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Hey, Answerman! - Que Sera CERO

Wow...really? 45 posts in and no one has brought up the fruit issue?

Japan is the only country I've traveled to where there exists "perfect fruit". Unlike in the US, where most of your fruit, while delicious and many times organic, has various bruises, bumps or is mishapen, in Japan, you can buy fruit that is free from all these imperfections. For example, if you head into a store called Mitsukoshi (located in the Ginza area of Tokyo), there's a whole section on the bottom floor dedicated to it. There are perfectly shaped and bruise free apples on sale for 1500 yen each. Each apple comes in its own cute wooden box. Of the fruit on sale there, the apples are, by far, the cheapest. If you want a perfect melon or a perfect small box of strawberries, then, you'll be paying a good 10,000 yen or more for them. There are several farms that are dedicated to the production of perfect fruit, and many of them will grow less fruit in order to maximize the condition of the ones they choose to grow. And in case you were wondering why fruit in America isn't always so pleasant to look at, it's because much of the really pretty stuff is being exported to Japan.

(This is not to say that all fruit costs this much in Japan. You can find blemished/mishapen fruit in grocery stores for similar prices that you'd find them in the US.)

To me, it makes sense why students would given other hospitalized students an apple - Being on a budget, it's the cheapest 'perfect' fruit available. It's roughly the equivalent of calling up FTD and asking them to deliver flowers, and you'll probably spend just as much, if not more, on perfect fruit.

(This is not to say that all fruit costs this much in Japan. You can find blemished/mishapen fruit in grocery stores for similar prices that you'd find them in the US.)

To me, it makes sense why students would given other hospitalized students an apple - Being on a budget, it's the cheapest 'perfect' fruit available. It's roughly the equivalent of calling up FTD and asking them to deliver flowers, and you'll probably spend just as much, if not more, on perfect fruit.

I don't see why it takes a CERO Z rating and a special for NMH to be uncensored in terms of content, while the US version is completely uncut and has a M rating...which is akin to CERO D.

DomonX2 wrote:

I don't see why it takes a CERO Z rating and a special for NMH to be uncensored in terms of content, while the US version is completely uncut and has a M rating...which is akin to CERO D.

...Because we're different cultures and thus have different cultural values on what is and isn't "okay?" Just because CERO D & ESRB M are both for "ages 17 and up" does not mean they are perfectly equal, just the closest equivalents.

DomonX2 wrote:

I don't see why it takes a CERO Z rating and a special for NMH to be uncensored in terms of content, while the US version is completely uncut and has a M rating...which is akin to CERO D.

...Because we're different cultures and thus have different cultural values on what is and isn't "okay?" Just because CERO D & ESRB M are both for "ages 17 and up" does not mean they are perfectly equal, just the closest equivalents.

You solved my apple problem. You can make yourself a potato medal.

You know, when I asked Japanese about that they usually told me that that stupid apples for sick are just a natural gift. Now I can sleep well, one problem solved.

I still think CERO had something to do with the censorship of the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie on Blu-ray, which came with a game on the disc and was marketed as a game. The scenes that were cut from the movie were a brief decapitation and a gory head stomp. Even if CERO didn't enforce the edits to the movie itself, I have to think they had something to do with it.

@mdo7

WRT anime, it sometimes depends on the station. And most of the time on the producer, as in intentionally to promote DVD/BD sales. Like that article mentioned, the R+V2 ep was censored only on a couple, but not others. I suppose it depends perceived family friendliness of the station and the airing time.

The same thing happened with Gokujo, where a few episodes were cancelled from the initial broadcast run, but all were streamed on DMM, then later all were broadcast uncensored on Tokyo MX.

But these are really just issues with some finicky stations. There's no hard rule or enforced standard like CERO. Even outside of AT-X, for broadcast TV, an episode of Sekirei 1 and 2 each made it through uncensored here and here as a sort of *wink*wink*, sneak peak for the video version. And Lupin III Fujiko was also broadcast completely uncensored, on NTV which is normally a more family/mainstream station (harkening back to the good ol'days)

And the whole point is moot with internet streaming and home video. It is also home video that I think is more most comparable or contrastable to CERO. It is really this organization which unfortunately has some force behind it, that is most idiosyncratic with the rest of Japan.

I do question your logic behind "Heavy Rain could be the best selling video game in Japan if it wasn't removed". I doubt the reason the game bombed in Japan was because some boobs were edited out. Japan is just not into American games outside a few select titles, so I doubt it made that much of a difference. It just doesn't seem like the kind of game Japan would be interested in, especially in lieu of VNs or eroge if they really want sex scenes or something. Though as BonusStage mentioned, given a lot of stigma attached to American games and systems, I do wonder if they aren't judged harsher than their own product. But like I said: CERO is a wildcard. You never know what you'll get when it comes to them.

It's interesting that in other countries, fruit is much pricier than it is in the US. Apparently Costco, a 'buy in bulk' store in the US, ships a lot of produce overseas, especially dried fruit. I went to buy some prunes with my father a couple months ago, only to find that they were all out. The employee I spoke with said that received an order to send the pallet to Taiwan. He mentioned that there receive a lot of business from Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

I was joking around about Heavy Rain would sell better if the nudity and sex was kept intact (although I would be suprised if Japanese gamers said to me "if they didn't censor the sex scene, every gamers in Japan would buy it just to watch sex scene). Also Japan's attitude on western games has somewhat changed a lot recently:

Western games losing stigma in Japan

Also several western games did do well in Japan:

Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 took Japan by storm

LA Noire and Infamous 2 also dominated Japan's sales when they first came out

Even Black Ops 2 took Japan sales by storm when it first came out in Japan.

EireformContinent wrote:

You solved my apple problem. You can make yourself a potato medal. You know, when I asked Japanese about that they usually told me that that stupid apples for sick are just a natural gift. Now I can sleep well, one problem solved.

Glad I could help

I actually bought one of the 1500 yen apples at Mitsukoshi while I was there. Didn't taste any different from the non-1500 yen apples I enjoy at home.

It's interesting that in other countries, fruit is much pricier than it is in the US. Apparently Costco, a 'buy in bulk' store in the US, ships a lot of produce overseas, especially dried fruit. I went to buy some prunes with my father a couple months ago, only to find that they were all out. The employee I spoke with said that received an order to send the pallet to Taiwan. He mentioned that there receive a lot of business from Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But Japan censorship on graphic violence baffle me, censoring graphic violence on video game but not films (since their gory films are more grotesque and more disturbing then any graphic violence found in video game).

mdo7 wrote:

I was joking around about Heavy Rain would sell better if the nudity and sex was kept intact (although I would be suprised if Japanese gamers said to me "if they didn't censor the sex scene, every gamers in Japan would buy it just to watch sex scene). Also Japan's attitude on western games has somewhat changed a lot recently: Western games losing stigma in Japan Also several western games did do well in Japan: Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3 took Japan by storm LA Noire and Infamous 2 also dominated Japan's sales when they first came out Even Black Ops 2 took Japan sales by storm when it first came out in Japan.

Those being the select few I mentioned, though using LA Noire and Infamous 2 is a bit misleading on Kotaku's part. While Blops 2 selling almost 200K and BF3 and Uncharted 3 doing 125K is nice, LA Noir selling 58K is not really that nice... the only reason it got #1 is because nothing else of note came out that week (well, besides Infamous 2) and Infamous 2 selling 30K is even less impressive. Seems to be a typical case of Kotaku twisting the facts for a headline.

mdo7 wrote:

But Japan censorship on graphic violence baffle me, censoring graphic violence on video game but not films (since their gory films are more grotesque and more disturbing then any graphic violence found in video game).

As far as I can tell, Takashi Miike hasn't actually made an R-18 rated film in over ten years. Yakuza Horror Theater Gozu, Three Extremes: Box, Graveyard of Honor, Izo, and Detective Story all have shocking, explicit violence, but not only are none of these films even on the same planet as Ichi the Killer in terms of violent content, but none of them were rated R-18 by the EIRIN. And yes, I'm including the DTV stuff he's made, AND Audition, which squeaked by with an R-15 (if you can believe it).

The only thing he's made in the last decade that probably COULD qualify for a restricted status in Japan is was Masters of Horror: Imprint, an hour long TV movie made specifically for broadcast in North America.


In slightly broader terms, there's a reason that Japan continues to make "extreme" splatter films and not video games: Namely that there's no compulsory ratings given to DTV material, and that's where virtually all of Japan's gonzo entertainment goes. "Extreme" Japanese movies like Grotesque, Tokyo Gore Police, Mutant Girls Squad, Gothic & Lolita Psycho, Zombie Toilet: Ass of the Dead, and Yakuza Weapon wouldn't exist if they had to be rated, and unlike most video games they don't have to sell tens of thousands of copies to break even either!