OngakuSociety

Solon warns porno anime 'inching way into living rooms'

An administration lawmaker on Monday warned against pornographic anime or animated cartoons called "hentai" that he said threatened to invade living rooms either through the Internet or pirated VCDs or DVDs.

"There are more than two dozen hentai websites that could be easily accessed by grade schoolers. Video pirate readily offer these pornographic cartoons to teenagers," Pasig Representative Roberto "Dodot" Jaworski said as he urged concerned groups to discuss the problem and the steps to address it.

"Hentai is an emerging threat to the moral fibers of our nation because it attacks the innocence of our youth," he said.

Explaining the origin of the pornographic cartoons, Jaworski said hentai is a Japanese word for "abnormality" or "metamorphosis" that is also popularly accepted as synonymous to "perversion."

"Because these are rendered in cartoons or anime form, its [hentai's] creators could depict…eroticism beyond their wildest and most depraved imagination. These are what they feed the minds of our youth," he said.

If not addressed, this problem would lead to "moral degradation among the youth," the lawmaker said.

"This cartoon production exploits the young, formative minds and its popularity dangerously influences how the minors delineate what is morally right or wrong," he added.

from PDI.

Personally, I find this unwarranted attack on H-anime is a gimmick to raise awareness for the re-election plans of the representative mentioned in the above article. As a regular patron of pirated DVD suppliers (mostly for research and/or educational purposes), H-anime represents a miniscule portion of all porn DVDs available for sale in the black market; a larger percentage of these illicit products still fall under the live-action category. If the "honorable" Congressman wants to go after someone, then he ought to forget about the small fry and go after the big fish.

And by "educational purposes" I mean I would like to educate myself in things I am not so familiar with in order to form an intelligent opinion on esoteric matters (if and when the subject is being discussed); think of it as a way of reaching into the heart of the matter without having someone else's opinion taint it for you. Yes, I can learn about it from a book, but what if the book's author has his opinion skewed either for or against the subject (in this case, pornography)? My opinion will inevitably reflect or refute his stance due to his effective or ineffective argumentation. If so, then I'd personally want to cut out the middle man, and view the subject myself, so that the opinions I have formed are based entirely on my own perception of what is and what is not acceptable.

To make it clearer, let me put me take the subject of pornography out of the context of the current discussion (which is animated porn), and superimpose it on something that is more easily grasped: high art. When MICHAELANGELO's DAVID first came out, society was at odds whether to consider it art or obscenity. It still is now, to a certain extent (several fundamentalist religious groups forbid the viewing of the famous sculpture), but that is because it is intrinsic human nature that what may be acceptable to others may be taboo to the rest.

Now let's bring it back to the discussion on hentai anime: what may be pornography to some could simply be another expression of human sexuality to others. What could be dirty tentacle porn to some may be an interesting visual manifestation of Japanese precepts of sex taboos to others. I could site a number of other reason but what it all boils down to is this: it is not your place to tell others what is and is not acceptable to them. The most you can do as a free individual of this Republic is to to uphold your personal beliefs, without having to impinge on the beliefs of others.