Gosho Aoyama’s popular manga series, Detective Conan, has been caught in between the growing tensions between China and Japan. In response to a recent collaboration visual to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its anime and the 10th anniversary of My Hero Academia’s anime, official bans were issued for recent events in Beijing, Chongqing and Lanzhou.
Merchandise and even cosplay of Detective Conan is not allowed, with organizers of an anime event in Lanzhou going as far to warn those “wearing kimono, wooden clogs and outfits associated with militarism would be denied entry.” The strong reaction to by association with My Hero Academia series stems from the inclusion of a villain character named “Maruta Shiga.” The manga author later changed the name to “Daruma Ujiko” after it sparked outrage as readers connected the character’s name to the real life victims of experimentation, derogatorily termed “maruta” (丸太), carried out by Japan’s Unit 731, a bioweapon facility in China’s Harbin city in World War II. “Shiga” was named after the Japanese bacteriologist, Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered the Shigella bacteria, which was weaponized and used on victims as test subjects. Subsequently, Chinese video platforms, Tencent and Bilibili, removed episodes of My Hero Academia and pulled its manga in 2020.
This sentiment also affected the Chongqing anime expo, which followed suit to ban merchandise and cosplay from the Pokémon franchise. The decision was in response to a controversial decision to host a card game event featuring Pokémon characters at the contentious Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Ultimately, the January 31st event was cancelled, however, the anger and tension remains.
ACC Anime Expo stated on Weibo that series such as Detective Conan, Pokémon, My Hero Academia, and Kaichou ha Maid-Sama! have “raised serious social concerns.” Maid-Sama came under scrutiny after author Hiro Fujiwara’s used the blue-and-white canton version of the ROC flag in her announcement of attendance at the Taipei Comic Festival, which drew outrage from Chinese netizens. Japan and China’s tensions have been further spurned on by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan.
Sources: Yahoo! Japan News, Japan Today
