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Lolita Syndrome (ロリータ・シンドローム) is a Japanese adult computer game created by Katsumi Mochizuki and distributed by Enix. [1] [2] [3] [4] It was the winner of Enix's second bi-annual Game Hobby Program Contest. The game was released for the FM-7 and PC-8801 platforms on 31 October 1983.
The game takes place within a house called "Maison Lolita" where under-aged cartoon girls run around without clothes, and play games which involve cheating death. The player must solve puzzles in order to save the cartoon girls from violent deaths, or to see the girls without their clothes on. [5] [6] The game was not originally advertised as containing gore, and this element was only hinted at on the game's packaging:
| Japanese text | English translation |
|---|---|
| ここはかわいい少女達が住む「メゾンロリータ」僕は胸をときめかして訪問。少女のかがれなき瞳、独持の体形、なめらかな肌。そ〜です僕はロリコン。１号室から展開する思いがけない体験。僕の体に戦慄が走った。 [7] | This is "Maison Lolita" where cute girls live. I visited, my heart pounding. A girl's gentle gaze, unique body shape, and smooth skin...thaaat's right, I'm a lolicon. An unexpected experience unfolds in Room 1. Horror runs through my body... |
The game opens showing five doors at "Maison Lolita". The player selects one of these five rooms to enter, with each containing a different minigame. [5] [8]
A girl is strapped to a table, and a circular buzz saw is slowly moving towards her. The player must choose the correct key from ten keys in order to release the girl, and is limited to five guesses. [2] After five incorrect guesses, the buzz saw slices the girl who explodes into a fountain of gore and dies; if the player is successful in freeing the girl, she takes off her clothes. [5]
A girl is strapped to a dart board, and the player is to toss darts at her. [6] The player selects a series of darts which are randomly allocated by number; success is determined randomly by the computer depending on which number the player selects. [2] If the player wins, the girl's clothing is removed; otherwise, the girl explodes into gore and dies. [5]
A sleeping girl is lying on a bed, and the player must type a Japanese word in order to wake her up and have her take her clothes off. The game provides hints to the player. [2]
The player plays a game of rock paper scissors against a girl, who removes a piece of her clothing each time the player wins. [5]
The final room does not contain a game, but rather a gallery where the player can view pornographic images of underage cartoon girls. [5]
Prior to creating its well-known series of role playing games which include Dragon Quest and Star Ocean , Enix was a niche game publisher which became involved in the creation and distribution of pornographic games during the 1980s. [9] Lolita Syndrome was the winning game of the second Game Hobby Program Contest sponsored by Enix. [1] [6] A similar game was released by Enix in February 1983, Mari-chan's Close Call (マリちゃん危機一髪), which also involves gore and pornographic imagery of underage girls. The game revolves around the player protecting a teenage girl named Mariko Hashimoto from kidnappers and killers who throw knives at her, attach her to high-voltage batteries, or place her next to bombs. [10] [6]
Lolita Syndrome was programmed and illustrated by mangaka Katsumi Mochizuki. During the game's development, Mochizuki was simultaneously an illustrator for the children's educational series Learning Manga (学習まんが) published by Shogakukan. [11]
Lolita Syndrome developed a cult following with Japanese otaku and game collectors during the time of its original release. [11] The game was produced during the "Lolicon Boom" within the Japanese anime and manga industries, and its content reflects the stylistic choices of the era. In 1985, Mochizuki developed a sequel called My Lolita (マイ・ロリータ) which was released by Koei. [12] My Lolita contained tamer, less violent content but did not sell as well as its predecessor. [11]
In recent decades, Lolita Syndrome has been scrutinized for its extreme content. In 2011, American comedy magazine Cracked.com published the article "6 Famous Artists You Didn't Know Were Perverts" by Maxwell Yezpitelok, in which Lolita Syndrome was specifically mentioned as an example of Enix's history of producing adult games. Yezpitelok derided the game for its content involving "sexually suggestive toddlers", calling it "contrived" and "sadistic". [6] Author Kiyoshi Tane has speculated that Enix was able to release physical copies of Lolita Syndrome due to a mainstream belief at the time that video games were mainly for adults. [12] He concludes by calling the game "the most problematic work" released by Enix. [12]
Hentai is a style of Japanese pornographic anime and manga. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of hentai seiyoku, and is also used to refer to persons who hold or do such desires and acts, often translated to English as "pervert". In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exist in a variety of media, including artwork and video games.
In Japan, pornography has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos (JAV) refers to the Japanese pornographic film industry. Animated films are referred to as hentai in English, but in Japan the terms "adult anime" and "erotic animation" are used. In addition to pornographic videos and magazines featuring live actors, there are now categories of pornographic manga and anime, and pornographic computer games.
Enix Corporation was a Japanese multimedia publisher who handled and oversaw video games, manga, guidebooks, and merchandise. It was founded in 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima as Eidansha Boshu Service Center, initially as a tabloid publisher and later attempting to branch into real estate management. Beginning in 1982, Enix began publishing video games. Three notable early collaborators were designers Yuji Horii and Koichi Nakamura, and composer Koichi Sugiyama. Horii, Nakamura and Sugiyama would all work on the 1986 role playing video game (RPG) Dragon Quest for the Family Computer; one of the earliest successful RPGs for consoles, it spawned a franchise of the same name which remains Enix's best-known product.
In Japanese popular culture, lolicon is a genre of fictional media which focuses on young girl characters, particularly in a sexually suggestive or erotic manner. The term, a portmanteau of the English words "Lolita" and "complex", also refers to desire and affection for such characters, and fans of such characters and works. Associated with unrealistic and stylized imagery within manga, anime, and video games, lolicon in otaku culture is generally understood as distinct from desires for realistic depictions of girls, or real girls as such, and is associated with the concept of moe, or feelings of affection and love for fictional characters as such.
An eroge is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. The term encompasses a wide variety of Japanese games containing erotic content across multiple genres. The first eroge were created in the 1980s, and many well-known companies in the Japanese gaming industry originally produced and distributed them. Some eroge are primarily focused on erotic content, while others, such as Key's Kanon, only contain occasional scenes in an otherwise non-erotic work. Games in the latter category are often re-released with sexual content removed for general audiences. Throughout its history, the genre has faced controversy for its use of explicit sexual content, and as a result has been banned from several console platforms.
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The PC-8800 series, commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan.
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Thexder is a run and gun video game from Game Arts, originally released for the NEC PC-8801 in 1985. It was ported to many systems, including the Famicom.
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Door Door is a single-screen puzzle-platform game developed by Enix and published in Japan in 1983. Originally released for the NEC PC-8801, it was ported to other platforms, including the Family Computer. Controlling a small character named Chun, the player is tasked with completing each stage by trapping different kinds of aliens behind sliding doors. Chun can jump over the aliens and climb ladders, and must also avoid obstacles such as large nails and bombs.
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