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Answerman - Are Artists Apologizing and Self-Censoring More These Days?

About SAO scene. I think there sill some confusion because of the translation of the twitter.
Kawahara Reki didn't regretted write the scene and din't apologize for that
When he apologize to the VAs was because it was a very difficult scene and the VAs had to give their all to make it work.

It was more like "sorry to have write such a difficult scene and thank you for you make such amazing work on it"

"This may be a bit late, but if you're wondering why SAO has so many of those scenes, a considerable number of light novels (although they weren't called light novels back then), epic sagas, and adventure stories I read back in middle school contained those plot elements. I would cite Ōgun Hakusha (Gold Spur) as a representative title. My writing was bound to that as if it were under a spell.

"These days, the spell has finally worn off. Nowadays I would prefer to express catharsis through other means. If it was an absolutely necessary scene for the story, I would write it, but I would prefer to do that in a book that isn't a light novel."

And in cases where the creative choice that pissed everyone off was very intentional, the artist might dig in their heels and ignore the fans, or be curt with them.

I think artists should stop apologizing for everything under the sun. It seems to me that the new puritanism we see developing and spreading through social media is not a Western only phenomenon. Sad days when artists feel they have to apologize to appease the loudest screamers online.

No, I don't think the Olympics have anything to do with this at all. The pre-Olympics clean-up has more to do with making Japan appear "better" to other visiting nations when it's on the world's stage, things like its homeless population, its human rights and human trafficking records, and porn that would run afoul of international moral standards.

But how would you explain the later tweet(s) where he speaks about his use of those kind of scenes?

i really don't think making sexually explicit and/or offensive anime is such an important part of Japanese culture as some western anime fans seem to believe it to be.

But how would you explain the later tweet(s) where he speaks about his use of those kind of scenes?

Quote:

"This may be a bit late, but if you're wondering why SAO has so many of those scenes, a considerable number of light novels (although they weren't called light novels back then), epic sagas, and adventure stories I read back in middle school contained those plot elements. I would cite Ōgun Hakusha (Gold Spur) as a representative title. My writing was bound to that as if it were under a spell. "These days, the spell has finally worn off. Nowadays I would prefer to express catharsis through other means. If it was an absolutely necessary scene for the story, I would write it, but I would prefer to do that in a book that isn't a light novel."

I could see maybe that earliest tweet where he apologized to the VAs being read differently, but I'm not sure that above part fits into the whole narrative that Kawahara was apologizing for the technical difficulty of the scene, and not that he recognized that his handling of the issue in the past has not been the best, to put it mildly, and he would avoid writing it unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then not in a LN. Also, I'm not sure what else would make the scene so difficult from a voice acting perspective.

^That's all well and good, but i still doubt that the average Japanese person considers any of that to be a particularly important part of their culture...

^That's all well and good, but i still doubt that the average Japanese person considers any of that to be a particularly important part of their culture...

I mean the whole Olympics thing is more on point, why should Japan apologize for/ or hide their sexual preferences to appease a few foreign countries? An extreme version is the Sony as a whole censoring or blocking games that don't follow US morals.

It has nothing to do with animes, japanese media is much more "open" with things like that. Did you ever watched some variety shows from japan? Did you ever read some books from japan like some with rape-content?
What about the fact that Mangaka like Ken Akamatsu etc. were against a new law in Tokyo, where some content should be banned?
And lets not forget the UN appeal in 2016 about the ban for Lolis, Sexual Violence etc. in media, which Japan rejected.
What is with their old depiction of Art (Women with tentacles) etc.
Of course its a part of their culture, otherwise it wouldnt make any sense why Japan rejected so many things from the western world and why so many Mangakas are against any changes.

zrnzle500 wrote:

But how would you explain the later tweet(s) where he speaks about his use of those kind of scenes?

The important part is still this sentence "If it was an absolutely necessary scene for the story, I would write it, but I would prefer to do that in a book that isn't a light novel."
He would still write it if HE thinks its necessary for the story. He only said, because Lightnovels are most time for teenagers etc., such scenes are not suitable for young audience.
How lucky that books can be also made in anime.