Recreation Japanese manga ruled obscene

Sorry for the sensationalist title; I ripped it straight from BBC News

Full story here .

It's always seemed an interesting dichotomy to me: how open and available porn is there, while at the same time being so strictly censored. Oh well.. it doesn't look like Love Hina is in any danger

 

I think it's illegal to show genitalia over there...still, censorship can get VERY silly.

 

Unenlightened people often accuse manga of being a medium for soft porn distribution. It's really sad that some people think that. It depends entirely on what manga you read. But I'm glad that that manga wasn't allowed. There's plenty of dodgy manga already, there should be some more wholesome things for us kiddies to read ^_^

 

This does seem like an infrigment on the right of freedom of speech. Manga is like all art forms an exprection of feelings and thoughts on a subject. Even if this does contain sex scences. To lock somebody up for this is taking away that freedom.
And if you don't want kids to see them then put the things in a porn shop or in a section of the store were kids can't go.

 

Its disgusting personally.
sorry if this sounds disgusting but why draw it? wouldnt you rather see the real thing?
If this is tru then why dont they lock up hugh hefner? (starter of playboy)

 

They can show almost anything else though, which can get VERY old...

 

I'm not suggesting they should show anything, but that the human form is perhaps the least obscene image shown in such movies!

 

Twue dat, charlie, twue dat

 

Aye, 'tis indeed a mighty vexin' issue.

 

Perhaps they should have beheaded him, or made him commit hari-kari?

 

this is insane. when something is published, it should be rated if necessary, then ppl who want it can buy it. as long as it doesn't contain child porn and the likes. how can they call what he did illegal. *biggest rolleye in history*.

 

Actually, as disgusting as it is, you can get manga in Japan depicting children in sexual acts. LEGALLY. UGHHHHH, MAY I BEGIN WITH HOW SICKENED I AM!?! (And for the record, I got my source from a book about Japan's sex-trade. It's really quite fascinating.)

Now, I have no problem with two adults, heck, I haven't a problem with genetailia, but child pornography pisses me off. A LOT.

 

This is true. Like I said earlier, I just don't get how japan can be so casual about porn, yet so strict. You get all sorts of nasty stuff like tentacles and the strangest situations, but certain things must be covered or obscured.

All of which makes me wonder:
Would you say Japan is more open sexually (think of Ami's dad casually checking out porn in DNA²)?
Or are they perhaps more repressed, with all that repressed stuff bubbling up to the surface in weird stuff like tentacle pr0n? (Just think of all the weird crap that happened in the Victorian age)

It's easy to be indignant about how this dude gets locked up for creating something. Not distributing it to minors, just creating it.

Well.. that can happen elsewhere too. You're asking for it if you distribute any Nazi literature in Germany (totally illegal: Wolfenstein was banned there. I'm talking the original, though RTCW probably was too). Anything with a hint of child porn will get you busted in The States (rightfully so).

Every society has things that they simply do not allow, certain taboos. Just because a society has taboos different from yours is not always a good reason to jump all over them for being evil censoring bastards.

 

First, what are you assuming an adult is? I can only guess that by "adult," you mean someone over 18. Well, first, I know plenty of legal adults who really aren't mature enough to have sex - some people are mentally and emotionally ready for sex before 18, some never get there.

Second, in Japan, the legal age of consent is 13. And that's only been the case since 1999, I believe - before which, there was no official age of consent.

So, what are you terming "child pornography" here? If we're talking 8-year-olds, I'm fully behind you on the idea that it's disgusting. However, if we're talking 14-15 and the like... That's just how Japan is. Still, given that their rates of teen pregnancy and STDs are nothing compared to what you see in many countries where the age of consent is 18, they must be doing something right.

Now, I happen to own several yaoi/shounen-ai mangas which depict characters who certainly don't look like adults. But most of these are stories of romance between, say, two highschool boys - not some nasty old man and a little kid, but peers, and the emphasis is more on the mushy side than on anything graphic. I'd never get off on some poor kid being abused. Two teenage (14-16-year-old) boys kissing, however, is cute... And in most cases, these are entirely fictional characters whose exact supposed age is never mentioned.

And please, nobody flame me over this. ^^; I'm not in any way supporting kiddie porn. Just trying to demonstrate that there are a lot of grey areas.

Now, on the subject of censorship in manga - it is, indeed, illegal in Japan to show uncensored genitalia. However, you can get around that law by drawing something like a thin black line across the point of penetration, or by outlining the genitalia in white rather than drawing black outlines, etc.

In the particular case of the example that started this thread, I'm mainly curious as to what exactly was depicted that made it so unbelievably graphic. I'm all for freedom of expression, too... I can only imagine that it must have been very lifelike art, with little attempt at context or plot. Personally, I prefer my smut with an actual story to give it substance.

 

I thought the age of consent in Japan varied depending on the specific location/prefecture (like 14 in some areas, 13 in others, etc.). Anyways, yeah, in Japan you can get away with drawing 8 year olds doing hardcore sex with adults/animals/monsters, as long as the artist does put that lil censor bar over the genitals. (These days they can even get away with making the censor bar REALLY small, and transparent!) It's kinda ludicrous that you can have extremely disturbing stuff, like muscular beasts raping children all bloody and stuff, yet it'll be alright as long as there's that lil censor bar.

Well, you know how Japan is...they got some pretty nuts liberal freedoms going on there when it comes to nudity and sex. Just that it's a lil weird that they think everythings fine as long as the genitals don't "show." My history major friend who also learns a lot about Japan culture said that some people in Japan "do whatever they want to" because one of the principles in Shinto religion is to do what your heart desires, even if it means fulfilling your darkest sexual desires. I think Japan is slowly catching up though, in being a lil tamer like the rest of the Western cultures. I'm not really sure though.

 

Manga ruled obscene

In Manga Manga by Patrick L Schodt [published 1984] it says that the roriikon [lolita complex thing] is in order to avoid censoring appearantly in 1984 at least you were allowed to draw children's genitals but not adults and so artists used children as characters in erotic manga. So appearntly in 1984 it was okay to show children naked without the censor bar.

 

Probably. But 13 is the youngest legal age, as far as I know.

Eh, you see that sort of thing everywhere. Lots of countries have stupid laws - like how you can drive, marry, have sex, join the military, etc. all before you can legally drink a beer in the USA. It doesn't make all that much sense.

Those people are everywhere - the ones who'll use religious or political views just to fulfill their own perversions. But most cultures are rounding themselves out now - they have to, because of how global our societies are getting.

I don't know that I'd call Western cultures tame, exactly... We tend to think so because those are the views we're raised with, for the most part. But Japan has a much lower rate of gun-related murders than the US does, for example. I guess "normal" and "acceptable" things just vary by where you live, what you grow up with.

 

I also heard of another Japan law that said that they couldn't show pubic hair, so art photographers took that law to their advantage and started doing nude photobooks of underage girls (who don't have pubic hair). Chiaki Kuriyama (the famous psycho girl from Battle Royale and Kill Bill) was in one of those photobooks... Seems like lots of American fans of hers are getting all :bleed: from uncovering online scans of that book.