Zen Shrugs
Hikikomori
First post here, so ... g'day, crikey, sweet as, etc.
Hope those of you with long memories can help me with an odd little Aussie mystery. Don't go away UK dwellers, I might need your help too!
Plastic Little is a one-shot OVA from 1994, featuring very noice artwork and character designs by Satoshi Urushihara, gorgeous hand-drawn animation, a sadly thin excuse for a story, a ridiculously easily defeated villain ... and an infamous amount of fanservice. Plus an entire fishing boat crew of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, to judge by the manga spinoff. Including the fishing boat itself.
(I've put all the images in spoiler tags - they're not actually spoilers but I don't want to clutter up this post.)
Here in Australia, it was released on VHS by Kiseki Films Australia in a subtitle-only version. As far as I know, it's never been redistributed here, even though it saw DVD releases in other countries.
It's one of those frustrating shows that has just enough decent bits (and indecent bits) that you desperately wish it was better.
But I'm not here to talk about Plastic Little itself. Instead, I'm trying to figure out a small yet perfectly formed mystery swirling around its 1990s Australian age rating / classification.
First some context. The Aussie government classification board rates TV, film and games using the following system. (Spoilered so that you can skip this bit if you already know it.)
Now, if you've seen Plastic Little, what rating do you reckon it would get under the above scheme?
It's got a lot of lovingly detailed and pneumatic nakedness (including a long bath scene), but no sex apart from a hint of romance. There's also a modest amount of violence, including a girl who throws up blood from an internal injury after she's shot.
Personally, I would have guessed it would receive an M for Mature.
But back in 1995, when the OVA was released in Australia, something weird happened.
What Plastic Little actually got slapped with was ... R18+. Restricted to adults only. For "Occasional Nudity."
This caused comment.
For instance, issue 32 of Australia's Nintendo Magazine System (November 1995) included an interview between videogame/anime journo Amos Wong and the OVA's creators, Satoshi Urushihara and Kinji Yoshimoto, at Anime Expo '95--presumably the US event in Los Angeles, although the article doesn't say.
Amos mentions that "In Australia, Plastic Little has been given an R rating" and asks who its intended audience was in Japan. The creators respond that it didn't cause much of a stir, and that the nudity was intended to be non-sexual and more about honesty / friendship.
That alone would be mysterious enough. But there's more!
At the end of 1995, something even weirder happened.
Plastic Little's rating was revised downward.
A long way downward.
To PG.
That's the equivalent of the first two Harry Potter films, for comparison.
To be fair, you can get away with a fair bit under an Aussie PG rating. Like a doco on Moulin Rouge topless dancers, for instance. A reasonable amount of nudity is fine provided it's non-sexual. But Plastic Little is pushing it. Just as an R seems excessively harsh, PG seems oddly blase.
Not only that, but the actual content of the VHS tape didn't change at all.
The start of the tape still included a message stating: "PLASTIC LITTLE - The following program has been classified R - 18+ restricted to adults 18 and over".
And it still included previews after the main feature for other Kiseki releases that were decidedly adult-oriented.
Titles like The Gigolo and Adventure Kid.
With sex scenes from The Gigolo included in the preview.
The sort of stuff you'd put in a trailer on an R-rated tape, yes. But definitely not something you'd include on a PG-rated tape the kids might be watching.
(A clip of the before-show warning and after-show previews can be found in an archive of the internet sort of place, but I probably can't link to it here ...)
If you do a bit of Googling, you can find images of the Plastic Little VHS cover with the R rating, and also with the PG rating. On eBay, you sometimes see listings for Plastic Little with a PG rating on the cover, but an R rating on the tape label inside. My local video rental shop had a copy of Plastic Little with the R18+ rating, so I was bewildered to find it being sold as PG a year or two later. The tape I actually own has the PG rating on the box and on the sticker label.
But wait, there's more!
The Australian Classification ratings board makes no mention of the above shenanigans at all.
Officially, Plastic Little was always rated PG.
You can see their one and only entry for it here. (Note that there's no mention of the nudity, only the violence and coarse language.)
Australian Classification page for Plastic Little
Recently I contacted the ratings board to ask about the revision from R18+ to PG. Some time later, I received an official reply ... stating that Plastic Little had only ever been rated once, as PG, on 19 December 1995. Supposedly, no R rating ever happened or existed.
What in the what?
Had I stumbled onto a SINISTER COVER-UP worthy of a 90s sci-fi anime?!
Er, probably not. It's been nearly 30 years and their records probably weren't digitised back then. Whoever responded to my question probably just relied on whatever info is still available.
All the same, something odd does seem to have happened. Cue X-Files theme tune ...
Can anyone shine a light on this?
There are at least four parts to the mystery:
1. Why was Plastic Little given an overly harsh R rating in Australia?
2. Why was it then changed to PG?
3. Why didn't the content of the VHS tape change accordingly to remove the R warning and Gigolo/Adventure Kid trailers (complete with sex scenes) from the tape?
4. Why do the Australian Classification records only show the PG rating in December 1995?
Other points of possible interest:
- UK denizens, I'm curious about the UK release of Plastic Little (if there was one) at the time. The Wikipedia talk page for Plastic Little claims that there might have been an issue of Anime FX in which Urushihara was interviewed about the fanservice. The content sounds suspiciously similar to the Amos Wong interview I have in Aussie NMS #32. Maybe they were the same interview!
- Speaking of which, Amos Wong's interview with Urushihara (in which he said the OVA had been rated R) was published in November 1995. Presumably the actual interview took place a while before that, given print deadlines. If Anime Expo '95 was the Los Angeles one, that would push knowledge of the R-rating verdict back to June 1995.
- Kiseki Films Australia itself apparently had something of a dodgy reputation, which might explain question 3. If and when the classification was revised downward, they might not have bothered to change the content of the tape, and instead simply changed the labels. Maybe they had also jumped the gun earlier in the year and assumed an R rating was inevitable, going around telling everyone it had been classified R and preparing their box covers and previews, when actually the classification board was still deliberating?
Anyway, grateful for any insights.
also Tita and Elise are totally a couple and Nichol's crush shall go forever unrequited, I don't care what the manga says, la la la I'm not listening
Hope those of you with long memories can help me with an odd little Aussie mystery. Don't go away UK dwellers, I might need your help too!
Plastic Little is a one-shot OVA from 1994, featuring very noice artwork and character designs by Satoshi Urushihara, gorgeous hand-drawn animation, a sadly thin excuse for a story, a ridiculously easily defeated villain ... and an infamous amount of fanservice. Plus an entire fishing boat crew of Mary Sues and Gary Stus, to judge by the manga spinoff. Including the fishing boat itself.
(I've put all the images in spoiler tags - they're not actually spoilers but I don't want to clutter up this post.)
Here in Australia, it was released on VHS by Kiseki Films Australia in a subtitle-only version. As far as I know, it's never been redistributed here, even though it saw DVD releases in other countries.
It's one of those frustrating shows that has just enough decent bits (and indecent bits) that you desperately wish it was better.
But I'm not here to talk about Plastic Little itself. Instead, I'm trying to figure out a small yet perfectly formed mystery swirling around its 1990s Australian age rating / classification.
First some context. The Aussie government classification board rates TV, film and games using the following system. (Spoilered so that you can skip this bit if you already know it.)
G (General audiences)
Most children's shows get a G rating.
PG (Parental guidance recommended)
e.g. the first two Harry Potter movies, the original Star Wars trilogy, Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
(Note that this rating can include some nudity as long as it's non-sexual. This is important for later. There will be a test.)
M+ (Mature) Recommended for viewers over 15, but not restricted to them.
Examples: classic Bond movies, the average romantic comedy, the movie Aliens, the Evangelion TV series, Ghibli's Princess Mononoke.
MA15+ Not suitable for viewers under 15; they must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
Examples: violent gangster films like Snatch, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Starship Troopers.
R18+ Not suitable for under 18s. Unlike MA, the R rating doesn't say under 18s can be accompanied by an adult. You have to be an adult to watch it. Theoretically, anyway. Examples: Hellsing Ultimate, series 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones, a lot of softcore made-for-cable erotic Playboy Channel type movies. (Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend juuuust managed to scrape into this category in the early 90s with some severe editing.)
Most children's shows get a G rating.
PG (Parental guidance recommended)
e.g. the first two Harry Potter movies, the original Star Wars trilogy, Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
(Note that this rating can include some nudity as long as it's non-sexual. This is important for later. There will be a test.)
M+ (Mature) Recommended for viewers over 15, but not restricted to them.
Examples: classic Bond movies, the average romantic comedy, the movie Aliens, the Evangelion TV series, Ghibli's Princess Mononoke.
MA15+ Not suitable for viewers under 15; they must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
Examples: violent gangster films like Snatch, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Starship Troopers.
R18+ Not suitable for under 18s. Unlike MA, the R rating doesn't say under 18s can be accompanied by an adult. You have to be an adult to watch it. Theoretically, anyway. Examples: Hellsing Ultimate, series 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones, a lot of softcore made-for-cable erotic Playboy Channel type movies. (Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend juuuust managed to scrape into this category in the early 90s with some severe editing.)
Now, if you've seen Plastic Little, what rating do you reckon it would get under the above scheme?
It's got a lot of lovingly detailed and pneumatic nakedness (including a long bath scene), but no sex apart from a hint of romance. There's also a modest amount of violence, including a girl who throws up blood from an internal injury after she's shot.
Personally, I would have guessed it would receive an M for Mature.
But back in 1995, when the OVA was released in Australia, something weird happened.
What Plastic Little actually got slapped with was ... R18+. Restricted to adults only. For "Occasional Nudity."
This caused comment.
For instance, issue 32 of Australia's Nintendo Magazine System (November 1995) included an interview between videogame/anime journo Amos Wong and the OVA's creators, Satoshi Urushihara and Kinji Yoshimoto, at Anime Expo '95--presumably the US event in Los Angeles, although the article doesn't say.
Amos mentions that "In Australia, Plastic Little has been given an R rating" and asks who its intended audience was in Japan. The creators respond that it didn't cause much of a stir, and that the nudity was intended to be non-sexual and more about honesty / friendship.
That alone would be mysterious enough. But there's more!
At the end of 1995, something even weirder happened.
Plastic Little's rating was revised downward.
A long way downward.
To PG.
That's the equivalent of the first two Harry Potter films, for comparison.
To be fair, you can get away with a fair bit under an Aussie PG rating. Like a doco on Moulin Rouge topless dancers, for instance. A reasonable amount of nudity is fine provided it's non-sexual. But Plastic Little is pushing it. Just as an R seems excessively harsh, PG seems oddly blase.
Not only that, but the actual content of the VHS tape didn't change at all.
The start of the tape still included a message stating: "PLASTIC LITTLE - The following program has been classified R - 18+ restricted to adults 18 and over".
And it still included previews after the main feature for other Kiseki releases that were decidedly adult-oriented.
Titles like The Gigolo and Adventure Kid.
With sex scenes from The Gigolo included in the preview.
The sort of stuff you'd put in a trailer on an R-rated tape, yes. But definitely not something you'd include on a PG-rated tape the kids might be watching.
(A clip of the before-show warning and after-show previews can be found in an archive of the internet sort of place, but I probably can't link to it here ...)
If you do a bit of Googling, you can find images of the Plastic Little VHS cover with the R rating, and also with the PG rating. On eBay, you sometimes see listings for Plastic Little with a PG rating on the cover, but an R rating on the tape label inside. My local video rental shop had a copy of Plastic Little with the R18+ rating, so I was bewildered to find it being sold as PG a year or two later. The tape I actually own has the PG rating on the box and on the sticker label.
This pic is from an eBay listing (not mine), so it might not last long.
But the tape itself from the same eBay listing still has R on the sticker:
But the tape itself from the same eBay listing still has R on the sticker:
But wait, there's more!
The Australian Classification ratings board makes no mention of the above shenanigans at all.
Officially, Plastic Little was always rated PG.
You can see their one and only entry for it here. (Note that there's no mention of the nudity, only the violence and coarse language.)
Australian Classification page for Plastic Little
Recently I contacted the ratings board to ask about the revision from R18+ to PG. Some time later, I received an official reply ... stating that Plastic Little had only ever been rated once, as PG, on 19 December 1995. Supposedly, no R rating ever happened or existed.
What in the what?
Had I stumbled onto a SINISTER COVER-UP worthy of a 90s sci-fi anime?!
Er, probably not. It's been nearly 30 years and their records probably weren't digitised back then. Whoever responded to my question probably just relied on whatever info is still available.
All the same, something odd does seem to have happened. Cue X-Files theme tune ...
Can anyone shine a light on this?
There are at least four parts to the mystery:
1. Why was Plastic Little given an overly harsh R rating in Australia?
2. Why was it then changed to PG?
3. Why didn't the content of the VHS tape change accordingly to remove the R warning and Gigolo/Adventure Kid trailers (complete with sex scenes) from the tape?
4. Why do the Australian Classification records only show the PG rating in December 1995?
Other points of possible interest:
- UK denizens, I'm curious about the UK release of Plastic Little (if there was one) at the time. The Wikipedia talk page for Plastic Little claims that there might have been an issue of Anime FX in which Urushihara was interviewed about the fanservice. The content sounds suspiciously similar to the Amos Wong interview I have in Aussie NMS #32. Maybe they were the same interview!
- Speaking of which, Amos Wong's interview with Urushihara (in which he said the OVA had been rated R) was published in November 1995. Presumably the actual interview took place a while before that, given print deadlines. If Anime Expo '95 was the Los Angeles one, that would push knowledge of the R-rating verdict back to June 1995.
- Kiseki Films Australia itself apparently had something of a dodgy reputation, which might explain question 3. If and when the classification was revised downward, they might not have bothered to change the content of the tape, and instead simply changed the labels. Maybe they had also jumped the gun earlier in the year and assumed an R rating was inevitable, going around telling everyone it had been classified R and preparing their box covers and previews, when actually the classification board was still deliberating?
Anyway, grateful for any insights.
also Tita and Elise are totally a couple and Nichol's crush shall go forever unrequited, I don't care what the manga says, la la la I'm not listening
