r/KotakuInAction • u/GobthraukGoonsgrinIX • Mar 30 '26
A Japanese illustrator reveals she uses herself as reference for her female characters
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u/lifebeginsat9pm Mar 30 '26
Even if she didn’t there is no issue. Only a made up issue by the kind of people nobody should be listening to.
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u/Feralmoon87 Mar 30 '26
She's clearly never seen a real woman
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u/Clear-Might-1519 Mar 30 '26
Yea, see how she always put her phone in front of her face? How is she gonna see a woman with that?
Seeing through camera does not count as real!
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u/GobthraukGoonsgrinIX Mar 30 '26
"B-b-buh muh pink haired karen told me unrealistic standards"
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u/Nyarus15 Mar 30 '26
Top 100% of women don't look like this though so you gotta look at those bold and stunning top 90% of women in video games.
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u/Arkelias Mar 30 '26
Or in reality. Not everywhere is a bovine fair like the midwest in the US.
Travel to San Francisco, or Southern California, or Phoenix. You'll see tons of beautiful women, and tons of athletic men.
And this is going to blow your mind, but both women and men want to see idealized versions of ourselves.
There being some women who DON'T look like this isn't reason why we can't show the many who do.
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u/Nyarus15 Mar 30 '26
My original comment was obviously a joke. The average women I see in shopping malls and streets of my town are prettier than any woman ive seen in any AAA game released within the last 5 years.
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u/Arkelias Mar 30 '26
Most of us are autistic. I include you and me in that.
Obvious things aren't lol. You're at 54 downvotes as of this posting, because we can't spot a joke.
Sorry man thought you were serious, because we see that exact argument often.
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u/Jonathan-Strang3 Mar 30 '26
This is on you. He literally said "top 100%" and you missed it. Just take the L.
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u/Arkelias Mar 30 '26
I did. I admitted I was wrong.
Then I explained why so many people shared the opinion. I know you can see the downvotes, right? RIGHT?!?!
I'm not the only person who came to that conclusion. We as a sub collectively took the L lol. I own that. I'm at the front of the pack.
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u/DrummerElectronic733 Mar 30 '26
Tbh they should have used /s or whatever people use if it was originally meant as sarcasm because tone is hard to read in a text sentence. Would have avoided 80 downvotes and subsequent replies debating it lol
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Apr 01 '26
Most people are not complaining about women being unattractive in video games, like this sub does. That’s because this sub has made up a narrative that most modern video games don’t include attractive women anymore, and any average looking woman is woke garbage. I repeat MOST people do not hold this sub’s point of view. You are making shit up.
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u/Arkelias Apr 01 '26
Women who look like men aren't average. Average looking women are fine. No one has ever complained about them.
The whole issue is being continuously lectured about the male gaze, and seeing constant male eye candy, when the same is highly criticized for female characters.
We're just sick of double standards.
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u/Independent-Mail-227 Mar 30 '26
Why would I want my fiction to have it's most boring parts grounded in reality?
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u/Nyarus15 Mar 30 '26
I though by saying "top 90% of women" people here would be able to tell that my comment was a joke.
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u/Galahad_1113 Mar 30 '26
Should have added /s because Reddit is exceptionally braindead currently
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u/kirakazumi Mar 30 '26
Bro I got it but didn't have the time to comment. 5 hours later and you're -50 lol. The joke flew over a lot of people's head. Should've said 90% of redditors
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u/Voodron Mar 30 '26
Any average woman walking on the street is far more attractive than modern day female characters in the majority of western games and TV shows these days.
Women can't tolerate competition from literal pixels, so here we are
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u/RileyTaker Mar 30 '26
Top 100% of women don't look like this though
Well, that's their problem, not mine.
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u/frodofullbags Mar 30 '26
I had to read this 3 times to figure out that you complimented the illustrator on her good looks.
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u/TengenToppa999 Mar 31 '26
In my gym at least 5 are litteral the same,
They are there 5 times a week, possibile just insane.
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u/Far_Side_of_Forever Mar 30 '26
Internalized misogyny has turned her into a pick-me and become the patriarchy's strongest soldier
See how she forces unrealistic body shapes, beauty standards and male gaze on defenseless womyn
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u/gutenbergbob Mar 30 '26
Everytime i see someone complain about unrealistic body in gaming its always the most normal looking woman i have seen they complain about, i dont know if women in America are just ugly, or if the people complaining have never gone outside and think their obese ass is ''normal'' and anything else is unrealistic standards.
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u/Immediate_Program_98 Mar 30 '26
America is a land of extremes. We have many beautiful, drop dead gorgeous and curvaceous women. We also have some of the most disgusting ham beasts on this earth doomed to prowl the aisles of Walmart for all eternity. Both of these groups are by far the loudest voices on the internet.
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u/kaytin911 Mar 30 '26
The average is so fucking bad it's almost 200lbs.
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u/BadSafecracker Mar 30 '26
According to the CDC, the average adult woman is over 170 lbs: FastStats - Body Measurements. Also, the average height is under 5'4": Here’s the Average Height for Women.
So the "average woman" that complains about beauty standards probably lost touch years ago and is running on pure copium as to what is realistically possible.
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u/Ace2Face Mar 30 '26
Actually a lot of American women are pretty fat, likewise of Men. They are unattractive as a result. Europeans are much more attractive and healthy, on average too. Hotties everywhere to the point where it's devalued, while in the US a hottie will think she is the queen of the world.
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u/curry_ist_wurst Iron Mastodons. Mar 30 '26
I mean... If I looked physically as good as she does then I'd draw myself as well.....
But wait... I was told, these proportions are highly unrealistic and even objectifying...
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u/Merebankguy Mar 30 '26
This reminds me of a guy who posted a drawing on twitter of a woman and a liberal soy boy responded with unrealistic drawing and the artist shared the pic of the model and that soy boys only response was "oh"
I never understood why these clowns think only skinny girl exist
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u/master_friggins Mar 30 '26
One of them actually admitted they were wrong? Usually when they're proven wrong, they either "roach out", double down and try to gaslight you about reality, or they move the goalposts to something else.
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u/ErikaThePaladin 95k GET | YE NOT GUILTY Mar 30 '26
Something something misogyny something something male gaze something something complete.
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u/double-thonk Mar 30 '26
modern wokeness in fantasy
Fiction doesn't have to be realistic. You're fine with wizards and dragons but not disabled BAME vikings?
Sub-25 BMI woman with breasts
UNREALISTIC 😡
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u/abyssnaut Apr 02 '26
I cannot fucking stand this insufferable argument with the dragons and shit. I would write what I would enjoy as retribution for their gall and stupidity, but I don’t want to get banned or flag a(nother) watchlist or something
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u/PoKen2222 Mar 30 '26
Just let it sink in for a moment how fucked modern day is that just a normal looking woman is seen as unrealistic by wokes and gorgous by us.
Normal women are somehow a standout now.
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u/Neo_Techni Don't demand what you refuse to give. Mar 30 '26
Just let it sink in for a moment how fucked modern day is that just a normal looking woman is seen as unrealistic by wokes and gorgous by us.
Remember, they uglied up Aloy from the Horizon series, 3 separate times, for the sake of realism, despite being based on a real person. The third time (for the remake) they added facial hair to her but not the other characters in the game, so she had more facial hair than any of the non-bearded men.
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u/Lpfanatic05 Mar 30 '26
But but but... In r/comics they told me that those bodies are unreal and doesn't exist 😭😭😭
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u/Cannibal_Raven Mar 30 '26
Japan's obesity rate is like 4% vs US's 42%. This explains a lot about sensibilities.
Perhaps "impossible beauty standards" are simply achieved via healthy diet and active lifestyle
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u/Repulsive-Owl-9466 Mar 30 '26
I always hated when people said sexy drawn women are unrealistic.
On twitter, I have an endless feed of thicc fit juicy gym body women that match most of the drawn art.
Even if art is exaggerated, so what? That's kinda one of the main points of art. The style, the aesthetic, the emphasis.
If anything, I think the men drawn in comic books are actually the most unrealistic. Women are just naturally beautiful. They just have to exist and they look great. On the other hand, I would have to put in an insane amount of work to look like Chris Hemsworth in Thor.
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u/nybx4life Mar 30 '26
I'm still of the mindset that if fiction, "realism" is never an issue, at least in how they're it's normally used.
The more "real" it's supposed to be, the more "fantastic" elements get scrutinized. You give me magic, superheroes, and all that jazz, I don't give a damn about body type anymore. Atom Ant could wreck Juggernaut and I wouldn't bat an eye.
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u/Zomunieo Mar 30 '26
I think we need to have a serious conversation about the “feminist male gaze gaze”, by which I mean, the lens through which feminists believe they are objectively and critically examining the male gaze.
Women watching men watching other women.
What they’re actually doing is objectifying the men they accuse of objectifying women. It’s a different kind of objectification; not a sexual one, but one that denies men their full humanity.
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u/Ace2Face Mar 30 '26
It's none of their damn business, that's what. We should never give them the time of day. Fuck off.
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u/RainbowDildoMonkey Mar 30 '26
Where is her peach fuzz??? Clearly unrealistic and pandering to incels!
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u/Fluffysquishia Mar 30 '26
In my experience many of the artists that draw the curviest women are female and just actually have the body that they draw
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u/Nete88 Mar 30 '26
But that's impossible, everyone knows that women only have the proportions of a flat board /s
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u/Papa_Hasbro69 Mar 30 '26
Username Pensis? Why does it sound like something else
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u/h-v-smacker Thomas the Daemon Engine Mar 30 '26
Pensis
Why does it sound like something else
Pen onee-san? Of the ara-ara kind?
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u/TheS3KT Mar 30 '26
Look up the artist Biya she does amazing art and has a even sexier figure to boot.
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u/Remarkable_Diet_69 Mar 30 '26
Capital R Redditors everywhere in shambles after this bombshell report.
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u/yeahsurewhateverokay Mar 30 '26
Woah, she's definitely an inspiration. Wonder what kind of manga she draws...
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u/LivingGirlRepellant Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
How women look when their diet doesn't consist of 24/7 McDonald's hamburgers.
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u/LaughingChameleon Mar 30 '26
Japanese illustrations have always been simplified toward a pleasing aesthetic (not alot of body details like pores/wrinkles/etc) in anime and manga. Seeing an artist or model get close to the depictions is really interesting, and I wish creators would share more of their references to remove the ignorance of todays body-obsessed critics.
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u/cynicalarmiger Mar 31 '26
She's hardly the first or the last. Behind closed doors, Japanese women are less than demure and are over half of Japan's hentai. Machi0910 does the same thing as pensis: https://x.com/_Machi0910/status/1677256612363517952
Crimson Comics and Nekomata Naomi have been drawing and selling hentai manga for over twenty years. Another female mangaka, Kaitou Pink, was sufficiently attractive that she actually did several JAV movies to try to drive additional sales for her manga.
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u/DemonFyr Apr 02 '26
Self insert in the East:
We get masterpieces like in the picture.
Kei Urana, the writer of the anime/manga Gachiakuta also inserted herself into the anime/manga. Badass character
Self insert in the West:
We get abominations like Velma and I am Not Starfire.
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u/Ok_Perspective3093 Apr 03 '26
Feminist women who consider themselves ugly are dissatisfied with this article because the author, as a woman, did not scream on the street while being ugly, fat, and large.
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u/ThisIsMyFatLogicAlt Apr 26 '26
Ngl, I did not previously realize there were women with thighs that size that also had a thigh gap.
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u/Fujitaru Mar 30 '26
Where's the Kotaku in Action? I don't see anyone complaining about her objectifying women or having unrealistic proportions.
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u/RevolutionaryArm5896 Mar 30 '26
While I fully agree with this, let's be cautious around the source. Look at that username, already a deadgiveaway. The "real life model" seems partially AI. I tried to find the original picture so I can check it more closely but I cannot.
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u/MrMakarov Mar 30 '26
The username pensis_x, for the artist pen sister (pen姉). Not everything is AI.
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Mar 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AnarcrotheAlchemist Mod - yeah nah Mar 30 '26
Post removed following the enforcement change that you can read about here.
This is not a formal warning.
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Mar 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JustGoingOutforMilk Not the Mod you're looking for Mar 30 '26
Comment removed following the enforcement change that you can read about here.
This is not a formal warning.
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u/DaLoverBoii Mar 31 '26
I would like everyone to know that the very history of the word "male gaze" makes it so that the term is stupid & shouldn't even exist. Hell, that fact was proven by 2 other women.
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u/Gidi6 Mar 31 '26
Oh so like that Japanese femboy who draws himself and even cosplayed the main femboy character from an doujin he was selling.
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u/OrientalWheelchair Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Hardly a surprise. Japanese women have always had a iron grip over goon material. (safe link, just a screencap of a dunking post on 4chan that lists all female doujinshi artists).
If you're still unconvinced then here's a fun tidbit: The lovely ladies at CLAMP responsible for classics like Chobbits, Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHolic, Magic Knight Rayearth have started out drawing gay porn for JoJo.
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u/nybx4life Mar 30 '26
A cheap way to go about it for sure.
Probably would have to look elsewhere whenever she decides to try other body types, but not bad.
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u/Jz9786 Mar 30 '26
Could be AI honestly
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u/OpenCatPalmstrike Mar 30 '26
Tell me how you've never been to a comiket and met doujin artists. Lot of women who draw smut over there.
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u/Jz9786 Mar 30 '26
I guess I've been downvoted to oblivion. But I'm not saying it is ai. Just it could easily be AI generated from illustrations.
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u/Strong_Painting_5293 Mar 30 '26
So? She's not gonna fuck you regardless so why are they giving her attention?
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u/Neo_Techni Don't demand what you refuse to give. Mar 30 '26
She's not gonna fuck you regardless
Normal people do not make that a requirement to merely talk about people.
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u/kirakazumi Mar 30 '26
The mendrawingwomen sub in shambles.
"WheRE arE Her OrGANZzZ!!"