LOONEY TOONS: MORE VIOLENT THAN DBZ?
by K. Miyazaki

Originally Posted: 8 April 2000

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Recently I was thinking about some of the cartoon shows on TV these days that are accepted as "good for the kids", such as Looney Toons and I thought, "Wait a min.... why aren't these shows getting the same amount of public outcry that shows such as DBZ gets???" Sure, DBZ has a lot of violence in it, but it's mostly unrealistic, but it's chopped into pieces anyways. But what about Looney Toons? It's not chopped into pieces and it's generally embraced by the public as "wholesome". So the question that I want to ask here is, "Why DBZ and not Looney Toons??".

Sure, I admit, DBZ do have some violence and dirty jokes that need to be censored out to fit the so called "strict morale standards" that American television holds. But the big question is, could kids actually copy these things that are being done on DBZ and become violent? I for one, don't think so. Could kids charge up for a Makkankosappo (Special Beam Cannon for our dubbie friends) and impale his/her friend with it? No. Could kids increase their power levels to 20,000 by using Kaiohken and kick their friends through a mountain? No. Could kids shoot a Kamehameha and blow up a city? No. And could kids fly 20,000 feet into the sky where they shoot a Gallic-hoh (Gallic Gun) down at the Earth, blowing it to bits? I don't think so.

However, look at these other "accepted" cartoons like Looney Toons. Could kids run around chasing each other with a shotgun like Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny does all the time? Yes. Could kids throw sticks of dynamite at each other like Wile E. Coyote does to Road Runner? Yes. And these things are probably just as fatal, if not even more so, than the stuff that happens in DBZ. Plus these are senseless violence! It's being done for pure humor and entertainment. At least DBZ has a pretty positive underlying theme, like "Beating up the bad guy, responsible for the murder of millions, to save the world." So why aren't these other cartoons being scrutinized, criticized, and being censored to pieces like DBZ? Heck, Looney Toons even promotes smoking cigars! So why, why, why aren't these shows getting the same treatment as DBZ?

The answer to that may lay with the adults in America today. These people grew up watching these shows, thus they don't consider it to be bad. I grew up watching DBZ, and I don't find it to be bad, and I will never consider it to be bad even when I'm an adult. I guess it's just something that people naturally come to accept as they grow up. In fact, when I was a kid in Japan, I remember watching Looney Toons for the first time and my parents were disgusted by the senseless violence in the show... yet they weren't as disgusted by shows like DBZ. That was probably because my parents didn't grow up Looney Toons. (Whether they grew up watching anime is iffy, however.) So the fact is, it could just be that people tends to accept anything that they see as a kid, and when they're older, they just criticize anything that seems to be bad while ignoring some of the other problems since they've decided when they were kids that it's good. The same example can be seen with other things like music. Parents hate music like rap because it's new and different, while many kids see nothing wrong with it.

So now ask yourself. Which is better: Heroic violence or pointless violence for the pure pleasure/humor of it? Which do you want little kids to be doing: Fighting a mock DBZ fight or getting dynamites to blow up in their face, thinking that they'll just turn into a pile of ashes, and that they'll return the next day in a new episode? At least DBZ teaches some lessons in life, not to mention most of the negative aspects of the show being uncopiable for kids. If shows like Looney Toons can be embraced by the public and be accepted without any censoring, then so should DBZ. And if people still feel censoring is necessary, then how about censoring the entire entertainment industry, instead of leaving loopsholes here and there where kids are easily exposed to violence and sex? No censoring is going to work unless it's complete and total. And obviously such a thing is impossible. So I say, give everyone what they want, and one of those things is uncensored DBZ! That's just my stance on things. I'd like to close this editorial by saying, what do you think?

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