Anime The anime here in america...is it getting childish?

[Sojiro47]

[quote name='Panache']We don't suck our kids are just pansies. Or at least that's what the people who censor the cartoons think.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Book Antiqua"]Wow, that was the most blatantly honest thing I've read/heard all week. Actually, I'm not surprised that anime in America is being watered down. Think about it: Here in the U.S., we had legal battles for a year straight over video games being to violent.

I think that if we are going to water down anime in America, we need to water down everything else that kids might watch: Law & Order, CSI, James Bond movies, The Golden Compass, Loony Toons, ect.

Like that's ever going to happen.

[SIZE="1"]Just a little side question. When other people were told that you watched anime, did they assume that anime [B]was[/B] hentai? Or did that only happen to me?[/SIZE][/FONT]

[SunfallE]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"]Although I have to disagree with SunfallE's post, or at least question it. I thought that the creator's studio merely sold rights to companies, and don't actually get any say in how they're being edited. Like, I doubt One Piece's creator was there approving everything 4Kids did to it. But I do agree that a show isn't the fans' property. [/font][/QUOTE]I've heard both, for example Spirited Away, they refused to give the rights to a company unless they agreed to not edit it at all. But the main point is that the fans are not the one who determines just what is edited and what isn't. Also, it's still something that if they don't want it edited, they simply won't offer it up for being translated and released in another country. It might not be the original creator per se, but the studio's still sign that release for it to be produced, knowing that the American company is likely to make alterations.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Kanji]

To me, it seems slightly delusional to hold onto a shounen anime series as an example of something mature that shouldn't be watered down. In most cases, these series are the type that almost lend themselves to censorship by American licensing companies.

This might not be what some of you want to hear, but frankly... With an action-oriented show like One Piece or Naruto, it's not unreasonable to cut out some of those so-called "bad influences" (gore, mature jokes, sexuality, what have you) and manage to preserve most of the plot. Try doing this with a series like, say... Paranoia Agent. That's probably impossible.

Not saying that I condone this behavior, but it's a very logical way to ensure success (more viewers). After all, who amongst us has the most time to devote to their TVs these days? Probably those four-year-old kids.

[Panache]

[quote name='Sojiro47'][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Wow, that was the most blatantly honest thing I've read/heard all week. Actually, I'm not surprised that anime in America is being watered down. Think about it: Here in the U.S., we had legal battles for a year straight over video games being to violent.

I think that if we are going to water down anime in America, we need to water down everything else that kids might watch: Law & Order, CSI, James Bond movies, The Golden Compass, Loony Toons, ect.

Like that's ever going to happen.

[SIZE="1"]Just a little side question. When other people were told that you watched anime, did they assume that anime [B]was[/B] hentai? Or did that only happen to me?[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]
They censor cartoons yet they let kids watch/hear horrible graphic things on the news. In my area they spent a whole day talking about how people were brutally mauled to death by tigers that escaped in the zoo.(no joke)

Oh and yea one time some kid was like "You like anime so your like into kinky cartoon porn?" I was like "..."

[ZachIsAPanda]

[quote name='Panache']They censor cartoons yet they let kids watch/hear horrible graphic things on the news. In my area they spent a whole day talking about how people were brutally mauled to death by tigers that escaped in the zoo.(no joke)
[/QUOTE]

I think it is a much different situation--parents can easily control what their kids are watching on the news, but I don't think they have a clue what their kids watch on Cartoon Network.

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR="77656"]I'm into anime, and just recently hentai... it makes me apreciate anime more actually. Just recently I got into la Portrait de Petite Cossette, ad that show is derinitly not kid freinddly IMO. BTW if you haven't seen this 3 episode OVA, your as blasphemus as that One Pice hater. Now One Piece isn't my favoiret, but it is an awesome anime nonethelss.

[QUOTE]I think it is a much different situation--parents can easily control what their kids are watching on the news, but I don't think they have a clue what their kids watch on Cartoon Network.[/QUOTE]

My parents knew what DBZ and all that stuff was because I told them, they didn't mind it at all. I've been watching it since I was 5, and that will never change.[/COLOR]

[Panache]

[quote name='ZachIsAPanda']I think it is a much different situation--parents can easily control what their kids are watching on the news, but I don't think they have a clue what their kids watch on Cartoon Network.[/QUOTE]Then people wouldn't be censoring it...

[QUOTE]BTW if you haven't seen this 3 episode OVA, your as blasphemus as that One Pice hater. Now One Piece isn't my favoiret, but it is an awesome anime nonethelss. [/QUOTE]That person was just being ignorant. Not liking One Piece is fine. It's not like it's a modern day classic. It's just a generic shounen. That said it's a pretty good generic shounen(well actually the tv show is weak in my opinion but the manga is sexy). Petite Cossette isn't a classic either. It's new to the scene. Something shameful would be if you area big sci fi anime guy and haven't seen akira. Or a big mecha guy and haven't seen eva.

[Rachmaninoff]

Others have already hit on it, but anime hasn't become more childish at all. If anything, from what little I've seen, other than heavily modified shows put on channels directed towards kids, the rest is being aired in time slots for teens and adults and stuff like Naruto is being released in an uncut format as well. As others have already said, you just have to look for it.

There's always going to be shows done for kids and if anything, watching that edited version is likely to have them growing up wanting more and thus keeping the demand for more anime in America or whatever country you live in high. So even those watered down versions are a good thing since they promote that type of show. And as Beth said, let the kids be kids instead of getting angry over them enjoying a milder version of an anime show. It doesn't affect you at all really.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Kanji']One Piece or Naruto, it's not unreasonable to cut out some of those so-called "bad influences" (gore, mature jokes, sexuality, what have you) and manage to preserve most of the plot.[/QUOTE]

Okay, one more time: Neither of these shows have gore. I don't know what you people are watching, but these are [I]childen's shows.[/I] Even in Japan, it is not normal nor acceptable for a child to watch someone's innards combust. Blood is [I]not[/I] gruesome. Blood happens every day. Scrape your elbow? Blood. You don't cough up kidneys on a regular basis.

Cartoons are more violent in Japan because the people who make them are fairly certain that parents will actually pay attention to what their children are watching and tell them what is acceptable (this also applies to the sex jokes.) The Japanese culture reveres and protects children above almost all else. Americans are always in a hurry and I know of multiple irresponsible parents who are constantly publicized for being that way.

In closing, read yourself some Rurouni Kenshin (more specifically, Seta Sojiro's backstory) and then tell me One Piece is gruesome.

And the "America sucks" thing.. that be mah humor reflex actin' up.

[Panache]

[QUOTE]In closing, read yourself some Rurouni Kenshin (more specifically, Seta Sojiro's backstory) and then tell me One Piece is gruesome.[/QUOTE]Or watch Berserk...if you thought saw was nasty...

[Dagger]

I agree with Kanji's post.

[quote name='Aceburner']
In closing, read yourself some Rurouni Kenshin (more specifically, Seta Sojiro's backstory) and then tell me One Piece is gruesome.[/QUOTE]
This comparison actually works against your point. :animeswea The Kenshin manga ran in Japan's Shounen Jump, and although I don't know what timeslot(s) the anime had, its average viewer household rating across its whole run was 12.2%, which is significantly higher than the numbers that One Piece is currently pulling. To me that makes it seem safe to conclude that the Kenshin anime must have had a favorable timeslot, one that would expose it to at least as many young people as One Piece and comparable series.

For practical purposes, they're the same kind of thing.

~Dagger~

[Panache]

[quote name='Dagger']I agree with Kanji's post.


This comparison actually works against your point. :animeswea The Kenshin manga ran in Japan's Shounen Jump, and although I don't know what timeslot(s) the anime had, its average viewer household rating across its whole run was 12.2%, which is significantly higher than the numbers that One Piece is currently pulling. To me that makes it seem safe to conclude that the Kenshin anime must have had a favorable timeslot, one that would expose it to at least as many young people as One Piece and comparable series.

For practical purposes, they're the same kind of thing.

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

I remember watching it when I was 12 I think (that counts as a kid right?). I never thought it was too bad. But then again my first anime was Ninja Scroll...so my opinion is probably invalid here.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Dagger']This comparison actually works against your point. :animeswea The Kenshin manga ran in Japan's Shounen Jump, and although I don't know what timeslot(s) the anime had, its average viewer household rating across its whole run was 12.2%, which is significantly higher than the numbers that One Piece is currently pulling. To me that makes it seem safe to conclude that the Kenshin anime must have had a favorable timeslot, one that would expose it to at least as many young people as One Piece and comparable series.[/QUOTE]

Oh, I'd better do more research, then.

Still, there is MUCH WORSE gore and such in mainstream Japan. Most current popular Shonen is pretty tame over there, all things considered. We just assume that these shows aren't directed at children because our idiotic censorship groups don't let children's programming acknowledge the fact that people die sometimes. That concept has basically disappeared since around that episode of Sesame Street where Mr. Hooper died (they had to explain it because the actor died irl.)

Sure, children may not need to be exposed to random depraved murders, but some things need to be understood. People die. It's always happened since a guy found a tree* and it's gonna keep happening until the Earth stops turning.I think kids should understand that some things happen that you can't do anything about.

*Your beliefs may differ from mine. If so, just ignore this comment. I don't care.

[Dagger]

Hm? I don't think anyone (besides the thread starter, maybe) was suggesting that they aren't aimed at children. The highest-rated anime always seem to be classic family shows, followed by a mixture of shounen sports, shounen action, magical girl & prime-time young adult fare (like Gundam SEED and 00, and FMA). They have adult fans, but that doesn't make them adult shows* (whatever that means).

*Although going by the definition of actual viewers and/or target audience, that means that a lot of late-night otaku-aimed shows (which can easily have far less objectionable content to them than One Piece or Kenshin or whatever) are automatically adult shows. So it's kind of a hard thing to pin down. Is a seinen magical girl show somehow intrinsically more mature or less appropriate for kids than a magical girl show aimed at elementary schoolers?

(Especially considering that the same adults are likely to be fans of both... in the former case as the primary audience, and in the latter case as a secondary audience.)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure that anyone's disagreeing over anything anymore... just phrasing it differently and picking at different angles. :)

~Dagger~

[The Spectacular Professor]

Yeah, sorry about that. I just get a little worked up every time I see the word "gore" coupled with *insert name of popular mainstream shonen anime with only moderate amounts of blood in it here.*

For the record, there was ONE actual decapitation in all of one piece, it was handled quickly and conservatively, and the victim wasn't even human. I don't know if they kept it in the Anime, though. Sometimes they tone down the violence (among other things, such as apparent swastikas) when translating the art to the tv screen.

[Panache]

Isn't this thread basically like...answered now?

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Panache']Isn't this thread basically like...answered now?[/QUOTE]

No. There are still unanswered questions, like:

-Who had access to the President's office between 5 and 9 P.M. yesterday?

-What motive does the Butler have?

-Who stole the Pink Panther?

No, wait. That's something else.

I'm sure the thread has SOME life in it, though.

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR="77656"]We can always talk about the children in anime... nevermind, we have DB to worry about. :p

Actually, a lot of the kids in anime are pretty darn cute IMO. Like Saya's little brother in Blood+. Now, I'm not gay, but he's pretty darn cute.[/COLOR]

[Panache]

Yea chibi kids are awesome. Like Gen from Black Heaven(which you should watch prem...it's about a guy who used to be in a metal band...good *** show)

[songsofsorrow]

[quote name='Sojiro47'][FONT="Book Antiqua"]Ok, SOS, I didn't want to play the "4-kids fails" card, but you made me.

It's true that whatever 4-kids touches, ends up losing its fan base, but they don't have exclusive rights to all anime, just some of Shonen Jumps stuff. If you've ever seen the English version of PeaceMaker Kurogane, there's more blood in that the RuRoKen (Samarai X) DBZ, and Saw 3 combined. One piece is indeed an example of watered down anime, but is by no means an average anime viewing.

[/FONT][/QUOTE]


i didn't mean to say everything that 4kids touches dies, because look at what kirby did for a while, but then foxbox turned into 4kids, and got programmed with winx club then got gay, my point is i'm not trying to bash 4 kids but peacemaker kurogane, never heard of it before but that was before foxbox or whatever turned into 4kids, i think everything went downhill and turned into a heap of crap from there
and american "anime" has turned a bit childish in my opinion, and little 8 year old girls are taking over the world.

[Desbreko]

[quote name='songsofsorrow']and american "anime" has turned a bit childish in my opinion, and little 8 year old girls are taking over the world.[/QUOTE][center][img]http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3069/amukneecaped0.jpg[/img][/center]
[color=#4B0082][size=1]Disclaimer: Image posts are jokes, don't take them seriously.[/size][/color]

[Panache]

[quote name='songsofsorrow']i didn't mean to say everything that 4kids touches dies, because look at what kirby did for a while, but then foxbox turned into 4kids, and got programmed with winx club then got gay, my point is i'm not trying to bash 4 kids but peacemaker kurogane, never heard of it before but that was before foxbox or whatever turned into 4kids, i think everything went downhill and turned into a heap of crap from there
and american "anime" has turned a bit childish in my opinion, and little 8 year old girls are taking over the world.[/QUOTE]

The stuff on fox box was for like 10 year olds...when I was 10 I thought it was great stuff. Why the hell are your criticizing shows aimed at 10 year olds?(If there is a discriminating 10 year old anime viewer I haven't seen him)

[songsofsorrow]

the point was they were great back then, and maybe if we at OB weren't older or more childish ( o god answer my prayers) then they wouldn't be so bad. and yes i know the original JAPANESE versions are better, but in america they're childish

and panache is right they are aimed for more so 10 year olds and around there and unless your watching adult swim (which still has censored one piece) you don't get to watch the better less censored anime till about 11 o'clock. and i am an honors student who doesn't finish till then, and teachers get mad when you sleep in class. so i can't do that.

I know that I might not be the greatest go to cosplay conven and to the end of the earth to get anime fan. the anime here is aimed for 10 year olds and watered down.

[Panache]

[quote name='songsofsorrow']the point was they were great back then, and maybe if we at OB weren't older or more childish ( o god answer my prayers) then they wouldn't be so bad. and yes i know the original JAPANESE versions are better, but in america they're childish

and panache is right they are aimed for more so 10 year olds and around there and unless your watching adult swim (which still has censored one piece) you don't get to watch the better less censored anime till about 11 o'clock. and i am an honors student who doesn't finish till then, and teachers get mad when you sleep in class. so i can't do that.

I know that I might not be the greatest go to cosplay conven and to the end of the earth to get anime fan. the anime here is aimed for 10 year olds and watered down.[/QUOTE]
Um what? I don't understand what you said at all.

[2010DigitalBoy]

[quote name='songsofsorrow']the point was they were great back then, and maybe if we at OB weren't older or more childish ( o god answer my prayers) then they wouldn't be so bad. and yes i know the original JAPANESE versions are better, but in america they're childish

and panache is right they are aimed for more so 10 year olds and around there and unless your watching adult swim (which still has censored one piece) you don't get to watch the better less censored anime till about 11 o'clock. and i am an honors student who doesn't finish till then, and teachers get mad when you sleep in class. so i can't do that.

I know that I might not be the greatest go to cosplay conven and to the end of the earth to get anime fan. the anime here is aimed for 10 year olds and watered down.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]1. Learn to spell
2. Pay attention to what people are saying. the shows were already for little kids. Most of the stuff on [AS] is shounen too, I mean look at Bleach...
3. One Piece has never been on [AS] you dolt. [/COLOR]