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Shonen Jump ’s red-hot raw manga , Drama Queen , is once again the talk of the online residential district after the English version of its first chapter was altered to , allegedly , censor one of its jokes . After debuting in early December 2024 , Kuraku Ichikawa’sDrama Queenimmediately captured and polarized the attention of manga fans in the worlddue to accusations of racism and xenophobia in its chronicle .
After the debate seemed to have died down , Drama Queenbecame a hot matter again this calendar week when fans noticed thata control board in the English rendering of the first chapter was alteredto apparently censor one caper made by the protagonist , as it could have anger the LGBTQ+ community .
Drama Queen’s Censorship Sparks Debate About Translations and Fan Pressure
A Japanese Word Was Misinterpreted
The floor , as reconstructed by @MangaMoguraRE and other users on X , is as follows . In chapter # 1 ofDrama Queen , the supporter , Nomamoto , is verbalize to herself , complaining about the noncitizen who have moved to Earth after ( apparently ) bring through the planet from a meteorite . She compares them to other things she does not like , let in " adult female who call their boyfriends their ' partner ' " . At the time of publishing , this line was take by some as being a jab against LGBTQ+ people using the sexuality - neutral term " collaborator " , " 相方 " in Japanese .
A few 24-hour interval after , fans notice that the English rendering had been neuter , with Nomamoto ’s line now reading : " I hate charwoman who use pet names for their boyfriends " . As there would be no other cause for changing that specific tune , manga fans assumed that the change was a answer of the atmospheric pressure of critics online , making it thus a slip of censoring .
However , as Mogura and other Nipponese speaker system repoint out , the word " 相方 " in Japanese does not have the same meaning as in English andit has nothing to do with inclusive language . alternatively , it ’s a mode that some younger Japanese masses use to refer to their better half in a relationship without using the equivalent words for fellow or girl , to make it sound more casual .
This could mean that the version was not " censor " but instead changed to well meditate the original intention . Of course , avoiding a potentially vile meaning could have also play a part , and this is an natural process that many people could delineate as censorship . What is interesting is that no other part of the manga have been touched .
Western Fans Are Not Ready For Drama Queen
Censorship in manga and any other form of literature or artistry is a serious subject , peculiarly when it appears to have no whole reason behind it , as in this case . Regardless of the need behind the modification that was made , the misinterpretation of the joke by a segment of manga readers outside of Japan can be taken as further substantiation that someWestern fans still do n’t understand manga . They are forcing their cultural position on something that is still a product of Japanese finish , which can stimulate mistaking and , in the bad cases , even censorship .
Older fans will remember when ramen was modify to spaghetti in the earliest locating of Zanzibar copal such asSailor Moon . While those changes were more ridiculous than harmful , Drama Queen ’s case is a stark reminder of the risks that every translation or adjustment carries . While manga and anime ’s global success may give the idea of this being a unfeignedly international anatomy of prowess , this is not the type . These are still Cartesian product of Japanese civilization , and Western rooter would do well to think it .
