About Death Note Being Banned(?)

[serria]

New Mexico's Albuquerque Public Schools held a Thursday hearing over a parent's concerns on the Death Note manga series, but a committee voted unanimously against a proposed district-wide ban on the manga. ...According to the KRQE News 13 program, this is the first time in five years that the district had considered banning a book, and a

Comments

[archbishopm]

Sheila: Times have changed
Our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents
They just want to fart and curse!
Sharon: Should we blame the government?
Liane: Or blame society?
Dads: Or should we blame the images on TV?
Sheila: No, blame Canada Japan

Lather, rinse, yadda :-p

[batty_angel]

lol, WIN for the South Park reference XD

[serria]

I thought that quote was for defense of Death Note... I don't think the argument, at least to my understanding, is that Death Note is too "heavy", it's the symbol of a Death Note itself as a notebook that kills people, and immature teens using that symbol to do what could possibly be construed as essentially death threats. Of course, the subject matter of Death Note is controversial because it's written from the point of view of a villainous character amongst a cast of villains with no serious "good guy" that the reader can confidently stake their own morality on. I'm sure a lot of conservative parents would get their panties in a twist over that sort of plot. But I'm pretty sure the main concern here is death threats

[serria]

XD Well, again, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree. I actually feel that Death Note is more deep than a lot of the classics I read in high school. I read Death Note toward the end of my senior year, and I was an avid reader before that on my own time as well as taking college English classes. I hardly think of Death Note as a "first moral dilemma", but rather a visual presentation of an age-old theme: what is justice? coupled with the nature of humanity. It's that brutal presentation to me that makes Death Note so brilliant, and the fact that Ohba didn't water down anything to make a hero of any character (lest the reader choose to interpret them that way, which counts toward the depth of the characters to me) nor warm up the brutality of the ending. I don't see why a manga by definition has to be more "immature" than a book, regardless of the target audience. I do feel that Death Note is philosophical, a statement on humanity and religion, whilst at the same time presenting itself as a bare story for the reader to interpret completely

[liam_sensei]

I think there are elements in Death Note that rub against a lot of sensibilities like Harry Potter rubs against sensibilities plus parents and schools are ultra paranoid these days about the next school tragedy (and finding an excuse to target any group of kids they feel uneasy about). Hearing about kids writing a name in a "Death Note" can be construed as a threat by authorities like this, plus there's the supernatural element to this which would aggravate a whole other group of people. For those who actually pay attention to the plotline, the idea of a high school student killing people in any context might be taken as a threat, whether because of the perceived potential for copycats or the idea of a rebellious student

[bloodburden]

They should realize that maybe Death Note just isn't for kids. Or immature children. But it's expected because the grand majority of teenagers are naive & don't know any better. & if they do want to write down all the names of the people they want to kill when then why not leave their Death Note at home instead of taking it to school to show off?

I personally would love to get a Death Note & write down all the people that I think are a menace to society but it would be all in good fun & I wouldn't show it to anyone or brag about it to anyone.

[bloodburden]

P.S.

It's kind of like when they were blaming Marilyn Manson for causing the teenagers in Columbine to kill all those people. You don't kill because some musical lyrics tell you to you do it because your already messed up in the head.

They shouldn't ban anything.