Hello. Yin-Yang here and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Nitsuj is taking a break this week and feeling bad about not giving me much to do during the Sequel arc he said he would allow me to do a top 11 list of my choice. Why top 11? Because a ninja always goes one step beyond. The media has been a hub of controversy for years. Back in the day The Simpsons was considered a very controversial show. Today, it shows up on no one’s radar. Anime is no exception to controversy as a lot of anime have received controversial attention both in and out of Japan. Join me, as we count down the top 11 controversial anime.
#11. Hetalia Axis Powers
Hetalia Axis Powers is a short comedy anime that takes every country involved in WW2 and makes fun of them. Whether you were on the side of the Allied or Axis forces every country gets made fun of in this anime. The whole point of the anime was to make fun of all the stereotypes each country had for each other at the time and everyone takes their hits well, except for South Korea. South Korea was deeply offended by the anime’s representation of their country and it didn’t help that tensions between Japan and South Korea were high around the time of this anime. The character was quickly removed so the anime could air in South Korea but due to the absurd amount death threats and petitions the station airing the anime was forced to cancel the show before it even aired. To this day the anime is still banned in South Korea.
#10. Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is one of 38 anime banned in China but Attack on Titan bears mentioning because of the reason it was banned in the first place. The anime got banned not because it was too violent or gory but because the Chinese government felt it would encourage kids to become delinquents because of the violence and gore. This line of thinking is beyond stupid, it’s basically the video game argument. Video games cause real world violence which is not true at all. If the government would have just said it was because of the violence and gore I could understand where they’re coming from but turning kids into delinquents? If anything, the anime actually encourages people to support and follow their government and their soldiers who protect them. While the other animes have a good reason as to why they’re banned in China, Attack on Titan’s reason is stupid and total BS.
#9. Doraemon
For those of you who don’t know Doraemon is like the Mickey Mouse of Japan. He’s a very popular character loved by children and adults all over Japan. Outside of Japan, not so much as barely anybody knows who or what he is and I think France might have played a part in that. When Doraemon was trying to get aired in France the education board put a stop to it saying the show was bad for the emotional growth of children. The reason behind this was because Doraemon solved all his problems with his never-ending pocket of gadgets. I know, it’s stupid and ridiculous to me as well. The situation is very similar to Attack on Titan’s situation but what makes this slightly stupider is the fact that this is a kid’s show. A show that was meant to entertain kids and not be taken all that seriously. Technically speaking the anime isn’t banned but thanks to France’s education board it’s unlikely that the anime will ever air in their country.
#8. Gintama
Gintama is like a watered-down version of South Park. It makes fun of everyone and everything without crossing the line but there have been a few times where the show has crossed that line and received heat from it. One of the most well-known times is in episode 269 where the anime depicted detailed and accurate use of BDSM equipment. Another instance is in episode 231 where the characters go to a funeral and make too many jokes at an otherwise serious event. There’s also the abundance use of male nudity. Because female nudity is okay but male nudity is unacceptable. Sexist bastards. Actually, all kidding aside, Gintama is host to one of the best yaoi fan couples out there and a majority of the audience is female instead of male so when you put two and two together you can understand what audience the anime is focusing on.
#7. Shimoneta and My Girlfriend is a Shobhit
Here at Project Nitsuj we enjoy the occasional sex joke and dirty talk. Some of us more than others.
(Baron and Corbin): What can we say? Except you’re welcome~.
(Yin-Yang): The best jokes are of course the ones that are clever. But I think we can all agree that Shimoneta made their jokes way too obvious. I mean really obvious. So obvious that even a kid who knows nothing about sex could pick up on these jokes like it was nothing. On top of that there was also the character of Anna who tried to rape Tanukichi on more than one occasion and even had scenes where she leaked her “love nectar”. Even feeding it to Tanukichi as well. There’s also the one episode where they actually showed you how to make a sex toy using supplies you can find in your home. While the anime may have gotten some flak in Japan the rest of the world seemed okay with it and so far hasn’t been banned in any country that I know of.
My Girlfriend is a Shobhit also makes the list for the number of dirty conversations this anime had. It was impossible to have normal conversation in this anime as every conversation wound up being dirty and the ironic part was all these conversations were started up by the female cast. Our main character plays the perfect straight man in this series going with the flow and maintaining a handle on his sanity which shows just how much he loves his girlfriend and can accept who aspects of her craziness. Just like Shimoneta these conversations were so obvious that even a kid could figure out what they were talking about.
#6. Evangelion
You can’t talk about controversial anime without mentioning this anime. As we all know Evangelion’s edgy mix of religious symbolism and mecha violence has had fans arguing for years on what it means but the real controversy of this show takes place behind the scenes. The show ran out of budget and the final episode had to be cobbled together as a result of it. This cobbled mess didn’t sit well with the fans of the show and they made their voice be heard by the series creator Hideki Anno who at the time was having his own meltdown during the production of the anime and the death threats didn’t help during the show’s production (if you watch closely, you can actually see them used as imagery in one episode). With the creator having a meltdown, the budget gone, death threats, and fan backlash it’s nothing short of a miracle that a final episode managed to get finished in this mess.
#5. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Haruhi Suzumiya was a series that required you to suspend your theory of disbelief quite a bit. Girl from future? Cool. Android girl? Neat. An Esper? No problem. A girl who could potentially destroy the world with just a thought if she wanted to? Bring it on. Showing 8 episodes of the same thing over and over again? You’re out of your damn mind and that’s exactly what they did in the second season of the series. In the second season, Kyoto Animation adapted the Endless Eight arc an arc in which Haruhi wished for an endless summer. This resulted in the entire cast being stuck in a time loop that repeated itself for 15,000 times until Kyon figured out how to break it. Rather than this arc lasting for one or two episodes, the arc lasted for 8 episodes and were more or the less the same episode being animated over and over again. That means for two months straight fans were shown the same episode. This arc pissed off a lot of people and got so bad that the director of the first season had to make a public apology for this BS. I strongly believe that the reason a third season hasn’t been made yet is largely due to this arc in the anime. This arc single-handedly destroyed the series. Nice going.
#4. Kodomo no Jikan
No! Just no! Hell no! Have you ever wanted to see the next worse thing since Boku no Pico? Well look no further than Kodomo no Jikan. In this anime a pre-teen girl wants to have sex with her teacher and if you read the manga the bastard actually starts to fall for her a little and considers it. Along with this unsettling story one of the friends of the pre-teen girl is a lesbian and wants to have sex with her, the other friend’s body matures faster than the other girls and wants to have sex with the pre-teen girl’s adopted older brother who may or may not have an incest crush on the pre-teen girl because she resembles their dead mother who he had a crush on. Good God, I feel sick. I feel like I’m committing a sin for just talking about this series. I feel like I’m gonna go to Hell for promoting this abomination. We are watching a pre-teen girl try to get into the pants of her teacher and they want us to cheer for it. What is wrong with you, Japan? Everyone who watched this show on both sides of the Pacific were uncomfortable watching this and confused on why something like this was created in the first place. Thankfully, the anime did poorly in Japan, was never licensed for release outside the country, and the country has gone about its business to try and forget that this anime/manga ever existed.
#3. Yosuga no Sora
This short harem anime caused quite the controversy in the fall of 2010. Japan has been known to play with the idea of incest and sex in anime but always make sure to never cross that line. This anime, crosses that line big time. This anime not only depicts our two main characters who are twins (one male one female) in a relationship with each other but they’re also in a sexual relationship with each other. The anime shows scenes where the characters are having actual sex with each other and what makes this anime really stand out is that this was a primetime show. A show that was easily accessible to kids and came on when they got home from school. Kids all over Japan got access to a softcore hentai that featured incest and actual sex scenes that played for them to see. Parents were of course outraged by this and bought the anime to the attention of the government but through some sick joke the anime managed to escape being banned and was allowed to keep on airing until the final episode. I’m not sure how the anime escaped being banned but I’m willing to bet there were deals being made under the table.
#2. Pokémon
Ah~ Pokémon, you’re no stranger to controversy. The first season of Pokémon had it’s share of banned episodes. There’s the beach episode where James has breasts, the Christmas episode with Jinx got banned because the Pokémon looked like something from the Minstrel Show, and the episode which explains where Ash caught all those Tauros where Meowth dressed up as a Nazi and actually pointed a gun at the kids. But the most well-known banned Pokémon episode is the Porygon episode which gave hundreds of kids in Japan seizures. While this technically wasn’t Porygon’s fault but instead the animators using flashing lights too quickly which could easily be fixed, the episode is still a banned episode. Outside of these banned episodes the show has received controversy in multiple countries. The showed is banned in Saudi Arabia for its perceived Zionist ideals that promoted other religions, Jewish civil right groups believe the show promotes Nazism for its Nazi-like scenes in the show, there was a time when Christian groups believed Pokémon were demons and promoted Satanism which resulted in it getting banned in schools all over the world, and animal right groups have attacked the show on a number of occasions for animal cruelty. I love Pokémon, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid’s show with so much controversy behind it.
And the number 1 controversial anime is. . .
#1. Death Note
While the other animes I’ve listed have controversy in one or two countries, Death Note has controversy with just about every country in the world. The series is completely banned in China although you can buy the manga in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Russia is trying to ban the series for its influence on children, and children all over the world have gotten in trouble for creating their own version of the Death Note and writing the names of people they wish to kill down in it (some of them actually had written plans on how they were gonna do it). On top of this, the show has served as an inspiration for a crime. In Belgium two bodies were found mutilated with a note beside them when translated read ‘I am Kira’ back in 2007. Over the course of time the controversy for the show has died down but with a series this popular and well-known it’s only a matter time before controversy starts back up again.
So that’s my list, did I leave any out, let me know in the comments below. I’m Yin-Yang from Project Nitsuj, thanks for reading and I’ll see you around.
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