Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - The Greatest Censorship Fails
by Jason Thompson,
Episode CXXXIII: The Greatest Manga Censorship Fails
It's always surprised me that there's no giant internet database listing all censorship in English editions of manga. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me; there's been so many little changes it's hard to notice them all, and the manga community is scattered, so fans of Manga X don't necessarily care on principle if Manga Y is censored. Even some people who would defend a tween manga reader's right to Christopher Handley's porn collection or Mahô Shôjo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS dojinshi, both of which were at the center of huge legal cases in the US and Canada with serious implications for free speech.
But (thankfully) most dirty manga doesn't result in legal cases. Instead (less thankfully), most manga companies choose to self-censor, not out of actual fears that their manga will be deemed legally "obscene," but for sales. Manga has always been censored on-and-off in the U.S.—Viz's very first issue of Mai the Psychic Girl in 1987 had a bath scene removed—but in the early 2000s, when manga started getting sold in big retailers like Borders (RIP) and Wal-Mart, those retailers' internal content restrictions affected the whole manga industry. In the heyday of Borders, publishers would actually fax scenes from manga to Borders reps before licensing a series, to see if it was too dirty for Borders to carry or not. Other restrictive buyers included Scholastic Books and Toys 'R' Us, who also pressured manga publishers to follow their censorship decisions.
It's not much consolation that, with manga sales so much smaller than they were a few years ago, there's also less censorship like this nowadays (although there's still Hana-Kimi.)
Manga has been censored in a thousand ways, from Baby Goku Penis in Shaman King movie in some parallel universe, he'd have been insane enough to keep the original name of the blaxploitation character, Chocolove). But some attempts at censorship still stand out for their total ineptitude or absurdity. Here, for the New Year, are my picks of the Greatest Manga Censorship Fails.
Vanishing Nipples. These things are the bane of manga editors. Conveniently, some anime and manga (like Tenchi Muyô! manga) simply draw breasts without nipples to avoid the controversy. If that fails, they're covered with bras, bikinis or any other object that's handy—but what do you do if the ENTIRE POINT OF THE MANGA is to show nipples? That was the dilemma faced by the editor of Viz's edition of I"s. (Actually, I"s is more about butts, but anyway…) Rather than rewrite entire storylines, he chose to cover the characters' breasts with little stars like on the cover of an old porn video—thus ironically actually drawing attention to the fact that it had been censored. Could this have been the rebellious editor's intention all along? (P.S. I used to be the editor's roommate.)
Vanishing Cleavage. Sometimes, covering up nipples isn't enough. The cover of the 2nd edition of Viz's Battle Vixens, even a faint suggestion of butt was too much.
Nintendo of America) complained, forcing Viz to add tons of fabric to the women's outfits, such as in the manga adaptation of "The Water Flowers of Cerulean City," in which Misty goes from wearing a skimpy bikini to a kind of all-concealing deep-sea-diving wetsuit. Other censored scenes included a Misty-in-the-hot-springs nude scene and lots of fanservice involving Jessie from Team Rocket. The word "damn" in the first edition also prompted angry phone calls from parents.
Tenjho Tenge. Back in the 2000s, when DC executives decided to make Tenjho Tenge one of the launch titles of their new manga line, they should have actually read it. Rumor has it they didn't realize until late in the production process that the manga is not merely about insane martial arts, but also explicit sex, consensual and otherwise. Desperate to make it into a 16+ manga, they used every possible censorship jutsu, including: (1) giant SFX covering panty shots; (2) people wearing bras in sex scenes; (3) stuff covering people's middle's fingers to cover up flipping-off scenes; and (4) a gratuitous rape scene almost completely removed. Comparing the covers of the Japanese version and CMX version says it all, although I have to it, that was clever what they did there. Times change: the recent Viz edition is uncensored.
The Snake Arm in Del Rey edition.)
Bokurano) wasn't gonna do a Pokémon style kid-and-monster funfest.
Tanuki Balls. A source of much embarrassment to Disney when they released Pom Poko, Tanukis' shapeshifting nuts are occasionally spotted in anime and manga, although not in Super Mario Bros. 3. (Wikipedia has more information, including the lyrics to a song about Tanukis' balls, sung by Japanese schoolchildren to the tune of "Shall We Gather at the River?") In Shaman King, Ponchi, the tanuki character, has the power to grab people with his massive scrotum, which in the English version was changed to a stomach. As far as Shaman King and censorship go, this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Vanishing Guns. In America, if characters kill each other with fists, explosions or swords, it's "fantasy violence," but if characters kill each other with guns, it's serious. In Viz's Assassination Classroom, when the students unload their guns into their alien teacher, they have to include some line explaining that they're using special anti-alien airsoft guns that are harmless to humans. WTH, manga. Are you still the proud culture that created Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, or aren't you?)
O-Parts Hunter. For some reason they didn't keep the original title, 666 Satan.
Vanishing Crosses. In Japan, show a character chained to a cross, and that's just drama. To American Christians, not so much. Yu-Gi-Oh! are just a few manga where crosses get changed to less offensive objects like poles, chunks of rock and metal grids. In a scene in a cemetery in Shaman King, when I was editor, there were too many cross-shaped tombstones to remove. But a dictate came down from the Powers Above (no, not God) that one particular tombstone was too objectionable, and I had to give the letterer the interesting instructions, "Remove Jesus from cross."
Vanishing Mosques. Arabs love anime; I have apologized for the anime scene, they also censored some scenes in the manga when minarets of mosques get damaged in a battle. Now, in all new editions of the manga in all languages, the collateral damage instead takes out water tanks & TV towers.
Vanishing Swastikas. Here's something to offend everybody: swastikas! Except that, of course, the manji is an ancient and important Buddhist symbol with was co-opted by weeaboo Nazis, and if you look at maps of Japan, Buddhist temples are represented by swastikas manji. These sometimes manage to stay in translated manga, like in One Piece (which, Shueisha succumbing to overseas pressure again, was de-manjified in both the English and Japanese editions).
Vanishing Cigarettes. To Americans, if there's anything more offensive than religion and nudity, it's cigarettes. Scholastic Books regularly complained about cigarettes in Yukito Kishiro putting his foot down over political correctness in Battle Angel Alita,do they refuse to let it be changed.)
Selective Translations. One of the easiest ways to obscure offensive content is just to leave it untranslated. Take Zatch Bell: instead of translating the term mamono in the literal meaning of "monster" or "demon," making Zatch Bell a blasphemous manga about demon-summoning, Viz decided to leave the term untranslated, making Zatch Bell a delightful Pokémon rip-off. (Technically, they changed it to "mamodo," thus creating a new, trademarkable term. For that matter, so did Pokémon.) The same thing can be seen in Yu-Gi-Oh! card names and in pretty much any manga with the word kamisama (Gundam" spelled Gandamu and "Light" spelled Raito.
"And I Will Reign Over a New World."Speaking of Death Note…the original, literal translation of this line from Viz's volume 1 reads "I will be the god of this new world." It could just be a 'creative' translation but…really, Viz? Really?
Censored Invisible Love.
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