Anime Fans Are Roasting a Newly Announced Superstraight Romance Manga

Some fans are not pleased with Seven Seas Entertainment's newest manga about the world's last heterosexual person.

On Jan. 3, 2023, manga and light novel publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced on Twitter the release date for My Secret Affection, a story set in a world where people accept and embrace same-s*x relationships. Described as a "shojo romance manga with a sci-fi twist!" *My Secret Affection *follows Kazusa Takanashi, who, after her girlfriend dumps her, finds herself falling in love with her childhood friend Ayumu -- a boy. Seven Seas' synopsis ends with, "How can Kazusa navigate these newfound feelings if no one else around her feels the same?" The announcement has brought in a wave of Twitter users who were none too impressed with the synopsis.

The majority of the reactions ridiculed the synopsis. @/constellor Tweeted, "i refuse to believe they made this seriously and not as a joke." A number of users quote-retweeted the announcement with a number of memes with one of a screenshot of a YouTube video titled "A WORLD WHERE GAY IS A NORM & STRAIGHT A MINORITY," and another of a manga panel where a girl cries with the words, "As I thought, I...am heterosexual," with a few people realizing the latter is likely a panel from the manga itself.

Some Twitter users expressed dismay as this seemed to shift the focus from a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community and reorient heterosexuality as the persecuted when the opposite is true in real life. @/xyzbud wrote, "Straight people want to be oppressed SO BAD." Other Twitter users expressed dismay from reading the synopsis as this appears to erase other sexualities from the LGBTQ+ spectrum with @/2_swaggus writing, "I'm just assuming that all bi/pan/ace/aro folk in this story were caught in some interdimensional time loop when that meteor hit."

While My Secret Affection received an overwhelming number of criticisms, others offered additional contextual information pertaining to the mangaka, Fumi Mikami. @/PastelChum wrote, "it was written by a queer author who was subsequently bullied off twitter by self-proclaimed terfs (in japanese) because she dared to say 'gender roles are kind of messed up, right." TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminists and commonly refers to radical feminists who do not believe trans women are women and who oppose policies that actively try to make spaces inclusive for trans people. @/PastelChum continued in their thread to say, "she wrote a whole essay comic about Gender Stuff and was forced to take it down due to harassment so. if you're queer and choose to get mad at this, just know that you're eating one of your own." However, some users like @/c0smiclee, did not think this should legitimize the manga. They tweeted, "Apparently the creator is non binary and pan but like why would you make this?!" Another user, @/fuyuzus, wrote," 'the author is queer!!' being queer does not make [you] immune to criticism."

One Twitter user dropped a link to the Reddit post about said essay manga. As translated and paraphrased by /u/centennialcrane, Mikami posted an essay manga about their life experience on April 29, 2022 that has since been deleted. In there, Mikami allegedly said they related to the term because" 'she couldn't fall in love with people because she struggled to live as her gender.'" The mangaka also said," 'it's not that I didn't want to be seen as a woman, it just felt gross having my s*x differentiated.'" The Reddit post wrote Mikami "additionally implied that she needed androgyneity to fall in love with someone."

My Secret Affection's Creator Experienced Harrassment

Although @/PastelChum wrote Mikami had to delete the tweet due to harassment from people who dismissed her pansexuality, which the Reddit post included examples of, the Reddit user also pointed out there were those worried about how Mikami was misusing the term pansexuality. In the translation, one wrote, "It troubles me that you may be spreading misinformation about pansexualilty. Pansexualilty (全性愛者 (zenseiaisha) [lit. lover of all genders]) is a sexual orientation, which indicates "who you fall in love with." It means that you can fall in love with people of all genders and sexual orientations. How you see your own gender (your gender identity) is a separate concept." The Reddit post continued to say many TERF accounts posted screenshots of Mikami's tweets on May 1, 2022 from a few years ago, calling her a misogynist, for writing, "women are handicapped in tons of ways compared to men from the very moment their bodies are formed," and "People should stop calling things' misogyny.' I'd like to create a world where we can be protected instead."

Mikami Tweeted a statement on April 30, 2022, where they thanked those who read the manga and noted that they received and appreciated the feedback. "However, after receiving many comments stating that 'I don't believe this is pansexuality' I've learned that there's much I have to learn, even when it comes to myself." Mikami wrote and continued, "In addition, though it was in an unusual way, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to think deeply regarding the explanations and opinions I have been provided. I plan to continue learning and thinking from now on as well. Thank you very much."

*My Secret Affection *releases in print and digital forms on Jan. 24, 2023.