Tokyo's "Anti-Anime" Bill Sparks Convention Wars

[TheCakeIs RightThere]

Well this could allow a new form of anime be formed. The underage sex symbols are just weird and anyone saying "its art you cant censor it" child pornography, 2d or not, is sick minded. Seriously cop on.

 

[Dumbfish1]

Well done Japan. I'm not one for censorship, myself, but this bill will go a long way toward helping your international standing. After all, the old "Japan's major export is Tentacle Rape" joke is going from old, to just plain embarassing. Get rid of that crap and try to focus on improving and modernizing an art form that is undeniably linked to your national culture.

As for the event, whatever, conventions come and go. They're fun, they're useful, but I doubt there's such a thing as "event loyalty". One hall of like-minded hobbyists is the same as the next, the one that represents the people should be the one that survives.

You don't understand, "tentacle rape" scenes and the like are already 18 rated. This just means anything the goverment feels could be offensive to under 18's, including homosexuality. That's right, anything that contains even a hint of homosexuality is an 18, even flirting. It could extend to things that politically the goverment don't like either.

 

[Eri]

This law is moronic, art is art and you can't censor it.

Good on them for fighting back.

I would hardly call "Erotic depictions of minors" art, I prefer to call it "Sick".

I prefer to call it you MISSED the point.

 

[PumpItUp]

They need to send the bill back for reevaluation. It's true that its excessive vagueness will be a detriment to the anime industry but there was an important reason the bill was created to tackle: the rampant increase in the depictions of minors in sexual situations a.k.a. child pornography.

You can argue over the difference between physical child porn and drawn child porn but you can't argue that it has become a problem in Japan. The bill was intended to at least limit the excessive amount currently on the market and that is what the bill should do. Yes, the government was too hasty in pushing out the bill and yes, the Big Ten are justified in protesting it, but the bill is still needed.

On a lighter note, that picture of Taiga is the most hilariously appropriate pic for the article. Her expression just screams "You gonna die now."

Unfortunatel, child porn doesn't fall under the scope of this bill and won't be limited in the slightest. Those are already in the AO section and so can't be targetted by this bill. This bill is targetting "fan service" of all kinds.

While I agree that seeing far less of this in anime and manga would be desirable it's not a governments job to do that. If you want to see those things go away don't buy them and they'll diminish into a niche market.

I for one think even the intent behind this law is silly. Underage nudity isn't sexually arousing so why is there an issue? The inability to see nudity as anything but sexual speaks more about the sexual repression of modern society than anything else.

You are right about the bill not targeting child porn. That was my mistake.

Unfortunately, you are also right about Japanese society being sexually repressed. Having studied their culture for a period I know that sexuality is an extremely mixed bag. On the one hand, personal sexuality is much more open than in the US (evidenced by the large number of gay, lesbian, and transvestite characters in mainstream anime). On the other, Japan is a country notorious for its obsession with "cute", which often replaces the American definition of "sexy" as the most desirable trait in women. What else is cute? Young girls. And soon the lines begin to blur.

Also keep in mind, a lot of the fanservice-type anime is set in high school, where most of the characters are underage.

I would like to note that I'm not against broad censorship, or even narrow censorship of an art form. But on the other hand, this exists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXiXw556MaE (NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR SANITY)

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Japan, you do know that the only thing nerds like about Japan is Anime right?

Do you want to loose 65% of your consumer base? Do ya?

 

[GothmogII]

This law is moronic, art is art and you can't censor it.

Good on them for fighting back.

I would hardly call "Erotic depictions of minors" art, I prefer to call it "Sick".

Censorship is a greater evil.

So moving away from the subject of anime, are you for or against penalization of child pornography ?

The creation of real child pornography should be banned, yes. That legitimately harms real children.

The possession of it is a trickier issue, as it shouldn't really exist in the first place. In an ideal circumstance, if the possessor in question never actually harmed a child, they should go without penalty, and the creators of the "substance" in question would be tracked and shut down. Alas, real life always gets in the way of my idealism. And no one ever agrees with my idea that pedophiles might not always child molestors.

Back to the issue at hand, I always compared lolicon hentai and manga to the situation I call, Baby Skull Necklaces.

Now, say necklaces featuring the skulls of infants were to become very popular. Of course, getting baby skulls would mean alot of baby murdering and tiny grave robbing to supply the demand, and that's bad. But say, instead of going ape on your local maternity ward, they just make fake baby skulls out of painted wood. People get all the baby skull necklaces they want, and babies get to keep their tiny heads. Of course, corpse based jewelry is a very sickening thing, and as much as we wish it would go away, if no actual babies are being harmed, you can't do a thing about it.

The same applies to lolicon. It's essentially drawings on a page or screen, so no REAL child is actually getting sexually abused. Thus, no reason to censor it any more than any other kind of pornography.

That's not really a good analogy though, see: Film, books, t-shirts, album covers, books, costumes, jewellery, hell, even artwork in a gallery is typically considered okay to show when it comes to depicting scenes of death or the macabre!

Though I still agree with you though, it would be idiotic to ban the baby skull necklaces as much as it is the drawings.

 

[ZtH]

They need to send the bill back for reevaluation. It's true that its excessive vagueness will be a detriment to the anime industry but there was an important reason the bill was created to tackle: the rampant increase in the depictions of minors in sexual situations a.k.a. child pornography.

You can argue over the difference between physical child porn and drawn child porn but you can't argue that it has become a problem in Japan. The bill was intended to at least limit the excessive amount currently on the market and that is what the bill should do. Yes, the government was too hasty in pushing out the bill and yes, the Big Ten are justified in protesting it, but the bill is still needed.

On a lighter note, that picture of Taiga is the most hilariously appropriate pic for the article. Her expression just screams "You gonna die now."

Unfortunatel, child porn doesn't fall under the scope of this bill and won't be limited in the slightest. Those are already in the AO section and so can't be targetted by this bill. This bill is targetting "fan service" of all kinds.

While I agree that seeing far less of this in anime and manga would be desirable it's not a governments job to do that. If you want to see those things go away don't buy them and they'll diminish into a niche market.

I for one think even the intent behind this law is silly. Underage nudity isn't sexually arousing so why is there an issue? The inability to see nudity as anything but sexual speaks more about the sexual repression of modern society than anything else.

You are right about the bill not targeting child porn. That was my mistake.

Unfortunately, you are also right about Japanese society being sexually repressed. Having studied their culture for a period I know that sexuality is an extremely mixed bag. On the one hand, personal sexuality is much more open than in the US (evidenced by the large number of gay, lesbian, and transvestite characters in mainstream anime). On the other, Japan is a country notorious for its obsession with "cute", which often replaces the American definition of "sexy" as the most desirable trait in women. What else is cute? Young girls. And soon the lines begin to blur.

Also keep in mind, a lot of the fanservice-type anime is set in high school, where most of the characters are underage.

I would like to note that I'm not against broad censorship, or even narrow censorship of an art form. But on the other hand, this exists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXiXw556MaE (NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR SANITY)

You're correct in that alot of the fan service animes are set in high school, but my stance on them is that by not purchasing any anime which contains those types of scenes I am discouraging the creators of those animes from making those types of anime and thus am doing my part to cleanse the market. I think the government choosing what younger people can and cannot see is a large overstep of their purpose.

As an adult if I wished to see those kinds of scenes I could merely purchase AO animes, but I find it odd that a child presumably age 13-17 in the case of actually having enough money to purchase their own anime or watch anime without consent of their parents would be restricted from seeing fan service of characters within their age group. Sex is an integral part of growing up, particularly within that age range, and that type of repression may be part of what leads to people who actually enjoy the very much creepier tentacle scenes.

 

[Qmonster]

Now, I have to say, Japan has some pretty creepy cultural practices surrounding sexuality, but no censorship bill is going to help those. While in theory trying to help the development of minors is good, it's basically a 1 in 100 chance that such a bill will be affective.

 

[Blobbert]

Though this IS a very interesting topic, I'm just wondering about a few very well known animes, and was wondering if they would fall into this 'adult category'.
Would classics such as Inuyasha, with its infrequent display of nudity of the main female protagonist, a high school student, result in it being given this rating of 'adult only'.
Naruto, I'm sure many of you know of Naruto's Dicey and sexual transformation, but would this cause it to get the same notorious rating.
Bleach: To sum it up, YES we understand that Orihime's breasts are enormous, stop getting comic relief characters to feel her up. But because she's (once again) a high school student, would Bleach become adults only.
One Piece: Not to say that every female protagonist, or infact most females in general, have chests the size of comically sized watermelons... well actually yes, they do. Ok Put that on the list too.
Well I'm not gonna rattle on, because I know that people that watch animes can probably add even more, but what I'm saying is basically: These are long standing animes/manga that are read by both teenagers and adults, but would this law make these become adults only as well?

 

[Ghengis John]

Berserk's sex scenes and traumatic rape of one of the female leads by a turncoat villain;

I can't say how pleased I am that you've seen berserk. In reading the opening to this story it was the first defensible thing that sprang to mind. That said the bill seems like a bad idea simply because the difference between what is art and what is exploitation is often poorly understood by the proverbial men in ties, or women in ties for that matter.

Except of course for this lady who can evaluate anything she wants to as far as I care:

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Well done Tokyo government! Well done!, you're well on your way to loosing and/or butchering one of your most internationally recognize and beloved cultural icons, and losing millions of yen when the industry moves to another city to avoid your asinine censorship laws.

Well said. And Che just drives that point further home.

Really, I'm glad that they're choosing not to show up at that Con. It oughta show them what they're doing wrong. Because they'll pay attention if Tokyo starts losing money. If they don't. that'd just make them even worse politicians.

 

[Marsell]

this is why alot of gamers are anti-social cynics

 

[C117]

I'm glad to see publishers aren't takig this lying down, this bill is the worst thing to happen to Tokyo since Godzilla.

Truer words has never been spoken. At least when it comes to manga and anime...

 

[Sniper Team 4]

YES!! There is still hope! FIGHT ON MY JAPANESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS! B

 

[Fuselage]

Now, I have to say, Japan has some pretty creepy cultural practices surrounding sexuality, but no censorship bill is going to help those. While in theory trying to help the development of minors is good, it's basically a 1 in 100 chance that such a bill will be affective.

The creepy sexual practices started because the government in Japan made a law outlawing the depiction of genitals in film or animation, Thus was born the tentacle.
EDIT: I am amazed of the ignorance in this thread, "That will stop those Japanese to stop being creepy perverts!!"
This will effectivly destroy one of japans main exports, Anime and Manga.
This is also censorship, But no-one cares about that unless it is happening to their favorite tv show or game.

 

[ckam]

Horrible horrible bill.
I figure one of the major companies should make an anime-adaptation of Lolita, just to make a statement.

Dude... That actually sounds like a good idea.

Also, I find this passage of the bill as proof that the US Supreme Court could actually make a conviction in favor of California.

Another thing, this Japanese bill is friggan stupid.

 

[Cat Cloud]

Isn't the bill vague enough that few things could even be rated as adults? And how difficult is it for kids under the age of 18 to get things for people over the age of 18 in Japan? Considering that this is Japan we're talking about, I'd guess not very hard. I feel like this is a lot of drama for nothing.

 

[LastDarkness]

I cnat wait till they make a anime/manga out of this how the government is opressing the artists freedom forcing them to become a underground soeciety.