I do not deny the human spirit, those that can decipher right from wrong. However, how many of us can actually see right from wrong clearly without any form of bias?

Is not it a litte bit too convenient and naive to divide the world in good and evil, black and white, wrong and right. Nobody can clearly say that something is right or wrong, because you will never know the overall outcome of your doings.

There is always a gullible boy/girl, believing what they see on television despite how educated they are (not validating the hypodermic needle by the way, but more of media conditioning). That is why censorship has to stay, and pull them away from such pain.

Some lesson can only be taught by pain. You won´t put your fingers anymore on an activated stove if you have burnt your fingers in the past.

However, can we truly say that such crimes might be preventable if we practice a little censorship over extremely suggestive themes that might be led themselves to copy acts?

One can not stop the violent history of mankind, one can not prevent such acts of savagery, or perhaps we are able to do so, but are just too comfortable with our current lifestyle.

Censorship should be judged from case to case, sometimes it might be necessary, for example when the rights of a person are gravelly hurt, but often an episode should be aired without any modifications.

Sacrifice a little freedom for security, and you get neither. In the end all will suffer.

Well written entry, impz. I cannot say anything to justify or disparage censorship at the moment… it’s always an ongoing issue; I hear about all the time. It really depends on the situation though, as you have pointed out quite clearly… and it does help sometimes. It is just truly disheartening to see there are a few impressionable people out there who are easily swayed by what they observe around them and then act upon their silly emotions and illogical thinking… maybe censorship comes in handy here for a few poor souls? …or maybe it is not the solution, for it makes the rest of us suffer? I say this specifically with regard to anime. My life is anime. I live and breathe anime, but that doesn’t mean I have to copy it IRL and do crazy stunts. Anime is anime… (I’ll be damned by 2D for saying that. Please forgive me.) It’s too bad I, actually “we”, get deprived because some people cannot control themselves.

It’s just /facepalm.

…BUT who am to decide what’s illogical or crazy? I’m pretty insane myself, but the difference is I have a bit of common sense buried some where, at least.

@oubaka: It is definitely debatable to say whether censorship on the whole is good or not, and you list a very important point that it depends. However, to wait until someone is hurt might be too late. As we remember, many of those mass murderers have been often conditioned to violent acts on television series. They generally do not kill one, but many people at one go. You might argue that for every one of these murderers, there are 100 who will not be affected.

However, we are all slowly being conditioned to think that violence is ok, and that we are more receptable toward such things showing on our tv channel. I am not arguing for complete censorship, but some of the themes that have been overly explicit can be a bit disturbing to social values, and I cannot agree.

If things can only be taught by pain, as you say, then we need no government, and we should just have porn for all the channels since it’s ok. That is a joke, but I hope that you get my drift. Governance and censorship is a form of prior restraint, and it has been shown from much research that there are behavior changes after a long period of extended exposure to violence. that is not disputed, but to go into individualized action will be hard to define. I am seeing this from a macro level.

@XXX: I agree, but it is not arguing that only anime has this. In all mediums, there is censorship, and the effect of behavior intentions due to exposure to violence has been well documented. I do not think that I am attempting to single anime out, but to state that it is just one of the many examples.

@DrmChsr0: It is the balance of entertainment and the threatening of important social values that has to be imposed. I do not see censorship being required until extremely suggestive themes for e.g. but not limiting to such as clear beheading in a very realistic environment (not unlike our real life). Of course, it is impossible to be completely transparent on what the parameters and operationalized definition of violence without doing a very extensive amount of case studies and research, so I will not move on to evaluate.

@Matrim: Arr, I am misunderstood. I am simply using anime as an example, and not saying that anime is very much the cause of it. To state that, is as you say, hypocritical. I believe that censorship has to be exercised effectively on all forms of mediums, with a huge amount of leeway for creativity as well.

Well, I am speaking in terms of the overall pictures of a continued exposure to violence. It is apparent that as much as we can blame the perpetrators, there is often a reason or catalyst behind their actions. There are of course many factors that might cause this such as family issues, personality, disposition and the likes. However, the effect of the media is also one of such factors.

I believe that there is a need to take a look at it and prevent such crimes even if there is a possibility. The way I am reading your article is that we should not bother to prevent anything at all, and just let everything that is violent, dark, nude and porn show on prime time tv. That is not right. Social values and ethics have to be imposed in a justified manner. I am not sure about Higurashi as yet (I enjoyed it actually), but in a local context, the show itself can lead to huge sensitivity. In that manner, censorship to me is justified.

And I can sense a huge sense of sarcasm, dude, hehe I believe that there is a difference with continued exposure to such violent shows, and you don’t. That is why there is a difference in perception between our views. There is also a huge disparity between those who believe in censorship and those who do not, as they do not see each other’s point. I guess that is why ^^

@Kyokii: Hmmm, well, I guess that is perhaps one of the weaknesses of censorship, but it is sometimes important to do something that might be socially sensitive at the moment.

Anime is anime, and there is less realism due to the anime characters being less life-like than others. However, that also gives rise to more progressive and attempts to make the killings in a very realistic environment in real life settings. That might be going on a fine line.

@Reslez: I cannot question the footage of foilage and scenery as well. That is absolutely bonkers, haha. I am a strong believer that people are very likely to be conditioned toward thinking that an action is fine after being exposed to it for longer hours than one that is not. There are other factors, but you are running the risk as well when you are talking about a whole population, and that a good handful of arbitarly 10 dissidents can destroy a good hundred-thousand people due to this.

“As we remember, many of those mass murderers have been often conditioned to violent acts on television series. ”

Many? How many would that be? Probably something like 0,0003 percent. Any examples apart from the notorious Miyazaki? And conditioned is a word I wouldn’t really use in that context unless I had proof (I doubt you have since if you had the watchdogs would have banned most violent shows already).

“It is apparent that as much as we can blame the perpetrators, there is often a reason or catalyst behind their actions. There are of course many factors that might cause this such as family issues, personality, disposition and the likes. However, the effect of the media is also one of such factors.”

I am sure there must have been few murderers who snapped because of reasons like bad weather. What do we do then? Ban bad weather? We all move to sunny Andalucia? The effect of the media is neglibible in the big picture (as mentioned a million times, people have always been violent creatures, TV or no TV) and if anything can make one snap it would be the news, rather than any show. And as I said blaming the catalyst is like blaming the straw that broke the camel’s back, instead of the previous 2892389238 straws.

You keep on repeating that continued exposure to violence may lead people to believe that it’s acceptable but I am just not buying. It often works in reverse - when one sees the gruesome reality (or an imitation of it) he might decide that this kind of violence is totally horrible and unacceptable and he will never ever resort to it. An example - the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” is full of vividly descripted ugly deaths. Did it drive me to violence? No, it actually made me abhor war even more. Of course, it does anything but glorify violence but then again this is more or less true for Higurashi too and for the majority of violent shows in which evil as a rule always loses.

“The way I am reading your article is that we should not bother to prevent anything at all, and just let everything that is violent, dark, nude and porn show on prime time tv.”

I never said that, a tiny bit of regulation and restraint from the TV station is acceptable to me but we are talking about shows which air way past midnight. The only people likely to watch them know fully well what they are watching and in general are mature enough to distinguish between reality and fiction. To make the majority suffer in order to protect few from the very much hyphotetical danger in my view is silly and insulting to the viewers.
Have you watched the classical Looney Tunes cartoons with Bugs Bunny and co? They are often ultra violent and the characters even survive everything that it’s used against them, including explosives which following the reasoning that meida is a catalyst for violence, should have prompted at least someone to try to do it in real life. Have you heard of any serial killers who got inspired by them? I doubt it. Yet, I heard the new versions of the cartoons are heavily censored. Next thing you know, “violent” fairy tales will be censored too because kids shouldn’t know what death is until they are 55. In the Bible there is more gruesome depictions of violence than Higurashi can ever hope to match - do you propose to censor or ban it too? Well, I do but for entirely different reasons.

I find the notion that certain material should be censored because it “threatening to important social values” somewhat disturbing. What makes material threatening? What are these important social values? Who decides what’s threatening and what values are important? Why aren’t individual people able to make those decisions on their own? And more importantly, why is some government authority, which is ultimately just made up of people like you or I, better equipped to do so?

To use the example of School Days, if some channel thinks that showing the last episode is a bad idea, then that’s their call. But others should be free to make the opposite decision and show the episode without restraint. It’s not about entertainment, but rather the principle of the matter

You can say that there impressionable people out there and seeing “bad things” on television or whatever might threaten societal values in some way, but I think it says a great deal about how important our society’s values truly are when we don’t think they can stand on their own, and require sheltering through censorship.

At the end of the day, the best defense against bad ideas is the advocacy of better ones.

“Do you know that 60% of our personality as adults is honed during the first 5 years of our living. And since animes, which are in general viewed as children’s show, I believe that they have a great effect in molding the young people’s minds.”

Do you know that pretty much all anime deemed unsuitable for kids airs past midnight? How many five year olds who watch TV past midnight do you know?

Happy?

Chris, They are watching 24 hour Cartoon Network.

Let me repeat whAt i said, “I really think that there should always be an antagonizing force against the the increasing power of media, the whole of it not just with animes.”