Fans Defend Uzaki-Chan From Accusations of Pedophilia and Child Sexualization
Spencer Baculi
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In response to the numerous accusations of pedophilia leveled against the recently produced Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out, fans have begun to provide concrete, real-world examples which show that the series’ titular character is representative of an adult woman rather than an underaged child.
Originally published as a manga series, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! follows the escapades of the titular Hana Uzaki as she assumes her former-high school and current college classmate Shinichi Sakurai has become an introverted loner and attempts to push him out of his comfort zone, much to his chagrin and annoyance.
The original manga series was created by mangaka TAKE, with the anime adaptation produced by fledgling production studio ENGI and premiering on television on July 10th, 2020.
Shortly after the series’ premiere, fans of the busty college student were bombarded with disingenuous accusations of pedophilia, as critical social justice critics began to conflate the anime-styled depiction of Uzaki with real-world child sexual abuses. Some accused Uzaki’s design of being an intentional attempt to sexualize a child.
Twitter user ThotPuncher wrote, “She looks 5. She was designed to look 5. Stop trying to play mental gymnastics with the fact that you’re attracted to children.”
Twitter user cainhxrst wrote, “This literally looks like a sexualized child, it’s not ‘being short’ lmao.”
Another wrote, “See imma have to play devil’s advocate. We need to have a conversation about the boarderline pedophilia & sexual assault in anime.”
They added, “Why are they sexualizing a woman that looks like toddler? Why did he slap her butt & was pulling her like that? This is not cute it’s weird.”
Another added, “She has a childlike appearance and is being sexualized. Yes there are some real women who look much younger than they actually are but this character was designed with childlike features aside from their chest with the intention of looking like a child and that shit is weird.”
YouTuber Hero Hei would also chronicle a number of other individuals upset about Uzaki-chan.
These accusations largely ignored the fact that Uzaki-chan is explicitly noted within the pages of her own series to be 19 years-old and appear to be based on Uzaki’s youthful appearance.
They also fail to recognize that such designs are commonplace throughout the medium, dating back decades to the creation of anime itself.
Tired of the constant stream of unfounded accusations, fans began to provide explicit proof that Uzaki’s design was representative of an adult human woman.
One fan, Lunar Archivist, presented visuals explaining how Uzaki’s design accurately portrayed a standard head-to-body size ratio commonly seen in real-world women:
In Japan, a female fan posted a picture of her bust, stating that she was a “J Cup,” which was “about the same as Uzaki,” as proof that Uzaki’s proportions were realistic:
The same fan also encouraged other people to use her “picture as a rebuttal” against these accusations:
This is not the first time Uzaki-chan has come under fire from Western critical social justice theorists.
Related: Japanese Red Cross Promotes New Uzaki-Chan Campaign, Defying Previous Social Media Outrage
In January, Western critics railed against the Japanese Red Cross for sponsoring a cross-promotive blood drive featuring the cheeky college student, resulting in the cancellation of the campaign and a significant drop in the amount of blood being donated.
However, after seeing the popularity of the initial campaign, the Japanese Red Cross would reverse their decision and bring Uzaki-chan back for a second, much larger donation campaign spread across the country.
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