For the presentation, I covered a general overview of the anime Made in Abyss, a beautiful but incredibly dark anime filled with nihilistic and pseudo horror elements, mixed in-between moments of exploration, joy and action. This anime in particular allowed for the perfect segway into a topic of censorship because of the fact that it focuses heavily around young children and includes moments of violence and slight sexualization.
I wanted to keep this presentation as unbiased as possible, in order to compare and contrast arguments for and against censorship of Anime & Manga. In order to do this, I referenced several court cases and bills taking place in both Japan and the United States. I wanted to reference other places, but for the sake of keeping the presentation at a reasonable length, I stayed a bit specific.
These were the trials, bills and acts that I referenced in the presentation(in order):
- Misshitsu/Honey Room (2002 - 2007)
- The Tokyo Assembly Bill 156
- Texas v. Castillo (2000)
- The PROTECT Act of 2003
- U.S. v. Whorley (2006)
- U.S. v. Handley (2006)
- R. v. Matheson (2010)
The Pros:
- Inhibits growth of child pornography culture
- Prevents children from early exposure to these mediums
- Promotes ethically less contentious content in media
The Cons:
- Manga and anime are fictional, censorship stifles creativity
- Slippery slope argument
- Stifles freedom of expression
- Does it hurt anyone? No solid research to back this, similar to violence in video games argument
- Censorship creates underground markets for unwanted media
- Double standards for canonized literature
- Encourages ignorance
- Misunderstanding content and culture
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