Wednesday, 15 January 2025

Bishojo Game Characters are Sexist, So Why Do I Draw Them?

Not all visual novel characters are bishojo games, dating sims or porn games, but there are a lot of them.

However, ever since animation companies in the 1970s started producing animated series for adults, such as Lupin III and Cutie Honey, there has been more permissiveness in objectifying women and even girls.

Why have I drawn and painted such characters for over a decade?

1. The concept of porn games is disturbing. Underage girls objectified or dressed like showgirls. This has been a trend since the genre's inception in 1982. The Girls Book Maker version of Tigger is dressed obscenely and has the appearance of a preteen. It's bad enough that the fictional women are subjected to the male gaze, but the girls are as well, despite the flimsy "Over 18" disclaimer tacked onto the games. Nobody is convinced that Ren Kagami is college age.

Animations such as Sailor Moon and Totally Spies are also guilty of sexualising minors and passing it off as glamor. Children become desensitized to it early or are made to think there's nothing wrong.

The way most of these characters are written is as a fantasy of male attention and female manipulation.

2. They are so obscure that AI will fail to recognize them and confuse them with a different character. For example, it would confuse Ren Kagami with Len Kagamine.

3. Some of them actually have visually appealing art direction. The backgrounds in Squeez and Yumemiru works are very opulent and detailed. However, the appealing colors in many of them make the characters look more inappropriately godlike.

4. If more people knew about Irina Vladimirovna Putina, who knows what would happen?

5. Because people are relying more on AI, it's remarkable that these characters are a product of human imagination. Especially the Girls Book Maker ones.

6. Companies are training AI by stealing artists' work, but in general things like dating sims and bishojo games are a line they won't cross. Furthermore character's name like, for instance, Asuka Tooyama or Koharu Hoshikawa won't show up in Google's AI automated search summary.

Angel's Afternoon (1985)




Irina Vladimirovna Putina from 'My Girlfriend is the President' (2009)

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