Can I Consider Manga Gamer "Safe"?

[CrimsonAsmodai]

Basically, I want to buy the Physical HardCopy LE of Imouto Paradise Mangagamer, but I am concerned about several things. Mainly the cover though. Will that count as obscenity? Also, is it safe to assume that if it is from Manga Gamer it is "okay"? I know that Manga Gamer is a big western seller, but they are still located in Japan (I think?). I live in the USA, BTW. Please, help! I really want to spoil my cute imoutos, but I am kind of afraid to buy it.

[WinterfuryZX]

Mangagamer is currently located within the USA.

[Nandemonai]

I wouldn't worry about that.  All the MangaGamer employees you might actually talk to are Western.  The company is owned in Japan, but MangaGamer works in the US mostly.  There also isn't anything on the cover of Imopara that could get you into trouble.  Neither Aya nor Rio look remotely loli, and that's the main thing to worry about.  Rest assured Japan does know about obscenity law in the US, and no localization outfit is going to put out hard copies of games that might cause an obscenity prosecution.  In fact, most of the time, games that have problematic content simply aren't licensed.

Shiny Days (from Jast) is the big exception to that, and there the legally-questionable loli content was removed and added back in via an unofficial patch released later.  (This is significant because it means that a hard copy of Shiny Days doesn't have any such content on it, meaning that it's not problematic to sell or move across state lines.)

MangaGamer itself has said that they take care to consider what's legal in the US:  Here

[CrimsonAsmodai]

10 minutes ago, Nandemonai said:

I wouldn't worry about that.  All the MangaGamer employees you might actually talk to are Western.  The company is owned in Japan, but MangaGamer works in the US mostly.  There also isn't anything on the cover of Imopara that could get you into trouble.  Neither Aya nor Rio look remotely loli, and that's the main thing to worry about.  Rest assured Japan does know about obscenity law in the US, and no localization outfit is going to put out hard copies of games that might cause an obscenity prosecution.  In fact, most of the time, games that have problematic content simply aren't licensed.

Shiny Days (from Jast) is the big exception to that, and there the legally-questionable loli content was removed and added back in via an unofficial patch released later.  (This is significant because it means that a hard copy of Shiny Days doesn't have any such content on it, meaning that it's not problematic to sell or move across state lines.)

MangaGamer itself has said that they take care to consider what's legal in the US:  Here

First of all, thanks for letting me know. Second, would it be safe to say that if the cover of a un-licensed, JP only VN has no worse than what is on ImoPara, then it is safe to import? Like KanojoxKanojoxKanojo and its fanisc?

[WinterfuryZX]

50 minutes ago, Nandemonai said:

I wouldn't worry about that.  All the MangaGamer employees you might actually talk to are Western.  The company is owned in Japan, but MangaGamer works in the US mostly.  There also isn't anything on the cover of Imopara that could get you into trouble.  Neither Aya nor Rio look remotely loli, and that's the main thing to worry about.  Rest assured Japan does know about obscenity law in the US, and no localization outfit is going to put out hard copies of games that might cause an obscenity prosecution.  In fact, most of the time, games that have problematic content simply aren't licensed.

Shiny Days (from Jast) is the big exception to that, and there the legally-questionable loli content was removed and added back in via an unofficial patch released later.  (This is significant because it means that a hard copy of Shiny Days doesn't have any such content on it, meaning that it's not problematic to sell or move across state lines.)

MangaGamer itself has said that they take care to consider what's legal in the US:  Here

They are owned by overdrive but their base of operation and main office are within the US.

[CrimsonAsmodai]

So, what about something like Boob Wars series? They have some pretty loli looking characters on the front. Is that okay? 

[Erogamer]

If you live in the USA, it is very unlikely that your package is going to be opened if it is shipped to and from a destination in the USA. In fact that is considered a federal offense. I would not worry about it.

[Decay]

12 minutes ago, Erogamer said:

If you live in the USA, it is very unlikely that your package is going to be opened if it is shipped to and from a destination in the USA. In fact that is considered a federal offense. I would not worry about it.

Customs inspecting packages isn't a federal offense. But US obscenity laws are much more ambiguous than other countries, for better or worse, and customs won't inspect packages unless they have a good reason to do so. That said, MG's packages are shipped domestically AFAIK, so there is absolutely no issue there. They're "safe."

edit: Misread part of your post, whoops.

[Nandemonai]

Also, @CrimsonAsmodai, the easiest way to relieve your concerns is to just read up on how obscenity works.  Especially don't ask random forum people for legal advice   Rather than just taking my word for it, you can read up on obscenity yourself.  You'll never get a law degree this way, but you can find out enough to answer your own questions.  A lot more info is available online than most people think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_obscenity_law

The currently active test used in the courts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test

And if you want to know the kind of thing that gets people in trouble, very little anime porn obscenity prosecutions exist at all, and all the ones I know of involve child porn.  Either they caught the guy (and to date I'm pretty sure it's always been guys to date) with real child porn, and a bunch of hentai, and they threw in charges for the animated stuff while they were sending the party van for the real stuff; or it was loli h-material.

The important thing to note is that even if the post office inspects the package, all they're going to do is open it and look at what's inside.  They won't find any loli material on the box.  They cannot install the game and play it to see what's what.  That would require opening the contents of the package (not the package), and they can't do that.

A summary of the cases I know about is here: http://cbldf.org/criminal-prosecutions-of-manga/

One of these was in Canada; don't worry about it.  The other involved a comic book store selling Urotsukidoji comics across the street from an elementary school, in Texas, in the early 2000's and complete BS prosecutor statements that comic books 'are for kids'.  The two other cases mentioned are the only ones I know of at all concerning manga, and it in both cases involved much more extreme content than what's in anything MangaGamer has put out.  (In fact, the specific content at issue in both of those cases - adults having sex with elementary-age kids - is what MangaGamer has said it's not going anywhere near).

[CrimsonAsmodai]

Thanks, @Nandemonai! I actually already read a bit about obscenity laws and the Miller test. I just wanted the opinion of some more knowledgeable people, that is, people who have actually been in this hobby longer than me. It has really made me feel a lot better that pretty much everyone has told me not to worry. Reading about it in cold legalise or wikipedia is one thing, actually hearing about other fans saying it is true is even better.  Thanks for the detailed explantion!