Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - The Greatest Censorship Fails
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Religious groups haven't targeted anime and manga for censorship largely because they aren't on the radar of the major movers and shakers. (I dread to think how up in arms a conservative Christian group might get if they actually knew about something like Chrono Crusade, for instance.) Religion in the US absolutely does attempt to force changes on laws, though; this is firmly and indisputably established both by history and recent legislation. For instance, the push to teach creationism in schools - or, in its most recent iteration, to "give students the right to challenge their teachers to prove anything said in science classes" (e.g., evolution) - is absolutely a religiously-motivated, and not society-motivated, issue. There's an article in the morning edition of my local newspaper about a state senator here in Indiana who's proposing a bill that would allow schools to require students to recite the Lord's Prayer every day unless they specifically opt out. (And no, the bill isn't expected to make it out of committee even in this overwhelmingly Republican-dominated state because of concerns about its constitutionality, but that's beside the point.) The whole push for laws to allow the "moment of silence" thing that was a big deal in schools about a decade ago is merely a smoke-screen for allowing prayer in schools - definitely a religious rather than social issue. I'm sure that I can track down mounds and mounds of other evidence here if that's not enough to convince you. Last edited by Key on Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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You would with Viz's previous partnership and now ownership by Shueisha, things would change, but it still does not. I suppose the only way to trust that a title will remain uncensored is if it's explicitly labeled "Mature" and not part of their electronically published titles on mobile OSes (so that rules out SJA)... but even then I still don't trust them to maintain artistic fidelity on every little thing.
Admittedly I don't read much manga as I'm only ramping up now (still mostly anime), but it's ironic that I find the few other non-Japanese companies to be more trustworthy and simply less paranoid. None of this zomg-18+, treat-nudity-as-porn, overly-sensitive politically-correct nonsense. This is in contrast to the prevalent, carefree sentiment in anime.... except with Viz (again). I still can't believe Nana DVDs have big bold "18+ adults only" labels on the front of the package.... compared to Queen's Blades 1,2 "appropriate for ages 16+" in the back, lol |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1708 |
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Mania.com/Anime on DVD's forums do (or did, at least) try—see the Manga Editing Discussions forum, and in particular the "Edited Manga List" thread. As for Shadow Star, here are the discussions in Studio Proteus' Web site's letter column, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine: • Fan Feedback November 2000 ("Future of Shadow Star") • Fan Feedback May 2002 ("Shadow Star Question") • Fan Feedback March 2003 ("Shadow Star Censoring"—mostly recapitulates the "Shadow Star Question" above)
Since I was already on the old SP Web site…here's the license announcement for Shadow Lady: Manga Newswatch February 1998 / Industry News and Commentary.
Here's a list of Toshihiro Ono's manga and dōjinshi. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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As a relevant point of interest, I own the recent omnibus release of Fullmetal Alchemist volumes 7-9. The censoring of the crucifixion scene is not present; the cross is there and has not been turned into a slab.
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chloes_fork
 Posts: 58 |
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Very interesting development. I note you're in the UK; is your edition the US release or a separate UK version? (EDIT: Never mind -- Internet investigation shows the same ISBN for US and UK.) I take a hardline zero-tolerance stance with regard to manga censorship as a matter of principle, and will not knowingly buy censored manga no matter how minor the change. It would be nice to be able to strike Fullmetal Alchemist off my "do not purchase" list. Last edited by chloes_fork on Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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AgitoZ
Posts: 51 |
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I guess I should've qualified my statement that when I said "people" I meant people who browse this forum. I thought that in this day in age an uncut release is basically the norm. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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There are also a lot of people who are not even aware of the editing. I think that a significant percentage of the customers just buy and read manga without participating in forums, such as this, or any other activities where they would be likely to hear about the editing. All that they know is what they see printed in the book. And then there are those who do know about the editing but do not care, even if the story does not remain intact. I am one of those. I would generally prefer to have unedited books, but I am not going to refuse to buy something that I would like simply because it is edited. All that I care about is how much I enjoy the book that I get to read. How much that book is edited is not really a factor in my buying decision. |
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marcos torres toledo
Posts: 269 |
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I am diffinately against censorship in all forms I shouldn't be suprise that manga is censored they censor everything for one stupid thing or another in this country and around the world. Our masters think we are dumb idots that don't think and that we will do everything that we read,see, and hear. As for changing scenes in the anime Bible Black Christ Nestor is replaced with Satan and even when the show on after eleven or midnite they still cenor the nudity and words on television. And as have written before the censorship has gotten worse they now pixial or blout out frontal nudity now this nonsense never ends.
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Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I do not have any data to support this but the fact that Kodansha Comics is releasing it again makes me think that it was successful for Tokyopop. Actually, I am sure that I read somewhere that Love Hina was one of Tokyopop's best selling titles, but I do not have a source for that.
I think that there is a thread in the manga forum for romance recommendations. (EDIT: I must have been thinking of the thread for general recommendations.) |
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Ashen Phoenix
 Posts: 2910 |
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Indeed. "I had to give the letterer the interesting instructions, "Remove Jesus from cross.'" was perhaps one of the most absurd, hilariously random things I've read in a good while, and for that, Mr. Thompson, I thank you. The arbitrary nature of censorship in manga has been something that's intrigued me for some time, so I'm very glad this edition of House of 100 Manga was done. Now I'm wondering if, like exhaustive trivia fan sites, a database of some sort can be established that does list/picture any known instances of censorship and, if possible, why. I realize this wish is likely a very long shot, but I can always hope, as they say. I was aware of the cross removal in FMA, as well as a few of the SK ones (Joco/Chocolove's name and lip size are the most obvious that come to mind; until now I wasn't aware of Ponchi's creepy-as-all-hell attack). |
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Paul Soth
 Posts: 140 Location: Columbus, Oh |
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In a different form of editing, the English edition of Black Lagoon replaced the names of various real brands of cigarettes and liquor with fictional ones. It was kind of an odd choice of actions.
I can't really blame publishers for being cautious, considering how fragile the comics industry can be at times. Although one can be too weary at times... |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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Thank goodness somebody else brings this up! It's one of the censorship instances that haunts me periodically online because someone will pop up in a discussion asking about the painting. VIZ went farther than just the painting with it though. There were several dialogue changes and other art edits over a headpiece looking like a crown of thorns and a drawing of Michaelangelo's pieta. The religious obfuscation would all be terribly ironic in a series called Godchild if it didn't sort of kill the climax and affect that story's theme a bit. Being acutely aware of the "culture wars" though I can't beat up VIZ terribly over the concern regarding the painting. It portrays a very blasphemously offensive idea. It's one of my favorite stories for the series though. I very much wish there was a good reference for censorship issues. So many times I've seen inaccurate things make their way around the internet. People have said series weren't censored (Godchild) or pointed out "changes" that actually aren't true if you look at the original. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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Well, they blaspheme Shinto and Buddhism all the time. Y'know what I'd like them to blaspheme though? The Japanese monarchy. Noitamina should make an anime out of it! So many punchlines! 
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tasogarenootome
 Posts: 593 |
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Very interesting read, thanks Jason!
This is one of the downsides of manga being a visual medium. Someone brought up the fact of novels being allowed to depict things far worse and it really does boil down to visibility. Going into a library and flipping open a manga to a page with nudity or violence while never being aware of the content a few shelves down is pretty understandable. When I was tutoring Japanese in public school, it was this that made building our Japanese-language manga library so hard. Even children's manga have so much "objectionable content" and we couldn't take the risk (see the Dragonball manga incident that happened in a library in Maryland a few years back!). Thank goodness for Chi's Sweet Home~! |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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I'm pretty sure there are some Christians who think something as inoffensive as Saint Young Men is blasphemous. But I bet if this would not be a problem if it were not VIZ. See Dark Horse and Blade of the Immortal for example. 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. Thank goodness there are some mangaka like Oda who will put their foot down and demand some fidelity like the article mentions, but that is still rare.
Well, anime is an even more visual medium and a much larger business in the US and does not face the same issue nowadays. But I can see your point about school libraries. Still, American comic authors and publishers other than Viz don't seem anywhere as perturbed by controversy. |
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). 
(which makes it worst but this is Godchild we are talking about  |
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