The sun goes down Bathroom mural by E. Honda Project 30 years after it first appeared.
This week, video game publisher Capcom released Capcom Arcade Stadium for the Nintendo Switch. Among the titles available in the downloadable collection are several iterations of Street Fighter II, including the original 1991, 1992 game Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fightingand 1994 Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
However, players are preparing to make noise in the character E. Honda spa stage in the game Capcom Arcade Stadium versions may look a little different from how they remember, and no, it’s not because technology has advanced and made the art of pixel art games less impressive than it was before, but because the rising sun and its rays disappeared from the backdrop of the stage.
▼ E. Honda internship in Capcom Arcade Stadium
In the original versions of the games, the gray sun also lit up in alternating colors of red and yellow when the round ended.
This has now been changed for the entire left half of the mural, changing color like a solid block, as shown in these screenshots.
い ら な い 修正 … 残念 ね pic.twitter.com/74H5z0VO0G
– ぽ め (@pomegd) February 18, 2021
The change should not be a complete surprise, as the official images available before the game’s launch showed Honda’s sunless background. In addition, when Honda was added to the list in Street Fighter V in 2019, Capcom also launched a modern polygonal version of its Street Fighter II spa, and a sun was present on the mural, but without the array of extensive rays.
No official reason was announced for the move, but the most likely explanation is that Capcom wants to avoid a negative reaction in other parts of Asia to images of the rising sun. Particularly in China and Korea, vocal groups associate the symbol with the Japanese Imperial Army and the occupation of the Second World War era. The issue is complex for many reasons, the least important of which is that, although the Rising Sun flag was raised by the Japanese imperial military, the symbol was not created or used exclusively by the armed forces, and therefore does not necessarily have a feeling militaristic or imperial for most Japanese citizens. Capcom, however, apparently decided it was not worth the risk of risking an adverse reaction on Honda’s track record, so the sun was erased from the wall entirely, even from the Japanese version of the games on sale.
Sources: My Nintendo Store, Twitter / @ pomegd via Hachima Kiko, YouTube / Street Fighter
Top image: SoraNews24
Insert images: My Nintendo Store, SoraNews24, YouTube / Street Fighter
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