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Fans of shonen manga and anime are no strangers to backlash of all kinds, ranging from public officials stepping in to fans going wild about the latest development in a story.
Some reactions have a proper basis, while others are ludicrous. What happens when frustration about Attack on Titan's end reaches a fever pitch? People endlessly talk about the incident, especially the behind-the-scenes problems that affect the end product. However, Attack on Titan is not the only shonen manga that has come under fire from fans.
Here, we have listed 10 other shonen manga creators who've faced worse criticism than Attack on Titan's creator Hajime Isayama.
Disclaimer: The following article will contain reporting on heavy backlash, including official arrests, death threats, harassment, and acts of violence. Trigger and content warnings are included for s*xual assault, violence, and CSA (Child S*xual Assault) material.
From arrests to bans: 10 backlashes faced by shonen manga creators, worse than Attack on Titan's
1) Rurouni Kenshin's creator fined
Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of the shonen anime and manga franchise Rurouni Kenshin, was found to be in possession of over 100 s*xually explicit videos of minors in November of 2017.
While he was turned over to prosecutors, Watsuki faced no jail time. Instead, he was fined 200,000 yen (approximately USD $1,500).
Rurouni Kenshin was allowed to continue publication seven months after that, but the backlash didn't end there. To this day, fans of the work endlessly debate whether or not to continue supporting the manga and whether promotion of any kind is warranted.
2) Act-Age creator arrested, Act-Age de-listed
On August 8 2020, Tatsuya Matsuki, the original creator of the shonen manga Act-Age, was arrested for groping middle school students in June of that same year.
He was formally indicted in September 2020, and sentenced to a year and six months in December 2020. However, his sentence has been suspended for three years, meaning that he could serve no jail time if he exhibits good conduct for all three years of the suspension.
All sales of the manga itself were suspended in August 2020. It was also de-listed by Viz Media following the arrests. Likewise, fans have also disowned the manga and its creator following the event.
3) Domestic Girlfriend's creator harassed on Twitter
Sometimes the backlash to a shonen manga is from overseas fans, which is what happened to Domestic Girlfriend creator Kei Sasuga.
According to Sasuga, she was receiving many jocular insults, prolonged harassment, and tons of criticism. While criticism is not new to shonen manga creators, when blocking feels useless on social media because people can use sock puppet accounts, things start getting ridiculous.
In the end, Sasuga did say that the overwhelming amount of positive reactions did balance out the negativity. It's rather frustrating when shonen manga fans badger creators and have no real filter on what they say, as is often the case on social media websites like Twitter.
4) Poison letter scare plagued Kuroko's Basketball creator
Kuroko's Basketball was a shonen manga created by Tadatoshi Fujimaki that was very popular in dōjinshi circles, particularly for yaoi dōjinshi.
In December 2013, a 36-year-old man named Hirofumi Watanabe was arrested for sending well over 250 threatening letters containing powdery substances and liquids (including lighter fluid) to various locations associated with vendors of the shonen manga's dōjinshi. Watanabe was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail, according to various sources.
The targeted locations included a TV station that aired the anime, a convenience store chain that sold items related to the series, and Fujimaki's alma mater Sophia University. While the investigation was ongoing, several companies withdrew and banned Kuroko's Basketball merchandise and dōjinshi from being sold. They've since been brought back.
5) Cheat Slayer cancelation over copyright infringement
The manga Killing the People Reincarnated into the Other World: Cheat Slayer (hereby shortened to just Cheat Slayer), was created by Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler creator Homura Kawamoto.
Cheat Slayer's initial premise was a parody of shonen manga and isekai, wherein a boy would kill those people that were reincarnated who abused the supernatural powers (or "cheats") they got from reincarnation.
It was infamous for being canceled after just one chapter, due to similarities between the villains of the manga and other isekai heroes. The editorial department at the Monthly Dragon Age magazine was alerted to this by readers, and thus the manga was canceled after backlash from other creators that threatened to spill over into lawsuits for copyright infringement. Apologies were doled out by the creator and editorial department, many of which were accepted.
6) Kemono Friends controversy over director firing
This Kemono Friends controversy is one where the studio faced the brunt of the backlash rather than the creator of the shonen manga and anime.
Long story short, the anime adaptation's director Tatsuki was replaced by the Kadokawa corporation during the second season's production. Fans were not pleased by this.
The backlash was immense, resulting in many canceled premium memberships and a 3.3% decrease in Kadokawa's stock. Despite the counterclaim by the company that Tatsuki had stolen art assets without Kadokawa's knowledge, the backlash continued until the studio Yaoyorozu tried to negotiate with Tatsuki. Unfortunately, negotiations failed and Kemono Friends has since been picked up by Studio Tomason.
7) The controversies of Go Nagai's works
While Go Nagai is credited with inventing and pioneering a lot of genres from Mecha to Magic Girl to Ecchi, his work in shonen manga inevitably attracts some amount of controversy and backlash.
Case in point, Devilman attracted so much attention and backlash for being a violent and gory superhero story in a shonen manga that Parent Teacher Associations tried to have it pulled.
As far as Ecchi goes, one of the first ecchi shonen manga was Harenchi Gakuen. It spawned a large PTA protest, portraying Nagai as an "enemy to society" and attempting to block distribution. Nagai would also be hounded by reporters and TV cameras wherever he went. However, the manga continued, as did many of his other works.
8) To Love Ru Darkness creator sees manga get banned/labeled harmful
As is the case with many a harem manga, one was bound to be the source of controversy eventually.
To Love Ru Darkness' creator Kentaro Yabuki faced legal backlash from the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly after a review to see if it fell under harm or was bannable. For context, the review came after bill 156, which was a revision to an earlier bill regarding the restriction of sale and distribution of inappropriate materials to children.
While the manga itself was not found to be in violation of the ordinance, volume 9 was declared to be a "harmful publication" in Fukushima Prefecture under its "Youth Protection and Nurturing Ordinance" in 2014, due to containing full nudity. In July of 2022, volumes 2, 4, 13, and 15 were considered refused classification by the Australian Classification Board and effectively banned from being imported or sold in Australia.
9) Barefoot Gen nearly gets pulled from schools
A shonen manga written by the late Hiroshima survivor Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen was loosely based upon Nakazawa's struggle for survival in the aftermath of the atomic bombing. Although it was advertised and published as a shonen manga, it graphically details the aftermath of the atomic bombing and the harsh realities of life for people living with radiation burns and other afflictions afterward.
It's no surprise that it spawned controversy. In fact, in December 2012, access to the manga was restricted from elementary and middle school students in Matsue City, Japan. The reason for the restriction was due to references to the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, in which Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese civilians.
The restriction was lifted after 44 of 49 school principals were polled in August of 2013, and Nakazawa's widow even commented on the absurdity of it.
10) Highschool of the Dead's overt fanservice sees it banned
As a shonen manga that might as well be called "The Walking Dead: The Anime," Highschool of the Dead has plenty of controversy around it. There's the overuse of the fanservice that goes into borderline parody and the apparent sympathy toward ultra-nationalist "Uyoku dantai" Japanese right-wing groups. Both of these were enough to earn scorn and backlash.
The manga was banned in China for its "borderline" obscene content by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in July of 2015. Shortly after, the series was considered concluded - despite being only halfway through - due to the author's untimely death from ischaemic heart disease in 2017.
