Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Debate Topic One - Nudity
Ok, Let's start off with a good one! Anime and Manga can be for all ages. It seems though that it can be hard for the diligent parent to find anything that doesn't have some form of nudity in it. If not showing nudity than many references to being naked. Is it just our American morals that has the problem? Are we not enlightned enough? It seems sometimes it is hard to enjoy the plots and artwork over the "other stuff". Now, I personally like watching how artists grow and change. Sometimes, it seems to take over and plot suffers. To find something that has both in a balanced way is a barrel shoot. Violence also can be in the front lines that seems to me quite attractive to the younger set, although no more so than any tv movie or video game. There is a HUGE amount to choose from and that is the positive thing. I think the American market has less choice and as such the things that are marketed here first may have more sex and violence in order to get their pages in the door here. I find a ton of cute stuff online. On the other end of the spectrum though is the fact I have also found a LOT of stuff that made me go, "oh my God, did I just read that?" I mean actual drawn out sex. Maybe, growing up on Batman and X-Men I wasn't prepared to see a high school girl bullied so bad that it resulted in such a thing in a "comic genre". I will say though, I would have recommended the story to my son who is 15. The story was amazing. The art was just ok but the the tale of how this kid came out of severe abuse from so called friends and went from not coming to school to graduating and finding a source of strength was inspirational. It was just those two sceens that made me hesitate. It was just to graphic for me. The visual medium has much more impact. I was speechless. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not at first but then the risk of becoming no longer shocked at such things can be a sad result. Although in the story I mentioned it seemed to fit there are other things I have seen that made no sense what so ever to plot other than "let's see her naked already!" I saw one anime where a female assassin was chasing her helpless male victim through the woods. She became enraged at his running away (can't imagine why) so she stops....rips off her clothes...and hunts him down again. *stunned silence* After a few seconds all you could do was laugh. It was so SENSELESS. The idea that it would HELP her in the pursuit was moot. You would think a nice sports bra would have been of more use. Then if she used it to strangle him AFTER she caught him then MAYBE I could say...ok I gueeesss I can see the reason for taking off your bra....:) Thoughts?
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3 comments:
I don't care. If the author puts it in then thet put it in and if they don't they don't. I don't think that all animes and mangas have nudity. Death note as far as I have gotten does not have any. It might refrence thing that might happen but they dont show things. the Big O also does not have any as far as I know. I will find others but these are the ones that come to mind. I will be back on this subject.
Eh, I think that nudity has been transformed from the natural state of one's body to something considered obscenely sexual in the US. I blame American culture for focusing on the breasts so much. Women in some other countries are most always topless and there are never any problems, but here in the US the women would simply be ogled because its been engraved into the young minds that they are sexual objects - things only there for pleasure and children.
When it comes to anime I think nudity should be acceptable and remain unedited when being translated for non-Japanese-speakers. Strawberry Panic! and Shoujo Kakumei Utena both have nudity, but (especially in Utena) it isn't emphasized; its just there. When its sexual I think they should leave it, but perhaps put a small warning, such as the explicit marks on some albums containing vulgar lyrics.
I just think that if it is put into a story it should make some sort of sense. Just randomly stripping seems insulting to the reader I think. However, I have heard the argument that a lot of the market in the US is targeted to teenage boys hence the bare breast etc....I dunno though.
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