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The story
As the planned anime adaptation of the manga “Mii-chan and Yamada-san” sends ripples through the industry — including a formal statement from a group supporting people with intellectual disabilities — author Hirotada Ototake has published a piece questioning whether “negative portrayals of disabled people” should be off-limits, taking a cautious stance against censorship. On 5ch, reactions split: some praised Ototake’s argument, while many others pointed out that what’s actually drawing criticism toward “Mii-chan and Yamada-san” isn’t the portrayal itself so much as its mocking, contemptuous tone. Critics also brought up Ototake’s own position and past remarks, and the discussion spread to cover both the work itself and Ototake’s personal credibility.
An anime adaptation has been greenlit for the manga “Mii-chan and Yamada-san” (Kodansha), set in Tokyo’s Kabukicho nightlife district and following women working as hostesses. The protagonist is said to be modeled on a woman with a mild intellectual disability. The work’s depictions have sparked both support and backlash, including a public statement from a group that supports people with intellectual disabilities.
Author Hirotada Ototake has voiced strong concern that “Mii-chan and Yamada-san” could fuel prejudice and abuse directed at disabled people — but he also believes we should be cautious about regulating only negative portrayals of disability. (The following is Ototake’s own contribution.)
Are “negative portrayals of disabled people” simply off-limits?
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Yes they are — you're reading this way too naively.
Without that, this wouldn't have blown up like this.
Does it even help when the editorial staff put themselves front and center in promo videos?
Nothing good's come of it — like when they got caught with porn sites bookmarked and had to apologize.
and more about attacking the author and editorial team,
which just leaves me feeling kind of 'ugh, really?'
People who put on that righteous act like you are the lowest of the low.
Other than missing his limbs, Ototake is overwhelmingly privileged, honestly.
He had great parents growing up,
he got into a good university,
he's got a platform on TV and online,
and he's good at getting the people around him — girlfriends included — to take care of him, so he's never really been inconvenienced.
In the end I think he never used that experience — he's just stayed passive his whole life.
Physical disabilities are obvious to begin with, so it's easy to get sympathy and help from people around you,
and the welfare support is solid too, so you're not struggling to get by.
Even in disability hiring quotas, the popular candidates are physically disabled people whose minds work like anyone else's.
Mental illness and developmental disorders, on the other hand, barely get anyone hired.
A lot of people hide it out of fear of discrimination and just pass as able-bodied,
but since there's no clear line with 'normal,' they can't perform like everyone else, get chewed out constantly, and end up mentally broken.
like how not a single culprit in Columbo is Black, right?
That's exactly the '24-Hour TV' stereotype
(a Japanese charity telethon famous for saccharine, 'inspiration porn' disability stories)
Ototake is talking about in Re: #1, isn't it.
Defaming a specific real person is a different matter.
Probably because that book actually analyzed its subjects properly —
though plenty of people who've read it just use it as a tool to look down on others.
has zero credibility left on this.
It was a while back now, but that restaurant incident was shocking.
He seems to think disabled people are owed help no matter how understaffed the place is or how much of a burden it puts on the staff.
There's no consistency there.
Those stories portray murder as evil.
Can't you even tell the difference?
Those depict criminals committing deliberate crimes against a society that condemns them.
Mii-chan is a story where an intellectually disabled woman causes endless trouble, spirals downward, and gets killed.
A story that's fun because it lets you laugh 'lol, intellectually disabled people really are trash' is not the same thing as a suspense story.
Way too many manga about thieves, then.
Think about what it leads to down the line.
The point is about what it leads to down the line
if you actually impose 'censorship.'
We're just thinking about it from different angles.
The problem with Mii-Yama is the way it mocks that negative portrayal, not the portrayal itself.
If you're gonna play righteous crusader, go watch some inspiration porn instead.
One clumsy portrayal and it gets banned instantly, so creators must have to be incredibly careful.
I'd recommend 'Kujo's Great Sin' (Kujo no Taizai) —
it engages with disability far more sincerely than Mii-Yama does.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
“Mii-chan and Yamada-san” is a manga depicting a woman with a mild intellectual disability working as a hostess, and the publication of a formal statement from a support group turned it into a debate over which should take priority: freedom of expression or preventing the spread of prejudice against disabled people. Ototake’s piece raises the question of whether only “24-Hour TV”-style “inspiration porn” portrayals of disability are being tolerated — but notably, the thread’s reactions focused less on the substance of his argument than on the credibility of Ototake’s own background and past remarks. Some pointed out that physical disabilities receive different levels of support and public understanding than intellectual or developmental disabilities, highlighting how difficult it is to lump all “disabled people” into one category. Note that comments containing baseless personal attacks on the work or its author, or that referenced real criminal cases, have been excluded from this article, which sticks to organizing the debate over censorship itself.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Geisokusoku+) thread “Hirotada Ototake wary of censoring ‘Mii-chan and Yamada-san’: ‘Are negative portrayals of disabled people simply off-limits?’“.
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