Manga censorship

[bleach120]

I need help buying the Dragon Ball manga in America. I've heard conflicting things about which of the English release is the best to go with in terms of censorship. I have the first 3 single volumes that don't seem to be censored but I've heard people online complaining about those releases. Are newer prints just uncensored? I want to buy the 16 volume box set on Amazon but would like to know for sure exactly what I'm getting and amazon reviews and descriptions are not great sources of information.

[KBABZ]

I need help buying the Dragon Ball manga in America. I've heard conflicting things about which of the English release is the best to go with in terms of censorship. I have the first 3 single volumes that don't seem to be censored but I've heard people online complaining about those releases. Are newer prints just uncensored? I want to buy the 16 volume box set on Amazon but would like to know for sure exactly what I'm getting and amazon reviews and descriptions are not great sources of information.

I have the 16 volume set on Amazon, and it's basically a reprint of the existing material; the only change is the Shonen Jump logo on the back. I'm not privy to the full censorship history, but this is the one where Goku is naked when fishing and Bulma gestures to Pilaf with her middle finger, but when Krillin pulls her top down in the Baba Arc she's wearing a bra. It isn't fully uncensored but IMO it picks the right battles.

Plus having the box with the carry handle is really convenient!

[bleach120]

What about Bulma in the shower inside of Oolongs camper? Honestly I'm probably gonna buy that set either way at this point but now that I'm talking about it I'm kind of getting more interested in the topic.

[TheGreatness25]

I would expect that every edition will have female nudity censored (although, Goku's little boy bits are perfectly fine, though) and middle fingers. I would find it very hard to believe that Viz came out with a version that leaves those uncensored. And while it does suck from a censorship standpoint, would that really inhibit anyone's experience reading the manga? Those panels encompass a fraction of a fraction of the story.

[MCDaveG]

Outside of being purist about the original art, I don't care if I see less of drawn boobs and I think that some changes are decent and I wouldn't notice them if I didn't knew the original, but I find rudiculous things like redrawing and editing the original art, most jarring thing that I hate with all passion is having the guns of the hunters redrawn as weird laser guns...
In a series where characters explode in grotesque ways, you redraw normal guns as water pistols, in a country where some people try to battle coronavirus with guns and visiting fastfoods with bazooka completely legally during a bright day

Spoiler:

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

The editions i have (the red and white SJ Graphic Novel/English tankobon books) particularly those including the early chapters do have things like Bulma's cleavage visible at points and her flipping off Pilaf so it seems the editing of content varies between the multiple printings so there is no consistency between all of the ones which have come out since this particular line started back in the early 2000's. It's a toss up basically because the censorship has changed between the different editions over the years, with the VizBigs and such having more at points than the regular graphic novel books and therefore you will never know what you're going to get.

[Matches Malone]

I don't think there's any completely uncensored version of the manga. What may be censored in the singles volumes might not be in the Vizbigs, but somethings else there is censored while not being so in the single volumes. If you want the manga now but are still holding out for an uncensored version, just get the newer 3 in 1 editions. They're not too expensive so if an uncensored version ever gets released, you won't be kicking yourself for spending so much money on the censored version.

[Planetnamek]

I remember hearing a story that originally the Manga did come out uncensored when it first got released in the U.S. way back in the 90s, but parents groups objected to it being sold in places like Toys R Us so Viz was basically forced to censor it or lose sales. Don't you just hate it when media watchdogs ruin a good thing?

[Cure Dragon 255]

Good thing Toys R Us isnt even a thing anymore!

[KBABZ]

I remember hearing a story that originally the Manga did come out uncensored when it first got released in the U.S. way back in the 90s, but parents groups objected to it being sold in places like Toys R Us so Viz was basically forced to censor it or lose sales. Don't you just hate it when media watchdogs ruin a good thing?

This did happen, but not really, and in the 2000s. Parents DID get upset about it, but it didn't change the existing censorship of the manga.

Also as much as I'm all about an uncensored version of the original product, I'm not losing sleep over not being able to see Bulma's nipples.

[MyVisionity]

They were uncensored in the early 2000s, I believe, until they decided to re-release them censored. My volumes from back then (7, 8, 9, 10) are white, not red, and contain nudity such as Bulma's breasts during the Uranai Baba arc. I'm not sure what the exact date was that the censored editions began, 2003 maybe? I'm not sure if the DBZ volumes were ever uncensored to begin with.

[KorgDTR2000]

I bought most of my volumes of Dragon Ball 15+ years ago and the art censorship is minimal. Middle fingers, nipples, all that good stuff.

It gets distracting when I switch to the Vizbigs for Z and the censorship is so obvious. Yeah they're just little things and they shouldn't matter but they do, it just takes me out of it completely.

[bleach120]

I own the first 3 red viz volumes and I'm pretty certain that they are uncensored because the middle fingers and nipples are in tact so I'll probably just continue buying those and hope for the best. Thanks for all the answers this is my first time ever doing anything on this website and I'm happy I decided to post.

[bleach120]

Outside of being purist about the original art, I don't care if I see less of drawn boobs and I think that some changes are decent and I wouldn't notice them if I didn't knew the original, but I find rudiculous things like redrawing and editing the original art, most jarring thing that I hate with all passion is having the guns of the hunters redrawn as weird laser guns...
In a series where characters explode in grotesque ways, you redraw normal guns as water pistols, in a country where some people try to battle coronavirus with guns and visiting fastfoods with bazooka completely legally during a bright day

Spoiler:

I do agree that a like of Bulmas boobs isn't going to really ruin the experience I simply on a fundamental level am against any sort of censorship.

[KBABZ]

I own the first 3 red viz volumes and I'm pretty certain that they are uncensored because the middle fingers and nipples are in tact so I'll probably just continue buying those and hope for the best. Thanks for all the answers this is my first time ever doing anything on this website and I'm happy I decided to post.

As I said Bulma's breasts are covered by a bra during the Baba arc, so there's that.

[MCDaveG]

Outside of being purist about the original art, I don't care if I see less of drawn boobs and I think that some changes are decent and I wouldn't notice them if I didn't knew the original, but I find rudiculous things like redrawing and editing the original art, most jarring thing that I hate with all passion is having the guns of the hunters redrawn as weird laser guns...
In a series where characters explode in grotesque ways, you redraw normal guns as water pistols, in a country where some people try to battle coronavirus with guns and visiting fastfoods with bazooka completely legally during a bright day

Spoiler:

I do agree that a like of Bulmas boobs isn't going to really ruin the experience I simply on a fundamental level am against any sort of censorship.

Definitely, I am also against censorship and find it dumb. I think it is the parents responsibility to decide if the kids should enjoy something or not and not ruin the products for others just to be safe and comfy.

[DrBriefsCat]

If one really wanted to have the uncensored Bulma boobs in their edition, they could just find the pics on the internet, print them out and glue them over the censored ones. Or if they live near a Japanese bookstore, just buy the tankoubon for cheap.

[Kodoshin]

Things seemed to be headed in the right direction with the manga until Viz started putting their version of Shonen Jump on newsstands. From that point forward it seemed that they really went to town with the alterations.

[kemuri07]

It's a silly hill to die on. And while I can understand people being frustrated with not being able to see your favorite manga in its purest form, I also roll my eyes so goddamn hard when nerds try to conflate "not seeing your waifus boobies" to "Farenhiet 451-esque book burning." It's not the same thing at all.