I read online that Nintendo has a DS game that's full of ecchi and it's been rumored that it might be sold in the US. However, some say the rumors are false and that the US govt will not allow such a game on the market.

Here's the game's official site:
http://www.dokimajo.com/english/top.html

Here's my point of view:

Blood and violence arent censored. Why? some people are opposed to such material, so why not censor?

I believe it's because it's up to the CONSUMER to choose what to get. if my neighbor doesn't want to play a bloody game, THEN HE OR SHE DOESNT BUY IT. if i like games like halo and such, THEN I BUY IT. it's up to the consumer to decide whether such materials are right for him or her morals.

I truly belive that the SAME APPLIES FOR ECCHI, and other such materials. I'm not saying i'm an ecchi obsessed, panty sniffing pervert. I'm saying it should be up to the CONSUMER TO DECIDE whether such materials are right for his or her morals. Just because some people think ecchi games, anime, and manga are immoral, does that define the rest of the nation? NO! If i believe, for example, "All teenagers are supposed to have their own laptop," does that mean ALL of us citizens must truly agree that all teenagers are supposed to have a laptop?

Some may say that ecchi is bad for little kids, because they will grow up into people who molest little kids and such. If that is true, then why isn't our country overrun by violence? There are instructions for homemade weapons all over the internet.

I don't see how the decision that "blood and violence are allowed and ecchi is not" is justified.

wow. that is so deep. and i agree with you totally

Oh, Christ! A game where you check young girls for whether they're witches by groping them? (Or rather, poking them with the stylus?) That's just what we need. And you're not doing just that, but rummaging through their stuff too. Invasion of privacy in more ways than one, huh?

Digressing away from this game for a second: As far as censorship goes, I'm against censoring a game for the benefit of younger audiences. If a game earns a M or R rating for being for mature audience, it should remain so, or not be released at all. I don't really mind sexual/erotic material either, as long as the presentation and content contains at least some amount of respect and wit.

This game, however, can just stay in Japan.

If that is indeed the basis of this game I'm going to have to agree with Northy. Something like that should just stay in Japan where their standards are different.

Now although it is true that we do have the free choice to decide what we want to buy or not. However there have been instances in the past where parents just blindly buy games, simply because little Billy or little Sally wanted it. Then when something bad happens say a child shoots another child, then you have this whole media frenzy just because they may have played a game they shouldn't have because of ratings. That's why there are a ton of games that you might not even know about that never get released here. If they are they are heavily censored.

The last Grand Thefy Auto game I believe created a huge controversy because of a sex minigame or something that was hidden within the game. Some games have outright been banned because of the over usage of violence and blood. So to say that violence and blood yet ecchi is not is not at all true.

I have seen a lot of ecchi in devil may cry games that been released to the states...they probably will release it within time...but probably change it a bit and slap a mature rating...they've done it before to bloodrayne as well...depends on who carry it as well

I agree with what you say. Forget censoring the stuff; rate it properly and let people decide whether they want to buy it. Like I myself do not like ecchi, but I'm not going to complain about ecchi games that are out there. If I don't like it, I don't play it; no one's making me play it.
Although I do think that ecchi is inappropriate for kids. Not because I think they'll become child molesters, but because ecchi is meant for adults, so it should be seen by adults. Kids don't understand everything they see.

Quote by SpystreakThe last Grand Thefy Auto game I believe created a huge controversy because of a sex minigame or something that was hidden within the game. Some games have outright been banned because of the over usage of violence and blood. So to say that violence and blood yet ecchi is not is not at all true.

Wasn't that the ruckus created by a homebrew mod? I.E. something Rockstar had no hand in creating at all, or am I thinking of something else? In all honesty, I haven't really paid much attention to that because I'm not overly fond of the GTA games, so I might very well be wrong about this.

I don't really have anything against the GTA games -- people should be able to see the satirical aspect of the game's contents -- I just don't play them myself.

1. The game is quite ecchi, but that wouldn't be a problem for the ole US Gov't. After all, think of other media (say, ichigo 100%) that get quite ecchi with underage characters that have arrived on US soil intact.

2. In the US, there is a much lower threshhold for sexuality in games not already geared towards adults. Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is definitly geared towards kids (or at least, as far as the vast majority of parents in the US are concerned, anything cartoonish is geared towards kids).

3. Nintendo has built its brand around casuals and being "family-friendly." Parents will often buy a system for their kids based purely on whether or not they can play a GTA-esque game on that system. There's not much going on in this area on any of Nintendo's current platforms (No More Heroes will, of course, change that).

4. Nintendo sure as hell doesn't want an ecchi game being ported to the US for mass consumption.

5. The whole style of gameplay is pretty "new" to people and would, most likely, turn casuals away.

So you've got a game that's not exactly casual friendly, sure as hell isn't "family friendly" and could easily not sell well in the US (it's already a niche game in Japan). It doesn't behoove Nintendo to push for localization. It doesn't necessarily behoove any other publisher to localize it either, as many such localization houses can afford to localize a handful of games in a year.

hey man i'm pretty sure that isn't the first game man..... maybe even on gba.. i'm not joking =/..... though they only release them in japan 0..o... thats weird that they would try to bring to america...

Quote by Northy

Quote by SpystreakThe last Grand Thefy Auto game I believe created a huge controversy because of a sex minigame or something that was hidden within the game. Some games have outright been banned because of the over usage of violence and blood. So to say that violence and blood yet ecchi is not is not at all true.

Wasn't that the ruckus created by a homebrew mod? I.E. something Rockstar had no hand in creating at all, or am I thinking of something else? In all honesty, I haven't really paid much attention to that because I'm not overly fond of the GTA games, so I might very well be wrong about this.

I don't really have anything against the GTA games -- people should be able to see the satirical aspect of the game's contents -- I just don't play them myself.

No Rockstar made the sex scenes. It is not accessible through normal game play, but nonetheless was put there by the original studio. The mod was merely code injected to make that scene accessible.

Nope that's why they put age rating on every Anime DVD or video game, or whatever. but i guess if you or maybe parents buy the item for you don't read those warnings you can or can't be surprised by what you see, even if it's funny ecchi or stuff you'd see in a hentai anime. it's really moronic to censor anything Ecchi in anything. think about it that's pretty much already bascially toned down hentai for the most part.

The US govt will have little to do with it -- marketing will. If a company thinks they can sell it in a particular venue without taking too much negative press, they will. From the sound of it, no major companies would pick this up, and you certainly won't see it on the shelves at any major chain stores -- those places are just too concerned about their image in the press.

Some excellent examples of this can be seen in manga: a number of titles are only sold shrink-wrapped, despite being very, very tame by adult standards (others aren't sold at all in large stores -- I've found that the local Borders carries a LOT more stuff than the local B&N, and the stuff missing in B&N is often stuff that would be unsuitable for a six year old). The US still has a lot of Puritanical thinkers in it, as well as a lot of people who believe that anything that might be deemed a "comic" and which has cutesy art must be marketable to six year olds -- under the (admittedly reasonable) idea that six year olds may come across it in the store and think they can have mommy buy it for them.

This may change as time passes however, and companies better realize the width and breadth of the markets. Del Rey originally sold Negima in shrink-wrapped formats due to these sorts of concerns, but has recently (as of... volume 15?) stopped shrink-wrapping. I also noticed that the latest volume had the cover art edited, with an "un-edited" version on the inside (I personally found the image about as risque as a mannequin in Victoria's Secret -- not very).

I agree that society should have limits, but IMHO, the US is ridiculously Puritanical compared to pretty much everywhere else in the industrial world. It is somewhat intellectually interesting to me to see that a line of thought originally rooted in religion has spread into non-religious mainstream thought via culture, but that's a different topic.

I think it would do everyone a big favor if the games, magazines, manga, anime, and whatnot that the US imported from Japan were just left as is without modifying nudity content, and just stick an easily noticable rating tag on it. If parents would like to be protective of their child(ren), they they should follow the ratings.

I heard that some stores require ID proof to buy materials requiring a certain age limit. This, in my opinion, is pointless. Who knows? some high school kid could be getting adult material simply by asking a college friend. stores that check ID have no way of finding out who their products go to once it leaves the store.

Actually, for the stores, that ISN'T pointless. See, stores and sales clerks have a responsibility not to sell games/movies, etc. to minors, so as long as they perform age checks on the customer, they've done their job. From there, it's up to the general public not to help minors get stuff that they're not old enough for. That's the point. And if the stores do their job, then the problem is pretty much out of their hands.

As a review writer, I've actually been approached by parents who ask me straight out whether the anime in question is suitable for their X year old child, and I always make a point in saying that I think it's a very good thing they take an interest and participate in their own children's viewing habits. (Although one of them, no joke, had bought her 13 year old son Elfen Lied. Oi vey. *sigh* )

Different places have different values. US people see ecchi stuff as bad while the Japanese people find ecchi stuff normal. Different morals create different people.

I think that the US is not nearly as puritanical as everyone makes it out to be. After all, more porn is bought and sold on this soil than anywhere else; and this porn isn't censored as it is in Japan.

So, while we all seem to think it's fine to sell the stuff to 18+ (or 21+, as the case may be) people, US citizens tend to get more and more touchy as the intended age group drops below 18 and as the content gets more and more risque. The US has plenty of "ecchi" level of publications, Maxim being the first that comes to mind but, again, these publications are aimed at the 18+ crowd.

Please also keep in mind that, in Japan, ecchi things aren't as accepted as we all sometimes might think. A dirty-looking book may well get you dirty stares on the metro. While the threshold is certainly lower, there is still a pretty obvious threshold. Japanese stores get shut down all the time for carrying or selling underage kids aduly doujinshi. All the big stores won't sell most ecchi products, and those they do sell aren't advertised (specifically for fear of public backlash).

Moreover, add to this that the US is quite behind in accepting comics as mainstream media (let alone manga), though the market is far ahead of culture in this situation (I went to a new Borders the other day and noticed that the Manga section was the second largest print section in the whole damn store!). So people in the US are confused: comics were generally a fringe thing, often for like 12-14 year-olds and now you've got these manga that, from the look of the art, often looks to be aimed at a much younger audience, but has very adult (relativly speaking) content.

Quote by PearceSheaI think that the US is not nearly as puritanical as everyone makes it out to be. After all, more porn is bought and sold on this soil than anywhere else; and this porn isn't censored as it is in Japan.

So, while we all seem to think it's fine to sell the stuff to 18+ (or 21+, as the case may be) people, US citizens tend to get more and more touchy as the intended age group drops below 18 and as the content gets more and more risque. The US has plenty of "ecchi" level of publications, Maxim being the first that comes to mind but, again, these publications are aimed at the 18+ crowd.

Please also keep in mind that, in Japan, ecchi things aren't as accepted as we all sometimes might think. A dirty-looking book may well get you dirty stares on the metro. While the threshold is certainly lower, there is still a pretty obvious threshold. Japanese stores get shut down all the time for carrying or selling underage kids aduly doujinshi. All the big stores won't sell most ecchi products, and those they do sell aren't advertised (specifically for fear of public backlash).

Moreover, add to this that the US is quite behind in accepting comics as mainstream media (let alone manga), though the market is far ahead of culture in this situation (I went to a new Borders the other day and noticed that the Manga section was the second largest print section in the whole damn store!). So people in the US are confused: comics were generally a fringe thing, often for like 12-14 year-olds and now you've got these manga that, from the look of the art, often looks to be aimed at a much younger audience, but has very adult (relativly speaking) content.

o_O oh... umm... huh. never knew that ^^;

i've never been to japan, so most of what i know is based on what others say and stuff.

I think its okay to censor it. But just don't overdo it.
It is correct to protect immature people from obtaining such games. Though we all end up as perverts of some sort (come on guys you know that...), exposing young to such material early increases the chances they would actually perform it. That's where i believe the difference lies in.

Its pretty much up to the culture of the nation as well. I dun live in the US so i wouldn't know. Each country has its own tolerance level and upbringing. Japanese are brought up being exposed quickly so they learn quick, but Chinese are far more conservative on "sensitive issues" etc

Quote by Spystreak
Now although it is true that we do have the free choice to decide what we want to buy or not. However there have been instances in the past where parents just blindly buy games, simply because little Billy or little Sally wanted it. Then when something bad happens say a child shoots another child, then you have this whole media frenzy just because they may have played a game they shouldn't have because of ratings. That's why there are a ton of games that you might not even know about that never get released here. If they are they are heavily censored.

Aside from the kiddy porn (something I think we all agree that shouldn't be allowed at all) there's a number of factors that have contributed to this problem and allowed it to get out of control. As Spystreak mentions that parents blindly buy games for their kids. What ever happened to parenting? Parents are supposed to watch over their kids, especially when they young as that is a critical time in terms of building up their social skills/values. The TV can't raise your children, and for those that think it can they have no ground on which to stand on why their kids behave so uncontrollably. Parents in general also need to make an effort to understand the computer better so that they're not so naive about what their kids are doing on the computer.

I love erotic art, ShadowOchibi, ecchi included. I developed a fine taste for erotic material. I'm no sex offender. But, I'm 32, grown-up and with all my taxes paid. Censorship exists to protect younger minds from early exposure to material who can impact them to the point it causes permanent damage. You got a point when you say it isn't fair to censor ecchi when gore isn't. My computer wallpaper is an ecchi image. A really beautiful one. Some weeks ago, I had to explain it to my 10 years old nephew. He said he would be ashamed to have such an image in his computer. I showed him the image doesn't show nothing -- truth be told, the image is sexy without showing nothing more than we already see in Brazilian beaches. Censorship must exist and must be intelligent.
Your country isn't taken by violence 'cause you've education. It's one big hell of a problem here in Brazil, so we've a big violence problem here too, and -- surprise -- we've a big early pregnancy problem here too. Censorship without education doesn't work.

As much as I'd like to knock SNK back on track to making quality fighting games like Garou rather than becoming a dating sim company, I find the whole censorship against ecchi to be obscene when weighted against the alluvium of violent content in US games, as well as the far more suggestive sexual content in about half of the popular movies.

"Yes Alex i would like censorship of ecchi for 1000."

"What is the reason the U.S. is silly.?"

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/KevinMcCullough/2008/01/13/the_sex-box_race_for_president?page=full&comments=true

This was for a sex scene in Mass Effect that was 30 sec long and didn't show anything really. If a game like that did come to North America, I can only imagine how many upset parents and politicians there would be with that sort of stuff in it.

Edit: This is not my view on it, I'm just saying objectively that it might be more trouble than it's worth.

Ecchi stuff, in my opinion, is no longer ecchi if they are censored. Then they might as well categorize it as PG, for god's sake.