 In doing so, it sought to distance manga from the "mimetic" mediums of photography and film, portraying it instead as an "artistic" medium protected under the guarantee of freedom of expression in Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan.The court rejected this argument, arguing "Misshitsu" lacked the historical and cultural value of "shunga".In its ruling, it further stated that manga as a medium had the potential to be more obscene than prose or drawings alone, with "characters’ exclamations, onomatopoeia, and mimetic sounds ... imparting the whole with a sense of presence and increased sexual stimulus."