The publisher of Dead or Alive requests between 2,000 and 3,000 removals of inappropriate fan art each year because it treats the game’s characters “like daughters.”
It’s easy to forget that before the first beach volleyball spin-off, the Dead or Alive series was taken quite seriously as fighting games. We may have joked about the ridiculous wiggle physics, but the original was still considered a worthy successor to Virtua Fighter 2.
These days, of course, the Dead or Alive series is a joke, promising that new entries will be less shaky, then turning around and flogging dozens of bikini suits, maids and schoolgirls as DLC. That’s why it’s so absurd to read Tomotoshi Nishimura, head of Koei Tecmo’s legal department, saying they had no choice but to take action against fan art that could harm the image of the Dead or Alive cast because their creators think about them “as if they were daughters.”
The original Japanese uses a specific word: Musumewhich can mean either “young girl” or “daughter”, but not only is it still creepy in this context, it is also an outdated and overly formal use of the word. Nishimura here almost certainly means “daughter”.
According to Game Watch, Nishimura spoke at a panel on intellectual property rights held at Tokyo Esports Festa. While he explained that the company is grateful to its fans and even sponsored the Comiket doujinshi conference, he also said that 200 to 300 Dead or Alive doujinshi available online have been suspended following lawsuits – in one case for using artwork from the game. which has not yet been published. be released. Nishimura also said that Koei Tecmo takes action against 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of fan art posted on social media and the Pixiv artist community each year.
Further explaining the company’s position, Nishimura suggested that some adult Dead or Alive fan art could harm the characters’ image, and that image needed to be protected as other companies produced official merchandise featuring those characters. But also, you know, it’s about the daughter.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Koei Tecmo taking legal action to protect the virtuous women of Dead or Alive. In 2021, he sued the producers of a DVD that featured footage of nude fashionistas. Meanwhile, the next game in the series will be Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme, a dating sim with a photography mode that will only be released in select Asian countries.