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Mom asks mecha anime staff to add scenes of kid going to the bathroom for her son’s sake

Casey Baseel Apr 16, 2019
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Transforming robot series has plenty of action and excitement, but lack of toilet content is making mom’s life hard these days.

At first glance, it might seem like Japanese society has unanimously decided that anything goes as far as content in animated television content. After all, this is the country where a currently airing anime series promoted itself with standees of its cast with free-to-touch-3-D-breasts.

In actuality, though, even parents in Japan periodically voice their dissatisfaction with anime, citing the medium as a potentially bad influence on children’s behavior. For example, Twitter user @yuh_rasia, mother of a four-year-old boy, recently called out the Shinkalion franchise.

▼ Shinkalion

However, Shinkalion, a series in which Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains transform into giant robots, is devoid of sexually suggestively content, and while there’re plenty of laser beams and explosions, the fighting action is all cartoony spectacle, without any actual bloodshed or death. It turns out, though, that @yuh_rasia’s concern isn’t related to that to anything shown in the series, but rather stems from something Shinkalion doesn’t show.

シンカリオン制作者さまへ
4歳の息子はツラヌキを大変尊敬しています。
近頃、「ツラヌキはシンカリオンに乗る前トイレに行ってない。だからぼくも行かない」と外出前のトイレを拒否するようになりました。
どうかツラヌキがトイレに行くところを映してもらえませんでしょうか。何卒お願いいたします。

— ユーラシア (@yuh_rasia) April 13, 2019

“To the production staff for Shinkalion:

My four-year-old is a huge fan of [the character] Tsuranuki. Recently, when we’re leaving the house, he refuses to try to go to the bathroom first, saying ‘Tsuranuki doesn’t go to the bathroom before he pilots Shinkalion, so I’m not going to go to the bathroom either.’

Would it be possible, in any way, to show Tsuranuki going to the bathroom? This is my humble request.’”

▼ Tsuranuki, in street clothes (left) and ostensibly rubber mech pilot suit (right)

It’s worth pointing out that the extremely respectful tone of @yuh_rasia’s tweet, coupled with the fact that in her very own Twitter profile she describes herself as an otaku, suggests that she’s not genuinely angry at the Shinkalion staff for poisoning her child’s mind.

Still, young kids with too much confidence in their bladders who end up peeing their pants while they’re out is a legitimate problem for parents with young kids, and something has to be done to keep @yuh_rasia’s son’s pants dry. Luckily, the otaku mom was able to channel her son’s admiration of Tsuranuki in a positive direction.

ツラヌキはトイレ行かないよ（だからぼくも行かないよ）派の息子を、「ツラヌキも出動する前に必ずトイレを済ませてるはずだ、だからいつも慌ててトイレに駆け込むことなくかっこよく戦えてるんだ」と延々説得する羽目になってる

— ユーラシア (@yuh_rasia) April 13, 2019

“I told my son ‘Tsuranuki must be going to the bathroom before he goes out on his missions. That’s why you never see him panicking and having to rush to the bathroom, and why he can look so cool while he’s fighting,’ and after much thought, he’s finally accepted that explanation.”

And as further proof that @yuh_rasia’s not mad about her son’s love of anime and trains, she even made him a Shinkansen cake for his birthday party.