[RiderKamen]

"Man its not that serious, its just a cartoon"
That's what I usually say when people try to debate the content of a cartoon whether offline or online.
However, some animes do challenge the viewers and distributors on subject matter or even content which is displayed.
Some anime make you scratch your head in awe or disbelief; some will make you laugh or cry at the subject matter; some will offend you because of the strong ideology within the story; or some will be taken out of context and entertainment for a person's excuse in their motives.



What anime or public display of interest in anime which you may find controversial?


First anime that comes to mind is death note. I like death note because of the notebook concept.
In spite that it is a story, I have found disturbing news articles about kids to young adults trying to emulate the death note notebook concept within their murder, threat, or personal problems.

[KAITOU KID.]

I like Death Note because I agree with Kira's theory/judgement.

But yeah, I've heard of some copycat killer events :X

[MUGETSU]

Evangelion - religious symbolism

Serial Experiments Lain - blurring of reality and the internet mixed with philosophy.

Ghost in the Shell - The ethics and philosophical consequences of mixing humanity and technology

[hungrycollegeboy]

Stuff that anime gives off:

Yu-Gi-Oh - You can slip in and out of puberty whenever you feel like it.

Hikaru no Go - It's okay to cry like a wuss if you lose a game of Go.

Berserk - Never listen to your bestestestest friend in the whole world.

Bokura No - Virtual reality video games can be deadly.

[LucasBunny]

Sailor Moon-Darien is a pedophile
Dragonball Z- Mr. Popo as well as other black face characters
oh wait, I forgot people think it's cool to don black face in japan never mind XD

[Arctic]

To-LOVE-Ru - Underage marriage and ecchi?? :V

[DarkAngelInLove]

Gundam Seed gives serious talks about war, weapons, and the fate of humanity if we keep going down the road we are going. Me, I get a real touch of reality when I hear people and countries making weapons and other stuff just to prove one side is more powerful. That makes me look at when the guy said "This is mankind's fate" which is to end up killing each other. It looks like we're on that path.

X/1999 and Evangelion (okay a touch of yaoi) the talks about the end of the world and other religious stuff. Having the end of the world on one guy's shoulders is pretty harsh. And bringing a lot of religious stuff can offend people. In Eve, the bad guys are called Angel and when they die, a cross goes into the sky.

Death Note just makes me think that if someone commits a crime, should they be given a second chance like serial predators, murders, etc. Death penalty is also gets into topic when a criminal gets the axe. I think a person who commits a crime because of a mistake, and regrets from the bottom of their heart, they deserve a second chance. People who repeatedly do the crime over and over and over again, should be kept behind bars and the keys thrown away.

[OMG.its.yi]

Death Note: Agreed with first post. The idea of getting rid of evil, or 'sin', through the use of something that is known AS an evil or 'sin'. Also makes you wonder about perfect worlds and things like that, can there really be a world where there are no bad guys (which I think not), etc.

Bokurano: It's about kids, but not really FOR kids. The topic of the importance of life and death and how much we take each for granted or make little of each is brought up and swims through your mind whilst reading/watching this one. What would you do if you had the entire world's fate in your hands, but in order to save it, you had to kill another world that was exactly the same as your own? You have to die anyway. How do you spend your last few moments? And there's much involvement with the world, and the people surrounding the area where they fight and everything.

[K-PopChink]

Death Note: This was brought up by another poster already but what I find controversial is the view of justice. Kira's way of justice is to punish all criminals through death. Criminals do not deserve a second chance nor do they deserve to live, which is Kira's mindset. To erase crime, you must erase it completely. Realistically and naturally speaking, some people do feel the way Kira does. When people witness or read about a murder, rape, etc., they'll naturally determine that the criminal should die. But politically speaking, the criminal should be tried in court and be placed in prison. But Kira's way of justice disagrees with this. Is death to a criminal consider justice? From Kira's point of view, yes it is.

Code Geass: The idea of revenge. Is revenge worth it? Why not just accept the present and move on with your life? Lelouch has brought nothing but misfortune upon himself by seeking revenge against Britannia. He has already lost 3 loved ones(Euphie, Shirley, Nunally) through his quest for revenge. Lelouch's lust for vengeance will be his ultimate downfall and will result in a tragic death, most likely.

[jrevenge]

ummm from what you have told most likely about "death note".
yeah, kira was freakin wrong coz' he tried to put "justice" in his very own hands.
but there is L and his subordinates to stop kira coz' they view kira's way of justice is wrong.


anyway, i must add another anime that i look controversy.
Is "Boku wa imouto ni koi wo suru" count?
coz' isnt that wrong that you fall in love with your own sister?

[l3lo]

i don't consider it really controversial but it did change the ideal and way anime was made:

AKIRA

many things in the film included psychic abilities, the then culture of youth, rebellion, social unrest, and what awaited in the future. it also had the nuclear destruction that reflected what had happened in Japan scores ago. it revolved basically about humanity and life--psychologically and philosophically. even the Buddhist religion was shown in the film. when i first saw it, i thought it was disturbing.

[RiderKamen]

I would also like to add naruto.

now people been arguing that its a rip off of dragon ball but there's been rumor that its ripped off another anime.
Based on word of mouth, the creator ripped the story from a family that also writes and illustrates manga.

ummm from what you have told most likely about "death note".
yeah, kira was freakin wrong coz' he tried to put "justice" in his very own hands.
but there is L and his subordinates to stop kira coz' they view kira's way of justice is wrong.


anyway, i must add another anime that i look controversy.
Is "Boku wa imouto ni koi wo suru" count?
coz' isnt that wrong that you fall in love with your own sister?

YES

[K-PopChink]

Naruto isn't a rip off of DB. Naruto didn't copy DB but it was influenced by it. There's no doubt that there are some similarities between the 2. Kishi was a fan of Akira Toriyama and DB so he probably got some ideas from it. I'm pretty sure there are more shonen series that were inspire by DB as well. Take Bleach for example...

never heard about naruto being rip off from another anime other than db...

[eBooeBoo]

Death Note... The concept of executing criminals like that is...powerful? It kinda creeps me out, though << (I didn't know ppl tried to emulate the actual DN notebook!)

[DarkAngelInLove]

Code Geass: The idea of revenge. Is revenge worth it? Why not just accept the present and move on with your life? Lelouch has brought nothing but misfortune upon himself by seeking revenge against Britannia. He has already lost 3 loved ones(Euphie, Shirley, Nunally) through his quest for revenge. Lelouch's lust for vengeance will be his ultimate downfall and will result in a tragic death, most likely.

Actually, it's not just revenge. This anime shows what power can do to a human. When a person or a country receives such great powers, they use it to their advantage, to the point that it drives them insane. If you look at Lulu and Suzaku, you can see that power has drive them mad. And this goes for real people too.

[RYUUSEi]

Well ... everybody has pretty much summoned up everything I think of Death Note and Code Geass.

So I'll just say Jigoku Shoujo. Because ...

"When one person is cursed, two graves are dug."


Holding such extreme hatred for someone, so extreme that you're ready to drag yourself down along with them.
Think about someone that has hurt you so much that you wanted to die or kill yourself, or someone that made you completely miserable in some way in the past, would you ever send them to Hell? Knowing that you yourself will also be cursed and sent to Hell at some point? Would it honestly make you feel better/your life be better afterwards, knowing that you've actually sent another human-being to Hell?

Doesn't it also make you one of the bad guys, since you're sending someone to Hell? And the people who tried to stop everybody from using Ai's dolls to send people to Hell - were they right? Should people be stopped from "punishing" those who have brought misery upon them? Don't they "deserve" to be sent to Hell? Who decides who deserves that?



I don't know if it fits in here, but I just got sooooooo many really strong thoughts from watching this series.

[Fanshu]

from watching anime ive learned that japanese guys in japense schools have harems of girls swarming them daily and there sisters are in love with them and childhood friends, no im just playing

[HeartOnHerSleeve]

Sailor Moon, because of homosexuality, pedophilia, cross-dressing, some nudity. Also, Rini has a crush on her own dad. Weird.

Death Note isn't very controversial I think, because it shows all possible views on the subject, and isn't just supporting Kira or L. It caused some people to get all freaky with the copycat Notebooks, but that's not an example of controversy.

[DarkAngelInLove]

Well ... everybody has pretty much summoned up everything I think of Death Note and Code Geass.

So I'll just say Jigoku Shoujo. Because ...

"When one person is cursed, two graves are dug."


Holding such extreme hatred for someone, so extreme that you're ready to drag yourself down along with them.
Think about someone that has hurt you so much that you wanted to die or kill yourself, or someone that made you completely miserable in some way in the past, would you ever send them to Hell? Knowing that you yourself will also be cursed and sent to Hell at some point? Would it honestly make you feel better/your life be better afterwards, knowing that you've actually sent another human-being to Hell?

Doesn't it also make you one of the bad guys, since you're sending someone to Hell? And the people who tried to stop everybody from using Ai's dolls to send people to Hell - were they right? Should people be stopped from "punishing" those who have brought misery upon them? Don't they "deserve" to be sent to Hell? Who decides who deserves that?



I don't know if it fits in here, but I just got sooooooo many really strong thoughts from watching this series.

If you read the manga version, it shows that each person who sent a person to hell, will get the same fate. So yeah, they'll be punished for sending a person to hell as if they actually did murder someone. Since they know that, they embraced their life to the fullest, something that everyone should know.

[RYUUSEi]

^
Yeah, actually, they make that clear in the anime-version as well. That's why I wrote, "drag yourself down with them".