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NEWS: Tokyopop Manga Draw Negative Attention


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eymboy



Joined: 21 Nov 2003
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:42 am Reply with quote
.hacker wrote:
Oh, let me add one more thing.

Apparently, this town also likes to lynch Santa Claus from a tree and has subsitutes sniffing cocaine in class...

http://www.local6.com/news/5491296/detail.html

So, maybe this town is just overall weird. Now, I feel the manga situation will blow over.

I also like the fact that the article did not accurately describe the whole story, but just one event. >_>

Hey, anything goes in central florida... 0_o
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Bahamut God



Joined: 10 May 2002
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:53 am Reply with quote
MaikeruXX wrote:
I heard his licensed was revoked in Alabama i think thats where it was. But someone else posted on here i can't remember who, but they said this will be out of the news tomorrow cause there are other things to worrie about than banning books and i agree with that person.

Edit: I saw a few posting that they are from O.C. Cali ,this is in Orange County Florida.


Oh, opps. Embarassed
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shikatamasu



Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 32
Location: Waiting for Nakago's whip to come down.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:49 am Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:

I've bumped heads more than once over my child-rearing style. My daughter was kicked out of Brownies when she was 8 because I took her to the Matrix which the Troop leader hated with a passion. I'd chaparrone on field-trips with other parents talking against goths & point out it's the normal kids filling up the juvenile courts-not the kid in black or with green hair.

As someone(Frank Zappa, maybe?) pointed out at the PMRC hearings-the world isn't rated PG.


And here I thought I was the only one. Seriously, basically the same thing happened with my daughter at the age of 9. (It was a Girl Scout troop though, and not knocking them at all because we found another one that was fantastic.) Your response to the purity question in your church group was spot right on and priceless. I have never persay censored or restricted my daughter about anime or most other issues, I was curious and wanted to know her interests, which in turn started my own craze...and this same child at 15 told me to start watching Sex in The City if I wanted to know what women really wanted. Embarassed
Anime and manga are IMO good reference points in the real world for young adults to learn about; as so many in this thread have stated. They are also full of mayhem, war, love, fantasy, and dreams. Trust your children to know the difference, but let them have fun too. Isn't that part of what childhood is? I'm still dreaming and I'm glad Anime is still a part of my neverending childhood. Wink
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shikatamasu



Joined: 05 Nov 2005
Posts: 32
Location: Waiting for Nakago's whip to come down.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:16 am Reply with quote
theoriginalbilis wrote:
Even though all the manga are bundled together at bookstores, at least some companies shrink wrap their "mature" titles. Like Dark Horse with Berserk, for example.


TokyoPop did the same in the translated manga of Sanami Matho's FAKE, tankoubon #7 ; they also changed the rating label from OT to M.
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JC90



Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 18
Location: Oh, just here and there....
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:47 am Reply with quote
ok. I've just sent the news station a reply to the article:

I would like to comment on a recent article titled "Adult-themed Comics at Library Shock Parents". I would like to say that I thought the article was somewhat biased in the fact that not all manga is in the same genre or aimed at the same audience as Peach Girl (the manga in question). Second, the manga Peach Girl is rated as a "13+" book. The girl that borrowed the book from the library was only 11 years old. Now, in no way am I blaming any parties involved in this incident, whether it be the library that let the girl check out the book, the parents of said girl, or even the publisher of the book (in this case, Tokyopop). A librarian working at a library has no say or control in what their patrons check out. This is stated in Article V of the Library Bill of Rights developed by the American Library Association: "A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views." That being said, the library could hardly be blamed in whether the girl checked out the book even if they screened it first. The fact that the manga was placed in the "Young Adult" section is yet another reason to not blame the library or the book as it does have a rating of "13+". Therefore, it is considered a book for "young adults". Secondly, the parents cannot be blamed for such an incident occurring, as there is no way that any parent can watch their child 24/7. In fact, I applaud the parents for becoming concerned about what their daughter was reading; it's a sign of good parenting. However, I do believe that going to the media about this situation was a bit of an overreaction on their part. If they were concerned about the subject matter of the book, they should have talked to their daughter about it instead of blowing it out of proportion. Finally, the blame cannot be passed to the publisher of the book, as they have no control over who reads it after it is published, especially if the books are borrowed from a library. All being said and done, this is a situation that cannot be solved by any means. The only thing I can say to the parents is to read the books themselves first. If they don't like what is presented to them, they can just tell their child, "No".
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 3:21 am Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
TheShadow99 wrote:

When would we like to teach our kids about life? Personally I feel the sooner the better. Holding off only makes them less prepared when it does end up happening. It's why we have such an issue with teen pregnancy in the US. We refuse to help our children deal with what we know darn well is waiting for them... Those that do often do so way to late... My parents didn't talk to me about sex until I was 15 and by then my peers had described more about sex than my parents ever mentioned to me... Much liek me, most kids today who turn out well arent' because their parents raised the well, but turn out well despite how they were raised...
Being taught about sex in a class room is far different than being alone reading a comic about a girl who is given drugs to loosen her up to be date raped later. Rolling Eyes


As I sat waiting one day for my 2nd yr spanish class to begin when I was in 9th grade(so this was around 1975), I overheard one of the jerk boys ribbing one of the nice boys because the nice boy's date fell asleep at the movie on their date & the nice boy did nothing. The jerk boy was commenting all the stuff he would have done & how stupid the nice boy was.
And, as I pointed out, maybe if my cousin had some sort of knowledge on the subject(such as having read about date-rape) she wouldn't have been raped when she was 11. She might have known how to avoid the situation.

And you're worried about a manga?

I never got past Vol 1 of Peach Girl, although my teen has--maybe she was 12 when she read it. It sounds as though it gave her some solid info on life in the High School jungle. Is that the one where she has the absolute most rotten "best friend" who steals everything from clothes(in the store shopping the friend would tell the star character the item looked horrid, then low & behold the friend has it the next day) to the boys she likes? If that isn't better training for real life than some stupid sex ed class (My daughter doesn't paint much better of a picture than in my day when my sixth grade class took the boys into one room & the girls into another to show us a film on the subject of reproduction).
Marmalade Boy is a good story, though. Incest plays a much bigger part in other titles-Angel Sanctuary, Brother to name a couple.
It's fiction. It's like the stupid article I came across the other day naming zombie video games as huge threats to the youth of America. Yeah-playing Resident evil is going to send the youth of America out to eat the brains of other humans.
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Ganryu



Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:55 am Reply with quote
Chaps wrote:
Manga will probably take its hits for a while, but it'll pass. A few decades ago comic books (not manga, US comic books, superman and the like) were accused of corrupting childrens' minds; then later it was Rock n Roll, then rap music, now videogames... probably shouldn't be TOO surprising if it transitions into manga and anime, too.


Do you know why manga has been dealing with more serious issues than what american comics book have? That's because during the fifties, the entire industry was fucked up by the anti-comic wave. This crippled the whole industry, resulting in a crapflood of BAD comics that could not deal with adult issues.

THIS is party why manga is actually good. Because this same thing did NOT happen to the japanese manga industry, so they could continue experimenting with adult material... This means that in japan the word "comics" does not equal "kids books".

Not that I personally give a fudge about the availability of manga to the average american. What worries me is that they start censoring, thereby affecting my imports.
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Cowpunk



Joined: 03 Nov 2004
Posts: 168
Location: Oakland - near the Newtype Lab
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:33 am Reply with quote
OK I'll toss in a couple of links to American Library Association resources on book controversies in libraries. If you don't follow this kind of thing regularly some of the titles will surprise you.

Check out the 100 Most frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm

for more see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm
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DriftRoot



Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Posts: 222
Location: NH
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:34 am Reply with quote
Imagine what would happen if a 13-year-old boy brought home to this kind of mother a copy of Ranma 1/2? OMG!!! NUDITY+YOUTH = PORN/CHILD EXPLOITATION = MY SON IS BEING CORRUPTED!! Quick, burn that manga! Rolling Eyes

There is Ranma in the Young Adult section of many libraries in my area, in fact, it was the first manga to show up there (a decent choice, IMO). I personally do not think that any manga depicting nudity (full frontals particularly; let's not get into the fine line regarding panty shots) should be in a library, nevermind in the Young Adult section. Why? Well, is there any other recreational reading material found in most libraries that contains such graphic imagery for the purpose of titillation (aka fan service)? Umm, nothing comes to mind, unless it's going to be Frank Meyers' graphic novels, and those are NOT in the young adult section. The standards libraries use to screen their offerings should not be waived because [blank]manga is geared towards youths so nudity is "ok." American standards of acceptible behavior are different than Japanese, and just because something is acceptable there does not mean it should automatically be acceptable here (denying women political clout, anyone?).

That said, the issues with which many youth-oriented manga series deal are not (in general) so far out of whack that children/young adults should be sheltered from them. Are you going to shelter your kid from life? I hope not. Just because manga relies heavily upon drawings to convey a story rather than text does not mean it has less important lessons to convey than a book. I can remember many fictional books I read for recreation as an 11-15 year old that dealt with date rape, suicide, divorce etc. In fact, many times those books would be featured on the library shelves as good reading choices BECAUSE they dealt with these issues. Yeesh.
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animalia555



Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 467
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:45 am Reply with quote
If they think Marmalade Boy is bad just imagine how they would react to the MUCH more mature themed Angel Sancutary. After all it deals with violence, sacralige, and incest.

Last edited by animalia555 on Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:50 pm; edited 4 times in total
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ginzugirl



Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 30
Location: Detroit, Michigan
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:01 am Reply with quote
I so agree - parents ARE the first line of responsibility and, at certain tender ages SHOULD be attentive to ALL media to which their children are exposed. The local library contributed to the situation permitting a child to check a publication which was clearly NOT age appropriate.

As an older, wiser Otaku, I've coached many parent and children in the Manga section of local bookstores, recommending the appropriate titles. I've questioned many 'tween's' selection in front of Mom or Dad, too! The LAST thing I want for the genre is a possy of fussy, (allegedly) straight-laced parents coming after manga and anime with any MORE ammunition!

There's a lot of wonderful manga out there, including "Peach Girl", but manga has always been categorized into age groups -not lumped into a general "kiddie" category like most American Comic books were (I say were since several genres of American Comics have also evolved with a higher level of sophistication and many titles are now 13+) .

In this current social climate, I can't help but wonder sometimes if we aren't headed for a repetition of history where, in the 50's, comic books were all but banned for "corrupting the morals of our youth".
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ShadrachAnki



Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 180
Location: New England
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:12 am Reply with quote
I am not a parent, but I was 14 when my little sister was born. Because of our age difference I really did have more of a hand in raising her than a lot of siblings seem to get. So coming from that background I can sympathize with this girl's parents, although at the same time I think they may have been a little too trusting in other people to watch out for their little girl.

Still, my initial reaction upon reading the news story is that this whole situation should blow over fairly quickly with little fuss or complaint. I would bet that there are hundreds of similar "concerned parent" cases that occur every week without any sort of fanfare or press coverage. That this particular case received some rather sensationalist and biased coverage is unfortunate, but not horribly surprising. Perhaps it was a really slow weekend at the news station. *shrug*

I hope that the resolution of this situation can be favorable in all aspects. Ideally, the librarian(s) in charge of the Children and YA sections of the library would be familiar with all parts of the collection on a level that allows them to recommend age/maturity-appropriate selections for all their patrons.

However, we do not live in an ideal world. The best we can do is focus on teaching people to make informed decisions for themselves based on their own value systems. This girl's parents were proactive in learning about what their daughter was reading, and it shocked them. I can only hope that they do not condemn an entire medium based on two brief exposures to it.

~Shadrach Anki
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aliceownsj00



Joined: 11 Dec 2005
Posts: 2
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:43 am Reply with quote
Cowpunk wrote:
OK I'll toss in a couple of links to American Library Association resources on book controversies in libraries. If you don't follow this kind of thing regularly some of the titles will surprise you.

Check out the 100 Most frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm

for more see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm


Wow, they wanna ban Maya Angeluo?! TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD?!!? Does Opera know about this? Rolling Eyes
People think they're protecting their children now-a-days, but they're just making them more prone to act out and do the wrong things at ages that could end up in jail and/or deep shit!

My mom told one of her co-workers about this article and the coworker freaked out that her child might be able to check out these books... Then she started critizing my mom about how she lets me read them, even though I didn't get into the serious animes till I was like 15-16, and she called my mom a 'Unfit parent' which really pissed me off, because I learned alot from manga's and anime... *sigh*
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.Sy



Joined: 11 Mar 2005
Posts: 1266
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
White believes no one looked past the cover of the comic and it is time that things changed at the library.
I've personally been part of the library staff, and in no way does any individual library have time to read every individual book they get. Now I doubt TP is going to get into any sort of legal trouble for this (can't sue for stupidity in this case) because of the age rating (printed in large, friendly letters) on the back. The thing with Americans (well, a lot of people I guess) is that sex makes them so uncomfortable. What about Maus or Persepolis? Both comics deal with mature topics. To keep it short, it's not the book's fault (banning books is evil), and it's not the staff's fault.
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hooliganj



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 113
Location: Longhorn Central
PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:31 pm Reply with quote
aliceownsj00 wrote:
Cowpunk wrote:
OK I'll toss in a couple of links to American Library Association resources on book controversies in libraries. If you don't follow this kind of thing regularly some of the titles will surprise you.

Check out the 100 Most frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm

for more see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm


Wow, they wanna ban Maya Angeluo?! TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD?!!? Does Opera know about this? Rolling Eyes
People think they're protecting their children now-a-days, but they're just making them more prone to act out and do the wrong things at ages that could end up in jail and/or deep shit!

The banned book list always makes me wonder. I mean, among the authors listed are Judy Blume, Shel Silverstein and Roald Dahl. Those are authors I plan to read to my kids someday, probably before they even learn to read themselves.

There is one positive aspect of this list - as recommended reading. I had an English teacher in middle school who choose that year's reading exclusively from the ban list, and that was one of the best English classes I ever took. Of Mice and Men, Bridge to Terabithia, A Day no Pigs Would Die, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Outsiders, and Flowers for Algernon are all excellent works that went over very well with an 8th grade honors class.
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