The Whole Eroge Nonsense
This post is about reading casually and rambling casually in regards to the whole eroge thing that is going on. If 2009 continues the way it is, it will turn out to be a landmark year with some big public policy/legal rights issues regarding this fandom that come to the fore. This kind of crap always lurk in the background regardless of what we are doing, so it’s good to pay attention since it can impact the future in drastic ways. Besides, I’m tired to chopping on copyright at least for now.
But just because it can doesn’t mean it definitely will. It’s good to be hopeful about the future, I think.
First off, why are people reading their word on this from Sankaku Complex? It’s not where you want your serious news from. Go to Zepy’s and learn to love Canned Dogs. I should qualify here, though, that it’s okay to get your news wherever you get it as long as you put on your critical hat and think for yourself. And I think Artefact is doing a fine job, whatever that is. (I am talking about the two types of web press, also, because I think where I get my news shapes the opinion I form.)
Second, it’s not a right to freedom of expression or a free speech issue for the most part. The only place that I read or even see actual law on this is on the translated meeting notes from a research group that met to talk about the proposed censorship in progress. I’m in no way qualified to give good opinion on Japanese law, but it seems that Japan has two framework or sets of case law that governs government limitation on restricting adult content. One is on the basis of individual work and another is on the basis of class of work? The actual law is not important; what is important is that the EOCS guys don’t even want to get there. They do not want a law on the books that bans (or otherwise regulate) their goods in a way that addresses them specifically. I’m not even sure if they care about the principle of the thing.
Of course, the principle of the thing is important, but principles don’t put food on the table, nor does it particularly save face. Anyways, Japan is not a litigious place like America, so people often fight for their rights in different ways.
It’s also important to know that EOCS is made up of industry leaders that ultimately serves as a legal cushion and severs liability between the companies they work with and the general public. Zepy explains this better in fewer words, but we need to remember their purpose is to lower liability and promote their products. It must be super bad to see EOCS banning entire types of games for the sake to appease the (imaginary?) press, domestic or foreign, because their goal is also to promote the games (and $$$). However while I instinctively think that EOCS is overreacting, maybe it is done with good reasons? Are they really that close to see a law on the books banning the whole deal? Is a law on the book coming soon?
After all even I know none of this happens in a vacuum. Japan has been getting tougher on child porn and that kind of seedy stuff the past years and that’s all just domestic pressure brewing. Looking at the headlines at ANN says as much. Getting pissed off minori’s figurative bird-flipping to non-JP (and non-PH) IPs is great, knee-jerked fun, but we all have to remember (and minori’s ban affirms this, actually) that this is all just nonsense. Western influences on Japanese domestic industry that they invented for themselves is as much as trying to sell fuel-efficient Americans cars in Tokyo. LOL. In other words, we don’t really affect them compared to the effects of their own actions. Because, really, what does Equality Now stand to gain from all of this? Omo is linking to their site? 2ch vitriol? Oh boy I’m dying to have a bunch of angry Japanese anons at my doorsteps! Don’t kid yourself; all of this is just your usual game of “I troll you for my own benefit, you troll someone else as a result” down the food chain.
And if you’re pissed by all of this, it just means you’re two levels below angry, culturally maladjusted femnazis!
That aside, however, there is a valid cry for alarm in terms of the lock down on freedom of speech. Again, minori is the best example. Their website have been updated with something more constructive since the initial region lock; and indeed, how would you feel about a game like ef being banned, because it has some edgy relationships? I loved the anime that spawned from the ef game, and I do think if the censorship rules discourage games that are just a tad too edgy from either being made in the first place or makes it difficult reaching commercial success (and subsequent cross media marketing), well, that would be terrible.
Then again, this is only because the eroge market expanded and diversified over the past 10 or so years, almost unchecked; games like ef has little in common with the majority of crap you see on a site like Getchu (NSFW). Or at least, these games have no more in common than flour and salt have in common–we all consume both to some extent, for different purposes, although sometimes they’re used together and you might find them stocked close to each other at the same supermarket. In other words, out of many games affected, only a small breed of games with appeal outside of their pornographic nature are truly the victim. If the whole point of the self-censorship is to change the type of porno that gets made, then it is a reasonable adjustment.
Yes, people, eroge is mostly just porn (in a semi-broad sense–since a lot of them is about recreating an imaginary experience via music, images, writing, and obviously the reader’s imagination). Even if it’s Kana: Little Sister, folks!
But I guess people can’t tell the difference between a yaruge and nakige [like me lol?], let alone distinguish a pretty okay game like Kana from the legion of bad strip mahjong games? How many people outraged at the EOCS proposed changes actually know about what’s truly out there in the wild? (I CAN HAS STATS-BURGER?) How many crappy click-click-porn games are born for each Fate/stay nights or whatever that gets made? Or how many future Kanons are going to be banned versus future Rapelays? Is this really censorship when a private, industry club decide to not stamp your game for approval? Is it the end of the eroge genre as we know it when major otaku stores stop stocking them? I mean let’s not even talk about CSA here. (In reality they probably will more or less follow EOCS once the situation becomes more stable, I would guess.)
I remember reading about Rapelay in Roland Kelts’ book. He basically called it, and how can you not call it once you found out about a game like that? But I think that is the problem–there’s so much about Japan that no one outside Japan knows. Its insular, layered cultural construct is part of its charm and an open discourse, no matter if it’s on the legal or industry or even pop-cultural exchange level, will change it sometimes for the worse. Or better. And that depends only on your perspective.
Going full circle, this is why a good news site that frames the issue accurately goes a long way, I guess.
It’s probably worth noting that by and large the stuff that was on that big list of buzzwords are illegal or highly restricted in *normal* porn in most countries too.
I expect that the really seedy stuff will end up going doujin and everyone will continue on as if nothing happened. And that would be a hell of a lot better than the Japanese government deciding to impose legislation to ban that content entirely, which *would* effectively destroy not just the commercial eroge industry but probably the ero anime industry and practically destroy doujin work as well.
Doujin is hardly an industry that earns you retirement.
I would think eroge is also hardly an industry that earns you retirement. Doujin makers can make good money, but who knows…
This is why you don’t go to Sankaku for news. You go to Sankaku for porn.
Thanks for this post.
Personnaly, I don’t care if 1337 Rapelays are made, if it’s necessary in order to to produce one ef. I won’t read any of the 1337 Rapelays anyway. On the other hand, if ef was restricted in order to be able to wipe these 1337 Rapelays from existence, I think it would be a big lost.
Maybe we started to become more aware of the crackdown because of the Rapelay issue but it’s not like it all started from there. Maybe the sensational Japanese media overblew the story but then I don’t think they made headlines out of it because there are other more pressing matters for them (like drunk naked boyband members).
IIRC, isn’t EOCS made up of members of eroge companies, the major ones at least? This may be ouch for the little ones who can only survive with miniscule budgets and have fetish titles for niche otakus. And remember, whatever any politician’s statements may be, the Liberal Democratic Party still rules as the majority. The freedom fighters must have stronger words than them in order to swing the vote.
Zepy has a post that describes some of the key people on EOCS. While the impact is disparate I don’t think anyone is spared once we trace the $ to the bottom line.
One reason I love eroge is because it has almost no limits. Anything is possible. Even rape often makes a story better, but point is eroge holds nothing back for the sake of the game, whether it’s just simple porn or for story. Fate/Stay Night would be different without the elements of sex. Many romance games don’t feel complete without the couples expressing their love for each other in the fullest manner. Eroge with constricting borders like those proposed by the EOCS takes away so much of the potential and soul of eroges.