This week's poll is from our member Calamansi. What kind of offensive thing within manga just makes your blood boil? It pisses you off so much that you just can't stand it. It really could be all of the above, but just pick your worst one.

You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related)
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Imagine the author of your favorite manga character decide to make a radical change to the character. Which transition would annoy you the most?
Choices:
Importance / relevance - votes: 1084 (14.5%)
Physical appearance - votes: 427 (5.7%)
Intellectual faculties - votes: 675 (9%)
Physical abilities - votes: 105 (1.4%)
Gender - votes: 1466 (19.6%)
Beliefs / values - votes: 824 (11%)
Love interest(s) - votes: 606 (8.1%)
Personality shift - votes: 1426 (19.1%)
Switched sides / alliances - votes: 243 (3.2%)
Nothing would affect me - votes: 629 (8.4%)
There were 7485 total votes.
The poll ended: December 12th 2015

Now I'm curious how many people like the gender-bender type of series. Ranma 1/2, anyone? I guess if it's built into the series, it's okay, but if a series unexpectedly had a character change their gender, it'd be really weird.

________________
A just ruler amongst tyrants

Nothing bothers me in manga. All of these things bother me very much indeed in real life. I don't know why, but I can never take manga seriously, no matter how much I love it. Which is weird because most of my all-time favourite fictional characters are from manga/anime, and manga/anime have often made me cry (because the characters feel more real/relateable to me), while western fiction almost never does. But still, I don't find things offensive in manga/anime that I'd find very offensive IRL or even in books/movies/comics/TV from other parts of the world. I have not the slightest clue as to why.

Yep, in mamga anything goes however I am pissed off when at the same time in the manga we have moe sugarly art in combination with gore for example :/

There's so many I wanted to vote for, it's hard. But I'd have to say as a yaoi and smut reader, the thing that annoys me the most is sexual violence and rape. When it is treated realistically, it can create a really great story. What pisses me off is that in smut and yaoi, rape is just casually dismissed as if it was nothing. One day a guy rapes you, the next day you fall in love with him. Happy ending. It is complete BS, and undermines what rape is really like.

I'm not really pissed off by any of those (or other) things, in and of themselves.
...but if it is presented, as good and proper, that would piss me off. If you have racism in a manga, that's no problem ...but a racist manga (where what the manga conveys, is racist. Where you have someone saying racist things ...and it being presented as good).

If there is a rape, that isn't a problem ...but if you have a situation, like what KaoriNite mentioned... That's really, really, terrible.
Or as in the film The Wedding Crashers, where one of the guys is sexually harassed and raped, and it's just treated as comedic (if you changed the genders around, the film would have been universally condemned, as it should have been, but... Also, the guy gets together with the main person, who raped him)
Rape, that is presented as good, is probably the thing that offends me most, in manga.

...and obscene language, never pisses me off.
It's what is said, not the specific words, that matters. (the choice of words, do effect what is said and how, but not purely by itself. Not without the surrounding context)

None of it bothers me. What bothers me is when it is badly used and thus just a waste. Bad manga bothers me, not the content. Then I have preferences which doesn't care about any of those things mentioned and there are more manga than I will ever read.

When a manga evokes feeling it has succeeded, so that is a good thing, not a bad thing.

As other people have already said, it depends on the way the theme is portrayed.

Pedophilia is probably the one that gets me really mad. Especially when they try to show interactions between a grown-up and a kid as fluffy love, it makes me cringe. Even worse when the grown-up is a teacher or care-taker.

Sexual objectification also manages to piss me off and ruin a manga for me. I don't need to see drawn boobs to appreciate a story, you know. It becomes cringe-worthy when this trope is combined with the first I mentioned, that is really disgusting.

Finally, I won't read anything that has incest in it, but to say I'm bothered by this kind of manga is a long shot.

I'm kinda fine with gore and dirty language, as long as it's not done badly, but this goes for anything.

I haven't encountered the other themes in manga as much.

________________
My current top 3:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Pandora Hearts
3-gatsu no Lion

Most would be shocked if a preexisting character suddenly changed genders in a series where that concept isn´t part of the premise but i can only name US examples and some were good so you never know. Personality shifts are also the spice of writing so it should have lost the race instead of nearly winning it.

Pedophilia wins as everything else can work without a problem if the right people with the right intent are involved. You can pull of graphic child rape or explicit underage sexuality with zero complains from me as i consider Lolita to be one of the finest novels of all time. It´s reception also speaks volume but it isn’t child porn and Loli/Shota fans would be appalled by it if they bothered to actually read it. Marvel/Disney is also current republishing Moore/Gaiman´s risqué Miracleman so even the Mouse is willing to get down and dirty with grade-schoolers but it again isn´t child pr0n and i voted against actual pedophilia and not against works about the theme.
We had the discussion before and it would be idiotic to have the police pursue though criminals and Japan isn´t the only distributor of such. They only mastered the craft but that doesn’t mean that i have to like pederast books, games or comics. Reluctant tolerance is all you will get and the people who produce, distribute (the worst of the 3) and consume them can go fuck themselves but none of them will managed to make my "blood boil".
The occasional spicy review will suffice and i further get why rape will win and it is admittedly the topic that Japan manages to fail @ The most.
Pedophilia though is rape + child abuse by definition so you truly get the best of both worlds and most of us should managed to name a few good rape dramas.

I wrote enough critical reviews of gore pr0n too so that one comes in 3rd and Japan´s constant backhanded homophobia deserves a mention too. Most others are non-issues and racism (i am not white) should be at the bottom of my list as manga used to be way more racist. Even more recent offenders as Shin Kozure Ookami - Lone Wolf were by the old guard so the industry may have moved on. One step forward - Two steps sideways!
I´ll even pour one out for good old Sexual objectification as even it can work. I could highlight a number of satires but lets go with DC´s deconstructive Grayson.
The comic sexualizes the living hell out of the former Robin/Nightwing Richard (but please call him Dick) as the creative team decided to treat him in the way super-heroines were thread back in the day. If this isn´t the best executed anal examination of recent memory that i don´t know what is. Thx Time Warner for never caring about what you publish...

Propaganda and maybe bestiality are missing but i am surprised that censorship isn´t a choice. The industry is kind of infamous for self-censoring itself. Hm.
(My favorite manga lastly focuses on every singe theme but the political hate unless i am allowed to count intrigues in the royal court.)

________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Well, while none actually bothers me, Pedophilia seriously pisses me of. So, I go fast forward on those parts of the manga containing them or just utterly ignore those moments if I deem them not important.
While I despise Rape heavily which is a heinous crime that is in no way pardonable, I didn't choose it because my favourite demographic is Seinen. Thus, I wouldn't be able to read some of my favourite, if I go around hating or ignoring them.
Same goes for Child Abuse.

So, I did voted for Pedophilia!

Racism and Religious hate are real world problem and I believe it to be pretty legit to have some space for it in a great manga. Political hate is the same more or less.
Homophobia is a real trending, which will not go down till the kingdom come. I'm Straight and totally indifferent about it. To lazy and bothersome to be bothered by it.

Last edited by MinatoAce at 7:30 am, Dec 12 2015

________________
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ERg8slD.gif[/img
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HphHlPh.gif[/img]
Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ MinatoAce

The only thing that really bothers me is a bad story. Just look at Spiderman: One More Day. It is arguably the worst comic of all time but it doesn't really have any offensive material besides almost criminally bad writing.

I voted for sexual objectification, but that doesn't make such things as rape or pedophilia acceptable in my eyes.
It's just the kind of thing that comes up on manga (and anime!!) the most; all those shounen/seinen heroines with gigantic juggling breasts, not to forget the heroes lusting after them.
I mean, ecchi IS tolerable if it's done within a good taste, but if it's used to take the readers attention from the badly-written story, it's just makes me cringe.

If something "pisses you off" maybe you just shouldn't read it? Though there's type of people who want to be pissed off and getting hard-on, so to say, from it. I.e. masochists.

Nothing bothers me, let alone "offends" me when it comes to fiction.
However, I do get uncomfortable when I read depictions of animal abuse.

________________
Hrodulf and Bjornolfr, you will not be forgotten.

And if the world were black and white,
you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

Click 'n Play!

If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

Spider-Man: One More Day can´t be blamed on writing but on a well documented editorial edict. (It´s also based on a good 90s Hulk issue. Originality!) The arc also lead to good comics down the line despite nearly giving me a brain hemorrhage in late 07/early 08.
The worst Spidey comic is JMS´s very own Sins Past which opened the 2nd half of the till then unblemished run. You know? The one that ret-conned The Death of Gwen Stacy
- aka. The most acclaimed Spidey story ever- by having Gwen,obviously a virgin, run off to Europe to bang Norman Osborn in secret because she needed fatherly authority in her life after the death of her dad! She immediately got pregnant with hyper aging twins due to his irradiated sperm (Science!) before he killed her to mess with Peter. Her daughter (age ca. 4 with the body of a teen ) then preceded to flirt up the then married Peter in the present while her brother turned into another Goblin. Words fail me.
It´s still technically in continuity and Sins Past also lead into One More Day. But don´t listen to me and have a look at Osborn´s cum face again. It lastly revealed that Gwen and Peter never had sex. She was only the love of his life...
The runner up is Kevin Smith´s Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil Men Do which committed at least half of the sins you can see on the left . Thank Christ that he never finished his Daredevil comic about 9/11. Mark Millar ´s Trouble is another delight but back to the poll.
Edit: Animal cruelty is indeed missing despite being way more controversial that physical violence against humans in fiction.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 10:38 am, Dec 12 2015

________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

As some people have already said, the only thing that matters is how well the elements/themes in question are implemented and executed. I firmly believe that when it comes to fiction of all kinds, the best approach to content and themes is "anything goes as long as it's well done".
On a related note, the "well done" part is not as clear cut as some people may think. If you find something disagreeable, it's not necessarily because it was poorly done. There is a variety of factors involved outside of the work in question. You may not be mentally mature or experienced enough to understand/appreciate it, or didn't approach it with the right mindset, or simply don't belong to the work's intended audience.

If anything, I would rather praise series that dares to include and/or explore controversial and objectionable themes. There are two good reasons for this.
First, dealing with offensive and objectionable themes is frequently a bad idea from the commercial point of view. So this can (but not necessarily does) show that authors are more concerned with expressing themselves rather than making money.
Second, art is supposed to evoke emotions and provoke thoughts. All kinds of emotions are valuable, even if they are not pleasant. So if something makes you angry, or uncomfortable, or repulsed, then perhaps it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. In the same manner, questioning or even challenging one's values and beliefs is an important aspect to being thought-provoking.

All that being said, I do get angry/uncomfortable/disgusted by some things in manga or other types of fiction. It's only natural to react that way when you see something you consider wrong. I just don't rush to fault the work itself for it, and try to consider other factors.