Recently, Japanese artist Maromi posted a note directed toward other Japanese artists who might have contact with Western fandom spaces—this note was specifically about the term “proship.” The note (translated to English here) goes on to explain that they had experienced some harassment from a person with which they were unfamiliar. The person, they call them “A” in the translation, went on to create an online smear campaign against Maromi claiming that they supported proshippers or individuals who created morally questionable art. The purpose of Maromi’s short article was a warning to Japanese mangakas and artists: beware the “American Feelings Yakuza,” better known to us as “anti shippers” or simply “antis.”
For anyone who knows about Eastern fandoms, especially Japanese fandoms, mangakas and artists along with most fans themselves who are insulated from English-speaking areas generally are not aware of the terms “anti” or “proship.” The creators and fans in Eastern spaces don’t struggle with morality the way a lot of Western fandoms do because “proship” is the normal default outlook—one is allowed to have whatever tastes one chooses in fictional content and is to be left alone to go about it. Manga and anime are where you can let your freak flag fly for a lot of Eastern artists and that is how it has been for a number of years, nevertheless, the encroaching colonialism of Western morality has stretched its tendrils out enough for Japan to take notice…and they’re not a fan of antis.
One could easily try to make the stance that Japanese artists probably wouldn’t listen to just one voice, surely there must be so many more who will have decent moral outrage against popular tropes but the reality is that even large creators from Japan, many whose works are readily devoured by antis, have retweeted Maromi’s message, spreading far and wide that mangakas and Japanese artists should block and avoid those with “proship DNI” in their Twitter bios. How do the antishippers respond to the creators of their cherished stories effectively coming out in favor of free expression and transgressive art? To put it simply: They’re being kinda racist.


Not only have antis come out of the woodwork to pedojacket an entire country’s population based on these artists being uncomfortable with Western morality police, many have also decided that “nobody will miss” the Japanese artists who cut them off from their content. Jealously stating that Japanese art is objectively “bad,” antis have begun the process of vilifying the whole of Japan based on the fact that their personal moral righteousness has no cultural significance in a place they do not live. Not only this, antis have been actively claiming a moral high ground based on Japan’s war crimes in World War II (as if modern mangakas have anything to do with that whatsoever) despite many of them living in the United States which is, as of current, still committing war crimes as we speak and has, likely, committed more war crimes than almost any other modern country on Earth with possible exceptions being other Western countries like Britain and Spain.
Notable Japanese artists and creators who have retweeted Maromi’s note include Gengoroh Tagame, the mangaka who is considered the premier creator of viable gay male comics in Japan. Tagame began his career in Japan’s gay men’s magazines in the 1980s and has continued to influence gay male culture in art. Another creator, Yasuhiro Nightow, who’s best known for his creation of the popular manga series Trigun (first serialized from 1995 to 1997), has also retweeted Maromi’s statement about proshippers. This seems to have hit the fandom space for the new Japanese series Trigun Stampede extra hard as antis have consistently denied any and all strangeness regarding the lead villain’s vaguely incestuous obsession with his brother, the main character Vash while the creator has been openly liking and retweeting ship art of the brothers (ship name: plantcest).
It seems that plenty of Eastern fandom has at least had some experience with people like antis as they already have an expression for them (the aforementioned “feelings yakuza” as a term for those who consider their emotions a pathway for moral grandstanding) and those who’ve experienced anything like what antis put them through are not keen to have it happen again. Maromi’s warning has found a large and open demographic and this has led to antis doing what they always do when faced with a setback: slash and burn. It is, after all, the only option other than re-evaluation of their actions and personal morality in regards to their disgust…and that will never happen. At least not on a large scale. It is inevitable that in the coming days fandom will likely see an uptick in anti-Japanese and overall anti-Eastern sentiment as more and more mangakas and prominent Eastern artists clamp down on access to their content from those they feel could have a negative reaction to it.