July 12, 2000
Sociology 387

U>Sex In Cartoons: A Girl Named Pink

Sex is a topic that permeates our culture. Even in cartoons, there is an aspect of sexuality. Every Disney heroine, no matter how strong on her own, always has that one man that completes her, that one kiss that ends the movie. In Japan, where animation is the main form of fictional media, sexuality is more clearly displayed. Japanese animation, called “anime,” has many different genres of story- even pornography. In our culture, where animation is the realm of children’s entertainment only, the importation of anime intended for a mature audience has become a major issue- at least, in relation to the still relatively small anime subculture. This importation has sparked a debate on pornography, sexuality, and nudity (as well as violence) in what we in America view as a children’s medium.

In its 1997, ’98, and ’99 runs, the anime magazine Protoculture Addicts published an article entitled “Anime Under Fire.” This 16-part article included critiques on violence and sex in anime by a Christian fundamentalist and by a contributing writer to the magazine, followed up by a debate between the two. While the article in its entirety is interesting as one of the few articles presenting both sides of this issue (instead of just cases against it), only the second section- the critiques on sex entitled “The Case Against Porn” in parts 10 through 14- are of particular interest to this essay. In this section, Brittney Jackson, the fundamentalist, begins by making a case for Japanese animation as pornographic and therefore detrimental to the development of America’s youth, while James S. Taylor rebuffs her accusations with a speech on the family values promoted in religious texts. As the article in Protoculture Addicts was in the form of a formal debate, both spend a great deal of time trying to poke holes in the other’s case. This essay will focus on the more salient points of sexuality in society, media, and anime in particular as discussed by our debaters.

One of the topics Mrs. Jackson addresses in her critique of anime as pornography is its portrayal of women and its effect on the men viewing it. The fact that women watch pornography as well is glossed over. All of her examples seem to focus on the male’s development upon watching porn. The only differentiation in gender effects is when she compares the views these men have towards women after viewing this. She emphasizes how the unrealistic images men get from women in ads makes them view the women in their lives as less, and that directly effects the image women have of themselves- as less than perfect. “What is even less understandable [than these unrealistic expectations of females] is how some anime fans get their thrills from drawings that are even more of a shallow, inhuman object.” (“Anime Under Fire” Part 12). The women of anime, being drawn to be even more perfect than models, only exacerbate this condition of inferiority in women’s already bruised psyche.

Mrs. Jackson states that pornography is completely detrimental to those viewing it, citing studies and interviews that show it to be a highly contributing factor in violence against women besides the devaluing of women in today’s society as a whole. The way women are portrayed in almost all porn is as subservient to men’s needs, a plaything, and an object. In her critique, Mrs. Jackson cites some advertisements for anime pornography. One of those is for a film called “Doomed Megalopolis”: “Realizing that he cannot resurrect the spirit of Masakado through traditional occult means, the powerful necromancer, Kato, subjects an innocent victim to the ultimate physical debasement as he psychically forces himself on her.” (Cited by Mrs. Jackson from press copy from various sources.). She chose an excellent example in this film. Not only does it say this girl is an innocent victim, she is “subjected” to “ultimate physical debasement” by this “powerful necromancer.” Women are treated this way in the majority of pornography, a reason why feminists campaigned against porn and aided in anti-porn legislation. “By the early 1980’s [Andrea] Dworkin and feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon were drafting their own model obscenity statutes, which defined pornography as a violation of women’s civil rights,…” (Intimate Matters, p.351). This portrayal of women as objects is especially true in anime, where the non-real, animated nature of it allows even more freedom in the acts the producers are able to depict. Anime has a sub-genre called “tentacle porn” in which aliens, demons, and generally nasty things with extraneous appendages seduce, take possession of, and rape humans, most often young women. Most people who view these films are amused that anyone could make such filth at best, and repulsed from anything not animated by Disney or Don Bluth and swear off all foreign animation at worst. The most infamous title of this genre is Urutsukidoji, the Legend of the Overfiend. This film, while considered one of the best of its genre and “the mother of all tentacle porn,” is a classic example of what people see when they hear the words “Japanese animation”- animated smut that subjugates women and provides the most reprehensible example our young men could possibly have.

This is exactly what Mrs. Jackson wants her audience to think. Japanese animation is all pornography depicting rape and other violence against women, setting a bad example for our youth, and leading them down the path of evil. She draws on studies where pornography is shown as leading young men astray into worse habits, until their diet of hardcore, S&M, and snuff pornography turns them into serial killers. These conclusions are based on a video by Dr. James Dobson, a man who served on the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography. In this video, Dr. Dobson also interviews serial killer Ted Bundy before his execution. Bundy claims that he looked and acted normal, all the while watching more and more outrageous pornography. Also, he “reveals that without exception, anyone else he knew in prison who was there for sex offenses was also deeply involved with porn.” (“Anime Under Fire” Part 11). In the article “Negotiating Sex and Gender in the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, a man named Larry Madigan is quoted as having said: “I strongly believe that all that has happened to me can be traced back to the finding of those porno cards. If it weren’t for my faith in God and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, I would now possibly be a pervert, an alcoholic, or dead. I am a victim of pornography.” (Intimate Matters, p.440). Although he was also a “normal” boy, pornographic images made him crave these immoral stimuli, and without his Christian, and probably highly conservative, ideals, he would be “a pervert.” Yet the same article which gives us this “evidence” of pornography as corrupting also refutes these ideas.

Turning the page from Madigan’s testimony, the author provides us with a clearer look at the make-up of this Commission on Pornography. “The list of witnesses was tightly controlled: 77 percent supported greater control, if not elimination, of sexually explicit material.” (Intimate Matters, p.442). However, despite this weighting in their favor, noone has yet proved that pornography is solely responsible for all the ills in our society, as Bundy and Madigan’s testimonies would have us believe. The Commission’s previous bias and obvious “loading the dice” only make us look at them twice when they say something, although their tactics were sound until that was revealed. What better way to prove your view right than to support your case ONLY with people who agree with you? Hence the debate in Protoculture Addicts. James S. Taylor agrees with Brittney Jackson on many points: violence against women is unacceptable, children should not be exposed to pornography… the main points that all but the most deranged individuals (by our society’s standards) can agree upon. However, Mr. Taylor spends a good deal of time on context. Whereas both debaters can be accused of taking points out of context to use them, Mr. Taylor stresses the value of it. He uses classical art as an example. Is nudity wrong when it’s used to tell a story? He says that until the eighteen hundreds and the Victorian Age, even the Catholic Church would look at something’s entirety before condemning the whole. So it is, he claims, with anime, that the videos Jackson attacks are “not representative of the full scope of anime” (“Anime Under Fire” Part 12). Anime is a medium just like Hollywood movies, and as such, is much more diverse than the pornography investigated for the debate.

I would like to take this opportunity to investigate an example of anime porn in light of these arguments. Mrs. Jackson mentions one particular film in her presentation, an animation titled “Dragon Pink.” The press release she cites includes the following description: “The world of sword and sorcery will never be the same after slave girl Pink dons the cursed panties of Torajima, turning her into a literal sex kitten.” Dragon Pink is a three-part OVA (“Original Video Animation”- released straight to video and not seen in theatres or on television, as is the practice with Japanese anime porn.) of which I have seen the first episode. There were no cursed panties in this one, but Pink is a kitten. More precisely, she is what is referred to as a “neko-musume” or, literally, cat-girl- a woman with the ears and tail of a cat. This could be a depiction of women as less than human, and indeed, the neko-musume race is looked down upon and used as slaves by the humans in this film. But Pink is a real girl with feelings, although they are shallowly depicted in this half-hour episode. Pink has an attachment to one of her companions, a swordsman by the name of Santa, and is very jealous when he fantasizes about and flirts with other women. She whips a huge wooden mallet out of apparently nowhere and beans him with it twice in this episode alone! In the beginning of the film, Pink approaches the Monster Master in order to get the Sword of Triton. She has only her body to offer him in return for the item. However, this was all a ruse by her and her companions to get close to the sword. Before the Monster Master can take advantage of our admittedly over-endowed heroine, Santa and the rest of their group, Bobo the Barbarian and Pias the Elf, appear and slay him, taking the sword for their own- to sell for the cash. Pink hopes that she will get a new outfit out of this, although Santa argues that it would be a waste of money. He is convinced to buy her something by Bobo and Pias. While in town getting her new dress, the salesman refuses to sell to her because she is a neko-musume, saying that her kind should be dressed in beast skins, which causes Pink to run out of the store in tears. Later, in a scene in a bedroom (by which you know an explicit scene is coming- no pun intended), Santa takes the man’s comment to heart. He resolves to hunt a creature and have it’s skin made into a new dress for Pink. Then he slips his hand under Pink’s shirt, taking this opportunity to either a) comfort his heart-broken companion, b) get some action before going out and risking his neck, or c) taking advantage of her vulnerability to get some. The viewer is left to decide, should he or she bother to think in the next few moments of animated copulation, which is pretty standard for the genre of animated sex. Afterwards, a blissfully contented Pink sleeps while Santa goes off to skin a tiger for her. Skipping ahead a bit, the party is commissioned by the Queen to look into the disappearances of six young women, who will undoubtedly show up later, butt-naked of course. While walking in the woods, Santa has a daydream about the Queen’s reward for his efforts. Luckily, the Queen was a beautiful young woman herself. This is the first of Pink’s mallet scenes, as she senses Santa’s indiscretion and soundly beats him for it. Meanwhile, our captive young women are being implanted (manually) with the seeds of an evil monster. This scene was thankfully cut short, as I was watching the edited version. These women were used by the monster to form a new body that would live forever. This body was of course revealed to be a buxom female monster, although Santa didn’t drool at all. He’s all business when it comes to monster slaying. The battle is unnecessary at the moment, except for the monster’s magic, which made Pias the Elf so sexually stimulated that she could not participate in half of the battle and spent the second part of it rolling on the ground and masturbating. Pink wins the battle by stealing the monster’s source of energy, at Santa’s suggestion, and running away with it, showing an incredible amount of bravery in facing the monster when she has no defenses of her own. Later, after their victory, Santa puts the moves on the Queen by kissing her up her leg and the Queen quite happy about it (I know I would be; legs are very sensitive.), resulting in Pink’s second mallet scene. In this, Pink is shown as a woman- jealous, sensuous, sexual, sensitive, violent, vulnerable, and strong. She is objectified, sensualized, and stereotyped- as women are in every aspect of our lives. This is not the fault of anime, but the fault of our, and Japan’s, modern society. Altogether, if we take out the sex scenes, Dragon Pink becomes just one more medieval comedy with a few mature jokes. This is nothing we don’t see on American television, except that people take more offense to this because it is animated.

While anime itself is incredibly diverse, so too are the points brought up in the “Anime Under Fire” article. It would take a much longer look to cover every aspect of Japanese animation as a whole, only slightly shorter to discuss the relevancy of this debate to the field. Therefore, I will conclude with this- Anime has been much maligned due to the various types of shows included under its umbrella. Because we as Americans view animation as a thing for children, we cannot appreciate this scope of material. Because we see only the violence and sex, we condemn it as immoral and corrupting. We could stop importing it altogether, or we could monitor the titles being imported. We could argue our right to freedom of speech and condemn both. We could encourage parents to keep adult titles out of children’s hands. After all, in the words of my housemate Nick, “three-year-olds should not be watching Urutsukidoji.” All of these could work, or they could all fail. The only way to judge anything, including anime, is to watch it yourself.

Taylor, James S. “Anime Under Fire,” Protoculture Addicts issues 53, 54, 55, 56, 57. 1997, 1998, 1999.

D’Emilio, John and Freedman, Estelle B. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America- 2^nd ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1997. orig. pub. Harper and Row, 1988.

Vance, Carol S. “Negotiating Sex and Gender in the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography” as published in The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy. Roger N Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo, eds. Routledge, 1997.

Dragon Pink, video, distributed by Soft Cel Pictures (original Japanese company unknown, year unknown.)

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