| I mean it's not like you are going to get many contrasting views on here. You are on an anime forum pretty much most people maybe outside of trolls and some tradcath lapers that end up in our community somehow are going to agree that it sucked. Probably better to throw that question out to SocCons as the moral panic was one of the reasons in my opinion they started to lose power in NA at least. |
| Can't agree or disagree I ain't an American and the anime is not that accessible and available in Poland till today so I don't know what kind of panic you talking about... didn't even know that such thing actually happened. |
| Some of those shows might not have seen the light of day in the west if it hadn't been for censorship. That they aired at all raised a lot of awareness of anime among viewers who are now anime fans who might never have become anime fans if it weren't for those shows. Anime fans who now demand original uncensored versions of the anime they consume, whether it be new stuff or older shows, including the very same shows that were censored back in the day. |
A møøse once bit my sister... |
| I remember people saying stuff like Pokémon was satanic or some shit, but it was not only applied to it, it was also applied to stuff like Hello Kitty, it was a little weird, as if Japanese cared that much about christianity to make something "satanic". |
| What moral panic? That was just American censorship, nothing else. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
funtime43_tr said: Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the moral panic against anime had cause companies to censor the material (Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yugioh, and Pokemon) in order to make the anime appeal to American audiences. I think the moral panic against anime was a waste of time and money blaming anime back in the 90s. Do you agree that the moral panic was an unnecessary waste of time and money? Even if there are examples I can point to in the 80s, I think the 1st example I experienced with this in the 90s was with "The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor". While this Anime OVA was very popular among Anime fans in the West at the time, most Westerners who were consuming it at the time were just Teens and kids. Because of this by the time they released the sequel continuation "The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor II" in the West the licensing company I think made a decision before dubbing the 2nd OVA in English to cut out the graphic nudity in the last episode and an uncensored dubbed version was never released in the West. A lot of this had to do with the content rating in the 90s done for media in the West specifically in places like North America. If they would have left "The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor II" unedited for distribution in places like North America at the time it would have either been Rated R or worse being left Unrated where this would limit it's outreach during a time when Anime was still very niche in North America and most of the consumers watching the Anime were just kids. Weird huh? Mild nudity of a girls breasts being exposed bad though graphic gore of bodies being mutilated and torn apart totally ok for kids to watch. As for Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yugioh, and Pokemon they were destined to be censored in the West simply because they wanted to drop them on platforms generally aimed at young audiences. Even an Anime like Pokemon got the censorship treatment even in a place like Japan of all places where they banned an early episode due to children experiencing seizures from watching a particular episode due to so many flashing lights. Not sure if they eventually reformed the episode before releasing it over seas but the original never aired outside of Japan after this incident. The most infamous Pokemon episode that I remember eventually getting broadly banned on over seas TV was the bikini contest Episode. Ironically it actually aired once on Cartoon Network before parent complaints got the episode completely removed from airing ever again. Even an edited version was released cutting out one scene of cross dressing the episode still never aired again on any TV platform due to the complaint it still was too sexualized for a TV series aimed towards children. This is probably one of the reasons why something like "Ranma ½" never made it on any Western TV platforms in the 90s because of it's Magical Sex Shift theme and helps explain why many Anime titles even targeted towards adult audiences sometimes took over a decade to finally reach some Western Audiences to help consumers acclimate to common controversial content in Anime if they get their panties in a bunch over a bikini episode in something like pokemon. |
ColourWheelJun 5, 2023 2:03 PM
LostSpectre said: What moral panic? That was just American censorship, nothing else. In some cases it wasn't even censorship per se. It was executives and producers altering a show in an effort to appeal to a particular target audience. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was renamed Warriors of the Wind and had more than 20 minutes cut from it (this is what drove Studio Ghibli to adopt a "no cuts" policy when licensing any of its works for international release), and Cardcaptor Sakura was retitled simply Cardcaptors and the original 70-episode run was cut nearly in half to 39 episodes, largely to narrow it to the parts more likely to appeal to young male viewers, though also to appease factions who may have found some of the more GL content offensive. |
| A møøse once bit my sister... |
| I don't remember there being a huge backlash aside from a few nutty evangelical types thinking that Pokemon was satanic. I'll also just add that plenty of western stuff was also censored: networks can be over zealous but, from a business perspective, I don't completely blame them for wanting to cover all of their bases. |
| "Do you agree that the moral panic was an unnecessary waste of time and money?" Yes. Though tbf i only witnessed the last 2 years of the 90s |
 |
Ionliosite2 said: it carried on from the satanic panic, my mom really made me stop playing pokemon for a couple months because she heard the pastor propaganda that it was satanic. not only that but anything that had fantasy creatures was demonic to her. I remember people saying stuff like Pokémon was satanic or some shit, but it was not only applied to it, it was also applied to stuff like Hello Kitty, it was a little weird, as if Japanese cared that much about christianity to make something "satanic". |
| I remember it really differently, and I definitely don't think it was a "moral panic." The content changed or removed from these anime didn't exist in any kids TV animation in the west, so it's not like anime was being unfairly targeted just because it was anime. It was only being changed to be in line with everything else aimed at kids at the time. They wanted to sell these shows, air them on TV, and they wanted them to be as widely accessible and enjoyable for kids as possible, because that's what made the most financial sense. It's a shame it took censorship and cultural changes to achieve that, but you can't argue with the results. As much as I wish anime didn't have to be censored to fit in with western kids TV back then, I completely disagree that it was "a waste of time and money." If anything, it seems like it was the right choice for the time. It was this censorship that allowed these anime to be aired on TV in the west, which was pretty much solely responsible for the explosion of popularity and the huge numbers of new people becoming fans. Seeing these anime on TV was exactly what prompted me to become a fan in the late 90s. They made me want to see more, and I quickly started seeking out anime that wasn't on TV. If I hadn't been able to watch them on TV at first, then maybe I wouldn't have become a fan, or at least I wouldn't have discovered anime until years later. I think a lot of fans who got into anime at that time can point directly at these censored and altered dubs as what got them into anime, not to mention to millions of kids who watched these shows they couldn't have otherwise been exposed to. Even if they just saw them as just fun cartoons to kill time with, that's still worth something. |
palm-treeJun 5, 2023 2:01 PM
 |
| "Does anybody remember the moral panic against anime back in the 90s?" Unfortunately, yes. |
 |
| "Does anybody remember the moral panic against anime back in the 90s?" Not in my country, not in the 90s and definitely not as wide spread. Few even knew what anime is. Many called it manga, because of the Manga Video logo on the rental VHS cassettes. Like in the 00's some people have tried to diss me IRL for being anime fan, but they were only imitating internet trends they didn't actually understood (a lot of trolls dissed me online tho)... Around that time some core anime fandom has started to form in Bulgaria and the catalyst for that was Shaman King (it aired on TV here) of all things. Than those guys switched to Bleach and Naruto. The Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Beyblade fandoms were separated for some time, but joined the main herd later. Around 2015 the fandom fizzled away, to return back (LiKe A pLaGuE) with the pandemic. At no point anime was condemned publicly (for example we got the "not actually cousins" version of Sailor Moon...tho not all the seasons if it), mainly because it was somehow obscure here. |
| Moral panic? Lol wut? Those are shows that were censored so they could show them on TV to kids at 3pm. Those of us that weren't children were renting shit like Angel Cop, Urotsukidouji, Violence Jack and the like |
billybub said: Those of us that weren't children were renting shit like Angel Cop, Urotsukidouji, Violence Jack and the like I remember being exposed to these titles for the 1st time in the 90s too. Although "Angel Cop" and "Violence Jack" still literally took almost a decade for them to come out officially on VHS in the west. Every Western version of the original "Urotsukidouji" OVA was not only censored and edited before the turn of the century but was actually never officially released in the West on VHS. If you actually experienced the original 3 episode OVA, they were most likely bootlegs. Most people who ever experienced "Urotsukidouji" on VHS in the West saw the movie which still was censored and edited even if it released early in the 90s. A completely uncensored version of this Movie was never actually even released in Japan. |
| People knew what anime was back in the 90s? |
Paul said: People knew what anime was back in the 90s? Most people just called it Japanimation in the West during the 80s and early 90s. People actually didn't start calling it Anime in the West till the late 90s. |
ColourWheel said: billybub said: Those of us that weren't children were renting shit like Angel Cop, Urotsukidouji, Violence Jack and the like I remember being exposed to these titles for the 1st time in the 90s too. Although "Angel Cop" and "Violence Jack" still literally took almost a decade for them to come out officially on VHS in the west. Every Western version of the original "Urotsukidouji" OVA was not only censored and edited before the turn of the century but was actually never officially released in the West on VHS. If you actually experienced the original 3 episode OVA, they were most likely bootlegs. Most people who ever experienced "Urotsukidouji" on VHS in the West saw the movie which still was censored and edited even if it released early in the 90s. A completely uncensored version of this Movie was never actually even released in Japan. I remember watching Urotsukidoji, Ninja Scroll and Wicked City in my college dorm back in 95 or so. I'm sure Overfiend and Wicked City were bootlegs, think we got them from the same person who gave us Jane's Addictions "Gift" lol. On a side note that is one fucked up movie |
| I don't think that really counts as a moral panic. Most people back then were unaware of anime. It's not like headlines: "dangers of japanimation!" was a feature on the news like supposedly "satanic" music was. No, Sailor moon and stuff were censored by the US distributor so they could be marketed towards very young kids without upsetting parents who expect all cartoons to be G-rated. |
 |
billybub said: ColourWheel said: I remember being exposed to these titles for the 1st time in the 90s too. Although "Angel Cop" and "Violence Jack" still literally took almost a decade for them to come out officially on VHS in the west. Every Western version of the original "Urotsukidouji" OVA was not only censored and edited before the turn of the century but was actually never officially released in the West on VHS. If you actually experienced the original 3 episode OVA, they were most likely bootlegs. Most people who ever experienced "Urotsukidouji" on VHS in the West saw the movie which still was censored and edited even if it released early in the 90s. A completely uncensored version of this Movie was never actually even released in Japan. I remember watching Urotsukidoji, Ninja Scroll and Wicked City in my college dorm back in 95 or so. I'm sure Overfiend and Wicked City were bootlegs, think we got them from the same person who gave us Jane's Addictions "Gift" lol. On a side note that is one fucked up movie "Urotsukidoji" was only ever being officially distributed in the West on VHS and only the movie version. As for "Ninja Scroll" and "Wicked City" I actually had the privilege to watch them 1st in a theater on film at the Cleveland Institute of Art during one of their weekend Animation film festivals in the early 90s, I don't recall anything being censored specifically from how it was 1st aired in theaters in Japan. But they are far better to experience than that of VHS because VHS was always cropped to fit aspect ratio of 4:3. I don't even think they released a 35mm film version of an Anime which was an aspect ratio of 3:2 of any title from the 80s and 90s which were ever released on home video on any format other than in an aspect ratio of 4:3 unless there was some special letterbox edition which neither of these titles ever got. |
ColourWheelJun 5, 2023 3:53 PM
ColourWheel said: billybub said: I remember watching Urotsukidoji, Ninja Scroll and Wicked City in my college dorm back in 95 or so. I'm sure Overfiend and Wicked City were bootlegs, think we got them from the same person who gave us Jane's Addictions "Gift" lol. On a side note that is one fucked up movie "Urotsukidoji" was only ever being officially distributed in the West on VHS and only the movie version. As for "Ninja Scroll" and "Wicked City" I actually had the privilege to watch them 1st in a theater on film at the Cleveland Institute of Art during one of their weekend Animation film festivals in the early 90s, I don't recall anything being censored specifically from how it was 1st aired in theaters in Japan. But they are far better to experience than that of VHS because VHS was always cropped to fit aspect ratio of 4:3. I don't even think they released a 35mm film version of an Anime which was an aspect ratio of 3:2 of any title from the 80s and 90s which were ever released on home video on any format other than in an aspect ratio of 4:3 unless there was some special letterbox edition which neither of these titles ever got. That's pretty cool. Only anime movie I ever saw in the theater was Akira at a midnight showing back in college as well |
billybub said: ColourWheel said: "Urotsukidoji" was only ever being officially distributed in the West on VHS and only the movie version. As for "Ninja Scroll" and "Wicked City" I actually had the privilege to watch them 1st in a theater on film at the Cleveland Institute of Art during one of their weekend Animation film festivals in the early 90s, I don't recall anything being censored specifically from how it was 1st aired in theaters in Japan. But they are far better to experience than that of VHS because VHS was always cropped to fit aspect ratio of 4:3. I don't even think they released a 35mm film version of an Anime which was an aspect ratio of 3:2 of any title from the 80s and 90s which were ever released on home video on any format other than in an aspect ratio of 4:3 unless there was some special letterbox edition which neither of these titles ever got. That's pretty cool. Only anime movie I ever saw in the theater was Akira at a midnight showing back in college as well Sadly Akira is an actual outlier where it was able to release on DVD in the early 2000s with it's original film aspect ratio of 1.85:1. There might have been a letter box release for VHS but I wouldn't be able to confirm it since I only ever seen the streamline pictures release ever in any stores during the 90s. Even the Laser Disc version of Akira wasn't available in the west until after the turn of the century at least from what I remember seeing. |
ColourWheelJun 5, 2023 4:42 PM
| No I'm not that old, but I agree that it was a waste of time and money |
mwalimu said: I was mostly just talking about the shows that were mentioned, but yeah, those both sound like really dumb decisions, especially Nausicaä. LostSpectre said: What moral panic? That was just American censorship, nothing else. In some cases it wasn't even censorship per se. It was executives and producers altering a show in an effort to appeal to a particular target audience. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was renamed Warriors of the Wind and had more than 20 minutes cut from it (this is what drove Studio Ghibli to adopt a "no cuts" policy when licensing any of its works for international release), and Cardcaptor Sakura was retitled simply Cardcaptors and the original 70-episode run was cut nearly in half to 39 episodes, largely to narrow it to the parts more likely to appeal to young male viewers, though also to appease factions who may have found some of the more GL content offensive. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| America always need a boogieman.. Germany, Vietnam, Iran, Russia, China, anime.. |
 |
| i remember a "JAPANIMATION?" article on one of the big T.V. NETWORK channels' "DATELINE" evening programming block "T.V. News Magazine" series back in the mid/late-90's, when i was around my middle-teens or so. don't recall all that much about it... besides the general "Concerned Citizen" tone within it's focus upon DBZ, Sailor Moon and such... |
MasterTasukeJun 5, 2023 5:38 PM
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| I remember it. That kind of "fashion" maybe wasn't that much intense, but it came here from the US. Psychologists or other modern shamans* turned into virtue signalling oracles, copying what they heard from their American colleagues about how anime is bad and how manga destroys children. Too bad they didn't use their own brains or just listened to some other "experts" than moral Puritans. * Putting psychologists from my country next to their equivalents from more Western countries would be an insult towards the latter, that's why I used the phrase "modern shamans". So please, don't feel obliged to rant about how I am attacking decades of modern psychology's development, lol. funtime43_tr said: Absolutely. Like I said, even though it wasn't that much intense in my country, it was still visible and had its 5 minutes of glory. Instead of actually helping kids or learning more about the latest discoveries about therapies etc., few psychologists with prolly low skills in their profession found a way to promote themselves and shine, even if for a while. Most of them got laughed at shortly after, anyway. ;pDo you agree that the moral panic was an unnecessary waste of time and money? |
| Yes i remember clearly about that time when i'm not even on my mother's womb. What a great time or a sad moment fr. |
| . |
| America is such a joke sometimes, the entire population is coddled Unfortunately it seems like it’s on the way back with recent events |
ColourWheel said: They never did. They should have, since it's a good episode. I watched fansubs of the banned episodes.Not sure if they eventually reformed the episode before releasing it over seas |
| その目だれの目？ |
LostSpectre said: The dumbest part of Cardcaptors is that it is in fact an American thing or rather a USA thing. Other countries that got the same dub got all 70 episodes of it.mwalimu said: I was mostly just talking about the shows that were mentioned, but yeah, those both sound like really dumb decisions, especially Nausicaä. In some cases it wasn't even censorship per se. It was executives and producers altering a show in an effort to appeal to a particular target audience. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was renamed Warriors of the Wind and had more than 20 minutes cut from it (this is what drove Studio Ghibli to adopt a "no cuts" policy when licensing any of its works for international release), and Cardcaptor Sakura was retitled simply Cardcaptors and the original 70-episode run was cut nearly in half to 39 episodes, largely to narrow it to the parts more likely to appeal to young male viewers, though also to appease factions who may have found some of the more GL content offensive. |
| その目だれの目？ |
LostSpectre said: What moral panic? That was just American censorship, nothing else. As far as I can tell "moral panic" is an expression used by liberals in America, when they do something, and conservatives don't like it, so they need a buzzword to dismiss their opinion. I have no idea how that could relate to anime though. |
 |
JaniSIr said: LostSpectre said: What moral panic? That was just American censorship, nothing else. As far as I can tell "moral panic" is an expression used by liberals in America, when they do something, and conservatives don't like it, so they need a buzzword to dismiss their opinion. I have no idea how that could relate to anime though. I wouldn't know the details but it's not hard to believe it being conservative parents who were outraged over buying their kids Anime on VHS and DVD at the time only to find out that something like "Dragon Ball Z" and "Sailor Moon" was nothing like how it aired on platforms like cartoon Network. If anything, I can only imagine it being an extremely small group of parents getting their panties in a bunch over this and easily ignored to the point of there not being any info one could dig up on the internet about it. I mean just imagine if parents were to buy Bugs Bunny on VHS and DVD for their kids only to find out it was riddled with gore and questionable sexual themes that were censored or cut out just to be aired on TV. |
ColourWheelJun 6, 2023 4:05 AM
funtime43_tr said: OK, but Sailor Stars was never dubbed into English back then. Cardcaptors was different in that the whole thing was dubbed into English and broadcast in Canada and England and Australia, yet WB decided against airing many of these dubbed episodes in the United States.Lucifrost said: Just like with Sailor Moon: the US and Canada was heavily censored and cut 8 episodes, specials, and the fifth season. While everywhere else around the world got their versions uncut and have the whole 90s Saga uncut back in the 90s and early 2000s.The dumbest part of Cardcaptors is that it is in fact an American thing or rather a USA thing. Other countries that got the same dub got all 70 episodes of it. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| idk how it was in the states, but I remember very clearly in Brazil. Pretty much every news channel made a lot of sensationalist pieces on the "violent" or "devilish" cartoons from the east. Religious news channels were the worst ones. A lot of parents forbid their kids to watch anything japanese, even innocent stuff like Pokemon or Hamtaro, and destroyed their anime toys and other merchs. It was a sad time. Luckly the only anime my parents didn't like me to watch was Dragonball, but I ended up watching it anyway lol |
 |
ColourWheel said: JaniSIr said: As far as I can tell "moral panic" is an expression used by liberals in America, when they do something, and conservatives don't like it, so they need a buzzword to dismiss their opinion. I have no idea how that could relate to anime though. I wouldn't know the details but it's not hard to believe it being conservative parents who were outraged over buying their kids Anime on VHS and DVD at the time only to find out that something like "Dragon Ball Z" and "Sailor Moon" was nothing like how it aired on platforms like cartoon Network. If anything, I can only imagine it being an extremely small group of parents getting their panties in a bunch over this and easily ignored to the point of there not being any info one could dig up on the internet about it. I mean just imagine if parents were to buy Bugs Bunny on VHS and DVD for their kids only to find out it was riddled with gore and questionable sexual themes that were censored or cut out just to be aired on TV. You do realize there are Bugs Bunny,Tom and Jerry cartoons etc that are HIGHLY edited for tv broadcast and numerous cartoons from the 30s, 40s and 50s that will never be released on bd or broadcast again |
billybub said: ColourWheel said: I wouldn't know the details but it's not hard to believe it being conservative parents who were outraged over buying their kids Anime on VHS and DVD at the time only to find out that something like "Dragon Ball Z" and "Sailor Moon" was nothing like how it aired on platforms like cartoon Network. If anything, I can only imagine it being an extremely small group of parents getting their panties in a bunch over this and easily ignored to the point of there not being any info one could dig up on the internet about it. I mean just imagine if parents were to buy Bugs Bunny on VHS and DVD for their kids only to find out it was riddled with gore and questionable sexual themes that were censored or cut out just to be aired on TV. You do realize there are Bugs Bunny,Tom and Jerry cartoons etc that are HIGHLY edited for tv broadcast and numerous cartoons from the 30s, 40s and 50s that will never be released on bd or broadcast again Wasn't aware they released "Bugs Bunny" and "Tom and Jerry" completely unedited on official psychical releases for parents to buy for their kids simply because it was never something I was that interested in. But I am quite aware of Western animation being censored and banned throughout history. |
ColourWheel said: Do you know why the change was made from calling it Japanimation to calling it anime? Was it just because it was a shorter word?Paul said: People knew what anime was back in the 90s? Most people just called it Japanimation in the West during the 80s and early 90s. People actually didn't start calling it Anime in the West till the late 90s. |
Frosteek said: ColourWheel said: Do you know why the change was made from calling it Japanimation to calling it anime? Was it just because it was a shorter word?Most people just called it Japanimation in the West during the 80s and early 90s. People actually didn't start calling it Anime in the West till the late 90s. I personally never liked it being called Japanimation simply because I was exposed to Anime before most westerners even knew what it was due to my parents who frequented Japan in the 70s and early 80s. My parents called it Anime even in the 70s because that is what it was called there. Some claim Japanimation was changed due to it sounding too much like a racial slur and others will claim Anime just sounds better because it was shorter. Whatever the reason was it should have been called Anime in the West when Japan started distributing it across the seas because that was what it was called in Japan at that time. I personally noticed the Western switch once places like Suncoast Video started specifically creating a section just for Anime where before it was simply just mixed in a generic Animation section mixed with Western Cartoons and animated media from other countries. Even Blockbuster eventually created their own Anime section in the 90s when in a typical video rental store you would see copies of "Fritz the Cat" on VHS mixed with "Akira" and "Warriors of the wind". |
ColourWheelJun 6, 2023 1:30 PM
ColourWheel said: They also speak a different language in Japan.it should have been called Anime in the West when Japan started distributing it across the seas because that was what it was called in Japan at that time. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| News to me. But I have no doubt considering the censorship that went into those old JP animated movies. |
| Keep scrolling |
| Yes. It was an unneeded panic, caused by not understanding the cultural differences of west and east mostly. |
 |
| I kinda see why, thought I didn't start watching anime during that time. Like during the 90s there was such amazing anime that came out but also no regulation so there were titles that were also very lowbrow and heavily sexual in nature. So I see why mainstream media would try to censor the entire medium in general because they didn't bother to look deeper. But I can see why now there are just so many anime that are just so morally ambiguous, especially the sexualization of really young ppl. And I've just met weebs from my time in the anime industry that are just complete degenerates and in the inceldom and I hope to never meet them again. |
| desu desu binches |
| No since I didn't even exist in the 90s and I have no memories of the early 00s so I never experienced that kind of Anime censorship. |
| All weebs creatures of the galaxy, hear this message. Those of you who listen will not be struck by western animation. You will no longer know hunger, nor pain. Your Anime have come to lead you now. Our strength shall serve as a luminous sun toward which all intelligence may blossom. And the impervious shelter beneath which you will prosper. However, for those who refuse our offer and cling to their western animation ways… For you, there will be great wrath. |
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