Black Female Mangaka Makes Her Japanese Debut, But Faces Backlash Over Her Manga Couple
A few months ago, I talked about a foreign woman who moved to Japan and made her debut as a manga artist. Well, we have another case here, this time involving a Black woman known simply as Minami Sakai.
She managed to make her debut as a mangaka, even though she has only published a one-shot (which absolutely counts, as many manga artists start out with one-shots). However, apparently, not everything went smoothly. Despite receiving massive support from both Western and Japanese audiences, some people criticized her choice of couple for the story.
Minami Sakai’s Dream Comes True
It all started when Minami Sakai, an award-winning professional translator and comic artist working in Japan, posted a photo of herself holding a physical copy of the shoujo/josei magazine FEEL YOUNG, published by Shodensha, featuring her one-shot titled Enkyori Osananajimi (Long-Distance Childhood Friends).
Next to it, she shared an old photo of herself wearing her graduation gown in Japan, accompanied by a nostalgic caption: “What would she think if she knew that all that hard work really paid off?”
The post quickly racked up millions of views:
Western “Internet Police” Attack Her
Now, here’s where the controversy comes in. From what I could gather, the complaints were about the couple featured in her manga: a Black girl and a white guy (who is actually Japanese).
As far as I could tell, people were upset because, as a Black author, she chose to have a Black character date a white guy.
Someone even made this image to sum up the whole controversy:
From what people were saying, they assumed the male character was white, but he’s actually Japanese in the story. Regardless, they criticized her for creating this kind of couple instead of having her character get together with another Black man.
I’ll be honest: I scrolled through her tweet and found very few comments criticizing her over this. However, Minami mentioned that she had been blocking some people, so I don’t know if that also makes their comments disappear, you know?
There may have been more drama that I simply missed. Apparently, some people even accused the author of having a fetish for being “taken by a white man.”
Japanese Readers React With Support and Admiration for Her Hard Work
While English-language comments were saying these kinds of things about the author, Japanese readers reacted in the complete opposite way. Japanese profiles and news accounts began sharing screenshots of the attacks from Western users, while praising the mangaka’s determination:
“The talent to bring new creations to life is the noblest talent in this world. We’re rooting for you, our friend from another land!” — commented one Japanese reader.
Other local internet users highlighted the incredible achievement of a foreign author learning Japanese, understanding the demands of the Japanese publishing industry, and making it through the rigorous editorial selection process at Shodensha.