So I recently wrote an essay on Anime Censorship in America. I thought I would post it here and see what you guys thought. Please provide constructive criticism. =)
Thanks
Anime Censorship!
By: Eureka Seven
Censorship is all around us in TV, Music, Books, and Movies. Something that is constantly being censored to suit a younger target audience therefore diminishing what the artist originally intended is Anime. Anime, by definition is a cartoon originating from Japan. Already losing much of its value during the editing process where it is translated from Japanese, the censorship of Anime not only ruins the quality of the cartoons but also adds to the demise of the overall meaning behind the story that already takes a blow in the translation process. The censorship of Anime creates “watered down” stories that are denying the public what they want as well as obstructing the author’s whole purpose.
Censorship is taking away peoples rights. Telling people what they can and cannot watch is simply not right. It’s only a matter of time before everyone is walking around with Winston Smith hailing Big Brother at some gathering in front of the telescreen. However, it is concessible that many instances of censorship are not without warrant. Is it ok for a six year old to see a bloody war movie? No, but there are parental blocks for instances like that and parents need to determine what their children watch not the government.
The first few anime series and films to be brought to the United States completely edited out violence, deaths of major characters, sexual references, etc. assuming the audience to be made up of young children. This is a monumental misconception of those who edit. Are Americans really that simple minded? Furthermore, dub companies such as Viz and 4Kids, take out all Japanese cultural references and make them into things that American children would recognize. In one instance an Onigiri which is a Japanese food consisting of rice and nori will be referred to as a Donut or completely replaced with something irrelevant to the item it’s replacing like a sub sandwich.
There are many examples of censorship within anime. In some cases it is as simple as altering an image. In others the change is more extreme like merging entire episodes together. Furthermore, sometimes things are edited for ridiculous reasons. For example, in one show there is a scene where a character is drinking green tea. The people at 4Kids changed it to water for fear that if the youth of America saw the green tea they would go and drink nuclear waste. There have also been many cases where the opener and the closer of a show have been either redone and replaced with a more kid friendly American version or cut out entirely.
Another cheap shot that dubbing companies will do is edit a series to fit a certain demographic. For example; “In order to attract male audience in the 6 to 9 age range, the company who distributed the U.S. release of Cardcaptor Sakura (a series originally aimed primarily at a female audience), the series was re-titled Cardcaptors (note: plural and non gender specific) and it is presumed that Warner Brothers deleted the first 8 episodes of the first series in order to give a male sub-character equal status to the original female lead. It also deleted every episode from the show's continuity that did not sufficiently feature the male character, including the 3 romance based subplots that formed much of the shows appeal to female demographics (Wikipedia).” This is prime evidence that those in charge of dubbing are more concerned with rating then the integrity of the show they are working on.
One of the biggest issues is the editing of violence. The Media Effects Theory states “that people, who are exposed to violence through media, especially during childhood, will be desensitized to violence and violent acts (Wikipedia).” The editing of violence can go both ways. It can be good in the aspect that it prevents kids from seeing things that could be mimicable and therefore one less injury in the world. Yet it can also be bad and at times torturous to the story when a death or injury or something along those lines has a major influence on the plot line of a story and then suddenly disappears. When it’s the latter and the shows plot and meaning is compromised people are confused as to what’s going on. When taking a key element out of the plot such as a characters death, the Dub Company has to re-think of a plot line and therefore certain episodes don’t flow well. A good example of this is One Piece, the death of the character Kuina, which inspired Zoro's vow to be the greatest swordsman in the world, was changed to a crippling injury that kept Kuina from fighting.
In Addition many religious references presented within anime are totally abolished. For example, any time the Christian cross is present it is airbrushed so that the image appears to be a rock or a vertical pole. Any references to hell are changed to something extraneous from the entire situation. For example, in Dragon Ball Z hell is changed to HFIL (Home For Infinite Losers). The word Bible is removed from bible covers.
I think it’s wrong to assume only children watch anime. When shows get “watered down” because of the American public’s naivety a piece of art is being destroyed. Men with flaming torches can’t storm into the Museum of Modern Art to burn down Van Gough’s “Starry Night” because it’s too “dark and twisty” and the government shouldn’t be allowed to do the same to the art that is Anime. There are a lot of shows that don’t have the chance to be broadcast here because of content the FCC does not find suitable. So if you’re a fan, potential fan, or maybe not a fan yet, think of this as a learning experience. The FCC thinks we can’t make our own decisions so they make them for us and we can’t let happen.
