Well, it was bound to happen. In the time of COVID19, not only is the truth being hidden from the public but now anime is being attacked. It is sad that politics have become so huge in movies, in video games but please not anime.
Out of all things, no one ever really thought that anime would get touched by American politics but I guess, as Thanos said, “it is inevitable.” However, there is a reason why this is happening. You see, anime is no longer a sub culture or a niche of entertainment in America.
Anime and manga have been winning in American entertainment for a long time and guess what, some people don’t like it. There are adult fans of anime like my self that are in their 30’s or 40’s and heck even in their 50s. There is a reason why anime attracts so many people of all ages. There is a reason why so many people are abandoning American and western comics and migration towards anime and manga entertainment.
Manga Outsells Comic Books
Manga sales versus American Comic Sales. Click to zoom in
The comic book industry was already suffering for more than a decade. Comic book shops were closing all over America as comic book shop owners could no longer profit from comic book sales. As comic book shops closed and comics book became corrupted by American leftist politics, many geeks and nerds like you and me started to look elsewhere for some good stories.
Anime and manga were the answer.
I recommend that you read the article on Why Comic Book Shops Are Closing.
Anime and manga have always been popular. The problem was that for the longest time the supply was limited do to the avenues in which it was deliver. In the 1990s and 2000s it was expensive to be an anime fan, however, now with the internet and services like Netflix and Crunchy Roll, there is an unlimited supply. Also there are more anime conventions now more than ever before.
As comic books inundated with political leftist propaganda, many people moved towards anime because it was the only form of media that had not been corrupted yet. Because anime sales have beaten that of comic books in the west, many western companies felt threatened and wanted to do something about it. Thanks to companies like Viz Media bringing more manga to America, manga outsold American comic books. After Tokyo Pop shut their North American Division, there was a decrease in the amount of manga that was printed.
It wasn’t that the manga industry was dying, it was just the American region of Tokyo Pop that was closing for various reasons and they were only focusing on the most popular manga in the country. This happened back in 2011.
America Has Been Trying To Censor Anime and Manga For A Long Time
We all know that the American version of an anime always sucks and the Japanese version is always better. Personally, I was lucky enough to have a friend that would buy Anime DVD’s online and get it shipped from Japan. Therefore I watched Naruto way before it came to America.
Yugi-Oh cards were censored greatly. The Summoned Skull was originally called the Demon’s Summon. Sanji from One Piece originally smoked a cigarette but in Kids WB it was changed to a lolly pop. Many of the bloody scenes in Dragon Ball Z were censored. Blood in Inuyasha was censored and changed to a different color.
The list goes on. You have to remember that America was founded with judeo christian values. So there were things that parents did not want their kids to see. However, now they are trying to censor every bit of anime to the point where manga creators are worried about their creative freedom.
There are terms that are being censored such as the word, “slavery” because of America’s history. The way anime girls look is being censored. They don’t want anime girls to have big boobs because the character looks too young (under age) when really they are not. Its just more excuses to censor and control Anime and manga.
In 2019 there was the #bandragonball going around Twitter. They were saying that Dragon Ball Z was misogynist when in reality it had so much girl power with characters such as Bulma and Android 18.
Many anime series are being labeled as hateful towards women, why? Who knows. It wasn’t until now that they were labeled and it wasn’t until now that these anime were a problem. Now in the age of the internet.
America has been trying to censor anime and manga for the longest time. Because the Japanese have so much creative freedom, anime is very adventurous and daring. There are certain things, that the American public is not used to seeing. However, now it is being censored to the point where manga artist feel as though they are being restricted from drawing and they might even have to change the story of a manga because some American people might get offended. That sounds ridiculous. As if American comic book artist and movie makers have not been creating similar works such as Hell Boy, Spawn and other works of art.
What Will Manga Artist Do?
Source of information
This could cause the supply of anime and manga to go back to how things were in the early 2000s and the 1990s. When the Japanese would only translate and give us a few titles that were doing well in Japan. It would cause a decrease in the print of manga in North American, which means that Viz Media might do the same thing that Tokyo Pop did and close their doors.
Some titles might not make it to North America (but Europe has no problem, especially Germany). They might give us some titles but most likely we will get the shitty titles of manga to the USA.
With censorship comes slavery. Instead of rating the manga for either adults or children, they want to censor it completely because American media companies suck now a days and instead of allowing people to have more creative freedom they want to control it.
What you have to understand as well is that since manga has become so huge in America (YUGE!! as Trump would say) it cannot be ignore and it is beginning to over shadow more other works and how could it not. American comics are filled with political propaganda, animation companies are lazy and don’t do hand drawn animation anymore and video games have also been corrupted like The Last of Us Part 2 and its horrible story telling.
Here is another example of female censorship. Better be careful. She is way too sexy dudes.
Lets face it, now a days western people get easily offended over everything. Westerners are so sensitive as oppose to Asians and Japanese who have thicker skin when it comes to what is seen on the screen.
From the link source, the manga creator of Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu, said the following about freedom of expression in manga
“First and foremost, freedom of expression. Compared to other countries, Japan’s forte is its freedom of creativity. However, with foreign platforms becoming more and more dominant, I would like to avoid a situation where Japanese works are regulated by foreign standards.’”
In other words, “we need to avoid being dominated by these western platforms, otherwise we are going to lose our creative freedom.”
If this censorship continues, then some Japanese manga wont make it to the USA and everyone is going to have to go online to find what they want. So certain manga you won’t be able to find at Barnes and Nobles and heck not even on Amazon.com
