Works that entered China through regular channels but turned out to be disappointing [Anime Situation of Chinese Otaku].

The Progress of the Colossus

The original "Shinkage no Kyojin" did not really catch on with the Chinese otaku demographic at first, perhaps due in part to the strong artwork of the original work, but the anime version made it easier to accept in China, and its popularity in China exploded. The popularity at the time was tremendous, and it is said from various sources that it was the most popular Japanese work in China in the past 20 years, and that it was the work that generated the greatest instantaneous wind speed.

However, the direction of the content and the extreme depiction of the anime led to a lot of criticism in China during the period when it was distributed, and it became a leading example of Japanese anime that had a negative impact on young people. As I wrote in my previous article, it was blacklisted as a target for regulation of Japanese animation in China at the time.

Some Chinese otaku who knew the situation at that time said

The blacklist made it difficult to handle "Shinkage no Kyojin" through regular channels in China. Some of the blacklisted works have since been restored to anime distribution, and some of the film versions have been screened in China, but the Marching Giants have remained missing. ......

The reason why The Progress of the Colossus became popular at the social phenomenon level is because anime distribution on video websites attracted a large number of non-otaku anime viewers. So I think the impact of the regulation was quite large.

There were also stories such as the following.

In China at that time, the regular distribution of Japanese anime on video sites was expanding the general public and light anime lovers' viewership, and at the same time, the influence of non-regular anime viewers was decreasing due to the shrinking of the fan activity community. This is a persuasive argument for the view that the popularity and buzz of "The Progress of the Colossal Titan" rapidly shrank as a result of the restrictions.

The popularity of "The Clash of the Titans" in China continued even after it disappeared from regular distribution due to the restrictions, mainly among core fans, but the lack of new fans and the gradual radicalization of the genre led to differences in popularity and perception of the work among the general public, light anime fans, and foreign countries other than China. This is the reason why the work was so popular in the end of the production.

This was one of the reasons why, for better or for worse, the development of the final part of the work and the way the work ended were criticized by the Chinese fans, which is a characteristic of the strong fan base in China, and caused a firestorm.

My Hero Academia

In China, the deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations and the outburst of anti-Japanese sentiment have often had an impact on otaku-related fields, but in terms of impact on works, the firestorm that erupted in 2020 over "My Hero Academia" was probably the largest in recent memory.

The flames started when the name of the character "Shiga Maruta" in the work was criticized for being reminiscent of "Marta of the Japanese Army's Unit 731," among other things. This led to a huge firestorm, especially on the Korean and Chinese Internet, which caused the distribution of the anime, which was being distributed on several Chinese video sites at the time, to be cancelled all together.

The flames were so intense at the time that criticism of the work was so intense that the following comments were made

The main characters' birthdays are Hitler's birthday and the day the Japanese Communist Party was founded.

The situation was very dangerous for a while, as it even went to the stage where conspiracy theories such as "The birthdays of major characters are Hitler's birthday and the date when the Japanese Communist Party was founded" were mixed in. Even after an apology was issued by Shueisha during the firestorm, saying that there was "no intention to superimpose the work on past history," the flames remained unchecked for quite a long time, and the negative impact on the image of the work in China has remained strong even today.

Chinese otaku who experienced the mess at the time said

I think that the "Hiroakka" firestorm was partly related to the political situation in China's modern history and exploded in conjunction with general anti-Japanese sentiment. However, I still wonder why they chose to use a name that risks being misinterpreted when they were developing their work in China in relation to this incident. In China, it is not possible to say that we did not know about the Japanese military, especially in the area of history and politics in relation to the 731 incident.

And so on.

The subsequent firestorm over "Hiroaka" is characterized in part by the fact that the image of the work in China has since been cemented as "an anti-Chinese work and its author who was in flames," and that this has continued without any opportunity to be corrected.

In China's Internet community, the deletion or self-regulation of inflammatory or "sensitive topics" is actively carried out, perhaps in part to avoid risk on the part of administrators, and logs of online social networking sites and forums are often voluntarily deleted.

As a result, it is very difficult to trace back the Chinese Internet and investigate past incidents, and it is not uncommon for past flame wars to be based on personal subjective opinions and memories.

In China, there are not a few works that have a fixed image of being on fire due to such circumstances, but with "Hiroaca," the scale of the flames at the time and the fact that it became a "topic of some use" for video distribution, the negative image seems to have taken root deeply in a fairly wide range of people.

I have heard from Chinese geeks in the past about this area.

There are not a few Chinese otaku who recognize that "Hiroaca" is a work that has practically ended because of the flames. Even after the fire in China, the work continued to be popular not only in Japan, but also outside of China, with almost no awareness of the fact that the popularity of the work had been maintained or even increased.

I have also heard that "My Hero Académise in China" has been gaining popularity in China.

Looking at the "My Hero Academia" flame war in China and how it was handled afterwards, it seems to highlight the extent of the damage and difficulty in recovery when a work is labeled and flames up on the Internet in modern China.

Hi-Q!

HIQUE!!!" is a work that has a very large image in Japan and China in a different direction from "My Hero Academia.

In Japan, the theatrical version of "HIQUE! was a big hit in Japan, grossing over 10 billion yen at the box office, and this news was quite surprising among Chinese otaku.

At the time, Chinese otaku were very surprised by the news.

The huge success of the movie version of HIQ was very surprising. I didn't think it would be a record-breaking box-office success, since HIQ's popularity is almost non-existent on the Chinese Internet.

I also heard such comments as, "Why did you think it would be a record-breaking box office hit when it was supposed to be a finished work?

Why did "HIQUE," which is supposed to be a finished work, make such high box-office sales? which was supposed to be a finished work, was able to make such a high box-office profit?

was a topic of discussion in the Chinese otaku community, for better or worse.

Even in China, "HIQUE! When the first and second seasons of the anime were being distributed, it was very popular and highly rated, and was frequently mentioned as a recommended sports-related work. However, about 10 years later, it has completely become a work of the past, and the feelings of fans and former fans in China are said to be quite different from those in Japan, where not only the original manga but also various other media were developed to maintain the enthusiasm of fans.

In China, fan enthusiasm for any work rapidly wanes after its anime distribution is completed and renewed, and its popularity and buzz also tends to shrink.

And as for "Hi-Q! In addition to the long gap between anime distribution and the environment surrounding the distribution of anime, the global epidemic of the new corona and the postponement of the Olympics coincided with the distribution of the sequel anime, accelerating the loss of the work's presence in the real world.

In this regard, some Chinese otaku have commented

Not only Haikyuu, but in China today, it is very difficult to maintain the popularity of works. Once an anime's run as a new anime is over, its popularity rapidly declines, and it is very rare for it to remain popular until the sequel. In addition, due to stricter regulations, there are now fewer works that can be easily viewed on video sites, so the places where anime fans can get together and get excited are disappearing.

Hi-Q! is an unlucky work in the Chinese market. In the Chinese otaku community, it is treated as if the original work was finished before we knew it while we were confused by the influence of the real world. In addition to this, the distribution environment and topical elements in China created an image of it being for women that became too strong, and the attention from light anime fans began to fade away. I think the situation was completely different from Japan, where the excitement was linked to the reality of volleyball. ......

There were also stories such as "Hi-Q!

As for the "HIQUE! is a work that, while not so much influenced by politics, was clearly affected by the difference in media influence between Japan and China regarding Japanese works, especially in the Chinese environment where the presence of a work rapidly fades after the anime is over and it is treated as a work of the past.

Date A Live

Date A Live" is a work that boasts deep-rooted popularity in China, especially among readers of novels, and many Chinese otaku have become deeply involved in Japanese two-dimensional works and light novels through this work.

Although it is not the most popular work in the Chinese otaku community, it is said to be "a work that always has a stable and passionate following," and there is no doubt that it is a work with a long life that continues to be talked about by fans in China even after it became difficult to publish Japanese light novels in the country.

Also, one of the reasons why a sequel to this work was produced was not because of the size or potential of the Chinese market, but because of the relatively rare circumstance that a Chinese company was involved due to its clear popularity in China.

However, in the case of this anime, even though the high popularity in China was the reason for the production of the sequel, we ran into a situation in which the quality of the anime was degraded and distribution became impossible due to Chinese regulations.

The year 2022, when the fourth season of the anime was aired, was a time when regulations governing the distribution of anime on domestic video sites in China were becoming increasingly strict, and it is said that major revisions were necessary to the content of the anime to be distributed. A Chinese otaku who knew the situation at the time said

The fourth season of the "Date A Live" anime had to be revised within a tight schedule in order to be distributed in China, and the Chinese subtitled version distributed through the bilibili network for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan was clearly a pilot version of a lower quality. This is a very bad memory for many fans.

There are many fans who remember this as a very bad memory," he said.

As for the fifth season, although there was excitement in China when the decision to produce the fifth season was announced, as time went by, there was an increase in disturbing information related to the work, and before the airing of the fifth season, the Chinese Internet was filled with such stories as "The fifth season of 'Date A Live' has been aired in China.

However, as time went on, there were more and more disturbing reports about the production, and before the broadcast, there were reports on the Chinese Internet that the fifth season of "Date A Live" had failed to pass the screening process in China, making domestic distribution impossible.

In fact, the fifth season of "Date A Live" was not distributed in China. In fact, the 5th season of "Date A Live" has not been distributed in China as of this writing.

Furthermore, just before the start of the 5th season, the Chinese side announced the dissolution of Good Show, a copyright management company belonging to the animation division of Daliangshan, which was involved in the 4th season of "Date A Live" in China.

It seems that "Date A Live" has become an example that even a popular work that the Chinese side is actively working on is inevitably affected by circumstances peculiar to China, and that the Chinese side's involvement does not mean that the Chinese market will be safe.

In addition to the works mentioned in this report, there are other works that were announced for distribution, but faded out without being distributed, perhaps because they could not pass the screening censorship after the tightening of regulations, and the way the excitement of fans in Japan , who were following the works in real time, declined and negative criticisms were noticeable. Witches of Mercury," and "Unemployed Reincarnation," which was burned to the ground due to feminism and Chinese values, as well as extreme agitation of video distribution.

In Japan as well, it is not uncommon for works to become a disappointment due to inflammation or other circumstances surrounding the work, but in China, works that become the target of regulations or attract too much attention due to inflammation tend to be entirely restricted or deleted, a situation unique to China.

This was especially true of "My Hero Academia," which was introduced this time, but there are many cases where distorted images have taken root in other works that have been "forgotten" as they are, and information about their popularity and reputation outside of China even after being burned or restricted has not been spread. Even after being burned or restricted, information about their popularity and reputation outside of China does not spread, and they tend to be treated as "finished works" in the Chinese otaku community.

Of course, there are some dedicated fans in China who follow up on what has happened since then through direct research of Japanese-language information and trends in Japan. However, the number of light fans of works that have "disappeared" is drastically reduced, and the remaining fan communities are more radical, for better or worse, making it difficult for calm and objective evaluations to spread.

As a result, not only in Japan and China, but also among otaku in China, there is a kind of disconnect regarding works of art, and it seems that more and more otaku are unable to share their memories of works, or are left with an image that is somehow misaligned or distorted.

Even in the Japanese otaku community, different generations have different impressions and knowledge of works, and there are circumstances that can only be understood by those who experienced them in real time.

However, in the Chinese otaku community, works and information frequently disappear due to regulations and self-imposed restrictions, and in a very short span of time, a kind of generational change is taking place in the form of a disconnection of information.

As someone who has been following the situation of Chinese otaku, I feel that this is a shame and a waste of time.

This will be the last issue, but I am very grateful that Akiba Research Institute has allowed me to continue writing this series even as the demand for China-related information is decreasing, and I myself have enjoyed writing it very much.

I am also very grateful to everyone who read this article on my hobby, and thank you very much for your support.

I will continue to post about the Chinese otaku situation on my blog, so if you are interested, I would appreciate it if you could take a look.