Editing Of Anime In American Distribution

The content of Japanese animation (anime) is frequently edited by distributors, both for its release in Japan or during subsequent localizations. This happens for a variety for reasons, including translation, censorship, and remastering.

Regional considerations

Japan

Under article 175 of the Penal Code of Japan, material containing indecent images are prohibited. However the laws date back to 1907 and were unchanged during the process of updating the Japanese constitution in 1947. Over time and due to changing tastes the acceptable standards have become blurred. The display of pubic hair was prohibited until 1991 leading to series such as '' Lolita Anime'' and '' Cream Lemon'' using the sexualization of children as a loophole. The use of tentacles in series such as '' Urotsukidōji'' enabled the creators to avoid a ban on the display of genitals. In other cases, the content is self censored through the use of blurring and black dots. When the censorship is removed for overseas release, the basic animation underneath is revealed, leading to concerns over the sexualization of children in those markets.

''Cowboy Bebop'' and ''Gantz'' are examples of titles that received edited broadcasts and were later released as unedited home releases. Episodes of shows such as '' Mr. Osomatsu'' have been edited for repeats and home releases.

United States

Due to the lack of a formal and consistent age rating system in the United States of America, age ratings for anime have created several problems. Blockbuster Video marked all anime titles as unsuitable for kids, leading them to appear as R-18 on their computer system. Publishers began using their own age rating suggestions on their releases, however due to differences between publisher assessments and the use of TV age ratings by some this resulted in an inconsistent system.

When Cartoon Network began to broadcast anime there were no internal standards in place for the use of overseas material. This required them to develop a set of standards and guidelines for the handling of the content. The display of alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, violence (including depictions of death, spoken references to death and dying, scenes of characters being threatened or in life-threatening situations, and depictions of suicide), gambling, blood, offensive language, offensive hand gestures, sexual content (including nudity, intercourse, innuendo, and depictions of homosexual and transsexual characters), and the mistreatment of women and minors were all deemed unacceptable as well as other situations unsuitable to a younger audience. Material for Cartoon Network was edited for TV-Y7, whereas Adult Swim content was edited for TV-14 standards. However some content that aired on Adult Swim was originally scheduled to air on Toonami and was edited accordingly. Autodesk Inferno was used to digitally edit scenes to remove blood or cover up nudity on content edited by Cartoon Network. In some cases content was edited before it was given to Cartoon Network. The editing practices evolved over time due to complaints from parents.

4Kids Entertainment made changes to the anime they licensed to make them "more Western" in order to be more accessible to children. Another reason was so that they could easily merchandise them. However, they also released uncut versions of some of those shows.

Italy

History of censorship of anime in Italy

The first anime aired in Italy on private-owned networks were almost uncut, even if those contained some vaguely risqué scenes such as in ''The Rose of Versailles'' and ''Georgie!''

The first anime to be systematically censored in Italy probably was ''Alpen Rose'', which aired in Italy in 1986, set during World War II. The censors went even to the point of cutting 9-10 minutes per episode, practically almost half episode in original version, in order to avoid any reference of the war.

Another series produced by Tatsunoko and with a similar wartime setting, ''Nobara no Julie'', was censored by cutting every mention of Italy: the aircraft which killed the protagonist's parents was Italian.

The 1980s–1990s

Later, during the second half of the 1980s, another kind of censorship was applied to the original series, trying to remove every reference to Japan from the series and leaving the stories' settings more generic: an example in this sense was '' F'', whose protagonist had his name changed from Gunma Akagi to Patrick and Formula J, the Japanese auto racing championship, became the European Formula 3000 and, if during the race, an ad signage with Japanese text appeared, said scene was cut.

Another 1980s series, ''Kimagure Orange Road'', which was one of the most censored anime in Italy, alongside ''Kodomo no Omocha'' and ''Marmalade Boy''. Besides the cut of several scenes, Mediaset did not air two episodes because these were deemed not suitable for children.

One of the executives in charge of Italia 1's programmation in an interview attributed the "cuts" carried out on ''Marmalade Boy'' due to the need of airing the series in watershed without come up against Moige's complaints. Not exempt from censorship was Oh Family, in which the dialogues were edited ad hoc to hide some of the bisexual relationships of the characters.

In the 1990s, when the pace of import of the series was reduced, anime such as '' Hokuto no Ken'' and '' Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon'', the latter aired on Mediaset, not without polemic. On Autumn 1996, some young men threw a huge rock from an overpass killing a person. During the inspections carried out at the defendants' homes, the police retrieved a ''The X-Files'' poster, ''Dylan Dog'' comics and some volumes of the ''Hokuto no Ken'' manga, the later which was deemed violent and thus, accused of inciting similar behaviour.

Several TV programmes covered the subject and a journalist stated that "''Ken is a warrior who throws stones against people''".

A year later, psychologist Vera Slepoj stated that '' Sailor Moon S'' could be able of seriously compromise boys' sexual identity. Slepoj's accusations were based on some parents' reports, whose male sons who were fans of the anime, arrived at the point of relate to the protagonist. Later, the polemic also extended due to the presence of the Sailor Starlights, female warriors who when did not fought, had male forms.

As a consequence of the polemic, ''Sailor Moon'', already re-edited, was edited even further: in video, with glaring stills and even more in dialogue at the point even of distorting the original plot. In the third season, Haruka and Michiru ( Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, respectively), had their relationship changed from a couple of lesbians to two simple friends.

In the last episode of the series, moreover, Sailor Moon, during a particularly violent battle, appears at the end stark naked: even though that kind of nudity was meant as symbolic, it was censored.

Another series which suffered censorship was ''Slayers'', had its title changed to ''Un incantesimo dischiuso tra i petali del tempo per Rina''. Some names of the characters were changed and the characters' surnames were removed.

The names of the spells and the formulas were completely changed. The last three episodes of the second season were merged in one episode with over 40 minutes of cut scenes. Moreover, the periods which prevented Lina Inverse of cast her spells were became a non-specified "illness" in the Mediaset version.

The MOIGE era and ADAM Italia

In the year 2000, the ''Dragon Ball'' controversy erupted: a mother flipping through a volume of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga bought for her son, had read the part here Bulma showed her panties to Muten Roshi while she was not aware Goku took them off her a night before and, considering said scene not suitable for children, turned to the Cittadinanzattiva association, where the mother presented a statement to the Public Prosecutor's office in Rome against the Star Comics publishing house.

The incriminated scene was accused of favoring pedophilia because, by reading that scene, a child would think that showing underwear to something normal. Despite this, the incident was defused in a few time without any consequence, except for the two following reissues, Star Comics, in order to avoid further polemic and legal actions, decided to censor the scene in questionCompletely restored only from the fourth reissue, named ''Evergreen Edition'', published in 2011. and in the initial page of every manga published by Star Comics, a disclaimer was added where it was specified that every character, even though being only graphical representations, are 18 or older, even though Goku himself, the series' protagonist, was still a kid.

In the latest years, ''One Piece'' and ''Naruto'' were added to the censorship lists. In the former, the scenes featuring blood were cut, in some cases the dialogues as well. In ''Naruto'' the scenes with blood were already cut since from the first episode, in other episodes, scenes featuring blood were censored by darkening the image or fading out the color of the blood (made black and opaque).

Some dialogues were revised while some words were downtoned with more childish terms: "idiot" (in the original version, ''baka'', which means also "stupid") was replaced by "squarehead" (''testa quadra'') when directed at the protagonist Naruto, and terms such as ''kill'' and ''die''were often replaced with synonyms such as ''get rid of'', ''eliminate'', ''terminate'' or ''lose the life'' (a phenomenon later reduced and almost extinct, specially during the airing of the last seasons of ''Naruto Shippuden'').

Moreover, in the series the humanity of the ninjas was something discussed, which in the Italian dub was downplayed, by making them more "superhero-like".

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Video Recordings Act 1984 and subsequently the Video Recordings Act 2010 make it a legal requirement for all home video media to be certified by the British Board of Film Classification. Sale or hire of unrated media is prohibited however imported media is allowed for personal use providing the content does not breach UK law. The BBFC is responsible for assigning age ratings to video content and if necessary requesting cuts and refusing certification if content fails guidelines. Examples of content deemed unacceptable include graphic violence and scenes of a sexual nature such as underage sex and sexual violence.

A number of releases were substantially cut in order to pass certification including the ''Urotsukidōji'' series and '' Adventure Duo''. The ''Infernal Road'' entry in the ''Urotsukidōji'' series was delayed by the BBFC for three years and included two outright rejections until the final episode was released by itself, with the scripts for the other entries included as DVD extras. '' La Blue Girl'' was also refused a classification for its pornographic exploits of underage women. ''La Blue Girl Returns'' was passed as 18 after heavy mandatory cuts of 35 minutes across 4 episodes. During the early 90s anime in the UK was subject to a negative press campaign by several newspapers as a reaction to the violence and sexualized content in many of the available titles. Publishers took advantage of this through the selected licensing of risqué anime in order to appeal to their chosen market. In 1995, 25% of anime released in the UK at that point was rated 18 and 36% was rated 15.Manga Mania 30. January 1996. Pg 120 As of 2006, the average work was passed uncut at a 12 rating. In some cases a heavier BBFC rating was actually desired by the publishers with excessive swearing deliberately inserted in order to gain a higher age rating, a process known as ''fifteening''. An example given by the BBFC was ''Patlabor'' receiving a 15 rating due to the language used, whereas it would have otherwise passed as a PG.

Australia and New Zealand

In 2020, the streaming of '' Interspecies Reviewers'' on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand was delayed due to "adjusting tssourcing of materials" after parent company Funimation ceased streaming the series.

Types of editing

Localization

Localization is an essential process in releasing anime outside of Japan. It can cover a range of different processes depending on the individual title and the desired result. At its most basic level, the localization process is responsible for deciding on romanized character and term names, as well as episode titles. In other cases, it may require special attention to areas such as humor where a judgement call must be made to try and retain the feeling of the source material. At its most intense it may involve editing of the content itself in order to fit a target market.

Music

In some cases, the original Japanese music may be replaced with alternate regional music. This can be either a technical consideration caused by footage getting cut since it is synchronized with the audio on the episode master, or it can be an artistic consideration.

Changes to episode count and order

The ''Pokémon'' episode "Dennō Senshi Porygon" was removed from all repeats and home releases of the series due to an issue during its original broadcast. It was never released in any form outside of Japan. For the North American Blu-ray release of ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', series producer Yoshiyuki Tomino removed episode 15 of the series due to its poor quality animation.

Repackaged shows

The ''Robotech'' series was created as a mix of three originally separate and unrelated series '' The Super Dimensional Fortress Macross'', '' Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross'' and '' Mospeada''. Characters were renamed and the story was adapted to create links between each of the source series.

'' Battle of the Planets'' was adapted from ''Science Ninja Team Gatchaman'' with 85 of the original 106 episodes being adapted by Sandy Frank for US broadcast in 1979. Along with westernized character names, other changes included the removal of violent scenes and entirely new animation inserted in places. A new character was also created. The series was then released as '' G-Force: Guardians of Space'' by Turner Broadcasting, with fewer changes to the original Japanese version.

Nudity and sexuality

As nudity is far more stigmatized in the U.S. than it is in Japan, such content is often edited out of locally distributed anime. Although U.S. law regarding child pornography does not prohibit cartoon pornography, suggested underage nudity is also commonly censored. In the original U.S. release of ''Sailor Moon'', all of the female leads' transformation sequences were airbrushed to remove the lines tracing their breasts and pubic areas (except for Moon and Chibi Moon; their sequences had little or no lines), even though the characters were shown in silhouette form only. This kind of editing is not limited to cartoons aimed at older audiences, either. For example, the anime series '' Blue Gender'' contained scenes of sex (next to blood and intense violence), which was edited out when shown in the U.S. on Adult Swim (the series was originally planned to air on Toonami but was considered too graphic). Another example, ADV Films edited out nudity of high-school-aged characters from the American DVD release of the anime ''Sakura Diaries''. However, the edits to the animation were not done by ADV Films but were shown on TV in Japan. The video was already edited for exposed female private parts, and were covered by inserted lingerie. Dialogue was also altered to shield suggestions of adolescent age. In 2001, the now-defunct Sterling Entertainment Group removed all shots featuring the mermaids' bare bosoms on '' Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid'' concerning the film was marketed towards children, which went out-of-print after its closure in 2006. Meanwhile, in February 2008, the government of Canada banned imports of such hentai series '' Cool Devices'' and '' Words Worth'', as it cited those series as "obscene" under federal guidelines.

Views

Hayao Miyazaki's anime film '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' was heavily edited by Manson International in the mid-1980s and released as ''Warriors of the Wind''. About one-quarter of the film was cut and its storyline simplified somewhat, affecting the nuances of the original's ecological and pacifist themes. Miyazaki disapproved of these edits, and suggested that those who have viewed the edited version should "dismiss it from their minds." Studio Ghibli subsequently adopted a "no-edits" policy for international releases of their films. Beginning from the late 1990s onward, the studio allowed its catalog to be dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, on the condition that the policy was followed, and that the English dialogue would not be significantly altered. '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' was re-dubbed and re-released in its unedited form by Disney in 2005.

The "no-edits" policy was enforced when Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein suggested editing ''Princess Mononoke'' to make it more marketable. In response, a Studio Ghibli employee held up a prop katana and said, "Mononoke Hime! No cut!" Studio Ghibli has permitted some minor changes to translated dialogue, such as the removal of references to testicles in the English dub of '' Pom Poko'', replacing them with the euphemism "raccoon pouch".

See also

* Anime industry
* History of anime
* Re-edited film
* Standards & Practices

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* Clements, Jonathan and Helen McCarthy (2006). ''The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation since 1917''. Stone Bridge Press. .
*

Further reading

*

External links

The Otaku Alliance (Internet Archive)
��"...a group of fans dedicated to fighting companies that have treated anime titles unfairly."

Anime' No Editing Zone (Mirror Website)
��"...dedicated to promoting the idea that all anime deserves to be brought over to the North American market uncut, unedited, uncensored, and as unaltered as reasonably possible."
* An editorial addressing the issues of fan desires in anime localization.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Editing Of Anime In American Distribution
Anime industry
Television censorship in the United States

Television censorship in the United Kingdom
Adaptation (arts)
Dubbing (filmmaking)