Princess Maker Minmay!?!?!

[GodMedia]

Is that Minmay enjoying a bite to eat at the local restaurant?

Found this funny little pic while playing Princess Maker 2. When you send your daughter to work in the town restaurant, this pic shows up. The hair and dress are right for that to be Minmay, only that Minmay wore that dress while SHE was WORKING in her family's restaurant, not just to go to one.

Anyways, Princess Maker is by Gainax and can be downloaded over at Home of the Underdogs in case anyone wants to give it a spin. It runs on DOS and works just fine in WinXPs command line mode.

-SL8Z!

[Jolly Rogers]

That's just a girl in a traditional Chinese dress. Minmay's restaurant "work" outfit is just typical Chinese dress meant to evoke an air of authenticity for the restaurant's patrons.

[GodMedia]

That's just a girl in a traditional Chinese dress. Minmay's restaurant "work" outfit is just typical Chinese dress meant to evoke an air of authenticity for the restaurant's patrons.

Just a Chinese girl, eh?

Too bad. I still think she looks a lot like Minmay.

A little imagination and a sense of humor folks. Not everything has to be so stinking precise. It was just supposed to be fun.

[bigkid24]

Okay, I'll bite. What the heck is Princess Maker?

[GodMedia]

Princess Maker doesn't have anything to do with Minmay or Macross, except maybe for that picture that I think looks like Minmay.

From Home of the Underdogs:

One of the most unique and compelling games ever made, Princess Maker 2 is an excellent ?life simulation? from Gainax, and the only game in the Princess Maker series to have been translated into English. As to what the game is exactly, MobyGames says it better than I could: "Raise a daughter from childhood into adulthood. Your actions determine whether she will live or die, and what she will become. You can have her enter school, seek adventure in the wilderness, get a part-time job, break into high society, or any of many other possibilities. 74 Unique endings. A very different kind of game."

What makes Princess Maker 2 a lot of fun is the sheer amount of options and actions you can do, which result in seemingly unlimited range of personalities your (adopted) daughter grows up to be. Although you are limited to raising her from age 10 to 18, everything you do will influence how the child will grow up. You first choose your daughter?s name, your age, both birthdates, and her blood type. Then you will decide on a detailed routine of her daily life, from schooling and hobbies, to how you want her to react to different people she will meet throughout the game. There are many surprises and random events to ensure that no two games are alike. With many factors that affect your daughter?s character, the game?s replayability is astounding, and the 70+ endings will keep you hooked for months on end. Two thumbs up, way up!

The game is a 1996 Gainax production and pretty fun. You can raise your daughter to be a housewife, a princess, even a bondage maiden.

[F-ZeroOne]

Although I think as well that the character is just wearing a typical Chinese dress, Gainax have been known for their Macross love - look at Otaku no Video, or the design of Captain Nemo from Nadia for examples!

[Jolly Rogers]

A little imagination and a sense of humor folks. Not everything has to be so stinking precise. It was just supposed to be fun.

I am sure if I saw an animated mouse wearing sombrero and started asking people if he was Speedy Gonzalez I'm bound to piss off no more than a few Mexicans.

[GodMedia]

A little imagination and a sense of humor folks. Not everything has to be so stinking precise. It was just supposed to be fun.

I am sure if I saw an animated mouse wearing sombrero and started asking people if he was Speedy Gonzalez I'm bound to piss off no more than a few Mexicans.

Speaking as a Mexican, the idea of Speedy Gonzalez is offensive enough. I, however, fail to see how thinking that the little girl in the picture is some kind of a Minmay reference is in any way supposed to be insulting to anyone.

I was half-hoping that it was indeed another Gainax tribute to Minmay, but I also realized that it could have just been a random coincidence. If you're trying to say that I was just doing one of those "All those (insert native peoples group name here) look alike to me" then you really did misunderstand me.

All I was doing was exercising a little imagination and having a sense of humor about what could have remotely been intended to be a tribute to a character from Macross, having a good laugh over the similarity to Minmay even if it wasn't intentional. I'd probably have just as good a laugh over a mouse with a sombrero if it kind of looked like Speedy to me.

Am I the only one out here who ever got a kick out of those potatoes that look like famous people, or dogs that resemble their owners, or how Macross looks like Mobile Suit Gundam?

Just an FYI, Speedy Gonzalez is in no way some kind of national hero to the Mexican peoples. The last thing we ever needed was for the world to think of us as mere thieves living by our simple-minded wits and our skills at outsmarting the so-called superior peoples who surround us. Speedy Gonzalez is an icon of the ignorance of the rest of the world about Mexico and it's people that creates negative stereotypes about us.

[Jolly Rogers]

The thing is that the hair buns and traditional Chinese dress combo is an overused stereotype, especially in Japan. That type of outfit automatically tells people "character A is a Chinese girl". That's why Minmei wears it in the show when she works at the restaurant - it tells the patrons they're in a Chinese restaurant and the show's audience her ethnicity.

I personally don't have a problem with the use of that stereotype or consider it offensive, although some may think it's about as degrading as the imagery of Fu Manchu, even though the character design automatically tells an American audience "here's an evil Chinese man".

What you did was associating a generic stereotype to a character who happens to use the same visual conventions for the sake of quick audience communication and I pointed it out. That's why I used the sombrero <> Speedy Gonzalez analogy, I wasn't referring to what the character stands for but how the character looked (wearing a sombrero).

Besides, Minmei would have to have put on some serious pounds to look like that. I can see why Hikaru ditched her for Misa.

[KingNor]

i always thought speedy was cool, it was his lazy, sleepy, good for nothing friends that i thought everyone got offended by. speedy as an individual, is kind of free to be how ever the creators want him to be. the fact he was stealing cheeze had nothing to do with mexican commentary, every mouse in cartoons steals cheese, stealing was hardly unique to him being a mexican mouse.

the part of speedy that everyone got uncompfortable about was that ALL the other mice were worthless. implying that except for speedy, the rest of the mexican mice were just a drain on mexican mice society.

anyway...

as for minmay, considering it's gainax, i say it's a wink wink. granted i don't know much about chinese culture, can that dress be other colors? if i go to china will i see girls in that style dress only in red, or can it be blue and green or what ever?

if you ask me, its a nod to minmay but not actually supposed to be "her" if you know what i mean. kinda like that orguss valkyrie in macross.

I personally don't have a problem with the use of that stereotype or consider it offensive, although some may think it's about as degrading as the imagery of Fu Manchu, even though the character design automatically tells an American audience "here's an evil Chinese man".

i agree... steriotypes are nothing to be afraid of really. does it irk me that the world sees us as big fat americans? (anyone see the triplets of bellvile? i didn't see anyone throwing a fit of national steriotyping in that one) it irks me a little, but what the hell. i dont really care. who cares if france thinks americans are fat, or if americans think mexicans are lazy, or if japan thinks china wears a paticular kind of dress.

i just chalk it up to human nature and get over it.

[Jolly Rogers]

as for minmay, considering it's gainax, i say it's a wink wink.  granted i don't know much about chinese culture, can that dress be other colors?  if i go to china will i see girls in that style dress only in red, or can it be blue and green or what ever?

Traditionally it's red since it's typically worn in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Red = propserity / happiness / luck in Chinese culture.

Edited August 16, 2004 by Jolly Rogers

[KingNor]

as for minmay, considering it's gainax, i say it's a wink wink.  granted i don't know much about chinese culture, can that dress be other colors?  if i go to china will i see girls in that style dress only in red, or can it be blue and green or what ever?

Traditionally it's red since it's typically worn in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Red = propserity / happiness / luck in Chinese culture.

well in that case maybe it is just generic