Itoi’s Mr. Saturn Sketch

Heh, I’m glad you posted this. Thank you.

I’m glad Itoi still remembers things like that, even now. Btw, does it actually make a difference what way something is written in japanese? Like, does it change inflection, or meaning maybe?

Mostly it changes the way it feels I guess. There usually isn’t any real meaningful difference if you write something in kanji or kana or a mixture of both.

Now, my knowledge of Japanese is limited to “I know a few Hiragana characters” and little else, but…
If something is written in kanji, I think there can be some “puns” for lack of a better word.

Using XXXHOLiC as an example, the main character’s name is Watanuki, but in kanji it can be spelled “April 1″

That’s kinda cute =3

He thinks of Mother every day, and eventually he’ll make another game.

That’s the way I want to think of it.

Itoi looks old now… Maybe it would be good to have some vacations.

“This is a fake Mr. Saturn that speaks in kanji.”

lol, Itoi’s weird…

It’s funny because I get it

What does his company do? All I know of the guy is the three games he made. His company must do other stuff.

Ha ha. I like it. I love little stuff like that.

It’s my impression that using kanji can also help novice noobs like me to separate “real words” from connecting or grammar words when reading. That’s just me.

LucasTizma: You’re completely right. Kanji might be difficult to learn, but once you do it makes Japanese much easier to read, since it doesn’t use spaces to separate words.

If you write using only kana, itslikewritingeverythingalljumbleduplikethis. Further, kana doesn’t even differentiates the tones that help in separating homophones in spoken language, so it can be really hard to tell what’s happening.

Mother 2 and 3 are kana-only by design. When reading a large kana text, the temptation is great to start speaking it aloud. Dragon Quest was kana-only because of technical limitations. Itoi, sick in his bed, trying to make sense of the kana jumble, would narrate the game to himself: «Hero defeats the Slime! Hero gains 3 EXP!» That experience was important to him, and he wanted to recreate it for Mother fans, so Mother avoids kanji. That’s why the manual is so keen in having you sing along the game —it’s the proper way to experience it =) And that’s why he has to note that this is not a real Mr. Saturn. The real Mother 2 world is kana.

For the curious, read the full story here: http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=mother2

Ha! This Mr. Saturn looks funny and it’s hilarious how Itoi labeled it fake. Itoi will never run out of his humor.

that Fake Mr. Saturn shall become the next internet MOTHER meme

Lol Just noticed that one of the pouches says ”On myös kilttejä karhuja” and it’s finnish and means ”there’s also nice bears”