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

stuff

....whoa, I didn't even know they sold bishoujo mags in the US.


Dammit, why do I have to live in Texas....

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!!! "

Hearing of this got me boiling mad, but I am retaining my composure and will try to be coherent in this post. This is more than an issue of customer complaints (a point mentioned on Sankaku Complex, not ANN) causing the store to remove an entire product line. This shows evidence of a wave of activism coming down hard any way it can to enforce their views of what's proper in popular culture (religious entities, extremist feminist and child welfare organizations?). This can't help but reek of an organized and directed assault on the freedoms and artistic expression that whoever these entities are hadn't caught wind of until recently.

After all, the UNICEF CEO has publicly stated "Freedom of Expression should be restricted."

This is something the anime industry does NOT need. Any possibility of a rebound in the industry whether it involves anime with pretty girls or not will be severely impacted by this and anime fans cannot afford to sit by idly. If you are a fan of the genre, the artwork, moe and bishoujo or not, we need to tell retailers and companies that we will not stand for this looming and growing censorship threat. It will destroy the things we have come to love and enjoy. I am truly fearful of the consequences if we don't all act on behalf of keeping anime the way it has been all along.

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.

It's true that there is a variation of how explicit of the content is, though like was mention even Dengeki Hime is not exactly 18+ "hentai" or eroge by law. Much the same Aki Sora and others are also not 18+ (there was some other that had pseudo-eroge that tentacles that also was not classified as 18+ by law). I don't think is shows sex scenes with (censored) genitalia right? or not?

I wonder people check actual content other than ogling at geek fantasy illustrations and collecting useless trinkets...

This was a business decision, not a legal one.

> [Via Sankaku Complex]

I didn't really think ANN could sink any lower than they already were, but... really, now?

Egan Loo wrote:

Draneor wrote: 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. Dengeki Hime has a publisher-recommended age guideline of 18+, not a government-mandated legal age limit of 18+. There is a difference between cooperative industry standards and the governments' "harmful publications" classification, which carry the force of law. Strictly speaking, even "harmful publications" are not "pornography" in the legal definition in Japan. That's partly why images of fictional characters can be ruled as "harmful publications" in the first place.

Regardless of the technical distinction, I think the larger point is that there is some difference in the content of the various magazines.

Megami Magazine: Monthly Bishoujo Anime Magazine, with suggestive pin-up posters (no full nudity or explicit sexual content - similar to what you'd see in a fanservicey TV anime).

Megami Magazine Deluxe: Bi-annual (or so) collection of just the posters from Megami Magazine, printed in artbook style.

Nyantype: Recently-launched competitor to Megami Magazine by Kadokawa, similar to Megami in terms of content.

Dengeki Moeoh: Bi-monthly magazine focused on bishoujo illustrations (both anime and games). Some nudity and suggestive content (including a "secret gallery").

Dengeki Hime: Monthly magazine focused on latest eroge releases. Nudity and sexually explicit content throughout.


Having all five of these magazines painted with the same brush is a bit of a broader move than might be expected, since it clearly lumps the "adult content" with the "suggestive content" as equally troublesome. I guess this just reflects the vagueness of this issue; no one's quite sure how far is too far, and it looks like Kinokuniya want to play it safe here. (That being said, as others have pointed out, if the "bar" is now set, they almost certainly carry a lot of other content that should technically fall under the same restriction.)

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.