I’m so late to the party it’s not even funny.

There’s a ton I would like to say, but I’m pressed for time so I’ll keep it short.

When children become completely fucked up (for lack of a better word), do we blame them? Do we blame them for actions THEY HAVE INSUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE OF?

No. For it is the parents that are to blame. Children are incapable of telling right from wrong, so it is up to the parents to instill the basic moral framework. Once parents relinquish that responsibility to the government/mass media/videogames/whatever, they have failed in their basic responsibility.

Physical provision of a good life is not enough to create a neurotypical human. The parents must also show love and concern to their children, and show it via their actions. If you’re wondering why psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and to a much lesser extent, religious communities and leaders (in my case, my local church community) are not just needed, but sorely needed, is because parents failed to do their job as parents. There’s a very good reason why spoiled kids usually turn out to be bad kids.

Unfortunately, we can’t just fine the parents and put them to death. It’d only create worse problems and does nothing for the child. The victim is the child, and we have to help the victims.

One can say anything about Kodomo no Jikan, and I fully agree that children should not be so sexually suggestive, unfortunately, spewing forth shallow and discordant phrases only shows your hypocritical stance on this issue.

The KnJ license was badly handled, yes. But it takes bigger balls to pull the plug than to go ahead.

To tackle the whole religious bent: I’m still a fucking godless heathen sinner even though I’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. That taint is something I cannot eradicate. I’m still just as godless as you are, and thus, am not exempt from God’s wrath if I fuck up.

A few unorganized thoughts the review and responses bubbled up for me:

1) Some responders seem to confuse the anime with the manga. The anime went for fan service over story. It also introduced and resolved Rin’s problems quickly and clumsily - not surprising since a) the anime was rather short, and b) ended while the current manga was still ongoing - the anime was produced well before the manga began showing just how bad Rin’s home situation is becoming. Rin does have problems at home, and they are both subtle and serious. The anime was not able to properly explore them, whereas they are a driving force in the manga. I didn’t much care for the anime - love the manga.

2) A lot of the controversy over the series has to do with Rin’s overt use of sexuality as a weapon. Rin is a child - so why should this behaviour bother we the readers? It’s obvious she is just acting out, emulating things she has seen and read, right? Why take her behaviour seriously enough to be offended? Do we think she actually understands the implications of her actions? Or has this child simply found a way to shock,confound, and control the adults in her life? And if so, why do her actions work so well in doing so?

As Rin says in chapter 21 while suggestively confronting/teasing her teacher , “If you truly think of me as a child, you shouldn’t have a problem looking at me even like this.” When he replies that it is her behavior that bothers him, that is all - while still refusing to look at Rin - she rightly claims “You’re a liar.”

The children in this story are children, the adults are adults, and it is the failures of the latter that are the problem. It might be uncomfortable for the reader to see the same reflected in themselves and their society.

3) American readers might be a bit confused as to why it takes the teacher so long to worry about whether Rin is being sexually abused at home. American teachers tend to know that sexual abuse is a common cause of innapropriate sexual behaviour in children. It is my understanding that child abuse is only recently entering the Japanese public conciousness whereas it has been a topic of public concern in the USA for a couple of decades. This, combined with the teacher’s inexperience, might explain his slowness. (Please correct me if my impressions are wrong on this point).

4) The series moves slowly - while it presents itself as an ecchi humor story (and yes, does go waaay over the top at times - the phallic water fountain leaps to mind), it slowly unfolds quite a bit of darkness in its underlying plot. It takes a while to develop (Chapter 20 was a shock - and the source of that shock has nothing to do with ecchiness). Still, each chapter adds more to the story, and even the early chapters point to a deeper story. Before passing judgement on it, one should read at least through chapter 21 (they’re short chapters). They can be read online at several sources (One Manga, for example).

5) Did I mention I’m a fan of Kodomo no Jikan?

Such enligtened discourse, bravo sir.

“There is nothing unmoral in lolicon, only in real-life child molesting, which is EXACTLY what lolicon is NOT.”

You should add “in my opinion” to that sentence on what “unmoral” is. In reality morality is different for each person, it’s subjective. Just because you think it’s cool to have sexual situations involving a 9 year old doesn’t mean I have to think it’s fine. There’s various degrees of offense beyond your own. So, if instead of the principal having his hands in her underwear he instead pulled down his pants and defecated on her chest, that would still be alright? I mean, that’s not them having sex right? That’s fine, it’s not offensive right? Don’t try to push your value system on me. I didn’t say it should be banned, but I have the right to be offended, whether the girls are real or not.

On the other hand Karisu’s post explained more clearly why the manga might not be that bad buuut I still disagree with the general idea XD

@Ashmadeus B/c I’m a hater and you said we have little knowledge I wiki’d lolicon. “Strictly speaking, Lolita complex in Japanese refers only to the paraphilia itself, but the abbreviation lolicon can refer to an individual that has the paraphilia as well.”
On to paraphilia “in psychology and sexology, is a term that describes a family of persistent, intense fantasies, aberrant urges, or behaviors involving sexual arousal to nonhuman objects, pain or humiliation experienced by oneself or one’s partner, children, or nonconsenting individuals or unsuitable partners.”
Sorry but to me that still doesn’t sound very good. Ahh sorry for the long post ;;

Looks like there is simply no way to justify the series to the critics, so lets just agree on a simple rule: no child can become sexually attracted to those who are more than five years their age. The only way for them to have that attraction be requited is to try to act as sexually mature as the ones they seek. Since the idea will elicit shock among all the gentle folks, those children should be immediately reprogrammed. Beatings, electroshock therapy and/or cold showers are to be recommended.

For fucks sakes, of course she’s a kid, that’s why her shenanigans are always so over the top. She is simply too young to know what’s appropriate and what’s not. She’s exactly like a kid who learned a new swearword and is trying to act all adult by saying “fuck” all the time. That’s why I laugh everytime she horrifies Aoki-sensei with another stunt.

At the same time you feel the pain of her being unable to fulfill her genuine feelings because of something that is arbitrary, if necessary. The scenes from the latest chapter may be societally unacceptable, but they came from a genuine enough place that damn near made me cry.

However I do not agree with its content at all and I believe it to be trash and disgusting. However just because I do not like it does not mean it can not be published.

And, uh, the americans with the whacky attitudes (ignore the generalization) are more of a bunch of cultural bigots and religious nuts than racists these days.

I will admit a slight bias though, since I’m black and live in the U.S., so you’ll have to excuse me if I find your use of the term racism as amusing to say the least.

I’m a big fan of KnJ (both manga and anime) and I think it’s a fantastic series. At the same time, I thought your post didn’t touch on a single thing that I actually find appealing about the series (which is fine, everyone enjoys things for different reasons). You seemed to focus on the sexuality of it all, whereas for me, it’s the plot/story/psychology of it all.

Rin’s life and her story are both sad and tragic and it’s how she deals with these things and her strong desire just to be loved that I find the most appealing. How Aoki deals with his own personal issues and the situation(s) Rin puts him in is almost equally appealing for me as well. He’s a man who’s never had a romantic relationship with a woman, is still a virgin, and is, for the most part mentally and emotionally still stuck a child himself for never experiencing these things.

I think Kodomo no Jikan is a fantastic manga/anime that deserves to be looked at and given a chance, but trying to sell people on the sex and eroticism of children that is turning them away in the first place is not going to win many new readers/viewers. Perhaps I’m the rare fan that truly finds the story compelling and sees the echiness of it as more of a throw away that services the property rather than drives it, but for me it’s the true selling point of it all.

Side note: Learn what racism is before trying to invoke it. The U.S. having (to speak generally, as certainly not everyone is like this) a different moral compass than another country does not make it racist. Japan often censors violence and blood that wouldn’t be given a second thought in America, but you don’t hear Americans calling Japanese racist for having different values when it comes to such things. Every country has their own general feeling on certain topics. The U.S. is more open to (certain types of) violence in their media and Japan is more open to (certain types of) sexuality in theirs. Doesn’t make either side racist. There is no intolerance of one’s race here. If anything it’s intolerance of culture and the last time I checked the definition of being racist was “Discrimination or prejudice based on race” not culture.

Well, damn that ended up way waaay longer than I intended…

In your original post, when you mentioned the US looking down on Asia and stereotyping Asians as geisha girls and such, I assume you’re referring to the most general definition of racism. And that’s the hatred of a race. So by using this definition, in order for this to actually be classified as racist, the US would have to reject a notion that most Japanese believe in. So yes. You did not say Japan is a land of pedophiles, but by making this claim, it is implied.

But if you take it simply to mean the rejection of foreign ideas based on one’s individual morals, then I suppose anything can be racist. For instance, I could believe that aggressing upon the weaker in order to get ahead in life is perfectly moral. And to you, that idea could be foreign. But if you were to disagree with me on this, it wouldn’t necessarily be racist.

So then where are we supposed to draw the line? To me, racism has huge connotations that are epic in scale. I don’t believe it’s a word to be used lightly.

And I was not attempting to make a hit and run comment. I was simply stating that not everything can be viewed in terms of racism, and I do not believe KNJ not being picked up by Seven Seas is racist.

Pushing aside my desires? Frankly I have no desires regarding 9 year old girls. I grew up with a sister 5 years younger than myself so I find material like KnJ extremely revolting. I don’t care if it’s satire or the most beautiful story ever told, the fact is that it depicts children in sexual situations and I find them purely disgusting. So no, I will never read it and I will continue to view it as unworthy of my time. I see no problem with condemning any work that has children in sexual situations as this does, and no matter how many times you call me “fucking stupid,” I won’t change my mind.

But that does not make JP a country of pedophiles or godless sinners [as some of the accusations go against fans of KnJ], or in any way inferior to the US.

Calling those who would refer to Japanese people as “godless sinners” kind of invalidates your argument that this represents “the collective identity that has come to represent the US.” The type of people you are describing are an extremist section of American society, which has a lot of extremists due to the fact we have 300 million people. And I don’t see how condemning depictions of children in sexual situations represents a double-standard, as a culture we are expressing a view that we find this distasteful. And seeing as how this work comes out of Japan it’s natural for this imaginary general culture of the US to feel that if Japan accepts distasteful works like this as ok then perhaps we should have a lower opinion of Japanese culture. I think that has little to do with racism and more to do with the fact that Japan produces significant quantities of lolicon and other depictions of children in sexual situations that most Americans find offensive. The Japanese depict Americans as loud, blonde, ignorant idiots because of the works that come out of our country, should we consider the Japanese racist then?

“Canceling the licensing of KnJ is the ultimate gesture of censorship because that is the company’s decision to keep what they perceive as a threat to the public out of the country. So in SSE’s decision, I see both capitalism and culture at work, not separated as you suggested.”

Actually it has little to do with censorship, see Crusader’s post.