“PG — Parental Guidance Suggested. Some Material
May Not Be Suitable For Children. A PG-rated motion picture should be
investigated by parents before they let their younger children attend. The
PG rating indicates, in the view of the Rating Board, that parents may consider
some material unsuitable for their children, and parents should make that
decision. The more mature themes in some PG-rated motion pictures may call for
parental guidance. There may be some profanity and some depictions of
violence or brief nudity. But these
elements are not deemed so intense as to require that parents be strongly
cautioned beyond the suggestion of parental guidance. There is no drug
use content in a PG-rated motion picture.”
“PG-13 — Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some Material May Be
Inappropriate For Children Under 13. A PG-13 rating is a sterner warning by
the Rating Board to parents to determine whether their children under age 13
should view the motion picture, as some material might not be suited for them.
A PG-13 motion picture may go beyond the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity,
sensuality, language, adult activities or other elements, but does not reach
the restricted R category. The theme of the motion picture by itself will
not result in a rating greater than PG-13, although depictions of activities
related to a mature theme may result in a restricted rating for the motion
picture. Any drug use will initially require at least a PG-13
rating. More than brief nudity will require at least a PG-13 rating, but
such nudity in a PG-13 rated motion picture generally will not be sexually
oriented. There may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but
generally not both realistic
and extreme or persistent violence. A motion picture’s
single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an
expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such
expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a
sexual context. The Rating Board nevertheless may rate such a motion
picture PG-13 if, based on a special vote by a two-thirds majority, the Raters
feel that most American parents would believe that a PG-13 rating is
appropriate because of the context or manner in which the words are used or
because the use of those words in the motion picture is inconspicuous.”
http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means
for more info.
I have a serious bone to pick with Nan Desu Kan’s cosplay
contest for the first time and we have attended for years. NDK totes itself as a mostly family friendly
event, though geared more for 13 and up, and children of all ages are often
seen gracing the hallways of the convention.
My own kids often go, one being 13 now, but the other is still only
seven. They state they want daytime
things kept at a PG 13 level, and even costume rules have gone through some
serious renovations in the last few years to see to this.
I feel I should preface this; my husband and I monitor what
our kids watch, hear, and see, but not strictly. They have both heard language, seen violence,
skin shown with costumes, etc. But this
year’s CC takes the cake!
In the midst of the worst Saturday I have ever had at any
convention (to be fair, due to circumstances way out of control of the
convention staff), while waiting for the judging to be tallied after the
Costume Contest was over, but before awards were handed out, staff chose to
show AMV’s (Anime Music Video’s) for the half time show (yep, just like in
football. It takes up the time while you
are waiting nervously for the judges who hold your fate in their hands to
determine that fate and print the certificates). NDK clearly states AMV’s are an exception to
the PG 13 rule; “Music Videos in particular are an exception to the PG13 rule
and may have some explicit lyrics or flashes of cartoon nudity” (taken from the
general rules page on the website)
and does not mention violence anywhere in the rule. In contrast, however, it states in the
costume contest rules “NDK's cosplay contest is rated TVPG” (taken from the
rules on the website). Now I don’t know if that rating simply
applies only to costumes, or what, but they seriously failed this year.
My daughter, who loves to sing and dance, was happily
enjoying the AMV’s as they started showing them on the big screen less than 20
feet from where she stood in front of the chairs dancing to the music with
other small children who had competed. It
did not take long to realize these videos were anything but appropriate for any
of the kids in the audience. The
language was far from intermittent and was not isolated to a few videos (in
fact, I think every video shown had explicit language).
If the language wasn’t bad enough, along came a video
showing clips from Madoka Magica. Now
this was one of my daughter’s favorite anime until her Dad said it was getting
too violent and we turned her onto something else instead. She still loves seeing people cosplay from
it, enjoyed the balcony decorated in this theme, and wants to decorate her room
with stuffed animals and scrolls from the show.
So when the cute animal character who leads the magical girls (Kyubey) graced
the big screen in front of her, I tried not to worry about the constant stream
of F**k and B***h that came with it.
That was until the fateful scene where right in front of my
seven year old the cute, fuzzy, stuffed animal character was violently shot; in
fact, blown away would be a way better term.
Note I have pretty well adjusted kids.
My son plays Call of Duty. My
daughter, though not allowed to watch it, has seen it. They have witnessed plenty of violence on TV
(just look at the news), but I have never seen any kind of a reaction like this
from either of my kids.
My daughter instantly screeched, covered her eyes as large
tears began streaming down her face, and went into hysterics. I tried in vain to explain it was just a
drawing and that no character had died.
She was inconsolable, and me standing there helplessly in my giant wings
and hoop skirt left me with no way to pick her up or hold her. It was truly awful.
I have exposed my kids to things and explained in the past
that what they see on TV, live action or animated, was not real. They know this, but at that moment it made no
difference. And no one cared. I was glared at by those unkind individuals
who sat in the front row of seats we had to walk past. The look of annoyance that my daughter had ruined
the rest of the video with her inconsolable wailing was sickening. It had never been my intention to interrupt anyone’s
fun that night, nor to need to find a way to help my daughter pull herself
together.
Amidst the continuing cursing, my daughter sobbing, and my
ineffective attempt to hug her, only one individual came to our aid. One of the amazing volunteers who had helped
my daughter backstage (and would continue to come to our aid later in the
evening) stopped to ask if she was alright.
When I explained, she disappeared into the crowd. I assumed she simply did not think there was
anything she could do by that point. I
was mistaken. When this lovely woman
reappeared she produced a small pink hair clip for my daughter and after
calming her down by bringing her attention to this new treasure, she smiled and
went back to her own seat.
We finished the rest of the half time show in our little
corner talking together with my daughter’s back to the screen. What I want to know is who thought at a show
with a kid’s category that is touted as a PG event, it would be a good idea to
show AMV’s in the first place (already stated as having a higher rating), let
alone something like that. I understand
this was an event I chose to participate in, but I can tell you in all of my
years attending or competing in this event I have never encountered something
like this so I had no idea they would ever think to show something this
questionable in the first place. I was
completely unprepared and it will keep me from blindly entering my daughter in
the contest again; unfortunate considering prior to that she had enjoyed
herself.
I have wrestled with the wording for this post more than any
other. I have a lot of friends on the
cosplay staff at NDK, I know the judges, and have met more great people working
with NDK’s cosplay contest in general. I
hate to cause any issues, but I cannot condone this. It was inappropriate and the personal strife it
gave my family has far exceeded the enjoyment of the evening. And let this be a cautionary tale to other
parents of convention attendees in general.
You never know what you might find.
To hear more about our experiences at Nan Desu Kan check out
my other blog post “The Nan Desu Kan that Almost Wasn’t”. And getting back to a happier note, I hope
you had better experiences at NDK’s CC than we did. Care to share? I’d love to hear about them.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!
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