{"id":64473,"date":"2026-04-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64473"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:24:10","slug":"nintendos-totally-not-shinzo-abe-mii-in-official-2013-tomodachi-life-guidebook-resurfaces-amidst-new-character-customization-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-totally-not-shinzo-abe-mii-in-official-2013-tomodachi-life-guidebook-resurfaces-amidst-new-character-customization-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo\u2019s \u201ctotally not Shinzo Abe\u201d Mii in official 2013\u00a0Tomodachi\u00a0Life guidebook\u00a0resurfaces amidst\u00a0new\u00a0character customization\u00a0boom\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ahead of&nbsp;<strong>Tomodachi&nbsp;Life: Living the Dream\u2019s<\/strong>&nbsp;April 16 release,&nbsp;Nintendo dropped a&nbsp;free demo&nbsp;last week, giving players a taste of&nbsp;the title\u2019s&nbsp;extensive character creator and&nbsp;custom&nbsp;user input features.&nbsp;Given that the new entry in the&nbsp;Tomodachi&nbsp;Life series offers a lot more freedom than its predecessor,&nbsp;it&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;take long for players to&nbsp;start&nbsp;Mii-fying&nbsp;various fictional characters and real-life celebrities&nbsp;in&nbsp;faithful&nbsp;detail,&nbsp;not to mention making them utter&nbsp;bizarre and often profane dialogues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst the shenanigans,&nbsp;an amusing piece of&nbsp;Tomodachi&nbsp;Life trivia has resurfaced among Japanese fans of the series.&nbsp;As shared by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hatoyamaIkio\/status\/2037539687078977778?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">X user&nbsp;Ikio Hatoyama<\/a>,&nbsp;an official&nbsp;manual for the&nbsp;original Nintendo 3DS&nbsp;game featured a Mii version of Japan\u2019s&nbsp;late prime minister Shinzo Abe. While he is obviously not referred to by name, the&nbsp;facial&nbsp;resemblance is quite uncanny, and&nbsp;a&nbsp;tagline&nbsp;reading&nbsp;\u201cThe&nbsp;Prime Minister&nbsp;With&nbsp;Striking Eyes and Eyebrows\u201d&nbsp;pretty much leaves no room for other&nbsp;interpretations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30c8\u30e2\u30b3\u30ec\u306e\u653f\u6cbb\u5229\u7528\u304c\u5c11\u3057\u8a71\u984c\u306b\u306a\u3063\u3066\u308b\u3051\u3069\u3001\u5b9f\u306f\u4efb\u5929\u5802\u306f\u904e\u53bb\u306b\u30c8\u30e2\u30b3\u30ec\u65b0\u751f\u6d3b\u306e\u516c\u5f0f\u30ac\u30a4\u30c9\u30d6\u30c3\u30af\u3067\u5b89\u500d\u7dcf\u7406\u3092\u4f5c\u4f8b\u3068\u3057\u3066\u7d39\u4ecb\u3057\u3066\u305f\u3053\u3068\u304c\u3042\u308b\u3093\u3060\u3088\u306a\u3041\u2026<br>\u3082\u3061\u308d\u3093\u540d\u524d\u306f\u51fa\u3066\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3051\u3069 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jelbUlnmuZ\">pic.twitter.com\/jelbUlnmuZ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u9ce9\u5c71\u30a4\u30ad\u592b Ikio Hatoyama (@hatoyamaIkio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hatoyamaIkio\/status\/2037539687078977778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 27, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Amusingly, the rest of the description reads \u201cThe Prime Minister, who is also known for the economic policies (?) bearing his name. He has puffy eyes and thick, bushy eyebrows. The&nbsp;large wrinkles&nbsp;around his mouth are another of his distinctive features.\u201d The \u201ceconomic policies (?)\u201d mentioned here are&nbsp;most likely a&nbsp;reference to Abenomics, a strategy&nbsp;to revitalize Japan\u2019s economy&nbsp;which Abe famously launched in 2012.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pictured excerpt is from the&nbsp;\u201cTomodachi&nbsp;Collection New Life Nintendo Official&nbsp;Guide Book, published by&nbsp;Shogakukan&nbsp;in 2013.&nbsp;A large section of the book is dedicated to teaching players how to create Mii that look just like them&nbsp;(or the character&nbsp;they\u2019ve&nbsp;envisioned)&nbsp;by capturing and stylizing key facial features. This&nbsp;probably explains&nbsp;the appearance of Shinzo Abe in the guide, as well as the detailed description of his face.&nbsp;Since&nbsp;there are very few people who&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;know what their own&nbsp;country\u2019s&nbsp;prime minister looks like, it seems like&nbsp;a&nbsp;great&nbsp;example&nbsp;to use&nbsp;for&nbsp;demonstrating&nbsp;how to&nbsp;translate real-life features into a stylized character.&nbsp;As some eagle-eyed Japanese users have pointed out, the rest of the page&nbsp;seems to introduce&nbsp;a Mii version&nbsp;of celebrity&nbsp;Matsuko Deluxe. Players are&nbsp;instructed to give him the thickest&nbsp;possible body physique and a double chin&nbsp;for maximum likeness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendo.com\/us\/store\/products\/tomodachi-life-living-the-dream-switch\/?srsltid=AfmBOopnu3BY0NOiSLdMabDmZA4OZ7f6xUB3Ss4w37GmsdMR4S0ttEB8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tomodachi\u00a0Life: Living the Dream<\/a> is set to launch on April 16 for\u00a0Nintendo Switch systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It turns out, a certain Prime Minister with &#8220;striking eyes and bushy eyebrows&#8221; appeared as a Mii in an official Tomodachi Life guidebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":64477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-64473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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