Dragon Ball Manga Banned in Cephiro for Sexual Content

[sensei]

From the local e-news: October 7, 2009

Schools' library book pulled for sexual content

Joe Holloway, the racy illustrations spread out in front of him, had prepared a show-and-tell segment for his fellow council members.

Holloway had copied portions of a Japanese graphic novel. He said a fourth-grader recently checked it out of the Pittsville Elementary and Middle School library.

The book, "Dragon Ball, Volume 1: The Monkey King." is laid out like a comic book, and in it children sometimes appear naked. Akira Toriyama's book, later adapted into a popular animated TV show, focuses on Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy on a quest to obtain mythical objects called Dragon Balls.

"In cartoon format, it depicts nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo among adults and children," Holloway told fellow council members during the comment period of Tuesday's meeting.

Photocopies provided by Holloway detail several of the scenes.

In one, the protagonist, a young boy, pats the covered crotch area of a sleeping teenage girl before removing her panties. The same boy later appears naked in the bathtub and is naked when he performs flying jump kicks.

In another scene, a Peeping Tom watches a naked teenage girl as she takes a shower. Furthermore, the novel shows a teenage girl flashing a bearded man; and another man asking a girl about her bra size.

Wicomico schools Superintendent John Fredericksen, present at Tuesday's meeting for an unrelated topic, said his knee-jerk response is to yank the book from schools.

"I'd say it's coming off the shelves as soon as I can get a phone call back to the office," Fredericksen said.

He said graphic novels are an accepted genre in the school system, in part, because they appeal to children who often aren't interested in traditional forms of reading.

Fredericksen said the book in question was likely purchased with grant funding. He said he expects the book to be reviewed by a committee that judges the merit of red-flagged books. At that point, a permanent decision on the future of the "Dragon Ball" book will be made.

Holloway said he found out about the book after being contacted by the mother of the 9-year-old who had checked it out. The women has told Holloway, he said, that she does not wish to be identified.

"The drawings and story lines are disgusting," Holloway said of the book.

___________________________

Sensei wistfully hums the theme song from "Cardcaptors," as seen on WB Kids once upon a time.

[cutiebunny]

"The drawings and story lines are disgusting," Holloway said of the book.

So sayeth Mr. Holloway, who spent all night glued to the manga in hopes of seeing more Bulma panty shots. Having found no more, he became utterly disgruntled with the plot.


In high school, I brought one of the Japanese "Magical Girl Pretty Samy" artbooks with me to my art class for a project. My teacher, seeing the brief nudity during Sasami's transformation, called it porn.

Don't these people realize that you can't be a superhero if you're not willing fight in the buff once in a while?! Geez. Not everyone gets a phone booth, you know.

I'm sorry to see that they'll be banning Dragonball in that school. I can't wait to see what else is on the list - Sailormoon? Naruto? Catcher in the Rye?

[Cloud]

Do you go to high school?

[cutiebunny]

Yes, but the glorified version. We even have lockers, Cloud!

[Cloud]

By "we" do you mean you and me?

[sensei]

My teacher, seeing the brief nudity during Sasami's transformation, called it porn.

Back in 2000, I had to digitally agree to a statement that I was not offended by sexually explicit videos before Amazon would accept my order for v. 5 of the Ah My Goddess OAV. Dang my filthy geriatric soul, I watched the whole thing waiting for the porn and saw nary a thing. Someone explained afterwards it was because Belldandy becomes very temporarily unclothed during her final henshin into the goddess outfit.

Heh. I hope that middle-schooler keeps that copy of Ranma 1/2 between the mattress and box springs. There are scenes there that would destroy the local John Birchers.

PS, there are already 4 pages of comments on the story, some from the local DBZers who are noting that the book is prominently rated 13+ on the back cover.

[JWR]

You should contact the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund and pass the info on to them http://www.cbldf.org

[ReiTheJelly]

the book is prominently rated 13+ on the back cover

Yeah. Tell me again why their librarian ordered this book for an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL library? Even if they make the argument that some of the middle school students are 13, this only applies to the 8th graders. So why bother even having the comic in the library, if it is clearly labeled as being for older kids?

[sensei]

You should contact the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund and pass the info on to them http://www.cbldf.org

Done. While I think the legitimate issue is that the library ought to keep books rated for middle-schoolers separate from those that grade-schoolers can check out, the noise generated moves quickly into "Japanese manga is disgusting filth" and that deserves challenging.

Fact is, middle school is a psychologically disorienting time, with all kinds of psychological and social changes triggered by puberty. So it is precisely the time when transgressive humor and storytelling first becomes attractive. A colleague of mine wrote an anthology/analysis of rhymes collected orally from older children and middle schoolers, "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts," which regularly shows up in lists of books ordered by school librarians, then banned after parents scan its contents.

[sensei]

More on the "Is the Dragon Ball manga sexually explicit?" controversy here in Cephiro.

Short version: While the library folks over in Wicomico County (where the complaint was lodged) are still looking through the entire DB and DBZ saga looking for smut, the Library Director on the Worcester County side (where Sensei lives) has, to his credit, defended the place of manga on the shelves of their main and regional libraries, as has the director of libraries in one of Cephiro's nearby allies. My guess is that there will be stricter controls on what goes into a elementary/middle school library, but that manga will survive, as it has for some centuries in Japan, despite a sexual code that is in some ways stricter than ours.

Manga means something like "disreputable drawings," ne?

I hear a Great Sage Equalling Heaven doubled up helplessly in giggles....