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Konami as a company was very aware of changes in the industries it participated in, and not afraid to change to adapt to the times. So as the Super Famicom entered its latter-day era, it appears Konami was trying to change its focus. The Famicom era was very much the golden era for the company and had been extremely profitable in financial and creative terms. Despite the creative richness of the titles on next-generation hardware, however, it seems that Konami was struggling in finding the same kind of success. One could point to several issues behind this outcome: the output of other publishers, especially Capcom, Square, and Enix, had found gold in the 16-bit era. The industry as a whole was moving away from short, action-packed arcade experiences. And it is possible that Konami’s legacy was seen as outdated.
With that in mind, it seems that the public relations department at Konami took another look at what the development teams within Konami were making and decided to promote the Ganbare Goemon games in a different way. Advertisements for Manjigatame in 1994 decided to forgo the gaudy, old-fashioned nature of Goemon promotional materials of old, replacing them instead with a more staid, calmer image that was perhaps a little at odds with the content of the games themselves.
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My lord, this here be that “Goemon 3” that is the talk of the town at the port. If I dare say, it is currently on sale.
Ganbare Goemon 3 Shishi Jurokubee no Karakuri Manjigatame for Super Famicom
MSRP 9,800 yen (excl. tax)
Enter to win an original telephone card or video featuring me!
1 Prizes: Prize A Goemon Telephone Card (200) Prize B Original Video Animation [Translator’s Note: Jigenjo no Akumu, the promotional OVA from 1992]
2 How to Apply: Cut the ticket printed in the instruction manual for the game, paste it on a postcard, and send the postcard with your name, address, age, and sex written on it. Please write clearly which prize you would like to receive. We will send the prizes to the lucky winners.
3 Contest runs from December 16, 1994 until January 31, 1995. (Postcards with a stamp as late as January 31, 1995 are eligible)
(From left to right) Earthquakes! 2d Shoot-em-up Impact Stages
Full-Pelt Dash! 3D Chase Panic Stages
Fierce Fighting! 3D Battle Stages
Konami Co., Ltd.
[Unknown issue of Famitsu ca. 1994]
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Interestingly, Manjigatame was also positioned as a part of a group of Konami games that were probably deemed more friendly to the Japanese market. In some posters, Manjigatame is put within a group of three other titles to be released in late 1994: Gokujo Parodius, Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai Taisen Puzzle-Dama, and Jikkyo World Soccer–the last one being the only one to have been released overseas. Goemon was still the headliner for the group–note that there is only one mention of a contest for one of the games, and it happens to be for Manjigatame. Eight years after its debut, perhaps it is no surprise to find that the Ganbare Goemon series had lost some of its spark within and outside Konami, but on the positive side, its presence lent some gravitas and credit to the games that appeared alongside a new Goemon game in the series.
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Burn up! Laugh it up! Konami’s Super Famicom games are coming in loud and in bunches!
Gokujo Parodius November 25, MSRP 9,800 yen (excl. tax) Sorry for the wait! That non-stop shooting game with a vortex full of explosive gags from the arcades is making a raid on the Super Famicom!
Jikkyo World Soccer [International Superstar Soccer] November 11, MSRP 9,980 yen (excl. tax) Full commentary as you play–a world-first in a soccer game! Finally, here is a soccer game with real graphics set on the world stage!
Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai Taisen Puzzle-Dama November 18, MSRP 8,500 (excl. tax) A thrilling puzzle game full of table-turning and reverse table-turning. Make an impossible come-from-behind win to refresh yourself.
Ganbare Goemon 3~Shishi Jurokubee no Karakuri Manjigatame December 16, MSRP 9,800 yen (excl. tax) Oy! The new entry in our series takes us to the near future of “Neo-Edo”, where jaw-dropping, new traps await, with a big helping of belly-bursting laughs in store!
Customers who purchase Goemon 3 are eligible to enter a contest to win an original telephone card or an original video animation!
1 Prizes: Prize A Goemon Telephone Card (200) Prize B Original Video Animation [Translator’s Note: Jigenjo no Akumu, the promotional OVA from 1992]
2 How to Apply: Cut the ticket printed in the instruction manual for the game, paste it on a postcard, and send the postcard with your name, address, age, and sex written on it. Please write clearly which prize you would like to receive. We will send the prizes to the lucky winners.
3 Contest runs from December 16, 1994 until January 31, 1995. (Only postcards stamped by January 31, 1995 are eligible)
[Source unknown.]
[All translation by me.]
Commercial
The television commercial for Manjigatame also took a different approach to promote the game. Gone was the boisterous flamboyant nature of past Goemon advertising campaigns in favor of a more sober, more surreal tone. The commercial starts with a shot of salarymen from mid-90s Japan (conspicuously sporting traditional Japanese samurai chonmage topknot haircuts) as they walk toward something that the viewer cannot see. The two of them keep remarking how amazing the sight is, and soon after the commercial cuts to reveal a long, full-body shot of Goemon Impact. (The subtitles announce, “The biggest yet! Goemon makes (another) appearance!” One more character is added to the front of the latter exclamation, turning out as “Sugoemon tojo!”–a pun that roughly translates to “Something amazing has shown up!”) Then the standard montage is shown, displaying the most action-packed sections of the game, and the commercial ends with the game box falling like an anvil on the screen–an aural restatement of the message that this was Goemon’s biggest adventure yet.
In many ways, the tone and ideas of the commercial are not entirely foreign to Goemon–there are several common points with the commercial for Goemon 2, for example. On the other hand, the commercial is unmistakably more of what you saw in the commercials in 16-bit era Japan. (Compare the commercial with other commercials for Super Momotaro Dentetsu III, Bishojo Sailormoon S: Jogai Ranto!?, or Rockman X2, all released within one month of each other.)
One very likely explanation for the change in tone in Goemon’s advertisements is that Konami probably changed the advertising agency they hired to make product advertising. A good agency would take the opportunity to make something different and striking from what had come before, and all of that applies to the new tone in the commercial.
Another explanation, which might also tie in to the first, is that Konami was becoming aware that the Goemon series had gone on for quite a long time, in video game terms. Manjigatame was not only the eighth Goemon game, it was also the eighth game of a series that had been born in the heyday of the Famicom era, which necessitated a different approach that moved away from the wacky 80s era-style humor and the tropes of the time that were extremely prevalent in the Ganbare Goemon games. This was a new era in Japan–the Heisei era–and Konami probably felt more pressure than other publishers to keep the series fresh.
It is no coincidence that the commercial starts with the shot of the two salarymen with the Konami logo in the corner: the odd comedic contrast of the sight and the Konami titles only hint at the presence of a new Goemon game. The new Konami wanted to show the world more about what was new and exciting about the company, but Goemon was like a slightly embarrassing uncle that betrayed their roots.
Map
It is difficult to write about the locations in Manjigatame in comparison to their real-life locations in the modern world, as most of the game takes place in a version of Japan in the far future. Nevertheless, there are a few things that can be pointed out:
- Looking at the map included in the instruction manual for the game, the Edo-era towns in the game are depicted accurately in geographic terms, even if the towns themselves are fictional. If we overlay the map with a current-day map, we find that Hagure Town is located on the outskirts of the city of Edo, the Old Wise Man’s villa estate is located, as one would expect in the province of Iga (current day Mie). Nin-Nin Town (the ninja village) has shifted location from where it had been located in Gaiden 1, but it has a real-life counterpart in Mikazuki Mura in Gunma Prefecture, a ninja-themed tourist location. Lastly, Matsuri Town (Festival Town) is located somewhere in Akita Prefecture, as depicted in past Goemon games.
- It is much more difficult to find any sort of reference for the locations in far-future Edo. Partly this is because the world of the future is in itself a parody/homage to the world in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and also because the world itself is completely fictional. Hagure Town is the only recognizable name in the world. There are a few things we can glean from the names of the locations in the future, however.
- The location of Kagami Town (Mirror Town), to the east of Hagure Town, does not correspond to anything in real-world Japan, but the location might have been inspired by the real-life Kagami Machi, located in modern-day Kumamoto Prefecture. The Ganbare Goemon series and Goemon himself have strong ties to the prefecture, starting with the first game, and the dungeon located in the north-east section of the town might have been inspired by the most famous shrine in the town, Kaizukato Shrine.
- However, the presence of the Karakuri Tower in the area suggests that the area might be different, and the mirror (kagami) in the name refers less to a real mirror, but actually the shikyo (the “four mirrors”), four Japanese histories in the rekishi monogatari genre from the Heian period in Japan. Goemon and friends travel to four areas outside Hagure Town, which could correspond to Okagami (The Great Mirror), Imakagami (Today’s Mirror), Mizukagami(The Water Mirror), and Masukagami (The Clear Mirror). The themes in each historical tale align somewhat with the designs of each town.
- Deep Town: The Japanese name for this town, literally “Deep Town”, can be translated back to the Japanese “Oku Machi”, which in turn suggests its inspiration to be the Ōshū Kaidō highway. One of the major roads to and from the capital of Edo, the Oshu Kaido started in Edo and ended at Shirakawa City in Fukushima. The wet nature of the town could be a reference to Nanko Park. The fort nearby, Shishi Fort, could simply be a reference to the main antagonist of the game, although Fukushima has its own share of forts as well.
- Yukinko Town: The town of the Snow Children, or maybe Snow Girls. The origin of the word itself lies in old yokai mythology in Japan, with the Yukinko being child snow spirits that are also called “Yuki-warashi”. They have a characteristic costume rooted in the clothing worn in the snowier regions in Japan–Niigata, specifically. (They are especially prominent in Goemon 2 and Sarawareta Ebisumaru.) Given the location of the town (north-north-east of Hagure Town) and its snowy nature, it would be difficult to deny that its origin lies in Niigata Prefecture or Yamagata Prefecture. The snowy mountain and in particular the Karakuri Onsen dungeon perhaps make the case for Niigata even stronger, as many hot springs can be found in the ski resort regions of the prefecture.
- Karakuri Park: The most enigmatic section of the game. Karakuri Park is hinted at throughout the game, and the player could be excused for imagining it as an amusement park, as found in Yukihime and McGuinness, or an actual park featuring mechanical trinkets. However, the name quickly reveals itself to be ironic, as the player enters into a heavily industrialized area with very little in the way of amusement or greenery. It is a grim view of the future, and the game suggests that this is the reality of the world in Goemon’s future–Hagure Town, etc. are simply locations that have yet to be fully taken over. The location of Karakuri Park itself does not seem to correspond to any location in real-life Japan, although it is possible that the presence of Hannya Fort (named after the characteristic statues), the fact that one has to go through a tunnel to gain access to it, and the layout of the area mean that this might be a hellish version of Kyoto.
Project Goemon 