Canada Misdefines Anime

[mitsuki lover]

Check out the article at Anime News Network.According to the section of the resolution qouted ANY anime by definition could be defined as porngraphy in Canada,including Hamtaro.
Also check out some of the responses.

Hmmm...another case of guilt by association.

[Slater]

Anime is porn? wow, I didn't know that... This place is a bit of an oxymoron then, isn't it?

Edit: Here's the link. note, there are a few somewhat questionable adds I saw when browsing this site... http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=8399

[Night]

The only real "questionable" ads I see on the site are girls in bikinis and covered nudity. They show that stuff on primetime.

Anyway, I saw this awhile ago. This really hurts the already negative stereotype of anime fandom.

[Slater]

but is that part true about sexual content being allowed (ie, not pornographic) in anime if it doesn't relate to the actual plot?

[Night]

Well, it all really depends. A sexual scene may be included in the anime and the child born from it could be the one who will save the world from Prof. Fancytrousers.

Sometimes, it's just plain fanservice, but that really doesn't count as porn I don't think.

I have seen a couple hentai in my lifetime. One was just for the sake of, the other had a purpose to a point. There's really not enough of this type of anime to be generalized as anime in a whole.

[MasterDias]

Actually, the original fact sheet that the ANN news article referenced has been taken down for "review." Looks like enough people complained...

Yeah, I don't think that the Japanese would have been very happy about such a gross over-generalization as "all anime = porn."

[Lynx]

that's kinda not fair to steriotype it all as such... i really really hope they fix this error, because if not i can see it being bad for the middle school aged anime fans in canada...

[Arnobius]

I see the ANN forums on the topic are up to their typical "brilliance" though, offering such brilliant rebuttals as: The Canadian government are morons. I think ANN could stand to use some cooler head mods to issue some statements to focus it like we have on CAA

[Joshua Christopher]

I see the ANN forums on the topic are up to their typical "brilliance" though, offering such brilliant rebuttals as: The Canadian government are morons. I think ANN could stand to use some cooler head mods to issue some statements to focus it like we have on CAA

Probably part of the reason why I visited that forum for about a week.

And then I said, "Dangit, Josh, you need to quit drinking Drano."



Besides, all anime IS porn. Haven't the 90s taught you that?

[Arnobius]

Heh... of course back in the 90's, nobody (incl myself) imagined that kids would become the major market of anime. Back then it was us single adult males who bought the stuff... hence it tended to be the ultraviolent stuff (which I used to be into) and the porn (which I was not).

I remember when they started putting anime on CN, my reaction was "This won't last..."

[blkmage]

Well, the fact sheet is gone. Nowhere to be found.
http://ncecc.ca/fact_sheets/index_e.htm

[EricTheFred]

Heh... of course back in the 90's, nobody (incl myself) imagined that kids would become the major market of anime. Back then it was us single adult males who bought the stuff... hence it tended to be the ultraviolent stuff (which I used to be into) and the porn (which I was not).

I remember when they started putting anime on CN, my reaction was "This won't last..."

I can't remember which publication it was, but it was something mainstream (along the lines of Time, or USN&WR) back in the mid to late 80s. This was of course when video rental was still a relatively new industry. They had what had to be the world's most clueless article ever on the subject.

The aim of this article was to warn all the unsuspecting parents out there about a new product many of their children were renting; animation videos from Japan. They were addressing a real problem, of couse; there were no age ratings on the videos, and they were not MPAA rated, either, so Hentai and kid's stuff were on the same shelf.

Unfortunately, the writer did not actually understand much about the subject.
So we anime fans were treated to the Gilda Radner version of the problem. It seems that kids were renting these videos calle "Annie Maes" which were filled with violence and sexual content. He goes on to describe a "typical plot", which I have never actually encountered, of a future all-female society, with female soldiers defending the Earth from some alien threat, generally interwoven with a Lesbian love story.

Now, admittedly, this sounds like something that could easily have been found on the shelves at the time, but it was being presented in this story as literally the archtypical anime.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Strange. Here in Australia pretty much all forms of entertainment are rated (movies, books, tv shows, music, games) so there isn't that problem. Even anime and manga are rated. But that could cause a problem in the US/Canda or whatever that doesn't include ratings.

[Puritan]

I looked for any mention of anime on the ncecc.ca website using google, just out of curiosity, and the page linked to turned up, but it appears to have been removed. One can, however, view Google's cached version of the fact sheet, and it does make the statements referred to in the article. However, two things stand out in the full version. Firstly, the writers do, in fact, differentiate between regular anime and hentai, but are trying to warn parents of the fact that everything animated is not actually appropriate for children (an idea that is far too common). Secondly, all of the article's sources are from wikipedia except for a single MSNBC article, indicating that this was a poorly researched fact sheet that was probably pulled down because it was poorly researched. Nothing to get too concerned over.

There aren't really problems with unrated anime that I've seen, W4J. Anime is generally rated here (as well as TV, movies, and games), but the ratings systems used in our entertainment is optional (even for movies) so the systems are unstandardized and some things are unrated. However, most stores (rental and sales) self-police the sale of inappropriate material to minors here (the vast majority of large stores, in fact) so I think the problem isn't really kids buying or renting unrated stuff. I think the real problem is more the lack of attention parents pay to ratings. I understand that the vast majority of M rated Video Games (M meaning appropriate for age 17+) given to children are bought by the child's parents. I would suspect that if there is any problem with kids getting ahold of inappropriate anime, it would be more likely that the problem came from a parent simply getting the child a DVD without looking at it first than from a kid getting it on their own.

[Arnobius]

The Link to the cached version

What is interesting to me is that it is dealing with items that are controversial (not mentioned by ANN interestingly enough:

• Shoutacon
• Yuri Ai
• Lolicon
• Yaoi

Upon review it does not seem as horrible as ANN would have it. It seems to be saying "Look people, there is some nasty stuff in some genres."

Yes some innacuracies, but not the "All anime is porn" that was attributed to it

[Slater]

Strange. Here in Australia pretty much all forms of entertainment are rated (movies, books, tv shows, music, games) so there isn't that problem. Even anime and manga are rated. But that could cause a problem in the US/Canda or whatever that doesn't include ratings.

meh? We rate our stuff...

[mitsuki lover]

What I think probably happened was that someone either at the ANN or else outside
saw just part of the proposed Resolution,didn't bother to read the entire thing in context and had a panic attack and then informed the ANN,which put it up without checking all the facts.

[shooraijin]

Moved to Anime.

[Tenshi no Ai]

What is interesting to me is that it is dealing with items that are controversial (not mentioned by ANN interestingly enough:

• Shoutacon
• Yuri Ai
• Lolicon
• Yaoi

Would it be wrong to ask what "Shoutacon" is? And if Lolicon is what I think it is, shouldn't that be ILLIGAL to do?

[Nate]

Shoutacon is the male version of loli.

The United States Supreme Court decided in 2002, and affirmed in 2004, that previous American prohibition of simulated child pornography under the Child Pornography Prevention Act was unconstitutional. The majority ruling stated that "the CPPA prohibits speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production. Virtual child pornography is not 'intrinsically related' to the sexual abuse of children." The PROTECT Act of 2003 (also dubbed the Amber Alert Law), which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on 30 April 2003, also criminalizes simulated child pornography. Although the PROTECT Act's provisions regarding simulated child pornography have not been tried in the Supreme Court, in December 2005, Dwight Whorley was convicted under this law.

His conviction is controversial because he was convicted on a law that had been overturned before. Law experts agree that if Whorly had pursued the case up to the supreme court he would have been found not guilty.

[Arnobius]

Would it be wrong to ask what "Shoutacon" is? And if Lolicon is what I think it is, shouldn't that be ILLIGAL to do?

Shoutacon is the opposite of Lolicon... a man or a woman sexually attracted to a young boy. An offshoot of Yaoi according to Wiki

Yes it and lolicon does seem to be skirting close to pedophilia, if it hasn't crossed the line. I imagine that depends on the content (which I have *NO* intention of researching). I do know that until 1998 Japan was identified the number one source of child pornography according to INTERPOL, so it could have been graphic in nature back then

[eva-boy7985]

an example of this would prolly be Shikijo Sensei in Mahoromatic and also the male teacher in Yumeria O.o

[Arnobius]

an example of this would prolly be Shikijo Sensei in Mahoromatic and also the male teacher in Yumeria O.o

True, and Shkijo sensei in the manga version of Mahoromatic is just about soft core porn with the fantasy segments, which is why I quit reading it

[Sailor Barsoom]

OK, having read the thing, I can see that somebody unfamiliar with the subject might get the idea that anime and hentai are synonyms. There's enough said that one wouldn't be sure that anime=hentai, but one wouldn't be sure that it doesn't.

That said, why does the Canadian government or the American government or the Anybodyelsian government have to get involved in this? Sure, shotakan or rorikon might be disgusting, but if it's a drawing, no child is harmed. Nobody should go to jail because make-believe people molest other make-believe people. It would be like arresting the makers of the Popeye cartoons because Popeye and Bluto commit public fistfights.

It is the duty of churches, ministers, and other moral leaders to influence people to avoid immoral material. It is not the place of government to use force to control what people think about, draw, or talk about. It is the place of government to stop people from hurting each other. Each other, not imaginary people on acetate.

[Tenshi no Ai]

That said, why does the Canadian government or the American government or the Anybodyelsian government have to get involved in this? Sure, shotakan or rorikon might be disgusting, but if it's a drawing, no child is harmed. Nobody should go to jail because make-believe people molest other make-believe people. It would be like arresting the makers of the Popeye cartoons because Popeye and Bluto commit public fistfights.

Somehow I think there's a biiiiiiig difference on cartoon violence and subjecting cartoon children :/ I've heard of cases off ANN where people were found with both cartoon child porn and the real thing :/ The correlation between violent shows and real-life violence is different than someone who might be tempted by bad pictures :/

It is the duty of churches, ministers, and other moral leaders to influence people to avoid immoral material. It is not the place of government to use force to control what people think about, draw, or talk about. It is the place of government to stop people from hurting each other. Each other, not imaginary people on acetate.

But the imaginary can lead to the real thing, is the idea :/

[Sailor Barsoom]

Somehow I think there's a biiiiiiig difference on cartoon violence and subjecting cartoon children :/

Not sure why there would be. Beating people up has to more common than child molesting. And as bad as the latter is, I couldn't say that the former is much better. Not quite as bad, I'll grant, but not good.

I've heard of cases off ANN where people were found with both cartoon child porn and the real thing :/

Now that I don't doubt in the least. If somebody likes something enough to collect manga or anime of it, then they probably like it enough to collect the live-action version as well. For instance, I love Sailor Moon. Have a bit of the anime. Also like the live-action series.

The correlation between violent shows and real-life violence is different than someone who might be tempted by bad pictures :/

But the imaginary can lead to the real thing, is the idea :/

In this case I have to plead lack of evidence. There isn't much (if anything) to suggest that such pics cause imatative behavior. But then, the argument made by many pornsters (pedophiles who have access to child pornography will be able to "get it out of their system" and thus not molest real children) also doesn't have much to support it.

I stick to my guns on this one. Real kiddy porn is bannable because you have to mess with kids to make it. Drawings of kiddy porn are disgusting, and I'm sure that you and I would avoid it no matter how legal it was, but the gub'mint needs to stay out of people's sketch pads.

But now this is getting political, and I'll quit if people want me to. I've made my point; I don't have to make it over and over again. At least, not here.

[Rexman64]

Ta-da!!

Nice to see them recognizing the mistake and doing something about it.

[Arnobius]

Which is more than we can say for ANN's misrepresenting of the original piece

[Rexman64]

Heheh... True.