Projective techniques in Anime and Japanese Games

First of all, Special thanks to @JimmyHitsu and my girlfriend who helped to do this mini-research :D

Ever since I worked as a marketing researcher, I tend to look something in detail.. even though I'm not a very detailed person (hahaha). I've noticed something similar from Anime and my daily life as a marketing researcher, which is Projective Techniques 

Projective technique is usually used in qualitative marketing research during the discussion or interview with the respondents. The purpose of this technique is to get the more clear idea of something abstract during the discussion. Sometimes it’s hard for some people to describe what they feel about something. That is why the moderator used this projective techniques to get the better idea what the person actually meant. For example, a person can’t describe how he associate with the two similar product category but different brand.

So let’s compare between samsung and apple, Oh I forgot that there are so many kinds of projective techniques for this. They used imagination of a certain fictional world to describe it. We used this question for example. “if Apple was a world, what kind of world would it be?” and the respondent will answer “It would be filled with hipsters, many high tech building” for example. The other technique is the personification technique. For example “If samsung was a person, what would he be like? What would s/he wear and what'd s/he say?

 and the respondent will answer “the person looks high class but humble, can befriended with everyone. he wears a suit and he'd say "I will help you in every situation" '

You got the idea? Good!

*I read through up to this point and it sounded like some kind of thesis* lol

So I can't help but noticing that projective technique is a common practice in marketing research and also anime or Japanese games. There's a ton of anime or game from japan that used this techniques to sell stuffs. Let's take a look at the two most popular free-to-play browser game from Japan these days. Kantai Collection and Touken Ranbu

Kantai Collection (KanColle) is a game which lets you become the admiral or Teitoku in Japanese to take care of the Kantai Musume (KanMusu) or the Ship Girls. Maybe you are asking why a battleship is personified as a girl? That's because a ship is referred as girl in real life, that's why they called it "Mothership". Since mother is a female (thanks captain obvious), hence it is personified as a girl. Every girls in this game is a Personified Battle ship. Most of them are Japanese battle ship that is used during the World War II. The purpose of this game is... well you collect ship girls by battling throughout the maps. Every ship girls has their own class, ship type, and more importantly, Personality! They have their own personality and characters, even some class have their own uniform

Shiratsuyu-Class Poi!

Since there's a lot of girls and ships here, I've decided to cover one ship girl that interests me the most, Akebono! *actually I liked Kongou's Design, but Akebono is easier to cover  for this blog XP

.

Nani wo SURUNDA!! *eh*

I'm very interested with Akebono's personality and character story, she hates admiral which she always refer as "Kuso Teitoku!" or "Shitty Admiral!"

I was like. whoa! why'd you say that? What happened? I've read the KanColle Wiki and got the answer why, she has an interesting story

The following are the quote that I take from KanColle Wiki

"Akebono doesn't really stand out favorably in history. Unlike her sister Ushio, Akebono is taken as the 'ship of misfortune,' while Ushio is the 'ship of fortune' "

She was portrayed as a ship who brings misfortune, so that's why she is so grumpy about it. Can you imagine yourself if you are misfortune bringer in your family? I bet that'd be harsh 

So let's take a look at the battle history which actually happens in real life
Credits to Evan Y. Liu
Source: http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/seiga/im3668495

January 1944 Escort

Akebono & her sister Sazanami were escorting a fleet of supply ships. Enroute, Sazanami was attacked by USS Albacore (SS-218) & sank on the spot. Akebono launched 59 deep charges & drove it away; however, the delayed rendezvous with the supply fleet left it with no protection. As such, it was virtually annihilated.

This is reflected in her Library Intro, ....But, I'm a bit uneasy around subs...., as she not only lost her sister to them, but failed as an escort.

Manila Air Raids

The Americans were determined to finish off Nachi. At that time, Akebono was ported with Nachi & was the only ship able to immediately defend. Unfortunately, while facing innumerable aircraft, Nachi sustained several heavy hits & sank.

Naturally, Akebono was heavily damaged as well & Ushio towed her into the dock for repairs. However a week later, the American launched another air strike. Akebono's cannons, engines, & torpedoes were all but destroyed. She sank while being observed by Ushio nearby.

If Akebono & Ushio hadn't switched back then, her fate may have been different. However Akebono doesn't blame Ushio for all of this - she is more angry at her superiors, who blamed her inappropriately & overlooked the circumstances at the time. That's why she insists on 'Kuso Teitoku' - she has a profound distrust of superiors.

I love it when the game developers put so much effort in character's detail from what she wears, what she said, and her personality is. 

I really want to cover Yuudachi, but I don't understand why'd she say "Poi!"

Because Poi! That's why!

EDIT:
I finally found in the kancolle wikia why she said poi,
"poi in Japanese means "maybe", "perhaps" or "seems like", it's something you throw in the end of the sentence if you aren't too sure of the result and end up concluding the sentence by guessing. The main reason behind Yuudachi's speech pattern is because no one actually had a clear record of what she actually accomplished in the Guadalcanal Campaign. It was technically a huge mess during the fight and no one actually knew what was happening. Even though Yuudachi did wreak havoc in the battle, there are other ships who also claimed the kills. Since her battle records were unclear and involved a lot of guess work from naval historians from both sides after the war, the game version of Yuudachi landed with the "poi" catchphrase just to reflect that little piece of history. (You can see from her introduction line that she wasn't so sure of her battle result in Guadalcanal either.)"

Touken Ranbu : Tourabu is similar to KanColle but instead of ship girls, they used sword boys.

Why sword is portrayed as a man? well............'

Because men used sword to fight in the past *yeah, that must be it.. not a p***s okay?!*

I'm interested with one of the sword boys character which I witnessed by myself when my girlfriend playing this.

it's Mikazuki Munechika!

He does look like Nobuchika Ginoza from Psycho Pass somehow

Mikazuki Munechika is one of the legendary sword in Japan, It's a sword made in the year 989, *whoa that's like 1000 years ++* 

Made by Sanjo Munechika who lived during the Heian period (794-1185), He gave his name to the sword and the word Mikazuki comes from the sword design that looks like a mikazuki or crescent moon. The name Mikazuki is also given to the Japanese destroyer battleship in honor to this legendary sword

It does look like a crescent moon, you can see this in Tokyo National Museum

So how does Mikazuki Munechika portayed in the game? well.. You can notice the crescent in his clothes. He does sound like an old man, and everybody in the game refer him as Jiji or Grandpa in Japanese since he is an old sword. And because he is old, he is contained in the museum and remained untouched there. You know, old stuff are sensitive and might be broken. That's why when you clicked this guy he would say "Hmm, skinship to yuu yatsu ka?" or in English "Is this what you called skinship?" 

*when I heard this for the first time, I lol'ed so hard wih my girlfriend" XD

Now we look at the anime called Hetalia, it's an anime about a personified nation. I enjoyed watching this because it portrays the interaction between the nation in a comical way. Most of the nation are personified into a man. And the personified nation that I'm interested in is of course America!

No! Not this guy! Even though he'd be perfect to be a personified America too lol

This guy

At the first season, he is portrayed as a little kid and is taken care by England, but later on he become bigger and taller than England. His personality, well, so America *duh*. At World War II, He made the Allied Force against Japan, Germany, and Italia. And at the council meeting he'd be like

"He guys! All of you! You have to support me!"

"So what'd you do?"

"I'll be the hero of course!"
*Dang it America! XD

He loves to order around and most importantly, He don't want to be at loss 

For example

"Hey America I need your help!"

"Okay, If I helped you, what do I get in return?"

I'd recommend this anime if you are majoring in International Relationship, it's very educational and entertaining at the same time! XD

That's all I have to say, I think we Indonesian should learn from them because it communicates the brand or product in effective and entertaining way, I found this fan art of idolized indomie, It's Brilliant I must say! XD

Go check out Valoreins, He got cool stuff there! XD

credits to Valoreins