Bill 156
And the next thing you'll see 'em banning Pokemon because it has fights.
I'm surprised this isn't up on figure.fm yet somehow, but yeah :/
Source: http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/
Copypasta from his blog ^ above:
Bill 156 has passed through the general affairs committee with supplemental resolution attached. Approval by the full assembly is expected on Wednesday.
The new bill, Bill 156, essentially stipulates all sexual acts that would be illegal in real life OR sexual depictions between close relatives who could not legally get married to be treated as adult material if they are presented in “unjustifiably glorified or exaggerated manner.” Note that illegal sexual acts go way beyond just rape–Sexual relations between minors and adults are also illegal in Tokyo under certain conditions, and there are many other restrictions that exist regarding real people.
The age specification has been dropped in the bill itself, but since the bill is based on pre-existing real world sex related laws and ordinances, the “nonexistent youth” stipulations are effectively still active. Bill 156 has been dubbed the “Nonexistent Crime Bill” and many criticized not only the wording of the bill, but the fact that the TMG didn’t release the details of the bill until the very end.
Now creators that deal with science fiction, fantasy, historical works, myths, and stories that involve foreign nations must abide by Tokyo and Japan’s criminal code when dealing with sexual acts. OYAPS has stated specifically that even the manga adaptations of Tale of Genji will be subject to restriction if the sexual relationships are described in a “unjustifiable glorified manner”.
Furthermore, the bill specifically targets anime, manga, and any other visual medium that would involve pictures, which would mean games would be included as well.
End of Japan's Anime/Manga culture? Is Japan digging its own grave (no seriously)?
Idk about you guys but I went /rage when I saw that :/ IF that bill passes then its like every single anime would be banned (note that the bill includes criminal acts as well so violence isn't allowed) plus there's the high school uniform thing going around as well which means there won't be any anime/manga related to school life anymore (no school uniforms anymore, wtf is this?). Quite a number of major publishers pulled out of the upcoming Tokyo International Anime Fair as well.
So every anime related to violence/ecchi/H+/school uniforms aren't allowed... so what are we suppose to watch? People talking to each other =l? lolwat.
Moar links:
http://www.japanator.com/aw-dammit-tokyo-s-anti-loli-bill-passes-in-commitee-17722.phtml
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/13/tokyo-anime-manga-ban-passes/ NFSW
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/13/mangaka-my-publisher-has-banned-school-uniforms/ NFSW
Stay calm and don't over react. :P
何とかやるよ。 It will work out somehow.
And don't call it hentai. A hentai is a PERSON who is a pervert. You can call it H-Anime or 18+ anime but don't call it hentai. :P
aye noted -goes change =X my bad
I was equally /rage faced when i learned of this....until i sit back and thought over.
Tbh all this affects is the slightly more extreme genres such as BL/Yaoi, Yuri and maybe the show that has TOO much fanservice. Thus if enforced PROPERLY, it MIGHT work to make animes better and more story focused more than anything. Even the Sch uniform thing, is because the mangaka draws BL/Yaoi, and hence it was stopped by the publication industry due to worries over this bill.
Also I've read in certain forumns and sites that this only applies for general stuff, meaning those that are not already rated adults only. So hence we just might see more titles with the adult warning and such?
"it MIGHT work to make animes better and more story focused more than anything."
I think this is the case. It's jumping the gun to assume this regulation will ruin anime.
If anime can't survive a law like this, it doesn't have any business existing because it would mean it relies soley on perverion and nothing on substance. That wouldn't give anime enough credit. Plenty of good stories have been told through the medium that didn't need to cater to fetish to get people to enjoy it. Stuff will still be made. It just will have to clean itself up some or be labeled adult.
If anything, it will curtail some of the questionable themes that are drive mass market away from anime in Japan. For the industry to survive & thrive it needs broader appeal anyways.
Having more things labeled adult isn't that big a deal. Some of it needed that label already.
having said that, we also need to understand WHY people are panicky...Recent comments from top politicians (one being shown here http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/07/tokyo-manga-fans-lead-deadend-lives-find-a-real-girl/ [link SFW, Website isn't] ) coupled with news of this bill is a tad worrisome... but in the event of the law really being passed, like what i and maridah has said above, we shouldn't be jumping the gun that this might kill the anime industry cause really if it does, it would be like what maridah said "If anime can't survive a law like this, it doesn't have any business existing because it would mean it relies soley on perverion and nothing on substance. That wouldn't give anime enough credit. Plenty of good stories have been told through the medium that didn't need to cater to fetish to get people to enjoy it."
urgh the link gives me a different webpage =w= heres the correct one http://goo.gl/u8POs
Haha.. I remember when Anime has very little fanservice and it ABSOLUTELY works. And I'd go on and say this will work out.
Lots of people is panicking cos their little haven of fetish would be abolished and regulated *cough* moemoe, incest, pantsu, teetees and whatnot.
Although I generally apply the 'to each his own' saying in real life, one must admit that some of the stuff in animes are indeed a bit shocking and inappropriate. For me, the bill could have been worded better and big brother should probably have handled its introduction better BUT ultimately the issue that it is trying to address is a valid one.
You know it could turn all Anime into K-On right? It's one of the few Anime that doesn't have any objectionable content, violence or fanservice wise.
that is one train of thought, but it also might turn out to be all anime with stories like Summer WArs, The girl who lept through Time etcetc. I know all of them are movies, but tstill they're good exmples of how we don;t need too much fanservice (if any) to make a good story tick.
Another thing to note is, while we're getting all rage face, truth is we have no clue how this bill is bgonna be enforced, which i believe is the main cause of concern. So imho we should relax and see how it all works out. cause even if the bill is enforced wrongly under these old geezers, it will right itself over time, be it through elections after these geezers die, or through the industry moving to other locations or using their economic power (and whats left of it) to change/ ammend the bill.
It seems a little off to call BL and yuri "extreme"... well, assuming it isn't 18+. :\
hmmm, I guess I'm sorry for being a bit TOO personal (or rather for bringing my personal experience) into my post.
The time I've spent on these genres aren't that many, but in my experience, these genres mostly have sexual content in it. I do however note that there might be a few that do not follow this trend and hence I apologise if i offended any Yuri/BL fans >_>
Been following this issue on Sankaku channel for 2 days now and it seems that it has only passed the initial committee vote. The full vote will be on Wednesday.
lol damn typo I meant Sankaku Complex not channel...
I hope Danny does a post on this.
Well figure.fm has slowed down considerably over the past few months... So slow news isn't surprising. A new sigma has been announced and it isn't even posted on here yet
While this may be alarming to most of us (and me too), there are too many factors involved that we cannot definitely say that this will harm Japan's anime/manga/j-pop culture. I know that this bill would cut a bit into the free imagination of today's current anime/manga producers, but it could potentially create new ideas that aren't just about some people who go through the same things over and over to save the world. Maybe it will let these producers of anime and manga to be able to create works that don't need the current status quo that many animes have in common, excessive fanservice, violence, animes around school, etc.
I was shocked when I first heard about it today, and I first thought that this is a bad bill that will potentially ruin part of Japan's vital industries, but when you think about it further it's not as if they are saying you can't do 18+ stuff right? It would just label it as adult. The quality of anime cannot just be about sex and violence and on little girls, there has to be more than that. The best animes out there didn't necessarily have to use visual appeals for the human appetite, but use of good story and character development. Though I guess I admit the anime industry would be lacking slightly if they didn't have all that kinky stuff too, that is unique of Japan in the eyes of the right people.
Anyways its too early to say how and what this bill will do to Japan's unique pop-culture. All we can do is wait and see what the future brings.
At first sorry about my terrible english^^U
I think that first they have to approve that, I'm not sure about how goes the law and the politics in Japan but too many times they use to make too many noise with one law and then it's not approval.
By other way if that happen that means that manga drawers from other countrys will get more popular, so the idea of japanese manga maybe will dissapear, other thing that could happen it's that manga drawers improve theirs story skills, but in my opinion, i think that there have too be something of all, i mean, that too many times you enjoy goods stories, but some times you want to see something stupid that only you want is get blussed all the time or you want to see something boolded where you want to shout. It's like the cinema, what would happen with it if violence or sex are banned in some films? Thats only give more variety to the different genders, so i think that will hurt japanese anime and manga.
Thanks for read ^^U
Hmm yeah I'm more concerned over the anti-no-violence part though >.>"
K-ON wouldn't even work because of school uniforms.. ._.
Meh we'll see how things turn out tomorrow I guess =/
Oh wait I take that school uni part back /facepalm
Clannad anyone?
THEY'LL NEVER STOP ME ALIVE! That would mean so many animes would stop airing. Highschool of the Dead, Queen's Blade, and other anime shows that show fanservice, lolis, sexual acts, etc. I don't think this bill will go far. Otakus will prevail!
Basically, all it means is that awesome shows like Soraoto and To Loveru will be rated for adults and be sold as such, so kids can't grab hold of them, which may hurt sales, but if someone wants to buy something they'll be able to do it.
I just found out about this on /a/ and I'm like what!
If this ban goes through, the next thing they'll be trying to ban will be anime itself.
Don't let those hypocrites do as they see fit.
At first, I was with those who think that this may not change much. However, after reading a few of the articles on the subject on Sankaku, I'll have to say this does make me raise an eyebrow. The thing that concerns me with this law is that 1) the way it's written specifically targets anime, manga, and games, which is rather prejudiced when you think about it, and 2) the terms in it are loose enough that it has a HIGH potential for abuse. The law appears to mention that merely SHOWING illegal activities may be enough to slap a label on it. Yes, they claim that it's supposed to cover those that glorify said activities, but that's an extremely subjective term; it's not hard to imagine that some politician could decide that something is offensive just because the content is controversial, or even it it just rubs him the wrong way. I hope that this bill gets killed with fire, because such broad-reaching censorship of expression is never a good sign.
Yep, this is the big problem. The law is so vaguely written that it could even be applied to so-called "safe" series. It's already having a bad effect. The fear that this will basically squash the doujin market is not unfounded. Since a lot of artists got their start there, there goes a source of talent. And the vague wording can be abused so bad. Haruhi? Gone. (Glorifies rape.) K-On? Gone. (Glorifies the exploitation of children in labor) Bleach? Naruto? Gone. (Excessive violence.) DragonBall? Gone (Child abuse.) Cowboy Bebop? Gone. (Glorifies violence, alcohol abuse, other bad habits.) Lots of Western shows are gone, too. All we'll have is pie-in-the-face shows again.
"K-On? Gone. (Glorifies the exploitation of children in labor)"
But aren't they like, second year high-schoolers? So, like 16? What's Japan's age of being able to work?
But yeah, that is the main problem, "harmful" is kind of subjective. I wonder if anything big will even really happen, I'm very eager to find out.
Doesn't matter. They are being exploited. (This would be the argument. It's hard to disprove, and easier just to yank it than deal with the lawsuit. I would hope that someone would stand up for this, but sadly, I don't see it happening.)
I have no clue how yo0u managed to yank K-ON unto the ban =w=;;;; Honestly. But heck i guess if an Anime fan can do it, so can an Anime hater =/
But alas can we NOT panic and see how this turns out first? As mentioned above, The industry has alot of power in japan and if it isn't working in tokyo, It would, I assume, Right itself.
I think everyone is overreacting. I'm sure it wouldn't kill the whole industry.
P.S. Check out my link above to read up on what I really think though.
People are definitely overreacting. It may possibly hinder some titles from being produced/published or even from being more successful than it potentially could be, but it's not really that bad. I don't see it much more different from what we see here in the states. No more "skinamax" during prime time.
And to be honest, it might even actually HELP anime. It cost a lot of money to produce and have an anime televised in Japan. So much so that there is none to little profit, you could even expect to see some loss. Money is produced primarily through goods and dvd sales. If a series, say for example one like Ikkitousen or Queen's Blade, is deemed too ecchi for tv, even at late hours on certain channels.. it would likely save money just going straight to OVA. You might also notice that a lot of these hyper ecchi series do that already. The point of a TV run, is to sell people on the series and get them to purchase the dvd's and products that come from the series. If a series is bad, like Queen's Blade (don't shoot me), well it might have better luck without the TV run, as people will not know how bad the show is. Than again, we all know that was not the reason they watched it in the first place mmmmmmm Echidna. /wipes drool. So maybe my point is moot.
Whatever the case may be, having very similar laws here, hasn't kept the T&A and adult material off some of the shows here. Especially the ones on HBO and Skinamax. Nor has it deterred their success. (Dexter anyone ?)