Shonen Jump is currently facing one of the most challenging moments in the magazine’s long history. After its important sales-boosting series – Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academy – ended basically at the same time, One piece It is the only manga left to carry on its shoulders what should be the debut publication in the industry. In recent years, Shonen Jump has been frantically searching for the “next big thing” without much success, with the exception of Kagurabachi.
However, a series that just premiered got all the attention Shueisha wantedbut perhaps for the wrong reasons. Drama Queen by Kuraku Ichikawa premiered on December 2, 2024, in Shonen Jump +the digital sister publication of Shonen Jump Weeklywhose programming includes great hits such as Spy x Family, chainsaw manand recent success, Dandadan. In MANGA Plus, Shueisha's digital reading app for the Western market, Drama Queen occupies, at the time of writing this article, first place on the “trends” chart and fourth on the “hottest” chart, with its second chapter being surpassed only by the established series chainsaw man, One pieceand Boruto.
However, this popularity doesn't just come from the quality of the manga itself. The themes, setting and story sparked widespread outrage online, with fans taking to social media to castigate. Drama Queen for having blatantly racist and xenophobic tones. Although the debate appears to have subsided between the first and second chapters, it is still ongoing, as evidenced by the fact that Drama Queen #2 has almost 500 comments on MANGA Plus, compared to One pieceThe last chapter of which barely exceeds 350.
Western fans are getting a lot of things wrong about Drama Queen
In Drama QueenPlanet Earth experiences a sudden and unstoppable wave of alien immigration, after this as-yet-unnamed species saves Earth from an imminent meteor strike. Earth authorities welcome the aliens, who integrate into daily life despite their different appearance. However, there is a significant cultural shift, which is perfectly portrayed in the first chapter. Everyone on Earth loves the aliens because of their intervention and the innovations brought by their technology, so basically they can do whatever they want.
The protagonist, a girl named Nomamoto, works a menial, low-paying job for a tyrannical alien boss who exploits his workers and doesn't even speak their language. She believes she is the only one who hates aliens until she meets her co-worker Kitami, a boy who lost his family in a car accident caused by drunk aliens, who were never persecuted for it. One night, Kitami shows up at Nomamoto's house with an alien he accidentally killed. To get rid of the body, Nomamoto, who has never been able to eat enough food, decides to cook and eat it, discovering that she likes the taste of alienswhich Kitami finds disgusting.
This wild premise continues in Chapter 2, where the pair decide that Kitami will kill as many aliens as he can, and Nomamoto will dispose of the bodies by eating them. It is understandable that some readers may find the story problematic due to its depiction of xenophobic crimes, but Drama Queen It's clearly much deeper than that. However, many Western fans were quick to judge this based on their own cultural framework, without thinking about what Japan's relationship with immigration actually is.
Japan's relationship with immigration is radically different from that of the Western world
Unlike many Western countries, Japan has almost no unskilled immigration due to its strict 1990 Immigration Law, which officially refused unskilled foreign labor. While the law was changed in 2024by facilitating the recruitment of foreign workers, the situation has not changed much. Most people who immigrate to Japan are skilled workers, and even for them, it's not exactly easy.
This does not mean, of course, that Japan has an easy relationship with foreigners. As a formerly isolationist country that was forced to open its doors to the Western world twice through military means, Japan's relationship with the “outside” has always been complex and fascinating. For example, the country has recently clamped down on overtourismespecially a recent trend of people who disrespect Japanese traditions and customs of posting videos online. Many stores have started to put up posters highlighting the “bad behavior” that tourists should avoid, even at a time when the government is trying to encourage tourism to boost the economy.
It is in this context that work like Drama Queen should be analyzed. The aliens in the story look nothing like the immigrants who populate Western cities and can rightly be identified as vulnerable sectors of society. The aliens in Drama Queen have the best jobs, disrespect the local Japanese people, and are unfairly protected by the law and authorities. They literally walk around like they own the place, which is not an accurate representation of immigration in Western countries.
What is the Drama Queen's message?
It's not about immigration, it's about politics
So what is the message that Drama Queen are trying to transmit, if any? The series certainly tries to be provocative, but going so far as to say it's trying to spread a racist message might be too much. On the contrary, the source of inspiration for the manga can be found in the aforementioned tourism crisis, which has recently become a topic of discussion in the country. The Japanese people have always carried an unfortunate label of racism, but this issue is for them to debate, not for some Western children whose only contact with Japanese culture has been through manga and anime.
More than race, Drama Queen It seems to be a matter of privilege. The aliens are stand-ins for a privileged class who have managed to ingratiate themselves with the people by, essentially, lying (it is already implied in the series that the meteorite accident was staged) and offering them some technology-based entertainment. If anything, they are much more like politicians and industry moguls. They are above the law, act as if they are better than everyone else and exploit cheap labor.
The very act of “eating your enemy” can be seen as an interesting exploration of how we define what is “human” and what is not. Hiding deeper themes beyond the dark humor and provocations, thus following in the footsteps of chainsaw manthe series with which it was most compared, Drama Queen promises to be a compelling exploration of the concept of humanity, as it applies as much to the “other” as to ourselves.
Unfortunately, these nuances seem lost on much of the Western audience, with some people even advocating that Shueisha cancel the series immediately. The debate now seems evenly divided, with the same number of fans enjoying the series' provocative tone. However, what is undeniable is that Drama Queen is truly revolutionary in its decision to push the boundaries of the genre and focus on real-life issues that shonen manga rarely want to address.
At the time of writing, there has been no outrage in Japan over this new series, but things can always change. What is the immediate reaction to Drama Queen The testament to Western manga fans is that even in a world where Japanese entertainment seems to be dominating the industry, it's still all too easy to judge a work of art without really trying to understand the culture that produced it.
source: eastasiaforum.org