easier to say "Brian, Kate, and Nicky are the only characters whose names aren't jokes."

But there's a huge nuance to why she was written as this bizarre stereotype-but-not-but-yes-but-not-but-yes-but-maybe mashup, and I think there's a big possibility you literally just had to be there to understand. It really truly genuinely is a product of 2003. You could not write Christmas Eve in 1983 and have her make any damn sense. You could not write her in 2023 and have her come across as anything but wildly racist. Like. Maybe that phrase isn't just don't-be-mean-to-your-elders bullshit. (At least, not all of the time.)

I don't really expect the English translation for the Remake to be good in the next parts. Considering how NA is displaying the game, I'm not counting on it. In the recent game awards trailer they only show Cloud and Aerith as if they are the only characters in the game, and they also used Cloud and Aerith as the cover display. The IGN trailer from about a month ago disrespected Aerith's character by just calling her a woman in a so called "love triangle." NA never accepts the story as it is.

Hey anon,

I know it's frustrating, but it seems that all got quite a bit of attention. Keep in mind, the person who created that trailer was not affiliated with SE and even said they did the editing themselves. Who knows if they even played the game..

As for the Part 2 translation, it seems even Nojima caught wind and put out quite a tweet regarding it, seemingly upset, and it got a lot of attention. I highly doubt parent HQ in Japan will ignore the blatant disregard for the story in some cases. I suppose we will need to wait and see, but I have a feeling they probably got a talking to by parent. It blew up too much on social media and SE absolutely is paying attention to social media. They even reply and like our posts on Twitter.

Also, I do want to point out, that there's blatant additions, such as "Mine!" And "That's where you are." That are completely unethical, but some differences are due to localization. There are some lines from the original Japanese that would either fall flat in English or not make much sense at all.

What's important is that they keep the story in tact, and unfortunately, they decided to attempt to keep an illusional love triangle in place instead of following what was written.

I'd like to point out also, the love triangle mentioned in the NA booklet for OG was NOT in the Japanese booklet. The romance of Cloud and Aerith was strictly created by NA through advertising and incorrect translations. And here it is, 23 years later.

If folks are truly concerned, I'd say it may not hurt for everyone to send a note to SENA with your concerns. They can't hide anymore, too many people in the world have access to social media.

But also keep in mind, the majority of people who play these games aren't in fandom land like we are. So, they most likely don't know. Nojima knowing to me is important, since it's his story that got botched.