Forum - View topicNEWS: Viz Edits
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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While I don't doubt that there would be some concern over people who think an asexual sponge is gay and who care more about a nipple on tv than torture photos, I have a feeling Viz is mostly doing it for the money. I mean even with those edited nipples, given Wal-Mart's draconian attitude towards Maxim. So I think that they're probably trying to market it towards female readers who would normally be turned off by a shonen-centric harem title.
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s_j
Posts: 162 |
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The concern may seem out of proportion, paranoid even, but oftentimes it takes just one of these folks...one angry parent, one legislator, to cause mountains of trouble and bad publicity.
Anyway, while we all may disagree on Viz's motivation, I think there at least is the concensus that this was a miscalculation on their part. Viz needs to fix this somehow, lest they become the new target of a fandom still boiling from CMX, and give new ammunition to Tokyopop to make more snarky press releases. |
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Godaistudios
Posts: 2075 Location: Albuquerque, NM (the land of entrapment) |
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See, that's the odd thing about me. I'm generally a moral conservativist. At the same time, I think censorship is generally a bad idea. One should not try to shoehorn a title to make it appeal to a mass market. An edit like this is impractical, considering the other titillating content remaining intact in the I"s manga. My experience is that those who find nipples offensive find panty shots equally offensive. This being the case, it makes no sense to censor the manga. This is why I hope it backfires. Besides, I really enjoy Katsura's artwork. It's a shame that another company is trying to think for me... that somehow that nipple would really bother me or something. 
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s_j
Posts: 162 |
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Nothing odd about that. I'm not fond of guns, but will argue for other people's right to own them. =) The inconsistencies in their editing is part of the reason why I don't think this is motivated by money, or say, trying to get into Wal-Mart. Viz probably understands perfectly what you pointed out, and it seems the censoring was done reluctuntly...as if they're just doing the minimum amount to get by and shield themselves from any liability. (I will point to the Georgia case again, because had the nipples been uncensored, it would easily fall prey to the same law that got Gordon Lee arrested.) If this were an attempt to simply broaden the age group of readers, it's akin to the censoring of Eyes Wide Shut...even with the edits, it was no more appropriate for a mass audience...it's still a porn film, just as Kubrick intended it to be. And I don't see evidence for this, since the book is still labled for 'older teens.' Wouldn't they have labled it 13+, if that was their intent? |
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DemonEyesLeo
 Posts: 844 Location: Japan |
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Well, at least Viz isn't doing this to any of the other manga they release. Ranma 1/2 vol 15 didn't have any censorship of the nipples that appeared in that, and it was released about a month ago. But apparently the original creator used stars to cover up nipples in Vol 3 of I"s. Go to:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6656.html and read what a spokesperson from Viz said about the censorship. But if anyone can confirm this about Vol 3 I'd like to know. |
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Godaistudios
Posts: 2075 Location: Albuquerque, NM (the land of entrapment) |
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I can assure that that those stars do appear in volume 3 (I've read the whole series) - as a contextual joke. There were several photos of Iori that were taken, and then the other one where her face was used to replace a porn star shows up in that batch of photos.
Honestly - the stars wouldn't be such a big deal if this were to be the only occourence (the joke kinda ties back into that shot on page 65 of the first volume anyway.) It doesn't make me any happier that the censoring is done there, but the problem lies in the future volumes. There are too many other places in the manga where nipples show up - not on photos. There are many panty shots (and other scenes)that are very sexual in nature - and is better suited to the "older teens" rating. It's those places, more than any place else, that makes the censorship unnecessary and impractical.
I think if some of the later volumes do go into places like Wal-mart and the like - and the nipples are all that's been censored, it may cause several people (parents mostly) to be upset with the content. The fact that they would do this censoring in order in order to market the manga to more places is simply irresponsible. (Just my thoughts on that though.) |
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Armagguedes
 Posts: 41 Location: Lisbon, Portugal |
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If it wasn't for the fact that EN manga in Europe is imported from America, i would've LOL'ed @ them.
This is just crazy. What do they expect to accomplish by censoring manga, Viz, CMX or anyone else? I mean: i) censored adult manga is still adult manga: the tits are there; ii) people offended by tits are also offended by cleavages, pantsus, et allii, and are probably gay and deserve to die painfully; iii) an adult manga that's been censored to fit a wider and younger audience probably doesn't get all that much an increase in sales anyway; iv) because kids+parents or just the parents, when reading the backcover reviews see: 'blood', 'revenge', 'guns', 'survival', etc.., which is a pretty clear sign of adult content. This is 'Alienating fanbase audiences 101' for you. This whole ordeal begs a question: are manga multi-licenced? Where can i find alternative publishers that (hopefully) know better than to edit stuff out. If there are such smaller (english) editions of "Ii's" uncensored manga for example, where can we find them? Does anyone know of a site(s) that keeps track of censored manga, by comparing them to the original versions? I know there's a Tenjô Tenge fansite that keeps track of the edits, but i was looking for some sort of database. * And by the way, the edited version is far whorish than the original. * |
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Armagguedes
Posts: 41 Location: Lisbon, Portugal |
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[I was editing my previous post when i came to the conclusion that this piece o' mind here is somehing that i think it deserves its own post.]
Whatever the publishers decide to do with the american editions of manga is not supposed to be 'rest of the worlds' problem, because the other major market for translated manga is basically Europe. Now in this here part of the civilised world we tipically don't have those censorship problems: when bitchy-mommy buys/sees sweeties' manga with the titties or pantsuzus  , she does not go into sue-the-world auto-mode, because she knows that she willingly bought it, and could have asked for info at the store.
The problem is that publishers export their censored manga to us, instead of giving us the original versions. This is one of the advantages of the french and dutch: their manga markets are so big they translater everything, and do so with no censorship (at least that i have heard of). Also it is common to find french manga cheaper that american at stores. Not only does this reduce the income from the fanbase, because some (and this is not half a dozen otakus) end up buying either the japanese or just download scanalations. If they exported the 'pure' versions, they would actually be cheaper and, heavens forbid, maybe sell a little more, because let's not forget that even neither Germans nor French (most powerful euro economies) have has much purchase power (?) as an average american. |
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lyger
 Posts: 53 Location: London, England |
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is everything in america censored
it seems that way too me viz are idots |
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Armagguedes
Posts: 41 Location: Lisbon, Portugal |
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Probably the only think that is not is their dumb president, to the great misfortune of western world economy.
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Otakuboy T
 Posts: 59 Location: Morris, IL |
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What happened to you Viz, you used to be cool.
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Michi
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 741 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Now I really wish the people still bashing Viz would read the follow-up article mentioning how Katsura, the artist/creator, approved the edits.
Though I still think they should've just shrink wrapped it. Hell, all manga new from Japan are always shrink wrapped no matter what the material inside! It keeps it nice, anyway. Sometimes people abuse the English manga on shelves in stores... |
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Godaistudios
Posts: 2075 Location: Albuquerque, NM (the land of entrapment) |
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Meier
 Posts: 34 |
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I cant stand it when companies say they do things like this to fit the criteria of US audiences. This member of the US audience does NOT agree and can't imagine how anyone that would be intending on buying this title would find it better suited for them with edits. It's BS and I refuse to support it which is a shame since I"s was one of the first manga series I read years ago and I had full intent on purchasing this.
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Advent_Nebula
Posts: 932 Location: Colorado |
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