No he doesn’t. At least not in the source you provided.
Also not true. Lets look at interactions, Genji has 28 interactions with 12 heroes. McCree, as a comparison, has 30 interactions with 18 heroes. Map specifics, most heroes are around the same amount of ~10 lines on about ~5 maps. Junkrat has by far the most in this field, with a whopping 25 lines on 11 maps. Mind you, this is also excluding the Horizon Lunar Colony telescope lines (some heroes have two, I think Junkrat might be one of them? Not certain. Genji isn’t.) and Busan Karaoke lines (Junkrat doesn’t have this, Genji does).
For native language lines, I’m just gonna ignore all the native English heroes for obvious reasons. I don’t know if he has the most or not, but I don’t see how that’s relevant. Especially when heroes like D.Va and Widowmaker have comparable amounts of Korean and French, and Zarya recites entire poems and quotes in Russian, giving her the longest in the game.
As for skins giving special lines… Pretty sure he has only a handful of lines on 3 skins. Meanwhile:
Heroes Never Die (for a price)
TIl Valhalla
My Servants Never Die
Your Goddess is Here
Among other lines that come with those skins. Mercy is the biggest winner here.
I guess the Van Helsing, has the “let the hunt begin” one? They must have added recently one for the blackwatch skin, because I have that one since it was released and don’t remember any difference. But I haven’t played the game for months now.
“With the example of some of the ones who are more complicated like Genji, maybe selfishly we just had a lot of story ideas and stuff we wanted people to know about him and so it ended up being a little bit longer than the other ones. But I would say in general that we try to keep things simple and we want there to be mysteries and we want there to be spaces in those characters for people to theorise about.”
He has special lines not only for his ults, but when he is damage bosted or on fire. They are also in japanese, so that must be why nobody noticed it.
Genji’s voice actor is the only one that they’ve let him do the translations and new voices on the spot, even Ana’s voice actress, that works with localization, wasn’t allowed to do that.
So I guess that’s why Hanzo has so much lore, because Michael Chu said he liked their story. This does not suggest Michael Chu is playing favorites with Genji.
I can’t verify this, but someone has to have the most. It’s not a disproportionate amount. Genji has three event legendaries, so what if they have unique voice lines? Mercy has unique voice lines for all of her legendaries except Combat Medic. So what if he has the most voice lines in his native language? Why does that suggest favoritism?
Naturally, bugs with the current event are going to take priority over older bugs. That doesn’t mean Genji is favored. He has bugged voice lines as well.
There has to be a first and they chose Genji and Dva. It’s a two minute ad for the game.
This is nothing but confirmation bias. Any time another hero gets something or does it first, it’s fine, but when it’s Genji, suddenly it’s a problem? Where was Genji during Uprising if he takes priority over everyone else? Why was “the most favored hero” not a part of the very first archives story mission?
Lmao, so because he gets one over Moira, that makes him a Gary Stu? McCree says basically the same thing. Neither liked working Moira.
And what do you mean everyone likes/respects him? Are you just talking about in-game interactions? Because most of the cast behaves uncharacteristically friendly to each other. Not all of the interactions are canonical. I’d say most of them aren’t. The only Talon member Genji interacts with aside from Moira is Sombra, and she’s threatening to blackmail him. That’s not respect.
Zen compares Hanzo to a conflicted, bitter version of Genji. That’s not a positive comparison. Hanzo tells Genji that he’ll never amount to anything. Zarya implies that Genji is no longer a man and she can’t trust him. And let’s not forget, Genji also gets Mercy non-Swiss chocolates lmao.
Most of the characters have positive, feel-good interactions. Sombra is really the only exception with majority of her interactions being negative.
Arrogance is a character flaw. It’s just one he hasn’t suffered from yet. Additionally, as you mentioned, Genji had many character flaws in his backstory. Just because Genji is happy and positive right now doesn’t mean he’d never struggle in an actual current-day story setting. We just haven’t gotten one. Most of the characters don’t have any notable flaws because of this,
You’re assuming a lot about Genji’s life based on historical clans. Additionally, while Genji may have been born into luxury, he was always seen as a failure and inferior to his brother. The clan’s desire to have him dealt with didn’t come out of nowhere. He was a problem for a while. When Sojiro died, Genji lost his only supporter and protection.
Genji being on both Blackwatch and Overwatch teams doesn’t suggest he’s more competent than the other characters. He’s simply a versatile asset. We don’t know a ton about the Shimada clan, but Genji grew up with them and knows how they operate. If they were elusive enough to consistently avoid Overwatch, Genji would again be a huge asset.
And there it is. Complaints about Genji lore are almost always rooted in shipper frustrations and I can see this is no different. Why do you think Michael Chu, a Chinese man, is self-inserting as Genji, a Japanese man? If he wasn’t Asian, you would never even suggest it. Furthermore, why not Hanzo? So bitter.
Genji being close to Mercy is no threat to your Pharmercy ship or whoever else you want to draw holding hands with Mercy. That was never going to happen anyway, so what difference does it make?
Wrong. Genji is an Overwatch member that was recalled like numerous others. Furthermore, he was on a team with Winston, Mercy, and Tracer. They were all close friends and Genji even has voice lines where he calls out to each of them (and they’re bugged, further disproving your favoritism nonsense)
So the hell what? Of course a character that murdered his brother because he was ordered to is going to be presented as wrong. Why does Genji’s moral advantage in this case make him cooler?
Such as? This sounds like another Gency complaint, which is just laughable at this point. Genji has killed, but so have many of the other OW characters. Mercy has expressed frustration with OW’s militaristic approach, but she has never been described as some extreme pacifist willing to take out her frustrations on the individuals of Overwatch that are just doing their jobs and trying to help people like she is. Most of them are good people, including Genji.
Humans have much more advanced thinking capabilities than AI in terms of creativity. They didn’t necessarily bring him in as an absolute necessity, but as a powerful asset.
I’m 23, so no lmao. You say this, yet you seem to think doing anything at all ever makes him much cooler than the other characters. Never mind all the success the other characters have seen in cinematic and lore. Nope. They’re all just chumps I guess. Dva taking on the Gwishin by herself totally unprepared? WEAK.
Hanzo is the protagonist of the story. His visit to the Shimada Castle is what prompts the entire story. His inner failure to accept the past and embrace the future is the conflict. Genji is the antagonist here, a foil to Hanzo’s, while understandably traumatized, infeasible worldview. Being an antagonist doesn’t mean that you are bad or evil, it simply means opposing the views of a central character in some crucial capacity. Genji is the Banquo to Hanzo’s Macbeth. We can only be thankful that he wasn’t murdered like his Shakespearean counterpart.
Genji is certainly fleshed out in lore. But the universe doesn’t revolve around him. It’s hard to say he’s a Gary Stu when we’ve seen him multiple times succumb to his faults, in the present no less. Even though the HoTS trailer is not really canon, it’s kind of implied that he has a habit of rushing in alone, hence why D.va must come to his rescue. As someone who’s struggled with depression and body issues (though obviously not Genji’s) most of her life, I can understand how tempting it may be to disguise lingering self-sacrificial tendencies with a facade of charming overconfidence or desire to protect. And Retribution+other media provide a wealth of evidence of how his past personality was. He’s definitely got flaws, which even Zenyatta might be quick to note. The omnic monk is even more morally just than Genji is and similarly empowered, but surprisingly the impossibly good paragon with MORE character flaws is targeted.
I’d also chalk up Genji’s plentiful cosmetic offerings to how invested the design team and voice actor are in Overwatch’s development. Genji’s relatively simple design is very open to interpretation, given the prevalence of swords in history. Similar archetypical characters like McCree, Mercy and Zen overflow with different expressions of basic design philosophies, thanks in large part to their simplicity. Gaku Space also provided an excess of voice lines for the character, recording an impressive number of takes for the ultimate ability before settling on the current line. He’s been said to have helped Paul Nakauchi to pronounce some Japanese voice lines for Hanzo, seeing as the latter is not a native speaker like Gaku Space is. It would be foolish to waste that kind of potential.
Genji’s saturation of content, I believe, is a reflection of Overwatch’s design at its height. He, as well as similarly saturated Tracer, may appear somewhat one dimensional as a result of their popularity, but they’re surprisingly complex as characters, suffering from over focus as opposed to under focus, much like Elsa from Frozen (which people seem to forget wasn’t an awful movie before the toy marketing blew the franchise out of its own water). I’m hoping the Overwatch team takes Genji as an example and standard for their other heroes going forward, developing them with similar gusto as the game progresses.
The Shimada clan dealt mostly in weapons and illegal substances. They are traditionalist by nature and utilize mainly archaic combat forms, preferring sword and archery to even obsolete forms of firearm. It would’ve been easier to track them down had they trafficked detectable contraband, like omnium components or, worse, omnics themselves. But their relatively untraceable supplies would make it harder for even Overwatch to pinpoint pickup and delivery locations without insider knowledge of exactly where the clan is expected to rendezvous for deals. In fact, Genji’s induction arc bears intriguing similarities to Torbjorn, of all people. Genji knew the ins and outs of the clan he belonged to like Torbjorn knew the ins and outs of the Bastion units he gave his intellect towards inventing. Being recruited to destroy the very thing you once cherished, that fulfilled you to some extent, seems to be a common theme in the Overwatch universe. If you think Overwatch being out of its league in unfamiliar territory is anything special to Genji, you would be dead wrong.
Besides claims of self-inserting being false in their entirety, I wonder why you believe self-insertion is inherently bad. Scout from “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Harper Lee’s self-insert, with the same character traits and family dynamic as the author. Lancelot as a self-insert espousing “courtly love” during the age of the Arthurian mythos. Every single eccentric, curious, xenophobic white guy that H. P. Lovecraft ever put in a novel counts too. The list goes on. I’m a writer, it’s not a surprise that some of my character drafts have been trans women who struggle with the repercussions of their identity, who provide commentary to the stupidity of repercussions for existence in the first place. When something is so everpresent in one’s life, be it challenges or triumphs, joys or miseries, the natural instinct of humanity is expression. It is no surprise then, that the individual turns to their own experiences, their desires, their beliefs, as a personal supply of emotional substance.
Even if Genji is the antagonist of the Dragons short - it’s still an animated short that he gets lots of screen time in, that shows the conflict with his brother, shows his home and his family’s history a little bit.
This is more than plenty of other heroes are getting what’s not clicking?
I used Genji as an example of a hero who has way too many lore appearances for such sparse storytelling as Overwatch has - it doesn’t mean other heroes like McCree don’t have a slightly disproportionate amount of appearances either. I just listed Genji because to me he is the most prominent example, as someone who’s not really central to the main story when you think about it (Tracer I have no issue with tbh). And I said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t have a problem with the fact that Genji receives so much lore more so than I hope other heroes like Zenyatta, Lúcio, Sym, even D.Va will get a bit more and can hope to match his level one day.
I’ve also had enough Genji lore for now. If we’re gonna get more Shimada lore I’d prefer it to be focused on Hanzo (and only him or with new supporting cast).
We literally know more about Genji’s genitalia than Zenyatta as a whole.
Maybe seeing less of him would even give a chance for Hanzo, Zen and Mercy to get their own lore without him for once.
I like Genji as a character. He has got a lot of development. But maybe that’s the problem. As someone else already mentioned, it feels like his arc is already complete. There’s not much to add or much I’d want to see.
I haven’t said anything about pharmercy or race. I’m talking about the act of self inserting. Like the lead writer said himself at GDC that you can identify with a character no matter the gender, race, nationality or species. Many of famous pop culture characters are self inserts, but the diference is that these character qualities and flaws are shown in equal proportions, but Genji’s aren’t, we just see the good and root for him. When I made the reference about Genji’s “parts”, I was talking about Freud’s theories that people use in literature, but that went over your head.
Me, bitter? Don’t make assuptions, there’s little emotion one can convey through text, about a subject, like bad writing in video games. Or are you using the classic: “make the other look like they lost their cool, so I can look the level headed one in the discussion”?
I was thinking about Tracer and Winston when I made this point. But, go ahead, making assumptions about what I wrote and act as if I’m oppresing someone for liking Gency, because the writer is bad at writing their relationship.
I really liked some stuff that you were arguing about, but those parts made me lose a lot of interest towards your points. Keep making your retorical questions that you always have the only possible answer. Or saying “wrong, because I said so”. This is boring.
One last thing, I said that the cyborg ninja part is the thing that makes him cool for kids, because that’s just the most superficial part of his character. It wasn’t a jab at your age or maturity or anything. He’s allowed to be cool and a lot of other characters are also cool. But there needs to be balance.
They are not, but ok.
Not at all, self insert characters can be very good for a story. They can make a story instatly relatable sometimes because of that. But when favoritism and power fantasy comes into play, that can lead to bad storytelling.
Same, we’ve seen him come to peace with his cyborg body, all that is left IMO is for him and Hanzo to reconcile for real and maybe see him slash some more Talon baddies in Newverwatch
Now please, I want to see Zenyatta lead the world into peaceful Omnic-human relations, I want to see Symmetra defect from Vishkar and use her abilities for the real greater good, I want to see Lúcio kick Vishkar out of Rio, I want to see more of D.Va and her MEKA squad please I just want to learn about the rest of the cast and see them get their arcs too
You really don’t have to say anything shipping or race because it seems rather transparent to me. Forgive me if I’m wrong. However, if Michael Chu was not Asian, you would not be accusing him of self-inserting through Genji. Furthermore, why on Earth do you care about Chu answering a question he was directly asked about Genji’s lower parts? Why does that even matter to the story? Why even bring that up? It doesn’t matter at all and it seems like a shipping thing.
It’s true that I can’t accurately detect your tone, but every time you talk about Michael Chu and how much you don’t like his writing, I sense bitterness in your words. This increases dramatically when you talk about his alleged bias towards Genji/Mercy-related content.
Why would either of those two have a problem with Genji? They’re both agents, they’ve both killed, and they both understand the job.
I’m not trying to make it sound like you have something against people who like Gency. I don’t care one way or the other about shipping. However, there are a great deal of people who let their hate for that pairing and/or Genji as a character influence their perception on the amount of lore he gets. Often when I read your posts, that’s what it seems like you’re doing.
Maybe I was a bit quick to judge, but the self-insert stuff really rubs me the wrong way whenever I see it. There’s just no reason for that. You would never claim Jeff Kaplan was self-inserting as Genji if he was the lead writer.
No, I would be saying it’s self insert, because it’s clear to me when a writer does it, it’s a very common practice, that’s obvious. People don’t think twice saying it’s a self insert when it’s a female writer, but when the character is male, they will defend the writer at all costs. Just look at Batman and Luke Skywalker(I love the two but it’s pretty obvious). Blizzard has a history of writers that insert themselves into their characters and make them the most powerful or the romantic interest of the character they like. You can look it up. It feels like you want to make this a race and ship thing so you can point, “Look at that racist Pharah fan. Let me use this as an argument against people that ship pharmercy, by taking this out of context and spreading it on the internet.”
I find it funny that he was asked if Genji could eat and he answered with that. It also has implications that are not shipping ones. It show us that for some reason his body was completely multilated, disfigured, damaged his eyes, lost his legs, arms, spine, but at some point the lead writer was like, “but spare his genitals!”. Which was the implication of what I said about Freud.
Then, you must give up you psychic carrer. Because it actually fun for me to analyse and pick apart what we have. The thing that is frustrating to me is that amout of missed opportunity the lore has. For example: we had a 12 pages story about Ana and Soldier, and all they did was sitting down, eat and talk. Where is the world building? They can’t do that with only new maps. We need to know about the geopolical state of things, because both Talon and Ow are global organizations. We need more details about the omnic crisis. Why some people are fine with omics even though there hasn’t passed even 1 generation since the conflict stoped? They are praised about diversity, but that is only at the character design level, because in the plot it’s the same hollywood sterotypes. When I see Gency, i think: “look another boring superficial cliché that they are struggling to pull of, is this some of the bread crumbs they give us they’ve been working on?”
Because blackwatch is what kickstarted the fall of ow.
I don’t dislike Genji, like I said before his charcter had great potential. But I feel that they could’ve written a great story with him. Taken more inspiration from great science fiction stories that inspired the cyborg ninja type of character, like the cyberpunk classics. Or better yet, make his doubt of his humanity a concurrent theme for his character, not like something he already overcame. They could’ve told a story about depression, body image, acceptance and why not, gender. What they are doing to his story sounds like Raiden, but for kids.
Like i said to another user I have no problems with self inserts. They can make a story instantly relatable. But when favoritism and power fantasy comes into play, that can lead to bad storytelling.
The question was in regards to whether he could use the toilet and do not mention his genitals specifically, only his “bottom parts”/lower body:
6. Everyone knows that some parts of Genji’s body are cyborg. Are we curious if Genji’s bottom parts are cyborg as well? If so, is it difficult for him to go to the bathroom ?
Michael Chu: If you look at the Blackwatch Genji skin, you can see that Genji is missing a body. But I can confirm that Genji’s bottom part is still normal.
[The article is from https://www.online-station.net/pc-console-game/view/104033 and is originally in Thai; translation provided by Google Translate, so it’s not very good. If anyone can read Thai and provide a better translation, please do.]
I don’t think it takes away from his story that he’s already (mostly) resolved his issues. Besides the HoTS trailer implying he isn’t totally over sacrificing himself and going alone, he himself admits there’s more for him to learn. Again, I stress that Zen is straight up morally superior. It adds to how compelling his narrative is that he not only less experienced than his mentor, but that he also is recognized as a cyborg by some, and has to deal with those aforementioned “repercussions of existence”. I don’t know if I can, in good faith, call him a power fantasy, when there are explicitly periods of life, even now, where power is taken from him. He’s subdued by Doomfist, isolated from his family, and it seems, Zarya and many others are disgusted by the thought of his body.
The problem is that there simply isn’t enough here for you to make that claim. Genji has not received a story centered around him or his struggles. He’s always acting as a supporting cast member. He didn’t lead either of the archives missions and barely had any dialogue in the first. There’s no reason for you to think Chu is self-inserting as Genji other than the fact that both are Asian. Where is Genji’s comic? Where is his short story depicting his relationship with Mercy? Where is all this content where Genji is the center of attention and Michael Chu is self-inserting? It doesn’t exist.
I guess that’s why Genji lost to Doomfist even though logically, he should’ve won. Additionally, it’s not like Genji and Mercy falling for each other is some left field crack development. You might not like it and feel like it’s cliche, but it makes for a sensible story.
It’s not an argument against anyone. It’s just that literally every time I see this “self-insert” crap, it’s from a disgruntled pharmercy shipper, and they never have any good reason for thinking that other than “the writer that’s ruining my ship is Asian and so is Genji.” If that’s not you, then my bad. Unfortunately, it’s a recurring theme.
To be fair, there’s no reason for Hanzo to castrate his brother. I always thought he was a bit too cybernetic for the implied nature of this battle.
I don’t disagree, however, the lack of ambition with lore goes beyond one character and writer. We can only hope this rumored Overwatch game is where all the meat is.
Okay, but Gency is just so inconsequential and makes up very little of what we’ve gotten in lore. It’s a total of four voice interactions and two comic panels. If this is not a shipping thing, then it’s not worth mentioning in any regard.
That’s a work-related issue. There’s no reason for them to take it out on Genji, who had nothing to do with the actual cause and was going through enough as it is. Tracer and Genji had been sparring together and probably grew closer as a result. Winston was Tracer’s best friend, so that’s probably how he and Genji became friends. It works well.
You should give it more time. Whether it’s past, present, or future, the story of Genji’s inner conflict can be told. It only can’t be told if we totally write him off because he’s made a few supportive appearances in lore.
We’re really not at that point yet. Don’t you think it’s jumping the gun a bit when you take the majority of Genji’s appearances and the role he’s played into consideration? He’s 1-1 in animated fights. Winston beat Doomfist and received all the glory for it. Genji receives about the same amount of attention as his strike teammates.
Let me put this this way: Genji Stu is a Gary Shimada, because he is a secondary character that is given the same amount, if not more, lore as the main cast of the story. All his support cast are main characters in the game(not in the lore), while other characters of same importance ,like Zarya, Mei or Baptiste, have background characters as their support.
Even not recieving a comic we know more stuff about him, than we do about characters that did. Whe know his favorite food is ramen. His nickname, given to him by his dad, is Sparrow. His sword is named “Ryu-ichimonji; he maintains it personally and has never allowed anyone else to examine or repair it.” He liked to play video games. He was a dedicated martial arts student. He was a playboy. He has a great sense of humor according to the writ-I mean Winston. He was a blackwatch member. He was an overwatch member, etc.
The writer said Genji and Hanzo story is his favorite to write, and do I even need to answer which of the two we know much more about? He also said that he wrote more about Genji because he wanted to explore his story even more, and that he made it one of the most complex ones, while saying that they follow a principle of keeping things simple.
Most of his interactions put him as the center of attention, more relatable, paints him in a positive light or make him the moraly superior. All his struggles of the past he overcame and became a better, stronger and more heroic. Even though he commited crimes, he put that behind, wasn’t punished and is well regarded by his peers.
He only lost to Doomfist, because Winston it was already stablished, since the announcement trailer, to be the one to defeat DF. Also, there was no negative impact on Genji. He lost to Hanzo as a part of his tragic past to make him a vengeful badass, and for him later to completely defeat his brother.
Even if we get more stuff about his past it will only serve to make him more badass because we already know that he overcame it. I’m just saying thing as they are. It’s impossible they will write anything that will make Genji less likeble/flawed because of his favorite character status quo. They’ll never make it like they did with Soldier and make him a less relatable power fantasy/romantic ideal to the audience.
tl:dr: He is an anime protagonist that was not made the protagonist, but the author still gave him the protagonist treatment.
Sure, Genji was not initially presented as a main cast character, but that has changed and there’s nothing wrong or jarring about it. If there was an Overwatch series, it would probably focus on Tracer, Genji, Mercy, and Winston. They make for a good protagonist group. His supporting cast being other main cast characters really doesn’t mean anything. Zarya and Baptiste aren’t OW members and Mei’s supporting cast died, so of course they’re not going to have main cast characters as support.
Half of that is throwaway information. You’re being far too vague; what characters are you talking about? Genji has around the same amount of lore as his teammates.
The thing is, you keep saying this like Genji is getting all this attention and lore content when he isn’t. He is a supporting character in every one of his appearances. The only time he’s a main character is in Storm Rising, and that role is shared with his teammates. If Genji is Chu’s favorite to write, then he sure as hell isn’t showing it because Genji hasn’t been seen in the present day since Dragons.
Center of attention how? What are you talking about? Most of the in-game interactions are positive, as I mentioned earlier. Genji is often in a position of moral superiority because he is a heroic protagonist. It’s not any different for Mercy or Tracer. Why is this stuff a problem for Genji, but not those two?
Just because Genji overcame the bulk of his issues and is respected by his peers doesn’t mean he can’t have modern day struggles. You’re making way too many assumptions about a story that hasn’t even been told. Where is this Genji story where he’s just walking around being praised and worshipped by his friends and enemies? It doesn’t exist. It’s a fabrication.
Winston only has to deal the final blow. They still could’ve had Genji deal the majority of the damage to Doomfist and take no real damage, and that would’ve made perfect sense because there’s no way Genji should be losing to Doomfist in any logical sense.
However, that didn’t happen. Genji lost decisively to Doomfist because this favoritism towards Genji you keep talking about is imaginary and all the evidence you’ve provided is confirmation bias.
Losing the ability to feel throughout half or more of your body is a pretty negative impact. Genji and Hanzo are 1-1. Of course Genji is going to beat him the second time with cybernetic enhancements and mental warfare. Like, I really don’t get why you expect Genji to be such a chump.
Why does Genji need to be less likable? You’ve already stated a character flaw, arrogance. Genji is the only character on his team with any flaws at all. Tracer has none, Winston has none, Mercy especially has none. The characters having no personal conflict is a problem caused by the fact the story hasn’t moved forward in three years. Genji has not been seen in the present day since Dragons, so what are you expecting?
He is a major protagonist and hasn’t been given any special treatment. This is all imaginary. You spend way too much time focusing on what Genji does have compared to what others don’t have, which in reality is not much.