Enigma of Sepia is a new anime-style mobile RPG all about making gacha rolls to collect your favorite anime waifus. These types of games are a dime a dozen, but what makes this one different is that seemingly all the girls are gender-swapped versions of guys from some of the most popular manga and anime out there, including the likes of One Piece, Demon Slayer, and My Hero Academia.
None of these characters appear to actually be licensed, but the likenesses are not at all subtle. The cinematic trailer features a green-haired girl clearly meant to evoke Deku from My Hero Academia and a scarred, sword-wielding heroine with a much skimpier version of Tanjiro's outfit from Demon Slayer. The female Luffy that emblazons the game's splash art is perhaps even more brazen.
Digging through character trailers and the game's Twitter presence, the list just keeps on going and going. There's Denise, the chainsaw woman, who appears to have been separated at birth from Denji, the Chainsaw Man. There's Rora Zorana, the green-haired swordswoman putting out the exact same vibes as One Piece's Roronoa Zoro. And then there's Satoria, this game's take on Jujutsu Kaisen's Satoru Gojo.
Every single character in this game appears to be a direct rip-off of some anime boy or another, and the hits just keep hitting. We've got representation from Naruto - particularly appropriate since we're just hitting sexy jutsu on all these characters - as well as Death note, Dr. Stone, and Attack on Titan. The ones that have me most flabbergasted, though, are Ivy Linn, a Shinji Ikari stand-in who's just straight-up wearing Evangelion Unit-01 as a hat, and Chronis, the Jotaro Kujo lookalike who's even accompanied by a stand. Not a gender-swapped stand or anything, as that's just Star Platinum.
Anti-Sépia Alliance Memeber Profile No.4: Chronis"Humans rely on brute force to win; being gentle won't cut it.""Evil is who exploits and oppresses the weak for selfish reasons!"#Enigmaofsepia #EOS #Chronis pic.twitter.com/zmW7uwmtMcJanuary 14, 2025
Enigma of Sepia is set to hit iPhone and Android in February, assuming none of the numerous Japanese IP holders whose characters are being, uh, referenced here take exception to the whole thing.
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