Lately, the industry (especially the manga publishing industry) has been abuzz over Tokyo's Non-Existent Youth bill, which has thankfully been placed on hold until June for further deliberation. I'm not into reading pedophilic manga nor do I support the idea of children being hurt, but for the city of Tokyo to think that they can police people's thoughts is mind-blowingly stupid. A pedophile is a pedophile, with or without loli manga. I just wish Tokyo's Metropolitan Government would channel more energy into positive and quantifiable actions, such as exterminating the child porn industry that does real harm to real-life children.

So, how much would the passage of such a bill really affect the anime industry? According to a comment from a government official, whatever is fit to be shown on television would be considered okay. Wow...so all that massaging of gel onto a naked child's body (at least in appearance) shown in Dance in the the Vampire Bund is totally fine? Wasn't Akira groping inside her panties at one point? Stupid me, I remember now--it's okay because she only LOOKS like an eight-year-old. According to the bill, such sexual scenes are allowed, as long as it is made clear in the content that the character is over 18, and we all know she's a vampire that has lived for centuries. So, if this bill ever passes, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of vampires and anthropomorphs in anime (hey, they're not humans!)

Where there's a will, there's a way.