Forum - View topicNEWS: Local Manga Cancels Localization of ri-ru-'s Prince Noir Manga
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Juno016
 Posts: 2381 |
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...Wait. Did this manga have shota in it? The main characters look completely like adults. And what in the world is "mental shota"? Is this that whole "fictional youths" thing?
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4420 |
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I wouldn't mind some clarification on that, especially since the image in the article doesn't show anyone that would qualify as shota. I would assume it's the "protect the fictional youths" thing cropping up yet again, but I don't know enough about this title to be sure. The "mental shota" could be a translation thing that made it a bit confusing. Or it could be that "mental" refers to in the mind of the reader. I suppose it could mean a male character who looks older but is mentally young, like a reverse of the loli-looking character that is actually an adult, but I have my doubts that that is the case since it would involve reading the material, and these responses tend to be knee-jerk reactions to drawings of fictional characters. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 901 |
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Translating the full tweet: "Apparently, not just being physically a shota, but even just mentally a shota is judged by American laws... (Munch Scream Emoji)."
Haven't read the manga myself, but from what I can piece together of the legal stuff, I think they're specifically worried about depictions of sexual abuse that might push the material out of the area protected by Ashcroft v. FSC, and into the domain of certain (plainly and obviously unconstitutional) provisions of the PROTECT Act. "Community standards" are notoriously more critical of homosexual content, so there's probably that angle to condsider, too. Stuff like Lost Girls and Umibe no Onnanoko can get published in the US without scrutiny, but I guess anything goes as long as it's het. |
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VORTIA
 SubscriberPosts: 941 |
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This sounds like they are using the law as an excuse for retailers being unwilling to carry it due to content. Obscenity laws are notoriously hard to score convictions on in US law.
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 520 |
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In theory, manga should be exempt from US obscenity laws in regards to sexual depictions of minors, because the images are drawn (not using an "actual, identifiable minor" - 18 USC 2251) and therefore fall under the catagory of "art", which IS protected under the 1st Amendment (Miller v California, 1973). However, the extent to which US law applies to the artistic depictions of non-existant, fictional minors rendered in comics form hasn't actually been addressed by the courts; the 2010 conviction is literally the only prosecution on record in regards to manga or comics that I'm aware of, and that relied on a reading of the law that might very well have been overturned on appeal (the defendant chose not to appeal).
I'm not familiar with this specific title, so I don't know how graphic its content is. But it should still be federally protected under current law. However, the gray area is substantial, and until it gets specifically addressed in the law or it gets litigated in the courts enough to form a consensus of what it means in this circumstance, the possibility of legal trouble still remains. Personally, I think the publisher is overreacting here, but its their business and quite often overreacting may be the more prudent course of action. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2939 Location: Email for assistance only |
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In the manga, a yakuza boss is in an accident that causes him to mentally regress to a child-like personality.
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DeTroyes
Posts: 520 |
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If thats the case and there aren't even fictional minors involved... then I don't even think child porn laws would apply. The publisher should be completely in the clear, in so far as the law is concerned. Amazon ToS, on the other hand, might be a different story. Which come to think of it, might be whats really driving this. |
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wolf10
Posts: 901 |
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So really, the problem is with depictions of a non-existent adult who is, in-universe, a non-existent youth?
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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While that’s definitely skeevy, especially in a BL manga due to a long, long disgusting history of associating gay men with pedophilia, don’t we have a manga in the states about a high school girl falling for a literal 5th grader? Multiple 5th graders, even? I don’t really blame this company for not wanting to publish it, but was a flimsy legal excuse really better than “yeah, we don’t wanna touch the really dodgy consent issues in this with a ten-foot pole”? |
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harminia
 Posts: 1995 Location: australia |
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Ah. I assumed that was what happened when they said the "mental shota" thing. Makes sense now. Pretty uncomfortable plot, so I can understand it, though I'm sure secretly part of the reason is because of the push back against gay titles (especially explicit ones like I assume this is) |
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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TV shows and movies in the USA regularly depict teenagers having sex.
It's not clear from the description in the article what content in the manga would be a legal problem. Are adults having sex with minors? I can see that as an issue. |
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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Those are almost always played by adult actors though, and usually feature older high schoolers in the 17 to 18 range, not elementary schoolers. Underage stuff has always drawn bad press in America, even if it might not technically be illegal. Kodomo no Jikan got shut down from backlash and antis back when it was originally licensed in the 2000s. Even the crowdfunding license they did ran into tons of problems with Shopify and online merchants. |
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Akemi Tachibana
 Posts: 50 Location: Chesapeake, VA |
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So Fakku is publishing loli & shota and making bank while doing it as a registered company but these people CLAIM there are legal issues? I guess they don't realize that nobody has been convicted of loli in almost a decade because its already constitutionally questionable and law enforcement knows it.
I suspect they simply didn't approve of the content, even though they licensed it in the first place. Unless they didn't review the content, either way, it's incompetence. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3442 Location: Finland |
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In the same manner, it can be argued drawn characters don't have ages. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1746 |
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Gonna take a stab in the dark because I have no affiliation to either mangaka or company, but I would suspect that blaming it on America's censors is a nice way of saying "The localization company and the mangaka could not come to an agreement as to what/how we would censor certain aspects. To save face, we won't be publishing the manga." I agree that the inability to be able to sell this manga on Amazon, etc. is also a highly probable reason for its cancellation and that may have been why the localization company was more keen on censorship than maybe the mangaka would have liked. |
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