Some scenarios for the latest shooting game from Konami:
Sounds like a pretty normal first level for an American SWAT simulation, right? Well, this game was not made for an American audience. “Heroes of Justice” is a simulation of Japan’s Self Defense Forces and is reminiscent of the similar “America’s Army“, a game funded by the US Army’s recruitment program.
Despite its constitutional ban on the use of force to resolve conflict, Japan maintains the Self Defense Forces as a de facto military. Recent developments have accelerated Japan’s progression toward an official military and stronger defense policy.
The SDF celebrated its 50th anniversary last year in quiet ceremonies that did not make the news in America but included appearances by PM Koizumi and calls for “a rethinking of Japan’s defense capabilities.”
It is in such a spirit of revived military development that Toho is remaking the film “Warring States vs. SDF 1549” (Sengoku Jieitai 1549). If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Oda Nobunaga fought the Japanese Self Defense Forces, here is your answer. Go to the site to watch a trailer that features modern soldiers being killed with arrows.
These two releases are only the beginning of the SDF’s public relations assault. As Japan debates constitutional revision, its more conservative elements are effectively using pop culture as a promotional tool. Many Japanese, in fact, know little of the SDF or its role domestically and internationally. Placing it in the context of popular games and movies should lessen public opposition to making the SDF a legalized, regular army. Even the juxtaposition of the Warring States Period with the modern SDF will make the transition easier by drawing parallels to what Japanese people learn in school with a modern army. I’ll let you know when a subtitled torrent opens up.
Oh, come on. The jieitai isn’t even a military. Oda would totally 0wn them.
Now, here’s what I want to see in a movie: Oda Nobunaga vs. Caesar. That would rock.
That would rock, but not as much as a no holds barred, to the death, cage match with Oda, Predator, Alien, Ozawa Ichiro, the Tokyo Giants infeild, Big Totoro, and maybe Tanaka Makiko just for a wild card.
I think Totoro would win. Have you seen the claws on him? He may be nice to children, but imagine the fury if someone from the Japanese Ministry of Construction came to clear his sacred Shinto grove to make way for a slab of concrete.
Isn’t that what Pompoko was about? I think the raccoons lost that one.
I think they were tanukis.