- My Hero Academia creator Kōhei Horikoshi has been under fire for his choices in names recently.
- Even after changing the name, people seemed determined to find more controversy in the replacement.
- Not only was the original controversy overblown, but the subsequent controversies are just ridiculous.
Recently there has been a massive amount of controversy surrounding My Hero Academia. The creator of the massively popular manga and anime series came under fire for his choice of names.
A character known for experimenting on human beings had a name that sounded like a reference to Japanese war crimes. The direct translation of this name was ‘log,’ as in a lump of wood.
The writer, Kōhei Horikoshi, apologized and changed the name. Then the controversy went from overblown to just downright stupid.
The My Hero Academia ‘Name’ Controversy Was Already Overblown
There is a lot of content surrounding this controversy that makes it difficult to discuss in brief. I’ll try my best to summarize it. The character in question, Maruta Shiga, is a doctor who experiments on humans.
The word Maruta translates directly to log in English. But back in WWII, the Japanese army used it to refer to their human test subjects. People noticed the similarity, got annoyed and demanded an apology, leading the creator to give one.
The level of controversy surrounding this is just completely mental. I can sort of understand people pointing out the connection and asking for a change. But people went completely off the chain over someone’s name. Those involved with My Hero Academia literally received death threats over it.
Then Things Just Got Ridiculous
The controversies didn’t end there. The character’s new name was revealed, Kyudai Garaki, and someone decided to turn that into another problem.
The new name sounds a bit like the Japanese abbreviation for Kyushu University. Apparently, during WWII there were also experiments happening there. At this point, people are trying to find a flimsy connection to be annoyed about.
It doesn’t end there either. One of the main characters of My Hero Academia happens to have been born on April 20. That also happens to be Hitler’s birthday. Coincidence? YES.
Fortunately, this seems to be the tipping point. The hashtag #WeSupportYouHorikoshi has been doing the rounds on Twitter in defense of the creator. It seems like people are finally seeing this for the overblown pile of crud that it was in the first place.
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.
This article was edited by Gerelyn Terzo.
Last modified: February 14, 2020 1:02 AM UTC
