Some of the biggest and/or recognizable franchises from Japan are guilty of this, especially JRPGs since they tend to have different kinds of characters. These child/childlike characters usually serve as the party members of the group, and younger than the main hero/heroine. Now that as you probably know, lots of Japanese games star young characters, mainly high schoolers in their late teens. Just imagine how young those younger characters are. From relatively niche franchises like YS and Star Ocean to a more mainstream franchise like Final Fantasy, these are only from some of the most popular franchises that I can remember, and it'd take me hours to list the rest of them.
What's problematic about all this is obviously the sexualization of these underage girls. Some of them are blatantly sexualized, some others are more subtle or only serve as a romantic option (like Futaba from Persona 5), and some others aren't sexualized at all (like Veronica from DQXI). I'm probably biased as I obviously haven't played most Japanese games out there, but I feel like the former 2 are more common that the last one. Especially if you think of games from smaller studios like Marvelous, Media Vision, Nippon Ichi, Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Gust, etc. Another problem is that how people tend to eat up whatever excuse the authors give to them. Like, if a character looks underage but the author says that she's actually a 1000 year old dragon, people just accept it like a fool. And I think it's extremely disturbing that people are against censorship of sexualized minors in video games, and generalizations like "Well, it's Japanese culture" as if everyone in Japan is okay with this kind of stuff, not to mention that these games are actually being sold worldwide.
Simply put, I just find it silly and problematic that these child/childlike characters are somehow a must have trope in a lot of Japanese games. Of course, there are lots of exceptions too, especially from games with more mature and/or non-anime aesthetics like From, Capcom, Konami, and Platinum games, among others. Meanwhile if you compare it to Western games, they barely exist. Children are usually just some random NPCs or unimportant characters in there.
What's problematic about all this is obviously the sexualization of these underage girls. Some of them are blatantly sexualized, some others are more subtle or only serve as a romantic option (like Futaba from Persona 5), and some others aren't sexualized at all (like Veronica from DQXI). I'm probably biased as I obviously haven't played most Japanese games out there, but I feel like the former 2 are more common that the last one. Especially if you think of games from smaller studios like Marvelous, Media Vision, Nippon Ichi, Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Gust, etc. Another problem is that how people tend to eat up whatever excuse the authors give to them. Like, if a character looks underage but the author says that she's actually a 1000 year old dragon, people just accept it like a fool. And I think it's extremely disturbing that people are against censorship of sexualized minors in video games, and generalizations like "Well, it's Japanese culture" as if everyone in Japan is okay with this kind of stuff, not to mention that these games are actually being sold worldwide.
Simply put, I just find it silly and problematic that these child/childlike characters are somehow a must have trope in a lot of Japanese games. Of course, there are lots of exceptions too, especially from games with more mature and/or non-anime aesthetics like From, Capcom, Konami, and Platinum games, among others. Meanwhile if you compare it to Western games, they barely exist. Children are usually just some random NPCs or unimportant characters in there.
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