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Culture & Society
Women's Games in Japan: Gendered Identity and Narrative Construction

Hyeshin Kim
Theory Culture Society 2009 26: 165
DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103132
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165-188 103132 Kim (D):156x234mm 29/04/2009 15:48 Page 165
Women’s Games in Japan

Gendered Identity and Narrative Construction
Hyeshin Kim
Abstract
Women’s games (女性向けゲーム) refers to a category of games developed
and marketed exclusively for the consumption of women and girls in the
Japanese gaming industry. Essentially gender-specific games comparable to
the ‘games for girls’ proposed by the girls’ game movement in the USA,
Japanese women’s games are significant for their history, influence and
function as a site for female gamers to play out various female identities
and romantic fantasies within diverse generic structures. This article will first
review previous research and literature on women and gaming, analyze the
key issues raised in the discourse concerning femininity and electronic
games, outline the history and development of women’s games, explain how
multiple factors contributed to the appeal of women’s games by analyzing
the games Angelique and Harukanaru Tokino Nakade3 and, lastly, discuss
the meaning and significance of women’s games in the larger context of
women and gaming. The 1994 game Angelique succeeded in establishing a
loyal and close-knit fan base by actively utilizing popular female culture such
as shoujo manga (girls’ comics) and the fan base for voice actors. Angelique
also set up the specifics and conventions of women’s games: a focus on
romance, easy controls and utilizing other multimedia. In 2004, Harukanaru
Tokino Nakade3 deconstructed the genre and gender conventions of
women’s games and shoujo manga, while developing a new type of
feminine identity and narrative. Women’s games indicate that gender-
specific games can be more than educational tools to familiarize girls with
technology or perpetuate stereotypes; they can be a significant extension
of female culture into the realm of gaming, and contribute to the develop-
ment of women’s culture and the diversification of the gaming industry.
Key words
computer games ■ gender ■ Japan
■ Theory, Culture & Society 2009 (SAGE, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore),
Vol. 26(2–3): 165–188
DOI: 10.1177/0263276409103132

165-188 103132 Kim (D):156x234mm 29/04/2009 15:48 Page 166
166 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)
Women’s games (女性向けゲーム), a term used within the Japanese elec-

tronic gaming industry, refers to a category of games developed and
marketed exclusively for the consumption of women and girls. Essentially
these are gender-specific games comparable to the ‘games for girls’ proposed
by the girls’ game movement in the USA, a moment that first emerged from
an alliance between feminist activists and industry leaders (Cassell and
Jenkins, 1998). Japanese women’s games are significant for their history,1
influence and function as a site for female gamers to play out various female
identities and fantasies within diverse generic structures. Women’s games
act as a medium for women and girls to acquire pleasure from identification
and gratification as women; or at least women’s games are more likely to
provide a specific type of pleasure than games targeting a general or domi-
nantly male audience. Located within the Japanese gaming industry as a
continuously developing niche market, women’s games offer alternative
solutions and valuable case studies on developing video games that are more
accessible to women (Girard, 2006) by analyzing how an entirely different
type of ‘girls’ games’ was able to exist and persist in a particular socio-
cultural context. This article will first review previous research and litera-
ture on women and gaming, analyze the key issues raised in the discourse
concerning femininity and electronic games, outline the history and
development of women’s games, explain how multiple factors contributed to
the appeal of women’s games by analyzing the games Angelique and Haruka-
naru Tokino Nakade3 and, lastly, discuss the meaning and significance of
women’s games in the context of women and gaming.
Research on Women and Gaming
Literature on women and gaming is usually approached from two perspec-
tives: games for women and representations of women – or femininity – in
games (Taylor, 2006). The former was perhaps most explicitly researched
and experienced through the girls’ game movement in the US, triggered by
many different social and cultural conditions in the 1990s, such as the
increasing competitiveness of the gaming market, the rising familiarization
of girls and women with computers, concern about violent video games, and
the emergence of female game designers who challenged gender stereotyp-
ing within the industry (Kline et al., 2003). The first girls’ game2 to appear
in the American market was Barbie Fashion Designer, published by Mattel
in 1996, essentially an electronic version of dressing up Barbie (Cassell and
Jenkins, 1998). The success of Barbie Fashion Designer sparked discussion
and concern among feminists and educators over the stereotypical gender
representations of Barbie expanding to the realm of electronic gaming, and
was countered by Purple Moon Software’s Rockett Movado games, backed
up by extensive empirical research findings on girls’ preferences in gaming
(Cassell and Jenkins, 1998). According to the findings – documented
meticulously in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat (Cassell and Jenkins, 1998)
– girls have distinct preferences and tastes different from those of boys; they
liked collecting, creating and constructing, and placed more emphasis on

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 167
character, story and relationships than achieving a given set of goals. To

summarize, the results indicated that girls favored socialization and explo-
ration over competition; thus Rockett’s New School was developed as a
‘friendship adventure game’. Another recurring theme in the discourse over
women and gaming was the problem of identification. The quantitative lack
of female avatars, the stereotyped or sexualized description of female
characters, such as Lara Croft, and the appeal of games such as The Sims
or massive multiplayer online role-playing games contributed largely to the
intricate character/avatar-creation system (Taylor, 2006) and were all inti-
mately connected around identification. Again, socialization and exploration
re-emerge and interconnect with the identification factor in the discussion
around women and gaming, particularly when explaining the large female
population in massively multiplayer online role-playing games – games that
are not explicitly designed for women yet strongly appeal to them (Taylor,
2006). This recent development strengthens and verifies the critique against
‘pink games’, or gender-specific games, represented by Barbie games and the
1990s girls’ game movement. One of the main questions raised regarding the
girls’ game movement was the necessity for and significance of gender-
specific games, pointed out by academics and mature female gamers alike
(Yates and Littleton, 1998). While feminists have emphasized the need for
‘girls’ games’ as devices to familiarize girls with computer technology – a
valid and important argument based on educational and feminist grounds –
the resulting ‘friendship adventure games’ developed by Purple Moon
Software3 were criticized for their essentialist assumptions on gender differ-
ences (Yates and Littleton, 1998). Although this critique is certainly valid
and significant, it is important to note that the ‘pink games’ in question are
almost always either Barbie or Purple Moon games published during the
1990s. This is where Japanese women’s games, in existence since 1994, can
offer a wider definition of games for girls – or even a counter-argument against
the critique of gender-specific games.
Identification, Structure and Gender
Before proceeding with the history and specifics of Japanese women’s
games, a definition of identity and identification with regard to gaming is
necessary, due to its importance as a central recurring theme in studies of
gaming and the gaming audience. Butler defines identification as ‘a
phantasmatic trajectory and resolution of desire, an assumption of place, a
territorializing of an object which enables identity through the temporary
resolution of desire, but which remains desire, if only in its repudiated form’
(1993: 99). Identification in the gamer–avatar relationship also embodies
the complexities of desire and positioning, and the medium of interactive
gaming complicates the issue further. The avatar is understood as an exter-
nalized Lacanian ‘mirror image’ of the subject, which the medium of gaming
induces as the gamer not only controls the avatar but through the process
is also encouraged to see through the eyes of the avatar (Schleiner, 2001).
This creates complexities when the gamer and the avatar are of different

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sexes, exemplified by the symbolic cross-dressing that occurs when a male

player controls Lara Croft (Schleiner, 2001), or homosexual tensions
between the male player and the feminized male avatar of Final Fantasy
IX (Consalvo, 2003). The avatar is simultaneously a vessel to insert the
gamer’s self into the game, and also an object of desire as the identifying
player comes to care for the avatar. According to Consalvo (2003) in her
analysis of Final Fantasy IX, the distance between the (heterosexual) male
player and male avatar collapses through the structural encouragement of
the player to desire the heroine and the traditional, heterosexual romance
featured in the scenario. Within this structure, player identification with the
avatar is maximized by both agents working towards validation of hetero-
sexuality and masculinity – assuming that heterosexual males are the
normative audience of the game. However, a heterosexual female or homo-
sexual male player is not only unable to identity fully with this position, but
is even ‘forced’ to flirt with the heroine as a heterosexual male, and
constantly reminded that she/he is not a ‘normative’ audience for the game
(Consalvo, 2003), their desires unaddressed and unaccounted for. This
structural problem raises another important factor interconnected with the
gamer–avatar relationship and identification: the narrative structure/
context. According to Kinder: ‘narrative conventions affect the construction
of the subject by positioning spectators and game players in a system of
identification’ (1991: 5). The problem she sees in electronic games is that,
despite their ‘sliding signifiers that move fluidly across various forms of
image production and cultural boundaries’, games fail to challenge the
gender stereotypes repeated in ‘old’ media such as television and story-
books. The case study of Final Fantasy IX reveals that not only is the avatar
gendered, but also the very structure and narrative construction can be
gendered too. This construction and assumption regarding the audience –
although Kinder was mainly discussing child gamers – as ‘commodified
gendered subjects’ is actually a natural stance for the media producer. Every
media commodity assumes and targets a certain type of audience: male
and/or female, young, old, urban, rural, local, foreign, and so on. War movies
and romantic comedy movies are each constructed using drastically distinc-
tive structures, styles, genre conventions and cultural codes because of their
vastly different audience demographics. The main reasons why research on
women and gaming have focused largely on the ‘lack’ of women in gaming
(Vered, 1999) – questioning why women gamers are a minority, or search-
ing for women gamers – is essentially due to the industry’s reluctance to
acknowledge or challenge the gendered structure in games, and the absence
of gender-specific games in the (North American) gaming industry. Distinc-
tively gender-specific genres such as romance have expanded across
literature, film and television, yet not to the realm of electronic games.
Of course, female gaming clans of Quake have argued that they are
content with violent, male-coded games and denounced the necessity of
games for girls; female avatars such as Lara Croft are discussed as positive
role models for women (Schleiner, 2001), and the argument for ‘good games

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for everybody’ over ‘limiting’ girl games (Newman, 2004) has increasing
validity with the popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing
games. However, no matter how much the female players of Quake and Tomb
Raider may enjoy the games, the fact that they are not considered a norma-
tive audience by the developers will affect player–avatar identification in
the long term, just as the female players of Final Fantasy IX were excluded
from immersion in the narrative. Additionally, the exclusion can discourage
potential women gamers, who may perceive electronic games as a medium
that deliberately or unconsciously alienates – or, at the very least, is incon-
siderate of – women. This type of estrangement can also disrupt game
immersion: that is, the ‘sense of being there’ (Newman, 2004) within a
virtual environment, essentially joining in fantasy play. The value of fantasy
lies in offering liberating pleasure by allowing the individual to ‘play with
reality’ (Ang, 1982), which can be literally accomplished through the virtual
reality of interactive games. Naturally, experimenting with social or gender
identity is a main factor in electronic games, although the market offers only
a limited number of stereotyped masks/personas/avatars for the player
(Consalvo, 2003). In contrast, Japanese women’s games offer their audience
avatars and genre structures that enable a certain type of feminine identifi-
cation and narrative unavailable in games for a general audience or a
largely male audience. They are also distinguished by their active utiliza-
tion of multiple mediums, such as comics and animation, and the close
relationship between the publisher and the fans.
Women’s Games
Definition
Before detailing the nature of identity in Japanese women’s games, a clear
definition and brief history of women’s games are necessary in order to
understand their particular mechanics and context.4 Women’s games –
‘jyoseimuk g mu’ (女性向けゲーム) – is a combination of the words ‘jyosei’
(woman) and ‘muk ’ (for), thus jyoseimukê gêmu literally means ‘games for
women’. This means that the female audience is specifically targeted during
the development and marketing process of a women’s game. For example,
although major role-playing games such as the Final Fantasy franchise were
enjoyed by a high percentage of female gamers (Newman, 2004: 56), they
do not qualify as women’s games because they were neither produced for
nor marketed towards an explicitly female audience. The ‘women’s games’
discussed in this article meet the two requirements: developed for women,
and marketed towards women. This definition is part of the stabilized
vocabulary of the Japanese electronic gaming industry, used by game devel-
opers, major online game retailers (Animate, Messe San’ou, Toranoana),5
gaming or fan fiction search engines (Surpara, Gamers Terminal),6 news-
paper articles (Miyazaki, 2005), and by the gamers themselves. Also, two
monthly gaming magazines deal exclusively with women’s games: B’s Log
and Cool-B.7

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Specifics
It is important to note that ‘women’s game’ is not a genre definition but a
categorical one, in the same sense that the term ‘women’s magazine’ is used;
women’s magazines can encompass a diverse range of different periodicals
dealing with subjects as varied as fashion, cooking, books and lifestyle, as
long as they are published primarily for a female audience. Thus the term
‘women’s game’ does not necessarily designate a certain genre, and women’s
games can constitute a number of different genres, such as adventure, simu-
lation and role-playing. Still, several factors and certain trends character-
ize and distinguish women’s games from other electronic games. First of all,
women’s games contain a ‘dating feature’, a plot or system that allows the
gamer’s avatar to form interpersonal (romantic) relationships with the (over-
whelmingly male) game characters. The first women’s game, Angelique,
featured a female avatar and nine male characters available for romantic
relationships. Succeeding women’s game titles, such as the simulation role-
playing game The Maiden of Albarea in 1997 and the mystery adventure
game Graduation M in 1998, also featured a female avatar and a number
of male characters for the gamer to interact with – and eventually reach
romantic endings. Second, the game system and game control tends to be
simple, and the overall gameplay avoids complexity. This means the games
do not have fast camera or character movement, the flow of the game is
largely static rather than fast, jerky or violent; in other words, quick joystick
reflexes or elaborate strategic calculation is not required from the gamer.
This tendency is part of the reason why certain genres, such as adventure
and simulation, are popular in women’s games, while action or first-person
shooting games are completely absent. Third, women’s games are intimately
related to other multimedia products in terms of content and industry. For
example, Angelique was not only heavily influenced by shoujo manga8 in
its visual and conceptual designs, but also ran as a manga serial in LaLa,
a monthly shoujo manga magazine. Another important aspect is the star
power provided by voice actors, attracting voice actor fans9 to electronic
games and leading to related products such as drama CDs, voice actor
events, and animated films (Koei, 2008). An additional example of multi-
media influence is the appearance of yaoi culture10 in women’s games
around 2000.
History
The first women’s game was Angelique for the Super Nintendo Entertain-
ment System in 1994, published by Koei and developed by Ruby Party, an
all-female team within Koei (Marfisa, 1999). Ruby Party was organized by
female staff from different departments of Koei, previously assigned to
historical war games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and
Nobunaga’s Ambition (Tanizaki, 1995). According to Ruby Party staff
member Mami Matsushita in a private interview, Angelique was largely the
result of the personal aspirations of honorary president Keiko Erikawa and
the company’s interest in the slowly increasing female gaming population

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of role-playing games (Matsushita, 2008). Erikawa was ‘particularly

insistent about developing a game for girls made by girls, being a woman
herself’ (Matsushita, 2008) and summoned female Koei game planners to
work on the project. The planners brainstormed and collaborated with
female staff from programming and graphic departments, acquired feedback
from other female Koei employees,11 and developed a dating simulation
game heavily influenced by the shoujo manga genre: Angelique, published
in 1994. The game initially suffered from various promotion and marketing
problems (Matsushita, 2008), as the concept of games for girls, or the very
idea of a female gaming population, was very new at the time. Fan culture
played a key role in enabling the new field to evolve; by 1995, Koei was
aware of an Angelique fan network among female gamers and amateur comic
artists, spreading the game by word-of-mouth through Angelique fan books
and cosplay12 in amateur comic conventions (Matsushita, 2008). This
spurred Koei to release an enhanced PC version of Angelique – Angelique
Special – in 1996 with animated cut-scenes and prominent voice actors
dubbing the characters. Following the enhanced version of Angelique, Koei
began publishing a quarterly periodical called Love Love Tsuushin, which
offered the latest information on new Angelique products, goods and
projects, Angelique comics drawn by professional and amateur artists, and
an extensive fan mail section (Koei, 1999). Angelique Special and Love Love
Tsuushin led to the expansion of a loyal fan base of women in their 20s rather
than the intended target audience of girls in their early teens (Tanizaki,
1995). Angelique officially marks the birth of ‘Neo Romance’ games,13 the
Koei brand of women’s games developed by Ruby Party (Koei, 2008), as
well as the very concept of women’s games. The publication of successors
such as The Maiden of Albarea in 1997, from Messiah, and Graduation M
in 1998, from E3 Staff, continued to diversify and expand the women’s game
market. Up to now, 24 different Neo Romance titles have been released in
multiple gaming platforms (Koei, 2008), and major international companies
such as Capcom and Konami have published their own franchise of women’s
games.14
Angelique
The significance of Angelique lies not simply in its being a pioneer, but also
because it established many of the characteristics and trends recurrent in
women’s games. The avatar is a blond teenage girl called Angelique (name
changeable), who is chosen as a candidate for the next Queen of the
Universe. Angelique competes against another Queen candidate, Rosalia,
in the test for choosing the new Queen. Each girl is entrusted with a
continent to populate, accomplished by requesting the Nine Guardians –
male celestial beings who serve the Queen – to send their powers to the
continents. The candidate who populates enough buildings to reach the
island in the center of the two continents will be chosen as the new Queen
of the Universe. Alternatively, the player can choose to give up the throne
and reach a romantic ending with one of the Guardians.

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Figure 1 (left) Angelique cover; (right) Angelique’s room. © Koei Inc.
Figure 2 (left) The map; (right) affection meters. © Koei Inc.
Figure 3 (left) Angelique chats with one of the Guardians in his room; (right)
dating in the lakeside. © Koei Inc.

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After the opening introduction of the game, the player finds herself in
Angelique’s pink-draped room in the dormitory building. This is the space
where the player is informed of Angelique’s current conditions (remaining
power points, depicted as red hearts on the screen) and is offered a range
of choices such as going outside, saving or loading the game, checking the
continent and listening to music.
When Angelique chooses to venture outside, the entire map is featured
on the screen. The numbers in the upper left show the current population
of Angelique’s continent, while the hearts indicate the power points
mentioned earlier. Hearts are required for actions such as talking with the
Guardians, requesting Guardians to send their power, visiting the continent,
and requesting the fortune teller to find out the score on the ‘affection meter’
– numeric parameters that signify the degree of affection other characters
(which include the Guardians, Rosalia, and the residents of Angelique’s
continent) feel towards Angelique – or the characters’ affection meters for
each other. More hearts can be acquired by defeating Rosalia during the
monthly evaluation, which is determined by population (number of build-
ings in the continent) or popularity (the affection meter of the Guardians).
The score on affection meters can be raised by talking to the charac-
ters and successfully completing dates in the park or the lake; by selecting
the appropriate replies to the Guardian’s question, such as ‘How many
people populate your continent?’, ‘Which Guardian would you like to
befriend?’ or ‘Is it difficult being a Queen candidate?’, testing not only basic
knowledge of the game but also the player’s comprehension of the charac-
ter. These conversations allow the player to explore the characters in-depth,
as diverse patterns of dialogue exist depending on the degree of affection,
place and time. Also, the Guardians are carefully constructed characters
with distinct individual characteristics designed to appeal to the female
audience; this is apparent in the fan letters directed towards the characters
that are printed in the official Angelique periodical Love Love Tsuushin, and
also coincides with the voice actor fan base as well.
Angelique was basically a combination of an extremely simplified type
of city-building simulation game and a conversation-based dating game, and
a leisurely paced one; the Queen test ends after 999 days in the game have
passed. It should be noted that since the game was initially targeted at girls
in their early teens (Tanizaki, 1995), and as the characters and genre struc-
ture were strongly influenced by 1970s shoujo manga, the featured love
romance was highly fantasized, romanticized, purified and desexualized.
The reasons for choosing a romantic dating format can be speculated by a
quote from the developer: ‘Boys may be happy enough with saving the world
(as in typical video games). But we thought that girls couldn’t care less about
a planet or two as long as they could find true love’ (Tanizaki, 1995: 36).
Although this statement (albeit made lightly) could be seen as discriminat-
ing against and stereotyping girls, the point is that the developers had
captured two important things: female interest in interpersonal relation-
ships, and its commercialized form, which is the essence of the most visible

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and popular form of Japanese girl’s culture – shoujo manga (少女マンガ):

girls’ comics, the highly influential genre of comics for girls and women in
Japan (Thorn, 2004). The main concept of the game was to ‘compete with a
mean rich girl, surrounded by cool guys’ (Tanizaki, 1995: 34), a popular
recurrent structure in shoujo manga (Yonezawa, 2007). Also, Kairi Yura, the
character and art designer – often a central and crucial figure in such
character-oriented games – was a shoujo manga artist herself (Tanizaki,
1995), and was assigned to serialize the manga version of Angelique.
Centering on interpersonal relationships, highly personal in nature, often
featuring romance and relying heavily on conversations (Thorn, 2004), the
idealized and fantasized romance and visuals of shoujo manga were
considered reliable and safe common ground for girls to feel familiar with
and associate to the medium of electronic games (Tanizaki, 1995: 36). This
(retro) shoujo manga influence is confirmed by Yura herself: ‘I was initially
told to design Angelique as a Candy Candy type of girl.’15
Candice has blonde hair tied in two bunches with bows, large, wide,
sparkling green eyes and gives an overall impression of cheerfulness and
innocence. In the center of Figure 4 is the early design of Angelique,
sporting the similar blonde bunch, bows, large eyes, and naive expression.
The finalized version on the right has loose hair, yet still retains the bow,
blonde hair, green eyes and sunny expression.
Influences of retro shoujo manga are also apparent in Rosalia,
Angelique’s rival (see Figure 5) – the character on the left is Eliza, the
archetypical snobby rich girl who constantly torments Candice throughout
her life. The heavily curled hair, the bow at the back of the head, and the
proud, haughty expression are evident in Rosalia as well. The icons of the
sunny heroine and the aristocratic female nemesis are, in essence, cultural
and generic archetypes easily recognizable by readers of shoujo manga – a
shared cultural code, particularly for those who grew up in the 1970s and
1980s. This is part of the reason why players could easily identify with
Angelique, or at least find her familiar, and why women in their 20s –
instead of the intended audience of teenagers and children – responded to
Angelique. Like Mattel’s Barbie games, which were successful not simply
because they ‘perpetuat[ed] gender stereotypes’, but because of the iconic
Figure 4 From left to right: Candice; early design of Angelique; Angelique16

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Figure 5 Eliza and Rosalia. © Koei Inc.
status of Barbie (Cassell and Jenkins, 1998), Ruby Party utilized the preva-
lence and popularity of shoujo manga to familiarize women with the alien
medium of electronic games.
Ruby Party had evidently chosen a familiar, if somewhat retro, female
avatar for the female player to identify with. The appearance of Angelique,
the design of her room, and the lively, girlish language she uses in speech
clearly indicate the strong shoujo influence. The structure and system also
work in a certain way to intensify player identification and immersion. First,
Angelique is not voiced like the other main characters. Second, Angelique’s
dialogues are kept to a minimum; most of her lines are functional, such as
the monologues she speaks to the player in decision-making scenes. In
conversation, other characters do most of the talking while Angelique mostly
remains silent or chimes in if necessary. Third, Angelique is depicted on
the screen as a deformed, doll-like cursor. Because Angelique’s response is
so limited, the player can position herself in the avatar and imagine her own
response to the characters while simultaneously encouraging the romance
between Angelique and the Guardian, as the barrier between player/avatar
collapses – the player and avatar move towards a singular objective of
female heterosexual romance. The specific romantic fantasy Angelique offers
is, like its avatar, strongly based on 1970s shoujo manga fantasies. Love,
romance and relationships are key themes in shoujo manga, exemplified by
what the critic Osamu Hashimoto asserts as the core essence of the genre:
‘I love you just the way you are’ – unconditional, idealistic, eternal love
(Fujimoto, 1991). In Angelique, although the initial goal is to become Queen,
the real objective lies in achieving romantic endings with any one of the
Nine Guardians. In order to achieve a romantic ending, the player must
increase the score on the affection meter of a Guardian by repeated conver-
sation and dating. When the affection meter reaches 90 percent, the
Guardian makes an extensive and elaborate confession of love to Angelique,
and the player is given a choice either to accept (and give up the throne) or

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reject his proposal. Paradoxically, Angelique cannot be Queen and fulfill

true love at the same time; in other words, power over the universe must be
abandoned to achieve true love. Such an outcome would rightly provoke the
feminist critique that the illusion of romantic love is an effective tool of
patriarchal hegemony (Fujimoto, 1991). However, the fact that Angelique is
an interactive game complicates matters, since ‘true love’ in a multiple
ending system is far from being singular or absolute; as a result, the player
can selectively experiment with other possibilities – she is able to ‘flirt’ with
true love, something implausible within the confined, linear narrative text
of non-interactive mediums (Newman, 2004). This was the main appeal of
Angelique: to allow players to identify and play as females within a familiar
genre structure adapted successfully from a popular female culture, and
actually act out the romantic fantasies and desires that could only be
imagined in non-interactive mediums.
To date, 11 different Angelique games have been published in various
genres such as role-playing and puzzle. Angelique games are unified by the
shared fictional universe, the dating features and romantic endings, and
returning and additional characters; the latest Angelique game, Angelique
Etoile, featured 19 love interests – the original Nine Guardians with the
addition of 10 more characters added throughout the course of the series
(Koei, 2008). This current situation of Angelique games indicates the limi-
tations and shortcomings of the franchise’s premises over time. The icons
and sensibility of retro shoujo manga – the archetypical girly heroines, the
emphasis on pure, sexless, tranquil romance and on a peaceful, stable
setting – which at first played a credible role in familiarizing women gamers
with gaming – also acted as restraining factors preventing new experiments.
The recurring and additional characters demonstrate the harmful effects of
avoiding experimentation and revitalization, and also the negative side of
intimate publisher–fan networking and heavy reliance on voice actors.
Because each character (and voice actor) has a steady fan base that Ruby
Party had established and encouraged to such a degree that it could not risk
alienating it, each new game resulted in accumulating yet another set of new
characters, which unavoidably became repetitive and monotonous. This was
probably why Ruby Party started another franchise in 2000 to attract a
newer, younger audience whose tastes have moved far from retro shoujo
manga – and also to overcome the limitations of Angelique and the women’s
game structure established six years before.
Harukanaru Tokino Nakade3
Harukanaru Tokino Nakade3 (which translates as In a Distant Time; hence-
forth Haruka3) is the third installment of the Harukanaru Tokino Nakade
series, one of Ruby Party’s major game franchises along with Angelique and
La Corda d’Oro (Koei, 2008). The first Haruka game was published in 2000
for the Playstation. Each Haruka game shares the same system, premise and
fictional universe, although some additions and improvements have been
made over the series. Like Angelique, a shoujo manga artist – Toko Mizuno

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Figure 6 Haruka3 cover. © Koei Inc.
– was assigned as character designer of the series and to serialize the manga
version of Haruka in the bimonthly shoujo manga magazine LaLa DX (Koei,
2008). Popular voice actors – mostly younger than those of Angelique –
dubbed the voices and returned for each new Haruka game, although the
characters changed in each series. This was a strategy to refresh each series
and avoid the repetitiveness that was problematic in Angelique, while still
retaining the voice actor fan base. System-wise, Haruka is an adventure
game combined with a turn-based combat phase. The game is largely
divided into two phases: the adventure phase, where the story progresses
and the player can make choices that affect the story and affection meter of
the characters, and the combat phase, encountered randomly while moving
the player character from one destination to another in the map screen,
which is required in order to progress the story. Upon reaching a certain
destination, the adventure phase begins again, directing the player to yet
another quest in a new destination.
The combat is turn-based, providing the player with given commands
such as [Attack] [Spell] [Cheer] [Flee], etc. The [Cheer] and [Spell]
commands can influence the affection meter of the characters (depending
on whom the player chooses to cheer for or cast a spell with). Each Haruka
game is set in an otherworld which strongly resembles Heian-era Japan,

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Figure 7 Top left: the adventure phase; top right: the map screen; bottom left: the
combat phase; bottom right: the [Spell] command activated. © Koei Inc.
except that gods, demons and sorcery exist (although Haruka4 sets out to
be a prequel to the series, featuring a world resembling the Yayoi period
and ancient China). In every Haruka game, the player character is a high
school girl transported from contemporary Japan, revered as the Priestess
of the Dragon God, and entrusted to save the otherworld as the only human
being capable of sealing off demons. She is also given the service of the
Hachiyo, eight guardians destined to defend the Priestess (Koei, 2004).
Naturally, the Hachiyo are the major love interests, just like the Guardians
in Angelique. The difference is that achieving a greater cause/goal – saving
the otherworld in Haruka – unlike winning the throne in Angelique, does
not conflict with other goals. The heroine can ‘save the world’ and ‘get the
guy’ at the same time – to be precise, the game is structured so that she has
to save the world to get the guy. The game progresses as a linear adventure
in Haruka and Haruka2 in the main scenario, while character events appear
as side quests accessible by increasing the score on the affection meter
during the adventure phase or the combat phase. Haruka3 offers a more
diversified structure; the player’s actions and character affection meters up
to the fifth or sixth chapter can unlock a desired character’s scenario, which
then leads to additional chapters and multiple choices resulting in a number
of bad endings and one good or ‘true’ ending. Either way, true love is only
attainable by resolving the central conflict, whether it be demonic forces or
a civil war.

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Haruka3, published in December 2004 for the Playstation2, is import-

ant to discuss not simply because of its popularity (it was the first non-
Angelique Ruby Party game to produce its own spin-offs: Ijayoi and Unmei
no Meikyu) but because of how it departs from – yet partly retains – the struc-
tures and characteristics of women’s games. Set during the Genpei War,17 a
historical event much romanticized, dramatized and fictionalized throughout
Japanese history (Arnn, 1979), the Haruka3 franchise is distinguished most
notably by its wartime background, the first heroine in the series to wield a
sword, numerous character deaths and time-traveling (Koei, 2004).
The Avatar
In the previous Haruka games, the heroines were unarmed and attacked
by emitting magic arrows, causing minor damage to the enemy during
battle. The heroine of Haruka3 – official name Nozomi Kasuga – attacks
with a sword and can inflict credible damage on the enemy. She also differs
drastically from the previous heroines in terms of design; while the Dragon
Priestesses of Haruka and Haruka2 wear a bright-colored kariginu and
noshi18 over a modern-day school uniform skirt, Nozomi wears a black
jinbaori19 over a pink kimono top and school uniform skirt, along with a pair
of ankle-length sneakers. While the heroines of the early games have short
hair and wear mild, smiling expressions with wide-open eyes and open lips,
Nozomi has longer hair, wears a determined facial expression with tightly
shut lips and focused eyes, and is drawn in an active posture, brandishing
a sword. Her design shows an interesting and elaborate attempt at depict-
ing an active, warrior heroine appropriate for an adventurous wartime
setting without overt sexualization and without losing the feminine, romantic
qualities of a shoujo heroine. While the jinbaori, sword, serious facial
Figure 8 From left to right: the heroines of Haruka, Haruka2 and Haruka3.
© Koei Inc.

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expression and sneakers embody traditionally ‘masculine’ characteristics,

such as adventure, war and action, they are balanced with traditionally
‘feminine’ features represented by the long flowing hair, the flower-patterned
pink kimono, the skirt, all blended harmoniously through Mizuno’s graceful
and elegant art style. Also of importance is Nozomi’s personality and char-
acter. Due to the nature of the adventure genre, which places strong
emphasis on narrative (Newman, 2004) and the elaborate storyline with
multiple chapters and endings, the game contains an immense quantity of
dialogue. This is why Nozomi was constructed as an intricately developed
character, unlike Angelique, who was intentionally adapted from an arche-
type and given minimal dialogue for easy identification and immersion.
Nozomi’s speech pattern is also distinctive; she maintains only the basic
acceptable form of feminine speech in Japanese society and avoids any
overtly girly or ‘ladylike’ language spoken by Angelique and previous
Haruka heroines. The character description of Nozomi in the Haruka3
offical guidebook reads as follows:
Nozomi is generally bright and positive, but hates to lose . . . once she decides
on something she never changes her mind, sometimes causing her to quarrel
with Kurou Yoshitsune, one of the Hachiyo. However, Nozomi’s strong will
also enables her to shape fate. (Koei, 2004: 7)
She is constructed as a likeable and easily approachable personality (‘bright

and positive’) if somewhat willful (‘hates to lose, never changes her mind,
quarrels’) although her strong will is ultimately more a virtue than a fault
(‘shape fate’). Nozomi is both a teenage girl and a warrior;20 cheerful, honest,
compassionate and occasionally coy, she has a strong sense of responsibility
and morality,21 which functions to further intensify narrative and emotional
tension when she falls in love with complex characters such as a political
assassin or the enemy commander.
Gameplay and Immersion

It can be argued that such a strong avatar character can place the gamer as
a mere spectator; however, different levels of immersion can exist, and the
particular interactive system of Haruka3 is structured in a way that requires
the player’s constant ‘investment’ (Newman, 2004) throughout the gameplay.
The combat phase plays a key role here; boss battles22 are frequent in the
climax or side quests of the game, hidden collaborative spells are attain-
able by deepening the Hachiyo’s relationship with each other, and the
experience points23 gained by repeated victory can be distributed to the
party characters to learn new ‘skills’. Most skills are abilities that assist in
the combat phase, such as increasing attack stats, but some skills are essen-
tial factors in developing deeper relationships with the characters. This is
because the maximum value of the affection meter is locked at the begin-
ning of the game: if the complete maximum value of the affection meter is
100, most characters began with 20 or 30 as the current maximum value.

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The player can increase the maximum value only by completing various
character-related side quests, not simply by increasing the score on affec-
tion meters. After increasing the maximum value – say, from 30 to 50, the
player can finally push the affection meter up to 50 through interactions in
the combat or adventure phase. The increased affection meter scores
combined with appropriate dialogue choices in turn unlock yet more side
quests and new chapters. Certain ‘skills‘ are also required to trigger the side
quests, or even crucial preconditions to achieve happy endings. The gamer
has to invest considerable time and effort to collect experience points, learn
new skills, increase the affection meter score and its maximum value, and
make careful decisions based on her/his understanding of the storyline.
Such intricately organized systems heighten player involvement and immer-
sion (Kline et al., 2003), in turn leading to increased identification and
gratification.
Additionally, Nozomi’s carefully constructed character is not a limiting
but a necessary, even a contributing factor to the game. Because the game
focuses on dramatic romance within a highly narrative genre, the frequent
and involving interaction between the heroine and her lover forms the
central narrative arc – which is precisely why the avatar character is so
important. Game characters, particularly avatars, are fundamentally
ambiguous and complex because they are both the ‘shoes’ for the player to
step into and an icon to be admired (Newman, 2004): subject and object
concurrently. Nozomi is established as an easily identifiable heroine – a
modern-day young woman, confident and honest about her feelings – who
is controlled by the player throughout the combat phase and adventure
phase. Simultaneously, she is constructed as an admirable and desirable
character with heroic qualities such as resourcefulness and leadership in
the battlefield, spiritual powers, courage and an iron will. The player is
located both as Nozomi living out her adventures, and as a spectator
watching a warrior heroine’s dramatic romantic affairs. She is both the
identifiable subject and desirable object – and, most crucially, a female
avatar whose femininity is neither downplayed nor overtly sexualized.
Narrative Structure
Nozomi’s strong personality was perhaps necessary considering the plotline
and characters of Haruka3. She needs to overcome numerous obstacles to
achieve love, as the Hachiyo in Haruka3 are all based on historical or
legendary figures of the Genpei War, many of whom meet tragic ends. One
example is Kurou Yoshitsune of the Minamoto clan, a popular figure
throughout Japanese literature, theatre and visual art (Arnn, 1979).
Yoshitsune was the younger brother of Yoritomo – head of the Minamoto
clan – who led a successful military campaign against the Taira clan but
was banished and driven to suicide by the suspicious Yoritomo (Arnn,
1979). Kurou Yoshitsune in Haruka3 also meets the same tragic fate unless
the player chooses to form a strong bond with Yoshitsune, makes him more
cautious in his moves, assists his campaigns and ultimately confronts

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Yoritomo himself. As demonstrated in the case of Kurou Yoshitsune, char-

acter deaths occur frequently throughout the game, heightening the dramatic
effect, intensifying tension and immersing the player more deeply into the
narrative. The player is capable of altering history through the ‘fate over-
writing system’ (運命上書きシステム), one of the new features of Haruka3
that drastically distinguishes it from its predecessors and fully utilizes the
dynamic drama of the Genpei War (Koei, 2004). This system can be
unlocked after completing the game for the first time. The first gameplay
proceeds in a singular linear narrative, with only one main story and ending.
Upon arriving in the otherworld, Nozomi joins the Minamoto army to defeat
the Taira clan’s demon soldiers. However, most of the Hachiyo are lost or
killed in battle, the capital is burned and sacked by the Taira clan, and
Nozomi is transported back to her own time by the Dragon God. Through
this traumatic outcome she acquires the power to travel across time (hence
the title In a Distant Time). Time-traveling is expressed in the game as a
new option allowing the player to move between chapters24 regardless of
chronological order and additional choices in the adventure phase due to
Nozomi’s knowledge of the future.
The fate overwriting system allows the player to ‘simulate’ a possible
future or influence the narrative – such as opening new chapters – and
developing relationships. For instance, to deepen relationship with a char-
acter who appears late in Chapter 4, the player acquires information on his
whereabouts during the timeline of Chapter 1, then moves back to Chapter
1 to encounter him much earlier. This concept of ‘shaping fate’ can also be
interpreted as the masculine space of medieval war deconstructed and
rearranged within the framework of a 21st-century female genre structure.
Most female figures in the Genpei War stories are described as victims of
fate, political tools through arranged marriages, war widows, tragic heroines
mourning the loss of their husbands, lovers and sons (Arnn, 1979). The first
gameplay which forces Nozomi into the tragic heroine position is essentially
set out to demonstrate the archetypical Genpei War heroine narrative –
while establishing it as the very antithesis of Haruka3. By taking a popular
historical narrative apart and challenging its gender conventions, the
Figure 9 Left: an additional choice unavailable in the first gameplay appears

from the second gameplay; right: selecting chapters. © Koei Inc.

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narrative structure of Haruka3 builds up to maximize catharsis of the central

drama and romance.
Media Influences
Like Angelique, the presence of shoujo manga is abundantly evident in the
Haruka series. The otherworld fantasy is recurrent throughout Japanese pop
culture, perhaps the most famous shoujo example being Yuu Watase’s 1992
bestseller Fushigi Yuugi, about a modern-day schoolgirl transported to an
Asiatic otherworld and designated as the Priestess of the Vermilion Bird.
The warrior heroine is also a popular theme throughout the history of shoujo
manga; Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka in 1954, The Rose of Versailles
by Riyoko Ikeda in 1972, Basara by Yumi Tamura in 1990, and Revolution-
ary Girl Utena by Chiho Saito in 1996 all featured fighting heroines in male
guise (Yonezawa, 2007). However, the Genpei War backdrop seems to reflect
trends in Japanese mainstream publication and television rather than shoujo
manga; 2004 and 2005 saw the ‘Yoshitsune boom’, with increased publica-
tion of Yoshitsune and Genpei War-related topics (Yomiuri Shinbun, 2005),
with the much-anticipated historical drama Yoshitsune airing on NHK and
games centering on the Genpei Wars being published, such as GENJI,
Yoshitsune Eiyuuden, Yoshitsuneki and Shoujo Yoshitsuneden2. The fact that
Nozomi is a warrior heroine but not in male guise also distinguishes
Haruka3 from the traditions of shoujo manga up to the 1990s, possibly
reflecting a discursive development over the issue of femininity in Japanese
female cultures: the woman and the warrior identities reconciled and co-
existing in harmony without the need of a mediating male identity. Shoujo
manga and voice actors still remain important factors in women’s games, as
female fans of animation and manga mostly unfamiliar with games form a
majority of Ruby Party’s audience demographics (Matsushita, 2008); but
Haruka3 also incorporates popular trends in mainstream culture and
traditional historical narratives, while simultaneously utilizing and improv-
ing on the genre codes and archetypes of shoujo manga in a way only
electronic games are capable of.
Conclusion
Women’s games incorporate the so-called ‘girl-appealing’ factors discovered
by empirical research in the girls’ game movement and the familiar codes
of shoujo manga, a prevalent female culture; in other words, they share some
common aspects with Purple Moon or Mattel, yet are positioned differently
in the Japanese gaming industry, and interact in a unique way with the fans.
Unlike the girls’ game movement, Koei was devoid of any feminist, politi-
cal or educational intentions, nor did they carry out extensive quantitative
research; instead, the company was merely experimenting in a largely un-
explored market. Like Mattel, Koei was motivated primarily by commercial
interests and thus actively utilized established codes of femininity and
heterosexual fantasy. However, the Ruby Party team was composed entirely
of female programmers25 – just as 80 percent of the Purple Moon Software

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staff were women (Kline et al., 2003). Angelique relied heavily on images
and fantasies of shoujo manga, although the structures and mechanics also
functioned to increase player identification with the avatar and the virtual
romance within the game narrative. At the same time, the interactivity of
the game enabled the player to move beyond identifying with a female avatar
to playing with various possibilities within the narrative of the heterosexual
romantic fantasy. Women’s games in Japan undeniably exist as a local niche
market, something Adams (1998) might have criticized as ‘limiting’ and
‘ghettoizing’; however, the very enclosed nature of a niche market can be
potentially empowering as the relationship between publisher and audience
is closer and more fluid than that for major bestsellers. More precisely, the
publisher must maintain a close relationship with the audience exactly
because of the ‘limited and ghettoized’ niche market; fan loyalty and
networking, such as word of mouth, are crucial factors that can impact sales
and market reception. The interaction between Angelique and fan culture
demonstrates the importance of audience networking from the early stages
of women’s games. Within this context, women are not simply the norma-
tive audience invited to identify readily with the female avatar, but the
absolute audience. ‘Identification and socialization’ also occur at two mean-
ingful levels: identifying with the female avatar and socializing romantically
with the game characters, and identification and socialization within a female
gaming community. Women’s games are significant not simply because their
existence potentially empowers the player with the understanding that she
can be the normative, dominant audience, but also because she can experi-
ment with and enact various female identities and female fantasies through
the medium of electronic games. The case of Haruka3 shows that women’s
games can actively utilize and deconstruct gender and genre conventions in
female and mainstream cultures, develop identifiable and desirable female
avatars and narrative structures, and offer pleasure and fulfillment through
a unique type of adventure and romance probably only available on an elec-
tronic gaming format designed specifically for women. Furthermore, women’s
games can be understood as expansions of female culture into the realm of
electronic gaming capable of enhancing both areas with their philosophy,
perspective, gender-awareness and diversity.
Notes
1. The first Japanese women’s game was Angelique for the Super Nintendo
Entertainment System, developed and published by Koei in 1994.
2. Although there is much dispute over whether the Barbie software should be
considered as ‘games’ (Cassell and Jenkins, 1998).
3. Rockett’s New School has also been criticized for ‘perpetuating girls’ insecurities
about their looks’, ‘capitalizing on girls’ fears about middle school and adolescence’,
and also ethnic stereotyping (GREAT, 1998).
4. Another reason for taking the space to introduce this definition in detail is
because women’s games were never officially released in non-Asian markets.
5. Animate (http://www.animate.co.jp/), Messe San’ou (http://www.messe.gr.jp/

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boys/) and Toranoana (http://www.toranoana.jp/bl/index2.html) all have links to

anime goods and games for women.
6. Women’s games are designated keywords on both Surpara (http://www.surpara.
com/) and Gamers Terminal (http://www.gamersterminal.com/) search terms.
7. B’s Log (http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/bslog/) presents itself as a ‘Gaming
magazine for ladies’, while Cool-B (http://www.ohzora.co.jp/sf/cool-b/) calls itself
the ‘boys’ love & otomē game magazine for girls’.
8. Shoujo manga (少女マンガ), which literally translates as girls’ comics, is one of
the major genres of Japanese comics. Shoujo manga is usually characterized by its
elaborate and decorative art style and concentration on the flow of feeling and
emotion (Thorn, 2004). While early shoujo manga were melodramas centered on an
unfortunate girl, or a fantasy romance set in a vaguely Western setting, the genre
has evolved throughout the years to incorporate daring expressions and complex
themes challenging traditional notions of female identity and gender. The 1970s
and 1980s are considered the height of shoujo manga both in terms of popularity
and diversity (Yonezawa, 2007).
9. Voice actors in Japan enjoy a certain celebrity status, and some have dedicated
fan bases (Patten, 2004).
10. Called ‘yaoi’ or ‘boys love’, this genre originated from 1970s experimental
shoujo manga. Yaoi focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between male
characters, and is created and consumed almost exclusively by women who
identify themselves as heterosexual. A Western equivalent would be the slash
genre (Jenkins, 2006; Thorn, 2004). In yaoi games, the avatar is male and dates
male characters. Since the emergence of yaoi in women’s games, heterosexual
women’s games have been distinguished as otome games (乙女ゲーム, which trans-
lates as ‘maidens’ games’), while yaoi women’s games have been called ‘boys’ love
games’.
11. Repeated surveys and feedback from female employees of all departments were
crucial in the creation of Angelique’s male characters (Matsushita, 2008; Tanizaki,
1995), the central appeal of the franchise.
12. Cosplay is an abbreviation of ‘costume play’, and refers to the act of dressing
up as characters from animation, comics, video games and other mediums (Patten,
2004).
13. Neo Romance is simply a branding of Koei’s women’s games, although it could
also be read as Koei’s attempt to establish itself as the pioneer of the field – ‘Neo’
Romance – and to distinguish their women’s game titles from the historical war
games for which Koei is most famous (the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
franchise, Dynasty Warriors franchise, Taikou Risshiden franchise, etc.).
14. Konami published Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side for the Playstation2 in 2002,
a spin-off of its innovative and popular dating simulation franchise Tokimeki
Memorial (published by Konami in 2008). The game was a huge success, and a
sequel was released in 2006. Capcom published Full House Kiss in 2006 and its
sequel in 2007 (Capcom, 2008). A shoujo manga artist was hired to design the
characters and serialize the manga version of Full House Kiss in Hana to Yume, a
prominent shoujo manga magazine. Both companies also publish periodicals featur-
ing product news and fan participation, and have capitalized heavily on voice
actors, releasing drama and song CDs and holding voice actor events.

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15. Candy Candy was a highly popular novel, shoujo manga, and animated series
during the late 1970s, written by Kyoko Mizuki and adapted to manga format by
Yumiko Igarashi. The series features the romance and adventures of a blonde,
freckled, good-natured American orphan girl named Candice in early 20th-century
England and America (Misaki, 2003).
16. The manga version of Candy Candy went out of print in 1999 due to a lawsuit
between Mizuki and Igarashi over image rights, which Mizuki won in 1999. As a
result obtaining copyright for images of Candy Candy is difficult, which is why I
have substituted my hand-drawn copies of Igarashi’s drawings. This method to avoid
copyright infringement is permitted and is commonly adapted in Japanese publi-
cation, most notably by manga critic Fusanosuke Natsume (Natsume, 1992).
17. The Genpei War (1180–85) was a conflict between the Minamoto and Taira
clans, marking the end of the Heian era and the establishment of the Kamakura
shogunate under the victorious Minamoto clan (Arnn, 1979).
18. Kariginu (狩衣) and noshi (直衣) are round-collar cloaks worn by court nobles
(Hays and Hays, 1992).
19. Jinbaori (陣羽織) is a sleeveless war jacket worn by generals (Hays and Hays,
1992).
20. Unlike the Dragon Priestesses of the previous Haruka games, who were revered
simply as spiritual figures, Nozomi is respected and feared as a war hero with
spiritual powers.
21. At the beginning of the game, the first thing Nozomi does in the otherworld is
to grab a sword and fight a demon soldier who is about to attack a child.
22. The boss is ‘an extremely common character or mechanism in video games . . .
essentially an end of level, or sometimes inter-level, guardian that must be defeated
in order to progress to the next level’ (Newman, 2004: 77). A boss battle refers to
the combat with the boss character, and requires more skill, time and strategy than
the average enemy character.
23. An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games
(RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character’s progression
through the game. Experience points are generally awarded for the completion of
quests, overcoming obstacles and opponents, and for successful role-playing
(Barton, 2007).
24. The game is divided into numerous chapters arranged in chronological order;
for instance Chapter 1 begins with Nozomi’s arrival in the otherworld, and Chapter
4 is when all the Hachiyo assemble. In the first gameplay, the chapters proceed in
chronological order; but from the second gameplay, the player is able to shift
through previously played chapters. Additionally, the player can quit the chapter
mid-way; in other words, she/he does not have to finish a previously completed
chapter to proceed to the next chapter.
25. Currently, Ruby Party has expanded to include collaboration from male staff
in the 3D graphics and marketing departments; however, the main staff in charge
of planning and designing the games still remain exclusively female (Matsushita,
2008).

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Reviews. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.
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Gender-role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games’, Leonardo 34(3): 221–6.
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Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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2007): http://matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/whatisandisnt.html
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2008): http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/book/news/20050112bk03.htm
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Hyeshin Kim has a BA from the University of Western Ontario, Depart-

ment of Media, Information & Technoculture and an MA from Seoul
National University, Department of Communications. Her paper ‘The
Development of the South Korean Comics Discourse’ has been published in
Cultural Typhoon (2008) and ‘Women’s Games: Definition, Structure, and
Aesthetics’ in Ubiquitous Media (2007). She is also a columnist for the
Bucheon Cartoon Information Center Webzine (http://www.kcomics.net).
[email: [email protected]]

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Theory,http://tcs.sagepub.

Women's Games in Japan: Gendered Identity and Narrative Construction

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Women’s Games in Japan

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166 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

Women’s games (女性向けゲーム), a term used within the Japanese elec-

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 167

character, story and relationships than achieving a given set of goals. To

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168 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

sexes, exemplified by the symbolic cross-dressing that occurs when a male

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 169

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170 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 171

of role-playing games (Matsushita, 2008). Erikawa was ‘particularly

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172 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

Figure 1 (left) Angelique cover; (right) Angelique’s room. © Koei Inc.

Figure 2 (left) The map; (right) affection meters. © Koei Inc.

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 173

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174 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

and popular form of Japanese girl’s culture – shoujo manga (少女マンガ):

Figure 4 From left to right: Candice; early design of Angelique; Angelique16

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 175

Figure 5 Eliza and Rosalia. © Koei Inc.

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176 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

reject his proposal. Paradoxically, Angelique cannot be Queen and fulfill

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 177

Figure 6 Haruka3 cover. © Koei Inc.

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178 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 179

Haruka3, published in December 2004 for the Playstation2, is import-

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180 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

expression and sneakers embody traditionally ‘masculine’ characteristics,

She is constructed as a likeable and easily approachable personality (‘bright

Gameplay and Immersion

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Kim – Women’s Games in Japan 181

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182 Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3)

Yoritomo himself. As demonstrated in the case of Kurou Yoshitsune, char-

Figure 9 Left: an additional choice unavailable in the first gameplay appears

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