Kakegurui's Homura Kawamoto has apologized after their latest work, Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi -Cheat Slayer-, was accused of directly insulting the work of other manga creators and was quickly canceled from publication.
In a tweet translated by Anime News Network, Kawamoto states, "I deeply apologize for all the pain, concerns, and fuss I have caused to everyone related to this incident." The author adds, "I created a work that was lacking in due consideration, and I am ashamed to have caused an incident like this... I am deeply sorry." Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi -Cheat Slayer- was published in Kadokawa's Dragon Age magazine and was written by Kawamoto, with art by Aki Yamaguchi. Shortly after the publication of the first chapter, the manga was met with criticism from fans and fellow manga authors alike who felt as though Kawamoto's work borrowed too much from its inspirations and crossed the line from parody to directly insulting the work of other creators. The manga featured characters who bore strong resemblances to the protagonists of Sword Art Online, Konosuba and That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime committing vile and villainous acts. Fuse, the creator of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime responded to the manga by saying, "For an author, the character's image is important, so I request that if you do a parody, you do not overdo it."
Kadokawa has announced that it is canceling Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi -Cheat Slayer- after a single chapter and that its editorial team will pay closer attention to not allow incidents like this to happen again in the future.
Prior to this, Homura Kawamoto was best known as the creator of Kakegurui - Compulsive Gambler, a manga series about Yumeko Jabami, a young woman with a gambling addiction who can't resist becoming involved in increasingly dangerous games of chance. Kakegurui was a huge success with over 5 million copies sold, and was eventually adapted into an anime series, a live-action TV series, and multiple films. The anime and the live-action series are both available for streaming on Netflix. Kawamoto is also working on High Card, another series about gambling.
Isekai (roughly translated as "another world"), has become one of the most popular genres of manga and anime in recent years. Stories in the isekai mold generally feature a protagonist from the present-day "real world" who finds themselves transported to another, more fantastical world, which usually has some sort of high-fantasy or sci-fi setting. While the genre has been around for decades, and enjoyed several hits in the '90s with shows such as El Hazard: The Magnificent World and The Vision of Escaflowne, it exploded in popularity after the runaway success of Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online, which began its anime adaptation in 2012. Every new season of anime since has seen increasing numbers of shows in the isekai genre, including several shows like Konosuba and So I'm A Spider, So What?, that parody the genre or intentionally subvert its most common tropes. Several of these parody series are now just as popular as the more straightforward entries in the genre, and Isekai Tenseisha Koroshi -Cheat Slayer- seems to have sparked discussions within the industry of what qualifies as a parody and what crosses the line into infringement or personal attacks.
Source: Anime News Network
