Ask John: Is Anime Edited in Japan?

Question:
Is anime edited in Japan as much as it is in America. If it isn’t, why?

Answer:
Japan has very different standards for what is acceptable than America does, so generally anime is not edited in Japan except for essentially mandatory censoring of exposed genitalia. That censorship law applies to all Japanese media including live-action film and television and print magazines, not just anime.

Japan is not a Christian country, so does not have the ingrained Judeo-Cdhristian sense of shame over nudity or sex that most of the West does. For that reason it’s not unusual to see full nudity on Japanese late-night television and in anime. Japan does have child pornography laws and laws against prostitution, but in many cases, as long as there’s no real “harm” being done, these laws are rarely enforced as strictly as similar laws are enforced in the West. Japanese society generally assumes that it is a viewer’s own responsibility to be aware of what he/she is watching. For example, Japan does not have a film ratings board like the American MPAA or the British Movie Certification Board. While American movies may be rated G, PG, R or X, for example, Japan doesn’t have any similar sort of movie ratings system. In America, television broadcasting companies and the federal government, at the insistence of the American moral majority, require that television and home video generally be family friendly and not too controversial. In Japan, if an anime program is too extreme, companies won’t buy commercial broadcast time, and the studio will stop producing the anime because it’s not profitable. Otherwise, anime in Japan is virtually allowed to show whatever it wants to show. Even in the rare event of a film being considered too extreme for Japanese audiences, for example last year’s Battle Royale, a live-action revisionist Lord of the Flies satire of contemporary Japanese society, the film was still not edited or censored; however, the Japanese Prime Minister made a public appeal urging viewers not to watch the film (which, of course, turned it into an overnight worldwide sensation).

In America, anime gets edited for a number of reasons exclusive to America. Broadcast television anime is often censored because while it’s perfectly acceptable to present extreme graphic bloodshed or violence on Japanese television, anything more than the smallest suggestion of blood is considered taboo on American television. So a gaping hole in Goku’s chest when he sacrifices himself to kill Raditz in Dragonball Z is acceptable for a Japanese family/children’s show but must be digitally altered for American television. And gushing blood from an open wound may be acceptable in the Japanese television broadcast of Cowboy Bebop, but is considered too extreme a presentation of violence for even adult oriented American television. In American releases aimed for mass market appeal, for example the Street Fighter animated movie, graphic nudity must be edited out for the American release because the idea of nudity in a “cartoon” is simply too unacceptable for viewing by impressionable American children. In the case of Kite, a home video release, the forgiving standards of Japanese video simply don’t carry over to America. Footage that could be interpreted as a representation of child pornography is simply too offensive and threatening for American sensibilities and too likely to infringe on American legal prohibitions against representations of underage sexuality. While the Japanese release was intended for only adult viewers, and was clearly understood to be a piece of fiction, these scenes had to be removed for the American version because in America even purely fictional material clearly marketed exclusively to adult consumers is still considered “obscene” and illegal if it’s too morally objectionable to any average American adult.

And then there are also cases of editing in America that have nothing to do with American morality or marketing. The American release of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series is missing one episode simply because Japanese Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino thought that the series was more cohesive with the episode in question excised from the story. The first half of the original Slayers TV series is missing its eyecatch and previews because these elements were not supplied by the Japanese licensor. American versions of series including the Maze TV series and the 4 volume Sakura Diaries are “less risque” general audiences versions rather than the more “mature” versions because the American releases are mastered from the Japanese TV versions rather than the Japanese home video versions. The opening of the Rayearth TV series was edited and altered for the American version at the specific request of the Japanese licensor.

And then, of course, there’s the debate over whether the common exclusion of Japanese “honorables” and elements of Japanese culture in spoken dialogue, changed for American translations, should be counted as editing. It may be argued that changing “Tenchi-sama” to “Lord Tenchi,” retains the intention of the original dialogue. But at the same time it’s equally valid to say that such translation choices do not reflect the subtleties in meaning inherent in the original Japanese dialogue, and to varying degree, alter character’s characterizations, relationships and personalities. Changing terms like “sensei,” “oniisan,” and “oneesan” to proper names may retain the meaning of the original dialogue, but “edits out” the background aspect of politeness, respect and communal spirit characteristic of Japanese culture expressed through such subtleties in speach.

So, while domestic anime is regularly edited for a number of reasons, a simple difference in cultural values prevents most anime released in Japan from being edited. Japanese culture is more tolerant of certain things than America is (and, of course, more discriminatory in other aspects than the West on certain matters) and is more respectful of anime as a legitimate art form deserving artistic integrity than most American importers, who consider anime little more than a dynamic marketable commodity.