Spokesperson says anime collaborations have regularly led to increased blood donations.
The Japanese Red Cross society is currently in the middle of a blood drive promotional partnership with manga series Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out. Similarly to previous anime tie-ups the organization has done, volunteers who donate blood during the promotion will receive a plastic clear file (pictured above) with character artwork which is also being used on posters publicizing the offer and directing interested parties to nearby donation centers.
However, earlier this week a debate broke out, primarily in English-language Twitter posts, about whether the illustration of the series’ title character, college student Uzaki Hana, is appropriate for a mainstream medical organization to be using. Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out is not an erotic or sexually explicit series, but Uzaki is undeniably busty, and while the artwork being used by the Japanese Red Cross Society doesn’t show Uzaki dressed in a revealing outfit, her part-time job’s waitress uniform is quite tight-fitting in the chest area.
With the increased attention the online debate has brought to the artwork, Japan’s J News spoke with a PR representative from the Japanese Red Cross Society, asking for the organization’s stance on the matter, and got the following response:
“This promotional campaign is merely providing a novelty gift to people who are kind enough to cooperate with our blood drive, and we do not recognize it as a form of sexual harassment.
We have previously received support from numerous anime series in promoting blood drives, and these partnerships have been well-received and increased the amount of blood that was donated.
In regards to opinions about the current promotion, we are listening to them sincerely, and will take them into consideration for future activities.”
▼ The illustration used for the blood drive campaign is identical to the cover artwork for the most recent collected volume of the Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out manga, which went on sale in July.
So it doesn’t look like the Japanese Red Cross Society is going to cancel the partnership or stop offering donors the clear files, which will be available until the end of the month. It also sounds like the second Uzaki-chan blood drive partnership, which kicks off in February, is still on the schedule, keeping open the pipeline of ostensibly highly desirable otaku blood.
Source: J Cast News via Livedoor News via Otakomu
Top image: Japanese Red Cross Society
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where it bothers him that Uzaki is often shown wearing T-shirts that say “sugoi dekai,” when grammatically the phrase should be “sugoku dekai.”