Posted on 07/21/2004 4:58:49 AM PDT by snopercod
A few days ago my daughter related how she took my ten-year-old Grandson to the Eau Gallie, FL (near Melbourne) public library to check out some books. She turned him loose in the kids' section while she looked for some books for herself.
A while later, they each took their stack of books to the counter, checked them out, and went home. My daughter didn't inspect his choices any farther than the covers - big mistake. This is one of the books he chose (cool cover, right?):
"Meet Rally and Minnie-May -- The Gunsmith Cats -- two of the most fun-loving, well-armed, bounty-hunting women in Chicago! Whether they're chasing bail jumpers or fending off the mob, you can bet on a healthy supply of guns, bombs, car chases, and more guns! In this 176-page trade paperback -- collecting issues 1 through 6 of the series -- the pair run afoul of Bonnie and Clyde, a couple of hired guns working mob jobs in the Windy City. With their business interests running on opposite sides of the law, it's no surprise that the net result is gunfire and mayhem!"
Later in the day, Grandson shows Mom what's inside the book. Her eyes got big and her jaw dropped. Splattered across an entire page was a lewd sex act of the monica kind in graphic detail captioned with "OOOH, yeah!", "Oh Babe...!", MMPH!, etc.
My daughter turned some more pages and found episodes of cop killing, cocaine sniffing, drug dealing, prostitution, and normal, head-banging sex ("Twenty friggin' times" to quote the John) - all punctuated with assorted gutter language. There's a frame in there that even I can't figure out. Some guy is apparently performing fallatio on his gun barrel. His tongue is licking the side of it with the caption, "hahh...ahhh...huhh".
It turns out that "fun loving" character Minnie-May Hopkins portrays an underaged prostitute. Nice.
You know, I'm not a prude and not a "social conservative". But what the heck is a book like this doing in a public library at all, let alone in the childrens' section?
My daughter went back and talked to the woman at the desk, who thought this book was completely suitable, apparently. When asked why it was in the childrens' section, she said, "Oh this was probably misfiled. It should have been in the teenage section". When asked why it was in the library at all, the woman responded, "Because it's popular with the kids". Well hell, why not throw in a couple of beers with each book; That's popular with the kids, too.
I hope my daughter follows up on this. I recommended that she write a letter (with copies of the offending pages) to the Brevard County Supervisors and ask them why her tax dollars were being used to purchase this crap and push it on her children.
In the episodes I've seen, there have not been any overtly sexual segements; as I mentioned, the language, situations and violence are definitely well beyond anything that children should be watching by any means.
Some of the language is very raunchy (and certainly implies "monicaness", to use the same term), and the violence is definitely over the top.
Any librarian who put that in the children's section needs to have his/her head examined.
Hunter X Hunter is my favorite. It has no sexuality, just plain old good action. Legend of Basara is by far the best manga out there IMHO and suitable for teenage girls.
BTW pornography isn't outlawed in Japan, just not allowed to be aired on TV.
Gunsmith Cats is Japanese Manga/Anime.
They have different rules there about what is acceptable and not acceptable in comics. This is not 'porn' in the traditional sense, and to not understand this is to be ignorant.
I happen to own many of the manga, as well as the video - it is only 6 episodes, and is derived from another anime called Bean Bandit, which is more violent.
Now, should this be sold to kids? Nope. I would agree with that. Manga in Japan is marketted to adults for the most part. The kids get the 'cutesy' anime/manga like Pokemon and Hamtaro.
Take a look at the Cartoon Network's after primetime Adult Swim: I have a lot more issues with AMERICAN cartoons like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, SeaLab 2021, and Spike TV's Stripperella and Ren & Stimpy, than I do with anime similar to Gunsmith Cats: Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Inuyasha, and Ruroni Kenshin.
The Japanese graphics are very good, I have to admit. I would post some of the content on my website so folks could see what I am upset about, but I am afraid it would be considered child pornography.
Sure, but give me your interpretation!
In Japan grown adults do indeed watch cartoons. I doubt there's a conspiracy going on here.
Well, I guess that makes me ignorant because I still think that drawings of teenaged girls with their lips slathering the penis of a middle-aged male are pornography.
The American Library Association (ALA) is of the mind that there is no such thing as "age appropriate" material (they have stated this explicitly on their website). You are lucky that the works of Robert Crumb (such as Fritz The Cat) were not filed along side it.
While I think that it is valid to have the works of Robert Crumb in a library (completed collected works are available in reprint), I do not believe that they are right for all ages any more than a library should be loaning out R and NC-17/X films to 13 year olds.
As I mentioned, there is an entire subset of Japanese animation that is definitely off the deep end as far as offensive and pornographic content is concerned.
Overall, there are three distinct areas of anime: the more basic "cutsy" type of animation that is specifically geared toward children; the more adult anime that has more mature stories, storylines and content (not unlike our dramatic presentations or more adult cartoons), and finally the really off-the-deep-end offensive stuff. Japanese culture has evolved around these forms, especially the first two that I mentioned. There's quite a bit of science fiction involved, again as is tied to their culture.
All anime is not bad -- it is simply incumbent upon us as parents to pay close attention to what our children are watching and reading.
Gunsmith Cats, if/when contained within a library, should be in the adult section, not the children's section. It is a crime-drama, and is very violent. The stories wouldn't get a second glance from children if they were in novel form, yet the stories would make for decent mystery literature on the shelves along side most hard-boiled crime dramas.
Unfortunately, because they are animated, many people automatically think they are for kids. They are not.
Forget potential..too risky...just burn all books, all languages.
The Supreme Court's ruling protecting certain forms of computer-generated child pornography is being called a victory for pornographers. One member of Congress says the high court sided with pedophiles over children.
700 CLUB report: USSC SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF CHILD PORN
Where's it ever going to end?
Comic book stores that sell adult comics to minors get busted all the time in sting operations (sometimes even selling such materials to adults) yet the ALA does not believe in such distinctions (the same could be said of access to Playboy Magazine).
The ACLU would be there to defend a library but the ACLU does not as a rule defend comic book stores or publishers (they have had to establish their own advocacy legal team, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which addresses copyright, tax, ownership, and police harassment cases).
Never mind the porn. I'm surprised the picture of an evil gun on the cover made it past the Million Mom censors.
Dumb idea. The library will know who destroyed it. It would be better to rip out the pages and put them in the trash in the restroom.
I thought that the Japanese still required pubic hair to be optically fogged, same with penetration.
I've never seen Japanese porn so I could be wrong.
Several years ago my wife took my son to the library and asked the librarian to recommend some good books. The librarian referred them to a particular novel that we later discovered promoted homosexuality. We complained to the library but it did no good. After that we decided to screen as many of the books as we can. Unfortunately, he has far more time to read than my wife and I put together. We try to keep up as best as possible but it's difficult.
Marvel Comics of today seems to have forgetten the giveaway comic about sexual molestation that added the detail that Peter Parker was molested by an older male.
Marvel, DC, and several of the other big companies are actively promoting the homosexual agenda (I think an editor/writer at DC was an out of the closet homosexual).
It doesn't even have to be "porn". The public hair ban extends even to R-rated films that are screened in American movie theaters.
I suggest you don't. Dark horse probably printed more than one copy of the book, so replacing it won't be an issue, it's illegal to deliberately destroy someone else's property, and if there's any publicity over this, it will be bad.
When Madonna's photo book came out the Austin Public Library purchased copies for all their branches, and made them available to children. Their official response to my complaint was, "we don't discriminate on the basis of age."
I called the Austin Police Department Vice Division, and described the content of the book (without naming it), and asked if a local convenience store making this available to minors would be in violation of the law. APD said yes. I said I wanted to file a complaint. They said "against who?" I said, "the Austin Public Library." After quite a bit of haggling, which included comments by me that I could easily get a half-hour on a local radio station to discuss why APD was refusing to investigate a governmental agency for conduct they had already told me they'd bust a convenience store for, they agreed to "look into it."
I never heard back from the officer, but the next day, the local news media carried a story that the APD was investigating whether distribution of the Madonna book to minors was legal. The next day, the Austin Public Library announced they would be keeping the Madonna book behind the checkout desk, and it would only be available to adults.
I'm familiar with Dark Horse comics, though, and they're generally available to people under age eighteen at book stores. I don't think you'll win on this one.
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