Editing of anime in distribution
[1] The display of pubic hair was prohibited until 1991 leading to series such as Lolita Anime and Cream Lemon using the sexualization of children as a loophole.
When the censorship is removed for overseas release, the basic animation underneath is revealed, leading to concerns over the sexualization of children in those markets.
Blockbuster Video marked all anime titles as unsuitable for kids, leading them to appear as R-18 on their computer system.
The display of alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking, violence (including depictions of death, spoken references to death and dying, scenes of characters being threatened or in life-threatening situations, and depictions of suicide), gambling, blood, offensive language, offensive hand gestures, sexual content (including nudity, intercourse, innuendo, and depictions of homosexual and transsexual characters), and the mistreatment of women and minors were all deemed unacceptable as well as other situations unsuitable to a younger audience.
[10] A number of releases were substantially cut in order to pass certification including the Urotsukidōji series and Adventure Duo.
[16][17] During the early 90s anime in the UK was subject to a negative press campaign by several newspapers as a reaction to the violence and sexualized content in many of the available titles.
At its most basic level, the localization process is responsible for deciding on romanized character and term names, as well as episode titles.
In other cases it may require special attention to areas such as humor where a judgement call must be made to try and retain the feeling of the source material.
[22] The Pokémon episode "Dennō Senshi Porygon" was removed from all repeats and home releases of the series due to an issue during its original broadcast.
Along with westernized character names, other changes included the removal of violent scenes and entirely new animation inserted in places.
The series was then released as G-Force: Guardians of Space by Turner Broadcasting, with fewer changes to the original Japanese version.
Another example, ADV Films edited out nudity of high-school-aged characters from the American DVD release of the anime Sakura Diaries.
About one-quarter of the film was cut and its storyline simplified somewhat, affecting the nuances of the original's ecological and pacifist themes.
The "no-edits" policy was enforced when Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein suggested editing Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable.
"[33] Studio Ghibli has permitted some minor changes to translated dialogue, such as the removal of references to testicles in the English dub of Pom Poko, replacing them with the euphemism "raccoon pouch".
