Autism Society Japan Opposes Mii-chan and Miss Yamada Anime
An advocacy organization has now formally asked that a manga Kodansha is adapting not be animated, which puts the publisher's editorial oversight of the work at the center of the dispute rather than the adaptation itself.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
The Autism Society Japan issued a statement on Wednesday about Nene Azuki's manga Mii-chan and Miss Yamada and its planned anime adaptation. The society said the term "Mii-chan" has been used to disparage children with disabilities, pointed to an August 19 comment from the National Hand-in-Hand Educational Society, and cited a deleted Young Magazine video of Kodansha editors. It ended by saying an anime adaptation is not appropriate, even if age-restricted.
The statement examines the manga itself, not only the reaction to it. The society said Mii-chan's light-hearted depiction helped turn her name into a slur, and that readers with disabilities and their families have described discomfort and anxiety.
It also raised the manga's online distribution before print publication. In the society's account, the editorial oversight and risk mitigation a publisher provides for print releases should have been in place, and extra caution was warranted for a debut work. The statement suggested publishers update those policies for online publishing.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.