The Nonexistent Youth Bill: The Deathknell to All Lolicon

Summarize. PLEASE.

If anything we can hope the bill is shot down by the voting committee like the first time.

Well, frankly, it doesn't concern me all that much. I merely expressed a passing interest, which you summarily shot down.

On that note, I take my leave. GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR!

The first time they tried bringing a bill like this to assembly, it did not pass.

From what I gather though, this time the majority of the body who will be voting supports it, backed by the DPJ.

While I certainly wouldn't mind a decrease in series that use fanservice and such as their main selling point, it is worrying how the vague-wording of the bill provides an opportunity for those with an axe to grind to go after anything deemed "socially disruptive" in series like violence or subversion (and apparently standard school uniforms, if that tweeting manga artist is to be believed). The slippery slope is the problem here.

Or Shueisha, Kodansha, and other publishers lead a mass exodus from Tokyo or something.

edited 13th Dec '10 7:57:14 AM by ComicX6

...NO MORE Eva?! -scream- -rage- -throws bricks at legislators- The age of consent in Japan is 14 for god's sakes, so it's okay for a real 14-year-old to have sex but not to be depicted sexually?

-screams some more- Pedophilia? What pedophilia? What about all the teenagers who read shonen/shoujo? Are they supposed to deny their sexuality? Are our young boys and girls supposed to be attracted to characters who are way older than them, then? And, excuse me, portraying teenagers in a sexual light isn't restricted to anime/manga, look at novels, movies, hell, even Disney has its seashell bras!

How about drug culture? Portraying smoking as cool? Portraying getting drunk as a fun social activity? Portraying hangovers/throwing up as FUNNY?! Portraying mobsters/criminals as cool and exciting? Glorifying the use of violence as a cool/fun way to solve problems, as is the case in the vast majority of fighting manga? Or, let me put it this way: -hysterical scream- VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES LEAD TO INCREASE IN VIOLENCE AND SHOULD ALL BE BANNED! -end scream-

Those aren't good things, I'm not saying that they are, but what the fuck. I'm not advocating BANNING them. Heck, the hypersexualization of women in general bothers me because of objectification blah blah blah but do I try to fucking BAN sexualization of women? No! Studies have shown that violent video games are associated with violent behavior (but of course violent behavior is caused by a myriad of complex factors and video games might not necessarily be the sole or even leading cause, or perhaps it's just that violent people are naturally attracted to violent video games compared to non-violent people), but am I advocating for banning those? No! Likewise, I think that pedophilia is not something that should be banned, even though it's morally questionable, because there are so many morally questionable issues that are being portrayed in media. Hey. A few generations earlier, you could imagine depictions of homosexuality in fiction being banned because OMFG IF WE PORTRAY HOMOSEXUALITY AS GOOD EVERYONE WILL BECOME FLAMING GAYS.

So, my little sister is going to learn that, if she wants to masturbate, there is something wrong and disturbing about her because children and teenagers aren't supposed to be sexual beings, and if they are, they're twisted and automatically become potential victims. If she wants to dress up in a pretty swimsuit, she's automatically going to become pedobait. If she wants to swim shirtless in a stream with family and friends, that's wrong too because people will all go oooooh shirtless little girl -FAP FAP FAP-

Seriously, this is ridiculous. Now all the pedophilias, deprived of the chance to satisfy their urges through Token Lolis etc, will turn to lolicon HENTAI instead. Which, as we all know, is a far more dark and disturbing place. Number one, toddlercon is far more common. Almost all of it is rape, unless we're talking about characters who are apparently older than 18 despite looking like gradeschoolers, and sometimes even then. The level of brutality, blood, and gore is extreme.

By the way, isn't there already a thread about this?

Actually, it's the opposite. Violent videogames don't enable violent people, they keep them reined in. Just saying.

The publishers will:

• be more creative and give a good alternative to lolicon [which they have but too afraid to say]
• censor it [the worst thing that could happen]...or
• Getting The Crap Past The Radar.

^^ Actually the catharsis hypothesis is not too well-supported, I think. Though I haven't been keeping up with the literature lately so I suppose that new findings might have come up.

What's important is to have the heart to face those desires and control them instead of trying to put a lid on them!!

Hideaki Sorachi leveled up!

Hideaki Sorachi's stats increased!

+3 INT

+3 CON

+>11 AWSM

edited 13th Dec '10 9:07:06 AM by T-bone61

By the way, isn't there already a thread about this?

The other thread is more about the boycott than the bill....although it off-topiced into being about the bill already...

My opinion is still the same as always...Moral Guardians being Moral Guardians. Can't help but think this all originated from that "feminist vs. eroge" incident a year or so ago.

edited 13th Dec '10 9:04:51 AM by Signed

Well, I'm a female feminist and I support artistic freedom. -tongue-

I was going to say something, but then anarchy said it better than I could. If you believe censorship can address your social problems, you have already reached the stage where your social problems are too severe for censorship to even touch.

The catharsis hypothesis isn't that well-supported, no; most studies seem to show that it just links violence with, well, catharsis. Conditioning someone to punch their pillow when they're pissed off is all well and good, but when there are no pillows around, they're going to punch something else — seems to be the takeaway lesson. Anger therapy is a bit different in application from lolicon therapy, though.

Now, I have to be honest — I'm not a fan of lolicon. I think shows like Kodomo No Jikan and Mitsudomoe are disturbing for their portrayal of girls who are legitimately children under any consent laws; but on that note, fantasizing over a drawing is a lot more healthy than going out and finding your own eleven-year-old. Long story short: Do I like it? Not necessarily. Do I think it serves a purpose? In some cases. Am I happy about this bill? Not at all. I agree with ComicX6; this seems like it could be abused easily by any kind of self-appointed moral guardian.

Hideaki Sorachi, on the other hand, knows what he's talking about. Pandering to the lolicon base won't solve the problem, no, but neither will just making it illegal and pretending that all is well in Nihon.

edited 13th Dec '10 9:41:54 AM by RedSavant

^ This gets across the point I was making earlier pretty well.

Last time I checked, this law won't touch the 18+ section. So... meh, I will go of reading my pron as usual. I just hope this leads to more slim women in Anime, instead of flabby meatbumps and lolis to the 2 body types.

I can see that with real child porn, maybe, since it involves actual children, but how does that work with drawings?

And it's two apostrophes, not [i] or [/i], As You Know.

And it's two apostrophes, not [i] or [/i], As You Know.

":smith:" is also not an emoticon here. Heavens, you'd almost think this was Something Awful.

[AOD]: First we hunted women who did anything, then we hunted homosexuals, now we hunt pedophiles, which group will we hunt next? =D
Well, I don't blame you, considering all the propagand combined with the fact there is a minor chance of abuse.
BTW, found this some time ago: http://mirror.wikileaks.info/wiki/An_insight_into_child_porn/index.html

edited 13th Dec '10 10:41:42 AM by del_diablo

That's because [AOD] normally doesn't post here except when he has something inflammatory and anti-Japan to post in order to try and piss people off.

There is certainly a difference between drawn children and real children, obviously. Porn involving the former is arguably morally questionable, since it promotes sexualised children but doesn't (directly) harm real children. Porn involving the latter is morally and ethically repellent and I don't think there's a way around that. I'm not interested in lolicon at all and find it somewhat squicky, myself, for the record.

I have to say, my main worry of this bill is how it affects the relatively tame stuff I like. The article linked in the other thread sounded reasonably...reasonable. But there seems to be more to it than that. I'd like to wait to see how it does affect my favourite manga/anime before I get up in arms about it.

edited 13th Dec '10 10:44:14 AM by elemcee

bla bla bla negative correlation

Haha. I copy-pasted my post from Something Awful onto here. Ah well, I'll leave the smith in for people to puzzle over.

Oh, so it's an inter-forum cross-post, not plagiarism. I did wonder.

Well, yeah, if it was plagiarized, it probably wouldn't have any markup in it.

A bunch of ^s: I disagree. Pedophiles who attempt to realize their fantasies with real children, whether through supporting the child porn industry or by hanging out near playgrounds or whatnot, should be policed. Those who recognize their paraphilia as damaging and seek help, or who don't act on it, shouldn't be - that's edging close to thoughtcrime territory.

edited 13th Dec '10 10:47:15 AM by RedSavant