Ask John: Thou Shall Not Kill Revisited

Question:
Hello, John. A pile of Japanese readers are mad at you for your “Thou Shall Not Kill?” article. So I’d like to ask a question from the land of uncivilized samurai. Why do Americans hate for superheroes in comics [to] kill someone? They cheer Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford, who execute German terrorists or Arabian gangsters immediately, or applaud detectives, who like the violent speech “I, the Jury,” or “Go ahead. Make my day.” Honestly, it is hypocritical that they claim only comic heroes should be innocent while they fail to carry out gun control in the real world even after mad guys kill students in high school or college every year.

The “Thou Shalt Not Kill” question wondered why Kenshiro kills the bad guys left and right while Superman does not. I understand how shocking is the show in English speaking world, but I know that “North Star” was very popular among Japanese kids as an amusing – yes, amusing! – show. I remember that a lot of Japanese boys played Kenshiro, shouting “Aaatatatatata!” when “North Star” aired twenty years ago in Japan. To them, Kenshiro’s superviolence was almost the same as violent jokes from “Tom and Jerry,” where Tom was riddled with bullets almost every time. I’m afraid that American anime/manga fans do not know a basic format of Japanese manzai performance (comic backchat), or what we call “Boke” and “Tsukkomi” (foolish person and straight person. BTW, Tomo and Yomi from “Azumanga Daioh” was a typical Boke and Tsukkomi pair). In fact, the authors of “North Star,” said that he had an intention to depict Kenshiro as a Tsukkomi and bad guys as Boke. So it is unfair to compare Kenshiro’s play to a samurai’s Kirishute Gomen ethic in the federal Japan. (Personally, I’m disappointed you did not compare “North Star” to “Mad Max” or “First Blood.”) Furthermore, I must enlighten you by emphasizing that Kirisute Gomen was very rarely carried out because samurai would fear he would be found guilty by authorities after he killed someone of lower class. (He must explain his execution to them.) If the authorities rejected his explanation, he must kill himself. Kirisute Gomen, as a result, functioned as an ethic to have samurai refrain from executing people left and right, as well to have people of lower class have respect for samurai.

Answer:
I do sincerely apologize for causing offense, as that was never my intention. I did explain that a samurai that committed “kirisuto gomen” had to explain his actions afterwards, but I didn’t emphasize that point, and I wasn’t aware that there were such extreme repercussions if the justification wasn’t considered adequate. I also did make an effort to explain that I wasn’t calling Japan barbaric or uncivilized, or comparing the relative ethics of Japanese and Western societies. However, despite that effort, I’m sorry if I still caused some misunderstanding.

Composing this reply was difficult because, as you point out, many American live action movie heroes do kill the bad guys. It certainly was tempting to compare Hokuto no Ken to American films like Mad Max and First Blood, but that lies outside of the stipulations of the question. The original question specifically limited comparison to Japanese manga/anime and American comics – not American live action movies.

I did not emphasize the American implications of this comparison because my answer was directed at American readers. But I think that Japanese readers may be able to realize from my answer that America has a very culturally ingrained double-standard regarding depictions of violence. It’s acceptable for American live action movies for adults to depict “heroes” that kill without hesitation or mercy, but it’s not acceptable for American children’s entertainment to do the same thing. Japanese culture may perceive Kenshiro killing enemies as an extreme parody of a “Tsukkomi” slapping a “boke,” but American society is much too literal to accept hyperbolic imagery like that in children’s entertainment that stars realistic humans.

I think that the accusation that it’s hypocritical of Americans to insist that comic book heroes remain just while real life American society is plagued by violence and virtually unrestricted gun control is a bit inappropriate because the accusation presumes a sort of moral equivalency between comic book reality and real life. However, I must concede that this particular dichotomy in American society does reflect some American hypocrisy – specifically the idea that it’s acceptable to depict fictional “heroes” that engage in mortal vigilantism so long as those depictions aren’t exposed to impressionable children. Japanese society, on the other hand, seems to expect that its children are capable of understanding relative morality and distinguishing the difference between cartoon fantasy and reality at a much younger age than American children can do so. While Japanese society assumes that children are able to make moral judgements and distinguish fantasy from reality at a young age, American society presumes that children need protection from adult moral conflicts, and need positive, moral role models until they’re psychologically and intellectually mature enough to make relative moral judgements. Thus comic book and cartoon “heroes” (as opposed to dark and grim anti-heroes) for children like Superman, Spider-Man, and G.I. Joe never kill while adult “heroes” like Rambo and Dirty Harry do.