Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima shared a few odd tweets today asking artist Yoji Shinkawa to make a Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain character more erotic, apparently with the intent to encourage cosplay and figurine sales.
He continues that he has been making more and more characters this way, starting with the physical look, and then planning out that character’s setting, background, name, style, and other characteristics and attributes.
Kojima was noncommittal about the character’s sex, and even hinted he/she may not be cosplayable at all, but shared a screenshot that all but confirms the most obvious conclusions.
Dear Cosplayer friends, something like this for example. pic.twitter.com/SWkN3BSDFy
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 4, 2013
For those who can’t tell, this definitely identifies the character as Quiet, the scantily-clad, mute female sniper from the Phantom Pain trailer. Here’s a screenshot from that trailer that gives you a better idea what her costume looks like.
He goes on to talk about getting inspiration from the Mad Max movies. In his mind, even when you make characters that don’t have lines, and therefore would not need strong backgrounds, they still need to be fleshed out as characters in some way. Characters express themselves in the way they look, their silhouettes, and the way they talk.
I don’t think there’s any question in Kojima’s mind that he knew his comments were going to draw controversy. The NeoGAF thread is already filled with the kind of comments that would embarrass you to call yourself a gamer.
Since Anita Sarkeesian started the Tropes Vs Women: Video Games series, there is a context to question and talk about Kojima’s choices. Writing strong female characters with agency does not eradicate the effects of hypersexualizing them. We’ll see what direction the conversation about these statements go, since it almost sounds like Kojima wants to get one going.
Source: NeoGAF
