Fallout 4’s Far Harbor expansion is pretty anime with its island of misfit Synths and deep-seated mysteries. But one modder decided it isn’t anime enough and took matters into their own hands.
Nexus Mods user Hiyokomod created the AnimeRace Nanakochan mod, which adds anime-style characters to Fallout 4, after being disappointed with how the mechanic and synth expert Kasumi Nakano appears in Far Harbor’s questline. You first learn about Nakano by hearing her voice over the radio. She’s animated and bubbly, but also grappling with some heavy existential crises. Once you meet her though, she’s just as grim and mannequin-looking as most of the other character models that tend to populate Bethesda’s open worlds.
“I was absorbed in her and went to see her in a hurry. I was so excited that I even forgot that the game I was playing was Bethesda,” Hiyokomod, whose first language isn’t English, wrote using a translation tool. “I was in despair when I met Kasumi. At the same time, I realized that my ideal Kasumi could not exist in this world. I had to choose between quitting the game or creating my ideal Kasumi.”
Hiyokomod decided on the latter and so created the AnimeRace Nanokochan mod. Rather than just change how Nakano appears in the game, the mod adds an entire race of anime people. It even adds tools for players to create their own anime player character.
It’s a bizarre addition to the game that makes its strange, futuristic setting both more charming and more disconcerting. On a thematic level though, it also sort of works: Nakano’s whole storyline is about an island where Synths, the game’s race of beleaguered, self-aware androids, have taken refuge, and her residual doubts about her own humanity. Turning her into a youthful anime girl heightens that emotional turmoil. As a bonus, it makes Fallout 4 look like a Japanese role-playing game, which I’ve always felt like it was meant to be.