2024-02-03 08:17:42
Harassment is becoming widespread on social networks, against manga publishers and their employees. At the origin of these waves of hatred: certain frustrated fans of French editions of their favorite works.
“Pika, we always piss on you, that will never change”, “Want to beat up Pika, their trad is despicable”, “Pika, give us our collectors or we will come and burn your premises”… These kinds of messages, Pika, the French publisher of Attack on Titan, receives them every day. Just like their colleagues from Glénat, Delcourt/Tonkam, Kurokawa, Kana or Mangetsu.
Sometimes all it takes is a poorly translated word, a paper that’s a little more transparent than usual, or a poorly arranged frieze on the spine of a book to trigger the ire of certain readers. “Recurring waves of hatred” which, according to a figure from a major publishing house, contribute to blurring the image of manga while the vast majority of its consumers “are above all benevolent”.
“It’s a very recent phenomenon which started around 2019,” explains Matthieu Pinon, author of Manga, que d’histoires! (Larousse). “I associate this with another phenomenon: the strong segmentation of manga fans. The smaller a community is on social networks, the more it will want to show that it knows better than the publishers and the more it will want to show it lesson.”
“It has increased since confinement,” further specifies the community manager (CM) of a publishing house. “Before, there was a certain understanding between publishing houses and readers. They were satisfied with our work. Now, if we trust social networks, we are monsters attracted by money and everything that what we do is shit. We have the impression when reading them that we do it knowingly – when in fact we don’t.”
Blame it on Twitter
Inflation coupled with the increase in prices (linked to the rise in raw material costs), while manga is experiencing a new golden age in France in terms of publication, explains this tension in relations between publishers and a part of consumers. “We are starting to be less accessible, even though manga is an accessible art. This dichotomy creates resentment,” notes a CM.
“Twitter is also responsible for a lot of things,” notes the communications manager of a large publishing house. “Thanks to social networks, there is now a direct link between people protected by anonymity and professionals. Even when a single individual is not happy, there can be a snowball effect and it can quickly gain momentum.”
Covers of the first two volumes of “Tokyo Revengers” by Ken Wakui – Glénat
These waves of harassment often come from a deep misunderstanding of the world of publishing and the market, insists Matthieu Pinon. “They hide the fact that French publishers have to deal with the constraints of Japanese publishers. Their specifications are monstrous – and confidential. They are not giving up and the French are forced to comply with them.”
In 2019, the release of Tokyo Revengers thus sparked excesses including a campaign of harassment against the translator of the series and the press officer of the publisher Glénat. At the origin of this outburst of violence: certain fans of “furyo” (mangas which feature delinquents) judging the translation choices to be inaccurate.
The fault of certain licenses
A few years earlier, Glénat had had to deal with “katakurigate”, named after a One Piece character baptized in the French translation “Dog Tooth” – which had provoked the anger of fans accustomed to pirate versions where the name was not is not translated. “An adaptation never pleases 100%,” smiles Satoko Inaba, editorial director of Glénat Manga, before adding:
“And sometimes, non-Japanese people loudly assert things that are completely false. Some even want terms not to be translated – like “nakama” (“companion”) – when they are just common words. That could quickly become illegible if they are not translated.”
One Piece, Attack on Titan or Jujutsu Kaisen are among the licenses most likely to unleash waves of harassment: “Certain licenses cause people to no longer have a filter and let loose”, confirms the CM of a large band. “It’s really the cliché of big shonen fan communities,” adds another CM. “The more people there are in the community, the more toxic people there will be.”
Gifs of decapitated people
At best, the insults contradict each other. “The same day, I received ‘band of feminazis’ and ‘band of big misogynists’. To choose, I prefer to be a misandre”, quips this CM. At worst, these are calls to burn publishing houses. “We received one like that two years to the day later the fire at the Kyoto Animation studio“, this CM still remembers. Several publishing houses confirm having received identical messages.
Detail of the cover of volume 100 of “One Piece” – Glénat
A press officer remembers receiving images of Kalashnikovs a few years ago in the private messaging of her editor on not had. When we communicated about these decisions, there was a wave of discontent and some began to threaten us.”
“We also received gifs of people being decapitated,” adds this communications manager. “They said it was us, that this was what was going to happen to us and that they would come see us at our stand. Fortunately, it never went any further. Our mistake, at the time, was to take it a little lightly.” Since then, she has left the world of manga publishing.
“One-sided aggression”
These messages are not only used to “let one’s anger explode”, specifies a communications manager from a publishing house. Some fans go so far as to leak the identity of the CMs and press officers against their will: “There is a very worrying ‘stalking’ side. You never know how far it can go. Behind a nickname, he There may be someone who will never do anything like a real psychopath.”
“For me, what was difficult to experience was the helplessness in the face of one-sided aggression, because I had no access to their identity,” he adds. “And since I am not a public figure, by publicly revealing my name, they exercised power over my identity. That, even today, poses a problem to me because the harassment remains on the Internet. My name will be eternally associated with these guys on Twitter.”
“They are not aware that behind publisher accounts, there are humans who are not decision-makers,” adds another former communications manager in the industry. “Even if this harassment and its threats are not targeted at the person who manages the account, but at the company, it is normal to feel concerned: as we are present at events, we are afraid of being insulted, slap or knock on our stand.”
Limited legislation
This violence has for the moment always remained virtual in France. But no publishing house takes these threats lightly anymore. “It only needs to happen once for it to encourage others to do it,” worries this figure in the industry. “Internally, those responsible are always kept informed. I report all the messages,” slips the CM of a publishing house which has only managed to “take a step back” for two years.
Prevention is also done upstream. “We warn employees from the start that if they appear on the networks, there are risks. Some do not want to appear on social networks,” indicates Satoko Inaba. “We also warn them that they must be careful on their private social networks – that there must be no link with the publishing house.”
A detail of the cover of the manga “Rokudenashi Blues” – Pika
During waves of harassment, the psychological impact is always very difficult to bear – even if community managers are not responsible for any defects in published editions: “After a while, we come to be disgusted by our passion “, deplores a former communications manager for a publishing house. “We no longer live our passion in the same way at all.”
“A quasi-terrorist approach”
Obtaining justice remains impossible, laments another communications manager: “The company has initiated proceedings to protect me but its effects are limited because current legislation does not sufficiently protect against harassment on social networks. Twitter, for example, does not disclose not the identity of the person. And as long as we don’t have the tools to combat anonymity on social networks, it will be a jungle.”
If Matthieu Pinon recognizes that there are “stuff attributable to publishers” because “it’s human work”, nothing can justify such an outburst of violence. “It’s an almost terrorist approach. We don’t negotiate with terrorists.” Some publishers have decided to no longer mention certain licenses on the networks. Pika no longer talks about Rokudenashi Blues on X (but on Instagram and Facebook).
Glénat also “pays attention”, specifies Satoko Inaba. But there is no question of closing the social networks of the leading player in the manga market: “As we can always improve many things, we remain attentive. Even if there are insults and bad buzz, we do not don’t break all contact. We understand that they do that because they are passionate. We too want the best possible version.”
“These cases will increase”
Will we be able to stem these waves of hatred and harassment? “Even if we do education, some don’t make the effort to understand us,” regrets a CM. “These cases will increase. We are escalating with social networks,” adds Matthieu Pinon. Some call for mobilization of publishers and readers to preserve an often despised medium:
“We must prevent this minority from representing our community. We must protect our passion and the actors of our passion even if we do not always agree with them,” insists a former communications manager for a manga publisher. “I don’t want our community to be defined in a few years as a community that can be malicious and dangerous.”
“People who say anything on social networks can be followed for a while but very quickly other people come to calm them down,” says Satoko Inaba. “There is a self-regulatory power of social networks.” “Some Internet users who are very virulent in their messages sometimes change their behavior and soften as soon as we respond to them,” also notes the CM of a large group.
Matthieu Pinon launches a challenge to this toxic fringe of the manga community: “Some, because the market did not suit them, took their courage in both hands to create publishing houses. Ahmed Agne founded Ki-oon and Karim Talbi set up Isan. Since they say they are smarter than other publishers, let them get started! They complain and harass but we don’t see a single small fanzine appear.”
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