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Some of the most infamous dictators of the 20th century have now been turned into cute anime characters with not so cute accompanying biographies.


The book is Nyotai ka!! Sekai no Dokusaisha Retsuden (にょたいか！！世界の独裁者列伝 or loosely, "In Female Form?! Biographies of World Dictators"), and it features illustrations by various artists, such as Nishieda and Takeshi Nogami, of various dictators from around the globe. The book features forty dictators in total.

The lead image for each biography is done in the moé style ("moé" is Japanese geek slang for the warm fuzzy feeling certain types of characters emit), and the accompanying biographies provide history about the leaders, discuss their political philosophy, and recount incidents from their lives—all in moé packaging.


For the last several years, it's been popular to turn anything and anyone imaginable into cute moé counterparts. Making these infamous dictators "cute" does seem to trivialize them. Though, I guess you could argue that having a bikini wearing Pol Pot lounge on a mountain of skulls makes the Khmer Rouge leader look even more frightening.

Japanese site Akiba Blog recently checked out the book in Akihabara. Have a look at the various dictators in the above gallery.

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「にょたいか！！世界の独裁者列伝」 毛沢東はかぼちゃパンツ、金日成はアイドル [Akiba Blog Thanks, General Cat!]

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


Omar al-Bashir




Fidel Castro




Muammar Gaddafi




Adolf Hitler




Saddam Hussein




Kim Il-sung




Mao Zedong




Benito Mussolini




Pol Pot




Joseph Stalin