People are too quick to judge… – About the “Drama Queen” (Manga) “Controversy”

So, on December 1st, 2024, Shueisha released a new manga series titled Drama Queen written by Kuraku Ichikawa.

“After saving Earth, aliens have taken up residence with the humans in Japan. Nomamoto, a factory worker with an abusive alien boss, one day meets Kitami, who tells her his own family was killed by aliens. They quickly forge a friendship over their dislike of the aliens… but then Kitami does the unthinkable…”

The manga just aired, there is only one chapter, with another dropping this Sunday, and quite frankly, I’m pretty pumped about it. The art is pretty lovely with the aliens reminding me of the simplistic way that Oyasumi Punpun featured, paired with character art and backgrounds that gave me Tatsuki Fujimoto vibes, and a rather crass premise overall with two characters bonding over their dislike of the peaceful alien invaders and their own mistreatment in society… as well as some other plans they’ve got, to say the least.

I’m genuinely intrigued by the story and I can’t wait to see where it’s going. It could turn into an exciting thriller or more of a romantic slice of life story with some dark themes. Who knows? I mean, Ichikawa did previously only publish a one-shot about a one-sided yuri-themed love with an office worker getting rebuked by her crush whose boyfriend is a comedian, so that office worker becomes a comedian themselves.

The Drama

Now, since the release of the first chapter, more and more people have been speaking up about its contents, criticizing it for supposedly being racist.

Some people claim that the aliens in the story are supposedly immigrants or foreigners in general – You know… since they’re seen invading the country, mingling with society, taking away or getting control of the jobs, being treated better than the native population, not knowing the language, and behaving rudely.

There are certainly parallels one could draw, especially with expats, tourists and some Western immigrants behaving rudely and disturbing public order in Japan in more recent years, with many different controversies surrounding content creators (streamers, YouTubers, etc.) in particular.

BUT it’s a bit far-fetched, especially since only one chapter is out. Like, we don’t know at all whether the author who wrote a one-sided yuri romance manga is a racist but people are jumping the gun here about this whole thing.

There are even some people online who praise the manga for “saying it how it is”, claiming that it definitely is about those darn immigrants and praising the courage it takes for criticising those pesky foreigners. lol.

And then there are people claiming that it’s all an anti-colonial metaphor and stuff along those lines.

On YouTube, videos are being made by “anti-woke” people who pick out the worst of the worst takes that people put out there, especially on Twitter, to then act as if “the modern audience” or “the woke people” are “outraged” by this manga. It’s a weird thing to do, really. One such video showed a screenshot of an account whose owner (allegedly) is a minor. At least, it says so in their bio. I’m not sure how to feel about people pointing fingers at minors but I guess the anit-woke crowd does like getting clicks, so fair.

I’m sure there’s lefties, too, on YT who have opinions on the matter but the point still stands:

People are jumping the gun a little too much here. The manga is pretty good already and I’m looking forward to seeing more chapters. It’d be a shame if it got axed over supposedly being anti-immigrant, especially if that’s not the case.

My biggest issue with folks’ opinions isn’t really that they’re jumping the gun here but rather that they’re ignoring the possibility that the aliens don’t stand for anything but are literally just aliens, and the main theme of the manga could very much just be about justice and the two anti-heroes who do bad things by the end of the first chapter and seem eager to continue to do those things. It could very much be a thrilling story about two criminals.

From now on, there will be spoilers, but if you wanna read the manga, go check it out over here. New chapter’s dropping this Sunday! I’m excited.

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With all that said, we can see a pattern here. People are reading a lot into the manga but as it stands, it literally is just about aliens (who typically are portrayed as evil) peacefully invading society and being accepted by humanity, especially since they share their knowledge and technology with humanity. Some people come to harm because of them, namely Kitami (who lost his family at the hands of the aliens) and Nomamoto (who gets abused and exploited by the aliens), but for what it’s worth, society is accepting of the aliens… or are they.

There is a notion in the very first chapter that the asteroid that was supposed to destroy Earth could have been a hoax with the aliens staging the whole thing to invade society themselves.

There is also the possibility that we are dealing with an unreliable narrator in the form of Nomamoto who might claim that they’re getting abused but in reality, they’re just making things up and convincing us, the readers, that they’re the victims.

For what it’s worth, nobody but the two of them seem to understand what’s happening, either due to their own greed or due to the social pressure to accept the aliens. Perhaps they might even be brainwashed altogether by the aliens. I mean, we don’t know. This is speculation. There haven’t been any clues pointing towards that just yet outside of that one woman who is in a relationship with an alien and apologizes for the alien rather than faulting them for elbowing Nomamoto. Perhaps, the alien sent brain signals over. It definitely seemed bizarre in a way.

Similarly, there is this instance of the main character witnessing how her boss gets burned alive after lighting a cigarette because the cooling spray the alien boss used is highly flammable. After witnessing this atrocity, she gets fired and told to die. This wouldn’t normally be acceptable but perhaps it’s the influence of the aliens that is creating this.

The Brainwashing Theory would also be interesting as it further accentuates the “Us versus The World” narrative that is foreshadowed at the end of the manga with Kitami and Nomamoto becoming partners in crime after Kitami kills an alien and after Nomamoto cooks and eats them.

I’m just very excited about this. I hope it lasts a long time and doesn’t get axed by Shueisha anytime soon. The art is pretty, the aliens are cute, and I love the bizarre premise and would read it even if there wasn’t some type of conspiracy or whatever at hand here behind the scenes and if the story was literally just about two serial killers. I doubt it highly, but it’s still a possibility. I mean, Death Note was about a manic serial killer and that one’s considered successful, so why not Drama Queen as well?

As for the outrage online: It’s just a vocal minority of people complaining about some supposed depiction of bigotry in the manga. Let them talk. Whatever. Similarly, there are some racists online who seem to celebrate the manga a bit too much for the very same reasons. That’s weird but they’re also just a minority.

If you see it pop up in a video, chances are people are blowing it out of proportion. Again, sensationalism in the form of ragebaiting is highly popular these days.

What do you think?

This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.

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