Controversial Texas Bill Passes - Japanese Politicians Fear Anime/Manga Impact

0:01 There you have it. There you have it, folks. It is not a good time to be an anime/manga/comicbook fan, especially right now if you're in Texas. Yes, the dreaded SB20 bill has passed the House. And at this point, most agree it's pretty much going to be put into law. It is pretty much been left the House at this point. It will go back to the Senate, which the Senate will then sign off on all the amendments that were done, which unfortunately none of the amendments were even doing anything to it before it will go to the governor who will then sign it into effect because yes, this is unanimous. Like across the board, everybody on the political aisles, both sides have pretty much said yes. Which is not a big surprise. The way this actually worded, it's hard for anybody to really say they're against it. It's one of those ones where if you say no to this, you look pretty bad. You

0:48 look pretty bad. So, what does it actually say? For those that don't know what the SB20 bill is before we get into actually what's going to be happening in the future, what I kind of feel like it's going in the direction of, um, let's get into actually what it's about. Before I get into my usual disclaimers about where my current stance is because again, this is a topic that is not very comfortable to talk about. I have to push myself talk about this because it's one of those things where you look kind of bad talking about it. So, you have to be very clear about what your stance is. But anyways, this is the actual point in the bill that's the biggest concern for most people. Uh, the bill itself says a person commits an offense if the person knownly possesses, accesses with the intent to view, or promotes obscene visual material containing a depiction that appears to be of a child younger than 18 years of age engaging in activities described by section 43:21.

1:35 Regardless of whether the depiction is an image of an actual child, a cartoon or animation or an image created using artificial intelligence application or other computer software. This is the big part that a lot of people are concerned about. Yes, there's already laws in effect currently that prevents people from having child pornography. The law is already there. But the law itself specifically indicates that it requires it to be indistinguishable from the real thing. That's the key thing there. The current law that is in effect, the federal law that is in effect protects things like art, statues, animation, comics, all that kind of things, things that are not real. It has to be the term indistinguishable used with respect to a depiction means visually

2:20 indistinguishable in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude the depiction is an actual minor engaging in the actual conduct. So again, there's already law in effect that protects actual children. But what this law is doing is essentially going to be making it criminal to have anything visual that will depict that. That's the big problem. That's the big overreach. And yes, as many kind of stated, and I said it in my first coverage of this whole situation, it will probably be struck down by the Supreme Court because there's already case law in effect. There's already been presidents set by the Supreme Court. They hold true to the indistinguishable from the real thing part, which yes, does make you kind of wonder why are they even bothering doing this? I've heard several people mention the fact that the reason they think that

3:06 they're doing this is in order to get a lot of graphic novels and whatnot that are being distributed to libraries and schools that depict things like transgenderism, identity materials, and stuff like that that they don't want in schools and whatnot. And they're using this as a way of sort of kind of purging all that stuff out knowing full well that if this goes to the Supreme Court, they're going to strike it down. They're going to deem it as unconstitutional. No doubt about it. Again, there's already case law in effect right now. There's already precedence that has been set. But I argue the problem with this whole situation is that there's going to be a lot of collateral damage in the process. That's why I think overall I don't like this. So before I get any further, let's establish what is Andrew's current stance on this whole situation. Yes. First and foremost, I do not like the

3:52 exploitation of children. Anybody caught with actual child pornography, I don't even think they should go to jail. If it's proven, I think they should go to the gallows. Anybody that exploits children, straight to the gallows. I do not like that stuff. It is absolutely disgusting. Additionally, I'm a strong supporter of the First Amendment. I believe the First Amendment is easily one of the best things about the United States. It protects our right to speak out. It protects our way to express ourselves. It is the thing that makes creativity flourish. It is an amazing thing and I want to make sure that does not get stepped on. So when it comes to the actual expression of art, drawing, creation of things, that's where I am very very adamant about trying to defend. I also believe that is a door that once you start opening it, it's very hard to close it back up. And with

4:37 something like this, this can easily start creeping open the door to censoring pretty much everything because again, like I said earlier, it is way, way too broad. This pretty much covers most all animation. It covers most all comics. It covers most all manga. And yes, it even covers a lot of cartoons that you see on television in America. This is literally anything that will depict anything under 18 that they deem looks like it's under 18, appears to be 18. Anything that appears to be 18 will then be subject to this law. That is a very scary thing to open up. And again, once that thing is open, it is going to cause irrepable damage. Essentially, because it's so broad, it's left to the interpretation of whoever is going to

5:23 take somebody to task. A person goes into a comic book store, they open up one of the volumes of, let's say, Dragon Ball, and they find Chi-Chi in there. There's Chi-Chi in there, and she got that little like bikini armor on. Bam. Lawsuit. This entire store is going to go under. $10,000 fine. Two years in jail. Bam. Right there. You are selling this. is depicting what looks like a child. You're in trouble. They go into another comic book store. They open up Sarif of the End. They they open up the Sarif of the End manga and they see Cruel Tempest in the first pages. Bam. $10,000 fine. Go to jail. Two years. You're done. They come back out. Okay, I got rid of Sarah for the end. I'm good now, right? Oh, if you have that Dragon Ball manga, too. Bam. To jail, four years this time. $20,000 fine. That's the problem that we're having here.

6:09 Despite the fact that many people are going to say, "Don't worry. This is for again uh material that's going to schools and whatnot that is trying to groom children as many would say. It is going to be a law and effect that many will use in the future to attack certain people. Have a problem with that comic book store down the street? That guy look at you wrong? Go in there and find something that you deem obscene that looks like it might be under 18 and get him out of there. And yes, this is going to go further than just comic book stores. This is going to go further than the people that live in Texas. This is, I think, going to have ramifications outside of Texas. That's really scary. But I think that's where we're going to get into where I think things are going to go forward. Is there anything left to stop this whole thing? Not really. It's going to go back to the Senate. The Senate's probably going to pass it because the amendments didn't really

6:55 change much. I think they changed some stuff about drugs or something like that. I'm not sure why that was in there. Um, they're going to sign it off. It's going to go to the governor. And again, because pretty much everybody says yay. It's it's across the board. Both sides of the aisle say yes. He's going to pass it. No doubt. I guess people in Texas can probably contact the governor and say, "Hey, please don't do this." But I doubt it's going to happen. It's going to get passed. And then from then on, what I think is going to happen is I do agree with a lot of people. I think it's going to probably force a lot of the schools and libraries to pretty much purge a lot of content that again is around like orientation stuff like that. They're probably going to purge a lot of that stuff out of the schools and libraries. Nobody's going to fight that stuff. Those schools and whatnot are not going to fight that. There may be some. I doubt it. What's going to happen beyond that is the massive question mark. That is where we're going to get

7:40 into the area where we're going to have to keep an eye on this stuff. I I think there's certain groups like I I seen somebody on on Twitter uh yeah, comic book legal defense. This group right here essentially is keeping an eye out for this stuff. Um they actually did initially report I think this was the first person I've seen report that it actually passed. Um, but they're actually, you know, calling out to people to contact them if they see this actually enforced, which this won't be enforced until September 1st. When it does get signed, if it does, it probably is, it will not go into effect until September 1st. Um, once that happens, keep an eye out for people. Keep an eye out to comic book stores. Keep an eye out to individuals. Keep an eye out because eventually at some point, somebody is going to get attacked by this. some store, again, probably a comic book store. Somebody's going to

8:27 have a beef with a comic book store or something like that, and they're going to take this law, and they're going to throw the book at them. And at that point, something is going to happen. At that point, either the person is going to fold and cave or the person's going to have to fight it. This is the problem with something like this. This is a problem with something that has so much overreach. I don't know that the Supreme Court can attack it now, but I think it will take until somebody ends up being in the crosshairs of it, gets hit by it, and then has to go through a long trial process to take it to the Supreme Court. And at that point right there, the Supreme Court should slap it down as unconstitutional. That should stop it. By the way, I'm not a lawyer. I am not a legal expert. It's just this is how I think it's supposed to play out. And again, if that's the case, keep an eye

9:13 out for this stuff. Additionally, the other reason why I think this might actually not impact things too much and somebody with deep deep pockets might actually solve the problem is that yes, Crunchyroll has quite a bit of uh existence in Texas. And I think in general just manga distributors, Yen Press, Shonen Jump, all these different companies that are distributing different type of either materials, apps that you have on your phone that is actually distributing manga, any digital platform that is currently distributing manga, anime to individuals, which includes in Texas. And again, with a lot of companies being stationed in Texas, there's a good chance that companies like Sony, Crunchyroll could end up

9:59 being the first ones to sort of stand up and say, "No, stop." There is some cases where deep pockets of Sony, even though some people don't like Crunchyroll, there is some cases where Sony and Crunchyroll can be a great benefit. And I think this is a really key point right here. I'm actually surprised that they didn't kind of step in to Yes. um nudge a couple people in the house and say, "Hey, buddy. Buddy, um you know, here's a little bit of a here's an envelope. Don't look inside quite yet." Um I'm surprised that none of them did that beforehand, but again, it could be the fact that they just didn't believe this will have any impact whatsoever on them. And I do believe that is a short-sightedness. And it could be the fact that they feel like if they do come after them, we'll just take it to Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will handle it. That could be really the case there. They could just figure the Supreme Court hasn't because yes, right

10:45 here we have um Yes. characters in that time I got reincarnated slime look very young. Yeah, you have uh right here. Yeah, I've been killing slime 300 years. Yeah, definitely young characters. Uh Handyman Seaitto. Yeah, that little fairy laughing pawn. She's quite young looking. Oh yeah, definitely. Apothecary Diaries. Yeah, that whole scene where they were in the bath house. Yeah, definitely that'll go under law. Like literally everything on my screen right now has young characters depicted in it. There's so much of this stuff that will be completely illegal. So there could be a case where Crunchyroll can get involved. There's a lot of strong powers that will be affected by this and I think they will fight back against something like this. Not because they have anything against the idea of again protecting actual children, but because that there is an element here of money and how the First Amendment protects

11:31 their right to do this. But again, the thing that I think is the suckiest part about all this is that if the Supreme Court does not shut this down quickly and it requires somebody to actually have to fight a case like this, it's going to be detrimental to one person. That's why I said if it does come to that, keep an eye out. Support that individual because it's going to take somebody to have to go down first. I think the other interesting thing is that it looks like a lot of Japan is picking up on this as well. Even public officials in Japan are seeing this and seeing how this is not a good thing. We have right here, word has reached the Texas bill called SB20, which was under deliberation, has passed. There was concerns about its impact on anime and manga. The website below has been updated to pass, which is the one that we just looked at. While information is still scarce, we will continue to monitor future developments. And I think a lot of the reason why there's a couple reasons why I think that um political

12:17 officials in Japan are actually keeping an eye on this. One is that yes, the distribution of stuff to Texas is a massive question mark there. Can they sell stuff to people in Texas? technically not. If they are a business outside of Texas selling in there, that technically would be, you know, willingly distributing to a Texan. Additionally, I think this is sort of a sign for a lot of these individuals of what's to come with the whole issues with the cyber crime uh treaty that they're currently working on in the UN because I do believe that Japan does see United States as sort of a an all an ally when it comes to that whole situation that's going on with there, which I might make a video on that later on. I think I have talked about it a little bit before, but it is very interesting to see that this is something that is even internationally people are kind of concerned about what does this even mean? But again, I want

13:03 to end this video on a positive note. I believe that this is something that Supreme Court will strike down that at some point this will cross the desks of the Supreme Court and they will shut it down so damn fast because again, nothing overtakes the first amendment. The first amendment is there to protect our rights and the government itself. Yes, every state does have the ability to make its own laws. But when that law comes in conflict with our rights, that's where things hit the fan. That's where suddenly somebody has to step in and say, "All right, kids there in Texas, shut up. Sit down and let me inform you." And that's what I think is going to happen. But again, I do want to warn people, keep in mind that some stuff could actually happen before that happens. But we'll see. I'm going to keep an eye on it. The first time I see

13:48 this ends up getting picked up by the Supreme Court. I'll definitely be here to kind of let you guys know. But until then, that is an update for you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. As always, hope you found it informative. Again, I'm not a lawyer. If you are a comic book store or somebody that is distributing stuff like this, make sure to do your own due diligence. Seek out a lawyer. Do your own research. I'm not an expert on this stuff. I'm just going based on what I'm able to kind of figure out, doing a little bit of research here. So, definitely keep that in mind. But anyhow, with that said, hope you guys enjoy this video. If you like this content, you want to support more, I have links in description below. Great appreciation does. Until next time, y'all stay safe. You'll take care.