D4DJ has announced the series first canonical lesbians as part of the game’s 2nd anniversary, after two years of only leaving that kind of stuff to subtext.
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📢新ユニットが2周年ストーリーから登場決定!
\海原ミチル(CV. #小岩井ことり)
一星ルミナ(CV. #高橋花林 )
四ノ宮心愛(CV. #由良朱合 )
天堂はやて(CV. #天麻ゆうき )いったいどんなユニットになるのか
今後のストーリーをお楽しみに👀#D4DJ pic.twitter.com/SSUTFLq7Uj— D4DJ Groovy Mix( #グルミク )公式 (@D4DJ_gm) October 11, 2022
On the D4DJ website, the game introduced a new unit coming soon- and while they haven’t mentioned their names they were quick to reveal that to of the members, Shinomiya Kokoa and Tendo Hayate, were in a relationship.
“In junior high school, she formed a two-person unit with [Hayate], and their relationship has now progressed further and they are now in a relationship”, Kokoa’s profile reads, with Hayate’s also mentioning the two are in a relationship.
Games like D4DJ have typically always suffered from a phenomenon known as queerbaiting- the idea that characters would have a lot of implied romantic tension between them, though the series itself would never outright confirm or deny.
You see this a lot in characters like D4DJ’s own Aoi and Tsubame- whom their own dynamic is written around some adoration for each other, but the stories always stop short of ever saying it outright, leaving it to the fans to carry them the last mile.
“Now I can defend D4DJ from anyone who says rhythm games are queerbait and fanservice“, writes one aptly-named Lesbiyanism on Twitter.
Considering the delay in events between D4DJ’s Japanese version and International release, we’ll have to wait until the lesbians are announced for D4DJ Global to see if they don’t back down claiming it’s a translation error.