I always promised myself I wouldn’t become one of those bloggers who are always apologizing for not posting instead of just getting out a damn post, but I do have to say sorry for not posting this week. I taught my aforementioned WordPress bootcamp all weekend long and that’s usually when I write my posts.
Expect a return to normal next week and until then, enjoy some links!
- CNN reported on Japan’s new child pornography law, criticizing it for being harsher on photos of actual children than it is on how young the women in hentai manga appear to be. Anime fans are mad because policing moe drawings is unlikely to make children in Japan any safer.
- The most outrageous part of the article, as Otaku USA Magazine observes, is that the illustration blurs out a PG-rated cover (unblurred version here) to imply that something explicit is occurring on it.
- In response, Anime Maru put up some timely satire of the article. “The article admitted that there was no reported link between manga and child abuse, and then inexplicably continued for 472 more words.”
- I don’t care what kind of pervy manga anyone reads, so long as they do it legally. Justin of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses asked three manga experts, “Why are people so open about the fact that they read licensed manga illegally?”
- Did you notice the Daily Dot launched its new Geek section this week? Aja and Gavia kicked it off with a guide to fanfiction for journalists who can’t stop writing horrified think pieces about how fanfics are corrupting our children.
- Old but great—why your 600 word armchair treatise on how you’d improve video games doesn’t apply at all to the struggles of real professional game developers.
- Finally, Charles Dunbar has put together a really fascinating Tumblr that compiles all of his research on yokai, or Japanese legendary monsters. It’s like an “at your own pace” version of one of his panels, and just as informative.
Photo via CNN.
4 Comments.
I’ve had a long standing distaste for the loli-con fetishism in the moe revolution. I was a bit perturbed by the law not including graphical representations. I understand there’s no exploitation factor, but the fact it still fuels pedophile desires… For the threat aspect of unhealthy loli-con obsessions…I have doubts about there not being connections between fetishism and real life attacks. We know what extremist fanaticism can do to people. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/saw-wielding-maniac-puts-japanese-girl-band-teens-hospital-article-1.1805639
@stevecurrybilek:disqus that’s a valid opinion. It certainly doesn’t fit my tastes, but I don’t think something that doesn’t exploit children should be punished as severely as something that does. My real issue is that even “adult” women in manga drawings have young looking faces and it’s really hard to police where to draw the line, so don’t force it.
Yes, it is hard to be able to distinguish the age of a character with out prior knowledge. I see that as a way of still perpetuating underage fetishism. The character may be an adult in text by a child in image…is that any better? Continuing to foster eroticism in children and child like characters.
I’ve said this somewhere else, but I really think that CNN is late to the party on this one. Most anime fans have known about this and how former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara led a “moral crusade” against the manga industry with the passing of the “Nonexistent youth” bill. The bill itself is so vague that if the government finds it offensive and hurts the youth of Japan then it should be banned or at least classified as hentai and relocated to the adult section of the store. What’s funny is that the law is a waste of taxpayers’ money since the manga industry self polices itself, at least when it comes to the bigger/mainstream publishers, not sure about doushiji artists and writers.
This is similar to what ultra conservative politicians are trying to do with video games, they want government policing even though the industry already self polices itself with the ESRB.