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NEWS: Maryland School Library to Remove Dragon Ball Manga

Sheesh! These parents need to learn there is a difference in the standards of what is allowed in Japanese children's series and American children's series. Hypocrisy this is because cable cartoons will often have sexual innuendo or nudity.

The initial issue of Shonen Jump sold over 300,000 copies, far exceeding Viz's expected 100,000 copies and making it one of the top comic titles in 2002. The first printing of 250,000 copies was sold out before the issue was released, and two additional printings were necessary to fully meet the demand.[8] After the initial launch, the magazine had an average monthly circulation of 190,000, but it quickly grew to 205,000 by its first anniversary. The August 2003 issue, which included a demo version of an upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! PC game, was the top issue with 540,000 copies sold.[31] As of 2008, the magazine has a circulation of 215,000, with subscriptions constituting 54% of the copies distributed.[15]

Though targeted towards "tween & teen male consumers", according to Viz Media the magazine enjoys a relatively high number of female and adult readers as well, comprising 36% and 37% of its readership, respectively. The Shonen Jump reader has a median age of 16 years, and over half of the audience is between the ages of 13 and 17. Official measurements by Simmons notes that among minor age readers the female readership is slightly lower and the median age is 12.[15]

It's not like older kids and adults are going to be denied access. For an elementary school library in the US, I can kind of see where the majority would probably not want Japanese levels of sexual content in the graphic novels. If they were pulling this material from a public library or a high school library, I'd have much greater concern.

I can also agree that the school district was stupid to buy the manga for an elementary library without being aware of the cultural differences, But I can easily see a situation where someone had seen the (edited) anime on US TV and thought they knew what the content was about. Or the librarian just took a list of books the kids voted for and ordered them without understanding what they were getting into.

"Sheesh, these otaku need to learn that the culture in the US is different from in Japan."

Ctimene's Lover wrote:

Sheesh! These parents need to learn there is a difference in the standards of what is allowed in Japanese children's series and American children's series. Hypocrisy this is because cable cartoons will often have sexual innuendo or nudity.

I totally agree and then of course there's this: (taken from wikipedia)

Quote:

The initial issue of Shonen Jump sold over 300,000 copies, far exceeding Viz's expected 100,000 copies and making it one of the top comic titles in 2002. The first printing of 250,000 copies was sold out before the issue was released, and two additional printings were necessary to fully meet the demand.[8] After the initial launch, the magazine had an average monthly circulation of 190,000, but it quickly grew to 205,000 by its first anniversary. The August 2003 issue, which included a demo version of an upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! PC game, was the top issue with 540,000 copies sold.[31] As of 2008, the magazine has a circulation of 215,000, with subscriptions constituting 54% of the copies distributed.[15] Though targeted towards "tween & teen male consumers", according to Viz Media the magazine enjoys a relatively high number of female and adult readers as well, comprising 36% and 37% of its readership, respectively. The Shonen Jump reader has a median age of 16 years, and over half of the audience is between the ages of 13 and 17. Official measurements by Simmons notes that among minor age readers the female readership is slightly lower and the median age is 12.[15]

The 9 year old is not within their target-group as in the parent should have never allowed her 9 year old to bring home the book in the first place, I'm pretty sure she didn't check it out herself before she took it home.

Parents, it's the same with other media like games for example, they have no clue what kind of games their children are playing and usually ignore the age restriction on the box.

It should not be banned, those stupid parents should be banned from the library.

But I can easily see a situation where someone had seen the (edited) anime on US TV and thought they knew what the content was about.

I used to live in Wicomico County. There's not much that ever happens there so it's no surprise that they would make a big deal out of something like this. If I remember correctly, some of the characters are naked and theres some crude humor. I don't remember anything that was THAT big of a deal. I mean I guess I can understand if some parents don't want their children reading it. That's all well and fine. But why don't they just read/screen stuff before they their children? If they are that concerned, they seem like they'd research stuff before buying it for their children and then making a fuss about it later (to the man in Dallas).

Well, looking through the first volume

-Goku beats up a fish naked
-Bulma offers Goku a chance to touch her butt in exchange for a dragon ball
-Bulma bathes Goku
-Bulma bathes, provided it doesn't show anything
-Goku does "pat pat" on Bulma's crotch as she sleep and lays his head down on there and proceeds to take her panties off.
-Master Roshi asks Bulma to see her panties
-Bulma lifts up her skirt to show Roshi her panties but she has nothing on
-Goku does "pat pat" on an old woman
-Bulma gives Oolong her bra size
-Oolong turns into a pair of panties
-Yamcha watches Bulma shower, you can see Bulma naked

So no, I'm not really surprised that it was removed hahahaha you can't say it's stupid for mothers to freak out over it when it does have full frontal nudity in it.

But why don't they just read/screen stuff before they their children?