I've always found Japanese views on sex funny. In their daily lives, they're quite prudes. When in school, they don't normally date, many families essential choose members spouses for them, and they dress really drab and uninviting there as to avoid any sexual attention. However, their media is filled with the creepiest, most cringe-worthy, most disturbing sexual stories and ideas ever conceived by anyone (baby fuck, anyone?). In short: the Japanese porn industry is screwed up. And well, what does this have to do with gaming?

It seems rape simulations have basically becomed banned in Japan. Not illegal, just that the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (ESRB of Japan) will not classify these Rape games, making them basically unsellable outside extreme fetish outlets. So okay, interesting news, I mean if you live in Japan and have an interest in rape games, but there's actually a bit more to this than a lot would think.

Namely, that rape games are nothing new in Japan. These were not new controversial video games that caused some uproar, it was international pressure that caused them to put a de facto ban on this stuff, mainly just to try to keep it from coming over here. And it's not the first time something like this has happened. Did you know child porn wasn't even illegal in Japan until 1999, and was until then the biggest source of child porn around the world? Well, international pressure had to actually step in and put a stop to it, because the Japanese didn't really see a problem with it. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about something simply called "The Rapeman."

What is The Rapeman you ask? Well, I'm going to let Wikipedia cover the basics for us:

"The Rapeman (The ??????) was an erotic Japanese manga series with a black comedy bent written by Keiko Aisaki (?????), a woman, and drawn by Shintaro Miyawaki (???????) from 1985 to 1992.

The main character, The Rapeman, is a high school teacher by day and dispenses "great justice" at night under the business Rapeman Services, which is co-run with his uncle, a former surgeon. The business' motto is: "Righting wrongs through penetration".

Clients call on The Rapeman to handle cases such as the revenge of a jilted lover, forming parental bonds through a traumatic crisis, making disruptive co-workers more docile and other things of that nature. When engaged in his night trade, The Rapeman wears a black leather ski mask but no trousers or underwear. In the middle of a rape, if the woman becomes unresponsive or expresses enjoyment, he uses special techniques such as "M69 Screwdriver" or "Infinite Loop" to apply more pain to the victim. Despite regretting some of the contracts he fulfills, he always does the job."

...yeah, you read that right. A comic book where the superhero rapes people, and not because of some sick, twisted personality disorder, because that's his job. And yes, in this universe, there's a service, like a cell phone provider, where you actually pay a group of people to rape others. Most people will think this is fake after reading this, but well, how about some visual aid, shall we?






At first glance, this looks like some dumb monster comic you'd expect from Japan, but look closely, and you'll be able to see rape victims. ..Yeah. Oh, you need a closer look? Well, okay:





Satisfied? While looking at all this Rapeman stuff, I was listening to Castlevania music, which seemed oddly fitting. Okay, moving on.

Wikipedia continues with: "The comic was made to appeal to middle aged Japanese men, and was discontinued after 13 volumes. Still sensing the concept's marketability, Pink Pineapple produced nine Rapeman live action feature films, released between 1993 - 1996."

Yep, you read the right. NINE films based on it. But seeing that they were all made in a three year timespan, well, they obviously won't be of very high quality.









Yep, not good quality.


"A two-episode OVA was released in 1994 chronicling his exploits in the first volume of the manga"

Oh dear, an anime on it? I really don't know which one to be more afraid of, the live action version or the animated version. I couldn't find many clips of it on YouTube or elsewhere, the only one available is I guess the prolouge to the first episode, where it shows some big breasted jewel thief about to get raped by well, Rapeman. I also read somewhere there's a saying in the cartoon, like "he rapes them to save them" or something like that. If only that was allowed as an affirmative defense here in the U.S.! I'm sure I could find every episode if I looked hard enough, but I won't.

Link to the video in case you are interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzrKP46xL_U

While you might be interested in all of this, you might be asking yourself, "What the hell does this have to do with the subject and about video games." Well, according to Wikipedia: "Several PC games have been made about Rapeman in Japan."

Yep, several. Let's check them out, shall we? ..Or not. I can't seem to find any information on them. But rest assured, an entire franchise surrounding around the glorification of rape has existed in Japan since the mid-80's, so the current uproar has nothing to do with Japanese sensibilites regarding well, rape. Did you know the last boss in Earthbound was inspired from a rape scene in a Japanese movie? Well, I've said rape enough.

So how about that New Super Mario Bros on the Wii? Well, why couldn't they make it along the lines of Super Mario World rather than try to mimic the original Super Mario Bros? I think that will be my next topic.

Sources:

http://kotaku.com/5275409/rape-games-officially-banned-in-japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rapeman