Mangaka Ken Akamatsu, perhaps best known as the mangaka behind the extremely popular Love Hina series, recently shared his concerns regarding the rising pressure from Western markets to “introduce political correctness” into manga and the possible negative effects such a push could have for creators and fans across the medium.

A vocal and outspoken anti-censorship critic in his own right, Akamatsu broached the subject of ‘political correctness’ during the opening panel of the recent Manga Artist Mirari Conference, an online event held last December wherein various manga creators were invited to discuss their thoughts on the current state of the industry and their outlooks on the future.

According to a machine translation of Logmi’s transcript of the panel, when asked for his thoughts on “manga and the overseas market,” Akamatsu laughed and responded, “In short, it’s politically correct.”

“Political correctness. External pressure is coming, such as [the pressure to] ‘introduce political correctness into manga and movies,’” the mangaka added. “That’s dangerous, isn’t it?”

Akamatsu then explained, “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,’” he continued. “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.’”

The veteran mangaka’s sentiments were echoed by co-panelist Takuma Kobayashi, the Representative Director of publishing house Number Nine Co. Ltd., who similarly opined, “Regardless of the company, I think that ‘freedom of expression’ should be respected in my personal opinion.”

Akamatsu later remarked, “if you don’t go abroad, [the political correctness] problem isn’t a battle at all,” which prompted Kobayashi to share his “personal idea” that “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,’” said Kobayashi. “I think this is a mess. Like [a fire].”

Recalling how he had “heard that the excitement of Hollywood movies is generally decided by script doctors and scenario doctors,” Akamatsu joked, “from now on, I’d like to release various blacks and whites with political correctness in mind.”

“It may be the same no matter what you look at, like ‘Avengers,’” conceded Akamatsu. “I don’t know, but after all it’s a hit.”

In turning to the debate of ‘mass appeal’ vs ‘artistic authenticity’, Akamatsu observed, “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,” noted Akamatsu, before questioning, “Is it a loss if the politically correct works get overwhelming power? I wonder if that means.”

However, Kobayashi reassured Akamatsu “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,” Kobayashi said. “The possibility that this will become the standard for the future is not zero, but it may change again.”

He concluded, “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.”

A good story will have visuals that are meaningful and typically are contextualized in the story. But let's be honest a lot of mangas (not just japanese) like to use imagery that isn't meaningful or contextualized in the story. Take Midnight from MHA, yeah she has a quirk that is released from her skin, so she is covered up. Why the hell is she dressed like a dominatrix? Odds are the reason is because "sex sells". Dont even get me started on why Momo (underaged) needs to have her boobs exposed (like Midnight she needs her skin exposed to make use of her quirk) when her arms and legs are already exposed.

Don't get me wrong someone could say the same thing about violence but it's way easier to justify violence in a story with kids, than sexuality...without making people very uncomfortable. Make the setting a war or a fight club, done.

Sexuality is low hanging fruit, but this extends to stories that want their setting to take place in say the Middle East, Africa (Egypt), or basically where you will find brown/black people, but have most of the cast be fair skinned if not white. Yeah, I would really like an author to justify why the choice of having an MC (who is supposed to be indigenous to that location) be fair skinned even though historically they should be brown (if not darker).

Point is that people want characters that feel meaningful and holistic.

However if you choose to sexually objectify any character (male or female), hopefully there is a meaningful reason beyond..."sex sells".

I want to say that even if a character is sexually objectified, that doesn't mean that their sexuality is all that there is to them. If there is more to a character than their sexuality, or if their sexuality doesn't really enhance their development as a character...why objectify them in the first place?

age demographic

choice in how violence is depicted, or moral themes presented in the story.

Having a festival about sexuality, isn't objectifying a person (let along someone underage)

it's celebrating the human body ie kinda like a the Statue of David kinda thing

This might seem like an unfair standard to some but the West has this standard with plenty of people to hold them (creators of stories) accountable.

however if they are just butthurt about not being able to sexually objectify characters just willy nilly

I will let this topic rest since I have said my peace.

However modern audience would prefer a degree of depth rather than 1D characters.

The question is "why" that choice for that character especially if that character in the story is under aged.

Many comics are targeted to young audiences

I think where our points differ is that I am considering comics that target young audience whereas you see this as a point against general (all ages) comics.

Lastly, I would be very careful throwing out the word "racist" so casually over something that has nothing to do with the japanese culture but moreso with the choices that many authors (who happen to be japanese) made.

In fact it's not really the author's fault but rather the publishing company wanting to localize that comic to an audience that they (the publishing company) know has sensitivities. Audiences are entitled to not liking something, authors are free to express themselves in their story.

What about the case of Ishuzoku Reviewers, an anime that was released in the West, that had an explosion in popularity, that even had a market of customers completely willing to pay money in order to watch it, only for the licensing company to pull all availability of the series and proceed to sit on the license and completely prevent any legal distribution of the entire franchise outside of importing straight from Japan?