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Lately, there has been a drastic increase in outrage over loli and loli style artwork and characters.

Source: Dead or Alive 6 (2019), Koei Tecmo

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Unable to separate the concept of “young women scarred with baby-like big eyes, chubby faces, and petite stature” from the real world, critics of the art style and fandom have both falsely accused of promoting sexual assault against real minors.

Believing they are doing a social good, the vocal campaigns of condemnation undertaken by detractors have led to results such as a Japanese manga artist being harassed, Patreon purging all art that even remotely matches the style’s style, and a player gets banned from fighting game tournament for liking the genre’s many loli characters.

Source: New Character Demo – “Diona: Wine Industry Slayer”, Genshin Impact YouTube

In light of this ongoing effort to erase any trace of the loli style from anime and video games, and curious about how this attitude has affected the actual industry, Bounding Into Comics reached out to an insider for their insights.

They graciously took the time to talk to us after we got in touch, Japanese video game developer, writer and 3D artist Haru47 talked 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 company name, huh)” (2017), Kyoto Animation

RELATED: Patreon Starts Purging Fan Art Of Characters Below A Certain Height And Bust

Nerdigans Inc.: Which anime and video game triggered the rise of loli censorship?

Haru47: “I think the anime that started it all was Kodomo no Jikan, the controversial anime about a loli who falls in love with her teacher. I’ve seen a lot of anti-lolicons take this anime as an example.”

Source: Kodomo no Jikan Episode 1 “A Friendly Step” (2007), Studio Barcelona

“In terms of games, it was the Nekopara series or an ero loli visual novels. i think the Senran Kagura series, as many people celebrated the censorship Sony received.”

Source: Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (2015), Marvelous Inc.

Nerdigans Inc.: When would you say this sudden shift in loli erasing begins?

Haru47: “I personally had the feeling that it started in mid-2016. I know it’s probably a longer debacle, but from personal experience it was the middle of 2016 when anime became more mainstream.”

“All these Normies just watch the seasonal shows without even bothering to examine the tropes of the 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 for Sony, because in 2016 they started their censorship policy on the #MeToo movement.”

Source: BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma (2012), Arc System Works

RELATED: Study finds “video games with sexualized content” don’t cause misogyny or body image problems

“It’s quite ironic that they are now facing a gender discrimination lawsuit and one of their VPs has been fired for trying to contact a minor, but ‘loli bad’ according to Sony.”

(One of the games referenced by Haru47 is Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Infidelity. At the dawn of the MeToo era, Square Enix increased the size of Miki’s panties in the overseas release of the series’ fifth installment due to Western allegations that it was oversexualizing its underage characters.)

Source: Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (2016), Square Enix

Nerdigans Inc.: Why is there such prejudice against lolis in particular? Why don’t the loli reviewers seem to understand that the artwork they’re fighting for aren’t real kids (and that some loli are adults)?”

Haru47: “Projection. And I wish I was making this up, but usually most of these people are guilty of the same thing they’re accusing everyone 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 it’s actually pornographic drawings of IRL kids that are illegal, while loli isn’t because it’s based on fictional characters. This was the main reason why Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, reported lolicon content on the site to the FBI, only for the agency to label its reports a waste of time.

Source: Hello, Goodbye (2019), NekoNyan Ltd.

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Nerdigans Inc.: I recently spoke to a professional translator about the state of the English localization industry and he revealed that the stranglehold that a certain group of English localizers had on the video game industry was worse than it was for anime and manga. Are they involved with the western coordinators about the escalated censorship of loli content?

Haru47: “Yes, I believe so, as localizers on social media always complained about tropes they hate and even lied and said that the word ‘lolicon’ in Japanese translates to ‘pedophile’. In reality, the Japanese use another word called ‘shouniseai’ or ‘jidouseai’.”

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 have realized that lolicons are a fierce community loyal to their loli waifus. Why would the publishers ignore that money in favor of an audience that most likely won’t play their games?

Haru47: “Well, that’s the funny thing. People want to erase every thinly dressed female character, but are okay with sexualizing male characters.”

Source: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), Nippon Ichi Software

“One of my favorite examples of this hypocrisy comes from YouTuber Noralites. She made a long video complaining about loli characters by using the term “minor coded” just to make people discover that she made a video where Hanako-kun coveted a Shota character and her art page was full of explicit yaoi content from underage characters.

Source: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Chapter 87 (2022), Square Enix. Color diffusion by AidaIro.

RELATED: Climax Of Night Tournament Bans Player Who Shared Meme In Appreciation For Loli Fighting Game Characters

Nerdigans Inc.: What do you think of the Climax of Night loli ban scandal?

Haru47: “I think it was a very stupid ban. Imagine getting banned for a meme that says you like lolis.’

Archive Link Source: @unilunar_ Twitter

“The event organizers started calling the developers of Melty Blood ‘pedos’, while still using their product for their own monetary gain. We’ve gotten to the point where you can’t express yourself if you like a certain character because higher up will throw you under the bus to appeal to a minority of annoying people.”

Source: DNF Duel (2022), Arc System Works

RELATED: House author in Fata Morgana pushes back after western localizer boasts of “rejecting” female character designs with an inward knee for being “unnatural”

Nerdigans Inc.: What actions can the video game community take to fight back against censorship?

Haru47: “As a developer, I tell them not to buy their censored products. Hit publishers where it hurts them. As a consumer, they offered you a product in a certain way, so they backtrack later and expect you to give them money.”

Source: Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code (2016), French Bread

Nerdigans Inc.: Recently, the manga community has expressed their concerns about the English localization to the Japanese publishers. Should video game fans take a similar approach?

Haru47: “They actually followed the same approach. It’s about whether the publishers want to listen or not.”

Source: Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition (2015), French Bread

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