Interviews with the Author of Mii-chan to Yamada-san Are Being Removed Online

Mii-chan to Yamada-san is being erased from the internet… at least, that is the impression I got after discovering that some websites are simply deleting or making private interviews that manga author Azuki Nene gave in the past.

To quickly summarize the controversy, Azuki Nene is a manga artist and the author of Mii-chan to Yamada-san, a series about two girls who work at a host club.

Yamada is an ordinary girl, while Mii-chan is a girl who clearly struggles mentally, cannot read, and becomes the victim of bullying because of it. So when the anime adaptation was announced, a major campaign demanding its cancellation began.

For example, a petition was created to cancel the anime, the official announcement banner removed the “TV” label from the anime announcement, and even some manga creators called for the anime to be canceled.

Now, it has been discovered that websites are deleting interviews with the author, possibly out of fear of becoming involved in controversy or being interpreted as supporting the series. However, the exact reason is still unknown.

Here is the list:

• Interview with the author on Gendai Business (現代ビジネス) → Made private.
• Interview published in SPA! magazine → Made private.
• Interview on Magazine Pocket (マガジンポケット) → Deleted.

Below is an example from the SPA! website, showing a screenshot from when the interview with the author of Mii-chan to Yamada-san was still available online:

If you access the interview link now, this is all that appears:

Fortunately, we have an explanation, as journalist Yu Taguchi, who conducted the interview, explained that she personally requested SPA! to remove the article.

According to her, there was nothing problematic about the content of the interview. The article was written after multiple confirmations with both the author and the editor in charge.

The decision to hide the article was made because:

• She herself began suffering online attacks and harassment (which she described as “secondary damage”);
• She did not want her interview to be used as material to attack author Azuki Nene.

She stated that the report went through all necessary editorial procedures, with fact-checking carried out together by SPA!’s editor and representatives from Kodansha before publication.

She also pushed back against criticism claiming that the investigation was superficial or that information was not properly verified. According to her, these accusations are false and disrespect the work done by the editorial team.

She said that, eventually, the interview may return online after Kodansha and the author release an official statement regarding the “Diana” profile, which the author has become involved with.

In addition, screenshots of the interview were saved, where the author allegedly stated that Mii-chan was based on a real person:

“She is an old acquaintance of mine. She was a woman with whom I had a strange closeness and who, like Mii-chan in the story, was dating an abusive man. She made many mistakes, such as breaking glasses, and was often late. But for some reason, she was a girl impossible to hate.”

This is what Azuki Nene allegedly said, and I believe this may be the reason why the interview was removed.