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The content of Japanese animation (anime) is frequently edited by distributors, both for its release in Japan or during subsequent localizations. This happens for a variety for reasons, including translation, censorship, and remastering.
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The content of Japanese animation (anime) is frequently edited by distributors, both for its release in Japan or during subsequent localizations. This happens for a variety for reasons, including translation, censorship, and remastering.
 | The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the English-speaking world and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(June 2018) |
Under article 175 of the Penal Code of Japan, material containing indecent images are prohibited. However the laws date back to 1907 and were unchanged during the process of updating the Japanese constitution in 1947. Over time and due to changing tastes the acceptable standards have become blurred. [1] The display of pubic hair was prohibited until 1991 leading to series such as Lolita Anime and Cream Lemon using the sexualization of children as a loophole. The use of tentacles in series such as Urotsukidōji enabled the creators to avoid a ban on the display of genitals. In other cases, the content is self censored through the use of blurring and black dots. When the censorship is removed for overseas release, the basic animation underneath is revealed, leading to concerns over the sexualization of children in those markets. [2]
Cowboy Bebop and Gantz are examples of titles that received edited broadcasts and were later released as unedited home releases. [3] [4] Episodes of shows such as Mr. Osomatsu have been edited for repeats and home releases. [5]
Due to the lack of a formal and consistent age rating system in the United States of America, age ratings for anime have created several problems. Blockbuster Video marked all anime titles as unsuitable for kids, leading them to appear as R-18 on their computer system. Publishers began using their own age rating suggestions on their releases, however due to differences between publisher assessments and the use of TV age ratings by some this resulted in an inconsistent system. [6]
When Cartoon Network began to broadcast anime there were no internal standards in place for the use of overseas material. This required them to develop a set of standards and guidelines for the handling of the content. The display of alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, violence (including depictions of death, spoken references to death and dying, scenes of characters being threatened or in life-threatening situations, and depictions of suicide), gambling, blood, offensive language, offensive hand gestures, sexual content (including nudity, intercourse, innuendo, and depictions of homosexual and transsexual characters), and the mistreatment of women and minors were all deemed unacceptable as well as other situations unsuitable to a younger audience. Material for Cartoon Network was edited for TV-Y7, whereas Adult Swim content was edited for TV-14 standards. However some content that aired on Adult Swim was originally scheduled to air on Toonami and was edited accordingly. Autodesk Inferno was used to digitally edit scenes to remove blood or cover up nudity on content edited by Cartoon Network. In some cases content was edited before it was given to Cartoon Network. The editing practices evolved over time due to complaints from parents. [7]
4Kids Entertainment made changes to the anime they licensed to make them "more Western" in order to be more accessible to children. Another reason was so that they could easily merchandise them. However, they also released uncut versions of some of those shows. [8]
In the United Kingdom the Video Recordings Act 1984 and subsequently the Video Recordings Act 2010 make it a legal requirement for all home video media to be certified by the British Board of Film Classification. Sale or hire of unrated media is prohibited however imported media is allowed for personal use providing the content does not breach UK law. [9] The BBFC is responsible for assigning age ratings to video content and if necessary requesting cuts and refusing certification if content fails guidelines. Examples of content deemed unacceptable include graphic violence and scenes of a sexual nature such as underage sex and sexual violence. [10]
A number of releases were substantially cut in order to pass certification including the Urotsukidōji series and Adventure Duo . [11] [12] The Infernal Road entry in the Urotsukidōji series was delayed by the BBFC for three years and included two outright rejections until the final episode was released by itself, with the scripts for the other entries included as DVD extras. [13] [14] La Blue Girl was also refused a classification for its pornographic exploits of underage women. [15] La Blue Girl Returns was passed as 18 after heavy mandatory cuts of 35 minutes across 4 episodes. [16] [17] During the early 90s anime in the UK was subject to a negative press campaign by several newspapers as a reaction to the violence and sexualized content in many of the available titles. [18] Publishers took advantage of this through the selected licensing of risqué anime in order to appeal to their chosen market. [2] In 1995, 25% of anime released in the UK at that point was rated 18 and 36% was rated 15. [19] As of 2006 the average work was passed uncut at a 12 rating. [10] In some cases a heavier BBFC rating was actually desired by the publishers with excessive swearing deliberately inserted in order to gain a higher age rating, a process known as fifteening. [20] An example given by the BBFC was Patlabor receiving a 15 rating due to the language used, whereas it would have otherwise passed as a PG. [19]
In 2020, the streaming of Interspecies Reviewers on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand was delayed due to "adjusting [its] sourcing of materials" after parent company Funimation ceased streaming the series. [21]
Localization is an essential process in releasing anime outside of Japan. It can cover a range of different processes depending on the individual title and the desired result. At its most basic level, the localization process is responsible for deciding on romanized character and term names, as well as episode titles. In other cases it may require special attention to areas such as humor where a judgement call must be made to try and retain the feeling of the source material. At its most intense it may involve editing of the content itself in order to fit a target market.
In some cases, the original Japanese music may be replaced with alternate regional music. This can be either a technical consideration caused by footage getting cut since it is synchronized with the audio on the episode master, or it can be an artistic consideration. [22]
The Pokémon episode "Dennō Senshi Porygon" was removed from all repeats and home releases of the series due to an issue during its original broadcast. It was never released in any form outside of Japan. [23] For the North American Blu-ray release of Mobile Suit Gundam series producer Yoshiyuki Tomino removed episode 15 of the series due to its poor quality animation. [24]
The Robotech series was created as a mix of three originally separate and unrelated series The Super Dimensional Fortress Macross , Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Mospeada . Characters were renamed and the story was adapted to create links between each of the source series. [25] Battle of the Planets was adapted from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman with 85 of the original 106 episodes being adapted by Sandy Frank for US broadcast in 1979. Along with westernized character names, other changes included the removal of violent scenes and entirely new animation inserted in places. A new character was also created. The series was then released as G-Force: Guardians of Space by Turner Broadcasting, with fewer changes to the original Japanese version. [26]
As nudity is far more stigmatized in the U.S. than it is in Japan, such content is often edited out of locally distributed anime. [27] Although U.S. law regarding child pornography does not prohibit cartoon pornography, suggested underage nudity is also commonly censored. [28] In the original U.S. release of Sailor Moon , all of the female leads' transformation sequences were airbrushed to remove the lines tracing their breasts and pubic areas (except for Moon and Chibi Moon; their sequences had little or no lines), even though the characters were shown in silhouette form only. [29] This kind of editing is not limited to cartoons aimed at older audiences, either. For example, the anime series Blue Gender contained scenes of sex (next to blood and intense violence), which was edited out when shown in the U.S. on Adult Swim (the series was originally planned to air on Toonami but was considered too graphic). Another example, ADV Films edited out nudity of high-school-aged characters from the American DVD release of the anime Sakura Diaries . However, the edits to the animation were not done by ADV Films but were shown on TV in Japan. The video was already edited for exposed female private parts, and were covered by inserted lingerie. Dialogue was also altered to shield suggestions of adolescent age. [30] In 2001, the now-defunct Sterling Entertainment Group removed all shots featuring the mermaids' bare bosoms on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid concerning the film was marketed towards children, which went out-of-print after its closure in 2006. Meanwhile, in February 2008, the government of Canada banned imports of such hentai series Cool Devices and Words Worth , as it cited those series as "obscene" under federal guidelines. [31]
Hayao Miyazaki's anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was heavily edited by Manson International in the mid-1980s and released as Warriors of the Wind. About one-quarter of the film was cut and its storyline simplified somewhat, affecting the nuances of the original's ecological and pacifist themes. Miyazaki disapproved of these edits, and suggested that those who have viewed the edited version should "dismiss it from their minds." Studio Ghibli subsequently adopted a "no-edits" policy for international releases of their films. [32] Beginning from the late 1990s onward, the studio allowed its catalog to be dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, on the condition that the policy was followed, and that the English dialogue would not be significantly altered. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was re-dubbed and re-released in its unedited form by Disney in 2005.
The "no-edits" policy was enforced when Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein suggested editing Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable. In response, a Studio Ghibli employee held up a prop katana and said, "Mononoke Hime! No cut!" [33] Studio Ghibli has permitted some minor changes to translated dialogue, such as the removal of references to testicles in the English dub of Pom Poko , replacing them with the euphemism "raccoon pouch".
Hentai is a style of Japanese pornographic anime and manga. In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exist in a variety of media, including artwork and video games.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross is an anime television series from 1982. According to story creator Shoji Kawamori, it depicts "a love triangle against the backdrop of great battles" during the first Human-alien war. It is the first part of: The Super Dimension trilogy and the Macross franchise.
Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend is a Japanese erotic horror manga series written and illustrated by Toshio Maeda.
DearS is an ecchi shōnen Japanese manga series co-written and illustrated by Banri Sendo and Shibuko Ebara, credited under their pen name Peach-Pit. It was serialized monthly by MediaWorks in their magazines Dengeki Comic Gao! from October 2001 to September 2005 and Dengeki Maoh from October to November 2005 and was later published into ten volumes by the company. The manga was licensed and translated into English by Tokyopop. A 13-episode anime was adapted by MSJ and a PlayStation 2 video game was produced by MediaWorks.
Adventure Kid is an erotic manga series written and illustrated by Toshio Maeda. It was published by Wanimagazine into four volumes from 1988 to 1989 and it was adapted into an original video animation (OVA). Mixing horror, fantasy and comedy, it follows Norizaku and Midori as they find a demonic computer that sends them to Hell and destroy their world. They are transported to a World War II setting and they have to prevent their future to be ruined.
Toshio Maeda is an erotic manga artist who was prolific in the 1980s and '90s. Several of Maeda's works have been used as a basis for original video animations (OVA) including La Blue Girl, Adventure Kid, Demon Beast Invasion, Demon Warrior Koji and his most notorious work, Urotsukidōji. An interviewer commented that Urotsukidōji "firmly placed him in the history books—in Japan and abroad—as the pioneer of the genre known as hentai, or "perverted".
An original net animation (ONA), known in Japan as web anime, is an anime that is directly released onto the Internet. ONAs may also have been aired on television if they were first directly released on the Internet. The name mirrors original video animation, a term that has been used in the anime industry for straight-to-video animation since the early 1980s.
Demon Fighter Kocho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nonki Miyasu. It was published in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump from 1995 to 1997, with its chapters collected in four tankōbon volumes. It was adapted into two live-action films and an original video animation (OVA) in 1997. The OVA was released on DVD by Media Blasters in North America in 2000.
Instant History (インスタントヒストリー), also known as Otogi Manga Calendar (おとぎマンガカレンダー) was a black and white Japanese anime series that aired from 1961 to 1964. It is the oldest anime television series next to Astro Boy.
Outsourcing of animation has become widespread. Starting in the late 1950s, the animation for many low-budget American animated productions has been done by animation studios in foreign countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the Philippines, India and North Korea. This is done to lower the cost of animation production.
Clamp in Wonderland is a series of animated music videos produced by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona.
Hirokazu Hisayuki is a Japanese character designer and animation director for Sunrise. His major works include the Queen's Blade game series, the My-Hime and My-Otome series, and numerous titles from the Brave mecha series.
Lupin the 3rd Part II is a Japanese anime television series produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Part of the Lupin III franchise, it is the second anime television adaptation of the Lupin III manga series created by Monkey Punch. Although originally broadcast as simply Lupin III, the series is now often referred to as New Lupin III by Japanese fans. Among English-speaking fans, the series is commonly known as the "Red Jacket" series in reference to Lupin's outfit.
Hiroshi Kōjina is a Japanese animator, character designer, and anime director. His directorial works include Grenadier, Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro, Kiba, Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin and the 2011 anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter. He is a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association. He joined Studio Live in 1982, and following the death of Toyoo Ashida, became the head of the company in 2011.
Kenji Kodama is a Japanese anime director, and storyboard artist. He is best known for being one of the main directors on the long-running anime Case Closed, as well as the City Hunter series and Lupin III Part III. Kodama is also a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association.
Fan service, fanservice or service cut is material in a work of fiction or in a fictional series that is intentionally added to please the audience, often sexual in nature, such as nudity. The term originated in Japanese in the anime and manga fandom, but has been used in other languages and media. It is about "servicing" the fan—giving the fans "exactly what they want". Fan service can also refer to other stories that contain visual elements.
The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917 is a 2001 encyclopedia written by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy. It was published in 2001 by Stone Bridge Press in the United States, and a "revised and expanded" edition was released in 2006. In the United Kingdom, it was published by Titan Books. The third edition was released on 3 March 2015 with the subtitle of A Century of Japanese Animation. It gives an overview of most of the famous anime works since 1917.
Tottoi (トトイ) is a 1992 Japanese anime film, based on the Italian novel series by Gianni Padoan. Tottoi was dubbed into English and distributed by Celebrity Home Entertainment in 1993 under the title of The Secret of the Seal.
Kick no Oni, also known as The Demon of Kickboxing, is a manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Kentaro Nakajou. It was based on the life of the kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura.
Jungle Kurobe is a children's anime series by Fujiko Fujio.
