Forum - View topicWhat is a "mature theme?"
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DemonDragonJ
 Posts: 116 Location: Somewhere in the United States |
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The question in the title of this thread is not one of ignorance, but curiosity.
There is much debate over the definition of "mature" in issuses such as rating a movie, book, or video game. However, since this is an anime fansite, we should keep this discussion limited strictly to Japanese animation. The most widely accepted "mature" themes in this country are violence, swearing, sexuality, and drug use. For example, Cowboy Bebop is rated on this site as a "mature" anime. It has violence, it has guns, it has cigarettes, it has some swearing, it has a good-looking woman. Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dragon Ball are rated on this site as "older children's" anime. However, they also have violence, guns, swearing, cigarettes, and good-looking women. So what is the difference? Personally, I believe that "mature" themes are very difficult to define; they are simply a matter of opinion. What do you believe? |
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CyberViper
Posts: 218 Location: Matsumoto, Nagano Japan |
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That is a very good question, and I've thought about it before as well.
I suppose it's more excessive in shows like Cowboy Bebop. I can understand how sex and excessive (extremely bloody) violence can be mature, because many children don't see it every day. But swearing? Drugs? I think children enough for it to not be mature. So everyone's definition of mature IS different indeed. I've never watched more than 15 minutes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I have watched plenty of DBZ. And there seems to be more violence in DBZ than there seems to be Cowboy Bebop. (I'm actually suprises that's rated Mature...but anyway). DBZ has more kinds of violence that's not really...possible. No one can shoot energy blasts so you won't see little kids blasting other kids. I can't remember any guns from DBZ but that doesn't mean there isn't any. But they probably wouldn't be as prevelant as they are in other shows. I don't really think maturity can be based of good-looking women...heh, but who knows, maybe it's one of the criteria? I suppose it would have to be the prevelence of the mature theme, and how real it is. DBZ's violence and whatnot aren't very realistic, but Cowboy Bebop is closer to reality. Personally I would base Mature themes on the level of each criteria. When there is 'Drug Use' I do not think cigarettes should be classified as mature. Maybe Cocaine. Swearing if it's the F-word, but anything else i wouldn't say is mature. Violence to the extent of dismemberment of body parts. That's pretty mature. Maybe i'm being lenient...but i've seen a lot of shows rated as mature that i would rate for Teenagers. (Just think about what you've been exposed to as a teenager...) |
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2Real
 Posts: 249 |
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with the "M" or mature rating that is given to shows via the netowrks i belive is just a subtle way of gathering ratings. What 10-15 year old kid wouldn't wana sit down and watch a "Mature" rated show?
When I think back to when i was that age......well lets just leave it at that shall we 
As far as we the views are concerned..there are many different variables. Such as is it YOUR kid watching this show, do i even care, it isn't anything i haven't seen befor, wut are the points that are being made in the show, what happens in the show, is the show easy to understand, and yes dose it have "curse words". *i just actuly read the name of this thread and yea...now i feel stupid. THANK YOU! ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! *joking* |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19137 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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For those living in the U.S., "Mature" is approximately equivalent to an R-rating for movies and a TV-M rating for TV programming. It is supposed to be used for shows where violence, graphic, language, nudity, and/or sexual content is distinctly more extreme than a series with an "Teenagers" rating.
A title can also earn the "Mature" rating for using story themes aimed at more mature viewers and/or themes which might not be appropriate for less mature viewers. Koi Kaze, with its focus on incest, is one example of a title which earned its Mature rating primarily for that reason. I suspect that Cowboy Bebop also falls into that category, altough its violence is also sometimes pretty intense and it does involve smoking and drug use. (Remember the episode with the mushrooms?) |
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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You didn't think enough. The examples you gave us explain exactly the difference between mature rating and older children rating. If you look at Cowboy Bebop, it's a lot of realism that involves a lot of "adult problems" and the violent/whatever content therein is to portray that realism. If you look at Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dragon Ball, the entire theme itself is to appeal to teenagers and older children through the addition of violent/whatever content. It's a big difference because parents might not want to let their children "in" on the brutality of the real world yet. Although it's obvious parents don't really use the rating system, it's pretty well organized and needs to be utilized so that kids don't grow up thinking that people will "respawn" after they die. |
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AmyNoodlehead
 Posts: 11 Location: In an empty box of bananas. |
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I think that anime, as with all other types of entertainment -- tv shows, movies, etc. -- is too broad to be classified under an "appropriate age rating". I mean, it all basically depends on the viewer's maturity, rather than the content of the anime itself. You can't exactly brand an anime "mature" due to a certain intensity of violence, sexual content, and profanity, and expect it to correctly apply to everyone of that age group. Some older viewers might not be able to handle too much violence, while others don't mind. It's all a matter of the individual.
However, in my personal standards of what I consider to be mature (just an opinion, I don't think it would apply to everyone) is something with mentally disturbing or unsettling messages -- be it displayed in torturous violence, physical or mental abuse, or extreme profanity. Take Narutaru for example. Man, that's just twisted. You need a pretty firm grip on your emotions to be able to be left unaffected by that. Despite its seemingly "innocent" facade, it's a pretty disturbing anime. The funny thing is, it's not really "graphically" disturbing -- you don't see anything too gross, but it's all intended and hinted at. I would say it's mature -- or at least 16+. Ironically, if you let some 7-year old watch it, I'm sure he/she wouldn't understand half of what was going on and not be affected due to lack of interest. Of course, there are probably some 7-year-olds out there with the mental maturity to understand it, who knows? It really depends. I guess you could say that the definition of a mature theme is "everyone has their own opinion of what they consider to be mature." The best way to find out of an anime should really be rated "mature" by your standards is to watch it yourself. ~Amy Noodlehead =P |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Two words: Target audience.
A mature title require a better understanding of the material presented. And while DBZ does appeal to adult too, it's main target audience is kids. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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I think Mature themes are gray, as in "gray area". Like a kid's anime is typically blakc and white. There's a good guy, and he beats on the bad guy. The bad guy never does anything terribly good (although he might refore, thus ceasing to be a bad guy), and the good guys never going anything bad. "Mature themed" shows tend to have more gray areas, with bad guys having justifications for their actions that make you question the wrongness of them, and the good guys sometimes doing bad things to get the job done.
Typically these are darker shows, with sexual innuendo that goes well above and beyond the vauge jokes you might get in a kid's show. The people tend to be more realistically portrayed, less over the top or one-dimensional. Of course none of these are hard and fast rules, some kids shows have one, or even all of these things, but generally those work. |
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Very true. Like I remember a few years back, the Australian Film and Literature Classifacation board put out a rather black and white view on what is except and not excepted in a film for a Mature Age Film Classification. However that has changed and that it's all up for debate with both the law and consumers on what is consider mature film. I guess we can put it too both anime and art nior film creators for that change. Followed by a lot of other film directors that seem to put the limits of what is exceptable in a film claffisication. Like I remember there was a lot of anime coming out here with some rather strange rating. I remember there was some that were giving Restricted Rating, and it was not that bad. Meanwhile you had shows like Ninja Scroll that orginally started out as a Mature Age Claffisication film. However later on it was editied and bumped up to Restricted Claffisication due to "High Level Sex Scenes" It is a very gray area on what is consider mature and what isn't. Over i find that classifaction of Film, Books, Music and Video games are nothing more that a effective guild line for parents. And exactly is mature is up to the viewer themselves.
I just like the debate of when is Nudity & Sex is considered PORN or ART. |
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BoygetsfireD
 Posts: 475 Location: earth |
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"mature" tends to mean "violence, drugs, sex, etc." live everybody has said, but thats all physical.
As far as I can tell, a "mature" rating rarely has to deal with more "mature" thoughts/ideas/philosophies/themes. For example, lets take Evangelion vs. Pokemon Evangelion goes really deeply into religious philosophy, which most younger audiences either don't think of or don't care about. Then there's Pokemon, aimed at younger audiences, which has more basic themes and morals |
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Mr.Hawq
Posts: 25 |
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yah i have been thinking about that also, as they show in this site that mature contains sex, extreme graphic violence, an drug use. There are shows that are rated teenagers in this site, that has all of that for example peacemaker kurogane; that show has the extreme graphic violence, the "F" word comes out of the mouth at times, its got nudity, and smoking also. I dont really see why that it does not fit in the mature category.
I have also seen that the gundam seed special's are also rated mature for some reason when they dont got any of those that fit in the criteria of a mature show, except the sex scene in the first movie. I guess the ratings are kind of weird, to me mature is more of a mature storyline, and atmosphere of a show. |
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Animekid08.
 Posts: 81 |
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Very interesting topic. I find that Mature means not for kids (duh). Like Cardcaptor Sakura. There is nothing wrong with that anime or manga so it gets a child's rating. But look at Dragonball. It has a T rating, but has nudity in it. I've seen very much more babyish manga and anime that have equal mature levels. I beleive Rave Master fits that category. This is a widely debated topic though.
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Tetsujin
Posts: 216 |
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DBZ may contain more violence than Cowboy Bebop, but it's cartoonish violence-- DBZ is by its very nature too fantastic and too fictional for anyone to experience the sort of violence it displays. Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, displays violence which hits too close to home-- people get shot, and some of these people die bloody deaths.
Use of language is also indicative of why a series (or, at least, an episode) gets the classification it gets. While language in-- again, just using these titles as examples-- DBZ may be strong, language in Cowboy Bebop may be vulgar. Regarding "mature"-- i.e., sexual-- material, I haven't seen any the the few DBZ episodes I saw years ago, while "mature" themes were made essential parts of a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop. Overall, I would classify Cowboy Bebop as a "mature" series and DBZ as one which isn't. Both series contain elements which qualify it for the "mature" label within an episode, but DBZ may not have enough across the entire run of the series to make it qualify as a "mature" series. Then there is InuYasha. I know that InuYasha is targeted to young adults (14-17), and I know that many older adults are big-time fans of this series. InuYasha has something for everyone, and this is by design of the creator of the anime and manga. Most of the time, InuYasha is like DBZ from a content point of view. However, there are some episodes of InuYasha which are preceded with "mature" warnings because of what follows. Usually, it's an episode where Miroku lets his hands wander or Kagome and InuYasha advance their relationship/friendship to higher levels. Sometimes, an episode of InuYasha gets the "mature" treatment because of the violence contained within the episode-- combat against demons is neither pretty nor clean. Despite the fact that people of all ages watch the series I've talked about here, DBZ is targeted toward younger viewers (say, 10-15), InuYasha is targeted toward "young adults," and Cowboy Bebop is targeted toward older people. |
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Edensin
 Posts: 21 |
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I've always simplified that topic for myself by saying this.
Does it touch your inner man or inner boy? (stop thinking that way) Basically i mean which part of you can relate to it. For instance, when you watch Cowboy Bebop, it's your inner man that's wants to get out there, kick some criminal butt with your elite martial arts, shoot up a bar, and them come to Faye wearing almost nothing. (ahh the good life  )
Now when you watch DBZ, your inner boy wants to go out there, fly around on a cloud, shoot some kamehamehas(sp?), and kick some alien bootay. I know that really doesn't answer the OP, but I stated it in hopes of shedding light on a possible way that the people who rate these shows are thinking. Also, to basically simplify the whole thing, especially for those who have....."long and thorough" opinions on a subject that, although is great to discuss and ponder for awhile, does not need to be thoroughly thought out(sometimes thinking about a particular subject too much can "fog" how you should truly view it)... P.S. lol so much for simplifying. |
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shirokiryuu
Posts: 714 Location: Northern California (SF Bay Area) |
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Also mature themes as in "target audience is for adults"
For example, Death Note is published in Shounen Jump, a magazine gerenerally for young boys, but Death Note has many dark themes and appeals for for teens and adults. Also another factor is that it's very text heavy, and in my experience as a child, i disliked too much talking and just wanted instant action |
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