People shouldn’t lose their shit over drawings of little girls
I’ve not been very vocal on the whole Handley issue on this site simply because every other blogger, podcaster and Twitter superstar has beaten the issue to death. However, upon FUNimation’s announcement regarding their editing of SHAFT’s Dance In The Vampire Bund for US release, I feel that something something has to be said. I realize that what I’m saying has been repeated ad nauseum by pedos and non-pedos alike, and considering my preoccupation with the underdeveloped female form, I understand that there will be a certain degree of bias here. But whatever.
No matter how objectionable a drawing is, in the end it’s simply that–a drawing. Whether it’s a dude fucking a dead girl in the brain, a guy getting torn apart, or a man having his way with a young child, no matter how gross one may find such things, they’re drawings, and they shouldn’t be illegal. I’m not even going to push the “artistic expression” angle. Yeah, a lot of the stuff you find in LO does have a high degree of artistic merit, but in the end a lot of the people who partake of this stuff just want to jerk off. And that’s fine, they’re just drawings.
Honestly, considering how harmless drawn imagery of a man and a young girl having sex is (it’s not uncommon for the girls in LO to give consent, strangely enough), I’m surprised that the iron fist of the law hasn’t come down on far more grotesque drawn imagery. Take the types of violent and sexual imagery I mentioned in the above paragraph–why aren’t people losing their shit over that? I’ve flipped through a bunch of comics–both American and Japanese–where some pretty awful stuff is going down. Heck, violence of that same level happens in Hollywood movies. Why isn’t that stuff banned? I mean, I find some of it offensive. I know this is an argument that’s been made countless times, but how is grotesque violence okay and relatively benign imagery of two people having sex not? Especially when they’re just drawings. I mean seriously, these guys should be arresting people for owning Waita Uziga books if they’re to throw poor Handley away for drawings of fake girls getting fucked.
Again, I know this has been beaten to death and has already been communicated in a far more eloquent manner, but there is no victim when an issue of Comic LO drops. No one is hurt in the making of that publication. Real children are hurt in the production of real child pornography, and those criminals are the ones we should be after. The people who partake of cartoonish depictions of minors engaged in sexual acts are sometimes people who do prefer real children, and sometimes people who just like drawings. I personally just like drawings. However, if one were to make our harmless fantasy drawings illegal, who are they protecting? If anything the dudes who like real kids will just go out and rape real kids, and guys like me will have to tread cautiously when looking at something that hasn’t harmed anyone in its making.
Anyway, enough of that. You’ve heard it all before.
As far as FUNimation’s decision on Vampire Bund goes, I can’t blame them, but they’re going to be lucky if the first volume can push 50 copies. If that. Honestly, I think they could have left that one problematic scene in and no one would have noticed. The US release of the manga got away with that scene, along with all the others where every lovely detail of Mina’s wonderful body is put front and center. Heck, the manga is probably dirtier than the anime considering just how often Mina is naked. The only real graphic depiction of Mina’s naked body in the anime is that scene. Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to show a grown man rubbing oil on a naked little girl on US TV or even release something like that on DVD. If it involved a real child. Like I said above, these are drawings. Who cares if there’s some scene in a cartoon where a kid is naked. It’s totally harmless.
Since this Vampire Bund license was likely a tie-in with their Baka to Test license, they were low on options. And we are living in a world were a man has been arrested for owning comics. But I still think it’s dumb.
Good, now I don’t have to post about it.
Mmm.
Real shame about Vampire Bund. They’re essentially right; I wouldn’t notice– That is, if I hadn’t already seen the show and didn’t know what was supposed to be there. And editing because somebody who obviously isn’t me might be offended just… grates. It does.
The whole idea of censorship of imaginary situations is up there with infringement of first Amendment rights. This is eerily like the censorship of magazines and comics in the 1950’s. Now the comics have become more explicit than the TV counter parts dues to the FCC and now FUNi has good old Rin uncensored and Strike Witches, and the only exception is Dance in the Vampire Bund.
Thank you FUNi and other people of the same cloth, when we BUY a series, we want it intact! NO fillers and no hiding the truth!
It makes too much money, and polarizes too many people for idiots to stop pushing this stuff into illegality. Remember, it’s far more convenient to scapegoat harmless gorms then it is to catch actual criminals. There’s no rational thought involved here as far as the actual “issue” is concerned, it’s just used by blowhards who want their fifteen-minutes of fame, or need to vilify something to keep their jobs/stay in office. They’re obviously not out to solve anything, just stir the proverbial sh*t endlessly. Pay no attention to the world burning behind you, because there’s a convenient scapegoat in front of you.
Actually, Funi wanted Vampire Bund and Bakatest was part of the package deal. Now I can’t tell you how this makes any sense whatsoever, but uh, Funimation! Yeah!
Heck, Mina-hime isn’t even a “little girl.” She’s hundreds of years old, right? Why does this even matter then??
I don’t get why people shit bricks over drawings like you said here, but naked babies on birthday cards are ok.
Unless they could count on the fans of the show to actually buy it in the first place, they couldn’t make enough money to take the chance. I don’t think they have the fan support (i.e., people who would have bought it to make it financially worth it) to be cavalier about taking the chance.
But, yeah, they might be over-cautious on this.
Amen dude. I finally thought that Funimation was gonna be cool what with the releases of Rin and Strike Witches but then they do this.
All this shit is making me paranoid. I freed up 6 gigs on my harddrive.
They can take away our loli,but they can never take our FREEEEEEEEEEDOM!
I think the greatest irony when it comes down to lolicon is that you can’t get arrested over downloading it illegally over the internet, but buy it legally through import. Since Strike Witches and Vampire Bund are shows purely created for lolicons, I don’t see the point in licensing them at all because no matter how hard you try to censor them, their original purpose as fap material is overly obvious, but horribly downtrodden for the intended audience.
It is funny how moral champions and militant feminists treat cartoon characters like real people, while we, the otaku, know they are just ink on paper.
I only buy at rare occasions unfortunatly- dvds call me a pirate for buying them with unskippable legal shit, and manga is censored to not provoke bible humpers and other warriors of morality from taking action, and it isn’t exactly getting better.
Funny- we live in a world were the only way not to be treated as a criminal, is to be one.
Wait the 25 of march, the first jap dvd will come out. I don’t care about content, i care about censorhip and when i buy something for my personal collection i know what i’m doing and i want uncensored as planned by the creator.
Biycott Funi, boycott censorphip for the sake of us anime fans.
I agree, they are just drawings. Just like movies, books, or any other form of fiction, as long as they’re not being forcibly shown to someone who doesn’t want to see them, and exist for the artist and for the people who like them, what does it matter? People who like violent movies don’t necessarily practice violence just as people who like child pornography don’t practice it in real life. As long as they know the difference between fantasy and reality and don’t hurt anyone because of their hobby, they should be allowed to do it. Americans love gore and violence but heaven forbid we see a breast or a child+adult relationship. Japan is just more open to nudity and the like because of their history and culture with communal bathing and things like that.
>>Since Strike Witches and Vampire Bund are shows purely created for lolicons
Uhhhh no.
Navarr: Doesn’t matter how old she is if she doesn’t look the part, obviously. :v
The Hordesman: …
Haha, seems like I hit a weak spot there.
Check out this paranoid load of bullshit, blaming “progressives” for this decision.
To be fair, he is using a more technical, different definition of “progressive” than the popular usage. Still a poor choice of words though.
He’s also tweeting @Glenn Beck with the link and complaining about the reception he’s getting. All we need is some moron raising the profile of this to the point where it really becomes political fodder.
Indeed, the one and only thing that can make me mad is the blatant loss of common sense when it comes to these things. Honestly, do people take a step back and look at what they are doing at all?
More importantly, is there anything at all that we can do to stand up to this? From what I understand, the voice of those championing freedom of speech/expression usually goes unheard…