The "ok" hand gesture... a universal symbol, known all around the globe, for being in agreement
or a sign that all is well...
Well, not quite...
There are many things in the world that, whilst may seem perfectly ordinary to you, can mean
drastically different things in other cultures.
In Brazil, for example, the ok hand gesture is instead extremely rude and can be best
compared with sticking one's middle finger up.
Today Censored Gaming will be taking a look at a culture difference like this and how
it pertains to localising video games and other media for foreign markets.
The culture difference in question is how an audience reacts upon seeing a character
with "four fingered hands".
Not 4 fingers and 1 thumb, as is seen with regular humans, but the popular style used
in many cartoons, where characters will only have 4 nubs sticking out of their hands.
You see, over in Japan, the depiction of characters with 4 fingered hands can invoke a drastically
different feeling than over in the West.
Due to this, media will sometimes be edited for the Japanese version, so that characters
have an extra finger.
You can see examples of this in The Simpsons box art shown here, where the yellow skinned
family have all been given extra digits.
Another video game box art with this sort of change is Crash Bandicoot 2, where Crash
went from 4 fingers to 5 for the Japanese version.
There are all sorts of examples like this and sometimes this can even have the knock
on effect of influencing the Western versions.
The Oddworld video game series, for instance, was originally changed over in Japan so main
character Abe, as well as the rest of his mudokon race, had 3 fingers instead of 4.
With the exception of the much later remake, however, all later games have given the mudokons
only 3 fingers worldwide - rather than making a special version each time for the Japanese
market.
Now, there are a few different reasons for why these changes are made.
The first of these is described by the Oddworld developers over on their official website,
in a question and answer post about the strange missing finger situation.
The devs explain: "Japan has a strict discriminating policy
against any simulated characters entering their country with four fingers.
Historically, Japan has had a subclass of meat packing workers that were typically looked
down upon in their society.
In later days, the blatant displaying of a four fingered hand gesture, intentionally
directed at another, came to mean that you were calling them a member of the meat packing
sub class.
Which, we understand, was not at all a compliment."
"It appears that the four finger connection with the meat packing class was due to work
related accidents, but was so frequent that it came to symbolically represent the sub
class.
It seems as though this is a part of the Japanese history that some groups within Japan would
like to see forgotten.
Therefore, it is at great risk that you publish four fingered characters in Japan, as you
may very likely end up in legal battles with a vociferous pressure group."
This answer, though, while it does describe one of the issues with 4 fingered designs
- is a little on the dramatic side.
What the devs are talking about is the Japanese social class called "burakumin".
These are a historical group of people who were not only associated with meat packing
and butchery, but also other taboo trades such as prostitution, executioners and undertakers.
These jobs were considered impure by the Japanese public and the Buddhist religion and so they
were looked down upon in society - causing members of this social class to normally live
in their own small communities.
A four fingered hand gesture can be seen as representing a member of this group.
As for there being a "strict discriminating policy", however, or that showing characters
of this nature being "very likely to end up in legal battles" is more of a myth than fact.
This is just something that creators may sometimes choose to avoid in the Japanese market, to
remove the similarity to this unwanted element.
But, there is another reason for why 4 fingered characters can be avoided in Japan.
And to answer this, we'll play a short clip from Ratchet and Clank's creator Ted Price
and Psychonauts' creator Tim Schafer.
Yes, the infamous Yakuza criminal organisation is very well known for their practise of cutting
member's fingers off as a form of punishment.
It's so well known, that sometimes creators will be worried about the similarity and choose
to remove it - not wanting to give anybody the wrong impression.
Not all characters are affected by this though!
Popular shows like The Simpsons are still aired in Japan with their famous 4 fingers.
To summarise, similarities to the Yakuza and the burakumin do exist and so sometimes creators
will choose to be sensitive about this, but they don't have to and you can still find
4 fingered characters in Japan.
However, changes like this do sometimes still get made.
It is believed that this may be reason why Diddy Kong was given an extra finger when
British company Rare stopped working on the games and Nintendo took over.
The extra finger was added starting from the very first game following Rare leaving the
franchise - this being Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour in 2003.
It is also highly speculated but not confirmed that this is the reason why certain Dragon
Ball characters, most notably Piccolo, were given an extra finger in the anime compared
to how they are normally depicted in the original manga.
It was also reported by the BBC in the year 2000, that the kids TV show Bob The Builder
would be "fixed" for Japan by giving the characters extra fingers.
Whilst this didn't end up happening to the show itself, due to the costs involved, the
BBC reported how the merchandise would be given an extra finger so that children would
not be alarmed.
They also described the country's Yakuza cultural difference and how this was the reason for
the change.
Censored Gaming is always of the lookout for new localization changes like this to report,
in not just games but also other media, like anime and cartoons.
If this is something you're interested in learning more about, then please don't forget
to hit that subscribe button and leave a comment below and, until next time, thank you for
watching.