The Four Color Media Monitor

A writer at Giant Freakin' Robot is complaining about the theme of slavery in Japanese isekai anime tales, and it doesn't sound like she's doing it for the right reasons:

With pretty much any form of media you get, if you enter medieval times or something similar, slavery is brought up as a prominent plot point in the story. However, in Isekai slavery anime, it’s much more prominent and horrible to watch, primarily because most of these plots that feature slavery also include a romance between the slaves and the person who freed (bought) them. It’s a gross plot point that’s weak in execution and needs to go away.

Something tells me she's obfuscating whether the rescuers actually continue to keep the slave as one, or whether they free them and the slave is so grateful and falling in love with her savior, she begins a romance with him while gaining personal agency and independence.

There is an argument that Isekai slavery is fine because they are often set in a time when slavery was prominent in history. While it’s true that slavery was more prominent in certain eras, Isekai stories often change around a lot of details to make the story more interesting. If the story can add running toilets and elaborate magic systems, they can eliminate slavery.

Well gee, if you think mangakas should actually tackle the idea of abolishing slavery in whatever form it takes in these otherworldly dimensions, then why not be more specific? And another big problem with this puff piece is that the writer may retain a double-standard on slavery from a modern perspective - does she have any issue with slavery in Islamic countries, past and present? It's still a very serious issue in modern times (H/T: Geller Report), and if the columnist is going to ground to a halt on a subject like that, then the whole argument remains unconvincing, and comes off as more of a cynical attempt at virtue-signaling for the sake of wrecking creative license.

Also, this isn’t actually all that true. Slavery has always been a part of human history. However, it wasn’t as prominent during Medieval times as Isekai slavery tropes would have you believe. From the 4th century to the 10th century, serfdom was much more prominent.

And this part certainly runs the gauntlet of obscuring the aforementioned subject. It's worth considering that in the 7th century, when Islam rose up, slavery did too in such societies. Naturally, you cannot expect such ill-informed writers to consider that, nor how statements like the above obscure half the era spoken about, or how slavery became more prominent in the latter.

While it’s incredibly frustrating already that slavery is so prominent in many Isekais, the bigger problem is the purpose of this slavery. Usually, the Isekai slavery trope is used to add a love interest for the main character. We see this in The Rising of the Shield Hero and even The Ancient Magus’ Bride, though this one technically isn’t an Isekai.

Ah, so the complaint is about whether there's even a romance. Well what does that mean? That the hero shouldn't fall in love with a lady in distress while freeing her, and the lady shouldn't fall in love with her savior? This reminds me of some of the ramblings of the Canadian feminist activist Anita Sarkeesian over a decade ago, who, along with a number of propaganda outlets, made a bizarre complaint about women being "prizes" in video games, and that it "should bother you". All that does is make it sound like the player's taking the damsel from one form of slavery and hostage situation into another, and I don't think somebody who makes statements invalidating any part of Israel has any business lecturing about "tropes" in video games. However, quite a few of the sex-negative ideologues making arguments like Sarkeesian's do seem to be very hostaile to Israel simultaneously. And what if it turns out to be the same with those whining about slavery in isekai adventures too?

Isekai slavery takes an already gross romance genre, harems, and makes it even worse. If a man can’t get partners without having to buy or “save” them, then they shouldn’t have a partner. It wouldn’t take much more to have the main character be a good person and gain a group of women because he did good things, saved them from fates like death from a monster, or even saved their village.

I'm sure this is also an exaggeration, because there's bound to be stories out there where a woman is capable of putting up a good fight against savages, but I guess for somebody this awkward, she believes the lady cannot have flaws or make mistakes of any kind in battle, and likely believes it's not even worth depicting the heroine figuring out how to overcome setbacks and defeat the enemies. And if isekai's alleged approach is really such a problem for her, why doesn't she turn to plain romance tales set in what passes for a regular world in manga/anime instead? Better still, why doesn't she write her own isekai story, manga or USA-comics style, and present us all with an example of how she thinks it should be done? Or, why doesn't she just stop reading manga altogether? Anybody who's going to be that fussy and hysterical about foreign storytelling has effectively made themselves a laughing stock. Does she really think a USA creator's incapable of doing a tale about slavery in questionable taste? What makes manga so special in this regard that people like her have to whine about it 24 hours a day? This reeks more of a subtle attack on the whole notion of love interests. What, is romance really "gross"? Sadly, that's bound to be exactly what she's implying.

Another issue is that Isekai slavery doesn’t ever seem to be a problem. I get the phrase, “When in Rome,” but the main character is meant to be a noble hero saving others. It’s hard to imagine that these moral people don’t even blink at seeing slaves. Personally, I find that it makes me like the characters much less, and their whole quest to save the day or be a better person feels shallow and fake.

And what if it turns out there are some manga and anime productions where slavery is described as a problem? I think Skeleton Knight in Another World is one example where a battle is waged against slavemongers, proving her issues are exaggerated. There certainly are stories, sci-fi or otherwise, where flawed but heroic men need to save a lady in distress from a hostage situation, and if she could make such a fuss about slavery in isekai, why don't those other examples count?

I think anime and manga writers need to step away from the Isekai slavery premise and come up with something new and interesting. Have the main characters find partners in a different way than them buying them, and ignore the premise of slavery in general. This would make for a much more interesting and unique series, and one much less annoying to watch.

Really, and what if there are some? Why, now that I think of it, funny she doesn't complain about any example where a woman in this genre is depicted more as a villainess upon entering these otherworldly dimensions, because if mangakas are coming up short in how to depict a lady in the lead in such a genre, that doesn't help matters. So, I'm not convinced this is an altruistic argument, and besides, the columnist has given signs she's not well informed on the overall history of the topic of slavery. And all this from a news site where they also published an item promoting Rurouni Kenshin, whose mangaka, Nobuhiro Watsuki, was arrested several years back on child pornography charges by Japan's police. The GFR writer for this one said:

However, the creators of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki, began producing the sequel in Jump SQ magazine in September 2017, before the whole thing went on hiatus in December 2017 over some very, very disturbing charges aimed at its creator. The series later resumed publication in June 2018. Liden Films is currently re-adapting the entire manga, which is great, considering that the narrative continued past the original run, providing more source material for the studio to adhere to and potentially eliminate fillers.

Those interested in watching Rurouni Kenshin can watch the first season of the new anime on Crunchyroll—though it requires an $8 premium subscription.

This may have been written by a different person, but it still sounds very backhanded to initially acknowledge the charges against Watsuki are disturbing, yet proceed to gush over the new take on the Kenshin anime nevertheless. Even if the art can be parted from the artist, does that mean we should be financing his pockets, as paying several dollars for viewing could end up doing? Nope. I'm sorry, but whatever significance Rurouni Kenshin had 3 decades ago has been effectively demolished as a result of Watsuki's vile behavior. Why, to say the charges were "aimed" at the man instead of "against" is also problematic. Don't be fooled by any encouragement the writer of that puff piece gives for subscribing to a TV channel to view a tainted product.

And what a shame some folks sorely lacking in altruism are the ones to make arguments about what to believe is wrong with manga/anime, which explains why their "belief" that "something new and interesting" should be conceived rings only so hollow. They don't offer any examples of what they think would make an interesting premise for a story, so what good does it do to complain? What they should really be doing is writing their very own comics story, and not lecturing the audience about other people's comics, foreign or domestic. Their whole approach is a joke.

Labels: Europe and Asia, history, islam and jihad, manga and anime, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, politics