Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada is ‘Quite Tired of Trying to Avoid Causing Potential Offense’

Spencer Baculi |

Mar 6, 2019

On March 4^th, a fan tweeted both a compliment on his work and asked about the possibility of a new fighter in the next Tekken entry to outspoken Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada. The fan asked Harada if there was any chance of a Nordic, Viking-themed fighter due to Tekken’s history of representation:

@Harada_TEKKEN First of i must thank you for the great things you Done and represent in tekken and in fighting games. I want to ask if there is a chance for a nordic fighter viking in tekken. 🙂 i think that almost all kinds of nationality in tekken legasy is Done 🙂

— jack (@blackspysky) March 4, 2019

Harada responded to the fan, stating that while he would be interested in the challenge presented in designing a character with a Viking theme, there are too many people who would label the character as a racist stereotype:

I’d like to challenge such a theme design.
However, the time has come when the challenge is very difficult.
Because there are people who complain about characteristic design as “This is a stereotype!” (Continue)…https://t.co/darD05shg5

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 5, 2019

Harada would then pivot from speaking about the issue with designing that specific character, to his distaste for the hyper-sensitivity of fans who complain about and deride perceived ‘problematic’ elements in every aspect of modern culture:

The individual (or culture) identity will become homogenized. Perhaps everyone around the world should just wear T-shirts and jeans. The shirts should be plain, with nothing on it. If there is a design, it could offend someone somewhere, right? (Continue)https://t.co/ZjBlLSpKos

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 5, 2019

Harada’s stance is an outlier in the modern fighting game scene. Recently, a stream hosted by EVO Japan was cut off during a live stream announcement of Mai Shiranui as a guest fighter in [easyazon_link identifier=”B07DXBPNTH” locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Dead or Alive 6[/easyazon_link]. It was shut down mid-stream by EVO President Joey Cuellar due to two Japanese models mimicking the soft body physics in-between demo matches, stating that the stream did not represent the organization’s “core values.” Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition tones down the more revealing outfits of their fighters in PAL versions of the game compared to the fighters in the original Japanese version.

A fan was quick to point out to Harada that those who complain about these aspects are not representative of the entire fanbase, to which Harada agreed and confirmed that these people would have no effect on his work:

Those people doesn’t represent the whole consumer, just do what you want to do.

— Ben Skywalker the son of Luke Skywalker (@Mr13XIII) March 5, 2019

Yeah, Ultimately I will choose what we want to do.

RT @Mr13XIII Those people doesn’t represent the whole consumer, just do what you want to do.

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 5, 2019

What do you make of Harada’s comments? Do you agree with him?