New Religious Manga Publisher Pulls Series Despite Censorship Protests

By Megan Peters

When it comes to manga, censorship will always be an issue needing closer examination, and reports of it happening seem to grow by the month. According to a new report from Japan, it sounds like a recent manga is dealing with censorship in a big way after executives at Shueisha chose to remove the work. Now, news from abroad has surfaced suggesting the ban was done in part because of a controversial religious group, and netizens aren't sure how to feel about the whole ordeal.   

The report suggests the manga received complaints concerning its depiction of religion. Or to be even more specific, its alleged take on the controversial religious group Happy Science. After all, Kukichi does tackle a variety of religions in their latest release, but the entire series was removed by Shueisha after its fifth chapter went live.

According to Kikuchi, her manga simply followed characters who were brought into religion either by birth or force. The stories even included interviews with people in real-life who had left whatever religion was being focused on in a particular chapter. This creation process was fine until chapter five was released as Kikuchi claims editors informed her such research was insufficient. The editorial department took down chapter five before removing the series entirely, apologizing to fans for any offenses done to "a particular religion or group of believers."

Kikuchi did say they were offered the chance to revise the manga entirely but refused to do so. Instead, they asked to end serialization on the story immediately as she felt the requested edits were meant to suppress information.

"In that light, I think it would be strange to show excessive consideration towards religious groups. Even Shueisha understood that they were saying something unreasonable, but I suppose they had gone too far to back out now," the artist said, pointing out how strange it was to have the anonymous complaints taken so seriously so fast.

Kikuchi has said she cannot reveal the organization that protested her manga. However, fringe religion experts like Yoshiro Fujikura told The Weekly Flash this tactic has been often used by Happy Science. However, when the magazine reached out to the organization, Happy Science said it had nothing to do with the manga's removal.

"Kikuchi's manga contains numerous factual inaccuracies and an unfair, negative portrayal of the faith and its teachings. It also conflates the issue of children seeking independence from their parents with the issue of religious faith. Regarding the decision to remove it, we believe that Shueisha reached that conclusion through independent discussion," the statement from Happy Science reads.

As for Kikuchi, the artist admits she is troubled by her manga's fate as it sets a bad precedent for artistic expression. "I am firmly against altering a story according to what a religious group dictates. If it is has become so impermissible to depict religion as a theme, then freedom of expression has already eroded to such a degree that it only exists in name," she shared.

What do you make of this controversial move? Do you think Shueisha needed to stop sales of this manga or...? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

HT – ANN

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