I hate this
RANT TIME, or, why I don't want to buy or play BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.
This is Taokaka:
I play Taokaka in BlazBlue for the PS3. It's the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear, Will's favorite fighting game, which I could never pick up, since the controls are wonky as hell and rely on fireball motions I can't actually make. But BlazBlue is much more user-friendly, and I've been able not only to learn it but to really hold my own against Will.
I was sold on Taokaka from her creepy-cute artwork (no face! She has no face!), but her character won me over. Taokaka is a catgirl in a literal sense: while she has the body of a girl, she's really got the mind and personality of a cat. She likes hunting, fighting, playing with things, eating things, and sleeping. She's playful and easily worked up, and she has an innocent, childlike disposition. Before each fight she'll either splat facefirst into the screen or wake up from a nap and yawn theatrically. When she wins two rounds, her victory animation has her chase a butterfly headfirst into a street lamp.
Taokaka is strong. Taokaka is feisty. Taokaka is dumb as a post. She and I are on the same wavelength, and I love her to bits.
A new version of BlazBlue is coming out next month, for which each character got new artwork. Here's Taokaka's:
And here's me:
Why in God's name does her chest have to be three sizes larger and on full display? Why? I understand Taokaka has been used for fanservice in the last game. She has a girl's body, so she's been subject to panty shots and her dress flying up and all that, and Rule 34 has made short work of her. But sexuality isn't part of Taokaka's character. Tao is a kid. Her whole schtick is that she's an innocent.
The women in this game already aren't treated that great. Here's one of Will's favorites, Litchi Faye Ling:
Litchi-sensei has a respectable background as a character. She's a very well-regarded doctor and kind of Team Mom to the people in her village. But she goes into battle wearing that, the prominence of her chest is a running joke in the game (Taokaka can never remember her name and just calls her "boobie lady"), and she has a terrible habit of moaning very sexually whenever she gets hit (in the Japanese audio, at least).
Then there's this piece of work:
Poor kid. Her opponent got a full set of clothes; what happened to her?
However, may I draw your attention to the picture of Taokaka in the character-select grid? Here it is again in the top right corner of a battle:
You see it, right? Her boobs obscure her face. Everyone else gets a decent shot of their face up next to their damage bar. Here, see for yourself. Taokaka gets her boobs. Every time I glance up at my damage bar, I don't see my character. I see her chest.
Will wants to buy this game and play with me, but he knows I won't have fun with a game that effectively reduces my character to a pair of breasts, so he's been asking me whether I can overlook it. And ... I can't. I'm offended, I'm angry. I'm tired of having to overlook unnecessary sexualization every time I want to play a game as a female character. I'm sick of always having to ignore a skimpy costume or pneumatic breasts because I like the character that's underneath. And it occurs to me, why should I have to overlook or ignore or pretend that it doesn't exist so I can enjoy myself with a game? Guys don't have to.
Will told me that since it bothers me that much, we won't get the game. But it's not going to make any difference whether we buy a copy of the game or not. The industry's still going to churn out fanservicey characters, especially in Japan. I'll still have few options for female characters that aren't over-the-top sexualized, and I'll still have to play as a man in many games. And in the end it's only cold comfort that I can say I don't want to deal with this, and I shouldn't have to.
This is Taokaka:
I play Taokaka in BlazBlue for the PS3. It's the spiritual successor to Guilty Gear, Will's favorite fighting game, which I could never pick up, since the controls are wonky as hell and rely on fireball motions I can't actually make. But BlazBlue is much more user-friendly, and I've been able not only to learn it but to really hold my own against Will.
I was sold on Taokaka from her creepy-cute artwork (no face! She has no face!), but her character won me over. Taokaka is a catgirl in a literal sense: while she has the body of a girl, she's really got the mind and personality of a cat. She likes hunting, fighting, playing with things, eating things, and sleeping. She's playful and easily worked up, and she has an innocent, childlike disposition. Before each fight she'll either splat facefirst into the screen or wake up from a nap and yawn theatrically. When she wins two rounds, her victory animation has her chase a butterfly headfirst into a street lamp.
Taokaka is strong. Taokaka is feisty. Taokaka is dumb as a post. She and I are on the same wavelength, and I love her to bits.
A new version of BlazBlue is coming out next month, for which each character got new artwork. Here's Taokaka's:
And here's me:
Why in God's name does her chest have to be three sizes larger and on full display? Why? I understand Taokaka has been used for fanservice in the last game. She has a girl's body, so she's been subject to panty shots and her dress flying up and all that, and Rule 34 has made short work of her. But sexuality isn't part of Taokaka's character. Tao is a kid. Her whole schtick is that she's an innocent.
The women in this game already aren't treated that great. Here's one of Will's favorites, Litchi Faye Ling:
Litchi-sensei has a respectable background as a character. She's a very well-regarded doctor and kind of Team Mom to the people in her village. But she goes into battle wearing that, the prominence of her chest is a running joke in the game (Taokaka can never remember her name and just calls her "boobie lady"), and she has a terrible habit of moaning very sexually whenever she gets hit (in the Japanese audio, at least).
Then there's this piece of work:
Poor kid. Her opponent got a full set of clothes; what happened to her?
However, may I draw your attention to the picture of Taokaka in the character-select grid? Here it is again in the top right corner of a battle:
You see it, right? Her boobs obscure her face. Everyone else gets a decent shot of their face up next to their damage bar. Here, see for yourself. Taokaka gets her boobs. Every time I glance up at my damage bar, I don't see my character. I see her chest.
Will wants to buy this game and play with me, but he knows I won't have fun with a game that effectively reduces my character to a pair of breasts, so he's been asking me whether I can overlook it. And ... I can't. I'm offended, I'm angry. I'm tired of having to overlook unnecessary sexualization every time I want to play a game as a female character. I'm sick of always having to ignore a skimpy costume or pneumatic breasts because I like the character that's underneath. And it occurs to me, why should I have to overlook or ignore or pretend that it doesn't exist so I can enjoy myself with a game? Guys don't have to.
Will told me that since it bothers me that much, we won't get the game. But it's not going to make any difference whether we buy a copy of the game or not. The industry's still going to churn out fanservicey characters, especially in Japan. I'll still have few options for female characters that aren't over-the-top sexualized, and I'll still have to play as a man in many games. And in the end it's only cold comfort that I can say I don't want to deal with this, and I shouldn't have to.