Manga Censorship, Part One.

If you're a manga fan, you may have of the recents edits made to Tenjho Tenge, published by CMX, which is a division of DC Comics (and which is owned by Time Warner). While the edits made to that comic by DC/CMX was an attempt to make the comic more suitable to the lucrative teen audience, it has not only insulted the intellenge of the built-in fanbase (and really, any adult manga fan), but the comic is still unsuitable for a teen audience. You can read the link for more information about the edits, but regardless, even if you don't like the unedited material, you can agree that it should have never been considered for the teen audience in the first place.

However, while I agree that the edits made to TT were pretty stupid and unnessary, the controversy has caused the fan radar to go on high alert for ANY sort of edits being done to their comics, and we've seen the next two blips in the form of Masakazu Katsura's I"s and Descendants of Darkness, both published by Viz, one of (if not the) oldest publishers of manga in the United States. In the English version of I"s, there is a scene where a girl's bare nipples are covered up with stars, and in DoD, a scene where a man is giving another man a blow job is editted to where the man is now offpanel, talking with the nude man. And in another Viz release, Eyeshield 21, there is a possiblity that the main character's language was toned down in the English version, but without a professional translator saying otherwise, I'm dismissing this as rumor, since translations tends to vary between fans and pros (and generally between person and person). It's much easier to prove that there were edits done to artwork, which is pretty much black or white.

There's a lot of problems here.

Viz wants to sell these titles to the Teen market, because that's where the money is. Editting these titles ultimately does not affect the storyline of these comics: The nipples in question in I"s were barely drawn in the first place (just enough to show that the breasts are bare, but the stars still tell you that she has them), and the dialouge of the main character in Eyeshield 21, from my understanding, is still rough and tough, but only without the "fucks." The scene in DoD is a little different, and the edit does change the feel of the scene slightly. However, if the scene was intended to show readers that these characters are lovers, the fact that they are naked and lounging about still communicates that fact, but not as bluntly.

Now, Viz has a rating system, and both I"s and DoD are rated 16+, which is their rating for Older Teens (no idea what Eyeshield21 is rated, but I would assume at least 13+). While this may sound about right, even with the edits, the problem is that the edits are wildly inconsistant across the board. Video Girl Ai, a previous work by Masakazu Katsura, is also rated 16+, but nipples are left uncovered, and there is plenty of fanservice in it (and also in I"s, which makes the covering of the nipples odd, considering the amount of panty shots and camel toe left uncovered), and in Flame of Recca, another 16+ title, has bare nipples as well, and even a "Cocksucker" or two thrown in the dialouge. I"s falls under the Shonen Jump Advanced umbrella, which would account for the editting (another SJA title, Ultimate Muscle, has had all its nudity covered, both male and female), but again, it's inconsistant; Dragon Ball is published as a Shonen Jump comic, which is aimmed at a slighly younger audience than the SJA comcis, yet all the nudity in it is left intact. So why does DB, a title aimmed at the younger crowds, have nudity, and I"s, something aimmed at the older crowd, doesn't?

Like I said, there's a lot of problems here.

It's obvious that there are several different editorial policies at work here with Viz, which would account for the baffling edits made to some titles, but not others. It may be that Viz is becoming increasingly concerned that as the manga industry continues to grow as mainstream entertainment (which is what they want), the chances of a potential political backlash grows as well. It wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination; the United States is on a conservative backswing after years of becoming more and more liberal, and if the wrong person got ahold of, say, DoD unedited, it could cause the manga industry a serious headache. So, with their more mainstream titles (i.e. the Shonen Jump/Shojo Beat titles), they perform minor edits to give themselves some protection. Dragon Ball might be exempt from this line of reasoning due to the fact that it doesn't get the same amount of attention that Dragonball Z does, and so gets a little leeway.

Another reason may be that as the market grows, shelf space becomes limited, and retailers are going to want titles they can sell. If I"s and DoD were unedited, they might be shrink-wrapped to prevent the wrong people from looking at it, which might hurt sales. If a person can't browse through the title, it's less likely that it will sell. While some titles that are shrink-wrapped still move (Negima, Berserk), it's not something that publishers want to do, or something that retailers would be willing to risk. Also, shrink-wrapped titles sell better in the direct market (comic book shops), but the money is in bookstores, which is the mainstream market.

There are counter arguments to this. Firstly, if Viz wants to sell titles for the mainstream Teen audience, there are plenty of unlicensed titles in Japan that are more suitable than I"s or DoD that wouldn't require any edits at all. While these titles may be more high profile, there are a lot of teens that will buy anything as long as it's called manga (which is a problem in itself, but that's another rant for another day), and they (lesser titles) would probably sell just as well. Secondly, the manga community loathes edits with a passion, and editting a title is a sure way to hurt sales (from all reports, Tenjho Tenge is selling horribly, just because of the word of mouth that it's getting. The Bookscan report for March will be interesting to see). There is also the argument of protecting artistic integrity, but it's more used to support the first two arguments.

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Whew. That's a long post. I'll post the second part after work.