El Shaddai

About

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Japanese: エルシャダイ アセンション オブ ザ メタトロン), also known as El Shaddai (エルシャダイ) for short, is a 2011 action-platforming video game produced by UTV Ignition Entertainment. The game immediately became a sensation within the Japanese net after its world-premiere trailer was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and the Tokyo Game Show during the summer of 2010, with the trailer becoming a notable source for remix and parody, and as well as inspiring many fan illustrations.

Origin

El Shaddai was created by the video game studio UTV Ignition Entertainment, which was led by designer Takeyasu Sawaki. The game make references to religious themes as the title itself is taken from the religion of the same name. The story itself centered around Enoch, a priest who was sent to prevent the "great flood" from happening with the aid of an archangel named Lucifer, and along with four other angels. The trailer for the game was shown to the public for the first time at renowned video game convention and conference E3 during June 15-17 2010.

The trailer features many moments that grabbed the attention of viewers, notably including the weird facial expressions of Enoch, Lucifer's opening monologue, and as well as the exchange between Lucifer and Enoch, which became the most parodied.

Lucifel: You sure that's enough armor? (そんな装備で大丈夫か?, Sonna Soubi De Daijoubu Ka?)
Enoch: No problem. Everything's fine (大丈夫だ、問題ない。, Daijobu Da, Mondai Nai.)"

Spread

Soon after the trailer was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga and YouTube on June 22nd, 2010, Enoch's weird expressions and many of their orotund quotes caught an attention among users of 2channel and several Japanese blogs. A couple months later, the oldest MAD video of the video game was uploaded to Niconico on August 23rd, 2010.^[1] But interest did not initially spark until the Tokyo Game Show gaming convention was held in September 2010. During that month, over 600 MAD videos were uploaded to Niconico. The amount of videos that had been uploaded to Niconico^[2] in its first year since the trailer was released were over 5,000 with many videos ranking over a million views, and many of them were re-uploaded to YouTube.^[3]

On Pixiv

El Shaddai also caused a big sensation among users of the Japanese art-sharing site pixiv. In addition to pure fan art, but also parody illustrations have also been continuously uploaded to the site. Alongside, Enoch and his partner Lucifel have been paired up in many Yaoi^[4] art works created by many fujoshis, or female Otakus dedicated to homoerotic material. As of June 2011, search results for illustrations relating to this game are over 23,000^[5], and they scored over 32 million page views in total.^[6]

Media Coverage

This online sensation has been described in several Japanese internet encyclopedia including Uncyclopedia^[7], Nico Nico Pedia^[8] and Wikipedia.^[9] Additionally, its popularity was also reported by many Japanese news media sites such as ITmedia^[10], Getnews.jp, ^[11] Kotaku.jp^[12], and as well as Kotaku^[13] in English.

Doujin Event

Though the game hadn't been released yet at that time, a doujin event launched specialized for El Shaddai had been held by fanatics since November 2010.^[14] Hundreds to thousands of visitors took part in every event, and the number of participants increasing as the event was held. According to online news reports, almost all visitors were female Otakus as described above^[15].

Buzzword

Meanwhile, the highly versatile dialogue exchange soon became a popular catchphrase on the Japanese net, and as well as becoming referenced as a snowclone in the titles of many MAD videos. As a result, "You sure that's enough armor?" received the gold prize of Japanese internet vogue word contest 2010.^[16]

A : Sonna X De Daijoubu Ka ? (You sure that's enough X?)
B : Daijobu Da, Mondai Nai. (No problem. Everything's fine)

Developer's Reaction

The producer of the game,Takeyasu Sawaki, have responded positively about the online phenomenon and fan activities surrounding the game in several interviews. Among these, an article published by Getnews.jp^[17] on April 25th, 2011 reported on his comment from a April 21st, 2011 broadcast on Niconico Live.

To some extent, we designed Enoch's face and their dialogue purposefully to catch the attention of internet users. But we are surprised at this big sensation caused in such way, and appreciate to it. We planned it in 2007 and targeted mainly 2channel users because NND wasn't so active at that time, and boom of online videos hadn't come yet.

We fell new era has come because the online video led to an explosion in the popularity of El Shaddai.

Notable Examples

Videos

Fan Art

Enoch's Facial Expression Parodies

Additionally, Enoch's blank gaze at the viewer have also been turned into an exploitable among fans. A blank template was created by pixiv user SYO and uploaded to the site on August 25th, 2010^[18], where it has since gained over 200 image responses.^[20]

Blank Template

Search Interest

External References

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