Anime Anime Ratings vs. American Ratings

[natetron46]

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry for misinterpreting what you said before. ^_^;;

The thing is, Appleseed sort of has to target a niche audience (anime/video game fans), and the anime fans in particular would be less than pleased if it were cut. To be honest, I imagine that there'd be a pretty big uproar, even if the DVD release remained uncut. So editing the movie wouldn't exactly be the best option, as you implied.

And I suspect that (successfully) lobbying for a lower rating requires some degree of leverage, and I'm not sure that Geneon has that kind of influence regarding the MPAA and such. Ah well.

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]
Geneon is not well known at all, so I doubt they could do it. Thats really a shame, if this one comes out with the R (which it is most likely going to) I think the movie will tank. Its a good one, but with most of the audience I think will not be allowed to see it.

[casandra]

[quote name='Katamari666']ie Metropolis has a rating of 18+ in blockbuster Ridiculous neh?[/quote]

That's ridiculous.
I bought the dvd and it was rated 12+. I live in Holland, so that just goes to show what a huge difference there is in the ratings there and here. ;)

I don't have a lot of dvd's (lack of money :( ) but I have some Noir ones and there rated 12+ as well. Mind you i see a lot of letters from parents who think pokemon should be banned because it's voilent :confused:

[AzureWolf]

[FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]Everyone is shouting about the ratings. Makes me wonder what everyone's standards are, and why. ^^

Personally, mild violence is fine for anyone. I grew up with Bugs Bunny, and I'm the pacifist among pacifists, heh. I would easily allow kids to see stuff like that.

In addition, I also see a few sexual references as ok for all. Going back to Bugs, there used to be the whole "going ga-ga" over a gal, but I didn't see it as anything more than the natural attraction between adults. Even today, when watching the funny hare, I don't think anything more out of it (except that those girls are pretty ugly when compared to anime ones... <_<).

Blood is where I draw the line. I think a kid should be aware of bleeding and how much it hurts based on where you are bleeding, and the dangers of harming another. Anytime before that, I wouldn't show a kid that level of violence, even in animated form.

Also, references to specific areas of the body that are "adult territory," regardless of being indirect or direct, I would call for knowing where babies are from and definately after puberty. I remember when it finally hit me: I read the passage in my science book the night before, but it didn't come to light until I read it again the next day. I ran straight home, banged the doors to the living room wide open, and yelled, "[B]I KNOW WHAT YOU DID![/B]" For the next year or two, I was an annoying brat who would take [i]everything[/i] the wrong way and giggle like a girl. Then I finally hit puberty, at which point everyone returned fire. X_X

For the above two paragraphs, they essentially correspond to "8-10" and "13-UP," in that order.

As for the really nasty gore, I don't have a definitive stance. And as for sex, I'm still unsure about that one too, heh. I guess I would really need to know a person's mental state to really judge. To put an age on that... I couldn't. I still don't condone sex in anime (or anything), and I'm 20. Gore has its moments, but most of the time, it's just makes me remember my chagrin for such things.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[ckime]

While I don't have first-hand knowledge of why the MPAA board rated Appleseed 'R' I would suspect it had to do with a couple of graphic shots of bloodshed. While it is true that companies can appeal or edit films to get the rating lowered, we were not able to do so because of our schedule.

If we had tried to edit the film, we would have had to get the edits approved by our licensors prior to submitting again to the MPAA. If we had appealed, we have no idea how long the process will take. As it was, we didn't have the time because then we would lose our theatrical slots and since we are not a big theatrical release company, it might have meant losing the theaters we had lined up. :confused:

As for where Appleseed is showing, we are hoping that enough anime fans from the cities where it is showing now will see the movie that other cities become interested. We're TRYING to make it go wider. Wish us luck!

I don't know that this answers any questions, but hopefully y'all find it interesting...

Best regards,
Chad.

[Dagger]

A few days ago, I picked up Princess Tutu v. 1 and Chrono Crusade v. 3, both of which are ADV titles. To my utter bewilderment, I discovered that Princess Tutu is rated TV-14, while the warning on the back of Chrono Crusade just carries the usual 13+ (or maybe it was 15+ ...meh, I can't remember) tag. Does this make any sense? No, not a bit. And I've heard that FUNimation recently started using TV ratings on all their newer series, because the television ratings system seems more familiar to viewers. Well, I don't really care what method they use, so long as they make more of an effort to be consistent.

[quote name='ckime']If we had tried to edit the film, we would have had to get the edits approved by our licensors prior to submitting again to the MPAA. If we had appealed, we have no idea how long the process will take. As it was, we didn't have the time because then we would lose our theatrical slots and since we are not a big theatrical release company, it might have meant losing the theaters we had lined up. :confused: [/quote]
Ouch. When it comes to anime, it seems as though anything less well-known or revered than Ghost in the Shell or Disney's Miyazaki properties has to fight tooth and nail for theaters.

~Dagger~

[Limeaide]

[quote name='Dagger IX1']A few days ago, I picked up Princess Tutu v. 1 and Chrono Crusade v. 3, both of which are ADV titles. To my utter bewilderment, I discovered that Princess Tutu is rated TV-14, while the warning on the back of Chrono Crusade just carries the usual 13+ (or maybe it was 15+ ...meh, I can't remember) tag. Does this make any sense? No, not a bit. [/quote]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][SIZE=2][COLOR=Lime]Yes, I've noticed that, too. (I bought [b] [i]Princess Tutu[/i][/b] v. 1 a while back, and I was quite shocked to have it rated TV 14. Personally, I would rate "+7", or "+12." It certainly didn't have anything that would give it a full-fledged "TV 14" rating.) Now it's going to take me forever to get a DVD of [b][i]Elfen Lied[/b][/i], now that ADV is using the TV ratings and rated it TV MA. (Drat, and I really wanted to see that. >_>)

Okay, this ish a bit off-topic, but..... Wow, ckime, you work with Geneon? Interesting! ^_^ [/font][/size][/COLOR]

[EVA Unit 100]

[quote name='Dagger']I actually think the opposite is true. As an example, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is rated R; were it a big-budget live-action blockbuster, I'm positive it would have been rated PG-13. From what I remember, the violence isn't terribly bloody (it consists mostly of explosions, hand-to-hand combat and the like), and only one scene has noticeable sexual innuendo. It seems to me that the MPAA tends to rate animated films more harshly, probably because animation is perceived as being a medium aimed primarily at pre-teens and children.[/quote]

Actually, the Bebop movie would have been rated R even if it were live-action. The Matrix was less violent than the Bebop movie and that got rated R (OTOH, Return of the King was more violent than The Matrix as well). While most of the action scenes in CB:KoHD were PG-13 material, I remember several scenes (mostly the ones with Vincent) were really bloody. They only went on for like 10 or 20 seconds, but they were really intense. The acts of violence themselves (stabbing and such) had been done in a PG-13 manner in the Bebop TV show, but the portrayal was less stylized and more realistic than anything in the show. Had those scenes not had been in the movie, I'd certainly have been allowed to rewatch it. Not that it matters anyway. Outside of the fight on the train and Ed going trick-or-treating, there was nothing remotely as fun or cool as the best episodes of the TV show.

BTW, I think Ghost in the Shell was rated R, yet Innocence was rated PG-13. I guess the MPAA got a bit uneasy seeing Motoko's bare circuits.