Prudity Warning...

This is something that has been bothering me -in various forms- for a long time, and it seemed a great thing to blog about;

A couple of weeks ago I went to the book store to pick up comic books, I chose to pick up three Manga (Japanese Comic books, they are markedly different from American books). I picked up "Gundam: Ecole du Ciel" Because it is drawn by the man whom I have based my art style on, Haruhiko Mikimoto.

Now, and here's the interesting thing; I picked up Ken Akimatsu's Negima and Issue 3 of Gunslinger Girl. Negima is wrapped in plastic and has all kinds of "Mature Content" warnings on it...

I'm curious, I've read (And loved) Akimatsu's Love Hina, but it was fluff... what in the world could Akimatsu do that would get him sealed off?

So I read the two comics; Negima is sort of a twisted Harry Potter, Imagine Harry Potter graduates from Hogwarts at 10 and is assigned to teach in a girls' high school in Japan. Except he can't let the "Muggles" know he's a Wizard... That's the plot... it's simple, it's cute, I'd let my 5-year-old read it...

So why is it sealed?

Ah... well poor Negima (The main character), has a little problem; he can't seem to get any spell right... no matter what he does (Or his intentions, remember, he's only 10), he ends up blowing off the clothes of the lead female character.

Now, to be clear, you never see anything, flying bits of disintegrating clothing always cover her private areas (Small bits, but bits nonetheless). So apparently, it's sealed because of the implication of nudity...

Now, in contrast is Gunslinger Girl... for those not in the know, Gunslinger Girl is a Dramatic Series (As opposed to Negima's Comedy), about five young girls who are turned into Cyborgs to perform assasinations on behalf of a Secret Italian anti-terrorist Agency.

I read along in this volume, and we meet a new "Bad Guy", Pinnochio (Pino), who starts out by performing a hit on a man and then is walked in on by the man's 5-year-old daughter. We see one panel with him pointing his Glock at the girls eye, and the next panel she is laying out on the floor with blood pouring from her head and eye... still clutching her teddy bear to her chest...

So... of course, Gunslinger Girl isn't sealed because it is apparently acceptable for 5-year-old girls to be shot... but Negima is bad because of the implication of nudity (Not SEX mind you, just innocent nudity)...

As I was once told; "It's because our insides are more acceptable than our outsides..."

---Me.