“The end root is the same”: Vinland Saga Editor Refuses to Let Anime and Manga World Get Swept Up in the Western Influence
There is no doubt that some popular anime and mangas out there are influenced by Western culture. In fact, some mangakas encourage it. However, the current Editor-in-Chief of Kodansha’s Weekly Afternoon manga magazine, and more importantly, the editor of Vinland Saga, Akira Kanai, believes that Western consumers’ beliefs and sociopolitical viewpoints should have no influence whatsoever on the artistic choices made in Japanese comics.
After working as an editor for several manga magazines published by Kodansha since 1994, Kanai was eventually promoted to his current role as EIC in 2015. In that span, he oversaw several well-known manga projects, such as Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga, Gamon Sakurai’s Ajin: Demi-Human, and Bin Kusamizu and Saburō Megumi’s Fragile.
Akira Kanai Does Not Try To Make Mangas More Accessible To Audiences Outside Japan
It was in this capacity as a veteran of the manga industry that, in a recent career retrospective interview with German manga news outlet Manga Passion, Kanai shared his thoughts on the subject of the West’s increasing attempts to impose its cultural standards on Eastern media.
When asked “to what extent do you already think about the (potential) international success of a manga” and whether he tries to work with mangakas to “perhaps try to make [their works] more accessible to audiences outside Japan”, the editor boldly said, “No, not really.” He explained:
For example, there are various codes against the depiction of violence, against the depiction of nudity, whether male or female, or religious codes that I follow. However, I think that there are no fundamental differences in the population in terms of what they perceive as important – be it in Japan, Germany, China or South Korea. Even if it is the case on a political level.
Kanai went on to say that he doesn’t let so-called political correctness abroad affect him and that he doesn’t create his works in that way. He feels that no matter whether someone is from Africa, Chile, or Greenland, if something is intriguing, people will typically understand it.
He said:
I’ve never made a big deal of it so far. But even if a work takes up a very Japanese theme, for example, or a German work a German theme, a Chinese work a Chinese theme – in the end the root is the same, I think.
It is an intriguing thought, to say the least. The success of a manga or anime should not be restricted by international boundaries. Likewise, political correctness abroad should not have any effect whatsoever on the creativity of Japanese manga.
Akira Kanai Believes That It Is Not Possible To Create Works That Are Exactly In The Middle
Kanai continued to say that stopping work because it deals with a problem that is too Japanese or specifying to do something hardly ever happens. He also wonders if there is a difference in Japanese entertainment content between internationally successful works and if it is the works that focus more on the Japanese market or a global market. He further opined:
I don’t think it’s possible to create works that are exactly in the middle, nor would such works really appeal anywhere.
He gave the example of Skip and Loafer [another series serialized under his watch in Weekly Afternoon] which is about a girl who comes from the Japanese countryside and moves to the Japanese city of Tokyo alone to study at a good high school. Kanai believes that people all over the world will certainly understand her feelings of insecurity in the same way. He concluded
In this respect, I really don’t think that works need to be adapted for audiences outside Japan. Although I’m not sure how it is for people from countries where there are no rural areas or no cities. I have no idea what it’s like in Dubai. Maybe I’m biased.
When Manga Passion later asked him if he felt “global exchange was important for the medium of manga,” Kanai replied that although he thought it was very important from a creative standpoint for more and more people to produce their own works in the medium, this exchange should not come at the expense of Japan’s unique identity.
