Former Weekly Shonen Jump artist Ken Ogino has pushed back against an old criticism of his cancelled manga Lady Justice, saying the series’ heavy fanservice angle was not fully his original creative direction.
Ogino, who is also known for illustrating the manga adaptation of The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, recently responded on X after a post about Lady Justice started gaining attention. The manga ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 2015, but ended the same year after just 16 chapters.
For anyone who missed this one, Lady Justice was a comedy superhero manga about Kenzaki Ameri, a high school girl with superhuman strength who fights crime as the hero Iustitia. The core gag was that while Ameri herself was basically indestructible, her outfit very much was not. Battles often ended with her clothes torn up, turning the series into a fanservice-heavy read.
That became part of the manga’s reputation. One X user suggested that the title felt like it was built mainly around the author wanting to draw erotic material, and also noted that trying to launch a superhero manga during the rise of My Hero Academia was a bold move.
Ogino’s reply gave fans a very different picture. According to him, the original concept was more like a Japanese take on American superhero comics. He said he associated a Japanese-style version of that idea with moe, which led him to create a female superhero as the lead. But his intention, at least at first, was to make Ameri a strong, cool heroine, with the erotic material serving only as extra flavour.
The bigger claim is where things get spicy. Ogino said that at the time, Weekly Shonen Jump’s editorial side told him that if the protagonist was a girl, the series would not be published unless the erotic content became the main focus. He said he reluctantly accepted that direction. He also added that he feels envious of current Jump creators, because female-led stories can now exist without needing that kind of fanservice angle.
That context matters because it re-frames Lady Justice as more than just “that cancelled fanservice superhero manga.” If Ogino’s account is accurate, the series became a product of editorial pressure as much as author choice. For manga fans, especially those who follow how Jump titles are shaped behind the scenes, this is a pretty interesting look at how much control creators may or may not have.
Ogino also clarified the My Hero Academia comparison. Lady Justice was not designed as a direct challenger to Kohei Horikoshi’s superhero hit. In fact, the one-shot version of Lady Justice appeared before My Hero Academia began serialization. Ogino said he was already preparing the serialized version when My Hero Academia launched, which left both him and his editor in an awkward “why now?” situation.
For Malaysian and SEA readers, this whole story hits close to a wider conversation we already see in anime and manga fandom: when does fanservice add personality, and when does it hijack the entire character? Local fans are not new to this debate lah — you see it every season when a show trends because of screenshots first and writing second.
It also says something about how much the scene has shifted. These days, fans are more open to female-led action, fantasy and adventure stories that do not need to constantly objectify the lead to keep attention. That does not mean fanservice has disappeared, obviously. But audiences are sharper now, and a cool female protagonist can sell on strength, personality and writing alone.
Lady Justice may not have survived long in Jump, but Ogino’s comments make its short run more interesting in hindsight. Instead of just being remembered as a failed fanservice manga, it now looks like a case study in how editorial expectations can reshape a creator’s original idea — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
Source: Automaton Media