'Love and Deepspace' Male Lead VA Exposed for Shrine Visit — Claims He 'Got Lost,' but Players Aren't Buying It After the Mai Kayano Precedent

A single photo from over a decade ago may be enough to doom a popular gacha game's male lead voice actor. Chinese players recently dug up a 2009 blog post from the Japanese VA who voices Li Shen — one of the three main love interests in the otome gacha hit Love and Deepspace — showing him posing at Yasukuni Shrine, a site that honors convicted WWII war criminals and remains one of the most politically charged locations in East Asia. His caption? He claimed he 'got lost and ended up there.' The gaming community is having none of it.

This VA isn't just any voice actor — he also voiced Caesar Zeppeli in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and a character in a Gundam series, making him a familiar name across the anime and gacha fandom. That's exactly why this bombshell is hitting so many fanbases at once — otome gamers and anime fans alike are now grappling with the revelation.

Screenshots of the original blog post and the VA's social media activity have been circulating across forums. One commenter confirmed that the tweets are still findable and match the blog content, essentially corroborating the story. Others noted that the original blog itself seems to have been taken down — only screenshots remain in circulation now.

One key detail: the photo dates back to 2009, making it about 15 years old. The VA wrote in Japanese that he 'got lost and ended up here,' which is likely why this stayed under the radar for so long — many fans initially wrote it off as an innocent detour. But one sharp commenter shot back: 'How good were phone maps back in 2009? Could someone really "accidentally" end up there?' A devastating point that cuts straight through the excuse.

The elephant in the room is the Mai Kayano precedent. When the prominent female VA was exposed for visiting the same shrine, Chinese game developers scrubbed her roles almost universally — domestically developed games replaced her voice lines, and localized foreign games either removed her name or left credits blank. When someone in the thread asked whether any post-controversy games still featured her, the answer was essentially unanimous: 'Basically every game that could swap her out, did.'

One highly upvoted comment put it bluntly: 'GG — the last female VA who took a swim in the 'toilet' already got canceled. This guy's future is pretty much foretold.' The slang term '厕所' (toilet) is Chinese internet culture's deliberately vulgar nickname for Yasukuni Shrine, reflecting the visceral contempt many Chinese netizens feel toward the site. The poster's point was clear: given the precedent, this VA getting replaced feels like a matter of 'when,' not 'if.'

The community isn't entirely unanimous, though. Some players argued that 'it was over a decade ago, honestly this is kind of complicated,' suggesting time might soften the blow. But that take was immediately shut down by a razor-sharp reply: 'Sure, and the Japanese invasion of China was even longer ago — should we just make peace and move on?' That comment racked up likes fast, dragging the debate from 'should we swap a gacha VA' all the way to 'whose historical trauma gets to be negotiable.'

Some players also questioned how much the VA is actually worth keeping around: 'I searched for a while and the only roles I recognize are Caesar and a Gundam character… basically a mid-tier career coasting on seniority.' The implication being clear — losing this guy wouldn't exactly be a crippling blow to the game.

As of now, Love and Deepspace's developer Papergames (叠纸游戏) has not issued any official statement. But judging by how every previous shrine-visiting VA situation has played out in the Chinese gaming industry, the writing seems to be on the wall. The only real question is whether the studio will act proactively or quietly phase the VA out over time. Li Shen's handwritten letters and iconic memes might soon become nothing more than bittersweet memories for his fanbase.

Note: The term '厕所' (toilet) is Chinese internet slang used mockingly to refer to Yasukuni Shrine, reflecting the deep animosity many Chinese netizens feel toward the site.