Opinion: Koei Tecmo Continues to Protect the Image of Dead or Alive

By now most people know that Dead or Alive has been exploited by a plethora of sniveling con artists out there in the adult entertainment world, and Koei Tecmo has seemingly double downed on getting the police and courts involved with this outrageous idea that people think they can do whatever they want with characters they don't own. Koei Tecmo has "cracked down" on advertisers of adult entertainment using their characters to sell sex and now it's in the form of a body pillow that is in custody.

If we are going to do some pillow-talk here I personally feel no remorse for the individual(s) arrested for this case. Stop using DOA unethically and unauthorized as your hobby horse to get money and get a real job or career like everyone else! If you don't want to work at Koei Tecmo, use your skills with the franchises they create for proper content creations that are within the means of the law! Every now and then I see naked drawings of game characters, or other types of fan fiction such as written relationships with game characters. There is nothing wrong with that if you are doing it as a hobby interpretation, but if you are seeking to profit from sex exploitation of DOA characters then you are on your own and the cops and court system will follow you as made evident by this second-rate fluffer stuffer.

Some people may disagree and say something like "Oh well Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation is exploiting and dangerous to those that would identify as a woman." My response to this idiotic and inane comment would be thousands of people are uploading thousands of photos of beautiful DOA female characters every single day! Over half of the Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation content creators I talk to are FEMALE. So, you tell me how the fuck that's dangerous or exploitative. A social justice warrior's mind is stuffed with more fluff than one of these illegal pillows if this type of "person" thinks DOA is damaging to someone who identifies as a woman.

The photo in the banner of this story is by Rino, one of many content creators on Twitter for DOAX. People can say they don't like the DOA girls in bikinis or that they need to cover up, but bikinis and edgy entertainment can be done tastefully and artistically. Team NINJA in particular excels at this side of entertainment and DOAX is doing better numbers than any fighter out. Am I celebrating this? Absolutely because the reason most fighters don't succeed is because these competitive players have massive chips on their shoulders, alienate players that don't fit the bill for their club house, and make it all about them!

Here at Free Step Dodge we do our best to honor every player that shows-up at a tournament, we don't make it a popularity contest. We don't shit on people trying to make a rise in the scene or look to make cheap puns about their characters! Look at our catalogue of tournament write-ups. WE honor and serve the player and in other communities they might as well have the same tournament numbers as us because they treat everyone else (that isn't in their club house) like a cog that spins their wheel! Now with the numbers DOAX is showing it shows that people fucking love the DOA universe and want to be a part of it and interact with it. "Never taken seriously" my ass.

While I'm on it DOA is not "niche" for being edgier (and better) than the competition. Look at how Tekken Harada has stolen ideas from DOA since the early 2000s. With not only Leo, but Lucky Chloe and NOW even environmental damage and awareness will come into play. The point is DOA is extremely successful and it's NOT Koei Tecmo's fault that they make beautiful female characters and come up with innovations and creations other people want to steal.

Watch Winter Brawl 3D or signup for Winter Brawl 3D and you will see why Free Step Dodge is far from nonsensical and completely literal with how we choose to produce our content in comparison to the competition.

 

The way I see it, the only reason Koei Tecmo cracked down on those body pillow sellers was because they were selling them online in plain sight. Easy prosecution, those sellers were being stupid. I've personally also seen wallscrolls/posters/shirts and other merch being sold over amazon of various IPs, without any mention of a license to do so in sight. The fact that they pointed out that the DOA girl images on the pillow covers were nude was an irrelevant thing to do, actually...

This stuff falls under the category of "doujinshi" or "doujin works", basically any fan work that uses someone else's copyrighted IP, whither they be pornographic or the furthest thing from it. It's actually illegal to sell doujin works, but most doujin creators still profit from them by selling them through semi-underground methods, like selling them at comiket (as the most well known example). They get away with it because they sell them in relatively small amounts or because the IP holders actually don't mind and see it as actually promoting their IP (and maybe the IP holders themselves enjoy doujin or have enjoyed doujin works in the past or even made it themselves). Hell, my own pvp here is actually from a DOA doujinshi that's over 20 years old now.

So, this isn't something exclusive to DOA in Japan... pretty much every IP deals with the same kinda thing from Doraemon to One Piece, Mario to King of Fighters. IP holders will crack down if and when they can, as in the case of KT and the DOA dakimakura.

As for DOA's rep... there's 18+ fan work that's long been out there that's imo can be argued to be far more damaging than these dakimakura yet nothing being done about them. I mean, there's nothing inherently disgusting, degrading, or wrong about nudity or even sex, but the way it's done can make a difference. Thanks to the power of sourceforge and the like today, people have been able to turn DOA's and various other video game characters into their own personal pornstar actors. I mean, it was one thing when it was handdrawn manga, but today we can see what looks like official models doing very unofficial things, lol. Not that I'd judge anyone for liking any of that, I can look for what I like just as anyone can look for what they like as long as I don't have to see something I don't want to see myself, and as long as no one is getting money for unofficial content (though with sites like patreon, that can be seen as loopholes for people to make money off of characters that aren't their own). It's more weird when you see ads to porn sites that use DOA girls in them.

That said, while I wouldn't judge, I think there's something to be said for character integrity. A lot of artist out there, like what DOAN was saying, are using copyrighted characters and putting their own interests above things like the series rep or character integrity. If many people today are being introduced to DOA through an elaborate porn movie that uses DOA models and gets millions of views on pornhub or something, I think that's a problem. Even something like applying a religion to certain characters, that's something I've actually seen happen. I've known really religiously devout DOA fans before and none of them went that far to even speculate the religion of any character, yet some random artists have just gone and chosen it for them now. These days I can think of even worse fates to happen to someone's original creations - look what happened to Pepe the frog.

And on the flipside, it can be argued by fans that KT's own Venus Vacation has thrown DOA's character integrity out the window, when you have all the girls swooning over or flirting with the self-insert character "ohna-san" (pretty much turning them all into almost harem characters in a visual novel) and seemingly all have an equal lack of objection when it comes to having to wear venus-tier swimsuits. At least DOAXBV and DOAX2 you could argue it was actually just about DOA girls (the actual DOA girls, with their own characters and behaviors intact) having fun in swimsuits on a beach by playing volleyball and other activities. And that's without even mentioning how DOA's own characters are made to play 2nd fiddle next to a bunch of non-combatant newcomers in a game with DOA in the title. If this is the only current and most popular form of DOA, then it's just a fact that DOA's girls are being seen by most people as "waifus" first and fighters... maybe 2nd, if at all?

There's nothing that can be done about non-profit fanmade content that could affect the series reputation or the rep of its characters. There's only one effective way to fight it and that's for KT to put out their own, good, official content. The more their visions of the series and characters and put out there, fleshed out, and popularized, the harder it is for other people to fill any voids with own self-interests to be effective in using DOA for their own reasons. Right now all the content is coming from either DOA fan content creators, fan works, other works using their IP for their own gain, and KT's own Venus Vacation. If they want the world to see their characters as fighters first and foremost, they have to put out that image upfront themselves, like they did with DOA5. Yeah some people joked about "I am a Fighter" but I think most people bought into it ultimately, despite all the swimsuit DLC. But can they seriously use that line again next time? Or will the next time be "I am a Fighter, remember!?".

So yeah, time for KT to put out their own official "clean" dakimakuras, lmao. Hey, they had official oppai pads being put out there for a while, right...?

 

That said, while I wouldn't judge, I think there's something to be said for character integrity. A lot of artist out there, like what DOAN was saying, are using copyrighted characters and putting their own interests above things like the series rep or character integrity.

I'm reminded of the "Naked Kasumi Lawsuit" of the early 2000s. While on the surface, it may seem like an overreaction on KTs part, the end result of flushing these people out is a net positive. When a franchise becomes known for pornographic content above all else, it reflects poorly on both the fans of the franchise and public perception of the franchise. As an example: I've never played any of the Sonic The Hedgehog games, but I've seen how weird some of the series' fan artwork can get - now when I hear about "Sonic Fans", the first thing that comes to mind is people who draw NSFW pics of hedgehogs. Perhaps an even more widely known example of this phenomenon would be the whole "Brony" thing that happened with the My Little Pony franchise.

TN's social media team has done a good job of promoting good DOA fan content though - content that is respectful of the characters' reputations and personalities. And while I personally sometimes find myself cringing at some of the moves KT has made with VV, I also appreciate the fact that they do seem to have some consideration for the characters' dignity and personalities and haven't completely lost their minds with fanservice.

 

I'm reminded of the "Naked Kasumi Lawsuit" of the early 2000s. While on the surface, it may seem like an overreaction on KTs part, the end result of flushing these people out is a net positive.

There was another incident in 2021 that I had forgotten about: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/d...r-video-of-nude-mod-sold-on-dvd/1100-6485990/

And to me it definitely doesn't seem like an overreaction from KT, they'd be stupid not to go after anyone selling unauthorized products that use their IP. I'm surprised anyone even tries to get away with doing that.

 

If they want to protect their property then that's fine, but it should be done consistently or not at all. This isn't spreading any kind of a message that people in the doujin community will care about because they are going to stop prosecuting immediately after their little show of force, and it's just hurting individual artists.

There is a status quo to consider, and artists are gonna art.

 

If they want to protect their property then that's fine, but it should be done consistently or not at all. This isn't spreading any kind of a message that people in the doujin community will care about because they are going to stop prosecuting immediately after their little show of force, and it's just hurting individual artists.

There is a status quo to consider, and artists are gonna art.

Would you say that commission based is a lot different from distribution of something that isn't unique? Like an art commission from @axouel2009 in comparison to an order of 5 Kasumi pillows that are identical?

 

I dont really see how it matters. If its created by the artist they can do whatever they want with it. And the age old excuse will always legally work.

"Can you make me a picture of Batman?"

"No, but I can make you a picture of Bat Guy"

So, it doesn't really matter what they do, it's going to continue. The only choice KT can make is whether they want to swim against the stream and piss off both the industry and the sub-industry surrounding it, or just let it be. Their behavior is much closer to that of Nintendo going after content creators, and it hasn't done Nintendo any favors either. It simply doesn't pay to be that guy in the industry. Most likely some companies just have over-active lawyers trying to justify their positions. There isn't much motive beyond that.

 

This reminds me, do they still make and sell those giant 3d breast mousepads? Lmao

 

“gOvMeNt CaMe AnD tOoK mY pIlLoOoOoWs!!!”

 

This reminds me, do they still make and sell those giant 3d breast mousepads? Lmao

Yes, they do, and they go for obscene prices as they are in limited print (typically of each new Venus that comes to the Island). I have yet to stoop to this level with my DOA collection.

PSL DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme Venus Vacation Life-size Oppai Mouse Pad Monica LTD JP | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for PSL DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme Venus Vacation Life-size Oppai Mouse Pad Monica LTD JP at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

The pads being made now are by Softgarage and seeing as how they've shown up in DOAX media would mean that they are authorized. If they were 20 dollars, I would probably buy them and box them away in my garage. No way I'm paying 300 USD. I could be a multimillionaire and still say no to that.

 

I will admit once, I did rat out a modder for trying to sell lazy edits of a Hitomi costume. But that's only because they were super lazy with the costume edits and asking 15 dollars or something for it.

Bad mods = get sent to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

 

But that's only because they were super lazy with the costume edits and asking 15 dollars or something for it.

Leave it to a COVID-19 pandemic to catch cheap dollar hookers modders slipping.

 

When a franchise becomes known for pornographic content above all else, it reflects poorly on both the fans of the franchise and public perception of the franchise

You act like that hasn't been the case with DOA for over 20+ years now, You ask anybody about Dead or Alive I can guarantee you most people will say "you mean that titty vollyball game?" also there's a lot of DOA "fans" that have never played any of the games or only play Xtreme series and/or their biggest exposure to DOA is the numerous blender porn animations you can find everywhere on the internet.

Though admittedly it's still nowhere near as bad as Overwatch, the FPS might as well not exist I can guarantee most people know about overwatch because of porn animations rather than the actual game.

 

You act like that hasn't been the case with DOA for over 20+ years now, You ask anybody about Dead or Alive I can guarantee you most people will say "you mean that titty vollyball game?" also there's a lot of DOA "fans" that have never played any of the games or only play Xtreme series and/or their biggest exposure to DOA is the numerous blender porn animations you can find everywhere on the internet.

Though admittedly it's still nowhere near as bad as Overwatch, the FPS might as well not exist I can guarantee most people know about overwatch because of porn animations rather than the actual game.

Since the DOA5 and DOA6 days, believe it or not, I've heard a lot more "DOA is underrated" or "I hope there is another one." Sometimes so many years go by that people begin to get tired of their own statements and repeating them becomes inane. "You know that pro-wrestling is fake, right?" is something I haven't heard in a long time.

 

Maybe a few people here and there, but DOA is still mostly known as "that titty game" by a lot of people. The push and over saturation of Venus Vacation probably doesn't help things either though especially it's modding community (seriously I have seen some WILD mods for that game). The fighting game isn't the main draw of DOA IP anymore unfortunately, regardless of what some may be saying. People yearned for a new VF until VF5 Ultimate Showdown actually came out and was abandoned by the same people that were asking for it to return in less than 2 weeks.

 

Maybe a few people here and there, but DOA is still mostly known as "that titty game" by a lot of people. The push and over saturation of Venus Vacation probably doesn't help things either though especially it's modding community (seriously I have seen some WILD mods for that game). The fighting game isn't the main draw of DOA IP anymore unfortunately, regardless of what some may be saying. People yearned for a new VF until VF5 Ultimate Showdown actually came out and was abandoned by the same people that were asking for it to return in less than 2 weeks.

Well, DOAXVV is an FTP live-service game that gives people something to grind every week. I don't think SC is any less of a titty game nor do I think it's a deeper game than Dead or Alive. Sure, there are still some people that call it "that titty game" but the number is a much smaller margin than it used to be because the offended can simply post by saying "our titty-based game is doing better than numbers than your fighter."

DOAXVV isn't just a bigger draw than the DOA fighting games.

There is no way in hell I'm going to wrestle with the opinions and divide the DOA base further by telling them to cover up. I believe in the idea of making people happy (especially when it comes to business or making money) so if I was in Team NINJA's position, I would give them tasteful sex appeal and a robust fighting game.

A simple way to dodge bikinis at tournaments is to turn off DLC costumes in a tournament mode. There are some players that like a DLC outfit, but a strong majority don't care what they wear at a tournament and some DLC outfits can be more distracting and annoying than the bikini costumes, so I see a reason to turn DLC outfits off all-together.

 

Maybe a few people here and there, but DOA is still mostly known as "that titty game" by a lot of people. The push and over saturation of Venus Vacation probably doesn't help things either though especially it's modding community (seriously I have seen some WILD mods for that game). The fighting game isn't the main draw of DOA IP anymore unfortunately, regardless of what some may be saying. People yearned for a new VF until VF5 Ultimate Showdown actually came out and was abandoned by the same people that were asking for it to return in less than 2 weeks.

Yes, a new VF, not a dogshit exclusive PlayStation port of an 11 year old game that has missing content with horrible netcode, a different graphics engine which looks worse than FS (the character models are awful except for Aoi).

Even that said, VF5US still has people playing it and actually has a community that organizes leagues and events, unlike DOA. And 5US is a main game at Japan EVO this year which must mean some big announcement (aka more shitty Tekken skins lmao).

Considering how modern fighters are these days, I'd rather not have VF6.

 

Yes, a new VF, not a dogshit exclusive PlayStation port of an 11 year old game that has missing content with horrible netcode, a different graphics engine which looks worse than FS (the character models are awful except for Aoi).

Even that said, VF5US still has people playing it and actually has a community that organizes leagues and events, unlike DOA. And 5US is a main game at Japan EVO this year which must mean some big announcement (aka more shitty Tekken skins lmao).

Considering how modern fighters are these days, I'd rather not have VF6.

Are all of the games announced for EVO Japan? EVO disgusts me, but I would support DOA being there. I heard DOA6 was possibly in the cards.

People are trying hard with DOA, but the game is in a difficult place as tournaments have become more commercial instead of grass roots. Team NINJA isn't sponsoring for DOA6 (which I'm sure you know) anymore. Hopefully the numbers are somewhat decent for Winter Brawl.

 

This reminds me, do they still make and sell those giant 3d breast mousepads? Lmao

Yes, but they also don't sell any with their characters displaying as topless/frontal nudity.

they go for obscene prices as they are in limited print

I'm unsure if you were suggesting that they are marked up higher because of rarity or not, but the price in that ebay listing you linked is actually pretty close to the MSRP listed in the original shop.

 

This action to me seems more like they are protecting their trademark than they are protecting the image of their characters. This being done on japan very openly is what made them act. There are currently people making paid mods for doa5 and doa6, people that dont do paid mods but have patreons for donations while setting up mods, there are animators and artists making a buck out of the Dead or Alive characters and assets all over the world and not in safe for work ways.

I have my personal feelings about the xtreme games (that they should not exist in the first place), but even ignoring that, doa xtreme 3 and venus vacation have all sets of problems, like the peeking scenes that i was told is actually mandatory, meaning you have to play the part of a perv. The whole owna san is very stupid, and venus vacation is also a gacha game, meaning it has that terrible moneytizarion system. I think the portrayal of characters is very much out of character for a good chunk.