Feminist Group Gesture Found in Blue Archive PVs
A significant controversy is unfolding in South Korea right now, involving some gacha games and a feminist group considered quite radical by many in the country.
Feminist Group Gesture Found in Blue Archive PVs
Studio Ppuri is at the center of South Korea’s latest scandal. It was discovered that in some videos produced by the studio, characters were making a gesture considered a symbol of a feminist group in the country:
In various mobile game PVs like Blue Archive, MapleStory, etc., fans found that in many scenes, the characters were making a hand gesture that simply didn’t match the action or situation.
The gesture is identical to the one shown in the logo of the Megalian feminist group, considered an extremist feminist group by many in South Korea. The gesture is made to humiliate Korean men.
As soon as it was discovered that this Megalian feminist group gesture was present in several mobile game PVs, Koreans started making noise on the internet, drawing attention from both companies and the studio itself.
Below, you can see more examples of the gesture appearing:
Another example:
Kim Chang-seop, director of MapleStory at Nexon, said they removed all videos made by Studio Ppuri while conducting an investigation. He stated that he would not allow a culture expressing public hatred against others to defame MapleStory.
Studio Ppuri, which worked on some of the problematic videos, explained: “The gesture was inserted to connect different movements, not intentionally included as a specific gesture. The employee involved is a keyframe animator who participates in all our work, but controlling every single gesture like this is not possible.”
They further stated, “We will take responsibility for all scenes that raise suspicions and make necessary modifications. The employee in question will not participate in any future modification work or ongoing promotional videos. We will also recall and discard any ongoing work and proceed with rework.”
답이 늦어서 죄송합니다 pic.twitter.com/1TNASCLveV
— 스튜디오뿌리 (@studioppuri) November 26, 2023
People supporting the group were outraged by Studio Ppuri’s action of essentially firing the animator, saying that Korean companies always side with “fragile Korean men.”
Feminists Start Targeting Illustrators
In a post published today, I told the story of Kidmo, an NSFW artist who was arrested for creating explicit art. You can find all the details of his story here.
And why is this relevant to this case? Well, as seen from Studio Ppuri’s statement, the animator responsible for the gestures in the PVs will no longer be part of the company’s projects, causing fury among feminist groups.
Now, what is being reported is that the feminist group is targeting male illustrators who worked on mobile games with illustrations. They are taking advantage of the fact that many of them also produce NSFW fan art featuring underage characters.
As a result, some illustrators have decided to disappear from the internet for a while due to cyberbullying and police threats, as this is a crime in South Korea. Two artists, Dorontabi and Doremi, have been reported as targets, with Dorontabi even deleting his social media accounts.
via Reddit 1, Reddit 2, Twitter, Twitter 2
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