You All Can Like Or Dislike Him But God Damn Guys... - Tumblr Posts
Ok... I guess very random thought I had: I'm honestly starting to fully see and get the frustration about the, "Maruki is a bad Therapist and an actual Therapist said so themselves!" takes. Especially since, well... A lot of them were AMERICAN therapists.
Now they have a right to an opinion but when it comes to applying Western views and values to a game made in and takes place in Japan... With the idea of appealing to primarily its Japanese audience... Yeah... That's where it gets stupid. The critiques are undeniably good in some areas, but it's mostly about Japanese society. Not U.S. or Western society, that is at best of course. Like, just because the critiques in it happened to match up with the West's doesn't mean that it's trying to appeal to the Western audience too. They just HAPPEN to align and match up somehow. That's it.
Now let say this: I do agree that Maruki wasn't good at his job per se and he clearly did bad and even manipulative shit. He did things wrong. But to apply American rules to him isn't exactly fair either since that's apparently how Therapy in Japan works.
(Source: Tv Tropes)
(Source: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=orpc )
You can like or dislike a character but at least maybe get some FACTS straightened out first. I guess if people are going to apply American laws and values to P5/P5R/P5S then I guess... The girls would get in SERIOUS trouble for beating up Ryuji in public for example as it's a form of assault. Same can apply to Makoto during the Hot Springs event in Kyoto along with animal cruelty since to the public, Mona is just a regular cat and she beats him up anyways along with the guys. Or Yusuke when he resorted to blackmail in the 2nd arc which can warrant as a form of harassment regardless of the context. Or Sumire would probably get institutionalized at best, serious trouble at worst for basically impersonating someone along with a form of fraud since Kasumi was a well-known and popular/famous athlete. Unknowingly yes and it would primarily effect her parents since she's a minor but let's face it, Western laws wouldn't exactly care. Even Akechi probably wouldn't be spared at all for what he did regardless of the motive. Maybe even be given imprisonment or the death penalty depending on things. See what I mean?
Maruki was more casual and honest compared to other Therapists and that was part of what contributed to Japanese players liking him. The difference in values is interesting to analyze no doubt but good god people...
Do I still hate some of the writing decisions? Oh yeah. Including some of the jokes, especially double-standard ones? Definitely! But I get that some of it was primarily rooted in appealing to the Japanese audience really. I'll still be annoyed and frustrated but yeah. It's all about understanding the differences and looking at things through a different lense. Do I consider myself an expert? Nope, I'm still slowly learning and there's bound to be other people that know more than me. It's just that this take is getting beyond tiring and even comes off as ignorant at best. And that's putting it mildly. I'm not defending or justifying his shitty actions at all, just getting tired of this really.