Forum - View topicViews on anime age ratings.
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12skippy21
 Posts: 785 Location: York, England |
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I recently listened to the below podcast from the bbfc which after the 18 minute mark was discussing the difficulties with creating age ratings for anime which might be of interest.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/podcasts/bbfc-podcast-episode-17-classifying-anime The individuals speaking are obviously not anime fans but their discussion is interesting and correct in some incidences. However putting what they say into context of the first half where the director was talking about age ratings regarding sexual activity, as an anime fan, I cannot help but think they generalised too much about our media type. The bbfc ratings system I have always found to be too focused on the individual, the collective rating system I do prefer even if open to abuse. So, before I write too much, how does everyone view the rating system in their own country? I still remember seeing the unrated Kodomo no Jikan DVD boxset in Borneo 4 years ago for example. Within only a 10 minute segment they managed to find time just to talk about tentacle rape, how would an unknowing consumer digest that information? |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Those poor super polite brits.
Ufortunately they didn't get anywhere and misled people pretty badly. Where is the controversy over whether or not La Blue Girl should be classified as adult material or not? Is it really all that difficult to decide whether or not Deadman Wonderland should be given a more adult rating for excessive violence? If you aren't accustomed to anime and listen to this you might even think the sexual activity in La BLue Girl is "fan service" and that hard core sex can show up in a Saturday morning cartoon. If it had been an actual discussion on the fringe elements of rating anime it could have been more interesting. If you want to go back to the 90's, forget La Blue Girl and talk about Ranma 1/2. Do they have to rate My Neighbor Totoro up because of the girls bathing with their dad? How do they treat Hot Springs episodes? Does the actual showing of blood in an action show (and not the gratuitous eye-gouging variety) mean its automatically ranked up? Recently I watched Oh Edo Rocket on Hulu and was constantly being annoyed by the "For Mature Audiences" disclaimer before each episode. This may be something being shown in America but we're still talking about ratings authorities. What standards are being followed to a t that makes something as mild as that get a "Mature" rating? Oh wait... I just remembered, one of the final episodes has an eye gouging! Although it wasn't terribly graphic, - that might actual be the explanation for the whole series being rated that way. ...If only we had a professional ratings authority with a podcast to discuss such things.... hmmmmm. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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The thing with ratings is that regardless of what a Nation does, they simply are a recommendation and cannot prevent when an "under age viewer" ends up watching say the James Cameron directed movie Aliens because there parents want to watch it with the whole family.
So unless you live in a Nation that has draconic laws that make it a crime for simply showing a youth an "overly violent or sexual toned media" the little print or sticker that says "this film is violent and/or has sexual content" is nothing more than an advisory to the viewer. |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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They are "advisory labels" that people listen to.
Some parents follow them exactly, and then there are the stores and theaters that won't sell/show movies and shows if the rating is too high. In the US ratings do matter. R- ratings hurt a movie's box office drastically. NC-17 absolutely destroys them. Yes, they are just "suggestions" but those suggestions greatly affect the viability and accessibility of products. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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BBFC ratings are actually legally binding here in the UK. Material cannot be legally released and distributed without a certification from them.
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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I don't find it completely accurate to call upon success or failure in a Theatrical release as a means to recognize the supposed importance of ratings as we are mainly referring to medium of Anime which comes either in the form of a (presumably) legal stream or a DVD/Bluray purchase.
The rating system for most Blurays/Dvd releases in the US is usually not using the MPAA rating system which only comes into play when a piece of work has been widely distributed in theatres. Depending on the distributor, it can very wildly from where some companies make it a point to rate everything with appropriate marks that note mature humor or emphasis on violence and others simply throwing on a general mark of "TV PG" even though clearly the content is High school level innuendo fueled humor that might warrant it to be marked higher. There have been several interviews with Funimation and usually the top money makers in said interviews is generally responded with the "big booby fighting girl series" (whichever series has most recently been released, respectively) To my point, the anime viewer does not take in new anime series as they would if they were pondering to go to a recent movie release, an anime viewer can opt to watch a legal stream, go online for reviews about recent anime bluray/dvd releases, and go into other forms of details before even watching a series or anime movie for the first time as they would with say the most recent theatrical release as the decision to go to the movies usually is based solely on if they enjoyed a trailer or not, and just as well an anime viewer could be enticed solely on the promise of big boobed pretty girls trying to fight one another (because it DOES happen). |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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In general, I don't find ratings to be that bad a thing, as long as the criteria is actually solid. I remember being really annoyed that Gravitation at one point was sold with an R rating, since I'm sure it was just due to homosexual content. Hopefully that isn't still happening.
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Yeah, that doesn't exactly sound like a good thing for the consumer. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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The costs alone of getting material certified prevent a lot of niche titles getting released over here. |
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