Viz "Censorship"

[Duo]

Duo there's an interesting thread that Julian(SaiyaJedi) made last year regarding his thoughts on Viz's translations and censorship that I think you would find interesting. It talks more about it from a language point of view than this one does.

http://db.schuby.org/daizex/viewtopic.php?t=207

Thank you for posting something useful. I really appreciate it.

I really want to know where you got the idea I haven't read it. o_o;; It's rather presumptive of you.

Quote the part of my post where I said your name.

[B-kun]

Quote the part of my post where I said your name.

What I'd meant was that, regardless of how you intended it, the post I replied to made it sound awfully like you're accusing us of not reading the manga, so our whining is "pointless" or something. I generally find things like that to be presumptious and rather... snobby.

I'm sorry if this came out too rude, but the attitude leaves me miffed. =/

[Tsukento]

I'm such an idiot! I forgot Kyle's last name...FUNi got the idea of 'edited' and 'uncut' versions, now if we could only get Viz to...Hell, even 4kids has begun releasing Uncut Shaman King and Yu-Gi-Oh! DVDs.

Viz better have uncut DVDs of the Naruto dub...

First off, FUNi's releasing the uncut DVDs. All 4Kids is doing is providing the voices. Second, 4Kids has no intention on continuing the uncut releases. Al Kahn has it stuck in his head that he feels the DVD sales will "compete" with eachother. Apparently he's not too fond of the idea of original content selling more than his garbage. That's why One Piece has yet to be announced for an uncut release. He wants the cut DVDs first and the uncuts dead last. Apparently the man has never seen the sales of FUNimation DBZ tapes.

The man's about business but he doesn't get the idea to sell cuts in stores where kids can get them easily (Target, Toys R Us) and sell the uncuts in major video retail stores.

And just to point something out, Viz has NOTHING to do with the Naruto dub. ShoPro has the license, however they're not the ones who're dubbing it. Studiopolis are the ones who dub Naruto. And yes, there WILL be uncut DVDs. And to clear something up, the edited DVDs will feature one language (English) while the uncuts will be in a boxed set and will contain both English and Japanese languages with subtitles.

*ahem* On topic..

I think it's just..unbelievable that Viz decided to stab the fans in the back with the Dragon Ball manga. I remember back when they began censoring Dragon Ball and then fans made a HUGE stink about it. At the time, uncut English Dragon Ball was a completely rare thing. And they were ruining this because a parent didn't even read the comic properly and complained about it (she claimed it to be perverted because of Bulma offering Goku a feel of her rear for his Dragon Ball but didn't read on that Goku said he had no intention of feeling her "dirty butt"). Then they went and fixed it up and released the books with a warning.

Then comes along Dragon Ball (Z). It makes no sense why Dragon Ball would be rated Teen yet the Z portion is rated as All Ages. Makes everyone's participation in making DB uncut a waste. No longer do we see uncut and edited alternatives. Now the Z portion is edited. Some of the dialogue is rather puzzling (such as having Gohan only say "Whoopie!" in a rather big text bubble after Cell tries to intimidate him) and the changes with Mr. Satan to H.ercule and Majin Buu to Djinn Buu are rather difficult to comprehend.

In the end, it seems that Viz has gone and catered to the kiddies when anything touches Shonen Jump. Lookit the censored stuff added to I''s during and after it appeared on Shonen Jump.

Hell, I'm still wondering why they changed alcohol into "super punch" in Dr. Slump even though it's a Teen comic and they leave it visually so obvious? Others have said it's possibly because of underage drinking, but we clearly see the kids getting in trouble for doing so, showing that it's not alright to do these things. In case a kid happens to get the impression it's "cool" to do so, that is.

[El_Diablo]

Shopro has become Viz media...

[Super Sonic]

Even touched, they left in the parts about Senbei not making lower feminine parts for Arale, and that was hilarious. The Super Punch is obviously alcohol, but with how Slump is, it's not surprising they'd give it a funny name. And Kenshin is untouched.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

The Super Punch is obviously alcohol, but with how Slump is, it's not surprising they'd give it a funny name.

OMG, I can't believe I didn't notice that...I'm such a fucking retard...

In the end, it seems that Viz has gone and catered to the kiddies when anything touches Shonen Jump. Lookit the censored stuff added to I''s during and after it appeared on Shonen Jump.

Stupid question: What was added/changed to I's? SJ has really gone downhill since it started...Does anyone remember when we got to see Vegeta cuss in SJ? I miss that so much...Why can't SJ go back to the way it was? Now all SJ cares about is sucking up to the companies who hold the rights to the anime.

[Eclipse]

I am not very happy. With no experience of the censored manga, I very much loved the Viz translated manga. Loved it. However, my opinion of it started detoriating when I read Volume 19. That was also when I downloaded the fansubbed manga, where I had done some comparing. So yeah. According to some sites, Viz has adopted some "policy" which will allow them to cater to little kids without having parents flame them so badly.


The bastards. Obsessed with money. I'm pretty sure when things are left as they are, huge sales will appear. Just look at the DBZ Uncut DVDs. And Dragon Ball Z is in frickin graphic novel form, no longer serialized in Shonen Jump. Why do all these horrible things when it is somewhat harder to obtain them?

[Super Sonic]

With the removed gun, they kept it in with Bellemere's murder in One Piece. With I's, I heard that recently some people have gotten on the cases of manga publishers for having "lolitas". But it seems that they're only touching those with the SJ line. I haven't read any of the changes to the non-SJ, and I haven't looked at Shojo Beat at all, nor do I know anyone who reads that.

[Domon]

Obsessed with money.

And your point is...what? That a business comapny is trying to earn profits, just like every other business companies that ever existed?

[DBW]

Obsessed with money.

And your point is...what? That a business comapny is trying to earn profits, just like every other business companies that ever existed?

I can assure you that Shuueisha raked in plenty of profit off DragonBall, and they didn't censor Toriyama's artwork. I know that's Japan and this is America, blah blah blah, but a lot of people would prefer to stand behind the principle of the matter, regardless of where the money is.

If I ran a business (heaven forbid), I'd try my best to make profits in an honest fashion (ie. I'd keep the material true to it's form and market it to the appropriate demographic). VIZ decided to take a piece of FUNimation's cash cow property, and pump it into the same demographic to leech some profits. If VIZ didn't edit DBZ and just marketed to a teen audience, they wouldn't be raking in nearly as much as they currently are. It's just one substandard product (the edited manga) leeching off another substandard product (the edited dub) in order to empty the kiddies pockets ASAP (or at least before the fad dies).

[Duo]

Our last hope for the few edits being removed is the Kanzeban...it sure would sweeten the deal with the colored chapters as well. But...it won't break my balls either way.

And this is all assuming they released the Kanzeban in the first place. For some reason I think it will either not happen or be a few years, for marketings sake. I mean, would it make sense to release RIGHT after finishing the tankobon?

[Tsukento]

I highly doubt the US will ever see a Kanzenban unless they decided to release it after they finish the tankoubon releases and announce the alternate ending. Though I'm very much doubtful of this ever happening.

Making money is one thing, but really, let's look at this in the real world perspective.

Let's use the most infamous money hog of them all, Al Kahn (CEO of 4Kids Entertainment). He states he will NOT license any anime that will not make a profit. Yes, dubbing anime is hard work and requires money. But last I recalled, it was not just a business but entertainment as well. It's not supposed to be all about money. Otherwise you go into dubbing/translating anime/manga without caring about what it is you're working on.

Let's use the Pokémon anime as an example. We all know it's one huge cash cow on its own. 4Kids has been dubbing the anime for over 7 years now. And in those 7 years, they can't even remember characters they've renamed or instances that've occured LESS THAN a year before. They have a small segment that occurs between commercials where kids have to guess which Pokémon could beat which or which one evolves into the other. Several instances, they've been completely wrong and have caused tons of confusion with viewers. You can tell a company doesn't care for the show they're "translating" when they don't even look into basic research or simply asking Nintendo.

Point is, companies that change manga or anime tend to pretty much destroy exactly what the original creator wanted to occur. Toei's not too happy that 4Kids didn't make One Piece big in America as it is in Japan, and I'm sure they're not liking the high amounts of story changes made to it.

[Domon]

Obsessed with money.

And your point is...what? That a business comapny is trying to earn profits, just like every other business companies that ever existed?

I can assure you that Shuueisha raked in plenty of profit off DragonBall, and they didn't censor Toriyama's artwork. I know that's Japan and this is America, blah blah blah, but a lot of people would prefer to stand behind the principle of the matter, regardless of where the money is.

If I ran a business (heaven forbid), I'd try my best to make profits in an honest fashion (ie. I'd keep the material true to it's form and market it to the appropriate demographic).

I can agree with the sentiments. However, I think it's strange that anyone would complain about any companies being "obessed with money", since money is precisely what's needed to keep it afloat.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

I highly doubt the US will ever see a Kanzenban unless they decided to release it after they finish the tankoubon releases and announce the alternate ending. Though I'm very much doubtful of this ever happening.

Either that or Viz will simply include the alternate ending in the final volume of DBZ, like it did with Trunks the Story. Viz could release the Kanzenbans as unedited, uncut, versions.

I can agree with the sentiments. However, I think it's strange that anyone would complain about any companies being "obessed with money", since money is precisely what's needed to keep it afloat.

You know what they say, money is the root of all evil. In this case, Viz, is the evil, censoring Dragonball and other titles.

Viz is obssed with money. Look at how they've butchered some of their manga, just to get parents to approve and let their kids buy more manga. If Viz releases unedited manga, they'll get bitched at by parents who think blood is offensive...

I honestly think that Viz would have more readers if they left it uncut...

[Domon]

You know what they say, money is the root of all evil. In this case, Viz, is the evil, censoring Dragonball and other titles.

I can't take this arguement remotely seriously.

Viz is obssed with money. Look at how they've butchered some of their manga, just to get parents to approve and let their kids buy more manga. If Viz releases unedited manga, they'll get bitched at by parents who think blood is offensive...

Pushing aside that Viz seems to rarely censor blood; I wish people would stop striking "obessed with money" as a complaint against Viz, or any other companies for that matter. The complaint makes no sense, as money-making is the goal of every company out there.

Please note that I am not saying there can't be complaint against Viz or whomever. There is plenty of room for criticism of mismanagement, poor decision-making, translation, overt censorship and whatsnot. But to be "obessed with money" is not one of them.

Also, it's curious that you mentioned parents in your post. Soccer moms (hey, what about the dads?) are one of the biggest reasons why television and other media works gets prone to censorship.