Anime and manga creators in general, not just “anime porn” creators. And they aren’t “worried about such a law” because they live in Japan and have no reason to give a flying fuck about Texas. (Stuff that could fall under the obsenity definition of Texas are published in magazines for teens in Japan, and are openly about teen or preteen characters.) The US is an incidental secondary market for stuff made for home country consumption.
To call back to @Stranger_On_A_Train’s link…
(Also, Stranger, I knew what that link would be before I clicked it.)
Worth mentioning that those cases (and there’s been others like it) are about photorealistic, though AI generated, depictions of CSAM. That’s already illegal on a federal level and I assume on most/all state levels. However, the federal law doesn’t apply to drawings or cartoons and other obvious artwork.
(B) such visual depiction is a digital image, computer image, or computer-generated image that is, or is indistinguishable from, that of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
[…](11) the term “indistinguishable” used with respect to a depiction, means virtually indistinguishable, in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults.
I’m not brimming with good vibes for the anime loli crowd and most of my defense is a general free press sort of thing, but I see a clear difference between realistic fake-photos of CSAM and loli cartoon drawings. Texas apparently doesn’t.
The seller in the quoted article was pulling Dragon Ball from sale out of fear that it could lead to prosecution, and that is just (extremely common) fanservice
Can anyone say for certain that some Texas prosecutor out for blood wouldn’t call that obsenity?
This supports my theory that the wearing of comically gigantic cowboy hats somehow affects the brain, in ways not fully understood by medical science. There’s an additional hypothesis that the effect is exacerbated by fumes from crude oil.
This theory is supported by the fact that in Canada, some of the same effects are observed in the province of Alberta, which has both the hats and the oil, but the effects are less extreme because of cooler weather. Although they still have guns and rodeos.
By “fan service” you mean “underwear shots of characters that are meant to be underage”?
Can’t they sell a version without that… Questionable… Stuff? The same way that video games will make versions with less blood for Germany or fewer drug references for Australia?
Yes, there is a long history of bowdlerizing in manga and anime. The question is, who thinks something like that is a good thing?
If the stuff being “bowdlerized” is intentionally sexually titillating depictions of minors*, then I think that’s a good thing.
*And that includes “1,000 year old vampires who happen to look like ten year olds” or whatever the meme is, too.
They’re not minors. It’s just that in the art style often seen in anime, adult characters might appear childlike due to exaggerated features like large eyes, small mouths, immature actions, high-pitched voices, etc. Someone completely ignorant of the genre might easily mistake such imagery as an attempt to sexualize chikdren, when that is not at all what is happening.
Now, there are examples of sexualizing children in some anime, it’s not even that rare, and in those cases I’m not very sympathetic much as you don’t seem to be. And I’m not going to defend that. But there is certainly anime that isn’t doing that but might seem that way.
It reminds me of those who are unfamiliar with anime asking why all the characters are American. To those who are unfamiliar with anime, I can see why all the characters look American to them.
That’s literally an entire category of porn and plenty of titles are pretty much exactly that. In fact, now that I’m re-reading that, I’m not sure if you’re using ‘adult women’ to indicate that they’re older or that they’re simply not minors, but there’s still entire categories for both of those.
While I know the term technically preceded the movie, let’s not forget the original “adult woman”, Stifler’s Mom.
I don’t watch a lot of anime (though I’ve watched some), but it seems to be geared predominantly at teens. And teens sexualize other teens. So I don’t know how this is substantively different than a teen romance having elements of sex - I don’t even mean something explicitly porny, but just two teenagers going hot over each other. Should it be different if it’s depicted visually as opposed to textually?
That’s funny because it seems like every other title I see includes the word TEEN and features women who are just skirting that line between minor and adult.
There would be no MILF without Mrs. Robinson!
A lot of them do, yes. But a lot of them will also have titles (or be in categories) with wording like “Barely Legal” or “College” or “Teens 18+”.
In the cases where it isn’t happening, you should be able to show that by showing that these are adult characters in the narrative, that they look like other adult characters drawn in that art style, and that they do not look like child characters drawn in that art style.
In the cases where it is happening, I’m all for banning it.
In the examples that Darren Garrison posted above, are those characters children in the context of the show, or is that how the show depicts adults?
My point is, a lot of porn featuring young women is successful because it maintains a veneer of plausible deniability. Which is why, as a creator of anime, if you’re targeting that same demographic, you don’t want to lose that market of dudes who like to fantasize about banging teenagers.
That’s kind of what I was asking about above. Two real life teens can kiss or even simulate sex in a TV show, there are limits on what you can and cannot show (and that’s a good thing) but it’s not like there aren’t plenty of comedies about teens losing their virginity or dramas about rape like Thirteen Reasons Why.
If the drawn equivalent of kiss falling to the bed then fade to black to imply sex is going to fall afoul of these rules, that would be much stricter than the rules for live action movies, and I’d say that’s probably an overreach. But I’m not clear on whether that’s the case or not.
I’ve never actually read/watched Dragon Ball, but googling shows that the female character is 16.
The very short male character is 12.
Her name in Japanese is “Buruma”, which means that she is named “girl’s gym shorts”.
And the manga was published in 519 chapters from 1984 to 1995 in Japan’s best-selling magazine targeted at teenage boys.
I can give a bit more context as well. The 12-year-old is extremely innocent, to the point he flies around on a cloud that requites you to have a pure heart.
He is so unaware that he didn’t know girls had different parts, and a gag while he’s still a kid is that this is in fact the ONLY way he can tell the difference.
And when he comes back after becoming an adult, everyone is surprised as hell that he got married and has a kid.
In other words, her name is Bloomer. Her father’s name is (Dr.) Brief. Her son’s name is Trunks. Similarly, there’s a set of aliens named after Vegetables (Vegeta, Radditz, Kakorot [Gokus original alien name]) There’s a villain race named after cold things (Freeza, Cold, Chill). And even a movie where the enemies are all condiments.
It’s part of the humor of the series: using Enlgijs words for things as names.