Kids & Anime

agelesslorg · Post by **agelesslorg** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:07 am

yep that very one

i cant believe it i thought i was the crazy one in the family

Arigatomina · Post by **Arigatomina** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:04 am

Say we ban anime, cut it off completely so children can't see it on television and can't buy it without proof that they're 18 or over (which already happens with some uncut dvds). Then what do you think they'll be watching? Whatever happens to be on television, or whatever they can find on the internet and in the halls at school.

Think back to catastrophes and what sort of graphic images are shown on television reports. We can't even limit children to only seeing 'real' things because half the real things they see on television are worse than what they might find in movies. So we cut off their movie supply and they watch regular television. Talk about your sexual content, do you really want children watching daytime soaps and violent physical sports where people can easily get bones dislocated and spray blood all over the field? If watching things makes children bad, then we have to cut out *everything* that they watch until they're all watching barney. But they can't watch Barney either because he looks and sounds like a big child molester the same as Mr. Rogers did and Pee Wee Herman. So they can watch My Little Pony reruns and the Care Bears. I'm sure the little boys will love that. And how old do they need to be before we let them watch the 'bad' stuff? Parents run out and buy birth control for their 15yr old daughters, so surely they're old enough to watch porn - if they didn't want them having sex, they wouldn't make it easy for them, they'd tell them no and enforce that.

And why stop with visuals like movies and television? If children are so simple that they'd mimick anything they see, do you think they won't mimick what they read? We'll have all of them on the Little Brown Bear books until they're old enough to know better. After all, we wouldn't want them reading some Fear Street novel and trying to kill their step sisters by dumping her in a prepaired grave and attacking her with a shovel. No, we'd have to watch all the things that touch them. But what about school? What if their teachers make them read history books about how slaves were murdered and raped? We can't have that or they might go out and mimick it on their fellow classmates. So we'll save the history lessons till they're old enough to know better. They can learn to read and practice reading those Bear books, they can figure out where big words come in once they're old enough not to wonder what fornication means. Grammar can be dangerous after all, when children don't know better than to not say words that are 'bad' for them.

Get real. If parents remembered how to teach their children that 'no' means NO, then they'd behave. It's this hands-off approach, this idea that they need to 'learn for themselves' and 'make choices' so they'll be better adults - that's what screws the kids up, not what they watch. If it was anime, then we wouldn't have messed up kids like Bundy out there mutilating small animals before moving onto adult humans - that was years before anime started being aired on normal daytime television - long before dvds were available in retail stores. Anime has nothing to do with screwed up people - it's either genetic (stupidity or a warped hormone problem), or it's the upbringing in which the children were never taught to know the difference between right and wrong - and they don't 'learn that for themselves' - parents, guardians, teachers, adults have to teach them. You aren't born knowing that fake is fake for a reason, someone has to tell you. That's the parents' job.

When an adult blames an outside source for his child not having common sense, he's simply ignoring his responsibility. But that's what adults like to do since it's the 'easy hands-off' approach. Your little boy just wrapped a garden hose around the neighbor girl and tried to molest her with it? Oh, let's blame that tentacle anime he watched the other day. After all, it's not like his parents should be held responsible for letting him watch it - the show's the one to blame, not the people protecting and teaching the children. After all, children don't have common sense, so they don't know tentacles only move in sea documentaries and make-believe, and common sense is something they won't learn for themselves till they're older. The parents who bought the television couldn't be to blame for what he watched on it.

Blegh. Bad parents raise stupid children, and bad teachers let those children remain stupid. Outside sources just complicate the real problem.

HeartbreakerByZep · Post by **HeartbreakerByZep** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:35 pm

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I am a HUGE supporter of the Evangelion For Kids initiative.

Kalium · Post by **Kalium** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:38 pm

Gee, look at the time. Is it 1984 already?

Oh, Ari, nicely done. Very nicely.

Yukina_Raven · Post by **Yukina_Raven** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:41 pm

HeartbreakerByZep wrote:Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I am a HUGE supporter of the Evangelion For Kids initiative.

Nice.

Anyway, nice topic.

This reminds me of the whole violent video game thing. Do video games make kids violent? Not really. And neither does anime. It's been said above but if a kid goes out and kills someone, then they're already screwed up. Parents blame things like video games and TV because they refuse to believe their child would do something so horrible on their own.

But seriously, what would parents want their kids to see: Cartoon violence or real violence? Anime is real looking, but its still a 'cartoon' so to speak. Animation. Real violence is a much more iffy, I think.

Charizard305 · Post by **Charizard305** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:48 pm

It might just be me but i didnt see the word Anime or Television influencing the behavioral pattern of kids once. I might be stupid, who knows. Its the parents jobs to make sure that their little kids arnt watching excessive violence, as said above.

That article is pretty horrifying though.

yukimoru · Post by **yukimoru** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:05 pm

it's the upbringing in which the children were never taught to know the difference between right and wrong - and they don't 'learn that for themselves' - parents, guardians, teachers, adults have to teach them. You aren't born knowing that fake is fake for a reason, someone has to tell you. That's the parents' job.

Very well said. It's the parent's responsibility to teach the children what is right and wrong, but also the child's responsibility to use the knowledge that they attained from their parents, so that they can use that knowledge to determine what is fake and what is real. And children do have common sense; yes, even younger children do, to some degree. As children get older they gain more knowledge, and become smarter/wise or become foolish...something like that.

yukimoru · Post by **yukimoru** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:19 pm

HeartbreakerByZep wrote:Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I am a HUGE supporter of the Evangelion For Kids initiative.

I would have to diagree with you on this. Evangelion is a great anime, I've seen every episode (except for the End of Evangelion) at least twice; it's truely a work of art. I'm not clear on what age group you refer to 'Kids' as, but the 'meaning of life' sort of theory they have, actually it's more of 'how the mind works' and 'what are your motives motivated by' (maybe I should watch the series again to say this correctly?...) What I am trying to say is, that I do not agree with their philosophy on life & the mind (because I am a Christian), and I wouldn't recommend it to younger children (mainly because of some of the content). But that is me, and I am not trying to speak for anyone else.

HeartbreakerByZep · Post by **HeartbreakerByZep** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:48 pm

yukimoru wrote:
HeartbreakerByZep wrote:Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I am a HUGE supporter of the Evangelion For Kids initiative.
I would have to diagree with you on this. Evangelion is a great anime, I've seen every episode (except for the End of Evangelion) at least twice; it's truely a work of art. I'm not clear on what age group you refer to 'Kids' as, but the 'meaning of life' sort of theory they have, actually it's more of 'how the mind works' and 'what are your motives motivated by' (maybe I should watch the series again to say this correctly?...) What I am trying to say is, that I do not agree with their philosophy on life & the mind (because I am a Christian), and I wouldn't recommend it to younger children (mainly because of some of the content). But that is me, and I am not trying to speak for anyone else.

You don't agree with the philosophy that one can enjoy life despite its unavoidable pain? Well I guess I can understand that. Specificaly if you are one that beleives Humanity to be deeply in debt to God for His great gift and that in our life we should be for Him. If that is so, nothing wrong with that.

But I would definetly reccomend Evangelion to "kids". By kids I'm specifically targeting the 11-14 age group, with ideal age being 13.

First of all, a ton of Anime fans do happen to see Evangelion in the 12-14 range. I saw it in that range too, and some of the better minds I've seen in the EVA community claim that age too. But more importantly, I thin EVA'd be as good for kids as anything else they'll watch. It would get them to think a bit, which you will never get from MTV no matter what. It's important to get kids thinking young, it's quite a bit more unlikely for kids to be intelectual if they don't get the good stuff at an earlier age. And aside from that, EVA's just a good show. It'll provide a good balance of drama and not-so-dramatic content, which should please kids.

I guess Neon Genesis Evangelion is just exactly the kind of thing I'd want kids to watch. But for you, yukimori, it's not like they'll automatically beleive whatever the show says. I think it'd be doable to show kids Evangelion and still raise them with whatever Christian beliefs you want.

yukimoru · Post by **yukimoru** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:41 pm

I think it'd be doable to show kids Evangelion and still raise them with whatever Christian beliefs you want.

It's important to get kids thinking young, it's quite a bit more unlikely for kids to be intelectual if they don't get the good stuff at an earlier age.

I wouldn't call an Eva eating another being 'good stuff' to teach a kid; and yes, the show did get me thinking, but I don't think in a way that you or the people who created Evangelion wanted or intended me think.

I think it's doable to shows kids Evangelion and still raise them with Chritian morals, too. As to show that my parents raised me with Christian beliefs. [/quote]