Forum - View topicNEWS: Manga Version of Hitler's Mein Kampf Sells 45,000
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taster of pork
 Posts: 596 Location: My House |
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I've read some of Mein Kampf and it was pretty boring. I doubt even a manga version would make it more interesting.
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Yes. Even if they had to do some special intro. I cannot se why people want to hold the past up to modern politically correct thinking. Seeing Song of the South, Tom Sawyerm Huck Finn-they're all like snapshots of where we've been & a reminder we do not want to return there. Look at the Bible. We get preachers telling people too lazy to read it what the book says. As long as the book is banned, neo-nazis in Germany can claim it says all sorts of things, take bits out of context, etc. The best way to expose something is to talk about it, not ban all discussions so people can whisper about the "good old days" when they could do this or that. I know my daughter read it & found it interesting because it helped her see where the man was coming from, how messed up he was. If a manga version enlightens more people to how crazy the man was, more power to it. My theory on Japan & Nazis in anime is the Nazis make the Japanese look good. They may have been horrible during WWII, but the Nazis were worse. |
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Jarmel
Posts: 280 Location: NYC |
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That is what people would do anyway if it could be published. I mean like at the Qur’an. Extremist groups will always exist and it doesn't matter if a book is published or not. It's the government or companies stance on the issue that matters. A government or company banning a book or refusing to publish a work shows their displeasure with it. You could even look at this with the Japanese and their refusal to not discuss WW2 atrocities as something that they don't want to talk about. However the information is readily available. It's the stance of the organization moreso than the work itself. Oh and the Japanese were just as bad as the Nazis. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Seriously though, why would anyone want to read a piece of literature published by a dead genocidal megalomaniac, let alone a manga version?
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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Perhaps this is what they want the world to think but it is not true. I would say the Japanese and Nazis were equally horrible in WWII. I think part of the reason there is more focus on the Nazis as villains is because the label Nazi separates it from the nationality.
It might enlighten people yes but as I said above it can have a reverse negative effect and people might believe what it says. Of course I am not saying we should ban the book or manga (as I said in my other reply I am against this) but to think that there could be no negative consequences is naive. |
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panzer.time
 Posts: 65 Location: Hippie camp |
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For most people, there's some kind of sick fascination with stuff like this. However, they'd start Mein Kampf and give up cos it's so boring and whiny (come on, when was the last time you read a good book written by a terrorist in prison?). So they turn to the manga, which has pretty pictures and kitsch value. Then there's the history nerds who want to read it so they can understand him. Really, the book should not be banned, but nobody should really read it either. There's no point in actually reading it if you can just read a synopsis somewhere. Just watch the music video for Roger Taylor's song "Nazis" and you'll know how bad the dude was. No need to trip inside his twisted world. And if you want a book, read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8499 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Well, just because he was a genocidal megalomaniac, doesn't make him a bad writer! Such insensitivity. |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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They might have been worse, but the world & in particular Jews have so demonized Hitler & nazis, the Japanese seem to feel they have no blame. They're our allies now. They didn't suffer as much of the villanization Germans did & got off very light because we wanted stuff like their human experiment data. It wasn't just Jews killed by the nazis & the Japanese tortured & killed a lot of people, but it was other Asians which a lot of Westerners sort of throw into the same pot as the Middle East residents killing each other off. "As long as it doesn't affect me & my daily life, who cares?" But ethnic cleansing is wrong anywhere & oppressing others because they have land your country wants is wrong anywhere. But not talking about stuff is thousands of times worse than talking about unpleasant things. Sweeping it under the rug means it's still there to spread around all over again. If banning Mein Kamp worked, why are there neo-nazi groups in Germany today? |
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Jarmel
Posts: 280 Location: NYC |
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Your points about Japan are true. It's similar to the logic we employed with the Soviet Union during WW2 when we were their allies. I would say banning something is not about preventing neo-nazis, as I pointed out earlier there will always be extremist groups. It's more about the government's stance on things like this and what image they want to give to the public, mainly one of no tolerance. |
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zanarkand princess
 Posts: 1484 |
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I am almost certain that the fact that Song Of The South isn't released right now is less about current American society and more about current Disney and what it claims to stand for. I don't really mind the fact that this was made but I don't feel like this should be the reason for Germany to lift the ban on the book (not that I don't think the ban should be lifted but.. not for this adaption) I think that in manga, especially this style of... not moe but well the same way that Light Yagami appeals to fans in terms of personality and art style, I wouldn't want it to happen in this case. It's not the same at all and I could see how this could be seen as really distasteful and I just don't feel that this is the best way to reintroduce Mein Kampf into Germany (I realize it's unlikely but still) |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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zanarkand: I'm not sure what Disney stands for, since they put out all their propaganda cartoons, even though one of 'em made fun of the Japanese. My feeling is they wanted to release it at one point, but now that Obama's elected, they're afraid it'll be some sort of statement against him.
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jtstellar
Posts: 94 |
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i don't know about other countries but if you're in america, this is free speech, and you can't censor. the point of liberty is to nurture intellectual individual members of the society who can grow to understand the nature of events without being spoon fed by the government or media. when a person can't think for himself, expand that by many folds across the society, the country is really doomed. the laws and the government are all established by the people. if the people are stupid, that's the real armageddon.
this point that i keep hearing people make is just hilarious, that somehow if people think this way or that because they see the reality of what actually went on the past, or if they are exposed to something, they can act in a certain way and it would be problematic. like i said, if the problem lies in the people, there's no helping it. it's sort of like saying if the government doesn't force people to enlist during a war, the country could be doomed. well the whole point is that if individuals who themselves are the members of the society aren't willing to help defend, there were no country in the first place. same with this. the point of making a decision not to be like hitler wasn't because your naggy aunt and uncle online secretly made a pact to hide away things they don't like. an informed decision is all about having all the freedom in the world to experience everything to anything extreme as long as that person voluntarily does it and he's not forced, and then make decisions. i'm surprised how many uninformed and intelligent posters there are o this forum. prosperity of the united states in its early years came from its experimentation with a different system of government and many other things. they even tried slavery, and decided it wasn't good and abolished it. you can't censor things and hope people grow up like pigs who never learned to think. grow up. ps. i always thought the anime community and its audiences are vastly superior to hollywood movie goers in terms of their intellectual maturity, yet i keep seeing posts from individuals who process events in their thoughts almost like they lived in an overprotected, intellectually and mentally juvenile society like some third world communist country. what a disappointment. |
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zargas
 Posts: 50 Location: Nebula M78 |
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“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
–Aristotle |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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 Also if one looks under a few tatame mats in Japan, one might find a few neo-imperialists still lurking there as well, I'm sure. Disney releasing "Song of The South" now would be the ultimate own goal. One they would never live down. I wouldn't want to be the Clever Dick at Disney to suggest it. 
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Onizuka666
Posts: 266 Location: U.K |
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You make a good point JTStellar.
My view on this is that they should publish it, partly because in this inernet age, if you look hard enough you can find what you are looking for. There's already plety of manga scans online, so this would just be another one. I disagree with some others here. Comics are a capable enough medium to tell all kinds of stories, even thought provoking, political stuff. There are a lot of manga out there like that. Barefoot Gen tells of the japanese war plight by a survivor, Art Spiegelman's Maus is brilliant tale of jews at the hands of nazis and the aftermath. Persopolis tell an Iranian girls life growing up during the Iranian revolution. Comics can tell these serious stories without breaking comedy. Perhaps you forum users should check them out, and read something with meaningful, than constant action manga. Its a shame that not enough manga readers do this ans those above are the gems in comics, that would shut up many neighsayers of the medium. Kaiji Kawaguchi's works also spring to mind. Zipang and A Spirit of the Sun all get very political and sometimes nationalistic. However, I'd still like to see Viz publish both of those titles. I don't agree with Mein Kampf, anymore than the next guy with sense, but I also don't dont agree with the Bible either (a text that has obviously been heavily edited when translated, says questionable things and is yet freely available to the masses). I think MK should be published, but they should make sure that money from it goes to a good cause, alongside the publishers cut. Perhaps if it were published, a counterpoint could be published alongside and sold with it. I have also found, the japanese obsession with Germany quite disturbing at times. Fans love FMA, but many fail to see the obvious bavarian influences in its designs, as nice as they are. Plenty of other anime suffer this too (Valkyria, Pumpkin Scissors, Dogs to name a few). It's almost as though, japan sees no other nations, outside of themselves apart from Germany, so much so that its entrenched in their mindset. Indeed, japan also has a hard time dealing with their WW2 past. In response to this, I'd like to see more anime with other world locations. The latest gem in this crown in Watanabe's Michiko to Hatchin, a cool show set in Brazil of all places, and one I hope get a western release. But I digress, banning the manga does little or no good. I'd rather read it in such a quick digestable form, than have to drag myself through a text version. While Hitler was a nut job with warped views and opinions, it was the people of influence that put him where he was most lethal, based on his book. Had they not got involved, he would have been just another angry fanatic in der strasse. I'm sure that how that all backfired on them, its highly unlikely to happen again. I guess its like they say, 'history is written, by the victors.' To ban this gives a very one sided view of things, and reinforces those words, no matter how much you or I hate it. I'm black and I've read Tom Sawyer, and while I enjoyed it, doesn't mean I agree with slavery. |
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