Just like how the Japanese gaming industry has been thoroughly raped by globalist progressive ideologies backed by Western finances by the likes of BlackRock, it was only a matter of time before the West prolifically targeted Japan’s manga industry.
Blackstone Inc., not to be confused with BlackRock, is another significant player in the financial world. It is one of the largest asset managers globally, with major shareholders including the Vanguard Group, holding a 9% stake, and BlackRock, with a 6.52% share.
When corporations receive investments from such entities, they face pressures to adopt certain policies related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. This investment-driven influence can lead to substantial changes in how companies operate to align with the investors’ agendas.
In a deal reportedly worth $1.7 billion, Blackstone has moved to acquire Infocom, a leading Japanese e-platform specializing in digitalized manga. This transaction is said to be the largest private deal in Japan’s history and could significantly impact the future of the manga industry.
Blackstone plans to purchase a majority stake in Infocom from Teijin and will launch a tender offer for the remaining shares at ¥6,060 each, valuing Infocom’s equity at approximately ¥275 billion ($1.7 billion). This acquisition will give Blackstone substantial control over Japan’s largest digital manga platform, potentially influencing the content that gets curated and published, thus shaping the future direction of the manga industry.
According to Bloomberg, Blackstone’s move is seen as a strategic investment, tapping into Japan’s considerable “soft power” potential. However, while true this is really just an effort to impose global standards on Japan, particularly progressive ideologies. This mirrors the transformation seen in major Japanese gaming companies like Sony, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Capcom, SEGA, and Square Enix, which now prioritize creating games for a global audience.
These companies have adopted BlackRock’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, influenced by hedge fund investments.
Games from these companies increasingly reflect themes of diversity and inclusivity, similar to those produced by Western studios. This includes more ambiguous and androgynous female character designs, minimizing femininity, and removing elements considered problematic, such as breast physics, revealing outfits and mean dialogue.
Square Enix, for instance, has made changes to character designs in their games, such as reducing Tifa’s bust size in the “Final Fantasy VII” remake and retroactively censoring older games for consistency with these new standards.
They’re now bleeding money with their last two Final Fantasy big budget releases underperforming financially as a result. They will never course correct.
Bloomberg’s assessment is correct, at face value Blackstone is poised to capitalize on the burgeoning potential of manga. This comes as the American cartoon industry has faltered, largely due to its focus on sanitized adult cartoons and propaganda aimed at children, which has alienated viewers.
Do you remember when they tried to Americanize Speed Racer?
Meanwhile, Japanese anime has gained widespread popularity across the globe, attracting a new wave of so-called “fans” who frequently voice their discontent on social media when content doesn’t meet their expectations.
This demographic, particularly Western audiences, often expresses disdain for fanservice elements in anime, specifically, scenes and camera angles that highlight female beauty. Blackstone’s investment will steer the manga industry towards aligning with their own global tastes, altering traditional content to fit broader, more sanitized standards.
Western anime fans also express strong opposition to concepts like “loli” and “shotacon,” viewing these depictions of child-like characters as inherently pedophilic. This backlash was starkly evident when Western “fans” vehemently condemned the creators of a touching story about a woman reincarnated as a child to help her family heal. The controversy stemmed largely from the series’ Romanized title, “If My Wife Became an Elementary School Student,” which led to accusations of inappropriate content and even death threats directed at the creators.
These so-called fans frequently shift the definition of what constitutes a “loli,” targeting shows like Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Despite the character being a college student with a curvaceous figure, critics insisted her facial features resembled a child’s.
To illustrate their point, some even photoshopped baby faces onto women with large breasts to suggest that this is what fans are sexualizing. They have gone so far as to compare “problematic” anime shows to the actions of Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious child trafficker and pedophile. Not only are they deranged but they are fucking vile.
These critics are not genuine fans; they are bandwagon tourists who latch onto Japanese animation because it is currently trendy. This trendiness stems from the decline of America’s own animation industry, which some believe has been diluted by overly cautious and politically correct content. Many of these vocal critics, who express outrage over heterosexual scenes in shows like Chainsaw Man, are often part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Given that a majority of transgender individuals are biologically male, it’s noted that lesbianism can be a male fetish. Despite this, they continue to push their views onto popular franchises, such as the planned remake of Ranma ½, as well as shows like Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and content from miHoYo.
Blackstone’s acquisition of Infocom includes plans to expand the company’s original content, particularly focusing on genres popular with female readers, a demographic with increasing disposable income.
The emphasis on “popular genres” suggests that Blackstone, aligned with BlackRock and Vanguard’s ESG ideologies, might invoke “cultural differences” as a reason to selectively restrict certain types of material, especially those featuring adult content, fanservice, or loli/shota characters.
This mirrors how Western corporations often impose censorship and alterations on games and other media when localizing them for Western audiences. A notable example is Amazon’s handling of Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol, which was butchered before its Western release and plagued by censorship, resulting in substantial financial losses for Bandai.
Similarly, in the Western release of Tera Online, the “Elin” race, known for its loli-like characters, was censored. The Korean development team redirected their focus to the Castanic race to cater to a global audience. However, they underestimated the widespread popularity of the Elin race, which received considerable acclaim across all regions, especially in Japan.
Japan had specifically requested a school swimsuit (sukumizu) costume for the Elin race in Tera Online. This costume became a massive success in Japan, outselling all other swimsuit costumes in the Korean version of the game up to that point. The popularity of the Elin race and its costumes demonstrated that Western players shared similar preferences to Japanese players.
Consequently, Tera Online eventually achieved significant success in North America, and the censorship of the Elin race was lifted. This proved that the demand for uncensored content was high among Western players. The main opposition to such content typically comes from liberal activists on social media, often characterized by their distinct front fringes and brightly dyed hair.
Digital manga sales in Japan have surged, reaching approximately ¥483 billion ($3.1 billion) in 2023, nearly doubling since 2019, while print manga sales have declined. Sony Music Entertainment was previously reported to be competing with Blackstone and KKR & Co. to acquire Infocom, with the bidding process involving multiple rounds.
This competition isn’t surprising considering Sony’s history. For the past decade, Sony has been infamous for censoring Japanese video games and has aimed to globalize Japanese anime by establishing a global anime academy.
Additionally, Sony owns Crunchyroll, which holds a monopoly on anime streaming outside of Japan. Over the years, Crunchyroll has been involved in censorship, deliberately botching translations, and, in some cases, politicizing the dubbed scripts of numerous anime.
It was truly a good run while it lasted. With companies like BlackRock and Blackstone taking control of Japan’s manga e-distribution, they now have complete authority over the types of material that will be sold. When you control what gets sold, you ultimately influence what gets created, as mangakas cannot afford to bypass the largest e-manga platform in Japan.
This situation is likely to culminate in a comprehensive takeover. Controlling both distribution and creation will eventually determine the kind of material that gets adapted in the future. There are claims that Blackstone is planning to exit through a public offering after five years, but I am highly skeptical of this. The western influence has infiltrated Japan’s manga industry, and it certainly won’t let go willingly.
