Say Goodbye, Manga’s Most Controversial Publisher Is Now Dead in the Water

A number of manga publishers have made headlines in recent years for both good and bad reasons, either because of controversies surrounding the workloads being pushed onto artists, or because of major moves being made in the ongoing fight against piracy. Some of the industry's biggest publishers have found their names tied to both.

However, one digital manga platform that has seemingly been tied only to controversy in recent years found itself in hot water once again last month, and things aren't exactly looking up for the company. Fakku, which began as a piracy website before moving on to sell digital manga and goods in recent years, ran into payment processor issues, leading to a litany of other problems.

Even after moving on from offering pirated materials, Fakku wasn't exactly a traditional manga service. The company offered a paid service which provided access to mainly hentai and other mature doujin works, a rarity among the other popular online manga reading platforms. And that mature, if not despicable, content is proving itself troublesome for Fakku.

Fakku Has Found Itself in Grave Trouble Following Recent Controversy

Censorship and Graphic Material Are Playing a Part in Fakku's Most Recent Controversy

To label some of what is available from Fakku as mature content would fail to convey just how graphic and plainly illicit the material actually is. Whether some would point to cultural differences, or label the content for what it is, it cannot be denied that Fakku distributed manga which included sexual depictions of characters who appeared underdeveloped and suspiciously young.

Unfortunately, fans of anime and manga culture might not be overly surprised to learn such a thing. Those depictions are far more common than they have any right being in the anime space. Because of such content, Fakku has earned the ire of anime and manga fans around the world, many of whom have expressed joy at learning of the service's latest misfortunes.

In early December, Fakku users began experiencing payment processing issues, as major credit card companies refused to allow purchases to be made on the site. At the same time, a number of titles and even entire categories of content were hidden. Later, it was found that countless titles were outright removed from the site.

As users quickly found out, all potentially illicit portrayals of seemingly underaged characters had been removed from the platform, and credit card companies once again began allowing purchases. Many celebrated the occasion, though they were not the ones actually using the site.

Many users discovered that items they purchased and paid for had disappeared, some of which not containing any of the questionable material that was being targeted. Predictably, this didn't go over well with Fakku's customers, causing heavy backlash for the company. Users expressed they were fine with certain removals, but were not fine with having their money taken.

Fakku's Recent Controversies Raise Questions About Censorship

Anime and manga fans, while undeniably pleased with the removal of content from Fakku, are also expressing unease with how those removals took place. If a manga title contains illegal material, it should be removed at all costs under all circumstances. However, those titles weren't the only ones affected in the recent waves of removals.

Many fans are in agreement that, while targeting illicit content is a win for the community, it shouldn't be up to credit card issuers to practice censorship and decide what sort of content can or cannot be purchased and owned, especially when some Fakku users are losing access to material that was largely 'safe'.

If it's determined that the removal of some content is fine as a sort of sacrifice in the pursuit of removing illegal content, there wouldn't be anything stopping card issuers from targeting largely unproblematic content in the future. It's a sticky situation for fans of anime and manga, and no one would be wrong for having concerns, even if Fakku's latest controversy was for good reason.

Fans Are Being Given Another Reason to Own Physical Media

As digital media continues to gain prominence during the current streaming age, fans of TV, film, and gaming are urging others to buy physical media at all costs. The recent removals from Fakku are just the latest in a long line of instances in which users are losing access to digital products they bought and paid for.

In most cases, when paying for anything on a digital service, the material isn't so much owned by the customer as it is lent to them, and it can be taken away as soon as the service ceases to exist. Amazon recently found itself fighting a class-action lawsuit for that exact reason.

The recent payment issues and large-scale removals of content from Fakku are just the latest in a long line of controversies that span back to the company's days as a site for pirated manga. Anime and manga fans are likely to be satisfied with the recent events, though they're a grim reminder of the current state of digital media.