Stahp, Namco, stahp. Please, stahp.

Published: Wed 13 February 2013
By Author

In game.

When the player completes an "area of work" in Idolm@ster Cinderedlla Girls, he faces a 1:1 Live Battle. It differs from the normal Live Battle in that opposing idols are not part of the team, and that there's no choice of the opponent. Player's Leader is always engaged as well.

Last time I finished an area, I fought the new girl, Anastasia. She's a half, her father is Russian. For some reason she features so-called "ash blonde" hair, which is exceedingly uncommon in Russians. My high school crush had a hair like that and it was amazing. I highly doubt that a half would carry it, the gene is clearly recessive, but hey... It's Japan. Frisa of J2 had a light gray hair as well (Sanya of SW was given an anime-style color, albeit in the same palette).

Anyway, before the battle there's a bit of an animation, where idols are given a chance for a put-down slogan or other comment. Usually they go for "my victory is but assured", or "listen to my shining song". Now, look at the screencap above. What do you think Anastasia is saying? It's "kak vas zovut", spelled in katakana, which is a rather polite form of "what is your name". Unbelievable. The whole thing smacks me as ridiculously stupid, incoherent. What were they thinking?!

UPDATE: Ana-sempai wrote:

Anyway, it seems like the "ash-blonde" color is very much a Japan stereotype for Russians. Another example is Tiger & Bunny (the shows I watch...) has two guys that are supposed to be Russian, Ivan and Yuri, and both are basically white-haired pretty boys with that sort of hair. And, scraping the bottom of the barrel, Hetalia's "Russia" representation is also in that color; you can see it especially well if you compare him to the normal blondes and the more grey-color Prussia.

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