Did you know that Japan has one of the strictest gun policies in the world and yet the age of consent remains at thirteen?
After rewatching Bungo Stray Dogs, I like to imagine it's from the perspective of how foreigners view America when not directly mentioning them.
From guns, violence, and explosion every other day. The Guild is the most non-American part of the show besides from trying to micro-manage everyone if we exclude Mark's Twain (the sniper) and Moby's Dick dicks (canon).
These little group of Americans is using the power of the Gilded Age and Prohibition Era to obtain a goal. Two periods in American history known for having the odds against those not born into privilege.
Remember Mori, well it was what prompted me to research more about Japan's judicial laws on child labor and protection (I went Jake Hansen on him, I know). Before criticisms can be made, here's a brief history of how the age of consent came about.
The Penal Code which was founded in 1889 is still active and in use in modern-day Japan. The reason for that has to do with something called life expectancy, which was different and still changing in the present.
Compared to today where it's a little higher thanks to advancements in medicine, the 20th century was relatively still new on this whole "maybe I shouldn't date someone who looks like children."
For this comparison, I will be comparing US law to Japan since I'm an American. In similarity, both countries have this practice which is called "de jure de facto." Which in translation from Latin, explains how the events that happen in reality are compared to or recognized in law format.
In short, it's like state vs. federal government in the US. The federal decides on the boundaries of said laws and it's up to the states to decide where in between those borders they stand, that's why laws differ from state to state. Unless it reaches a border term, the government won't step in and let states do their thing.
This comparison is similar to Japan, they have federal and state policies. But replace states with prefectures. In most, the minimum age is actually 16-18 and on a national level, it's 13. This may seem like reverse psychology but it's actually there to put crooks in their place.
Just because the minimum is 13, it doesn't mean that it should be "your" level of standards. An analogy that I made up to try to understand this concept better is: If the minimum for passing a class is a C, why not go for something a little higher. Don't be basic, try going above and beyond that.
Yokohama is a city located in the Kanagawa prefecture, which rises it up to 18, thankfully. If Mori were to pull this stunt in the 21st century he would get flamed and hunted down. But to get historical, Meiji Japan, Mori (based on the time period of the author's lifespan) would have been socially acceptable.
For the average Meiji-era, the age of consent was based on an individual's mental age rather than physical. If we think of it this way, we can also interpret Elise to be Mori's mental age - a little bit odd but conflicting.
Maybe he was a child that never grew up, a body ever-changing with a mind stuck in the past. Anyways that's my ramble: Yokohama is America, Mori is a creep or just a very emotionally scarred man. Who knows.
