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*Quoted from Anime News Network
Quote:
After several recent incidents of Japanese elementary school and even middle school children getting severely injured, and in one case even ing, TV Tokyo has decided to cease airing the world famous shounen anime Naruto.

In February of this year an eight year old child was buried head first in sand by his fellow class mates resulting in his death. According to his fellow class mates they were trying to copy special “Ninja” moves from the Naruto anime series. This “Sand Technique” was supposedly the special ability of a ninja named Gaara; who uses sand to gruesomely murder and torture people.

In the past year there have been several other “Copy cat” stunts by children that has left the public wondering about the moral side effect this show is having on children. In more than one case children have nearly drowned attempting “Water dragon” Techniques, and there have been several reports from schools where students have made their own “Shurukens” out of scrap metal and injured their fellow students in school.

In a special press conference with the current president of Tokyo TV, Ryoki Sugita, he stated:
“After the events of the past few months I feel that it is our responsibility to take a retrospective of the current anime we are airing and what affect they are truly having on the younger generations of our society. The Naruto series will be suspended starting July 21, 2008. Our future plans will be released at another date. We at TV Tokyo would just like to remind parents to be an active model in controlling what their children watch.”

It was insinuated that the station may have plans of removing other similar violent shows currently airing such as Bleach, but plan on replacing them with longer airings of more family friendly series such as Doraemon, Pokemon, and detective Conan.

In an interview with Kishimoto, the author of this series, he had this to say:
“I am happy that TV Tokyo is taking this step. Even though I am the author I do not wish for my series to have such a negative lasting affect of younger viewers. The future of this series is going to be much darker, and I just don’t think its appropriate for children to be watching.”

In the last year several other anime such as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni,” “School Days,” And “Kodomo no Jikan,” have been censored, delayed, and removed from some channels due to violence and socially unacceptable portrayals of children as objects. TV Tokyo has taken the first big step into “Cleaning up” their act, and making television more child friendly.

O.o I didn’t see that coming…