US Military Moe Mangaka Harassed

The mangaka responsible for illustrating the US military’s recent moe manga (visible here) has been receiving defamatory mail.

The writer of the manga, who is also known as the creator of military moe bishoujo “Mari-tan” and a vocal advocate of the alliance, explains on his Twitter account:

I have unfortunate news. It seems the illustrator responsible for the Japan-America alliance comic [Yukio Hirai, who also works on Mari-tan] has been getting defamatory mail. The illustrator is actually non-political.

The story and text were my work, so if there is something you want to say, say it to me!

[…]

And the manga’s message is that of the US military, and not that of the illustrator.

Whether an illustrator working on military propaganda can legitimately claim to be “non-political” is of course open to debate, as is the question of whether the mangaka should be held directly responsible for taking the work, or whether the Eichman-esque defence of “just following orders” should absolve them from the becoming a legitimate target for criticism.

In any case, it certainly seems naive on the part of the mangaka to think that penning a manga in support of Japan’s highly controversial (if widely supported) military dependence on the USA would pass without notice.