Summary
A new petition to cancel the upcomingAssassin’s Creed Shadowshas reached 50,000 signatures. After many years of fans being extremely vocal in their desire for the history-hopping series to visit Feudal Japan, the announcement ofShadows- then calledCodename Red- was initially well-received. However, as more leaks emerged surrounding the title’s story and protagonists - which were then confirmed in itsfirst story trailer- there has been a fair amount of controversy, largely regarding the appearance of the African samurai Yasuke.
TheChange.orgpetition by Shimizu Toru states, “the lack of historical accuracy and 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.” It then goes on to say that the game is “a serious insult to Japanese culture and history,” suggesting its creators' intent may be “linked to Asian racism,” before calling for the game’s release to be canceled until Ubisoft shows “sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture.”
The original petition was written in Japanese, and the quotes used in this article came from Google’s translation to English.
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Ubisoft’s Statements About Historical Accuracy Seem To Be Behind The Outrage
Yasuke May Be A Historical Figure, But Many Facts About Him Are Still Unknown
From Leonardo da Vinci inAssassin’s Creed 2to Queen Victoria inAssassin’s Creed Syndicate, Ubisoft has always sprinkled in historical figures across the series, but they were never playable until now. In the"Who are Naoe and Yasuke?" featurette that accompaniedAssassin’s Creed Shadows' story trailer onUbisoft’s YouTube channel, Yasuke is described as being the series' first playable character based on areal historical figure. The footage then states that he is someone new to the land,having arrived in Japan in 1579 before developing a relationship with the powerful Oda Nobunaga, which has been documented historically.
InAssassin’s Creed Shadows, Yasuke seems to be invited to join Nobunaga’s army and rise to the rank of samurai, becoming part of Nobunaga’s inner circle, and this seems to be where he developed the morecombat-heavy samurai skillsshown in the gameplay footage. In real life, while it has been documented that Nobunaga was fascinated by Yasuke’s appearance and did have him armed with a sword as he accompanied him,he may never have actually reached the rank of samurai, instead serving more as a kind of attendant. There have been no historical sources regarding Yasuke after his time with Nobunaga.
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Naoe Being A Fictional Character Seems To Be Why She Hasn’t Been Criticized
Although Her Father In The Game Is Based On A Real Shinobi
It’s worth noting thatthe petition doesn’t seem to criticize the portrayal of the shinobi- also commonly referred to as ninjas in most media - inAssassin’s Creed Shadows, focusing largely on Yasuke. This could be because the game’s stealth-based character, Naoe, is fictional. However, the aforementioned"Who are Naoe and Yasuke?" featurette states that she is the daughter of the real shinobi Fujibayashi Nagato, and comes from thereal shinobi province of Iga.
If anything, the portrayal of the ninja inAssassin’s Creed Shadows- and in general pop culture - could also be accused of being inaccurate.Shinobi were primarily spies and were very rarely assassins, often operating in disguise or undercover by using civilian clothing that would allow them to blend in with their surroundings and move discreetly. This attire would usually be fairly non-descript, matching lower-class workers with straw hats to aid in covering their faces, rather than in the black ninja uniforms shown in most media - which Naoe’s hooded black assassin attire seems to stem from - but the petition doesn’t mention that, probably because it has so widely become considered the norm due to the regularity of which the group has been depicted in this fashion.
