Separation of church and manga, the nobility of porn, more on Aquaplus and Rin Inumaru

Anime News Network spots an edit in Viz’s Full Metal Alchemist, which spawns 9 pages of forum posts overnight.  (Which isn’t surprising, given how militant some readers can be about edits.)

While I can’t agree that this edit was completely necessary, I wonder whether the discussion would be as fervently against it if the symbol in question had been a swastika (such as the one removed from Pokemon, despite it being a Buddist swastika, a symbol of peace.)  It also highlights just how insular some anime and manga fans can be… the whole Mohammed cartoons controversy seems far from their minds, but the people at Viz probably didn’t forget about it when they chose to make these changes.

I think rant fests such as the one pointed towards Viz (and the newspaper publishers of the Mohammed cartoons, and questions of the quality of the cartoons themselves) does a disservice to everyone by overlooking the larger, far more important question… what are the cultural conditions that necessitated these decisions in the first place?  This is the underlying problem that should be confronted and discussed.  While readers should by all means make their displeasure known to publishers, it would be fantastic if at least an equal amount of energy is spent addressing the issues of puritanism and anti-secularism that has washed over America in the past few years, a legal system that permits far too many frivolous lawsuits, and the me-first attitude that has become so prevalent in society that many think it’s their right not to be offended at all.

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With all the many bruhahas over manga edits, I’d like to take you on a tangent discussion on the nature of pornography and obscenity.  I happen to believe that pornography has a higher purpose, although it would be pompous for me to claim that all pornographers pursue their craft to seek out that purpose.

Pornography isn’t mere sexual tittilation.  It’s about meeting the boundaries of taste and social acceptance; teetering on it, pushing it, and ultimately breaking through it.  In other words, it has to push people’s buttons.  (It just so happens that America’s big hangup is sex.)  By that virtue, pornography is always in danger of persecution.  It is a rejection of cultural mores, and thus retain the image of an outsider.  It is a subjective idea, not a kind of product, so it isn’t timeless… what is porn in one era may be mere erotica in another, more liberal time.

Herein is pornography’s noble purpose… as it is the only one to test and break social boundaries, it is wholy responsible for redefining those boundaries as well.  Whether or not the rest of the mainstream art and literary world wants to accept it, pornography benefits them all, to borrow a Reagan euphemism, through a trickle down effect.  The further pornography pushes, what was explicit becomes acceptable, and the field of subjects all artists can explore creatively becomes broader.  As such, pornography deserves its own niche in society.

In other words, if you want Viz to stop censoring nipples, start buying more of our books at your local comic book store, and pre-order a copy or two of Kaerimichi while you’re there.  What, you didn’t think this was going to end as just another attempt by me to whore ourselves?

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A poster on Journalista provides another interpretation of the Aquaplus terms that seem contradictory to Anime News Service’s conclusions.  According to Tivome, Aquaplus’ policy restricts only direct lifting of material and storylines from their work.  If correct, this is good news for doujinshi authors and fans.  But one wonders why they bothered to do this in the first place… direct reproduction is not a problem with doujinshi, but the revised policy specifically addresses doujinshi creators.  To borrow a Chinese idiom, this was “drawing legs on a snake,” i.e. a rather superfluous action.

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Reuters and Yahoo actually picked up on the Rin Inumaru suicide, which shows just how popular she actually was in her native Japan.  Not much new in the article, except they point out that Ojyarumaru has also aired in Spain and Italy, and this short statement from her employer, NHK:

“We are very surprised at this sudden event,” NHK said in a statement. “From the start of the series, Inumaru has created so many characters and given us many splendid ideas for story lines.

“We are very thankful for her work and, thanks to her efforts, many children have watched the program.”