Recently, several players found that in NetEase's hit game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, when female player characters in the game are taking damage from enemy spells, they would squint their eyes and stick their tongues out, posing with a facial expression that looks awkwardly similar to the suggestive ‘ahegao.’
‘Ahegao’ originated as a Japanese term used in the pornographic industry that describes women's facial expressions during sexual climax, comparable to the term ‘O-face’. This phrase was then popularized by erotic manga and internet models, and become a term for a very specific suggestive facial expression.
Since the male characters would just close their eyes and bend back, some players started to question if this female animation is an inappropriate Easter egg.
Developer NetEase denied this being intentional and claims these animations are probably due to a weird glitch that causes characters’ tongues to clip through their chin. Developers soon fixed the problem and sent out compensation for all players. In their statement, NetEase also called for players not to read overmuch into the bug.
NetEase’s official statement apologizing for the glitch and offering players compensation
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is one of the most successful mobile games this year, grossing over 1 Billion RMB in a single month in the Chinese market alone. The game has been praised for its beautiful character design and art style, and despite the lack of official statistics, much third-party analysis suggests more than half of its active players are female. From what we see right now, many players are not happy about the situation and are requesting a refund.
Source:
https://weibo.com/3114998531/L1tZgA1co?refer_flag=1001030103d_