MarkC32

This is a message out to all the parents who are concerned about their children's well-being, and the safety of themselves and their families.

Most people think that violent entertainment cannot influence children. There are also many people who think it can. When you have insanely violent images in a child's brain all day; games, television, cartoons, what you have is a suseptibility increase. - and when negligence, abuse, anger, hormones are all factors, something is likely to occur.

I personally took the time to sit down and research the Japanese animation Naruto. I have looked at its entire history, and it'd seem the violent Japanese cartoon has made its way to being Japan's new Dragonball. I sat down and watched, for the most part, most violent scenes, because I'd been told from a friend there were some fairly gruesome depictions of violence in it. I watched the original uncut Japanese version, and I also compared it to the American version, and the only difference I have noticed was some of the blood/gore was removed.

There are tremendously grizzly images, which depict children, no older than 14, murdering their families--which is shown through black/white flashbacks, where in one episode, the parents of a boy are killed by means of a ninja knife. In one of these scenes there was a small boy to witness this event, and then had later decided to seek revenge on the murderer, who was also his brother. This murderer, who is known as 'Itachi' in the cartoon, supposedly believed he could gain "otherworldly" powers, or 'freedom' by -killing- his loved ones, and was also a 'pass' to enter a psychotic & demonic tribe, known as the Akatsuki. The symbolism is outrageously disturbing.

This is on the same level with other things;


- Children, who are no older than 12 years old are literally -killing- eachother in this cartoon. There are young boys smashing the heads in of young girls, until blood is seen dripping from their heads

- There are several scenes in the cartoon in which you're able to see mangled, bloody & decapitated bodies lying about

- The adults in this cartoon "encourage" violence - as one of the grownups says "You have entered the most difficult part of the exams. Here, there will be death." Hence the name of the forest the students are told to go; "The Forest of Death"

- Women and children are savagely murdered in this cartoon, in horrific ways, and it's shown in detail

- References to demonic powers

- There are demons living inside children's bodies, which supposedly "force" these children to become murderers

- One of the characters is shown murdering every person he comes across, and even threatens to murder his brother and sister after violently killing several children by means of a "sand" attack

- The cartoon series cannot present any sort of heroic symbols - there are no morals in this story. It's insinuating you must "kill", and kill people you love, in order to gain "power", and through Demons

- The "Akatsuki" tribe consists of members who were "brave" enough to "slaughter" their closest friends and loved ones. Their coats indicate their bravery. The coats are all black and resemble trenchcoats, and bear small red clouds around the whole coat

- Grownup Ninjas train children into becoming killers

- Suggests on a number of occasions that "if you love someone", "you must die for them" - this is shown several times, where characters die ultimately for no reason, sacrificing their lives for no cause

- A demonic, snake-like villain on a number of occasions, seduced children and women, to join his 'evil cult', in which he uses and trains his victims to become loyal subordinates -- there are references that he is sexually intimate with young boys

- The same snake-like villain pinned a woman to a tree, and stuck ninja "kunais" through her hands, which resembled Jesus hanging on the cross - this villain was also shown "licking" these character's faces with his long, snake-like tongue, especially the young, 13 year old boys

- Characters uses forces of nature, such as sand, wind, water, sound, and shadows to "trap", "trick", and "kill" their enemies - one character uses puppets; he trapped a character inside of a giant cage, and then triggered a large set of sharp knives to go into the small holes around the cage -- you hear violent screaming, a scream that sounds very real, and then you see large amounts of blood pour out from the holes

- Here is a picture of two people wearing the Akatsuki tribe coats, which are actually sold at all clothing retailers, I'm sure: I can post images.

As many of you may already know, the Japanese have far different standards in terms of entertainment. They broadcast pornography on certain cable channels, with mere censor blurs covering genitals and intercourse. Perhaps this is just another way of life, where they've proven to continue being peaceful in, but this type of stuff cannot be consumed by America's youth.

I can provide links to descriptions of the cartoon's violent nature, if need be, or links to sites you can download and watch subtitled versions of the "anime", or you may see this for yourself on Cartoon Network (Cartoonnetwork DOT COM), and check for channel locations, and airings. It's usually aired in the afternoon, when children are released from school.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I really hope parents who see this, consider this, and I hope parents all over the country do as well. It's sad when you're forced into screening television programs on channels designed for children. I think this just goes to show you where our world's come.

Kaytee

that is horrible. I don't watch anime but I do know people that do. My dd onlt watch es PBS so the most offensive thing would be curious george opening up presents that are not his. lol but thank you for the warning.

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mamab

My friends are very "careful" about what they'll allow their children to watch, but will allow them to play computer games like the one you've mentioned. I would prefer my kids not to see that kind of stuff at all. Thank you for the information.

SageMother

How is the imagery different in its impact, compared to the old westerns we grew up watching, those of use over 40, where fellows were shot off horses on a weekly basis?

Kaytee

thats a good point I think there was violence in the past as well. They say loony toons is one of the most violent cartoons around but I wouldn't stop my child from watching bugs. However when its blood and guts and glorifying killing I do have a problem with that. I don't believe in bans or censoring either though. I just don't want it on regular tv and geared toward children.

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MarkC32

Yes, that would be on the same level, although we should also consider context, which may be the most extreme issue these days. The cartoon's dark, and the contexts in which the violent acts are occurring in are something you don't want children consuming.

Tom

I probably agree (from a parenting perspective) that I would't love if my child was in to this .. but ... I was in to heavy metal as a kid with all it's "satanic" and/or violent imagery and lyrics and I think (hope) I turned out ok. It's entertainment like watching a horror movie or reading a dark book. I agree it's something that needs to be monitored by parents (closely).

Bands like Black Sabbath or Alice Cooper were seriously "scary" to many parents back in the day. Now they're classic rock.

Children with existing problems might gravitate to this kind of thing but only a super-small percentage will act out on it - and for those kids, if this flavor of the week weren't around it'd be some video game, website, tv show, or novel. It seems impossible to censor art - we'd never all agree as to where the line can be drawn - so barring that all I see left is to parent the children well.

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mymonstersmom

Luckily, none of my older kids ever got into the whole anime thing. I agree that this is disturbing, but if you have teens that watch MTV2 you have to be careful too...they have some videos on that channel that make me blink and shake my head.

Kaytee

yep I agree. You can't censor your children from everything, its impossible. However as a parent I will do my best to keep age appropriate things in my childs life. We do watch a lot of tv but we watch PBS kids, no tmuch harm in Read between the Lions. lol I do agree with Tom though also. My brother was also heavily into punk music, and I'm not referring to Greenday (not punk) lol
We had a conversation just a few days ago about peircings and dying hair and such. My babies ears are not peirced I don't think its right for us to do that to her, but when she gets older to the point of knowing it hurts, its hard to take care of them in the begining and is mature enough to handle it, I will take her. Dying her hair, if she wanted to dye her hair crazy colors, I'd be okay with it. Heck I dyed my hair pink my sophomore year of highschool. Of course this goes by age as well. My 10 year old is not dying her hair pink. I see nothing wrong with expression to a certain level.

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tater03

I agree that you cannot censor everything but being that I thought this was part of Pokeman which I have seen I didn't see a problem with it. But I will make sure to watch this now. Thanks for the information.