The Porn Awakens

(Warning: Portions of the following piece contain mature subject matter. Reader discretion is strongly advised.)

The internet can be a rollercoaster sometimes.

Take anime. Ever since the internet’s accessibility has become democratized, there’s been a deluge of anime fan-art. Whether for fun or monetization, every fandom in the community has had its share of fan-art. And with that universal availability has come the issue of everyone wanting to share-and re-share-content with everyone else on the web. However, this freedom can also have some unintended, even troubling, consequences, as evidenced recently with the Toonami block.

I never grew up with Toonami. I live in Canada, after all. But I remember catching its shows when I went on Winter vacation to Florida, and I knew it was important culturally. So when the block was revived a decade ago, I eagerly awaited its arrival over here. The irony is that when it finally came, I’d lost interest in TV altogether.

Essentially, I didn’t keep up with the goings-on of Toonami. This made the announcement that it was ending its fan-art segment after two episodes, something I didn’t know it was doing to begin with, surprising. What was more surprising was why, something both hilarious and head-scratching. It all begins with vore.

What’s vore? It’s fan-art that centres around fetishized cannibalism. It’s popular on Booru sites, though I won’t show examples. It usually ticks off two boxes: cannibalism, and fat fetishism. Far be it from me to shame fans, as we all have our kinks.

When Toonami asked for its most-recent submissions of fan-art, a vore image of Nami from One Piece was unintentionally submitted. Or maybe it was intentional and meant as a joke, I’m not sure. Either way, it didn’t go over well, and, despite being featured for only a few seconds, it caused the segment to be pulled altogether. This is funny, especially given how jarring it was to see, but it’s also disconcerting because those few seconds of submission should’ve been properly vetted, but weren’t. Clearly someone knew this wouldn’t bode well and didn’t care. Or if they didn’t know, they exercised poor judgment.

But then there’s another problem here too: word has it that the original artist hadn’t consented to the publication of this content.

Now, I know Toonami’s current lineup is on late-night TV, hence its viewership, hopefully, is adults. But I wonder what would’ve happened had this block premiered in the afternoon like it used to. That’d put it into the kids and teenagers demographic, where it could cause parental and perhaps even legal outrage. After all, this is arguably pornographic art! We all know that kids browse porn anyway, but that doesn’t make it right…especially when there are guidelines for content on broadcast networks.

Either way, this is a bad look for Toonami. That’s not factoring in that this wasn’t meant for public consumption anyway. Like I said, the original artist apparently had never consented to this submission for public consumption. It even got so controversial that the co-creator of Toonami, Jason DeMarco, admitted to this on Twitter:

“So I guess the Toonami Fan Art submissions piece we aired last night had a person’s art in it that lives behind a paywall. Someone sent it to us under a false name as a ‘fan’. We’ve pulled it off of the Toonami FB and asked YouTube to pull it down as well.”

DeMarco later stated that Toonami’s vetting staff is tiny, so they rely on fan integrity. Whether or not that’s accurate, something clearly went awry here. It also sucks that Toonami’s now refusing to allow any more fan-art. Especially since most fan-art creators are small artists, and that level of exposure would be excellent. It’d also give fans a chance to see it.

So yes, this was clearly a blunder. While you could argue that this vore got more exposure for its creator than any paid subscriber, that doesn’t automatically make it right. Because the lack of consent is a problem, and that inadequacy of vetting content’s also a problem, and that’s what’s at stake.

It also highlights one of the perils to creators, that being sharing their online content. Many creators of such content use pseudonyms on the internet for a variety of reasons. And whether it’s fear of ostracism, putting their lives in jeopardy, or wishing to remain private, people don’t always feel comfortable sharing their stuff on the web. This includes fan-art creators. Especially vore.

Ultimately, this highlights the need for better moderation. Is it entirely Toonami’s fault? Probably not. Are they blameless? No, and they’ve even acknowledged that. Does this mean they should be cancelling the segment altogether? Well…

I get that tensions are high. This is the equivalent of someone being caught with their pants down, and it’s not pretty. We can laugh at it all we want, but it’s disturbing that this happened at all. Especially since other fan-art creators have to suffer. It’s bad all-around.

Nevertheless, I hope that cooler heads prevail and the segment returns. Like I said earlier, it’s great exposure! Exposure that wouldn’t come from a paywall! Think of the potential opportunities that could come from being featured on Toonami! Isn’t that reason enough to bring it back?

Either way, I’m sure this’ll get resolved. I simply hope that it gets resolved with as little a mess as possible.