Haruka Kaki, a member of the Japanese female pop-idol group Nogizaka46, has deleted photos recently uploaded to social media due to backlash from Chinese fans who took issue with the presence of My Hero Academia characters in the pictures.
On April 13th, the official Nogizaka46 blog published a post featuring an interview with Kaki in which the popular singer answered fan-submitted questions.
These ranged from questions about her everyday life, such as what the most delicious thing was she had most recently eaten or if she had any advice on how to get out of bed in the morning, to questions surrounding her video game and manga interests. She was also asked about her favorite Animal Crossing: New Leaf characters and her Super Smash Bros. preferences.
Answering one fan question about My Hero Academia’s current season, in which the fan asked Kaki if she was excited for the season finale and if she had any favorite characters from this season, Kaki enthusiastically replied that she loved the season, sharing a list of her favorite characters, including Sir Nighteye, Hawks, and the current No. 1 hero, Endeavor, alongside a selfie taken with art of Shoto Todoroki:
Kaki is a known fan of anime, particularly Kohei Horikoshi’s superhero series, and is openly public about her fandom, as seen when she posted photos of herself posing in a My Hero Academia themed photo set:
According to Twitter user Alice, a Taiwanese anime, Kaki was quickly descended upon by Chinese fans, demanding that she remove the picture immediately:
Kaki Haruka is a member of Nogizaka46’s 4th Generation. She updated blog on 13 April 2020🗓
Nogizaka46 updates blog photos(without words) on weibo(China SNS) as well.
However, Chinese fans left comments ask them remove todoroki’s pic because of BNHA…
Later, it was removed. pic.twitter.com/Mr0gqFkCsg
— ALICE🌈 (@alice33581) April 15, 2020
As I know, she have said she loved BNHA before, updated on 14 Dec 2019.
I don’t understand why Chinese fans always want to control others. If she is really your idol, then you should respect her instead of behaving like a child. So childish 🙄 pic.twitter.com/48kjELsXB3
— ALICE🌈 (@alice33581) April 15, 2020
Chinese fans may have found the appearance of My Hero Academia characters in Kaki’s photo to be offensive due to Horikoshi naming a villainous character ‘Maruta’ in recent chapters, a term which many Chinese fans perceived to be an offensive reference to war crimes enacted by Japanese World War II military leaders upon Chinese prisoners of war.
Responding to the backlash, Kaki has since taken the photo down.
YouTuber Hero Hei shows Kaki’s updated photo set without the My Hero Academia photo and breaks down a number of the complaints she was receiving.
