Some in the Street Fighter V community are absolutely aghast at Capcom toning down some of the overtly exploitative moves by the female fighters into something somewhat less exploitative. Naturally, they’ve called the studio out for “censorship”.
Some of the moves were embarrassingly over the top and hyper-sexualized, such as R.MIka slapping her near-naked ass in front of the camera or shoving it in the face of an opponent. In her intro, the camera zooms into Cammy’s crotch. Even Chun Li’s breasts bobbed and jiggled in the menu select screen.
The ESRB noted in its Teen rating, ”Several female characters are depicted in low-cut, form-fitting outfits that display large amounts of cleavage and/or buttocks. Female characters’ breasts sometimes jiggle during character selection.”
A lot of that has changed. For example, Capcom stated the jiggling by Chun Li was a bug. When asked when she would be getting a bra, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono joked, ”She’s at a Marks & Spencer as we speak, picking one up that fits her. By the time the game comes out, she’ll be comporting herself. Yeah, she’ll be sorted out by the time you see her.”
The changes made have been the equivalent to someone pushing the camera off to one side. For instance, the camera is higher when R.Mika does her butt-slap, but even then, the game isn’t shy about her wearing a thong and presenting herself to the camera.
Naturally, changing some of the moves has had members of the community calling out censorship, even though no government has threatened anyone with jail time. The topic is hotly debated in the Street Fighter V sub-Reddit here.
