Bringing Japan to Asia and to the World

Russian parents want ban on Japanese manga series ‘Death Note’

Apr 26, 2013 Lifestyle & Travel 5

Russian parents want ban on Japanese manga series ‘Death Note’

A group of parents from the central Russian area of Ural wrote an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin requesting a ban on the popular Japanese manga series Death Note. The parents are claiming that the manga series itself is harmful to children, and they claim as evidence a girl who committed suicide early this year – leaving four of the comic books at the scene of the incident.

According to local Russian media, a 15-year-old girl left Death Note comics and a suicide note before jumping from the window of their 13th floor apartment in Yekaterinburg on February 20 of this year. Judging from the reactions of the parents, local police are now obliged to investigate if there is any connection at all between the suicide and the popular manga series. In the open letter, the parents of the girl demanded of the Russian government that the proliferation of the books – and even the related anime DVDs – be banned. They argue that the Death Note manga series “helps generate interest in death” in children and in turn, has negative effects on their emotional development. Manga comic books are very popular in Russia, especially since the famous Japanese series’ are translated into the local language – the complete volumes of the Death Note series were translated to Russian in 2012. This particular comic book tells murders stories committed by putting the names of targets on a notebook given by “Death” himself. Access to manga comics is relatively easy, as Russian kids and young adults can easily buy them at bookstores in regional cities.

As a parent, we grant that it would be somewhat jarring to find these comic books at the scene where your child committed suicide. But taking all things into consideration, they are surely not the first parents to complain about the content of Japanese manga. I’m an adult, and even I don’t particularly approve of some of the manga comics I’ve seen. But if their only reason for banning literature and art is that it “helps generate interest in death” – then it is a pretty lame reason for censorship. By that argument, the popular HBO TV series Six Feet Under should be banned as well, if all it takes for censorship is to generate interest in something inherently painful or bad (that’s very subjective too). Time will tell if this will generate a reaction from the Russian government, but we hope it does not. Not only is it a total waste of a perfectly good series, but it will set precedent for censorship as well.

[via Jiji Press]

Share Button
Comment Policy : Our comments section is open and welcome to anyone who wishes to participate in discussion or share their point of view, regardless of what it may be. In order to limit spam and those who wish to impede meaningful conversation, we are now requiring users to log in with an account or verify their email address. However, the following behavior will result in your comment being deleted or, if continued, permanent removal from conversations: posting under multiple names, making hateful/racist comments, or making no valuable contribution by posting the same thing repeatedly.
  • http://twitter.com/eleuthero01 Michael Craig

    It is this same old “think of the children” crap that parents use to pressure the government into knocking out freedom to read, think and express themselves! Don’t Russia have PTAs?

    • Scythian

      Thinking of the children sure is crap…

  • http://twitter.com/eleuthero01 Michael Craig

    Parents are supposed to have the power to govern over what their kids read, write and watch> Government is supposed to be the last line of defence in stuff like this!

  • Bongo the Prdkha

    That’s bullshit. Firstly death note is not suitable for 15 years old and younger therefore it’s parent’s responsible for allowing children to read manga. Secondly we are beiing bombarded by hordes of TV series dealing with murder and death yet it seems that people (at least in my country) find this to be ok. And finally Russia seems to be one of those countries where anime and manga are not well understood. It is more likely that poor girl commited suicide because she wasn’t understood by her parrents or people who surrounded her.

  • neverwinters

    Please understand that those are a bunch of non-religious fanatics (they even hired an esper to “see” their daughter’s soul), who are ruled by someone from the government and this one person seems to be just trying to drag attention to himself.

    Still it’s true, that you can buy stuff inappropriate for your age when it’s manga. People really think that “comic books are for young kids”.

    And Death Note didn’t have an age restriction mark anywhere.

    Though that girl’s issue was clearly in feeling lonely (there’s her pre-suicidal farewell note available), a depressing read might be an additional push-forward factor.