Anime Censorship back or now which are worst

Anyone who claims it is worse today is actively gaslighting themselves. Up until the mid to late 2000s, a lot of Japanese shows that came to English speaking countries had to be heavily edited to air on TV. 4Kids is probably the most infamous licensor from this era, as their method of localization was to try and strip most of the Japanese culture from the shows, weapons, LGBT content, violence, references to real world religions, and drug/alcohol use in order to not only meet strict broadcast requirements for kids TV in the US, but to also appease to Conservative parents who would get upset about these things being in the cartoons their kids watch. 4Kids method of dubbing wasn't just done by them, as Saban, Dic, Cloverway, Nelvana, and early FUNimation shows also did this to varying extents, but most of the others mentioned either stopped distributing Japanese anime, shut down, switched to doing only uncut dubs, or only really handled one franchise. Saban stopped doing anime dubs in 2001 and doesn't exist anymore, DiC stopped in 2004 and was doesn't exist anymore, Cloverway only ever did 2 seasons of Sailor Moon in English, Nelvana's last English dub was Bakugan Legends in 2023 and they don't handle Beyblade or Bakugan anymore, and FUNimation did always offer uncut versions of shows once they started doing dubbing in house, but they stopped doing edited dubs altogether in the late 2000s with One Piece. FUNimation also no longer exists having been absorbed into the Crunchyroll monopoly. Even 4Kids, the most infamous of studios when it comes to edited dubs shut down 12 years ago and all that remains of them is Konami Cross Media, who exclusively handles the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise.

In the modern era it is very rare to find dubs that actively cut or edit footage from the original Japanese versions. Some of the few shows that I can think of that do are Pokémon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh, all of which are franchises that are marketed towards children under the age of 12 here in the US. Even with these shows, the edits are becoming less intrusive and major than before. Pokémon especially only really gets rid of instances of Japanese text, changes the character names for consistency with the games and to translate over the puns, and changes the music due to licensing. When a lot of people complain about censorship these days, it mostly seems to be with ecchi shows. These people fail to realize that streaming services like Crunchyroll license the TV versions of these shows and air them week to week alongside Japan. Most ecchi shows are edited down in Japan on TV broadcast not only to meet Broadcast standards, but to sell the viewer the Blu Rays later down the road where broadcast standards wont get in the way of things like nudity as much. There are some non-ecchi shows that air edited on TV before releasing uncensored on Blu Ray with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure being the most notable example, but that is due to extreme gore and depictions of underage smoking. One should not hold it against a licensor for licensing the TV version while the show airs on TV since these Blu Ray versions that release uncensored do take time to make as they also tend to have some animation corrections. However shows like Jojo and ecchi titles aren't the majority of Japanese anime and are more niche cases and pretty much everything else releases unedited pretty much everywhere throughout the world. Licensors heavily editing dubs has also just fallen out of practice so it is just nowhere near what the market was like just 12 years ago

Anyone who claims it is worse today is actively gaslighting themselves. Up until the mid to late 2000s, a lot of Japanese shows that came to English speaking countries had to be heavily edited to air on TV. 4Kids is probably the most infamous licensor from this era, as their method of localization was to try and strip most of the Japanese culture from the shows, weapons, LGBT content, violence, references to real world religions, and drug/alcohol use in order to not only meet strict broadcast requirements for kids TV in the US, but to also appease to Conservative parents who would get upset about these things being in the cartoons their kids watch. 4Kids method of dubbing wasn't just done by them, as Saban, Dic, Cloverway, Nelvana, and early FUNimation shows also did this to varying extents, but most of the others mentioned either stopped distributing Japanese anime, shut down, switched to doing only uncut dubs, or only really handled one franchise. Saban stopped doing anime dubs in 2001 and doesn't exist anymore, DiC stopped in 2004 and was doesn't exist anymore, Cloverway only ever did 2 seasons of Sailor Moon in English, Nelvana's last English dub was Bakugan Legends in 2023 and they don't handle Beyblade or Bakugan anymore, and FUNimation did always offer uncut versions of shows once they started doing dubbing in house, but they stopped doing edited dubs altogether in the late 2000s with One Piece. FUNimation also no longer exists having been absorbed into the Crunchyroll monopoly. Even 4Kids, the most infamous of studios when it comes to edited dubs shut down 12 years ago and all that remains of them is Konami Cross Media, who exclusively handles the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise.

In the modern era it is very rare to find dubs that actively cut or edit footage from the original Japanese versions. Some of the few shows that I can think of that do are Pokémon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh, all of which are franchises that are marketed towards children under the age of 12 here in the US. Even with these shows, the edits are becoming less intrusive and major than before. Pokémon especially only really gets rid of instances of Japanese text, changes the character names for consistency with the games and to translate over the puns, and changes the music due to licensing. When a lot of people complain about censorship these days, it mostly seems to be with ecchi shows. These people fail to realize that streaming services like Crunchyroll license the TV versions of these shows and air them week to week alongside Japan. Most ecchi shows are edited down in Japan on TV broadcast not only to meet Broadcast standards, but to sell the viewer the Blu Rays later down the road where broadcast standards wont get in the way of things like nudity as much. There are some non-ecchi shows that air edited on TV before releasing uncensored on Blu Ray with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure being the most notable example, but that is due to extreme gore and depictions of underage smoking. One should not hold it against a licensor for licensing the TV version while the show airs on TV since these Blu Ray versions that release uncensored do take time to make as they also tend to have some animation corrections. However shows like Jojo and ecchi titles aren't the majority of Japanese anime and are more niche cases and pretty much everything else releases unedited pretty much everywhere throughout the world. Licensors heavily editing dubs has also just fallen out of practice so it is just nowhere near what the market was like just 12 years ago

Anyone who claims it is worse today is actively gaslighting themselves. Up until the mid to late 2000s, a lot of Japanese shows that came to English speaking countries had to be heavily edited to air on TV. 4Kids is probably the most infamous licensor from this era, as their method of localization was to try and strip most of the Japanese culture from the shows, weapons, LGBT content, violence, references to real world religions, and drug/alcohol use in order to not only meet strict broadcast requirements for kids TV in the US, but to also appease to Conservative parents who would get upset about these things being in the cartoons their kids watch. 4Kids method of dubbing wasn't just done by them, as Saban, Dic, Cloverway, Nelvana, and early FUNimation shows also did this to varying extents, but most of the others mentioned either stopped distributing Japanese anime, shut down, switched to doing only uncut dubs, or only really handled one franchise. Saban stopped doing anime dubs in 2001 and doesn't exist anymore, DiC stopped in 2004 and was doesn't exist anymore, Cloverway only ever did 2 seasons of Sailor Moon in English, Nelvana's last English dub was Bakugan Legends in 2023 and they don't handle Beyblade or Bakugan anymore, and FUNimation did always offer uncut versions of shows once they started doing dubbing in house, but they stopped doing edited dubs altogether in the late 2000s with One Piece. FUNimation also no longer exists having been absorbed into the Crunchyroll monopoly. Even 4Kids, the most infamous of studios when it comes to edited dubs shut down 12 years ago and all that remains of them is Konami Cross Media, who exclusively handles the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise.

In the modern era it is very rare to find dubs that actively cut or edit footage from the original Japanese versions. Some of the few shows that I can think of that do are Pokémon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh, all of which are franchises that are marketed towards children under the age of 12 here in the US. Even with these shows, the edits are becoming less intrusive and major than before. Pokémon especially only really gets rid of instances of Japanese text, changes the character names for consistency with the games and to translate over the puns, and changes the music due to licensing. When a lot of people complain about censorship these days, it mostly seems to be with ecchi shows. These people fail to realize that streaming services like Crunchyroll license the TV versions of these shows and air them week to week alongside Japan. Most ecchi shows are edited down in Japan on TV broadcast not only to meet Broadcast standards, but to sell the viewer the Blu Rays later down the road where broadcast standards wont get in the way of things like nudity as much. There are some non-ecchi shows that air edited on TV before releasing uncensored on Blu Ray with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure being the most notable example, but that is due to extreme gore and depictions of underage smoking. One should not hold it against a licensor for licensing the TV version while the show airs on TV since these Blu Ray versions that release uncensored do take time to make as they also tend to have some animation corrections. However shows like Jojo and ecchi titles aren't the majority of Japanese anime and are more niche cases and pretty much everything else releases unedited pretty much everywhere throughout the world. Licensors heavily editing dubs has also just fallen out of practice so it is just nowhere near what the market was like just 12 years ago

@LSSJ_Gaming I think you misunderstood a little he is not talking about anime being censored in different countries by different broadcasters but rather referring to how it is censored while being made, that is, the author's original character designs and ecchi moments are cut out from the adaptation during the storyboarding stage itself(most recent example being the Ranma remake). If you look at the original sources for a lot of anime you will see they have way more gore, ecchi, and risque designs but the studios nowadays fear backlash from social media and Western streaming services not accepting the show due to fear of the "modern audience" getting offended so they change the character designs as well(most recent example being Re:Zero Season 3). Earlier even if the broadcasters censored the show(like they still do in parts of Asia and the Middle East) the BluRay still had the uncensored version but now the only way to see the creator's original intentions is to read the source.


P.S. Before you think I am politically inclined to a side or whatever I am not American and hate both of their stupid ideologies.

The English dub completely skipped over an episode as recently as Sun & Moon. I'll admit it doesn't happen as often as it used to.

@LSSJ_Gaming I think you misunderstood a little he is not talking about anime being censored in different countries by different broadcasters but rather referring to how it is censored while being made, that is, the author's original character designs and ecchi moments are cut out from the adaptation during the storyboarding stage itself(most recent example being the Ranma remake). If you look at the original sources for a lot of anime you will see they have way more gore, ecchi, and risque designs but the studios nowadays fear backlash from social media and Western streaming services not accepting the show due to fear of the "modern audience" getting offended so they change the character designs as well(most recent example being Re:Zero Season 3). Earlier even if the broadcasters censored the show(like they still do in parts of Asia and the Middle East) the BluRay still had the uncensored version but now the only way to see the creator's original intentions is to read the source.


P.S. Before you think I am politically inclined to a side or whatever I am not American and hate both of their stupid ideologies.

@AshuAmbrose

If that is truly what the OP intended, I think they did a bad job asking the question. It just says "censorship" without specification. Most arguments I have seen about censorship online tend to boil down to the localization process and not self-censorship which is a little bit different. With a vague topic such as this a distinction really needs to be made since older fans like me who mostly have seen the argument used against dubs will associate it with that rather than self-censoring one's own work prior to release. As an artist, both topics are very nuanced and have a lot of room for discussion, but it can be very easy to see why without clarification people can draw two different ideas on what this topic is about when the inciting question is rather vaguely written

@AshuAmbrose Yes, you are right. I don’t want to raise the topic of politics, but where Western freedom and democracy sets in, the degradation of the original product begins. We can see this in popular Japanese shows.

Anyone who claims it is worse today is actively gaslighting themselves. Up until the mid to late 2000s, a lot of Japanese shows that came to English speaking countries had to be heavily edited to air on TV. 4Kids is probably the most infamous licensor from this era, as their method of localization was to try and strip most of the Japanese culture from the shows, weapons, LGBT content, violence, references to real world religions, and drug/alcohol use in order to not only meet strict broadcast requirements for kids TV in the US, but to also appease to Conservative parents who would get upset about these things being in the cartoons their kids watch. 4Kids method of dubbing wasn't just done by them, as Saban, Dic, Cloverway, Nelvana, and early FUNimation shows also did this to varying extents, but most of the others mentioned either stopped distributing Japanese anime, shut down, switched to doing only uncut dubs, or only really handled one franchise. Saban stopped doing anime dubs in 2001 and doesn't exist anymore, DiC stopped in 2004 and was doesn't exist anymore, Cloverway only ever did 2 seasons of Sailor Moon in English, Nelvana's last English dub was Bakugan Legends in 2023 and they don't handle Beyblade or Bakugan anymore, and FUNimation did always offer uncut versions of shows once they started doing dubbing in house, but they stopped doing edited dubs altogether in the late 2000s with One Piece. FUNimation also no longer exists having been absorbed into the Crunchyroll monopoly. Even 4Kids, the most infamous of studios when it comes to edited dubs shut down 12 years ago and all that remains of them is Konami Cross Media, who exclusively handles the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise.

In the modern era it is very rare to find dubs that actively cut or edit footage from the original Japanese versions. Some of the few shows that I can think of that do are Pokémon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh, all of which are franchises that are marketed towards children under the age of 12 here in the US. Even with these shows, the edits are becoming less intrusive and major than before. Pokémon especially only really gets rid of instances of Japanese text, changes the character names for consistency with the games and to translate over the puns, and changes the music due to licensing. When a lot of people complain about censorship these days, it mostly seems to be with ecchi shows. These people fail to realize that streaming services like Crunchyroll license the TV versions of these shows and air them week to week alongside Japan. Most ecchi shows are edited down in Japan on TV broadcast not only to meet Broadcast standards, but to sell the viewer the Blu Rays later down the road where broadcast standards wont get in the way of things like nudity as much. There are some non-ecchi shows that air edited on TV before releasing uncensored on Blu Ray with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure being the most notable example, but that is due to extreme gore and depictions of underage smoking. One should not hold it against a licensor for licensing the TV version while the show airs on TV since these Blu Ray versions that release uncensored do take time to make as they also tend to have some animation corrections. However shows like Jojo and ecchi titles aren't the majority of Japanese anime and are more niche cases and pretty much everything else releases unedited pretty much everywhere throughout the world. Licensors heavily editing dubs has also just fallen out of practice so it is just nowhere near what the market was like just 12 years ago

@LSSJ_Gaming I think you misunderstood a little he is not talking about anime being censored in different countries by different broadcasters but rather referring to how it is censored while being made, that is, the author's original character designs and ecchi moments are cut out from the adaptation during the storyboarding stage itself(most recent example being the Ranma remake). If you look at the original sources for a lot of anime you will see they have way more gore, ecchi, and risque designs but the studios nowadays fear backlash from social media and Western streaming services not accepting the show due to fear of the "modern audience" getting offended so they change the character designs as well(most recent example being Re:Zero Season 3). Earlier even if the broadcasters censored the show(like they still do in parts of Asia and the Middle East) the BluRay still had the uncensored version but now the only way to see the creator's original intentions is to read the source.


P.S. Before you think I am politically inclined to a side or whatever I am not American and hate both of their stupid ideologies.

It would be cool if there was some sort of rating system in place so that viewers would be knowingly consenting to the content of the shows they chose to watch instead of having to censor everything… 🤔

@AshuAmbrose

If that is truly what the OP intended, I think they did a bad job asking the question. It just says "censorship" without specification. Most arguments I have seen about censorship online tend to boil down to the localization process and not self-censorship which is a little bit different. With a vague topic such as this a distinction really needs to be made since older fans like me who mostly have seen the argument used against dubs will associate it with that rather than self-censoring one's own work prior to release. As an artist, both topics are very nuanced and have a lot of room for discussion, but it can be very easy to see why without clarification people can draw two different ideas on what this topic is about when the inciting question is rather vaguely written

@Kaydansnk There is. America has the ESRB for video games, RIAA for music, and MPAA for TV and movies, and Europe has similar organizations like PEGI. But they've fallen into obscurity since most people don't actually own physical media anymore.

@traed ye now i remember the story

hentai was reverse imported by japanese from places like usa that has uncensored version so japan stops exporting this uncensored hentai altogether

@deg
I dont think that happened, just the US stopped investing in it because of people getting porn for free on the internet

@traed quick google and i remember right though

>web savvy fans in Japan realized that they were getting a bum deal compared to fans overseas, who didn't have to deal with the censorship. They started importing uncensored American hentai DVDs, and not buying or renting the super-expensive Japanese discs. So the hentai producers decided not to allow the uncensored masters to be published overseas anymore. Most publishers balk at this, and don't want to proceed with licensing it. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-07-13/.104191

well at least hentai in the past are not censored

@deg What are you talking about, hentai has always been censored. The only time they have ever been uncensored is for overseas distribution. The reason you no longer see uncensored hentai is because Western companies no longer license them due to Japanese companies refusing to uncensor them in an effort to combat reverse importation.

Now because in past it was just dubs marketed at kids that was censored that bad. These days you don't even get uncensored (well as much as Japanese allows) versions on BlueRay release every time anymore, it is inconsistent because they are producing way too much these days which uses up staff time and budgets. There also are laws in Tokyo that were passed by Japanese politicians that have been crippling the manga industry and in turn the anime industry.

I also dont recall in past characters flipping someone off being censored though I am not sure if they are required to censor it or if it is a joke to censor it but one example it seemed out of place was Dark Gathering while calling a ghost a "mo(bleep)er f(bleep)ker" in English. It seems it gets censored inconsistently so maybe there is a channel and airtime requirement like the US has. I assume the gesture being foreign is part of why nothing was originally done since not everyone knew what it meant. Wasnt even that long ago.

There also was the bizarre case of My Home Hero. The censorship in that was super weird. Aside from things changed from the manga to make them way tamer they pixel blurred some scenes like jimmying a door open was censored.

And could someone explain to me if the censored cockroach thing is a gag that is overdone or is there really a requirement to censor it ? Because i swear ive never seen an uncensored cockroach Lol


If i recall right that is only because of it being exported so uncensored versions exist for the foreign market. It isnt happening as much these days so you only see the censored versions. Same with visual novels. So in a way for hentai it got worse because without exports there is no uncensored version but not really a change in how it is done in Japan. I do wonder if they even have on file uncensored versions or they have to destroy them.


2023 Crunchyroll edited and cut Onimai and that was in the sub. Cut some audio in at least one scene im aware of (i didnt check every episode just saw first few). A few scenes are entirely removed where they just replace them with shots of the house and keep the audio playing. Others are whited out to point you can barely see the scene. This was even though there wasn't really anything to censor, they further censored the already censored version and even the uncensored version didnt have anything to censor so there is three version of the show which is the weirdest case Ive seen myself. I seemed to have been only one on MAL who found out there is three versions not two.

@deg
So corporate greed and Japanese politicians to blame for not overturning an ancient law that was pushed on them by Americans

That wasn't Crunchyroll who did that, that was Studio Bind. They gave every foreign distribution company a censored version & kept the uncensored version for themselves on release.

@animegamer245
I highly doubt they took the time to make two censored versions on top of the uncensored version. The crunchyroll version is not the Japanese made foreign distribution. It's like how China sometimes makes their own versions of stuff too. The Japanese censored version ha sno scenes cut that i notice in first few episodes. The crunchyroll version is only one that does. Censored cersion also does the fog thing but the crunchyroll version does more of it. The japanese censored doesnt remove the moaning from an eroge game on Mahiro's computer but the crunchyroll version does.

@traed And I highly doubt Crunchyroll would ask for a censored version of a show they're distributing, seeing as they host uncensored versions of other shows on their platform.

@animegamer245
Except it is exactly that a twice censored version.

@LSSJ_Gaming


That's a quality post on the subject of localization censorship. Wether that was the subject OP had in mind or not, that was pertinent, educated, and a nice change from the usual comment presenting feelings as facts.
Not much to add. I grew up in the 90s with shows that were heavily sanitized for the french audience, I can totally relate to everything yo mentionned.

@traed That's what I'm saying, you seem to be under the impression that Crunchyroll themselves censored when 1, they would need to ask the IP owners if they could do that & 2, they would gain absolutely nothing by doing that.

@animegamer245
Again I myself literally saw three versions which i found by pure accident there was three not two versions. I watched the first few episodes multiple times one after the other as they aired comparing them out of curiosity. Trying to rationalize it away wont change the fact. If they didnt do it themselves they asked for an even more censored version with specific scenes than the censored version for whatever reason and i found it extremely strange. Basically they were trying to force the show to appeal to a wider audience by censoring it to a ridiculous degree.

@traed Well I haven't seen more than one censored version & I don't know anyone else who has. This is quite literally the first time I'm hearing about this. Unless you have any proof that there are 2 censored version, I'm just going to assume you made a mistake.