As we all know, works of fiction are always to blame for real life issues as none of us is smart enough to differentiate between the two. The most recent case which a lot of people are trying to fix on social media is the appearance of Uzaki Hana from Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! It’s an anime adaptation of Take’s manga series (manga started in 2017, anime this July). The story follows Uzaki as she hangs out with the loner Shinichi Sakurai. It’s a comedy anime with ecchi moments, nothing exactly groundbreaking or too controversial. However, the appearance of the female MC has been targeted for being unrealistic for a 19/20 year old. A comment even specifically called the show a “bait for pedophiles”.
The Fixing
One artist took it upon themself to “redraw” or “fix” the so called “obscene” design of Uzaki-chan. You can see the comparison (original is on the right).
(Right) Original Key Visual from the anime
The user who made the drawing claimed that the original was inaccurate and that shirts don’t move like that. They also called out to other artists to stop the trend of “suction shirts”. They deleted this tweet a few days later and said they were wrong. The reason I linked to the profile is to give credit for the art, but there is no reason to further go after them with negative comments since they already regretted it enough to delete the tweet.
Another user used it as a chance to say that society shouldn’t be against Abby from The Last Of Us 2 while they have nothing against Uzaki-chan. They made a tweet to compare the views.
In case you don’t know what an ‘incel’ is:
This again caused a lot of debate between people who didn’t think fictional characters are supposed to be real and those who did. There was a ton of ‘salty’ comments and the original discussion is on the tweet above. For some awful, weird reason, another user made a drawing of Abby hitting Uzaki and blowing off her head.
Nobody is forcing anyone to read/watch it
Regardless of opinions, these drawings are insults to the original author. As far as my opinion goes, we should strive to differentiate fiction from real life. There’s definitely got to be more important stuff to discuss than whether or not an imaginary girl looks “her age” or if her body proportions are accurate. It’s a drawing, is it even supposed to be realistic? There’s a quote circulating from the anime that also that seems to be perfect for the situation:
In conclusion, we can just avoid trash-talking something we hate and rather focus on things we don’t. Opinions and criticism are fine but I don’t think the same for straight out insulting authors and “fixing” their drawings. It’s someone’s hard work and there’s obviously a big enough fanbase of people who appreciate it for what it is – an unrealistic representation of the world meant to be funny.
