Japan Expo discusses the arrival of Ken Akamatsu, a mangaka and politician with very liberal ideas.

Child pornography defender, far-right sympathizer, old-fashioned author: One might be surprised by some of the reactions to Ken Akamatsu’s exposé of Ken Akamatsu, a mangaka now labeled as a senator from the Liberal Democratic Party.

“His history is interesting to us. His works, beginning with i love hina, was a huge success in France, with real influence. The fact that he became a politician is original. We thought it was nice that he comes to us to talk about his experience.Explains Thomas Sirday, co-organizer and co-founder of Japan Expo – from Thursday July 13 to Sunday July 16 at the Paris-Nord Villepinte exhibition center – who does not understand the criticism directed at him.

Arguments that contradict certain reactions observed on Twitter. “Committed to the extreme right and the defense of pedophilia, we must not forget the second part”Annoys Miev ( @Mievigon ), Ken Akamatsu’s commitment to complete creative freedom and reaction to a photo of the mangaka in the process of offering a portrait of Italian Prime Minister Georgia Mellon. This photo, originally uploaded by Japan’s foreign ministry ahead of May’s G7 summit in Hiroshima, was also picked up by Lua (@DeformerLua), who wondered: “What will he do at the Japan Expo, live painting with Marine Le Pen?” » It should be forgotten that the mangaka draws portraits of all the people he meets, such as the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. “Even us, he crushed us and threw us into manga”laughs Thomas Sirday.

Whatever they are, the reactions remind us that the people of Nagoya in 1968 have strong beliefs. His career as a mangaka exploded in the 1990s Continuous AI! and especially i love hina. followed Negima! A master magician or UQ owner! His creations, often adapted into animated series, have sold more than 50 million copies.

Copyright protection

However, his fame is not limited to his works. A fierce defender of creativity and freedom of expression, the author, who headed Japan’s powerful Mangaka Association, has launched a chain of actions against legislation seen as a threat to designers’ work.

During debates on texts adopted by the city of Tokyo in 2011 and then by the central government in 2014 to combat child pornography content, Ken Akamatsu stood alongside publishers, including giants Shueisha and Kodansha, to point out the difference between no. Pornography that depicts real children and cartoons depicting them, or highlights the danger of works that contain scenes of child pornography as part of the script. A pedophile priest appears MW And incest is in the heartAyakoTwo works by the guardian figure of Japanese manga, Osamu Tezuka.