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NEWS: Viz Edits

Haiseikoh 1973 wrote:

SakechanBD wrote: What gets me is... why a star? If you're going to censor breasts, why not go as far as to draw a bra over it? If you just see stars on someone's chest, you KNOW they're nipples. 13 year old boys KNOW what nipples look like. It's not making it any less scandalous by putting stars. I'm not sure parents would be any happier to find their sons looking at women with stars on their tits, as opposed to a nipple. Their Pasties?

They're delicious meat-pies from states around the Great Lakes region of the US? What? I sense a culture gap....

Well, first off, let me just say that I am not at all a fan of the censorship, especially in yami. However, I can understand why Viz did it. It is almost definitely not for any religious reasons, but rather for sales.

Whereas the censhorship of Tenjou Tenge by CMX was completely unaccaptable (TT is a well known adult series), Yami is, for the most part, a young-teen to older-teen manga (with the exception of vol.4). What this means is that up until this volume, the manga has been aimed towards a wider audience (therefore, more sales). The thing that most people don't realise is that when you shrink wrap a manga and mark it adult (just like when a movie gets an NC-17 rating) sales go way down because now not as many people can buy it.

Ok, I know this is going to sound really perverted, even though I don't intend for it to, but does anyone have a picture of the edits?

Whereas the censhorship of Tenjou Tenge by CMX was completely unaccaptable (TT is a well known adult series)

That's what one might think, however let's consider the following:

Alice 19th, Hot Gimmick, Video Girl Ai, Ranma 1/2. All are published by Viz. All of them are rated for "older teens", just as the I"s manga is rated for older teens. All of them show nipples. With all the panty shots (including cameltoe) and sexually suggestive poses left in I"s, it's no less objectionable than having left a nipple in there. I'm sure parents who would object to the nipple would also object to the rest of the fanservice. Ergo, they aren't any more likely to buy it even with the nipples painted over - or even removed. It seems like they aren't being consistent with their prior policies.

Godaistudios wrote:

That's what one might think, however let's consider the following: Alice 19th, Hot Gimmick, Video Girl Ai, Ranma 1/2. All are published by Viz. All of them are rated for "older teens", just as the I"s manga is rated for older teens. All of them show nipples. With all the panty shots (including cameltoe) and sexually suggestive poses left in I"s, it's no less objectionable than having left a nipple in there. I'm sure parents who would object to the nipple would also object to the rest of the fanservice. Ergo, they aren't any more likely to buy it even with the nipples painted over - or even removed. It seems like they aren't being consistent with their prior policies.

I was thinking that and going to post that if no one else mentioned it, though I only knew of Ranma ½ and Hot Gimmick with that. Why didn't anyone think of Ranma? Some of the posts sounded as if they thought Viz was some new company.

I was under the impression that VGAi was modified, although with nothing nearly as bad as the stars we are seeing in I"s. I could be wrong...

One of my favorite series that I've stayed with throughout the years, both in original format and repurchased in "action edition" format, is Masakazu Katsura's Video Girl Ai. I like many others had fallen in love with the OVA series and have followed through to see what the manga was like. I knew going into that series that there were issues with edits but that the edits were done in Japan and you couldn't get the original version there anymore because of it. I was completely fine with that because it was very much out of Viz's hands. The end result is that I got and continue to get a very enjoyable series with artwork by my second favorite artist out there on a regular basis. It's always a happy day when a new volume arrives.

The difference between VGAi and I"s is that when they released VGAi, Viz was still a niche company. That's not the case now, and Viz, along with the rest of the manga industry (and media as a whole), is under more scrutiny than ever. They simply are adapting their policies to fit an increasingly hostile social climate. I still think their motivation is not greed, as some have implied. Besides, there's no way they did not notice the whole uproar with CMX to think that censoring in order to give the book a lower age rating would boost sales.

04/01/05 01:10 AM

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erimakimujina said:
I apologize in advance for not answering particular replies. I want to, but time's short, so at the risk of being accused of stirring the crap for no good reason, I'll close with this:

Folks, it's just some nipples. Just a few nipples, and Viz could fearlessly and unabashedly sell the manga to a greatly huge audience without getting sued. It's not a matter of whether the case would hold up in court -- it's a matter of getting sued.


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I really doubt this is the case... and disagree for a number of reasons. If it was going to happen, it would have happened already. First of all, the Janet incident happened over a year ago. The public fervor over that has diminished significantly. If a lawsuit were to have even been filed against Viz for such publications, it would have made sense for it to be a knee-jerk reaction - strike while the iron is hot.

Second, Viz has been publishing manga with nipples in it for how long now? Taking into consideration the Ranma manga, I'd say it's been well over a decade? How many times in the past ten+ years have we heard about some upset parent... or organization for that matter, filing a suit against Viz for the content?

Another perfect time for a suit to have been filed would have been during the Jesus Castillo incident. Did anybody go after Viz then? Nope, not then either.

It's not as if we've seen a manga company get sued yet, scaring Viz into taking action before they get sued as well.

Considering all the above, I can't figure why you got it stuck in your head that it could possibly be because they might get sued. This suggests you may either be paranoid, or at the very least, naive.

Personally, I think you've been grasping at straws since you first brought it up because the stance that you took holds little merit.


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I mean, wouldn't you think all this furor about nipples is not only a large overreaction, but looks pretty silly to any outside observor?


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Possibly, however almost anybody who disagrees with censorship would be against it. The basics tenants of free speech almost demand we fight censorship, regardless of what it is. If we don't fight it, then what stops it from getting worse? At what point do we say, "This is where we draw the line."?

Granted, there are some truly perverse and obsene things that really shouldn't be a part of any society. Snuff films, children being molested, etc. It makes sense to censor some things. The nipples in the I"s manga? That doesn't really fall into a category where it's in the best interests of the public to have it censored.

Who knows? Maybe you aren't all that concerned about censorship, or perhaps you are just more selective than others. That's no reason to be condescending to those who feel this is something worth fighting.

Take it for what it's worth. Personally, I think that right now, Congress cares more about steriods and baseball more than they care about nipples. But maybe that's just me.