[EVA] "Banned" and Evangelion (was: & Battle Royale)

[John Hokanson Jr.]

> So the question is, how does this bode for Manga's promised
> uncut/uncensored release of 'The End of Evangelion'?
> And no, the "But it's just a drawing." argument does not apply. At
> least, not in the US.

According to US Federal law, child pornography includes any depiction 
or drawing of a minor engaged in a sexual act. This is a law passed
by an act of congress (I could probably find the text if anybody cares).
However, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently ruled that it 
only applies to drawing that are "virtually indistinguishable" from
real children. Many would argue that anime is exaggerated to the point
where it's obviously fake.   

For years, companies who have marketed hentai in the US have avoided
trouble by bumping the ages of girls up to 18 in the translation, 
or playing down their age all together. Media Blasters decided to 
completely trim out a scene in Kite in which the protagonist Sawa 
is raped at the age of 12. They also chose to DESTROY the master the 
received from Japan after making the cuts (though with the Director's
Cut out, I wonder if they really did). I now see they edited SOME 
of the scenes back in (most likely because Jim Lazar bugged them 
repeatedly "^_^"). 

The scene with Asuka in the hospital bed might be problematic, but
then again it might not. Anime has yet to be tested in court. 
One way of getting around any *potential* trouble is not to 
refer to her as a child and hope nobody in a position to cause a 
problem notices her teenage stature. I believe when the JSSDF 
(ground component) invades the Geofront, they refer to the 
children as "pilots" (probably as a euphemism so they don't have 
to deal with the tremendous guilt of killing kids at close 
range, but that can also be used to Manga's advantage). I can't 
remember if Shinji, et. all, were ever referred to as "children" 
in the original Japanese script or not. 

Still, if it gets an MPAA rating, it's should definately get "R",
and before anybody decries American prudism, I would point out
that there is and has been complaints from Japanese parent groups
over violent and sexually explicit manga and anime over the 
years. Once, an infamous rapist and murderer of children in Japan 
was found with numerous issues of violent manga in his aparment. 
This prompted one concerned Japanese mother to launch a campaign 
against manga that went WAY over the top. 

This isn't just a US matter. 

- John