Whether inspired by fear of civil law suits or a sincere concern for impressionable youth, every major anime company has adopted some sort of rating system. Within the last three years, Pioneer has developed a universal system that has now been adopted by such anime biggies as Bandai, Central Park Media and Media Blasters - "3 and up," a newly implemented "7 and up" (for titles like "Tenchi Muyo" and the edited "Gundam Wing"), "13 and up," "16 and up" and "18 and up."

"It wasn't so much to keep anime out of the hands of kids but to remind parents that this stuff is not just for kids. It's for teens. It's for more mature individuals. There are still a lot of parents out there from the 'Scooby Doo' generation who still think animation is only for kids," Kime says.

This is a sentiment shared by Urban Vision's marketing manager, Rhona Medina. "Urban Vision tries to promote in America in general the fact that just because it's animated does not mean it's just for kids," Medina says. "When high school anime clubs want to screen our titles a teacher has to ask permission from us. I take that as an opportunity to explain the differences."

And though currently most anime sheaths carry the ambiguous "Not Rated" stamp, warning graphics and content descriptions have adorned most anime packaging since the genre's widespread introduction in the American market over ten years ago.

But this still doesn't answer the anime conundrum. The anime industry hasn't overtly sought out a younger market to poison with adult oriented content and appears to give parents the tools necessary to make educated decisions about such content. Bandai titles such as "Escaflowne" and "Gundam Wing," now experiencing a spotlight stint on television, undergo severe editing to ensure a clean product for the kiddieship.

But the prospect of anime achieving the same mainstream status here that it enjoys in Japan doesn't even figure into the government's equation. When anime hits the mainstream, and starts marketing to a mainstream audience, will legislators restrict marketing practices with the same arguments it used against the movie industry and Camel Cigarettes? In his call for an investigative report, President Clinton asked the FTC to answer the question, "Are these advertisements intended to attract children and teenagers?" So what is the criterion for determining what attracts children? A cartoon character? And, more importantly, who's going to be the judge, Joe Lieberman?

Granted, cigarettes are not only a far more insidious product than anime, but tobacco companies also systematically manipulated the content of the highly addictive drug nicotine in their product for years. Since the criminality of that is difficult to prosecute, the society at large, and Janet Mangini in particular, has gone after the more vulnerable parts of the tobacco monolith, namely, its marketing strategies. The argument against the Joe Camel mascot though kicks the proverbial dust in the face of the anime industry. This landmark case incriminates the use of a cartoon to market an adult product on the grounds that a cartoon is inherently attractive to children.

However, Ken Wiatrek, marketing coordinator at ADV Films, points out, "The idea that anime falls into that category doesn't necessarily fit. When you look at Joe Camel, his gig was a marketing tool while anime is a form of entertainment." Wiatrek goes on to explain that when marketing an anime title, anime companies use images from the product itself, not a manipulative icon that has nothing to do with the product.

In a broader view, most of the government's vehemence has been directed at traditional marketing outlets - magazines, commercials, etc. So is this fervor an antiquated knee-jerk reaction to the realities of the technological age finally dawning on the older generations? Restricting print media, television advertisements and movie trailers doesn't extinguish a wide exposure to not only knowledge of but also discourse about a host of mature entertainment on the web.

"Parents have to take a great deal of responsibility. They're not. They're just using entertainment as a scapegoat," Kime says.

With an apparent sense of social responsibility and a product that isn't inherently life threatening, the anime industry isn't in hot water. But an intensification of blame for social decay targeted at entertainment mediums puts all marketers between a rock (Washington) and a hard place (market demand).