Recently, Anime New Network announced that it had received permission to stream the dubbed and subbed versions of MediaBlaster’s Kite Liberator OVA on their website. This was received very enthusiastically by the viewers (aside from the irate non-North Americans) but they all have failed to address one crucial point:
The blood-laden sexual content-filled OVA has absolutely no content warnings on ANN’s site. Nothing in the description. Nothing before the video actually begins. Nothing in the series’ encyclopedia article. And you don’t even have to be a member of ANN to see the video, meaning any 11-year-old with an internet connection can view it.
Kite Liberator contains violence, blood, fanservice and “subplots that deal with child-rape, and there’s even partial nudity,” as one other viewer noted. I ended up watching part of it myself to see if there was any cause for concern, and I didn’t like what I saw.
And, you know, I’m not exactly the most conservative, paranoid girl out there. Heck, I put up with YamiBou.
Does anyone else think this is just sheer STUPIDITY on ANN’s part? Despite its content, I don’t have any problem with them streaming the OVA, I just have serious issues with the fact that there are no checks in place to keep kids out. That’s just irresponsible. Put a quick, one-line content warning in the description AT THE VERY LEAST.
The Editor-in-Chief addresses the issue somewhat here, but there’s no excuse: they should have done something about this earlier, preferably when the video was first posted. I honestly hope they get sued for scarring someone’s kid for life.
~CJ
EDIT: After a bit more bitching negotiating by certain ANN staff members, they are working on re-encoding the video to include a Mature Content warning. ‘Bout time; thanks for the change.
Wow, and the encyclopedia entry doesn’t give an age range for some reason.
They failed.
*insert Epic Fail meme here*
Who cares.
When I saw they had posted it AT ALL I was kind of surprised, especially with no restrictions, given the type of title that it was. I mean yeah, putting up something seems kind of “duh” to me.
Well, it’s fixed now, so at least at the start of the show, they give a warning and the “TV-MA” ranking. But yeah, lol on their part.
if it’s anything like the original Kite, it should be triple-shrinkwrapped to keep kids out. Like Josh says, kinda seems like a no=brainer to at least slap on some kind of warning.
otou-san: Well it’s not, so don’t worry about that. :P