Breaking Down the Subtle Themes of Lollipop Chainsaw (Really)

 

 

Believe it or not, Grantland has decided to have me back for a second column. This time, I’m breaking down the gender role examination of Suda51 and James Gunn’s Lollipop Chainsaw, and its function as both exploitation and commentary.

It might seem like I’m reading a whole lot into a pretty simple concept, but as I mention in the article, sexuality and gender roles are a recurring theme in Suda51’s work. No More Heroes for example may look like a game about a guy with a lightsaber doing suplexes on enemy assassins (which is, after all, why I bought it), but it’s also about a guy who lives in a video game trying to prove his worth as a sexual being through violence. There’s a lot going on, and LPC follows naturally from that point with an awful lot of symbolism. Gunn’s English translation even gives Juliet and her sisters Shakespearean names, and if there’s a more obvious code for “pay attention to this” in the Writer’s Handbook, I haven’t found it.

Enjoy!