5omeday, a new visual novel game where you’re a prison guard observing an anime dragon girl, has sparked outrage on social media after the game went viral.
The viral post from indie dev Indigo Ingots joked that the game’s main mechanic – hitting a button to execute the anime girl – had a bug that wouldn’t let players progress unless you actually hit the button.
This post went viral on Japanese social media and sparked outrage from Japanese commenters, with reactions ranging from the game being a misogynistic otaku game to a game that enables the abuse of young girls.
Here’s a collection of the most notable/engaged critical responses:
“The victims in these kinds of games are all lined up as baby-faced women, which really shows how the misogyny of weak men has reached its peak, huh. Crime rates and death row inmates are almost all men, so do it with old dudes instead.”
“In addition to the raw predatory desire to “enjoy” the sadism and domination toward women and children, they even politely justify that sadism morally by framing it as “punishment for death row inmates,” which sends shivers down my spine at the sheer ferocity of otaku men’s misogyny and their complete lack of ethics. I absolutely don’t want to get anywhere near them.”
“92.5% of death row inmates are male (as of the end of 2021), and the average age at execution is 54 years old (from 1993 to 2012), so it would be more realistic to make it a middle-aged to elderly man! Also, all juvenile (teenage) death row inmates from the postwar period to the present have been male. What is the intent behind wanting to kill a young woman in a situation that doesn’t exist in reality?”
“The result of continuously spewing the objectification of women through manga, TV, games, and so on. People lose the ability to recognize as abnormal the sensibility that it’s okay to post such things on SNS or to distribute them. Japan’s environment is indeed abnormal. The mindset that views women as “prey” or “merchandise,” or as “inferior beings that men must deign to evaluate,” cannot be changed—Rape Japan”
“The girl is a death row inmate, huh. Again, some weak guy with a bugged sense of ethics is making a pointless game for other weak guys. Do they think it’s okay just because they made it non-human? It’s out. Seriously, they need to tighten up the restrictions on expressions in creative works already.”
“The idea of “holding the power of life and death over a girl (being able to do whatever you want with her)” is creepy. Idiots will probably defend it by saying “It’s just fiction~” or something, but I think there’s a psychopathic vibe from the fundamental psychology. Seriously creepy.”
5omeday is in development for Windows PC (via Steam). While a release date wasn’t announced, a demo has been available.
