'Character's Coupling Controversies' which are spread among overseas geeks are overheated and become a problem

by Sen Cross

March 2018, the United States of robot anime " Vaulx-en-TRON (Voltron: Legendary Defender)" voice actor to receive a murder notice, the cancellation of appearances in the anime event was announced and has been studied. In addition, it is reported that intimidation mail was delivered to the production studio of "Voltron". Both intimidation were the contents of the request over " Shipping " considering the coupling between the characters. Since the 2000s, overheating of shipping controversies is regarded as a problem in foreign fan culture.

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Shipping is the concept of "coupling" in Japan, one of fan culture that delusions and considers the character's love affair in the play. Originally it was born from Relationship (relation), it is said that it was originated from the fact that some fans repeatedly considered the relationship between Captain Kirk and Spock in "Star Trek".

In Japan's coupling culture, it is relatively common to talk about homosexuality between male characters, but overseas shipping is spoken without separating gay / hetero. Also, fans who like to talk about shipping are called "Shipper".

There is no controversy among fans about the coupling of characters in Japan, but even in the United States, a violent controversy is taking place between Shippers so that they are called "Shipping War" (Shipping War). For example, in the "Harry Potter" series, a large shipping war occurred mainly on the Internet between fans who support "Harry and Hermione" and fans who support "Ron and Hermioney". This controversy converged on the original author JK Rowling showing his answer in the work.

"Voltron" is a reboot work of robot animation " Voltron (Defender of the Universe)" aired in the United States in the 1980s. "Boltolon" is a work that integrated and reorganized the Japanese robot animation " Beast Beast Golayon " and " Armor Fleet Daillagher XV ", received enthusiastic support from American children at the time and acquired popularity to cause social phenomena Did. For that reason, the fan layer of the revolut work "Voltron" is the centerpiece for adults, and it is known as a work where shipping is particularly widely spoken. The intimidation this time was that the voice actor responded to the interview about shipping, and the fans who did not agree with the answer sent it.

Mr. Will James, a writer who is familiar with foreign fan culture, points out the "change in the Internet environment" as a reason why shipping has overheated rapidly since the 2000s. In the past, LiveJournal was the centerpiece of foreign fan activities on the Internet. LiveJournal was a blog-based SNS, and by participating in a community suitable for my hobby, I was able to gather and talk with friends of the same kind. If you have your own shipping, you can join the community that supports that shipping.

However, in the late 2000s, overseas fan activities began to move from LiveJournal to Tumblr. In Tumblr it is possible to search posts with the same topic using tags. For example, if you want to see Fan Art of " Voltron ", search on Tumblr with " # Voltron " etc. However, interpretation of shopping which I do not support · fan art is displayed, and people who are not interested in shipping itself can also show a large amount of shipping illustrations.

Nevertheless, at first it tried to circumvent this problem with the local rule of tagging shipping and posting. However, this rule does not expand so much, and finally the community denies each other by posting a tag denying shipping such as "# Anti - ○ ○ ○". Mr. James pointed out that shipping war was a dispute that "I do not like this shipping", but it was becoming an abusive subject that "nobody likes this shipping".

In particular, Antis = Anti Shipper (Antis = Shipper) who pressures and harasses by pointing out that children's characters, parents and brothers' shipping are "children's sexual descendants", "contents that encourage incest" It is said that it has appeared in recent years. The following image seems to have been tampered with the page of Wiki which summarizes shipping edited by Antis, "Incest is incestuous" "Keith x Reance's coupling is Voltron" the mainstream.

Antis justifies himself to give fans and creators a letter of intimidation or a notice of killing, because "acting so that many people do not feel uncomfortable by creation, involvement and dissemination of inappropriate content" The point is very malignant. Mr. James warns that the existence of Antis does not interfere with the activities of other fans, but it may ruin the work itself.

Mr. James says that fan culture is made by everyone and can be improved by considering everyone better. And, "It is important to keep polite relations with other fans, to keep things that do not fit yourself through, and to create content that can make you passionate, so that" If you do not like, do not read " We can regain the era when it was commonplace. "