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NEWS: 'On Your Mark' Pulled from Miyazaki Box Sets After Aska's Drug Arrest


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DavetheUsher



Joined: 19 May 2014
Posts: 505
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 5:17 am Reply with quote
Dunno man, it's either this or we get stuff like Chis Brown who can hospitalize his girlfriend and still sell CDs and make millions. Whatcha gonna do? Let these guys keep their careers or lose them when they break the law?
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SouthPacific



Joined: 24 Oct 2013
Posts: 689
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 5:19 am Reply with quote
I'm not too sure what I think about this... On one side I think it's good that Japan is so strict on drugs, in many western countries these days you can openly speak about doing drugs, and celebrities do drugs like I drink water. Japan does not want their citizens getting addicted to drugs and thus they do things like this. Anything/anyone associated with them will not have a good time.

On the other side I think this is a bit of an insult to one of the greatest directors of all time. And it's a bit of a slap in the face to the people who've been wanting the Miyazaki box set.


It's a difficult situation, but in the end I definitely lean towards that the box sets should include the music video. But that may just be because i'm influenced how the drug culture is in the west Rolling Eyes.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 5:26 am Reply with quote
Well, the management in charge of that nuclear power plant in Fukushima was probably on drugs too, but Japan forgave them. Rolling Eyes
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 6:21 am Reply with quote
In America, you'd have to slaughter millions with a hacksaw on live TV in prime time, in blackface, wearing a swastika t-shirt and a necklace made of baby femurs, while punching a puppy and lighting the American flag on fire before you'll lose any sales.

Or if you say something that isn't supportive of a war going on.

I don't understand punishing a guy for something he wasn't even convicted of doing as of yet, something that is largely victimless, that does not effect or paint differently the work he did that's being taken off the set.
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Niello



Joined: 22 Dec 2013
Posts: 302
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 7:40 am Reply with quote
Preacherofdoom wrote:
it's not these companies, but the asian culture that's the problem. i don't understand how they think. they really think fans would boycott it cause the guy got a drug problem? it's the fans that get punished not getting this video. lesser product for the same price.

like recently in korea with the ferry sinking and a couple hundred dead. they shut down the entire pop music industry for like a month. so people died and that sucks, but why take away music from it's fans?


wohdin wrote:
I am getting really tired of all of your ridiculous reactionary hypocrisy, Japan (and Asia in general). Shit's getting old.


Are you two really trying to generalise Asia to the point that Japan (and Korea) represent all the countries in the whole continent? and the largest one at that. Seriously, if you just know about a couple of countries/cultures just talk about those, no need to drag all the other countries and cultures you barely know anything about into it.

On topic: This is sad. They are acting like Aska is a serial killer or something, and trying to dispose of everything related to him is really going too far.
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider


Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 2204
Location: Tokyo, Japan
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 7:56 am Reply with quote
Just a little cultural explanation from someone who lives in Japan:

- Drugs are against the law, and are considered much more taboo than in the United States. The companies releasing media content do not want to be associated with an artist that abuses drugs. This could ruin their reputation for a long period of time.

This has been done with artists in the past, not just Aska. Although drug culture is illegal in America, it's kind of accepted as kind of a cultural norm for celebrities. Not in Japan. In the past, artists' CDs have been removed from the shelves of all stores as soon as they are found guilty of a crime, including drug use. This happened in the case of Noriko Sakai in 2009.

- Japan does not have "innocent until proven guilty." Japan has "guilty until proven innocent." So no, they do not know of this term in their society since it doesn't exist.

The thing is, these are cultural differences. So just calling it "stupid" isn't exactly progressive... ^^;
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Cptn_Taylor



Joined: 08 Nov 2013
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 8:00 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:

I don't understand punishing a guy for something he wasn't even convicted of doing as of yet, something that is largely victimless, that does not effect or paint differently the work he did that's being taken off the set.


For once I agree 100% with you penguintruth. Although to be competely honest the Japanese justice system is very much like the American one in one important aspect. A system designed to punish not rehabilitate. Hence this stupid "act" of revenge of the system (not the justice system per se but societal pressure on the publisher to pull this guy's work from the dvd/blu-ray boxset).


Last edited by Cptn_Taylor on Wed May 21, 2014 8:05 am; edited 2 times in total
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lizardking461





PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 8:00 am Reply with quote
Apply this mentality to the music industry on a global scale and it would collapse over night. Then again, Japan's 'music' industry is abysmal in more worrying ways than this, so meh.
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2377
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 8:19 am Reply with quote
mewpudding101 wrote:
Just a little cultural explanation from someone who lives in Japan:

- Drugs are against the law, and are considered much more taboo than in the United States. The companies releasing media content do not want to be associated with an artist that abuses drugs. This could ruin their reputation for a long period of time.

This has been done with artists in the past, not just Aska. Although drug culture is illegal in America, it's kind of accepted as kind of a cultural norm for celebrities. Not in Japan. In the past, artists' CDs have been removed from the shelves of all stores as soon as they are found guilty of a crime, including drug use. This happened in the case of Noriko Sakai in 2009.

- Japan does not have "innocent until proven guilty." Japan has "guilty until proven innocent." So no, they do not know of this term in their society since it doesn't exist.

The thing is, these are cultural differences. So just calling it "stupid" isn't exactly progressive... ^^;


You said it before me, and even took my example. As a huge fan of Pokemon, I've been trying to find a version of the movie short with the Pichu siblings for a long time, but they don't sell it anymore because of what she did. All she did was sing the short's theme and then get caught with drugs, but just that simple association is enough in Japan.
That said, she has since reformed herself and gone out on anti-drug campaigns for most of her non-career since, and she currently plans on re-entering the industry again, though I don't know if she has already or not.

But yes, these are cultural differences. We call it so backwards, but even before our crazy prison rates, drug abuse was faaaaar from tolerated in America and practically any other country, so even if things are changing now, it's a little much to expect that same kind of change in Japan when we're one of the major exceptions in the world.

And let's not forget that some of these laws are still around from the Opium scare. Drugs are a big issue in Japanese history, so it's not a surprise that they're reluctant to change that easily.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:07 am Reply with quote
Preacherofdoom wrote:

like recently in korea with the ferry sinking and a couple hundred dead. they shut down the entire pop music industry for like a month. so people died and that sucks, but why take away music from it's fans?


They did it because it was inappropriate to be releasing new music when a nation is going through a tragedy/disaster. I mean a lot of K-pop fans (both in Korea and global) didn't complain like you did. Also when 9/11 happened, a lot of shows and music got postpone or canceled due to the disaster. So it's not an Asian thing, it's universal.
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Niello



Joined: 22 Dec 2013
Posts: 302
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:08 am Reply with quote
mewpudding101 wrote:
Just a little cultural explanation from someone who lives in Japan


Out of curiosity, what are their reactions to western artists who used drugs?
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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 678
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:18 am Reply with quote
Citing "cultural differences" to hand wave this off is not very persuasive I'm afraid. Yes, I get it, I'm even sympathetic to the stronger taboos against drugs in fact. But "guilty until proven innocent" is a nasty doctrine and I fail to see the sense in banning a creation outright. That doesn't punish the artist so much as it just deprives the public of the opportunity to see a thing. Now an aspiring definitive collection of Miyazaki's animated work will be less complete. So yes, I'll say this sucks.

This is the age of the internet though, so very little is truly gone forever. Here's the "On Your Mark" AMV, for those curious:

http://vimeo.com/48043470
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6248
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 9:25 am Reply with quote
Niello wrote:
mewpudding101 wrote:
Just a little cultural explanation from someone who lives in Japan


Out of curiosity, what are their reactions to western artists who used drugs?


Yeah I'm curious on that. Please tell me a double standard doesn't exist when it comes to celebrity drug use as in:

Japanese celebirites using drug=OMG, can't allow him to have a 2nd chance.

western celebs doing drug= It's cool, we don't have any problem with you doing drug.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 10:44 am Reply with quote
Was Ghibli afraid consumers would be so petty as to boycott this release because Aska, 20 years later, had a drug charge? It's like burning a Woodstock album in 1988 because you found out Country Joe smoked pot.
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mrsatan



Joined: 06 Jul 2005
Posts: 908
Location: Olympia, WA, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2014 10:45 am Reply with quote
Whatever Japan is doing to deter drug use is working and what the US is doing obviously is not, so I will not criticize.

I cannot describe to you how amazing it was when I lived in Japan to be able to walk the streets late at night without any fear of getting mugged. Parks would be left open at night and nothing skeevy would be going on there. If Japanese society suddenly got lax about drugs, all of that would go away.

So yeah, this sucks for anime fans, but it's ultimately the right move for Japanese society. They're making an example out of him.

Unlike the US, where we have impressionable young people watching celebrities get charged with crimes and then get away with them with no consequences. What kind of example is that?
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