Do 3D Characters Have Human Rights?
The gender ratio of Abnormal Hunters players is roughly 99 to 1. Aside from a small minority of women who love shota characters, it is an extreme male-oriented game played almost exclusively by men.
If you were to ask why a male-oriented game would even have shota characters... I could summarize it with a single word: "Trap."
You could call it a kind of gacha element for fun. If every time you pulled the gacha you only got busty, cute female characters, the thrill of the pull would diminish. Of course, the person who actually pulls the shota character would be grabbing their hair and wailing in agony, but hey, as long as it isn't me, who cares?
Since the target audience is limited strictly to men, even though they essentially gave up on the entire female half of the population, Abnormal Hunters is still a major-league game that consistently ranks in the top three for subculture game revenue.
And what does high revenue mean? It means the number of people playing the game is just as massive.
The "New SSR Character: Lee Jia Update Preview Broadcast" hosted by Lee Jia was a huge success. For both Lee Jia and Abnormal Hunters, it was a gamble with a fair amount of risk, but it paid off beautifully.
...It was a match made in heaven, only possible because both sides were deep in the "underground" subculture.
Immediately after the broadcast ended, Lee Jia contacted Abnormal Hunters directly to ask what the "full-limit break" animation looked like. Fortunately, the animation wasn't one where the "Sacred Light"—a polite term for a mosaic—completely disappeared. I mean, Lee Jia is a Vtuber. No matter what, you can't just go around exposing Lee Jia's actual skin.
That said, the full-limit break animation wasn't exactly tame, either. The Abnormal Hunters production team showed it to Lee Jia, and her cheeks turned bright red immediately.
Lee Jia asked if they could change the animation, but... producing a new illustration within a week was an impossible request, even for a major game developer. Therefore, it was decided that the animation would stay as it was.
One week later. Finally, "Fervent Follower of the Shining Stars - Lee Jia" landed on the main server.
Need I even mention the revenue? The modeling was breathtaking. The skills were decently powerful and hilarious. While not blatant, it had those subtle "arousal points" that were just enough. The voice actor's passionate performance. And finally, the busty full-limit break animation that changed upon maxing her out.
Reaching #1 in the daily subculture game revenue rankings was a foregone conclusion.
The reaction in the Abnormal Hunters community was, naturally, paradise.
Not all "underground" is the same, and not all "otaku" are the same. Just because someone likes subculture mobile games doesn't mean they are automatically friendly toward Vtubers. One might feel a sense of repulsion toward Vtubers, but... the new SSR-grade character Lee Jia was pulled off with such overwhelming quality that even that repulsion vanished.
From the perspective of Abnormal Hunters users, there wasn't a single reason to dislike Lee Jia. She was even the first pink-haired character and the first non-human character to appear, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she brought every attribute that users love.
Certainly. Unlike existing Abnormal Hunters characters who "show it off blatantly," Lee Jia's concept of "showing it off subtly, like she might but doesn't" seemed to be a fresh and thrilling experience even for the veteran players.
...However. As with most collabs, it wasn't without its controversies.
Why did it have to be this b*tch? Ahhh, Director Gae Jong-hyun, you f***ing son of a b*tch!!!!!!!!!!! I want to play around while touching the pink-haired cow's t*ts too!!!!!!
...I'll say it again. Abnormal Hunters is an extreme male-oriented game, and praising the sexual appeal of busty characters in such a game is... a common phenomenon in subculture games. Who would say anything if they were just making lewd comments about a non-existent character?
But Lee Jia is a real person... no, a real Follower.
Like this, because there were cases where people who had no interest in Vtubers and didn't even know Lee Jia was one just pulled her because the character herself was pretty, these kinds of incidents occurred. Soon, in the Abnormal community, public opinion began to form, saying, "Since she's a real person, let's refrain from lewd comments as much as possible."
You might think it's nothing, but surprisingly, this was quite a big controversy.
...I'll say it again, Abnormal Hunters is an underground game, and the users playing it also have underground tendencies. From the perspective of underground users, critiquing the appearance of characters and spewing out lewd comments is... a form of "affection."
However, because Lee Jia was a collab character and a real-life streamer, a frustrating situation arose where they couldn't make lewd comments even if they wanted to. Users began to divide because of Lee Jia. Eventually, the moderator of the Abnormal Hunters gallery, unable to watch this situation any longer, decided to face it head-on.
"I'll just donate 1 million won to Lee Jia's broadcast and ask her directly."
Could there be a more certain and faster way than asking the person involved in the collab herself? The moderator emptied out their own pocket money and entered Lee Jia's broadcast.
Lee Jia was playing a game—a piece of trash game I'd never heard of called Bug Corpse Cleaner. Lee Jia was horrified at the sight of the wriggling bug corpses.
["Jiaaaaaaah! That looks f***ing disgusting!"]
The moderator had to donate 1 million won to ask her, but they weren't so oblivious as to donate while the streamer was in the middle of a game. Eventually, the moderator put Lee Jia's broadcast screen on a sub-monitor and Abnormal Hunters on the main monitor, starting to multitask. But at some point, the moderator abandoned Abnormal Hunters and stared only at the sub-monitor, thinking:
"...This is f***ing fun."
The moderator of the Abnormal Hunters gallery had started showing signs of becoming a believer without even realizing it. Still, they had to do what they came to do. As soon as the game ended, the moderator donated 1 million won to Lee Jia.
AbnormalGalleryMod donated 1,000,000 won.
"Jia-nim, hello. I'm the mod of the Abnormal Gallery. It's nothing else, but..."
["Aigoooo, Mod-brother has donated another million won! This, too, must be the grace of the Shining Stars. The donation will be used usefully to praise the Shining Stars, and also..."]
The moderator explained the situation honestly to Lee Jia. The advice that if she officially said, "Please don't make lewd comments," the gallery would normalize, was a bonus. Lee Jia's follow-up words were:
["Uh... honestly, I don't give a damn. I did this collab knowing all that, so play freely, whether you make fan art or whatever, yeah. I'll never sue you."]
Lee Jia was crowned the "Gallery Owner" of the Abnormal Hunters gallery, and a trend of "You shouldn't make lewd comments about the Gallery Owner" spread. As a result, instead of making lewd comments, worshipping Lee Jia became a kind of meme.
This, too, must be the grace of the Shining Stars.
* * *
"Hehehehe. Uhehehehehe."
After the broadcast ended, I sat in my computer chair and watched the replay of Ayase's broadcast. While watching the replay, I played Abnormal Hunters on the side. This game is fun. I felt it when I did the preview broadcast last time, too. It just feels like a purely well-made game.
The turn-based combat system is surprisingly difficult, so you have to use your head. There's the taste of gathering resources and growing in a step-by-step manner. There's the fun of buying skins for the characters. And the cutscenes aren't just vulgar; there are quite a few characters with cool cutscenes.
...I haven't pulled the collab character, Lee Jia, yet. But since it's my own collab character, shouldn't I pull her on broadcast? Instead, I used the "All SSR Character Selection Ticket," which you only get once per account, to pull at least Park Sihyun, the only shota character in this game.
Touch.
["T-Team Leader brother, don't play around!"]
Touch. Touch. Touchtouchtouchtouchtouch.
"Uhihehehehe."
Abnormal Hunters? It's confirmed to be a cosmic god-tier game.