{"id":69326,"date":"2026-07-08T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=69326"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:39:24","slug":"blue-reflections-all-female-cast-was-actually-a-result-of-budget-restrictions-with-early-plans-for-the-series-involving-male-characters-too-according-to-devs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-reflections-all-female-cast-was-actually-a-result-of-budget-restrictions-with-early-plans-for-the-series-involving-male-characters-too-according-to-devs\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Reflection\u2019s all-female cast was actually a result of budget restrictions, with early plans for the series involving male characters too, according to devs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019re only a few weeks left until the launch of <strong>BLUE REFLECTION Quartet<\/strong>, a special compilation of Koei Tecmo\u2019s magical girl RPG series. The title bundles together revamped versions of all four entries in the Blue Reflection series, including a fully gamified version of the Blue Reflection Ray anime, alongside additional content, features and QoL improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In anticipation of its release, character designer and supervisor Mel Kishida decided to share some tidbits regarding the game\u2019s development, and shed some light on the origin of the \u201cinfamous\u201d male protagonist of Blue Reflection Sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blue Reflection Sun was the fourth and latest installment of the Blue Reflection project, released in Japan in 2023 as a free to play title. However, the game started out on shaky ground and ended up ending services in 2024 without ever coming to the West. It didn\u2019t help that even before release, Sun already faced waves of backlash because it would be the first game in the series to introduce a male protagonist. The game was criticized due to \u201cbreaking\u201d the series\u2019 all-female cast tradition, but as Kishida recently revealed, this was largely a matter of unfortunate timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u71e6\u306e\u30ad\u30e3\u30e9\u30c7\u30b6\u3001\u5e7b\u306e\u307b\u3068\u3093\u3069\u3059\u3050\u5f8c\u306b\u59cb\u307e\u3063\u3066\u308b\u3093\u3067\u3059\u3088\u306d\u3000\u6c17\u304c\u72c2\u3046\u304f\u3089\u3044\u51fa\u308b\u307e\u3067\u304c\u9577\u304b\u3063\u305f\u2026<\/p>&mdash; \u5cb8\u7530\u30e1\u30eb (@mellco) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mellco\/status\/2074124823220113631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 6, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Ray anime and Second Light solidified the series\u2019 \u2018girls only\u2019 worldview, so I feel really bad that Sun, which was supposed to come out right after the original Blue Reflection, ended up coming last due to various circumstances and thus made everyone go \u2018Huh what?\u2019 Order really matters,\u201d Kishida wrote on X. Apparently, he had already started working on the character designs, and this presumably includes the male protagonist as well, as soon as development of the first Blue Reflection game had ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u7d50\u679c\u8ad6\u3068\u3057\u3066\u306e\u826f\u3057\u60aa\u3057\u3068\u306f\u95a2\u4fc2\u306a\u304f\u3001\u5e7b\u3067\u306f\u4e88\u7b97\u306e\u95a2\u4fc2\u3067\u5973\u5b50\u306e\u30e2\u30c7\u30eb\u3057\u304b\u4f5c\u308c\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u306e\u3067\u3001\u3061\u3083\u3093\u3068\u7537\u3082\u5973\u3082\u51fa\u3066\u304f\u308bRPG\u3092\u4f5c\u308a\u305f\u3044\u3068\u3044\u3046\u306e\u304c\u71e6\u306e\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30c8\u3060\u3063\u305f\u3093\u3067\u3059\u3088\u306d\u3000\u3067\u3001\u30d9\u30bf\u306a\u7537\u6027\u4e3b\u4eba\u516c\u306e\u7f8e\u5c11\u5973\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u306e\u5efa\u3066\u4ed8\u3051\u3092\u9078\u629e\u3057\u305f\u308f\u3051\u3067\u3059\u2026<\/p>&mdash; \u5cb8\u7530\u30e1\u30eb (@mellco) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mellco\/status\/2074179952925347928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 6, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Kishida explained in a follow up post, due to budget restrictions, the development team could only afford to make female models for the original Blue Reflection. However, they did aspire to create an RPG with both male and female characters, which is how the concept for Blue Reflection Sun ultimately came about. Having a \u201cstereotypical\u201d male protagonist like in a bishojo game was also a conscious design choice the team made in order to execute this idea. However, since this happened immediately after the original Blue Reflection came out, the series still didn\u2019t have the reputation of having a \u201cgirls only\u201d worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Blue Reflection Sun fits into the overarching narrative of the series, especially since Blue Reflection Quartet is set to tie all of the separate entries into one definitive package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blue-reflection.com\/quartet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">BLUE REFLECTION Quartet<\/a>&nbsp;is&nbsp;scheduled to&nbsp;release&nbsp;on July 30 for&nbsp;PC (Steam),&nbsp;PS5, Nintendo Switch&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nintendo Switch 2.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-reflection-quartet-is-a-weird-game-for-weird-gamers-whose-development-was-kicked-off-with-a-team-wide-fetish-meeting-according-to-mel-kishida-a-culmination-o\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>BLUE REFLECTION Quartet is a \u201cweird game for weird gamers\u201d whose development was kicked off with a \u201cteam-wide fetish meeting,\u201d according to Mel Kishida. A culmination of what Gust wanted to create the most<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent series of X posts, designer Mel Kishida sheds light on the development background of the Blue Reflection series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":69328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-07-08T13:00:40+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mq56g4rum62w","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mq56g4rum62w\",\"cid\":\"bafyreictq4kojplwo3ichmlzzfnhyk4asryfzxhw3kzkugzfm6524d5er4\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreif3iqi7ot7nnbuiabvkbuw6nu7ops5gj3nfeba4ho3y2yvbyrep6q\",\"rev\":\"3mq56g4s4g62w\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-69326","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 v27.8 - 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