In the latest issue of Attack on Titan, there is a hidden sex gag. Today, the manga’s creator Hajime Isayama apologized on his blog. Apparently, he didn’t know about it until after the fact.
The manga editor in charge of Attack on Titan explained via Twitter that an assistant allegedly added the gag without Isayama or the editor’s knowledge.
On his official site, Isayama blogged that it was not his intent to include the off-colour ditty in the manga — it seems it was slipped in. That being said, he did apologise for the joke.
“I take full responsibility,” wrote Isayama. “The cause was a lack of awareness of my own manga.”
“As a result, I let down the people who were looking forward to this instalment, and I think this is inexcusable,” the Attack on Titan creator continued.
“I apologise for this, and from here on out, I will be more aware of my own manga so this doesn’t happen again and will concentrate on creating better work.”
Wonder if the assistant got fired…
今月号について [現在進行中の黒歴史]
アシスタントさんが描いたものに僕も諫山さんも気付かず [@ShingekiKyojin via Nizigami]
Comments
9 responses to “Attack On Titan Creator Apologises For Sex Joke”
Something like this happened with the mobile sims right? Like some graphic artist put a whole lot of dirty words and phrases in simlish?
Anyway, it sucks that this happens, and I get how crap like this can slip through the cracks. I know, cos I used to do that at my old job when I was younger and stupid(i’d put stupid stuff into code that I thought no one would find out, and really dirty text into videos in really illegible small font). I did get caught tho, but surprisingly not fired…
My take on it (at least from my own experience) is that it might have been done to blow off steam due to frustration because of crazy deadlines or overwork , with a little bit of stupid immaturity thrown in for good measure.
I can’t see why this sucks. How does it detract from the overall experience?
i think from the point of view of the artist, it would suck. Like, I would hate it if like someone who I contracted to contributed work on a piece of mine added secret dirty messages in my work without me knowing or approving. Sure it might be somewhat harmless, but it would be an imperfection that would stand out and bother me because it didn’t represent my vision or message I wanted to convey, breaking the immersion in a sense. And in the event that it offended people who I didn’t mean or want to offend, the blame would fall on me first, and people would think that I was responsible for it and was intentionally inflammatory.
But perhaps to the audience, it might be a hilarious easter egg (i know i laughed out loud), though also gotta remember not everyone would share that kind of sentiment, which may result in drop in readership from more sensitive readers, and when there’s money involved, that’s when things start to get messy, cos a drop in readership means a drop in revenue, and a drop in chances for renewal. Or even the very idea that people will send in complaints, and make ridiculous boycott demands, forcing the publisher to deliver swift justice on poor Isayama. This is perhaps a bit of an alarmist view, though…
Of course, perhaps Isayama really did intend to have that in the manga, in which case, more power to him. But if he didnt, well…
In the end though, the situation is a whole lot more complicated than it should be. For many and from a narrative perspective, it won’t detract from the overall experience, but if its not something the artist wanted, it would probably suck, and from a business perspective, unless its narrative/contextually appropriate (and even then its a really big “unless”), things like this can be dangerous…
Lol, so to put it in shorter terms, I’m more on the thinking that it sucks that he has to be put into a position that he has to apologise like this for what someone else did. (although was that actually confirmed, that he himself didnt put that in?)
But…..it wasn’t funny. A joke, by definition, needs to be funny.
What this guy did was boring, juvenile. The equivalent of a child who has just learned a dirty word replacing normal words with it in uninteresting ways.
Of course that could just be the humour divide. I don’t get a lot of Japanese humour.
Why should he apologise, it’s an adult manga anyway. Unless there is a cultural thing I’m missing.
There’s a difference between violence and sexual themes (especially if you look at content ratings). Even in America, violence is generally accepted while things of a more sexually explicit nature are treated as a taboo subject. Besides, it’s pride as an author. If you knew someone had put something you didn’t want or agree with in your work, you’d be upset and apologise for their behaviour too.
Which is honestly ass-about-backwards given that sex is healthy and normal and something everyone should be doing, which is the exact opposite of violence. But y’know. Dem social mores…
Not cultural, we have the same thing here where people in the public eye are scrutinized more harshly than normal people. They also have pressure from people who are financially invested in the comic like publishers etc.