“Love Hina” mangaka and lawmaker Akamatsu Ken appeals for people not to blame the screenwriter (in response to Ashihara Hinako’s death)

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Akamatsu Ken (55), a member of the House of Councilors and author of the manga “Love Hina” and “Mahou Sensei Negima!”, updated his X (formerly Twitter) on the 29th. He wrote his thoughts after receiving news of the death of Ashihara Hinako, the author of the Nippon Television drama series “Sexy Tanaka-san,” which aired in October last year.

Akamatsu wrote, “‘Something that shouldn’t have happened happened’. In media mix projects (anime and drama adaptations) of manga and novels, this has been a frequent occurrence for a long time. Original developments and character changes that the original author did not want have become a problem. However, in recent years, there has been a shift to ‘deliberately reporting to the original author and making arrangements’, and things like ‘the original author refuses to cooperate and the title is changed (to an original project)’ like in the past are no longer the case. I think it’s becoming less common. However, there is still a lack of thoroughness in terms of ‘thorough prior explanations (to original authors)’ and ‘contracts regarding secondary use’. This is a problem for the original author (committee, etc.), but the original author also needs ‘where to go for advice and knowledge in case they are not satisfied with the explanation beforehand, or something happens later that is different from what was promised'”.

Regarding the scriptwriter side, Akamatsu continued, “The inability of scriptwriters to demonstrate their originality (little sense of fulfillment) is also a problem for the creative profession, and industry organizations (and in some cases, parliamentary teams) must discuss how to come to terms with this. An organization should be created to look into the matter. And in this case, we must not end up blaming the scriptwriter”.

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