Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: June 7th, 2021
During a recent interview, Ken Akamatsu (Negima!, Love Hina) spoke about the Western push to force political correctness into the manga industry in Japan and its potential negative repercussions. The interview was conducted during the Manga Artist Mirari Conference, an online event conducted last December where manga creators discussed the state of the industry and its future.
Akamatsu was asked about “manga and the overseas market” and responded with “In short, it’s politically correct.”
Here are a few quotes from the interview:
Political correctness. External pressure is coming, such as [the pressure to] ‘introduce political correctness into manga and movies… That’s dangerous, isn’t it?
So far, when Japanese manga is at the stage of looking at the world, there is a pressure on the scene to meet more global standards.
I’d like to have the manga artists unify their opinions to some extent as to whether such things are ‘correct or not… However, when the sales of works that have become globalized and have no sharp edges are good, they end up saying, ‘Oh, [political correctness] might be good.
…if you don’t go abroad, [the political correctness] problem isn’t a battle at all…
Akamatsu later talked about the subject from the perspective of artistic integrity vs. general appeal:
The one that hits may go to Hollywood, [but], it is better to have freedom of expression.
Manga is mainly about freedom of expression, and it feels like you don’t give in to political correctness… Is it a loss if the politically correct works get overwhelming power? I wonder if that means.
Takuma Kobayashi, co-panelist and representative director of publishing house Number Nine, also made a few remarks on the subject:
Regardless of the company, I think that ‘freedom of expression’ should be respected in my personal opinion.
I don’t think [a series] will sell that much when it comes to selling [itself as politically correct].
The point is, ‘Manga that was released without being conscious of political correctness cannot be read due to the political correctness problem… I think this is a mess. Like [a fire].
Kobayashi later commented on the current state of political correctness and what to expect, providing hopeful but careful words about the future:
…even if there is entertainment that goes against political correctness, it would be different if this (current idea of ??political correctness) remains the same 10 years later, 20 years later, 30 years later, and so on.
It wasn’t even five years ago. I was told recently… The possibility that this will become the standard for the future is not zero, but it may change again.
That’s why I think it’s important not to win or lose in the short term, but to always create something that you can be proud of as entertainment.
*English transcripts are provided by machine translation.
Source: Logmi, Bounding Into Comics and Negima! Magister Negi Magi Volume 17 Cover