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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - The Greatest Censorship Fails

I may just be reading it wrong, but are you saying Viz removed the manji from Neji's forehead in their release of the manga or are you saying that Shueisha later went and retroactively removed the manji from the manga in Japan (or is that just referring to One Piece)? If it's the former, you're either wrong or Viz did this recently; my copies of the Viz Naruto graphic novels have the forehead manji in them.

This has kicked loose a memory of the funniest anime censorship moment I've ever seen. I watched the first half of R.O.D the TV on TechTV before getting the whole thing on DVD. There's a scene in episode 12 (IIRC) where a woman exploring a cave system finds that there is a small underground lake surrounding the artifact she's after, so she casually flings off her blouse and jumps into the water to swim to the center, to the obvious discomfort of her male bodyguard.

GVman wrote:

I may just be reading it wrong, but are you saying Viz removed the manji from Neji's forehead in their release of the manga or are you saying that Shueisha later went and retroactively removed the manji from the manga in Japan (or is that just referring to One Piece)? If it's the former, you're either wrong or Viz did this recently; my copies of the Viz Naruto graphic novels have the forehead manji in them.

I think VIZ removed it in the magazine Shonen Jump version, then added it to the manga with a note about what it meant. Memory is a bit fuzzy.

Ah. I guess Viz censored stuff more in the magazine than in the graphic novels?

GVman wrote:

Ah. I guess Viz censored stuff more in the magazine than in the graphic novels?

Yup, there was a pretty good amount of stuff censored in the magazine version that you could get uncut (or at least closer to it) in the actual graphic novels. I guess they figured that the magazine would be one thing, that any kid could get their parents to buy them a subscription to, but actually getting the graphic novels was something the young kids probably weren't gonna do. Or something.

Huh. I wonder if a lot of the stuff mentioned in the article didn't make it into the graphic novels?

GVman wrote:

Ah. I guess Viz censored stuff more in the magazine than in the graphic novels?

Yup, there was a pretty good amount of stuff censored in the magazine version that you could get uncut (or at least closer to it) in the actual graphic novels. I guess they figured that the magazine would be one thing, that any kid could get their parents to buy them a subscription to, but actually getting the graphic novels was something the young kids probably weren't gonna do. Or something.

Ah. I guess Viz censored stuff more in the magazine than in the graphic novels?

In fact, it seems less of a problem with original western content--see Alan Moore, despite getting into "trouble" at schools and libraries as highlighted by CBLDF from time to time. They are a much more resilient to criticism than Viz or Japanese controlled companies who paranoid about reputation, saving face and wrong ideas about sales.

I may just be reading it wrong, but are you saying Viz removed the manji from Neji's forehead in their release of the manga or are you saying that Shueisha later went and retroactively removed the manji from the manga in Japan (or is that just referring to One Piece)? If it's the former, you're either wrong or Viz did this recently; my copies of the Viz Naruto graphic novels have the forehead manji in them.

configspace wrote:

In fact, it seems less of a problem with original western content--see Alan Moore, despite getting into "trouble" at schools and libraries as highlighted by CBLDF from time to time. They are a much more resilient to criticism than Viz or Japanese controlled companies who paranoid about reputation, saving face and wrong ideas about sales.

Frankly, I agree. Actually, I think these kinds of fears are usually on the Japanese licensor side, as much as (or more than) American publisher side.

Of course it varies from artist to artist, but the fact that the author of Saint Young Men doesn't want her work to be published in English, because she's worried about offending Christians, is just ridiculous. All she would have to do is watch a single episode of South Park or Family Guy and she'd realize that Americans are much more savage towards Christianity than her manga ever is. Of course it's her own decision, but c'mon.

GVman wrote:

Huh. I wonder if a lot of the stuff mentioned in the article didn't make it into the graphic novels?

Maybe the only way to know if it's uncensored for sure is if they explicitly say so, in their press release or marketing, like with Tenjo Tenge

For other publishers, like Dark Horse (e.g. Blade of the Immortal), Seven Seas (e.g. Vampire Bund), Yen Press, or the DMP imprints, I am not aware of it happening. Interestingly, Dark Horse and Seven Seas don't sully the front covers with warning labels either.