Ask John: What’s Japan’s Most Notorious Anime?

Question:
Boku no Pico is probably the single most infamous anime among American fandom. Due to it’s…. how do I say this gently…. “inappropriate sexual material” it’s become extremely notorious to the point that some websites deliberately troll new users by always advising them to watch it as a kind of sick joke.

Having said that, I gotta know…. what’s the most infamous anime of all time among the Japanese fandom? Has there ever been anything that truly offended or made them say, “That’s really messed up,” or are the Japanese just impossible to offend when it comes to anime?

Answer:
This is a fascinating question but one that’s difficult to answer because it relates to culture shock. The 2006 OVA Boku no Pico has become a running joke in the American underground otaku community because the anime is the first and best known yaoi shota anime. It’s shocking to Americans because it offends typical American sensibilities on multiple levels. It’s sexually explicit animation, which alone contradicts American convention. It’s a homosexual romance story, and homosexuality – especially male homosexuality – unsettles countless Americans. Then two participants in the gay sex are an adult and a child, which is perceived as both immoral and illegal in America. Strictly speaking, morality and legality do not apply to Boku no Pico because neither of the sexually active characters are actual people; they’re fictional characters that don’t actually have lives or morality or laws. However, while Boku no Pico has become a notorious in-joke and shock surprise among Americans, it’s seemingly well tolerated and not especially controversial among Japanese otaku. Possibly since Boku no Pico evolved out of Japanese artistic sensibility and is designed for Japanese consumers, it’s not as surprising nor shocking for Japanese observers as it is for foreigners. The same philosophy applies internally. Americans may have difficulty immediately recollecting an American film that sparks shocked surprise while foreign viewers may be more prone to have a different reaction to American films than American viewers do.

If a Japanese equivalent to the American otaku community reaction to Boku no Pico exists, it may be the 1973 television series Chargeman Ken! This 65 episode television series produced by the now defunct studio Knack Productions consists of ten-minute (including the opening & ending) shorts made so poorly that frequently sound doesn’t synch to animation, and at times the short narratives have such limited animation that the action is nearly incomprehensible. In the early 70s the show was largely ignored and went forgotten until a 2007 DVD release allowed contemporary Japanese viewers to rediscover it and realize exactly how shocking awful it actually is. Contemporary viewers discovered that not only were the show’s invading aliens quite weak, the “hero” of the show, Ken Izumi, is profoundly amoral, so adamant about “protecting” the earth that he unhesitatingly executes Jural alien invaders and anyone he perceives as an alien threat and sacrifices innocents and even close friends in order to fulfill his self-imposed duty. For example, in the famous episode 35, “Dynamite in the Brain,” rather than attempt to save Dr. Volger, who’s had a bomb implanted into his skull, Ken unsympathetically uses Dr. Volger as a human missile to destroy Jural aliens. While this ruthlessly pragmatic hero may sound like prime superhero satire, Chargeman Ken! is clearly not intended to be satire or parody. It’s a legitimate children’s adventure anime in which the role-model hero is coldly and even ignorantly selfish and unethical. The 2007 DVD release generated a massive swell of Japanese otaku community reaction including hundreds of fan created parody videos, eventually leading to even Japanese TV coverage of the show’s sarcastic cult following.