Dead or Alive publisher requests between 2,000 and 3,000 takedowns on works of inappropriate fan art annually because it thinks of the game’s characters ‘like daughters’

It’s easy to forget that, before the release of its first beach volleyball spin-off, the Dead or Alive series were taken fairly seriously as fighting games. We may have joked about the ridiculous jiggle physics, but the original was still considered a decent successor to Virtua Fighter 2.

Nowadays, of course, the Dead or Alive series is a joke, promising that new entries will be less jiggly, then turning around and flogging dozens of bikini, maid, and schoolgirl costumes as DLC. Which is why it’s so absurd to read Tomotoshi Nishimura, the executive in charge of Koei Tecmo’s legal affairs division, say they had no choice but to take action against fan art that might damage the image of the Dead or Alive cast—because their creators’ think of them “like daughters”.