Censored Manga Volumes

[sumpter360]

Recently, especially with the domestic release of Kai, I've been extremely interested in collecting the manga in its entirety. Unfortunately, the purist/completionist in me can't bring myself to buy Viz's releases, on a count of the censorship throughout both series.

So, currently the only logical move would be to collect the manga volumes in Japanese, which I am perfectly fine with doing. My question to all of you is which volumes of Viz's releases contain edits (I only need image edits, you can include others if you like ) and which corresponding Japanese Kanzenban volume has the uncut image.

I realize there are quite a few, so I really, REALLY appreciate your help.

Thanks!

EDIT: My main question is this: Which issues of the Kanzenban contain the UN-edited imagery that Viz altered or removed?

[Bussani]

This is a tricky question to answer. The censorship changes from printing to printing, rather than version to version, so two apparently identical tankobon style Viz releases can have totally different edits. So far the VizBigs are more consistent (though this may be because they haven't gone through tons of reprints yet?) and fall somewhere in the middle, not having as much censorship as some of the tankobons, but having slightly more than others.

All that said, overall there isn't actually a lot to censor in the manga. The violence is always left unedited to my knowledge, and most of the other edits are so small you'd probably have to know what to look for. The most persistent one is the removal of Mr. Popo's lips; the others I could probably count on my fingers, such as removing #17's gun in one panel (which makes it more violent if you think about it) and replacing some other guns with lasers in another (which I never even noticed until someone mentioned it).

Check out rereboy's VizBig dissection, which is a pretty good analysis.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

such as removing #17's gun in one panel (which makes it more violent if you think about it)

Sure, that's a pretty gruesome death, but a punch is still just a punch. Viz was just paranoid about showing an old man getting his head blown off. (Apparently, even Toei thought that scene was too much; didn't Trunks show up in time to save the guy, in the anime?)

[dbgtFO]

(Apparently, even Toei thought that scene was too much; didn't Trunks show up in time to save the guy, in the anime?)

That is correct and I actually prefer that over the manga.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Viz was just paranoid about showing an old man getting his head blown off.

And even in the original manga, they don't show the guy getting shot.

[sumpter360]

While the censoring may not be huge or significant, they're still alterations to the original manga, and that just doesn't fly well with me. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably still end up buying the Complete Manga Boxed Sets, but I really want to have copies of the uncensored, original Japanese volumes where Viz made edits.

Which leads back to my question, which issues of the Kanzenban contain the UN-edited imagery that Viz altered or removed?

[PuppetDoctor]

If you want the most uncensored version of Viz releases of Dragon Ball then it would be to track down 1st printings. There was no censorship of when Bulma takes a shower in Volume 1 (like there was in Vizbig Volume 1 of Dragon Ball) and there was no censorship when Kuririn pulled down Bulma's top in Volume 9. You could see Bulma's breasts unlike in later printings where they put a bra over her breasts.

I know in one volume of the DBZ manga in the 1st printing Vegeta uses "bastard" but in the later printings they changed it so Vegeta said "rats." I cannot remember which volume this was though.

To put it simply if you buy the Dragon Ball manga boxes then you are getting the more recent printings all which have edits that may or may not have been in 1st printings.

All instances of Mr. Satan in the manga are changed to the "H" word and all artwork has been altered to be in reference to the "H" word.

I hope this helps you.

[sumpter360]

If you want the most uncensored version of Viz releases of Dragon Ball then it would be to track down 1st printings.

Yeah, I don't have the time (or the patience) to track down specific editions of specific volumes of Viz's releases. That's why I'm trying to find which Kanzenban volumes contain the unedited imagery that Viz changed.

[Herms]

EDIT: My main question is this: Which issues of the Kanzenban contain the UN-edited imagery that Viz altered or removed?

Basically all of them, if you count stuff like Popo or Adjunct Black's lips. There's a lot of minor edits in Viz, and if you want to avoid them all you'd probably have to get all the kanzenban (or tankoubon).

[sumpter360]

Basically all of them, if you count stuff like Popo or Adjunct Black's lips. There's a lot of minor edits in Viz, and if you want to avoid them all you'd probably have to get all the kanzenban (or tankoubon).

Oh geez... I could see that being a lot of volumes. How about without those instances? I hope I don't have to get all the Kanzenban, since at the moment I can't read Japanese. At this point, I just want to get the uncut Kanzenban for the unaltered pictures, then I'd get Viz's Boxed Sets to read.

[Herms]

OK, discounting stuff like edited lips and altered dialogue, I think this should be a fairly comprehensive list.

Kanzenban 1, 2: various bits of nudity
7: Bulma topless again
14: naked Gohan
25: everyone flipping off Cell
27: "Satan" written on stuff
28: No.17 shoots the old guy
29: lots more of "Satan" written on stuff
32: edited guns
33: Gotenks flips off Boo

[sumpter360]

Thanks Herms! That's exactly what I needed

[dbgtFO]

OK, discounting stuff like edited lips and altered dialogue, I think this should be a fairly comprehensive list.

Kanzenban 1, 2: various bits of nudity
7: Bulma topless again
14: naked Gohan
25: everyone flipping off Cell
27: "Satan" written on stuff
28: No.17 shoots the old guy
29: lots more of "Satan" written on stuff
32: edited guns
33: Gotenks flips off Boo

34: Gohan Buu flips off Vegetto, since he believes he has won.

[rereboy]

This is a tricky question to answer. The censorship changes from printing to printing, rather than version to version, so two apparently identical tankobon style Viz releases can have totally different edits. So far the VizBigs are more consistent (though this may be because they haven't gone through tons of reprints yet?) and fall somewhere in the middle, not having as much censorship as some of the tankobons, but having slightly more than others.

All that said, overall there isn't actually a lot to censor in the manga. The violence is always left unedited to my knowledge, and most of the other edits are so small you'd probably have to know what to look for. The most persistent one is the removal of Mr. Popo's lips; the others I could probably count on my fingers, such as removing #17's gun in one panel (which makes it more violent if you think about it) and replacing some other guns with lasers in another (which I never even noticed until someone mentioned it).

Check out rereboy's VizBig dissection, which is a pretty good analysis.

Besides that one, also check out my Vizbig DBZ analysis: http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... 05&start=0 . That review covered only the first 16 volumes, this one covered the rest.

Besides the edits I talked about in those reviews, I think Viz only changed the color of the lips of some black characters like Assistant Black of the RR army. But those edits are hardly noticiable. I didn`t even remember those edits when I wrote the reviews because they are so insignificant.

As for the specific number of volumes, that is a difficult question... All the volumes with Mr. Popo have edits on it, since Mr Popo`s lips were always censored. So, as you can guess, those volumes, plus the volumes in which Mr Popo didn`t appear but had edits in other stuff, make completely uncensored volumes of DB the exception and not the rule. Most of them have at least one thing edited/censored.

[Herms]

Besides the edits I talked about in those reviews, I think Viz only changed the color of the lips of some black characters like Assistant Black of the RR army. But those edits are hardly noticiable. I didn`t even remember those edits when I wrote the reviews because they are so insignificant.

Yeah, they were pretty consistent when it came to that. Not only major characters like Black or Popo, but even random background characters in crowd scenes, stuff you'd really have to be on the lookout to even notice. It's not really the sort of change that would compel me to seek out the original, but it's worth noting at least.