Girlhood Is Deadly In Cave’s Classic Shooter Deathsmiles

“Cave has been putting out shooters for over 10 years, and when it was time to come up with a new setting, we decided it might be interesting to make use of ‘Western Horror,’ which is probably pretty over-used as a genre,” said illustrator Junya Inoue in a 2010 Siliconera interview. “We designed the game with the idea that somehow these gothic lolita characters would fit comfortably into this macabre puzzle.”

While Lolita fashion has its origins in ‘80s kawaii culture—the term itself stems from an article in a 1987 issue of magazine Ryukou Tsushin—‘gothic lolita’ owes much of its popularity to former Malice Mizer singer Mana. Mana’s post-goth leather corsets, dramatic veils, and lace gowns defied gender norms, and influenced an entire wave of late ‘90s to early aughts couture. Where classical Lolita fashion was often typified by bright pastels, Gothic Lolita was often true to its name with dark blacks, deep purples, and striking make-up. There’s an elegance to Gothic Lolita—a heightened, aristocratic aesthetic that sets it apart from the softer, fluffier kawaii elements found elsewhere in Lolita fashion.

Deathsmiles, then, represents a recapture of this aesthetic by the moe boom of the mid-aughts. The decadent Rococo edge to Gothic Lolita is softened, and enmeshed with character design that feels at home in the era of Lucky Star and Strawberry Marshmallow. But while this could be seen as a softening and ergo weakening, that assumption would betray several decades of explicit in-narrative agency granted to mahou shoujo—magical girls.

This genre was birthed by the transforming heroine of Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight, incubated by Toei’s popular Majokko series in the ‘70s, then immortalized in the ‘80s by anime like Minky Momo and Creamy Mami. Junya Inoue, in fact, did design work on the 1995 arcade brawler for Sailor Moon—perhaps the most recognizable mahou shoujo work to Westerners. Works like these—as well as bigger mainstream Ghibli hits like My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky—are important to bring up in the context of Deathsmiles: young girls smiling and overcoming impossible odds with the aid of magic.

While the stark juxtaposition of cutesy character designs against writhing undead corpses may seem unusual to an average Western player, this sort of empowerment is just a further evolution of an extant phenomenon in the intersecting pantheons of anime, manga, and gaming. Being a cute girl does not deny power and agency in many illustrated and animated works to come out of Japan, so it’s natural for some Japanese games to reflect that.

The potential in Deathsmiles, however, is transgressive on multiple levels in the larger global context of interactive entertainment. For one, Cave redefines hegemonic standards of what audiences have been trained to perceive as “weak” and in need of protection. Each girl in the game is a minor—Rosa is the oldest at 17—and not armed with any sort of body armor. There’s no knight to protect them, no mech suit a la Aleste to hide behind. These literal children disappear under often traumatic circumstances, before being plunged into spiritual warfare with things that should not be.

This is embodied in Casper, perhaps more so than any other character in the game. The pretense for her death is eerie, with details apparently so traumatic she’s blocked them out. A young girl being kidnapped, tortured, then killed in a basement has eerie shades of real-world cases like Junko Furuta or Sylvia Likens. These girls did not get to be whisked to a strange, hellish world, then arrive back to reality with untold power. Casper, then, is both wishful fulfillment and fantasy—a way to feel less helpless and less angry at a fictional injustice.

Deathsmiles is underpinned by a philosophy that softness and vulnerability are assets to strength, not hindrances. This embodies an idea that femininity and girlishness do not have to exist solely to be victimized in the context of fiction. That a child murder victim is as capable of seeking justice for herself as a would-be grizzled father or cop figure. It’s an undeniably fantastical conceit, sure, but one that belies a confidence in young girls so often missing in the medium.

In the remaster of Deathsmiles, the only way to get an achievement for clearing the game with a character is to do it with no continues or difficulty tweaks. Most players won’t be able to do this. But if they’re as hardcore as an 11-year-old girl, they just might be able to pull it off.

Madeline Blondeau has been writing about games since 2010. She’s written for Paste, Anime Herald, Anime News Network, CGM, and Lock-On, among others. In addition, she has written, hosted, and recorded film criticism podcast Cinema Cauldron. Her published fiction debut is due out between 2026 and 2027. You can support her work on Patreon, and find her on BlueSky @mads.haus.