Viz BIG Edition

[MoltenMan]

Hey guys.

I work a somewhat boring 2nd or sometimes 3rd shift security guard job, and have been looking into buy the Dragon Ball Z manga again (I used to own all of the individual Viz books but sold them on Ebay when money was tight.) and was looking into rebuying them in the form of the Viz Big Book editions.

I was wondering, are these versions edited by Viz? Any examples?

[xzero]

I can't find it at the moment, but if you search the forums, you'll find a really detailed overview of the Viz Big volumes.

The short answer to your question is yes, they're edited. No swearing and Goku's naughty bits are edited out. Besides that, the editing is generally unobtrusive, and doesn't really hinder one's enjoyment of the series. The Viz Big versions are nice because they're relatively inexpensive considering their content, there are about 20-30 chapters in color throughout the whole series, and the images are larger. If you don't own the series at the moment, the Viz Big versions are a really good idea.

[Bussani]

No swearing

Is that really an "edit"? It's more of a translation preference, since "swear words" don't exactly exist in Japanese.

But yeah, Viz releases of the manga almost always have some sort of edit. VizBIG's are slightly more censored than the least censored Viz copies, but not as censored as the most censored ones. These threads have more information:

http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... =7&t=11271
http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... =7&t=15105

[MoltenMan]

Ah, thank you!

These are right up my alley. Inexpensive, tons of content that'll keep me reading between patrols, and I do like the slightly larger picture over the old books.

[MetaMoss]

I own all of them, and they are good for enjoyment of the series. And they are definitely a good deal compared to the single releases

[Piccolo Daimao]

I thought the VizBigs don't censor Goku's penis, because it's not presented in a sexual way.

[rereboy]

I thought the VizBigs don't censor Goku's penis, because it's not presented in a sexual way.

They don't. They do, however, censor Gohan's penis, in the only two times in the series it appears, because the DBZ Volumes have a "All Ages" rating.

The DB volumes have a "Teen" rating, so stuff like that wasn`t censored.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I thought the VizBigs don't censor Goku's penis, because it's not presented in a sexual way.

They don't. They do, however, censor Gohan's penis, in the only two times in the series it appears, because the DBZ Volumes have a "All Ages" rating.

The DB volumes have a "Teen" rating, so stuff like that wasn`t censored.

OK. I always wondered why they didn't give DBZ a "Teen" rating. Do America view nudity as being worse than violence? Because DBZ is just as violent as DB, but has only a few instances of nudity.

[Sketch]

I thought the VizBigs don't censor Goku's penis, because it's not presented in a sexual way.

They don't. They do, however, censor Gohan's penis, in the only two times in the series it appears, because the DBZ Volumes have a "All Ages" rating.

The DB volumes have a "Teen" rating, so stuff like that wasn`t censored.

OK. I always wondered why they didn't give DBZ a "Teen" rating. Do America view nudity as being worse than violence? Because DBZ is just as violent as DB, but has only a few instances of nudity.

Despite how over-sexualized television is becoming I'm inclined to believe nudity is still a larger concern for American television than violence. It's surprising what a TV-14 show can manage in violence these days but nudity tends to push it to automatic TV-MA.

Though I assumed the Teen rating for Dragon Ball has more to do with Roshi's pervertedness which isn't nearly as present in DBZ. DBZ probably should be rated Teen for violence alone but they probably figure because DBZ has always been considered a kid's show here that they can get away with All Ages rating.

[Piccolo Daimao]

OK. I always wondered why they didn't give DBZ a "Teen" rating. Do America view nudity as being worse than violence? Because DBZ is just as violent as DB, but has only a few instances of nudity.

Despite how over-sexualized television is becoming I'm inclined to believe nudity is still a larger concern for American television than violence. It's surprising what a TV-14 show can manage in violence these days but nudity tends to push it to automatic TV-MA.

Though I assumed the Teen rating for Dragon Ball has more to do with Roshi's pervertedness which isn't nearly as present in DBZ. DBZ probably should be rated Teen for violence alone but they probably figure because DBZ has always been considered a kid's show here that they can get away with All Ages rating.

Yeah, you're probably right. I doubt as many parents would complain about SSj2 Gohan killing the Cell Juniors in spectacularly gory fashion than Roshi motorboating Bulma. Funny, that.

[rereboy]

Well, DB has some really perverted moments, even with Bulma's nudity censored and stuff like that.

I mean, even I wouldn`t consider a old man asking to see a 16 year old girl's panties or Oolong drugging that same girl to do nasty things to her for "all ages".

I believe Viz thought they wouldn`t "get away with it" if they made DB for "all ages" without massive censorship. So they gave the teen rating.

As for DBZ, they thought they would get away with it with just a few gun and little boy's penis censorship.

And of course they want an "all ages" rating, because, that way, more people buy it, which means more money.

EDIT: btw, I`ve edited my DBZ review to include a minor Viz edit that I forgot about.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

If you want all the color pages and want it uncensored just buy the Kanzenban's, but for an English release
I'm also working on an English Version of the Kanzenban's! Which I HOPE WILL EVENTUALLY SEE A US RELEASE!
Also if you already have the English "Shoen Jump" release which I thought was 90% accurate just use that and write down each panel of course it adds twice the amount of pages but hey.. you at least have the Kanzenban's in English and with the best cover art!

Edit: can't believe I didn't spell "buy" correctly.. well it happens to the best of us now and then

[CODii]

I'm also working on an English Version of the Kanzenban's! Which I HOPE WILL EVENTUALLY SEE A US RELEASE!

So I take it you plan on purchasing the rights to the license from Viz?

[Daimo-Rukiri]

No, I'm making an English version for my own personal reasons.

[Herms]

Is that really an "edit"? It's more of a translation preference, since "swear words" don't exactly exist in Japanese.

Swear words certainly do exist in Japanese, it's just that using those words in print (as opposed to saying them to someone) isn't seen as quite as big a deal as in English (though there are cases of certain discriminatory words being censored in print). Of course, there's no precise one-to-one correspondence between Japanese swear words and English ones (or any other Japanese and English words, really), so exactly how foul-mouthed you want to make things does come down to translation preference to a certain extent. But with Viz, when they started releasing the manga they had characters say things like "damn" and "hell" pretty freely, but then midway through they stopped using such words and re-released the older volumes with them removed as well. Clearly this was an issue of censorship and not simply the translators' personal preferences. There's even one particularly great panel during Super Vegeta's fight with perfect Cell where originally he yelled "Kuso!!!!" ('crap' or 'shit') and in Viz he just goes "!!!!". Overall the lack of swearing isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it is something to be noted.

[AgitoZ]

My only problem with the censorship of swears is what they replace them with. I don't expect characters like per say Vegeta to use words like darn, drat, curses, etc. It feels overly cheesy and kills the mood.

[Bussani]

Swear words certainly do exist in Japanese, it's just that using those words in print (as opposed to saying them to someone) isn't seen as quite as big a deal as in English (though there are cases of certain discriminatory words being censored in print). Of course, there's no precise one-to-one correspondence between Japanese swear words and English ones (or any other Japanese and English words, really), so exactly how foul-mouthed you want to make things does come down to translation preference to a certain extent. But with Viz, when they started releasing the manga they had characters say things like "damn" and "hell" pretty freely, but then midway through they stopped using such words and re-released the older volumes with them removed as well. Clearly this was an issue of censorship and not simply the translators' personal preferences. There's even one particularly great panel during Super Vegeta's fight with perfect Cell where originally he yelled "Kuso!!!!" ('crap' or 'shit') and in Viz he just goes "!!!!". Overall the lack of swearing isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it is something to be noted.

I see... I guess you could see that as censorship, then, but...it's more like they're censoring their own script than what's there in Japanese. Except cases like the "!!!!", which is pretty odd thing for them to do.