if they really wanted to and were confident in delivering on the story they wanted to tell, the creator would have continued. plenty of creators ignore negative feedback and reactions all the time.
i don't think the creator of this had any consciously racist intentions, but the setup of this work did not inspire confidence that it would handle the racial dynamics of the story well. as a result of feedback, the creator recognized their limitations (or the publisher simply didn't want the flack) and dropped the work. chances are that the series was appearing financially risky and wasn't going to make enough money to be worth it for the publishing platform and so they were looking out for their financial bottom line. regardless of the reason, now the creator can rework this or come out with something else that better plays to their strengths with less chance of being misunderstood (assuming that's what happened here).
Obviously, that's the speech the PR had to give the author to try and calm the horde of psychos with the backlash they must have received.
And why did it become risky? If they're already behaving insanely here, imagine the pressure they must have been under.
If someone is looking for racial dynamics to be offended by in a BL manga, I don't know what to tell you, my friend. Re-evaluate your life, go do some self-discovery on a relief mission in Africa or something.
Are you mad?
You’re comparing two completely different things.
Brokeback Mountain wasn’t a romance between a Black slave and a white slave owner. It didn’t romanticize chattel slavery or use a real system of racial oppression as the foundation of the love story. That’s why the comparison doesn’t work.
The criticism wasn’t just “it’s fiction.” The criticism was that the story used a real history where millions of Black people were enslaved, tortured, raped, separated from their families, and killed because of their race, then built a romance around a master/slave relationship with a white savior dynamic.
Calling people’s concerns “self-inflicted trauma” or “delusions” is dismissive. You don’t have to agree with the criticism, but people have every right to be uncomfortable with a story that romanticizes a real historical atrocity.
No one is saying fiction can’t explore difficult topics. The question is whether those topics are handled thoughtfully, and many readers felt this one wasn’t.
this isn't to disagree or oppose what you said but just in the interest of not misrepresenting things and making sure we all have our facts straight, the ml in this is supposed to be mixed-heritage Native/indigenous, not Black, and probably wasn't enslaved. nevermind that he looks very ethnically and culturally vague... lol. it doesn't detract from the oddity and likely (even unintended!) racism of the creator choosing to focus on this kind of interracial couple in this setting and time period and having the ml call himself a slave like that, even sarcastically, since European settlers did initially try enslaving the indigenous populations of the Americas in earlier times.
Thanks for pointing that out. If the ML is actually Indigenous rather than Black, I appreciate the correction—I don’t want to misrepresent the story.
That said, my overall concern doesn’t really change. Whether the ML is Black or Indigenous, the story is still using a historical context where European colonialism and racial oppression were very real. Indigenous peoples also experienced dispossession, forced labor, violence, and enslavement under colonial rule.
So my criticism isn’t based solely on the character’s race. It’s that the story builds a romance around a master/slave dynamic rooted in a real history of colonial oppression. I can understand why many readers would find that premise uncomfortable, regardless of whether the ML is Black or Indigenous.
yeah, i agree with you. i've talked about my concerns/criticisms with this series on that basis as well. it's not just the subject matter and historical accuracy, it's also the existing and potential handling of the racial and power dynamics, too.
...the Breakback Mountain thing was a cowboy joke, no comparison. The fact that you don't understand humor explains a lot.
Besides, we only had a small glimpse of the history and you're already writing fanfiction in your heads and getting PTSD about wars that never even happened.
(wars in the figurative sense, in case that needs clarifying)
Whether you meant the Brokeback Mountain reference as a joke or not, you still used it to dismiss the criticism people had about the story. My point remains the same: the controversy wasn’t about two men falling in love in the 19th century. It was about using a master/slave dynamic within a real history of colonialism and racial oppression as the basis for a romance.
No one needs to “write fan fiction” to recognize why that premise makes people uncomfortable. The setting itself carries historical baggage. Readers don’t have to wait for every chapter to come out before deciding they’re not interested in supporting a story because of its premise. That’s true for any work of fiction.
And disagreeing with a premise isn’t “PTSD” or proof that someone “doesn’t understand humor.” It’s simply criticism. You’re free to think the criticism is unfair, and other people are equally free to think the premise is in poor taste.
That's the point, mentally stable people understand time and space, so they can separate the setting of the story from the course of the romance that will be the main FOCUS.
Because they know they're consuming fiction, they know slavery is wrong, they know certain behaviors can be frowned upon and THEY can consume it objectively.
If you feel uncomfortable with that, then turn the page and go back to your bubble and let people who don't live solely through a screen enjoy it.
You can criticize it, but in the end, you all want to censor it. damned fascists
what censorship?
the market spoke up, gave feedback, and rejected the product, so the producer pulled it from the marketplace because they want to continue making money.
if you want the series back, you're going to have to make the case to the publisher that there's more money to be made in bringing it back.
If you deranged people hadn't been bitching and moaning, there wouldn't have been a problem.
Wah wah wah I can't stand when people call out racism so now I'm bitching in a comment section cos I wanna read my degenerate slop!!
Where was the racism? Oh right! Only in your head.
MangaGo users vs reading
Bitch You’re assuming that anyone who criticizes a story is incapable of separating fiction from reality. That’s not true.
I can recognize something is fiction and still think its premise is in poor taste. Those aren’t mutually exclusive. People criticize films, books, games, and comics all the time because of how they portray real historical events or sensitive topics.
Also, criticism isn’t censorship. I don’t have the power to ban the story, and neither do most of the readers who voiced their opinions. Choosing not to support a work and explaining why isn’t fascism—it’s part of public discussion.
You say people who are uncomfortable should “turn the page.” Many of them did. They also explained why they weren’t interested in reading it. That’s their right, just as it’s your right to enjoy it.
Freedom of expression goes both ways. The author was free to create the story. Readers were free to criticize it. Calling everyone who disagrees with you “fascists” doesn’t change that.
bro why the hell do i keep scrolling through the comments and its still ur dumbahh literally go find something better to do with ur life than camping here commenting everyday im crine aint even a legal reader btw
No thanks, you guys getting triggered so easily make my day
im pretty sure the only triggered one is u here.. cus i dont see anyone camping in an illegal site comment section to complain for days straight, as if the authors gna see LMAO
an author from a once colonized country know better than anyone how insensitive topic like these are, they took accountability for their actions and apologized, u need to pipe yo ass down and touch some grass LMAO
I don't think that simply coming from a colonized background automatically creates a victim mentality, as many of you tend to believe.
Unfortunately, the new trivialism and cult-like mentality that exists today, reinforced by ignorance, forced the author to give in to the masses.
Are you kidding me? We could have had Brokeback Mountain in the 19th century! The author shouldn't have given in. The story hadn't even started and they were already speculating and getting paranoid about their own self-inflicted traumas. I'm not talking about a specific demographic, but about all the mentally deficient people who try to dictate their delusions to average people who can actually differentiate between reality and fiction.