{"id":64005,"date":"2026-03-25T15:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64005"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:11:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:11:02","slug":"konami-apologizes-for-mistakenly-aging-up-their-music-games-scantily-clad-sadistic-vampire-whos-canonically-a-middle-schooler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/konami-apologizes-for-mistakenly-aging-up-their-music-games-scantily-clad-sadistic-vampire-whos-canonically-a-middle-schooler\/","title":{"rendered":"Konami apologizes for mistakenly \u201caging up\u201d their music game\u2019s scantily clad sadistic vampire who\u2019s canonically a middle schooler\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese game developer Konami has recently been holding special X follower campaigns to promote <strong>SOUND VOLTEX \u2207<\/strong> (Nabla), the latest entry in their long-running music arcade game series, released in December 2025. This time around, the campaign is centered on Konoha, the blood-thirsty redhead ruler of Volte Academy Middle School, who also got a new costume announced at the BEMANI PRO LEAGUE -SEASON 5- semifinals this month (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/03\/25\/164303.html\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2026\/03\/25\/164303.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, after mistakenly \u201caging up\u201d the character in the video announcement (breaking canon of the franchise), Konami made a public apology, and was met with even more confusion from fans and passers-by alike who, through the announcement found out that the scantily clad sadistic vampiress was canonically (still) a middle-schooler for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new promotional video for Konoha showcases her changing wardrobes from her usual vampire-nurse-inspired outfit to an even more revealing one. Her demeanor becomes more aggressive with the makeover, as she reenacts the sadistic \u201cstomping\u201d motion she does to the player in-game during their run. But despite being a \u201csecond year student\u201d according to the series\u2019 canon, in the video, she introduces herself as \u201cKonoha, 3rd-year student at Volte Academy Middle School,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3010\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\u3011<br>BPLS5 SOUND VOLTEX \u30d5\u30a1\u30a4\u30ca\u30eb\u3067\u306e\u30cd\u30e1\u30b7\u30b9\u30af\u30eb\u30fc\u604b\u5203\u306e\u544a\u77e5\u6620\u50cf\u5185\u306b\u3066\u3001\u300c\u30dc\u30eb\u30c6\u5b66\u5712\u4e2d\u7b49\u90e83\u5e74\u300d\u3068\u306e\u8868\u73fe\u304c\u3042\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u304c\u3001\u6b63\u3057\u304f\u306f\u300c\u30dc\u30eb\u30c6\u5b66\u5712\u4e2d\u7b49\u90e82\u5e74\u300d\u306e\u8aa4\u308a\u3067\u3057\u305f\u3002<br>\u7686\u69d8\u3092\u56f0\u60d1\u3055\u305b\u3066\u3057\u307e\u3044\u3001\u5927\u5909\u7533\u3057\u8a33\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3002<br>\u4eca\u5f8c\u3068\u3082SOUND VOLTEX\u3092\u3088\u308d\u3057\u304f\u304a\u9858\u3044\u3044\u305f\u3057\u307e\u3059\u3002<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SDVX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SDVX<\/a><\/p>&mdash; SOUND VOLTEX STAFF (@SOUNDVOLTEX573) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SOUNDVOLTEX573\/status\/2036344322728271903?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally, this led some fans to believe that she was maybe (finally) promoted to a 3rd year student, however, Konami soon made a public apology on X to clear up that Konoha is still a 2nd year middle school student. The somewhat strange apology took users, especially newcomers and those who didn\u2019t dig too deep into the character\u2019s background, by surprise, due to the obvious dissonance between the character\u2019s appearance and lore. So, while her introduction as a \u201c3rd year middle school student\u201d was already shocking for some, the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mahimahi_73\/status\/2036408218898014471?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">finishing blow<\/a> came with the realization that she is actually younger and that Konami had \u201caged her up\u201d by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/87-year-old-grandma-vtuber-formally-apologizes-for-lying-about-her-age-turns-out-she-was-a-whopping-six-months-younger-than-advertised\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>87-year-old grandma VTuber formally apologizes for \u201clying\u201d about her age. Turns out she was a \u201cwhopping\u201d six months younger than advertised<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Konami made a public apology for mistakenly &#8220;aging-up&#8221; their character Konoha and breaking canon of the arcade music game SOUND VOLTEX \u2207.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":64008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-64005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Konami apologizes for mistakenly \u201caging up\u201d their music game\u2019s scantily clad sadistic vampire who\u2019s canonically a middle schooler\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Konami made a public apology for mistakenly &quot;aging-up&quot; their character Konoha and breaking canon of the arcade music game SOUND VOLTEX \u2207.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/konami-apologizes-for-mistakenly-aging-up-their-music-games-scantily-clad-sadistic-vampire-whos-canonically-a-middle-schooler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Konami apologizes for mistakenly \u201caging up\u201d their music game\u2019s scantily clad sadistic vampire who\u2019s canonically a middle schooler\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Konami made a public apology for mistakenly &quot;aging-up&quot; their character Konoha and breaking canon of the arcade music game SOUND VOLTEX \u2207.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/konami-apologizes-for-mistakenly-aging-up-their-music-games-scantily-clad-sadistic-vampire-whos-canonically-a-middle-schooler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T06:10:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T06:11:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260325-64005-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1041\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Konami apologizes for mistakenly \u201caging up\u201d their music game\u2019s scantily clad sadistic vampire who\u2019s canonically a middle schooler\u00a0 - 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