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Hey, Answerman! - Hey, Censorman!


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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14761
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
Apparently, the reason episode 6 of Gurren Lagann was ultimately rejected by TV Tokyo was because peeking into the women's side at a bathhouse is illegal and they couldn't show that, specifically, on Sunday mornings.


Ranma 1/2 had a lot of that too. A lot. Laughing
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Anymouse



Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 685
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:32 pm Reply with quote
A big problem is the continuous mixture of different viewpoints on sexuality. After 150 years a tendency towards hypocrisy will almost become the norm. And that is why all our present day standards are hard to understand: because there isn't actually a standard.
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:08 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
For evidence of a word that could not be said on Japanese television, please see Ebichu.)


Ebichu forever! It made me smile to see it referenced in today's column.
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mad_yeti
Subscriber



Joined: 28 Mar 2008
Posts: 17
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:16 pm Reply with quote
A note on buying online vs. local:

While I wholeheartedly support not supporting bad businesses with douchey owners, if you're lucky enough to have a good local shop to buy things from, it's worth supporting them for what you can. For one thing, giving them your money instead of somebody on the other side of the continent keeps that money in your community, which over time generally makes it a nicer place to live. Better stocked stores, more cool businesses, more jobs, etc etc.

If you're the type of person who likes to talk to a human (who am I kidding, this is an internet forum) and get some advice on what's what, local businesses are great for that too. This mostly doesn't apply to anime since everyone reading this gets this at ANN. But for other stuff? Computer supplies? Art supplies? Games? Hells yea.
I work at an art supply store and am among the lucky few that get to do it for a really awesome small business, and I am all about dishing out personalized advice to customers, regardless of whether it's going to make any money for my company. Sometimes people can save money by buying online, and I don't begrudge anyone that chooses that, but you can't always get good customer service that way (yes, there are exceptions). You're paying a little extra to support that help, and you might have paid almost that much on shipping anyway.

Also note that the big online stores (and big box brick and mortar ones) are all about saving you money, but they do that by streamlining the process and laying off their inbetweeners in America (or whatever wealthy country you're in) to help get you that New Shiny Thing made on the cheap in Vietnam.

Now I feel like I'm lecturing, so please don't take this as a guilt trip. Not everybody has awesome local stores. Most people just have Walmarts, which I am only able to not give a flying eff about because I live in a big city downtown area with lots of options. Even I don't have a local anime/manga shop, so I buy a lot of that online too.

tl;dr? Just keep your local shops in mind. They are often worth it.
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Imperial_Commander



Joined: 18 Jan 2009
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 10:54 pm Reply with quote
I don't know if Brian remembers me from the off-and-on posts I've been making here or the questions I've asked him, but since I've started coming here I'm actually pretty close to finally getting my own stuff published, so I feel I can add some useful stuff:

First of all, the niece should know that being an anime artist and creator are too different things, and she should learn the distinction between merely illustrating and actually creating original content and decide which she wants to do. And if she wants to be a creator there are much better opportunities staying here, even if she wants to create an "anime"-like work.

If she also wants to be a creator, regardless of whether or not she wants to draw or write, she needs to study English extensively, especially sooner than later. I think it would be worthwhile to have her take a PSAT test or other subject skills test (especially since many are offered for free - contact one of her teachers or a school representative for more information) so she can learn what she needs to study up on regarding her skills in English and decide if it's something she still wants to do - and it would also reveal other academic strengths and weaknesses she has too. When she enters high school she should also talk to a career counselor early on as well.

In addition to taking community courses in art and writing, she should look into opportunities to host classes or volunteer at an elementary school so she can learn about other aspects of the creative process by actually teaching them. I do this myself and I've found it to be helpful to refine my own processes.

But most of all she should get whatever help she can get and build connects as soon as she can - immediately. She should talk to her English teachers now about any questions she can think to ask; she should participate in the school newspaper, and if they don't have one already, she should ask for an opportunity to do a creative writing or art feature. And once she's in college, most Creative Writing professors are published themselves and have industry contacts, so she needs to remember to take advantage of those contacts as well. As I'm learning networking is a huge part of the industry.

Hope that helps.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6253
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:24 pm Reply with quote
configspace wrote:

For example Sekirei S1 episode 9 aired completely uncensored and Sekirei S2 episode 1 - early premiere version was partially uncensored. There are also discrepancies like how Majikoi is less censored on TV Kanagawa than Tokyo MX.


Sekirei 2nd season kinda dissapoint me a little because of the censor, I wish Funi could've stream the AT-X version. I know the DVD release will be uncensored, but still I wish they could've stream the second season uncensored (use the AT-X broadcast version) like the first season did.

Anymouse wrote:
A big problem is the continuous mixture of different viewpoints on sexuality. After 150 years a tendency towards hypocrisy will almost become the norm. And that is why all our present day standards are hard to understand: because there isn't actually a standard.


I will agree with you on that statement. Problem to many of us (anime fans and people that like Japan a lot) is that Japan's censorship will always baffle all of us. I never how Japan censor operate, and how their standard work. I always read up on Japan's censorship and try to understand and to make sense why they have to do it. A lot of time I don't understand why Japan censor a game because of this content, but yet movie with this same content don't get censor at all. There are time I can understand why Japan have to censor content because it might be sensitive and it can offend Japanese viewers. For example Bob the builder has his finger edited for Japanese release apparently due to Yakuza reference as stated by the BBC article. I was also told that four fingers is not only a Yakuza thing but also the number 4 is considered unlucky in Japan. I know Fat Princess was also modified for Japanese release for that same reason.
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Magna_Lilly



Joined: 05 Oct 2011
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:03 am Reply with quote
As someone lucky enough to have a brick-and-mortar anime store not too far from where I live, I honestly like it a lot. For one, it has awesome employees I often spend chatting with for an hour before actually buying anything. I don't actually buy anime or manga there (cause it is ALWAYS cheaper on TheRightStuf.com) but they've got a great merchandise selection that really isn't more expensive than online stores (after adding shipping on stuff like imports, online is WAY more expensive). Pretty much I was sold on them when I saw their selection of game and anime artbooks and Big Windup! merchandise (I mean where the heck am I gonna find THAT anywhere else??)
I guess I'm just lucky to have a good anime store nearby.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:52 am Reply with quote
I just love the atmosphere of brick-and-mortar stores, whether it's locally owned or a chain. I don't like being cooped up at home and at work all the time. Shipping tends to be ridiculous for me too (especially since I mostly buy small amounts at a time), and the unreliability of the postal workers and the high crime rate around here means I have no guarantees the package will show up at all.

For instance, I had ordered a One Piece DVD set from RightStuf--twice, it vanished at one of the distribution centers. It took almost 5 months and a bunch of exchanges with the RightStuf people for me to finally get it. (Bless their hearts.) I had chosen to buy it online to see if the couriers had improved any from the last time I attempted to get something online (the package showed up 2 months after I ordered it). This incident has proven to me that I should never trust the couriers around here.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1817
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 5:38 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
I just love the atmosphere of brick-and-mortar stores, whether it's locally owned or a chain. I don't like being cooped up at home and at work all the time. Shipping tends to be ridiculous for me too (especially since I mostly buy small amounts at a time), and the unreliability of the postal workers and the high crime rate around here means I have no guarantees the package will show up at all.


For books (including manga and comics) it's much cheaper for me to buy local than ordering online from the U.S. That and I don't have to deal with customs (just filling out the forms takes them at least 10 minutes).

DVDs I can usually get with massive discounts online and the shipping cost tends to be low, so I can deal with the customs song and dance there. Just got One Piece Collections 2 this week, for instance, though it was actually postmarked October 11 by my local P.O. Not quite sure what sort of limbo the parcel notice ended up in for two weeks; they're usually much more organized with delivery.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9840
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:39 pm Reply with quote
In this area the only places that still carry anime are the chains (Best Buy and FYE) neither of which carries much.

The local comic shop will order any manga that appears in Previews and gives me a discount for bulk purchases.

No one carries any anime related merchandise.

Basically for anime and figures it is online or nothing.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, interesting. We got Fry's Electronics here, a west-coast chain that has a HUGE anime selection (each one I've visited has an anime aisle about 40 feet long). For manga, Borders had nearly everything new, but with it gone, there's still Barnes and Nobles.

I sometimes feel envious of those who get parental support for going into the entertainment business. My parents were strictly opposed to it due to the dicey and informal nature of its hiring processes. When they saw that my desire to get in never wavered, they'd try even harder to stop me. Currently, I have managed to actually get into the film business. I work at a small studio making low budget films; we're in post-production right now. But I certainly do believe that if I had parental support, it would've been much easier because then I wouldn't have to do everything behind their backs.
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7580
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 7:44 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Also, in the past, the UK tolerated guns in action films, but banned nunchukus (which made previous Bruce Lee flicks distributed in the UK practically unwatchable). In the US show Firefly, it was ok to use profanity, as long as it was in Mandarin.

"Imitatable" is the word here. Nunchaku are a lot easier to come by or make yourself and are dangerous if you don't know what you are doing (to yourself that is). It is the same reason that the scene of a child hanging herself was cut from Paranoia Agent over here.

Late night TV anime seems to be getting more and more ranchy these days, while at the same time censorship is getting heavier. A few years back the only censorship in TV anime was by the creators, to help sell DVDs. Now, on top of that, you have various stations adding their own variants of black bars, sun beams and crops on top of that. In a similar vein, screenshots from H-games in Megami magazine now have little hearts or "keep out" tape or whatever photoshopped over the naughty bits - which are mosaiced to begin with. I remember one of my earliest copies of the magazine had unadultered screenshots from 100% loli game Fifth Aile.
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AzureGrimmjow



Joined: 16 May 2011
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:27 pm Reply with quote
Woah! Back-up.

No more printed Shonen Jump?!

That ticks me right off. First they skip an issue & don't send it to me when I fill out their form, I find out that the renewal is for 10 issues instead of 12, They censor their preview for Toriko, now this.

I can't think straight right now.

I do remember the good times though.
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Adamanto



Joined: 07 Aug 2011
Posts: 146
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Sorry, but this "dream" of the niece's is... pretty far-fatched. She loves a foreign country's comic and cartoon production so much she wants to move to that country and produce comics or cartoons there. I think it's pretty safe to say that if that's your ultimate goal, it's not going to happen.

Want to work as a creative member (I assume that's what you mean) of the comics or cartoon industry? Go ahead, that's a fine goal you can realistically arrive at if you put in the effort.
Want to work as a creative member the comics or cartoon industry in a country you've likely never been to, which language you probably don't know in the slightest, and which culture you probably have no first-hand knowledge of, presumably because you see these productions as "exotic and different"? ...yeah, not happening.

If you manage to build a name within the creative industry to such an extent you get world famous and people over there might be interested in working with you, there's of course a possibility you can get involved with their industry, but if you set "I want to move to this one particular foreign country and write comics in a language I don't know for a culture I know little about"... just give up. It's ridiculous. It won't happen.

---
As for Joyce... do you realize how ridiculously elitist you sound? You're really interested in this foreign TV show, but you don't speak the language and thus can't watch it if you were to get a hold of episodes... that's fine. So a local company spends license money to pick up to show and make it accessible for you by translating it into your language... but that's not good enough, since their translation is in the form of subtitles, and you don't like to read while watching TV.

Do you realize how this is an extremely niche show, and how much a dub costs to produce? Their licensing and translation allows you to watch something you wanted to watch, but couldn't, shouldn't that be commendable? If they had produced a dub using some talentless nobodies who couldn't act in order to cut costs, would you not complain that the dub is "not good enough"? If they were to hire expensive professionals and price the show at 200$ per episode, would you not complain that the dub is "too expensive"?

At one point you have to stop up and realize that when you have an interest in an extremely niche product, you can't be setting unreasonable demands for them. Be happy they're allowing you to watch what you wanted to watch, instead of this elitist complaining that they're not letting you have this previously unavailable product the exact way you would've preferred.

If you absolutely need people to speak English in your TV shows, accept that you're limiting your TV to things that are originally in English or that dub companies found it lucrative to produce English voiceovers for, rather than complaining about how people aren't destroying their own companies by producing expensive dubs for shows not enough people will buy in English.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14761
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:37 pm Reply with quote
Adamanto wrote:
Sorry, but this "dream" of the niece's is... pretty far-fatched. She loves a foreign country's comic and cartoon production so much she wants to move to that country and produce comics or cartoons there. I think it's pretty safe to say that if that's your ultimate goal, it's not going to happen.

Want to work as a creative member (I assume that's what you mean) of the comics or cartoon industry? Go ahead, that's a fine goal you can realistically arrive at if you put in the effort.
Want to work as a creative member the comics or cartoon industry in a country you've likely never been to, which language you probably don't know in the slightest, and which culture you probably have no first-hand knowledge of, presumably because you see these productions as "exotic and different"? ...yeah, not happening.


Already happened, just rare, as per the first post on this very thread:
enurtsol wrote:
Off the top of my head, I've only known two N. Americans to succeed in Japan's anime industry, and they took two totally different paths. One is Jan Scott-Frazier (A. go to Japan early and work your way up), and the other is Justin Leach (B. succeed in America first and use that resume to work in Japan) . The niece could decide which path suits her. The same with manga: there's the Jamie Lano path (A), and the Felipe Smith or the Chinese guy "L-Dart" path (B).
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