Well, I guess that didn’t go as planned, now did it? Then again, maybe it did. Japanese researcher Haruko Obokata caused one of the biggest science scandals in recent memory after her botched stem-cell research was proven highly questionable. Obokata resigned due to research misconduct, and currently, there’s talk of criminal charges against her.
Square Enix, it seems, thought it would be a good idea to base a character in browser game Star Galaxy after the scientist. As The Asahi Shimbun reports, the character’s name was Haruko Oppenheimer, who’s doing dangerous research, looking for the “ultimate cell”. The character even somewhat resembles Obokata. Online, many commenters were quick to point out the similarities.
Square Enix issued an apology for the parody and changed the character’s name to Jesca Fred, giving her a new research field: weapons. As noted on website Afternoon News, the character’s appearance, however, was not changed.
Picture: Square Enix/GirlsChannel
Comments
7 responses to “Square Enix Is Sorry For Parodying A Disgraced Scientist”
I don’t see the problem here. Are people saying she can’t be parodied? Why not?
Yoshiki Sasai, a prominent stem cell researcher and co-author on Obokata’s disgraced papers, died by suicide, purportedly as a result of the media storm surrounding the situation. This happened 05-08-2014.
The parody is grubby.
Ah, I didn’t know she committed suicide. I still think it should be okay to parody her but maybe they should have waited another few years.
She didn’t, her mentor did; deputy director of the institute they worked at.
It would be great if you told us what the actual changes was instead of just screenshot? Not everyone in Australia / US can read Japanese.
If I was to hazard a guess, I’d say those were the changes.
“changed the character’s name to Jesca Fred, giving her a new research field: weapons”
That’s all that changed between the two – her name and the name of the skill (which looks like it still does the same thing)
Wait, we can’t parody things anymore? Someone call the South Park writers ASAP.