Blame TV: The Anime that was Banned For Colorful Hair

The battle between anime and an older generation who just doesn't get it rages on, much like it has for decades. I still remember my parents placing their hands behind the television and gauging its temperature to estimate how long I had been binging cartoons – a practice I responded to by fanning the rear of the TV, desperate to cool it down. Admittedly, watching anime for hours on end, day after day, is not a healthy lifestyle, but I always felt it unjust that parents would blame anime for any minor transgression that their children committed. 

A few days ago, a self-appointed moral arbiter in Hunan tattled to the local authorities about a domestic anime entitled 菲梦少女 Shining Stars for the sin of drawing characters with colorful hair and flamboyant dresses, claiming that the depiction promotes questionable values. Though this anime is indeed controversial for being a cheap hybrid of a few Japanese franchises, a quick look at my calendar verifies that we are actually living in the Lord's year 2020, far past the time when purple hair was considered a menace to society.

If the tattling wasn't enough, what truly raised the eyebrows of netizens was the reaction of the local authority, who, to their credit, reiterated that the core values of this anime are about overcoming adversity and never giving up, and conceded that the colorful hair makes it easier to distinguish one character from another. Yet, they contend that Shining Stars didn’t fully consider the gravity of its potential influence on teenagers in the long term, and demanded that the TV channel airing the show cancel it immediately. Understandably, this decision gave way to a healthy debate about the responsibility of creators and their impact on impressionable audiences.

Some netizens went so far as to sort out a list that pretty much includes all anime and cartoons that have ever been aired on Chinese TV and pointed out that, if the reporter's logic were to be applied, all of them would be considered problematic.

Another recent case of a domestically produced show being placed under the microscope is iQIYI's thriller, 隐秘的角落 The Bad Kids, which became a viral sensation last month. The show employed a unique realism not often found in Chinese dramas, reflecting the dilemmas and struggles that exist for parents and teenagers in China, and even left enough hints to overturn the seemingly happy ending. Likewise, the success of the show has led to endless discussions about the subtlety and nuance weaved throughout the plot and the impressive performances delivered by underage actors and actresses. Perhaps more importantly though, it also caught the attention of the powers-that-be. According to reports from a few netizens who work in the industry and social media posts from some of the show's crew members, the upcoming releases from the same studio 迷雾剧场 Light On Studio may undergo another round of inspection and face more scrutiny before they're allowed on the airwaves.

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Images: iQIYI, Cyberagent