Kenichirō Takaki, the producer of the Senran Kagura series, recently spoke to Akiba Souken on December 1st, 2018 about the state of fan-service and how it’s being driven away due to the regulations and standards on Japanese content. He also speaks about how the fan-service in a lot of works are being scaled back to accommodate attention on Japan due to the 2020 Olympics, as well as how they’re approaching pressure from things like Sony’s censorship policy.

Anime News Network captured a small segment from the interview, where Takaki explained that they can no longer just include fan-service for no reason, but that they have to accommodate the sensibilities of the plot, saying…

“Instructions are given out for certain areas. “However, throughout an episode of Senran Kagura, the erotic content will no longer take place without a story-related motive. “For the fan-service where viewers see the girls in their underpants or slipping out of their clothes, these instances will now have justifications for taking place most of the time.”

The second quote regarding the Olympics comes in lieu of the interviewer asking about Sony’s mysterious light that has managed to destroy some fan-service heavy games.

Takaki directly noted that the future is going to be a dangerous time for fan-service due to the Olympics, and that the fan-service genre is in a precarious situation due to people trying to get rid of it, saying…

“[…] With the Olympics coming in a few years it will be a very dangerous time I tell you [regarding animation], because some news stories are saying ‘What if the kids see this?’ “Come on now, why are there late-night broadcasts…? “They often contain sexual depictions in those [anime]. Little by little the [fan-service] genre is being driven away. “Nevertheless, there are still people out there who like this kind of content, and for that reason we’ll continue to work hard to think about ways to skillfully slip through the fan-service as smooth as possible.”

Takaki seems to understand the situation that the fan-service genre is in, but they’re still working hard to fight through the censorship and deal with Sony’s censorship policy, which has affected and delayed the upcoming release of the PS4 game Senran Kagura: 7EVEN.

Of course, there are still holes in Takaki’s explanation, namely that Nintendo hasn’t been censoring any of its third-party content, and it has softcore porn on the Switch right now. That’s not to mention that every game coming to both Switch and PS4 is uncensored on the Switch while it’s censored on the PS4.

So if it were really the Olympics wouldn’t Nintendo have censored all their content, too? Perhaps he just doesn’t want to name the real culprit behind this decision: Sony’s agenda-driven executives operating out of the California offices.

(Thanks for the news tip np complete)