/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

There are those who believe that life follows a narrative conveniently laid down by a universal force, possibly a benevolent creator or just possibly a madman with eternity on his hands and a bad scriptwriter, which would go some way to explain why it so often resembles a blooper reel.

I am not one of those.

I used to be a humble fruit seller in downtown Edo until I gained national prominence through a series of events so outrageous that even the aforementioned madman would hand in his certificate of lunacy and go surfing and if there is one thing that I have learned in my long life, apart from self-defense against fresh fruit, it is that nothing was meant to be.

As an example, take a look of the Japan of my youth. An ancient society stagnating with the best of intentions while the Europeans were busy carving up the world and writing 'Who's my bitch?' on the remains. The British were getting ready to kick the Chinese around as they had already done the Indians, the Spanish and Dutch were eying isolated spots in eastern Asia that hadn't already fallen to bayonet or bribes, and at home the Shogunate was reinventing navel-gazing as the national sport.

With an adult male population in excess of seven million people, that's a lot of navel-gazing, I tell you, and it was hurting my fruit sales. Then as now, the sale of fruit is the pinnacle of salesmanship in Japan since, as is well known, we have to import all our fruit from abroad, which makes fresh fruit something of a rarity. This divine food, so necessary to satisfy even the most basic life needs of the humble farmer, does not grow anywhere in the home isles.

[Anonymous No.]

Oh, I know, there are those who claim to have seen fruit grown in the occasional walled garden environment, growing on trees of all things, but the learned man knows that trees are much too valuable to grow fruit on. The few forests remaining are a strategic resource that cannot be wasted on frivolities such as food production. As such, any tree actually observed bearing fruit must be considered a statistical outlier and, hence, does not exist. The same goes for its fruit.

Be that as it may, there were troubling signs of things to come in early 1836. The world was entering a global fruit shortage due to the selfish hoarding of fruit by the Chinese, British, and Spanish, and while there was still some fruit on the market, a fruitless future loomed. I was chosen by the association of fruit sellers of Edo to head up a delegation to present our worries to the Shogun. We didn't get to meet the Shogun himself, naturally, but the low-ranking bureaucrat whom it was my honour to present our petition to assured me that he had the Shogun's ear.

Thus it came as no surprise when the Shogunate wisely decided to loosen trade restrictions a bit and instructed the wise men to learn about the phenomenon called “Freedom of Trade”, which would apparently make our tea and grain producing peasants much better at exporting these basic goods. While not mentioning the impending fruit shortage with a word so as to not unduly alarm the public, it was obvious to the members of the fruit sellers association that this was a long-term measure intended for the primary purpose of enriching the country such that fruit could be afforded and we were pleased.

[Anonymous No.]

Now, then as now Japan was ruled by the Emperor and so it will ever be, but in practice the Shogun took care of day to day affairs such that the Emperor didn't have to trouble his pointy little head. The Emperor could appoint anybody he wanted to run daily affairs, it goes without saying; As the supreme divine leader the choice was his and his alone and he could choose the reactionary forces of the Shogunate, the spineless conservative forces of the court party, who had exactly the same policies as the Shogunate as far as I could tell, or the traitorous liberal scum whose continued existence was a clear sign of the Emperor's divine compassion for even the most wrong-headed. Not surprisingly, he chose to stay with the Shogun.

[Anonymous No.]

Now, it so happened that the Emperor, despite having supreme executive power, wouldn't mind just a bit more power, and he dreamed up the idea of gaining more power than any Emperor had had in living memory via the expedient of competiting with the westeners and outmaneuvering his appointed Shogun. Why would he do this? Why not just instruct the Shogun to do it or get the chop? The Emperor's will is ineffable. Ours not to question why, ours but to do or die!

To achieve this would require the Shogun to act mostly in his own interests as the Emperor's requirements were:

[Anonymous No.]

Are you seriously writing fanfiction for your Vicky game?

[starsauce No.]

why am i reading this

[Anonymous No.]

>>6034591
I used to know a guy who would write fanfiction for our SuperPower2 games.

[Anonymous No.]

>>6034591
It's called AAR (after-action-report). They are closer to Let's play then to fanfiction.
Also, he is reposting the one from paradox forums. It's based on the old beta version that had funny bug with fruit shortages that made everyone in the world go insane from unfulfilled needs.
Also, the forum section for them is MASSIVE.