[Repost] Since April, Various Places Have Been Strictly Cracking Down on the Illegal Terror-Related Publication Death Note

http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2007-05/25/content_6152545.htm
Since April, various places have been strictly cracking down on the illegal horror publication Death Note
    Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 25 (Reporter Tian Yu) After the office of the national “Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications” task force issued notices twice in April calling for the seizure of illegal horror publications such as Death Note, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Henan, Guangxi, Xinjiang, Fujian, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong, and other places have successively seized the book Death Note and related CDs. At present, various places have seized 2,409 copies of Death Note books, 366 discs, and 1,018 copies of other illegal horror publications, effectively striking at the unlawful conduct of harming the physical and mental health of young people.

    It is understood that after receiving the notice, the anti-pornography and anti-illegal publications offices in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangxi, and Guangdong made careful arrangements and organized forces to carry out law-enforcement inspections in key cleanup areas for publications, as well as on key roads and sections. As of May 10, the culture and public security departments in Shanghai had seized a total of 477 copies of Death Note and other related illegal horror publications, as well as 182 audio-visual products. Jiangsu Province had seized a total of 203 copies of Death Note and other illegal horror publications, as well as 23 sets of audio-visual products. Guangxi had collected a total of 182 illegal books and periodicals such as Death Note, as well as 90 boxes of audio-visual products.

    In the process of seizing Death Note, Guangdong Province discovered that a set of Death Note discs and accompanying books, labeled as published by Shandong Electronic Audio-Visual Publishing House, was being sold on the market. The General Administration of Press and Publication immediately launched an investigation into the matter and verified that this set of Death Note discs and accompanying books had been published through the “buying and selling of book numbers” by Shandong Electronic Audio-Visual Publishing House, and that the party buying the book number was Shanghai Xianjian Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. At present, under the guidance of the Shandong Provincial Press and Publication Bureau, Shandong Electronic Audio-Visual Publishing House has begun rectification work, dealt with the relevant responsible persons, and organized personnel to go to domestic sales markets to recover 270 problematic discs. The General Administration of Press and Publication plans to instruct the Shandong Provincial Press and Publication Bureau to impose a warning penalty on Shandong Electronic Audio-Visual Publishing House for violating regulations by buying and selling book numbers.

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Hahaha, so that’s what it was—I was wondering which horror reading could be so wildly popular, and sure enough it was that Death Note. Heh, what’s so frightening about it? Although it’s true that middle and elementary school students each having a Death Note to scribble in for fun is not really a good thing, it still hardly counts as anything “horror,” does it? Mysticism and religious elements have long been used with ease in Japanese anime; if you think of the classic EVA (Neon Genesis Evangelion), it actually has a strong religious flavor too. But Chinese audiences couldn’t accept it, so after importing it they insisted on changing “Evangelion” into “Tianying Warriors,” and the first line of the theme song, “cruel angels,” into “brave youths,” making it utterly unrelated to the original religious undertones, as if only by doing that could it be made suitable for Chinese teenagers, who are so fragile. With Chinese anime trembling along like this, how can it possibly compete with Japan? When I was little there were also cartoons with distinct Chinese characteristics like Afanti and Calabash Brothers, but now Chinese anime has to learn the Japanese style while also being afraid of this and that; at best it can only turn out works like I Am Crazy About Singing, something so real and so realistic. How can that have a future? Anime is meant to depict fantasy worlds, and one must absolutely let the imagination soar. Reality, common sense, science—all of them should be set aside. Exaggerated, fantastical, mysterious, and bizarre things should be released as much as possible; that’s what anime is!

Latest comments
  
UNIC

2007-05-26 15:00:26 Anonymous 220.171.177.180 [Reply]

If you ask me, if the state really wanted to manage things properly, then you should have the wit to block it at the border before the anime is imported! Every time they’re always closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. They take something that originally wasn’t tense at all and make it tense instead—trying to hide it only exposes it more! It’s like that every time!!! 
As for the work itself, I may not have much standing to speak, because I haven’t watched it. But I do know about the notebook thing. Thinking about it… there probably isn’t anything good about it. Cursing the people around you every day with this kind of death and that kind of death is really not good. After all, you can’t completely deny that it may bring about adverse effects. I wonder whether we should be listening to child psychologists now. 
Anime should indeed give full play to unlimited imagination. But in the end it should still support love. Too many death-related and fighting-related plotlines will definitely encourage hatred and other unhealthy mental states.

  
Guǎ Du

2007-05-26 15:30:50 http://epr.ycool.com/ [Reply]

I remember that in middle school what was popular in the class was pornographic manga; there was really nothing you could do about it, you couldn’t stop it. Things like this can only be guided properly; they can’t be suppressed by harsh measures.

  
JA

2007-05-26 22:20:38 Anonymous 218.12.165.34 [Reply]

I haven’t watched Death Note yet. But I think there’s no need to be so tense about it—people like me who grew up watching bad anime haven’t turned out any differently, have we? According to the official line, someone like me should have been sent to a reeducation-through-labor camp long ago. 
My favorite is EVA; fortunately I’ve always been watching pirate copies.

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.