Players raise concerns that company softened, removed "playful same-sex banter" from game

KLab America, which is handling the English release of the "Love Live! School Idol Festival" smartphone app, posted a statement on its Facebook page on Saturday regarding the English translation.

Specifically, the statement addressed a complaint by players that KLab America has removed some implications of same-sex relationships between characters from the English translation.

Below is an excerpt from the statement:

We would also like to address one specific concern raised by some gamers, namely that we were engaging in self-censorship by removing or softening some playful same-sex banter from the English version. This absolutely was not our intention. We localized the game based on our interpretation of the original anime contents, but at the same time, we also respect our gamers' interpretations as well. We take to heart the comments from some of our gamers who felt we were dismissing them in some way by some of our translations. We truly regret any hard feelings that we may have caused. We love our games and our gamers and don't want any of them to change! We'd like to thank all of our gamers for their feedback. Keep it coming!

The full statement can be read here.

Bushiroad and KLab released the rhythm action and adventure game in English on iOS and Android devices under the title "School Idol Festival" in May 2014.

The Love Live! franchise has inspired two television anime series, as well as an upcoming film on June 13. The franchise also includes manga, CDs, books, card games, radio performances, and live events.

[Via Okazu, NerdSpan]