The EN version of Azur Lane will let you choose whether or not to keep Ai Kayano as a voice in the game, despite controversy currently surrounding the voice actor.

While the international players will still have access to the new voice of Graf Zeppelin, one Azur Lane player on reddit has noted that there’s actually a switch button, letting you choose Ai Kayano instead for the character.

Sadly, as many fans have pointed out, it’s unlikely to mean that Ai Kayano would be coming back to voice the ship girl- this seems more of a case of them not throwing out the voice files they already have, with Yumi Uchiyana taking over the role going forward while also being locked to Uchiyana for the Chinese release of the game.

This is similar to how Genshin Impact handled their censored designs for key characters, wherein the censored design is the new “main look”, appearing in promotional materials, though international audiences could still opt-in for the old look if they so desired.

Ai Kayano has been in hot water following a faux pas wherein she visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Japan, offending Chinese audiences and prompting her removal from many games published in the country.

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Azur Lane

Publisher: Yostar Inc

Release Date: 2017-05-25

Android, iOS

An ideal Naval Warfare game like you always imagined！ ・A unique mix of RPG, 2D shooter and tactical genres combined in a beautifully designed anime game ・Easy and intuitive gameplay, built on the concept of 2D side-scroller, is the main feature of Azur Lane ・Organize up to six ships into flotilla, break through enemy gunfire and defeat them! ・Both AI and manually controlled battles are available, choose whatever you like! ・Build your own fleet. Azur Lane has a wide range of warships from all over the world. ・More than 300 ships, each with its unique stats and represented by a beautiful character! ・Live2D interaction technology is available for selected characters