"KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed"

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Event
Event: Meta
Participants: untitled
Date(s): 12 December 2023
Type: Tweet
Fandom: The King of Fighters
URL: "KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed." by Kodama/gosokkyu, Archived version
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"KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed" is the first sentence of an untitled tweet made by Mitsuo Kodama. In The King of Fighters fandom, Kodama is most known for being the former in-house designer of graphics and effects for SNK titles, including many KOF ones. The tweet itself was in Japanese, but there was a translation by gosokkyu, Archived version that helped the tweet circulate English-speaking KOF fandom and beyond. While the first tweet by Kodama would reach 336.7K views as of January 2024, the translation would reach 643.2K views, and a popular quote tweet of that reached 1.1M Views.[1]

The first tweet in the thread was made on December 5th and is art by Kodama of Kyou Kusanagi, a main character of KOF.[2] The art was well received.

Later, on December 12th, which is both Kodama's and Kyo's birthday, Kodama retweeted the art with an added caption. The tweet is as follows, as well as the follow-up tweet:

Mitsuo Kodama:"KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed. Even I, whose one strength is baseless self-confidence, was bracing for heartbreak, but when I saw a gaggle of fawning fujoshis at the first loctest, our team pepped each other:'miracles could happen?'"

"thx for all the congrats & bday wishes for Kyo & I. When my company & even the newcomers rejected me, I felt very lonely, like I was surrounded by enemies. I made KOF94 feeling I had no choice but to go it alone, so I'm very grateful for all your support"[3]

Many fans were surprised at the shout out to fujoshis, since the majority of KOF's fanbase are not fans of BL. However, KOF has had a long history of Boys' Love and Yaoi fanworks and doujinshi, especially for the ship Iori x Kyo, though notably, Iori Yagami wouldn't be introduced until 1995, leading to some speculate that he was created for them.

This tweet drew comparisons to an interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino of Gundam fame, who said in an interview, Archived version that many of the earliest Gundam fans were women, by around a 9 to 10 ratio with Male fans. An interview with Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah on startrek.com, titled Living Star Trek: How Two Women Breathed New Life into the Franchise, was also linked in the thread[4] as another example of "fujoshi" saving otherwise forgotten media with fanworks. Also discussed was the fandom for the game Touken Ranbu. Primarily made up of women, they have helped preserve historic swords out of their love for their humanized versions in the game.

Quotes to Kodama's Tweet

Kodama responded to some tweets, sharing tidbits that some Female fans of KOF94 called Kyo "Moe-taro" during 1994 if they didn't know what his name was[5] and responding to a Female fan who dislikes the Fujoshi label.[6]

In 2001 I found an IorixKyo fanfic without knowing about KOF... guess what happened? KOF fan for life~ I'm proud of the amount of money I've spent on KOF merch 😂[7]

[Attached is a photo of Kyo and Iori figurines holding hands]

格ゲーブーム後期を支えてくれてありがとう腐女子……私が遊んでいた渋谷のタイトーでも、実際にはプレーしないでゲーセンノートに庵京イラスト描きにくる女の子たちがたくさんいて、仲良くしてました。[8]

KOF94が出た頃、友達が行ってた某アニメの専門学校の文化祭に行ったら、猫も杓子も草薙京でしたね。 ほとんど女の子がしてるコスプレでした。[9]

Just as they carried Gundam from the start, Fujoshis also saved King of Fighters before it was even out of the gate![10]

Quotes to Gosokkyu's Tweet

Osea que los Mexicanos no son los únicos que mantienen vivo a KOF ???[11]

Can a gaggle of fawning fujoshis hop on The Silver Case I'm starving over here[12]

Open up any issue of Gamest from the time & you'll see that girls were basically carrying the fighting game fandom. SNK imo were the first & best at recognizing this which is a lot of their characters are ~cool~ but were also allowed to be more human than the average FG character[13]

No se habla suficiente de cuántas franquicias han sobrevivido gracias a la alienación colectiva que sufren las personas afab en torno a la feminidad y la sexualidad femenina[14]

الفوجوشي انقذو لعبة كوف لول[15]

É SNK, você sabe onde mirar né? O jeito é focar em coisas como KOFG que o retorno ao sucesso é certo kkkk[16]

Yaoi being the one of the cornerstones of KOF was not something I expected but should have been obvious in retrospect[17]

Rune_Sa_Riik's Quote Tweet

Meme in a quote tweet to the translated tweet by Rune_Sa_Riik.

The most popular quote tweet was one by Rune_Sa_Riik, who made a meme. This quote tweet itself has many quote tweets. Since this meme doesn't reference KOF directly, many were more general, and the original tweet fully escaped containment from the KOF fandom.

companies need to stop pandering to bandwagoners n start pandering to the cart of fujoshi’s that discover the half-consumed remains 10 years later and keep the ip relevant/revive it thru fanart of the deuteragonists frotting.
TIGER & BUNNY + MONSTER IM LOOKING AT YOU!!!![18]

not even a japan thing too! The science fiction genre and creative scene wouldn't be what it is today if not for fujoshis threatening Paramount if they dare to cancel Star Trek![19]

y'know, the last time I thought that me, a Man Fan, ever actually kept anything afloat was like 1997

and then I realized that all my favorite shonen titles had huge female fanbases

and now, as a marketing guy, I live and die by "women spend money, sell to THEM"[20]

so girlboss of touken ranbu fans when they raised like over 300k usd to restore historical swords and put them back on display in museums. shrines where the swords were forged gained massive tourism money too[21]

same energy with mdzs fans bullying cql prod team for heterowashing modao LA. Thanks to them cql became a phenomenal success and both main actors rose into massive popularity they became cn’s IT boys[22]

Wasn't the whole Free!! anime created just because Fujishoji were CRAVING for boys from a water bottle commercial ? Lmaooo so much power[23]

isn’t this what happened with jjk at the start? jp fans started buying the manga bc of goyuu lmao[24]

KoF 🤝 Star Trek
『FUJOSHI SALVATION』[25]

It Reaches KOF Facebook

The tweet would later be screenshoted and re-posted on several websites, namely Facebook, which has large Spanish-speaking KOF communities.

An article was also made on timeextension, King Of Fighters ’94 Artist Feared The Game Would Get Axed After Poor Internal Tests by Jack Yarwood, Archived version

Similar Fandom Occurrences

References/Further Reading

  1. ^ As of January 1st, 2024
  2. ^ #KOF94 #草薙京 by @mitsumame1212, Archived version
  3. ^ "KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed." by Kodama/gosokkyu, Archived version
  4. ^ It's the same for Star Trek! https://startrek.com/en-un/news/living... by @ColonyCreations, Archived version
  5. ^ 「燃え太郎」, Archived version
  6. ^ 侍魂の頃からかっこいいキャラが好きでSNKの格ゲープレイしてきたのに、対戦台の向こう側の負け犬野郎どもからだけじゃなく作り手にまで腐女子と言われてたのか。, Archived version
  7. ^ In 2001 I found an..., Archived version
  8. ^ 格ゲーブーム後期を支えてくれてありがとう腐女子……, Archived version
  9. ^ KOF94が出た頃、友達が行ってた某アニメの専門学校の文化祭に行ったら、猫も杓子も草薙京でしたね。, Archived version
  10. ^ Just as they carried Gundam from the start, Archived version
  11. ^ Osea que los Mexicanos no son los únicos que mantienen vivo a KOF ???, Archived version
  12. ^ Can a gaggle of fawning fujoshis hop on..., Archived version
  13. ^ Open up any issue of Gamest from the time..., Archived version
  14. ^ No se habla suficiente de cuántas franquicias han sobrevivido gracias..., Archived version
  15. ^ الفوجوشي انقذو لعبة كوف لول, Archived version
  16. ^ É SNK, você sabe onde mirar né?, Archived version
  17. ^ Yaoi being the one of the cornerstones of KOF was not something I expected..., Archived version
  18. ^ TIGER & BUNNY + MONSTER IM LOOKING AT YOU!!!!, Archived version
  19. ^ not even a japan thing too!, Archived version
  20. ^ "women spend money, sell to THEM", Archived version
  21. ^ so girlboss of touken ranbu fans when they raised like over 300k usd to restore historical swords, Archived version
  22. ^ same energy with mdzs fans, Archived version
  23. ^ Wasn't the whole Free!! anime created just because..., Archived version
  24. ^ isn’t this what happened with jjk at the start?, Archived version
  25. ^ 『FUJOSHI SALVATION』, Archived version
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