Aespa’s Karina Reponds To Criticism After Mentioning A Controversial Anime

Aespa‘s Karina has responded to criticism she received after mentioning a controversial anime on social media.

Aespa’s Karina | @katarinabluu/Instagram

Karina is like most idols and loves to share her thoughts and recommendations with fans for the things she loves. In particular, the idol gained attention after saying she watched the Japanese anime My Hero Academia.

The poster for the anime version of “My Hero Academia” | IMDb

While it seemed like a harmless recommendation from Karina, the idol’s Instagram was quickly filled with comments from Chinese netizens criticizing her actions because My Hero Academia is banned in China.

The reason behind this is that one of the anime’s characters is called Maruta Shiga, who is a scientist who experiments on people.

The controversial character Maruta Shiga | IMDb

The word “Maruta” translates as “Log” and was a Japanese code name for victims of human experimentation during World War II (Unit 731), which killed thousands of Chinese and Korean people. For many, the word showcased that the Japanese soldiers didn’t see the victims as humans.

In the comments of Karina’s Instagram posts, Chinese netizens pointed out the issue with the idol recommending such a controversial anime. For many, they were disappointed that considering how popular aespa is

Pls, pls can you guys stand up? Do you guys need to have had experienced the 731 matter (unit 731), to know how cruel the incident was to China? We don’t need to persuade those who are still speaking up for Yoo Ji Min anymore either. Because they are already so insane to have thrown their own country aside. There’s no harm to yourself in learning more history. Because you’re not the one who went through 731. That is why you cannot imagine the situation that it was back then. I’m not either. I too, cannot imagine the pain they felt, but at least I respect the dark history that was 731. I’m sorry that china has people like you all – it’s too bad for china.

— Netizen comment on Karina’s Instagram

| @katarinabluu/Instagram

Chinese fans bought over 400,000 albums for you. Around 30000000 RMB, it calculates to over 500m KRW. Is this how you repay Chinese fans? You could’ve solved this matter through a single sentence on Bubble at the start of the matter. You left it alone up to today without a single care, so it resulted in a terrible result that cannot be undone.

— Another comment from a fan on Karina’s Instagram

| @katarinabluu/Instagram

On June 27, Karina addressed the criticism in a post online, where she explained how she wasn’t aware of the issues with the anime and that she hoped netizens didn’t misunderstand. In particular, Karina’s explanation makes sense, as the original character’s name was changed to Kyudai Garaki after the controversy.

I found out that there was an issue with the anime I recommended. I think because the character’s name is different so I didn’t know that there was issues with it before. I did not recommend it with any intentions, so I hope there’s no misunderstandings. In the future, I’ll become a more careful Karina such that I can share more good information with MYs.

— Karina

Karina’s response | Bubble via theqoo

For many international fans, it was a harmless mistake, but it was a much bigger issue for netizens directly impacted by the connotations the character had.