The Epic of Segata Sanshiro

To try to save the floundering Sega Saturn back in the day, Sega created a character that was mythic in scope and broad in popularity: Segata Sanshiro, who traveled Japan kicking the butt of anyone not playing video games. Laid out in this video is his history and the best of the commercials. The end is a bit of a tear jerker.

Tangental question for Japanese experts: does his name, 三四郎, mean 34th son?

12 comments - What do you think? Posted by Claytonian - July 11, 2007 at 10:22 pm

Categories: Japanese TV, Technology Tags:

http://www.awkwardutopia.com/wordpress Matt

Awesome video, thank you very much!
CS

Yes, Amazing.

So sad.. such a sacrifice.
ashredrum

Mad respect for Segata Sanshiro
http://www.freewebs.com/sasukekh/ Tom

he’s ace. i wish i could throw people causing them to explode…
Steve

Wow thanks very much for this, made me think back to the Sega/Nintendo days…
Jim

Awesome video, if I had seen/understood these commercials when they came out I probably would have gotten a Sega Saturn.

BTW 三四郎　could mean 3 4 son or 34th son, but more likely the former than the latter, and the announcer was wrong “sega sata-n shiro” literally means “lets play sega saturn”, it does not “roughly translate” into “you must play”, that would be “sega sata-n shinasai”.

Claytonian

That is not correct.
しろ=imperative form of する
しよう=hortative (let’s) form of する
I would actually translate the commercial’s phrase as “play Sega Saturn, dammit!”

In light of that, and no offense intended here, I must take your info on the name not very seriously.

Jarvik7

Could the narrator butcher the Japanese pronunciation any worse?
Aki

“三四郎” can be a remnant of compound names such as “三郎四郎” (Saburou-shirou)
used in the medieval time. “三郎四郎” was a name for the 4th son of a father who was
the 3rd son of a grandfather. Another possibility is that the number in his name was
simply taken from some actual number such as his birth date.

Claytonian

thanks good info

shazzb0t

Haha, this is a very clever allusion to one of Kurosawa Akira’s first films. “Sugata Sanshiro”, was about a judoka.
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The Epic of Segata Sanshiro

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