Imagineer has announced that Raoh will be joining Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star as a boss and instructor character. To commemorate the news, a giveaway campaign was launched on the game’s official Twitter account, but shortly after, the account was mysteriously suspended.

Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star is an upcoming boxing exercise game that features characters from Fist of the North Star. It is a spin-off of the Fitness Boxing series for the Nintendo Switch, the first installment of which was released in 2018. Players grip a Joy-Con in each hand and exercise in time with the rhythm while following the directions of an instructor. The game contains a variety of different training regimens that have different objectives, like weight-loss or endurance training. The series has been incredibly popular, so much so that it even received an anime adaption that aired from October to December 2021.

Fist of the North Star is a manga series written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by violence and follows the battles of protagonist Kenshiro, the successor of the Hokuto Shinken martial art. Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star’s newly announced addition, Raoh, is one of the major characters in the series and is very popular among fans, so the news was no doubt met with great joy.

To commemorate his addition, the game’s official Twitter account launched a giveaway campaign. By following the account and retweeting the campaign tweet, Twitter users were given the chance to win a 1,000-yen (around $6.80) Nintendo eShop gift card or a face towel featuring an original design of Raoh. However, shortly after the campaign began, the Twitter account was suspended.

Some users wondered if the design of Raoh featured on the towel (seen below and taken from the official site) could have been the reason for the suspension.

The special towel design shows Raoh wearing a wrestling singlet that shows off his chiseled muscles and bulky thighs. It does a great job of accentuating Raoh’s magnificent physique.

Some thought it possible that Twitter deemed the design to be sexual in nature and that it was the reason for the suspension. Twitter’s Sensitive Media Policy defines adult content in the following manner:

Adult content

Adult content is any consensually produced and distributed media that is pornographic or intended to cause sexual arousal. Some examples include, but are not limited to, depictions of:

– full or partial nudity, including close-ups of genitals, buttocks, or breasts (excluding content related to breastfeeding);

– simulated sexual acts; and

– sexual intercourse or other sexual acts – this also applies to cartoons, hentai, or anime involving humans or depictions of animals with human-like features.

Note: exceptions may be made for artistic, medical, health, or educational content.

To post content of this nature, users are required to properly set it as “sensitive content.” This is done so that underage users or users who do not wish to see that kind of content are not exposed to it.

However, there’s very little chance that the design of Raoh in his singlet was intended to cause sexual arousal. It’s far more likely that the design is meant to make him look like an instructor in order to match the game’s setting. Furthermore, Raoh has often appeared in the manga and other adaptions without any clothing on his upper body at all, though this may be the first design to place so much focus on his groin area. That being said, there are other games that feature characters with a similar or even greater bulge in that region.

As an example, take Street Fighter’s Zangief. He shows a lot more skin than Raoh and the bulge of his crotch is on full display. Yet the official Twitter account for the Street Fighter series was not suspended for the tweet seen below that was posted in August. There’s more than a good chance that Raoh’s design was not the cause behind the account’s suspension.

㊗今日はザンギエフ役三宅健太さん(@miyake_ktrm)の誕生日です。誕生日おめでとうございます！🎉#三宅健太さん #ザンギエフ #SFVCE #SF35th #SF35周年 #ストリートファイター35周年 pic.twitter.com/ljfoRkjO9L
— ストリートファイター / STREET FIGHTER (@StreetFighterJA) August 22, 2022

Imagineer, the developers of Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star, have reported that they are currently in the process of finding out the reason for the suspension. Once they get confirmation, they will release an update on how they plan to move forward.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-10-28 10:49 JST)