I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness, Doesn't Mean I'm a Villain - Vol. 2 Ch. 12.1 - Publisher 2nd Edition

[kursedkaiju]

gg people that bullied the author into changing his work.

 

[Kaarme]

@Scarifar It sounds like you are blaming the MD readers for it. Are you a Karen or something?

 

[Scarifar]

@Kaarme I'm blaming only the people who actually like the change and/or have advocated for it. There are people in the comments who fit this description right now, and they are the ones I am addressing. I would appreciate that you do not call me a "Karen", because that is not what I am nor what I am trying to be.

 

[Kaarme]

@Scarifar How on Earth could a bunch of pirate site visitors ever affect the publisher of a manga, which isn't even licensed to be published in English? I find it very difficult to believe the readers here, who are reading this in English due to a lack of Japanese skills, would be able to contact the publisher in Japanese in a convincing enough manner to make a difference so quickly. It's all but guaranteed the change happened because Japanese readers complained about it. Anything here at MD is nothing but empty chatter.

Sorry about calling you a Karen, I'm sure you aren't one, but that was an instance of blaming the wrong people.

 

[DragonRider45]

yall really bullied the author to shit huh, damn bro.

Move along, I edited my comment so I don't trigger these people

 

[exxp]

Is it the author giving in or the artist/publisher? the (web-)light-novel is long done after all.

 

[MegaXL]

author is giving, though at the same time I think he's trying to extend the story.

 

[LVLBeginner]

Instead of turning her white, I think it would have been better to turn her hair a beautiful silver.

 

[papperless]

Wait... did people actually bullying the heck out of author to change her works?

700+ comments last chapter and now 400+ well alright, i knew where this'll go im out.

 

[Diamona]

I'm not a fan of bullying, but HOLY @#$% that was a bad idea by the author. I mean, Japan is a country where, as far as I know, didn't have a period of skin color being a basis of discrimination. At least it is obvious it wasn't intentional.

 

[rissira]

I honestly could not care less if she is chocolate or not. . It's just skin color, call your tits guys. .

 

[Julisastes]

It seems a LOT of people are unaware of beauty biases in Japan. There is a whole HUGE industry of skin lightening products. Simply put, Japan traditionally views paler skin as beautiful, and darker skin as ugly. It's not at all surprising that many japanese readers were upset when someone who looked like them was suddenly "bleached" because now she's blessed by Light. The message that would send to many japanese readers is quite clear, and it's reasonable for them to feel upset. Additionally, many have mentioned that the blessing in the WN was only a 10-20% lightening. While still possibly a charged concept, a slight lightening wouldn't be reflected as white in the monochrome of manga. In some ways, there may be a bit more challenge to the artist and author to protray the change in treatment, it in no way negates the plot of the WN to keep her appearance... Chocolate milk.

 

[jtm_aricon]

@Diamona unfortunalty, Asian countries, specifically east asian, have a history of valuing white/paler skin and being unfavorabe to darker complexions. It's espicialy visible in their idols, who will make their skin pale and whitish

 

[Goyal99Raj]

Good change, but honestly would have preferred her to stay white IF the author used that to show how people behave differently based on appearance, like she started to do that in Chapter 12. Then again, I'm not sure I trust a manga to do that kind of storyline justice without fetishizing it in some way .....


Sigh. There's nothing worse in a story than unrealized potential

 

[sheepdoge]

@Goyal99Raj i think this manga (and the web novel) could have done something interesting with a comment on how people treat others differently over the most superficial things. i do wish they committed to the idea rather than back out of it

 

[Goyal99Raj]

@sheepdoge Yeah I totally agree. Then again, given the backlash the mangaka received, I'm not surprised she back-pedaled. If she had stuck to it, the series might've been axed.

 

[sheepdoge]

@jtm_aricon it's a cultural holdover from the olden days, and honestly is something that existed in many a nation. the reasoning behind it being the rich, the noble and privileged elite don't need to go out into the sun and work labor, so their skin remains light. the working class would have darker complexions because they had to be out in the elements to earn a living. the shade and tone of skin effectively was viewed as sign of your class. it's slowly more and more being phased in east asia but there are people (like for example japan) that put value on a lighter complexion for various reasons. I think one of the bigger ones is japan has this idea that it is socially unacceptable to stand out from the crowd and be more of an individual, so darker skinned folk tend to get shunned (but on the same hand, you have some people who like to either tan their skin or artificially darken it because they want to stand out)

 

[sheepdoge]

@Goyal99Raj I'm guessing it was a pretty big knee jerk reaction, both on her side and the readers on account of the implications (I'm willing to be charitable and say trying to make a point about how superficial everyone was being was the intent but the reactions served as a writing on the wall. that's just me being optimistic though, for all I know she might have just wanted an easy thing to reflect the blessing claudia obtained or something or other. )

 

[Goyal99Raj]

@sheepdoge In the worst case, she might've been suggesting that Claudia had been 'improved' by the lightening of her skin (as is a common attitude in South Asia & East Asia). I think overall I'm glad the readers spoke up considering the implications since this is a good series and I don't want to see that cultural stereotype here, but I can't help but regret what could have been.

 

[sheepdoge]

@Goyal99Raj I'm a little iffy about it myself, on account of a fair number of readers went a bit overkill apparently. I also (assuming the intention was to make a point) prefer when the author sticks to their guns rather than just cave, but I also don't know the circumstances around the whole debacle so, I guess there's not much else to say