This story is nuts! Here's a snipit: Maryland's Wicomico County Public Schools plan to remove the first volume of the Dragon Ball manga from Pittsville Elementary and Middle School's library this week after a county council member showed what he described as "sexual" content in the volume. According to council member Joe Holloway, a mother told him that her nine-year-old fourth-grader borrowed the book from the Pittsville Elementary and Middle School's library. During Tuesday's council meeting, Halloway said, "In cartoon format, [the manga volume] depicts nudity, sexual contact between children and sexual innuendo among adults and children." You can read the rest here http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-10-07/maryland-school-library-to-remove-dragon-ball-manga Now does anyone else think this is insane? I've read DB and think this school is going just a tad overboard.
Well, do you deny the existence of said content in the manga? I have to say I agree that such content should not be available in an elementary school library. It's certainly not overboard for an elementary school to remove items containing such content. ... Ok, I just read the whole thing on a website. The part where Bulma pulled up her skirt to offer Goku a feel is definitely inappropriate for elementary age kids. And Goku's full-frontal... well, I can understand why parents would object to it. And I also recall a bit of dialogue from Bulma that hinted at what some men want from girls, but young kids might not get it. The only other part I can think of was Goku, after hearing about Dragon Balls, saying something about "poor dragons". I think that's pretty tame, though the fact that it refers to male genitalia can understandably be objectionable to some parents. Honestly, the only part I find truly inappropriate was Bulma offering Goku a feel. I'm sorta on the fence about her later hint about what guys want with girls. Otherwise, it's not too bad. But I have to agree, that issue does contain sexual content, whether you like it or not. It's ok for kids for the most part, but those few bits of sexual content are not And I just wanted to say that I kinda enjoyed it. (I've never read or seen any Dragonball stuff before, BTW.)
While I like the idea of anything that encourages kids to read-I'd have to draw the line at manga. They didn't allow comic books in the school library when I was a kid-why would manga be any better? As for the sexual content-perhaps a closed shelf requiring parental permission to check such work out would be better than book banning. Hell, anything's better than book banning.
Many school libraries have graphic novels now; my high school library did. As to the OP, I approve of anything that keeps people from reading Dragonball.
Really. If you didn't watch Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network in the 90's then you should never know about it. It may not make a lot of sense, but it is the truth!