Popular Japanese anime series "Detective Conan" has been ensnared in controversy in China following a recent collaboration with the manga series "My Hero Academia," which drew backlash in the country in 2020 over a character name that can be associated with Japan's wartime aggression.
The anime's copyright holder in mainland China said in a statement that the partnership between the two works was intended to convey "positive values" and that its Japanese copyright holder has "consistently supported friendly cultural exchanges" between China and Japan.
However, many people have expressed discontent with the statement online, calling for a formal apology from the Japanese side.
The collaboration campaign commemorates the 30th and 10th anniversaries this year of the TV anime series "Detective Conan" and "My Hero Academia," respectively. The manga authors have released illustrations of each other's lead characters as part of the project.
In 2020, "My Hero Academia" was removed from video platforms in China after one of its villain characters was widely viewed as insulting to Chinese people, according to local media reports.
The character, named Maruta Shiga and depicted as conducting human experiments, evoked memories of the Imperial Japanese Army's notorious Unit 731, which engaged in wartime biological and chemical warfare research in northeastern China.
"Maruta," meaning logs, was a term used to refer to victims of human experiments, while "Shiga" is derived from Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered disease-causing bacteria in 1897.
On Sunday, a media outlet under the Hubei provincial government castigated in an editorial a collaboration between Detective Conan and My Hero Academia as "ignoring the historical wounds and national sentiments of the Chinese people."
© KYODO
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TheClassicDude
Offended by everything, ashamed of nothing.