Final Fantasy VII and the Problems with Capitalism
Criticism has always existed against the exponential growth of Capitalism, and these criticisms tend to have quite a bit of similarities across capitalist nations. In both the U.S. and Japan, the boom of industry has raised issues concerning income inequality, environmental degradation, and the general evil of corporate greed. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Final Fantasy VII’s stance on the issue is its understanding of the helplessness faced by the working and lower classes. Continuously, we are shown how the lower classes suffer at the hands of not only the Shinra Corporation, but also the people of higher class benefitting from Shinra’s domination of their society. A prominent piece of symbolism communicating this sentiment is the literal placement of lower classes below the higher ones. In Midgar (the fictional city where the story takes place), the Shinra Corp. is built on a plate along with other parts of the city, under the plate, on the ground below the plate are the slums. The people in the slums literally look upon a steel sky built by their oppressors each day, living in a shadow of the people who benefit from Shinra, entirely ignored, and left for dead. This portrayal, though quite literal, strongly echoes the reality existing of slums of real cities in both the State and Japan. There are always people who do not benefit from a current dominant system. In the same way that many people in Midgar do not benefit from the Shinra Corp’s widespread domination, there are people in the real world who suffer due to the growth of capitalism. The raw, often dramatic, and varied portrayal of the class disparity is one of the strongest parts of the game’s argument against Capitalism and is always the backdrop of the various occurrences in the story. The game was widely popular in both Japan and the U.S., as both countries share a strong Capitalist economic system, with similar downsides, the game’s anti-capitalist stances resonated with audiences in both countries.
To understand the broader concepts I will be discussing, some knowledge of the game’s plot is required. (A quick disclaimer, I will be discussing large spoilers as they are pertinent to understanding the game’s themes and message, I recommend the game to everyone so be wary!) The game takes place in the city of Midgar, run by the massive electricity corporation Shinra. Shinra harvests mako energy, a fictitious energy source that is the literal lifeblood of the Earth. With immense military power and a monopoly on mako energy it isn’t an understatement to say they run the world. The game follows Cloud Strife, a mako-infused ex-soldier of Shinra Corp. He eventually befriends the members of the eco-terrorist organization Avalanche who are waging a war on Shinra, attempting to halt the corporation’s use of mako, which unchecked is going to lead to great environmental destruction. Together Cloud and Avalanche plan and execute various extremist heists which often involve bombing Shinra facilities and reactors. Although Avalanche is only trying to push back against a destructive corporation as they are literally destroying the Earth, their methods are often looked down on and disapproved of by people of all classes, hence their notoriety as terrorists rather than activists. It is also important to understand that Shinra essentially built Midgar, the upper classes, which is closely tied to Shinra, live on a plate, split into several sectors, elevated off the ground while the slums are on the ground level. This basic outline should suffice for the topics I will be discussing, to start off, let’s look into how Midgar being built on a plate relates to the game’s larger themes.
There is a prominent sense of being overlooked and ignored among the lower classes of Midgar. It is clear that Shinra doesn’t even see them as people. To highlight how extremely this sentiment is portrayed, I will highlight one of the most intense moments of the game’s story (spoiler), the dropping of the plate onto the slums. Some context for anyone unfamiliar, at this point in the plot, Shinra is aware of Avalanche’s presence in the slums, although I should clarify that this isn’t indicative of the people of the slums support of Avalanche, many people still view them as simply terrorists. In an unimaginably cold move, Shinra decides to drop a section of the plate above onto the slums, crushing everything and everyone below, framing Avalanche as the perpetrators. Doing so accomplishes two things for them: (hopefully) getting rid of the everyone in Avalanche and disposing of the people in the slums which weren’t of any value to the corp. The overwhelming feeling of having no value as a person in the eyes of this Company (or government) that is meant to provide and help you is at the center of this moment. Of course, in reality, a single corporation does not rule over the entire populace, this occurrence is more symbolic of how the capitalist system often only rewards the upper class while disregarding and harming the lower classes. This issue of class disparity is one of the most powerful topics tackled by the game, a topic both Japanese and American players can relate to. In America the income inequality is quite large, Americans identified with the portrayal of the gap between the rich and the poor in Midgar because it echoed a lot of issues people in lower economic standings actually face. It’s difficult not to see parallels with Midgar’s class structure and the U. S’s, in both, there are the extremely rich which hold the most power and often not the best intentions, the middle class, which panders and works for the upper class’s system, and the lower class which isn’t involved in the system and as such, ignored. Japan class system has a similar structure. For these reasons did this portrayal of class disparity and corporate evil mean so much to both Japanese and American players. Even though the culture of Japan and The United States may be very different, including the work culture, as previously mentioned, their economic systems are quite similar. So essentially, they are working for the same thing just in different ways.
The culture of work is different in Japan compared to the U.S., it’s very intense and workers often feel dehumanized, like cogs in a machine. FF7 brings this to the forefront with Shinra being the machine that everyone must work for yet is the root of most issues in the city. An interesting part of Yasmin Merchant’s article regarding the differences between Japanese and American work culture mentions “Many Japanese companies adhere to a mantra called ho-ren-so… This means that an employee in Japan must always keep their superiors informed about what they are doing. Every decision, no matter how small it may seem, should go through the chain of command and get the stamp of approval from the boss.” Essentially, before making any decisions on their lonesome, workers must seek out the opinion and approval of their superior, making the worker’s opinions negligible. The workers literally must only do what they are told and not in between, and this concept is extremely adhered to in Japan. This aspect of lack of individual decision-making in the game may not have been felt as much by American audiences as Japanese work culture is often more intense than in the U.S. People in Japan are often under a lot of pressure in their workplaces, with intense work values that lead to overworking and general dissatisfaction. Often the average worker will feel they aren’t progressing in life or doing anything of use as a result of their complete lack of individual value in their place of work. As I mentioned, it feels like they are parts of a corporate machine. By highlighting how prominent these problems are in Japanese work culture are I don’t mean to say they don’t exist in America, I am simply saying they seem to be more common in Japan due to different cultural standards and norms. The people that work for Shinra are normal people, yet they are often shown masked in the game, they look interchangeable and replaceable. Shinra never places too much value in an individual, all their workers only need to carry out their tasks without asking questions or knowing anything about the company’s true intent. I mean the company is literally sucking the Earth’s lifeblood dry and almost nobody other than Shinra’s top brass know about it. The ignorance of the average person in Midgar is staggering, yet there is very little they can do without resorting to extremist tactics like Avalanche.
