‘Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP’ Producer Confirms Upcoming Remake Will Leave Juliet’s Appearance “Uncensored”
Spencer Baculi
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Delivering a ray of light amongst the Western entertainment industry’s growing desire for puritanical censorship, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP producer Yoshimi Yasuda has seemingly confirmed that the upcoming remake will make no alterations to the risqué appearance of its cheerleader-outfit-clad protagonist, Juliet.
Juliet (Tara Strong) finally has a moment to breathe in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Kadokawa Games
The 2012 brainchild of storied game designer Goichi “Suda51” Suda and eventual Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy director James Gunn, Lollipop Chainsaw follows the tale of Juliet Starling, a bubbly, blonde-haired cheerleader whose 18th birthday is upended when her hometown of San Romero is suddenly overtaken by a zombie outbreak.
But unbeknownst to the hordes of undead, Juliet and her family are the latest in a long line of zombie hunters whose lives were dedicated to fighting back against this exact scenario. Decapitating her boyfriend Nick in order to prevent him from turning and preserving his life with a magical spell, Juliet attaches him to her belt, picks up her signature chainsaw, and sets out to butcher the world back to normalcy.
Juliet (Tara Strong) and Nick (Michael Rosenbaum) prepare to get their hands dirty in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Kadokawa Games
In addition to its hack-and-slash gameplay, one of Lollipop Chainsaw‘s most iconic elements is Juliet’s outfit, as not only does its colorful and ‘youthful’ appearance serve as a stark visual juxtaposition to the sheer amounts of gore and despair littering San Romero, but also plays into both the over-the-top ‘camp’ factor of the game as well as the ‘hyper-materialist’ satire of the entire zombie genre.
And that is to say nothing of the fact that, at the end of the day, it’s a suggestive outfit being worn by an attractive woman, a combination which is always sure to garner a given character some level of fandom and notoriety.
Sadly, since recent years have seen any hint of human sexuality deemed as ‘problematic’ amongst the Western video game industry, the first thought on many a fans’ mind when RePOP was announced in July 2022 was, ‘They’re absolutely going to censor Juliet.’
Juliet (Tara Strong) introduces Cordelia (Linda Cardellini) to her boyfriend Nick (Michael Rosenbaum) in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Kadokawa Games
However, it seems that, at least to some extent, fans can put this particular fear to rest, as the aforementioned Yasuda has ostensibly announced that the remake will leave Juliet’s appearance – at least in some capacity – unaltered.
Taking to Twitter on September 28th, the RePOP producer shared a picture of Juliet in her most ‘covered-up’ outfit, a ‘Bunny’ mascot suit, and informed the public in both Japanese and English that “we will also make ‘uncensored’ Juliet costume to meet your expectations…!”
Archive Link Yoshimi Yasuda via Twitter
Notably, Yoshida’s statement appears to be worded slightly differently in Japanese, with a machine translation of his original sentence provided by DeepL reading, “Juliette’s costume will also be ‘uncensored’ to meet your expectations…!”
Thanks to this discrepancy, ostensibly caused innocently by the fact that English is the producer’s second langauge, it is unknown exactly whether Juliet’s various outfits will be uncensored by default or if special ‘alternates’ will be provided.
Nick (Michael Rosenbaum) gives Juliet (Tara Strong) a motivational speech in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Kadokawa Games
Thankfully, with his latest tweet, Yasuda appears genuinely committed to his previously announced plans to have the remake preserve the game’s original identity, rather than modify it in accordance with modern social discourses.
“We do not intend to change the aesthetics of the game,” the producer clarified in July 2022, shortly after RePOP was announced. “The mention of how the game will have a more realistic look in the previous announcement was meant to refer to how we will make use of the advanced rendering technology available in current game consoles.”
Archive Link Yoshimi Yasuda via Twitter
“We do not wish to change Juliet’s design, and the assumption that we want to is baseless,” he continued. “We were the ones who created Juliet’s model data after great trial and error ten years ago, and feel attached to her more than anyone else.”
To this end, he further explained, “we learned after the announcement of Lollipop Chainsaw Remake that many fans are worried about censorship in the game. We have not yet discussed the issue with the platform holders yet, and thus cannot say anything about the topic, but what we can say is that we intend to negotiate with the platform holders to make it so that the game can be as close to the original version as possible.”
Juliet (Tara Strong) is happy to be reunited with Nick (Michael Rosenbaum) in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012), Kadokawa Games
As of writing, the only known difference between Lollipop Chainsaw and RePOP is that, due to licensing rights, the latter’s soundtrack will not feature sixteen of the original game’s seventeen licensed songs. These ‘deslisted’ tracks include works from such popular artists as Dragonforce, Children of Bodom, and Skrillex.
Currently under development from Dragami Games, the ‘successor’ studio to original Lollipop Chainsaw developer Kadokawa Games, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is currently on track to tear its way into the current gaming generation sometime in 2024.
NEXT: Square Enix Censors Maya Mahabala’s Sexy Dancer Outfit In ‘Dragon Quest Monsters 3’
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