Posted in: Comics | Tagged: britain, G7, japan, manga

British Government-Commissioned Manga Hits Dud Note For Japan G7 Trip

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly MP has travelled to Japan for a G7 foreign ministers’ summit, and arrived bearing manga.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly MP has travelled to Japan for a G7 foreign ministers' summit, after the UK joined the Asia-Pacific trade bloc that includes both Japan and Australia as a post-Brexit trade move. And as the countries take part in talks on closer security and defence ties, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of FCDO has issued the following comic book graphic intended to reflect Japanese manga.

With messages regarding Ukraine support in the war against Russia, and a more coded message about keeping the Pacific "free and open" referring to China's recent trade policies, the British government stated intent is for Britain to help create a democratic counterweight to China in the region. It is expected that Cleverly will announce UK membership of the Blue Dot Network, to help infrastructure projects in the developing world to attract private investment, as opposed to Chinese investment.

James Cleverly will follow Japan with a trip to the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. There is no news as to whether we will have any comic strips to represent those trips. Reaction to the cartoon strip has not exactly been positive on social media, with many people asking when Britain will get trains like Japan, how much the cartoon cost to commission and if bringing manga to Japan was like taking coals to Newcastle, and wasn't it all a bit insulting?

• LondonYon posted "How lucky you can wwhoooooshhh around in fast trains while back home the @transportgovuk cuts the services of @Se_Railway leaving us with rush hour trains every 30 min from @Royal_Greenwich"
• Politics Theory Other posted "Nice to have an illustration of James experiencing a rail system that works."
• Mark Titcombe posted "What I want is a passport that lets me live, work and travel in 27 different countries without restrictions."
• Simon Russell asked "How much did you pay the artist to draw this weak approximation of manga? A fair rate is a lot more than a standard press release costs. A cheap rate exploits one of the UK's already poorly paid professions. Either way, the result is shoddy and quite insulting to UK and Japan."

Some people did say it was "cool" though. So that's alright then.

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