The Subway Slammer is the first baddie in gacha spinoff Persona 5: The Phantom X. He is also a total clown show—at least in the Western world, anyway. Despite representing Japan's very serious butsukari otoko problem—an ongoing violence against women that usually involves men intentionally bodychecking women in crowded spaces like train stations—his English localised name and dialogue made him absolute meme bait when the game first launched over this way.
The reaction was much different to the one in Japan, Chief Producer Yohsuke Uda tells me. When I asked whether the team thought it was down to cultural differences, he agreed. "There may be some nuances that were lost in translation when we did that," he said. "So it was definitely interesting, or rather surprising, when we went to Anime Expo [in Los Angeles], and when Subway Slammer appeared on the screen, a lot of people were cheering for him."
