The “Controversy”
Last Sunday, there was a special event that celebrated the Digimon francise’s 20th year anniversary – the DigiFest 2021. But unlike the previous anniversary event, the aforementioned event was considered “controversial” because of the topic of the live event.
What’s the “controversy” you asked?
Well, in the DigiFest event, the seiyuus or the Japanese voice actors of the show Digimon Tamers had a group reading event where they did an original episode of the show which focuses on one of the real life issues plaguing the world – political correctness. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the villain of the story was none other than political correctness – and its power cancel culture.
And as you might have guessed, the whole thing exploded and activated the defender of political correctness and cancel culture who now label the show as “far right” or “alt right” or whatever they wanted to call it.
Honestly, I find this whole thing hilarious. It’s funny how some people on Twitter would label anyone going against their narrative as “far right” or as conspiracy theorists. But then again, it's nothing new.
For examples, this article from comicbook.com was claiming that the "fans" of the show were very angry after watching the performance. The fact that the article didn't clarify which fan but instead implied that all the fans of the show have negative opinion of the live performance was very telling. It's obvious from the get go that they're trying to spin the narrative in the so called "fans'" favor.
And of course Twitter is doing their part too... Notice how Twitter label the images of the live performance as "potentially sensitive content" instead of just showing the images like normal.
If the situation is reverse and the show was criticizing the other side of the political spectrum, Twitter will surely not put such a warning.
Not only Twitter though, even mainstream anime sites like Anime News Network are quick to label Chiaki Konaka and his show a "conspiracy theory." No wonder sites like this are dying and real anime fans would rather watch anime news and reviews on YouTube. In our current day and age some YouTubers are more trustworthy than these so called "professional" anime reviewers and critics.
But real questions though... Is political correctness really a conspiracy?
Nope. It is not. Political correctness is real and if someone tell you otherwise, he or she is either lying or is hoping that you're one of those ignorant sheep that would take everything he or she says in face value.
How about cancel culture?
Of course it is not. It’s not like we’re blind or anything. Even someone like me who lived outside of the US knew what’s happening in the US and the rest of the west right now.
Unlike how Twitter puritans would like to think, the rest of the world are not idiots and can see what’s really happening in the west. We are also not like those Twitter puritans that are like sheep who only knows how to follow other people.
This was doubly more so for the Japanese who were constantly attacked on Twitter because they refuses to bow down to and put political correctness in their works. I guess we have the based Japanese culture to thank for that.
So in my opinion, instead of calling Chiaki Konaka, the writer of Digimon Tamers, “alt right”, we should call him based – a chad that could think for himself and someone unafraid to express himself.
I also hope that more Japanese artist would be like Konaka and express their views on political correctness just so I could laugh at the stupidity of some people on Twitter.
Cheers!
