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NEWS: U.S. Kinokuniya Bookstores Stop Selling 5 Bishōjo Mags


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Konstantin



Joined: 24 Jul 2008
Posts: 13
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:16 pm Reply with quote
I was wondering why Megami disappeared from Seattle's Kino. Time to see if online subscription prices have gotten any better.
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Daemonblue



Joined: 05 Jul 2006
Posts: 701
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:23 pm Reply with quote
Needless to say there's tons of comments on Sankaku about this, and most basically boil down to one point. If this is child porn, so is 90% of anime since, as was mentioned, there's no nudity -_-

One person had mentioned that several pages from one of his magazines were ripped out by customs....and all this goes to show the usual reductio ad absurdium for child pornography laws might not be far off -_-
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hissatsu01



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 963
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm kind of surprised they still sold them at all, given the paranoia about child porn. I don't think any of the stuff in these mags would actually run afoul of US obscenity laws. More like a pre-emptive and overly cautious covering of asses by Kinokuniya. In their eyes, the small revenue brought in by these mags probably wasn't worth the remote possibility of having to deal with an overzealous prosecutor somewhere down the line. Oh where would we be without the fuzziness of the Miller test.

Though it still boggles my mind that these mags exist at the same time as many fans still insist that moe and sexuality are totally separate concepts. OK, if you say so. Obviously everyone didn't get that memo.
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MJP



Joined: 06 Nov 2003
Posts: 126
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Welp, the publishers of those magazines had better not crap their pants over people uploading scans to moe.imouto, Danbooru, etc. if they can't lobby domestic markets hard enough to get US distribution.

Good thing that Sanseido near Mitsuwa in Edgewater still sells them openly. Not like I'd ever be caught dead in public reading Megami. It's hard enough to not look like a pedo when you're going through Hobby Japan.
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Sheleigha



Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1671
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Reminds me with the new PS3 game NIS is publishing, Atelier Rorona, they had changed her age from 14 to 17, just so they don't get caught up in the web that this is :/ If that's going to save them, a number is just a number...
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Jaymie



Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:44 pm Reply with quote
I'm tired of this silly Witch Hunt that's going on. At first it was child porn, then it was pictures depicting child porn, then it was pictures depicting child nudity, and now it's... pictures depicting children? Rolling Eyes
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Matriel



Joined: 16 Jan 2010
Posts: 87
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Daemonblue wrote:
Needless to say there's tons of comments on Sankaku about this, and most basically boil down to one point. If this is child porn, so is 90% of anime since, as was mentioned, there's no nudity -_-

One person had mentioned that several pages from one of his magazines were ripped out by customs....and all this goes to show the usual reductio ad absurdium for child pornography laws might not be far off -_-


Keep in mind that this has NOTHING at all to do with with the actual legality of this content, just an ASSUMPTION that something might possibly happen in the future, so one company that sells these in the U.S. is backing out. They're all still legally available from many other U.S. sources.

It also would be nice to mention that the individual who had pages ripped out from customs was from Malaysia (Unless I'm reading Anon's statement below incorrectly.) Just figured I would clear up that rather ambiguous statement.

From SanCom:
Anonymous 20:27 27/07/2010

In my case, my copy of Dengeki G Festival from Kinokuniya (Malaysia) got several pages "detained" by our customs (by detained, they ripped out some of the pages). This not only limited to anime pin-up magazine, even hobby magazine like Dengeki Hobby or Hobby Japan also was not spared. And this only happened to copy bought from Kinokuniya; parallel import from Amazon Japan either pass the customs unscathed, or the whole thing will be detained.
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Sailor S





PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:49 pm Reply with quote
This kind of thing just makes me so angry that all I can do is make nonsensical rants, so I'll just leave it at that.
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The_Q



Joined: 09 Mar 2010
Posts: 57
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Sheleigha wrote:
Reminds me with the new PS3 game NIS is publishing, Atelier Rorona, they had changed her age from 14 to 17, just so they don't get caught up in the web that this is :/ If that's going to save them, a number is just a number...


Uhh, don't jump the gun so soon. Rorona spans over the course of three years. They could just as easily be listed her endgame age instead of her pre-game age.



I just love hoe paranoid these stores are starting to get, and their ignorance of the law is kinda funny.

"could carry some pictures that could be understood as child porn.

SCOTUS was pretty clear in the fact that CP only applies to actual children. So, this boils down to obscenity, which is a moot point because Megami Mag does not contain any explicit pictures.

Self-censorship is dangerous, especially what it's due to baseless and excessive paranoia.

If they are so worried, then I suggest that they remove all of their manga from their stores, starting with the likes of Negima!

-______________________________________-

But hey, no problem. I'll be more than happy yo take my business somewhere else, I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem with that.
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DoktorZetsubou





PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:01 pm Reply with quote
Sailor S wrote:
This kind of thing just makes me so angry that all I can do is make nonsensical rants, so I'll just leave it at that.


Could not have phrased this better.
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VORTIA
Subscriber



Joined: 26 Jul 2005
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:08 pm Reply with quote
What cracks me up about this is the fact that their shelves are stocked full of art books, 90% of which include images reprinted from Megami, Nyantype, etc. Unless they've also decided to stop carrying artbooks for anime & manga as well, Kinokuniya isn't removing content from their stores so much as they are simply forcing people to pay more for it.

Laughing Rolling Eyes
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ayashe



Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Posts: 122
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:15 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm tired of this silly Witch Hunt that's going on. At first it was child porn, then it was pictures depicting child porn, then it was pictures depicting child nudity, and now it's... pictures depicting children?


That's probably what it's going to come to with the US government. They let people get away with insane things, but some drawings of kids? EVIL! "You may not take pictures of children, any children. You may not photograph people under the age of 18. You may not draw children, and people under the age of 18. You may not photograph or draw people who look under the age of 18. All pictures and drawings of children are child pornography!!! Twisted Evil"
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Draneor



Joined: 19 May 2005
Posts: 355
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:31 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
These magazines contain no nudity and are not classified as "harmful publications" in Japan. ("Harmful publications" are a prefectural-level legal category of publications which may not be bought or read by anyone younger than 18 years old.)


Dengeki Hime is 18+ (it's stamped on the cover). Unlike the other four, Hime focuses upon offering previews for eroge. As such, it does contain pornography.


Last edited by Draneor on Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Scaramanga



Joined: 02 Sep 2003
Posts: 134
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:31 pm Reply with quote
hissatsu01 wrote:
Though it still boggles my mind that these mags exist at the same time as many fans still insist that moe and sexuality are totally separate concepts. OK, if you say so. Obviously everyone didn't get that memo.

These mags are cheesecake, not specifically moe.
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Dagon123



Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:35 pm Reply with quote
ayashe wrote:
Quote:
I'm tired of this silly Witch Hunt that's going on. At first it was child porn, then it was pictures depicting child porn, then it was pictures depicting child nudity, and now it's... pictures depicting children?


That's probably what it's going to come to with the US government. They let people get away with insane things, but some drawings of kids? EVIL! "You may not take pictures of children, any children. You may not photograph people under the age of 18. You may not draw children, and people under the age of 18. You may not photograph or draw people who look under the age of 18. All pictures and drawings of children are child pornography!!! Twisted Evil"


The minute they tell me I can't draw a character from my own mind in anyway I see fit, whether its nude or not, is the day I pack my bags for Canada, kevin I'm on my way man, but seriously the fact they ripped the pages out of that persons magazine is like salt in the wounds, I'd rather not even have the damn thing, and Its not even CP, not even close. CP isn't cool, but treating kids like brain-dead dolls who aren't aware of anything is insulting and crass, a line from battle angel comes to mind.
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