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Does anybody remember the moral panic against anime back in the 90s and 2000s?




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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
Posts: 225
PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the moral panic against anime in America had cause companies to censor the material (Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yugioh, and Pokemon) in order to make the anime appeal to American audiences. I think the moral panic against anime was a waste of time and money blaming anime back in the 90s and 2000s. Do you agree that the moral panic was an unnecessary waste of time and money? [/url]
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 3:01 pm Reply with quote
I actually don't remember any moral panic because I didn't become an anime fan until 2009. To be honest, considering some of the content of anime, I was often surprised there wasn't MORE of a backlash against it, especially in the U.S. Bible Belt. Take something like Dance in the Vampire Bund where you had a character who looked like a 10-year-old girl presented in a pretty sexualized way. I always assumed the reason why there wasn't more of a backlash was that shows like DitVB flew under the radar and the type of people that would make a stink about them just didn't know that they even existed.
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 6:51 pm Reply with quote
I got into anime beginning in 1997. I also don't remember any "moral panic". The companies that licensed the listed shows intended them for a young audience. I assume what ever censoring was done was based on what the intended market would accept. By intended market I mean the networks and stations they were trying to sell to. Each potential outlet had its own standards and practices.

Like Blood- said, most anime intended for a more adult audience (late teens and older) has been remarkably free of censorship. It happens but is not the norm.
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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 3885
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2024 7:13 pm Reply with quote
I'd hardly call it a panic since that's how anime was handled even in the early days of anme on US television in the 1960s. All of the censorship in anime was done to bring the TV shows to the same standards that US shows had to adhere to.
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Spawn29



Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:08 pm Reply with quote
The closet thing that I remember is when Legend of the Overfiend was check out at Blockbuster from a parent who thought it was a kids movie, and they got super upset about it.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:51 pm Reply with quote
Laughing Oi vey. Yeah, I could see a parent being a bit P.O.'d by that. "Hey, I'll get this nice movie for little Suzy and Johnny..."
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
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Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sat Mar 09, 2024 10:36 pm Reply with quote
Beltane70 wrote:
I'd hardly call it a panic since that's how anime was handled even in the early days of anme on US television in the 1960s. All of the censorship in anime was done to bring the TV shows to the same standards that US shows had to adhere to.


I would also add that the dvd's and vhs tapes for the vast majority were not edited as the tv versions were. Hell, back in the day you could get the "fancy" uncut or edited DBZ vhs tapes that formed those panoramas for examples. I mean there was some shouting and "hur hur this is trash" just because anime was/is different and more adult than US cartoons. Especially back then. Even considering that I'd hardly say a moral panic. That was left for D&D and European death metal.
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lumenotaku



Joined: 29 Jul 2020
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Sun Mar 24, 2024 1:11 pm Reply with quote
my folks didn't pay much attention I used to even rent the violent nudity filled OAV on vhs from blockbuster as a preteen haha but I do remember other kids having issues with far less shocking shows like pokemon and I recall people judging me for liking anime
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1773
Location: South America
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:43 pm Reply with quote
In Brazil, newspapers talked about anime as "some weird Asian media that our kids are hooked on." They had no idea that there existed adult fans of anime (although it is true that in the 90s, adult anime fans were quite rare).
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gsilver



Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Sat Mar 30, 2024 3:10 pm Reply with quote
If anything, I recall reading about how *less* anime was stigmatized in the 2000s vs earlier.

The phrase "Pokemon or porn" got thrown about, but you have to remember that before Pokemon, the stigma was that anime was 'just porn' Even then, it was a very small part of the media landscape, and probably wouldn't have even gotten that much attention without the infamous Legend of the Overfiend review, when they ran it in theaters and a journalist who had no idea what they were in for went to review it.


Anime just wasn't popular enough to get the kind of backlash that things like videogames, Dungeons & Dragons, comic books, or heavy metal music got.
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