The Social Justice sectors of the internet were in full bloom, like size 7 pearly white panties on a clothesline blowing on a breezy spring day, as if it were a fluttering sail on a ship’s mast. What brought on this momentous occasion for the perpetually offended foot soldiers of the Intersectional Inquisition to run roughshod through the digital prairie of forum boards and social media like hounds on the hunt for a bleeding rabbit? Well, Catherine: Full Body.
More specifically, some leaked footage allegedly made its way around the internet on February 16th, 2019, supposedly revealing some of the endings for Catherine: Full Body, and the revelations made some Social Justice Warriors freak out, calling the game “queerphobic” and “transphobic”.
Obviously, I should warn you that there are Spoilers Ahead.
Don’t go complaining in the comment section that this article discusses spoilers because you’ve been warned, just like a chick being warned to steer clear of rapists yet she still decides to go on a date with a patchy-bearded, pot-bellied fellow who claims to be a male feminist. You’ve got no one else to blame but yourself.
Anyway, let’s get into it, shall we?
It all started when Twitter caught wind of news spreading around from Japanese livestreams that one of the endings for Catherine: Full Body included time-travel. While this sounds relatively benign for most people, it caused a freakout on Twitter because they spread around the story that the character Erica, who is a cross-dresser/trans in the game, is convinced not to transition into a girl and instead lives life as a gay man. This caused Catherine to begin to trend on social media as a bunch of the SJW crowd began talking about it and tweeting about it… mostly in a derogatory fashion.
super transphobic true ending to Catherine Full Body, apparently, and there’s video/image evidence
— sinister shiba @ post-kh3 blues (@_starfall) February 16, 2019
I finally found some actual evidence since almost everyone just links back to that one person’s tweet. I can confirm that the Catherine Fullbody Good Ending where they alter the past and as a result, a trans character doesn’t transition is fucking real. pic.twitter.com/j0dskEYdk0
— Gio, Yearno of the Cirno (@GioMafia) February 16, 2019
Also yes this IS the actual “BEST” ending. Jap devs do a lot of bs with naming endings but yeah this is clearly meant to be a good ending either way pic.twitter.com/etT6ftRwjl
— Gio, Yearno of the Cirno (@GioMafia) February 16, 2019
You can see the ending that caused all the uproar below. It clocks in at just under eight minutes. Obviously, it contains spoilers for Catherine: Full Body.
The idea that a trans would go back to being a man and live life as a gay man was too much for some people, causing them to declare Atlus as being “queerphobic” and “transphobic”.
Transphobic Catherine shit
— Cona (@RukaTsukinagas) February 16, 2019
Some of the Twitter circles were confounded, bewildered, and at best befuddled. They knew not which way to turn for answers and were seeking to confide in some place to quell the confusion.
Enter ResetEra.
The extremist forum board corralled all of the spoilers together and rolled out explanations for what really went down in Catherine: Full Body, explaining that apparently one of the characters, Rin, is an alien, and that their lower extremities may resemble that of a man, which freaks out the main character Vincent. The members of ResetEra were angered that Vincent would be repulsed at a girl having male genitalia, and also called it “harmful” for trans folk.
ResetEra goes all in on calling the game “transphobic”, “problematic”, and “toxic”.
One user, ShironRedShift, wrote…
“Like, even putting Erica aside (which absolutely shouldn’t be, but putting that whole discussion aside regardless) the spoilers regarding Rin sound 100%, unambiguously transphobic regardless. Like, regardless of if Rin can actually be considered transgender, the whole Rin turning out to have a penis and Vincent being shocked 100% embodies transgender “trap” stereotypes, that transgender individuals are trying to hide what they “really” are and trick people into having sex with them unaware, and that’s exactly the kind of stuff that gets transgender individuals killed and leads to them killing suicide each and every day, those kind of stereotypes and that kind of imagery. No one who’s transgender actually does that stuff, tries to trick people like that. They’re more afraid of that possibility than anyone, that someone might feel deceived in any way and fear for what would happen to them in that kind of situation. It’s just not a thing.”
The moderator also posted a note explaining that some of the people at ResetEra were so triggered by the endings that they requested that the forum outright ban all discussion of Catherine: Full Body. One of the moderators, Morrigan, posted an official staff response, which stated…
“We’ve received a request to have this game banned and added to the prohibited games list. The team has discussed this, and our conclusion is that banning the game would inadvertently serve to sweep this issue under the rug, when it should really be brought to light and exposed.
“However, please keep in mind that the contents described here are so blatantly offensive that defense of them, or any dismissal of relevant criticism, will be met with bans.
“A staff message has also been added to the OT with clearly outlined rules and expectations of behavior.”
The thread devolves into excoriating Atlus like a dragon roasting a stuck pig in an empty field.
The thread, however, only exacerbated what was being said on social media, regardless of whether it was true or not.
by the way, according to early reports Rin’s not actually trans, just a crossdresser (and also an alien or some shit but that’s less important)
so it still has all the trans panic bullshit people were afraid of, just without Rin technically being trans :V
— KERMIT IS–“FROGY” (@armormodechang) February 16, 2019
atlus: so in the new catherine there is another trans character in addition to erica
me: okay cool—
atlus: but her entire route is dedicated to vincent being disgusted by her and also we’re going to create an ending where erica never transitioned and say she’s “better off”
me: pic.twitter.com/UN9WSqnFkq— adrienne 💕 (@nilarcana) February 16, 2019
not surprised by catherine fullbody’s garbage but still dont feel great about it
— friendly 😎 neighborhood 🛹 chud 🦛 (@actualtriangle) February 16, 2019
It continued to escalate, though, with various Social Justice Warriors proclaiming that they would no longer associate with people who were buying the game, telling others not to buy the game, and showing images of them canceling their pre-order of Catherine: Full Body.
There’s no way the transphobia in Catherine Full Body was unintentional, its straight up cold to the bone hate, please don’t support a dev that would include that.
— Lvl 99 Pirate Queen Paris (@SaltyParis) February 16, 2019
If you making a joke saying you buying Catherine because of this unfollow me your not funny and I don’t want to interact with you
— Fat Yoshi SZN 🙇 (@minitronftw11) February 16, 2019
Theres people defending atlus rn of this fullbody catherine thing ok twitter user l*li master2000 with an ahegao icon we get it youre edgy thanks to the 0 braincells you have and never went outside once in ur life
— bañate (@okinaaw) February 16, 2019
Catherine Full Body is now cancelled. @AtlusUSA @Atlus_jp
What a way to ruin any good will toward the community for the competitve scene as well as casuals interested in playing the game. It’s 2019, wake up. The way you handled this is bad.#CatherineFullBody #catherine #atlus pic.twitter.com/kvKAy8noI3
— WD | SuperTiso🔜Winter Brawl 3D (@SuperTiso) February 16, 2019
Some Twitter users also began attacking Catherine creator Katsuhiro Hashino, claiming that he perpetuates negative stereotypes against trans folk and the LGBTQ community.
(CONTENT WARNING: TRANSPHOBIC VIOLENCE)
There’s more. Everyone’s concerns ever since the teaser weren’t unfounded. Fuck Katsura Hashino. pic.twitter.com/obitL3kGLD— Root BEER Pizza STIX (@BeerStix) February 16, 2019
me thinking about how hashino gets so much clout as making great games and yet is one of the most repugnant people to exist, and also is hugely responsible for idiotic western woke games people thinking transphobia and homophobia are issues “uniquely endemic” to japanese culture pic.twitter.com/GKQ8UlEzIP
— eden (@fontiago) February 16, 2019
Man am I glad Hashino is gone from Persona. Hope he never directs another game for Atlus again. It’s sad cause Atlus games made by different teams and directors have better LGBT rep and Hashino just drags everything in a heternormative direction.
— Ichigo 🍓 (@StrawberryToufu) February 16, 2019
Hashino retire bitch
— Ehm (@OtherEhm) February 16, 2019
Whether or not Atlus will kowtow to the demands of the people asking for change, censorship, or outright bans remains to be seen at this point. Typically most companies deign resolutions to whatever the social media outrage machine dictates.
Make no mistake about it: There will likely be a small contingent of Centrists™ with blue checkmarks and notably moderate YouTube channels decrying any mention of the controversy brought up by anti-SJWs, claiming that whatever outcome befalls the situation was because anti-SJWs talked about the SJW outrage, and therefore that was the only reason it became as big as it did in the media, all while completely ignoring that SJWs have been using social media platforms to pressure and coerce corporations into doing their bidding against the better interests of the majority.
However, Catherine: Full Body is already out in Japan as of February 14th, 2019 for the PS4 and PS Vita, so it can’t be censored in Japan (unless they apply a patch to change things retroactively). The downside is that the game won’t arrive in the West until September 3rd, 2019 for the PS4. So if Atlus decides to censor the game in any way for its Western run, then the only way to get your hands on the uncensored version would be importing the Japanese version. We’ll find out when September 3rd rolls around… or unless Atlus makes an announcement before then.
(Thanks for the news tip Blaugast)
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