It had a massive fan base. It had its own anime show. The author, Eri Takenashi, thought everything was going well. Then she made a grave mistake of making her heroine “not a virgin.”
Popular manga series, “Kannagi,” hit the headlines of geek media outlet… I meant IT and entertainment news source, puzzling the readers, when apparently fans were upset over the latest issue published earlier last month. The buzz was that the fans were so outraged by the latest issue that they vented their anger onto the web. One fan went as far as shredding all five volumes of his prized collection, taking pictures of them, and posting it online. He apparently later sent the ruined copy to the author.
And now, the once-favorable manga has announced to go into an “indefinite hiatus.” Although officially, it is for “health reasons” of the author, people cannot help but to speculate about the recent outbursts of fans sending massive angry letters to the poor authoress to be the cause. The spokesperson refusing to divulge the specific details make this speculation more likely.
Yep, she is one of those "Britney Spears virgins."
The tale spins like a modern version of a Greek love story. A male high-schooler makes a beautiful sculpture of a spirit, which in turn starts to move and talk and claim that she is “Nagi.” An attractive geek favorite, she has acted suggestively towards the main character, but last month, her hot ex-boyfriend made an appearance, and it was hinted that the realationship wasn’t simply platonic.
One critic suggested that making a tree spirit “not a virgin,” made the readers feel betrayed. I can’t think of a Western equivalent, but I suppose it is like having Smurfette finally caving in on the peer pressure of her male counterparts, or Lucy from Peanuts offering more than counseling service to console Charlie Brown…. I really don’t want to think about such a plotline.
According to an article on IT Media, (http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0812/09/news074.html)
a journalist who covers net extensively has been quoted saying, “men who can’t form a decent relationship with actual women get fixated on 2-D beauty, and starts to believe that they can engage in a “mock romance” with these beauties in a safe environment. Then they start to hold a stringent “virginity worship,” where they firmly believe that there is no way in the world these beauties will have an affair with other men.”
Geeks and lack of female conquest have been a butt of jokes for a while. In a chilling news, the Akihabara murderer was reported as a virgin and frustrated by it by the media who likes to stigmatize sub-culture fanatics. Recently, an urban legend has popped up in the geek mecca of Japan, Akihabara, that if you are a virgin by the age 30, you become a wizard. Obviously, no one believes in such a ridiculous tale (I really hope), but this legend has caught on fire, and lonely geeks would post online that “I will become a wizard soon if I don’t get any action before my next birthday,” as a joke. One posts read “if you decide to lose your virginity using prostitution, you become a wielder of black magic.” In Christian tradition, maintaining one’s virginity before marriage was held highly, as seen in the story of birth of Jesus. Perhaps that sentiment is reflected on this urban legend.
Needless to say, not all geeks have troubles getting some action behind the sheets.
I am a geek, and I will stand up and shout. NOT ALL GEEKS ARE LIKE THIS! Some geeks NEVER have any problem when it comes to dating.
The next blog post will cover Japanese geeks who have gained wide popularity and attention in different field, astonishing viewers.
Whilst Eri Takenashi is “recovering,” she may want to watch some American soaps to see how the other side of the world copes with bad plot progression. She may want to use some of these old tried devises when the editors decide that the storm is gone:
*Nagi has been hypnotized!
*Nagi has an evil twin sister called “Guina.”
*Gasp! It was all a dream.
*Nagi was lying, and simply wanted to make the poor guy jealous.
*Or the author can pretend that the whole thing didn’t happen, and continue from the episode before the “not a virgin” episode.
PS
I have tagged this blog with the word “wizard,” but I really hope none of the Harry Potter fans stumble onto this blog because of it.
Tokyo Ruins Everything 
I agree, the outrage from the over the top fans is.. how to describe it.. “out there.” Like yourself, I too am a geek, and I too am not like that. To give an example, in multiple posts on my blog I describe my fascination with a character with CC from Code Geass. I would NEVER go as far as to have a tantrum if I found out something I didn’t like.
It’s a shame really that the author was “forced” go on a hiatus. I just started the series and I really enjoy it so far. From what I have been reading however, the only thing said was that she had a boyfriend. It never said she was a virgin or not still. I might have not gotten the full picture, but either way.. it’s very sad.
I think, probably the biggest irony is that these ‘protesters’ are probably the biggest buyers in the eroge market and probably already own quite a significant amount of nagi doushinji.
Well I happened to stumble upon this blog entry, ’cause I’m a HP fan, but I hope you know that there is no character called Nagi in HP and the author is J. K. Rowling. Maybe this is why the japanese fans are angry? That would be my guess…
Okay, sorry, I’m kind of tired so I had to come up with some lame joke…
As for the entry…
As I do not know any hardcore otaku, I wouldn’t know, but this kind of uproar is…certainly shocking. I guess it is pretty obvious, that there will always be fanatics, who piss themselves off at the slightest signs of “altering from the original values” but this many is hard to beleive. I understand that they are sad ’cause their favourite character, Nagi got desacrated by the hands (well…nevermind) of a 2D character in the distant past (of the manga) but…as it was said before me, it is most likely that they read and created (in their mind at the very least) many…works, that featured such “desacration”. It is a little different, I give them that much, but not too much. Well, no use ranting about it, I guess, but thank you for this interesting article.
(As for how to undo this fatal mistake, I would prupose the “she is only a replica” method, which seems to be rather popular in this season. In anime, that is.)