> And that’s it! Those are the only countries in conflict with the United States in this Asian body of water. No other East Asian naval powers greedy for resources have any say in the matter.
If you’ll indulge me an extremely obscure comparison… there’s a 2001 Japanese “visual novel” (basically a choose-your-own-adventure game with graphi…
> And that’s it! Those are the only countries in conflict with the United States in this Asian body of water. No other East Asian naval powers greedy for resources have any say in the matter.
If you’ll indulge me an extremely obscure comparison… there’s a 2001 Japanese “visual novel” (basically a choose-your-own-adventure game with graphics, music, and sometimes porn) called “Muv-Luv Unlimited” set 30 years into an ongoing invasion by aliens called the “BETA”. The backstory is that the BETA landed in Kashgar, India in 1973. The Soviets and the Chinese rushed to engage them, waving off help from the outside world because they wanted the BETA’s extraterrestrial secrets to themselves. But the BETA quickly evolved the ability to shoot down planes with their lasers, rendering air superiority moot, and allowing them overwhelm the Soviets and Chinese and flood across Asia and Europe over the next three decades.
OK, there’s more than a little Japanese nationalism at work in this franchise, as the writers tick off all the countries they don’t like (China, Russia, eventually the US), and praise erstwhile allies (a Finnish soldier loves her new Japanese comrades because Japan beat Russia in 1905, and the Finns hate Russia). But it’s nice to see a creator not afraid to tweak Chinese sensibilities by portraying them as venal and ineffective, just like most real-life governments are. And to top it off, there’s a pretty solid Muv-Luv fandom in China anyways (possibly helped by one of the later games including a hot Chinese girl as a potential love interest).
> And that’s it! Those are the only countries in conflict with the United States in this Asian body of water. No other East Asian naval powers greedy for resources have any say in the matter.
If you’ll indulge me an extremely obscure comparison… there’s a 2001 Japanese “visual novel” (basically a choose-your-own-adventure game with graphics, music, and sometimes porn) called “Muv-Luv Unlimited” set 30 years into an ongoing invasion by aliens called the “BETA”. The backstory is that the BETA landed in Kashgar, India in 1973. The Soviets and the Chinese rushed to engage them, waving off help from the outside world because they wanted the BETA’s extraterrestrial secrets to themselves. But the BETA quickly evolved the ability to shoot down planes with their lasers, rendering air superiority moot, and allowing them overwhelm the Soviets and Chinese and flood across Asia and Europe over the next three decades.
OK, there’s more than a little Japanese nationalism at work in this franchise, as the writers tick off all the countries they don’t like (China, Russia, eventually the US), and praise erstwhile allies (a Finnish soldier loves her new Japanese comrades because Japan beat Russia in 1905, and the Finns hate Russia). But it’s nice to see a creator not afraid to tweak Chinese sensibilities by portraying them as venal and ineffective, just like most real-life governments are. And to top it off, there’s a pretty solid Muv-Luv fandom in China anyways (possibly helped by one of the later games including a hot Chinese girl as a potential love interest).