Cho Aniki
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese video game series originally developed by the Masaya and published by NCS Corp. The first game debuted in 1992 for the PC Engine
system. The game's sequels and spin-offs
later appeared on the Super Famicom
, Wonderswan
, Sega Saturn
, PlayStation, and PlayStation 2
. Mainly consisting of side-scrolling shoot 'em up in the vein of Gradius
, the Cho Aniki series is best known for its homoerotic overtones, wacky humor and vivid, surreal imagery. Most of the games have never seen release outside Japan, but the series title loosely translates to English as "Super Big Brothers."
For various reasons, the popularity of the Cho Aniki games has endured since the series' debut. Depending on which specific title one looks at, highlights include in-game music, innovative control schemes or sheer kitsch
value. In Japan, these games are examples of baka-ge, a type of kuso-ge
. "Baka-ge" literally means "idiot game" while "kuso-ge" literally means "shitty game" or "shit game". Baka-ge's appeal lies in its campness. Indisputably, the game's aesthetic sense — semi-nude muscular men in suggestive homoerotic poses — is a unique one, certainly a quality that has given the series a cult popularity among Western gamers. Though the graphics are more risqué than pornographic, the series references homosexuality
and gay sex more directly and more often than perhaps any other video game series in history.
Occasionally, the title is transliterated as "Choaniki", "Chou Aniki", or (erroneously) "Cho Eniki".
The rights to the series are currently owned by Extreme Co., Ltd., which had obtained the rights of NCS Corp. and Masaya products and trademarks.
-style. By and large, Cho Aniki and Ai Cho Aniki play very similarly.
In the second game, Ai Cho Aniki, Bo Emperor Conshyasu (BoteiConshyasu, a pun of "body conscious") raise the Neo Builder Army to fight Idaten and Benten.
However, the two fall in love and elope. This leaves Samson and Adon to fight the new threat, Su Emperor Roido (SuTeiLoido, pun of steroid
). This time Taku Iwasaki scored the soundtrack.
The game was released on Nintendo
's Virtual Console
service in 2007 in Japan.
This game was the last of the series to be developed by Masaya. It was released in 1995.
the same year as the previous two titles, this game features digital photography instead of the hand-drawn anime
-style art from the other titles. The subtitle of this game loosely translates to "The Ultimate, Most Strongest Man in the Milky Way" or "The Ultimate, Invincible, Most Galactically Powerful Man." The game is based on the engine of the first Cho Aniki. As such, Idaten and Benten are again the main two characters. The game is often derided as having the worst play mechanics in the series. Even some of the most fervent fans of Cho Aniki claim that the campy fun is inhibited by poor control and impossible difficulty. Koji Hayama returned to score a few songs for the soundtrack, along with Don McCow, Taku Iwasaki and Sanae Kasahara
Newly formed publisher MonkeyPaw Games released this game on September 21, 2010 as a downloadable title on the PlayStation Network in North America.
— a Japanese card game. It is also likely that the pun extends to another meaning of tama, "balls".
The game was released for the portable Wonderswan
system in 2000.
in 2002. The game's subtitle translates to "Legend of the Holy Protein." With Masaya now defunct, the game was co-developed by X-Nauts and Psikyo
. This team also developed Sengoku Blade, and this game plays much like it as a result.
The plot of this game centers on the Holy Protein, a deity
-like glob of what may be semen
. Samson and Adon hover around the glob, absorbing enemy fire as they did in previous games. This game lacks characters from previous titles as playable, such as Benten, who only appears in some "stage complete" illustrations. Some of the enemies include a giant, cross-dressing
man in an Alice in Wonderland costume and a Mona Lisa
painting that fires lasers from its eyes.
s from the various games have been released on CD, Maxi-Singles and even a live performance has been released on VHS
. Later games in the series were composed by Taku Iwasaki, Isao Mizoguchi (under the alias Don McCow) and Sanae Kasahara.
series, where Samson and company make a cameo
. A hidden level takes the party to an area called the Muscle Shrine, where they must fight Samson. If victorious, the party can then use the Aniki summon, the most powerful in the game. The cameo exists in the Mega Drive, Super NES and PlayStation ports of the game.
The Capcom
video game, God Hand
, pokes fun of Samson and Adon as powerless yet flamboyant drag queens who are the first boss of the game.
The Japanese version of the Game Boy Advance
game Gem Smashers
replaces the three playable characters with three differently colored versions of the Uminin (the original light blue Uminin, and a pink and green Uminin as well)
, Seanbaby
, and Something Awful
. The series is often mentioned in lists of outrageous, peculiar or sexual video games.
Some time around 1999, gaming magazine EGM ran a passing comment about how the US was thankfully spared this homoerotic shooter (Referring to Cho Aniki for PS1, although the comment was followed by "Not that there is nothing wrong with
a homosexual shooter"). For the next few months EGM's letters to the editor were dominated by remarks lambasting the editors at EGM for making fun of the game, even after the editors repeatedly told their readership that the game was horrible.
Fans of the game in the U.S. however would be rewarded as Sony's Playstation Network created an Japanese Import section in their online store on September 20, 2010, with the original Cho Aniki available as a downloadable game in its original PS1, untranslated format.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese video game series originally developed by the Masaya and published by NCS Corp. The first game debuted in 1992 for the PC Engine
TurboGrafx-16
TurboGrafx-16, fully titled as TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem and known in Japan as the , is a video game console developed by Hudson Soft and NEC, released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989....
system. The game's sequels and spin-offs
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
later appeared on the Super Famicom
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, Wonderswan
WonderSwan
was a line of handheld game consoles produced in Japan by Bandai between 1999 and 2003. It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai...
, Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
, PlayStation, and PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
. Mainly consisting of side-scrolling shoot 'em up in the vein of Gradius
Gradius
The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...
, the Cho Aniki series is best known for its homoerotic overtones, wacky humor and vivid, surreal imagery. Most of the games have never seen release outside Japan, but the series title loosely translates to English as "Super Big Brothers."
For various reasons, the popularity of the Cho Aniki games has endured since the series' debut. Depending on which specific title one looks at, highlights include in-game music, innovative control schemes or sheer kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
value. In Japan, these games are examples of baka-ge, a type of kuso-ge
Kuso
Kuso is the term used in East Asia for the internet culture that generally includes all types of camp and parody. In Japanese, means shit, and is often uttered as an interjection. It is considered milder than its English counterpart, more comparable to damn. It is also used to describe outrageous...
. "Baka-ge" literally means "idiot game" while "kuso-ge" literally means "shitty game" or "shit game". Baka-ge's appeal lies in its campness. Indisputably, the game's aesthetic sense — semi-nude muscular men in suggestive homoerotic poses — is a unique one, certainly a quality that has given the series a cult popularity among Western gamers. Though the graphics are more risqué than pornographic, the series references homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and gay sex more directly and more often than perhaps any other video game series in history.
Occasionally, the title is transliterated as "Choaniki", "Chou Aniki", or (erroneously) "Cho Eniki".
The rights to the series are currently owned by Extreme Co., Ltd., which had obtained the rights of NCS Corp. and Masaya products and trademarks.
Cho Aniki
Cho Aniki is the first game in the Cho Aniki series.Ai Cho Aniki
The sequel — Ai Cho Aniki which translates to "Love Super Big Brother" — was developed by Masaya and also released for the PC Engine. In this game, players controlled Samson and Adon directly. A key difference in the control scheme of Ai Cho Aniki is that instead of rapidly pressing buttons as a means of firing at enemies, players now had to input intricate button combinations, Street FighterStreet Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
-style. By and large, Cho Aniki and Ai Cho Aniki play very similarly.
In the second game, Ai Cho Aniki, Bo Emperor Conshyasu (BoteiConshyasu, a pun of "body conscious") raise the Neo Builder Army to fight Idaten and Benten.
However, the two fall in love and elope. This leaves Samson and Adon to fight the new threat, Su Emperor Roido (SuTeiLoido, pun of steroid
Anabolic steroid
Anabolic steroids, technically known as anabolic-androgen steroids or colloquially simply as "steroids", are drugs that mimic the effects of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in the body. They increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in the buildup of cellular tissue ,...
). This time Taku Iwasaki scored the soundtrack.
The game was released on Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service in 2007 in Japan.
Chō Aniki Bakuretsu Rantō Hen
A departure from the typical Cho Aniki formula has characters from previous games — heroes and villains alike — battling in one-on-one fights. Playable characters include the following.- Idaten, a warrior with long spiked hair who uses a variety of attacks with his body
- Benten, who in this game is flanked by two cherubsCHERUBSCHERUBS is a Non-Profit Organization. It was founded in February, 1995 for families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a severe and often lethal birth defect. It was founded and currently led by Dawn M...
who can transform into mini-hunks - Samson/Adon, attacks by gyrating and flatulatingFlatulenceFlatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply gas...
. - Sabu, a pagodaPagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
-shaped ship with an Elvis PresleyElvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
-looking figurehead - Mami 19, a strange amalgam of a cute girl and a battleshipBattleshipA battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
transporting three naked, frolicking men - Adam, a naked man riding in half a moonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. He is intended to resemble Adam from the The Creation of AdamThe Creation of AdamThe Creation of Adam is a section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine Chapel ceiling painted circa 1511. It illustrates the Biblical story from the Book of Genesis in which God the Father breathes life into Adam, the first man...
portion of MichelangeloMichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
's Sistine ChapelSistine ChapelSistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
. - Botei, a berserkerBerserkerBerserkers were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources...
, likely to be Bo Emperor (Botei) Bill from the first series - Uminin, an odd latexLatexLatex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
creature that resembles a condomCondomA condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
This game was the last of the series to be developed by Masaya. It was released in 1995.
Chō Aniki: Kyūkyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyō Otoko
Released for the PlayStation and Sega SaturnSega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
the same year as the previous two titles, this game features digital photography instead of the hand-drawn anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-style art from the other titles. The subtitle of this game loosely translates to "The Ultimate, Most Strongest Man in the Milky Way" or "The Ultimate, Invincible, Most Galactically Powerful Man." The game is based on the engine of the first Cho Aniki. As such, Idaten and Benten are again the main two characters. The game is often derided as having the worst play mechanics in the series. Even some of the most fervent fans of Cho Aniki claim that the campy fun is inhibited by poor control and impossible difficulty. Koji Hayama returned to score a few songs for the soundtrack, along with Don McCow, Taku Iwasaki and Sanae Kasahara
Newly formed publisher MonkeyPaw Games released this game on September 21, 2010 as a downloadable title on the PlayStation Network in North America.
Chō Aniki: Otoko no Tamafuda
This twist on the Cho Aniki universe pits the heroes of the previous games on an RPG quest in which battles are fought with playing cards. According to an article on the game at the Hardcore Gaming 101 website, the title of the game is a pun. The title translates to "Man's Tamafuda," with tamafuda being a portmanteau of tamashii — Japanese for "soul" — and hanafudaHanafuda
are playing cards of Japanese origin that are used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name also refers to games played with those cards.-History:...
— a Japanese card game. It is also likely that the pun extends to another meaning of tama, "balls".
The game was released for the portable Wonderswan
WonderSwan
was a line of handheld game consoles produced in Japan by Bandai between 1999 and 2003. It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai...
system in 2000.
Chō Aniki: Seinaru Protein Densetsu
The most recent of the Cho Aniki games was released for the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
in 2002. The game's subtitle translates to "Legend of the Holy Protein." With Masaya now defunct, the game was co-developed by X-Nauts and Psikyo
Psikyo
is a Japanese video game company started in 1992. Psikyo is an off-shoot formed from the staff that created the Aero Fighters series for Video System. Psikyo focused on arcade games, mostly vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups and pornographic mahjong games...
. This team also developed Sengoku Blade, and this game plays much like it as a result.
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
-like glob of what may be semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
. Samson and Adon hover around the glob, absorbing enemy fire as they did in previous games. This game lacks characters from previous titles as playable, such as Benten, who only appears in some "stage complete" illustrations. Some of the enemies include a giant, cross-dressing
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...
man in an Alice in Wonderland costume and a Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
painting that fires lasers from its eyes.
Cho Aniki Zero
This is the first Cho Aniki title developed by extreme Co.,Ltd., whom had obtained the rights of NCS Corp. and Masaya products.Music
The first game was composed entirely by Koji Hayama, who states on his website that Cho Aniki is his favorite work to date. Numerous soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s from the various games have been released on CD, Maxi-Singles and even a live performance has been released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
. Later games in the series were composed by Taku Iwasaki, Isao Mizoguchi (under the alias Don McCow) and Sanae Kasahara.
Appearances in other games
Masaya also developed the LangrisserLangrisser
is a five-part video game series created by Masaya, the software division of Nippon Computer Systems created in the early 1990s. The development team working under Masaya is CareerSoft....
series, where Samson and company make a cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
. A hidden level takes the party to an area called the Muscle Shrine, where they must fight Samson. If victorious, the party can then use the Aniki summon, the most powerful in the game. The cameo exists in the Mega Drive, Super NES and PlayStation ports of the game.
The Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
video game, God Hand
God Hand
God Hand is a 2006 PlayStation 2 gameGod hand may also refer to:-Video games:* Ken "Godhand" Mishima, a character from the PlayStation game, Ehrgeiz* Godhand, the demonic version of Lenny from Shadow Hearts: Covenant...
, pokes fun of Samson and Adon as powerless yet flamboyant drag queens who are the first boss of the game.
The Japanese version of the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
game Gem Smashers
Gem Smashers
Gem Smashers is a puzzle game developed by Frame Studios and published by Metro 3D for the Game Boy Advance. The game was released in North America on July 1, 2003, and in Japan on November 21, 2003....
replaces the three playable characters with three differently colored versions of the Uminin (the original light blue Uminin, and a pink and green Uminin as well)
Samson and Adon
These series mascots are the personification of phallic imagery. For example, they shoot white energy beams from the holes in their heads called the "Men's Beam," which is charged up with every firing by both of them rapidly pelvic thrusting into the air. The pair are never specified as lovers or even necessarily homosexuals in the earlier series. However, in "The legend of Holy Protein", both Samson and Adon's preference are spelt out as "men".Cult popularity
Few gamers outside Japan have played the Cho Aniki series, but many know of the game through articles written about it on such websites as I-MockeryI-Mockery
I-Mockery is a pop culture humor site owned and operated by Roger Barr that has existed online in various forms since 1996. Before then, it was a printed periodical called Visionary Darkness. Free copies of Visionary Darkness were distributed in local high schools and record shops...
, Seanbaby
Seanbaby
Sean Patrick Reiley , better known as Seanbaby, is an American writer best known for his comedy website and frequent contributions to video game media outlets Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com. He is also a regular contributor to the humor website Cracked.com...
, and Something Awful
Something Awful
Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely personal website, but as it grew, so...
. The series is often mentioned in lists of outrageous, peculiar or sexual video games.
Some time around 1999, gaming magazine EGM ran a passing comment about how the US was thankfully spared this homoerotic shooter (Referring to Cho Aniki for PS1, although the comment was followed by "Not that there is nothing wrong with
The Outing
"The Outing" is the fifty-seventh episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 17th episode of the fourth season, and first aired on February 11, 1993.The line ".....
a homosexual shooter"). For the next few months EGM's letters to the editor were dominated by remarks lambasting the editors at EGM for making fun of the game, even after the editors repeatedly told their readership that the game was horrible.
Fans of the game in the U.S. however would be rewarded as Sony's Playstation Network created an Japanese Import section in their online store on September 20, 2010, with the original Cho Aniki available as a downloadable game in its original PS1, untranslated format.
See also
- KusoKusoKuso is the term used in East Asia for the internet culture that generally includes all types of camp and parody. In Japanese, means shit, and is often uttered as an interjection. It is considered milder than its English counterpart, more comparable to damn. It is also used to describe outrageous...
- LGBT characters in video games
- HomoeroticismHomoeroticismHomoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
External links
- extreme Co.,Ltd. Choaniki page
- The official site of PS2 version.
- Hardcore Gaming 101: Cho Aniki - In depth article about the Cho Aniki series
- Encyclopedia Obscura - Choaniki - Article about Chō Aniki Bakuretsu Rantō Hen SNES fighting game
- PC Engine Review: Masaya's Ai Cho Aniki - Review of the PC Engine game "Ai Cho Aniki" by NFG/Games
- HonestGamers: Ai Choaniki - Review of "Love! Super Big Brother" for PC Engine
- HonestGamers: Sei Naru Protein Densetsu - Review of "Legend of the Holy Protein" for PlayStation 2
- Sexual Moments in Video Game History: THE "CHO ANIKI" SERIES! - A humorous but in depth review of the Cho Aniki series, centred on the homosexual aspects of the game
- Seanbaby's "Cho Eniki" page