Japanese manga artist Ken Ogino, known for illustrating The Ossan Newbie Adventurer manga adaptation, recently shed light on the behind-the-scenes of one of his previous works, Lady Justice. Published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2015, the series was cut short the same year, ending only sixteen chapters into the story. On his personal X account, Ogino addressed a viral post that attributed the manga’s cancelation to “the author only focusing on erotic content,” revealing that he didn’t have as much creative liberty as people may think.
Lady Justice is a comedic superhero manga featuring high school girl Kenzaki Ameri, who uses her super-human strength to fight criminals and gangsters under the hero name Iustitia. While Ameri is practically invincible, the clothes she wears are not, and a recurring topic in the story is the heroine’s embarrassment over her costume getting torn in battle and exposing her body, which makes it a pretty fanservice-heavy read.
Recently, an X user analyzing the series’ untimely cancellation commented, “I feel like the author approached this with nothing but a passionate desire to draw something erotic, only to be met with failure. Looking back on it now though, it was quite bold of them to try and compete with a superhero series in the heyday of My Hero Academia.”
The post gained enough traction to elicit a response from author Ken Ogino himself, and his side of the story came as a big surprise to manga fans. “I based this work around the concept of a Japanese-style American comic, and since I figured that Japanese-ness equals ‘moe,’ I decided to make the protagonist a female superhero,” he says. However, despite consciously aiming for moe, Ogino says his original idea was to depict a tough female superhero, with erotic fanservice only acting as an additional “spice.”
“However,” he goes on to explain, “the editorial department told me that if the protagonist was female, they wouldn’t publish the story unless the erotic content was the main focus, so I reluctantly went along with it. I’m feeling envious since Jump now lets its creators depict female protagonists even without erotic content.”
Additionally, Ogino cleared up the misunderstanding surrounding My Hero Academia – it was actually not his intention to compete with the series at all. The oneshot version of Lady Justice was published before My Hero Academia, and while Ogino was in the midst of preparing his manuscripts for the start of weekly serialization, the hit title started publication, which was a blow both to him and his editor.
It makes sense on paper. Get the teenagers hooked on the fan service and they’ll stay for the plot. Which did happen during the cheesecake era of American comics.
It’s a shame that it wasn’t his original vision (个_个)
It’s such a shame some of these editors and departments still cling to a sexist notion like that. As if their precious male demographic wouldn’t enjoy a battle manga about a kickass female superhero unless she flashes her tits every other page.
This is why I point to the growing success of fantasy manga like Frieren and Witch Hat Atelier, which succeed with wonderfully written female leads who are consciously not objectified.
Cry about it, men love tits and ass and women and men pretending to be women can only cope and seethe about fiction.
Genuinely curious. What did you hope to achieve with this comment? It’s not going to change anyone’s mind. You obviously weren’t even expecting them to respond, given that you didn’t post it as a reply. Who is the comment for? Is it for you? Did it make you feel good about yourself?