What You Need to Know:
- It can be quite the arduous task of differentiating fact from fiction when it comes to certain scenarios, and such is the case with the recent controversy surrounding Boku no Hero Academia's character "Daruma Ujiko". In a recent episode of the popular series, Daruma Ujiko's name was eventually revealed to be Maruta Shiga, who many foreign fans claimed to have a connection to Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731, which was a unit focused around human experimentation.
- Creator Kohei Horikoshi always places a disclaimer in his manga letting readers know that all characters within the series are created based on imagery and personality, but perhaps all of that was lost in translation as social media exploded with very mixed reactions. After the dust settled, both Kohei Horikoshi and Shounen Jump issued a formal apology to fans about the decision of the name, and have stated they will rename the character to avoid further conflict.
- What do you all think about this? Did fans in Asia just take things a bit too far? Or do you feel it was justified? Let us know in the comments.
To be honest, cultural differences will always come into play, especially in these scenarios...But I think it's a bit much to make such claims.
I'm on Horikoshi's side. I don't think any of this was intentional.