Ask John: What Criteria Does Japan Use for Censoring Anime?

Question:
I’ve recently been watching Sekirei. Being of the ecchi and harem genres, the show had a lot of fan service but made sure to self-censor itself regularly. However, episode nine (the most recent episode) did away with this practice and had no less than three different women baring their breasts to the camera unobscured. I was surprised at the change regarding what the show allowed. On further thought, there seems to be something of a disparity in anime regarding what should and should not be censored. For example, the Ranma 1/2 anime had no problem with showing bare-breasted women. However, the anime of Kodomo no Jikan censored not only images of girls in bloomers, but also words like “virgin.” Is there not a single standard in the anime industry regarding what is an is not acceptable for broadcast on television? Why are some shows censored fairly conservatively, while others are allowed to be fairly brazen?

Answer:
The censorship applied to anime in Japan has changed over the years, probably in response to social changes in Japanese society. When anime was still a relatively internalized niche product in the 1980s and 90s, anime seemed to be able to “get away” with less scrutiny. However, as the profile of anime became more apparent in the 2000s, and national and international attention became more conscious of anime, the anime itself didn’t change its standards, but major Japanese television networks did become more conscious of the content of the anime they broadcast. Censorship is also applied unevenly to anime broadcast on Japanese television because individual networks maintain their own, unique standards.

During the 1980s and 90s, graphic nudity was more commonplace in anime than it is now. Topless females in the Ranma 1/2 television series are a good example. However, since the early 2000s much of the anime broadcast on Japanese television seems to have become a bit more conservative, possibly in response to criticism from parents and other mainstream television viewers. Americans don’t often hear of Japanese viewers complaining about offensive content in broadcast anime, but such complaints do occur. The censorship of TV anime became especially noticeable in 2004 when the Fuji TV network instituted a policy of heavily censoring anime it broadcast. The spring 2004 broadcast of Gantz ~the first stage~ on the Fuji TV network was so drastically censored to eliminate graphic violence that the show felt practically unwatchable. The show moved the broadcast of its second season to the AT-X network and aired uncensored. The summer broadcast of Girls Bravo earned the nickname “steamgirls” because the Fuji TV network demanded that graphic nudity during bathing scenes be obscured by digitally added steam. The series’ second season moved to broadcast on the WOWOW network, where it aired uncensored.

2004 was also the year that the original opening animation for the Area 88 television series was accused of containing subliminal sexual imagery because it included a split second shot of a naked female character. In response to critical outrage, the opening was censored by having the shot removed.

More recent examples of widely known censorship imposed on broadcast Japanese television anime include the color of blood being changed in the final episode of the 2007 School Days television series, potentially offensive shots being censored, and even potentially shocking words like “virgin” being “bleeped out” throughout the 2007 Kodomo no Jikan television series, and the 2008 Kamen no Maid Guy television series airing uncensored on the AT-X satellite TV network, but censored on other channels.

Since anime television series are frequently carried by different television networks in different regions of Japan, individual broadcasters determine their own individual broadcast standards. Typically premium networks like AT-X and WOWOW are less prone to censor anime, but in unusual instances, even terrestrial networks can be exceptions. For a specific example, the sixth episode of the 2007 Moetan television series was pulled from nationwide broadcast because it was considered too risque, and the primary broadcast of the remaining episodes on the Chiba TV network included partially censored magical girl transformations. However, the TV Aichi network broadcast episodes with fully uncensored transformation sequences; sequences that aren’t even included on the commercial Japanese DVD release!

In terms of precisely what gets censored, Japanese broadcast standards are similar to those of America, although a bit more liberal. Explicit, gratuitous nudity, overt sexuality, and intense violence are the most common targets of Japanese censorship. Such content is even less permissible in American broadcast animation. Typically American television animation prohibits profanity while foul language, which isn’t especially common in Japanese television anime anyway, is usually allowed. Cigarettes and smoking are prohibited in American broadcast animation but accepted in Japanese broadcast animation. Both American and Japanese networks have, in the past, pre-empted the broadcast of “sensitive” anime episodes in response to real world circumstances, but this sort of “censoring” is motivated by considerate tact rather than pre-emptive financial, political, or legal motivation.