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INTEREST: Eyeshield 21 Author Discusses Football Manga's '18+' Rating in U.S.

HeeroTX wrote:

I love Eyeshield 21, but really, if anything was gonna get the "mature" rating on it, I would've assumed it'd be the casual racism rather than the proliferation of guns.

Yeah! This has always bothered me since I rarely see it brought up as a criticism. Hajime no Ippo had a similar relationship with black characters with essentially the same character as Panther, talking about "black muscles" and their genetic advantages over Japanese, but at least that was from the 80s. Eyeshield 21 is a lot more recent but Japan's homogeneous society seems to breed the same ignorance, and they seem to have a stock black character which is a bit patronizing (like when an old magic negro shows up in Hollywood films). They've latched onto the idea of the physically weaker Japanese underdog competing with the rest of the world, and black people are like the final boss.

It's funny how they've assumed it was the guns, though I do think Hiruma's character as a whole may be part of it.

Aquamine-Amarine wrote:

You say that like it's a bad thing. How about you sit down and look up the definition of "inanimate object".

Gun control is a huge problem in America.

I was mostly referring to comedic cartoons like Dark Wing Duck or Tail Spin and pretty much every other Disney cartoon series from the 90s. Hell back then Disney could get away with anything short of murder.

To the contrary, Saban edited gunplay out of a Samurai Pizza Cats episode back in 1991 ("Mission in Manhattan"). spoiler[One of the pizzacat's NY dopplegangers branishes a pistol, but scenes of him firing it were taken out of the English version.]

I always thought the rating had to do with that one character who basically attempted to rape Mamori. They even showed him waking up after a night of sex. I forget his name. The one with the dreadlocks and glasses who had a twin.

But guns make more sense.

Yuza wrote:

HeeroTX wrote: I love Eyeshield 21, but really, if anything was gonna get the "mature" rating on it, I would've assumed it'd be the casual racism rather than the proliferation of guns. Yeah! This has always bothered me since I rarely see it brought up as a criticism. Hajime no Ippo had a similar relationship with black characters with essentially the same character as Panther, talking about "black muscles" and their genetic advantages over Japanese, but at least that was from the 80s. Eyeshield 21 is a lot more recent but Japan's homogeneous society seems to breed the same ignorance, and they seem to have a stock black character which is a bit patronizing (like when an old magic negro shows up in Hollywood films). They've latched onto the idea of the physically weaker Japanese underdog competing with the rest of the world, and black people are like the final boss. It's funny how they've assumed it was the guns, though I do think Hiruma's character as a whole may be part of it.

I don't really see how Eyeshield is racist, there is even an entire character arc about a character realizing that his racism is wrong and stems from faulty generalizations, and this ends up saving the game for his team.

In my opinion, it is not racist at all to claim that black people generally has superior genes concerning speed compared to Japanese people, it is just fact.