While Tawawa on Monday is still a hot topic for a debate, an old post by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare featuring Love Live! Sunshine!! characters posted on April 9, 2022, sparked new criticism for using an anime high school girl in the poster.

The Tweet garnered quite some traction and according to the comments collected by Twitter, user @rayforcegame states that most reactions were triggered by the recent controversy surrounding The Nikkei’s advertisement featuring Ai-chan, a high school girl.

It is worth noting, that this same illustration has been used for several years in similar promotions, but was not criticized until recently. Apart from the poster being regarded as “anti-feminist”, netizens also described the Government’s effort as “childish” and “embarrassing”.

The poster in question depicts the character Chika Takami showing basic COVID-19 prevention measures, the first being frequent hand washing.

感染力が強い変異株にも基本的な感染予防策が有効です。「正しいマスクの着用」や「こまめな手洗い」、「三つの密」の回避、「換気」などの感染対策の徹底にご協力をお願いします。
参考：国内の発生状況についてはこちらからご覧になれますhttps://t.co/UcMwby1d8O pic.twitter.com/1Mssb8Sc9o

— 厚生労働省 (@MHLWitter) April 9, 2022

The publication writes: “ Basic COVID-19 control measures are also effective against highly contagious variants. We ask for your cooperation in taking comprehensive infection control measures, such as wearing the correct mask, washing your hands frequently, avoiding “three densities” and ventilation.

Love Live! Sunshine!! is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki G’s Magazine, music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project is the second series of Love Live! franchise and is a spin-off sequel of Love Live! School Idol Project.

The story of this project revolves around a new group of nine schoolgirls who become idols in order to save their school from shutting down. It launched in April 2015 with music CDs and anime music videos, followed by a manga version in 2016.

An anime television series was directed by Kazuo Sakai at Sunrise; the first season aired between July and September 2016 while the second season aired between October and December 2017. An anime film titled Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow was released on Jan 4, 2019, in Japanese theatres.

Source: Twitter