Ken Akamatsu is the 1st manga artist to be elected to the upper house of the Japanese Diet.

1657471039078.png


>Shortly after 20:00, the press announced that the winner had been confirmed in the ordinary election for the House of Councillors. This confirmation means the birth of the first manga artist to become a Member of Parliament. Japan will change! I think. I will work hard to fulfil my promises so that I don't betray the voters who voted for me and so that I don't disgrace myself as a 'representative of all the people'.
>freedom of expression in manga and anime
>importance of anime and manga as japan's cultural export
>throughout his career as an artist and activist helped the doujin sub culture a lot, even helping with the website that showed digital manga and doujinshi that were out of print, helping the authors
>warned about the dangers censorship influence coming from overseas

his tweet expressing gratitude to his followers: https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1546099560933904384

1657471735343.png

tl;dr: he was worried about censorship in media for some time now and is promising to prevent that.
 
Last edited:
  • Winner
  • Like
  • Semper Fidelis
Reactions: REGENDarySumanai, Gamercat, Chicken Neck Nelly and 35 others
Click to expand...
Haramburger said:
Harry Potter But He Teaches(!!) At The All-Girls-School. It started to drift off into naruto territory pretty quickly with the fight tournaments and a vampire loli teaching aura control in the tundra.

Love Hina was unlikely but a more grounded, believable premise.
Click to expand...
Fun fact, Negima is what it is because Akamatsu wanted to make a battle manga, but his publisher wanted him to make another harem manga to capitalize on the popularity of Love Hina. So he decided to fuck with them by making a harem manga and turning it into a battle manga part way through.
 
  • Informative
  • Agree
  • Winner
Reactions: IAmNotAlpharius, Buttigieg2020, SaidTheSpider and 13 others
Zero Day Defense said:
That case's difficult for me to remember off-head, but wasn't it that he had pornography involving late teens... back when that was (somehow) still legal in Japan?
Click to expand...
I've heard that he asked on yahoo answers or some shit how to get rid of it because he was really lazy and missed the deadline.
Might just be a cope but its also kind of funny, like the Toriko guy who phoned in to complain how he got an underaged prostitute.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: IAmNotAlpharius and Zero Day Defense
Clownish said:
This is really interesting.

He is against censorship in Manga and Anime, and understands that it is a cultural export of Japanese culture to the rest of the world. Hopefully this is another barrier against Western PC culture corrupting the sub-genre.
Click to expand...
Thomas Talus said:
Akamatsu is one of the rare mangaka that understands and cares about both the artistic AND the business sides. If any of them have what it takes to deal with legislation, he would be the one, provided that he understands he can't take extended "research breaks" with his cosplayer wife while the legislature is in session.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not a huge fan of Akumatsu's manga but I respect that he wants to stop the cultural encroachment of liberal sensibilities into japanese entertainment.
 
  • Winner
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: REGENDarySumanai, IAmNotAlpharius, SaidTheSpider and 12 others
Ser Prize said:
Yeah I'm not a huge fan of Akumatsu's manga but I respect that he wants to stop the cultural encroachment of liberal sensibilities into japanese entertainment.
Click to expand...
He's not a genius author by any means, but his craftmanship and technical polish are top-notch (he seems to have a properly-developed workflow for the frequent use of 3D models that I don't see from anyone else, for one thing), and he balances optimism with realism when it comes to human nature in a way that makes the emotional moments hit better than you would think.

Still not a fan of Naru, though.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
  • Agree
Reactions: No0neKnows, Exterminatus, IAmNotAlpharius and 2 others
I was never the biggest fan of Akamatsu' works but he seems like a decent guy with his head screwed on right. If people are curious about his platform I'd suggest running his site through a translator: https://kenakamatsu.jp/basic-policy.

HIs 5 basic policies as he describes them are as follows:
In Japan today, under Article 21 of the Constitution, "Freedom of Expression," we have considerable freedom to express ourselves in a wide variety of ways based on free ideas. The more we creators imagine and create without worrying about regulations, the more the possibilities of our works will expand.

However, in recent years, there has been a trend in the world to promote regulation in order to avoid risks and conflicts in advance. And in the context of imposing restrictions on works, such restrictions often seem to be based on the idea that "I am offended, so I want it removed, and I need social sanctions and legal controls. However, we must be cautious in regulating expression. Once a regulation is imposed, the culture dies and there is very little chance of recovery. If regulations are to be imposed, they must at least be based on a need that is well-founded, and on minimal and clear standards that correspond to that need.

We should treat all content with caution, with the position and awareness that "common sense can change at any time." I am a cartoonist, so I am trying to protect freedom of expression from the standpoint of a creator. Freedom of expression is not something that has a goal. We need to monitor whether the moves to regulate or eliminate are based on evidence, and if they are unjustified, we should make appropriate counterarguments. We are taking the lead in repeating this process.
Manga, anime, games, music, movies, novels, stage performances, dance, and various other entertainment contents are also important resources from which Japan can earn foreign currencies. In particular, we believe that manga, anime, and video games are still the world's best content, not to be outdone by the U.S., China, or Korea. We must protect and nurture these.
Manga, animation, games, music, movies, novels, stage performances, dance, and various other entertainment contents are an important culture that Japan has cultivated over the years. The fusion of these cultures with the Internet and SNS has brought Japan into the age of UGC, where anyone can easily create and disseminate content, which can be called "all-people creator".
Looking to Japan's future, we will bring about economic growth by creating new markets and improving international competitiveness through the development of cutting-edge technologies.
Children and youth are often at the center of the creation of new content and the spark that ignites these booms. In order to keep the fire of our culture burning, we believe it is necessary to provide opportunities for children and youth to enjoy content and to expand educational opportunities. For children and youth who are lonely and troubled, content can be a source of comfort and temporary relief, but we believe that one of the greatest responsibilities of politics is to resolve the fundamental concerns of these young people.

Obviously he goes into more details as you expand the prompts on the page. As just a humble weeb I have no idea how realistic or possible these are to implement but they seem pretty reasonable for the most part. In particular, I like how interested in creators' rights (whether professional or not) and preserving older titles he is. As well as how concerned he is with younger people in particular due to how much COVID exposed mental health problems they face. But of course my personal favorite,

Protecting Japanese Culture and Content from External Pressure

Biased opinions, such as excessive theories of gender equality or discriminatory theories against women that consider the number of wrinkles in an illustration's clothing to be a problem, may influence reporters from the United Nations and other Western organizations, who may issue misguided recommendations that do not correctly reflect the actual situation. We must protect creators and creative works from regulatory pressure from overseas based on such biased ideas, misunderstandings, and perversions, and at the same time provide appropriate explanations and counterarguments to overseas audiences. Similarly, we will oppose baseless and unilateral censorship and regulation of Japanese culture by overseas platforms.
Click to expand...
 
  • Winner
  • Informative
  • Semper Fidelis
Reactions: REGENDarySumanai, Exterminatus, StevieLasVegas and 19 others
Wintersun said:
I have no idea what a "Japanese Diet" is, so I thought that this article was gonna be about some cannibalism fetish a manga author had.

I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved.
Click to expand...
The Diet is the name of their Parliament. The Japanese were (and still are TBH) big Prussiaboos when they were shaking things out during the Meiji Restoration and borrowed that term from Ze Germans.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: No0neKnows, IAmNotAlpharius, Buttigieg2020 and 2 others
He is a goon that has bonkers opinions, among them, he is pro-child porn. Must be why he is being supported by the Made in Abyss guy, who is a creepy pervert with a fetish for little kids being tortured/pissing themselves

Hardly anything worth celebrating.

edit: You can spot the pedos in the reactions
 
Last edited:
  • Dumb
  • Lunacy
  • Like
Reactions: No0neKnows, Jonah Hill poster, aaalawgin and 2 others
MightyMorphin'Willbender said:
I read Akamatsu, and had some brain fart thought: Is this the "Akumetsu" manga dude?
It's not, sadly.

It would be VERY surprising to see THAT guy get elected to anything in Japan, because if anything manga/anime is actually BASED, Akumetsu is pretty up there. It has some Death Note edgelord vibes to it but the writer did use his time to talk a bit about some of the irl biggest corruption scandals in Japan.

View attachment 3477462

ETA: What the fuck the elected guy is literally the Love Hina/Negima!. Fucking just end me.
Click to expand...
Akumetsu was published in a shonen magazine. Someone looked at this page and thought 12 year old boys would be interested in stuff like an edgelord discussing taxes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IAmNotAlpharius
Agent Abe Caprine said:
Akumetsu was published in a shonen magazine. Someone looked at this page and thought 12 year old boys would be interested in stuff like an edgelord discussing taxes.
Click to expand...
I mean... we got a manga and later anime about a topless wolf girl that's also a serious look at Medieval economics, so you know... things don't always have to make sense in anime.
 
  • Winner
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: REGENDarySumanai, IAmNotAlpharius, Jonah Hill poster and 1 other person
Agent Abe Caprine said:
Akumetsu was published in a shonen magazine. Someone looked at this page and thought 12 year old boys would be interested in stuff like an edgelord discussing taxes.
Click to expand...
Shonen magazines always seem more about "youthfulness in spirit" rather than actually targeting kids.
I mean, Baki has ran in that magazine for what, 30 years now?
 
  • Like
Reactions: From The Uncanny Valley
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back