In Japan, a Change.org petition has surfaced to ban Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It has now been a fair few weeks since Ubisoft lifted the lid on this year’s Assassin’s Creed title, announcing a dual protagonist adventure set in Feudal Japan – a setting that fans have been desperate to experience for many years. Japanese players Accuse the Game Of Being “A Serious Insult To Japanese Culture And History”.
However, Japanese fans of the franchise were quick to voice their disappointment and concern about the game, with the most extreme claims suggesting that Ubisoft is floating racism and severe historical inaccuracy in Shadows, which is set to be released in November.
cultural respect has been a serious issue regarding the upcoming game “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” by game developer Ubisoft. The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai were a higher class of warrior class and should have been “gokenin” or servants of nobles. In fact, the first European to receive the title of samurai, William Adams (Miura Anjin), served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a 250 koku hatamoto. In this history, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of samurai. This is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history, and may also be linked to Asian racism. We call on Ubisoft to immediately cancel the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” and show sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture. We need your signature. Sign this petition to let Ubisoft know the importance of cultural respect and historical accuracy.
And contrary to what many supporters of Shadows‘ narrative direction may attempt to claim, most of its signatories are Japanese.
“If it is a fiction, I can forgive it,” reads the top-rated supporter comment, as posted by a user identifying themselves as Taya Yu. “However, we absolutely cannot tolerate such falsehoods as ‘faithful to historical facts’ and ‘Yasuke was a great black samurai.’ If left unchecked and believed to be historical fact, the Japanese will [be seen as trying to] “hide” the fact that blacks were such great samurai, and it will become a story that ‘Tthe Japanese are discriminating against blacks.'”
“It is obvious,” they added. “In fact, the overseas internet is already showing this trend. This is a falsification of Japanese history, an insult to the Japanese people, and clear discrimination against them.”
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