Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Why It's Difficult To Separate Rurouni Kenshin from Nobuhiro Watsuki
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2954 Location: Email for assistance only |
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This isn't to alleviate Oda's possible help in this scenario but it's also possible that even without that connection, he still would have gotten work. The Galko-chan creator has a new published one-shot out; it's not self-published and is presumably his first work since his arrest. A publisher (in this case I believe it was Manga Action) still hired him regardless of his conviction. It's been...less than two years I think?
What you've basically done here is say that owning child sexual abuse images is not as serious as personally assaulting a minor, for you, anyway. I can't personally gauge how Shueisha would react across the board. As the column mentioned, it's not like they quit working with the creator of Toriko despite him paying underage girls for sex twice. At least the gov't is trying to do something: animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-06-19/japan-pm-fumio-kishida-to-hold-govt-meeting-to-address-child-sexual-abuse-in-wake-of-allegations-/.199363 (Weirdly, everyone in this forum thread is yelling about China) |
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MarshalBanana
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I wonder to what degree this new Anime will be released in the West, no company will want to leave money on the table, but streaming and releasing it on home video might put a black mark on whatever company so chooses to. It's not like he had an outspoken opinion or committed a lesser crime, what he did was very serious.
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7986 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Never had any trouble separating them, personally. I don't even really care who created what or what kind of person they are in the first place.
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Minos_Kurumada
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For the better or the worse, humans have limited emotional bandwidth.
It's not the same ear that somebody in japan died than, your neighbor, your friend or your brother died, each one of them hit different and we are like that for design because if we cared equally for everybody we would end mentally destroyed kinda fast. If people don't care because they don't have enough bandwidth then nothing can be done quite frankly, it's not good nor bad, just human. If you ask me, the real problem here it's the japanese legislature, but I am not japanese and have no way to change it so it's "Old man screaming at cloud" territory. |
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MetalHunter
Posts: 56 |
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I do think they brushed off the stuff about Oda. And not just Oda, but other fellow mangaka. To me, this discussion isn’t really complete until it’s acknowledged that there were a laundry list of mangaka who congratulated Watsuki. Not to mention that tweet from Inagaki where he and fellow mangaka had dinner with Watsuki and one of them took their children.
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Fluwm
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I feel like the way these discussions tend to orient around Watsuki and whether or not he was suitably punished (by the law, by the industry, by the fans) functions as little more than a smokescreen to deflect attention away from from just how much this whole "scandal" has revealed about the anglophone anime/manga communities.
Specifically how many of us are will to overlook, excuse, or even defend some of the most heinous behavior on the planet. This is a culture where we have been inculcated to accept -- for many of us since our most formative years -- that the sexualization of children in 2D media is just "part of it." A little bit of cringe, a little bit of embarrassment, but what can you do? (And obviously there's a lot more to it than just that, and a great deal to unpack, but that's the starting line.) We've been collectively turning blind eyes to this for years -- decades -- and this is the consequence. That we cannot all, unanimously and unequivocally condemn Watsuki the issue here that worried me most. |
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Sakurafire_
Posts: 65 |
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No, they don't. Regardless, this isn't a problem with emotions, because it's a well known fact that child porn and pedophiles are bad things. We have an issue where people like cartoon samurai that they feel nostalgia for more than they care about the plight of children and are ready and willing to make excuses for it. If their brain is big enough to make excuses to run around or ignore the issue, they're big enough to have empathy. |
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ranran-001
Posts: 537 |
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It's pretty hard to watch a film starring a hideous turd like Ezra who grooms young girls, strangles the F out of them at bars, and beats women up at night clubs. Honestly, Ezra needs to disappear from movies, cause continuing to give Ezra work is basically enabling them and their deviant violent behavior.
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2290 Location: In front of my computer |
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Lordy, act-age still hurts me to this day. I love that series. I think I'll always love the series. I have the first two volumes in English and I read through them (and what scans I can find) occasionally, and I'll still get that rush of seeing Kei's acting on the page. I'll always be sad that the series will never get the ending it deserved. But that love also comes under a big cloud, knowing what Matsuki did and what a terrible person he is. For that reason and knowing that Usazaki asked for it to be cancelled as well, I know it was good that the series was cancelled and removed so he could no longer profit from it. Still, knowing that it was good doesn't make it any less sad.
So I sympathize with those that are in the same boat here with Kenshin. I know my husband likes the series, and is still casually trying to find and buy the English volumes from second-hand shops, but he finds it hard to be excited for the new series. I feel as though he's in the same boat as I am with act-age, but the difference is that there's nothing new to come of act-age and likely never will again. Kenshin, on the other hand, continues on. Sure, he could go with less-than-legal means to enjoy the new show, but that doesn't exactly skirt around the fact that there is a new show period. He may not add to the profitability, but it's still a very odd idea that Watsuki is able to continue to put out new stories and have his work get a new anime after what he has done. I know Kenshin holds a huge place in folks' hearts, and the idea of a brand new adaptation is exciting and I'm betting it'll be gorgeous, but I can imagine it's going to be a hard thing for fans to wrestle with on whether or not they want to support this show or not given where the profits will go. |
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GWOtaku
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Regarding this excerpt:
I'm not sure the logic of this works, or if it does it implies certain concessions. Rurouni Kenshin the manga ended in 1999. So okay, if Watsuki's behavior didn't start until long after that date, a reasonable person can feel the situation is not so bad? That issue aside, of all of the things that have been said about all of this, there's no argument from any direction that even suggests any form of Rurouni Kenshin is informed by this perversion. My point being that "Watsuki is a pedophile" has, near as I can see, nothing to do with engaging the work critically. Last edited by GWOtaku on Tue Jun 20, 2023 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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WisteriaCrow
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Child porn and offending pedophiles. No one can choose what disgusting paraphilia they're born with. But they can generally choose how they manage it or let it affect their actions. |
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juaifan
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So are drugs, and yet this column paints Pierre Taki as a cool guy who did a cool crime of snorting and selling cocaine and they're perfectly fine with supporting him and his work Apparently emotions and subjectivity do come into play here on defining what crime is okay to forgive and what isn't. Besides, many states in America are moving to do away with the sex offender registry list and trying to destigmatize a lot of those types of crimes as well. Agree or disagree with these things if you want, but society is moving forward with the idea it's not as big of a deal as people are making them out to be. As of 2023 only 3 states have lifetime registry at this point because it's been deemed unconstitutional everywhere else. The only holdouts are South Carolina, Alabama and Florida. Yeah, I'll admit it seems weird to me that "pedophiles are bad, actually" is becoming a less popular statement. I grew up constantly hearing diddling kids was considered a bad thing, and it's weird seeing everywhere saying it's now not that bad a thing. Just like weed is legal in a lot of states now too. Times change, for better or worse. Society is changing and there's probably not a lot any one person can do if they want to be a holdout. The way I look at it is Watsuki did a pretty minor thing compared to actual rapists and molesters so I don't mind supporting Kenshin and the like since I enjoy it and society in general says it's not a big deal these days. Last edited by juaifan on Tue Jun 20, 2023 4:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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KitKat1721
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Separating the art from the artist (especially when said artist is still alive) is always going to differ from person to person as everyone has their own limits. Like I don't really have an issue if it's just something stupid someone said once, financial scandals (i.e. Ufotable's tax evasion stuff), or personal drama that doesn't necessarily need to be public to begin with. But when you start getting into crimes like domestic or sexual abuse... yeah it becomes a lot more difficult to navigate. I know without a doubt that I personally don't see myself being able to simply revisit Kenshin as a franchise any time soon, let alone contribute to the author's financial gains from a reboot being licensed for streaming.
That being said, I do wonder what the licensing situation would have been if not for Aniplex (and thus Aniplex of America for whom CR airs all their titles). While there are other similar cases where shows kept their licenses (while not convicted, the Fruits Basket 2001 director was another example I remembered that wasn't in the article), this is easily one of the worst, most high-profile brand-new releases. It's one thing to keep an existing license, but I wonder if a company like CR, Netflix, Viz, etc... would have decided to forgo licensing a new property altogether or not. I know CR is streaming it, but that's kind of a given with Aniplex and a lot easier for the company to basically point the finger at them while still reaping the benefit. Last edited by KitKat1721 on Tue Jun 20, 2023 4:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5369 |
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As sad as it might be, they might not even see it as an issue. I mean if took that long for the law to come into place, there must be a dismissive attitude towards it over there. |
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Sakurafire_
Posts: 65 |
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@juaifan
That's a lot of words for "red flag". |
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