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NEWS: Viz Edits

Hmm, I'm jumping into this debate rather late, but I've been following along relatively closely and would like to needlessly voice my opinion. Personally, I feel that the ostensible censorship has been a bit exaggerated, but I don't completely approve. This is directed mostly toward Yami no Matsuei, which seems to be getting less attention in this thread, but whose censorship I feel to be worse. Reading the edited scene of I"s in context, I really don't find the stars to be that big of a deal. Certainly, it looks very silly, but since it's just a photo, it wouldn't be as bad as if the nipples in question were being covered during, say, a sex scene. The original scene wasn't sexual in content; it appears to me to be humorous, gratuitous nudity. Not that I'm opposed to gratuitous nudity, but edited it out really is not grave violation of freedom of expression of anything.

On the other hand, Viz edited a scene in YnM because of what it inferred. Considering that homosexual subtext is pretty prevalent in YnM, I think the editing was pretty unnecessary. Granted, it doesn't hurt the story much and is a pretty minor detail, but I don't Viz's reasoning behind the decision. Perhaps I am more bothered by the editing in Yami simply because I'm a fan of the series, whereas I have not read I"s, so any biases should be taken into account. That is all - continue "debating" as you please.

Let me get this straight, you took back ALL YOUR VIZ MANGA VOLUMES TO BORDERS OVER 1 [expletive] LETTER CHANGE? You idiot, you didn't hurt Viz at all, you only hurt Borders. They have to spend time putting all that stuff back, and possibly can't sell some of it anymore. I'm not even sure I believe what you said, because I've never heard of Borders giving you cash for your gift cards, OR taking back a ton of shit, that you probably didn't have reciepts for. You're just being a stubborn, idiotic fucker, trying to hurt Viz, who's hurting his/her local bookstore.

Personally, I don't care whether a Japanese creator is "fine with" a manga edit. I don't want it regardless. I want the translation of the Japanese version (Zoros and all), with no content edits of any kind, regardless of whether they ask permission first or not. Chalk this up to another "US companies can't argue against scanlations" point.

(Zoros and all)

Ohoni wrote:

(Zoros and all)

It's kind of unfair to use that as an example, since they didn't really have as much of a choice in that case. Remember, it WAS originally printed as Zoro (or Zorro, can't remember) in the earlier editions of of Shonen Jump. I believe they made this change after 4Kids did, who probably made the change due to possible copyright issues over the name.

Godaistudios wrote:

I seriously doubt however that Katsura said, "Hey, let me add stars to this before you release it in America."

I didn't see it that way at all. I saw it more as Viz saying, "We'd like to cover this to be safe." and Katsura said "That's fine." =/ Not that Katsura was like "oh hey, I'll edit this for you!" O_o;

That's kind of silly though. One is in a completely different language -_-; although I'm not sure if Zoro has a specific meaning in Japanese or not... ::shrugs:: But were copyright issues ever raised against One Piece? I've never heard about it, if there were..

Kal wrote:

That's kind of silly though. One is in a completely different language -_-; although I'm not sure if Zoro has a specific meaning in Japanese or not... ::shrugs:: But were copyright issues ever raised against One Piece? I've never heard about it, if there were..

You have heard of "Zorro", right? The guy with the sword in the books and the comics and the magazines and the live action TV show and the movies and the cartoon? I guess you can see where the trouble might start from here. Are they being too cautious? Possibly, but if the lawsuit hammer ever came down, they could be deader than dead. This was more of a 4Kid's concern, though - they were airing it on a widely available network. Viz, a comic book publisher for a niche market, obviously didn't really care at first.

It's very comforting to see you people so concerned about this. For me it's not about watching nipples or geting sexual inuendo, it's just reading the title as it was created by the mangaka. This is where licensing fails, it doesn't make me happy at all to hear a title has been licensed if all i'm going to get (after paying MY money for it) is a butchered version.

Remember, it WAS originally printed as Zoro (or Zorro, can't remember) in the earlier editions of of Shonen Jump. I believe they made this change after 4Kids did, who probably made the change due to possible copyright issues over the name.

You have heard of "Zorro", right? The guy with the sword in the books and the comics and the magazines and the live action TV show and the movies and the cartoon?

this was done by the north american market at Viz's request. I belive it's been mentioned that his work is published in Europe with the nipples.

I adhere to the sentiment, "If you have to censor it, don't license it." It's not doing the fans any favors.

Of course I've heard of Zorro, but I still feel like it's too much of a precaution, considering Zorro isn't exactly considered part of the today's modern culture (or at least... I don't it is..). Would companies really sue on the spot without giving any warning?

There's absolutely no reason why Shonen Jump would have to follow the 4kids show's lead. After all, Shonen Jump's Yugioh character have COMPLETELY different names from their tv counterparts (for example Honda is named Tristan in the 4Kids version), same with Shaman King. Why did they feel the need to spread eagle in the case of One Piece?

I don't actually think anyone owns the rights to Zorro. He's been around long enough that I think he's public domain. Either way, the character on the show has almost nothing in common with the Mexican bandito of justice, so it's doubtful that trademarks would come into play, any more than the owners of the character James Kirk being sued by the owners of James Bond.

Quote:

Of course I've heard of Zorro, but I still feel like it's too much of a precaution, considering Zorro isn't exactly considered part of the today's modern culture (or at least... I don't it is..). Would companies really sue on the spot without giving any warning?

Perhaps it is, but there's still that possibility, a big enough possibility for them to change it. It's easy for us to sit around and say "Pfft, they can get away with it!", but it IS risky for them.

Ohoni wrote:

There's absolutely no reason why Shonen Jump would have to follow the 4kids show's lead. After all, Shonen Jump's Yugioh character have COMPLETELY different names from their tv counterparts (for example Honda is named Tristan in the 4Kids version), same with Shaman King. Why did they feel the need to spread eagle in the case of One Piece?

Possibly the same fear of the copyright issue came up or maybe even some other outside force. I couldn't tell you for sure.

Quote:

I don't actually think anyone owns the rights to Zorro. He's been around long enough that I think he's public domain. Either way, the character on the show has almost nothing in common with the Mexican bandito of justice, so it's doubtful that trademarks would come into play, any more than the owners of the character James Kirk being sued by the owners of James Bond.

Last I checked, Disney still owns the rights. Remember, the last movie was in 1998, which really isn't all that long ago.