Limbus Company Feminism Controversy

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Overview

Limbus Company Feminism Controversy, also known as Project Moon Artist Controversy, refers to the gacha video game Limbus Company and the fallout over the reveal of its summer units in late July 2023, which caused significant backlash and viral debates online toward the South Korean developer Project Moon. Due to the controversial look of the summer units as compared to other gacha games, a player crusade (including review bombing) was launched against the company, subsequently resulting in one illustrator being fired with many online claiming feminism as the purported reason.

Background

On July 21st, 2023, the Project Moon official YouTube^[1] channel uploaded a sneak peek ahead at its upcoming summer event. As with many gacha games, an annual summer event is considered a major affair since it takes place during a break time in schooling, allowing for more time to be devoted to playing the event than during other times of the year and also gives the developer a chance to create summer specific skins or characters for the sake of either selling fan service through beachwear or having a different tone than the rest of the game. For Limbus Company however, the summer characters shown were not in bikinis like other gacha games often do but notably had its premiere unit Ishmael be in a full-body wetsuit, covering them completely (shown below).

Developments

In the days since the summer event was shown off on July 21st, 2023, there were reports of protests happening outside the offices of Project Moon in Korea,^[6] and the game received a lot of negative reviews in the app store and on Steam as critics review bombed Limbus Company_. A thread on X by X user @world111^[2] showcased some of the early issues that a game forum known as DCinside had with the game prior to this summer event, notably sharing that they felt unseen by the developers who seemed to only respond to people on X (Twitter) (shown below).

@world1_11 - 23h 1. The non-release of bikinis is not the main reason why incels are angry. It's just an additional reason. The reason why they are angry is because of a number of complex problems, but main reason also exists. 1 122 262 1 @world1_11-23h It is fair to say that their main complaint is this. "Project Moon listens to complaints from women (on Twitter), but not from men (on the DCinside)" Here's the main reason incels thought PM only listens to women. 1 122 14.5K 13.6K 235 @world1_11.23h 1) Sinclair wore a swimsuit without a top, while Ishmael wore a full-body suit 2) They didn't respond much to complaints from their community (DCinside). However, the PM hurriedly posted a notice on Twitter about the controversial 'bodysack'. 27 22 199 ↑ 14.3K

On July 25th, 2023, the official Limbus Company account posted on X about them letting go of a female illustrator who was targeted by the community over previous posts that were either made or endorsed on the illustrator's personal X account. The stated reason given by the company is that it is official policy to not maintain a personal account that has political postings on it which might be traced back to the company, which this illustrator (purportedly named Vellmori) did by having her social media profile name as her in-game credit.

This subsequently caused further backlash against the illustrator who was purportedly not involved in the original summer event illustration of Ishmael that people were upset over. On July 26th, 2023, YouTuber and Limbus Company content creator Welvader^[3] uploaded a video trying to go over the drama, receiving nearly 20,000 views in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Online Reactions

Online reactions to the drama have been mixed as it spread online in late July 2023, with many Westerners who do not speak or read Korean having to learn about things secondhand, thus leading to many conflicting reports spreading simultaneously.

For example, on July 25th, 2023, TikToker @Seras^[4] uploaded a TikTok of an X thread in which one account of the events is given, with the illustrator called Vellmori purportedly being unfairly targeted by people calling her a "feminist" for being against illegal filming of girls in public, earning over 150 likes in one day (shown below).

@jobnazz It’s at this moment that i really wish that i could use the slideshow feature. This is heavily dissapointing #limbuscompany #projectmoon ♬ original sound – Seras

The same day, July 25th, a massive image post^[5] on the site DCinside was made showing a string of different Korean posts that were purportedly made, liked or reshared by the X account associated with the illustrator Vellmori, with many of the comments and posters claiming that the posts reflect a similar sentiment in supposedly being anti-male that radical South Korean feminist groups follow.

The connection between these groups and Korean feminism to the 2016 South Korean Political Scandal makes any accusation a serious issue, which is what the posters claim adds legitimacy to the concern of having this staff member continue working at Project Moon (shown below).