The anime medium is no stranger to controversy. But this makes sense, as any medium that gets big will eventually have at least one incident due to the sheer amount of media released yearly. Over the years, anime has had many industry-wide controversies, including the overuse of offensive tropes, the industry's behind-the-scenes politics and procedures, and the lack of diversity within teams.
Other shows have sparked controversy in different ways. Sometimes, a franchise may go in a direction that annoys fans, leading to them loudly voicing their opinions. Sometimes, a team may show something they shouldn't without fully understanding what they're depicting, leading the studio to make changes or publicly apologize.
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The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OVA series from 1993 sparked controversy when it was released due to its unfortunate use of a religious text. During the sixth episode, "The Mist of Vengeance," DIO is seen reading a book while pledging to kill Jotaro Kujo. However, the page DIO has open is a reproduction of the Ar-Ra'd part of the Qur'an, the holy text of Islam.
Obviously, Islamic groups complained about linking the evil DIO with Islam, and the OVA was pulled from shelves, and the scene changed. Shueisha apologized, noting that the animators wanted to include Arabic text as the sequence takes place in Egypt. But no one on the team spoke Arabic, so they didn't realize the reference image they used was a page from the Qur'an.
9 The Ending Of Evangelion
Today, Evangelion is a widely beloved cult classic, but it was pretty controversial during its first broadcast, and this controversy peaked after the show's surprising ending. Rather than follow a traditional mecha model, Gainax opted to take things in a surreal and symbolic direction.
Evangelion infamously ends with a weird sequence where the protagonist, Shinji, sits alone, thinking about his life, before having a revelation. This revelation sends him to an unknown place where the other characters surround him, applauding him and saying "congratulations." While today, people rightfully consider it a subversive classic, fans at the time hated this ending, leading to Hideaki Anno receiving death threats and angry letters.
8 Ilulu's Design
Sexualization in media has always been a heavily discussed topic, no matter the medium. However, the anime medium has seen more than its fair share of controversies arising from character over-sexualization. One of the most notable came when the second season of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid aired in 2021. The discussion centered around Ilulu, a female dragon from the chaos faction.
When in her human form, Ilulu is very short but has a massive, disproportional chest, leading to many critics arguing that this design resembled a sexualized depiction of a child, something that several other anime franchises have drawn criticism for. While fans argued that Ilulu was presented as a teen, this didn't stop the discussion, and debates about what is acceptable for character designs are still raging today.
7 Pokémon's Pokémon Shock
Pokémon's Pokémon Shock incident is one of the most infamous anime controversies and one that sparked a massive change in the anime industry. The 38th episode of the anime, "Electric Soldier Porygon," featured a scene where the screen rapidly flashed red and blue, inducing seizures in over 500 viewers. Dubbed Pokémon Shock by the press, this incident led to Pokémon being taken off the air for a few months.
When Pokémon returned, flashing effects on all episodes, including ones found in already aired episodes, were removed or heavily lightened. Plus, many Japanese shows added a disclaimer to the start of all episodes warning people to sit away from the TV and only watch in a well-lit room to avoid similar incidents in the future.
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Anime has gained mainstream popularity over the last decade, but titles like Death Note and Pokémon are considered controversial in some countries.6 Goblin Slayer And Intense Content
How dark a show can go and how realistically it can depict dark topics before it becomes tasteless or exploitative is a long-running debate. Goblin Slayer is a recent example of this debate exploding into a full-blown controversy as the series sparked intense discussion. The anime's first episode heavily featured violent, nonconsensual sex as a plot point.
In the eyes of many viewers, this supposedly horrific sequence was animated and framed like a fan service moment, causing immense upset. On top of this, the intense and often gory violence meant that the show left a bad taste in some viewers' mouths. However, fans argued that the scenes were meant to be uncomfortable, to show why the hero embarks on the path he does.
5 Isekai's Overuse Of Slavery
Slavery, both historical and modern, is a terrible thing and something that many people are working hard to eradicate. However, many anime fans have noticed that slavery is constantly used in isekai works and that the majority don't treat the topic with the gravity it deserves.
This controversy came to a head with the release of The Rising of the Shield Hero, a series where the hero buys Raphtalia, a slave. While Raphtalia is treated like a member of the party after a while, the fact that the show never fully grapples with the situation she was in or discusses how wrong it is left many viewers uncomfortable.
4 Kemono Friends' Production Issues
The Kemono Friends anime was 2017's sleeper hit, becoming one of Japan's biggest multimedia franchises. The anime series was written and directed by Tatsuki, and when the second season was announced, fans presumed that he would be back to continue the story. However, fans got angry when Tatsuki announced that Kadokawa had removed him from the second season.
This controversy damaged Kadokawa's parent company's stock price due to how intense it was and how vocal fans were. Later, Kadokawa said that Tatsuki and the animation studio Yaoyorozu had been removed because they made decisions without consulting the IP's owners, which didn't quell fans' anger. Tatsuki would later say that he hadn't ever been paid for his work on the show, further angering fans.
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The treatment of female characters within the anime medium has long been a controversial topic. Many fans note that several modern anime series have the same problems as series that were released previously, depicting women as flat, overly-sexualized caricatures rather than fully fleshed-out characters with many only existing as a prize for men to win or save from bad situations.
This is such a common trope that it has been pointed out in everything from Sword Art Online to Bleach and even My Hero Academia. Clearly, the industry still has a way to go with equality.
2 Kokoro Connect Prank
One of the most infamous controversies in anime history, the Kokoro Connect incident, is still considered a low point for the industry. In 2012, Mitsuhiro Ichiki, an aspiring voice actor, was invited to audition for the show, playing an anime original character. However, at a fan event, Ichiki was invited on stage, only for it to be revealed that he was not going to be voicing a character but actually the show's head of PR.
Secret camera footage of his audition was then shown to the audience, which showed that Ichiki had been asked to do several silly things during the fake audition. While Ichiki said he was okay with the joke, many complained, seeing this as public bullying.
1 Bad Treatment Of Animators
In recent years, anime fans have become more aware of how the industry frequently overworks and mistreats animators, writers, and other staff. Many have complained of being forced to work themselves past the point of exhaustion, often getting injured to make sure episodes come out on time. Plus, many have complained of low wages, meaning that many artists struggle to keep a roof over their heads.
This has sparked many controversies, including the recent backlash against MAPPA after staff working on Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack On Titan broke their silence to discuss their low pay and the studio's punishing working conditions. A controversy that only got more intense when it was revealed that MAPPA was making team members sign NDAs to prevent information like this from getting out in the future.
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