Forum - View topicNEWS: Maryland School Library to Remove Dragon Ball Manga
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VegettoEX
 Posts: 107 Location: New Jersey |
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I fully agree with all of the examples from the manga outlined in the above couple posts. You're completely right. They're crude, sometimes disgusting, pretty weird, and...
Oh, right... childish. 
Every single example you can pull out of the DragonBall series for "offensive material" (ignoring the Cell Jr. splattering brains... that one's the outlier) are childish mockeries of offensiveness. Yep, Oolong parades around with a pair of panties on his head; how can you take that as seriously offensive? You can almost see Toriyama's stupid grin as he was drawing these absolutely ridiculous things. Even as "adults", they tap into our childish sense of humor, rather than a "mature" one ("dur hur, poop jokes!"). Things like Ranfan's disrobing at the 21st Tenka-ichi Budôkai is entirely insane in concept, which is right alongside Kuririn able to defeat the disgusting Bacterian (whose hands are straight down his hands) simply because he doesn't have a nose to smell him with. This is the logic we're working with in the series. It's juvenile. It's wonderful, don't get me wrong... but it's strictly kid's fare. Just exactly how young of children should be reading it here in the ol' U. S. of A. is another matter, and one really left up to the individual parents; maybe the middle-school library isn't the best place for it (nevermind the fact that I got into the series in middle school, and look how I turned out...). I still bring it all back to the companies responsible for it; if they can't on their own come up with a consistent marketing strategy and target demographic, how on Earth is their uneducated market supposed to interpret it all? Last edited by VegettoEX on Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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The_Libertarian_Otaku
 Posts: 189 |
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I live across the border in Delaware, and I have to wonder why these bluenose censors feel the need to dictate what people can and can't read. If they don't like it, they just shouldn't read it!
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bigheart711
 Posts: 108 Location: Celebrating in Atlanta, GA |
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Libraries can be so troublesome at times. |
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bigheart711
Posts: 108 Location: Celebrating in Atlanta, GA |
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giascle
 Posts: 157 Location: Denver |
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First of all:
I'm 9 and what is this? Second: Why don't libraries look at what they're buying beforehand? My middle school had several Ranma 1/2 volumes; the librarians couldn't figure out why it was so popular with the boys. |
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ayashe
 Posts: 122 |
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I didn't know people in Pittsville even knew how to read. I lived there in a shack (okay, technically a house the size and quality of a shack) a few summers ago so I can tell you it's the most dumpy, disgusting, trash filled place I've ever been. You'd think the people there would be used to "nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo..." considering it's in their daily life. I feel fully justified in saying this since I'm part Maryland hick myself.
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Honestly, I'm fine with books like that being banned in at least elementary schools. It's not really the parents fault in this case, more the library's, because it's pretty east for a kid to get a book and read it before the days done, or at least flip through it. I'm indifferent when it comes to middle schools, because it depends more on the content. I think the worst in my middle school library involved periods (nothing graphic, just a mention) and a mention of being a lesbian/gay/etc. The latter was intended for mature eighth graders. I don't recall having any comics; the books in general, when hinting at sex, was subtle enough that kids wouldn't notice unless they knew.
Now, if this was a high school library, it'd be different. My high school library has Death Note, Kanpai!, Smuggler, other comics, and a large selection of adult books, some that can be fairly sexual. And by high school, a kid should know right from wrong. They are warned that if they start reading something and dislike the content, they shouldn't complain and whatnot; they need to take it back and find another book. But are people seriously suggesting that this should be available in elementary libraries? Kids either don't fully understand the scenes or think of it as a "hehe, look what I got!" thing. They aren't as mature and it's a critical time where parents need to be in their lives and help prepare them for the future. They need to discuss things at a fair pace. A 9 year old would be in either 3rd or 4th grade, and many kids don't really learn about and understand (to an extent) sex until 5th/6th grade, much less be exposed to humor, advances, etc. In the end, it was mostly the library's fault for allowing it and the board's fault for choosing that series. The parent became involved in the kid's life. And maybe some other kids who aren't ready won't pick up the series until they are. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2156 |
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"I'm not comfortable with my nine-year-old kid reading something with this much nudity" -- okay, that's one thing, though I'd still like to probe for the basis for that. But "borderline soft porn?" Nudity does not mean pornography, and Dragon Ball is strictly "naked people are funny." Which they are. Ask any kid.
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vashthekaizoku
 Posts: 261 Location: The House of Rat |
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I used to work with a church youth group several years ago. This was when Shonen Jump had been out for about a year, and several of the kids would borrow my back issues. One of the kids' dad pulled me aside one time, and told me that he didn't want me loaning them to his son anymore, because in one of the early Yu-Gi-Oh stories, one of the villains used the phrase "G** D***" which he didn't feel was appropriate for middle school kids to be reading. As a adult and an avid reader, I hadn't noticed this. In more recent years, Viz has made SJ more "kid-friendly," removing references of underage swearing, drinking and smoking (i.e. Shikamaru's smoking and Rock Lee's Drunken Master technique in Naruto), but in their earlier years, they weren't as tame as they are now...However, on the other hand, Viz has loosened up the censorship on Zatch Bell, but I guess because that's not in the SJ imprint, it slides through.
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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It's pretty typical, but very stupid.
It's gone on for ages. I remember researching old Newsweek articles when I was a teen & read some group called Nafbrat (or something like that) trying to get Addams Family pulled because of the "double-meaning dialogue". I was shocked because I had watched Addams Family as a small child & loved it & possessed no memory of any innuendo (I was 4 or 5). I saw it later & was shocked it wasn't as innocent as I remembered, but that's the point. Most of this stuff goes over the kids' heads if they are too young for it. They don't understand Rochi's chi chi jokes. They might understand Goku not being able to tell a girl from a boy without checking. But they probably don't see it as sexual as the parents are who are getting all upset. And if the kid DOES understand the sexual side of it, then the kid is old enough to read the book. No problem. I mean, does a 5 yr old understand Jessica Rabbit's "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way"? Does that mean a 5 yr old can't love the movie? |
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RogueJedi86
 Posts: 501 |
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Maybe the parents could've went through it with their child and explained the context and told them that things like flashing older men is a bad thing. Akira Toriyama doesn't strike me as the type who'd do graphic nudity. No nipples or "down there" details or anything. Any kid who's seen a baby have its diaper changed has seen far more detail than Toriyama would show. But I have never read Dragon Ball, maybe Toriyama actually did draw in such detail.
On the other hand, I agree it's good that at least one parent looked at what their child was reading, rather than the usual practice of a parent getting their child an M-rated game without ever checking to see what the game has. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Hah, hiding naked manga characters from their 9 years old kids, and Dragon Ball characters at that. I wonder who's the true kid in the story, the mom or the son.
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Zero Gravity
 Posts: 88 Location: Stardust Speedway |
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I think the part thats makes this whole thing funny, is that they act like they're kid will ultimately be destroyed by seeing a breast or genital.
Jeez, I don't plan on stopping my kids, the sooner they get through the "hehe boobies" or "tee hee! Pee pee!" phase the better -_- |
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LordPrometheus
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I'm pretty sure Animaniacs had FAR more innuendo than Dragon Ball ever did, and nobody ever made a stink about that. Geez laweez, people seriously need to stop being such frakking hypocrites.
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2341 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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"Difference in cultural sensibilities"? Maryland's the state where John Waters filmed someone eating dog shit, for Christ sake! Another film where Christina Ricci gets hammered by John Conner in a voting booth! Another where a phallic-shaped hedge shoots confetti filmed one block over from where I live!
Sensible my Baltimore butt. I hear examples of these "sensibilities" on the bus everyday, often from those little peckers going to school. I'd like to knock some "sensibilities" right into their little heads. ...if I weren't so certain they were carrying guns. |
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