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Best way to put it is: don't make your manga primarily for us. Make it for you. Although there are many techniques to make stories inward-driven, stories are in the end an extension of the artist's mind. Let it out. You can't appeal to everyone in the world simply because everyone has different tastes. But as long as you know in your heart and mind the type of story you're fleshing out, you can work it in a way that satisfies the minority you're trying to appeal. Others can simply grab hold however they feel like.
These days, everyone takes political correctness over the top. The American point of view is that "every group and nationality must be portrayed or we're under-representing them and protests and riots will break, etc etc etc". What the critic at Kodansha sounds to me is that your story had too much of an overseas feel to it. For example, a black for a protagonist in a medium that defines Japan and its culture? You could see it both ways: either it's too radical a departure from the norm, or the lady you were talking to was very conservative about publishing this kind of story in (what I assume is) a popular and successful manga studios.
I'm not telling you to fret and change your story. No. My material shares many parallels as yours. I had to streamline and know exactly what kind of audience my screenplays were targeting. I don't expect all the current, big studios to take'm. But lucky for us, there are many investors out there. If Kodansha doesn't take your material, go to another company and get their input. If after five or six tries that people don't see eye-to-eye with your idea, you might want to head to their advice and try an alternative or new approach.
Take it from me: studios crave new material. There is a heated demand for new stories. But it's going to take a lot of effort, thought, and criticism to really make your work stand out and give more than a ten second glance.
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