Nanohana wa dame!! On the banning of rape erogames
Posted on | June 9, 2009 | 13 Comments |
I’m guessing that most of you that read this blog are pretty tuned in to the ins, outs and oddities of the Japanese anime and hentai market. I’m sure you know that the content of hentai and especially ero-games has been a subject of debate for a long time – especially lolicon. And so I’m sure that you all know that there was an emergency legislation meeting recently (last week), in which it was decided that rape was to be banned in ero-games from the 5th of June.
Here are the details from Canned Dogs:
- Words such as “training” or “slave”, among others, are not allowed in the title or packaging
- HCG involving sexual violation cannot exceed 20% of a game’s total HCG count (ie: can’t try to build this up by having lots of everyday life CG events)
- Even if it’s below 20%, anything that is promoting a criminal offense is not allowed
- Anything that promotes rape, confinement, stalking, domestic violence, and portrays it in a way that the offender gains something out of it is not allowed
- New games that have already passed the review process by the EOCS are considered “safe” from this
- Regulations stated in the fax are completely different from what was being discussed in the emergency meeting yesterday
“The emergency EOCS meeting involving almost 100 representatives from various eroge companies has just ended, and the final conclusion is that rape games are now banned.
According to the writer, there were surprisingly little objections to this, but rather there was an atmosphere among those who were present where many felt that there was probably no other way to solve this problem. Though due to the nature of the meeting they did not actually take a vote.”
| Love…
I’m sure this came as rather a shock to the doujinshi market. There were hints at a ban a month or so before, but reporting was in a kind of “Will they, won’t they” without any real evidence to either side. Many doujinsoft companies are now left with titles in development which are completely no-go (and I think several will be releasing them anyway – and who could blame them).
There are a few issues that arise from this:
- How will this legislation shape the doujin market to come – Will the banning of rape and violation in ero-games mean that themes will become more vanilla in years to come?
- Is this just the start? Is the banning of rape themes just a lead in to banning other controversial themes such as lolicon and incest?
- Is this the start of the government finally pulling their socks up and restricting the doujinshi market – before free to do as they pleased?
I’m sure people will correct me (and I welcome it), but I think that this is the first decisive piece of legislation that Japan has put on the doujinshi market. They have been umming and erring about the issue of lolicon for a long time (much to the chagrin of the international community), they have temporarily banned certain conventions (notably ABnormal – a futanari and alternative themed comic market) but nothing long lasting.
Perhaps it was just a matter of time – Not wanting to draw on stereotypes, but I think that many countries (and people) associate Japan with unbridled depravity in their pornography, with animated themes of guro, tentacle rape and young girl porn – themes in real life that would be banned in an instant. Although I have no evidence for this, I’m sure that people have been lobbying for years to regulate the doujinshi market so that they would look at least that they were keeping a handle on things rather than just leaving them to rampage out of their control.
So why not sooner? I went through a lot of these issues in my various fetish month posts, but it all boils down to separating fantasies and reality. Since the material is animated or drawn, the themes depicted are detached from reality. The argument was that this fact made them less subversive since the acts weren’t being actually committed in real life. There is also the issue of stamping out free speech. I’ve always admired the doujinshi market as a notable expression of fan love and effort that over many years has swelled to gigantic proportions (enough to take over an entire area of Tokyo) and brings in a huge amount of cash. I’m sure that there’s nowhere else in the world that young men get so passionate about their pornography…
| …or rape? You (don’t get to) decide!
Future of doujinshi
It will be interesting to see how this will play itself out. Apparently the EOCS have decided that this legislation will be put into place slowly, but it will be obvious that it is not just going to affect ero-game manufacturers but also the artists of paper doujinshi and hentai content as a whole.
If this new regulation sticks, then it will not be long before it spreads to the other media such as downloadable doujinshi, Comic Markets and hentai movies. The overall theme of the changes seems to be “removal of content that depicts illegal activities”, so it’s altogether difficult to picture the state of the doujinshi market even at the end of the year.
Rape themes make up the bulk of doujinshi (I’ve already discussed why the Japanese seem to be obsessed with rape) and the other main themes are also no-go (such as lolicon and incest). Since Comic Market – the main medium for distribution of new doujinshi, games and other fan-made material is unlikely to go against the regulations for fear of being shut down, will we really have an (empty) Winter Comiket composed entirely of pure love doujinshi?
The answer – no one knows. The restrictions themselves seem to be hidden and horribly vague at the moment, but although they went through the ero-game manufacturers, you would imagine that the large doujinshi distribution companies would put up a fight to protect their income.
I would predict that there are two ways in which this could play out by the end of the year
- EITHER: With all doujin material restricted not to contain rape themes, and a view to banning more illegal themes such as lolicon in the future
- OR: With companies such as Toranoana and DLsite still fighting to keep legislation away from digital and paper doujinshi but restrictions slowly coming into force for ero-games
But it’s pretty unpredictable. This has been coming for a long time, so it’s unlikely that the regulations will be reconsidered. Perhaps this will lead to a slow evolution in the doujinshi mindset away from rape themes and towards more “healthy” fantasies such as “love”, “relationships” and “tentacle porn”. Somehow, I doubt it.
And anyway, if you want to rape someone, but are being stopped by that darn legal system, why not try hypnotism?
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13 Responses to “Nanohana wa dame!! On the banning of rape erogames”
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June 9th, 2009 @ 11:23 am
Pretty sure the ban on loli/incest won’t be too far off in the future if they actually managed to get ero rape games banned. Just makes you wonder which one will fall first.
June 9th, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
Good riddance :P Rape is just sOo wrong in sOoO many wayZ. :(
June 9th, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
Is it rape if the girl enjoys it in the end?
Is it loli if the girl is actually over-18 and just looks loli or vice-versa?
Is it incest if even though they look like identical twins, they are actually related by blood?
There are many loop-holes yet to go…
June 9th, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
aren’t*!!!!!!
I hate it when I do that.
June 9th, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
In terms of corrections, probably should point out that this particular thing you’re talking about is not “legislation” and doesn’t involve the government. EOCS is an industry self-regulating group, kind of a Japanese ero-industry equivalent to the ESRB in the U.S. (there are two such rating groups in Japan for this industry). So, the impact of this self-regulation is only on the games that are sold in regular retail stores. Direct impact on doujinshi is zero (indirect impact is that self-regulation in one industry could lead to correspondning self-regulation in other industries, but since this isn’t “legislated”, that isn’t necessarily the case).
Also, the details you mentioned there are just temporary guidelines, and the ratings group has still to meet and agree to whatever the final restrictions are.
And finally, it should be pointed out that this same ratings board already did “ban” loli content in ero-games some time ago. Take that for what it’s worth…
Anyway, regardless of how you feel about the direct subject in question, I do think it’s interesting to watch all these political machinations unfold on this issue.
June 9th, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
The main issue is that yes there are these new guidelines in place but how is the enforcement going to work? I think the best example is once again American comics (yes I have a problem) and their own self-regulation, the Comics Code Authority. I won’t bore you fine folks with the history. Basically while the mainstream was reduced to Superheroes, it allowed the rise of Comix movement and later the range of over-sized black and white comic magazines. The lesson here is that while they agreed to self-regulation they also worked to subvert it.
And let’s face facts, this is a show to get the international attention off themselves. They will probably stay low for a while until the next moral crisis comes about and everyone flings themselves at that. Then while not going back to more or less business as usually. If anything we will probably see a bigger rise in direct downloads for the more “niche” titles. Because let’s be honest not even the LDP is going to move against a major aspect of Otaku lifestyle, especially after Aso is basically trying to use it as the basis for the regrowth of the economy. Plus with the recent actions of North Korea both military and ethnic issues are going to face-front.
June 9th, 2009 @ 10:22 pm
As relentlessflame said, this is not legislation. Moreover, it only applies to commercial eroge makers who need EOCS certification. The doujin game market should be unaffected, unless doujin shops or convention enforce standards of their own (and there is no sign that they intend to do so).
June 11th, 2009 @ 9:22 pm
Sorry, I couldn’t find another word, I kinda knew already, but I worded it badly. That’s kinda reassuring. However, it still remains that it is a step towards regulation, and so many first steps are the first down a slippery path…
June 11th, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
I was never into the rape thing. But I also think that this could be the beginning of a restriction series. I wouldn’t really mind if rape is the only thing restricted. Maybe it makes the producers more accessable for new content for their “products”. But also rape is something that is often interferring with other fetishes, so it could be restricting everything.
June 12th, 2009 @ 2:57 am
I think this is a good thing, rape is wrong is so many ways, also if they spent as much time doing more animes (Yuri of course) as they do with all that rape (sick-n-twisted perversions) id be much happier, plus the world would be a better place or at least my world will feel so.
AND people wont automatically think your a freak for liking anime. Oh its true most people who don’t know a thing about anime, if they hear the mention of japan or anime they automatically think hentai and think your some sort of sick and twisted pervert.
And i don’t care if people say its just a fetish -Rape is rape and its wrong period-, no exceptions, thnx :)
June 12th, 2009 @ 3:30 am
Censorship of any kind is never a good thing, and most certainly never should be accepted let alone welcomed. So long as no person is hurt by it we have no reason to object, which yes may make some us uneasy but that is the price we pay. We either all win together or we all lose together. And to that Anonymous wanker, deal with it. If you can’t handle that god forbid someone looks down on you, you have a bigger problem than rape games.
The fact of the matter is we are on the sexual fringe, we may have come to term with who we are but that doesn’t mean anyone else has. I am not saying we are being targeted or that we should panic, we just have to face that as our interest becomes more widely known this is going to happen from time to time. Sooner or later though it will be on us to do something about it all. When and where that is still remains.
June 15th, 2009 @ 2:09 am
On one hand, I’m very, VERY glad that this happened. Yes, the rape fantasies are just that – fantasies. However, the act of rape and sexual assault is very real and very triggering for both women and men. Making rape a central plot point is actually promoting rape. I’m not saying that watching rape-porn will make someone go out and rape, but making money off of that disgusts me.
On the other hand, one might very well worry about how far the censorship would go. (Personally, I wouldn’t lose any tears about the loss of incest or loli/shota.) Would it, as Jaden/Blue Saint suggested, end up like the Comic Code with more artists going underground? Or, will it end up more like the MPAA where anything over an R rating is instantly rejected by the multiplexes?
August 14th, 2009 @ 11:40 am
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