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

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:

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.

Does anyone actually call themselves 'alt-right'? Non-ironically or as a joke to mess with people I mean. I've really only ever seen it used as a label people apply to people without their consent for silly things like liking or disliking certain movies or TV shows. Like someone said earlier, obvious a Japanese person is not going to be 'alt right' if that means being a white supremacist or whatever. No offense, but for all talk about folks disliking conspiracy theories stuff like this sounds like a conspiracy theory itself. "No no, you don't get it, this is what they REALLY mean! It's all a ruse! You got to read between the lines and remove the wool from over your eyes to finally see the truth.". Not everyone who thinks censorship sucks has some kind of ulterior motive. Humans are complex creatures with a variety of different thoughts and beliefs. Most of these things are not partisan issues at all.

Nah, even more explicitly political than that. In the classroom I've been in for two weeks, there's a book about the "residential schools" that took indigenous children away from their families, cut their hair, and abused them. I've read books about water protectors, people who protest gas and oil pipelines that could potentially pollute the water supply and environment; about Pride; about public figures like Ruth Bader Ginsberg and a variety of other public figures. We have a book called "Antiracist Baby". One of my favorite books to read to toddlers is called "Everywhere Babies" and depicts a huge variety of ethnicities and family structures in a very casual, but also clearly deliberate way.

I'd say if anything, books aimed at young children tend to be more strongly political than those for other age ranges, because so many of them serve a didactic function and have values encoded in them.

In case you didn't read the article, Konaka himself has been posting about his beliefs in dangerous conspiracy theories on his blog (such as misinformation about COVID-19) and that he trusts a conspiracy theorist YouTuber over professionals in the academic/scientific sphere. He literally admitted it on his blog.

His views about "cancel culture" did not come out of nowhere. While boycotts do exist in Japan, the history and nuance behind "cancel culture" as a phrase was created from the West. The "cancel culture" stuff came from how his favorite conspiracy theorist YouTuber got banned (and rightfully so as he was spreading misinformation). It's not hard to notice how his views have bled into the script that he 100% wrote for this event.

If the article was just the first two paragraphs talking about how the Digimon characters fight political correctness, then you would have no reason to think anything more of it like other times ANN has reported on a show making a statement or getting political. But specifically making 90% of the article about Konaka and his blog and accusing him of being some unhinged conspiracy nut motivated by his own interest it completely changes the context of the topic and makes people think they're related. It's a far cry from the way stuff like these articles are written. No rationalizing that it was solely the product of one single writer rather than multiple people on the Pretty Cure team or Toei at large. No linking or posting exerts from said individuals blog about weird random political musings to try to discredit them or question their motivation for putting that in the show. It was simply taken at face value and accepted rather than trying to downplay it.


There was also the Seven Seas articles on when they censored problematic stuff from their light novels English releases didn't post the editor's and translator's social media feeds of their own political rants and beliefs to get people to think "Oh, they're one of those super online political Twitter people who hate seeing things they dislike in media, that's why they felt the need to censor things, got it."

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.

immblueversion wrote:

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.

I did not see anyone comment on it at all until the English speaking fanbase became upset. Then I saw a few Japanese people talk about it. Here is the Togetter discussion about if you are interested and want to read some comments.

https://togetter.com/li/1754492

Please remember that political correctness (ポリコレ) is generally has a negative stigma in Japan and isseen as harmful to artistic freedom but it seems the same is not true for America.

Overall it does not seem to be a big incident. Please remember that political correctness (ポリコレ) is generally has a negative stigma in Japan and isseen as harmful to artistic freedom but it seems the same is not true for America.

The same Japan where they also arrested an artist for making a kayak in the shape of a vagina?

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:

The same Japan where they also arrested an artist for making a kayak in the shape of a vagina?

That artist got in trouble because she was distributing uncensored photos/videos of her genitalia in the process of making her art which is illegal in Japan.

She broke the common obscenity law so she had to pay a fine. Freedom of expression doesn't apply when you're actually breaking the law in the process. Not really comparable to people just being upset that a show said or did something they dislike.

Cardcaptor Takato wrote:

The same Japan where they also arrested an artist for making a kayak in the shape of a vagina?

That artist got in trouble because she was distributing uncensored photos/videos of her genitalia in the process of making her art which is illegal in Japan. She broke the common obscenity law so she had to pay a fine. Freedom of expression doesn't apply when you're actually breaking the law in the process. Not really comparable to people just being upset that a show said or did something they dislike.

That artist got in trouble because she was distributing uncensored photos/videos of her genitalia in the process of making her art which is illegal in Japan. She broke the common obscenity law so she had to pay a fine. Freedom of expression doesn't apply when you're actually breaking the law in the process. Not really comparable to people just being upset that a show said or did something they dislike.