Love Anime Then You'd Better Love Your 1st Amendment Rights Programs to Get Teens Thinking About the

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• Love Anime? Then You'd Better Love Your 1st
  Amendment RightsPrograms to Get Teens Thinking
  About their Freedom of Speech
  
• Mary McCarthy(with assistance from Nicole
  Steffen and Askasha de Lioncourt)

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• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the
  United Nations adopted and proclaimed the
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Whereas
  disregard and contempt for human rights have
  resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged
  the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a
  world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom
  of speech and belief and freedom from fear and
  want has been proclaimed as the highest
  aspiration of the common people, "

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• The First AmendmentCongress shall make no law
  respecting an establishment of religion, or
  prohibiting the free exercise thereof or
  abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press
  or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
  and to petition the Government for a redress of
  grievances. - The First Amendment to the U.S.
  Constitution The First Amendment
• Where in the First Amendment does it mention that
  the rights of teens are less important that the
  rights of adults?
  

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• The Knight Foundation Survey"A significant
  number of US high-school students regard their
  constitutional right to freedom of speech as
  excessive, according to a new survey. Over a
  third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the
  First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing
  freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.
  Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to
  publish stories that did not have the
  government's approval." (Knight Foundation)
• Why should we be concerned if teens do not value
  their freedom of speech?

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• A functioning democracy requires a well-educated,
  thinking populace with individuals capable of
  making up their own minds.
  
• Individuals need equitable access to information
  in order to make their own reasoned decisions.
  
• There are roughly 20,000,000 high school students
  in the United States.
  
• Today's high school students will be voting for
  our next president.
  
• Are you concerned now?

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• Remember that Freedom of Speech applies to
  multiple formats
  
• Be sure to check for your own biases.
• (ex These CYAAL Xtreme Reads illustrations were
  considered "disgusting" by some Colorado
  librarians.)

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Programs to Get Teens Thinking

• Remember that Freedom of Speech applies to
  multiple formats
  
• Books
• Comic Books
• Movies
• Video Games
• Cyberspace
• Clothing (School uniforms, dress codes, slogans
  and graphical drug images on t-shirts)
  
• Anime and Manga

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Books

• ALA IFC Banned Book Week (debates, mock trials,
  film festivals, etc.)
  
• National Council of Teachers of English. "A Case
  for ReadingExamining Challenged and Banned Books
  "
  
• Oklahoma public library restricted sections
  Challenge Figure out how to ban this book

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Comics

• Comics Code Authority
• Marvel Rating System

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Movies/TV

• Examine U.S. television rating systems, compare
  to Canada
  
• Examine MPAA Ratings. Current MPAA movie ratings
  consist of
  
• Rated G General audiences All ages admitted.
• Rated PG Parental guidance suggested Some
  material may not be suitable for children.
  
• Rated PG-13 Parents strongly cautioned Some
  material may be inappropriate for children under
  13.
  
• Rated R Restricted Persons under 17 require
  accompanying parent or adult guardian.
  
• Rated NC-17 No one 17 and under admitted.
• Criticism of MPAA system

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Movies/TV

• Debate what role should government play in movie
  ratings
  
• Debate Movie Pricing13 and older pay the adult
  price. New student rates sort of address this,
  except an 18-year-old student can see more movies
  for the same price that a 12-17-year-old student.
  
• Discuss EU and Canadian movie ratings
• European Union movie ratings"He said films may
  follow the example of video games, now regulated
  across most of Europe, in requiring liberal
  nations to abide by the ratings demanded by more
  conservative ones. A BBFC spokeswoman said there
  were no immediate plans to introduce a harmonised
  ratings system but that the EU had not dismissed
  the idea." UK fears over film ratings idea

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Movies/TV

• Debate what role should government play in movie
  ratings
  
• Debate Movie Pricing13 and older pay the adult
  price. New student rates sort of address this,
  except an 18-year-old student can see more movies
  for the same price that a 12-17-year-old student.
  
• Discuss EU and Canadian movie ratings
• European Union movie ratingsfilms may follow
  the example of video games, now regulated across
  most of Europe, in requiring liberal nations to
  abide by the ratings demanded by more
  conservative ones. A BBFC spokeswoman said there
  were no immediate plans to introduce a harmonised
  ratings system but that the EU had not dismissed
  the idea." UK fears over film ratings idea

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Movies/TV

• Examine International differences in movie
  ratings
  
• Atlantis the Lost Empire (Disney). AustraliaPG,
  SingaporeG, USAPGRemember, this is a movie
  about attempted genocide!
  
• Fifth Element. Argentina13, AustraliaPG,
  Germany12, SingaporeNC-16, SingaporePG (cut),
  UKPG, USAPG-13
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. AustraliaPG,
  CanadaG (Quebec), CanadaPG (Manitoba/Nova
  Scotia/Ontario), Poland(Banned), SingaporeG,
  USAPG (cut version) (1985), USAPG (uncut
  version) (2004)
• Participate in the YFEN NCAC Annual Film
  Contest

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Anime and Manga

• Definitions
• "(ah-nee-may) Anime, as defined by common fan
  usage, is simply any animation that is made in
  Japan." (Poitras)
  
• "(ma-n-ga) (Maw - Nnnnn - Gah) Manga can be
  roughly translated as "comic books", in reality
  it is a much more complex subject." (Poitras)
  

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So what's the problem?

• Edited Anime
• When brought to the United States, anime and
  manga are often edited. ex Visuals, time,
  speech, sounds, story segments, themes, songs,
  casting of voice actors, etc.

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Edited for Content

• Dragonball (characters never die, they go "to
  another dimension")
  
• Dragonball (swimsuit added to infant who ran
  around nude)
  
• Gundam (guns edited to be glowing objects which
  shoot light not bullets)
  
• One Piece (skin of henchman lightened to not
  offend African-Americans)
  
• One Piece (cigarette turned into smoking
  lollipop)

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Edited for Content

• Yu-Gi-Oh! (guns removed so characters appear to
  be merely pointing at objects)
  
• Sailor Moon (character changed to female to
  eliminate homosexual relationship)
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (legal battle won
  by Miyazaki and Tokuma Shoten company)
  
• Shaman King (hats of villains rounded so appear
  less like KKK members)
  
• Yu Yu Hakusho (names changed, removed cultural
  references, eliminated portions of story)

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Issues Raised

• What anime is for children? For teens? For
  adults?
  
• Cultural references
• Idiomatic expressions
• Americanization (ex character name changes, U.S.
  politics added)
  
• Isolationism (does everyone need to be named Sue
  or Joe to be a valid human?)
  
• Alcohol
• Smoking

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Issues Raised

• Commercialization
• Truancy
• Violence (guns, swords/knives blunted, removal of
  images of blood)
  
• Sexuality (nudity, homosexuality)
• Racism in Japanese society
• Japan racism 'deep and profound' An independent
  investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is
  deep and profound, and the government does not
  recognise the depth of the problem.
  (http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4671687.s
  tm)

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Fans

• Some prefer to watch unedited DVD versions
• Some feel some changes improve the work
• Some feel make the work harmful because it
  removes nonWestern cultural references, or
  anti-Western cultural messages
  
• Some feel edits imply the Japanese culture is
  somehow flawed

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Teen Programs

• Anime MST3K Have teens do 5-10 minute subdubs
  that change the intent of the original story
  
• Nausicaa Fights Watch both versions of Nausicaa
  (received the same rating both times in U.S.) and
  have a discussion
  
• Art Show Have teens redraw panels of favorite
  Manga to show how it could be edited.
  
• Ratings Game Have teens read certain manga
  titles and have them assign a rating to each one.
  Tally them up and let teens see the general
  concensus.

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Teen Programs

• Dial-a-Dialogue Have teens write their own
  dialogue for manga scenes, either existing ones
  or for ones they illustrate themselves. Keep the
  original dialogue separate. Then have other teens
  make up new dialogue. Discuss how this changed
  the original intent, what did the original author
  think, etc.
• Missing Scene Have teens write their own short
  stories, but have them leave out a crucial scene.
  Then see how many teens can understand what's
  really happening in the story.
• Cosplay (costume play) Contest. Dress like a
  character from an anime series. Very popular in
  Japan, partly due to school dress codes.

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Teen Programs

• Manga Scrapbook/Poster use images from Web to
  create before and after censorship panels
  
• Have teens hang out and talk with each other, so
  they can learn what others think the boundaries
  are.
  
• and most importantly...
• Learn what the teens have to teach
• Let teens tell you what they really think