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Do you think anime/manga will become a new scapegoat?

Honestly, the video game thing isn't even that bad. It's just a bunch of loud people complaining. In the end, nothing really happens to the video game industry because of it.

That being said anime has developed a bad rep, not as bad as video games and movies, but still bad. Lets not forget all the claims about Higurashi being connected to murder cases in Japan. And Chain actually banning Death Note. And if I remember correctly back in the 90's OVA boom there was some controversy around anime. But I think at this point anime does not have the right qualifications to become a real scapegoat.

I'm guessing there are people who are too naive and just want to imitate things they see. But it's mostly up to the parents' responsibility on monitoring what they watch, not some government or media watchdog group.

Besides there're billions out here, we are bound to face a few lunatics and retards along the way, you just happened to meet a few.

Speaking of Jack Thompson, those who solely blame a certain aspect of media, culture, specific ethnic/religious/sexual group, etc. for everything will eventually get their asses served into themselves (such as Jack Thompson being disbarred and Fred Phelps getting himselved banned in the U.K.).

I would not be surprised how the most socially conservative Christian groups will respond if Disney decides to release To Aru Majutsu no Index in the U.S.

It seems unlikely, the reason why those other media have gotten so much heat is because they are so popular. They're easy targets because they're so big. Anime in the western world (and arguably in Japan even) is seen as a sub culture thing. Video games, music, and movies are much more well known and most people have used them before. The chances of the parent watch organization across the world suddenly deciding to go after a little sub culture like anime is unlikely (usually).

However, the question here is if it's a suitable candidate to even be a scapegoat, at least in America. I'm thinking, yes to some degree, being non-mainstream hasn't affected people blaming metal music for "youth corruption" and there will certainly always be enough psychotic people to take any given idea far enough to get media attention and then blame it on something else. On the other hand, I don't think it's likely to happen any time soon, video games are still serving perfectly well as corrupting scapegoats and with less anime on TV, it'll be a little more difficult to find something some idiot can imitate. On the plus side, like the Wii, all animated things are for children, so if we'd really want media attention for anime, we'd just need to show some overly protective PTA group or crazed and equally incompetent non-disbarred lawyer Princess Mononoke (preferably right after Spirited Away or Ponyo) and get someone to claim it as "corrupting" since it is animated and therefore for children and see where that leads. Oddly enough, some adults still don't seem to know South Park isn't for kids.

have a somewhat interesting add-on question to this, if it were to become a scapegoat, do you think it would actually be a bad thing? Just look at what's happened with the other scapegoats, the Fox News Mass Effect report only made its sales go up, Bully certainly didn't suffer from Jack Thompson going crazy on it before it was even released (although being released late in the console's life might've) and I'm pretty sure the Hot Coffee thing only made more people buy San Andreas in a big rush before it got taken off the shelves and replaced with the code-less one and it certainly hasn't hurt the sale of any of the other GTA games. The lesson here seems to be that any publicity is good publicity because it means you are getting noticed and the worse things they say about you, the more curious it makes me and the more I want to check it out. If it becomes a major scape-goat, it might move out of a sub culture and either just become larger or more mainstream (which would result in more weeaboos, but also more shows getting licensed and shown on TV over here, take your pick)

It's always possible, but doesn't really worry me. Honestly, some people already use anime as a scapegoat. Regardless, it really won't make any difference in the long run. The most that will happen is that these angry parents will keep their own children from watching anime. No laws will be made banning every anime ever.

Honestly, the video game thing isn't even that bad. It's just a bunch of loud people complaining. In the end, nothing really happens to the video game industry because of it.

I've seen a lot of people blaming school shooting on things like video game, music, and movies.

Somewhere in the future, I know anime will be scapegoat like video game before them. There's already anme haters wanting to ban anime, legislate them, or even blame them for school shooting.

About the video game thing isn't even that bad. Yeah, Gamepolitics.com wants to talk to you about that.

Despite this all it takes for a scapegoat to be created is for a fan of anime/manga to commit a murder etc of a certain brutality like if I recreated a Higurashi scene from the boxset I recently purchased. Although like with all scapegoats, the impact is likely to be short term and may generate more fans for the medium.

His extraordinary appetites for pornography and manga comics gave the Japanese media its first example of a “killer geek”. Since then, it is a label that has been repeatedly applied to any murderer who appears to share those tastes – last week’s stabbing frenzy in Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district was carried out by a man instantly branded in the public eye as a killer geek.

For his victims’ families and Japanese society at large, the Miyazaki killings were particularly shattering. Miyazaki began his spree of abductions and killings at the very peak of Japan’s 1980s economic bubble – a phase where the country’s mighty corporations seemed to hold the world at their feet and society boasted of its unique “harmony”.