The spread of those fake Miyazaki image sets where he supposedly says otaku are scum and people who like lolicon are “degenerates” is funny, but the way countless people unquestionably reblogged it as “undeniable, objective truth coming from the mouth of the immortal master Miyazaki” is really, really disappointing.

People are so dead set on getting their pitchforks out at artists they consider “sexual degenerates” and “filthy otaku making anime look bad for us sane people” and so ignorant about the inner workings of the animation industry and the interests of the people in it that stuff like this is spread like wildfire purely because it confirms people’s misconceptions.

This is not the first time that this has happened: back in 2004, Twitter user @neilworms wrote the Wikipedia article for Takashi Murakami’s “Superflat” concept which contained a lot of outright misinformation, including the claim that it is a “movement which criticizes lolicon”. He told me himself that he does not stand behind those claims anymore. Despite this, his 2004 article pretty much became the universal consensus, with professional journalists citing it as the truth, not to mention anime fandom as a whole. That is, at least, until I edited the article in recent years to point out that one of the main Kaikai Kiki artists is a self-admitted “lolicon” and that there is no “higher message” to his work, which is when a news site finally picked up on it.

Tumblr culture might not care that much about art world figures like Takashi Murakami and Mr., but you know what they WILL care about? Gravity Falls.

The pixel stuff in Gravity Falls, a Disney animated series, is done by Internet sprite animator Paul Robertson. This is a dude whose animations have obvious loli, guro and loli-guro themes in them and who openly favorites lolicon art on his Pixiv account.

But this also extends to their movies. Did you know that Shigeto Koyama, mecha designer for stuff like Diebuster and No More Heroes and the writer of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt’s sperm-ghost episode, was credited for contributing to the design process of Baymax in Big Hero 6?

You know what other project he contributed his artwork to? Underage incest fetish anime My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute.

Everyone knows Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, has drawn gay porn of Ed, Edd n Eddy, so I don’t even need to go into that.

But… what about Hideaki Anno? He is THE anti-otaku, anti-lolicon activist. He’s disgusted by the mere idea of people interpreting the blatant sexualization of 14 year olds in the form of Asuka and Rei as anything but a satirical commentary on the disgusting nature of otaku culture? Surely?

Actually, no. He’s a self-admitted “otaku” who’s said that it annoys him when people criticize otaku culture as outsiders. You see, the reason he tears otaku apart is because he is one. He is also a married, successful man who managed to balance unusual interests with a successful social life, so that should make it obvious why he criticizes the shut-in nature of a lot of nerds through his work.

As for his stance on lolicon? The man is friends with the director of Strike Witches and told him that he really loves the show. He also proudly put a Strike Witches DVD on his desk at his Khara office:



http://vanishingpoint.air-nifty.com/blog/2008/08/post_7c10.html



http://vanishingpoint.air-nifty.com/blog/2008/10/post-359f.html

Strike Witches is a fanservice-filled show where a bunch of ‘teenaged’ girls that look much younger than they’re supposed to be wear no pants, and the show also sexualizes an actual canon 12 year old.

So with this knowledge, will you boycott everything Disney, everything by Anno and everything by Rebecca Sugar for promoting the abusers of drawings of underage characters? I highly, highly doubt it.