Recently, the outrage against loli and loli-style artwork and characters has increased dramatically.
Source: Dead or Alive 6 (2019), Koei Tecmo
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Indistinguishable from the real-world concept of “young women drawn with big baby-like eyes, chubby faces, and small bodies,” critics of the art style and fandom have accused both of falsely promoting sexual violence against real-world minors. .
Believing themselves to be doing a social good, opponents’ vocal disparagement campaigns have included things like harassing a Japanese mangaka, Patreon scrubbing any art that even slightly conforms to the style’s standards, and banning a player from a fighting game. tournament for liking the numerous loli characters of the genre.
Source: New Character Demo – “Diona: Wine Industry Slayer”, Genshin Impact YouTube
In light of this ongoing attempt to erase any trace of loli style from anime and video games, and curious how this attitude has affected the actual industry, Bounding Into Comics reached out to an insider to get his insights.
Taking the time to speak with Japanese writer, 3D artist, video game developer Haru47, Haru47 spoke to us about this rising trend and what it means for the future of Japanese media in the West.
Source: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S Episode 10 “Troupe Dragon, On Stage! (They Had A Troupe Name, Huh)” (2017), Kyoto Animation
RELATED: Patreon Begins to Clean Fan Art of Characters Below a Certain Height and Bust Size
Nerdigans Inc.: What anime and video games fueled the rise of loli censorship?
Haru47: “I think the anime that started it all was Kodomo no Jikan, a controversial anime about a loli who falls in love with her teacher. I’ve seen a lot of anti-lolicons bring this anime up as an example.”
Source: Kodomo no Jikan Episode 1 “A Friendly Step” (2007), Studio Barcelona
“As far as games go, it was the Nekopara series or any crazy loli visual novel. I think the Senran Kagura series as well, considering that many people were celebrating the censorship received by Sony”.
Source: Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (2015), Marvelous Inc.
Nerdigans Inc.: When would you say this sudden shift in loli deletion starts?
Haru47: “I personally felt it started in mid-2016. I know it’s probably a longer disaster, but from personal experience, it was mid-2016 when anime was taking over.”
“All these Normies are watching seasonal shows without bothering to research the tropes of media they consume.”
Source: The Saga of Tanya the Evil Episode 10 “Path to Victory” (2017), NUT
Nerdigans Inc.: Would you say it was around the same time in video games?
Haru47: “Actually, yes, at least from Sony’s side, because they started in 2016 with the censorship policy over the #MeToo movement.”
Source: BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (2012), Arc System Works
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“It’s kind of ironic that they’re now facing a gender discrimination lawsuit and one of their CEOs was fired for trying to hook up with a minor, but ‘bad loli’ according to Sony.”
(One of the games Haru47 mentions is Star Ocean 5: Integrity & Faithlessness. At the dawn of the MeToo era, Square Enix increased Miki’s panty size during the overseas release of the series’ fifth installment due to Western accusations that it oversexualized its underage characters.)
Source: Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (2016), Square Enix
Nerdigans Inc.: Why is there a prejudice against lolis in particular? Why can’t they understand that the illustrations the loli critics are fighting to protect are not real children (and some lolis are adults)?”
Haru47: “Projection. And I wish I could figure it out, but most of the time most of these people are guilty of the same things they accuse everyone else of.’
Source: Granblue Fantasy: Versus – Cagliostro DLC Character Trailer | PS4, PlayStation YouTube
“As for the drawing part, they insist it’s illegal, but the part they missed is that IRL child pornographic drawings are illegal, whereas loli is not based on fictional characters. This was when Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia, reported the site’s lolicon content to the FBI the main reason being, only for the agency to label its reports as a waste of time.
Source: Hello, Goodbye (2019), NekoNyan Ltd.
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Nerdigans Inc.: I recently spoke with a professional translator about the state of the English localization industry and he revealed that a certain group of English localizers had a worse hold on the video game industry than anime and manga. Are they involved with western coordinators with increased censorship on loli content?
Haru47: “Yeah, I think so, considering that the localizers were always complaining about the tropes they hate on social media and they actually lied and said that the word ‘lolicon’ translates to ‘pederast’ in Japanese. Actually, the Japanese call it ‘shounseai’ or ‘jidouseai’ they use another word called “.
Source: Seton Academy: Join the Pack! Episode 12 “The Animal Students I Know” (2020), Studio Gokumi
Nerdigans Inc: By now, video game publishers like Sony should realize that lolicons are a fierce community loyal to their loli waifus. Why would publishers ignore that money in favor of an audience that won’t play their games?
Haru47: “Now, that’s the fun part. People want to write off any female character in a dress, but they’re fine with sexualizing male characters.”
Source: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), Nippon Ichi Software
“One of my favorite examples of this hypocrisy is YouTuber Noralites. He made a long video complaining about loli characters using the term ‘minor code’, that people made a longing video about a Hanako-kun Shota character, and his art page about explicit yaoi content of minor characters that it was full
Source: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Chapter 87 (2022), Square Enix. Color Expanded by AidaIrok.
RELATED: Climax Of Night Tournament Bans Player Who Shared Meme To Appreciate Loli Fighting Game Characters
Nerdigans Inc.: What do you think about the Climax of Night loli ban scandal?
Haru47: “I think it was a really stupid ban. Imagine getting banned for a meme saying you like lolis.
“Event organizers started calling Melty Blood developers ‘pedos’ while using their product for their own profit. We’ve gotten to the point where you can’t state if you like a certain character trope because the higher-ups will throw you under the bus to appeal to an annoying minority of people.” .
Source: DNF Duel (2022), Arc System Works
RELATED: House In Fata Morgana Author Hits Back After Western Localizer bragged about “rejecting” knee-jerk female character designs as “unnatural.”
Nerdigans Inc.: What actions can the video game community take to combat censorship?
Haru47: “As a developer, I say don’t buy their censored products. Hit the publishers where it hurts. As a consumer they offer you a product in a certain way, then back off and expect you to pay.”
Source: Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code (2016), French Bread
Nerdigans Inc.: Recently, the manga community has taken their English localization concerns to Japanese publishers. Should video game fans start taking a similar approach?
Haru47: “Essentially, they have taken the same approach. The question is whether the publishers are ready to listen or not.’
Source: Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition (2015), French Bread
(Editor’s note: This article and its title originally referred to @Haru47 as a “Japanese video game developer”. While this phrase was intended to describe his role as a developer working on Japanese games, it unfortunately, but understandably, gave some .the wrong impression from readers that the developer was of Japanese origin.
As such, the text has been updated to clarify that @Haru47 is a “Japanese video game developer”.)
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