Did Fuji TV air the original Dragon Ball anime completely uncensored?

[TechExpert2021]

The original Dragon Ball anime was infamous for having a large amount of inappropriate, sexual, and perverted material like Goku touching peoples' crotches to identify whether they're male or female, Bulma unknowingly showing her naked crotches towards Kamesennin (because Kamesennin asked Bulma to show him her panties), Bulma seducing General Blue by twerking at him (which didn't work in the end), Goku showing "his balls" towards Husky, General Blue being an absolute pedophile towards Obotchaman, and much more. Oh, and let's not forget Bulma flipping the middle finger towards Pilaf in episode 11. Because of all this, it makes me wonder: Did Fuji TV ever allow such material to be shown on the air? If they did, then why? Were there any Japanese broadcast regulations that prohibited these kinds of stuff from being shown on Japanese broadcast television at that time? If you happen to remember encountering such material when it was on the air in Japan or while watching VHS/Betamax recordings of the series, please tell me.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The original Dragon Ball anime was infamous for having a large amount of inappropriate, sexual, and perverted material like Goku touching peoples' crotches to identify whether they're male or female, Bulma unknowingly showing her naked crotches towards Kamesennin (because Kamesennin asked Bulma to show him her panties), Bulma seducing General Blue by twerking at him (which didn't work in the end), Goku showing "his balls" towards Husky, General Blue being an absolute pedophile towards Obotchaman, and much more. Oh, and let's not forget Bulma flipping the middle finger towards Pilaf in episode 11. Because of all this, it makes me wonder: Did Fuji TV ever allow such material to be shown on the air? If they did, then why? Were there any Japanese broadcast regulations that prohibited these kinds of stuff from being shown on Japanese broadcast television at that time? If you happen to remember encountering such material when it was on the air in Japan or while watching VHS/Betamax recordings of the series, please tell me.

Your answer is this: Showa Era AKA It was the 80's

[MasenkoHA]

I.....how else do you think people knew the show was being censored for American kids when it didn't get a home video release until 2003 in Japan?

Why do you think other countries had to edit the show if a censored version for Japanese television already exist?

[Kunzait_83]

The original Dragon Ball anime was infamous for having a large amount of inappropriate, sexual, and perverted material like Goku touching peoples' crotches to identify whether they're male or female, Bulma unknowingly showing her naked crotches towards Kamesennin (because Kamesennin asked Bulma to show him her panties), Bulma seducing General Blue by twerking at him (which didn't work in the end), Goku showing "his balls" towards Husky, General Blue being an absolute pedophile towards Obotchaman, and much more. Oh, and let's not forget Bulma flipping the middle finger towards Pilaf in episode 11. Because of all this, it makes me wonder: Did Fuji TV ever allow such material to be shown on the air? If they did, then why? Were there any Japanese broadcast regulations that prohibited these kinds of stuff from being shown on Japanese broadcast television at that time? If you happen to remember encountering such material when it was on the air in Japan or while watching VHS/Betamax recordings of the series, please tell me.

Who wants to tell him about Fist of the North Star?



Real answer: 1980s (and 90s for that matter) Japanese TV, including for small children, was very, VERY lax content-wise. They had standards still of course, but they were exceedingly loose and unstrict relative to most parts of the Western world.

Dragon Ball was FAR from the most "shocking" example of this. The above mentioned Fist of the North Star is quite iconic for its extremely graphic blood and gore, much like Mortal Kombat is, and it too was aimed at small children and published in Weekly Shonen Jump alongside Dragon Ball. The level of brutality and violence in it easily puts to shame most anything ever seen in Dragon Ball.

While it never had a TV anime adaptation (though there were anime OVAs for it), the first half or so of Violence Jack's manga run was both aimed at children and filled to the brim with graphic depictions of rape and mutilation that were so unflinching and brutal, they wouldn't be in the least bit out of place in a 70s grindhouse film. The second half, which was even more extreme, was rebranded for adults after some outcry.

Guyver, another Shonen/children's manga and anime property, is a henshin superhero franchise that's also famous for its graphic, extreme blood and gore, and it too isn't shy about nudity and sexual content throughout. Same with Devilman and Baoh, and so on.

Shonen manga and anime of the 80s and early 90s were allowed an incredible amount of leeway in what they could depict relative to later years and of course relative to Western countries' broadcast and publishing standards (for kids or otherwise).

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

You better believe they did, TOEI didn't see the home video market as viable for the Dragon Ball TV series until 2003 when the DVD format was booming worldwide, and likely saw no need to create two versions. Moreover, Japanese TV being more lax gave them less reason to do so.

Even today the only difference I recall between the Fuji TV airings of Super and the Blu-Rays is the corrected animations, which probably only happened in response to the backlash.

[Majin Buu]

Just to put it out there- The Dragon Ball anime itself toned down some of the more graphic violence from the manga so it was censored to a degree.

But yeah, everything they did put in it was aired uncensored.

[TechExpert2021]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Japan used to allow full nudity to be shown on Japanese broadcast television until the early 2000s. This is why DBZ Kai censored scenes featuring Gohan's penis in the Saiyan arc.

[MasenkoHA]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Japan used to allow full nudity to be shown on Japanese broadcast television until the early 2000s. This is why DBZ Kai censored scenes featuring Gohan's penis in the Saiyan arc.

They seemed to be okay with child nudity because it was seen as innocent. I.e You aren't supposed to get your rocks off seeing a 5 year old's penis. Rear nudity for sexually matured/adult characters was okay but frontal nudity was censored Ex: You never saw Goku or any male characters penis after they became adults, Bulma's nipples were blocked out by a glare in the window when Yamucha sees her showering (an example of the censorship from manga to anime that Majin Buu mentioned). Even when shows like Sailor Moon showed nudity the characters had the anatomy of barbie dolls.

Saying Japan allowed full nudity is definitely a misnomer. There were clearly some broadcast standarss on it for their children's anime.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Just to put it out there- The Dragon Ball anime itself toned down some of the more graphic violence from the manga so it was censored to a degree.

Conversely there are also anime scenes more brutal than the manga, such as the shot of Goku and Raditz after Piccolo launched the Makankōsappō.



The Z anime added extra blood that wasn't in the manga. Kai, ironically by being slightly more censored to meet more modern Japanese standards and practices and showing less blood was actually more faithful to the manga.





But yes there is some stuff the anime censored from the manga like Vegeta vs Guldo and Gohan vs the Cell juniors. In both cases the manga is much more gruesome.

[M16U3L2015]

The censorship also made No. 16's death a little more serious in the anime.

[Cure Dragon 255]

The censorship also made No. 16's death a little more serious in the anime.

Censorship isnt always a bad thing it seems.

[PowerPhantom245]

On contrary, is there any anime that was censored on original broadcast?
I'm not talking about director's/extended cut on home video, which is separate topic.

[Cure Dragon 255]

On contrary, is there any anime that was censored on original broadcast?
I'm not talking about director's/extended cut on home video, which is separate topic.

If you exclude home video, the answer is no, but if you dont it's yes, because some anime are toned down and the original intent posted on Home VIdeo.

One Piece has Doflamingo beheaded on Home Media, but the broadcast was hurriedly altered after ISIS beheaded two Japanese hostages.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

On contrary, is there any anime that was censored on original broadcast?
I'm not talking about director's/extended cut on home video, which is separate topic.

If there are we probably wouldn't know about them. Director's cuts are by definition the intended vision of any given product, so any content that's not released publicly would be what such a cut would contain and if there isn't an uncut means of distribution in place (like home video or streaming) or for whatever reason the original license holder doesn't even want it to be released uncut we are only ever going to see that content however it's presented without questioning it.

Let's hypothetically say Yukihiko Nakao wanted extra blood in Dragon Ball Super episode 23 when Freeza attacks Gohan but realized at the last minute it would be too graphic for Fuji TV in 2015 (and lets not forget TOEI censored the old movie Blu-Rays too so its not unlike them to even be strict when it comes to home video). That may be true and there may be a more gory shot hidden in TOEI's archive, but we would never know because its not made public knowledge and we just assume what we've seen is the director's vision.

I doubt my example holds true for Super, but as I say its just a hypothetical, but considering the absurd amount of anime that is produced every year it's not crazy to suspect there are cases of changes made at the last minute and valid candidates for "director's cut" that were never revealed and thus became public knowledge.

[JulieYBM]

A producer for the television network—Fuji Television, in this case—is typically assigned to a program like and then serves as a consultant for what the network will allow to broadcast. Since Dragon Ball is also now an international market, international regulations are also taken into account and balanced against the creative desires of the production team. It's always a tug-of-war between multiple parties on the journey to creating a finished product.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

That is actually a good point that I didn't think about.

It reminds me of something we learned about the Ocean dub of Kai from recent Anime Time Machine livestreams, which is that the director Karl Willems had some disagreements with the producers (who in Ocean Studio's case would probably be Diana Gage for the artistic/creative side, possibly Dennis Hrehoriac for production and Ken Morrison for anything business-related).

The producers apparently pushed for Vegeta to say "it's over 8,000" but Karl Willems wanted "it's over 9,000" because that's what the fans would want, which is fine in moderation, as long as its not pandering (which I trust Willems not to do).

That may be a bit off-topic as its not a censorship-related change but it does beg the question in cases where there are so many parties involved whose vision is the correct one? I think in movies it's easier to say, but when it comes to specific installments (or reversionings in my example) of a brand name franchise the source is bound to become far more diluted.

Dragon Ball was originally Toriyama's vision, as Star Wars was for George Lucas in 1977 but for better or for worse the franchise reached a point where it became more of a committee thing. That's not always a bad thing, but it does make the concept of a "director's cut" become a trickier question.

[JulieYBM]

That is actually a good point that I didn't think about.

It reminds me of something we learned about the Ocean dub of Kai from recent Anime Time Machine livestreams, which is that the director Karl Willems had some disagreements with the producers (who in Ocean Studio's case would probably be Diana Gage for the artistic/creative side, possibly Dennis Hrehoriac for production and Ken Morrison for anything business-related).

The producers apparently pushed for Vegeta to say "it's over 8,000" but Karl Willems wanted "it's over 9,000" because that's what the fans would want, which is fine in moderation, as long as its not pandering (which I trust Willems not to do).

That may be a bit off-topic as its not a censorship-related change but it does beg the question in cases where there are so many parties involved whose vision is the correct one? I think in movies it's easier to say, but when it comes to specific installments (or reversionings in my example) of a brand name franchise the source is bound to become far more diluted.

Dragon Ball was originally Toriyama's vision, as Star Wars was for George Lucas in 1977 but for better or for worse the franchise reached a point where it became more of a committee thing. That's not always a bad thing, but it does make the concept of a "director's cut" become a trickier question.

Toriyama's comic is Toriyama comic. The thing with film and television is that those are huge beasts compared to a comic, and typically creative oversight and control is given to whoever is most respected to match the vision that the studio wants to present for approval by Toriyama/the original creator. Toriyama will have some degree of oversight—especially in the modern era when he didn't need to make comics anymore—but he's not going to check out every last bit, especially considering how he's not a trained animator or trained director. Toriyama might be the original creator, but that doesn't make an infallible. I forget the original for this quote, so hopefully I'm not pulling it out of my ass, but I recall hearing that for One Piece Film Z the director (Nagamine Tatsuya, who directed Super Broi) either declined Oda Eiichirou's request for more humor, or at the very least convinced him that it would be a bad idea. That's the role of a good director, especially since they are ultimately going to be the one overseeing the project more than the original creator (lest said original creator actually decided to be the director, but I think Ootomo is the only other mangaka to personally direct the animated adaption of his work, and I believe it was his first time being involved in the industry).

Anime will typically do the 'stay really on model' thing either because of a mandate from the original creator, or because of the merchandising partner wanting to make sure that the characters and such look like the merchandise that they're going to be putting out. I'm not a fan of this, because I think it's important for animators to have leeway to experiment and put their own stamp on the franchise with their personal contributions that the original creator aren't involved with, though.

George Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars (1977), so that's what would traditionally be called 'his film', but even then, as producer and franchise rights owner during the production of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Lucas hired his two fill-in directors with the specific knowledge that he would still ultimately have final say. Now that we're in the post-Lucas ownership of Star Wars as a brand, what Lucas wants doesn't really matter. He isn't making these films and television series, just like the original creator of a manga that has been adapted into a television series or film is 99.9999% of the time not a trained director directing said adaption.

I'd sooner trust any director at Toei Animation with the wiggle room to oversee the creation of an adaption of the work without the interference of an original creator or concerns for network and merchandising interests. Major properties are consistently produced with creatives (directors, writers, animators, etc.) with their hands tied behind their back while trying to juggle the interests of those who have the authority to expect their interests be catered to. Sometimes creators roll with the punches, and sometimes they're able to convince someone that their should listen to the professional filmmaker instead.

Every second of a film or television represents some kind of battle behind the scenes.

[jjgp1112]

RE: The manga sanitizing convo. Let's not forget



Popped that man's head like a weed

[Majin Buu]

RE: The manga sanitizing convo. Let's not forget

SNIP

Popped that man's head like a weed

That's been the example that pops up in my head ever since I found out about it. It's such an over-the-top way to kill someone that it could easily be played as physical comedy in a more light-hearted, cartoony context.