Hi Jody,

I’m aware that Kapp’n is a kappa. He is also male. He refers to himself with he/him/his pronouns, and as I showed in one of the screenshots, even goes as far as to call himself a “man”. The creators have humanized all of the animals in the game, and Kappa is no exception. The pool of water on Kapp’n’s head is actually a good example of this. We know it’s the signature pool of water, because his young daughter has one too. However, his wife and mother do not and his daughter is self-conscious about hers, which continues the bald spot comparison. The point is that, while it’s not a bald spot, other animals think it is and mock them accordingly.

But that’s not really the issue here, anyway. The issue is, yes, Japanese children, and children from other countries for that matter, are mostly not unnerved by Kapp’n’s behavior. That’s the entire point I’m trying to make. They SHOULD be freaked out by this adult character telling them their hair smells nice and asking them about their love life, but they aren’t, because this behavior is so normalized both in media and in real life. It also goes a step further than even the original Kappa myth, because Kappa are generally considered fearsome monsters, whereas Kapp’n is framed as a lovable goof. You expect a monster to do monstrous things ranging from looking up a woman’s kimono to straight-up rape. Meanwhile, Kapp’n’s “lascivious” behavior is painted as endearing, or at worst, a bit uncouth but ultimately harmless. The game goes out of its way not to reference the more monstrous things Kappas do. You never see Kapp’n reference drowning horses or eating human flesh, so why does accuracy suddenly matter when it comes to hitting on young women? It’s the same as people crying “historical accuracy!” when it comes to a piece of media’s frequent rape scenes, but not about the women’s strangely hairless armpits or perfect sparkly eye shadow.

The whole point I’m trying to make here is that all of this stuff feeds into each other. Kapp’n’s frequent come-ons are not only a product of our culture, but get young girls accustomed to the behavior, so that when, say, a man on the bus tells them their hair makes them smell like an angel, they won’t see a problem with it. They might be led to think it’s just the natural order of things, which in turn empowers the creepy guy to keep doing what he’s doing, and the cycle of sexual harassment continues. We need to call this stuff out when we see it, to nip this thing in the bud before it can even get a chance to grow. And saying boys will be boys, or in your case, kappas will be kappas, will never get us there.

Hope that helps.