This past week, miHoYo announced that it was giving some of its female characters less revealing clothing in an upcoming update, namely Jean, Amber, Rosaria and Mona.
While these new looks are optional for almost all regions, they will be mandatory for players on the Chinese server, and are being put in place because of “decency” restrictions in that country where Genshin seems to have run afoul of the government.
If you’ve played Genshin Impact, you’ll know that there are plenty more characters less conservatively dressed than the four featured here. On top of this, China has also started issuing statements saying that TV, movies and games shouldn’t be promoting “effeminate” men, which may impact some of the male character designs in Genshin.
It seems likely that miHoYo will be forced to continue to censor or change characters going forward now, and this may even impact future designs for both male and female character (the timing of the debut of Itto, a burly man’s man hero, in the wake of Chinese’s “effeminate” proclamation is a bit suspicious).
So, we’ll start with the women, as this is the list I imagine is going to get a “makeover” to some degree, albeit I have no idea what the standards actually are here on China’s end (Amber barely changed?). Here’s who I might expect to see changed:
1. Lisa
2. Beidou
3. Ganyu
4. Yoimiya
5. Fischl
6. Shenhe (who already had her bellybutton removed)
7. Raiden Shogun
8. Lumine
9. Kujou Sara
10. Ningguang
Again, these are just guesses based on elements of their outfits that you don’t see with say, Yun Jin or Ayaka, elements which we’ve seen changed in the existing four skins whether that’s tight tops or certain types of legwear. I think the other women characters not listed would be okay, but honestly, who knows what the standards actually are.
In terms of men that could be problematic under China’s rules:
1. Xinqiu
2. Venti
3. Kaeya
4. Albedo
5. Aether
6. Gorou
7. Kazuha
8. Xiao (maybe because of tattoos?)
Again, it’s hard to know what the criteria are here. And while you can have less revealing clothing for women, I’m not sure how you make male characters more “manly,” as most really just…look like how most anime characters look.
All of this, of course, is very bad, and places like Japan, the US and Europe don’t have to deal with the government stepping in to mandate how their characters may or may not look or be dressed. But given what’s happening, I think this is the start of a longer term series of “fixes” that miHoYo may be forced to adopt, and could change future designs going forward. Very unfortunate.
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