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Honjitsu Watashi wa Enjō Shimashita Manga Cancelled Due to Online Controversy
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
A manga about a girl who likes to cause online controversies is now cancelled due to an online controversy. The editorial department of Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Max magazine revealed on Twitter on Friday that Dogeza's Honjitsu Watashi wa Enjō Shimashita (Today I Went Up in Flames) manga has ended with the most recent chapter that debuted in the magazine's August issue on June 19. The editorial department explained that the manga was originally slated to return after a temporary hiatus. However, after discussions with Dogeza, the decision was made for the manga to end.
The manga centers on a high school girl named Kanae who is trying to become a MeTube (the manga's version of YouTube) star. She realizes that even negative feedback can lead to more views for her videos. Therefore, she decides to use provocative content to create controversy as a kind of marketing ploy. (The "enjō" in the manga's title literally means "flaming up," but it also refers to online controversies and flame wars that receive floods of comments and responses.)
Online commenters recently discovered discriminatory comments Dogeza posted on Twitter as early as September 2012. In the posts, the creator's remarks included a slur referring to Korean people, disparaging remarks against foreigners, and criticism of people on welfare. After the publisher of Dogeza's manga learned of the controversy, the decision was made for the series to go on hiatus.
Dogeza posted an apology on Twitter on June 25 that said, "I apologize for troubling and annoying certain people through my tweets posted in the past." Dogeza also made follow-up posts, clarifying the creator's feelings and emphasizing the apology.
Dogeza then appeared to take a break from Twitter for about one month. The creator returned and posted a series of angry and sarcastic tweets on Thursday that referenced receiving unwanted direct messages on Twitter. Dogeza's entire Twitter account has since been deleted.
The controversy is similar to the one [New Life+] Young Again in Another World (Nidome no Jinsei o Isekai de) light novel series author MINE faced in June. Twitter users discovered MINE's tweets from several years ago that included discriminatory remarks against Korean and Chinese people. Some online commenters also criticized the content of MINE's novels. A television anime adaptation of the series was announced in May, but both the anime and the novel series itself were cancelled.
Sources: Manga Time Kirara editorial department's Twitter account, Huffington Post (Kenji Andō) via Yaraon!, Hachima Kikō
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history