Ask John: Why Is It So Hard To Find Unedited Anime?

Question:
I have been trying hard to find unedited anime (Rayearth, Tenchi Muyo, Dragon Ball) and I am beginning to think either there is none or I just don’t know where to look, so I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction.

Answer:
This depends on what you’re looking for and where you’re looking. Rayearth was partially edited due to Media Blasters’ inexperience with shoujo anime and Rayearth being their first major high-profile TV series release. The editing on Rayearth was compounded by requests from the original Japanese licensor not to use the original Japanese title screen, and the unavailability of some of the “dare desu ka” omake segments until the DVD release where they were included as a bonus feature. Dragonball is simply not available on unedited, unaltered home video anywhere, including Japan. The versions of Tenchi Muyo available through AnimeNation are the uncut, essentially unedited Japanese version, considering that changes to the original Japanese title screen and Japanese text credits in most anime are usually overlooked and not considered “editing.” If you’re a fanatic purist, the only way to get genuinely unedited or unaltered anime is to acquire a fansub version (and, of course, also support the anime industry by purchasing the legitimate official issue when it’s released) or import an untranslated Japanese home video version.

The Anime No Editing Zone strives to maintain a database of known alterations to American release anime, and the AnimeNation news pages strives to alert readers of known alterations to upcoming anime releases. You can always contact AnimeNation by e-mail or phone. We may not know everything about every domestic anime release, but we can try our best to answer your questions. You can also shop at AnimeNation with relative confidence knowing that we don’t want to watch edited anime any more than you do. AnimeNation does not carry edited versions of anime unless no uncut version is available.