Anime

Tokyo MX: No Anime OR Jobs For You!

By LB Bryant 2 years, 3 months ago

“Not a square to spare.”

Despite its first part not taking affect until April, Bill 156 has already started to make its presence felt. First, it was through little things like magazine racks being completely re-organized to put magazines in their new 'proper’ places. Now its influence has started to spread into television.

In a recent magazine article, Tokyo television station Tokyo MX has stated that due to the passing of Bill 156 it’s possible that they will begin to self regulate how much hardcore or explicit anime they air on their network. To be fair, one of the reasons cited for doing this is because the Tokyo government owns 4.1% of the network’s stock.

I’ll grant everyone the point that this is a little lame, but it also doesn’t have any direct effect on me. I feel ok with it not being the end of the world. Tokyo MX have aired some great anime over the last few years (Bakemonogatari, Working and Hell Girl, just to start the list) but they’ve also aired some pretty ecchi stuff as well (Yosuga no Sora, Motto To Love Ru, MM!, IkkiTousen). If they want to clean up their act a little then more power to them. It’s not like they are going to stop airing anime entirely and there are still other television networks that will fill the gaps.

However, another piece of news contained in the article was a little more concerning.

After stating that there was a possibility of self regulation taking place, an anonymous source in management also mentioned that the company was also going to start filtering otaku out from those who apply for jobs with the network. In the article, the source is quoted as saying:

“We cannot put a warning 'No Anime Fans Allowed’ in the guidelines for applicants. So we are thinking of asking the job applicants 'Where do you take your foreign friend for a sightseeing?’ If they answer 'Akihabara’, we will kick them out.”

Um, ouch?

Via MyAnimeList

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