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Editing of anime in distribution

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When anime is brought to the United States, it is sometimes edited (in audios or visuals). In this case, "editing" means changing the audios or visuals in anime from the original Japanese versions (except for dubbing, or re-recording the voices in English).

Editing can include, but is not limited to, censorship; "censorship in anime" is a somewhat pejorative term for the process of localization, specifically for an American audience, of television shows which originate from different cultures and under different ground rules which may be more liberal in some respects. Because much of the current cultural imports originate from Japan, "censorship in anime" is most often associated with that country (and specifically anime and manga [Japanese comic books]). However, "censorship in anime" is also demonstrated in imports from other countries.

Anime is sometimes edited:

  • in order to “Americanize” it, so as to make it more accessible to American audiences.
  • in order to make it more youth-accessable.
  • in order to allow it to meet standards for American television broadcast.
  • in order to follow laws and other rules and regulations.
  • in order to adhere to cultural sensitivities.

Most anime produced for the United States is left uncut, but editing in it is still controversial among some fans; however, editing is advocated by some parents. Many fans feel that editing tampers with a great art form, but many parents support editing so that children may be able to watch anime.

Types of changes

Cultural references

For easier access to American audiences, some anime is modified to state or imply that it takes place within the United States or a fictionalized country resembling the United States or that it is American-made.

This may be done through changing flags and references to country, or in more subtle ways, such as through modifying food or other products. Sometimes, companies will change Japanese writing to English. For example, the Japanese newspaper at the end of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is changed to the American "New York Times." Also, in the first American version of the early episodes of Dragon Ball, the Japanese money is changed to American money. A company might also erase English words, as in episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, in which the words "Kaiba Corporation" on things belonging to that company were removed. Characters' names are sometimes changed during the editing process to reflect "American" names rather than foreign ones. For example, in the Japanese version of Pokémon, Ash Ketchum's name is Satoshi.

Although once common, this process has steadily been on the decline, as the Japanese origins of the shows have gradually become something to be celebrated and acknowledged by popular culture, rather than viewed as a barrier to local audiences. Consequently, fewer companies are carrying this process out, although 4Kids Entertainment remains the primary company associated with the elimination of Japanese aspects from their programming (however, they did decide to keep most of the original Japanese names in One Piece).

Drugs, alcohol, and tobacco

It is not legal in the United States to market alcohol and tobacco products to children, and this generally means that American producers avoid showing them at all on television in time slots at times at which children could be watching.

In Tenchi Muyo! for example, this was done by changing sake, a type of Japanese alcoholic beverage, to tea, and airbrushing out cigarettes (note that, while this was done for the Cartoon Network Toonami version, the series was first shown uncut on KTEH). In Naruto, however, the Kage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves is shown smoking a pipe, and the bridge builder is shown drinking alcohol (although the kanji on the bottle and the redness in his cheeks were removed). In the anime One Piece, Dr. Kureha was drinking a bottle of alcohol, but the dialogue was changed to make it seem as if she was drinking "bug juice" "loaded with sugar."

Violence, death, and weapons

File:HelmeppoEdit OnePiece.jpg
A screenshot of a scene from the edited English version of One Piece, which shows an example of editing of weapons – in the original Japanese version, Helmeppo is pointing a pistol at Koby's head.

While cartoons can be meant for any age group in Japan, it is more often than not thought of primarily as a children's medium in the United States. This means that some companies modify anime for children or a company has to edit anime for TV, and violence, death, and weapons are often removed from programs to be shown to children.

Blood is sometimes either digitized out or scenes depicting blood are removed entirely. Whenever there is violence, such as physical contact with spell blasts, punches, or kicks, the violence will often be obscured by covering it up, making a shattering effect in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh!, or skipping a scene altogether.

On certain shows, death is either never mentioned, covered by some supernatural means (e.g., the "Shadow Realm" in Yu-Gi-Oh! or "Another Dimension" in early episodes of Dragon Ball Z), or the plot of the show is changed so that the death never happened (e.g., having Maria in Sonic X be captured by military forces, instead of being killed by G.U.N. soldiers as is told in the game's canon).

Rather than removing weapons altogether, they are sometimes modified to be less recognizable. For example, shuriken, throwing blades or stars, may be changed to nondescript glowing discs. Firearms are sometimes modified into laser guns. For example, several guns shown in an edited version of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed are referred to as "Disco Guns" by fans.

Nudity and sexuality

Nudity and sexuality are almost always edited out for anime that will be shown to children. Nudity of any kind is not permitted on American broadcast TV pre-watershed, although it has less of a stigma in Japan and some other parts of the world. The use of any clothing that would show off too much skin for female characters is also forbidden.

In some series, such as Dragon Ball Z, nudity has been dealt with through the Austin Powers approach of painting in foreground objects to hide inappropriate bits. In others, such as Tenchi Muyo!, bathing suits have been painted in to hide nudity or additional clothing has been digitally painted on to help make clothing less revealing. In Sailor Moon, all the senshi (except for Moon and Chibi-Moon) had body lines in their transformations. These lines were wiped out, with only the line that seperated their legs left as is. Mention of sex is sometimes toned down to just "hugs and kisses." Scenes of a male character that have perverted natures may be changed to remove offensive material. One example of this is with the Dragon Ball character Muten-Rôshi; many of his lines were changed to make them less offensive. Another example was Rei's grandfather from Sailor Moon, who's lines were also changed.

Religion

Some elements of anime have been edited because of their cultural sensitivity, religion included.

In order to avoid showing preference for a particular religion, religious symbols such as crosses are sometimes removed. The word "Bible" is sometimes removed from Bibles. References to Heaven and Hell are also sometimes removed. Names of certain monsters are sometimes altered to disconnect them from their religious origins. Hell was replaced with "HFIL (Home for Infinite Losers)" in Dragon Ball Z. Another example of this is in the episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! in which Pegasus and Yami Yugi dueled in the "Shadow Realm (originally, they dueled in Hell)." Demonic imagery is sometimes removed or toned down. Things such as pentagrams are either changed, obscured, or have points added to them to make them decagrams.

Cultural sensitivity

Occasionally a series from outside the United States will inadvertently use what we might consider a "politically incorrect racial or ethnic stereotype." Other "touchy" issues might be altered as well.

In episodes of Shaman King, a symbol that looked like the Nazi swastika symbol (actually an ancient Sanskrit religious symbol representing "life, sun, power, strength, and good luck") was edited, so as not to offend audiences for whom this symbol might carry a negative association.

More rare examples of cultural sensitivity sometimes work the other way: a positive stereotype for Japanese is removed for American audiences. For example, two lesbian superheroes in the Sailor Moon series (Sailors Neptune and Uranus) were changed to "cousins" in the American version, so as to avoid showing a homosexual female couple. Also in this series, the character Zoicite was changed to a woman due to "his" relationship with the character Kunzite (Malachite in the dub) .

Plot

Plots have been sometimes changed to American distributors' likings.

In the case of Robotech, one part of the three-part series, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, was originally aired in Japan as a weekly series. Harmony Gold USA, the American company that produced Robotech [1], decided to combine it with two other weekly series, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, in order to make a show that had enough episodes to market it as a daily series on American syndicated television. Despite this, Robotech is considered among the first anime in America to preserve the complexity and drama of the anime from which it came.

Sometimes, scenes or episodes are cut or edited. For example, thirty-two episodes of One Piece have been removed altogether, making episode number ninety in the Japanese version episode number fifty-eight in the American verison.

It is also possible to change the plot of an anime through dialogue. An example of this is in the show Yu Yu Hakusho in the final fight between Yusuke Urameshi and the Younger Toguro. We see the faces of Yusuke and Toguro, and they are talking. In a shot of Yusuke, we see his girlfreind, Kayko Yukimura, in the background. The dialogue between Yusuke and Toguro, in which Yuskuke talks about how he and Kayko will grow old together, is added in the American version.

Openings/closings

Changing the visuals of the openings and/or closings is not considered editing, because they are not considered real parts of the show, as is evident by the fact that FUNimation changed the Japanese credits in the show Yu Yu Hakusho to English ones, but described the show's DVD's as "uncut [the bottoms of the front covers of most of the uncut DVD's read, "UNCUT EPISODES"]."

The opening of Dragon Ball Z was completely remade. A company might also leave in the Japanese credits but subtitle them with English translations, as in Samurai X: The Motion Picture. If the Japanese opening or closing song is retained, a company might add in English subtitles, as in Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie, which was done by AnimeWorks.

Titles/names

Shortening titles

Sometimes companies, notably FUNimation Entertainment, will change the titles of episodes, specials, movies, or other things, because Japanese titles are sometimes much longer than English titles, or because Japanese titles sometimes do not clearly summarize the content of episodes, movies, specials, or other things.

For example, the Dragon Ball GT special is, in Japanese, "Goku Sidestory!: The Proof of His Courage is the Si Xing Qiu [Four-Star Ball]," so it was changed to "A Hero's Legacy." Also, the thirteenth episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! is, in Japanese, "Morphing Jar's Trap: Flame Swordsman's Narrow Escape," although that action took place in one turn of the card game, equalling to less than a minute, so it was changed to "Evil Spirit of the Ring," describing the evil side of Bakura, who was dueling Yami Yugi.

In the shows Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT, the name of the martial arts tournament in which the characters compete is, in Japanese, "Tenkaichi Budoukai," which translates, literally, to the long, elaborate "Heavens Under First Fighting Way of Meeting," so it was changed to just "World Tournament."

Untranslated titles

Sometimes, the titles of shows or other names are not translated.

Shows notable for this include Yu Yu Hakusho (although the show logo has the subtitle "Ghost Files," which is one translation of it; one of the two movies, done by a different studio from that of the show, U.S. Manga Corps, was translated to "Poltergeist Report") and Yu-Gi-Oh! (which translates to "The King of Games"). We do not see this as often as one might expect, because, often, the original Japanese titles of anime are in English, as is the case with Fruits Basket, One Piece, and Perfect Blue (although, technically, the Romanization of the titles would be an attempt at pronouncing the English words), or because the title of the show is the name of a character, as in Naruto or Lupin III. Other things are sometimes not translated, like the card in Yu-Gi-Oh! "Jinzo," which can be translated to "Cyborg" or "Android."

Changing names/titles

Sometimes, the titles of shows and names of characters are completely changed. For example, the show Case Closed was, in Japanese, "Detective Conan," and the first English version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was Warriors of the Wind (although Disney made an uncut release with the original Japanese title). Also, names of characters are sometimes completely changed to "American" names in order to make anime more accessible to American audiences, like the name change in Yu-Gi-Oh! of Katsuya Jonouchi to the "American" name Joey Wheeler.

Changing the spellings of names/titles

Some names of characters have been changed because those characters' names were copyrighted. Examples include the change of "Mighty Atom" to "Astro Boy" in the anime Astro Boy ("Mighty Atom" sounded similar to the name of an already-existing comic book character); "Roronoa Zoro" to "Roronoa Zolo" in One Piece (the spelling of "Zoro" is similar to that of the Spanish swordsman in film, "Zorro"); "Gonzo Tarukane" to "Gonzu Tarukane" in Yu Yu Hakusho ("Gonzo" being the Muppet – although the English version of the manga got away with keeping the name "Gonzo"); and "Pocket Monster" to "Pokémon" (the words "Pocket Monster" were already owned by Universal Studios).

More rarely, a company might decide to change the spelling of the Romanized forms of Japanese names, so that the names can be more easily read by English-speaking viewers. One example of this is the name change from "Keiko Yukimura" to "Kayko Yukimura" in the show YuYu Hakusho. In Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT, there was a name change from "Yamucha" to "Yamcha," as the letter "u" in the name is silent. Also in those same shows, the name "Kuririn" was changed to "Krillin." The first "u" was taken out because it was also silent, and since it would be hard for English speakers to say "Kririn," the second "r" was changed to two "l"s (two, in order to make the first "i" a short vowel), as "r"s and "l"s are very similar in Japanese pronunciation.

Audios

Music or dialogue is sometimes added to moments of silence, as in several English-language versions of Studio Ghibli features. Music is sometimes replaced entirely, as in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. Other times, Japanese dialogue in theme songs is replaced with English (such as in Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball), or the theme music is replaced, but the background music remains unchanged (as in Naruto). In some cases, all of the music is completely unchanged (as in most of the Gundam series).

Current state

In recent years, a greater emphasis has been placed on releasing (or re-releasing) anime with fewer changes, especially on DVD, where there are fewer content limitations. Often, these releases (such as the Disney releases of Studio Ghibli productions) include both English-dubbed versions and the original Japanese versions, usually with subtitles.

Most anime produced for the United States today is left uncut, but a lot uncut anime is only released on DVD; many anime shown on television, such as One Piece, are still edited. That being said, most major distribution companies leave anime completely uncut, although they may make edited versions for televsion, as is the case with the show Yu Yu Hakusho.

Controversy

Many fans object to this editing on artistic grounds, claiming that modifying elements of the original stories amounts to tampering with works of art. Additionally, many fans feel that they do not get the genuine Japanese cultural learning experience they might have gotten had the anime been left uncut. Some object because editing is usually done without consulting the original creators of the anime that are edited. On the other hand, many fans are just glad to have anime in the United States and would rather have edited anime than no anime at all.

There was a large enough fan-base against the editing in the anime Yu-Gi-Oh!, that, by petitioning for years, fans were able to convince 4Kids Entertainment, the company that handled the show in America, to release uncut versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! onto DVD, with the original music, the original Japanese versions with English subtitles, and a new dubbed version with a more faithful translation, with the first two DVD volumes released in 2004 and the third in 2005. But the making of these uncut versions stopped after three DVD's. The anti-editing fan-base of Shaman King, also produced in America by 4Kids Entertainment, was also large enough for 4Kids Entertainment to release the same type of uncut DVD's for that show; the releasing of these DVD's also discontinued, but after two DVD's, which were released in 2004.

One argument against censorship that has been brought up by some fans is the case of the Italian company Dynit (formerly Dynamic Italia), which released the widely-popular, but notoriously-controversial, Neon Genesis Evangelion uncut and uncensored with great success.

Original creators' thoughts

The original creators of the anime that have been edited are usually not directly notified of the editing. It is up to the studios/copyright owners of anime as to whether or not to allow editing in their anime, and the ample number of anime edited for the United States would seem to indicate that the studios/copyright owners normally do not object.

There is, however, one case in which an original anime creator and studio have voiced objections to the editing process in their anime. Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most renowned anime feature film creators of all time, his film Spirited Away being the top-grossing film of all time in Japan and one of his previous films, Princess Mononoke, holding the same title some time before, before being replaced by Titanic. He and his studio, Studio Ghibli, objected when their film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was severely edited by New World Pictures in the mid 1980's and released under the new title Warriors of the Wind on video and shown on HBO. About one-quarter of the film was cut, its lead character Nausicaa (Naushika) renamed "Princess Zandra," and its storyline simplified somewhat. Acording to rumors, the voice actors and actresses who dubbed the English dialogue were not informed of the story's plotline.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli were unaware of this editing to the film, and were very unhappy about it. They asked those who had viewed the edited version "to dismiss it from [their] minds." As a result of this experience, Studio Ghibli instituted a policy of never allowing a foreign company to edit any of its films prior to release in a new market. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was re-released, uncut, with its original title, by Disney, in 2005.

In February 2006, Cartoon Network aired Spirited Away (also produced by Studio Ghibli) with a TV-PG V rating, as the film contained some graphic violence (one scene had a character covered in a considerable amount of blood). Due to Studio Ghibli's strict "no-edits" policy, Cartoon Network had to run the film uncut, and took a risk by showing the film during their Friday's children's block (with an encore the following Sunday evening). No problems came about, however, and Cartoon Network did not receive any complaints. Cartoon Network re-aired the film on March 18, 2006, during Toonami's "A Month of Miyazaki."

Along with this Cartoon Network felt cofident, and went with the showing of Princess Mononoke which was rated TV-14 V rating. The movie was uncut including all blood and gore, with a few objectional words. It was aired during the "Month of Miyazaki". It has not aired on CN since.

Sites that compare and contrast the edited English and original Japanese versions of anime

Other Sites

Articles

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