PureArts and Ubisoft Cancel Statue that Mocks Monument to Bombing of Nagasaki

This is the funniest news I've seen all month, but then I enjoy schadenfreude.

Ubisoft is a French video games studio. They are behind the popular Assassin's Creed series. Their current project, which was recently delayed until 2025, has faced a tremendous amount of backlash, because of culturally insensitive stuff they have done.

PureArts is a designer and manufacturer of premium quality collectible figurines for the video game and the movie industries.

The two companies teamed up to produce a figurine of the Yasuke, the male protagonist from the game in question, and Naoe, the female protagonist. That figurine features a one-legged, damaged Torii gate. There is exactly one such gate in all of Japan. It was damaged in the bombing a Nagasaki, and stands as a monument to the devastation caused by second atomic bomb dropped on Japan during WWII.

From Game Rant - Assassin's Creed Shadows Statue Pulled from Sale

On September 19, the company announced another such offering in the form of a 6-inch statue of Naoe and Yasuke from AC Shadows, which was meant to expand its Qlectors lineup of PVC collectibles.

But the figure was pulled from sale less than a month later, with the manufacturer citing an "insensitive design" as the reason for its decision. "We appreciate and have learned from the concerns brought to our attention, and we apologize for the harm this caused," PureArts wrote in an October 15 statement.

You can see the image of the figurine, and the actual torii gate at this link, with some comments from RazörFist.

Vara Dark gets the hat tip by way of her video PureArts CANCELS Yasuke Statue As Ubisoft Mocks Japanese History, Assassins Creed Shadows Is CURSED

If Ubisoft has made one correct decision about this game, I can't think of what it is. They set a game in feudal Japan, a setting fans of Assassin's Creed have been asking for, and they decided to feature an African protagonist. In a stealth game, they choose a guy who will stand out wherever he goes. Then they include Chinese architecture in the settings of the game, and a flag, presumably pulled off the internet, from a reenactment society in Japan. None of this was going to endear them to the people of Japan, who take their legacy seriously. But then they unveil a collectible statue that mocks - at least in the minds of the Japanese - the bombing of Nagasaki. At that point, the Japanese started using the term "racist" to describe Ubisoft. I'm sure that isn't what they hoped for when they started this project.