“Anime Broadcasts are Inappropriate!”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 2, 2011 02:10 JST
- Tags: Censorship, Earthquakes, Mass Media, Tokyo, TV, TV Tokyo
Top Tokyo anime station TV Tokyo is under fire for daring to break off its back-to-back earthquake coverage after a mere 33 hours, “inappropriately” broadcasting starting to broadcast anime whilst other Tokyo channels were still lovingly showing endless scenes of ruined reactors, wrecked cities and huddled refugees.
TV Tokyo ran 33 hours of continuous quake coverage from 2:54PM on the 11th of March to 11:55PM on the 12th, at which point it finally relented and broadcast the scheduled episode of Tegami Bachi.
The station subsequently fell victim to a barrage of criticism for “inappropriate programming,” with some 600 complaints received.
TV companies are apparently alone in Japanese corporate culture in being largely impervious to minority complaints and utterly unself-effacing when responding to them, and TV Tokyo’s CEO is no exception:
“We did receive 90 messages of support for broadcasting it, but most were critical. I’d like to bear their valued opinions in mind.”
Just why every station in the Tokyo region was expected to offer days of continuous quake coverage is not exactly clear; nor is it clear what purpose half a dozen channels endlessly regurgitating the same information actually serves.
Anime fans for their part are already feeling put upon thanks to the tendency of stations to splash maps all over the screen every time there is a 1m tsunami anticipated on beaches 2000km away.
2ch is highly sceptical of the excessive wave of “self-restraint” cancellations, as well as the increasingly transparent efforts to hijack the disaster hysteria for political ends and backdoor censorship:
“What are they whining about? It’s practically an anime station.”
“Just what did they expect?”
“So now TV Tokyo is going to have to exercise ‘self-restraint’? What about Madoka…”
“If you don’t like it, change the channel!”
“On the contrary, they should be grateful. The other stations all run quake coverage, but they have anime to take solace in – I think that is good.”
“If you want to complain, do it to the government or Tepco… the ones who blame anime are nuts.”
“Just shut up and watch NHK!”
“People who don’t even watch that channel shouldn’t be lodging complaints about it!”
“The self-restraint obsessed crowd are seriously irritating.”
“It’s better than the creepy variety news shows on the other channels.”
“TV Tokyo should exercise self-restraint – from showing quake coverage.”
“What the hell is the problem supposed to be anyway? We don’t need more than one channel running quake news all the time…”
“Do the self-restraint maniacs actually derive pleasure from watching quake reports or something?”
“TV Tokyo is in the right. Endless quake images are only going to traumatise children.”
“I thought Japan was finished when I tuned in to TV Tokyo to see earthquake reporting, but I saw a ray of hope when the anime returned!”
“The people who make these complaints are mentally ill… what is the point of having every single channel run the same reports and not forgiving anything else, it’s crazy.”
“NHK runs nothing but earthquake coverage, the others run quake coverage/variety programmes, and TV Tokyo runs anime. Take your pick.”
“The quake was in Tohoku and the Tokyo channels don’t even broadcast there, so who cares if they broadcast anime in Tokyo?”
“Did they complain properly to ATX and Animax as well?”
“I was surprised TV Tokyo even broadcast quake news.”
“The people complaining are the ones who need to show some self-restraint…”
| 
Dead or Alive Ero-SFM Doubly Dirty
Flying Witch “Cute But Boring…”
Phantasy Star Online 2 Phantastic: “What About the West!?”
Shounen Maid “A Fujoshi Delight”
Terra Formars Live Action Web Drama Announced
Dragon Quest Heroes II Quite Monstrous
KumaMiko Lovingly Innocent
Aqua Onahole Parody Hopefully Moist
A-Size Classmate Profusely Petite
One Day With Maria Raunchy & Romantic
The Reject Demon: Toko Chapter 0 Raises Its Voice
Hai-Furi in Troubled Waters
Star Fox Zero “Pandering To Kids!”
Kiznaiver Shares Its Pain
Love Live’s Koi ni Naritai Aquarium PV “Will Sell Thousands!”
Skimpy Kataigou Figure
Ellen Baker’s Illustrator: “Keep It Clean!”
Bullet Girls 2 Goes At It From All Angles
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization A Real Grind
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Immensely Gruesome
Goddess of 2ch “Another Bathing Beauty!”
Tantalizing Hestia Cosplay Busts Out
Kashiwazaki Sena Cosplay Pure & Innocent
Minami Kotori Casino Girl Cosplay Takes No Chances
Shimakaze Cosplay by Ema Sakura
Harley Quinn Cosplay by Miyuko Colorfully Crazy
Sonico Ero-Cosplay by Yuka Hoshikage Super Sexy
Kasugano Sora Bunny Girl Cosplay Absolutely Admirable
Goddess of 2ch: “Barely Legal Beauty!”
Highly Yuri Tenryuu & Tatsuta Cosplay by Garo & Usagi
Ahahaha... Personally I'd rather watch anime than boring broadcasts about things I already know. XP
I second that. Besides, there's no point in learning about the tiny details of such a catastrophe. It ends up being morbid to just watch the same over and over again and how thousands of people struggle to live and cry for the deaths of their beloved ones. Srsly, something to take our minds out of that IS NECESSARY. I wonder who the fuck complained.
I know who complained. The Japanese who don't give a fuck about anime and want to know about the state of their country over some bullshit. I understand the need to escape through television but in a crisis there are more important things. Imagine that shit happening over here and then in the middle of it the TV stations start playing Two and a Half Men. We would be pissed and rightly so. Two and a Half Men sucks!
Well said. There is a time to escape reality, and THATS NOT NOW. The people who feel the need to sit there and watch anime to avoid being depressed need to get a life.
Dude... So you're saying you'd rather wallow in sorrow and continue watching you know is already around and happening than try feeling a little better? Something that catastrophic of that scale would take time to recover so why would you continue watching something when you know that there won't be any change soon? That's what happened in my country when a storm blew in and floods were severe. 24/7 coverage of the destruction that was plain obvious. Restoration doesn't happen instantly. So instead of depressing myself, I made my comfort food and watched a DVD knowing it's gonna take a while. With a full Pantry and generator I have no worries for the 2 weeks.
I think the people who sign in to sankaku just to vote our comments down are pathetic. Faggothitsthevotedownbuttonsayswhat? The more faded this comment is the prouder I'll be.
And you are in Sankaku why?
Well people need some way to escape reality once in a while. Take it away and they will go insane.
They already are, they are being told to turn the TV off for their mental health.
It's nearly impossible to live a life without the need to escape from it. Otherwise your living a mundane life, or about to claw your throat out due to boredom.
Quite true. Life is boring as heck for most people when it comes down to it, that is why so many people suicide.
Speak for yourself
TV is fucked. Don't watch it ever.
“If you don’t like it, change the channel!”
600 people cant be arsed to do this.
Did you watch 9/11 live? Changing the channel only changed the announcer's voice; it was everywhere. Now imagine if 9/11 lasted 3+ weeks and everything else was canceled out of "restraint..."
Suddenly I'm confused about who's here to blame for such inappropriate broadcasts. I was expecting a more direct response from 2ch.
Does the AC commercial count as anime?
While i understand coverage of a disaster is important you really need to draw a line on how long you broadcast it, i'm not trying to be nasty or unkind but i think returning to normality is something that tends to help a lot after something like this.
Granted the closest thing i've been affected by was the july train bombings a few years back but still, you need to get back to a normal life after these sorts of incidents, thats not to say you don't mourn the passing of loved ones ofcourse but would they really want you watching constant reminders of the incident all the time?
They should just make a separate channel named "Natural Disaster Channel" and broadcast all the natural disasters they want there...
Thus was born the concept of the News Channel.
A 24/7 news station whose only purpose is to tell you that you should feel depressed, angered, astonished, or offended....?
Nah, that'll never catch on.
Libyan State TV is doing a good job at the mo. Fox is close but we'll need better citations for that.
Wouldn't that just make you feel good about your situation?
on sankaku complex, quotation marks quote you!
to Dia, It wouldn't make you feel good about your situation, it would make you feel evil and unclean for being the lucky ones.
I know that channel. I love Disaster Time and Volcano show, and at night they show shows like Earthquake Chicken and Tsunami Guy.
"Wanna catch the tide?"
nothing beats "When Buildings Collapse"
The best part is when the buildings fall down!
we have that its called The Weather Channel surprised they dont have that in Japan
i think the problem is different, it's not thet they want tv tokyo to show disaster, but they want every japanese to be concerned about disaster , therefore watch it on every channel, as a kind of hypocrite solidarity i guess , such as "i can't see anything else than the disaster on TV, so it's really a serious thing, i suffer too " etc etc ...
it's pretty much like complaining that some people in some regions didn't do one minute of silence in the middle of the day ...
i don't understand what they're thinking, how could you watch every channels with one tv anyway. also, what's the difference between news in one tv station with others, practically they're the same right.
Yes god forbid people have some escapism from the horror.
The Japanese I know are going crazy having nothing but tsunami coverage 24/7, especially since it is all repeats on a 30min loop. On Twitter people are being told to turn off their TVs for a while for the sake of their mental health.
The best response from 2ch has to be “Just shut up and watch NHK!”
All I saw on NHK was scenes of devastation looped, charts, diagrams, models of reactors, opinions from experts, more charts, more diagrams, and even more PSA CMs, all within the L-shaped screens and a death toll notification like it was some high score on a game. OTL
Is Madoka counted as escapism? If so, we need escapism from the escapism...
That sort of escapism wouldn't have been suspended until April if it was counted as one.
Never thought I'd say this but...I'm starting to miss Kyuubee.
They can TURN OFF THEIR TV's INSTEAD OF WATCHING CARTOONS! HURP DURP
It's like oligopoly, other TV stations can't bear to watch TV Tokyo showing a regular program while they're doing public service. It's all about the ratings.
How about 2chan stop complaining about it on their boards and go do something? Useless whiny otaku.
NU
STFU
I mirror dat response! >:C
Go do sumdin else!
How about you stop complaining on here about 2ch and go do something else.
Agreed. USELESS - WHINY - OTAKU who are going to all die in front of a TV.
well, I understand both sides. :/
This is why the News channel was made
idk why they want to depress their people
BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS REAL. You don't just run from reality when it gets hard
Imagine your whole family dead. Every time you try to take your mind off this, something else painfully points out that your family died. When you go to watch anime, you can't because all of the TV stations are broadcasting news about how your family died. You can't even go online to watch anime because every website in existence has a news story about your family's tragic demise. Not to mention the newspapers, magazines, and radio, which are obsessed with the fact that your family is dead.
All of this happens for weeks on end. But you can't just run from this, because THIS SHIT IS REAL.
So fretting for months is the answer? Thinking about those who died is more important than those who survived? How about moving on because we know it is REAL and we can't do anything about it. It is better to move forward with our normal lives because we can't just stay down. We have to go back up because nothing will happen if we just stay down and be sad about the events that happened.
This is one of the reasons why people commit suicide or become insane. They don't know how to move on.
Life is not about thinking about what happened but doing after that event.
It is REAL but the most important thing is what to do about it.
No, one of the main functions of media like television is to provide escapist entertainment (see, there's even a word for it).
Yes, it's tough if you lost someone, but put that in context. In Japan, 3,500 people die every day - sounds a lot, but just do the math from the population stats and the published death rate. This tragedy is just a small, temporary spike in the figures. Time to move on.
And while I'm on my soapbox, let's hear it for the safety of nuclear power. Total number of deaths from Fukushima radiation since the tsunami: 0. Total deaths just in the coal mining industry since then (so not including deaths caused by poor air quality from burning the stuff): 30.
I think TV Tokyo were just fooling around, just not expecting such shit to happen