"Oh no! Someone has been assassinated!"
"Who could've done this?!"
"Search for anyone out of the ordinary!"
*people ignoring Yasuke*
*Yasuke whistling*
'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Makes Franchise History With Most Disliked Trailer Of All Time - "The game is receiving significant pushback for featuring Yasuke, an historical figure of African descent in the game that is set in Japan rather than a male Japanese Samurai. Two of the top comments on the trailer translated from Japanese read, “European and American game companies: In order to avoid racial discrimination, black characters must be included in games to to ensure the diversity of characters and subvert stereotypes. The same European and American game companies: We decided to put a black samurai in a game with a Japanese background. His mission is to kill various Asians. Thank you Ubi.” The other states, “If this is true, if there is even a slight mention in a country’s history books that “black people existed at a certain time in history,” all the main characters in games set in that country will be black. There is a possibility.” Other top comments translated from Japanese state, “It’s kind of funny, you should have cast a black protagonist in Assassin’s Creed Unity set in France instead of Sengoku Japan.” Another reads, “It’s no good to expand on a person like Yasuke, who is only recorded in documents that are less than a few pages long, and turn it into a ‘historical fact.’ A company that practices political correctness can openly discriminate against Japanese people.” “Discrimination against black people? Absolutely not. Black people have been replaced by white people. Now they are trying to repeat the same mistake by targeting Asians,” reads another."
The legend of Yasuke > Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan - "Though he was now considered a free man by most standards, he did not own any land of his own. He was essentially a samurai in name only. After Nobunaga allowed Yasuke to live with him for more than a year, Akechi Mitsuhide, one of Nobunaga’s most trusted generals, betrayed Nobunaga at Honno-ji and forced him to commit Seppeku, or ritualistic suicide. When Yasuke received the news of Nobunaga’s death, he immediately withdrew to Nijo Castle, the home of Nobunaga’s heir, Oda Nobutada. Sometime later, an attack by Mitsuhide’s forces followed as well. Yasuke fought alongside Nobutada’s warriors and only surrendered his sword when the last of Nobutada’s warriors did likewise. When asked what to do with the former slave, Mitsuhide dismissed him as an afterthought, saying Yasuke, and those of the same hue as him, were animals and as he was not a true samurai, not worth killing. With that, Yasuke was taken back to Kyoto to the Jesuits. This is, regrettably, the end of Yasuke’s tale. No one knows what became of Yasuke after he returned to the missionaries. He faded into obscurity, his true story lost to time. He may have earned his complete freedom and traveled back to his homeland. He may have stayed in Japan, or he may have returned with the Jesuits. It is uncertain at this point. But this is the story of Yasuke, the first “Afro-samurai .”"
Senior Writer For 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Declared: "There's More Than Enough Games Out There With White Men As The Only Playable Characters. Let's Do Better." - "Assassin’s Creed Shadows Senior Writer Giles Armstrong previously detailed an animus against white characters as part of representation ideology."
Meme - Aiko Tanaka: "As a Japanese, I can confirm that Yasuke is not even mentioned in the Daimyoki(ๅคงๅ่จ) which record the names of all samurai and retainers under control, including those who made no notable contributions. Yet, they still declared him a samurai. Our culture is rich, with many stories and notable figures known only to the Japanese. This game could have been a bridge to share that richness, but instead, they chose to focus on a figure like Yasuke, who is barely known and not mentioned in our historical texts, seemingly to serve their own agendas. We are already aware that other cultures have started casting black individuals in roles that are traditionally preserved by other countries, seemingly just for propaganda purposes, such as the mermaid and Cleopatra. Now, it seems our culture is not being spared; they are merely using Yasuke to push a specific narrative, which is simply common sense.
Edit: I often receive rude comments, mostly from Black people. I'm explaining things nicely here. If you think you know more about our culture, then provide solid evidence that he was a samurai, not just random stuff you've seen on the internet. Stop living in your delusions; it's not healthy."
Meme - Brad Kiely: "That moment when you're a black man in Japan that gets paraded around because of your skin colour, then hundreds of years after your death you get paraded around because of your skin colour."
Meme - Perma Banned: "This is official Ubisoft marketing...and I had to read it a few times to make sure its real. What an odd thing to say Ubisoft. Freeing the Japanese...from who? From themselves? The same way the Conquistadors freed the Native Mayan/Inca/Aztec natives...from themselves? Did the people writing these marketing material even know the setting of the product they are marketing for? Or is this Ai generated text?"
"BECOME A LEGENDARY SAMURAI
As the charismatic samurai Yasuke, strike your foes with brutal precision and power. Use his combat- oriented skills to attack, block, parry, and defeat your enemies. Master the vast arsenal of weapons at your disposal - featuring katana, kanabo, bows, naginata, and more - to free Japan from its oppressors."
Meme - "What are you doing with my bike, Yasuke?" *Samurai with sword*
Meme - "Hey Amber, do you like my new hairstyle? *cornrows*"
"No, it's cultural appropriation. Claiming parts of a culture that isn't your own is problematic! But anyway, let me tell you about the Legendary Black Samuari Yasuke."
Meme - "I've finished the protagonist design for the new Japanese Assassin's Creed game. He's just like you asked"
"God Damn it Parker, you need to get your hearing checked. I said I wanted a Ninja!"
Ubisoft Appears To Confirm 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Protagonists Yasuke And Naoe Are LGBTQ+ - "the company declared, “Naoe and Yasuke’s disparate personalities also lead them to have different relationships and rapports with other characters, and they don’t always feel the same way about people, nor do people always feel the same way about them.” Next, they discussed romance options, “Romantically, they will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships.” This revelation comes amid Ubisoft contracting with Dartmouth Associate Professor Sachi Schmidt-Hori. Sachi Schmidt-Hori is an LGBTQ activist with her biography on Dartmouth’s website reading, “I am interested in investigating how gender, sexuality, corporeality, and power are represented and negotiated in pre-seventeenth-century Japanese narratives and illustrations. My first book, Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Narratives (University of Hawai`i Press, 2021) is on medieval chigo monogatari (Buddhist acolyte tales), which often depict romantic relationships between Buddhist priests and adolescent boys. These tales challenge a host of normative and moral standards we (academics, especially) internalize, including such ideas as ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘transgenerational sex,’ and ‘sexual agency.'”... Not only has the company contracted with this radical LGBTQ+ activist who appears to be promoting “transgenerational sex,” an alleged internal document shared to social media by Jeremy Hambly, aka TheQuartering in April detailed, “We are proud to represent the diversity and inclusion that exists in society as part of our everyday work. Representation is part of our DNA and will remain that way regardless of external pressure or influences.” It concluded, “Ubisoft firmly stands for diversity and inclusion in our workplace and our games, and we believe there is no room for hate in gaming.”"
Meme - ๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐ก ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐ @CopaExMachina: "Recast Hiroyuki Sanada as T'Challa"
Meme - Japanese man: "ๆฅใใงๅ็ฉ"
Black Slave: "Pliz help"
Soyjak: "OMG. The first black samurai"
i/o on X - "19,000 likes for a lie that won't go away no matter how clear the historical record: Yasuke (who indeed existed) was not a samurai. He was a servant and retainer. Now the white creators of a popular video game have joined Black Twitter in propagating this durable myth."
IGN on X - "In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll play as 2 protagonists:
- Yasuke, a real historical figure known as the legendary “African Samurai”
- Naoe, a fictional shinobi"
Meme - ">be slave
>only job is carrying weapons for other men
>japs dress you as samurai because they think it's funny
>end up in battle
>immediately surrender
>get enslaved again
>300 years later
>THE LEGENDARY BLACK SAMURAI"
People miss the point about the outrage over Yasuke : r/KotakuInAction - "People seem to think that people are outraged about Yasuke because of historical accuracy. Or the idea that Ubisoft are trying to make him something more than he was (tbh, I’m still not sure what his role irl really was). No. The problem isn’t in itself that they have made the character a black samurai. The problem here is that doing so is symptomatic of a larger problem that has infected not just the gaming industry, but film, tv, and most popular media. Ubisoft didn’t make the main character Yasuke because they were interested in him or telling his story. They did it because they needed the slightest excuse to force diversity into the game. Every assassins creed game has had a protagonist relative to the setting. Why have Ubisoft gone out of their way to make the protagonist a real historical person rather than an original character of Japanese descent? It’s not as if AC hasn’t had playable black characters before, and no one was angry about them. Because they fit in reasonably well with their settings, they weren’t forced in. I think it’s finally time for me to kiss AC goodbye."
Censored Men on X - "๐ฏ๐ต๐ฎ The whole Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed situation is actually very interesting, as it seems to have caused a lot of confusion among liberal gamers. AC decided to go to Japan for the first time ever and they chose a black samurai as the main character. Historically, Yasuke wasn’t how he’s portrayed in the game. The team at AC have deliberately over-exaggerated Yasuke’s role during his time in Feudal Japan. On one hand, you have liberal gamers saying it’s fine and that gamers are only annoyed at the decision because they’re racist and hate black people. On the other hand, you have liberals who are calling this cultural appropriation and believe it's essentially taking away from Japanese culture. And then you have another large part of gamers who believe that an Assassin’s Creed game set in Feudal Japan should have a Japanese MC. The decision to cast Yasuke as the MC for the game has also been extremely poorly received in Japan, as is evident from the like to dislike ratio on the game’s Japanese trailer. This whole situation certainly is interesting. I believe a Japanese person should’ve been the MC for a game set in Feudal Japan. Anything else simply doesn’t make sense for a plethora of reasons. What are your thoughts on the situation?"
The Japanese comments on the new Assassin's Creed gameplay trailer are absolutely brutal, some choice examples: : r/KotakuInAction - "628 likes to 6.7 dislikes, keeping in mind dislikes are usually undercounted. I've seen some people on Twitter argue that it's just "Western chuds" disliking, but I scrolled for a good 10 minutes and I haven't read a SINGLE positive comment.
"A torii is not the entrance to a village. Ubisoft knows less about Japanese culture than Koreans do." (in Korean) The Chinese trailer also sits at a similar ratio of 161 likes and 981 dislikes. - Ubisoft has done the impossible, unite Koreans, Chinese and Japanese.
"For UBI's convenience, or to put it bluntly, they only have a perspective that imposes the way of thinking of white and black society on Asian society. Their own society's way of thinking is right, and they force Asians into that mold, which leads to discrimination and insults."
"If you see a black person dressed as a samurai, everyone will assume he stole it."
"Japanese women with slanted eyes are really weird..."
"Naoe also has Southeast Asian features. The sword is curved and not a ninja sword. Yasuke is out of the question."
"Yasuke, who isn't even a samurai, plays at being a samurai and walks through a Japanese city and massacres Japanese people as if nothing had happened - typical of Ubisoft."
"It's so scary to see samurai killing so many people in the streets while Yasuke is saying he won't tolerate evil. They're more like demons than samurai. Why not set it in a battlefield?"
"When Yasuke passes by, the Japanese people make way and bow their heads. And the samurai are just playing a role to humiliate the Japanese in order to elevate the massacred black people in Europe and America."
"Why did he say it is a good harvest when they are in the planting stage?"
"It's so surreal and funny that a huge black man walking around Japan in full armor in the 16th century doesn't seem to be surprised by any of the villagers lol. To a Japanese person, this is just a joke."
"There is a scene where Yasuke crushes the head of a fallen enemy, but this cannot be overlooked. He is not a zombie, so there is no need to destroy his head. Yasuke is not a samurai, he is a racist."
"I find it interesting that Japanese people bow so much to Yasuke."
"I can ignore the historical falsification that Yasuke was a samurai, but this isn't Japan to begin with. It's "Japan made by foreigners" - that's not it, UBI-san. The graphics is good, that's all. I'll buy it if you are able to respect Japan a little more."
"I didn't even travel to France, but I experienced discrimination."
"Is this the legendary game in which black bandits play samurai in Nippon and massacre Nipponjin?
"Who would buy such a middle finger to Japan?"
"Aside from the fictional setting of black samurai, there is no need to portray Japanese people as shabby and make them bow repeatedly every time they pass by. It almost feels like there is malice towards Japanese people."
"Personally, I've never really understood the concept of "cultural appropriation." Now, I've come to fully appreciate how vicious and unpleasant it is."
"It is a well-known historical fact that Yasuke later travelled to Europe, killed French people and became Napoleon"
"When I commented, "Where is the samurai?" in the English version, I was met with a barrage of criticism. Overseas is scary.""
Meme - Kangmin Lee @kangminjlee: "Still can't believe Ubisoft created a game where a black man goes around killing Asians in 2024 lmao. Also blending Japanese traditional music with hip hop because there's a black samurai is just... lol. The pandering is just too on the nose at this point"
Meme - "This game is based on real history" *Yasuke doing a flying kick on a peasant* "Assassin's Creed Japan"
"The History" *Black man in hoodie doing a flying kick on an old Asian man* "San Francisco 2021"
Meme - *Japanese woodcut* *Black man in white robe screaming while carrying off television set, with policemen after him*
