Koei Tecmo Thinks of the Dead or Alive Women ‘Like Daughters’

Koei Tecmo has spoken about how protective it is of its Dead or Alive property, referring to the female characters as being “like daughters” to the studio. It’s an interesting descriptor, and Koei Tecmo’s standing on how copyright violations are handled with Dead or Alive is a bit unique.

The Dead or Alive franchise got its start back in 1996 in arcades, with eventual ports arriving on Sega and Sony consoles in the years following. From the get-go, the series has featured jiggle physics, which helped to set it apart from other games on the market. While the characters are meant to be sexy, the lengths to which fans repurpose the characters is something that actively concerns Koei Tecmo.

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According to Game Watch, via Automaton Media, during the Tokyo eSports Festa 2025, Koei Tecmo spoke about the game, fans’ usage of the series, and its protectiveness of the characters, calling them “like daughters.” Koei Tecmo apparently doesn’t mind all too much when characters or assets from Dead or Alive are used by fans, even going so far as to sponsor a major fan event in Japan, Comiket, which features numerous sellers offering derivative works based off of all kinds of games and anime. This is also likely why Koei Tecmo never took any notable action against Monty Oum’s series, Dead Fantasy, which used many characters and assets from the Dead or Alive series.

However, Koei Tecmo is also litigious when it’s deemed necessary, with Tomotoshi Nishimura, the general manager of Koei Tecmo’s legal department, stating that the company has shut down roughly two to three hundred doujinshi (self-published fanart and comics), as well as two to three thousand pieces of online fanart every year.

Koei Tecmo’s Daughters of Dead or Alive

Hearing the company refer to the highly sexualized characters of Dead or Alive as “daughters” may strike some as a bit odd or uncomfortable. This is especially true when considering the origins of the series, with series creator Tomonobu Itagaki stating that violence and sexuality were both necessary to create true entertainment. However, the use of “daughters” may be due to a difference in languages. In any case, the developers don’t want to see their characters used in an overtly explicit fashion.

It’s also worth noting that Koei Tecmo doesn’t limit requesting art or projects to be taken down to sexually explicit works. The company also does this when fans’ creations utilize characters from games that haven’t released yet, like the upcoming Dead or Alive dating sim, Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme. While the wording is unusual, fans of the series can at least use Koei Tecmo’s stance as guidelines for what’s considered appropriate for fan works.