Is Mahou Sensei Negima Child Pornography?

I've been a fan of manga for quite some time now, but recently I've been rethinking my tastes. One title in particular, Mahou Sensei Negima, is starting to kind of bother me.

Now for those of you not familiar with the title, the story itself is exciting, its got a great many Crowning Moments, the characters are endearing, and its just plain cool. The problem I'm having with it is that the author, mostly as part of his style, likes the panty shots. The manga is basically skirting on the edge of hentai in some places, so many panty shots does it have. This wouldn't be so bad in and of itself, except that none of the main characters are over sixteen, and that has started to bother me.

I mean, a book involving sixteen year olds getting their clothes torn off by clothes-eating-tentacles and clothes-destroying-laser-beam-attacks (and clothes-destroying sneezes, and naked bath scenes...you get the idea. There's a lot of naked going around) just screams pedophilia to me. And sure, its got a great story and otherwise is just dandy, but the explicit sexuality of young girls is rampant. I know that no children are actually doing it in the book, and any nipples and the like are covered up by steam clouds or whatever, but isn't it still pornography if it is treating a human being as an object of sexual desire/fantasy?

I guess I don't really know what to think of Negima at this point. Sure, they still sell it in the USA, so it must not technically be child pornography, but its still bothering me that it features 16 year olds as the objects of sexual lust. Am I just being a prude, or something?

Does it show tits or sexual objects? No.

Does it objectify Women to some extent? Yes.

If the first question was yes, it would be porn. Second? Not porn, just objectifying women.

^Ah ok, that makes some sense, I guess. Still, wouldn't it be pedophilia-pandering, since the girls are under age?

For that matter, what about novels that target teens and feature romance...

And I'd like to add after futher consideration, but aren't upskirt shots sexual in nature, and thus pornography according to the "is it sexual object" criteria? It isn't like Negima is a long-running underwear commercial...

edited 7th Oct '11 10:48:02 AM by MyGodItsFullofStars

Pedophilia is a VERY strong word to be throwing around with such ease. Innapropriate? Quite probably depending on your views. Pedophilia? Hell no.

An important thing to note - age of consent may mostly work on black and white grounds, but actual human development is not an on/off switch. The current term you're looking for is ephebophilia, which is a sexual preference for people in mid to late adolescence. It's also fairly mainstream despite being hypocritically condemned - remember all those Girls Gone Wild 'she just turned eighteen!' commercials? Pedophilia is a separate (and, imho much more disturbing) issue of attraction to prepubescents.

Also, in many areas, sixteen is legal age of consent anyway, even in some states of the US. Thinking of sixteen year old as a 'child' is a very Hollywood-based mentality due to the fact that California, where much of the film industry is located, has an unusually high Ao C of eighteen.

In short, it's okay to not be comfortable with it, but at least analyze your discomfort based on an accurate look at the surrounding biological and cultural facts rather than kneejerk squick.

Don't be silly, it's not pedophilia pandering. It's hebephile and ephebophile pandering based on the characters in question. Evangeline and Yue are probably the only prepubescents used frequently for fanservice, and not very much for the latter.

I didn't really use the right term there, as I only woke up about 20 minutes ago and I'm still confused by this dream I had where I tried to get along with the GOP nominees and kinda did for a few minutes...

the word I was looking for was genitalia, not sexual object.

Pornography, last I recall, is still defined as "you know it's porn when you see it." Not like that really helps anything, but the phrase arose back when they were arguing whether something was "art" or "porn" and that was the consensus.

I would just lump those qualities of the manga/anime under shallow and cultural differences on what is considered child porn between Japan and America.

Values Dissonance in full effect. What is perfectly tolerable in Japan is highly suspicious in Western media, and vice versa.

There's been a lot of debates about this in the past (*cough* Metroid Other M *cough*), so you're not the only one who's had misgivings.

I don't know if you can dismiss the porn charges so easily when there's a psychotic lesbian rapist who begins doing the whole 'rape' thing on panel and, more recently, an apparently masturbating robot. Again, on panel.

I'm not really sure, but I can say with certainty that if I were a woman, I wouldn't want to be in a room with Ken Akamatsu by myself.

Or with children either, for that matter.

edited 7th Oct '11 11:19:28 AM by Newfable

You wouldn't want to be in a room with children by yourself? Given the topic of conversation that sounds slightly disturbing.

People are forgetting the age-change pills in the later books, we eventually see a bath scene with around half the main cast both naked and extremely young(I think the target age was 7). And Asakura even wears this weird outfit that shows her underboob, and unzipped denim shorts.

Is it pedophilia? No. It's lolicon.

And I am a fan of the series.

Guys, if it was child pornography it would be illegal to produce, own, sell and distribute in the United States, and would not be available in my local libray. Given that it is not a felony to own and is legally available, it is not child pornography.

People should be very, very careful about throwing around terms with such serious legal implications.

Second thread I've linked this Wikipedia article in today.

Calling it child pornography may be a little much, but you remember the masturbating robot just as well as I do. I could easily believe the series is edging into soft core pornography with that kind of content.

@ Glass - You do realize that most Japanese make no distinction between lolicon and pedophiles?

edited 7th Oct '11 2:11:11 PM by KitsuneInferno

...so?

So the distinction that Glass made is meaningless.

What does the state of mind of the Japanese people have to do with a matter of self-definition? Why does their usage make his personal distinction meaningless?

edited 7th Oct '11 2:24:34 PM by CDRW

You can't seriously read this...

... and not draw your own conclusions.

edited 7th Oct '11 2:28:40 PM by KitsuneInferno

Your statement is literally true, and effectively meaningless.

Lemme connect the dots here. He's a fan of a series that depicts teenagers who in one scene regress to the bodies of children and are naked, except for one who is apparently in a revealing outfit that wouldn't have even been appropriate for a teenaged girl to wear. And he thinks this particular scene is okay by designating it with a term that the homeland of the main propietors of this trash consider synonymous with pedophilia.

edited 7th Oct '11 2:35:31 PM by KitsuneInferno

Yes, you are a bit of a prude.

Just because it has a lot of fanservice does not mean its porn. I do not mind a bit of teenage fanservice.

^ Aren't you ignoring the lesbian rapist, the masturbating robot and the naked loli vampire, who happens to be The Vamp at the same time?