As I’m sure you’re well aware of, there is a perception that animation is targeted exclusively at children and while this perception, brought on by the Dark Age of Animation, is slowly being eroded, this delusion still remains prevalent. Of course, not all animation is aimed at children and it shouldn’t be a case that an age rating decides whether the work is suitable for adults or not but it’s also indisputable that an 18s rated work isn’t targeted at children. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some 18s rated anime and how to avoid the mistake of showing these to kids.
First off, I should clarify what I mean by 18s rated since it may not be clear from an international perspective. Living in Ireland, I import almost all of my DVDs and Blu-rays from the UK. Within the UK, it’s mandatory that all home video, whether they be VHS, DVD, Blu-ray etc., be given an age rating from the BBFC before it can be legally sold. I’ve expressed my frustration about this situation in the past but I also thought it would be interesting to look at anime that is, at least in the West, definitively not aimed at children.
With regards to why a work, in this case anime, may be rated 18s, there’s a variety of contributing factors. Of course, gore and violence are strong contributors but strong sexual content and very strong language can also drive an anime’s age rating to 18s. According to Emily Fussell, a BBFC examiner, “the specific problem for anime is that sometimes it really does look like it’s aimed at kids” even when it has extreme content. She also says that this applies to the cover, the title and character designs which may not indicate the strong content present.
The cover for Baccano! is deceptively non-threatening but you’ll note below that it had an 18s rating on it. According to the BBFC website, due to the fact that it isn’t clarified on the box, this is solely due to the presence of strong bloody violence. Apparently, the word baccano is Italian for “Ruckus”, a surprisingly apt way to describe the series but not helpful to understand the content.
Paranoia Agent, the only TV series created by Satoshi Kon, has a red cover with a picture of a young boy with rollerblades, the image cuts off around the neck, holding a damaged baseball bat. It’s also notable that there is a crowd behind him. The image itself isn’t particularly threatening but it’s notable that this release was not only rated 18 but a completely uncensored version wasn’t available in the UK and Ireland until recently. The BBFC states that the series contains moderate sex, violence and mental illness theme with the box also noting that it contains suicide references.
The final example I want to give is a series called Penguindrum which I think in particular looks quite deceptive. As you can see below, the cover features a young girl in brightly coloured garments who is drawn in a moe art style. Interestingly, despite the title and cover looking quite kid-friendly, the BBFC notes that the show contains moderate bloody violence, injury detail and sex references.
It’s important to remember that not all animation is aimed at kids and you have hopefully learned a bit about how to avoid showing these to your child. The title, the cover and the character design are not sufficient information to decide who the anime is targeted at and doing some background research can help to prevent any issues. Let me know your thoughts on this article, whether you or anyone you know has made the mistake of showing kids 18s rated anime, what the issue was, how to better prevent this and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!