Male โ๏ธ. Indonesian ๐ฎ๐ฉ. Artist ๐จ. A passing by Twitter user ๐. โ ๏ธ Some of my tweets may NSFW โ ๏ธ. Minors must be supervised by parents before criticizing me.
It might be much better if the newest Uma Musume update to include the ability to retry not just lost team races but also any general races like in Trackblazer scenario so I wouldn't have spent dozens of Carats on restarting as I lost my mind.
Their stated goal is always to "protect the children". But the real goal is to take control of information, platforms, and private communication.
The vast majority of the people in the EU do not want this, but the EU and its cronies are ramming it through because they want power. They also want greater algorithmic prominence for their official government pages, videos, and posts... so that their state-controlled "trusted news" can be made front and center in everyone's eyes.
They are absolutely desperate because they can feel their grasp on power slipping as their monopoly on information has been broken. Their de facto playbook was always information control, and during the era of television, this was easy, as there was only one source of information.
Now that independent creators and journalists have exposed mainstream news as completely untrustworthy, the old sources of news have lost their grip on the population.
But as they say... the more tightly you try to hold on to a pile of sand, the faster it slips away. The signal cannot be stopped, and the more they push, the more decentralized platforms will emerge.
I'm sure fans of Anime and Manga have been tracking the recent drama with the Author of Cells at Work, Akane Shimizu, and others related to workplace abuse.
In July, just a few days ago, a series of posts on X detailed allegations against Kodansha for their lack of professionalism when it came to her work. First, the company promised a medical professional editor to fact-check her work, which didn't happen. This led to various errors in terms of biological scientific accuracy of the work, and she faced a lot of harsh criticism. Then she had to make do with some reference books and textbooks she paid for out of their own pocket.
The manga assistants that were also promised never materialized, which pushed her into pulling multiple all-nighters to meet deadlines, and when she complained, all she got was abuse from her editor.
These problems caused her to end the manga prematurely, and then she developed depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation from the stress of working for Kodansha.
Kodansha responded with a typical corporate damage control message without any action or compensation... just an apology as if it does any good after the fact.
Then Izuko Fujiya, the author of Slime Slayer from Zero to Black Steel King, explained why the manga series Sayonara no Parade was left without a conclusion. Creative disputes between her and the company made it impossible to finish, along with the physical and mental stress of trying to work on it.
Meiji Merou, the author of Magical Girls and Narco Wars, also revealed they experienced verbal abuse from their editor, where she was often compared to authors like Shimizu... saying that she was inferior and if you keep doing this you'll end up a loser.
Then manga artist Q-ta Minami also chimed in, talking about how common it is for manga artists to be treated horribly in the industry... often resigning themselves to thinking it's just the way it is.
Then another one, Kayatamaru, the mangaka behind The Girl, the Shovel, and the Evil Eye, came out to allege that they have not received royalties from the overseas sales of their book for over a year. The stress from the workload caused her to lose weight to a dangerous level, and she had to go on hiatus.
Of course, when we look at the overall history of workplace abuse in the manga-anime industry in Japan, this is not an isolated problem. It's not even just a problem of this particular industry, but a problem of the overall Japanese workplace culture as a whole.
Workplace abuse is common. Overwork and related health problems and death are part and parcel of the "Japanese work ethic"... but if they are to maintain a stable society, this is not sustainable.
The 2019 Work Style Reform Act helped to some degree, but the abuse continues as enforcement lags, as yearly work hours decreased on paper but unpaid overtime increased, along with even worse mental health issues.