Where Do People Get the Impression That DB is for Adults?

[Adamant]

There was a similar instance that happened in Pokemon. When an episode that starred Jynx was made, it got completely banned because some people thought Jynx was a racial stereotype.

Incorrect. The episode (and a later episode with Jynx) got dubbed, distributed and aired as normal, but after a specific rerun, a black parent complained about in publically, which led to a) some American networks deciding not to air that episode again (nothing happened to the second episode) and b) 4Kids not dubbing a third episode with Jynx in it, then cutting Jynx from a fourth episode. The Japanese caught on and used the purple-colored design in the anime from there on, and all subsequent episodes were dubbed without any problems.
There was never any "complete bans", though.

[Piccolo Daimao]

That's so unfair! My parents didn't pay attention to anything, including "Satan" and naked Goku in GT opening. I was watching it, while my Mom was doin the ironing in the same room and she has never forbidden me anything. I feel abandoned.

Of course it's unfair. We live in a world where there are many parents that become super-conservative and irrational when it comes to religion and/or nudity. I still find it amusing that parents are more likely to throw a fit over a shot of a teenage girl's breasts than a scene of a young boy being bloodily beaten by an adult. Shows how double-standard a society many countries have. But the countries that are more open about sex has less teenage pregnancies, since their children aren't wrapped up in wool, shielded from the reality of the world and whose bulk of knowledge about sex comes from porn and rumours. But I don't want to get into that now and derail this thread.

[Rocketman]

I still find it amusing that parents are more likely to throw a fit over a shot of a teenage girl's breasts than a scene of a young boy being bloodily beaten by an adult. Shows how double-standard a society many countries have.

That's not a double standard because those are two different situations.

A double standard would be banning one shot of a teenage girl's breasts but letting a similar shot of a different teenage girl's breasts go because you think she's cute.

American culture just doesn't care as much about violence compared to sex.


Personally, I find it amusing that a lot of the people who go "RESPECT JAPAN'S CULTURE/SOCIETY" refuse to respect American culture/society.

[Pokewhiz7]

Personally, I find it amusing that a lot of the people who go "RESPECT JAPAN'S CULTURE/SOCIETY" refuse to respect American culture/society.

Nobody was disrespecting American culture at all. The fact that people are offended by the human body, though, quite honestly disgusts me.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I still find it amusing that parents are more likely to throw a fit over a shot of a teenage girl's breasts than a scene of a young boy being bloodily beaten by an adult. Shows how double-standard a society many countries have.

That's not a double standard because those are two different situations.

A double standard would be banning one shot of a teenage girl's breasts but letting a similar shot of a different teenage girl's breasts go because you think she's cute.

American culture just doesn't care as much about violence compared to sex.


Personally, I find it amusing that a lot of the people who go "RESPECT JAPAN'S CULTURE/SOCIETY" refuse to respect American culture/society.

I think it is a double standard because, by American society, they are two extremes, yet parents are more outraged at nudity than violence.

[Rocketman]

I think it is a double standard

Well, you're wrong. That's not what 'double standard' means.

[Zephyr]

Personally, I find it amusing that a lot of the people who go "RESPECT JAPAN'S CULTURE/SOCIETY" refuse to respect American culture/society.

To be fair, nearly every aspect of American culture seems to be either incredibly moronic, or adopted from some other culture.

[Li'l Lemmy]

We call that a "melting pot". Hell, even the term itself is probably stolen from some other smarter, better country. ;p


~Da Lemmy

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

American culture and Japanese culture are, in my opinion, incomparable in some areas. They're completely different countries that have completely different histories. Comparisons between America and other western countries like Australia and Canada are sensible, and are indeed made quite often in regard to insurance. But America and Japan are just too different to say obtuse things like, "Why was this censored in America when in Japan it aired unedited? That's so fucking retarded".

[TonyTheTiger]

American culture just doesn't care as much about violence compared to sex.

I don't know if it's so much about not caring as it is about pragmatism. It's simply too damn hard to tell a good story without some semblance of violence and since it is so easily woven into a narrative (much less the fact that lots of violence gets excused as morally justified since it's often the good guys giving the beat downs), you have plenty of reasons why it's far more ubiquitous.

[Mountain]

Well, it's fairly obvious that love is censored in America, for whatever reason. If you haven't seen it already, I'd highly recommend the documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated (2006). It's available on Netflix.

[TonyTheTiger]

I'm just shocked people apparently imply things would be better in the reverse situation. Imagine Dragon Ball without violence.

But the absurd oversimplification of American culture going on here is laughable. "Violence=good, sex=bad" completely ignoring that context has and always will be what makes or breaks acceptability. It just so happens that more violence is deemed acceptable considering very often there's moral value to it. It's not necessarily the violence that people accept but rather the reason for it.

Fact is, being content with violence in media is not only sensible given how overwhelmingly helpful it is as a storytelling tool in the context of a narrative (something nudity is usually not), it's also merely a reflection of what we value. Violence in Dragon Ball is usually considered acceptable because it's grounded in good vs. evil, a conflict that pretty much everybody everywhere can relate to. And most mainstream media heavy in violence is similar. Hollywood action movies, most popular anime, comic books, etc. Most of it is good guys vs. bad guys. Meanwhile, movies like Saw are constantly reviled as "torture porn" that are bad for society, not necessarily because they're violent but because they're violent without the moral high ground to support it.

So, yeah, the bumper sticker soundbite that America is A-OK with violence but reviled by sex is ludicrous. These bumper sticker soundbites only sound good when ignoring the wealth of context beneath the surface.

[MCDaveG]

I never realized or seen that someone is claiming that this series is for adults. It also never hit my mind ever......

Well imagine comin' up to the bar, where everyone is watching soccer, pop in the Megaman DVD and say: ''Hey guys, do you wanna see something brutal?''
That's death in an instant. You won't ever have a time to say ''Adult!''

[Piccolo Daimao]

*post*

Perhaps Dragon Ball isn't the best example of this, but in various media, nudity can be essential to the plot, and it can also be helpful as a storytelling tool in the context of a narrative. For example, romance novels/films.

I understand your Saw example, arguably violence for the sake of violence, but in DB, is it really nudity for the sake of nudity? Naked Goku is used for humour on multiple occasions, and in more than one instance it's because he goes swimming, and you can't always expect someone, especially a kid that lives out in the mountains away from civilization, to always have a pair of trunks on him. It's not gratuitious nudity.

Nor is any of the scenes where Bulma gets her tits out. Again, it's used for humour. We're not harming our children if they see a pair of breasts. It's not about whether or not it's "good vs. evil, so it's OK", or "it's good for the story", because nudity can do just that too. I'm just saying that if parents want to be concerned about the material their children are watching, they should kick up more of a fuss about a scene of a young boy being tortured by an adult than a brief shot of a teenage girl's breasts.

[TonyTheTiger]

It's not the fact that you're saying people have a problem with the nudity that I take issue with. It's that you appear to be arguing that people take more issue with it than any other situation that might be considered unsavory.

Bulma is somewhat of a bad example because there's more at play than just her body, which adds to why people may complain. The situations, of course played for comedic effect, would be pretty squicky in real life. On that same train of thought, Warner Bros. has been having a real problem with Pepé Le Pew. If you haven't noticed, they don't air his old cartoons much anymore. And whenever he appears in new productions, they play up his Frenchness as his comic motif. And in his case there was no nudity (or humans) involved at all.

Essentially, what I take issue with is this assertion:

they should kick up more of a fuss about a scene of a young boy being tortured by an adult than a brief shot of a teenage girl's breasts.

As far as I'm aware, Dragon Ball has a history of edits to the violence during TV airings, too. So...I don't get what your assertion is based on. People do kick up a fuss about a scene of a young boy being tortured by an adult.

And I'm not necessarily saying that I think there's anything in Dragon Ball that's inappropriate for television. But you're seeing a discrepancy that simply is not there.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Fair enough.