Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Dear forumites,

As most of you know, I recently posted a topic about Go Nagai, the world's most controvestial manga-ka. He is of course the creator of Devilman and Cutey Honey.

During that post, I mentioned an individual named Toshio Maeda. Since the post, I have received over 30 e-mails asking about information of this individual, some of which I know are form people no older than 14.

This is a family oriented forum, so I'm going to try and put this as cleanly as possible. I'm doing this because I feel a responsibility, as otaku, to inform those about such subjects.

Toshio Maeda is....to be quite frank....the most infamous person in the manga anime business. Anything and everything that is supposably wrong with anime (i.e the whole tentacle thing and such) Was all created by Toshio Maeda, supposably as a means of getting past then current censorship laws.

Toshio Maeda is, to be quite frank, one of those people that the anime/manga communiy wished didn't exist at all.

He is the creator of what is probably the two most infamous anime/mangas ever made. La Blue Girl, and Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend.

His work shocked the manga community when it first began appearing in the late 70s- early 80s. His work literally took the manga world by storm, and got the wrath of manga's most beloved creators, such as Leiji Matsumoto and, you guessed it, the God of manga himself, Osamu Tezuka.

In fact, its said that, whenever the subject of Maeda came up in interviews with Tezuka, he would simply say something to the effect of "I don't know this man". Supposably, he was so disgusted with Maeda that he even denied that he existed!

So, with all of this said and done, I have my message to all of you forumites.

Whatever you do, avoid Toshio Maeda's work if you are underaged or have a weak constitution!!! It is not for children!!!

Oh, and administrators, I apologize if I have somehow broken some kind of rule. However, I felt a responsibility to all young manga and anime fans to aspire to be otaku to warn them of such material. I'm not a prude my any means, but I take responsibility whenever something of this nature occurs.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Angelcake

P.S. again, Administrators, I apologize if I've broken a rule and, If I have, I take full responsibility.

This is acceptable and it is encouraging to give a heads up to our younger audience. I started getting into Toshio's work in the early 90's, when Wandering Kids (Urotsukidoji) was an underground cult classic of the LA Anime scene. It's pretty wild stuff and definitely not for those under 18. I think CPM rated them "X" when they were released domestically in the mid-90's. There have been literally 100's of imitations along the Urotsukidoji theme, and as such have become an integral part of the history and success of Anime in the states. There are also less-violent more adult themed anime out there like Cream Lemon and Ogenki Clinic. They are basically the Japanese equivalent of adult x-rated cartoons.

While I would say it is definitely okay to discuss anime and manga in a general sense on this board, posting images or discussing certain details relating to the abovementioned anime/manga would be a definite no-no.

Thanks Todd. I was definently worried there for a second. However, I felt a deep responisibility to get this information out.

I want to say this again, I am not a prude. I have no moral resistance to any kind of x-rated anime (or hentai, as its called). However, I wanted to point it out to all of the young otaku out there.


However, even though I have nothing against such things, I have alot against Toshio Maeda. The words sleazy, mysogynistic, sexist, and perverted all apply to him. I had a friend who went to an anime con in Japan about two years ago and actually met him. She said that on the outside he was a pretty sweet guy.

Sucks though, He's so talented...

Ooops...my computer crashed before I got to finsih the message.

I meant to say that, although she said he looked like a sweet guy on the outside, she said that he acted and looked at her in ways that made her somewhat uncomfortable.

He is a very talented artist though. I'm sure you've probably seen his manga. His attention to detail is unsurpassed. Its something that many people to this day cannot match.

'Course, he's not much in the writing department.

I worked for a couple of years in a store selling DVDs, and I found many, many people's uninformed opinions about anime were negatively influenced by Maeda's work. Hey, to each their own, I have no opinion either way on Maeda, we all enjoy what we enjoy. Public opinion more and more runs towards defining an entertaiment medium by it's extremes.

Any medium can be as diverse as we allow it, but it is often these extremes that get noticed; this notoriety unfortunately is what lodges in the mainstream's consciousness. I've seen parents tell kids "no anime, that stuff is disgusting", which would be akin to saying "no DVDs, that stuff is disgusting" just because x-rated DVD's exist.

It's unfortunate that individual works get so pigeonholed; this is true everywhere, but is especially apparent in genre offerings in music, film and fiction and of course media such as comics, manga and anime.

It's funny, comics are either seen as Kids Stuff or as having evolved into Stuff Not For Kids Anymore. While there are creators out there defying current conventions, Mainstream America is still not open to comics. Quality offerings like, oh I don't know a little someting called Usagi Yojimbo perhaps, would no doubt be runaway best-sellers if we could only unlock the closed minds of the mainstream!

Actually, believe it or not, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend is considered a classic in anime and manga. It's actually the only work that Maeda created that's not only well written, but actually very deep.

That is, if you can get past the EXTEMELY explicity violence and sex.

Like I said, his work isn't for kids.

Ironic isnt it? I've seen Cutie Honey in the shops, is it any good?
I've seen some of his work, its alright.

Its a shame that people think that anime is only for kids or like his work or x-rated, but there are tons of stuff which are suited for everyone and anyone. Just some people are just narrow-minded and ignorent.

Yeah, whenever I'm trying to point out how great anime/manga is to someone, I often mention that it has diversity that I have never seen matched anywhere else.

There's manga about cooking, (Cooking Master Boy) about board games, (Hikaru no Go) about baseball, (Princess Nine) about pianists (Nodame Cantaibelle) about baking bread, (Yakitate Japan!) and even about a teenager who, whenever he wears a pair of women's panties over his head, (Unless they belong to a woman he's not attracted to, and he knows this.) unleashes his full potential, making him superhuman. He decides to fight crime as the masked vigilante, Hentai Kamen. (Ultimate!! Hentai Kamen)