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

[Brendan Jamieson]

"John Hokanson Jr." wrote:
>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.

I don't know about that...
 
>Media Blasters decided to completely trim out a scene in Kite in which 
>the protagonist Sawa is raped at the age of 12.

The scenes are blatantly illegal in the US. She is clearly a child, by
no stretch of the imagination.
I saw the truly uncut version on VCD a few months back... very
disturbing stuff.

>(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 "Director's Cut" less-cut version inserts the other sexual scenes
back into the anime. The underage stuff is still missing.
When I watched the original release of Kite, with *all* the sex missing
I found it very herky-jerky and confusing. The removed scenes are
actually quite important to the story.

But from what I hear, the director prefers Kitty Media's less-cut
version to his original uncut one. Huh...
 
>The scene with Asuka in the hospital bed might be problematic, but
>then again it might not.

There is more questionable stuff in EoE than Asuka's breasts (though the
entire hospital scene in general is walking a thin line). Misato's
overtures to Shinji, and the shot of Rei and Shinji in LCL land would
raise more than a few eyebrows.

>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 know it makes no change to the anime, but if Manga begins the film
with a disclaimer that "All characters in this film are above 18 years
old" I'll be kind of disappointed. 
Not to mention all the fans wondering why the film happened 4 years
after the end of the TV series.

>I can't remember if Shinji, et. all, were ever referred to as "children"
>in the original Japanese script or not.

Not in EoE, but in D&R they are... and with Rebirth... 

>Still, if it gets an MPAA rating, it's should definately get "R"

It wouldn't be rated by the MPAA. It's not going to be shown in
theaters.
The MPAA was going to rate Perfect Blue NC-17 before Manga cut out some
stuff. Having seen the uncut, original, version - I don't know what the
big deal was. The theater I saw it at showed it uncut and unrated
anyway.

And the R-rating is a joke.

>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.

Yes - but the art still comes out. Imagine a film like EoE being made in
the US...

>Once, an infamous rapist and murderer of children in Japan
>was found with numerous issues of violent manga in his aparment.

Tsutomu "No relation to Hayao" Miyazaki. 
A self professed anime otaku and serial killer; having kidnapped,
murdered and molested [in that order...] several very young
girls (the first being 4 year old Mari Konno). When he was finally
apprehended, police found over 5,000 videotapes of child pornography and
anime.

>This isn't just a US matter.

Actually.. I'd say it is. 
Protesters are one thing - actually banning the work as illegal is quite
another.

-brendan