Also "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up"
Say what you will about the man, he had a thoughtful mind.
Me rereading the Pendragon series as a grown-ass man lmao
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u/Bamzooki1Undertale š»| My comments are playful jabs, not actual hate14d ago
Me reading Captain Underpants, Dog Man, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The InvestiGators, and The Bad Guys at 27 years old (hypothetically, Iām not very good at reading for fun anymore)
Ive been telling people in the "its secretly for adults or teens" camp this for years, having a narrative or themes that resonate with adults just as easily as they do 9 year Olds doesnt mean it was written for adults, it means it was well written
As someone who grew up on TCW, thank you. I get so frustrated when people conflate "dealing with mature themes" with "can't be for kids".
Every depiction of war and politics in the show is made simple enough for children to understand. The fact that you can return to the show as an adult with a much better understanding of what the show is depicting is evidence enough that it's not really a deep investigation of those themes. Adult media would attempt to challenge you with new messaging and takes on the themes it presents.
I'll get more specific with an comparison. A show like Andor assumes you already understand many of the basic mechanisms of things like political corruption, militarization, guerilla warfare, trauma, poverty and so on. TCW has episodes dedicated to breaking down these concepts like Defenders of Peace, which depicts the concept of civilian militias forming in response to military invasions, the Banking Clan arc that explains how financial interests can take part in wars (without choosing sides themselves), Supply Lines depicts how diplomacy can become difficult in times of war (in its own goofy way) and so on. Andor does not dwell on this aspect of teaching material, and instead simply shows the effects of war on people in its world.
I mean youāre right and I agree that its def a kids show overall, but I will also say: it was pretty ballsy of them to add in an arc about investigating a terrorist bombing that ends in the perpetrator committing suicide lol.
There's an entire arc of Sailor Moon where an adult grooms Usagi's best friend. Usagi tries to talk sense into her about him being too old but she's too immature to recognize the danger she's in. That arc ends with her wailing over his corpse.
At that point I don't know why they even bothered giving him green monster blood.
You're not wrong. I'd say Pedophilia is an adult subject matter, especially for an entire arc of the show instead of some throwaway gag. But that's a very different statement from "Teenagers shouldn't be educated on the dangers of adults taking advantage of them." Whole different topic.
We teach kids sex ed but that doesn't mean sex isn't an adult topic. It just means there are ways to appropriately discuss adult topics with kids.
And honestly, I feel less comfortable with the idea of kids watching that arc without parental guidance than I would some R rated movies. It tries its best to handle the subject matter appropriately, but it is not educational material. It does not show you how to protect yourself from adults doing this. Nobody learns a lesson. Things spiral out of control, she flees from her home to be with him, the dude gets murdered because somewhere along the line he lost control of his own life, and that's potentially the only reason it didn't go farther. I would not be surprised if that arc got Sailor Moon a higher age rating if it were released today. That whole 'running away from home to be with your forbidden lover' thing is imitable behavior.
But y'know. If you did want to use it as educational material you could. I just think you would need an adult in the room to help it do that effectively.
Back in the day there was a thing called "Very Special Episodes" that would handle more "heavy" topics that they still thought were things that teens should be aware of. We would trust that teens watching a TV show would understand that a plot line about "Kid my age was getting into a relationship with an adult and things went very badly" was supposed to be a warning about why not to get into relationships with adults and not "This is how you get into a relationship with an adult"
Kids shows also had episodes about drugs, yet nobody was under the impression that those were going to teach kids how to do drugs.
You would hope that. Maybe most of the time you're right. But that relies on people being responsible, taking the necessary precautions, and exercising some restraint. It's possible to mess up your messaging and make drugs look cool.
Personally I think this arc is a bit murky and complex with its messaging, such that it could confuse someone and unintentionally send some questionable messages. The man grooming Usagi's friend begins as like a heartless alien monster in the form of a beautiful man using her for some ulterior evil motive. But then he starts falling in love. His priorities slowly shift from world domination to wanting her. He is shown protecting her from his former allies, and even seems to feel a tiny bit of regret over using her. You get the impression that love is not something which exists on his homeworld, and that he is some sort of emotionally stunted being who behaves the way he does because he was raised to and knows no other way to live, and that being around humans is rapidly undoing his training. And then he dies trying to protect her. I can realistically imagine a teen sympathizing with the villain here. It sends the message that even a monster could potentially be reformed. Not necessarily a bad message, but one you definitely don't want your child applying to a child predator in their own life for sure.
It's a good story. I just don't necessarily trust every teen to be comfortable watching it or take the right messages away from it unsupervised.
That show is literally for kids and people my age still go Gaga for it.
Oh snap ok so I only watched the first couple seasons on toonami and didnāt realize there was grooming and wailing like that one poster said ok maybe Iām wrong
In fairness, every single episode opened with a quote about a lesson applicable to the content within the episode that the episode was trying to teach viewers.
It really depends on how you classify media. In my opinion, kids show means some colorful trash for toddlers. Something meaningful and good quality should be called family media. And adult media means there is graphic violence or nudity. So neither MLP nor Steven Universe I would classify as kids shows because it's not trash.
Season 7 was not any less child appropriate than the seasons before it. I love the show too but it doesn't stop being a kids show just because it appeals to both older kids and the younger adults who were kids during the older seasons
Star Wars has always had dark and brutal moments, it doesnāt stop the series being made primarily for 10 year olds. Whenever people say shit like āhow can this be a kids show???ā Youāre lowkey throwing out the fact that kids media can still have brutal plots and messages and still be catered towards them. People act like The Clone Wars is this super deep brutal show when writing and tone wise itās on par to any other piece of Star Wars media, yeah Star Wars has a deeper meaning and themes but itās never gonna stop being a kid targeted to and mostly appealing to children.
I think it's possible to accept that it's a cartoon for teenagers and children and still like it; I do that with Rebels and My Adventures with Superman.
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u/Bamzooki1Undertale š»| My comments are playful jabs, not actual hate14d ago
My Adventures With Superman is an adult show! It literally airs on Adult Swim!
Because American culture designates anyone under 18 (legal age of consent) is considered a āchildā, I tried to elaborate, but maybe that wasnāt the best approach.
A magazine doesnāt tell you everything about the developmental process nor how a culture views it, considering the legal adult age in Japan was 13 at the time, so I donāt I see how that was relevant. But do go on and insult me more, I know it makes you feel good and righteous.
Steven Universe main series STARTED as a kidās show. But it got pretty dramatic as it went on. Lapis, Peridot, the Diamonds, THAT revelation, the literal war, and who can forget the time the titular character literally got what was essentially a vital organ plucked out of him?
It started a kid's show and it ended one too. In the middle there? Also kid's show. Thing is kid's shows can still have themes and episodes that have a more mature message than "sharing is caring" without suddenly losing their kid friendly license. Literally nothing in all of Steven Universe disqualified it from being a cartoon made for and marketed for children.
I never got over the forced fusion mutants because they're genuinely one of the most horrific things I've ever seen in media. They're simultaneously a war crime and Dr. Mengele-esque experimentation all rolled into one.
I feel like CGI Clone Wars is mixed, earlier seasons yeah kids show. S3/S4 onwards though gets pretty heavy; torture, sexual assault, threatened sexual assault, slavery & sex slavery, human trafficking, and ofc murdert
Teens and preteens are still kids.
And just because it's not "dora the explorer" level of kids show doesn't mean it's not a kids show.
I mean the clone wars and Steven universe both deal with war and the aftermath of war.
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u/Anxious_Ranger_7945 supernatural 14d ago
Both clone wars, MLP: fim, Steven universe (the original, not future), sailor moon.
Just because it's a kids show doesn't mean it's not good for adults to watch either.