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Muramasa magazine cover will delight tentacle fetishists
One of the little-hyped games coming out this fall is Muramasa: the Demon Blade, a Wii action game from Japanese studio Vanillaware. You might not know the developer's name, but if you played the genre-bending cult classics Odin's Sphere or Grim Grimoire, you know the developer's work. Muramasa seems like a more straightforward action game, but the poetic loveliness of Vanillaware's artwork (pictured) seems very much in evidence.
So on one hand, I'm glad to see Muramasa on the cover of Play magazine. It's a crowded holiday season with a lot of high-profile games. A fall magazine cover is a precious commodity. Good for Play for going with an underdog.
But then there's the little matter of the actual artwork, drawn by Vanillaware's founder and main artist. It's an exaggerated image of a woman, um, wrestling with an octopus. She's either scantily clad or the octopus is facilitating the malfunction of her wardrobe. She's swinging a sword, which implies whatever activity going on isn't consensual. The octopus' tentacles are wrapped around parts of her body, including one tentacle prominently cupping her splayed crotch. Make of all this what you will.
Alternatively, you can let the editor who set it up, Shane Bettenhausen, explain it for you on his blog page.The inspiration was clear: [artist George] Kamitani obviously references the famous Edo-era Japanese print "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife," a subtly erotic masterpiece...
The masterpiece's eroticism is so "subtle" that Mr. Bettenhausen pixelates it when he posts it in his blog entry.Reaction to the Play cover image across the Internet appears divided; either you're clamoring for a poster-sized blow up or decrying it as a sign of the impending moral apocalypse.
Hardly. By presenting this as a simple either/or divide, Mr. Bettenhausen conveniently ignores any middle ground from those of us who think it's a striking picture, but grossly inappropriate for the cover of a magazine pushing a T-rated game that includes an ESRB content descriptor for "suggestive themes", which I suspect has to do with how much thigh the heroine shows when she jumps. If the cover of the magazine is in any way representative of what happens in the game, Muramasa would not be T-rated.
And don't even get me started on how embarrassed I am that a bunch of stupid boys probably think of the imagery as "empowering women". There's a strong strange cultural precedent to so-called tentacle rape and it has nothing to do with empowering women.
Still, Play has a well-known affinity for anime, so this isn't as out of place as it would be on the cover of, say, EGM. And there's a long history of boys fetishizing videogaming heroines, from Samus to Lara Croft to Princess Peach (don't ask me how I know about that last one). Ultimately, I can excuse this as crass means to a noble end: more attention for a game that might otherwise have been overlooked.
Finally, I'd like to assume the role of marine biologist nerd and point out that octopi don't have tentacles. They're technically arms. So from a strictly biological perspective, the artwork on the cover of Play magazine can't possibly be considered tentacle rape. Maybe Mr. Bettenhausen should have gone with that angle instead of that hoo-ha about "subtle eroticism".
Muramasa is due out on September 8th.
By Braystreet at 1:00 PM ON 08/28/09
Don't you know? Rape empowers women, seriously. When was the last time you saw a strong woman in a movie, game, or comic book with superpowers that didn't get raped at some point before getting superpowers or immediately after?
It's a scientific fact, only women that have been raped get superpowers. Heck, a female character on True Blood has the unique superpower to be raped for the first time, every time she is inevitably going to be raped.
When men get raped, they either like it (everything else) or it's their fault (Green Arrow.) but it never causes superpowers, and I think that's the real double standard, so I'm petitioning Bethseda to make Been Raped a perk in the next Fallout game for both genders. Women get larger breasts and generic defensive superpowers, while men get +300 strength and a cape!
By baxterpunch at 1:57 PM ON 08/28/09
"Alternatively, you can let the editor who set it up, Shane Bettenhausen, explain it for you on his blog page."
Editor? Shane works PR for Ignition now. It would be very smart for him to quell and deflect the debate about this, so don't think he is being objective in that blog post.
By Zeus at 2:42 PM ON 08/28/09
Whenever I get weird looks for reading Play magazine, I joke that, "It's like Playboy but with video games."
Now... well, I can't use that joke anymore.
Bonus: The Captcha for this comment is "4scexy". Seriously.
By obonicus at 3:02 PM ON 08/28/09
Shane Bettenhausen isn't PR, he's 'Director of Creative Inventiveness' or some executive post.
By Chijts at 3:23 PM ON 08/28/09
This is the one Wii game I've been looking forward to most, solely on the art/animation. The actual "Dream of a Fishermans Wife" is probably one of the least subtle pieces of art in the world.
Isn't the correct plural for octopus actually octopuses? :P
By cogadh at 12:21 PM ON 08/30/09
There are three correct plurals for octopus: octopi, octopodes and octopuses, though octopuses is considered the "most correct"
How is that image really any worse than the "cheesecake-ified" images of other video game heroines like Lara Croft, Bloodrayne, Chun-Li, etc.? The only difference between those images and this one is the addition of the octopus, which you automatically assumes means "tentacle porn". Granted, it may seem like a natural assumption, but that says much more about your perspective on the image than the artist's perspective/inspiration.
By sidereal at 10:21 PM ON 08/30/09
She's either scantily clad or the octopus is facilitating the malfunction of her wardrobe. She's swinging a sword, which implies whatever activity going on isn't consensual. The octopus' tentacles are wrapped around parts of her body, including one tentacle prominently cupping her splayed crotch.
I find your erotica writing to be a bit passionless. Consider increased use of the word 'throbbing'.
By Justin Fletcher at 11:09 AM ON 08/31/09
One need only watch the season premiere of Mad Men to see how people react to the subtle eroticism of "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife."
I guess that episode could be considered Gamespotting now.
Justin Fletcher:
One need only watch the season premiere of Mad Men to see how people react to the subtle eroticism of "The Dream of...More »