In the opinion of current Editor-in-Chief of Kodansha’s Weekly Afternoon manga magazine Akira Kanai, the opinions and sociopolitical views of Western audiences should have absolutely no bearing on the creative decisions of Japanese manga.
Joining Kodanashsa in 1994, Kanai served as an editor across a number of the publisher’s various manga magazines until eventually being promoted to his current position as We A 2015, during which time he oversaw a number of notable manga works including Gamon Sakurai’s Ajin: Demi-Human, Bin Kusamizu and Saburō Megumi’s Fragile, and Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga.
And it was in his position as a manga industry veteran that Kanai offered his opinion on the topic of the West’s ever-growing attempts to force their cultural standards upon Eastern media during a recent career retrospective interview given to German manga news outlet Manga Passion.
Asked “to what extent do you already think about the (potential) international success of a manga” and whether he tries to work with mangakas to “perhaps try to make [their works] more accessible to audiences outside Japan”, the editor confidently asserted, “No, not really.”
“For example, there are various codes against the depiction of violence, against the depiction of nudity, whether male or female, or religious codes that I follow,” he explained. “However, I think that there are no fundamental differences in the population in terms of what they perceive as important – be it in Japan, Germany, China or South Korea. Even if it is the case on a political level.”
Continuing, Kanai then declared, “I don’t allow myself to be influenced by so-called political correctness abroad and design the works accordingly. I think that if it’s interesting, it will usually be understood, regardless of whether you come from Africa, Chile or Greenland.”
“I’ve never made a big deal of it so far,” said the editor. “But even if a work takes up a very Japanese theme, for example, or a German work a German theme, a Chinese work a Chinese theme – in the end the root is the same, I think.”
“Stopping a work because it deals with a problem that is too Japanese, or specifying to do something – that hardly ever happens,” Kanai continued. “More specifically, I wonder if there is a difference in Japanese entertainment content between works that are internationally successful. Is it the works that focus more on the Japanese market or a global market?”
Further expanding his argument, he opined, “I don’t think it’s possible to create works that are exactly in the middle, nor would such works really appeal anywhere.”
“Take Skip and Loafer, for example, [another series serialized under his watch in Weekly Afternoon] which is about a girl who comes from the Japanese countryside and moves to the Japanese city of Tokyo alone to study at a good high school,” Kanai added. “I think people all over the world will certainly understand her feeling of insecurity in the same way. That’s why such works tend to appeal to an international audience.
“In this respect, I really don’t think that works need to be adapted for audiences outside Japan,” he concluded. “Although I’m not sure how it is for people from countries where there are no rural areas or no cities. I have no idea what it’s like in Dubai. Maybe I’m biased. (laughs)”
To this end, pressed later by Manga Passion if he thought “global exchange was important for the medium of manga”, Kanai told them that while he found it “very important” in a creative sense for more and more peoples to create their own works within the medium, he did not believe such exchange should come at the cost of Japan’s own identity.
“The mindset that Japanese publishers will get poorer and poorer if they don’t expand overseas is pathetic and should be abandoned,” he affirmed. “Now that it is possible to read and draw manga abroad, I hope that the manga fan community itself will grow. No matter where they come from and no matter what religion they belong to. So when it comes to the question of whether I think globalization is important, I can say that it’s much more fun this way.”
