Anime Light Novel inspires Sports Entertainment Company

Top wrestling promotion takes inspiration from popular anime book series for a televised rivalry that calls attention to sexual harassment. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) January 13, 2019 - This week, the internet world became a buzz with the rumor that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has taken inspiration from an independently published light novel series.

On WWE SmackDown Live, which currently airs on the USA Network, the 120 minute weekly episodic program has recently started running a story-line between former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi and former Tough Enough runner-up Mandy Rose, in which the latter has taken to sexually harassing and stalking Naomi’s husband, former 3-time WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion, Jimmy Uso, who is currently wrestling on the program as one half of the team known as The Usos with his real life twin brother, Jey Uso.

The story is rumored to parallel an anime based light novel series, published through Koriander Publishing. The book series titled Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter, follows a group of college students residing in Japan, who fight demons. The second book in the series; Succubus in the Courtyard, centers around a blonde bombshell named Mindy, who begins stalking and sexually harassing the series’ main love interest, Tige.

Fans of both WWE SmackDown Live and Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter are focused on the similarities between the two stories. Like Mindy, Mandy is a thin, beautiful blonde bombshell who does not take “no” for an answer from her chosen target. Both Jimmy Uso and Tige sport similar hairstyles and have made their boundaries clear to their stalkers, despite the general support for said antagonists from their peers, and similar to title character Ki-Chan, Naomi is quick to anger and quick to fight in bright yellow any time her love interest is being harassed, right to the point where mutual friends and family are questioning if the protagonist’s intentions are pure, or purely spiked by a jealous rage.

Adding to the controversy, both Naomi and Mandy on their respective Twitter accounts have been making references to demons and gods, drawing attention to the parallels between their current story and that of Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter. Naomi recently posted an image on her Twitter account of Mandy sporting devil horns in the exact same style as Ki-Chan’s Mindy, while Mandy has been referencing “God creations” in reference to the protagonists of Ki-Chan having been created by God and his team of Starwalkers to hunt demons.

When asked about the parallels between WWE SmackDown Live and the anime inspired book series, Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter series creator Koriander Bullard had this to say:

“I am incredibly flattered! As a lifelong pro wrestling fan, I feel honored and simply tickled pink to think that something I wrote may have inspired someone at the WWE. I am enjoying the story arc thoroughly, and I fully support Naomi’s character. I’m excited to see where her character is going, and I am very glad to see that my readers are enjoying the show along with me. I hope everyone will continue watching WWE SmackDown Live and reading Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter, and I’d like to see if the two stories will continue to intertwine or if they will start to go into different directions.”

Both Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter and WWE SmackDown Live are being praised by fans for using the current story as a way to gently bring awareness to woman-on-man sexual harassment. The often controversial topic is still largely considered to be taboo in society, but both SmackDown and Ki-Chan have brought the subject matter to light in a way that is not overbearing and encourages viewers to speak up. In light of the #MeToo and #HimToo movements, both the WWE and Koriander Publishing have moved to give a voice to an audience usually forgotten in the mainstream.

WWE SmackDown Live is a wrestling and sports entertainment program currently airing on the USA Network. The show is scheduled to move to FOX stations in October of 2019. The show recently celebrated it’s 1000th episode in 2018. Current characters from the program will appear on the upcoming pay-per-view WWE Royal Rumble on January 27th, which will air live from the Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on the WWE Network streaming service.

Ki-Chan: Demon Hunter is a line of anime inspired, partially illustrated light novels, aimed at adults who grew up watching Japanese animation during the “anime boom” of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The first two novels are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and BAM! Books-A-Million in both color and black and white, with a third novel and an art book currently in production.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded, American integrated media company with over 67 years of history, starting from their humble beginnings as Capitol Wrestling Corporation LTD in 1952. With over 500 family friendly events running each year in more than 150 countries, the WWE is the largest wrestling promotion in the world.

Koriander Publishing is a small, independently operated company, owned by Koriander Bullard. The company publishes books, artwork and apparel.

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