Interest
Manga Artist Sumito Ōwara Responds to Following CG Erotic Art of Child Characters on Pixiv
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! manga artist Sumito Ōwara issued a statement on Twitter on Sunday after readers discovered he was following multiple pixiv accounts that specialized in erotic art of underage characters. The art in question was by multiple artists and depicted both realistic-style 3DCG prepubescent characters in graphic sexual situations as well as 2D "anime-style" erotic art.
On Sunday, Ōwara wrote: "I followed 3D artists whose work I thought was good for referential material without knowing about the illicit content, that is, until people overseas certified that it is pedophilia. That's all I have to say. It's ridiculous. I guess photorealistic content isn't treated the same way was 2D...I don't really get it. I don't usually talk about this sort of thing but this is a serious topic. I know others in this situation usually say things like, 'How do I explain?' but all I can say is 'I don't get it.' Anyway, I don't care. Honestly, people assume things like, 'If you follow this kind of erotic artist online, that's the type of person you are too!' [crab emoji]. That's all I have to say about this topic."
Ōwara has since quit following the erotic artists on pixiv.
Ōwara's Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! manga in Shogakukan's Gekkan! Spirits magazine in 2016 and Dark Horse licensed the series for release in English. The series was nominated for the 11th Manga Taisho awards in 2018, and it won the top Bros. Comic Award in 2017. The manga inspired a television anime by Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU that premiered on NHK General on January 5. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The anime won the Japanese Broadcast Critics Association's Galaxy Award for the month of March and actress Sairi Itō won the Individual Award for Television for her voice acting role as Midori Asakusa.
The manga is also inspiring a live-action film and accompanying live-action mini-series adaptation.
Source: Sumito Ōwara's Twitter account
