The Hell Is This Doing Here?! Bad Run-Ins With The Animation Age Ghetto

[Shiraishi-kun]

Animation Age Ghetto: Term used commonly on TVTropes.org. Refers to a person seeing any form of animation, regardless of rating, content, disclaimers or cover art, and instantly labeling such as being for children.

Being anime fans, we know what it's like to have to deal with people and situations like this. While the general idea of not all animation being family-friendly is indeed starting to spread, some still stick to the old mantra of cartoons being childish and silly. Inevitably, this has caused some... interesting events to unfold. And this is where you can share your stories.

A few days ago, I decided to check the video store near my local library. Both are within easy walking distance, so it wasn't much of an issue of getting there. Since I adore animation in all of its forms, I decided to scan the "Children's" section, since that's where most animation is generally kept. Not even through with one aisle, I find something that is most definitely not child-friendly.

Superman: Doomsday. A PG-13 rated animated film with brutal violence, sexuality and foul language. With this trope instantly jumping to mind, I thought to myself, "what the hell else do they have in here that's not for kids?!"

Little did I know that I was in for a shock.

Wonder Woman, filled with brutal violence and scenes of decapitation. G.I. Joe Resolute, with graphic violence, swearing and frightening scenes. Princess Mononoke, brutally violent with gore and blood. Hellboy: Blood and Iron, pretty self-explanatory. Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, Ultimate Avengers, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Tales of Earthsea and more. I had found 15-20 PG-13 and higher rated movies and series laced in with the likes of Pokemon, Strawberry Shortcake and Power Rangers in the children's section. How the hell did this happen?!

I brought up the offending films to the front counter, where a cute girl was tending to the cash register. I told her about these films, and she apologized profusely, in a rather adorable manner. Apparently, one of the men who stocks the shelves puts all animation, regardless of rating or whatever, in the kid's section. She said she'd look into it and put the films in their appropriate sections, but this only made me wonder: with all of the films that dingus put in the kid's section, exactly how many kids were subject to all of that?!! It kinda made me die a little inside, seeing a little kid watching something like Akira or Ghost in the Shell in my mind's eye.

And don't worry, I've got plenty more stories where that came from

[Inikalord]

My video store near me actually has a section dedicated to Anime all for itself, though it's still located near the children's movies and TV shows.

It's cool nonetheless to see all those DVD's actually categorized into the term "Anime" and not "Children's DVD's"

As for any stories, none come to mind so far but I'll be sure to post if I do remember or do come across one.

[Supernova141]

It kinda made me die a little inside, seeing a little kid watching something like Akira or Ghost in the Shell in my mind's eye.


Ghost in the Shell isn't for kids in the sense that the story is probably too mature, but there isn't anything too adult-themed in there. A kid could easily watch it.

The real danger would be if there was an ecchi anime with a misleading cover...

Also, are you implying Power Rangers is for children?

[Shiraishi-kun]

Ghost in the Shell isn't for kids in the sense that the story is probably too mature, but there isn't anything too adult-themed in there.

Have you seen the old 1995 film? The one with topless Major, heads exploding, Major's body being torn apart, that one?

And Stand Alone Complex ain't much better. It's got some fairly strong language, one episode deals with a mass murderer skinning his victims alive, a vast majority of the girls in the show still tend to dress like sluts...

Uh, yeah, try topping that.

And the Rangers series there in particular were Ninja Storm and Operation Overdrive, two of the more childish seasons.

EDIT: And on the subject of ecchi anime, I remember that when Netflix first put Queen's Blade up on Instant Streaming, they gave it a TV-Y7-FV rating and put it in the kid's section. And then there was the flood of soccer moms negatively reviewing the show since their children had been exposed to plentiful bouncing knockers, bare breasts by the bushel, lots and loads of lesbian love and some cameltoe to boot. Suffice to say, that series now resides in the regular anime section of the site.

[Z008MJ]

My closest video store has an Anime section and a child section, it seems the child section is from age 3 or so, and the Anime section from 7 or so, i guess. The anime section has things like Pokemon and Digimon, though i have seen questionable content there. As i haven't seen these i will list right now, i can't really tell, but i assume things like Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragonball and such aren't suitible for kids from age 7. I mean, they wouldn't be mainstream if it did not have blood.

Most interestingly though, at one time i saw a store with Death Note in the same shelves as Pokemon. Granted, there was a lot of different things around there, as it was in the middle of the city, but non-the-less everything was put toghether in one section. Elfen Lied could be found nearby too, if closer to more obviously non-child stuff, yet same section though.

I laughed for myself.

I'm sure a lot of the stuff Shiraishg-kun mentioned was there too, but i did not know much about it so i did not put those other titles on the memory.

I think Yu-Gi-Oh was right next to Pokemon, but haven't seen that either so i can't tell if it was appropriate or not.

[Inikalord]

I think Yu-Gi-Oh was right next to Pokemon, but haven't seen that either so i can't tell if it was appropriate or not.
It's more than appropriate.

[sheepgoesmeep]

the childrens section here has Pokemon and Digimon but the anime section has Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakugan and Beyblade, surely they're similar enough to warrant putting them in the same category.
other than that I can't think of anything being categorized as childrens just because it's animated~

[kirant]

I brought up the offending films to the front counter, where a cute girl was tending to the cash register.
I vote we here more about this.

On this topic, the first instance that came to mine was my own. It got me the chance to watch Princess Mononoke at the age of 10 when I asked the cashier for recommendations on shows to watch. I honestly don't think the guy cared as he walked over, didn't even bother looking at the shelf, and plucked it off for me. Of course, being 10 and naive, I assumed he knew what he handed me. Granted, it was all sorts of awesome, but...

After that came the prank we pulled on my Grade 10 Humanities teacher. He let us pick out whatever we wanted for our last day of classes to watch as long as it was safe to watch...so we got together...and picked Elfed Lied as a joke candidate. We figured that with all the hilarious 9000/8000 blood pressure in the opening act, he'd throw it out the window in an instant. So, all hell broke loose in the classroom when he scrambled to the front about 2 minutes in.

Anyways, I vote this is better:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QCcMTHCBJ4c/TNQdrsffN2I/AAAAAAAAC3g/7KEneP_oWfI/s1600/Kids+Love+It.jpg

[Shiraishi-kun]

After that came the prank we pulled on my Grade 10 Humanities teacher. He let us pick out whatever we wanted for our last day of classes to watch as long as it was safe to watch...so we got together...and picked Elfed Lied as a joke candidate. We figured that with all the hilarious 9000/8000 blood pressure in the opening act, he'd throw it out the window in an instant. So, all hell broke loose in the classroom when he scrambled to the front about 2 minutes in.

LOLOLOLOLOL

That's too much. You win, dear sir.

[Z008MJ]

After that came the prank we pulled on my Grade 10 Humanities teacher. He let us pick out whatever we wanted for our last day of classes to watch as long as it was safe to watch...so we got together...and picked Elfed Lied as a joke candidate. We figured that with all the hilarious 9000/8000 blood pressure in the opening act, he'd throw it out the window in an instant. So, all hell broke loose in the classroom when he scrambled to the front about 2 minutes in.

Atleast you made sure he's never part of the Animation Age Ghetto ever again. Heck, he might be sceptical to everything new animated nowadays after that.

[Misao]

I was in a movie theater one day and they played that Regular Show ringtone short in front of the previews while people were coming in. When that ended, a mother asked why her son knew who they were. "But that's not a cartoon," she said.


.... I wanted to deck em.

[Sa-mu]

Well done to you and the girl for acting responsibly.

My video store near me actually has a section dedicated to Anime all for itself, though it's still located near the children's movies and TV shows.There really should be a distinction though, my local store has a hentai dvd in the anime section which really should be kept away from anywhere a parent might just pick anything up to show their children based on the section of the store they found it.

[Inikalord]

There really should be a distinction though, my local store has a hentai dvd in the anime section which really should be kept away from anywhere a parent might just pick anything up to show their children based on the section of the store they found it.
True, though even though it's located near the children DVD's, they're actually both separated by isles.

The highest rating I saw for DVD's in the Anime section was only up to about R16 which probably means the R18 are in the Adult section, which is probably the smallest section in the entire store.