By SSj Heero
First, the GOOD type of censorship. Have you ever seen Gundam Wing on CN? It was a great show with VERY little censored, other than a little blood and some cursing taken out, the show was VERY tolerable. That also goes for Tenchi Muyo, it had quite a bit of nudity in there (*cough* Episode 4) but it was hardly noticeable with some quality censoring. Rather than covering blood/nudity up with a cloud, they digitally edit the show like covering up blood with the color of the ground, and painting bathing suits on Ryoko and Aeka. Also the music was basically left intact because as anynone interested in anime thinks, are VERY good, besides the fact that we can't understand most of it. Also, the basic sound effects, like a gundam activating or Ryoko charging up a blast, were unchanged. Unfortunately, this type of censorship is quite rare. I only know a few companies who go this way, Sunrise, Pioneer, and Gainax. But what about the rest?
Surely most of you HATE FUNi for censoring DBZ, but it must be done. The old Saban company who used to own DBZ did HORRIBLE translations and censoring. Unnatural clouds flying around, changing most of the names in DBZ (Tenshinhan to Tien and Kamehameha to Kame Hame Ha). I was in complete rage when NONE, not one scrap, of the original music was kept. Sure, most of the music is quiet, BUT it is better to build up emotion instead of playing a keyboard really loud to keep kids. I'm sure most of us know of Gohan's SSJ2 Transformation. Instead of Spirit VS Spirit, a VERY good song, the FUNi people instead put in loud keyboard music. Although it was good... Spirit VS Spirit fit better. MUCH BETTER. But why am I ranting about FUNi and Saban? What about the companies like Bandai, Gainax, and Pioneer? They must have SOME problems right? Yes and No. Bandai did a really good translation and so did Gainax. But in one episode of Sailor Moon, Pioneer ( or is it Cloverway) censored a scene when Usagi/Serena was riding a car. What could be censored?! Usagi wasn't wearing a seatbelt, that's why. I've seen MUCH horrible things like Heero on the ground after self-destructing, but did Pioneer have to censor that? If you wanna censor an anime, do it right! Do it the Bandai or Gainax way!
But there are reasons why I hate censorship of Gundam Wing. Even CENSORSHIP OF ANIME ITSELF IS A PROBLEM. If you have seen the Powerpuff Girls on CN, you'll notice there's A LOT of blood and gore. No cursing, but a lot of content we can see. It really makes me hate America. ARE AMERICANS RACIST?! THEY DON'T CENSOR THE EXTREME BLOOD OF PPG, BUT THEY STILL CENSOR THE LITTLE BLOOD IN GUNDAM WING?! And you might be thinking, well anime has some certain four-letter words! They MUST censor THAT! Well, you're wrong. In the Japanese language, THERE ARE NO SWEAR WORDS! Besides some minor profanity like damn, bastard, and bitch there are NO OTHER CUSS WORDS. I've seen Simpsons and heard more cuss words than an episode of unedited Gundam W. Heck the companies even censor the word GOD, but the Simpsons refer to GOD without censorship a lot of times. Besides, most anime is on Cable/Satalite! We have to PAY for anime from Japan! I mean we could at least see it unedited!
So what am I saying? I hate censorship, but it's always done. So I can't stop censorship completely because angry parents with pitchforks will come to the CN building and demand the "trash" to be removed. What I can't stop hating is that most of these parents probably let their children watch Powerpuff Girls. It's disgusting, hypocrites everywhere. But of course, I'm also a hypocrite myself, but not in those terms. So censoring is acceptale IF DONE RIGHT! So in conclusion, censorship of anime is NEVER good. Censorship only goes as high as "Acceptable", and that's with companies like Bandai and Gainax. I will only put censored animes in the "Good" range when it gets as close to the original content as possible, and so slight blood is shown. But until that time comes, I'll be right here, ranting about the evils of censorship...
UPDATE: A very good theory on censorship is posted at www.theory.org.uk/effects.htm
