There is no
more destructive and annoying force in the anime and manga industry than a
group of obsessed shippers who don't know how to distinguish
between canon and their Wattpad fantasies. This week, Kei Urana,
the talented mangaka behind the hit action manga Gachiakuta,
decided that she had put up with enough and put in her place the intense fans
who don't stop harassing her demanding that she make her made-up pairings
canon.
"I
don't support this ship"
The straw
that broke the camel's back occurred during one of his recent live broadcasts.
A horde of fans began bombarding the chat asking (and demanding) validation for
the "Janka," the unofficial pairing between the characters Jabber
Wonger and Zanka Nijiku. Far from ignoring them or giving them a diplomatic
response to calm them down, Urana looked at the camera and said with absolute
coldness: "I don't support this ship."
But the
author did not stop there. He explained that the real problem is not that fans
have a lot of imagination, but the unbearable attitude they take when reality
hits them. "What frustrates me is not the unofficial ideas
themselves, but the people who throw childish tantrums when those ideas are not
accepted. Maybe people have forgotten it, but I'm part of the official
Gachiakuta side," Urana said, reminding the fandom who
has the pen and who is in charge of the story.
Gachiakuta
is a survival shonen, not a romantic comedy
Urana had to remind this noisy minority of the community what her work is really
about. Gachiakuta follows Rudo, a boy thrown into a trash
abyss who joins a squad to survive and fight beasts using discarded objects. It
is a manga focused on frenetic action, survival, loyalty, and rather dark
social criticism. The teenage romance is not, and will not be, the central axis
of the plot.
The mangaka
asked her followers to respect her limits and stop pressuring her with the same
topic over and over again, as this only generates unnecessary stress and
confusion in the official plot. Thankfully, the vast majority of the community
supported her decision, applauding that one author has the pants to stop
toxicity in its tracks before it gets out of control.
