Forum - View topicNEWS: Shogakukan Discloses It Hired act-age Writer Tatsuya Matsuki to Pen New Manga on Manga One
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Juno016
 Posts: 2582 |
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So, on the one hand, I have been quite impressed with Japan's low recitivism rates for crime, and when studying the topic in school, three major contributing factors I learned of were deterrence (the prison system in Japan is absolutely horrifying and isolating, like torture), rehabilitation (those who go to prison are rehabilitated to return to a normal life bettervprepared not to make the same mistakes), and re-establishment (fewer blacklists for re-entering the workforce, thus preventing people from falling into the same societal traps that may cause them to return to crime). This is supposed to be admirable. I am a greater fan of rehabilitative justice than retributive justice. I don't think the latter does anything for anyone. Thus, I personally think it is admirable. Rehabilitative justice also keeps prison sentences short without reducing their effectiveness, which is great.
However, I have a really hard time with cases like this. Recitivism is not 0%. These are not victimless crimes. Power was involved. These people should be allowed back into the working world, but maybe there should always be barriers to keep them from positions of direct power over others, and that includes fame? I want to say "As long as they don't do anything again, it's fine", but a part of me is still just... not convinced by that. Not for this kind of crime. At the very least, their original penname should not be hidden from the public. Like, I was able to not only throw my Rurouni Kenshin manga collection away of my own volition, but I also know I don't want to touch Watsuki's work ever again. Likewise for Galco's manga artist, or this guy (I remember the original incident). I was appalled to learn that a really pretty yuri manga I bought not so long ago was penned by someone who got in trouble for plagiarism of real photos of kids used for his ero-manga, with only his penname changed (though this might be more a separation of his ero work and his professional work, as he still uses his ero penname online, for his... *ahem* ...AI art). I just don't want to read or buy anything written by someone who has done these things. Don't obscure reality so I might end up doing so without knowing. |
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Seibaa
 Posts: 21 |
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It's an incredibly evil precedent to set that the victim's real life story is just something to be brushed aside so the perpetrator of a *child sex offence* can profit off of his fake fantasy stories.
It really doesn't matter how "good" the writing is. If he truly understood trauma then he would understand that these actions hurt people. His crime is far too heinous to return to a life of being selfishly rewarded and praised for his genius. He needs to privately make amends and to help others, yet all he's doing is helping himself. |
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Sinxi and heylog
Posts: 208 |
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Something to be brushed aside, even though he served whatever time they set for him, went to therapy, got checked and came back 5 years later and supposedly came under a pen name because of the victim? What are you trying to imply? You saying "if he understood trauma then he would understand that these actions hurt people" which he probably does, but then you also allude to the fact that the guy should not write again? I'm i getting the message messed up? It sounds like you want the guy to be banished into the shadow realm never to be seen again Last edited by Sinxi and heylog on Mon Mar 02, 2026 12:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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skemono
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 87 |
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It's Miki Yatsunami, according to the tankobon. |
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FishLion
 Crazy Fangirl Posts: 860 |
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My issue with rehabilitation in these situations are that being a publisher author or artist is always a position of power over fans. Someone who previously abused a position of power to hurt others cannot be trusted with another. If you abuse students as a teacher, then there is no way in hell you should be trusted with teaching again and especially not the cultural and personal influence of a creator.
If you are so rehabilitated and sorry then you should know why it is extremely gross to want to work on another manga that will put you in a position of power over others again. There are ways to not lock convicts completely out of society while also not giving them another position that will give them access to minors. Rehabilitation can mean getting another chance at life, but not trusting you enough to continue the life you had that you leveraged to abuse others. My take on that is that if you so poorly understand the position of power you have as a creator and why it is inappropriate to be trusted with that power so soon after an abuse then you cannot truly be rehabilitated and certainly don't deserve to keep getting published works that give you that power, even if you stay anonymous and don't personally gain social benefits anymore merely escaping the controversy of your own crimes and working in anonymity to avoid complaints is still a massive advantage over a regular sex offender and using the money fans contribute through purchases to pay such a man without their knowledge by hiding it through a pen name is disgraceful. Even besides personal culpability what I really hate is that companies don't seem to understand the inherent powers creatives have over their fans and why it is always inappropriate to work with such a person. If they attempt to work in manga again being forced to self publish as opposed to being backed by these massive corporations seems like the bare minimum of accountability, hiding their name but continuing to give them work (and possibly access to minors through indirect means like social media fame from the pen name account if one was run) is disgusting no matter how much rehabilitation this man has done and it should be pretty clear how people can be for rehabilitative justice but against offenders being published. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2952 |
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Dear lord, they not only had a second one, they KNEW who he was? Good grief, the publishing industry should not serve as rehabilitation. You guys aren't probation officers, you are not counselors, you are EDITORS and this whole ordeal comes off as scummy. There are millions of people who have stories to tell who aren't convicted predators
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Mami-kouga
Posts: 306 |
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There's a lot I hate about this but what I particularly hate is them attempting to twist the pseudonym into some crack of shit about being considerate for the victims when it was absolutely 100% for his sake and no one else. Putting aside any questions about accepting people who have allegedly reflected, the fact that this was forced to come out because they gave a pass to someone even worse than this does not make them look even slightly decent and just calls into question how many pedophiles they're hiding that don't have Oda clout to make them come out unscathed
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Daidan12
Posts: 170 |
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I loved Act-age and I will read his new work, he's a really good writer.
I also hope he's banned of being near any elementary/middle/high school forever. And I can't help myself of making the bad joke but here it goes spoiler[I hope he doesn't even think of making more bike rides] |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5295 |
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This exactly. No one has the inherent right to see their work published by a major company. You wanna show that you're "rehabilitated" after pulling heinous shit like this? Then self-publish online, under your real name, and see if there's still a market for your work. If not, too bad so sad. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2999 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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This is essentially what happened to Ikki Kajiwara in 1985, when he returned to manga following his fall from grace in 1983 when his history of physical violence became public knowledge. Almost no manga publisher was willing to work with him except for Nihon Bungeisha, who allowed his autobiographical manga Otoko no Seiza to be serialized in Weekly Manga Goraku (with Kunichika Harada doing the art), and Kajiwara didn't hide his identity behind a pen name (taking aside the fact that "Ikki Kajiwara" was already a pen name). Goraku was a smaller name magazine aimed at adults, instead of the younger audiences that his most iconic work was traditionally aimed at, and the manga wound up being left unfinished since he would die two years later in 1987. Even then, it apparently wasn't until the mid-90s that Japan actually decided to re-acknowledge Kajiwara's manga classics as the icons they're now renown as. I do think that Matsuki wanting to write a manga inspired by his psychological consultation as a way of (seemingly) repenting for his actions isn't the worst idea, but he absolutely should owned up to it from the start & not used a pen name, even if it meant that the chances of anyone agreeing to publish it were extremely low. Agreeing to hide his identity just made everything all the worse for everyone involved. |
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Moses34
Posts: 13 |
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This is just my personal views on crime, but I believe Matsuki shouldn't be hired back to work so soon. Independent honest work is fine, I think. I believe in rehabilitation for some crimes, but rehiring them this soon just leaves a bad taste, and it's not their job to rehabilitate him either.
I understand the argument behind using a new pen name to avoid the victims seeing him profit again, but you're still profiting behind their backs!!! Put your name on the thing and be honest about it. Rehabilitated criminals don't hide behind fake names or identities, they understand their acts and are honest about it. If people don't want to support them, that's their choice and it should be respected, much like the Ikki Kajiwara example provided by Lord Geo. Now it just looks like they wanted to get away with it, Shogakukan specifically. While this is nowhere near as bad as what Yamamoto did, the message this is sending is "if they didn't find out about Yamamoto, we would've published a third manga from him". That guy should not be given anything but jail time, forever. I was thinking maybe Shogakukan just didn't look into it, but apparently they're totally fine with rehiring sex offenders and obscuring their past regardless of how extreme the crime was. |
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LoopyChew
Subscriber Posts: 112 |
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I was going to come in here with fire and fury and after reading the article itself and the ensuing discussion, this feels a lot different from the whole "Shogakukan willingly hired multiple convicted sex pests" tack I was expecting. They evaluated Matsuki's remorse and proposal, tried to carry things out in a thoughtful manner, but completely forgot that there were two sides to the story. They absolutely should have been up front with what was going on here to allow Matsuki to own up to his side.
So yeah, I'm still upset with Shogakukan, just less mad than I expected to be. |
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Nate148
Posts: 657 |
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There are 3 sides to most stories but we need to remember the victims the fact they hid him and held the artist under a sword shows just how much they are like fugi tv and the fact he tried this shows he just another Vic. Point blank men are always willing to give men another chance if it was JUST a woman. To the op could the low rearrst rate simply be because the cops avoid trying the same person more then once?
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5971 |
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What if we stopped using progressive language about rehabilitative justice to justify bringing back someone who was arrested for sexually harassing a middle school girl so they can draw comic books for children?
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luisedgarf
Posts: 684 Location: Guadalajara, Mexico |
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The core issue here is really a cultural difference. Japan isn't a Western country, and Japanese society tends to be more open to giving people second chances, even in serious cases, whereas in many Western countries, that kind of rehabilitation comes with far more conditions and public scrutiny attached. |
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