The Four Color Media Monitor

Manga from Japan may have achieved some popularity in the United States in recent years, but while there are plenty of highlights, there are also some downsides, some of which may not even be known to the general public that could ultimately end up proving its undoing, unless some discretion is sought. From WKMG Local 6 News in Central Florida, here's a story of parents who found something most inappropriate for children at a library in Orange County, California:

Parents of a girl in Orange County, Fla., were shocked to discover that a comic book featuring adult-themed topics, like swinging and drugged and raped girls, was checked out by the 11-year-old at a library, according to a Local 6 News report.

The controversial Japanese comic book is part of a series that can be found in the young adult collection at the Orange County Library's Southeast Branch.

Local 6 News reported that the comic titled "Peach Girl" is about a young girl drugged by her friends and then set up to be raped.

I think I'm about to belch. This is what lingers in the minds of the writers/artists who put this stuff out in Japan? Shudder.

"As I was going through it, I said, 'Oh my God, do parents know what their kids are reading?'" mother Raynelle White said.

Now we know why parents are going to have to stop abdicating their responsibilities and start being responsible. As Stan the Man Lee said..."With great power, must come great responsibility!" Ditto with parents.

"Sex, drugs and violence are the themes in this series published by TokyoPop," Alvarez said.

White believes no one looked past the cover of the comic and it is time that things changed at the library.

"I don't want to see it; I don't want her seeing it," Travis White said. "The whole time, I'm like, 'I can't believe we're seeing these things.'"

And I don't want to see it either. Period. If this is what manga is all about, it's about as clever as sloshing through a muddy swamp.

That aside, those manga publishers sure have done a nice job in seeing to it that the fad for their products will wear thin, early or late. Yes, it's possible that the craze will grow old eventually. But this rotten egg will see to it that the aging process gets accelerated.

A spokeswoman for Orange County Libraries would not speak on camera but admitted there is not a screening process in place for books bound for the children's or young adult sections, Alvarez said.

Then start doing it NOW, if you don't want more complaints being filed upon your desks folks! And as for the publishers, I don't suppose maybe they'd like to start getting some sense into themselves for a change?

Manga is simply not all it's cracked up to be.