Despite the fact that pop'n music has illustrations that are colorful, lively, and seem to have been made with younger audiences in mind, the game does occasionally contain content that can be more easily noticed by mature audiences. In other situations, certain content is removed, altered, or even censored - this is more often the case for other international versions of pop'n music games.
Religious Content[]
- Aspects of some characters contain religious references or were altered to censor these references.
- Poet is designed as a young feminine angel who bores a halo since her debut in pop'n music 3. Her halo was removed in the North American and European versions of pop'n music's Wii reboot.
- There are also some religious references that relate to demonology or Satanism.
- Jack's birthdate is uniquely written, both in the games and on official websites, as "6/66" (read as June 66th and interpreted as his actual birthday, June 6th). The number usually refers to the "Mark of the Beast", demonic evil, or Satan himself.
- Sattan's name is derived from Satan, and he is likely based on the figure due to frequent appearances of "Demon Lords/Kings" as final bosses in JRPG games.
- Mary and Rave girl's Miss/Lose animations shows them saying "My God" in discontent, but in the Asian English Version, it was changed to "@*#%".
- TENT-KANT's design has its star changed from a six-pointed star to a five-pointed star in pop'n music éclale, avoiding mentions or references about The Star of David, one of the symbols from Jewish heritage.
Sexual Content or Nudity[]
The pop'n music series is no stranger to content that involves sexual imagery, innuendos, or implies something sexual in nature.
- May's Win animation portrays her in very revealing lingerie. Additionally, she is making a risqué motion with her hand towards the offscreen direction.
- In her FEVER! Win animation, she is about as equally as scantily clad.
- Quattro's animations put a noticeable amount of emphasis on her large breasts.
- In the original arcade version of pop'n music 16 PARTY♪, one of her animations shows her juggling a soccer ball using her breasts. In pop'n music portable 2, the animation was altered to where she instead kicks the ball.
- Madoka in general can be perceived as a character aimed at more mature audiences as her basic information and NET Self quotes can be interpreted to be innuendos. Her animations also place emphasis on her figure.
- Additionally, she tends to be viewed as controversial since she is a teacher and is shown to be pursuing Kiryu, a student that’s implied to be in high school years, in both her and his animations, the latter being distressed/agitated by her advancements.
- Madoka's Lose animation implies the presence of nudity of her torso area.
- NAWOMI's FEVER! animation is considered inappropriate by fans, though she is supposed to be a samba dancer at one point.
Drug and Alcohol Use[]
- Some of the adult characters smoke cigars or cigarettes. For example, CHARLY, Hanako, and SMOKE use cigarettes in their animations.
- One of Roku's interests is dry sake, a variant of the Japanese rice wine.
- Shima is a lion who likes awamori, an Okinawan wine. His hobby is listed as getting drunk on the awamori.
Gun Variants[]
A few characters wield guns, not to be confused with the characters who have laser guns.
- CHARLY owns a gun for example.
Profanity[]
- A selected range of characters and/or songs do have some vulgarity in dialogue or lyrics, regardless of which language is present.
- DOLLAR DOLLAR is often regarded as the most obscene original song in the series by the Pop'n Music community due to strong swears such as “fuck” and “shit”.
- This song also contains sexual content in its lyrics; examples being "penis ball" and "get cock".
- DICK and Cock’s names are considered as inappropriate, besides having other definitions.
- pop'n rhythm contained an original and uncensored version of The Fear.
Racially Sensitive Content[]
- There are several instances involving people of darker skin tones, re-colored (or basically white-washed) to be much lighter in tone for alternate palettes or a few promotional images.
- Olivia, a Jamaican, had been unjustly whitewashed in her alternate color palette away from her original.
- Another example of a similar situation with the Polynesian (Hawaiian) character Maruroo who also had her skin color changed to a much lighter tone than her original design, her 2P animation presenting her as a different ethnicity altogether.
Negative Depictions of Plus Sized Individuals[]
- The character, Madam Ragora, is presented as a heavier woman. She's only shown to be be admired or seen as “beautiful” when she is squeezed into being much skinnier than her original appearance in her FEVER! WIN animation, despite the fact that someone being heavier in weight doesn't make someone less beautiful or any less deserving of being admired/loved than those who are not.
- Fat Boy, hence the name, depicts plus sized individuals commonly being symbolized with pigs as people tend to see pigs as either “greedy” or “porky”. This negative stereotype being presented here through the character likely being named like this as mockery towards those that are a heavier weight.
International Concerns[]
- The original version of 千本桜 has been absent from every rhythm game including the pop'n music series in Korean localization, due to lyrics mentioning Japanese imperialism.
- The cover version is weirdly an exception in the GITADORA and pop'n music series.
- The manji (卍) symbol can be seen in a few text-based works. This symbol has been seen as concerning to outsiders, as some confused it as a generic swastika, (reversed manji) often used for the symbolism of hatred.
- For example, ニンジャヒーローシノビアン and 忍びアン子は恋の呪文's genres, NINJA HERO (ニンジャヒーロー?) and NINJA HEROINE (ニンジャヒロイン?) respectively, have their shuriken converted to manjis, if there is text from its visual graphics.
- YOSHIO's debut character introduction do have two manjis next to a pictorial text.
- Unrelated to ninja aesthetics, マスカレード・ア・ゴーゴー is no exception where the manji is placed after "Dropkick ni" (ドロップキックに?).