Forum - View topicChild abuse in anime.
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Animeking1108
Posts: 1244 |
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Am I the only one bothered by the fact that in anime, an adult can inflict bodily harm on a child with no negative consequences? FMA, InuYasha, Naruto, Shin-chan, Rurouni Kenshin, and Detective Conan are prime examples. Detective Conan and FMA especially.
It makes me wonder if assaulting children is just okay in Japan. I never see anime showing the negative effects of child abuse. The closest was in Detective Conan when Heji's father punched him and Kogoro commented on it. However, it's rendered moot when Kogoro Mouri, the poster boy of child abusers in anime, is the one commenting on it. Don't give me that bullcrap on the kids being annoying and deserved it. I suffered from abuse in the past, and I'll think you're a horrible person if you get amused by it. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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First, yes, I am usually taken aback by seeing child age anime characters punched, kicked, slapped and even worse. Anime does not flinch from depicting the bloody results of these assaults. I'm assuming you are talking about situations where these attacks are presented in a drama context as opposed to for comedic effect (i.e. where a boy walks into a bathroom, sees a girl naked and gets drop-kicked into the sky for it).
However, I would caution you from then making the leap that depictions of this sort may mean there is a higher tolerance for child assault in Japan relative to other countries. Anime may be a Japanese cultural product, but it is still a (mostly) niche form of entertainment in its home country and produced (mostly) for a very specific audience. It is foolish to assume that what you see in anime somehow is reflective of actual Japanese attitudes. |
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Clarste
Posts: 427 |
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In Bakemonogatari, one of the girls reveals signs of domestic violence (she has an injury on her face and when pressed says her dad hit her). Both the tone of the scene and the main character's reaction to this indicate that it's supposed to be something horrifying. So I doubt there's any universal acceptance of violence towards children.
Most likely its portrayal in anime is accepted based on a number of related factors, like how slapstick it is and probably some level of sexism (ie: I think a lot of people would believe it's more acceptable to hit boys, or for women to be the aggressors). |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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From what I have seen through personal contact talking to Japanese acquaintances I don't think there is any more uniformity to how children are treated there as opposed to elsewhere -- with the exception of preschool and younger kids. The Japanese seem to take a very systematized (typical) approach to younger children. Most parents will have a sort of standardized child's book (I forget the name for it) that contains all the information about the kid -- pictures, vaccinations, etc. It is almost like an owner/operators manual. In this their drive to conformity seems to be a very good thing and the attention the kids get seems remarkably good.
Of course there are bad parents and when the kids get older the care the parents took in following "the rules" can turn to a bad thing. They tend to think that if a kid is not actively getting in trouble with the school or the police or even the neighbors then everything is all right, and the pubescent/adolescent can become severely neglected then. When violence happens -- more than say a slap on the face -- I think they are more shocked by it than Americans would be. It just isn't typical. They spank kids sometimes but it doesn't seem to be very often. And it seems that other adults are usually really reluctant to get involved. Off topic: Germans. I have had more than one native German tell me that their culture is very cruel to children. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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...if that's true, then it's kinda ironic the German word for children is kinder...
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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I actually have a question (very) distantly related to the subject and I thought that I might aswell ask it here.
So I watched the 10th episode of Shigofumi and in that episode a middle aged guy goes out to see a movie with his niece (I think she was his niece, atleast a relative of somekind). Later he gets into a fight with some random teenagers and after an officer saves him, he gets arrested for abducting a minor. Now I don't understand why the officer first assumed that the guy had abducted the girl. In that situation the first assumption would be that they are relatives right? Was it that he got into a fight that caused the officer to doubt him or is it just common for people to abduct children in Japan? The girl was even defending the guy and calling him "uncle" so I was completely lost there. Man If I was in that guys shoes I would have probably thought that the officer had some ulterior motives and tried to escape and protect the girl. |
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Clarste
Posts: 427 |
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Well, first of all, the word for "uncle" in Japanese is also used for any middle-aged man who isn't your father. So having her call him "uncle" doesn't actually mean that they're related or even that they know each other. Does seem like a strange situation though.
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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No, not really. I don't see this as a problem. Child abuse is regarded just as bad in Japan as it is in the US. Honestly when people complain about stuff like this it all seems like people being way too PC. Frankly, one nice thing about anime is they seem to not have all those parental groups watching each show like a hawk and ready to launch a protest or campaign if they see a kid or a girl get smacked or anything (got to protect those fictional drawings, after all). No reason why they can't get smacked around if a guy can. Everyone should be on an equal playing field when it comes to comedic violence or actual violence. Why should the girls or children in an action series have this untouchable armor around them while the males can get beaten within an inch of their life? You think that would stop 'villains' in the real world? Of course not. So no.. just because a murderer tries to kill Conan or the detective boys, or Kogoro smacks him around for comedy, doesn't make Japan open and accepting of abusing children for fun, that's just silly. The only thing you can say is Japan has much laxer censorship and more equal showings in their works than the west does.
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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Given he also listed InuYahsa, where Shippo gets similarly beat up for comedic effect, I think he's just taking slapstick too seriously. It's like watching Looney Tunes and thinking anvils falling from the sky is a normal occurrence in America.
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Rhyono
Posts: 1039 |
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You're destroying my fantasies of Japan being overrun with anime-style girls. I thought all animes were accurate depictions of Japan. |
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MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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For another show that actually tackles child abuse in a serious way, one of the characters in Welcome to the NHK is revealed to have been abused by their step-father as a kid, and it's a big reveal and made to explain some of their eccentricities. (I've heard that in the manga the character is actually lying and their scars are self-inflicted, so there it's more of a "wow, look at how screwed up they are" scene, but the anime doesn't have that element.)
So, yeah, I think they take it pretty seriously. They do have slapstick violence a lot though. I've seen people take slapstick in anime and Japanese video games as "domestic abuse" before. |
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jsc315
 Posts: 925 |
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Wait, you're telling me cartoons are not real life? |
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continous
 Posts: 5 |
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In all honesty, it should bother you as a rational human being, but weighing on it as a serious thing is stupid. It should be VERY remotely shocking that a 9 year old in an anime got beat half to death, but it shouldn't make you want to throw knives at the staff who made it. If its comedic, its meant not to be taken seriously at all.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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What about if it is supposed to be serious? Take Zeta Gundam, where a grown man beats a teenager into an unconscious pulp just because the boy was a bit surly to him. And the show tries to claim that the boy had it coming and that the man is actually a good guy at heart. It's pretty repulsive. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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In Yami no Matsuei, Hisoka was abused by multiple parties, and all of said abusers are portrayed in a very negative light.
Spoilers both for trigger and spoiler reasons. Muraki spoiler[raped and cursed him to spend 3 years dying a painful death] Hisoka, and he is the primary antagonist of the series. Even though he has murdered countless people, all of which are treated as horrible things, what he did to Hisoka is treated as even worse. [Warning, the following includes manga spoilers further than where the anime went, as well as further than the US release] Then, there's his parents. Fearing Hisoka's powers, they spoiler[kept him locked up in the basement whenever his powers showed up], which is abuse in and of itself. When his parents are finally met, the two characters (knowing what happened to Hisoka) find it hard not to be repulsed by his father due to this. |
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