Japanese Sega CD - Secret of Monkey Island

[elTee]

I took some quick photos to show some friends the funny pictures in the manual for the Japanese version of the Sega CD Monkey Island, so I thought I'd share here for anyone who's interested in this kind of thing. Apologies for any poor quality etc. 

[Marius]

It's so strange and weird, I love it! I like Guybrushs (Gaiburashi Suriipuuddo) look, and Stan is just wild.

And excellent map drawings. 👌

Thank you for digging that up.

[Lagomorph01]

Whoa! What a great find! I love these weird undetailed drawings of the characters! LeChuck's zombie form is obviously based on the Steve Purcell cover of MI2, except he doesn't know where to stick the needle!

 

Weird seeing the designs for the Voodoo Lady and Carla as white. Were the sprites in the game changed too?

And is the guy on the lower left of the second page supposed to be Stan??? Where's his signature coat?

[Marius]

3 minutes ago, Lagomorph01 said:

Where's his signature coat?

That's the thing I like about some of these drawings, they didn't shy away from wild creative freedoms. Stans coat doesn't have the plaid texture, but has a weird intimidating look on its own. Also, great scarf.

 

Also now we know that the Voodoo Lady has a part-time job as a professional wrestler.

[Rum Rogers]

Wild! Love it, thanks for sharing!

[Jenni]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:27 AM, Lagomorph01 said:

Weird seeing the designs for the Voodoo Lady and Carla as white. Were the sprites in the game changed too?

Seeing as this is Japan, they might have just changed it for cultural reasons.  The Japanese have always viewed themselves as a homogeneous country, with very little ethnic diversity. It's not true, but most of the immigrants in Japan are Asian, so the myth has always permeated. Because of that, some of the immigrants from other Asian countries still do pretend to be completely Japanese to avoid bullying. There's a xenophobic atmosphere, especially for African-descended people, where they actually face fear similar to Western nations prior to the mid to end of the 20th century. A lot of Japanese people there actually think that they are lesser, or even dirty because of the color of their skin. 

 

In addition, there has always been a view that ivory white skin is a goal to achieve, especially for women.  So, even now, you have a huge market for skin bleach and you still can see women cover up on beaches because they don't want to get a tan. This too is improving somewhat, but the Japanese media and culture in general still enforce the toxic notion that only the women with an ivory complexion are desirable.

 

It's getting better this century, as the first Japanese and African-American-descended woman won a beauty contest for the first time in 2015. Although, she still faces discrimination where even though she was born in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently with a Kansai accent, she still has to deal with reporters asking her what she feels about the Japanese, as though she isn't Japanese herself.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Jenni