The Woman Behind The Identity of Fighting Games: Yoko Shimomura

Fighting games have always been supported by women like Yoko Shimomura but are seen as anything but feminine to play. I attempt to unpack the history of that in this video as things have really changed in the FGC over the last few decades!
As mentioned in the video, there's a lot of sources I needed to list for this one so here's the link to access the document: docs.google.com/document/d/1B...
If you like my content please considering leaving a comment and subscribing to the channel as it helps a lot!

[@00Clank]

Side-tangent to plug a semi-relevant manga. Most anyone who visits this channel is likely to enjoy Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games. Aya manages to get into a strict, prestigious school and most the students are enamored by the graceful fellow student, Shirayuri. One day after school Aya happens upon a startling revelation, the idol of the school playing a fighting game in an empty classroom! It’s written by a woman who got back into fighting games a few years ago and is an absolute treat. I hope for the day where women playing any game becomes entirely unremarkable, more the merrier. Thanks for another great video.

[@qmanchu]

I've been meaning to check it out! Thanks for the reminder

[@00Clank]

@@qmanchu It's a laugh riot, eagerly awaiting more/further translation. Hope you enjoy!

[@Bladieblah]

It's a stigma on hardcore gaming and all the nasty stereotypes that surround it that lies at the heart of the problem. Not just of fighting games but the broader more dedicated gaming spaces. A stigma that is perpetuated in large part by women themselves and the mainstream at large. They are not victims here, they are for the most part an active part of the problem. Framing perpetrators as victims is one of the most insidious things someone can do. The real victims are the people stigmatized for their interests, the people that don't want to be associated with that because of that stigma are hardly victims

[@HeyyyJude]

“You walk into your local arcade and your five senses are blasted, your sight, sounds, SMELL -“ god bless those nostrils

[@runbaa9285]

When you make a product, a target market demographic must be decided at the conception phase. That's just basic design principle. But I personally find it really nice when people outside of the intended target demographic dip their toes in and end up immersing themselves in the community's culture anyway. Reminds me of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, where the voice actor of the protagonist said that a large portion of Yakuza's fanbase in Japan are actually women, specifically housewives, much to his amusement, despite the Yakuza series being a heavily masculine type of series, lol. He said attending fan cons overseas was a bit of a culture shock because there were a lot more male fans attending it, while fan cons of Yakuza in Japan are swarmed with women.

[@takuchinowona9554]

7:06 capcom purposefully hid proper credits so they could ensure their talent wasnt stolen by other comapnies. The devs would put the real credits behind secret ways so higher ups at capcom wouldnt see that the development team properly credited themselves

[@FieraDevilWings]

Reminds me of how the original Fatal Fury came about. One of the original Street Fighter's own creators was poached by SNK, if I remember correctly. It was more or less for reasons like this that companies of the time period had to hide via aliases - this sort of poaching of talent wasn't all that uncommon in the industry back then. Admittedly, I only really know the Capcom example super vividly. I don't remember if other companies did this to the same extent...

[@DarkOverlord96]

Akiman being so passionate about THICC thighs and how Chun-Li was like his biggest masterpiece for people with a thigh fetish to the point where he made Shimomura a bit uncomfortable is probably my favorite anecdote of SFII's development. Dude was cultured before cultured was even a thing.

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

All hail Yoko Shimomura: The composer of the vast majority of the music in Street Fighter 2

[@gaminglakitu]

Fantastic video dude all of the videos you make are throughoughly insightful and this video is now different. As someone who is male myself, I'm someone who always wants more women in the fgc because they help to make the sphere a more interesting and diverse place and it simply helps us keep the community alive. Same for the devs. The fact that Yoko and all of her fellow coworkers didn't get proper recognition is so shameful. Although I will say that other compossers getting mentioned over the originals isn't actually due to male priority, seeing as male sound team members didn't get credited either, more so this was donw by Capcom as a way to make sure that no rival companies tried poaching their talent by offering them better wages and positions if they get found out about. Either way, fantastic video! Can't wait to see what you have cooking next!

[@qmanchu]

Yeah I mentioned that men got screwed over just the same, it was somewhat coincidence because the JP sound team just happened to be pretty much all women. The reason I mentioned that at all was because of how that led to them being somewhat replaced when the games came to console in the west as those composers were pretty much all men from what I saw. I'm really glad you enjoyed this one cuz I had a lot of fun making it! I like to make sure I learn something new before making a video to keep them fresh haha

[@justeeey]

Good video! It’s a shame that Yoko wasn’t recognized for so long, but it’s great that we are learning about her (and many others) talents more and more. Also, I really hope the gaming scene would start recognizing women in gaming more and more for their identities as talented creators and passionate players, instead of fixating only on females for their male-pleasing designs

[@Maztuhmind]

Street Fighter 2 is my all time favorite video game ost and Yoko is the only reason why I'm interested in playing Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV.

[@qmanchu]

Wow! That's really cool!

[@TheChilaxicle]

Very nice vid! I will be showing this to my wife who isn't really into fighting games but always loves a good video essay.

[@lilliangoulston5706]

Only three minutes in, but is that Mikado in the first arcade clip? I was in Japan earlier this year so it looked familiar! The clip right after looked like an arcade I went to in Shinsekai in Osaka, but I doubt it's the same one. Fun fact: did you know there's a legit SF2 Rainbow Edition cabinet in Shinsekai? I was SO confused until I realized it lmaoo

[@bunnybreaker]

Naive child me thinking the obscure names in the credits were choices the staff had made for themselves. Capcom did y'all dirty.

[@DmarquettePainter]

Damn near brought a tear to my eye. Great video

[@uvarighalvarado8677]

Awesome video, as a musician I always find it great when someone pays tribute to unsung heroes like Yoko.

[@kettledood]

I think people not being credited was so other companies don't buy out their talent by paying them more Unless I'm wrong

[@qmanchu]

Nope you're right! That was pretty much the reasoning

[@qmanchu]

@Dobogio wanna point out 2 things. At no point in this video do I say anything about sexism. In fact, I actually say that Capcom was NOT targeting women and that this affected men as well. It's in the video. 2. It's important to acknowledge because Shimomura herself has talked about the difficulties of creating music for a space that's for boys predominantly. Technomasculinity is a part of her erasure from that side of video game history as a lot of credits in the west didn't ever go to her well after Capcom released the information. But technomasculinity isn't a sexism thing. It's just a bias implicit in the gaming space. This video is about celebrating the women in our community as well as making sure we hold ourselves accountable to preserve the community's history. But so many people have issues with celebrating women, which I think says a lot. Makes you think

[@qmanchu]

@Dobogio that's the point though, for almost 2 decades, journalists struggled to find this information! And if you were in the business of archiving information for a company like Capcom USA for the localizations of these games, her name wasn't there! The only reason things changed was because there was a whole movement for Video Game music composers to get some more visibility and people went into the depths to find and correct information that was misrepresented. This might not seem like a big issue but it really can be for how history is told in the future. We got lucky to catch it that soon but who knows what would've happened if another decade went by. I also want to point out that this isn't a sexism thing. The reason I chose her for this story is because it's a fighting game channel AND she's responsible for so much of that culture even today. It's an opportunity to celebrate her and talk about that erasure (that was prevented)

[@Migraman2]

Amazing video!😄

[@GabrielaArakawa]

Very respectful video. Good stuff ^^

[@qmanchu]

It was fun getting to dive into this stuff. I really had no idea about almost any of it

[@abelmelo6409]

Great video man1

[@mustang12345]

cool video man ! Hate to be that guy, but it kind of hurt that you kept pronouncing "ShiNOmura", and did not get Yoko Shimomura's name right once during the video 😅, especially when the main gist of the video is about her. Cool video though, like your work :).

[@qmanchu]

Yeah the issue was that I use an AI program to fix my voice since I don't have a great mic but it wouldn't process the M In Shimomura no matter what I tried! It just "corrects" what it hears so there was nothing I could do

[@mustang12345]

@@qmanchu didn't know that AI program to fix voice was a thing! But yeah, sorry to be picky, it just that because it is kind of a homage to her work, it is a shame that the name sounds mispronounced several times.

[@qmanchu]

@mustang56912 nah that's totally fine I appreciate you calling it out! Was hoping mostly that nobody would notice lmao

[@superhetoric]

I thank you for making such a great video shedding a criminally deserved light on Shimomura. She is undoubtedly a pioneer and absolute giant of gaming history. Gaming may not be "horrible" for women but it unfortunately isn't (yet) a culture that sees us as undeserving of ridicule or sexualization. The Yoko Shimomuras of the world inspire me so much

[@BlahNetworkBro]

Tears in my eyes at the end, you got home homie (,:

[@visiongap6042]

Great vid

[@ThatSkiFreak]

5 senses? bro is tasting the arcades 💀

[@ferventfoureyes]

Although that clip of ltg getting bodied in the beginning will never get old, the thought of boys thinking that saying clearly gay stuff is"Alpha" will always always ALWAYS confuse the hell out of me

[@qmanchu]

Lmao I never thought of it that way but you've got a point

[@geoffresmart]

Omg. This video is literally “can you believe a woman made this?” Anyway I watched because obviously Yoko shimomura is a legend. It’s just an absurd premise

[@r1sing766]

Bro I just realized u have such a low sub count I thought it was a mil

[@qmanchu]

Haha the channel is still pretty new overall! Hoping to grow more lol

[@lavivgmist1]

❤❤

[@DayaneM439]

Wow I don't know about it

[@MajinErick]

Top Gun? Dude, that is crazy!

[@prosper624]

She the Goat❤

[@Youbuu2]

Lmao Tommy Talerico

[@qmanchu]

Had to slip him in there

[@pp3k3jamail]

💥💥Well this is proved women back in those days knew what men wanted, unlike women now these days.

[@e1her753]

🎉

[@ibrok2967]

beo put in more effort than 90% percent of millionare twitch streamers in one video

[@qmanchu]

If I'm not learning anything new in the process, I won't be making the video frankly. Thanks for watching this one, it's one of my favorites

[@user-wl2xl5hm7k]

Why would anyone hug low tier god?…

[@GunGun-cf3ss]

My only criticism with this vid is the use of LTG footage, like it's representative of the Fgc. Besides, the dude has been irrelevant for years, let him fade into obscurity.

[@qmanchu]

To say that those moments aren't iconic though is just not true is all. It's not about him, and we need to remember Viscants pop off there. I don't think there will ever be anything better

[@GunGun-cf3ss]

@@qmanchu I think it's just off-putting to people potentially interested in fighting games and the fgc, it certainly was for me. Took me years to pick up another fg because I felt it was such a hostile community, which turned out was not true at all.

[@qmanchu]

@GunGun-cf3ss maybe but for many, these moments are the foundation the opposite. Moments like that are what personally got me into the scene lol Also it's not like I used his name so if someone is seeing him for the first time, they're not gonna know who he is

[@GunGun-cf3ss]

@@qmanchu that's fair, I do not understand it, but whatever. You keep doing what you're doing!

[@ms08gouf]

First

[@kasquez]

First, her family name is ShiMomura, not "ShiNomura" as you say in the video every time you mention her. Second, her name and the rest of the music team having their names hidden is not a sexist thing like you try to make it look. At the time it was common practice for game companies to hide their employees real names so they could not be scouted by other companies.

[@qmanchu]

1. I know but I've explained before, I don't have a mic so I use an AI enhancer to level my voice. Unfortunately it doesn't do well with Japanese names and I couldn't get it to enhance the M without replacing it. And 2, I literally say it wasn't targeted towards the women and that it affected men. There was no mention of it being a sexist anything. It's just how it worked out which then ended up leading to issues when it was Men in the west who were the ones taking a lot of credit. That's literally just what happened

[@chenklazer2069]

redditors seething that a woman is playing a video game? i'd like to wager that it's the complete opposite.

[@CheddarGetter]

Capcom didnt credit anyone basically. They didn't want them getting poached by rival development teams for a higher wage. This went on for a very long time. So its not really a sexist thing. Its a shitty corporate culture thing. That being said, Shimamura is the GOAT. Right up the with Michiru Yamane, and Keichi Okabe.

[@qmanchu]

Yeah that's why I mention that it happened to men too. I don't think they targeted these women at all. The problem just arises when their names were actually replaced by those of men in the West until years afterwards is all. It's not a sexist phenomenon but it did lead to the erasure of a lot of the most influential women for a time from history. That's all really. Shimomura herself also talks about wanting to embody masculine undertones for certain songs which is very interesting in and of itself

[@jimcarrey2866]

Well, they targed their demographic, sorry for liking women more than just as friends. My bad I guess

[@qmanchu]

Lol what? It's great that they targeted a demographic, that's entirely not the point. The point is literally that she wasn't credited until years afterwards and her name in the west was replaced by that of men, that's all. And even that was just a combination of unfortunate circumstances, nobody really did it on purpose.

[@nonya6540]

gilty is a dude not a woman

[@JensenAugustin]

You people are astonishing

[@qmanchu]

She change her pronouns or sumn?

[@nonya6540]

@@qmanchuto me i find it a little insulting that this vid is for women but use a trans in the clip the same way most women find it insulting to see woman athletes lose to men just because they think they are woman

[@condlaeirkrsrma7069]

cope and seethe

[@dajuanvera-byers6788]

Looked her up and the first result on google is an article of her being permabanned from CPT events for sexual assault allegations.... jeez

[@WearBlueLoveRed]

Techno Masculinity...Really?

[@qmanchu]

Hey, I agree that it's a very serious name for what it actually is but from an academic stand point, you've gotta name it something

[@WearBlueLoveRed]

No, I disagree. No name needs to be given because it's not a thing. It's literally ingrained in that country's culture to be modest about one's contributions and not take credit. Not surprising that carries over into influencing company policies as well. And it affected significantly more men than women as well. None of those women are victims. None of those men are victims. They knew what they were signing up for and they got paid for it. If they wanted credit they could have went solo. Techno masculinity is just another one way dog whistle for shaming the accomplishments of a majority men. There's nothing academic about that term.

[@J0SHUAKANE]

Liberal nonsense made up to sound/feel superior. "Gotta name it something"😂

[@qmanchu]

@Dobogio read the articles listed in the description please. The academic papers really do help shine a light on how much history we almost lost