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Solo Levelingis definitely the biggest anime out there that was adapted from a manhwa. While the series has generally generated very positive hype, the creator of the series, Chugong, has also been facing some odd and unexpected allegations of hating Japan. He has, however, responded and cleared things up.
Creator Of Solo Leveling Shocked At Anti Japan Accusation
Chugong is a Korean Webtoon Author And Has A Few Japanese Characters in His Story
Chugong is the creator of the famous hit seriesSolo Leveling, which is, at the moment, one of the biggest anime series out there. Chugong, despite being the creator of such a big series, is known to interact with the fans, and quite often at that. However, this is mostly in Korean, so audiences outside of Korea often miss his Q&A, and lose out on valuable information revealed by him. Thankfully for fans, theSolo Levelingsubreddit often catches that and translates his Q&A.
Chugong has recently elaborated on quite an interesting topic. He was accused of being anti-Japanese due to the contents of his story.
Fans might be able to understand where some of the accusations are coming from, as in the Jeju Island arc, the Japanese government is not portrayed in a very positive light, and most of the S-Rank Hunters from Japan end up being decimated in the Jeju Island raid, including Japan’s very strongest, Goto Ryuji, who didn’t even stand a chance againstthe monster that was the Ant King.
Chugong, however, was shocked at these accusations, and has defended himself. He says that just because some of the Japanese characters in his series aren’t great people, doesn’t mean he’s anti-Japan, and in fact, he has also written some very kind Japanese characters, such as the Self-Defense Force members. This is the statement he came up with:
“The notion of hating a country just because an evil character comes from there.
Where on earth is this coming from??
Then are all authors who write stories featuring Na**s, Germany haters?
What’s the intention behind labeling it an anti-Japanese novel, even including things like the emperor bowing in apology, which I never wrote?
It’s true that some Japanese characters in my novel were evil, but there were also kind ones such as Self-Defense Force members who risked their lives to protect the people, and there were many kind citizens who expressed gratitude to the hunter who came to help them from a distant country. Since these are fictional events and fictional characters, I didn’t expect to hear it called an anti-Japanese novel in Korea, not even in Japan. However, originally, I thought there might be some unpleasant feelings in the country of origin of the characters who appeared as villains, so I only chose Japanese nationality because Japan has a high level of civic awareness and is more tolerant of creative works.
I don’t hate or despise any particular country.
The same goes for the protagonist of my novel.”
Chugong has clearly said this for fans who had doubts about him. He doesn’t hate any country, and especially not Japan, who have been producing the animated series for his manhwa series,Solo Leveling. It doesn’t even seem that Japanese people take offense to his work either.
Chugong Says He Wishes He Made Goto Ryuji Better
Japan’s Strongest Could Have Been Cooler
One thing Chugong believes he could have done better when it comes to Japanese representation was makingGoto Ryuji, the strongest Japanese S-Rank hunter, at least a bit better.
From the statement he made, it seems he might have even considered making him the main character of the series.
It’s possible that if Chugong could turn back time, he would have at least made Goto Ryuji a National Level Hunter, especially as both China and South Korea each have one.
This is Chugong’s statement about Ryuji:
“One thing I regret is that if I had known my novel would be this popular in Japan, even if I couldn’t have changed Goto Ryuji to a protagonist, I should have written him as stronger and cooler.
Personally, I wanted to make him cool, but it ended up like this due to expressing the enemies' strength he faced…
Anyway, it’s a work with many shortcomings and mistakes here and there, but I wish people won’t attack me by making up things that don’t exist…
We are all fans who like subculture, there’s no need for us to fight each other, right?”
All in all, Chugong didn’t even expect his series would blow up this much in Japan. After all,manhwas weren’t that big over there back then. Chugong is human at the end of the day, and didn’t expect his fairly normal portrayal of Japan would be twisted this way by certain fans of the series. Some characters could have been handled better, but these allegations are, at large, absolutely absurd.
