When does an anime cross the line?

I mentioned in my videos about Hanamaru Kindergarten and Chu-Bra!! that I felt uneasy about those shows; that they'd "crossed a line." What does that mean?

[http://www.otakunovideo.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Chu-Bra-01.png [http://www.otakunovideo.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Chu-Bra-01-300x169.png|300x169px|Chu-Bra! — episode 01]] Chu-Bra!! © Yumi Nakata, Studio Zexcs

In this case, both examples relate to the sexualization of children and adolescents.

In Hanamaru Kindergarten's case, Anzu (the child) is indirectly sexualized. She is completely asexual. However, the first episode sets up a pattern of behavior in the child's mother (falling in love with and having sex with her teacher while still in school), then a direct comparison between the mother and her daughter (the daughter is repeatedly described as just like her mother), then the beginning of the same pattern of behavior in the daughter (she professes her love for her teacher and says she wants to be "his bride").

Anzu is completely innocent in this; I doubt that she has the remotest idea of what she's implying. But the series implies that she's heading down a road that will end in sex with her teacher.

That crosses the line.

What is the line? Well, now we're getting into terminology and definitions for a folk saying, so we're on soft ground. But I say a series crosses the line when it presents a generally accepted perversion as okay.

By "perversion" I mean something that'swell-establishedas seriously twisted: immediate-familyincest, sex with children, eating the dead. Humans across many diverse cultures recognize these as Bad Things. And there's nothing wrong with discussing them; what's wrong is in presenting them as okay or normal.

(Yes, there are isolated cultures which are okay with incest and eating the dead; those are exceptions.)

Which gets to my problem with shows like Hanamaru Kindergarten and Chu-Bra!!. As presented--at least as of episode 1--they present teens having sex with their teachers and fetishization of half-naked middle school girls as okay.

I can see the comments now: "Dude, chill out; it's just anime." Sorry, not a defense. It's "just video games" or "just food" or "just life." I care about this industry, because it's taught me things and entertained me, and I don't want it to die. Perversions like these, left unchallenged, build up a set of ugly content that can bring about protests, governmental crackdowns, and the banality of the industry. Standing by without protest is givinganti-anime groups ammunition.

And no, this is not censorship, either. I'm not calling on Gainax to cease production of Hanamaru Kindergarten. I'm saying that what they've done is not okay.

It is possible to cross the line, and it's important to point out shows that do, so that the rest of the world doesn't believe that we're all okay with it.