Recent political tensions between Japan and China have spilled over into the ACG world, with popular franchises like "My Hero Academia," "Detective Conan," and even "Pokémon" facing boycotts from Chinese netizens and event organizers over alleged "insults to China." It seems even anime conventions aren't immune to political drama these days.
Meanwhile, a video from a "World Line" anime convention in Chengdu has been making waves on Japanese social media. The clip shows a cosplayer dressed as a character from "Death Note" writing "Sanae Takaichi" in a prop notebook, to the cheers of the crowd. The video immediately blew up online in Japan, leaving many netizens scratching their heads, wondering why political statements are being made at a cosplay event, especially using a Japanese work to disparage a Japanese politician. Talk about bizarre!
In the video, the cosplayer, portraying Light Yagami, deliberately walks to the center, pauses, picks up the notebook, writes, and then dramatically raises it to display the four characters for "Sanae Takaichi," eliciting a thunderous ovation from the entire audience.
For Japanese netizens, it's a head-scratcher: enjoying Japanese cosplay culture, only to use a prop notebook to write a Japanese politician's name in a "death game." The logic just doesn't compute.
Many users echoed the sentiment, calling the act utterly baffling. What's the point of cosplaying a Japanese manga character only to attack a Japanese politician? It just makes these individuals look low-class and uncivilized, they argued.
Here's a fun twist: some Japanese netizens pointed out that "Death Note" itself has been on a "blacklist" for recent anime events in China. This makes the cosplayer's appearance even more perplexing, leading to questions about their background and intentions.
Ultimately, this incident highlights the escalating tensions between China and Japan, which have sparked numerous debates at ACG events and across the internet. The resulting nationalist sentiments and resentment are likely to be difficult to smooth over in the long run.