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Editing & Censorship in Anime

Even when you lock away a gun, having a key stolen by your kid is still a possibility. Having that possibility doesn't mean you shouldn't get a lock put in. It's the same with anime. Just because kids can look up explicit materials on the internet doesn't mean we shouldn't put safeguards in place.

Even the argument has shifted. It is not about puritanism anymore, but political correctness. But it boils down to the same thing, one group of people telling another group of people what they can watch or not watch. It is all about control.

Naftali Poritz wrote:

I think the reason for all this censorship is that America and English speaking countries are puritanical, and think fanservice and nudity is shameful.

At one time I would have said the same to some degree. But things changed from the turn of the century. The religious right were such things came from, are no longer the powerhouses that they used to be.

Idk man, Jojo's pretty intense.

That's not true with many people in red states in the US are still very religious and do have control a lot of things.

Spawn29 wrote:

That's not true with many people in red states in the US are still very religious and do have control a lot of things.

Yes, there is alot of variables, but overall religion as a whole has taken a hit in popularity, it doesn't have the national bite, that it used to have.

Manga fans that like more mature manga (and manga that hasn't westernized) have more to fear from the progressives, than from the religious.

Really, you only need to read ANN to have that point proven. I haven't seen any reviews and comments hammering manga for religious reasons, there could be some out there, but I don't remember seeing any. But I have seen many attacking manga and anime for politcial correctness on a consistent basis.

Spawn29 wrote:

That's not true with many people in red states in the US are still very religious and do have control a lot of things.

Yes, there is alot of variables, but overall religion as a whole has taken a hit in popularity, it doesn't have the national bite, that it used to have.

Manga fans that like more mature manga (and manga that hasn't westernized) have more to fear from the progressives, than from the religious.

Really, you only need to read ANN to have that point proven. I haven't seen any reviews and comments hammering manga for religious reasons, there could be some out there, but I don't remember seeing any. But I have seen many attacking manga and anime for politcial correctness on a consistent basis.

I can see why you would say that.

But I still think that the secret censoring and editing for content, and the delisting of digital manga is the influence of the progressives and politcal correctness, and not the "horror of it all" from the religious side of things.

No, I don't have any evidence that you could use in a court of law. So it is just my opinion, based on what I have seen and read.

Yeah, you get these occasional politcians trying to make some points for their elections, and the occasional PTA or other groups. But they are usually here today, gone tomorrow.

On the otherhand, we have the constant bombardment of criticism of anime and manga for reasons of culture and political correctness. I think it is perfectly fair to say that publishing companies are much more concerned over being 'canceled' or receiving the ire of social media, than the fire and brimstone from a random PTA group or some church. But I guess that is just me.

I'll let you know who the actual enemy is: corporations. Seriously! Corporations who control large segments of the market have contributed heavily to the sanitization of the internet. Apple doesn't anything with heavy sexual content to be sold in its app store. Credit card companies will refuse to do business with anything involving sex work. Disney cancelled Nimona when it bought Blue Sky Studios because of same-sex romance, and more and more queer creators have been speaking out about how they've been treated. I don't know exactly why Amazon decided to pull a bunch of light novels, but I can almost guarantee it had more to do with corporate interests than public pressure.

We live in an oligarchy, were a few corporations have disproportionate control over what the public can access, and if you actually pay attention to who's getting silenced the most instead of hysterics about the "woke mob" or whatever, you'll see that it has nothing to do with progressivism whatsoever.

all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:

I'll let you know who the actual enemy is: corporations. Seriously! Corporations who control large segments of the market have contributed heavily to the sanitization of the internet. Apple doesn't anything with heavy sexual content to be sold in its app store. Credit card companies will refuse to do business with anything involving sex work. Disney cancelled Nimona when it bought Blue Sky Studios because of same-sex romance, and more and more queer creators have been speaking out about how they've been treated. I don't know exactly why Amazon decided to pull a bunch of light novels, but I can almost guarantee it had more to do with corporate interests than public pressure. We live in an oligarchy, were a few corporations have disproportionate control over what the public can access, and if you actually pay attention to who's getting silenced the most instead of hysterics about the "woke mob" or whatever, you'll see that it has nothing to do with progressivism whatsoever.

I'll agree that corporations don't ultimately care about these topics or issues and are only looking to capitalize on trends for money, but to say that progressivism is not the dominate soft power in American society is false. You would be hard pressed to find any tentpole franchise out of America these days that does not aggressively market towards that base: movies, television, comic books, video games, or streaming content. They all present themselves and their current media as focusing on LGBT, racial, and gender issues. To find anything that doesn't include this stuff, let alone goes against it, is virtually impossible in the modern American landscape. People can certainly complain about Rainbow Capitalism and how ungenuine it is, but that side is ultimately still the ones at the top even if its not being done out of pure genuine belief. I'm sure other groups out there would be thrilled to have corporations make hollow gestures for them after having been starved of content so long. For a creator to complain about one movie being shelved after an acquisition seems more like resentfulness than anything about the content itself given there's plenty of similar content being made by the same company. Ultimately, it's not the CEOs at the top of these companies actually making these works, it's the writers and directors creating them. Whatever Bob Chapek's actions and beliefs are aren't preventing Star Wars and Marvel brands from making half their characters LGBT.

Ultimately, it's not the CEOs at the top of these companies actually making these works, it's the writers and directors creating them. Whatever Bob Chapek's actions and beliefs are aren't preventing Star Wars and Marvel brands from making half their characters LGBT.

Yeah, you get these occasional politcians trying to make some points for their elections, and the occasional PTA or other groups. But they are usually here today, gone tomorrow.

On the otherhand, we have the constant bombardment of criticism of anime and manga for reasons of culture and political correctness. I think it is perfectly fair to say that publishing companies are much more concerned over being 'canceled' or receiving the ire of social media, than the fire and brimstone from a random PTA group or some church. But I guess that is just me.

TarsTarkas wrote:

Yeah, you get these occasional politcians trying to make some points for their elections, and the occasional PTA or other groups. But they are usually here today, gone tomorrow. On the otherhand, we have the constant bombardment of criticism of anime and manga for reasons of culture and political correctness. I think it is perfectly fair to say that publishing companies are much more concerned over being 'canceled' or receiving the ire of social media, than the fire and brimstone from a random PTA group or some church. But I guess that is just me.

Case in point: the recent controversy with Marvel's Conan the Barbarian where progressives complained about the depiction of one of the female characters which ended up with massive censorship in reprints and updates to the digital editions of the book. Conservatives hold no power when it comes to American media. In fact, most American media openly makes fun of conservatives.

For Japanese media it's very easy to look up who is behind most cases of censorship. Most of the translators who work on these projects are very transparent about it. They have public social media accounts where they usually detail their process of localization and changing things do not agree with during the translation process