Karina, a member of girl group aespa, is facing heavy backlash from Chinese netizens over a Japanese anime.
Recently on the fan communication platform “Bubble”, aespa Karina has shown her love for the Japanese anime “My Hero Academia”.
This is the animated adaptation for a manga of the same name, which follows a group of youths who aspire to be professional heroes and protect the world with their super powers.
However, the anime was embroiled in controversies in China due to the real name of a character, who went by the “villain alias” Daruma Ujiko. In the manga, this character was originally named “Maruta Shiga”, out of which “Maruta” means “wood logs”. Coincidentally, this term was once used to refer to victims of the “Unit 731”, causing outrage.
On the other hand, “Unit 731”, which is based in Harbin, China, was a biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, which engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing. At the time, the unit routinely conducted tests on people who were dehumanized and internally referred to as “logs” (Maruta).
As a result, many Chinese have called for the boycott of “My Hero Academia” for having a character named after such a dark part of history. They also expressed dissatisfaction at Karina for liking the controversial work, and even took to the female idol’s Instagram to criticize her.
Meanwhile, Karina fans defended that the character named “Maruta Shiga” had his name changed to “Garaki Deku” in the animated version, and the author already apologized, stating that the name was a mere coincidence.
In addition, Karina only started watching “My Hero Academia” in 2023, whilst the controversy was sparked in 2020, so it’s unlikely that Karina is aware of it, said fans.
Source: VKR
