Ask John: Will the Dark Knight Tragedy Affect Anime?

Question:
Considering Warner is already re-shooting Gangster Squad in reaction to the violent incident, will the Colorado shooting keep anime with gunplay from being released on domestic North American for the time being? I can already imagine “indefinite” delays for the DVD/BD releases of Jormungand and Upotte! now, while someone would have to be nuts to license Kill Me Baby! at this juncture. Mad Bull 34 will fortunately be out next year. But I could also see Viz and FUNimation getting skittish about bringing over future volumes of Black Lagoon. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Viz renamed the title of its recent Shonen Jump manga acquisition, Barrage. Or will it not matter to these licensors because anime and manga are not as high-profile in America as live-action films? In which case, could Battle Royale be pulled from shelves now?

Answer:
First and foremost, I have utmost sympathy for the victims and community of the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting that occurred on July 20. The tragedy has had drastic immediate impacts, and promises to have a ripple effect of subsequently less drastic effects continuing into the future. Within the past two days Hollywood film studio Warner Bros. has moved from investigating the possibility of altering a movie theater massacre scene in its historical crime film Gangster Squad to seemingly certain to alter the sequence, although the studio has not formally announced any such designs. During the six days that have progressed since the shooting, no other movie studio has announced plans to alter any movies or television programs in response to the tragedy. Warner’s Gangster Squad picture is an exceptional case because it didn’t coincidentally depict a public massacre, or even theater-goers being shot at; it depicted men using semi-automatic rifles within a crowded movie theater. The coincidental similarity to the July 20 shooting is far too obvious to overlook. Furthermore, Warner Bros. produced and distributed both The Dark Knight Rises and Gangster Squad. The circumstances of the July 20 shooting practically force Warner’s hand. The studio would be deemed inexcusably insensitive if it decided to, in effect, remind America of the theater tragedy less than two months later. (Although Gangster Squad re-shoots have not been confirmed, a release date change from September 7, 2012, to January 11, 2013 has been confirmed.)

My personal observation of the national response to the tragedy is sadness, naturally, and a mass-media cry for renewed consideration of stricter gun-control laws. Unlike the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which was quickly followed by public condemnation of violent video games, so far, suspect James Holmes’ massacre has not sparked any condemnation of pop culture media. Mr. Holmes’ motivation has not been determined yet, and there’s no way to know if it will ever be definitively decrypted. But that revelation in the near future could possibly spark some limited backlash against some component of pop culture media. However, there’s absolutely no evidence or sign of any relationship between Mr. Holmes’ actions and anime/manga culture.

Unlike the perpetrators of the Columbine High School shooting, for example, Mr. Holmes is an adult, highly educated, enthused with PC games but seemingly unassociated with comics, manga, or anime. He neither specifically targeted children, nor was a child himself. So any perceived parallels between his rampage and the novel/film/manga Battle Royale are remotely tenuous, at best. Similarly, the fact that manga and anime including Black Lagoon, Jormungand, and Upotte feature people shooting semi-automatic weapons has only the most tenuous parallel to the July 20 shooting. Warner Bros. literally has no choice but to address its film Gangster Squad because Warner is directly related to the July 20 shooting, and the imagery in Gangster Squad is unmistakably parallel to the July 20 shooting. But expecting all American popular culture to abruptly censor all depictions of firearms and shooting in response to a singular, isolated event is an unrealistic fantasy. Anime and manga culture appear to have absolutely no affiliation to Mr. James Holmes’ rampage, and they’re so far removed from any affiliation to the tragedy that there’s no evident reason for any manga or anime to require alteration or censorship out of tactfulness.

Far be it for me to speak on behalf of the shooting victims or families, but I am encouraged by celebrity George Takei’s timely response to the tragedy. Takei described the victims as “fans of science fiction/fantasy. They stood in line to be the first… to be inspired.” I want to believe that these fans would be among the first who would object to science fiction & fantasy entertainment being suppressed in order to “honor” their injuries & deaths. The adage of “giving in lets the terrorists win,” seems trite, but in this instance, censoring material evidently not even remotely related to the tragedy is not only unnecessary but continues to damage and punish the public instead of trying to encourage a return to the peaceful normalcy of free artistic expression.