New adaptation of Fist of the North Star said to be unnecessary

Recently, a writer for Tokyo Weekender said the new adaptation of Fist of the North Star, rendered very heavily in CGI, was uncalled for:

CGI in anime is not inherently a problem. The sequel to the Trigun reboot, Stargaze (2026), was 3DCG, which, yes, did make the characters look a bit like puppeteered action figures when they were standing around and talking. But when the action hit, it was a thing of beauty. The camera danced around while keeping the proportions of the characters intact (something occasionally lost with 2D animation), allowing for a whole new world of high-octane anime action. This approach would have been welcomed with open arms by long-time fans of FOTNS and newcomers to the series. Characters looking like they are wearing plastic hair molds on their heads is a small price to pay for transcendental action.

But the fight scenes simply aren’t anything to write home about. The camera work is static, there are no heart-pumping long-take shots where the CGI could really shine, and the whole thing rarely goes beyond Kenshiro delivering a kick or a punch with a bit more fluidity than in the ‘80s anime. But not by much. And, honestly, if we’re comparing the two shows, then the original Fist of the North Star, with its limited animation from well over 40 years ago, does hold up much better than everything that we’ve seen from TMS so far.

Not Taking Full Advantage of the Visual Medium That Is Anime

In the interest of fairness, it’s worth mentioning that the computer-animated Fist of the North Star does follow the manga much more closely than previous anime. So close that some shots from the new show are straight-up computer copies of the manga panels. Here’s the thing about that, though. What works in manga doesn’t always translate well to an animated medium. It’s fine to tweak and add things to adaptations that would have broken the flow of a comic as long as it utilizes the visual medium of animation.

The ‘80s anime understood that assignment well by throwing in occasional flashbacks to some characters’ past, which are only talked about in the manga and the 2026 series. Another way that the old Fist of the North Star improved the story was by bringing in the occasional comic relief a little bit sooner, like with the orphan thief Bat. Eventually, the creators of the manga figured out that a story that’s all darkness, all sadness and all violence all the time would ultimately start to feel repetitive, so they started using the odd gag or absurd situations to offset this. But those weren’t there in the very beginning.

The CGI FOTNS had the benefit of decades of hindsight to consider fixing this but they didn’t, deciding instead to stick religiously to the manga, and the anime suffers for it. It’s an animated series that’s paced like a comic book, and the two do not work well together. Never in a tale of a lone martial arts genius fighting post-apocalyptic murderers — who make Lord Humungus from Mad Max 2 look tiny — should a viewer ever feel, well, bored. And yet here we are.

I've thought for a while that there's way too much use of special effects in live action science-fantasy movies, but this sure gives it a whole new meaning. And then, let's consider the violence is much more graphic here than in the original mid-80s adaptation:

2026’s Fist of the North Star does not have those kinds of constraints. It will show you the inside of a bad guy’s brain within the first few minutes of Episode 1. When the CGI villains explode from within, you get to see in full detail how their heads just open up and spill on the ground. For veteran fans of gory action, the new anime delivers the goods… But, again, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. The 2003 – 2004 original video animation (OVA) New Fist of the North Star was partially made to give fans all the gore they’ve been missing all these years. In most places, it’s much more violent than the new anime.

Seriously, while they may make a proper distinction between good and evil, do we really need this kind of vehicle? Hardly. If there's no comic relief here and it perpetuates the modern playbook eschewing brightness for all darkness, that's another huge letdown, and suggests they're pandering more to people who can't appreciate the light. And that's decidedly why it's best to refrain from this new take on Buronson's combination of Bruce Lee with Mad Max.

An anime localization that was adapted to live action winds up on TV streaming instead of theaters

If anybody's familiar with the Voltron cartoon of the early 80s, they surely know that it's actually a localization and combination of 2 anime maxi-series from 1981-82, Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, which, much like several other anime localizations up to the turn of the century, underwent heavy censorship just because the localizers didn't have the courage to market for adults, even as I admit there's at least one violent scene in the former that was disturbingly jarring for its time.

Now, as I've been aware for a few years, a live action film adaptation of the western Voltron localization was developed, and looks like its completed, but as Decider now announces, it won't be released theatrically, and is only going to streaming, or perhaps video, as may have been the custom up to the turn of the last century:

Fans of Voltron anxiously awaiting the release of the upcoming live-action remake will not be heading to theaters to watch it.

Amazon MGM Studios’ live-action remake of the ’80s animated series will head straight to streaming on Prime Video upon its release, Collider reports. According to the outlet, the move was announced by the studio on Monday (May 11). The exact release date has yet to be announced. [...]

Voltron: Defender of the Universe, which aired from 1984 until 1985, followed “five lion robots and their pilots as they fight the evil forces of King Zarkon and Prince Lotor,” per IMDb. Among those in the voice cast were Peter Cullen, Michael Bell, Jack Angel, Neil Ross, Lennie Weinrib, and B.J. Ward.

Notice though, that they don't seem to mention the Japanese origins? What's up with that? Just because the twosome may not have been the most popular series in Japan at the time, as this website notes (and this one), they have to leave that all out? Make what you will of what they're adapting, but that's no excuse to conceal the origins of the 2 cartoons combined into one, which I think was meant to provide a sufficient amount of episodes so that networks would buy it according to expected quotas for marketing at the time, which was something like 80 parts.

But as this news suggests, the new live action movie may not be the exciting adventure they're making it out to be, otherwise it probably would've gone to theaters more easily. Or, they may have estimated the finished product will not do well enough theatrically to justify its release there. And if this news from 5 years ago said anything, the Japanese audience would possibly have passed on it, and surely wouldn't be pleased if they knew a lot of USA press sources were failing to acknowledge the country of origin both anime series came from. That's the reason this may not be the big event some were hoping it'd be.

And lest we forget, the Saint Seiya adaptation from 3 years ago was certainly a dud.

FCBD will see changes, based on new competing event with different publishers

Fox8 reports that this year's Free Comic Book Day held in the Piedmont Triad area (North Carolina) will also see another alternate event, previously mentioned here:

Historically, many of the major comic publishers, including giants Marvel and DC, have participated in the event together. This year, however, the event is splitting in two.

The breakup follows after Diamond Comic Distributors went bankrupt in 2025, leaving other companies to swoop in and pick up where Diamond left off.

The rights to the “Free Comic Book Day” brand were sold to Universal Distribution, which plans to bring Free Comic Book Day back on May 2. On the same day, Penguin Random House plans to launch a rival event called Comics Giveaway Day.

This means you’ll still get plenty of free comics, but this time they will be separated with some coming under the Free Comic Book Day branding and others arriving under the Comics Giveaway Day branding.

Free Comic Book Day will include publishers like DC, Image, Dynamite and Archie Comics.

Comics Giveaway Day will include publishers such as Marvel, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios and Tokyopop.

They certainly did split into 2 rival events, with 3-4 publishers each, if we go by what's listed. But what if any of their offerings amount to little more than "throwaway day"? Years ago when FCBD first launched, I obtained a few items that weren't worth the paper they were printed upon, artistically speaking. So why must we assume this year's double event will be any improvement? I have no idea why Marvel decided to shift to a competing event, unless they believe there's still plenty of mindless zombies out there who'll buy their books no matter what the quality, or lack thereof, but this really isn't anything to be excited about anymore. Interesting though that the company who must've bought some of Diamond's old assets is actually going to continue FCBD though. Because who knows if it'll turn a profit for them any more than it ever did for Diamond? For all we know, it probably won't.

What would be the reason manga might be losing younger readers in Japan?

According to Automaton, a researcher in Japan suggests manga is losing younger audiences because they prefer digital but allegedly can't afford it:

The Japanese manga and comic book market size reached a record high of about 700 billion yen (roughly $4.4 billion USD) in the 2020s. But while this may give the impression that manga are being read more than ever in the past couple of years, Japanese author, print journalist and publishing industry researcher Ichishi Iida suggests otherwise. In a column for President Online, Iida compiled numerous recent research reports supporting his theory that the manga industry is seeing a big decline in readership, specifically children and teens.

Traditionally, serialized manga in Japan was largely popularized through magazines and anthologies, such as The Weekly Shonen Jump. Up until 2004, the manga market was significantly larger for manga magazines than for standalone books, Iida suggests. According to data by the Japan School Library Association, at the peak of magazines’ popularity during the 80s, middle and junior high schoolers would read about 10 magazines per month. Fast forward to 2025, that number dropped to just 1. Additionally, the proportion of those who don’t read magazines at all has reached 77.7%.

Iida cautions that, with there being few long-term surveys that provide insight into manga readership over the years, it might be difficult to determine how these trends apply to the readership of standalone manga publications. However, when it comes to manga magazines, school surveys over the years confirm the trend that readership is decreasing among children. Iida points out that, for example, while Corocoro Comics still had a strong following among elementary school boys in both 1996 and 2019, the same couldn’t be said for Shonen Jump among middle and high schoolers, with readership plummeting to roughly one tenth of what it used to be (research data provided by an undisclosed school).

Using data from multiple different surveys, including the 1985 and 1995 data by Japan School Library Association and 2023 data by Benesse Educational Research & Development Institute and Tokyo University, Iida concludes that manga readership among children and teenagers is declining both with physical publications and in digital form. Note that due to the difference in survey methods and sample populations, these results are only for reference, as the author explains.

Something not clear in the article is the following query - what if the plummeting birthrate in Japan plays a part in the decline of readership among any age group? Doesn't that concern anyone? If there's not enough new births, there won't be enough of an audience for manga, on or offline. So why don't they worry about how to produce new organic readerships?

Interestingly, the article does say physical manga's still more popular among children than digital, so until the birthrate problem can hopefully be solved, maybe that's a good sign, since it's better for people not to spend too much time on the phone and tablet. Sometimes, reading a printed book and comic can be the best option available.

The manga industry's backdoor atrocity

Previously, I'd written about a scandal involving publisher Shogakukan hiring a disgraced mangaka who'd been charged with sexual abuse despite the severity of his offenses. Now, India Times reports it's become even more outraging, as it turned out another disgraced mangaka was also rehired, one who'd disgraced himself 6 years ago:

Manga ONE and Shogakukan are facing heavy criticism after it emerged that Act Age writer Tatsuya Matsuki quietly returned to the platform under a pseudonym. The revelation came days after another convicted offender was also rehired, triggering anger across the manga industry and prompting several creators to withdraw their works.

Shogakukan’s digital manga platform Manga ONE is under intense scrutiny after it emerged that two convicted sex offenders were quietly allowed to work on the platform under different names. The controversy first focused on Shoichi Yamamoto, but new details soon revealed another shocking case. Act Age writer Tatsuya Matsuki had also returned to the industry under a false identity.

The revelations have triggered a wave of criticism from fans, artists, and industry insiders. Several well known manga creators have already withdrawn their works from the platform, while readers are questioning how such hiring decisions were approved in the first place. [...]

Weekly Shonen Jump cancelled Act Age without delay. All volumes were removed from stores and digital platforms. Publisher Shueisha publicly condemned the incident and cut ties with the author. At the time, many assumed Matsuki’s manga career was effectively over.

Secret return to manga under a different name

Years later, that assumption has been challenged. In 2024, editors at Shogakukan’s Manga ONE platform reportedly contacted Matsuki after seeing a novel he had self published online. Following internal discussions, they approved a new manga project written by him under a pseudonym.

He used the name Miki Yatsunami. Under that identity, Matsuki wrote a psychological series titled Seisou no Shinrishi. The story explored themes of trauma and mental health.

However, the illustrator working on the series reportedly did not know Matsuki’s real identity or past conviction. Shogakukan later admitted that the pen name was meant to avoid linking the project to his real name. Critics say the move instead hid important information from collaborators and readers. Once the truth became public, the series was suspended while the publisher launched a review of the decision.

Another controversial hiring fuels the backlash

The situation became even more explosive because Matsuki was not the only convicted offender linked to the platform. Days earlier, reports surfaced that Shoichi Yamamoto, who was convicted in 2020 for grooming and sexually assaulting a 15 year old student, had also returned to Manga ONE under the name Hajime Ichiro. His manga Jojin Kamen had been running on the platform since 2022.

Illustrator Eri Tsuruyoshi said on X that she had very little contact with Yamamoto and had no idea about his criminal past. She wrote that she hoped the victim could recover from the trauma. The discovery that two convicted offenders were allowed to publish under pseudonyms on the same platform has intensified criticism of Shogakukan’s editorial oversight.

When Matsuki's artist on Act-Age found out about his arrest, she cut off partnership with him. Now, a second lady illustrator's been embarrassed by publishers who kept her in the dark using a pseudonym as a disguise for the other offender. That women would be tricked into taking assignments with monsters who might be as willing to hurt them as much as their previous victims is chilling. And to think, that 2 offenders would be allowed back into the industry via the backdoor! What's so special about creators who turn out to be creeps? It reminds me that nearly a decade ago, DC had a scandal with their Vertigo line, when it turned out the writer of a comic titled Border Town was accused of sexual abuse. The editor, who was once a writer for the now defunct leftist Comics Alliance, never did any vetting on his part regarding the writers, and Ethan Van Sciver once took issue with him over that. Yet if memory serves, IDW is now employing him, and that's a disgrace.

With that told, it looks like Shogakukan's alienated a number of mangakas as a result of their Stockholm Syndrome employment:

Creators withdraw their works from Manga ONE

The fallout quickly spread across the manga industry. Several creators decided to remove their works from Manga ONE in protest. Rumiko Takahashi, the legendary creator of Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura, quietly discontinued her series on the platform.

The creators of Frieren Beyond Journey’s End, Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe, also withdrew their content. Other authors including Ryuhei Tamura, Ai Minase, Minoru Takeyoshi, and Miko Mitsuki followed with similar decisions. Their actions signal a rare public protest within the manga publishing world, where creators often avoid direct criticism of major publishers.

When somebody as prominent as Takahashi's been decides to yank her latest stories off their services, that's saying something. Those who've withdrawn their products from Shogakukan did the right thing.

Here's also the Japan Times report, which says, oddly enough:

At the time, Yatsunami was publishing the series “Act-Age” in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, produced by a different publisher, under the pen name Tatsuya Matsuki, but he was suspended after his indictment.

While aware of this, Manga One made the decision to hire him in 2024 after deeming that his efforts to not repeat his crime — such as working with professionals for rehabilitation and reintegration into society — could be trusted. The author decided to operate under a new pen name to not affect the victim, the company said.

Forget it. Sexual violence is a serious issue, and can't be excused so easily. The worst part of that flap is how Matsuki only got a suspended sentence from the courts. What's so special about a creep who commits perverted acts? Similar queries could be asked about Nobuhiro Nishiwaki, the disgraced mangaka of Rurouni Kenshin, who used the pseudonym Watsuki when he first began in the early 1990s. But this is confusing: what's the Act-Age writer's real name, Yatsunami or Matsuki? If they're trying to baffle the readership as to the exact identity, that's wrong. Whatever his exact name, what matters is that by rehiring the monster, Shogakukan is affecting the victim, slapping her in the face in the dark after the terrible experience she went through.

The Chosun reports a Korean TV station was criticized for broadcasting a moment involving the publisher too:

Although Shogakukan was featured because it was part of Kian84’s journey to meet his idol, some viewers argued that the production team was unaware of the recent “Shogakukan scandal.” The scandal erupted when it was revealed that Shogakukan had allowed a manga artist with a child sex crime conviction to return under a pseudonym, with an editor allegedly pressuring the victim to conceal the incident. [...]

While Shogakukan is a pivotal location in Japan’s publishing industry and part of Kian84’s journey to meet his idol, critics argue that its exposure on air was inappropriate given its involvement in reinstating artists linked to child sex crimes and sexual harassment. Some, however, defended the broadcast, stating that Shogakukan was not intentionally introduced but appeared incidentally during Kian84’s journey.

Maybe it was unintentional on the part of the producers, but it certainly is embarrassing as it's sad. Let's hope the victims recover, and that's something the TV station should say too.

I think after this, publishers will have to consider whether it's wise to accept work from a creator using a pseudonym instead of an actual name in official publication, since for all we know, this scandal could understadably lead some to wonder if quite a few felons are using pseudonyms to conceal their criminal records and prevent anybody from doing a background check to make sure they're not wasting money on the work of a pervert with a severe police record. Assuming Shogakukan survives this fallout, they'd do well to make sure they do background checks, and if the felon's record includes severe crimes like sexual violence, then they simply can't hire somebody that bad. And creators themselves have to learn some moral lessons. In addition, the audience and press alike have to make some sort of case why artists have to recognize the importance of responsibility to the wider public, and not commit heinous offenses if they truly want their stories to matter in the long run. So will anybody influential address these vital issues? Let's hope so.

Manga publisher hurts their reputation by employing a sex offender who wrote under a pen name

Anime Hunch reported on a case involving the manga publisher Shokagukan, who've caused a scandal by employing a convicted sex offender who'd written under a pen name, all this despite the severity of his crimes:

Shogakukan, the publisher of hit manga like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Detective Conan, confirmed on Feb 27, 2026, that it has suspended distribution of Jojin Kamen after acknowledging that its original author, Kazuaki Kurita, who wrote the series under the pen name Hajime Ichiro, was convicted in 2020 under Japan’s child pornography law.

Despite that conviction, Kurita continued publishing on the company’s Manga ONE platform for nearly six years. He also published the series Daten Sakusen (Operation Fallen Angel) under the pen name Shoichi Yamamoto.

This came to light after the latest court ruling against the author on Feb 20, 2026, where he was asked to pay damages worth 11 million to the victim.

In a formal statement, Shogakukan admitted failures in its editorial decision-making and verification process that allowed the appointment to proceed.

The editorial department issued an apology to the victim, readers, the series’ illustrator and other creators for betraying their trust.

The announcement triggered significant backlash across social media platforms, with readers and fellow creators serializing on Manga ONE publicly questioning how a previously convicted offender had been permitted to continue publishing on the platform for years.

Criticism also intensified over the reported involvement of an editor in settlement discussions between Kurita and the victim in 2021, including participation in a messaging app group chat during negotiations over compensation and conditions.

Read more at the article, which tells how repellent the crime he committed was against the girl he attacked, and no sane person should have to read his mangas as a result, and definitely not spend money on them. Here's also what Anime Corner says:

Furthermore, it was revealed that an editor at Manga ONE mediated between the individual who was assaulted and Kurita in a LINE group chat while Daten Sakusen was still ongoing. This editor is believed to be Takuya Narita, who allegedly proposed getting a settlement agreement notarized that would compensate the individual with 1.5 million yen (~$9.6k) if they did not go public about the assault and withdrew their appeal against Kurita’s manga resuming.

The editor is believed to be Narita due to a purported post from the individual who was assaulted, as reported by Japanese outlet ITmedia, and Narita’s confirmed role as editor of both Daten Sakusen and Jojin Kamen, per official X posts. (However, manga can have multiple editors.) Kyodo (via Mainichi) and Sankei report on the Manga ONE editor’s suggestion to get a document with the above terms notarized, but do not name Narita. The distribution and serialization of Jojin Kamen has now been halted.

Obviously, it's shameful the publisher would cover up a crime involved, and why waste so many trees for the sake of a story concocted by a real life monster? It's unbelievable how many irresponsible and incompetent employees there are in the entertainment industry. Some may already have read about the sexual abuse indictment Hollywood actor/director Timothy Busfield is now facing, and it was reported that Warner Brothers did not lead a convincing investigation of their own into the matter, which gives reason to believe they too were trying to cover it all up. And to think that WB was trying to get themselves sold to Netflix, the company that broadcast a smutty arthouse film called "Cuties"! Now that it looks like they've been sold to Paramount/Skydance, we can only hope somebody will make a convincing effort to clean up their conduct.

And of course, even today in Japan, they too, lest we forget, still have a lot of improvements to make, including their vetting process, which could include making sure a company's contributors don't have a severe criminal record, and if they do, they must distance themselves from the offenders immediately, without hesitation. Shokagukan, for all we know, might end up facing financial damage from this scandal, yet another example of how sexual crimes still aren't opposed properly in the Japanese system.

New ANN report suggests wages for animation in Japan not as bad as previously claimed

In a followup to this previous article, there's now a report on Anime News Network that wages for animation development aren't as bad as what the Asahi Shimbun claimed:

From reports of monthly salaries as low as 160,000 yen (US$1,034) in 2015 to the examples of scant wages seen with 2020's #AnimationPaidMe hashtag, there have been numerous horror stories about working as a newbie animator in Japan—namely, the inability to earn a living wage. To find out if this was still the case, ANN met with numerous industry individuals—from freelance and studio-employed animators to studio heads and animator rights advocates. (This article contains quotes from only a select few of them.)

However, rather than tales of doom and gloom, we found universal agreement that, over the past five years, animator wages and working conditions have improved dramatically. When it comes down to it, this is mostly due to a shift in the inner workings of the anime industry.

“Since the Japanese anime industry continues to expand, we're left with the current situation where there is inevitably a shortage of human resources.” Hiroki Yoshioka, President of animation studio ENGI, told Anime News Network.

Studios are producing more anime now than ever before, but they are struggling to keep up. This is doubly true for 3D animation teams, who face an additional rival for recruiting recently graduated animators, as many 3D animators are more interested in making games than anime, since game companies pay higher wages.

To combat this animator shortage, large-to-mid-size studios—or studios with access to parent companies' resources—have spent the last few years reorganizing their animation departments. “Until about 10 years ago, many animation production companies paid on a commission basis—though they were hiring to a certain extent. However, in recent years, animation production companies have revised their labor standards, making it necessary to hire full-time employees,” Yoshioka explained.

The best place to get these animators? Right out of school. However, that's just the first hurdle. “While hiring characteristics differ between CG and hand-drawn (paper or digital pen) animators, when it comes to hand-drawn animation, one reason for [the difficulty in recruiting] is that the level of training offered at vocational schools and universities is far from sufficient for immediate practical application,” Yoshioka continued. “Therefore, when hiring new graduates, they need to be taught [the job] from scratch.”

Junji Murata, president of MAHO FILM, shares a similar view. “They need to train animators from scratch,” he told us. “Animators are like actors. It takes a lot of training to master first-class acting, so it's not something anyone can do easily—thus, there's a shortage of talent.”

And make no mistake: turning a fresh graduate into a veteran animator is not a short process. “Even if they are paid a fixed salary as full-time employees, their skills are low, requiring companies to continue investing in their employees' growth over an average of five years,” Yoshioka said. “I believe that less than half of these employees reach a level where they can be considered a valuable asset.”

This is right in line with Murata's assessment as well: “Three to five years to become halfway competent. Ten years to become fully competent.”

Well if that's the case, it suggests some animation employees are being awfully fussy when they don't have the full skills needed to qualify, and this in an industry where merit's given higher emphasis than what the USA industry showed in past decades. So, maybe the press was just unwisely playing along without getting the whole story. Obviously, even in Japan this is a problem. So, let's hope some animators will be willing to learn some lessons moving forward about why it pays to prove they believe in being talented as much as in asking for higher salaries. That would do the whole profession a lot more good.

Japanese survey reveals many animators dissatisfied with the wages

2 months ago, the Asahi Shimbun reported wages in the anime industry aren't all that different from what the USA cartoon industry may have been said to pay in past decades:

A new government probe has exposed deep frustration among the artists who power Japan’s animation and film industries, where low pay and opaque business practices contribute to unstable working conditions.

An overwhelming 89.4 percent of film directors and staff, along with 52.1 percent of animators, said they were not satisfied with their current pay, according to a survey released on Dec. 24 by the Fair Trade Commission.

Many respondents complained that their compensation fell short of rising living costs and that the fees offered for their work were inherently low.

Some also reported that negotiations either failed to produce acceptable rates or were not available at all.

Yes, that's a shame, because for all we know, failure to pay well could one day lead to the downfall of the Japanese animation industry if they don't pay their employees as much as they're expected to produce. Even back in the USA, there's similar problems that have undoubtably come to head after so many years, and who knows, even that may bring down American animation one day, though let's not forget that, when any studio starts pushing leftist political propaganda into their cartoons, they can't be surprised if they don't do so well in the end, and as a result, the studios may not make enough money to continue paying their animators as well as they'd like. Yet depending how woke the animators are, it may not be easy to feel sorry for them if they don't make the fortunes they're hoping to accumulate.

For now, maybe Japanese studios should consider making an effort to raise the wages for their employees. And if video game producers suffer similar problems, maybe they should follow suit.

Bob Layton and Jim Lee in South Korea

The Korea Times reports 2 veteran artists, Jim Lee and Bob Layton, went to Seoul for a convention at a local specialty store. Here's what's said about the former for starters:

Lee, whose career spans decades and continents, said that while Japan’s manga industry is something he's more familiar with, Korea had remained largely unexplored territory. He noted that while DC distributes translated comics in Korea, he had not realized there was a dedicated audience actively purchasing both translated and original English versions.

Lee reflected on the global reach of comics, noting that while American comics have long enjoyed strong followings in Europe and South America, Asia, and particularly Korea, has only recently seen significant growth. Over the past two to three years, he's seen a big increase in interest, especially among younger readers — many fans in Asia were not yet born when much of his most famous work was first published.

I wonder what some of them might think if they knew he'd watered down his artwork in the past decade to appease a woke agenda, among other galling steps? Some could feel very disappointed if they knew how awful the Big Two's output has become, but obviously, Lee's not going to admit or acknowledge it. Now, here's what the latter says:

Lee wasn't the only big name in attendance that night. Many at the cafe have had the experience of being mentored by veteran comic artist and writer Bob Layton, who was also in attendance. Layton, known for his work on Iron Man, has been a regular at DCC, cultivating the local comic community and using it as an informal training ground.

“This is the one place they can buy,” said Layton, who was also in attendance, referring to the scarcity of American comic book retail spaces in Korea.

Layton also spoke candidly about the need for stronger storytelling skills among emerging artists, stressing that sustained success comes from narrative ability, not just striking images. He praised several artists present for producing full-story pages, which he said was an encouraging sign.

Explaining why he avoids consuming other comics or animated works, Layton said that fiction is work, not entertainment, allowing him to draw inspiration from history, current affairs and real-world experiences.

Here's the problem - many artists and writers today, despite what Layton says, aren't tackling the most challenging subjects at all, not Islamic terrorism, nor even modern communism. I suspect many will not even touch a subject like the recently captured Venezeulan despot Nicolas Maduro with a 10-foot pole, if at all, nor the recent resistance in Iran to the tyranny of the ayatollahs. Much as I may have more respect for Layton at this point than Lee, I realize Layton, most unfortunately, may be that much of a sellout too from a modern perspective, and not only is he unlikely to write a single story now drawing from such topics, the editors/publishers today are almost certain to reject any such story pitches.

Lee emphasized that while DC views itself as a global brand, international expansion requires careful strategy. Storytelling, he noted, does not automatically translate across cultures. Decisions regarding format, pricing, distribution and who gets to tell the stories are critical to reaching broader audiences.

Well that's another problem. If you look carefully, you'll notice most national/ethnic cultures aren't explored in mainstream like DC/Marvel, if at all, in sharp contrast to say, LGBT ideology, along with whitewashed depictions of Islam. No Bulgarian culture, and even Korean culture may not factor in, despite how 37 years ago, when William Messner-Loebs introduced Linda Park in the pages of the Flash; it's not like they explored Korean culture seriously to date there either. Suggesting Lee himself may not exactly identify as a proud Korean descendant, so much as he does as a USA leftist. Although interestingly enough, the paper says he seemingly addressed this:

Korean storytelling has gained international recognition for its emotional depth and narrative unpredictability qualities that could translate powerfully into comics, he explained.

Lee cautioned that representation in the field must go beyond the surface, including creating meaningful Korean characters and stories that engage deeply with the country's struggles, history and resilience. He described Korea as an “incredible place” for storytelling, rich with untapped narrative potential.

He also confirmed that DC is actively seeking international creators, including in Korea. While many Asian artists enter the American comics industry through variant covers, he emphasized that long-term recognition is built through interior storytelling. Writers, especially those capable of working across languages and cultures, represent the next frontier.

Out of curiosity, is he seeking say, Danish and Bulgarian talent? Or French and Dutch talent? Somehow, I get the sad feeling that's not the case, and chances are high he wouldn't accept certain forms of storytelling based on politics and culture involved. Another something that's unfortunately overlooked here is the sadly plummeting birthrate in Korea, which Lee likely didn't comment on, and won't in the pages of comics either. Yet how does he expect there to be a stable fandom in the far east if birthrates are that low? Or even the best recruits for artwork and writing? Layton probably won't address such issues either. And that's why this convention they went to at a local specialty store is unlikely to produce anything meaningful from a real life perspective, and neither Lee nor Layton are going to admit why the comics industry's suffered horribly from bad directions in the past quarter century or more.

Book Riot complains about comics being censored over allegedly right-wing standings

Looks like left-wing feminist site Book Riot is trying to make a case for censorship based upon the insinuation that right-wingers are responsible for comics being subjected to it:

Comics are a target because it’s a medium that requires a unique literacy to understand. Comic books make for easy targets because a person who has been infected by right-wing rhetoric can print the pages sitting on RatedBooks, Take Back the Classroom, or their predecessor BookLooks, and claim the comics are inappropriate without any context about the where, why, or how of that image within the book itself. Unfortunately, these people are not interested in learning literacy. By spreading these images without context, they inflame other people who don’t have the time or capacity to develop that literacy and actually “do their own research” on the matter. Comics are a collaborative dance between the words and the art. Young people with access to and exposure to comics are honing crucial intellectual skills while also enjoying creative, clever, fun, and educational stories.

Since 2021, comics have been among the top books banned in America. Many of these comics are far from new; they, too, are averaging the age of the typical high schooler. It’s worth taking a peek at the most banned comics since 2000 and seeing where and how they’re simply copied and pasted in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, with the addition of primarily queer-focused comics and comics by creators of color.

On the one hand, from what I can tell, this is a matter of whether they're stocked in schools. On the other, when I took a look at their list of banned comics since 2000, it shows Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis on the list, and it's actually surprising they allegedly care, considering Iran's one of the worst Islamic regimes still in power now, one that does simultaneously suppress LGBT practice, and so that makes it a contradiction of their whine for the sake of allowing LGBT-themed comics to be kept in school libraries. On which, Book Riot's writer doesn't even explain why they believe LGBT practice should be taught to youngsters, or why they believe it's a better role model than heterosexuality. What's their point?

Making matters worse is how the writer sets out to paint all right-wingers as inherently stupid, literally don't examine the inner content of the GNs in question, and appears to be insinuating they're the sole ones who led all these campaigns to get the comics out of the schools. And the part about comicdom needing a unique literacy to comprehend is also stupid. Whatever they contain is no different from what a plain-text book could in terms of premise and plot.

A look at PEN’s report is a look at where and how comics have been rising in their profile as among the most banned books. While the top nine most banned books did not include comics, the list of most frequently banned authors includes not one, but two comics creators: Yūsei Matsui and Atsushi Ohkubo. Matsui, creator of Assassination Classroom, saw 54 instances of his manga banned. Ohkubo, creator of Soul Eater and Fire Force, saw his manga banned 45 times. Were these one-shot manga, rather than series with numerous entries, Matsui would be the most banned author in America, with Ohkubo coming in at number two. Both would have had their manga banned twice as much as the number one most banned book in American schools for the 2024-2025 school year.

It should also be noted that if these comics/manga books are available in stores, then they're not censored, they're just not allowed in school libraries, that's all. I guess old horror films like Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street should be pushed into classrooms at all costs too, huh? The title of Assassination Classroom alone can strongly hint it's a violent affair, and we could honestly do with far less of that. Certainly if it's not a comic dealing with a serious real life issue viewed objectively, something Book Riot's writers seem otherwise disinterested in recommending as a subject for comicdom.

There's really nothing educational in what they're serving as apologists for, and if they really care, maybe they should build their own schools and libraries and then see who's interested in sending their children there to read the comics/manga they're sugarcoating. Unfortunately, when their apologia is as unintelligable as it is, you can't expect them to consider trying out such ideas.

"Deep pockets" is just the problem

WGN9 from Chicago is adding to the tiresome, unobjective discussion of the collector's mentality, following the not-really-newsworthy story of a Superman comic selling $9 million-plus on the speculator market. What's told here, though, is eyebrow raising if it's correct:

You may still remember your first comic book. Do you remember the last time you saw that comic, though?

Depending on what it is and the condition it’s in, it could be worth something – in fact, maybe a few somethings.

Last month, an issue of “Superman” sold for a record-setting $9.12 million at auction. [...]

Superman was the first superhero to appear in pop culture, and his first-ever comic was a limited print. Of the 500,000 copies ever printed of the first edition, it’s estimated that fewer than 500 remain in existence today, Lon Allen, vice president of comics at Heritage Auctions, told the Associated Press.

Seriously, when the first issue of the Man of Steel's first spinoff series from Action Comics premiered, it only saw less than a million copies printed, no matter how many sold at store level? I'm as big a fan of Supes as the next person, but this, if anything, suggests a lot of Golden Age comics weren't the massive success earlier reports would have us think. So why keep taking such an unobjective position and making it sound like this was all something to celebrate? And then, we're told:

Who is willing to shell out more than what some actors were paid to portray Superman for a comic book?

“People with deep pockets,” according to Griffin.

Among the books sought by those “deep pocket” collectors are the “firsts,” Griffin explained, like Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics (No. 27, published in 1939) and “Marvel Comics No.1.” A version of the former sold for $1.82 million in 2024, while a copy of the latter garnered more than $2.4 million in 2022. A single page from a 1984 comic, “Secret Wars No. 8,” sold for $3.36 million, all thanks to the first-ever appearance of Spider-Man’s black suit. A debut issue of “Captain America Comics” sold for $3.1 million in 2022.

“They’re always going to be expensive and will probably just continue to be as time progresses because there’s going to be less and less of books like this coming out of the woodwork,” Griffin added. It’s scarcity and desirability that can influence the value of the comic, according to Griffin, though they’re not always a guarantee. If “there’s just nothing going on in it,” for example, or it’s a book “from the ‘50s that nobody remembers,” there may not be much desirability for it. Some titles or issues can fluctuate in value, with interest peaking when there are rumors of a movie adaptation or a TV show appearance for a certain character. But, once the appearance happens, Griffin says the “book will get soft again.”

Well see, that's a problem. If they're going to base it all upon recognizability and what movies are in production, then it's not a long-ranging success at all, and if the movie adaptations eventually do wear off, then for all we know, even the Golden/Silver Age back issues may lose some value. Which is certainly what happened when production of issues more for the sake of the collector's mentality came about:

Also like baseball cards, comic books experienced an era of mass production, in the 1980s and ’90s, leading to a collapse in the collector market.

“They just put out so many of them, and there were so many people buying two copies and keeping one pristine,” Griffin explained. “There’s just a lot of nice books out there from the time period and not many of them are worth that much.”

If by that he means monetary - not artistic - value, then again, this whole report is a farce. Of course, it's disturbing to think of how even some Rob Liefeld monstrosities of the times could sell big among certain speculators, because they actually think the terrible examples he drew up in the Heroes Reborn series of Capt. America, for example, are actually worth something based on how poor they are? Sorry, but that only further compounds why the collect-for-profit mentality's ruined pop culture.

The market has rebounded, with newer material like manga comics and Pokémon becoming more popular among collectors. That, Griffin said, is fueled by those who enjoyed them in their youth now having the buying power to collect.

I have a bad feeling even the manga in mention is only being collected for profit, which should serve as a warning there's a whole segment of "fandom" out there that doesn't care about manga as an artistic medium either, just as a source of financial greed. That's bad news too, for anyone who believes Japan can have potential if the cards are played right. Then, towards the end:

If you’re hoping to get into comic book collecting, you may not have the financial wiggle room to vie for a $9.12 million “Superman” comic. Instead, Griffin recommends finding “something that you like and collect that.”

“That way, even if it goes down, you’re still going to be happy that you bought it.”

Note how, oddly enough, the interviewee doesn't say you should actually make an effort to read it. And if not, then what good is it to collect? Why not recommend buying comics in paperback/hardcover format for reading and entertainment value? So again, we have another article where nobody comments on the comics from a merit-based perspective, and they're really insulting the medium's potential with the way they approach the whole topic. And those "deep pockets" should be ashamed of themselves for what they're doing to the products, hoarding them away instead of donating them to a museum.

An anime studio closes down, leaving behind 2 scandals

Sora News 24 wrote about the dissolving of Gainax, one of the most notable anime studios, and one of their contributors, Hideako Anno, was disappointed it's now gone. But, there's also scandals involved, to the point you have to wonder if it's for the best they closed:

Anno posted about the development on December 11 on the official website of Khara, the studio he established in 2006 after leaving Gainax. According to the statement, as of December 10 Gainax no longer exists as a corporation, having been completely dissolved and liquidated.

It’s a sad, but not shocking, end to Gainax, which was formally founded in Christmas Eve in 1984, meaning it just barely missed making it to its 41st birthday. Over the years, instability was one of the few near-constants for Gainax. Established by college-age amateur artists who produced the fabled Daicon festival opening animation student films, most of the Gainax staff was always clearly more interested in the artistry of making anime than managing the economic realities and responsibilities of operating on a professional scale. Shady accounting and tax evasion, whether to prop up the company’s perennially shaky financial foundation or simply for personal greed, got Gainax’s then-president Yasuhiro Takeda and the company’s tax accountant arrested in 1999, at a time when Evangelion was a huge hit and had revenue pouring into the company.

In 2016, 10 years after Anno had formed Khara, his company sued Gainax over unpaid royalties from Gainax properties Anno had been involved in, resulting in a messy courtroom dispute that ended in Khara’s favor. Three years later, in 2019, Gainax’s then-president Tomohiro Maki, who was 50 years old at the time, was arrested on charges of taking nude photographs of a teenage girl who had entered into a contract with Gainax in hopes of becoming an anime voice actress. This sunk Gainax’s reputation to an even lower level, with a subsequent restructuring including the creation of a new board of directors with the goal of rebuilding the company. Anno, who was a Gainax shareholder, and Khara also lent support, but even these combined efforts have proven to be not enough to save Gainax.

“I am genuinely saddened, but quietly accepting of the situation,” said Anno in his statement regarding Gainax’s final fate. “I wish to express our gratitude and respect to all of the individuals and organizations who have been working without compensation for nearly six years, since the arrest of former representative director and president Tomohiro Maki in 2019.”

It sure sounds like Gainax's reputation was tarnished, and while they may have had some gems to offer in their resume, it's clear they were affected in the long run by the scandals, the latter which is serious, and so, maybe it's best they've now gone out of business. Here's also a report on Automaton Media, which says:

In an official statement posted on Khara’s homepage, Anno expressed gratitude to the individuals and companies who helped with the reconstruction and subsequent liquidation of Gainax, particularly after the arrest of then-president and representative director Tomohiro Maki in 2019 (Maki was charged with sexually assaulting an underage voice actress). Anno thanked all parties for dedicating nearly six years of work without compensation to ensure that the rights of each Gainax project, along with their associated materials and documents, were returned to their rightful owners through proper legal procedures.

If Maki did worse than take lewd photos of the actress, he's just as bad as Harvey Weinstein. Whatever the quality of their anime productions, the studio's reputation was clearly tainted by Maki's crime, so again, it's probably for the best they've folded, though other studios obviously aren't any cleaner of mistakes than Gainax was. We can only hope lessons will be learned from what's been told about Gainax.

A Korean manhwa wastes space telling a story about eating carnivores

Cineplay wrote a fluff-coated article about a Korean manhwa that seems to be about a gross subject of gobbling carnivores:

We live to eat; it sounds like a joke, but humans have an inseparable relationship with eating. In reality, if people do not eat, they die. To avoid death, one must eat. This simple proposition is transferred to the fantasy world in 〈Delicious in Dungeon〉, which is the comic I am introducing today. It is the debut work of the author Kuin Ryouko, who often shows crazy ideas in a calm art style, serialized from 2014 to 2023.

〈Delicious in Dungeon〉 centers around the story of Laios and his companions who re-enter the dungeon 'Labyrinth' to rescue Laios's brother, who was eaten by a red dragon. Unlike other fantasies, their journey is quite realistic, as the question 'What should we eat today?' takes precedence over how to defeat enemies or escape traps. Since they need to find the red dragon before Laios's brother is digested, they have no time to stop by the village to buy supplies, so they decide to continue their adventure by eating the monsters in the labyrinth. Yes, it is a story about 'eating in a dungeon' as the title suggests.

If the adventurers are eating the monsters themselves, that's what I consider revolting here, sorry. What can be so "calm" about that? And do two wrongs make a right? Seriously, this is gross, made worse by that the story apparently goes for the "realistic" at the expense of good taste. It's bad enough there doubtless manga in Japan with crude ideas like what this Korean product is about. That this is considered okay even in Korea only takes the situation from worse to hopeless. Just like we could do without this kind of crudeness in USA comics, we also don't need it coming from foreign comics either.

What's occurring at the Tokyo ComiCon

Tokyo Weekender's announcing the 2025 Comicon festival to round out the year, and what'll take place there, along with what professionals are visiting:

One of the biggest pop culture conventions in the world, Tokyo Comic Convention (abbreviated as Tokyo Comic Con) returns for its 9th year, hosted at Makuhari Messe events center from December 5 to December 7. This year will host a record number of celebrity guests, including Sebastian Stan, Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci and many more.

The convention’s roots can be traced back to the United States in 1970, where the very first San Diego Comic-Con (then known as the Golden State Comic-Con) took place in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel. Comic book fans organized the event as a way to meet other comic book fans, and 300 people attended the first “comic con.” Since then, the convention has grown on a massive scale with 135,000 people from 80 countries attending in San Diego in 2019, and inspiring conventions to sprout up all across the globe.

I guess that could explain why it looks more about movies than comics, much like the SDCC's long become to boot. The majority of showbiz guests are mainly film and TV performers, and only 3 guests appear to be from the comics industry. Those 3 listed are none other than Jim Lee, C.B. Cebulski and Frank Miller. And considering where he went of recent, that's why I don't see him somebody for Japanese pop culture enthusiasts to get excited about. There may be mangakas attending, but it's not clear from the article who they'll be.

I will say it's interesting they have at least a few participants in notable movies like Back to the Future attending, including veteran Lloyd. But there's doubtless only so many independent creators who could possibly attend conventions like these too, yet it definitely can't be told from this article if and who they'll be. And that's surely the problem. Either they don't actually say, or the indie creators aren't even invited, and no attendance arranged for them. And I guess figures like Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron and even Art Thibert aren't good enough for them either. So what good is a festival like this, even in Japan? If they can't offer a more challenging lineup of guests from the comics industry itself, then it remains a most unfortunate farce, based on how it got taken over by movie-based mishmash. What should matter foremost are the comics, not the movies.

Specialty stores might be moving more toward selling paperbacks/hardcovers

The Santa Fe Reporter interviewed a specialty store manager from New Mexico, and there might be some encouraging news in this particular item:

What led you to becoming the owner and operator of Big Adventure Comics, and how has the comic market changed since you became the owner?

I’ll tell you the truth. I was getting laid off from another gig. I had been doing corporate IT for 18 years, and I was ready for a change, and I had been kind of helping the previous owners with their computer stuff, inputting data into their point-of-sale system. I didn’t really intend to, but I kind of ended up taking over all the technological parts of running the store, and I found it very interesting. So when I found out I was going to get laid off from my corporate job, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to see if I can make them an offer to buy the business.’

Why did I want to do it? I mean, it’s partly because I’ve always loved comics. I was into comics as soon as my dad would let me buy them at the grocery store, but, like, I’ve always loved reading novels, too. It was a chance to own a bookstore. It wasn’t like I was dying to sell Captain America to people, I was just really dying to own a bookstore. I liked the idea that I could leverage all my technology skills to do it right, because increasingly it was becoming point-of-sale- and database-focused to run a retail store, and I was good at that.

Over the last 10 years, the comics specialty business in the US has been moving more and more to a bookstore model—more graphic novels, more manga, more things that aren’t magazines. And I love that, so we’ve been pulling that string. We’re selling a ton more manga. We’re selling a ton more graphic novels, because comics, like the monthly serialized magazines, they’re very flat right now. We have them, and we have a big customer base for it, but it’s fairly flat with some bumps. Stuff still happens there, but you know, we become more and more of a bookstore each year.

Here's a promising sign somebody in the retail business is willing to tell it like it is. And it wouldn't be surprising if, no matter what amount of a pamphlet is printed up, much of it gathers dust on the shelves and isn't sold in the huge sum of customer-based sales the mainstream publishers and press want everybody to believe it is. If comics sell better today as paperbacks/hardcovers, and customers consider it a tidier way of storing it all at home, then that's the example even publishers need to go by, both major and minor. I recall that Zenescope was moving away from the pamphlet format some time ago, and if they did, then others obviously should too, including Alterna, who've employed cheaper paper quality, and several years back, gave their comics a price of 1 or 2 dollars. Certainly, that's less than the 5-plus dollars charged for pamphlets today, but even so, it can benefit everyone a lot better if the same comic story were to just be published in one or two specific formats, and save money by jettisoning the one that's not working out well.

The best way a retail store can influence the situation for the better, of course, is if they're willing to stop selling the pamphlet format - especially if publishers won't accept returns of unsold supplies - and just order paperback/hardcovers. If they can do this, they'll be setting a better example. Let's hope other store managers will follow suit for as long as specialty stores are still around.

How an animation voice actress views the characters she's voiced from anime

Anime News Network interviewed voice actress Lisa Ann Beley, who worked in anime dubbing for at least 2 decades from the 1990s to the 2010s (and does have USA/Canadian cartoons to her credits as well) about her work on Gundam Wing from the past 3 decades, and I noticed something dismaying that comes up. First, though, take a gander at the following inaccuracy on the writer's part:

Twenty-five years ago, Lisa Ann Beley was living in Vancouver. She had graduated from the University of British Columbia's acting program and was working as a voice actor with Ocean Productions on a number of English anime dubs. She voiced Eda in Black Lagoon, Murrue Ramius in Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, and Chi-Chi in Dragon Ball Z. [...]

When I looked up Lisa Ann Beley, I quickly learned that she has since moved to Washington, D.C., along with her husband, Jonathan Holmes, also a former Gundam voice actor. She is a teacher at the Shakespeare Theater Company Academy, specializing in voice and speech. She has worked as a dialect coach with actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Freddie Highmore.

But I couldn't find any of her contact information. She'd made all her social media accounts private. What's more, I learned that Beley has only conducted a single on-camera interview about her anime voice acting work in 2022, and she stopped voice acting and attending fan conventions in the early 2000s.

Excuse me? Black Lagoon was first adapted to anime in 2006, and Beley's resume on the IMDB indicates she hasn't worked in voice acting since 2018. Her last role to date was in what appears to be a remake of Superbook, a bible-themed anime series originally produced in the early 80s, here produced more in 3D. That the interviewer managed to goof off in the same article where he alludes to Black Lagoon for one is enough to fall off the couch laughing, but probably isn't all that surprising when you consider this is a news site that's had its share of morally questionable positions over the years.

The main subject is the character of Relena Peacecraft, whom Beley voiced years before in the English-dubbed editions. And there's some pretty peculiar stuff that comes up here. First:

I thought about my conflicting feelings about Relena. She's a spoiled rich girl who doggedly pursues a boy who keeps threatening to kill her. Even now, people argue about whether they love or hate her on Reddit—and it has been 25 to 30 years, depending on your nationality. Could somebody have possibly taken their frustrations over Relena out on Beley?

Let me get this straight. The male star of the show, Heero Yuy, threatens to kill the leading lady, and they're telling us Relena's the problem? This is disgusting. And no disappointment with the original screenwriter, Katsuyuki Sumizawa, for characterizing Relena so questionably, and the male lead so appallingly? And then:

“I thought [Relena] was annoying at the beginning, I have to admit,” Beley told me.

Filming Relena's scenes out of order, as was par for the course for an Ocean Productions dub, Beley said she had to trust what the authors meant, even if her lines didn't seem to make sense.

“That was challenging sometimes, because [Relena] would say things and I'd be like, 'Huh? What is she saying?' Like at the very beginning of the show, when she was responding to her father. And I was like, 'Why are you obsessing over this boy?'”

As she continued recording, however, she gained more affection for Relena. And now that Beley has a teenage daughter of her own, she can reframe some of Relena's brattier exhortations as, if not totally justified, certainly more familiar.

“You grow to love these characters. You really do,” Beley told me.

I did know, I told Beley. On my subsequent Gundam Wing viewings as an adult, I gained a new softness for this character I was once so hard-hearted towards. Where I thought she was pushy, she was resilient. Where I once thought she was naive, I realized she was brave for insisting that a better world was possible than the one she had been handed.

The considerable flaw here is that we have here an example of animation specialists who act like a fictional character is a real person, and have no complaints about the original screenwriters characterizing Relena as a potential brat, let alone somebody who pursues a boy with a bad attitude of his own. Interesting how, beyond the non-committal reference to the boy himself, no serious arguments made about why it's unfortunate the girl's on the receiving end over something that's not her fault as a non-existent person. They may view Relena differently in terms of personality today, but their failure to distinguish between fiction and reality - let alone take issue with how the male star's written - remains the same as it's been for many years with alleged pop culture fans.

This therefore makes another sad example of how "professionals" vehemently refuse to rise above an illogically juvenile viewpoint, and if it damages the status of anime in the long run, it'll be their fault. Just very disappointing.

There's unfortunately comics opposed to capitalism

El Pais wrote about comics written from an anti-capitalist perspective:

All humans laugh, cry, eat, sleep, and love. Although most of their day is spent on another universal activity: work. As such, complaints about work are widespread, across the globe. Too many hours, stress, demands, sacrifices, and various other things. Since its triumph, neoliberal capitalism has repeated that there are no alternatives. Lately, however, a simple option has emerged to question it. Or to understand the rules and dark sides of the game we all play. Just read one of the many comics about economics, exploitation, and other workplace injustices that are being published right now. It turns out that another world is possible, at least in comic books.

On this, no doubt, the medium's specialists and contributors have long made it extremely vulnerable to exploitation by political ideologues, whether intentionally or not. Now, the paper and its writers are only perpetuating the damage by lionizing this kind of approach.

“We have to understand economics for ourselves, or we’re at the mercy of any charlatan,” warns writer Michael Goodwin. He himself has contributed his two cents: first, he delved into decades of treatises and thinkers; then, in Economix (2012), he summarized in comic strips — with illustrations by Dan E. Burr — what he had gleaned: theories, practices, and pitfalls of the last two centuries of development. There, one discovers that even Adam Smith, enshrined in history as a champion of the free market, denounced the “rapacity” of the magnates and urged caution regarding their legislative proposals. Or one reflects on a society that is democratic in its structures but “dictatorial” in many businesses.

“Every public problem or decision is economic. In the U.S., the rich have basically bought the institutions. If we had structured the economy differently, they wouldn’t have been able to. It was our choice. Or it was never presented to us in those terms,” Goodwin notes.

Economix does indeed do this. And it eliminates the excuse of excessive complexity: now understanding — or perhaps outrage — is within everyone’s reach. Like the recent graphic novel adaptation of Capital and Ideology (2024): the original 1,248-page volume can be daunting even for admirers of its author, Thomas Piketty. But Claire Alet and Benjamin Adan’s graphic novel has condensed it to 176 pages. The ideas of the new guru of social justice are presented in simplified, though no less insightful, form. And certainly, more accessible.

This is also seriously flawed. There's also only so many public problems that are ideological, and Mr. Goodwin is lecturing us that finance and economy are the issue here? Very cheap, and the way they make use of "social justice" so casually is telling of where this is going. And then, they even go out of their way to obfuscate the issues involving communism:

...Kanikosen, by the Japanese artist Go Fujio (2023), adapts a double death story into manga: the communist writer Takiji Kobaiashi denounced the forced labor on board fishing boats in his country in his 1929 novel of the same name, but it cost him his life, due to police torture in 1933.1

Now just how is forced labor not connected in any way to communism? Or why are they making it sound like communism is an innocent ideology, despite the millions of victims who perished under its tyranny? There was only so much slavery conducted by communists, and they obscure all that? This is most embarrassingly bad. Something else they don't make clear is that communism is obviously not the only bad ideology that could exist in the world, and chances are that, if Japan had been dominated by Islam at the time, it wouldn't even appear in this puff piece. So what are they trying to prove? And then, near the end, the author of Economix says:

“There are many options. We don’t even have to imagine them; we just have to look around. Social democracy works much better than unregulated capitalism according to practically any metric,” Goodwin points out. There’s one recommendation that, in a way, sums them all up: slow down, put on the brakes... even stop. Even if it’s just for a while, to read a comic.

And that's supposed to allude to socialism, right? When you mix it with that, democracy is bound to fail badly. It's bad enough they're whitewashing communism, among goodness knows what other ideologies that have totalitarian structures. This only adds insult to injury, and even gives comics a bad name. It does make clear though, that we need more comics by better artists and writers who can stress the positives of capitalism, why socialism is a failed ideology, and even why communism isn't the only bad form of totalitarianism that ever came about. But don't expect El Pais to cover comics with better perspectives, unfortunately.

Video game producer shuns cartoonist because the latter appears to be defending victims of Islamic terrorism

IGN reports, in what's a very troublingly distorted item, that video game producer Hideo Kojima, quite an advocate of leftist causes, shunned an Italian cartoonist because he published GNs that are opposed to Islamic terrorism:

Death Stranding and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has issued a statement distancing himself from an Italian cartoonist after deleting a photo of the pair meeting at the Lucca Comics And Games 2025 convention earlier in November.

In the now-deleted image, below, Kojima posed alongside Michele "Zerocalcare" Rech, author of the graphic novels Kobane Calling (2015) and No Sleep Till Shengal (2022), while the legendary developer held up a copy of the former. Both novels document the struggles of war, but sympathize with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, accused by some humanitarian groups of using child soldiers.

The U.S. does not classify the YPG as a terrorist organization. Instead, the U.S. has partnered with the YPG and the broader Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as an ally in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

However, the U.S. position is in contrast to that of Turkey, a NATO ally, which views the YPG as a terrorist group due to its close ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S., the European Union, and Turkey.

As the image was picked up by Turkish media and fans wondered if it suggested Kojima endorsed Rech's views — views that run contrary to many of the themes explored in the Metal Gear series — Kojima deleted it from his social media.

Notice how, troublingly enough, IGN's writer is siding with Turkey, one of the biggest supporters of jihadism under the despotism of premier Recep Erdogan, and the part about the PKK appears to be distorted, perhaps reflecting the positions of the previous USA government led by Joe Biden, because the PKK has its defenders stateside, and if Kojima's okay with Islamic sharia, that's just one more problem with his MO that's chilling. Also notice the hypocrisy claiming the YPG uses child soldiers, yet no such condemnation is made about the Hamas doing the same. The ignorance of the J. Jonah Jameson of video games of a serious issue involving Islamic jihadism is repellent.

As spotted by Kotaku, Rech released his own video, and told Fatto Quotidiano that it wasn't his idea to share the novel with Kojima, but his publisher's.

"I opened the internet and saw two hundred Turkish sites saying that Kojima had published a post in favor of terrorism," Rech said (machine translated). "Of course, for the Turks, they’re all terrorists, and now they’re harassing poor Kojima."

Kojima had suffered a backlash online from some Turkish nationalists after posting the photo, which ended up with a community note on X / Twitter. Fans were quick to point out that despite deleting his social media post and issuing a statement, Kojima created the iconic Kurdish character Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid.

It makes little difference, that he would rely so heavily upon a Turkish Muslim audience as customers and a fanbase, no matter the cost, is very troubling. That he erased the photo he did with Rech is also a form of weakness, and that's where Kojima certainly did something wrong and cowardly. He should decidedly apologize for throwing Rech under the bus, but I guess no mea culpa is forthcoming, because the adherents to the Religion of Peace are just too valuable an audience to him to risk losing, huh?

I think this says quite a bit more about what's wrong with Kojima's MO, and if those are the kind of politics he's going to stick with and inject in his games, what's the use of playing the Metal Gear series? This case also makes clear what's wrong with IGN's writers, whose politics are hurtful to civilized society.

How much money does manga lose due to piracy?

According to this report on Kyodo News, as much as $55 billion:

Lost revenue from illegal online viewing of Japanese manga and other publications worldwide was estimated at around 8.5 trillion yen ($55 billion) a year, highlighting the extent of damage caused to rights holders by piracy websites, a recent study showed.

Anti-piracy group ABJ examined access numbers and viewing times for 913 websites for the month of June. The group found that the sites offering unauthorized access to Japanese comics, novels and photo books received about 2.8 billion visits during the period from users in 123 countries and regions, with total viewing time reaching around 700 million hours.

Losses for rights holders were estimated at 704.8 billion yen, calculated based on the assumption that users finish reading a 500-yen comic book in 30 minutes. This would translate to roughly 8.5 trillion yen a year, according to the Tokyo-based group formed by members from the publishing, e-book distribution and related sectors.

NHK says:

ABJ said it conducted similar studies in the past, but only on the 10 most used websites. It added that its largest ever survey has revealed increasing losses across borders in the face of the growing popularity of Japanese manga among a wide range of generations in Asia, Western countries and beyond.

Well sorry for the huge losses, but it does make clear manga is stratospherically popular, and not simply because of the common character designs and other styles, but because many believe Japan's industry is delivering the goods. Though I will admit, I still find it galling when and how "ecchi" is relied upon to the point it gives sex a bad name. Did anybody in Japan ever consider that might've played a part in the plummeting birthrate? When mangakas go miles out of their way to portray sex more vulgarly than tastefully, it not only risks being divisive, it also discourages potential parents in the making. There's certainly room for improvement.

I admit it's not great if so many piracy sites are dishing out a lot of this stuff at the expense of Japanese businesses, but if you look on the bright side, it does make clear manga's very admired so long as the mangakas aren't as PC as many modern comics creators in the west became in the past decade or so. If stateside comics-making were to improve in terms of artistic value, perhaps that could help reverse a dire situation, and Japan's industry could make some improvements too.

What speaks to the soul about Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle?

A writer at the Federalist tells why the anime franchise of Demon Slayer is winning over USA audiences, in contrast to recent Disney fare:

President Trump announced Monday that he’s slapping a 100 percent tariff on foreign films. Maybe he saw the box office numbers and panicked: the Japanese juggernaut Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is crushing American animation. The film sits at 98 percent from audiences and critics on Rotten Tomatoes and raked in a record-breaking $70 million in the United States alone on its opening weekend. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man pulled in $36 million over its domestic premiere weekend, and Disney Pixar’s Elio flopped at $21 million in its debut.

So why are Americans shelling out for a Japanese anime movie about a boy with a sword and a demon sister, instead of American-made media? Simply put: Demon Slayer gives audiences what they’re starving for — sacrifice, redemption, courage, family, discipline, and the age-old struggle of light against darkness. In other words, the stuff that makes stories worth telling.

One potential difference Demon Slayer has from USA animation, though, is that it's more adult, built on R-rated themes of violence far less western animated films and TV shows have ever been, and no doubt much of the audience that's giving the film success anywhere is comprised more of teen/adult viewership. Depending on your viewpoint, that's something USA animation producers could consider, but that alone would obvioulsy not improve a dire situation where heroism, family and courage are sorely lacking as themes of positivity. Why, if there's any opposition to anything that could resemble sex-positivity, as the same writer at the same site once had, that too is definitely troubling. If Demon Slayer upholds masculinity, then I'm not sure what the beef is with "scantily clad women", unless its villainesses we're talking about. Isn't heterosexuality also crucial for masculinity? And if she doesn't have an issue with Wonder Woman wearing a bustier, then there should be no issue with scantily clad women in Demon Slayer, unless it's criminals they're talking about.

Demon Slayer has obvious Buddhist and Shinto influences, and the story’s Japanese creator clearly did not set out to write a Christian parable, yet the eternal truths seep through anyway. There’s a reason for that.

In The Last Battle, the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia, Emeth, a Calormene soldier, is welcomed into Aslan’s Country (heaven) despite never having served Aslan in life. A sincere worshipper of Tash, Emeth had sought to live faithfully and honestly, and when he dies and meets Aslan face-to-face, he learns that every act of love and integrity he performed belonged to Aslan all along, for nothing good can be done in the name of Tash and nothing evil in the name of Aslan.

In this, Lewis shows that truth and goodness are not bound by human labels but flow from God Himself. It is for this reason that stories written with sincerity, love, and a longing for the good — whether intended or not — inevitably echo Christian themes of sacrifice, redemption, courage, and the triumph of light over darkness.

And this is precisely why Demon Slayer resonates while much of American animation flounders. Hollywood insists on stories that purposely deny the eternal patterns — sacrifice, redemption, good versus evil — and so its offerings feel hollow. Atheistic Japan tells a tale about demons and swordsmen, and somehow it strikes closer to the heart of reality than a multimillion-dollar Pixar production.

Don’t get me wrong: I want American animation to do well. I’m not happy that foreign media is better than our own, and Trump is right to be disturbed by films like Demon Slayer thriving in the United States. But the problem isn’t that Americans are watching Japanese anime; it’s that Hollywood has stopped telling the kind of stories that “set hearts ablaze.” And while I love Trump’s tariffs, I fear no tariff is going to fix that.

Well then, depending how one views the topic, wouldn't it also do some good to make a call for producing cartoon stories marketed for adults, convincing them it's worth watching, and at the same time, maybe trying to make something worthwhile that doesn't rely on grisly violence? There's been too much of that in the past quarter century, and that's something that's time to fix, ditto the sex-negative propaganda that's become a sad staple of recent. And of course, maybe in the future somebody can form the kind of animation production outfits the Daily Wire's been backing, that can develop stuff with themes both children and adults can learn something promising from. For now, the same people complaining are spending too much time expecting Hollywood to clean up the mess they're making.