Forum - View topic

Answerman - Are Artists Apologizing and Self-Censoring More These Days?

I think Kawahara's apology to the voice actors was primarily motivated by his personality rather than external pressures. In the latest Newtype interview, a producer described him as the kind of person who is "always considerate of others", which lines up what a lot of people say about him, including his editor and the fans who meet him in person. Kawahara has also been on record criticising certain aspects of his work in the past, such as Asuna's role in the Fairy Dance arc and the pacing of the Aincrad arc. He's the kind of person who is frank about where he believes he can improve, although I wouldn't go far enough to say that he expresses "shame" about his old work.

It feels to me that Kawahara's apology to the voice actors was unprompted. He wrote a string of tweets preceding the apology saying how much he respects the anime staff. Read in that light, his comment about the anime having more impact than his novels is not criticism of the rape scene. He was doing that typical humble author thing of praising others by lowering himself.

So yeah, I wouldn't say that this case is a good example of the trends being talked about in this article and thread.

I think you're underplaying the Olympic factor actually. TV, government and other more obvious media definitely have it forefront on their minds, but that (and the pervasive media propaganda about it) seep into the general population, and there is definitely a general "we are being watched by the whole world now" sentiment that is growing ever stronger.
It was there beforehand, sure, but the Olympics have hightended it considerably.

And it's relatively common for an artist to look over an old work and think that, in retrospect, they may have pushed things too far. Satoshi Kon has said as much about the simulated rape scene in Perfect Blue. ("I think I overdid it," he says in an interview.)

I think artists should stop apologizing for everything under the sun. It seems to me that the new puritanism we see developing and spreading through social media is not a Western only phenomenon. Sad days when artists feel they have to apologize to appease the loudest screamers online.

I mean, we've got an author saying "my early work contained too much rape: I'm a better author now, and can get the dramatic effects I was trying for without rape, which is good because rape has narrative/enjoyment side-effects that I don't like"

And people are complaining.

This isn't support for author autonomy, is it? Quite the reverse: It's support for books that have rape scenes: the author wants to write less rape and they want him to write more, his own wishes be buggered.

One might conclude that these are two sides of the same coin: that their lack of concern for authorial autonomy is of a piece with their lack of concern for bodily autonomy in their fiction, that really all that this is about is their own personal desires and pleasures without regard for the wishes of anybody else, in sex and writing alike.

I've yet to see anyone in this thread (or any of the numerous thread surrounding this topic, be it SAO, Goblin Slayer, or any other show or game in the last few months that made the subject relevant) insist that sexual assault should never be portrayed in fiction. I've seen people argue that it's a far too common plot device. I've seen people criticize specific examples as tasteless or poorly done or outright exploitative. But if you think people are insisting that rape should never, ever be used in a work of fiction, you're tilting and windmills.

I mean, we've got an author saying "my early work contained too much rape: I'm a better author now, and can get the dramatic effects I was trying for without rape, which is good because rape has narrative/enjoyment side-effects that I don't like"

And people are complaining.

This isn't support for author autonomy, is it? Quite the reverse: It's support for books that have rape scenes: the author wants to write less rape and they want him to write more, his own wishes be buggered.

One might conclude that these are two sides of the same coin: that their lack of concern for authorial autonomy is of a piece with their lack of concern for bodily autonomy in their fiction, that really all that this is about is their own personal desires and pleasures without regard for the wishes of anybody else, in sex and writing alike.

Also what Kawahara Reki said was more along the lines that now that Sword Art Online has gone mainstream he would tone down the violence in future light novels which is fairly typical.

A person can make a pro-censorship argument about drugs, robbery, sexual assault, murder, or any other crime with the argument that only nice things should be put in fictional stories. Personally I think that mature shows can deal with mature subjects.