- Joined
- Aug 10, 2024
You can find all kinds of articles and primers explaining mainstream fetishes (and even many of the more “out there” kinks, too) but I've never seen anything like that for zako fetish. So, while I think I understand what it is, I'm not aware of any authoritative definition. I could be totally wrong, or at least partially wrong.
My understanding is that zako is a type of fish, sometimes found in sushi and other dishes, but often simply tossed away because of its small size and unprofitability on the seafood market. It is also the equivalent of “shrimp” or “small fry” in Japanese slang. The term carried over into gaming, where it referred to enemies that are common and relatively easy to beat. Galsia and Donovan from Streets of Rage II, for example, are the “small fries” of the game.
At some point, “zako” morphed from this usage into a fetish idiom, referring to a certain kind of fantasy scenario in which the hero fights many attractive enemies (usually female, and probably looking more like Electra than poor Galsia up there).
Is this more or less correct? If so, I still have some questions.
When exactly did “zako” become a fetish term? Were video games mainly responsible, or did anime play a role too? It seems the term is applied retroactively as well, to media which would've had nothing to do with video games or anime – movies like The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Wonder Women (1973). Has the zako fetish always been around, but simply without that name? Could the Amazons of Greek mythology be, in part, an expression of primordial zako fetish?
“Zako” also seems to be applied more broadly than originally intended, often to any scenario featuring mooks or minions (often, though not always, female; often, though not always, anonymous; often, though not always, in uniform). Is this a “correct” use of the term? Are, say, Cobra troops technically zakos, regardless of how they are being deployed in a given instance? What if you have two battalions of zakos fighting each other, rather than against a singular hero – are they still zakos, in that case? And what if the zakos end up defeating the hero? Are they really “small fries” if they can do that?
Do zakos have to be bad? At the end of a James Bond movie, sometimes there's a scene where anonymous good guys burst in to fight the SPECTRE goons. Are these zakos, or does the term apply only to the goons? Is there a term for heroic zakos? I've been calling them “white-hat zakos,” but I'm not sure if that is appropriate. (See also the "Redshirt Army" trope: Redshirt Army - TV Tropes)
I know that some Japanese terms acquire different meanings outside of Japan. As a fetish term, is “zako” used differently in Japan than elsewhere? Is it actually used as a fetish term in Japan, or is the “fetishization” of the word a Western bastardization/misunderstanding?
Last but not least, what are the classic “texts” every zako fan should be familiar with? I don't mean our personal favorites; I mean the games, movies, anime, art, etc. that have played the biggest role in defining the fetish.
My understanding is that zako is a type of fish, sometimes found in sushi and other dishes, but often simply tossed away because of its small size and unprofitability on the seafood market. It is also the equivalent of “shrimp” or “small fry” in Japanese slang. The term carried over into gaming, where it referred to enemies that are common and relatively easy to beat. Galsia and Donovan from Streets of Rage II, for example, are the “small fries” of the game.
At some point, “zako” morphed from this usage into a fetish idiom, referring to a certain kind of fantasy scenario in which the hero fights many attractive enemies (usually female, and probably looking more like Electra than poor Galsia up there).
Is this more or less correct? If so, I still have some questions.
When exactly did “zako” become a fetish term? Were video games mainly responsible, or did anime play a role too? It seems the term is applied retroactively as well, to media which would've had nothing to do with video games or anime – movies like The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Wonder Women (1973). Has the zako fetish always been around, but simply without that name? Could the Amazons of Greek mythology be, in part, an expression of primordial zako fetish?
“Zako” also seems to be applied more broadly than originally intended, often to any scenario featuring mooks or minions (often, though not always, female; often, though not always, anonymous; often, though not always, in uniform). Is this a “correct” use of the term? Are, say, Cobra troops technically zakos, regardless of how they are being deployed in a given instance? What if you have two battalions of zakos fighting each other, rather than against a singular hero – are they still zakos, in that case? And what if the zakos end up defeating the hero? Are they really “small fries” if they can do that?
Do zakos have to be bad? At the end of a James Bond movie, sometimes there's a scene where anonymous good guys burst in to fight the SPECTRE goons. Are these zakos, or does the term apply only to the goons? Is there a term for heroic zakos? I've been calling them “white-hat zakos,” but I'm not sure if that is appropriate. (See also the "Redshirt Army" trope: Redshirt Army - TV Tropes)
I know that some Japanese terms acquire different meanings outside of Japan. As a fetish term, is “zako” used differently in Japan than elsewhere? Is it actually used as a fetish term in Japan, or is the “fetishization” of the word a Western bastardization/misunderstanding?
Last but not least, what are the classic “texts” every zako fan should be familiar with? I don't mean our personal favorites; I mean the games, movies, anime, art, etc. that have played the biggest role in defining the fetish.
