Ask John: What’s John’s Opinion on the Handley Case?

Question:
What are your thoughts on a manga collector facing 15 years in jail because some of his comics included sexual images of children?

Answer:
To put it simply, the outcome of Christopher Handley’s case is unfortunate and sadly predictable. Progressive and liberal minded Americans tend to value freedom of creative expression, including art which may be offensive. Constitutional freedom of speech includes the protection of expression which we may not like, agree with, or find pleasant. Furthermore, American constitutionally protected freedom of speech is not a limited principle applicable only to personal expression within the United States. The constitutionally guaranteed respect for personal expression is an inalienable moral right extended to all forms of human communication throughout the world. The fact that the artistic material at the heart of Mr. Handley’s case originated from Japan doesn’t grant it any less value or constitutional protection than similar artwork created by an American artist.

With rare exception, I don’t condone any abridgement of the American constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. As a fan of manga and anime I also maintain the general belief that practically no manga or anime is or should be considered legally obscene. By the letter of the law, in order to be legally classified as obscenity a drawn illustration must offensively depict sexual content, must appeal predominantly to “prurient” interest, and must have no serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. With extremely rare exception – in fact, I can only propose that an exception may hypothetically exist – I firmly believe that all manga and anime constitutes art that expresses a particular perspective of Japanese social zeitgeist. Reportedly among the material that got Mr. Handley convicted is manga by Henmaru Machino. Despite being a fan of horror and gore movies, I personally find Machino’s illustrations distasteful. Machino’s work predominantly merges lolicon with “ero-guro” – erotica involving squishy, slimy nude little girls whose bodies are repellent half insect. But while I find Machino’s work disgusting, and I have no trouble calling it offensive, I absolutely reject its classification as obscenity. Although horrifyingly grotesque, work like that of Henmaru Machino serves as a fascinating illustration of the way particular Japanese cultural interests have merged and evolved into a new hybrid. Machino’s art represents the contemporary intersection of traditional Japanese illustration art, nature worship, the Buddhist theology of interconnectedness, Japanese attitudes about sexuality, a post-modern satirical perspective of Japan’s “culture of cute,” and representation of Japanese social conventions of personal freedom of expression within collectively approved situations and mediums. To call manga art like that of Henmaru Machino “obscene” is to substitute a shallow, instinctive reaction for an objective, rational and analytical valuation. Even more conventional erotic manga and anime art, including lolicon and rape themed material that may appeal to prurient interest still constitutes serious art imbued with legitimate social science value. The fact that you (a non-specific “you”) don’t like a piece of art doesn’t mean that it’s not art.

Unfortunately for Mr. Handley and possibly for the entire American anime and manga fan community, the prosecutors involved in Mr. Handley’s case obviously allowed their subjective, knee-jerk reactions to supersede their rational judgement. In this case, prosecutors saw imagery which they deemed offensive and obscene (in a superficial, casual sense) and decided to crusade against that imagery regardless of whether or not it strictly qualified as legal obscenity. In other words, the known facts in this case suggest that prosecutors saw an opportunity to legislate their own morality and vigorously pursued that opportunity regardless of whether or not it strictly fell within the strict definition of the law. Since Mr. Handley accepted a plea bargain, we’ll never know if his legal rights would have been ultimately defended by expert witnesses, an impartial jury, and a responsible judge. However, I can’t blame Mr. Handley for accepting a guilty plea because despite, from my perspective, having the law on his side, the chances of him prevailing in a case of strict, objective legal interpretation versus gut reactions, subjective opinions, and moral indignation were probably foreseeably slim. The prosecution’s citation of AnimeNation.com, AnimeNewsNetwork.com, Gothic Lolita Bible, and Gaogaiger as instances of Mr. Handley accessing prurient anime material demonstrate the prosecution’s ignorant zealotry. Advocates including author Neil Gaiman and legal expert Lawrence A. Stanley have publicly asserted, in relation to this case, that manga is a constitutionally protected art and owning manga is not illegal. But level-headed arguments made by liberal proponents rarely come out victorious over dogma. Despite having done nothing legally wrong, Mr. Handley had the misfortune of offending the personal sensibilities of officials who arbitrarily decided that “offensive” was the same thing as “illegal.”

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Charles Brownstein has stated, “Because the set of facts specific to this case were so unique, we hope that its importance as precedent will be minimal.” The fact of the matter is that despite having legal guidelines that distinguish what is and isn’t obscenity, the distinction is ultimately arbitrary and ultimately made by individuals whose human nature and moral/political agenda bias their judgement. Furthermore, because the American legal definition of obscenity involves “contemporary community standards,” something deemed legally obscene in one city or state may not be legally obscene elsewhere. What happened to Mr. Handley should not have happened. And it’s frightfully something which could happen again to any one of countless thousands of American manga and anime fans. We hope that logic and rationality prevail, but if that was the case, Mr. Handley wouldn’t now be facing fines and a prison term. Unfortunately, there is no solution to this dilemma. None of the manga material in Mr. Handley’s possession was ever legally ruled obscene by a judge. American manga and anime fans now live in a United States in which they may be convicted of posessing “obscene” manga or anime just because an overzealous prosecutor thinks that a given manga or anime is obscene.