Okay, real quick: now that I’m done with work and thus am back to having all the free time in the world, I promise to get back to One Piece tomorrow. I did sadly get spoiled on a reveal from a recent chapter (namely of a certain character’s appearance), but I doubt that ruins too much. Sorry for dragging my feet so long. It was just a weird combination of factors:
-Gearing up to move to Taiwan, which took a lot of my attention
-Car gets totaled in an accident which understandably took priority for a while
-Disappointed by the end of Wano so I wasn’t too motivated to get back quickly.
And, well... there’s another recent factor that I think I should address.
In case you missed the news, there’s a new Ruroni Kenshin adaptation coming next year. You know, the manga written by the guy who was caught with literal mountains of child porn and only spent a few months in prison before getting right back to work with the support of all his peers... including Oda. In fact, Oda later went on to give Watsuki a glowing interview and shower him with praise. I’ve known this for a while, but with the new anime’s PV dropping just a couple days ago, the fresh round of discourse has really forced me to confront... all that.
Now, I’m not here to argue about the ethics of watching this new Kenshin anime. That’s a debate to be had elsewhere (Personally I don’t think I could watch it without it being tainted by my knowledge of what the author’s done, so I’m gonna skip it). That being said, I think it goes without saying, fuck this piece of shit and fuck anyone who defends or tries to rehabilitate him. And that 100% goes for Oda too. The fact that anyone is still standing behind a convicted pedophile, let alone the most successful mangaka on earth, is unforgivable.
Yes, I’m still going to read One Piece. Yes, I can separate my anger at Oda from my opinions on his work. But going forward, I’m going to be far less forgiving with the near-deification of Oda as some kind of god among men. Oda is not fucking “Goda,” because an actual god would’ve let Watsuki rot in obscurity. Oda is merely a man writing a story, and he does not deserve to be elevated higher than that. So stop glorifying a pedophile defender just because you like the funny pirate comic he draws.
Got it? Got it. Hopefully that’s the last I’ll need to say about that. See you tomorrow to get this show back on the road.
