LMFAO is that supposed to be the same Ali's from PS1 from the Master System? HahahahahahaWhat do you mean? They only just brought back the beloved heroine Alis for PSO2's last story episode. Clearly they care.
...comes with an open minidress
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Why women criticise sexualised character designs |OT2| I have no pants and I must scream (READ OP)
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Being 30 is decrepit old man that needs help with the pee potty levels in JRPGs.
Yet another reason why Suikoden was a great series throughout PS1 and PS2 era ...
Mature men and women as part of the cast and not just in support roles (support as in they are unplayble and just stay in the castle) ...
For what it's worth that's not canonically supposed to be the actual Alis IIRC. I think the explanation is that she's basically the product of a dream world based on the universe's memories, and that the universe of PSO2 basically has had elements similar to the original series/PSO/PSU occur in the past or through other dimensions to explain away any cameos/crossover events or whatever from those games.
...not that a hokey MMO lore explanation makes it any less disgraceful in concept, but at least we can pretend the OG was spared the humiliation. Or try to anyway.
...not that a hokey MMO lore explanation makes it any less disgraceful in concept, but at least we can pretend the OG was spared the humiliation. Or try to anyway.
Apologies if this has come up before, but speaking of fantasy designs, has anyone here seen Hakumei and Mikochi?
Just started watching it the other night. It's an anime from early 2018 but the dub was recently added to HIDIVE/VRV. I just finished watching episode 8.
Great slice-of-life focusing on two Lilliputian women living together and their day to day lives. Hakumei is a rough and tumble carpenter and Mikochi is a more demure seamstress and cook. Funny thing was from the getgo my sister figured they were a couple, there's an episode where Mikochi is told to get her wife to sew her a working uniform, but Mikochi only points out that she's a woman. She then later clarifies that she and Mikochi are roommates. Not that I consider myself an expert of any sort in stuff being "coded", but it sure seems like it points to them being a couple. I only point it out because it's not some sappy romance or anything, which is refreshing. The series sports a cute chibi style, but that considered, there's a surprising lack of "kawaii uguuu~" type stuff. It's strictly non-sexualized, but even then there's no dumb design pitfalls in the clothes they wear. There's also quite a diverse (for anime standards) cast of mostly women. It's only a shame that I think these characters would look great in more standard proportions. Very Ghibli-esque.
Manga cover:
It's a real breath of fresh air with what's been on lately. I know Moribito has been brought up in this thread, and this too feels like it could be a real overlooked gem. Check it out if you can!
Just started watching it the other night. It's an anime from early 2018 but the dub was recently added to HIDIVE/VRV. I just finished watching episode 8.
Great slice-of-life focusing on two Lilliputian women living together and their day to day lives. Hakumei is a rough and tumble carpenter and Mikochi is a more demure seamstress and cook. Funny thing was from the getgo my sister figured they were a couple, there's an episode where Mikochi is told to get her wife to sew her a working uniform, but Mikochi only points out that she's a woman. She then later clarifies that she and Mikochi are roommates. Not that I consider myself an expert of any sort in stuff being "coded", but it sure seems like it points to them being a couple. I only point it out because it's not some sappy romance or anything, which is refreshing. The series sports a cute chibi style, but that considered, there's a surprising lack of "kawaii uguuu~" type stuff. It's strictly non-sexualized, but even then there's no dumb design pitfalls in the clothes they wear. There's also quite a diverse (for anime standards) cast of mostly women. It's only a shame that I think these characters would look great in more standard proportions. Very Ghibli-esque.
Manga cover:
It's a real breath of fresh air with what's been on lately. I know Moribito has been brought up in this thread, and this too feels like it could be a real overlooked gem. Check it out if you can!
Yeah Hakumei and Mikochi is a delight.
As long as we're mentioning good shit, check out everything by Akiko Higashimura.
As long as we're mentioning good shit, check out everything by Akiko Higashimura.
It's... less amount the money, and just more the studio likely didn't have enough time. This'll sound incredibly fucked up when I say this but, for anime productions, money isn't as nearly as important as the staff having enough time to finish and produce a quality product. Most anime is $100K to $350K on average, and even those insane looking productions such as One Punch Man Season 1 and all of Psycho Mob 100? Yeah, those all have the a-typical anime budget.
Ajay did a video about this a couple years back, which you can watch here. Answerman also talked a bit about this too. However, this brings up a bigger question, and in recent years, the anime industry has been criticizing the low pay of animators, the terrible work conditions, and the like. And yes, Sexism is also an issue among all this as well (recently an animator at Toei was dealing with some bullshit because of her gender because of upper executives, who are all men from what I know, and Toei Animation is one of the BETTER animation studios to work at).
Sorry, this... probably came off a bit "mansplainy", and wasn't my intention. So sorry if it did come across this way, just I know a lot of anime fans aren't familiar with this issue.
If anyone else is interested, you can kinda read more about what's going on the animation industry in Japan on the Sakugabooru Blog:
https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2019/04/30/the-broken-cogs-of-the-anime-industry-production-assistants/
This is definitely outside the scope of this thread, but I figured this stuff would be of interest.
Yeah, the current seasonal structure and constant rolling out of new shows is cutting into the time needed to produce and animate, and the rank and file animators are the ones most hit by this. Also, regional animation studios from China and Korea are undercutting the market by providing similar quality for cheaper.
I recommend Shirobako as a more casual look at how the industry works currently. It's also a cool anime where the women aren't sexualized and are major players in the story.
I recommend Shirobako as a more casual look at how the industry works currently. It's also a cool anime where the women aren't sexualized and are major players in the story.
The top is a popular ace voice actor. Everyone else is getting peanuts in cmparison with an animator at the bottom
This graph shows that anime industry has some fucking problems.
It basically runs on passion for the most part.
I agree that the art style is nice and clean. None of those women are wearing overly sexualized clothing, and their poses are not pandering. The tired thigh gap thing is more an adherence to fashion cliches than an attempt at objectification.So many people took a dump on Suikoden: Tierkreis, but I really loved its character design:
Yeah, you had a few stinkers like Felecca, but overall it was respectable. Masaki Hirooka needs more work. I can't believe he didn't break out after Order of Ecclesia.
I'd argue the "tactical realism" of whether their armour would truly work in battle is a moot point when most characters in a character's game of origin are dressed similarly. The lead character of Suikoden Teirkreis is wearing a thin cloth short sleeved tunic for example. The designer was not interested in whether the outfit would work as logical battle protection, just in whether the character looked neat. Outside of that game, no one is complaining Rei from Breath of Fire 3 is shirtless rather than in full armour.
The example of Tales of Zestiria's Alisha brought up earlier was the opposite because her hot pants were blatant objectification, AND other warriors dressed similarly were wearing leg coverings. She made no sense within her own universe, or for the role she was meant to be portraying.
Interesting, the anime's director has a lower payment than the studio's character designer/animation supervisor(49 500 000 /51 300 000)The top is a popular ace voice actor. Everyone else is getting peanuts in cmparison with an animator at the bottom
This graph shows that anime industry has some fucking problems.
It basically runs on passion for the most part.
What happens with no regulation and no unions. The video game industry isn't much different. The wealthy will never fix a system they can abuse, and the abuses will continue to get worse as long as they're allowed to run it.The top is a popular ace voice actor. Everyone else is getting peanuts in cmparison with an animator at the bottom
This graph shows that anime industry has some fucking problems.
It basically runs on passion for the most part.
Another female character has been revealed for Death Stranding, and her design is basically in line with the other women revealed
Huge departure compared to Quiet.
Huge departure compared to Quiet.
And another woman is President. I share your criticism of the names but we'll see how it turns out.
We might be surprised, I'll grant you that, but the man has a very bad track record about the handling of his female characters. A heavy dose of caution and skepticism is not unwarranted in my opinion.
I think Kojimas designs for the female characters have always been pretty bad but not so much the actual characters? Boss was cool for example.
The names are definitely weird here. They appear to be company/item/task names, e.g. Fragile is the name of the company the character works for sort of like Sams name is "Sam Porter Bridges" where Porter is his role, Bridges is the company he works for and Sam is either his actual name or a reference to Uncle Sam, given he works for America?
But yea, at least the designs are a huge step up from past games.
Edit: The lady titled Fragile was wearing a suit with the logo "Fragile Express" in an early trailer. Between these names and Die-Hardman, Kojima is going to top MGS2 for peak Kojima-zaniness names.
The names are definitely weird here. They appear to be company/item/task names, e.g. Fragile is the name of the company the character works for sort of like Sams name is "Sam Porter Bridges" where Porter is his role, Bridges is the company he works for and Sam is either his actual name or a reference to Uncle Sam, given he works for America?
But yea, at least the designs are a huge step up from past games.
Edit: The lady titled Fragile was wearing a suit with the logo "Fragile Express" in an early trailer. Between these names and Die-Hardman, Kojima is going to top MGS2 for peak Kojima-zaniness names.
A story in four steps
1)Oh a game like Darketst Dungeons but with a storyline of its own and lots of dialogue neat !
2) And it has a native linux build to boot ? Double neat !
3) Whaaa cute male party members in cat ears ? Awesome swwwwaaaaeeeeeet !
4) Wait a second what's the catch ?
Oh yeah ... boob armor (not every woman mind you ) and fighting in high heels in ice and snow ...
The game's called Vambrace : Cold Soul .
1)Oh a game like Darketst Dungeons but with a storyline of its own and lots of dialogue neat !
2) And it has a native linux build to boot ? Double neat !
3) Whaaa cute male party members in cat ears ? Awesome swwwwaaaaeeeeeet !
4) Wait a second what's the catch ?
Oh yeah ... boob armor (not every woman mind you ) and fighting in high heels in ice and snow ...
The game's called Vambrace : Cold Soul .
Kojima going full horndog doesn't line up with current Sony output, I doubt the publishers would let him
Yeah, I'm glad someone is seemingly keeping his worst impulses in check.
A story in four steps
1)Oh a game like Darketst Dungeons but with a storyline of its own and lots of dialogue neat !
2) And it has a native linux build to boot ? Double neat !
3) Whaaa cute male party members in cat ears ? Awesome swwwwaaaaeeeeeet !
4) Wait a second what's the catch ?
Oh yeah ... boob armor (not every woman mind you ) and fighting in high heels in ice and snow ...
The game's called Vambrace : Cold Soul .
Always with the high heels.
Pointy, pointy metal high heels...
I guess we'll see, but it's way too soon to pass any judgment. It's not just about how the girls and women are dressed (which indeed seems way better this time), but also about the use of sexist narrative archetypes for many if his female characters. I think this time we should worry more about the latter. But hey, I might be surprised! Unfortunately, Kojima disappointed me so many times in the past...
I'll be honest... I will be shocked if a naked woman doesn't rise up from the black goo and wear it as "clothing" - because reasons.
What's worse though ?
Warior lady wearing pointy metal heels while walking on literal permafrost...
Or elf lady healer barely clothed levitating to show she's a magic gal, and wearing metal heels anyway while having her butt barely covered ?
(and yes that's a legit and "generous" description of lady healers that you can recruit in the game )
Well if you're floating at least it doesn't really matter? But walking on ice sounds dangerous and asking for trouble.
Well yeah, by "his worst impulses" I meant half naked women "sexily" writhing in rain water and photography modes centred around getting panty shots or whatever. I don't think Sony would stand for that level of skeeze.
A story in four steps
1)Oh a game like Darketst Dungeons but with a storyline of its own and lots of dialogue neat !
2) And it has a native linux build to boot ? Double neat !
3) Whaaa cute male party members in cat ears ? Awesome swwwwaaaaeeeeeet !
4) Wait a second what's the catch ?
Oh yeah ... boob armor (not every woman mind you ) and fighting in high heels in ice and snow ...
The game's called Vambrace : Cold Soul .
The art looks pretty nice. Some characters are out there, but overall it looks good.
Not saying otherwise it's just that I would have rather have the Darkest Dungeon + Story line with lots of dialogues + Cute half cat male cast , while not having the boob armor , and having the ladies not being ALL in high heels , while the entire story takes places in a cursed land where the nature of the curse is an evil coldwave freezes to death everything in sight that's not protected by the Vambrace gauntlet that Lyric (the central protagonist) wears ...
Hell I'm even willing to forget the "gingers always cover up thousand times more than non ginger" trope if they dropped the heels , and boob armors...
It really looks like they put very little thought into designing their characters to match the setting. A little fur around the collar isn't enough for a frozen wasteland! Also, every woman appears to be a large chested Barbie doll with impossibly skin tight PLATE MAIL. Vambrace is a no from me, dog.
That's applies to even his good female characters. The Boss was originally gonna have a uniform that exposed one of her breasts with a laughing snake tattoo on it.
You do retrieve warmer clothes during missions (the place used to be of a warm climate before the evil cold) and they are making you change clothes to get better stats and protection against the cold
Also let me be fair to the game there is variety in sillouhettes too , I just took the worst examples (which are the beginner female cast though ) so it's not a titty fest all the time , but yeah the minute the "boobage" gets "out there" cleavage or boob armor is on display
And that's what kills me is that all the other cast members are sensibly drawn , but the begining is "Darkest Dungeon execpts in freezing cold situation with big tiddie ladies barely covered" ...
So you have to "soldier" through the BS before getting more sensible models and characters...
So I wait to see if they will edit that shit out or not because for all the rest they do a pretty good job , but nope it's "stronger than them" they have to shove the "big anime tiddies" stuff at the begining (almost as if they were afraid you wouldn't play the game if the other members of the cast were the only ones present ... )
Also let me be fair to the game there is variety in sillouhettes too , I just took the worst examples (which are the beginner female cast though ) so it's not a titty fest all the time , but yeah the minute the "boobage" gets "out there" cleavage or boob armor is on display
And that's what kills me is that all the other cast members are sensibly drawn , but the begining is "Darkest Dungeon execpts in freezing cold situation with big tiddie ladies barely covered" ...
So you have to "soldier" through the BS before getting more sensible models and characters...
So I wait to see if they will edit that shit out or not because for all the rest they do a pretty good job , but nope it's "stronger than them" they have to shove the "big anime tiddies" stuff at the begining (almost as if they were afraid you wouldn't play the game if the other members of the cast were the only ones present ... )
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Does it matter that they are in high heels? Looking at the gameplay it doesn't seem to be that noticeable based on locations i've seen. There is usually some type of object blocks the view of their legs. With it only really being seen during the battles, however even then it's not the focus. Unless you are just actively looking at their feet when fighting. I would say from what I've seen it would have been nice to see more body types for the women. Additionally, I don't believe "boob armor" is inherently a bad thing.
Kojima's worst impulses is forcing entry on a bathroom where an underage girl is taking a shower, oogling and stealing her underwear
Yes, it matters. I'm not sure what thread you think you're in.
Pretty sure he already did that through Peace Walker with Hot Coldman and Pacifica Ocean, not to mention also going with Dr. Strangelove.
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How to change a scene from titillating the player to something more matureThe USA version is like this
And the character age has changed
It was more in the sense that why certain aspects, ie the heels would prevent them from playing. Especially since they aren't seen much. The boob armor I can understand, some people out right dislike anything that has that. I just happen to be someone that it generally doesn't bother unless it's egregious.
Yeah I also somewhat like the art and while scrolling down on those pictures I was expecting it to get much worse. Now that's not a praise of those designs, but kinda a sigh of relief. With minor changes they could be great. I'm always bothered by cat ears though, male or female.
Edit: Looking up more pictures, there's a lot of cleavage. All of the women seem rather top heavy too.
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I
And yeah that is unfortunate with the women. They pretty much have the same shape. Not as varied like the men.
Is it the 4 ears?
And yeah that is unfortunate with the women. They pretty much have the same shape. Not as varied like the men.
I don't really know what it is, I can't handle tails either. I think it just seems kinda "lazy" an unimaginative effort to make human character but just with animal ears and/or a tail. It's definitely tropey. I also remember seeing some examples posted here too where the male version is a proper beast, while female version is just cute/sexy woman with unusual furry ears. That's always frustrating to see, though this time there seemed to be similar male character. And proper cat people too in the background it seems. Even as a teen the tail on Zidane was too much for me in FF9 (I didn't play very far after realizing), it's admittedly bit silly thing to be so bothered by.
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I've been watching videos of Persona Q2 and it seems the game continues the running gag from Persona 5 about Ann anbd to a lesser degree Makoto being embarrassed of their Phantom outfits. I recall somebody on this thread pointing out that this doesn't make sense: the outfits are supposed to symbolize the Phantom Thieves' "rebellious hearts" so why they would make the girls uncomfortable?
Then I found out that's not the case, at least not Ann's.
Apparently, in the Persona 5 artbook, Hashino commented that Ann isn't wearing her outfit by her own volition, that sometimes the Metaverse will arbitrary choose a getup for a person. He pretty much said he thought that it would be "cute" if Ann was embarrassed by her red latex suit.
Then I found out that's not the case, at least not Ann's.
Apparently, in the Persona 5 artbook, Hashino commented that Ann isn't wearing her outfit by her own volition, that sometimes the Metaverse will arbitrary choose a getup for a person. He pretty much said he thought that it would be "cute" if Ann was embarrassed by her red latex suit.
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