Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime Age Ratings So Inconsistent?
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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Before anyone asks, yes, this is an old column that was republished. Still an interesting topic to discuss though.
Azumanga Daioh, Devilman Crybaby, and My Hero Academia have the same rating in Australia (MA15+) because consistency. It seems recently the board has gotten stricter on violence, as the second parts/seasons of series which had previously been rated M such as Assassination Classroom and Noragami are now MA15+. |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Thanks to the Internet kids have been plugged into the ID of the entire Planet, so there isn't anything that ratings can do other than irritate people. There was a line about "Monsters from the ID" in Forbidden Planet, if only it were that simple.
Mark Gosdin |
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Zendervai
 Posts: 205 |
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I remember when Evangelion 2.22 was in the theatre for the limited screening, and the American rating was listed as R and the Canadian rating was listed as PG. And then when the Trigun movie came out, the American rating was PG and the Canadian rating was 14A.
Like, those ones could be seen as different standards because it's mostly related to violence (although Evangelion 2.22 probably shouldn't have been PG. 14A would be more appropriate.) But the most wonky difference I've seen is Paprika. Again, R in the US, PG in Canada, but it seriously makes you wonder what the Canadian ratings board was smoking when they rated it. |
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Ouran High School Dropout
 Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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It's story time!
 Today's tales are all about what happens when clueless parents handle anime, age-labeled or not...
(1) Suncoast Video, c. 2007. A mother with her pre-school daughter is idly thumbing through the anime--God knows why--and picks up vol. 1 of DearS. While she's looking at the rather ravishing Ren on the cover, I'm trying to do the old Vulcan mind meld: "You will put that down...you will put that down..." Apparently, my mind control is pretty good--mom puts alien slave/potential sex toy away, and I breathe easy. (2) Same Suncoast, some years earlier. A mother with her 12-year-old boy walks to the counter with a DVD of Ninja Scroll (yes, the movie) for a sleepover. Store manager (old friend of mine) who followed anime closely firmly warns mother, who replies, "I know what's best for my child!" Tragi-farce set in motion. Next morning, manager comes in to open up. Phone is ringing off hook. Mother is furious. Manager reminds mother that she was given due warning but chose to ignore it. Parent got what was coming to her  (while son and friends certainly got an eyeful, I daresay...  )
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OjaruFan
Posts: 60 |
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Speaking of odd age rating choices, I remember back when MHS Ride On was fresh and new on FUNimationNow, it was rated TV-14, even though there was nothing TV-14 worthy about it. No blood, excessive violence, swearing, or fanservice. It was a kid-friendly show. Thankfully, the rating later got changed to TV-PG. And yes, the recent home media release is also rated TV-PG.
Interesting stories, Ouran High School Dropout. Was Suncoast the "go-to place" for anime back then? I keep seeing people mentioning the store on here. Last edited by OjaruFan on Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:22 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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ResistNormal
Posts: 117 |
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One major inconsistency between the US and the rest of the world in regards to ratings is US is so much more afraid of sexuality than violence. Oh no it's boobs hide the children, what decapitation that's ok.
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ultimatehaki
Posts: 1090 |
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So like...he said "This has nudity and an attempted rape scene in the first 5 minutes" and she goes "I know what's best for my child!" 
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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Yikes. Ninja Scroll was the first uncut anime I ever saw, when I was 19, and even at that age I thought it was pretty intense - not sure what I would've made of it at 12. Once in a while I get parents at the library who ask me questions about anime or manga titles, and I'm always happy to share what I know about the series and whether it's appropriate for the kid's age. Like I had a parent once asking me a lot of questions about Death Note for her 14 year old, because she'd read some sensationalist articles about how it encouraged kids to fantasize about killing their classmates. So I explained what the series was actually about and suggested she read the first volume or two herself if she still had doubts, which she told me later she actually did and ended up liking it herself. But it's also written into our borrowing policies that it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their kids check out, not ours (our only restriction is that child library cards can't borrow R or TVMA rated DVDs). So when I get a parent coming in with an 8 year old who wants to read Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul, and they don't say anything when I mention that we keep those in the adult graphic novel section, then there's nothing else for me to do but show them where it is. Of course, manga has its own age rating system, but that's often just as arbitrary as DVD ratings (the American manga versions of Tokyo Ghoul and Toradora are both rated "16+," for instance). |
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CatSword
Posts: 1489 |
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What is it with parents and Ninja Scroll?
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Ouran High School Dropout
Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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Indeed it was! Back in the day, it was a major video outlet, with stores everywhere. All the ones I visited in eastern MA had sections devoted to anime, and for a time I remember the clerks putting "Adult" tags on the anime shelves so you couldn't see the front covers--whether the title deserved it or not (just like the article says).
Wikipedia says it still exists as a corporate name, but I don't know of any existing stores. All I remember is that a ton of stores closed 2007-8 and the great going-out-of-business prices. I also remember the store as a gathering place for otaku on a Friday night to see what new titles came in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suncoast_Motion_Picture_Company |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18571 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, Suncoast was one of the first major brick-and-mortar retailers to carry a large and diverse selection of anime and anime-related OSTs, so they were a fixture in the anime scene during the early to mid-2000s. (The money I spent on DVDs and OSTs there probably easily goes into the thousands of dollars.) They didn't survive the growing onslaught of online discount pricing, though. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Oh, that they were only mandatory! Our vehemence is most tempestuous towards the fact that the less-than-upstanding individuals from the BBFC charge by the minute to rate a release, so extra dub tracks therefore double the bill. Smaller publishers consequently face relatively exorbitant fees, for which there is no legal workaround. One such person forced the censors to watch paint dry as a form of protest. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 953 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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And the really funny part is that it actually is because of consistency; it's events in a specific episode with the OFLC's guidelines applied the same to it as to anything else that earns it an MA rating. Since any collection has to be as a whole given the highest rating any of its component parts has, the whole set is MA. Somewhere about the place I've got the ratings for each of the individual discs; it's seriously all G and PG and that one MA. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1607 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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You want your anime with accurate content ratings?
Hand 'em over to me, I'll assess them better than the guys who do this stuff for a living. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 653 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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There actually is still a Suncoast at the Monmouth Mall, I think it's counted as an FYE location but with the Sunocast name. Half the store is movie memoribilia and candy, but they still have an impressive anime section, including merch.
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