Team Ninja studio head says DOA 5's female depiction is cultural

Team Ninja studio head Yosuke Hayashi inherited his position from the legendary developer Tomonobu Itagaki, but also inherited a number of pressing questions. In an interview with MCV Hayashi was posed the question of whether Dead or Alive 5 would be altered in any way due to controversy over the game's overly sexualized female characters. Hayashi was, naturally, protective of the franchise's style and artistic direction, claiming it was "cultural" and within "Japanese sensibilities."

Hayashi initially became rather defensive, considering the over sexualized depiction of women is a staple of the DOA franchise:

"We are a Japanese developer, and we’re making the female characters with our common sense and our creative sense. When you take that to countries outside of Japan, it tends to be very misinterpreted in some cases, people considering it sexist or derogatory etc."

At this point it's difficult to tell whether Hayashi believes the way DOA depicts women is typical, or he's just avoiding the subject of over sexualization intentionally.

"For us, within our culture, we’re showing women like that, and we’re trying to make them look attractive. We can’t help if other cultures in other countries around the globe think that it’s a bad representation. Within our nationality and within our national borders, we obviously have morals that we create our female characters from, but within our Japanese sensibilities, we’ve made those characters the way they are and we’re not going to stop doing that."

Whatever Hayashi's true feelings on female depiction in fighting games, or video games in general, it's obvious he feels this controversy is a western-made phenomena. In Japan, he says, Team Ninja's decisions are moral and that is what matters to him and his studio.

Team Ninja also happened to deliver a new trailer for Dead or Alive 5 today, coincidentally showcasing two of the game's female characters facing off. Helena and Lisa battling in thigh-high stockings, high heels, and skirts with the most modern breast physics technology available. Dead or Alive 5 is coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 September 25, 2012.