Yostar Korea Removes Arknights 4.0 Illustrations After Feminist Allegations Against Artist, Twitter Erupts

A single tweet from 2018 International Women's Day has, six years later, ignited a firestorm across the Korean Arknights community — Yostar Korea scrambled to pull illustrations, and Twitter's comment section instantly became a battlefield.

The controversy began when Yostar Korea removed two illustrations from their YouTube channel and Rhodes Focus 4.0. The official Korean statement announced that after investigation, the illustrator was found to have 'multiple remarks that could incite division and conflict among users,' prompting their removal.

The deleted artworks were these two illustrations from Rhodes Focus 4.0.

The core dispute is this: the primary 'evidence' used against the illustrator was her posts from the 2018 International Women's Day advocating for equal pay regardless of gender. Those supporting the removal argue the illustrator made other inflammatory statements; opponents question how celebrating Women's Day and calling for equal pay could possibly constitute 'inciting division and conflict among users.'

Some commenters spent considerable time digging through Twitter to find the original posts and translate them.

Additionally, a Chinese-language announcement was seized upon as ammunition in the debate — the original poster joked that seeing Chinese characters suddenly pop up in a sea of Korean Hangul felt oddly comforting.

The opposing side brought forward different screenshots as evidence, attempting to prove the illustrator's statements went far beyond simple Women's Day greetings.

The NGA comment section was equally lively. The top commenter hit the nail on the head: 'Don't worry, Yostar will screw everyone over equally.' — though a reply quickly pointed out that the overseas version is operated by Yostar, not Hypergryph, so not everything should be blamed on the developer.

More level-headed commenters suggested 'the gender divide in South Korea is particularly sharp, no need to be someone else's pawn' and 'maybe hold off on picking sides — surely there must be more to the story than just celebrating Women's Day.' One user offered a different angle entirely: 'Yostar seems to have removed it because the artist made remarks about North Korea — that's an absolute political red line in South Korea,' which, if true, would make Yostar's decision more understandable.

Another commenter corroborated this, saying they checked the Arknights forum and 'it seems mainly because it touched on the inter-Korean peninsula issue, so Yostar distanced themselves.' But a sharp-eyed reply noted that nobody in the official comments section was even mentioning the North Korea angle — 'Of course they wouldn't mention it, then they couldn't keep fighting about feminism.'

One commenter sighed, 'Is this the test server? I feel like this kind of irreconcilable division is coming to China too,' and attached a screenshot showing that the original post itself mentioned the North Korea-related statements as key context.

One user even shared screenshots showing that people on the Korean side were already attempting to rehabilitate a previously banned controversial figure, suggesting the situation was far more complex than it appeared on the surface.

The whole situation continues to simmer. The Korean Twitter comment section remains a warzone between opposing factions, while most NGA onlookers have adopted a spectator's stance — as one commenter put it: 'South Korea has its own national circumstances, let Yostar figure it out.' As for the truth of the matter? Perhaps only the people directly involved truly know.