Dekudog

Synonyms:	Deku Dog, Dog Deku
See also:	Original Character, Filing Off the Serial Numbers, Kinsona, Furry, Sona
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A Dekudog is a fan character that takes the attributes of a canon character and implements them heavily into the design of the fan character. It may be similar to a kinsona, though dekudog usually comes with more negative connotations than kinsona. While a kinsona is made with kinning in mind, a dekudog does not have to be a kinsona, though a dekudog can still double as a kinsona. "Dekudog" is used negatively and often as an insult.

A dekudog is when a famous character's design of a franchise (Pikachu, naruto etc..) is copy pasted in a design and called an "original character". The term come from a character name, deku from my hero academia and the word dog cus he was a lot ripped off into a dog, other characters too of the same franchise. Some people tried or scammed with dekudogs in cs too, from pokemon to overwatch

Anonymous, Nov 1, 2020

History

Turning canon characters into furries and implementing pieces of canon characters into original characters is an old practice amid fandoms, such as with Pokemon Gijinkas starting circa 2007. On Furaffinity, though not called "dekudogs," some furries in 2009 would draw Link from Legend of Zelda as canines.

"Dekudog" would only crop up in the 2010s, alongside My Hero Academia. Kinsona predates the term dekudog by roughly three years, with the earliest usage of kinsona seen in a piece of Furaffinity art from July 2014 that was tagged with "kinsona." Art of dogs that look like Deku, and which are tagged as dekudog, date back to Oct 2017 on DeviantART at the earliest. On Twitter, one of the earliest pieces of art to be tagged as dekudog is from Nov 2017, and it also features a "Bakudog." The word dekudog was acknowledged officially by the official AnimangaUSA Twitter in 2019.

ToyHouse's Influence on Negative Usage

Dekudog changing from a lighthearted My Hero Academia design type and meme, to a phrase used as an insult within the original species and ToyHouse community, likely started with discussions within the ToyHouse suggestions forum in 2019, which would lead to an update in ToyHouse's rules. User Jayden said:

I understand that the rules are very clear, but perhaps just adding a section about "Kin/RP Characters/Muses" would be a good idea? Since I've found mentioning the rules to people that do this is met with hostility and "It says nothing about Kins!" Alternatively, banning all kin characters. Unless of course they’re original works. Most of the time they’re just reuploaded anime or video game characters.

Jayden, March 6, 2019

While this thread didn't mention "dekudog" by name, it referred to kinsonas, which is often used interchangeably by artists. After this thread, another more official admin feedback thread would be opened just six days later on Mar 12, 2019, which had many more comments and ended with 31 pages. The first mention of Deku on this admin thread comes from page 3, and this would cause more comments to reference dekudogs directly in the pages following.

+ 1 banning furry anime characters.

Please put all the furry Deku’s out of their misery...

It is theft. And nothing stops people stealing the designs since they are so blatantly uncreative.

Ezreal, Fandom/Kins Rules Update Feedback Box, page 3

Canon Character redesigns/Dekudogs - +1, delete them. It just complicates things when it comes to trading/selling and it's again frustrating to see them popping up all over with increasing frequency.

eldritchbooky, Fandom/Kins Rules Update Feedback Box, page 4

Agree with banning uploads of cannon characters taking cannon images

Not for derivatives since its such a grey area. Honestly people who turn characters i to furries or dogs only do it with popular media not other peoples ocs. Right now everyone seems to be upset about BNHA dogs (the deku dogs) because its really popular. Honestly once the next popular thing pops up people will move on

People with these fan dogs also dont only have those characters they have original characters too. Its honestly not hurting anyone. It really doesnt hurt the creator of such a huge series if some people are making dogs of their characters. Just let people have their fun honestly.

No one claims to own these characters and will generally always say they are inspired by so and so.

They do own the design they make which can be unique in itself. Yeah some are not unique but to go and try to police all of this would feel so limiting. Like where would you draw the line ? Every dog with green hair is deku ? How would you know unless they are named that. If they have an outfit based off the character they would be banned ?? If they have the same name as a cannon character and similar colors or hair they will be banned ?? Honestly ive seen some human characters pretty similar to cannon characters and with similar outfits to cannon characters.

Nuka-Cola, Fandom/Kins Rules Update Feedback Box, page 10

On March 20, 2019 ToyHouse would then update its rules to disallow designs that were too closely aligned with canon character designs who they believed were "AU" versions of canon characters, but said it would not monitor visual similarities alone. This would spur ToyHouse and original species drama blogs on Tumblr to begin receiving anonymous messages focused on the disdain for dekudogs. Though ToyHouse rules do allow fan characters (such as Pokemon characters), and characters with visual similarities to canon characters (as long as they have a different history/personality), many drama blogs still focus largely on canon character visual similarities when deciding whether they dislike a character or not. An anonymous source stated that, after this new rule was added, a since deleted drama blog (which later was replaced by thdramas) began discussing dekudogs and allowed for the harassment of their owners. They said:

The thread you see now isn't even the full debate. People have since had their comments deleted or accounts banned. It eventually stopped being a discussion and more so was a debate. The term dekudog was then brought up on a popular Toyhouse drama blog at the time. Said blog was rude, allowed for stalking and harassment, and overall was just a cesspool. The current drama blog is tame by comparison. Dekudog became the term because at the time of March 2019, Deku being turned into a dog was all over the front page of TH. So kinsonas = dekudogs just became a common name for them. People who make kinsonas actually sometimes use dekudog interchangeably for the kinsonas that are completely unoriginal and made in bad taste.

Anonymous, Apr 2022

Some negative associations can be seen on Twitter starting in 2020 as well.

Opinion and Commentary

Besides designs that are too akin to canon characters being disallowed on ToyHouse, another reason that dekudogs may have such negative connotations within the ToyHouse and original species communities are due to these communities being centered around the selling and trade of designs. Some artists may see the selling of characters based on canon characters to be stealing. Others have made comments about feeling "scammed" into buying designs that they had no idea were dekudogs, thus feeling as if they had bought a stolen design rather than an original one. Frequent users of closed species and ToyHouse drama blogs often send anonymous messages about reporting dekudog characters to get them taken off ToyHouse.

Though dekudogs are often discussed in a negative light, some artists still see them as fun, harmless ways to show one's love of a character, or to express one's fictionkin character. Those in favor of dekudogs often cite that many artists who use them do not actually claim to own the canon characters they are based on, instead seeing dekudogs like any other form of fan content. Others believe that, while dekudogs may include content that could possible be infringement, that so long as dekudog designs aren't being sold or traded under the guise of being original that they are otherwise harmless.

The opinions on dekudogs may also differ between communities and websites. For example, while dekudog discourse is common on ToyHouse and drama blogs on Tumblr, popular closed species artists such as Griffsnuff from DeviantART make dekudogs and get little backlash, such as with their Feb 2022 dekudog of Sans. There is little to no meta on DeviantART discussing dekudogs. However, searching for dekudog on Tumblr brings up many results, most of them related to ToyHouse or original species discourse. A few opinions from the dekudog Tumblr tag are below.

im making a canon inspired character or “dekudog” (not on deku. but thats what angry fit throwing people on toyhouse calls them who love to report them) i think making furries or whatever based on characters is cute. ive only really done it for commissions but im doing a personal one for myself. ill share it here since i cant on toyhouse

cowboydan, Mar 2022

I wish people on cs are as violent towards dekudogs as they are on TH. im tired of people making "uwu dream but a furry" as their fursona like it's something cute and fun. uhm. no it ain't. that's called character theft.

Anonymous, Mar 2021

i think kinsonas/dekudogs are fine, just not uploaded to toyhouse on public/logged in viewing settings since it is against the rules there. if someone wants to rp as a canon character or something on chickemsmoothie, go for it [bit weird if its a real person/influencer or someone elses oc though]

Anonymous, Jul 2021

Gallery

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  Dekudog of Deku by hopsaddedhusky

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  Dekudog of Kazuha from Genshin Impact by corvidcalling

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  Dekudog of Caliborn from Homestuck by innocenceTM, owned by TURNIN