“Cheerful” ships | Handley Lawyer speaks! | Last detergent magma round-up, until the next impossibly dumb statement

Guess what’s shipping?

This is shipping!!! @o@

BTW, for those of you who are confident in your Japanese abilities, Eromanga Studies has a Q and A session with Yuzuki sensei.

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The must-read of the day: Eric Chase, lawyer for Christopher Handley, explains the issues in the case and why Handley took the plea.  The main take-away for most readers, I hope, would be that “obscenity” is a real serious flaw in the legal system.

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Related to the above… an editorial at The Scientist makes some startling observations – proliferation of porn coincided with a reduction in sex-related crimes not only in the United States, but other countries where similar studies where done, including Denmark, Sweden, West Germany, Japan, Croatia, China, Poland, Finland, and the Czech Republic.  Not only that (and this might make you sick in the stomach), but countries where child porn possession is legal have seen a steady reduction in child sex crimes.

Is that to say child porn reduces crimes against children?  Absolutely not.  Correlation is not causation.  But this poses an interesting problem… there’s no ethical way for us to test this.  Scientists cannot set up experiments with people from the general populace and illegal child porn which involve real victims.  This is such a serious problem, with real implications for so many innocent people, yet we must remain in the dark about it.

Well, there is an exception… simulated porn!  We can test this with lolicon manga!

And this is so important amid the movement to ban all virtual child porn in both the US and Japan.  Let’s accept for the moment that pro-censorship forces are sincere in their desire to protect children.  If that’s the case, then results matter.  Factual data matters.  The lolicon inducement theory has no data backing it up.  Neither does the porn as sexual release theory, except through statistical data.  How can we weigh one over the other without research?  What if the censorship proponents are wrong, and removing lolicon manga leads to a net gain in sex crimes?  How can any reasonable, moral human being justify risking the lives of children, just to preserve cultural or theological dogma?

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Detergent magma roundup:

The Eastern Edge has dug up some really old comparisons of swipes, or homages, by Yukito Kishiro (I mean, this was pre-meme days.  We talked about it on the proto-Swipe of the Week page, that’s how old this thing is), and asks if there is a double standard for Japanese artists and Western artists.  I don’t subscribe to the idea there is a double standard based on nationality.  Rather, the l’homage exemption exists for any beloved, long-time professional artist. You might think I’m being cynical, but that is one of the most important requirements for the homage… the artist making the tribute must be in a position to make a tribute. The true homage is a private hat-tip between professionals, and understanding by anyone else (i.e. readers) is not a concern.  I happen to think Yukito was making an homage.  But I also happen to dislike homages in general specifically because of the confusion involved.  You can read more of my reasoning in the Eastern Edge’s comments section.

The Comics Reporter has the greatest plan ever… someone should trace Incarnate and sell it to Radical.  Then someone could trace that and resell it again, and someone could trace the trace, a-a-and then… the universe will implode under so much exponential greatness, and Incarnate will become like a God!

Topless Robot juxtaposes Nick Simmons’ non-apology with panel comparisons to humorous effect.

The Beat points towards similar controversies in the literary text world.  Check out the comments section for some passive-aggressive trolling.

A commentator at Robot 6 raises an interesting question… what sayeth the other artists attached to the project?  I’d imagine this has got to suck for them too.

Edit: Comics Culture Warrior has a two-part video on Incarnate: part 1, part 2.  Great perspective from professional artist and retailer.

Edit 2: CBR has analysis from a real IP lawyer, who touches base on a few things I also mentioned in my previous post.  Relieved to see I’m not too far off base. =3

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The city of Kitakyushu will be “creating an art-business” district to cash in on to promote manga.  The complex will house a museum and shops catering to figures, cosplay, and other manner of otaku indulgences.