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INTEREST: Digimon Tamers 20th Anniversary Stage Show Features 'Cancel Culture' Villain


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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4570
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Shit...I've loved much of Konaka's work over many years. It's disheartening to learn that he's completely off the deep end.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11144
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:04 pm Reply with quote
I'm...not sure I appreciate a property and characters I loved in my childhood getting brought back to fulfill the writers' political beliefs. Tamers deserves better.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4817
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:08 pm Reply with quote
As someone who's favorite Digimon season is Tamers and who has enjoyed Konaka's past works like Lain and the Big O, this is extremely disappointing to me that Konaka has fallen down this rabbit hole of taking these conspiracy theories seriously. I guess in a way it's not too surprising given the shows he's worked, but I would think someone can write a fictional story about a conspiracy and be able to separate fiction from reality. From comments other people have made, it seems like Konaka has had these views since the early 2000s and his classic works have only worked as well as they did because other people on the creative staff were there to reign him in.

In the case of Tamers, Digimon doesn't belong to Konaka and Tamers was a collaborative effort between different writers and directors, and even taking into account Konaka had these views way back then, this all feels very out of character for the cast of Tamers and is just really bad propaganda writing. Tamers is a series that meant a lot to me growing up and I still love those characters but I will personally not support any new works by Konaka. I only hope Konaka will not be involved in any way in the upcoming Ghost Game series. I just don't understand how Bandai allowed this live audio stage to go on when they had to have received a copy of the script ahead of time, especially during the Olympics when Japan is supposed to be representing their best to the world and you already have all that media controversy with figures involved in the Olympics.
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DavetheUsher



Joined: 19 May 2014
Posts: 505
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:32 pm Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
I'm...not sure I appreciate a property and characters I loved in my childhood getting brought back to fulfill the writers' political beliefs. Tamers deserves better.


Is it "political"? I guess being against "PC culture" could be considered political in a way in America these days, but a lot of anime and manga creators are like that. They're very heavy into freedom of expression and against censorship. Like all the creators and industry folk who recently spoke out against the Kadokawa CEO saying manga should censor stuff for Apple and Google.

Considering Digimon is one of those franchises that got hit with huge censorship and changes in the American dub and it's still happening to this day (Cyber Sleuth 2 removed Sistermon Noir) I think it's pretty fitting. Digimon was never 'politically correct' by western standards so it's Konaka's known for writing about the dangers of the internet and its affect on culture, so talking about censorship and cancel culture seems only natural
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immblueversion





PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Good lord... This was never going to go over well. If he wants to win people over with his ideas, he should have simply presented the logic and reasoning within the oft-neglected sound arguments among the spotlighted crack theories, not smack everyone in the face with a mallet of everything they stand against. It's just so easy for the media to demonize, and we know how much we love to eat that up.
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Sheleigha



Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1671
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:39 pm Reply with quote
DavetheUsher wrote:
MFrontier wrote:
I'm...not sure I appreciate a property and characters I loved in my childhood getting brought back to fulfill the writers' political beliefs. Tamers deserves better.


Is it "political"? I guess being against "PC culture" could be considered political in a way in America these days, but a lot of anime and manga creators are like that. They're very heavy into freedom of expression and against censorship. Like all the creators and industry folk who recently spoke out against the Kadokawa CEO saying manga should censor stuff for Apple and Google.

Considering Digimon is one of those franchises that got hit with huge censorship and changes in the American dub and it's still happening to this day (Cyber Sleuth 2 removed Sistermon Noir) I think it's pretty fitting. Digimon was never 'politically correct' by western standards so it's Konaka's known for writing about the dangers of the internet and its affect on culture, so talking about censorship and cancel culture seems only natural


I'm pretty sure this isn't about dub cuts at all, which happens across the world to different series in anime/games, as it has been. This reference to "censorship/cancel culture/fake news" have been talking points brought up only in the past few years, more politically in nature.
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Rentwo



Joined: 05 Oct 2019
Posts: 184
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:40 pm Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
I'm...not sure I appreciate a property and characters I loved in my childhood getting brought back to fulfill the writers' political beliefs. Tamers deserves better.


Digimon was always political.
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1577
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:44 pm Reply with quote
I heard about the live reading yesterday, but I didn't know that he believed in all of these other conspiracy theories too. It's a shame since I really love some of his works like Lain and Shinreigari (though they both were made by a collective). Not really sure what else to say except that I'm really disappointed.
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JoelBurger





PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Not surprising at all. Konaka fell pretty deep into the conspiracy theory hole around 2010, and his work on Lain shows he was always interested on exploring ideas of post-truth. It's just now he's on the side of the people he was lambasting in Lain.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 2941
Location: Email for assistance only
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:46 pm Reply with quote
DavetheUsher wrote:

Is it "political"? I guess being against "PC culture" could be considered political in a way in America these days, but a lot of anime and manga creators are like that. They're very heavy into freedom of expression and against censorship. Like all the creators and industry folk who recently spoke out against the Kadokawa CEO saying manga should censor stuff for Apple and Google.


There is no relationship between believing in freedom of artistic expression to depict sexual imagery and saying the YouTuber who thinks PizzaGate is real has a rational voice. Or at least there shouldn't be, logically.
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immblueversion





PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:54 pm Reply with quote
Sheleigha wrote:
DavetheUsher wrote:
MFrontier wrote:
I'm...not sure I appreciate a property and characters I loved in my childhood getting brought back to fulfill the writers' political beliefs. Tamers deserves better.


Is it "political"? I guess being against "PC culture" could be considered political in a way in America these days, but a lot of anime and manga creators are like that. They're very heavy into freedom of expression and against censorship. Like all the creators and industry folk who recently spoke out against the Kadokawa CEO saying manga should censor stuff for Apple and Google.

Considering Digimon is one of those franchises that got hit with huge censorship and changes in the American dub and it's still happening to this day (Cyber Sleuth 2 removed Sistermon Noir) I think it's pretty fitting. Digimon was never 'politically correct' by western standards so it's Konaka's known for writing about the dangers of the internet and its affect on culture, so talking about censorship and cancel culture seems only natural


I'm pretty sure this isn't about dub cuts at all, which happens across the world to different series in anime/games, as it has been. This reference to "censorship/cancel culture/fake news" have been talking points brought up only in the past few years, more politically in nature.


I wonder what the response in Japan is. All the news sites I'm seeing are painting this as the greatest insult to Digimon and human decency when it's really just a stupidly hamfisted and awkward way to put otherwise relevant topics.
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KefkaesqueXIII



Joined: 30 Nov 2015
Posts: 122
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:54 pm Reply with quote
"I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards."

I mean, Jesus Christ, there's baking your viewpoints into your work and then there's literally naming your villain "Political Correctness" and giving it a super attack named "Cancel Culture".

When I first saw the subtitled images going around, I could scarcely belive they were real because I've only really seen such hamfistedness in parodies.
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Replica_Rabbit



Joined: 23 Aug 2015
Posts: 354
Location: Portland
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 1:56 pm Reply with quote
Did I make a wish on a monkey's paw? This just kills my interest in a Digimon Tamers reboot, I'm so sick of crazy conspiracy that takes like three seconds to debunk. If he didn't connect conspiracy theories to this, I probably would give it a try. I guess I have to brace for impact with the new fans coming in, great another fandom I enjoy fall to this nonsense
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:00 pm Reply with quote
I'm not seeing anything in the article that indicates 'cancel culture'. Fake news has nothing to do with cancel culture. Now if the villain had been all about digging up something on social media and blowing it up and telling people to no longer have anything to do with the lifetime's body of work then that would be a cancel culture villain. I'm not sure if the article just failed to describe accurately or if the headline simply got it wrong.
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ZephyrVayu



Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:02 pm Reply with quote
I don't care where he sits on the political spectrum, I hate it when people take shows from our childhoods and use them as a platform to preach their own personal political beliefs, basically weaponizing nostalgia against us. Whether it's the Powerpuff Girls being used to spread left-wing woke ideals, or Tamers being used to spread right-wing reactionary ideals, it's just really scummy. Shame on Konaka. He's defiling the Digimon franchise with this nonsense. The villain is "Political Correctness" taking a physical form? This sounds like an episode of South Park.
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