Japanese Boy Tries to Kill Dad, Maebara Style
Posted by 0rion on December 11th, 2007 - 10:00 pm
Yet another case of a young child trying to murder a sleeping parent. This time it was a 13 year old boy in Osaka who clubbed his father over the head with a bat while he was sleeping.
From the Mainichi news article:
“My dad is always telling me off and he bashes me about once a month. Dad’s always playing pachinko and I thought it was unfair that it’s always me who’s getting told off,” the boy told the police.
Police said that on early Monday the boy belted his sleeping father to the head with a metal baseball bat, bruising his head and breaking his fingers. The boy ran off but was found at a nearby convenience store about 30 minutes later. When he admitted to attacking his father, mistakenly believing he had killed him, officers took him into custody.
In response to the incident, TV Tokyo has announced that they will pull episode 12 of the animated series Sketchbook ~full color’S~, replacing its timeslot with a filler segment entitled “Nice Cats”. The show was reportedly canceled due to a violent scene in the episode involving one girl hitting another on the head with a puppet and saying, “Nandeyanen!”
OK, just kidding about that last part. But on a more serious note, these murder (or in this case, attempted murder) cases involving young children have been popping up more and more in the Japanese news recently. With these kinds of incidents seemingly on the rise, and given the national attention they garner, it’s only a matter of time before the usual talking heads and politicians start blaming violent video games and anime.
Already we’ve seen new forms of media censorship and potential restrictive legislation in reaction to similar previous incidents. While I hope that incidents like this never occur again, I also hope that this does not result in another wave of censorship and restrictions.
This is like School Days, it happens when there’s only ONE EP of HiguKai left to show!
Is it really on the rise? Or is it just that these things are getting reported more?
What I kind of envision is a bandwagon effect, where the first one happens, and then any event close to it gets reported as a “it’s just like X” thing, and then “it’s just like X and Y”, and so on, with the sensitivity heightening each time.
But then again I’m American so violence and bloodshed doesn’t faze depraved people like me. Likewise, the Japanese might have more of a knee-jerk reaction since they don’t have as much crime (I believe).
Really, though, what can we blame, if anything? Sometimes I’m willing to put this down to “more crazy people”.
@ CCY
That’s a very good point, and one I considered bringing up in the article. These crimes are sensationalist enough though, that they’re not likely to stay quiet. Especially considering that the mainstream print media are some of the primary people pushing the censorship agenda.
It’s in their interest to make a big spectacle out of these kinds of things, the same way school killings instantly become national news in the U.S.
Darn, I hope this doesn’t mean a delay of Higurashi Kai 24.
I don’t really care much for these kinds of incidents anymore… there are always going to be cases like these and we will never prevent all of them. I suppose that means we shouldn’t stop trying, but… I dunno. The dad was a jerk, and the kid should have done was tell his other family members (if he had any) or the police or something?
Lol, you scared me for a moment ^^. I need my Sketchbook. It is weird how all of this is reported in the news after the “Nice boat” incidence. Maybe the Western influence is finally getting to the Japanese and “hush-hush” incidents are openly talked about.
Do a hear a new Meme, starting with “Nice Cats”?
I was thinking off watching Sketchbook, thinking it was a calm, relaxing sort of thing. I would imagine it probably is just with a scene like the one in ‘The Simpsons’ when the baby hits Homer over the head etc. Massive Lulz.
These “loli murders” as I like to call them are coming up all over the place now, I can’t say its going to be good for the industry, Especially if Jack Thompson or the likes begins to hear about these things.