Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima – who played a pivotal role in the franchise’s inception with the late Akira Toriyama – have spoken candidly at the Tokyo Game Show about censorship to the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.
Earlier in the month fans spotted alterations to Toriyama’s iconic artwork, adding safety shorts and a tan coloured undershirt to the female warrior character. She’d previously gone into battle with little more than an armoured loincloth and brasserie.
In an interview, Horii admitted he doesn’t “understand” the tweaks either. He said: “If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up. It means we won’t be able to sell it as an all-ages product.”
Torishima interjected: “There’s a religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling manga in America, everything had to be categorised by age groups. Because there’s a risk of lawsuits, the company also has to get insurance. Doing business with such a ridiculous country is really frustrating. Because of that, Japan also gets negatively influenced.”
These comments appeared to resonate with Horii, as he pointed to another change in the game, involving the character selector. In the original, you could pick between male and female protagonists, but the remake will see these options renamed Type A and Type B. “I really wonder who’s even complaining about this?” he pondered.