Bocchi the Rock Producer Says Erika Did Not Force Censorship

If you’re out of the loop, recently writer Erika Yoshida gave an interview where she said she considers fanservice a “noise” and requested that the ecchi present in the Bocchi the Rock manga be removed from the anime adaptation.

This caused a huge controversy both in Japan and the West (though for some reason, some people want to claim the controversy is only in the West).

So much so that the Bocchi the Rock producer, Shouta Umehara, went to his Twitter to try to defend what Erika said in her interview, but most reactions were still negative.

Bocchi the Rock Producer Says Erika Did Not Force Censorship

On his Twitter profile, Umehara, who is the producer of the Bocchi the Rock anime, said the following:

“People think many things, right? But at least in my work with Yoshida-san (Erika), I never felt that anything was imposed on me! On the contrary, she listens to the ideas and thoughts of others and incorporates them in meetings.”

In another tweet, he said:

“I myself often impose my ideas on others, so I am very grateful because Yoshida-san, Hamaji-san, Keiichi-kun, Kerorira-kun, and the rest of the team are all the type to first listen to what we have to say.”

What do you think of his statements? Let’s see how the Japanese reacted to Umehara’s comments. And yes, JAPANESE only—there are no Western opinions below.

• “Within the industry itself, it’s just blind defense, ignoring what is being criticized. This field is like that, as expected.”
• “They can show consideration for colleagues, but apparently not for fans.”
• “Sure, sometimes you can do what you want at work without imposing opinions, but the issue is that the public found that comment problematic. Doing well in the production environment and how it comes across to outsiders are different things.”
• “Besides, the original author praised it at the time of airing, and the Bocchi the Rock producer also commented on this controversy.”
• “It’s obvious she does her job well, that’s not the issue. The problem is appearing in the media spreading hate against otaku and provoking, calling it sexual exploitation. You can’t stay silent. Basically, it’s like ‘don’t come make money off otaku, you weird old lady.’ That interview was really strange, right?”
• “Can’t we just criticize the extremist otakus? Anyway, as already said, the production staff are praising Yoshida.”
• “Well, the production team is kind of ‘in-house.’ I don’t know if they truly defend her or if it’s just a facade. But if you read the full article, about 90% is unacceptable, provoking fights with many people. Even if they get along well at work, showing this kind of thinking publicly would be grounds for immediate dismissal.”
• “At work, she treats colleagues well and didn’t criticize anything about Bocchi the Rock’s story itself. The problem is that in this case, Yoshida’s personal opinions appear, and that’s the bad part.”
• “When you label readers and viewers as ‘sexual predator otaku,’ any defense becomes useless. Being harsh on the public and soft with colleagues is a mafia way.”
• “Of course no one in the studio would say: ‘Let’s cut this because it’s sexual consumption.’”
• “Those who follow producer Umehara’s work know this doesn’t make sense.”
• “Thank you for always delivering works full of love for the original material.”

It’s worth noting that… so far, the Bocchi the Rock author has simply not commented at all on the controversy.