Forum - View topicREVIEW: Skip Beat! GN 27
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JarethaUlrich
 Posts: 17 |
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Could you please put a slight spoiler warning on this page?
This book can't even be purchased until April 3 on Amazon. Trust me, I've been stalking it. How on earth did you find a copy so quickly? |
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Buster Blader 126
 Posts: 1206 Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada |
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Can't wait to read this one, even though the supposed lack of progress sounds discomforting.
Viz - as well as many other publishers of books and discs - tend to have the product constructed well in advance of its release date. They'll send out copies to established parties for them to review in advance of the due date. Whether it gets reviewed prior to its release date then depends on a number of factors. |
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chloes_fork
 Posts: 58 |
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This series just made a belated appearance on my radar, and since Viz has recently started releasing omnibus collections, it seemed an ideal time to check it out. That is, until I checked Jason Thompson's Manga: The Complete Guide and found that Viz had censored one or more volumes of the series. Since I don't knowingly buy censored anything ever, that means I'm out a fun-sounding shoujo, and Viz is out my money for 27+ volumes. Nice going, you censorship-happy bozos.
 
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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I've been wanting to check out the Skip Beat! manga ever since I watched the anime, with it's non-conclusion, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Nice to hear that it's still going strong though.
Any idea what they censored? I'm curious. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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I may have stumbled upon a piece of funny censorship. I just watched the anime and am making my way through the manga. Nothing I want to buy (IMHO it's got one tremendous character with a fantastic personality and back story, Kyoko, and the rest isn't really that great-so far) so I'm checking it out of the library- but a couple volumes were checked out and I downloaded some scanalations to fill in the gaps. One of the scanalations features the story where Ren picks up the dropped blue stone and afterwards ends up taunting Kyoko so much her only response is to make a rude gesture and run away. I forget what she did in the anime (stick her tongue out?) but in the manga she grabs her bicep, swings up her arm and flips him the bird. The next volume was a Viz edition from the library and it has a flashback.... in which the offending finger is conspicuously missing.
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Sailor S
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Well, in that instance I do believe that whether the finger is flipped or not, the meaning is largely the same in Japan. At any rate, I have no doubt that Viz censored something. They gotta keep their kid friendly rep up.
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chloes_fork
Posts: 58 |
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Yeah, Thompson referenced something about "middle finger censorship," just like the post below yours noted. So, so stupid. |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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It's actually the same here too... so pointless censorship is pointless. what else is new?
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merr
Posts: 466 |
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No, it's not. The middle finger has harsher connotations in America than it does in Japan. I don't necessarily agree with changing the artwork, but, arguably, what Viz did wasn't censorship so much as it was localization. They altered a gesture because it's meaning is different for English speaking audiences and could be misconstrued. In the context of the scene, her giving the finger might make sense, but it arguably conveys something different to English audiences than it does to Japanese ones. |
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chloes_fork
Posts: 58 |
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Wow, you should work for Viz's PR department -- assuming they had such a thing. Elegantly argued, but I'm not buying it. I have zero doubt Viz's intent was to censor, not to finesse cultural nuances. And even if that were their purpose, such things are properly handled by an explanatory note, not by altering the artwork.
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Great review. I'm going to finish the manga of Skip Beat later this year
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merr
Posts: 466 |
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Agreed. Viz seems to loathe cultural notes thought, at least for stuff in the Shojo Beat imprint. I just see the alteration as something more like redoing sound effects than an attempt to change the author's intended message. Censorship should be discouraged, no question, but what Viz did with that one panel in Skip Beat really isn't worth getting worked up over. It's hardly the same thing they did to the Pokemon manga back in the 90s. That said, it was still a bad idea from a PR perspective, if only because the risk of some biblethumping family group starting a crusade over one middle finger is much lower than the risk of militant fanboys boycotting you for censorship. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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Skip Beat is a really great manga. You are boycotting the entire series over a change to one panel in one volume. It didn't even change the meaning of the panel.
Well, they are your beliefs, but also your loss. You must spend a lot of time being angry. Are you also boycotting the anime? After all they "censored" the same gesture. In the anime she gives a "thumbs down" gesture which is even milder than what Viz used. |
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shukero
 Posts: 493 Location: Michigan |
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This is one of my favorite series, and I started off wondering what it was about since the title was so weird. so glad I picked it up! Too bad that the anime never got a second season / DVD release date.
I would snatch that up in a minute! |
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chloes_fork
Posts: 58 |
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I suspect this may be true. Too bad I'll never know for sure.
Correct. If it's important enough for Viz to alter, it's important enough for me to find unacceptable.
An all too common rationalization/excuse for censorship, but immaterial.
Agreed -- though as noted, it's also Viz's, since they lost out on my $$ for the whole series as a result of this asinine and utterly unnecessary bit of busybody editing.
Not as much as you'd think. It's certainly true that censorship makes me angry, however. I'd suggest it should do the same for you.
Hardly the same thing as altering the existing manga. But I'm sure you understand that. |
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