Somewhat inspired by one of the post about worst presidents in gaming, I've noticed eastern culture (Japanese especially) seems to have fictional POTUS, while rest of the world tends to use real POTUS that corresponds to the current time. I mean obviously if you're making something about something in the future obviously the guy can't be real. If it's something where the POTUS is an action hero punching Metal Gears to death, dogfighting alien fighters in a F18, or fighting terrorists aboard Air Force One it probably doesn't make much sense for that guy to be George Bush or Bill Clinton.
But in general, in anything that remotely resembles modern Earth, the POTUS is generally speaking just an obligatory figure that represents the leader from the most powerful nation in the world. When Superman died I think it was Bill Clinton who was saying about America lost a great hero blah blah blah, not some hypothetical president. Even the cheapo Hong Kong Resident Evil manga had Bill Clinton show up assuring everyone that the zombie outbreak is under control (like that ever works). I think Watchman had Richard Nixon as the president which makes a lot of sense too. I mean just because you got guys who can throw fireballs or whatever doesn't mean the current POTUS has to abdicate his position to be replaced by Anonymous Joe. Someone threw a shoe at Bush and he didn't seem to be too bothered so I doubt the Secret Service will be knocking on your door for using the likeness of the POTUS in your work.
I'm guessing it's because Japanese has a tendency to portray the POTUS as like the head of the 'Evil Empire' and I guess they don't want to make it too obvious so it's only a fictional guy that leads the evil empire. For example in Silent Fleet the POTUS is bascially talking about how USA will rule the world under imperial rule while the Japanese Jesus Kaeda was supposed to save the world from his rule, but really if that guy was really George Bush, would it make the work any more or less offensive? It'd actually be pretty good I think since some people do think of Bush as some kind of imperialist guy, even though Silent Fleet was written way before Bush was president. The whole nonsensical plot about stopping American Imperialism would actually make more sense if you had Bush saying like "Today Iraq. Tomorrow the world!"
I guess it's kind of like how in Hong Kong/Chinese stuff, the Emperor of Japan is always a being of pure evil (Chinese don't get along with Japanese) too, so he always is just known as 'The Emperor of Japan', though at least here you can say nobody really cares who the Emperor of Japan is since it's just a symbolic title as the Prime Minister wields far more power, so maybe the fact that they always have this nebulous, unnamed 'Emperor of Japan' guy is just because nobody would know who the current Emperor of Japan is anyway. But I'm pretty sure everyone does know who the president of the United States is.
But in general, in anything that remotely resembles modern Earth, the POTUS is generally speaking just an obligatory figure that represents the leader from the most powerful nation in the world. When Superman died I think it was Bill Clinton who was saying about America lost a great hero blah blah blah, not some hypothetical president. Even the cheapo Hong Kong Resident Evil manga had Bill Clinton show up assuring everyone that the zombie outbreak is under control (like that ever works). I think Watchman had Richard Nixon as the president which makes a lot of sense too. I mean just because you got guys who can throw fireballs or whatever doesn't mean the current POTUS has to abdicate his position to be replaced by Anonymous Joe. Someone threw a shoe at Bush and he didn't seem to be too bothered so I doubt the Secret Service will be knocking on your door for using the likeness of the POTUS in your work.
I'm guessing it's because Japanese has a tendency to portray the POTUS as like the head of the 'Evil Empire' and I guess they don't want to make it too obvious so it's only a fictional guy that leads the evil empire. For example in Silent Fleet the POTUS is bascially talking about how USA will rule the world under imperial rule while the Japanese Jesus Kaeda was supposed to save the world from his rule, but really if that guy was really George Bush, would it make the work any more or less offensive? It'd actually be pretty good I think since some people do think of Bush as some kind of imperialist guy, even though Silent Fleet was written way before Bush was president. The whole nonsensical plot about stopping American Imperialism would actually make more sense if you had Bush saying like "Today Iraq. Tomorrow the world!"
I guess it's kind of like how in Hong Kong/Chinese stuff, the Emperor of Japan is always a being of pure evil (Chinese don't get along with Japanese) too, so he always is just known as 'The Emperor of Japan', though at least here you can say nobody really cares who the Emperor of Japan is since it's just a symbolic title as the Prime Minister wields far more power, so maybe the fact that they always have this nebulous, unnamed 'Emperor of Japan' guy is just because nobody would know who the current Emperor of Japan is anyway. But I'm pretty sure everyone does know who the president of the United States is.
