Posted by: Pseudo 20 August 2015
Anime was a mistake. You’ve probably heard that phrase on your journey across the internet, and for most of you it will simply be seen as a humorous joke, dripping with sarcasm.
For some people in the world, however, it goes much further than that. Love it or hate it, anime is very popular across the world and comes in all shapes and sizes. There are anime directed at children, girls, boys, adults; there’s anime for everyone. Today’s story is based on the last part of that list, the adult oriented anime. As a show for adults, the themes and style of writing generally reflect their position. You would hardly expect to tune in to Adult Swim here in the West and be greeted by Spongebob Squarepants, as great as he is. The same is often said for video games, where if the game has an adult age rating you can generally assume it will be touching on adult topics, themes and visuals. It’s always surprising to learn then that people completely miss the warning signs, miss all the factors that combine to tell you that yes, this is adult media.
This is a time where people have missed the signs. The show that garnered complaints from viewers this time is called Shimoseka. The full title is actually Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist. From that name, it’s quite clear that this show is anything but serious, and is very tongue-in-cheek about its content. The show originally started life as series of light novels, a genre of novel targeted at the young adult demographic. The plot of the series is that in a dystopian future, Japanese authorities are cracking down on immoral behavior. Citizens are outfitted with devices called ‘Peace Makers’, machines that analyze their speech patterns to discern if they’re breaking the law and saying naughty things. The terrorist known as Blue Snow, in charge of the terror cell SOX, takes it upon herself to fight this injustice by running around causing pornographic havoc – all while wearing panties on her head. Not much else needs to be said.
The series was created in response to modern society’s fetish with morality, and is clearly a satirical attempt to point out the absurdity of it all. The show airs in a late-night time slot, the usual time when adults are free from their daytime responsibilities and children are tucked up in bed. After reading about this show, its style, its story, its time slot, one would assume this has a clear demographic and intent. Not so according to the Japanese watchdog, the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO). The BPO published a long summary (Japanese) of complaints they received for a number of shows that air in Japan. The complaints range from making light of diseases, smashing cars, bungee jumping, birth, humiliating scenes, and so much more. This is all in Japanese so some things may be lost in translation, but the general theme seems to be less sublime, more ridiculous.
The complaints about Shimoseka fall under the heading “Opinions of the impact on youth”. As you’ve read, Shimoseka is anything but a show for kids; in fact it couldn’t be further from that. The complaint actually makes note of the time slot, “In the late-night animated program”, before diving in. The somewhat disingenuous complaint continues to say that there was “crude names for genitals and rude gestures that indicate sexual activity”. They continue to say that these are “blatant” and would have a detrimental impact on children watching. That’s right, the show that makes no effort to hide its intentions as adult is too adult for one viewer. The show that airs in a night slot so as to avoid young viewers – is harmful to young viewers. The scenes in question aren’t actually as obvious as you might think; a sharpie pen going in a lid repeatedly, rubbing a railing. For children, young children at that, to make such connections their parents would have had to have discussed with them what sex is, and how innuendos can be made for it. The parents would also have to make sure their children aren’t up late watching adult TV, but it’s easier to blame someone else for that.
The rest of the complaints are quite fun to read too, and relate to more than just anime. Anime gets its fair share of criticisms, with someone going so far as to suggest that bathing suits are immoral. It’s a bit of mental gymnastics, but apparently it’s due to child predators. Rock-paper-scissors is out too because that could be misconstrued as bullying the loser, same goes for Batsu games. Consensual consumption of adult material by adults is under fire in 2015 and is not limited to TV, but also literature, video games, music, etc. It’s quite a shame that people can’t differentiate fact from fiction, reality from fantasy, but at least we have shows like Shimoseka to satirize them.
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