Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja held the Dead or Alive Festival 2019 event on November 23, revealing multiple announcements for the occasion. Most notably that How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift inspired costumes are coming to the game.

But first off, Rachel from Ninja Gaiden is coming back to Dead or Alive 6 in December. As paid DLC, needless to say. Nothing surprising there considering she's a regular to the series. I've always liked Rachel because she's voiced by Michie Tomizawa. It's one of her rarer, newer roles, and she's also coming back as Sumire in Shin Sakura Taisen.

Next, Koei Tecmo will also be adding a costume based on Atelier Ryza in Dead or Alive 6. Again, nothing surprising considering Ryza's popularity and how Koei Tecmo managed to make the most out of it. Koei Tecmo will reveal when the costume is happening at a later date.

Another announcement was the fact that a collaboration character will be joining DOA Xtreme Venus Vacation in the near future. This will be the first crossover character appearing in the game. It'll probably be a popular girl from some recent anime I don't really care about.

Lastly, the most interesting announcement is how Dead or Alive 6 is adding costumes inspired by How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift. It's pretty funny how they're basically sports bras but without the actual function of a sports bra, suppressing breast bouncing.

Food, fitness, and Gyaru are among the three most popular themes in manga these last five years. How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? combines all three and is a surprisingly good manga. Its protagonist, Hibiki, is a Gyaru who tries to slim down but can't because of her eating habits. The manga and its anime adaptation by extension follow Hibiki's antics with her various friends in an actual educational way, teaching the readers how to use gym equipment and the like. It doesn't bet everything on sexual fanservice and has its share of comedy. Last but not least, it has some good male characters too, in the form of Hibiki's coach, who is basically a living Hokuto no Ken reference as he will tear his clothes by flexing his muscles at the slightest occasion. You should definitely check it out. The manga is available at Seven Seas.

Gyaru type of characters is definitely the most popular type of characters in manga nowadays. It's similar to how tsundere characters were extremely popular in the 2000s. The mainstream idea behind Gyaru fashion greatly changed the last decade though. Most manga featuring Gyaru characters simply feature cute girls with some makeup. Instead of girls with heavy makeup or a distinctive look like in the past. Gyaru fashion lost its uniqueness over the years and normalized itself. You can easily see that by comparing the covers girls of Gyaru fashion magazines from 20 years ago and now. While I wasn't particularly fond of Gyaru fashion from back then, it's a shame that such an interesting culture pretty much disappeared.

Dead or Alive 6 recently added Momiji, and Mai and Kula from SNK. the game is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. A Dead or Alive 6: Core Fighters, free-to-play version, is also available.

The trailers for Rachel and the How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? inspired costumes are included below.https://www.youtube.com/embed/DWtvRv77ZEQ?start=30805