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

Bro I've got some news for you there

Unless whatever She-Ra punched was actually called "The Patriarchy" and its attack was "Wage Gap" I think you're being pretty disingenuous comparing it to how blatant and on-the-nose this recent Konaka project is with its messaging, which borders on propaganda. And in answer to your question, it depends on the context and what constitutes politics. Some people say the increase in LGBT characters in kids shows is "political" but I disagree with that sentiment. There are many examples of harmful left-wing politics being pushed in kids shows which I also abhor. I don't even necessarily disagree that Cancel Culture and Political Correctness are growing out of control and need to be discussed and critiqued more, but I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't acknowledge that a child-friendly franchise like Digimon is not the appropriate space for Konaka's beliefs to be pushed, at least not in such an unsubtle way. There are plenty of kids shows which explore controversial and dark themes but do it in a way where it flies completely over the young viewers' heads until they re-watch it as an adult. I guess I'm more annoyed by Konaka's crappy writing.

I didn't mean the political correctness stuff in the show was specifically about the anime dub's edits, just that Digimon has had tons of content edited out in the west so it's not a politically correct show to begin with. Little wonder they wouldn't care about being perceived as politically correct or speaking out against it, I say..

He hasn't worked in anime in 15 years and his coworkers made fun of Chiaki J. Konaka in NieA_7. A show from 2000. The early warnings. Konaka did some good work in his career but the man is scum and the signs were always there.

Just look at Kadokawa, JC Staff, and Ken Akamatsu. They simply don't want your politics polluting their media.

This isn't necessarily a matter of Konaka turning "alt-right". I'm not at all going to defend Konaka's views, but I think it's important to provide some broader context. Keep in mind that I might have a degree in Japanese linguistics and history, but this is still in part based on my own observations and inferences, so treat it as my perspective (this might be long)

Let me guess Gonzo in the muppet babies wearing a dress and some people to no one’s surprise getting upset about it?

By the "west" you mean the U.S? Because in some foreign dubs, like the Latin American Spanish dub, most of the Spanish dubs use the uncensored Japanese footage, at least until the latest series, so please stop using Cold War terminology thinking that your values from your country applies to everyone else.

Though I would also say even in the West this is a common tactic of conspiracy theorists to try and normalize their views by arguing they're not actually conspiracy theorists and they're "just asking questions." Most media savvy conspiracy theorists will rarely actually label themselves as such as a way of deflecting criticism and making it seem like everyone else is the ones being unreasonable. Like most anti vaxxers will never actually say they hate all science or that they don't believe in any medicine but they just have "concerns" about mercury and they want "safe" vaccines or whatever. So like if Konaka is supporting known alt right media figures and using his platforms to advance their ideas, it's pretty much a distinction without a difference at that point and unless he's completely lost any rational thinking, Konaka is never going to explicitly say he's alt right, especially if he's still hoping to get that Despera anime funded.

Honesty, what strikes me almost as much as Konaka's descent into conspiracy lunacy is how HACKY this plot summary sounds. Like, maybe the actual work is more nuanced, but this plot summary reads like the work of an angry 14 year old.

Remember Serial Experiments Lain? People discussed the themes of that show for years because Konaka was skilled enough to write a story with multiple layers, with nuance and subtlety which respected the audience enough to let them interpret it their own way. Even the original Tamers, which was a kids' show, had a lot of complex points to make about the internet, popular culture, and how people handle (and repress) grief. I just feel like the Konaka of that era would never do anything as amateurish as turn his heroes into mouthpieces for his opinions and have them fight a big monster named "Political Correctness." That's not a story, that's the equivalent of one of those Onion political cartoon parodies, only done completely sincerely. All that's missing is the crying Statue of Liberty.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this just gives the sense that (to put it kindly) Konaka's best days as a writer are behind him, if this is all he's capable of now. It's pretty sad to think about given that I still recall the days when he was THE hottest writer in anime (of course, I collected Lain on VHS, so...those days were a while ago.)