Ichigo Quotes

If I don't wield the sword, I can't protect you. If I keep wielding the sword, I can't embrace you. -Ichigo Kurosaki

As of now, ALL your opinions are rejected." - Ichigo

Ikkaku: Rescue her? How many of you are here? Seven? Maybe eight? Ichigo: Five people and a cat

Ichigo: You got that? Huh?! I'm the rescuer, so you just SHUT UP!! Rukia: Wha--wha'd you say? A rescuer isn't supposed to ignore the rescuee! Ichigo: Yeah? And what kind of rescuee complains about the rescue!? Why don't you go sit in a corner and tremble in fear and cry out "Save me! Save me!" like you're supposed to?! Rukia: I do not need saving, and I do NOT tremble!

Live well, Ichigo. Live well, age well, go bald well, and die after me. And... if you can, die smiling. (Isshin Kurosaki)

Rukia: Why is she glaring at me? Ichigo: I wonder.. Nel: What's your welationship with Itsygo? Rukia: Huh? Renji: Popular with the ladies, eh? Ichigo: Kiss my ass.

Can I start by asking why your drawings abnormally suck?

I'll cry!! Ububu... BUEEEEEEE!! I... Ichigo, you thupid! Baldy!! Piece of poop! Ichigo: Alright! Alright! I get it already, stop crying! Nel: Impotent! Ichigo: I'm not impotent!! Rukia: What's he shouting about? Nel: Virgin!!! Ichigo: SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!!!

you said you were going to kill rukia with your own hands...you make me sick...show me your bankai and I will crush it...I will make me beg for forgiveness on you knees...I will never let you say those words to Rukia again... ~Ichigo Kurosaki

Whats the difference between a king and his horse?I dont mean some kiddy shit like one has 4 legs and the other has 2, or ones a person and ones an animal. If their form, ability, and power is exactly the same, then why is it one becomes the king and controls the battle and the other one becomes the horse and carries the king? There's only one answer...INSTINCT!!!

I can't go back because I lost all my Soul Reaper powers! - Rukia You lost your powers? What are they, socks? - Ichigo

«Regrets»... I regret how timid and meek I was back then... always telling myself that I couldn't do anything, never even daring to try. That's definitely something I regret. " (p.330)

No, nothing can change my world --Ichigo Kurosaki, Black Moon Rising

I'm so disappointed, Ichigo, so very disappointed. Sadly, your sword exhibits only fear. When you counter, it's because you fear being killed. When you attack, you fear killing. And when you protect someone, you fear you could let them die. At this point, the only thing your sword speaks is sensless fright, and that's not good. What you don't need in battle is fear. Nothing will come of it. When you counter, you don't let them cut you. When you protect someone, you don't let them die. And when you attack, you kill." -Kisuke Urahara (Bleach)

Well if that's the kind of pride you're talking about, you can bet your ass, I'm going to mess with it.

Holy crap! Your story was so long I forgot the beginning! - Ichigo Kurosaki

The orange juice was sweet and sour, a sad and painful taste.

Maybe it's impossible to live life without any regrets. Even when you know the future... you'll still mess up." (p.163)

I wonder can I carry on with the speed of the world without you in it.

- It's a bit late to say something now... I'll just live with it! - If all you do is «live with it»... then that's not much of a life." (p.50)

Ichigo Ichie --Nishikado Soujiroh

For the future of the earth, We shall fight for it ~Nyan!~

Sadie walked under the gates, one by one by one. At first, she felt nothing, but as she kept moving ahead, she began to feel an opening and a new spaciousness in her chest. She realized what a gate was: it was an indication that you had left one space and were entering another. She walked through another gate. It occurred to Sadie: She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn't.) She walked through another gate. What was a gate, anyway? A doorway, she thought. A portal. The possibility of a different world. The possibility that you might walk through the door and reinvent yourself as something better than you had been before. By the time she reached the end of the torii gate pathway, she felt resolved. Both Sides had failed, but it didn't have to be the end. The game was one in a long line of spaces between gates.

Every life is precious. Please treasure each and every day, the present, the moment, and yourself.

It occurred to Sadie: She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she had arrived. But life was always arriving.

The orange juice was sweet, yet sour. The taste of sorrow.

If you ever cry alone again...or even if the day comes where you just find living to be painful...then I promise I'll save you again and again.

To my future self... Thank you... for sending the letter. I wonder if... today's present from Kakeru... reached the «Me» in the future...?" (p.215)

If all you do it "live with it"... then that's not much of a life.

We fear which we cannot see

I'll kill them all! I'll wipe every one of them...off the face of this earth!"~Eren Yeager's bow to kill all the titans from Hajime Isayama's Attack on titan "To become Hokage is my dream!"~Uzumaki Naruto from Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto "It's meaningless to just live. It's meaningless to just fight. I want to win."~Ichigo Kurosaki from Tite Kubo's Bleach

I hope that in the future... we’re as close as we are now... always.

Ichi-go ichi-e. The master told me it roughly translates to “one meeting, one moment in your life that will never happen again.” She explained further: “We could meet again, but you have to praise this moment because in one year, we’ll have a new experience, and we will be different people and will be bringing new experiences with us, because we are also changed.

Oh, Ichigo. My darling Ichigo. There's so much that I owe you, too. But I'm never paying any of it back—not a smidgen. You're also the one who showed me that growing up might not be such a bad thing after all. Thank you, Ichigo. This is much too embarrassing for me to ever say out loud, but you're the best friend I could ever have.

He was tired of having to move so carefully, of having to be so careful. He wanted to be able to skip, for God’s sake. He wanted to be Ichigo. He wanted to surf, and ski, and parasail, and fly, and scale mountains and buildings. He wanted to die a million deaths like Ichigo, and no matter what damage was inflicted on his body during the day, he’d wake up tomorrow, new and whole. He wanted Ichigo’s life, a lifetime of endless, immaculate tomorrows, free of mistakes and the evidence of having lived.

What you have with Sadie is nothing like what I have with Sadie, so it doesn't even matter. You can fuck anyone," he says. "You can't make games with anyone, though." "I make games with both of you," you point out. "I named Ichigo, for God's sake. I have been with both of you every step of the way. You can't say I haven't been here." "You've been here, sure. But you're fundamentally unimportant. If you weren't here, it would be someone else. You're a tamer of horses. You're an NPC, Marx." An NPC is a character that is not playable by a gamer. It is an AI extra that gives a programmed world verisimilitude. The NPC can be a best friend, a talking computer, a child, a parent, a lover, a robot, a gruff platoon leader, or the villain. Sam, however, means this as an insult---in addition to calling you unimportant, he's saying you're boring and predictable. But the fact is, there is no game without the NPCs. "There's no game without the NPCs," you tell him. "There's just some bullshit hero, wandering around with no one to talk to and nothing to do.

If you don’t like reality, create another where you can live.

Taking on the afterlife one soul at a time.

It’s the same for those who die and those that survive both are sad as the other

She walked through another gate. It occurred to Sadie: She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.)

It's hard to look at sad faces. I'm not Superman, so I can't say anything big like I'll protect everyone on Earth. I'm not a modest guy who will say it's enough if I can protect as many people as my two hands can handle, either. I want to protect... a mountain load of people. - Ichigo Kurosaki

The orange juice was sweet, yet sour. The taste of sorrow.

Pour créer un avenir meilleur il existe plusieurs chemins.

if you’re brave enough to do what you love, every day could be the best day of your life.

komorebi—the play of sunbeams filtering through tree branches,

What we are experiencing right now will never happen again. And therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure.

Sakura is visible proof of how the most beautiful things in life are fleeting and can't be postponed.

You are a miracle, and there has never been-- nor will there ever be--anyone like you - Pau (Pablo) Casals

The question to ask, as much to write a story as to write—or reinvent—the script of your life, is What if . . . ?

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

He wanted Ichigo’s life, a lifetime of endless, immaculate tomorrows, free of mistakes and the evidence of having lived.

Sadie was twenty-two when Ichigo was launched, and she hadn’t figured out who she was in public yet. (She barely knew who she was in private.)

She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through.

A good game, like Ichigo, was hard, but fair. The “unfair game” was life itself.

Ichi, go. The kid's name is Ichigo

Or, I’m sorry, is Ichigo a him?” “Sam and Sadie say them.” “Cool. When the parents can’t recognize them. That moment is straight out of The Odyssey.

Quit worrying! Final exams don't hold a lot of meaning in one's life." "Well said! That's our Ichigo! Let's share the pain of being morons!!!

ikigai: discovering something we become passionate about and which also comes easily to us.

Dov was a producer on Ichigo, and he was so well known that she worried that people would think her work was his work. That they wouldn’t know where her work began and his work ended.

They must be ignorant. They think this is enough to fill you with despair! They don’t know the struggles you’ve lived through! Show them, Ichigo! That they cannot stop you with despair!

Ichigo… I hate rain. It rains in this world too. When you’re upset, the skies grow cloudy. When you’re sad, it rains. I can’t stand it. I wonder if you can grasp…the terror of being rained on in this lonely world. To be able to hold back the rain…I’ll give you everything I have. Should you place your trust in me…I won’t let any rain fall on this world. Believe me… you aren’t fighting alone… Ichigo!

She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.)

But then he reminded himself: They are not only my friends. They are my colleagues. He had turned them into his colleagues, and in a strange way, that was comforting to Sam. Ichigo bonded them to him for life.

When she looked at him, she saw Sam, but she also saw Ichigo and Alice and Freda and Marx and Dov and all the mistakes she had made, and all her secret shames and fears, and all the best things she had done, too.

ichi-go ichi-e, which roughly translates to “once in a lifetime.” It could refer to a gathering of friends, a special meal, an epic day of surf, but the idea is to savor that occasion, because it will never come again.

It occurred to Sadie: She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.)

Even an elderly person can decide to wipe the slate clean and reinvent themselves, because they, too, have their whole life ahead of them. What matters isn’t how many more years we might live but what we will do with the time we have left.

We wouldn’t have made Ichigo Japanese, because we would have worried about the fact that we weren’t Japanese. And I think, because of the internet, we would have been overwhelmed by how many people were trying to do the exact same things we were.

Watanabe-san and Sadie exchanged gifts. She brought him a pair of carved wooden Ichigo chopsticks that their Japanese distributor had had made to celebrate the release of the second Ichigo in Japan. In return, he gave her a silk scarf with a reproduction of Cherry Blossoms at Night, by Katsushika Ōi, on it. The painting depicts a woman composing a poem on a slate in the foreground. The titular cherry blossoms are in the background, all but a few of them in deep shadow. Despite the title, the cherry blossoms are not the subject; it is a painting about the creative process---its solitude and the ways in which an artist, particularly a female one, is expected to disappear. The woman's slate appears to be blank. "I know Hokusai is an inspiration for you," Watanabe-san said. "This is by Hokusai's daughter. Only a handful of her paintings survived, but I think she is even better than the father.

I owe her a favour. She saved my life. I need to return the favour. She saved my life and the lives of my family by giving me her power. Doing that got her arrested. Now, she’s going to be executed. I’m not a punk who can sit back and do nothing while somebody is going to die for his sake.” - Ichigo Kurosaki

and no matter what damage was inflicted on his body during the day, he’d wake up tomorrow, new and whole. He wanted Ichigo’s life, a lifetime of endless, immaculate tomorrows, free of mistakes and the evidence of having lived. Or if he couldn’t be Ichigo, at least he could be back at the apartment, with Sadie and Marx, making Ichigo.

when you find just living to be painful

Zangetsu. I don't care who you are. You'll probably say that i'm wrong but... you... and that guy... both are.. zangetsu. Hey. Is that all right? zangetsu...

It's meaningless to just live. It's meaningless to just fight. I want to win.

If you don't seize the moment, it will be lost forever.

«Nadie se baña dos veces en el mismo río, porque todo cambia, en el río y en quien se baña».

The moment is a jealous lover that demands we give it our all. Every unrepeatable moment is a small oasis of happiness. And many oases together make an ocean of happiness.

The Buddha summed it up with perhaps his most famous saying, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional

If it’s heavy... you don’t have to strain yourself and carry the whole thing. We are here to help. It's okay. If everyone grabs hold, it's light as a feather.” —Hiroto Suwa

She realized what a gate was: it was an indication that you had left one space and were entering another. She walked through another gate. It occurred to Sadie: She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.)

Otro estudio conducido por la Universidad de Miami en 2010 demostró que, con el abrazo, los receptores de la piel envían una señal al nervio cerebral encargado de reducir la presión arterial.

She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.) She walked through another gate. What was a gate anyway? A doorway, she thought. A portal. The possibility of a different world. The possibility that you might walk through the door and reinvent yourself as something better than you had been before.

She studied Sam’s moon face, which was so familiar to her. It was almost like looking at herself, but through a magical mirror that allowed her to see her whole life. When she looked at him, she saw Sam, but she also saw Ichigo and Alice and Freda and Marx and Dov and all the mistakes she had made, and all her secret shames and fears, and all the best things she had done, too. Sometimes, she didn’t even like him, but the truth was, she didn’t know if an idea was worth pursuing until it had made its way through Sam’s brain, too. It was only when Sam said her own idea back to her—slightly modified, improved, synthesized, rearranged—that she could tell if it was good. She knew if she told him her new idea, it would instantly become his, too. They’d be walking down the aisle all over again, blithely stamping on another glass, come what may. She took a deep breath. “The game I want to make is called Both Sides.

He wanted to be Ichigo. He wanted to surf, and ski, and parasail, and fly, and scale mountains and buildings. He wanted to die a million deaths like Ichigo, and no matter what damage was inflicted on his body during the day, he’d wake up tomorrow, new and whole. He wanted Ichigo’s life, a lifetime of endless, immaculate tomorrows, free of mistakes and the evidence of having lived. Or if he couldn’t be Ichigo, at least he could be back at the apartment, with Sadie and Marx, making Ichigo.

It was Marx, with his love of avant-garde instrumental music, who played Brian Eno, John Cage, Terry Riley, Miles Davis, and Philip Glass on his CD player while Sadie and Sam worked. It was Marx who suggested they reread The Odyssey and The Call of the Wild and Call It Courage. He also had them read the story structure book The Hero’s Journey, and a book about children and verbal development, The Language Instinct. He wanted the pre-verbal Ichigo to feel authentic, to have details that came from life.

The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don’t you? I’m terrified of that world, and I don’t want to live in that world, and as a mixed-race person, I literally don’t exist in it. My dad, who I barely knew, was Jewish. My mom was an American-born Korean. I was raised by Korean immigrant grandparents in Koreatown, Los Angeles. And as any mixed-race person will tell you—to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing. And, by the way, I don’t own or have a particularly rich understanding of the references of Jewishness or Koreanness because I happen to be those things. But if Ichigo had been fucking Korean, it wouldn’t be a problem for you, I guess? — Sam and his mother, Anna Lee, arrived in Los Angeles in July of 1984.

How do you get into making video games anyway? Sadie hated answering this question, especially after a person told her he hadn't heard of Ichigo. "Well, I learned to program computers in middle school, I got an 800 on my math SAT, won a Westinghouse and a Leipzig, and then I went to MIT, which, by the way, is highly competitive, even for a lowly female like myself, and studied computer science. At MIT, I learned four or five more programming languages and studied psychology with an emphasis on ludic techniques and persuasive designs, and English, including narrative structures, the classics, and the history of interactive storytelling. Got myself a great mentor. Regrettably made him my boyfriend. Suffice it to say, I was young. And then I dropped out of school for a time to make a game because my best frenemy wanted me to. That game became the game you never heard of. But yeah, it sold around two and a half million copies, just in the U.S., so...." Instead, she said, "I like to play games a lot, so I thought I'd see if I could make them.

But Sadie and Sam wanted Ichigo's journey to be reflected in their character. Ichigo ages and takes the damage inflicted by the narrative and time itself, and by the end of the story, when they finally make it home, after about seven years away, they are unrecognizable to their family. Ichigo returns home exhausted, weary ten-year-old who has battled the ocean, the city, the tundra, and even the underworld. They stand on the doorstep of their home, and they hold their quivering hand over the door, afraid to knock. Eventually, Ichigo's mother lets them in, but the mother doesn't recognize them.

He was tired of his body, of his unreliable foot, which couldn’t even handle the slightest expression of joy. He was tired of having to move so carefully, of having to be so careful. He wanted to be able to skip, for God’s sake. He wanted to be Ichigo. He wanted to surf, and ski, and parasail, and fly, and scale mountains and buildings. He wanted to die a million deaths like Ichigo, and no matter what damage was inflicted on his body during the day, he’d wake up tomorrow, new and whole. He wanted Ichigo’s life, a lifetime of endless, immaculate tomorrows, free of mistakes and the evidence of having lived.

You think Both Sides is ill-conceived and pretentious?" "I think it was pretty obvious that it was never going to be Ichigo, but it was what you wanted to do, so I supported you." "You're saying it's my fault?" "No, I'm agreeing maybe it was more your idea than mine." "Ichigo was my idea, too. They're ALL my ideas." "It's nice that you see it that way, and if it helps you to make a villain out of me, go for it. But if I hadn't pushed you to make Ichigo, where would you even be? You'd be one of a hundred programmers at EA working on Madden Football, if you were lucky. There aren't that many girls in our field, you know. You'd probably be working for Dov. He'd probably have you handcuffed to your desk.

Se considera que cuatro abrazos al día bastarían para favorecer la salud emocional y física de una persona, pero según Andy Stalman, experto en relaciones internacionales, lo idóneo serían ocho abrazos de seis segundos al día. Al parecer, esa es la duración mínima para que la oxitocina —la hormona de la felicidad— llegue al cerebro, despertando sentimientos de afecto y confianza.

Sam had wanted what he wanted, and he hadn’t cared what it would mean for Sadie. He had wanted Ulysses, in the same way he had wanted the deal with Opus, in the same way he didn’t truly care if Ichigo was a boy, in the same way he let everyone in the world believe Ichigo was his game, in the same way he had renewed their friendship for the sole purpose of making a game in the first place. She let herself think Sam was her friend, but Sam was no one’s friend. It wasn’t as if he was dishonest about it—when she told him she loved him, he never once said he loved her, too. She had made excuses for him—his absentee father, the death of his mother, his injury, his poverty, and the obvious insecurities these things had caused. But what if her mistake had been in imbuing Sam with emotions and sentiments that he was incapable of feeling?

The alternative to appropriation is a world where wire pean people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for Europe PN. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don't you? I'm terrified about world, and I don't wanna live in that world, and as a mixed race person, I literally don't exist in it. My dad, who I barely knew, was Jewish. My mom was an American born Korean. I was raised by Korean immigrant grandparents in Koreatown, Los Angeles. And as any mixed race person will tell you—to behalf of two things is to be whole of nothing. And, by the way, I don't own or have a particularly rich understanding of the references of Jewishness or Koreanness because I happen to be those things. But if Ichigo had been fucking Korean, it wouldn't be a problem for you I guess?

The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don’t you? I’m terrified of that world, and I don’t want to live in that world, and as a mixed-race person, I literally don’t exist in it. My dad, who I barely knew, was Jewish. My mom was an American-born Korean. I was raised by Korean immigrant grandparents in Koreatown, Los Angeles. And as any mixed-race person will tell you—to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing. And, by the way, I don’t own or have a particularly rich understanding of the references of Jewishness or Koreanness because I happen to be those things. But if Ichigo had been fucking Korean, it wouldn’t be a problem for you, I guess?

It’s over. You will die here…alone, with no one by your side. I want to know…if that frightens you.” “I’m not afraid. My friends will come and save me. My heart is already…with them.” “Nonsense. You think your friends can save you? Do you really believe that?” “Yes. When I first heard they’d come to save me…I felt a little happy…but I was terribly sad too. I came here so that they wouldn’t get hurt. Why did they do it? Didn’t they know I wanted to keep them safe? But…feeling Rukia fall…and seeing Ichigo fight…I realized I was wrong. I just didn’t want Ichigo to get hurt. I just wanted everybody to be safe. When I had that thought…I realized…oh. Those guys feel the same. If any of them disappeared like I did…I know I’d come after them. Maybe I don’t feel exactly the way they do…but it’s possible to care about others and to put your heart in sync with theirs. To me that’s what it means to have one heart.” “Heart? You humans toss around that word like it’s nothing…as if it’s something you can hold in the palm of your hand. This eye is mine reflects everything. There is nothing it can’t penetrate. What cannot be seen does not exist. That’s what I’ve always believed. What is a heart? Can it be seen if I rip open this chest of yours? If I crush your skull? Will I find it there?

The meaning of ichigo ichie is something like this: What we are experiencing right now will never happen again. and therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure. Anger is almost always a destructive emotion, as the Buddha taught: "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else:you are the one who gets burned." Anger keeps us tied to the past, preventing us from enjoying the here and now. Learning to see the beauty of things also allows us to make them beautiful. Chanoyu is a call for us to pay attention to all five senses and to be anchored in the present, making the ceremony an art that goes far beyond drinking tea. Having problems is part of being alive. It is our difficulties and how we face them, more than our periods of contentment, that shape us throughout the course of our lives. The moment is a jealous lover that demands we give it our all. Every unrepeatable moment is a small oasis of happiness. And many oases together make an ocean of happiness. Journeys into the past and the future are often painful and nearly always useless. You can't change what happened. You can't know what will happen. But here in this moment, all the possibilities in the world are alive. The simple fact of stepping away from the daily whirlwind of hurry and obligations will open the doors to well-being.

It’s so funny you should say this, because if you were one of my students, you’d be wearing your pain like a badge of honor. This generation doesn’t hide anything from anyone. My class talks a lot about their traumas. And how their traumas inform their games. They, honest to God, think their traumas are the most interesting thing about them. I sound like I’m making fun, and I am a little, but I don’t mean to be. They’re so different from us, really. Their standards are higher; they call bullshit on so much of the sexism and racism that I, at least, just lived with. But that’s also made them kind of, well, humorless. I hate people who talk about generational differences like it’s an actual thing, and here I am, doing it. It doesn’t make sense. How alike were you to anyone we grew up with, you know?” “If their traumas are the most interesting things about them, how do they get over any of it?” Sam asked. “I don’t think they do. Or maybe they don’t have to, I don’t know.” Sadie paused. “Since I’ve been teaching, I keep thinking about how lucky we were,” she said. “We were lucky to be born when we were.” “How so?” “Well, if we’d been born a little bit earlier, we wouldn’t have been able to make our games so easily. Access to computers would have been harder. We would have been part of the generation who was putting floppy disks in Ziploc bags and driving the games to stores. And if we’d been born a little bit later, there would have been even greater access to the internet and certain tools, but honestly, the games got so much more complicated; the industry got so professional. We couldn’t have done as much as we did on our own. We could never have made a game that we could sell to a company like Opus on the resources we had. We wouldn’t have made Ichigo Japanese, because we would have worried about the fact that we weren’t Japanese. And I think, because of the internet, we would have been overwhelmed by how many people were trying to do the exact same things we were. We had so much freedom—creatively, technically. No one was watching us, and we weren’t even watching ourselves. What we had was our impossibly high standards, and your completely theoretical conviction that we could make a great game.

It was 1996, and the word “appropriation” never occurred to either of them. They were drawn to these references because they loved them, and they found them inspiring. They weren’t trying to steal from another culture, though that is probably what they did. Consider Mazer in a 2017 interview with Kotaku, celebrating the twentieth-anniversary Nintendo Switch port of the original Ichigo: kotaku: It is said that the original Ichigo is one of the most graphically beautiful low-budget games ever made, but its critics also accuse it of appropriation. How do you respond to that? mazer: I do not respond to that. kotaku: Okay…But would you make the same game if you were making it now? mazer: No, because I am a different person than I was then. kotaku: In terms of its obvious Japanese references, I mean. Ichigo looks like a character Yoshitomo Nara could have painted. The world design looks like Hokusai, except for the Undead level, which looks like Murakami. The soundtrack sounds like Toshiro Mayuzumi… mazer: I won’t apologize for the game Sadie and I made. [Long pause.] We had many references—Dickens, Shakespeare, Homer, the Bible, Philip Glass, Chuck Close, Escher. [Another long pause.] And what is the alternative to appropriation? kotaku: I don’t know. mazer: The alternative to appropriation is a world in which artists only reference their own cultures. kotaku: That’s an oversimplification of the issue. mazer: The alternative to appropriation is a world where white European people make art about white European people, with only white European references in it. Swap African or Asian or Latin or whatever culture you want for European. A world where everyone is blind and deaf to any culture or experience that is not their own. I hate that world, don’t you? I’m terrified of that world, and I don’t want to live in that world, and as a mixed-race person, I literally don’t exist in it. My dad, who I barely knew, was Jewish. My mom was an American-born Korean. I was raised by Korean immigrant grandparents in Koreatown, Los Angeles. And as any mixed-race person will tell you—to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing. And, by the way, I don’t own or have a particularly rich understanding of the references of Jewishness or Koreanness because I happen to be those things. But if Ichigo had been fucking Korean, it wouldn’t be a problem for you, I guess?

Quería hablar más. Había cosas que quería decirte y cosas que quería escuchar de ti. Me arrepiento de no haber tenido el coraje de hablarte acerca de eso.

Ichigo…there were so many things I wanted to do. Become a teacher…or an astronaut…or open a pastry shop…or go to Mr. Donuts and say “Give me one of each!” …or go to Baskin Robbins and say, “Give me one of each!” Sigh… if only there were five of me! Then I could be born in five different towns…and eat five different meals…and have five different jobs…and all five of me…could fall in love with the same guy.