Here's a nasty little step backwards: Team Ninja staffer and Dead or Alive 5 director Yosuke Hayashi has attempted to pass the buck on the series' notoriously sexualized female characters as the "Japanese approach to women". In an interview with MCV, Hayashi had this to say about sexing up DoA's ladies:
"For us, within our culture, we’re showing women like that, and we’re trying to make them look attractive. We can’t help if other cultures in other countries around the globe think that it’s a bad representation. Within our nationality and within our national borders, we obviously have morals that we create our female characters from, but within our Japanese sensibilities, we’ve made those characters the way they are and we’re not going to stop doing that."
Oh, puh-leeze. Dead or Alive has never made a secret of its pandering to sex appeal - it coined the term "Boob-Jubbling" after all - and this bald-faced attempt to deflect criticism with the shield of cultural essentialism is offensive to women, the DoA franchise, its fans, and Japanese culture.
Now, sure, culture and cultural differences do play a part in all this. Japan isn't exactly known for its progress on gender equality, and Japanese pop culture is notably more tolerant (or at least transparent) of sex and sex appeal than in the west, but no one, Japanese or otherwise, should harbor any delusions that Dead or Alive doesn't aim to appeal to horny nerds. DoA Extreme Beach Volleyball is living proof of that mandate.
Show some spine, Hayashi, and admit that Team Ninja likes its sexy virtual ladies. No one will begrudge you for it. In fact, they might like you for it. I know I like my sexy virtual ladies as well.
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