"If this ever appeared on American television, it would be pulled in about three seconds."

If it takes you longer than 3 seconds to find something much worse, I can only assume you've not actually watched American television in the past 20 years.

"Basically, it's a children's show (geared for boys ages 6 to 11) called The Ancient Dogoo Girl,"

The magic breastplate is far from the most concerning part of this show. I'm more concerned that it's shown on weekdays after midnight -- when are these children supposed to sleep?! It's also curious that it uses complex words without furigana -- how are 6-year-olds supposed to understand any of it? And of course that it has such violent fighting scenes (but I guess violence for kids isn't a problem in America).

(You know, it's almost like it's not actually a children's show at all!)

"and it's about a teen girl (who hopefully is played by someone older)"

I'm not sure why you couldn't take 10 seconds to google this, but no, she was 18 when the series started. Again, if you can't find far worse in America (like, say, an Best Picture-winning film showing a topless 16-year-old), you've really not been paying attention.

Which is fine, by the way: there are many good reasons not to pay attention to American television and cinema. Just don't pretend that other countries are worse than us, if you don't actually know what have here.

This article looks like another yet another weeaboo trying to analyze a whole different culture according to the PoV of their own..

Quit it already. Consider the [extremist] Muslim world, who view American society and media as the epitome of filth and vulgarity, where their national talk shows discuss how Europeans are all illegitimate children and marry animals... You're no better than them.

Different societies have different norms. Suck it up. The Japanese probably get aghast at how we can wear the same set of shoes indoors and outside..

jeez

I'm very impressed with the level of discussion I'm seeing here. Unlike in 70's people are now more sophisticated about insider's perspective vs. outsider's perspective and the danger of imposing one's cultural bias onto culture beyond theirs.

This is definitely not a children's programming from what I've read. This will not be even aired by a major TV station (not a national syndicate - MSB - I, from Tokyo, never heard of them and won't be aired in Tokyo). Since they are calling it "Junk Drama"in katakana, it's a new type of show that's supposed to be experimental in some ways. It is aired in late night - 1:25AM. You can sort of tell from the characters and casting that this is not a prime time show or something mainstream but targeted towards a certain niche audience.

Again, I was delighted reading your discussion threads. Not the kind of discussions I used to see in 70's, 80's, and even in 90's. I see that we are making some progress.

BTW, I am a Japanese woman.

Sake woman

What does it say about a culture that is unable to present something for what it is without making some kind of biased judgement such as "degrading to women." Do you assume religion is degrading to women because many european cathedrals have painting or sculpture of topless women?

Brad, this is in really poor taste on your part. First off, the Japanese use a 24 hour system for the most part, meaning that an afternoon program would be advertised as 13:00. Something advertised as 1.25 usually means 1.25 am. The word for afternoon is "gogo". As was also mentioned, this was made by the people behind Tokyo Gore Police and Robogeisha. Everything they make is adult-oriented with female protagonists.

Second, the whole "what does it say about a culture" thing is bigoted, straight up. If you're going to put down another country's people like that you better have your facts presented on the table. All you're doing is enforcing negative stereotypes of another culture.

Think about it. These people DO NOT THINK LIKE YOU DO. They conceive of the human body in a completely different way than you. Your background was shaped by protestantism which taught shame regarding sex. Theirs was not. Therefore you have to think "in Japanese culture, does this really degrade women?" Lets see, a strong female protagonist who fights bad guys and wears a magic bra... Nope. The earliest Japan studies scholars noted the casual acceptance of sexuality in Japan, and this hasn't changed.

Also, it's anime, not "Japanimation," and it isn't referenced at all. This type of program is called Tokusatsu [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokusatsu] and it has a long history of robots and mascots.

This show is from the same folks who brought us Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl. I find it highly suspect that it's merely a children's show geared to 6-11 year old boys. Please state your sources as all I could find was a single blog poster (who was constantly requoted) musing that since this show is replacing Ultraman, it must also be aimed at the same audience. As stated above, this will be aired when children will still be at school. I think unemployed 20-something men still living at home (the so called "herbivores") would seem the much more likely target audience.

Aside from other criticism, I must take exception to the use of the phrase "Japanimation" to describe Anime. It is outdated by close to 20 years and at least borderline racist (JAPanimation)

That being said, the pedigree of the show is decidedly not children based, and at 1:30 in the afternoon school age kids will all be in school. I imagine the audience is more college age than kids.

There's nothing in the promo or in other literature I've found on the web to indicate it is aimed at children.

This is a late-night programme, not a children's show.
In Japan we like to send creepy sexual messages about children's bodies at the convenience store, rather than on tv.

Things will get a bit sticky with all those little Japanese boys spanking it to the Doogo girl. Mom will be washing Doogo from the 50 inch Lcd. That is somewhat degrading but.. boys will be boys.

I live in Japan and this is no wierder than most stuff I see on TV. And most likely is Dogo-chan has some sort of special expression or action, all the kids will be mimicing in school. If the kids don't watch it, then the otaku's will. Believe me, after 3 years living here and watching some of the stuff I've seen on TV here....this is nothing. In the convience stores and any store that sell manga, you can pick up many copies that show things that would be considered "racy" in the States. It's just Japan.

As far as it bein degrading to women...please. American TV does a good job of that with all those VH1 shows. This show isn't degrading to women. I've seen much worse on American TV. It's just silly Japanese television.