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Mangaka Akamatsu Ken won election for Japan house of Councilers

Kard8p3

Kard8p3

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,285
Negima? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time..

Aside from the censorship platform he ran on (is that even an issue? I know nothing of the political climate there so I know shit), what else does he plan to do?
 
Bard

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,644
"Protecting anime from censorship and freedom of expression" makes me side eye this shit.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

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Oct 25, 2017
45,057
...Has there been issues of censorship and freedom of speech in anime and manga in Japan?
 
JonnyDBrit

JonnyDBrit

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Oct 25, 2017
11,099
Bard said:
"Protecting anime from censorship and freedom of expression" makes me side eye this shit.
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It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
 
Lord Fanny

Lord Fanny

Member
Apr 25, 2020
26,160
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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Well, that's...yeah, that tracks with what I was expecting.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
45,057
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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what the fuck...
 
OP
OP
purplemonkey111

purplemonkey111

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Mar 7, 2020
3,051
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His website has his policy and plans.

https://kenakamatsu.jp/basic-policy

This is just me doing a rough translation from his policy page.

1. Freedom of expression. He is against more strict censorship of anime, manga, and game depiction because there are already laws against real child porn, while ACG contents are not real, so it's not right to punish the creators when there are no real victims. Fight against outside preasure to censor ACG.

2. Improve Japan GPD via exporting of Japan anime, game and manga. Cracking down on pirate anime and manga sites. Promote esports and pro gaming scene in Japan.

3. Protect creator and fan creations. Doujins, cosplays ect. will not be considered illegal nor will the creators be sued for copyright infringement. Offer health benefits and better pay for freelancers in anime, manga sections. Have better health coverage for mangaka, and other ACG industry people. Create an archive for all ACG creations. Allow out of print, or no longer copyrighted books to be available as free.

4. Improve Japan's technology. Put more focus on computer, and programing, AI research. Start a more advanced space program. Improve and standardize network infrastructure. Allow immigration to bring in more experts from overseas.

5. Have games, anime, and manga do educational programs to educate children, and encourage them in those fields. Improve children literacy. Promote computer engineering, and IT fields for children. Promote work from home, and distance learning.

These are just a quick translation. As for my thoughts...there's good, and bad in his policy.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,163
purplemonkey111 said:
His website has his policy and plans.

https://kenakamatsu.jp/basic-policy

This is just me doing a rough translation from his policy page.

1. Freedom of expression. He is against more strict censorship of anime, manga, and game depiction because there are already laws against real child porn, while ACG contents are not real, so it's not right to punish the creators when there are no real victims. Fight against outside preasure to censor ACG.

2. Improve Japan GPD via exporting of Japan anime, game and manga. Cracking down on pirate anime and manga sites. Promote esports and pro gaming scene in Japan.

3. Protect creator and fan creations. Doujins, cosplays ect. will not be considered illegal nor will the creators be sued for copyright infringement. Offer health benefits and better pay for freelancers in anime, manga sections. Have better health coverage for mangaka, and other ACG industry people. Create an archive for all ACG creations. Allow out of print, or no longer copyrighted books to be available as free.

4. Improve Japan's technology. Put more focus on computer, and programing, AI research. Start a more advanced space program. Improve and standardize network infrastructure. Allow immigration to bring in more experts from overseas.

5. Have games, anime, and manga do educational programs to educate children, and encourage them in those fields. Improve children literacy. Promote computer engineering, and IT fields for children. Promote work from home, and distance learning.

These are just a quick translation. As for my thoughts...there's good, and bad in his policy.
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lol yeah, one of these things are not like the other....
 
Bard

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,644
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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Pretty much what I thought then.
 
Paroni

Paroni

Member
Dec 17, 2020
3,519
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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Same energy as that Digimon Tamers live script-reading play Chiaki Konaka made last year.


View: https://youtu.be/0OLUiFYiirs
 
Hyun Sai

Hyun Sai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,562
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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the-fuck-will-smith.gif
 
Nugnip

Nugnip

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,746
Not familiar with his work and not that much into anime, what's wrong with Love Hina?
 
Mr_Antimatter

Mr_Antimatter

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,576
his stuff is such a mixed bag, with some great characters or action here combined with nonsensical t&a there, some of which was pretty questionable given a lot of his characters were like jr high girls.

Note he never did proper nudity, all the characters were akin to Barbie dolls.
 
mopinks

mopinks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,653
freedom of expression is great

drawing a self-insert comic where you battle the Woke Mob is cringe
 
Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

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Oct 25, 2017
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Mr_Antimatter said:
his stuff is such a mixed bag, with some great characters or action here combined with nonsensical t&a there, some of which was pretty questionable given a lot of his characters were like jr high girls.

Note he never did proper nudity, all the characters were akin to Barbie dolls.
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Isnt he drawing hentai doujins with kids? One of his old doujns was about Sakura (10 year old) from Card Captor Sakura...
 
tokkun

tokkun

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Oct 27, 2017
5,456
Kalentan said:
...Has there been issues of censorship and freedom of speech in anime and manga in Japan?
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The Japanese broadcast ethics board recently banned using violence for comedic purposes on TV. That has led to censorship of various things from the classic 'smack on the head' in manzai routines, to penalty games, to things like prat falls or man gets hit in groin type humor.

I would imagine that sort of thing would apply to some gag anime as well, like Gintama for example.
 
Bowl0l

Bowl0l

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,608
purplemonkey111 said:
4. Improve Japan's technology. Put more focus on computer, and programing, AI research. Start a more advanced space program. Improve and standardize network infrastructure. Allow immigration to bring in more experts from overseas.
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Isn't Japan robotics competitive in the global scale? I recall they had a robot to maintain their train networks.
 
subpar spatula

subpar spatula

Refuses to Wash his Ass
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Oct 26, 2017
22,187
I don't want to accuse him of anything but if you are batting this hard for 2d naked kids then...
 
Witch of Miracles

Witch of Miracles

One Winged Slayer
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Jun 13, 2019
2,793
United Kingdom
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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Black people are the enemies of chuds everywhere. Looking up some of the panels, this is the most cringe shit i've seen in a loong time.
 
Efejota

Efejota

Member
Mar 13, 2018
3,750
Wanting to encourage inmigration sounds good to me at the very least.

Feels weird to get so obsessed over censorship when most of the time it is about naked women in sexual scenes/situations. Specially if he has to mention the child porn comparisons.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that porn itself is censored over there? They have plenty of space for these kind of contents already, but the bar between porn and ecchi gets blurrier every year.
 
Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

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Oct 25, 2017
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Efejota said:
Feels weird to get so obsessed over censorship when most of the time it is about naked women in sexual scenes/situations. Specially if he has to mention the child porn comparisons.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that porn itself is censored over there? They have plenty of space for these kind of contents already, but the bar between porn and ecchi gets blurrier every year.
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He drew lolicon hentai doujins before, so... take a guess.

Besides that in Negima and UQ Holder, he loves to use loli characters. Especially in UQ Holder he draws Evangeline more often as a child than the adult she can be, because of "reasons" (Its more comfortable):

115774.jpg


This character stopped aging for "reasons" and is also in love with the protagonist:

latest


This one wants to marry the protagonist:

350


In Negima itself at one point, Yue became more popular and it was clear in his writing:

72764.jpg


Some of the covers of UQ Holder, maybe NSFW:

latest


latest
 
Jebusman

Jebusman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,106
Halifax, NS
Nugnip said:
Not familiar with his work and not that much into anime, what's wrong with Love Hina?
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Love Hina is a harem series involving the characters of the following ages:

Main Character: 19/20 years old
Girl #1: 17 years old
Girl #2: 20 years old
Girl #3: 13 years old
Girl #4: 15 years old
Girl #5: 13 years old
Girl #6: 19 years old

It set the standards that series would try to emulate for decades to come, tropes and all.


One of the primary gimmicks of his later series, Negima, is that a young boy with magic powers became the teacher of a class of ~30 junior high school students, and every time he would sneeze the sheer force of the blast would blow all their clothes off.

Also in order to awaken all their bullshit powers he has to kiss every one of them.
 
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Suede

Suede

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Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,670
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JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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So a racist and defender of child pornography? What a combo.
 
Gentlemen

Gentlemen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,626
Suede said:
So a racist and defender of child pornography? What a combo.
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The twitter thread in this post clarifies that the context of 'affirmative action' has more to do with gender-inclusive hiring practices addressing the breathtaking employment gap between Japanese men and women than the American policies that attempt to correct historical discrimination against people of color.

Not any better, obviously.
 
Uzumaki Goku

Uzumaki Goku

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,527
I must admit to being pretty detached from Japanese politics.

I mean, Japan just has different views on this kind of stuff.

Not saying it's right or wrong. Just how it is.
 
Watchtower

Watchtower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,786
To throw in some additional color, Akamatsu was one of the few mangaka to kick up a shitstorm about a proposed law 10 years back that would've expanded "neighboring copyright", essentially giving publishers like Kodansha and Shueisha more IP control akin to Marvel and DC (forgive the old-ass blog post but it's all I can find on the subject anymore since the law never went through) and he was behind J-Comi, AFAIK one of the first attempts at a digital manga storefront and one that actively tried to spin scanlation efforts as an attempt to preserve out-of-print works and recompense their creators via ad revenue.

Not saying this as a full-on defense of the man (full disclosure I used to be a big fan of his work but fell off it a long time ago), Akamatsu's still a passively-racist lolicon who's too chill with female-on-male assault as comedy and who can only graze LGBT concepts by fetishizing them, and that whole Twitter thread is downright harrowing. Just in the midst of all of that is a guy who does seem to have a couple legitimately fair ideas on artist rights and protections. Just a couple though, because some of his other ones are straight-up backwards.
 
SageShinigami

SageShinigami

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,607
*sighs* Negima is/was one of my favorite action shonen manga. This is probably the first time I've had to learn someone who's work I legitimately enjoyed was a total asshat.

...Granted, I hear not great things about Shoji Kawamori too?
 
Alpheus

Alpheus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,697
JonnyDBrit said:
It should, considering he outright made a propaganda manga for his campaign, presenting himself and another rep as Dragon Quest-esque heroes defending the traditional magical girl against a dark skinned, angelic figure called 'Libera' who attacks with such abilities as 'Affirmative Action' and 'Supererogation'
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Jfc
 
JonnyDBrit

JonnyDBrit

God and Anime
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Oct 25, 2017
11,099
Suede said:
So a racist and defender of child pornography? What a combo.
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Gentlemen said:
The twitter thread in this post clarifies that the context of 'affirmative action' has more to do with gender-inclusive hiring practices addressing the breathtaking employment gap between Japanese men and women than the American policies that attempt to correct historical discrimination against people of color.

Not any better, obviously.
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Meanwhile the use of dark skin on Libera is likely as much to code the character as obviously foreign/'not-Japanese', and in particular, potentially representative of 'westerners' assumed to be trying to impose their values on Japanese creatives.

It's telling that at the end of the comic, after Libera has been defeated, she nevertheless follows after Yamada and Akamatsu - that for all the complaining of such foreigners, they will learn to appreciate the wisdom of our two heroes in time. Otherwise, are stuck trailing afterwards

Very paternalising
 
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