anime, temptation, and morality...

[FadedOne]

lol, such a cool thread title....not sure my comments afterward will be worthy, but yeah..this is on my mind alot lately.

Basically, I do a decent amount of unlicensed-anime downloading(please dont lock this thread...not promoting such, just making the statement ) and therefore most of the stuff I get doesn't always have comprehensive reviews or a way to judge content. ( I use animenewsnetwork to find out what I can, but their content descriptions, if available, are way too vague.)

Generally I dont mind minor/humorous innuendo, brief un-disturbing nudity, language and such things. But yeah...there's times when it's just totally over the top and disturbing and guilt-inducing. Specifically the sexual content in such things. Something I ended up watching last night was particularly disturbing.. yeah...not good.
It's so tricky though. To get into the plot, to find the characters intriguing, the story compelling, and then be stuck with this unneccesary disturbingness.

Anyone else having this problem and found a decent cure? I can hardly stop downloading/watching new stuff, nor am I particularly compelled to watch only that which is 'PG' rated..(there's so many many reasons for teen,etc ratings that i can overlook...violence and language for example). But yeah, i'll admit I tend to lack reasonable conscience and self-control in this department and it's beginning to be a struggle to keep the mind on the straight and narrow. o.o and yeah....argh...frustrating.

advice welcome, lol. Or merely comments. I think it's discussion worthy topic. In essence, Im curious if others are dealing with the same issue and how each individual draws their lines between that which is able to be overlooked and that which is too much to be edifying.

uh yeah...does that make sense? *lame at explaining self* lol. so yeah...comment.

[Debitt]

I'm not sure I exactly understand what you're having problems with exactly, but I do dislike downloading something off bittorrent and finding that it's...less than wholesome. =/ To prevent stumbling into something icky, I usually ask the opinions of others before watching something new to make sure there's nothing objectionable.

I don't have the most stringent guidelines, and what I refuse to watch is, in essence: anything with overly sensual nudity, anything with too many instances of nudity or fanservice (which is why I stay away from "harem anime" such as Love Hina), and any series that supposedly is supposed to take place in our world and ends up becoming openly blasphemous (I personally think Angel Sanctuary goes into this last category, but I'm not here to judge the convictions of anyone else here). If I do accidentally run across something that violates my standards, then I go with my first instinct and delete it immediately. ^_^;

So...no, I don't really have problems with watching things I feel I shouldn't. My guidelines are my guidelines - no exceptions. =/ But I do regret running into some nasty things in the past.

[Puguni]

:0 I just look at the storyline and if it seems decent, I'll watch it. I like to go to Animenfo for that stuff. They'll tell you if it's an adult anime or something. If I like a title, I'll search as much as I can on it. Oh yeah, and Animenfo has some reviews for most animes too.

[Namelessknight]

Well, I've made it a point not to watch unlicensed anime. without reviews, I just don't know what is going into the show, so why take the chance?

[kazekami]

Usually I try to see what its about first, unless my best friend recoommends it (then I know its safe). If I can't find a review I'll try it and if something is nasty or too violent I'll delete it.

[Ashley]

I can't say I really have much to offer you, because very rarely do I go out on a limb and try a new show by myself. Heck I rarely even buy anime; I usually bum it from Gypsy or True Noir Chloe, or Toonami.

So because I rarely have the temptation to try new stuff on my own, I don't run into a lot of unexpected things. However, if I see something that looks kinda cool, I check multiple places for reviews and get a good grip on what may be "questionable". If it doesn't strike a chord with my conscience, I'm ok to go with it.

[termyt]

Well, the simplest answer is don't download anything with a high rating until you can find out more information on it. There are other sites to look at besides ANN - try googling the title. If you can't find information on it, don't watch it.

It seems to me that you are treading a very thin line and it probably is not very spiritually healthy for you to watch things with too much sexual content or nudity in it. So you are doing yourself a disservice by walking into situations where that kind of content may exist. Stop it.

There's no easy cure for this kind of creeping, addicting sin. Avoidance is the best solution.

[Photosoph]

Hmm... I try my best to steer clear of anything with too many sexual innuendos etc, way too much violence, or too much bad language. Anyway, I try and look up as much as I can about something before I download; for example, I search in the anime forum for ones I haven't heard of (or check the reviews) and see if there's anything written about them. If there are people who like or have watched that anime, I'd consider PMing them about it. Other than that, I'm not sure; I haven't watched very many anime... hmm... I've only really watched more than one or two episodes of about five or six different series.

[That Dude]

I think that to get away from the temptation you should just kinda give up dowloading it for about a week or something...If you get away from it for a while it's not always as easy getting back into it. But yeah I'd try and only watch titles that your pretty sure of...Heh...Now I just need to do that myself...Soph also brought up a good point about PM'ing somebody for info on it.

[starwarsboy90]

Personally, I don't really run into any thing that isn't wholesome. Sure, some nudity, profanity and gruesomeness is the usual thing, but I just tay away from anything new, not unless I get reviews of it. I d/L anime from time to time, only InuYasha and Cowboy Bebop though, the rest I usually tape or buy, depending if I watch the series or have read the reviews and content.

[Saint Kevin]

Well. You kinda wanted a solution that didn't entail totally stopping the downloading of anime for free. I can't offer that. Some people have given suggestions which I think are helpful, and if you're going to continue downloading anime, then you ought to follow those.

I have said before and will say again (without trying to get this thread locked or start a debate), that I believe that piracy = stealing = the breaking of the 8th commandment (Exodus 20, NIV).

I do understand that there are a lot of nuances to this, but I also assert that there are many good reasons NOT to download your anime for free off the 'net. This is my conviction (the Holy Spirit's work ultimately I believe), but I know what it's like to be on the other side as well. I was a rabid pirate for a very long time.

I'm just throwing that out there as a solution to your problem. Will it solve every issue that comes along in terms of content? Admittedly no. But it will cut down tremendously on the kinds of things that you see, since if you obtain your anime in a perfectly legal fashion, you will hopefully always see what's coming before you watch.

By the way...if you have ANYTHING to say in defense of downloading such anime, please, PLEASE PM me with it. I don't want to start an argument here. I'm merely stating my opinion and doing it in a (hopefully) respectful fashion that won't lead to this thread getting locked. I DON'T want a repeat of seemingly every other thread on the topic. There have been two threads now where I've posted something on this topic (one post was particularly thoughtful - I poured over an hour into it), and both of them have been locked (with one of them being not only locked, but made invisible to searches by a user of my privileges).

I bear no grudge over the decisions of the staff for what they did, as these threads just plain got out of hand. I am saddened, though, by the fact that I did not save my post from that thread, as I cannot just PM that to any interested parties.

Just consider those examples proof enough that a thread on a topic like this can be closed very quickly when one or two people get out of hand, so please try to prevent that from happening.

As I said before, if you are interested more in my position, PM me for it and I can expand on it in private. Thanks people for tolerating my going off-topic a little, but I did want to throw that out there to FadedOne as a possible solution to her problem. I pray that she (and many of you who struggle with issues related to what kind content in anime is acceptable) will find your own convictions through much prayer, and that you will please God in doing so. I'm convinced that by already asking the question, and having a heart to seek God's will in this area, that you are on your way. God bless you all.

[inkhana]

Just to give this a little mod-reinforcement *duct-tape ripping noise* people in general: don't totally blow this thread off topic and get it locked by discussing what Kevin brought up.

I agree with him to a point, however...if this is beginning to become a problem for you, back off from it for a while. If nothing else, a little time and prayer will reveal what your real course of action needs to be. If it ultimately ends up that you need to stop dling anime (probably a good idea anymore) then you'll know that's what God wants you to do. I've found that sometimes even little things...things that once caused that slight creeping feeling of wrongdoing...usually obstruct your vision on a godly course. It might not be much, but it might be enough...

On the other hand, occasionally you can find articles and discussions on fansubbed material, but naturally you can't rely on these entirely - usually they're by non-Christians, and quite often people who are not bothered by the aspects we're discussing so they gloss over them...:/

[FadedOne]

hmm....I need/want to comment more in this thread and to some of the responses, but I have a full 10 minutes before disappearing. so...*procrastinates responses* lol. thanks for all of them though.

[Jeikobu]

On the subject of anime downloading, I do some, but I don't consider it any crime on how I do it. Most of the stuff I download is Japanese Pokemon, and it's only fair since the Japanese version isn't licensed and I absolutely refuse to watch the painful, butchered dub. Same goes for One Piece and Tokyo Mew Mew. And it's not like I can just buy up the DVDs for those two, since I don't have a R2 player yet, and obviously money doesn't grow on trees. And I will download InuYasha, but I'm already past what is licensed, so again it's only fair. If there's a way to see, I'm taking it, rather than waiting a long time for one 3 episode DVD to come out. Besides, most stuff I download I plan to buy in the future anyway. I downloaded a theater-filmed, fansubbed Howl's Moving Castle and I will buy the R1 DVD as soon as it's out. I plan to own all of InuYasha eventually, and when I move to Japan and get a R2 DVD player I'll go after the DVDs. So it's not all for nothing, it's just a way for me to see anime faster. I almost never buy an anime without renting it first, so this is just another way of renting. Makes no difference in my situation. If you were to take an anime, especially a licensed one, and make CDs or DVDs and sell them, then that's definitely wrong. But as long as you do it how I do, I see no problem.
As for content, that depends on what the Lord says. If I want to see an anime that I know has some questionable content but still might be good and acceptable, I pray about it and see how it feels. I did that with Spirited Away, and I gave it a try and it's now easily one of my top 10 favorite films ever. But the key is not letting that human, anime fan side of you be in command of the Holy Spirit in you. You always have to put what the Lord says first. When I saw Evangelion, I really loved it. But one day I got a strong negative feeling on it, reviewed it's content, and decided to give it up. To this day I have no regrets. Also, just the other day I was planning to rent RahXephon from Netflix. But that night I had watched my Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) Trust and Betrayal Director's Cut DVD, and decided to watch the previews on it. One was for RahXephon. I had seen the preview before on my computer, but this time was different. Once it started playing, I immediately got a very strong, bad feeling. And I knew it was the Holy Spirit. I even prayed after watching it and gave it some thought, and the only explanation was it was the Spirit. It's that feeling that's hard to describe. It's like shouting only it's coming from the inside and you don't hear it, you feel it. It's like your heart and spirit are strongly radiating. I've had that feeling before when something was bad, and this was as strong as ever. Sure, the anime fan in me wants to see it. The animation looks incredible, the designs are very appealing, the story sounds complex and deep, it's supposed to have a good ending, etc. But none of that matters if the Spirit gives you a conviction on it. God knows everything, we don't. So we have to listen to God, not ourselves. We have to put away our own desires in a situation like that. I'm not saying everyone here should stay away from NGE and RahXephon, I'm just saying that the Spirit convicts different people in different ways. God could say one thing to someone, and a different thing to someone else. Everyone has their limits. So stay true to them. If you feel spiritually uncomfortable with something, you probably shouldn't be watching it. I hope that helped. ^^

[starwarsboy90]

Way to go Jeikobu! That's the most well thought out answer I've heard so sar. I do what you do too in the sense of dl and buying them eventually later, which I intend to, especially on the InuYasha stuff!

[Jeikobu]

Really? I don't know, but arigatou gozaimasu. ^^

[V8Tsunami]

I know how great of a temptation it is to download stuff. When I was in college I did it all the time, but after working with comptuers and seeing what a nastly 'lil piece of spyware can do to your computer, it's not worth the risk to me anymore. File-sharing and adult sites are a breeding ground for spyware and viruses that burrow so deep into your system that they become nearly unremoveable. Also watch out for free cursors, screensavers, anything that says "your computer is out of date, click here to scan it", .exe's, or any software that wants to install itself.

I advise against downloading, but if you must, at least get Firefox, Spybot, Ad-Aware, SpywareBlaster, and AVG Free. They're all free and it's alot easier to prevent stuff from getting on your machine than it is to try to remove it.

[Mithrandir]

What part of the BOLD section in Inky's post was confusing...? She BOLDED it so you wouldn't miss it!!!




DROP THE DOWNLOAD DISCUSSION, PEOPLE!!!




OK. If that's STILL not clear enough, whoever decides they just can't refrain get's an automatic strike and a slap-on-the-wrist combo. Ignoring a direct mod/admin edict is not acceptable behaviour; you've been warned, thought I can't for the LIFE of me figure out why that would need to be implicitly stated.

[Photosoph]

Yup, so... getting back to the original issue...
I guess it's just really important to research about any anime you're interested in before watching. Anyone know some good sites for anime reviews?

[Mithrandir]

>.<

Ouch. That really hurts, man. Try this one:
http://www.christiananime.net/reviews.php

[Saint Kevin]

Yeah, or maybe even write a couple of reviews as well. Especially if you see a real good, and clean anime.

I've been planning to write a review eventually, but there is a rule (and a very good one in my opinion) about needing to watch every episode of a series before submitting a review. Unfortunately, I almost always end up missing an episode in the middle somewhere (since I don't have any anime DVDs of my own). One day though...

Oh yeah...sorry for making you guys work so hard (Ink and TAFKA). You really do a wonderful job.

[Arnobius]

I think part of the rule is watching it on DVD-- basically the uncensored version.

TV censors it.

[Kaligraphic]

I once saw a series that decided to turn shoujo-ai about 2/3 of the way through - I felt so let down, because it was a decent series until then. The problem with new stuff, though, is that if it's not done airing in Japan, it might take that turn for the worse right at the end, after you've faithfully watched each new episode.

Unfortunately, that only seems to happen when you're expecting something cool to come in the next episode - never when you expect a mediocre episode.

I think that there are two ways to avoid that: first, you could only watch finished series, or second, you could run your own anime studio. The first seems more practical.

[Photosoph]

>.<

Ouch. That really hurts, man. Try this one:
http://www.christiananime.net/reviews.php

Sorry, Mith! I was going to write that in my post; however once I started writing about it I had to put 'there are a lot of good reviews there, however there may be a few anime without a review there...' and then I found myself rambling. ^_^" That was why I cut that bit out. Also I thought most people would know about the CAA reviews.

[Arnobius]

I once saw a series that decided to turn shoujo-ai about 2/3 of the way through - I felt so let down, because it was a decent series until then. The problem with new stuff, though, is that if it's not done airing in Japan, it might take that turn for the worse right at the end, after you've faithfully watched each new episode.

Unfortunately, that only seems to happen when you're expecting something cool to come in the next episode - never when you expect a mediocre episode.

I think that there are two ways to avoid that: first, you could only watch finished series, or second, you could run your own anime studio. The first seems more practical.

Most series are completed before we get them. The exceptions are the long ones like IY, Naruto, One Piece etc-- or was that what you were thinking of?

[Kisa]

Hmm I understand your dilemma, I have had problems with unnecesarry things in anime I have watched or downloaded myself. I just stop watching and delete them or put the DVD away until I can sell it or just stop watching the program on TV. I don't have this problem too much though, because when I find an anime that seems interesting, I look up tons of reviews sites so I can see what it is really about.

[Arnobius]

Same here. If it's something I've never heard of, I try to find reviews and screen shots to make sure it's not porn. Google can be a real help there.

Phrases like "erotic" or "Sex comedy" or "mature situations" tend to be good warning signs.

[termyt]

"Sex comedy" can mean different things. That label was some-what commonly used for a while to describe anime romantic comedies - those more commonly referred to as the harem genre today.

[Bobtheduck]

Like Love Hina and Tenchi?

I once got an anime called "Dead Leaves" on netflix that was nothing like it's description... They said 13+, but it was loaded with sexual content including homosexuality, and violent at that, but since it was all "comedy" Netflix or the creators gave it a lower rating...

Then there's the case of "Onegai Twins" I had seen Onegai Teacher allready, and liked all but the last episode which wasn't really necissary to the plot and doubled the suggestiveness, but Onegai Twins tripples it... While there was no actual nudity in Teacher (except for the butt shot in the last ep), Twins was loaded with it (though it was anatomically incorrect like Sailormoon), which I probably could have handled, except for the fact that one of the girls was probably his twin... Yeah... I don't do Incest... *shiver*

I think I got into Wandaba Style when I still did bittorrents... I had seen the first episode, but had forgotten about it, so I saw it AGAIN on Rentanime... Of course, the really funny dub outtakes softened the blow, but... Gah...

most bittorrents sites have links to info about the anime you download... That's worth checking out, but I must say at least one seemed to make it sound MUCH WORSE than it actually was... Sexy Commando somethingrather (from some of the same team as Excel Saga) had yet to have anything really offensive in it by the episode I had gotten up to, but if it's the excel team, they may have been saving the worst for last...

[dreamhacker]

Well, I suggest anidb.net...They have reviews of a lot of series, even some of those which isn't licensed. My main source for anime info