[New Life+] Young Again in Another World Anime Cast Resigns (UPDATED)

It was announced that cast members from MINE’s [New Life+] Young Again in Another World have resigned after the discovery that the creator made some controversial comments over the past few years on his Twitter account. The official Twitter accounts for voice actors Toshiki Masuda, Megumi Nakajima, and Kiyono Yasuno all made announcements that they have resigned from the anime project. In additions, 81 Produce, a talent agency, announced the resignation of Nanami Yamashita as well. 

MINE was involved in a controversy over his light novel’s content which depicts a Japanese protagonist murdering over 3,000 people with a Japanese sword during the second Sino-Japanese War; a conflict that ran between China and Japan from 1937 to 1945 which, later, became a part of World War II. After killing an additional 2,000 people over the course of his life, the character dies at age 94 and gets reborn in another world at the age of 18. 

In addition to the content, MINE had made statements on Twitter between 2013 and 2015 where his views were seen as hate speech towards China. He also made shared the same sentiments towards South Korea in tweets from 2012 to 2014. 

MINE has since apologized for the controversy and stated that he regrets his past comments. His statement said: “Regarding some of my past tweets, I made many people feel extremely uncomfortable, and I give my deep apologies for writing inappropriate remarks.” MINE also does not expect forgiveness for his errors. MINE announced that he has plans to delete his tweets first and then his Twitter account at a later date. He will also discontinue offering the series’ light novels to readers and is working with his publisher to explore the possibility of correcting the issues with his current volumes. 

UPDATE: After news of this broke this morning, two announcements were made that the television anime has been canceled and all shipments of the light novel have ceased.