From the Gallery

Them Funny Ratings

There were a lot of things Tempest, Cookie, and myself forgot when this column was started. First it was an e-mail address. This time, it's an actual introduction to the column itself. Well better late then never, right?

It's kind of amazing; anime's popularity has grown many times over in the last few years. Just look at the number of Anime DVDs, Shonen Jump, and Newtype USA enjoying high subscription rates, TOKYOPOP trades being among the highest selling graphic novels out there, more shows on Cartoon Network and The Anime Network itself likely to see ten million subscribers by the end of the year. Even academic research and cultural studies have started to cover the phenomenon. Yeah, the growth is tough to dispute. It feels like it's happening all too fast at times. Perhaps it's time to digest it.

All of these characteristics of are signs of acceptance. This is an acceptance of the fact that something as foreign as Japanese anime and manga aren't actually so foreign anymore and have become a part of our everyday enjoyments here in North America.

Because of this growing acceptance, we have gained increasingly more data on anime's direction. As the popularity of anime continues to grow in North America, there will be questions as to which direction that growth should head. While the answers will never be cut and dry; experience, market research, and numbers will serve as better guide than just a simple hunch.

Finally, all of this growth and acceptance of anime comes amidst the change in its cultural landscape, fandom. While the acceptance has overall increased, how have the most hardcore of fans accepted it?

Anime has come to the point that it doesn't have to be out on a limb anymore. So it's time to start examining it more closely. This column is about looking at the issues facing anime and manga with as best of an informed and researched approach as I can provide.

And now, today's topic.

There have been many discussions in the past about how Japan and the U.S. digest and rate more mature subject matter in their entertainment. The general argument is that Japan is more liberal while the U.S. standards are more uptight. Of course, the issue is more complicated than that, but I am sure you get the idea.

Much of the discussion here centers on the impressions of two countries on different sides of the world. But I found out another interesting version of this debate exists within the same continent.

In April I finally got my copy of GTO volume seven, almost a month after it had been released almost everywhere else. I was told that the reason for the delay was that the distributor up here in Canada wanted to make sure that the release was properly ready for sale here. That meant that the DVD had to be screened by the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association (CMPDA). This isn't common for anime videos since the process can be costly. I understand similar reasons exist in the U.S. when it comes to anime DVDs as well. This process is also time-consuming, thus using the two precious commodities, time and money. So financially speaking, what many Americans consider domestic, we here in Canada consider imports.

The funny part was that when I finally got the DVD, the copy was slapped with a “14a” rating sticker--in the opposite corner of the suggested 16+ rating given by TOKYOPOP. My friend Anthony, who owns the store where I usually do my anime shopping, said that chances are the suggested age in Japan would be twelve.

So what does this say about viewers in Japan, Canada, and the US? Does it say that viewers in Japan and Canada mature faster and can handle stronger material at an earlier age? I doubt that, but wouldn't it be funny if it were true?

I believe in general terms this is where we start saying it's a cultural thing. Specifically in my mind it's a reflection of the worries of each of these societies. These worries center on the type of impression such shows would leave on the people who watch them. Some countries place a large stock on this idea of the silver bullet effect where people would literally do what they see or hear in movies, TV, and music. Others countries although mindful of such theories, tend to place in more individual factors like upbringing.

So in the end, it really is hard to say that one is right and the other is wrong. It's just different. It's a cultural thing.

Now I know people will bring up the point that anime in the U.S. doesn't use standardized ratings for the most part. While that's true, let me point out one more example. I just bought the Cowboy Bebop movie. The rating from the American Motion Picture Association: R. The rating from the CMPDA: 14a. Looking back on GTO's self imposed rating, I think this is as much a suggestion as it is a protective move. Thought you'd be curious.

Okay, glad to get that out of my system. Something you'd like to get out of your system? Tell me about it. okina_chair (at hotmail.com)