Why is Anime brought to America having most of the violence and gore cut out?

[imkongkong]

Why do you think this is so? Many anime, such as dbz, have been cut from many violent scenes and such. Other countries in fact have much violence and such on their cartoons and TV. Why is it in America, then, are there much more crimes and killings happening, even with these cuts?

If you ever heard of David Moore, he did a documentary called Farenheit 9/11. One of his earlier movies was called Bowling for Columbine. Everyone should go out and watch Bowling for Columbine, where he talks about this issue. It seems that mostly in the American media, people are being pumped full of fear daily. The show COPS shows all these criminals getting arrested. In the news it talks about rapists, shootings, etc. The media talks about how you have to lock your doors at night. Heck even in some areas in Canada, they leave their doors open. Damn american media! ;/ ahah.. seriously thoe.

[Rayna]

Well I think Michael Moore's work is ok but you've got to have a brain of yourself too, dont just take everything he sais for granted without thinking it trough yourself just because it sounds inteligent.
All the gore and stuff is cut out because it is considered unhealthy and kids are considered sensitive and easy to have influence on. But then they make them watch hours of Teletubbies and other brain damaging shows.
Kids should be taking more seriously from a younger age and not have that thik shell they have all those years. Not that we should make them watch more violence thou >_> dont get me wrong.

[Hash]

Well, anime is watched by a wider audience in japan. In fact, a lot of anime is geared towards an older age group, not just kids, but when anime is brought over to north america, they change the target audience from whatever it was to young children, like ages 8-12 or something. Of course, to do this they need to tone down the violence or whatever is in it that isn't appropriate for younger audiences. It's like taking an R rated movie, and changing it so it can be presented as PG.

[Rocky]

Well, anime is watched by a wider audience in japan. In fact, a lot of anime is geared towards an older age group, not just kids, but when anime is brought over to north america, they change the target audience from whatever it was to young children, like ages 8-12 or something. Of course, to do this they need to tone down the violence or whatever is in it that isn't appropriate for younger audiences. It's like taking an R rated movie, and changing it so it can be presented as PG.

I think you covered it exactly. Japanese anime is for a mature audience. They take it a lot more seriously then cartoons in America etc. I'm not sure if this is only Australia but over here Mr. Satan is called Hercule. Which I think is even more censored then most countries.

[Hibiki]

it is like that because most of the places who pick up the animes gear it towards younger children so they have more of an audience and thus can make more money

theres no conspiracy behind it they just want it accessable to as many people as possible

[imkongkong]

I think you covered it exactly. Japanese anime is for a mature audience. They take it a lot more seriously then cartoons in America etc. I'm not sure if this is only Australia but over here Mr. Satan is called Hercule. Which I think is even more censored then most countries.

why do you think the japanese populas are is able to have the more violent uncensored scenes and they think nothing of it? doesn't that tell you about cultural differences, plus values and such. why would the japanese culture be more mature towards that kind of stuff, when for instance, it's blocked in US?

[*Atlas*]

Well I think Michael Moore's work is ok but you've got to have a brain of yourself too, dont just take everything he sais for granted without thinking it trough yourself just because it sounds inteligent.


Nicely said. Too many times have I heard people and friends come up after seeing his movie(s) and say "Man, bush is an idiot!" leaving me to hit my head on the wall and think "Christ I hope you didnt base your opinion from the movie!".

I personally dislike Michael Moore, I honestly feel that his films are propaganda movies, he removes any details which defer blame away from the republican party and exagerates details which are a result of the republican party or systems used whilst under their governing. He is an avid democratic member, and his films depict this, and this form of film making is comparable to the same discrediting tactics used by nazi propaganda in the 30s and 40s.

As for the censoring of anime, yeah I feel that its a huge shame, because along with the removal of adult content is the removal of complex story lines. Relationships are not the same, hatred is not the same, action scenes are not the same, characters are not the same?, its all dimmed down. I feel DBZ couldve been something really big (it is already i guess) but in a way of having complex story lines, building a solid DBZ universe rather than one filled with holes.

What got me hooked on DBZ (before I actually started watching the series) was seeing Bardock's Story - I thought Wow! A merciless and sadistic warlord named Frieza! Commanding many races and mercenaries! Using them to conquer far off planets and exterminate other races! A saiyan merc who is superceding Frieza's elite forces, and who has sealed his and the fate of his race due to Frieza's paranoia! His crew murdered and himself close to death, the saiyan must intercept Frieza before its too late, this is great!

I enjoyed that movie, but it couldve been alot more, the character's couldve been built upon more, their personality characteristics more 3D rather bad guy good guy 2D, and perhaps a more compelling storyline as a result. In saying all this though, it still hooked me, the basic story was good, but i still was hungry for a more engaging story line.

[Rocky]

why do you think the japanese populas are is able to have the more violent uncensored scenes and they think nothing of it? doesn't that tell you about cultural differences, plus values and such. why would the japanese culture be more mature towards that kind of stuff, when for instance, it's blocked in US?

I think there's a sterotype in most western countries that animation and cartoons in any shape or form is designed and solely entertaining for children and younger audiences. With this said, the companies that license anime do it thinking that it is intended for children and will screen it at times when children are most likely to watch. Of course this means that it needs to censored so that the children don't get bad ideas. I think western culture could learn to really appreciate animation if given the chance, but with the sterotypes as they are, it is unlikely that they will be given the chance to ever experience japanese animation in its original form. Perhaps if more people watch the censored version and develop a taste for anime they will be more willing to try more. I'm quite sure many western anime fans were originally dragonball fans who decided to delve deeper into this genre, I know I was.

[Morpherex]

it is like that because most of the places who pick up the animes gear it towards younger children so they have more of an audience and thus can make more money

theres no conspiracy behind it they just want it accessable to as many people as possible
Here's why........... American parents are too over ****ing protective.

[Hibiki]

Here's why........... American parents are too over ****ing protective.

no it has nothing to do with parents or anything like that


the companies that release the animes remove extreme violence and such so that way they can sell their products to more people thus earning them more money

[The Cheese]

Its just the typical American greed syndrome.

[Tassadar]

Michael more is a stupid, fat, white man. No one should ever take anything he has to say seriously. There is a censoring problem in the U.S., it's out of control. The FCC is thinking of fining ABC for showing the bare back of some chick on a commercial. Things are getting out of hand. Cultures are different in other places. Things are more accepted in Japan. If someone sees somethign that they've never seen before, and they don't like it, they're going to complain.

Not all censorship is bad, however. Things can still be watched and enjoyed without the gore, as we see that in DBZ, most people here heard of it through Toonami, and still enjoyed the censored version. Yeah, censorship in the case of anime sucks, and it would be nice to have an Adult Swim channel, but until then, we have to settle for watching subs or staying up late, there's nothing we can really do about it.

[Mortenl]

well in Denmark its just like america... it is censored and its just BAAAD!! DBZ is still in TV atm and when i watch it i think, hell thats just worse than crap...

like:
1: they changed the cool battle music into flutes and other nasty crappy instruments!
2: the language is something like this, instead of saying: I hate u because u killed all my friends DIEEE its changed to: oh, he "knocked my friends uncouncious" i better stop him before doing more damage!
3: and the colours has been changed to some very bright colours so it isn't that scary!
4: all voices is almost made of small childrens!
5: alot of the screaming has been removed! now its just empty mouth animations without sound :P

[Aurek]

Its worse in the UK, not only is the voice acting not as good as the Funimation (american) versions but more is cut.

As has been said before the reason this happens is because in Japan animation is just another medium in witch to tell a story. So you have drama, action, and even adult (erotic) films and series that are animated. Some is geared for children and some (Shonen i.e DBZ) for teenagers, others are made for a more adult audience (Shinin i.e Ghost in the shell).

However in the west animation is regarded as being only for childrens cartoons. And since they assume no one but children will be interested in anything animated (and they are mostly right) they market the shows for children and thus have to cut the more mature images and themes.

In order for this to change some things have to change, though it dosent look like they ever will.

a) Either the majority of people in the west need to change their attitudes to animation as a medium or
b) A company needs to come along that knows and respects the Anime they show and to show that anime un-edited at appropriate times with appropriate warnings.

Wow Mortenl you have it bad. Its far worse in denmark than it is in the US or UK.

[Mortenl]

i know.. its hard to be a danish-man ;) lol...

well... i would love if some company tryed to show un-edited animes at the afternoon where all kids is sleeping so "only" adults/teens get to see the animes :D maybe that would change the western oppinions of cartoon-is-only-a-childrens-thing :)

[Morpherex]

no it has nothing to do with parents or anything like that


the companies that release the animes remove extreme violence and such so that way they can sell their products to more people thus earning them more money
And you know this how? Look at the words that can not be said on tv. Look at what can not be shown on tv. They can show a baby's ass, but not a full grown womans. They can show tits, but they have to blur out the nipples.

[Super_vegito34]

Not all violence is taken out of anime, here in Australia cowboy bebop is shown on cable at about 10:30pm with still a lot of blood and gore.....but anime such as dbz shown in the mornings when kids watch them before school, the blood is taken out....

[Hitokiri]

Ahh so many things. Look:

Hash and Rocky have it on the ball. The fact is that the vast majority of people in the U.S (over young ages) don't have any interest in anime, and if you kept it totally uncut, you would not get a lot of viewers, as the more mature audience would still be disinterested and the younger audiences would be ushered away by their mommies. By censoring it and putting it on after-schoolish times, they were able to hook a lot of people who otherwise might've not been able to view it. Look at this forum. A crapload of the members probobly got into anime, period, because of "OMG FUNI'S ****ING AWFUL RUINED VERSION OF DBZ." <--- actually, let me correct myself. It's not that a Western audience would never appreciate anime. Hell, if you put some really good anime, primetime on Fox or something, there might be an anime SENSATION or some crap. But the thing is, executives think the way I just explained. According to "statistics" and blah blah blah, they believe an older American audience would never give a crap about some cartoon show.

People love to argue about video games/TV's influence on children. It's simple fact that we are shaped by our experiences, and frankly, I have seen children do and say stupid things because of something they saw/played, TV or otherwise. Children are stupid and impressionable, and sometimes parents can't do much about it. Is it bad parenting? Maybe. Some people need to work a lot to keep their family off the streets, are you going to point fingers at them? TV raises our kids in society today, which is why censorship organizations are created, because people need to control the media so 5 year olds can't watch Japanese diarrhea porno when they flip past Disney.

People talk about how we should expose them, because they'll just find it all out anyway. Just keep in mind: children are sensitive. If I sat down with my 6 year old little cousin, and watched like... Fist of the North Star, or something just filled with death and gore, she would probobly have nightmares for weeks. The point is, that if society decides to completely NUMB it's youth against extreme violence and/or sex by throwing little kids into the fray, then it's all over. Sometimes just explaining it simply doesn't work.

Morpherex, your statement is foolish. Rules are decided by consensus opinions of large groups of people (i.e SOCIETY). I don't know about you, but a baby's ass and nipples, on the large part, are not considered by most people to be a very sexual image. Whereas a woman's ass/tits would be. Boobs are an odd thing, but I guess as long as you don't see the nippies, then it's not nudity, and that's simply how society works. I mean it's not like men can show the shaft of their happy stick, but cover up the glans; however, this is a hypocrisy seen in culture itself, not just the media.

Words that cannot be shown: the list is getting smaller and smaller, but that aside, is it really right to train children into calling each other "farm animal copulating female orifice cleaner sluts?" I can't really give an example here, heh. The point is, that people want to instill values, and it's a lot easier to not have them influenced by crap like swearing like a sailor, then being forced to correct them over and over when they figure out new words like "queef." When you're older, you can make your own decisions as to what's appropriate. But you can't trust dumb little kids with that kind of responsibility; to see lots of gore, but not to take for granted the value of life, or to see lots of sex, but not to objectify women or degrade the value of love. In the end it's about responsibility and comprehension of these things. That's all part of -maturity-, and maturity is something little kids don't have.

[Evil_Trunks]

Almost all anime that does come over here isn't censored by the dubbers. It's usually the network that censors it. Although some groups, such as Funi, have taken it upon themselves to cut the vast majority of stuff out.

If you go buy anime on DVD, none of the stuff is cut out. All the gory, sexy details are all there to enjoy.

Keep in mind I posted without having read all the other stuff people posted. xD

[Xenogias]

In my opinion, kids ages 3-10 should just get a taste of reality by traumatizing them with Berserk - Episode 25. I mean, really, its ****ing pathetic.

When I was a kid I hardly knew as many things as kids knew about these days.

These days I see kids like, ages 6-8 saying (Yeah I know what a pussy is, I know how kids are born, and I have seen porn videos!). They just get fed all of this crap really fast nowadays when they grow up. Even when I was in Elementary school I would curse at my Teacher and be a mean little son of a *****.

It doesn't matter what you watch, I think any fool (even a kid) can tell reality from a ****ing cartoon. When I was watching Ren & Stimpy cartoons back in the days I wasn't thinking about crawling up someones ass and then exploring their insides. I was trying to make my head pop by poking it with a needle. Its just plain retarted...

And for some odd reason I have a feeling religious people have something to do with this, always being all careful and holy and ****... man, im mad...

[KyoKusanagi]

Which groups are first to criticise anything foreign and unknown?

soccermoms
bible.com - these are some very scary people

when will people stop using popular culture as scapegoats for their own inadequate parenting?

[Xenogias]

Its a good thing I strayed off from my family... I mean my moms no hard core christian (she seems like a non-religious person, and she goes to church like once every 5 years). But the fact that she is religious at all --- I don' wanna get too close to my family.

If anything, its a good thing to beleive in god. But its a bad thing to beleive in Religion, who the **** ever said you had to be in a group just to beleive in god? Did the bible say you gotta be a jew/christian/catholic to beleive in god?

EDIT: Sorry I realized I went off-topic, got carried away... I like to debate about this whole religion/non-religion crap... like to hear everyones point of view :\ I also like to share my points :P

[MajinVegeta Tim]

most of the british i know agree with me that americans are odd
they have like no ethics but they have to cut out swearing, violence and what not.

i laugh at americans :D (no real offence to americans out there :P)

[Morpherex]

Ahh so many things. Look:

Hash and Rocky have it on the ball. The fact is that the vast majority of people in the U.S (over young ages) don't have any interest in anime, and if you kept it totally uncut, you would not get a lot of viewers, as the more mature audience would still be disinterested and the younger audiences would be ushered away by their mommies. By censoring it and putting it on after-schoolish times, they were able to hook a lot of people who otherwise might've not been able to view it. Look at this forum. A crapload of the members probobly got into anime, period, because of "OMG FUNI'S ****ING AWFUL RUINED VERSION OF DBZ." <--- actually, let me correct myself. It's not that a Western audience would never appreciate anime. Hell, if you put some really good anime, primetime on Fox or something, there might be an anime SENSATION or some crap. But the thing is, executives think the way I just explained. According to "statistics" and blah blah blah, they believe an older American audience would never give a crap about some cartoon show.

People love to argue about video games/TV's influence on children. It's simple fact that we are shaped by our experiences, and frankly, I have seen children do and say stupid things because of something they saw/played, TV or otherwise. Children are stupid and impressionable, and sometimes parents can't do much about it. Is it bad parenting? Maybe. Some people need to work a lot to keep their family off the streets, are you going to point fingers at them? TV raises our kids in society today, which is why censorship organizations are created, because people need to control the media so 5 year olds can't watch Japanese diarrhea porno when they flip past Disney.

People talk about how we should expose them, because they'll just find it all out anyway. Just keep in mind: children are sensitive. If I sat down with my 6 year old little cousin, and watched like... Fist of the North Star, or something just filled with death and gore, she would probobly have nightmares for weeks. The point is, that if society decides to completely NUMB it's youth against extreme violence and/or sex by throwing little kids into the fray, then it's all over. Sometimes just explaining it simply doesn't work.

Morpherex, your statement is foolish. Rules are decided by consensus opinions of large groups of people (i.e SOCIETY). I don't know about you, but a baby's ass and nipples, on the large part, are not considered by most people to be a very sexual image. Whereas a woman's ass/tits would be. Boobs are an odd thing, but I guess as long as you don't see the nippies, then it's not nudity, and that's simply how society works. I mean it's not like men can show the shaft of their happy stick, but cover up the glans; however, this is a hypocrisy seen in culture itself, not just the media.

Words that cannot be shown: the list is getting smaller and smaller, but that aside, is it really right to train children into calling each other "farm animal copulating female orifice cleaner sluts?" I can't really give an example here, heh. The point is, that people want to instill values, and it's a lot easier to not have them influenced by crap like swearing like a sailor, then being forced to correct them over and over when they figure out new words like "queef." When you're older, you can make your own decisions as to what's appropriate. But you can't trust dumb little kids with that kind of responsibility; to see lots of gore, but not to take for granted the value of life, or to see lots of sex, but not to objectify women or degrade the value of love. In the end it's about responsibility and comprehension of these things. That's all part of -maturity-, and maturity is something little kids don't have.
Foolish? I think not, and I also believe others think so too. But you are entitled to your opinion.
Rules are decided by consensus opinions of large groups of people
Yea, and this proves that America is way too overprotective. Remember the Janet Jackson thing? Stupid people *****ing about seeing a tit they didnt want to see. And the list of "Words that can not be shown" is not getting smaller and smaller.