Is watching anime a sin?

[Stephen101]

I’m not attacking comedy in general; I’m not ‘attacking’ anything. Those are your words. I do not think you are being very charitable in your responses, which I did not provoke; I was speaking to the thread starter. Rather than say you just disagree with me, you call me scrupulous (twice now) and that is not a judgement call for you to make about a complete stranger on an online forum. If you don’t agree with me, fine, but please don’t label other people in order to dismiss them; it’s rude and condescending.

Citing anime you think proves your point is irrelevant to what I am saying; I am referring to shows where it is a problem and how these are identified and what can be done to avoid them. My advice is sound and logical, and more importantly, it is not directed at you.

I already said I was not referring to all anime and that it would be a case by case basis. You seem insistent to believe that I am implying more than I actually am, and most of your post is unnecessary and is reaching for a conclusion that is not there. I do not need to be lectured with examples of how people can come to Christ through anime, etc. I am not ignorant or short sighted. I’m well aware that to a strong Christian, especially a strong Catholic, most of what anime bombards you with is not going to affect you if your viewing is done in moderation, your prayer life is strong, and you frequent the sacraments often. This does not change the issue at hand, however, or the reality that anime is in moral decline in many areas. We’re not here to defend the merits of anime, we’re here to answer specific questions about it, which I did, but your responses to me are detracting away from that, and that is energy I’d rather spend helping the thread starter than debating with you.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Sorry for seeming to be charitable, but I am really not trying to insult you. I acknowledge that my wording was poor and that it does appear that I called you scrupulous as a judgement, when my intent was to say your points could lead to being scrupulous. When I said you we being scrupulous it was not mean as a judgement of your overall character or person, but as a comment on your point. I found your point to come across as a scrupulous comment. As for helping the question asker I think this debate may help them, since it allows them to see different aspects and the points of each side, which could help them to make a better decision. If they do not think this is helpful they can ask us to stop and we will. Yes, there is a case by case basis, which I think we have been agreeing on from the beginning. My issue was that I found that your posts seemed overly general and I simply wanted to defend that there are good aspects. In conclusion I think we can both agree that there is a case by case basis to seeing the morality of anime, and I think you would agree that some genres (ecchi and harems for example) are probably never appropriate to watch. As for a general moral decline I would agree with you for the most part. There has been a desensitization when it comes to fanservice, since it has creeped into most animes of the last half decade or so. One must always be ready to guard against it. That being said there are a handful of very well done animes which avoid it completely. Are we on a similar page now? Once again my apologies from insulting you it was not my intent.

 

[The_Otaku]

Sorry for seeming to be charitable, but I am really not trying to insult you. I acknowledge that my wording was poor and that it does appear that I called you scrupulous as a judgement, when my intent was to say your points could lead to being scrupulous. When I said you we being scrupulous it was not mean as a judgement of your overall character or person, but as a comment on your point. I found your point to come across as a scrupulous comment. As for helping the question asker I think this debate may help them, since it allows them to see different aspects and the points of each side, which could help them to make a better decision. If they do not think this is helpful they can ask us to stop and we will. Yes, there is a case by case basis, which I think we have been agreeing on from the beginning. My issue was that I found that your posts seemed overly general and I simply wanted to defend that there are good aspects. In conclusion I think we can both agree that there is a case by case basis to seeing the morality of anime, and I think you would agree that some genres (ecchi and harems for example) are probably never appropriate to watch. As for a general moral decline I would agree with you for the most part. There has been a desensitization when it comes to fanservice, since it has creeped into most animes of the last half decade or so. One must always be ready to guard against it. That being said there are a handful of very well done animes which avoid it completely. Are we on a similar page now? Once again my apologies from insulting you it was not my intent.

With respect, I’m not going to wait for the thread starter to ask us to stop, I’m going to do the courteous thing and take the initiative. If he would like one or both of us to continue, then we’ll see, but until then, there’s nothing more I feel we can add at this time without making this a personal conversation between just two people in someone else’s thread. I agree that per a review he might find it helpful, but this is becoming banter and if I were reading this as a 3rd party, I would not find it very reassuring, or helpful (this back and forth thing we’re doing). I’d see alot of personal opinion, and my point in even posting here was not to give just personal opinion, but to give him practical tools he can use, as a scrupulous person, to deal with scruples when they come up. This is how my posts started off until we began talking. He’s only asking about specific shows at present, but these concepts should be able to help anyone…and to be honest, it’s just common sense, really. There’s more that can be added later if that is something he is interested in pursuing.

Finally, thank you for apologizing. I accept your apology, and please accept mine if I’ve offended you at all. It’s important for me to relate again that I am not referring to all anime, as I’ve said several times now. If I was overly generalizing, I’d be more specific to how I was generalizing. I am purposely being ambiguous with the intention that IF the thread starter wants more information or has additional questions, he can ask. Unloading information on him from the get go is not something I feel would be helpful. It would be optimal if this information was gradual, or was presented in a way that allowed him to digest it at his leisure and comfort.

God bless you.

 

[Stephen101]

With respect, I’m not going to wait for the thread starter to ask us to stop, I’m going to do the courteous thing and take the initiative. If he would like one or both of us to continue, then we’ll see, but until then, there’s nothing more I feel we can add at this time without making this a personal conversation between just two people in someone else’s thread. I agree that per a review he might find it helpful, but this is becoming banter and if I were reading this as a 3rd party, I would not find it very reassuring, or helpful (this back and forth thing we’re doing). I’d see alot of personal opinion, and my point in even posting here was not to give just personal opinion, but to give him practical tools he can use, as a scrupulous person, to deal with scruples when they come up. This is how my posts started off until we began talking. He’s only asking about specific shows at present, but these concepts should be able to help anyone…and to be honest, it’s just common sense, really. There’s more that can be added later if that is something he is interested in pursuing.

Finally, thank you for apologizing. I accept your apology, and please accept mine if I’ve offended you at all. It’s important for me to relate again that I am not referring to all anime, as I’ve said several times now. If I was overly generalizing, I’d be more specific to how I was generalizing. I am purposely being ambiguous with the intention that IF the thread starter wants more information or has additional questions, he can ask. Unloading information on him from the get go is not something I feel would be helpful. It would be optimal if this information was gradual, or was presented in a way that allowed him to digest it at his leisure and comfort.

God bless you.

And so it ends. It appears that our disagreement was more of method than material in the end. You method of purposeful ambiguity came off as an over generalization to me, since my method is one of specific examples. Perhaps if tings had started off at a different point we would have seen eye-to-eye much sooner. Peace.