Our Man in Japan -- MegaTen and Tokyo
DeanRaker - Columns - Comments - 07/10/04
By Shou Suzuki (a.k.a. Kitsune)
The Goddess Descends
If we're going to talk about Shin Megami Tensei, it would be nice to understand what the words actually mean. It's not surprising that Atlus didn't attempt to translate the title for America, as the name is rather involved. Originally called Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, and based on a 1987 science fiction book by Aya Nishitani, the series was created for the NES by Namco. Some of the team defected to form Atlus and the Shin heading was added to the third game in the series. The character for Shin stands for logical truth, general truth, spiritual truth, and a kind of Buddhist reading of the word truth. Truly true truth and that's no untruth.
Megami is the word for goddess, but also refers both to the first game's plot which involved the reincarnation of a goddess and the great goddess of Japanese mythology, Amaterasu, who is symbolized in our flag, native religion, and even our country's Land of the Rising Sun moniker. Tensei is a rather difficult to explain Buddhist word, but roughly corresponds to the kind of transmigration that happened to Jesus in the Bible when he appeared alongside the Old Testament prophets. It also more generally means the kind of Hindu movement among a spiritual ranking of souls and reincarnation. In all, Shin Megami Tensei is sometimes roughly translated as the True Reincarnation of the Goddess. You can see why Atlus opted to keep the title untranslated.
The series and all of its many spin-offs are commonly referred to as MegaTen, which denotes any game that has demon negotiation as its central gameplay device. Many of the games don't even share the MegaTen name, but are made by Atlus.
Soul Hackers
Now that you know the name, let's get to know the soul of the game. Often, when you talk about a city you talk about certain areas and their subcultures within that city, such as Manhattan, Soho, Central Park or The Bronx in New York. As some movies and novels are undoubtedly based around the various subcultures which spring up in these popular cities, MegaTen's soul is firmly based in Tokyo and some of the subcultures therein (it can be argued that Nintendo's soul rests firmly in Kyoto where they were established, and where it can be abundantly seen in games like Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Marvelous, Zelda, and Earthbound. Whereas Sega, and indeed characters like Sonic and Jacky are sometimes an all-too clear picture portrait of Osaka's unique ways and the fascination of the dialect in Japan known in the Kansai region). To a lot of Japanese, Tokyo can project a rude cold exterior at odds with the warmer, more polite Japan outside. This is MegaTen to a tee, with its irreverent and challenging themes, and its ice cold, silvered steel aesthetic.
But it is more clearly based on three subcultures within Tokyo. There is Kichijoji, with its moldy, kind of relaxed, folksier feel; Ueno, a more traditional place, some would say run-down and lazier, filled with skaters and smokers of non-tobacco products; Ginza, the extravagant, uptown mall district for the fabulously wealthy, something like the Japanese equivalent of Beverly Hills; and Asakusa, which is afforded the respect for keeping the Edo and Tokugawa traditions alive with more anciently inclined products in the old style of open-air markets and temples (which, by the way, is not pronounced A-SAH-KOO-SAH, but A-SOCKS-SA).
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