An Analysis of Galgame Fan Culture

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COMMUNITY IDENTITY, GENDER, AND ROMANCE: AN ANALYSIS OF GALGAME FAN CULTURE

A Master’s Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In Communication, Culture, and Technology

Siheng Zhu, B.A.

Washington, D.C. May 22, 2020

COMMUNITY IDENTITY, GENDER, AND ROMANCE: AN ANALYSIS OF GALGAME FAN CULTURE

Siheng Zhu, B.A.

Thesis Advisor: Michael S. Macovski, Ph.D.

Abstract

Thanks to the anonymous cyberspace created by the internet, online fan communities offer people with shared interests a relatively safe place to gather. As a result, such fan communities often forge mutually supportive environments that enable people with various gender identities and from cultural backgrounds to express themselves freely. Fans such as

“otaku”—immersed in Asian popular media, but often struggling with real-life communication-- accordingly treasure such fan environments. For in such cyberspaces, their unique identities will usually be not only accepted but also welcomed.

This thesis analyzes a particular type of Asian fan community, deploying close readings of texts, images, and fan quotations retrieved from public websites and forums. It’s a fan community built on the shared interest of playing Japanese “Galgames”: a remarkable media that encompasses cross-cultural fan translation, subtitling, gender studies—and even modern concepts of romance. The thesis first investigates the technological and cultural activities of

Chinese galgame fan communities, which focus on the practice of cross-cultural translation

(“fansubbing”) and create a deeply respectful, supportive space for content discussion. At the same time, the drive to protect such supportive communities has also lead fans to devise effective strategies to avoid government censorship: both by using emergent technologies (such as P2P and cloud service), and, more importantly, by enacting a community decision to eschew public

iii monetization. Finally, the study concludes with a close examination of how galgames enable players to move beyond stereotypical concepts of gender identity and modern romance. This last section traces the use of Japanese term “Yasashii,” which suggests new concepts of contemporary Japanese masculinity, and represents fans’ attitudes toward both gender politics and modern feminism.

Acknowledgements

The research and writing of this thesis is dedicated to my thesis advisor Michael Macovski for all of the support, guidance, and detailed comments on innumerable drafts he provided along the way. I am also grateful to Professor Evan Barba for being the second reader of my thesis, as well as for the guidance he provided during my experience as his teaching assistant. Thanks also to Jeremy Powell for editorial help with several sections. Many thanks to all my friends from my fansubbing group: because they not only provided open source information for my research, but also dedicated themselves to enriching the lives of millions of Chinese fans. I would like to thank my beloved girlfriend Mengying Yu for her love and support during my graduate career. I would also like to give special thanks to my parents, Li Zhang and Junming Zhu, for their love and dedication during my study in the United States. Their positive attitude towards life and their belief in me have given me the confidence and courage to follow my dreams.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: An Introduction to Galgame and Its Community ...... 1 1.1 Defining Galgame Mechanics ...... 1 1.2 History of Galgames ...... 2 1.3 Timeline of Galgame Development ...... 5 1.4 Fansubbing History ...... 7 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review ...... 9 2.1 Fansubbing Practice ...... 9 2.2 Fansub Ethics ...... 10 2.3 The Legal Grey Zone ...... 11 2.4 The Copyright Dilemma ...... 12 CHAPTER 3: The Technical Processes of Fansubbing ...... 15 3.1 Distribution of Labor ...... 15 3.2 Recruiting Techniques ...... 21 CHAPTER 4: The Galgame Fansubbing Community ...... 23 4.1 Community Practice...... 24 4.2 Community Interaction ...... 24 4.3 Building Respect ...... 25 4.4 Fansubbing Against the Law ...... 29 4.5 Getting Around the Law ...... 31 4.6 Moral Ethos of Fansubbing Community...... 34 CHAPTER 5: Cultural Identity, Gender, and Romance ...... 38 5.1 The Otaku...... 39 5.2 Japanese Kawaii and Moe Culture ...... 41 5.3 Establishment of Yasashii Player Characters ...... 44 5.4 Conclusion ...... 49 WORKS CITED ...... 51

List of Figures

Figure 1: A gameplay image of the Galgame Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, with Chinese subtitles superimposed in blue ...... 2 Figure 2: Fans in their forum thanking fansubbers for distributing their work ...... 27 Figure 3: The definition of Moe and examples of ‘Moe Attributes’ shown in this figure ...... 43 Figure 4: The use of ‘yasashii’ and its semantic equivalents in galgame dialogues to describe the player character as gentle and kind, and as someone who never would offend or hurt the women around him ...... 47 Figure 5: The use of ‘yasashii’ and its semantic equivalents in galgame dialogues to describe the player character as gentle and kind, and as someone who never would offend or hurt the women around him ...... 48

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Chapter 1: An Introduction to Galgame and Its Community

1.1 Defining Galgame Mechanics

Galgame (or Bishōjo Game) is a type of Japanese video game featuring interactive experience with attractive female characters under a novel-like story setting. “Gal,” or “ギャル” in Japanese, meaning “attractive young women,” clearly signifies the nature of these games. That is, galgames fall under the genre of dating simulation, and their primary target is the heterosexual male player population. As far as point-of-view is concerned, a typical Galgame often enables a player to look through the eyes of his character, creating an immersive first-person experience.

The other game characters, known as non-player characters, will usually be portrayed as standing figures with limited facial expressions and gestures. Lines of dialogue are represented as floating subtitles appearing at the bottom of the screen (Figure 1). Finally, Galgames are narratively similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of games. Although the game tells a story, the player is empowered to make choices to change how the story develops. Some life-changing choices can eventually lead to various relations (either good or bad) with the player’s preferred female characters.

The presence of pornographic content is a significant element of some galgames. Though there are games that focus primarily on providing gamers with sex scenes, many galgames only utilize them in a small portion of their story. Pornographic content is also regulated in Japan by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), which demands that legal Japanese pornography have its images censored, with genital areas blurred or mosaiced to conform to

Japanese decency laws. Japanese gaming fans usually divide galgames into three categories:

1 those with no sexual suggestions as “Galgame,” those featuring both story content and sex scenes as “Eroge,” and those focusing solely on sex scenes instead of stories are known as

“Nukege.” In China, however, these three categories are not commonly differentiated, with all three going by the name “galgame.” As a result, in China the galgame community is often negatively associated with “porn.”

Figure 1: A gameplay image of the Galgame Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, with Chinese subtitles superimposed in blue.

1.2 History of Galgames

The history of galgame from its establishment to the present time can be dissected into our different stages. First is the birth of this genre (from around 1985 – 1992), second its development (from 1992 – 2000), third the prosperity period (from 2000 – 2005), and finally its diversified development to its gradual decline in the gaming market (from 2005 – present time).

In 1985, a game called “Tenshitach no Gogo (天使たちの午後)” was the first release on the PC-

8800 series computer in Japan. Although this specific game is designed to be an erotic romance game, its basic gaming mechanic of using still images along with storytelling text has made

2 people believe it to be one of the prototypes of galgame. Following into the 1990s, this new form of game style has finally taken its shape.

As already defined in the previous section (section 1.1), Galgame usually follows the basic gaming mechanic of using diverse interactions to develop romantic relations with female characters. The defining pieces of this genre are “Doukyusei (同級生)” and “Tokimeki

Memorial (ときめきメモリアル)” in 1994. Compared to some of its predecessors who tend to make romance development direct and straight, “Doukyusei” (produced by ELF corporation) established a “flag” system. The creation of such a system means that players have to discover critical moments and make the right choices to develop gradually an affection level expressed by their favorite character, which essentially makes the game similar to a real like dating experience.

The initial success of ELF and its “Doukyusei” has also inspired other game corporations to develop other own galgame mechanics. One of such successful case is “Tokimeki Memorial” created by KONAMI corporation, which requires its players to work hard and raise their player character’s physical and personality attributes to become attractive to female characters. In addition, “Tokimeki Memorial” also set its story in a Japanese three-year high school and makes its players “relive” their high school life while interacting and achieving romance with female characters. Such gaming experience was so innovative and immersive that many Galgame fans still believe that “Tokimeki Memorial” is one of the most classic dating simulation games ever created.

At the same time, though, we should note that storytelling had always been a particular problem for galgames during the early 1990s. Though “Doukyusei” and “Tokimeki Memorial” do have a certain degree of plot and romantic storytelling, their main focus is still on how attractive their female characters can be, as well as how innovative their dating simulation

3 mechanics can be. However, in 1997, a game called “To Heart,” developed by LEAF studio, switched the entire dynamic of Galgames, thanks to its excellent storytelling technique. The script of this game focuses heavily on the detailed development of how two strangers meet each other and gradually fall in love. Moreover, through its excellent depiction of the step-by-step change in mood between romance characters, players get to appreciate relatively first-person mode of storytelling, giving them the feeling of truly fall in love. The success of “To Heart” marks the creation of the classic “Visual Novel” form of Galgame consisting of both a love- novel-like story along with visual images showcasing interactions within this game. This particular form of design has also become the primary gaming and storytelling technique used until today.

After the millennial, Galgame officially began its 5-year period of prosperity. Many games released during this time become highly popular, so that they were later adapted into other media such as anime and manga. At the same time, Galgame developers are continuing to find new ways to increase the playability of their works. For instance, after their first successful work,

“Kanon,” KEY corporation published its second work, “AIR.” With its touching plot depicting not only romantic love but also family love involved in its story, “AIR” managed to move many of its players to burst into tears when they play this game. Also, the popularity of “AIR” has become so large that it was granted the influential game in the year 2000. Even now, “AIR” is still considered as the galgame masterpiece that can never be surpassed. As a result, one of the game’s theme songs, “Tori no Uta,” has later become the “national anthem” of Japanese

Galgame fandom, clearly suggesting how influential “AIR” is for Galgame fans.

Another example of a successful change in Galgame gaming mechanics is

“Utawarerumono (うたわれるもの),” which is developed by LEAF studio. Although this game

4 may not be a game as ground-breaking or as significant than “AIR,” as mentioned above, LEAF managed to successfully distinguish this game from traditional Galgames in two significant ways.

First is to “think out of the box” and choose not to set its story in a traditionally school-like environment, but in a fantasized world based on Japanese historical mythology. Second, produce the game to be a combination of an attractive visual novel along with a fascinating turn-based fighting system, making “Utawarerumono” both a stunning piece of literature to read and an exciting strategy-based game to play.

However, despite Galgame companies attempting to find new ways and approaches to keep their works fresh to the audience, the prosperity of such game genre did not last for too long.

With the emergence of a new popular media, the Light Novel in 2005, the Galgame industry received an unprecedented impact due to not only the similarity but also the difference between it and the emerging light novel industry. Since both galgame and light novel focus quite much on their storytelling, which is more accessible to the audience may decide who wins the battle of attracting more market. The light novel, with its lightweight (which makes it quite portable), cheap, and no longer need a large electronic device to work with, gradually come up to the top.

On the other hand, the Galgame industry starts to shrink by size year by year – Galgame starts to walk out of the spotlight and to become increasingly more designed as a niche media to specific audiences.

1.3 Timeline of Galgame Development

Based on the previous discussion, we can create a the following chronology regarding the historical development of the Galgame genre from 1985 to 2005:

• 1985: “Tenshitachi no Gogo”, one of the first prototypical galgame released

• 1992: “Doukyusei”, diverted the gaming industry from pornographic games to dating

simulation, while adding the “flag” system as a main mechanic of gameplay experience.

• 1994: “Tokimeki Memorial,” One of the most popular dating simulation games in Japan

during that time. It has high quality display and excellent voice acting. Its female main

character, Shiori Fujisaki, also became the “idol” in the memories of many ACG fans. In

1998, “Tokimeki Memorial” imported to Mainland China, and achieved a sell of 200,000

copies.

• 1997: “To Heart,” the first game to establish the “Visual Novel” genre, which influenced

the production of Galgames until present time.

• 2000: “AIR,” the second work developed by KEY corporation, and also praised by ACG

fans as the most successful work of KEY corporation’s “tear trilogy (which is KANON,

AIR, and CLANNAD).” Its main song, “Tori no Uta,” is also considered as the “national

anthem” of Japanese ACG fandom.

• 2001: “Memorial Off” officially released in main land China. Since it is cheap and

accessible, the game soon become popular among Chinese gamers and ACG fans. To

many Chinese Galgame fans, this game is always their “classic” as it is probably the first

Galgame that they ever played. However, the main significance of this game and its

release in China is that it stimulates the creation of some of the earliest Chinese

fansubbing groups, including one the most long-living fansub group,

“Chengkongxueyuan fansub group (澄空学园汉化组 ).”

• 2002: “Utawarerumono,” developed by LEAF studio, may not be a game as ground-

breaking or as significant than other games mentioned above. However, LEAF managed

to “think out of the box” and choose not to set its story in a school-like environment but

in A fantasized world based on Japanese historical mythology. Also, the combination of

visual novel story and turn based strategy fighting also gives “Utawarerumono”

something different to distinguish it from other games of the same genre.

• 2003: “Saya no Uta”

• 2004: “CLANNAD” and “Fate/Stay Night”

• 2005: “To Heart 2” and “Fate/Hollow”

• After 2005: Light Novel appears in Japan and soon become the final puzzle that defines

Japanese popular culture (ACGN, namely Anime, Comics, Game, and Novel). The

emergence of this media also threatens the market of Galgame since light novels are

cheap, portable, and do not require its readers to sit in front of a computer to access them.

Galgame industry began to gradually shrink in size.

1.4 Fansubbing History

The digital age, as we know, has provided fans with the capability to share countless hours of digital content, whether domestic or foreign, through the increasingly efficient file- sharing pathways online. However, several decades ago, such large-scale fan-sharing was nearly unimaginable. The initial emergence of fansubbing can be traced back to late 1986. At that time, fansubbing was first recognized as a collective action made by U.S. fans to share foreign videos.

It is also believed that 1980s fans utilized video-recordable tapes and cassettes like VHS and

Betamax as carriers of their first fan-subtitles. Different from today’s all-digitized fan productions, This process requires fans to purchase original video from Japan, and use specialized equipment (usually requires considerably significant investment) to overlay their translated subtitles with the video and record it with tapes. The final products were then circulated by mail within the fan community. Considering its costly nature and inconvenience of

7 distribution, such fansub sharing activities were deemed never to reach a broader audience population. When personal computers and the internet finally become publicized in the mid-

1990s, fansubbers and their communities were eventually started to become empowered and grow into the scale we know today.

However, comparing with the early basis and fast evolution of the U.S. fansubbing communities, Chinese fans at that time did do not have the equivalent equipment, knowledge, and funding to make fansubbing copies with videotapes. Therefore, the earliest fansubbing effort known to Chinese fansub community did not emerge until after the millennium. In 2001, broadband internet started to become established in China’s major cities, which also marks the initiation of Chinese fansubbing activities. Between the year 2001 to 200, the first of the Chinese fansub groups began distributing Japanese anime using Bulletin websites, or through social network applications such as Tencent QQ. Videos at that time are usually short, segmented clips from a single episode of the original program, and attached to individual posts consecutively.

Through the gradual development of the internet, fansubbers start to have their unique websites and fora to disseminate their products. Although fansubbing primarily focuses on entertaining people with popular culture from foreign countries, let along many of its conductors are purely driven by curiosity, imagination, hobby, and passion, fan subbed materials have still been viewed as the representation of illegal audiovisual content that needs to be censored. Consequently, the

Chinese government has made several actions to reinforce its censorship throughout the Chinese internet to crack down and block fansubbers from accessing or distributing their products. In response to these actions, new Chinese fansub groups seem to cooperate with large media companies or licensed video sharing websites to help them translate copyrighted foreign media contents.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Fansubbing Practice

In his famous work, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Jenkins

(2006) defines participatory culture done by fans as “vernacular culture (293), which suggests that amateurs rather than the officials generate such culture. Fansubbing, as the name itself suggest, is also the manifestation of such vernacular practice that naturally occurs whenever there is a need in cross-cultural translation among fan communities. Also, the practice of fansubbing is different from those translations done by industry translators in many ways – mainly in terms of its artfulness and educational values. Condry (2010) uses a specific example to show how fansubbing is fun and advantageous compared to official translates. According to him, one of the differences is in the details; “fansub translations are generally more detailed, more visually pleasing, and they provide more linguistic and cultural depth than the commercial releases,” he said. Besides, fansub usually utilize footnotes to explain underlying details in audiovisual pieces. Examples by Condry are the on-screen explanations of traditional Japanese cuisine such as “Dango (rice dumpling)” and “Monjayaki,” the clarification of “Edo” being the old name of Tokyo, as well as the open-episode images and claims. Condry describes fansubbing as a commitment of “craftsmanship (Condry, 203),” because in such activity, the underlying cultural aspects are exceptionally well emphasized and explained.

In addition, Condry also describeS the activity of fansubbing as a commitment of

“craftsmanship (Condry, 203);” fansubbers want their hard works to be enjoyed and appreciated by their audiences. The feeling of achieving a specific goal or even just the pure thankfulness of fans (for being able to enjoy anime properly) is what kept them going without profit. Another

9 significant advantage of fansubbing is that fansub groups know what exactly fans want. As explained by the author, fansubbers know that general fans prefer “subs not dub” simply because they want to know more about the Japanese language. Fansubbers seem to take on the role of

“educators” by explaining the word as well as specific expressions using subtitles to conduct their teachings.

2.2 Fansub Ethics

Fan communities often follows a set of “ethical rules” instead of copyright laws. Denison

(2011) quotes a large number of written rules and code of conducts established and summarized by Anime News Network, the leading anime fan website in the United States. Among them, there is one set of statement that explains the core fansub ethics: “You make fansubs voluntarily, out of your own free time, because you are a fan. Never for personal profit or recognition. If at any time you feel you should be compensated for the work you have done, then you are probably doing this for all the wrong reasons.” (Anime News Network, extracted from Denison’s article.)

This quote states the primary bottom line, as well as a code of conduct regarding fansubbing: that such activity should be voluntary and out of a pure passion for the culture, devoid of any socioeconomic influences.

Lee studies fan attitudes towards fansubbing ethics and he concludes that fans have a

“strong normative belief that copying for non-commercial, personal use fundamentally differs from the theft of physical goods (Lee, 2011),” which means that copying and reproducing copyrighted materials for personal use is illegal, yet morally acceptable. Rationales for such a moral position can be divided into six major points. First, such consumption practice is pleasing and liberating. Second, sharing within the fan community is considered as gift-changing, and the

10 more sharing one conduct means a more respectable position among other fans. Third, fan culture’s difference from business is embedded in sharing, which challenges the greed and commercial aspect of the business. Fourth, digitalization has made fans less dependent on physical goods, not to mention the high price of official CDs, or DVDs that often disappoints the fan community. Fifth, fans also use online sharing mechanisms to access exclusive goods that are not available in areas other than Japan. Finally, sharing is linked to freedom and democracy.

However, there may also other ethical values fan communities treasure: the ultimate goal for fansubbing is to support and benefit the industries.

2.3 The Legal Grey Zone

Instead of engaging in the debate of whether fansubbing should be justified as an improvement to the anime distribution industry, or merely categorized as piracy, Condry (2010) proposes a new terminology: dark energy. He describes “dark energy” in fan culture as a

“collection of social forces that enlivens the connections between content and desire that in turn drives the circulation of media.” Fansubbing, in the context of dark energy, becomes the unseen force in driving the transnational flow of cultural products from Japan and alter them to some point that either “reinforce or sometimes undermine the traditional structures and social practices of global media.” In favoring his notion of “dark energy,” Condry listed out two academic thoughts by media scholar Henry Jenkins and cultural anthropologist Anne Allison. Jenkins focused on the term “convergence,” that the flow of content is no long medium-specific, it travels through multiple platforms and coalesces in the point of audience members who actively participate in putting all the “media puzzles” together. Anne Allison’s thought, which is a little similar to Jenkins, illustrate the point that contemporary cultural products work not as to focus on the distribution of one ideology, but rather on blurring boundaries between “gift-giving” and

11 capitalism. Condry took their thought into a different direction; he believed that fansubbing not only blurs the boundary between producers and consumers but also rejects free market to some extent that it puts the cross-media flow in the hands of the consumers.

Condry (2010) also noted in his article that fansubbing is driven not by the market, but through particular “moral economy.” Fansubbing is operating in a grey zone between “black market of bootleg sales” and the “white market of official distributions.” The value that keeps fansubbing from falling into “black market” is the precious value of “Not for sale, rent or eBay,” as well as the moral ethics of “take-down once licensed.” One interesting case of such conflict is between the Anime News Network and that of fansub group Anime Junkies. In it, the ANN accused Anime Junkies by pointing out that they do not follow the ethics of “take-down once licensed,” while Anime Junkies replied that they stand by their actions and let the public to decide which one is right or wrong. This case does emphasize the point about the motivation of fansubbers: they want to be credited in some way even when the licensed works come out. Thus such conflict brings out a whole new problem of how we need to award fansubbers for their

“craftsmanship” properly.

2.4 The Copyright Dilemma

Tianxiang He (2014) takes took on a similar view among existing copyright laws in different countries to discuss the copyright dilemma. In his opinion, the current copyright strategies adopted by Japanese popular culture industry may vary, but the domestic and foreign strategies have one thing in common: “for various reasons they agree that to a certain extent some fan activities should be allowed or tolerated for the shared interest of the industry and the public (1013).” To him, the Japanese “copyright model” seems to be unique. Compared to the

American’s “high copyright protection standards,” Japan seems to allow fans to “use the giant grey zone,” and succeed in such model (1017).

Throughout the whole passage, Tianxiang He does recognize the significance of fan activities towards supporting Japanese audiovisual industries. However, he still upholds the point that fan-based activities such as fansubs and doujinshi are “undeniably copyright infringement.

(1017)” Moreover, he believes that the major problem for current Japanese copyright owners is not about the domestic market (which they still have certain control over fans), but the issues in foreign countries such as in China and the United States. The reason for them to adopt such

“flexible and tolerating” copyright strategy can be categorized into four reasons.

The first it that global synchronous copyright protection is theoretically tenable but practically infeasible. Enforcing specific copyright standards in foreign countries requires a large number of financial activities. Since the potential violators of copyright policy are nearly

“infinite” the cost of enforcing such standard will then destined to be unbearable. Moreover, it is inevitable that different cultural product will have lower “legal priority” compared to those local ones, since “the local copyright owners are better protected at home than abroad (1033). The second reason is that unlike commercial pirates and free-riders, fans and fansubbers are potential consumers. Numerous examples have suggested that fan activities, though legally unacceptable, do have the particular capability to support official industries. Studies have also found that under proper control, fan activities such as doujinshi and fansubs could promote the spread and development of local anime industries, which is precisely the purpose of having copyright in the first place. Economically speaking, fans are still the primary consumers of these popular culture products, suing them would otherwise be practically unwise (who would ever sue his customers?).

The third reason comes from the Japanese domestic market, for their original authors still has have more power compared to that of fan culture practitioners (such as doujinshi artists). The existence of this fan culture examples, such as Comic market and the vast quantities of doujinshi published every year, suggests that the industry has approved their existence to some extent.

They function, sometimes, as the extension of public promotions to their official works.

However, Japanese copyright law has ensured that the original creators have higher power and greater control over their creations than those doujinshi artists. Therefore, fan activities are allowed sometimes.

Last but not least, Japanese industries have to let go of overseas fan activities sometimes since promotions of Japanese audiovisual products to the overseas market is somewhat too costly.

However, if the anime industry truly needs to reap profit in the foreign market, they have to let go of fan activities for the promotion of their works, as well as cultivate their fan bases. Besides, as pointed out by multiple sources of studies, a fan community can become early product evaluators, and their opinions will later determine which popular products are going to be licensed in the overseas market.

Chapter 3: The Technical Processes for Fansubbing

The process of making fan subtitles for original Japanese audiovisual material can actually be simply summarized. Indeed, fansub community members usually relate their process of translation to the process of simple cooking. In this context, fansubbers are essentially chefs; they first obtain raw meat (original video with no subtitles); then they cook it (translate the materials); and finally, they serve the cooked meal (distribute translated materials) to the public.

Still, the precise fansub process practiced by a fully operational fansub group is often more complex, especially when it comes to game fansubbing. For instance, apart from the foregoing general steps, game fansubbing also involves hackings. That is, fansubbers must obtain the original game from Japan, and then alter it technologically in order for it to be translated and subtitled. Below is a detailed breakdown of every step in a fansub group, described from the first step of obtaining original Japanese audiovisual material, to the distribution of a fully developed fan-subbed game. Since my main focus of this section is to describe galgame fansubbing, I provide a comprehensive distribution of labor within a galgame fansub group.

3.1 Distribution of Labor

• Raw Getter/Provider: In order to understand the work of Raw Getters, it is imperative

to understand what a ‘raw’ is. Fansub groups describe those untranslated Japanese

audiovisual materials as ‘raws.’ Raw Getters/ Providers are usually non-Japanese fans

who acquire raw Japanese audiovisual materials (whether it is anime, manga, or game)

from Japan and send them to fansub groups in their domestic countries. In the case of

galgame fansubs, the original game may be acquired by any fans who purchased the

game in Japan, then share it free of charge through file sharing websites or peer-to-peer

distribution networks. Fansub group then download this shared file as the start for the

production of a fansub. Depending on the group, there is usually a person or a specific

group of people dedicated specifically to acquiring these raws (usually those who live in

Japan). At other times, the original game will be obtained by any group member who can

purchase or find it from any available file sharing websites.

• Hacker (Tech team): Like most other video games sold in the market, galgame game

files are usually compressed to save data storage space, as well as having secure

encryptions on these compressed files to keep them from potential hacking. Thus, in

order to translate the original Japanese subtitle, fansub groups need to find ways to hack

these game files to find the subtitle texts they need. After raw providers obtain the

original game, they usually send it to the hackers in their group to hack, decompress, and

extract subtitle texts so that translations can take place. Since most Japanese galgame

studios are neither financially nor technologically capable of using strong encryptions,

most galgame data are quite easy to hack. Some older games even do not have encryption.

They store their subtitle files directly in “.txt” format (a text-only program type), and

fansubbers can open and adjust them with ease using just the “Notepad” program in their

PC. Many of the recent games do have stronger encryptions available to protect their

game files. Therefore, whether the hacker team can break the encryption or not would

somehow determine whether certain games can be successfully fansubbed.

• Raw Translator (TL): The translator—who translates Japanese dialogue into Chinese

subtitles-- is the major driving force behind any fansub group. Translators are therefore

the most important resources in fansubbing. Some degree of fluency (Japanese N2, N1

level or higher) is required to become a translator in fansub group. As a result, sometimes

reliable translators are very difficult to find due to the amateur and unpaid nature of most

fansub groups. Japanese Galgame often has huge amount of dialogues needed to be

translated. So fansub groups usually breakdown the entire script of the game into multiple

sections and assign these sections to different members of the translator group. When all

the sections are translated, fansub group then produce a script (usually an electronic .txt

file) that contains all the translated sections and other relevant information, such as

footnotes and translation suggestions, to form what is called a “Translation script” (TL

script) to send to the next process.

• Translation Checker/Reviewer (TLC): Translation checkers check the “TL script” to

see if the translation is accurate. Translations checkers are among the most experienced

translators in fansub group, who have been working in fansub fields longer than other

translator members, and gained experience and trust among group members. They are

also generally more skilled in the Japanese language (either being bilingual in Japanese

and Chinese, or has a Japanese major or minor in college). After completing their works,

the translation checkers rename the original “TL script” as “TLC script”, marking that the

translations are checked and ready to be reviewed in the final editing phase.

• Translation Organizer/Text Editor (ED): Editors are tasked to refine all the language

from the “TLC script”, ensure that it is fluent and idiomatic language (either Chinese,

English, or other languages, depending on the groups). The editor himself is usually the

head of the entire translation group, and the most professional translator of all. He

handles all rewordings of dialogue as needed, including locating grammar and spelling

corrections, revising dialogue length to fit the screen, and unify different writing

techniques as well as rhetoric. An edited script, or “ED script”, is produced after this

process, marking the completion of the general translation process.

• Styling + Encoder/Packer: This process is also covered by the same group of tech

people who run the Hacking process explained in the earlier section. When the final

translation script (the ED script) is created, the technology team choose the styling of the

subtitles, including the font, color, and size of the texts. Then they start to replace original

Japanese dialogue with Chinese using specific tools. Years ago, when convenience tools

are not yet developed, fansubbers need to write codes themselves using programming

language to replace Japanese characters with Chinese ones one by one. However, recently

fansubbers can utilize specific software tools （such as the PETranslator Tool for

Japanese games）to easily replace Japanese dialogues into Chinese without striving to

write codes themselves. When the revised subtitle file is re-encoded back into the original

game file, the fansubbed game is then ready to be tested for its playability.

• Quality Checker/Tester: Quality checkers hold the final step before the distribution of

the fansub. These people are usually members of the fansub group, or fans volunteered or

elected from fansub fora or chat rooms. They are tasked to play the fansubbed game and

find out whatever issues (bugs, translation errors, or sometimes missing texts) in the

game, and provide feedback to the fansub group for later revisions and updates. When all

known issues are resolved, the fansubbed game itself is finally ready to release and

distribute among fans.

• About Distribution: Among Chinese fan communities, fansubbed games are distributed

mainly through two different ways of distribution, one is through torrent download, and

the other is from direct download from shared cloud services (such as Baidu Cloud and

Mega Cloud).

Torrent/Dedicated Torrent Seeders: The general understanding of downloading a file

from the internet is to download from a single specific source server. However, torrent

download allows a peer-to-peer distribution method, which allows everyone who

download the file to be the downloader and distributor at the same time. Torrents require

a client like utorrent (or Xunlei in the case of China) to be able to open the .torrent file

and download the data pieces for the file. When a file such as a fansubbed game is

uploaded into the torrent stream, the fansub group’s uploader become the first “seeder”,

which mean the first source of download, and fans who download this file become what

is known as “peer downloader’. Once one of the fans completed his file download, he

immediately become another seeder which helps increase the download speed of other

fans. Such method is a rather effective mass distribution method of downloading large

files such as videos and games, since the more people participate in the download

‘swarm’, the faster the file can be downloaded. However, There are still certain problems regarding download through torrent. One large downside to torrents is that it is a communal download, meaning that in order to successfully download a torrent, the equivalent of at least one uploader (seeder) must exist to keep the download stream going, or a seeder must be connected. If not, a complete file will never be downloaded. In order to prevent such a scenario from happening, there are dedicated torrent seeders in the fansub group to keep full copies of their distributed works circulating on the torrents.

Direct Download From Public Clouds: With the emergence of document cloud service provided by large corporations such as Apple, Baidu, and Google, People no longer need to continually rely on hard drive storage while fearing one day they would lose their data once the hard drive is stolen or become broken. Cloud service provides people with substantial online storage space for their data. Moreover, as long as the cloud itself does not go out of service, the data stored in it could be freely revised and retrieved. Some cloud service also provides people with the function of creating external links to the files in their cloud storage to allow other people to gain access to that particular file. Fansub groups recently took advantage of such service and start to share their fansub files through these services. Compared to torrent download mentioned beforehand, cloud storage service does not need fansub groups to dedicate specific personnel to keep download stream going since cloud servers already had it covered once the file is uploaded. Also, some cloud services, such as Baidu Cloud, offer high-speed download service and even accelerated download service, provided that they are purchased through

subscription. These services significantly reduce fansub groups’ labor during file

distribution, and have become the primary route of fansub distribution to date.

3.2 Recruiting Techniques

Since most of the fansubbing group members are not full-time, the group relies heavily on each member to help fulfill the foregoing technological steps and distribution of labor. Hence when any group member retires (or leaves for any reason), recruitment of new members becomes essential. When recruiting fansub members, the fan community looks first—and most importantly—at an applicant’s language proficiency. Most fansub groups require a certain degree of Japanese language fluency, usually measured through the ‘Japanese Language Proficiency

Test (JLPT).’ The JLPT has five levels: N1, N2, N3, N4, and N5. The easiest level is N5, and the most challenging level is N1. The test level N5, N4, and N3 indicates an intermediate level of

Japanese, representing basic Japanese understanding and communicating. N2 and N1 level stand for fluent Japanese, such that one is capable of applying for Japanese colleges. In order to become a fansub member, an applicant should have at least N2 or N1-level Japanese fluency to handle the Japanese language materials required for translation, meaning that this person should be very fluent in Japanese in order to be useful to the translation group. When recruiting new members, fansub groups usually request their applicants to upload proofs like language proficiency certification to make sure that their applicant is capable. In some other recruiting cases, the fansub group may give its applicants several Japanese galgame dialogues to test their ability to translate Japanese texts, therefore determining whether this applicant is capable for handling the job.

Yet sometimes having high Japanese-language proficiency is not the only requirement for joining a fansub group. In fact, most members of fansub groups are not full-time, professional

21 translators—but, rather, passionate fans of either anime, manga, or games. Therefore, one specific difference between recruiting fansub members and recruiting a professional translators is that applicants should be fans themselves. In particular, they should be passionate enough to contribute a good proportion of their free time to fansubbing. Therefore, a passionate and, at the same time, proficient fansub member is often difficult hard to find, leading many fansub groups regularly to post both recruiting posters and notifications to many fan-related websites and chatrooms.

Chapter 4: The Galgame Fansubbing Community

In China, most Japanese audiovisual fan communities rely heavily on fansubbing groups, inasmuch as the latter are often the only outlet for such translated media content. Indeed, the material provided by active fansubbers is incredibly precious--and often threatened—in China, because the Chinese government usually limits the amount of foreign media that flows into the country. At the same time, fansubbers have also been criticized as cultural elites, due to their exclusive access to foreign content, along with their advanced language translation abilities.

With all this in mind, it is natural to see that fans greatly value, respect, and are grateful to fansubbers. However, such respect always comes with a price: fansubbers can gain respect from the fandom only as long as they do not violate community ethics and ethos, which protect the community from government intervention.

Hence, in this chapter, I have divided my analysis into three parts. First, I discuss the community ethics and practice of fansubbers, and suggest how their practice gains trust and respect from their fandom. Then, in the second part of the chapter, I discuss the legal implications of fansubbing, primarily by looking at international copyright laws. Here, I illuminate the critical ethics and ethos that the fansubbing community follows, in order to protect itself from legal interference. Finally, in the third part of this chapter, I discuss the dilemma that fansubbers face when they have to decide whether their hard work should be compensated monetarily—which would necessarily both expose the fansubbing community and break the primary ethos that protects it—and thereby lead to the loss of respect from the overall fandom.

4.1 Community Practice

That fansubbers conduct their activities in their unique community is not new. Lave and

Wenger, in “Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)” to define such community, and coin the term, “community of practice” (160). In short, the community of practice described by Lave and Wenger is essentially a group of people, whether professional or amateur, who share a common concern or passion they do and learn how to learn it better as they communicate and interact regularly. One good example of such a community of practice is the apprenticeship interactions practiced in some of the traditional crafter communities. However, the interactions related to fansubbing as a community of practice may not be merely limited to the “translating and subbing” practiced by its members, but also occur between different fansubbing communities (fansubbing teams) as well as the one other community -- the fan community who consume fansubbing products.

4.2 Community Interaction

Similar to the fansubbing community, which is organized around the core practice of

“translating and subbing,” the fandom itself is constructed base on the prevailing interest shared by its fans – in the particular context of this thesis -- the shared interest in Galgame. Since most general fans merely consume fansubbing works instead of participating in the real subbing, we can say that they belong to the community of interest, instead of in the community of practice formed by the fansubbers. However, the communication and interaction between the two communities do show that they share a significant amount of overlap, which manifests mainly in online platforms such as forums and chatrooms. In the United States, fan activities like fansubbing are generally considered as more or less grass-root activities, where fansubbers do receive respect from their fans, yet mostly treated equally as they are merely the contributor of

24 the broader community they create. However, in China, there seems to be a somewhat stratified relationship established between fansubbers and their fans – fansubbers are highly respected by the community of interest as the distributor of contents, thus pushing fansubbers to a relative more elite position.

Jenkins noticed such difference in practice among Chinese fan groups, and according to his 2013 interview (Jenkins, 2013) with an academic fan, Xiqing in China, there might be both a historical as well as practice-related reasons that associate with such unique composition of

Chinese fandom. During the interview, Xiqing introduced that one of the historical aspects of such development is, in fact, the limited access to audiovisual contents imposed by the Chinese government, as well as hardware challenges such as personal computers and video-playing devices in the late 1900s. These restrictions significantly limited the formation of Chinese fandom. Therefore, the earliest fans and fan producers are those who live in urban areas -- sometimes relatively well-educated people who can find their own ways to gain access to foreign media. Admittedly, such a historical lineage of fandom does paint an elitist image of early

Chinese fandom. However, with increasingly more Chinese people becoming exposed to the internet technology and social network platforms, fan producers no longer have the hardware advantage since people can readily access nearly anything they want just by looking it up themselves. So how do recent fan producers – especially fansubbers – reach their elitist position in the current context Chinese fandom

4.3 Building Respect

Back in the days when the internet was first introduced, people may be astonished by how such a network could become the carrier of sociotechnical egalitarianism (Keisler et al.

1984) and finally leading people to the sphere of equality. However, the practice among the

25 fansubbing community still suggests a somewhat stratified layout of the fandom itself. Some people are bound to be outsiders compared to others. Moreover, since content contribution to the is valued so significantly in fandom communities, fansubber teams are, therefore, not only being respected by other parts of the fandom but are also being pushed to become the respected leaders of their community. In China, most fansubber teams have a public forum or chat room dedicated to themselves and their fans. These online communities function not only as of the site for fansubbing distribution but also act as potential sites for fans from the community of interest to interact with fansubbers in the community of practice. Below is a summary of the typical model that a newcomer may experience when he/she is gradually incorporated into the fansubbing community of practice:

• Lurker – An outsider who has minimal engagement and participation.

• Novice – A Newcomer who invest some time in the community and gradually heading

towards full participation

• Fan Insider – Fully engaged in community participant such as discussion, information

exchange, and distribution

• Involver – Stepping out of the community of interest and become a member of the

fansubbing group

• Leader – A leader of a respected role in a fansubber group

• Elder– An elderly member with much experience, yet not always actively engaged in

fansubbing works.

• Retired – A retired member. No longer participate in fansubbing works.

It can be demonstrated from this model that blending and becoming a part of a community requires a certain degree of contribution and participation. In most fansubbing communities, the

26 contribution is the essential thing to be at a higher level inside the community. Since the fansubbers are devoting a significant amount of time and effort to translate audiovisual contents voluntarily, it is very natural for the general fans to be gracious and thankful to the fansubbers. In the Chinese online community, especially those fora dedicated to fansubbing, such gracious feelings from the fans have developed into the traditional practice of fans’ complimenting, respecting, or even worshiping fansubbers. The most common words that general fans call fansubbers are “大佬 (da lao)” or “大神 (da shen),” which approximately means “mogul” or

“god.” The following examples are fans’ posts from a fansubbing forum, illustrating the use of these words.

Figure 2: Fans in their forum thanking fansubbers for distributing their work. The word “da lao” and “da shen” are highlighted in orange. All posts are extracted from public forum and all the usernames shown in this figure are random and anonymous.

Below are the translations of these posts:

• 珈蓝斋: Thank you so very much! For people like me who can’t read Japanese, da lao’s

fansubs really saves my day.

• Dolflamingo: Many thanks to da lao’s fansubbing efforts, thank you for sharing this

(with us).

• lxmld: I am expecting da shen’s next masterpiece. Thanks for sharing.

Sometimes when famous fansubbers post something in their forum or share content in their public chatrooms, fans would come out and show their respect. The protocol is to reply to fansubber’s post with an exaggerated phrase such as “kneeling and worshiping the da shen.”

In addition, though somewhat exaggerated, such appreciation expressed from general fandom is also the primary motivation for fansubbers to continue their hard work and devotion.

At the same time, though, there is a famous saying in Chinese:“汉化组都是用爱发电的

(“Fansubbers use all their love and passion to continue with their works”). In reality, due to the non-monetized nature of their activities, organizations like the fansubbing group are primarily contributing to the enrichment of an online resource, while they receive nearly nothing in return.

The appreciation from general fandom, however, provides a form of relief as well as the psychological payoff to their efforts as the main contributor of the community. Besides, from my personal knowledge as a fansubber, many of my co-workers admitted that the compliment and appreciation from fans are the biggest driving force for them to continue with their mundane and laborious job, which also creates a sense of identity and sense of accomplishment among themselves.

4.4 Fansubbing Against the Law

Infringement of Copyright law has long been a standing issue regarding fansubbing activities around the globe, and although people usually regard China as a country of “chaotic copyright problems,” it does not mean that fansubbing in China will “get away” from legal considerations. China is a member of the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) and the Berne

Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne), and both of these two conventions emphasized that copyrighted audiovisual products from member countries are also under protection in China. According to the copyright law of China, “translations as one of the derivative works mentioned in this law is also subject to the permission of license from the original author.” Therefore, it seems clear from the law that no matter it is a fansub of anime, manga, or game, fansubbers will always become potential criminals for violating copyright laws.

Furthermore, an interview conducted by journalist Jin, Wenjie with professor Wang, Qian from

East China University of Political Science And Law, revealed the point that :”If a fansubbing activity is without authorization and do not qualify as fair use, then in China, they probably will infringe the translation right and the information network transmission right of the foreign audiovisual product (He, 2014).” Qian also stated that the none-reaction taken by foreign companies on Chinese fansubbing activity is probably based on the fact that it is not “worthy” to sue since they do not benefit from suing fansubbers.

Fansubbers may have all the good intentions and motivations to promote external audiovisual contents into their country, yet they are still frequently reprimanded by the official industry for their copyright violation potentials. Such an issue seems to be even more intense in galgame fan community than those in anime and manga. In recent years, Chinese large video companies such as Bilibili, Youku, and iQIYI has begun to license anime, thus “ended” the years

29 of lacking official anime products in China. In the concern of Anime fans, fansubs used to have the issue of content access, speed, and quality. However, with large video companies importing new Japanese anime into China and official subtitled videos airing at the same time as in Japan, fans no longer need to concern about never getting to watch their loved anime on time, or without subtitles. The quality of official subtitles are also quite guaranteed, and it seems like there is a certain degree of cooperation between the industry and anime fansubbers to ensure that official subtitles are translated accurately while still enjoyable to watch. There are even rumors online that video companies are recruiting former fansub group members into their ranks to improve the quality of their translations.

While anime fansubbing communities seem to gradually work on legitimizing themselves, galgame fansub groups are still operating under shadow, and they may stay this way eternally: there are too many legal as well as moral issues regarding their works that will never resolve.

After all, their work is not only infringing copyright laws, but also violating the current Chinese criminal law due to their contents related to pornography. As mentioned above, many galgame contains erotic contents or at least suggestive contents that puts them under the governance of

Japanese decency laws. But the thing is, they are more or less considered as legal contents in

Japanese society, as long as they operate according to Japanese government’s censorship as well as never distribute these games among underaged populations.

However, pornographic contents are strictly prohibited in China under Chinese criminal law, and those who produce, disseminate, or sell related materials will be facing various degrees of punishments. According to Chinese Criminal Law Article 152, dissemination or smuggle of pornographic audiovisual materials into China shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than ten years, with a fine of 20,000 RMB (around

2982.30 USD). Also according to article 363 to 367, sizeable underground production, as well as the distribution of pornographic materials, will face up to life-time imprisonment if discovered.

Therefore, galgame fansubbing is ostensibly illegal considering its nature. Matters could get even worse for the community; in 2014, the Chinese government started the “Combating Pornography and Illegal Publications: Cleanse the Internet 2014” campaign to eliminate pornographic and illegal distributions online. Since then, similar campaigns have been conducted annually to continuously restricting illicit materials from transmitting online, which seems to greatly hinter online fan communities in China.

4.5 Getting Around the Law

Admittedly, galgame fansubbing is illegal. However, the community still goes on, and there have to be certain ways to get around the laws while still maintaining the community together and undercover. Avoiding conflict with copyright laws is one primary concern to the community. As a result, many fansub groups practice the way of integrating disclaimers into their game patches by showing these disclaimers on the game’s open screen. Such practice is primarily aimed to maintain the integrity and stability of the community from being noticed by officials. Disclaimers such as the one “For translational Studies Only, Do Not Distribute” is an attempt to get around the Digital-Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which states that “nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institution are considered exceptions to copyrighted reproductions (Title 1, 5). ” Most other disclaimers like “Not for Sale or Rent” and “Please Do

Not Re-distribute and sell on any marketing platforms” are aimed to show the community’ non- commercial nature as well as to provide people with the impression of being “nonprofit-driven.”

Down below is an example of one of the disclaimers. It mainly stated that players need to be at least age 18 to play this game, players should not re-distribute this translation or producing any

31 video recording or streaming with this game patch, and the most importantly, this patch in made for non-commercial purposes, which is fundamentally different from Moshi (黙示) or

Dreamhouse （心愿屋）fansub group’s commercial patches (the reason for such statement will be elaborated later in this essay.)

Although the Chinese government enacted numerous acts and campaigns aiming to cleanse the internet out of illegal contents, fansubber still could find their ways of getting around censorship to distribute their works. Many of them utilize file-hosting sites such as Baidu Cloud,

Mega Cloud Storage, and AdFly to distribute their fansub patches, mainly for their stability as well as elusory features that could keep uploaded files available for download as long as possible.

The establishment of fan fora and chatrooms are usually the typical ways of gathering fans. Once the community is formed, fansubbers directly upload re-named (sometimes compressed and encrypted) contents to file-hosting sites and share download address with their fans, some of them even split their contents and upload them to different sites in attempt to escape online tracking by government censorship systems.

Though fansubbing galgames is admittedly an infringement of copyright law in any given country, the fansub community continues to make new productions. In fact, although many galgame fansubbers in the community are well-aware of copyright regulations, they intentionally ignore such laws. In fact, in order not to run into trouble with copyright laws, many galgame fansubbers devised certain ways to get around the laws while still maintaining the community together and undercover. Avoiding conflict with copyright laws is one primary concern to the community. As a result, many fansub groups practice the way of integrating disclaimers into their game patches by showing these disclaimers on the game’s open screen. Such practice is primarily aimed to maintain the integrity and stability of the community from being noticed by

32 officials. Disclaimers such as “For translational Studies Only, Do Not Distribute” are an attempt to get around the Digital-Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which states that “non-profit libraries, archives, and educational institution are considered exceptions to copyrighted reproductions” (DMCA 1998 Title 1, 5). Most other disclaimers—such as “Not for Sale or Rent” and “Please Do Not Re-distribute and sell on any marketing platforms”—are aimed to show the community’s non-commercial nature, as well as to indicate to consumers that the fan subtitled version is “nonprofit-driven.”

The following examples of disclaimers illustrate some of the foregoing principles: players need to be at least age 18 to play this game, players should not re-distribute this translation or producing any video recording or streaming with this game patch, and most importantly, this patch in made for non-commercial purposes, which is fundamentally different from Moshi (黙示) or Dreamhouse （心愿屋）fansub group’s commercial patches (the reason for such statement will be elaborated later in this essay.) The reason for the fansub community’s decision to discount copyright laws is that they choose to prioritize what might be called “moral restrictions of galgame fansubbing” over strict adherence to these laws.

Although the Chinese government has enacted numerous laws and campaign--aiming to filter out illegal content from the internet, fansubbers can still find ways of getting around censorship, in order to distribute their works. Many of them use file-hosting sites such as Baidu

Cloud, Mega Cloud Storage, and Ad Fly to distribute their fansub patches, since these sites can offer both stability as well as evasive, elusory features that can keep uploaded files available for download, for as long as possible. That is, fansub community members directly upload re-named

(sometimes compressed and encrypted) contents to file-hosting sites, and then share these download addresses with their fans. In fact, some of them even split their content and then

33 upload the parts to different sites, in an attempt to escape online tracking by government censorship systems.

4.6 Moral Ethos of Fansubbing Community

Like most fansubbing communities, galgame fansubbers also have their community ethos as both a protection to its undercover safety—and, at the same time, seeks to strengthen its noncommercial nature. In fact, monetizing fansubbing by any means is abhorred by galgame fans, because they fear that any commercial activities will draw political attention, which could readily lead to both instabilities, as well as the unpredictability of the already vulnerable nature of this very community. In fact, violations of this noncommercial ethos have played out on

Baidu “Tieba” (which is the most significant communication platform hosted by the Chinese search engine giant, Baidu—and which therefore serves the function of a public forum). It is not surprising, then, that the galgame community would also maintain a presence on Tieba—and that questions of commercially and monetization would arise on this platform. And, indeed, such questions (and controversies) have arisen here: specifically, two distinct fansub groups, Moshi group (黙示汉化组) and Dreamhouse group (心愿屋汉化组), have been intentionally ostracized from the Tieba community, after they engaged some monetization business practices using their fansub materials, between the years 2016 and 2017.

“Moshi,” in fact, stands as useful text case in this regard. it is known within the galgame fansub community as a large translation group with highly professional members—most of them certified with the Japanese standard language test, at the N1 or N2 level, and capable of providing fast and accurate translations. However, their monetization model has been constantly criticized by the community as a whole.

This monetization takes a particular form within the Moshi fansub group. It uses a model of

“one-time subscription,” requiring their followers to “pay for entrance” to their QQ chatroom in order to obtain some of their “exclusive” fansub patches. Similarly, their followers must often

“pay for early access” to their newly released fansub games. In response to criticism, moreover, one of the Moshi members has tried to justify such actions in a disclaimer posted on Baidu Tieba: it states that their monetization activity is not driven by profit, but by the hope of keeping the group together. He further points out that “maintaining such high output and quality of translation work, as well as keeping highly professional group members motivated, sometimes requires financial measures.” Moshi group’s conduct has accordingly received somewhat controversial feedback from the fan community. On one hand, those who follow them insist that fansubbing is a profession that should be rewarded—especially in light of the high-quality translations that Moshi has proved. On the other hand, though, more voices have pointed out that distributing and fansubbing galgame is risky enough within Chinese social environment, so commercializing galgame fansubbing is no doubt exacerbating the already risky situations that the galgame community faces in China.

Another notorious fansub group is widely known as “Dreamhouse.” In contrast to

Moshi’s one-time subscription model, Dreamhouse employs “direct payment” and

“crowdfunding” methods to fund their fansub projects. Discussions have accordingly arisen within the fansub community about whether the Dreamhouse activities are justified or not. In this context, a widely-circulated (and highly endorsed) quote from “Zhihu (知乎),” the most famous

Chinese question-and-answer website takes the following position: “Dreamhouse’s behavior amounts to no less than appropriating and pirating copyrighted materials for a profit. Did other fansub groups produce fansub for money? No--because fansubbing is a gift-giving and sharing

35 process, which is fundamentally different from financial activities—which are not the primary motivation for their efforts. If you truly love galgames and the corresponding industry, you should thank noncommercial fansubbers for their work and spirit –and also buy the original game discs if you can. Please, never ‘donate’ your money to groups like Dreamhouse.”

In this quote, the commentator suggests that Dreamhouse has, by monetizing fansubs, essentially compounded its mistakes—a practice, which is already illegal behavior, in terms of infringing copyright. In response, he advocates a spirit of sharing, emphasizing that fansubbing is a gift-giving process.” This position also accords with the view Lee (2011) takes: namely, that

“fansubbing is the practice of gift-giving, the more you contribute to the community, the more respect you receive in return.” (Lee, 241) It seems that, generally speaking, community members still believe that fansub should be a sharing process—which suggest that fansub groups who profit from the process will only bring themselves disrespect from the community.

What is more, there have also been other criticisms of Dreamhouse’s “business model.” Such criticism has noted that “crowdfunding” activity is a potential violation of Chinese domestic law.

In a market-oriented society, legal issues are based fundamentally on whether specific actions promote or prevent illegal business practices. Therefore, without legal justification for their fund- raising activities, Dreamhouse’s crowdfunding method could possibly doom the entire fansubbing community, should the government interfere (much as the distribution of illegal pornographic materials would as well). We can conclude, then, that such statements represent the fear of fans: namely, that in response to the public commercializing of galgame fansubs, the

Chinese government would censor and ultimately eradicate galgames in China. Hence, it is not surprising that the community has acted to condemn similar monetization activities, as soon as it

36 learns about them. In the end, commercial groups like Dreamhouse and Moshi are thus ostracized from the community: fans neither mention their names, nor defend their actions.

Chapter 5: Cultural Identity, Gender, and Romance

As demonstrated in the previous chapters, the online fan community creates a supportive environment that extends beyond geographical boundaries. It offers its participants the freedom to explore their identities, especially when it comes to the perspective of gender relations and romantic relationships. Indeed, the fan community will always support its fans, even if their identities are sometimes difficult to express—or even censored within the broader media.

In order to analyze this communal support, moreover, Galgames prove to be especially important, inasmuch as they exert widespread influence over issues of potential romance and gender identity. In particular, such games have introduced a wholly unique concept of masculinity. For instance, Asian concepts of masculinity often diverge markedly from those found in Western culture. On one hand, Western notions of masculinity are often associated with terms such as “strength” and “toughness” (Murray, 193). On the other hand, Japanese definitions—particularly within the “otaku” or most focused fan-media community—may eschew such “toughness.” In fact, the Japanese otaku culture often characterizes masculine identity with the word “yasashii,” defined as “gentle and soft” (Bunt, 2000).

This chapter focuses on male participants in the China and Japanese otaku community, analyzing how they forge identities through specific linguistic terms. My key examples come from the popular Japanese video game genre known as “Galgames,” which typically refers to otaku games that feature dating simulations targeted at heterosexual men, depicting their immersive “first-person” dating experience with stereotypically “cute” (kawaii) young girls. As several studies have shown, games in this expansive genre often depict male characters who regard women in a condescending manner, reflecting a masculine ethos that is nominally strong

38 but which leads--in the end--to romantic failure. At the same time, though, I will argue that such games often suggest often suggest that the aforementioned, non-Western masculine trait—

“yasashii”—can lead to romantic success with these “kawaii” women.

The chapter then goes on to demonstrate that the otakus’ apparent romantic confidence may result from “kawaii” stereotypes of girls acting weak (Black, 40)—and thereby non- threatening to male otakus. In fact, such passive and helpless images may appear to prompt male otaku to develop protective feelings towards these kawaii female characters. Yet I would also argue that—even while expressing such protective feelings—otakus nevertheless eschew stereotyped expressions of Western masculinity (including patriarchal “toughness”). That is, they tend to enact the “yasashii” way of approaching their masculinity: less patriarchal and less hierarchical. On both the linguistic and the behavioral level, then, “yasashii” defines a new and even counterintuitive dimension of Japanese masculinity.

5.1 The Otaku

People who devote themselves to fan hobbies such as anime, manga, and games are often labeled as “otaku.” In Japanese society, the male otaku community has “long been associated with social awkwardness, isolation, and predilection for fictional women (Steger et. al, 16)”— and indeed, these people may experience awkwardness in forming real-life bonds with people around them, and they are expected by many to have trouble forming heterosexual relationships, and thus to have difficulty fulfilling social roles as boyfriends or husbands. To make matters worse, otakus are, as the annotation from Steger suggests, marked by their special interest in fictional women instead of real ones, because for them, fictional women—either in anime, manga, or games—are much easier to approach, to interact with, and even to manage. In this sense, the following example is telling, fictional women are ideal. Yet this assessment

39 necessarily leads to larger questions: are these experiences too ideal toto be applied to real life?

Do such ideal relations adversely affect otakus’ perceptions of the real world, encouraging them to indulge to excess in these daydreams, and to wish that they never needed to wake up?

Daniel Black states that a real-life idol tends “to have her or his appeal heavily utilized in a variety of forums, but only until youthful cuteness has started to wane” (Black, 38). Black then points out that in order to “neutralize the dangers of ageing, scandals and tantrums” for real life idols, some Japanese idol production companies have come up with virtual idols who never age and who are easily controlled, since they are essentially programs or robots. Similarly, fictional women— in the world of otaku, “ACG women” (a Chinese acronym for Anime, Comic and

Games)—are quite the same: ACG women never age, and they never cheat. They are thus the safest of all safe harbors for an otaku, especially when he faces stress and social awkwardness in real life.

In this context, the following example may shed some light on the intensity of such issue.

In 2018, the Japanese Times (N.A, 2018) reported an otaku getting married to a hologram of

Hatsune Miku (one of the most famous Japanese virtual idols) inside his electronic device. The report named this news as “love in another dimension” since the groom, known as Kondo, characterized women in real life as “3D women” and his bride as “2D.” In his interview, he recalled that he was bullied by women in his previous workplace and experienced “such a nervous breakdown that he swore never to get married in his life.” 2D characters such as Miku, however, never cheat, age, or die. They are thus safe to marry. Kondo’s experience may seem to be an extreme case, since he had often felt bullied by women in his real life. But many otakus feel similar social pressure coming from many sources, utterly isolating them from the real world.

5.2 Japanese Kawaii and Moe Culture

In order to understand these otakus' view of women, we need to explicate the Japanese cultural concepts of "Kawaii" and "Moe"--terms that are often applied to female characters in gaming contexts. The Japanese word “kawaii” may be translated as “cute” in English (but this translation does not capture the word’s multiple connotations). The term has often been used by critics to characterize female anime characters. In her “Cuties of Japan,” Sharon Kinsella discusses Japanese kawaii subjects extensively, and analyzes the word’s diverse meanings. She points out that “Kawaii or cute essentially means childlike; it celebrates [people who are] sweet, adorable, innocent, pure, simple, genuine, gentle, vulnerable, weak, and inexperienced” (Kinsella

220). As these terms suggest, kawaii characters are often associated with a degree of infancy and childishness. Kawaii girls are thus often associated with a loveable yet weak appearance as well as vulnerable to some extent.

For some otaku, these harmless, infantile, innocuous associations make female anime characters seem more comfortable to manipulate, manage, and even control. In other words, the fact that the characters are “cute” (or even just acting cute) makes them inoffensive and non- threatening to otakus. Of course, much of this perceived harmlessness results from otakus’ simplistic—and often demeaning — attitude toward these female characters. Yet I would also suggest that galgame interactions make some otaku feel, perhaps for the first time, at least minimally capable of communicating with women — both inside and also outside the game world. Indeed, the typical, communicative awkwardness felt by these otakus is often attenuated by their gaming experiences. In this sense, we can say that they are essentially empowered — in a developmental sense — by playing the games.

“Moe culture” on the other hand, is quite different from “kawaii culture,” in that “Moe” does not connote harmlessness but rather desirability. On the etymological level, the original meaning of “Moe (萌)” in Japanese means “budding of plants.” Yet, in the context of otaku cultural usage, such “budding” is more likely to suggest the arousal of desire. Moreover, since

“Moe (萌)” has the same pronunciation as “Moe (燃え),” which means burning in Japanese

(though pronounced the same, the two words are written with different characters). The usage of this word is often characterized by otaku themselves as a way to express their kindled desire towards the female game characters, either in an adoring or in an erotic way. Linguistically,

Japanese otaku often use “Moe” as both a verb and a participle (either present or past), in sentences such as “this can definitely Moe you” and “I am moeing from head to toe,”. These expressions of desire often focus on a female character's specific body parts--a male gaze that otaku often refer to as "seeing spots." For instance, Yiu points out that “Moe is incarnated in different seeing spots of a manga-bishoujo character, because otaku fetishes are a derivative reworking of the characteristics of Moe in the form of an object or image” (You, 857). These seeing spots are named by the otaku community in Japan as “chara-moe (キャラー萌)” and

“Moe attributes.” Figure 3 provides an example of such moe attributes.

Figure 3: The definition of Moe and examples of ‘Moe Attributes’ shown in this figure.

One significant application of Moe culture is in fact present in present-day Japanese idols.

Although these Japanese celebrities are real women, they fully embrace Moe culture during their idol training, and finally emerge to become the so-called “ideal feminine images” that appeal to their otaku fans. Rosie Dent-Spargo writes in her article about AKB48, one of the most prominent Japanese Idol bands (female celebrities produced to become “personified symbols of certain type of idealized feminine traits” (Dent-Spargo, 190)), that AKB48's enormous popularity relies on the marketing of an “idealized form of femininity” and a relationship that empowers male fans at a time when many in Japanese society are feeling increasingly disempowered by economic and social forces. Dent-Spargo asserts that idols produced by AKB48 management can adopt nearly any feminine characteristics. Taking the example of a poster featuring AKB48 member Okada Ayaka looking either innocent or devilish, Dent-Spargo observes that, “as long as fans support her, she [Okada Ayaka] can perform any display of femininity they wish (Dent-

Spargo, 199).” In other words, AKB48 will create any type of idols that well appeal to their

43 audience, who can transform themselves from childish to mature, from angelic to demonic, even from passive to aggressive—as long as such characteristics help to maintain or grow AKB48’s fan base. This phenomenon is even more pronounced in galgames, where the commodification and customization of female Moe attributes is being exploited to its absolute extreme, since the creators of galgames, who are themselves predominantly males, do not need to struggle against the limitations of a real human body, but can essentially create any female image from scratch according to any otakus’ preferences.

Emphasizing Kawaii and Moe attributes that fragmentize and objectify the female image creates fantasized female characters that could never appear in real life, and who are desirable, fetishized, yet harmless and easy to approach. Otaku, widely considered “losers” who tend to fail in their prescribed social roles, find themselves empowered by these female characters who give them the courage and confidence necessary to make a move toward real-world romance.

But how do they approach romance in galgames? Are they encouraged to exploit fully their game-based control over these idealized female characters? In the next section, I argue that galgame creators have produced a peculiar kind of masculinity, meant to be embraced by otaku in order to bring some equality and balance to their power relations with female characters. This masculinity is epitomized by Yasashii Characteristics.

5.3 Establishment of Yasashii Player Characters

As the preceding discussion suggests, otakus typically feel awkward about, or sometimes afraid of, getting involved in social relationships. Therefore, it may be difficult to help otaku engage in relaxed communications with others, even in a game world—especially since they are sometimes afraid of getting psychologically hurt in these interactions. To give otaku the confidence they need for engaging in in-game romantic relations, galgame creators must

44 consider ways of not only arousing otaku’s desire but also keeping these players emotionally safe when they approach romance relations. In this context, stereotypical “kawaii” female characters with a variety of familiar Moe-elements are essential to Galgames, since their presence not only elicits desire in otaku, but also makes these female characters appear welcoming, friendly, non- judgmental—and therefore available. At the same time, in order to both empower otaku—yet still harmonize gender power relations in-game—Galgame creators have developed a distinctive way for otaku to express themselves: by taking on the characteristics of “yasashii, (優しい,

“gentle, soft”)” in-game, player-characters.

The idea that “yasashii” player characters actually serve to empower otaku players is supported by a Japanese blog discussing why galgame player-characters gain favor from female, in-game characters. The blogger, Ichikawa Tetsuya (市川哲也), who claims to have worked in an unnamed galgame production company years ago, writes:

“街頭インタビューなどでよくある『好きな男性のタイプは?』でよく挙がる回答がある。それは『やさしい男』だ。それが真実であるなら、彼らほど当てはまっている者はいない。(Ichikawa, accessed in 07/2019)”

[Japanese] street interviews often ask [women] the question regarding “What is your favorite type of man?” And a popular answer is: a Yasashii (gentle, soft) man. If such feedback is sincere, then those [galgame player characters] are probably the most fitting candidates for female interest.” (my translation)

Ichikawa suggests that “yasashii” may be a common and even indispensable trait for a galgame player character. In my personal experience as a galgame player, I have also encountered many texts mentioning the “yasashii” traits of player characters. Moreover, I have discovered that the use of the term “yasashii” in galgames can be understood in two distinct ways. First, being a yasashii man means being the opposite of powerful—that is, being gentle with and harmless to

45 women, under all circumstances. Secondly, being yasashii also means being able to offer selfless protection or assistance to women under certain conditions, in order to win their romantic interest. What is more, I would suggest that these usages of “yasashii” also shape the conception of masculinity within the otaku community.

In most galgames, the player character is also likely to be depicted as an average person, with no outstanding traits associated with either his physical appearance or his personality.

Depending on the game-world setup, the player character may also be described as not performing especially well at his school or in the workplace. This emphasis on the player character’s mediocrity in the game’s setup is often used to provide gamers with a completely neutral starting point from which to begin communicating with female characters in-game.

During the course of the game, players may adjust and go beyond this starting point, in order to achieve their objective of having successful romantic relations with their preferred female characters. This mediocre, featureless starting point is also the personality setting that most otaku can identify with, since many of them consider themselves rather average in real life, compared with those around them. As a result, galgame player characters can readily empathize with these sparse and mediocre character traits.

At the same time, though, it is crucial to recognize that nearly every galgame player character is predominantly identified as “yasashii,” whether this term appears directly in the dialogue or is reflected in the player character’s deeds throughout the plot. As examples, I have selected two screenshots depicting dialogues from two different galgames. Early in the scene shown in Figure 4, the player character has tried to save the female character Mashiro from tripping to the floor, but ended up accidentally touching her breast and being misunderstood to have sexually harassed her by students passing by at the moment of the incident. However, in the

46 later dialogue shown here, Mashiro clarifies to her friend that the player character would “never

[sexually harass] her. Instead, he is always gentle and kind (“yasashii”). The other dialogue, shown in Figure 5, happens after the player character (a master magician in-game) has confessed to his disciple, a female character named Midari, that he knows his recent decision to resign from his instructor position may hurt her feelings. However, Midari replies that “Sensei [‘teacher’ or

‘master’ in Japanese] is a kind (yasashii) person who would never try to harm her.” Both scenes demonstrate that the player-character’s yasashii characteristic has earned him favor and trust from the female character as a gentle and kind hearted person. This scene accordingly gives otaku players the impression that being “yasashii” is equivalent to being kind to women, and that such kindness and respect will win them romantic interest from women they interact with—even outside the game world.

Figure 4: The use of ‘yasashii’ and its semantic equivalents in galgame dialogues to describe the player character as gentle and kind, and as someone who never would offend or hurt the women around him. (Refer to the marked characters above. This figure is screenshotted by Siheng Zhu, 2019 from game: PRIMAL×HEARTS2, published by Marmalade)

Figure 5: The use of ‘yasashii’ and its semantic equivalents in galgame dialogues to describe the player character as gentle and kind, and as someone who never would offend or hurt the women around him. (Refer to the marked characters above. This figure is screenshotted by Siheng Zhu, 2019 from game: タマユラミライ, published by Azurite)

Another usage of the concept of “yasashii” in galgames refers, here again, to the ability to offer assistance and protection to female characters. This usage becomes clear when we consider two of the most archetypal scenarios used by galgames to increase romantic interest from female characters towards the player characters. The first scenario depicts an offer of help, when a player character encounters a female student who has been ordered by her teacher to carry books and printouts to her classroom. In some cases, the female student may trip and fall, with her printouts scattering across the floor. The player character will often lend a helping hand without hesitation, leaving the female character with a positive impression of his kindness and helpfulness. Another scenario, also very common in galgames, is saving the female character from being accosted by a group of street punks. In this scenario, the “yasashii” player character always attempts to rescue the female character, without concern for whether he can actually beat the punks. Usually, this results in the player character being beaten to the ground and the punks losing interest and walking away. Such a scenario also establishes or strengthens the relation between the player character and the female non-player character, prompting the female character to develop grateful feelings and admiration for the person who at least tried to rescue

48 her. The use of these scenarios provides otaku players of galgames with a new way of both expressing their masculinity and also feeling empowered -- helping them to form images of men who are masculine without being the conventionally strong “tough guy.” Instead, the “yasashii” character trait offers otaku an alternative concept of masculine efficacy and power, based on being kind, helpful, and protective to women in need.

5.4 Conclusion

Recently, otaku culture has been characterized as the “cool aspect of Japan” in the United

States and many other countries. However, in Asian countries such as China—and even the original otaku-identified nation, Japan—otaku are still in a somewhat inferior position, usually looked down upon. The typical otaku still lives a harsh life: he is often shamed for being incapable of proper social interactions, especially romantic ones. Many otaku even call real life a

“bad game” (kuso-game, クソゲーム) that they would prefer not to play. Yet this does not mean that they do not crave romance. The world of anime, comics, and games (ACG) seems to be an ideal place to find romantic relations, because nearly every interaction in this world is harmless and innocent, even encountered with the females that otaku find most challenging to interact with. Galgame creators, who are predominantly men, understand the social needs of otaku so well that they precisely target otaku’s interests by creating the perfect kawaii and Moe female characters that meet otaku’s simple and naïve fantasies. In one sense, of course, such fetishizing and objectification of female images is demeaning to real women. Yet it also gives otaku the power and courage they need to step forward and finally express their desire for a romantic relationship. In response to otaku’s objectification of women, galgames also offer such players a model: they create the archetypal “yasashii” player-character--to be controlled by otaku players during their gameplay—which in turn presents a version of “harmonized” power relations

49 between players and female characters. Hence, in modeling such a first-person perspective, these

“yasashii” player-characters demonstrate to otaku that kind, non-aggressive, and non-patriarchal behavior is the key to fulfilling their romantic goals—which thereby creates a new dimension for the expression of masculinity within otaku communities.

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