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How Anime/Manga Influences on Children


Outline

1: research question
Though it is true that anime has bad influence on people, is the good aspect of anime much bigger than the negative aspect?

2: thesis statement
It is true that there are violence or confusion between the real world and the imaginary world in anime, however it is also true that some anime give lessons.

3: body
1. Fairy Tail (example1)

basic information, summary of the story, comments from Yahoo Answers, or Amazon, my investigation

2. Naruto (example2)

basic information, summary, facebook, my investigation

3. Negative influence of anime-manga. How to overcome that.

4: sources
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Children and Watching T/, Dec 2011. http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_watching_tv
Dowshen, Steven. How TV Affects Your Child. KidsHealth. Oct 2011
http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html#
Facebook, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, and so on

Draft

Introduction

When I was really into one shonen anime/manga, I watched it for more than ten hours per day. What made me forget time? There must be special power which attracts people especially in shonen anime/manga. Shonen manga means manga especially for boys. In this essay, I focus on shonen manga which includes violent acts or fighting scene. In many shonen anime/manga, people can see a lot of violence. Moreover, many justice heroes do violent acts to punish the bad guys. This may make children think that violence is not so bad. However, there are many affirmative comments about shonen anime/manga, for example, “it’s cool!’, or “I really like the anime!”. Many popular anime, like Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, show justice. Many of the heroes try to keep the peace or try to save their friends. Anime/manga which teaches friendship, justice, or peace to children has much more good influences than bad influences which the violent acts cause.

            I explain two anime/manga as examples.

Body1

First example, "Fairy Tail" includes a lot of violent scenes, however in that anime/manga the importance of friendship, the power of friendship or forgiveness are really emphasized. This anime is written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The story is fantasy adventures of wizards. According to Amazon Customer Reviews, 25/26 reviews say it is a great anime/manga. On Yahoo Answers, ally, who is a girl in New York, answered that Fairy Tail is the best manga in the world, the story is based on friendship, and it tells us we can do anything with our friends, to the question, “Is Fairy Tail manga good?”. Here, the point is friendship. Around episode 22, one girl causes a war between one group of wizards and another. The girl’s family is very rich, and she belongs to a group called “Fairy Tail”. She hides the fact that she is actually very rich because she hate her father and ran away from home. Then, a group called “Phantom Lord” tries to carry off the girl to demand ransom. She almost give up fighting because she does not want to see her friends suffered. However, all the wizards in Fairy Tail never give up. It is all because she is their friend. It must be touching, and it is what children cannot learn easily in their real life.

Body2

Second example, "Naruto" also includes much violent acts, but the violents acts which heroes or his friends do are all for justice. “Naruto” is written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The hero is a boy called Naruto, and he tries to become the leader of his town by overcoming his sad past experiences. Lookin at one fan page of Naruto on facebook, 1,106,268 people cliked “like”. What is really touching is that Naruto never tries to revenge to people around him after he gets very strong. On the other hand, one of his friends, Sasuke tries to revenge to the people in the town. All people except for Naruto decide to kill him, but Naruto never thinks about that. He tries to save him and to make him mend his way. Why people can think that Naruto is wrong because he does violence to his enemies? It is true that what he does is violence, but how can people blame him? Children can lean how important never-give-up is, and how to deal with people who do not treat them well.

Body3

It is true that there is bad aspect in shonen anime/manga. According to American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children are likely to think that everything on TV is true. This must cause children’s behaviors which are unbelievable in the real world(American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). Moreover, Dowshen, who is a chief medical editor of KidsHealth, says that when children watch heroes do violent acts against their enemies, they respect that. Also, because of this, children can not judge what is wrong and what is right(Dowshen). Also, Kirsh, who is studying psychology said “Violence in cartoons is an integral part of cartoon content” (Kirsh 548) However, there are some solutions. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry also says that parents can choose the programs and let children think about the differences between the real world and TV world(American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry).

Conclusion
There are many violent acts in anime/manga which can do bad influences on children, however the good effects of anime/manga are important. Like “Fairy Tail” or “Naruto”, anime/manga shows friendship or never give up spirit. Even when children can not learn this in their real life, they can see how they are important from anime/manga. Though violence in anime/manga does negative impacts on children, parents can prevent children from watching some too violent anime/manga when parents judge it is harmful. Moreover, by discussing about why children should not watch some kinds of anime/manga, parents may teach what is cruel or what is morally wrong to children. Anime/manga, in spite of whether it includes much violence or immoral things, can be a tool for children to learn something necessary in their life.


Works Cited
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Children and Watching TV. Web. 2011.
Dowshen, Steven. KidsHealth. How TV Affects Your Child. Web. 2011.
Kirsh, Steven. Cartoon violence and aggression in youth. ScienceDirect. Web. 2005.

Q1. How is your essay so far? This is my current best essay, and I do not find any terrible mistakes. But my citation seems a little bit wrong, or maybe completely wrong. I’m gonna read LBH this winter vacation (I hope!).

Q2. Is your argument (thesis and supporting evidence) a persuasive argument? Which parts of your argument (reasons, solutions etc.) seem to need more support? What kind of support would be good for each of those parts?

My thesis is not so bad, I guess. But the supporting evidence is not enough, because I have to beat the experts’ opinions saying “anime/manga is bad”. I wrote about “naruto” and “fairy tail” to show how nice anime/manga is, so I have to find much more comments on fan page, or facebook to show the reality of anime/manga. If possible. I want to find experts’ opinion supporting my thesis. This time, I am planning to use many opinions from not experts people to support my thesis. It is probably not so strong support. So, I should prove my thesis is true by the number. 

Q3. What other ideas/questions do you have for improving/developing your essay further?

I’m sure that I will watch all episodes of Fairy Tail and find the touching and impressive episodes. Also, I am thinking about have interview some of my friends who like Fairy Tail or Naruto. Or, I will try to find some anime/manga which is regarded as bad ones, and compare them with others, if I can.

The hero in Fairy Tail and one of his friends. Illustrated by Hiro Mashima.

Main characters in Naruto. Illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto.