Crunchyroll Officially Reveals Its Most Controversial Anime Of The Year
gamerant.com
Crunchyroll's Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia divides viewers with its portrayal of Mongolian history and religions.

From the article:

Here’s where the controversy lies: Viewers have reacted on two fronts - one, due to how Islam and Muslims are portrayed, and then about the mere presence of those subjects in the first place.

For those who have seen it, what do you think?

  • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    9·
    14 hours ago

    The portrayal of medieval Islam seemed pretty even-handed to me: the main character is as devout as her circumstances allow, but not fanatical, and at the same time some side characters complain about the too-rigid religious thinking of others. Mostly the characters take it for granted, as the characters in Orb take Christianity for granted. At that time, the Islamic world really was the center of science and learning in the West, and they seem to have handled that bit decently. I expect it isn’t perfect, and I’m not knowledgeable enough to point out the issues, but it looks to me like they at least tried to be respectful.

    About Mongolian history, I know even less than I know about medieval Islam . . . but I expect that 99.999% of the people watching the anime don’t know anything about it either. According to Wikipedia, Mongolia has a total population less than that of Los Angeles, and I don’t think they have a very large diaspora abroad, either. Any controversy regarding the portrayal of medieval Mongolia here is probably being manufactured by people with no personal stakes or relevant knowledge, if said controversy exists at all. (I will withdraw this if anyone can point out a complaint or comment by an actual Mongolian.)

    • Hetare King@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      This is not Jaadugar, but there was an issue of CoroCoro Comics pulled because of how a manga depicted Genghis Khan after complaints from Mongolian people living in Japan and the Mongolian embassy.

      So this sort of thing does happen. I know next to nothing about Mongolian culture or how they balance the reverence many apparently have for Genghis Khan with the historical reality that he had a lot of people slaughtered or enslaved, so I can’t say how these same people would react to Jaadugar’s depiction of the Mongols, but I imagine it might be the reason why it didn’t depict Genghis Khan’s face.