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![[EDITORIAL]](/file/35716/EX CD Rom.iso/issue2_7/images/section_editorial.gif){kind=small}  |
 Anime now has its own "urban legend." Yes, like the now infamous story of the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe (enter "Neiman Marcus" and Cookie on Infoseek) or the story of a hotel guest's correspondence regarding soap, (both of which I have had mailed to me many times over the years by individuals thinking it was something "new"), anime has reached urban legend status. And I'm not sure that's a good thing. I have received several e-mails from various
people over the last several months about an alleged "incident." While the details
are fuzzy and differ in the accounts I received, the basic story goes like this.
Family goes to video store and child picks out a "cartoon." Parents say ok.
Family goes home and parents let child watch tape unsupervised. Parents walk in room
in middle of said tape only to find that their child is watching an "adult"
Japanese anime. Furious parents return to the video store, berating video
clerk, video store manager, and everyone else they can think of. (Except,
obviously, themselves). These forwarded e-mails usually end with some
supposedly gripping question like "Is this the end of Anime in the United
States?"Now, sometime, somewhere, this possibly could have
happened. And let's say, just for the sake of argument, that it did. Whose fault is
it? Let's play detective, shall we?Exhibit A is the cover of a random H anime released
in the United States. First of all, the covers say something to the effect of
"Warning: Absolutely Not For Children" in big, bold letters on the front cover.
The words are not encrypted, nor written backwards so that they need to be held
up to a mirror to reveal their message. I would think this would be a
subtle hint that maybe it isn't the latest Smurfs adventure.But for those who miss the clearly-labeled warning on
the front cover, there is also the second clue: the box cover art. Most of the
videos of this genre have covers with half- (or more than half-) naked females,
usually surrounded by a sea of waving tentacles or drooling aliens or something
equally unappetizing. The female characters usually have unhappy (that's
putting it mildly) expressions on their faces. Rrring. Hey, Clue Phone's
ringing! Now, I don't know what kind of parents would think that something
like that would be suitable for their child, but let's just say I think
these people would probably fail Dogbert's parental license test. In fact,
they would probably qualify as full-fledged in-duh-viduals.Then, of course, there is the back cover, which is
designed to tell you what the video is about! It practically draws the reader a map,
and explicitly states again that the video is not for children.But let's say that the parents are too busy picking out their own
videos to notice what little Johnny grabs as his choice. Okay, fine. Everyone is
busy and sometimes doesn't devote the attention to things that they deserve.
However, this boils down to who is responsible for what the child watches.
Is the video store responsible, perhaps because they didn't shelve it with
the 'adult' material or because it was placed on the wrong shelf? Or are
the parents, whose job it is to raise the child they created, the ones
responsible for ensuring that what he watches is acceptable? Well, since
the parents are the ones who determine what is acceptable, logically it
follows then that it should be their job. As the old argument goes, I have
a television in my house—does that mean that NBC is responsible for what I
watch? Or is Sony responsible for what I watch in my VCR? I don't think so.The fact that incidents such as this can happen is unfortunate.
The fact that people immediately look to blame others is reprehensible. And the fact
that anime as a whole gets raked over the coals is truly sad.
But I am convinced that one day common sense shall once again prevail.
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  Charles McCarter
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