As a conservative techy I'm quite familiar with the libertarian counter-argument, which rests so firmly on "everything is permitted save for that which harms non-consenting people" that it sometimes forgets that that assumption is not universally shared. I'm not going to try to talk you guys out of that one, but just wanted to mention that at least one person in your social circle thinks the other way.
Or, if I wanted to play the score-free-debater-points game the other way, I'd say "You don't get a free pass on incitations to murder or solicitations to ponzi schemes or offers to sell marijuana just because they're written. Why should 'it is just ink on a page' save child pornography when it saves none of these things?"
I absolutely believe that sex with children should be socially unacceptable. However, I believe that fictional depictions of unacceptable acts are acceptable.
By outlawing depictions of one unacceptable act because it has crossed a threshold from "unacceptable" to "super-unacceptable" such that drawing it is illegal, you open up two slippery slopes:
1) Other crimes may be deemed "super-unacceptable", creating criminals out of otherwise law-abiding comic collectors.
2) Other mediums may be deemed off-limits. Could a written description of sex with children be illegal? Could a spoken description of sex with children be illegal?
In an extreme worst-case Orwellian scenario the law would fall down both slopes: any depiction of crime in any medium would be illegal.
Or, if I wanted to play the score-free-debater-points game the other way, I'd say "You don't get a free pass on incitations to murder or solicitations to ponzi schemes or offers to sell marijuana just because they're written. Why should 'it is just ink on a page' save child pornography when it saves none of these things?"
You don't get a free pass on a written note that says "let's go make kiddie porn" either. I'm not making the "just ink on a page" argument, which doesn't save the examples you gave or real child porn, so it shouldn't save explicit manga either. What should save manga is that it's fictional; no other crime was committed in the creation of the work.
So you'd go to prison for saying that the man did bad stuff to you.
But what's wrong with drawings that makes them more than simply free speech?
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/optf/links/citizens_guide.html
I'm not saying this a good law, but anyone who has this kind of stuff should know that the "it's just ink on paper" argument cuts no ice with the judges.