Right near Dynasty Warriors: Origins‘ release, Koei Tecmo had plenty of things to say to its Dead or Alive fans, and some of them aren’t exactly positive. In a recent conference during the 2025 Tokyo eSports Festa, Koei Tecmo’s legal team held a lecture where they disapproved of fans who like to further sexualize the designs of their scantily-clad Dead or Alive characters. The company even went as far as taking down some “excited” fan art pieces and stating that Dead or Alive‘s provocative characters are like daughters to Koei Tecmo.
The report came from a Japanese media site GameWatch. Koei Tecmo’s representative on the matter was Tomotoshi Nishimura, general manager of Koei Tecmo’s legal affairs department. The discussion mostly revolved around the importance of intellectual property and derivative works and Koei Tecmo touched up on the subject of “doujinshi” or lewd fan art of their Dead or Alive characters.
One of their major gripes with independent artists was how they profited off of Koei Tecmo’s copyrighted material. Koei Tecmo even recalls taking down over 3,000 pieces of Dead or Alive adult fan art they deemed inappropriate on a yearly basis (mostly from art forums like Pixiv). Hence, Koei Tecmo is walking the talk.
Among Koei Tecmo’s primary reasons include how some of these adult fan art pieces can damage the game’s image. Meanwhile, Tomotoshi Nishimura also mentioned how Koei Tecmo’s designers and creators for Dead or Alive view their characters “like daughters” according to Automaton Media’s translation.
Did the Pot Just Call the Kettle Black?
For those who are unaware of the Dead or Alive franchise’s existence, it’s basically Tekken or Street Fighter except every fighter is a gravure model. 3D girl characters with generous proportions are its whole selling point and what sets it apart from other fighting games. That image you see above is Koei Tecmo’s original, unedited design for their “daughters.”
While it’s not clear what kind of fan art Koei Tecmo deems as inappropriate based on their criteria, Tomotoshi Nishimura’s comment made the whole discussion rather weird.
In the first place, it was Koei Tecmo who overtly sexualized their characters to sell Dead or Alive. Most Dead or Alive games are consistently oversexualized to the point where they might as well be naked with how revealing their costumes are. And it’s not like Koei Tecmo is being subtle about sexualizing their characters– one of their unlockable rewards even involves suggestive pole dances and showering animations for their characters.
So while some fan art pieces might have taken it too far, some fans believe that Koei Tecmo isn’t in any position to take the moral high road here, especially with what they’re doing with their “daughters.”
