‘The Black Mage’ artist D.J. Kirkland has achieved a longtime dream, being hired to work for Viz Media, a hiring decision which has some anime and manga fans concerned due to Kirkland’s history of supporting video game and anime localizations which heavily censor or edit the original content.
On March 3rd, Kirkland announced via his Twitter account that he “finally landed a job at Viz Media”, exclaiming that “a dream came true today”:
A dream came true today. After about 5 years of trying to get here, I finally landed a job at Viz Media! I’m so excited to be here. 😍😍😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/BkYbqVPNJl
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) March 3, 2020
He did not discuss details regarding his position, stating only that it was “close and personal to manga.”
I can’t go into many details of my position at Viz but being this up close and personal to manga is really damn cool.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) March 5, 2020
This announcement worried some fans, who speculated that Kirkland’s new position could allow him to influence future translations of manga titles.
These worries are based on Kirkland’s history of supporting and advocating various localizations of Japanese anime and video games which featured heavily edited or censored content:
@eiffelart Yeah. Some of the lines were…bad. Thats where localization liberties needed to come into play.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) October 9, 2014
I don’t really care about the censorship of the game because it has no baring on gameplay. So if it’s just the Wii U US port, I’m chill.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) October 22, 2017
Related: Western Release Of Persona 5 Royal To Censor Scenes Featuring Two Gay Men
Some of my hopes for Persona 5 Royal:
-Let me romance the boys. (unlikely)
-Tweak some of the weird dialogue choices.
-Change that weird pronunciation of character names.
-Get rid of the homophobic scenes with the two gay men or rewrite the scene to be less homophobic.— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) April 24, 2019
I mean, I know that localization is HARD I’m not going to pretend like I have any idea how much work goes into it. Especially with a dialogue heavy game like persona. There’s definitely room for improvement and I hope that there has been some constructive feedback they can use.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) April 24, 2019
In a now infamous Twitter rant, Kirkland accused anti-censorship advocates who spoke out against such changes of “ignoring actual Japanese LGBTQ+ people fighting for equal rights and taking homophobia and transphobia to task in their content.”
Imagine being so much of a weeb that you can’t see past your own rose colored glasses and think that Japan is some sort of anime amusement park that you ignore actual Japanese LGBTQ+ people fighting for equal rights and taking homophobia and transphobia to task in their content.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) February 18, 2020
Not being homophobic, transphobic or misogynistic is not some western ESS JAY DOUBLE YEW thing that just popped up out of nowhere. You truly hate to see it.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) February 18, 2020
Regardless of that. With the US being one of the biggest markets for anime and manga, there IS going to be conversation between stakeholders in Japan and here when it comes to creating content that appeals to more western audiences. The anime industry IS A BUSINESS.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) February 18, 2020
Also. Some of y’all don’t know the differences between translations and localizations and it shows. Google is right there.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) February 18, 2020
The mental gymnastic some of y’all exhibit on twitter for the whole world to see is truly EMBARRASSING.
FOR YOU.
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) February 18, 2020
However, back in 2016, Kirkland has also stated that if he were ever able to “work in localization for anime, I’d do my damndest to be extremely faithful.”
If I EVER get to the point in my career where I get to work in localization for anime, I’d do my damnedest to be extremely faithful…
— D.J. Kirkland @ ECCC FF-7 (@OhHeyDJ) January 3, 2016
According to his now updated Twitter bio, Kirkland has been hired as the Digital Publishing Production Assistant. As of writing, the specifics of his position and the extent of his influence remain unknown.