The Fujoshi Trophy and Ridiculously Hot Men: Otome Games and Postfeminist Sensibilities
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Published:April 2024
Sarah Christina Ganzon, 2024. "The Fujoshi Trophy and Ridiculously Hot Men: Otome Games and Postfeminist Sensibilities", Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) about Us, Christopher B. Patterson, Tara Fickle
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Chapter 12 examines Hakuoki—one of the first best-selling otome game titles in English—and its localization as a transcreated text that communicates assumptions about its presumed female player, particularly the ways it wants to insert women in this historical narrative. In the localization, players are addressed as fujoshis, a derogatory Japanese term for female geeks who are invested in boy’s love or male-male romances. By pointing out certain creative decisions in the localization, the author examines how localization repositions fujoshi identity and desire for men as something that is heteronormative. Ultimately, this rechanneling of desire toward hegemonic masculinity indicates postfeminist and postracist sensibilities embedded within transcreation that mask racism and sexism in the game.