In recent years, the Atelier franchise has become very popular thanks to the various adaptations it has had, either with video games as well as with its anime, being that the “waifus” present in its story have become beloved by fans, which is why today a lot of merchandise is created. But in the last hours, one of these products, more precisely one that recreates Sophie Neuenmuller, became a trend within the community, since it started a great debate on whether the franchise has become too “whimsical”.
This figure of Sophie Neuenmuller from Atelier Sophie started a new debate in the community.
Thanks to the popularity that the Atelier franchise has gained in recent years, we can see all kinds of merchandise that is constantly being created, and the game has been characterized by the large number of “waifus” present in its very varied staff. But this does not seem to have always been the case, since with the release of a new collector’s item, in this case featuring Sophie Neuenmuller, several “veteran” fans of the saga have come out to criticize how the “whimsical” theme has begun to ruin the franchise.
And is that the main argument that fans who have been playing the various installments of Atelier for years is that in the beginning the saga was about showing a beautiful story, but with the division of the development group into two teams things began to change from minor to major. Here one of these would create a game which, although it maintained a fantasy story, ended up being a failure, while the second studio, which focused on giving more “richness” to their titles took off quickly, that is why now the Atelier games would opt to increase this aspect before others.
With this decision, the saga began to make more and more fanservice of all kinds, being that veteran players reached their limit with the release of this new figure, which shows a character which in the saga, with its original version is presented as someone much more innocent. And is that in this figure we see Sophie Neuenmuller changing clothes before putting on a dress, so you can see her lower garments, accompanied in turn with a pose of shame and anger quite “whimsical”, that’s why the players raised their voices.
On the other hand, there are those fans who largely accept the “whimsy” in the Atelier saga, as well as all its variations, such as Atelier Sophie where Sophie herself is the protagonist, being that they see, in addition to a great opportunity to sell much more the brand, aspects beyond. One of these is that they find a small degree of love when creating this content, more precisely in developing cute girls, which may be to the liking of fans.
Finally, they also see this type of product as an object that does not belong directly to the franchise, but as something “extra” created for another audience. Now it remains to be seen how this story will continue within the community of the franchise, since this figure will not be the last to be launched with this theme and the saga with its various installments have many more girls, which may have this type of treatment.
For those who do not know the Atelier saga, this is a set of video games that began in 1997 with the title Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg, released only on PlayStation in Japan and the most recent is the gacha video game Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator that was released in 2024. These games stand out for being mostly RPGs with many alchemy elements, where we will live the story of different protagonists, such as Sophie Neuenmuller herself or Reisalin “Ryza” Stout, who is the most recognized of the franchise.
In addition, in the year 2023 was when the saga reached a new audience thanks to its anime adaptation, which tells us how Ryza started in the world of alchemy, mainly how her love for these practices arose and the path that led her to become an alchemist. Although the anime was also in the news for one aspect that appeared in each chapter, Ryza’s thighs stole most of the scenes, to the delight of her fans.
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