The Four Color Media Monitor

CNN wrote about a manga story, one originally published as far back as a quarter-century ago but recently updated, that warns of impending disasters like earthquakes:

A Japanese comic book warns of a “real catastrophe.” A psychic predicts mass destruction. A feng shui master urges people to stay away.

This might sound like the plot of a disaster movie but for Japan’s tourism industry, a recent spate of so-called earthquake-related “predictions” like these has led to more superstitious travelers, particularly in East Asia, canceling or delaying their holidays.

Seismologists have long warned that accurately predicting when an earthquake might strike is all but impossible. Japan is a country with a good track record of withstanding even powerful tremors and the prospect of a major quake is something its population lives with on a daily basis.

But the fear of a “big one,” amplified by both soothsayers and social media, is prompting some travelers to get cold feet. And for many, it’s a comic book that’s scaring them away.

Published by manga artist Ryo Tatsuki in 1999, “The Future I Saw” warned of a major disaster in March 2011, a date which turned out to coincide with the cataclysmic quake that struck Japan’s northern Tohoku region that month.

Her “complete version” released in 2021 claimed that the next big earthquake will hit this July.

Let's hope not, but it still pays to be vigilant about whether these awful effects can occur, and it is a shame there's travelers who're being spooked away after reading these manga stories, if only because it surely doesn't pay to be fearful. That the manga may have wound up predicting what occurred in 2011 though, is certainly stunning. So, could there be anything to writing such stories as exploration of possibilities, if not predictions? Only time will tell.

Labels: Europe and Asia, history, manga and anime, msm propaganda, science