Posted in: Comics, Digital, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club, tumblr, webcomic

Fans Of Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club Must Now Go Without

Published Tue, 03 Mar 2015 15:00:13 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club is a webcomic by longstanding webcomic creators, Katie O'Neill and Toril Orlesky, taking place amongst voice actors working in animation, and set in Japan.

Or rather, "was".

Because it attracted criticism. Such as,

Anonymous asked: God damn this is why I hate it when ignorant white people like you try to make stuff about Japan just because it's trendy. Learn how to write kanji that isn't so awkward before you even think about making a story set in the place the language is from. 嫌なら自分の文化を使え　それとも世界で他の文化が色々があるんだろう。

strangelykatie:

Hey! I actually have a BA in Japanese and speak it with some fluency (though it's been a few years since I graduated), and the kanji in the logo is based off a font I got from a Japanese website! Thanks for your concern, but if you're basically saying that white people should only write about white people that's kind of messed up. We're always going to be open to criticism and concerns, so if we get something wrong let us know!

ya-haaa

the person sending the ask in this situation isn't actually saying "white people should only write about white people" at all, and if that's what you take away from this ask then you're really only broadcasting your own ignorance, and being condescending about it to boot.

if you want to talk about "messed up" then let's talk about how messed up "it's fine i majored in Japanese" is in response to this. this is a perfect example of whiteness as a toxic construct.

So the creators closed the comic and posted,

As I'm sure you'll know, last month we launched our webcomic, Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club! We were very excited about it, however we absolutely do not want to hurt anyone with it and we are concerned that this is unavoidable. From the outset we tried to be aware of issues such as cultural appropriation, fetishization and stereotyping and did our best to avoid them and write in a nuanced manner. We hoped that extensive research and experience living and working in Japan would be enough to make a portrayal that wasn't hurtful. We can see now this was incorrect and not possible, and we don't wish to create a comic that will hurt people, so it seems the solution is to simply stop. We sincerely apologise to anyone who was upset by it.

Thank you everyone who had faith in our comic skills before we even started, and who has given us kind feedback about the art especially! It means a lot to us that people feel this strongly about us as creators, and we will absolutely be working together again in future! Feel free to keep following the strangestarcomics blog if you're interested in our other projects!

Cue much mourning…