Oberon and Titania’s Appearance in a Japanese Videogame

We know that Shakespeare’s influence in popular culture is massive. “Romeo and Juliet” has influenced music, as in Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet”; Titania and Oberon have been mentioned in “The Simpsons” and “Star Trek”; and popular actors and actresses such as Glenn Close and Mel Gibson have starred movies based on “Hamlet.” But, what would you say if I told you that part of Oberon and Titania’s disagreements appear in a Japanese videogame?

The game in question is “Devil Summoner 2,” a spin-off of a saga called “Shin Megami Tensei.” It was released in 2009 for the PlayStation 2 and tells the story of a young detective, Raidou, who is trying to unveil a big mystery. The game is set in the 1920s in The Capital (Tokyo), and naturally, the protagonist has to travel to different places, accompanied by his cat friend Gouto. In one of these places, he will be asked to solve a conundrum:

“There's supposedly a village that was wiped off the map in the forest north of Tsukigata. Rumor has it anyone who goes into that cursed place never comes back. I'd like to ask you to find it. I know it could be risky, but I think a tough guy like you will do fine. I'll give you a Fickle Dew as a reward.”

It turns out that Queen Titania was the one behind the request, whose goal was to make Raidou, “the darling Oriental boy,” her new consort so that they could live forever together in the “Tento Woods.” After his refusal to such forced invitation, Oberon, the Faerie King and Titania’s husband, gives Raidou a love potion that can redirect Titania’s love to Oberon. Once Raidou accomplishes the goal, the Queen and the King of the Faerie decide to turn him into a page, and Oberon confesses that it was all part of his plan to regain Titania’s love and a new servant. After revealing the truth, the battle begins. When the fight is over, the effect of the potion wears off and the couple argues again, leaving the area. Can you see the resemblance?

In the original plot, Oberon asks Titania for a changeling (a baby or boy who is to replace another one) because the one she had brought from India is really beautiful and could be a good knight. Titania refuses, so Oberon asks Puck to look for a flower whose liquid can make anyone fall in love with the first thing that person sees. Of course, Oberon orders Puck to spread the liquid in Titania’s eyes, but when she wakes up she sees and, consequently, falls in love with Bottom, a donkey-head man.

As you can see, the course of action is very similar in both the original play and the videogame. Oberon wants a knight, but he fails in the process. What is interesting in this analogy is the concept of the worlds. Just like Raidou and Gouto, the characters from the play “travel” through different worlds, immersing themselves in another reality where they will influence and will be influenced by the new characters, coexisting altogether in the new dimension. Raidou would be representing a new, naïve, Oriental Puck in this new world. Additionally, the graphic aspect provided by the videogame helps to characterize the environment of the “Green World” through the conceptual art behind the “Tento Woods,” making it a good source for the mental representation of the stage where the events occur.

What we have here is not a mind-blowing recreation of the original play, but a good exemplification of the main conflict between Titania and Oberon, a glimpse of their troubled relationship, and a good graphical source for the representation of the faeries’ environment. Moreover, we get to understand how Shakespeare’s presence evident in many works of art around the world, not only in the West. Titania, Oberon, and Queen Mab have been recurring demons in the saga “Shin Megami Tensei” since the very beginning (1990s), and they also rule a Faerie kingdom in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo in the 2004 game “Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.” Why do you think other cultures take a liking to Shakespeare's works?

Joaquín Moya