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Akihabara anime breasts billboard taken down by Tokyo government for violating social ordinance

SoraNews24 Nov 11, 2019
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Local police reign in the “boob harem” of More! Impregnate! Boobs of Flame Super Erotic App Academy.

Tokyo’s Akihabara district is famous for being a mecca for otaku “geeks”, with store after store heaving with anime, electronics, and manga goods you won’t find anywhere else.

Stepping inside a lot of these stores reveals something else they’re heaving with: buxom characters with oversized breasts. And while this wouldn’t necessarily cause an anime fan to blink an eye — busty characters are a staple of the Japanese manga and anime worlds — for the uninitiated it can be an unusual and unsettling experience.

So when a gigantic billboard appeared on the main street of Akihabara on 1 November covered with anime schoolgirl characters unashamedly revealing their enormous breasts, it elicited mixed reactions, with otaku full of praise for the poster and regular passersby enraged by it.

▼ The controversial billboard.

https://twitter.com/milkfactory_/status/1190189530449473536

The giant billboard is actually an ad for the latest release from Japanese adult PC game maker Milk Factory, titled More! Impregnate! Boobs of Flame Super Erotic App Academy. The copy at the top of the billboard reads “Get a boob harem with a super sexy app!!”

Stretching over several stories of the anime and video game specialty shop Traders’ #3 Akihabara branch, which is on the main street that runs through the neighbourhood, the billboard’s giant bosoms elicited a huge amount of criticism online. After a week of complaints, however, Chiyoda Ward, where Akihabara is located, finally stepped in and took action to remove the poster.

▼ The same building on 8 November.

https://twitter.com/wowwowudon/status/1192600200797249536

This tweet, from Twitter user @pii41, who describes himself as “a man who loves anime and otaku culture but abhors discrimination against women”, shows private correspondence from a Chiyoda Ward official, which outlines the social ordinance violated by the billboard.

こちらの広告の件、【千代田区の生活環境条例の第14条】に違反していると、千代田区より正式な回答がありました。また「掲出店舗に対し、環境まちづくり総務課や所轄警察者などと連携を図りながら指導を行ってまいります」との事です。2枚目に返信内容が書いてあります。 pic.twitter.com/1oja6ddQpQ

— 存在 (@pii41) November 8, 2019

According to @pii41, the official response from Chiyoda Ward says the ad violated Article 14 of the Living Environment Ordinance of Chiyoda-ku, which prohibits activities that adversely affect young people, including the distribution of inappropriate flyers and pamphlets and posting of inappropriate advertisements. The ward also went on to say that the Environmental Town Planning General Affairs Division and local police officers are working together to give proper guidance to the store where the billboard was posted, and they will continue to conduct patrols around the area.

While many hailed the decision as a victory against boob-extreme anime that gives all anime a bad name, for a large number of otaku, the disappearance of the booby billboard was a travesty.

▼ “Why……(bitter tears)”

https://twitter.com/nonnnya/status/1192645974214111232

Many commenters couldn’t understand why otaku were so upset at the decision, leaving comments like:

“Akihabara isn’t a Comiket venue or an isolated space for otaku geeks. There are many ordinary citizens who have lived in the area for a long time!”
“Why is there such a lack of recognition regarding the fact that local residents actually live in the area?”
“It’s as if the otaku community wants to take revenge on the women who deride them.”
“Akihabara isn’t a town for specialty erotica. People still come here to buy home appliances and electronics.”
“If you walk just ten steps from this billboard, you’ll be in a residential area with an elementary school, a church, and a supermarket.”

With brazen billboards like this one appearing on the main streets of Akihabara, it can be easy to forget the area is also home to a number of residences where families and schoolchildren live. Hopefully the ward’s patrols of the neighbourhood will keep overtly sexualised images in check, or else everybody will be calling for Akihabara to be walled off from the rest of Tokyo.

Source: Twitter/@m1d0r1_lineat via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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