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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5642715/

Hmm. This seems to be a growing issue over there. Now, I'm no one to argue that violent popular culture is solely responsible, but with numbers like 47% increase in violent crimes committed by minors and 30% of high school and middle school students admitting to sudden violent fits of rage, it's impossible to ignore. Suicide rates are also rapidly rising.

The anime that the article references:

- Battle Royal
- Gunslinger Girl

Quote:

Children can view popular short animated films -- anime -- such as "Gunslinger Girl," a tale about murderous cyborg schoolgirls in plaid miniskirts.

Quote:

The surge in youth violence has sparked calls for a reassessment of the increasingly violent and sexually charged youth culture in Japan, now exported worldwide through animation, comic strips and video games.

Read the whole article before the quick dismissal. I enjoy anime, but the piece does raise some interesting points.

I read that in the Washington Post.

To me the article isn't really blaming anime or even violence as the cause of violent behaviour but rather citing it as a trigger which to an extent I agree with.

Quote:

Experts blame the violence on low self-confidence among children, and cite pressures on family life during the country's 13-year economic slump.

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Experts blame the violence on low self-confidence among children, and cite pressures on family life during the country's 13-year economic slump.

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In a country where parents and children traditionally shy away from expressing their feelings,

To me what’s mentioned above is more likely to cause someone to kill. Rather than it being an increase in violent movies ect causing the violence its probably got more to do with social structure. Criminals of any kind often come from unstable family environments. People often like to ignore this as a reason for someone’s crimes as it puts blame on the parents but there are clear connections.

The article says that Battle Royal was one of the 11 year old girls favourite films. Battle Royal is a film intended for adults,11 year olds shouldn’t be watching it. Yes its often hard to stop youngsters to get their hand on things they shouldn’t be watching but their parents should be keeping them away from this kind of material. Also lets remember that Battle Royal is a satire on the situation in Japan at the moment. The whole point of the movie is to express the growing violence in Japan among youths.

Quote:

To be sure, violent crime is not the only social ill facing Japanese youths. Suicides by minors in Japan shot up for the fifth consecutive year in 2003, jumping 22.1 percent compared to a 6.9 percent increase for adults over the same period.

Again this is a problem with Japans social structure. Suicide rates have been high in Japan for a long time. From what I understand Japanese children are under a lot of pressure to perform well.

The first two paragraphs sound like something from an anime series! Wonderfully scripted, and yet depressingly sad.

UberTai wrote:

The first two paragraphs sound like something from an anime series! Wonderfully scripted, and yet depressingly sad.

Yeah, I know. My first thought was: Naru Taru. Scary, isn't it?

Mr. Mania, that was my reaction as well. The causes are numerous and reflect some deep-rooted issues with modern Japanese culture.

That's unfortunate to hear. I suppose a bunch of Japanese "Soccer Moms" will form a protest against Anime,Videogames and the like? naah, that stuff mostly happens in America. And speaking of which, you know sh*t is really getting outta hand when some group of losers (in Florida) murder six people over a friggin' X-box.

WTF is the world coming to? Confused

Hmm. To me, it seems the article is blaming non-loving parents and the Internet more so than anime and BR.

And I'll say it again, parents should be more responsible when raising their children. It's as simple as that. Otherwise, you get the 11 year-old with the box cutter and a couple of wackos in Columbine.

I've never been to Japan, so I don't know how parents interact with their children, but being raised by a loving couple of parents myself, I can say that I'm glad they taught me the do's and don't's of life in addition to openly showing their love for me with some ocassional hugs and what not.

That whole "pressure on education" thing might be a factor though. I've experienced a little bit of that myself and almost considered suicide once, not seriously considered it, but just as a daydream symboliziation of the furstartion I had felt at the time, I would NEVER kill myself, as that would just be a cowardly and stupid thing to do, though I do think self-confidence can serve as a HUGE factor in that aspect.

I guess I can't say who's to blame here since I don't know what Japanese children are experiencing, but if I were trying to pinpoint a source to begin evaluating from, I suppose I'd start at the parents. That's just me though... Rolling Eyes

.

Goodness. That's just horrible.

I've never really been one to very well choke down bloody violence. But when kids are brutally murdering each other at school, it really makes one wonder how well kids are able to draw the line between fiction and reality. That's not the only thing though. Parents should really be more responsible in raising their kids and teaching them good morals. No child or person deserves to die in such a manner due to such little problems.

What I mean to say is, we should never reach a point in which society shrugs such murder as "normal". I'm afraid though that the world is slowly crawling toward that view.

Tony K. wrote:

Hmm. To me, it seems the article is blaming non-loving parents and the Internet more so than anime and BR.

I completly agree. Don't worry of this will be a really danger for anime, it won't. As a lot of Seinen do exist, also there are a lot of children programs there.

However, Japan is a growing up country with a good economy. And this makes all of that normal. It doesn't surprise to me, all countries may have the same problems (here, in Spain, a guy grabbed a Katana and murdered his family, just for being similir as his hero, Cloud Strife).

The world were we live now, it's full of bad things that tempt us to kill, or at least do some "dont's". In a place were anime, manga, internet and videogames are so important, it's quite normal all of that violence (inside what is considered "normal crime", I mean). About the suicides and teenagers problems. Well, everyone knows how does a teenager think. He/She thinks he's/she's really unfortunated and really despreciable. Their minds are normal for their age. However, looks like some of them can't see the frontier between reality and fiction.

About the parents thing. Well, we all know in which kind of world we live. Using internet we can get ALL, even adult stuff. It's obvious that most parents try to be responsible with their children, but they can't watch them 24 h. a day.

Quote:

"Please do not forget that right beside you are people who love you the most," he pleaded. "Please do not forget that there are people who would be very sad if you disappeared, even if not by death. Please treasure your lives."

That's what everyone should know.

P.D: This article reminds me some anime characters that looks like this guys, such as Sugimoto Yuka (Juuni kokki), or even Lain.

P.D2: Uf, gimme a break, that was a long article!

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About the parents thing. Well, we all know in which kind of world we live. Using internet we can get ALL, even adult stuff.

Thats what parental lock outs are for.

Mr Mania wrote:

Quote:

About the parents thing. Well, we all know in which kind of world we live. Using internet we can get ALL, even adult stuff.

Thats what parental lock outs are for.

Yeah, I know. But, you really think all parents do that? Mine's tried this long time ago (years and years), but it was just dissaster because I couldn't go to any site, even the more childish ones...

I've seen Gunslinger Girl and don't see anything wrong with it. I think it's quite good if not masterpiece of anime. Go watch it ! Smile

As for article there are always reasons that are being blamed for bad things happening. But anime as any media might have to do with increased violence. Kids watch it and start believing what they see just like watching any movie. Like " Ichi the Killer" and "Audition". I heared long ago that Japan has the most violent TV/media in the world. If you're surrounded by such media it can be only matter of time till it starts effecting you in a bad way.

Quote:

Yeah, I know. But, you really think all parents do that? Mine's tried this long time ago (years and years), but it was just dissaster because I couldn't go to any site, even the more childish ones.

That's my point,they don't but they should if they have very young children. There are various levels of parental lock out that can be used.

MasterFuu wrote:

I heared long ago that Japan has the most violent TV/media in the world. If you're surrounded by such media it can be only matter of time till it starts effecting you in a bad way.

if that was the truely the case we would have alot more incidents of this.

I think ill call it just what it is SCAPEGOATING.

personaly responsibily seems to be dead anymore seems hardly anyone wants to take responsibilty for there screw ups and blames it on something else ie "well I raised my child better it must be those damn videogames/movies/rpg/rock music/ WHATEVER"

if it really was the media we watch I would have gone postal a long time ago considering the sheer amount of stuff I've watched over the years.

Tony K. wrote:

... I would NEVER kill myself, as that would just be a cowardly and stupid thing to do, though I do think self-confidence can serve as a HUGE factor in that aspect.

However, you have to remember that historically suicide was an acceptable (and sometimes required) part of Japanese culture. This is still not entirely the case now, but the subtle culture impact is still there from when it was acceptable. The past does have a heavy impact on the current society, and it is hard to have something move from acceptable to un-acceptable in so few generations.

Japanese culture is quite unique when compared to most other societies, and it would appear that we are witnessing a bit of a change in the overall nature of the society. The recent events are evidence to that change, and it may be interesting to see what course the society moves to.

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Semi OT: Youth Violence in Japan on the rise.

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