Playing with the Classics, Playing the Classics—The Cyborg Ninja Genji in the Video Game Overwatch

Abstract

Tackling fundamental questions crucial for content creation in video game development, the article analyzes the cyborg ninja Genji character in an American video game Overwatch. It argues that Overwatch, while falling into global trends of Neomedievalism and techno-Orientalism, made Genji more famous and cooler (in the sense of the “Cool Japan” strategy) as a character and hero than ever before. It also emphasizes that since it is through Overwatch that most students currently access the term “Genji” online, the video game claimed the right to control the future of certain elements of premodern Japan’s cultural heritage.