Top 5 Best Censored Anime that brings a whole new experience

Censorship in the anime industry acts as a level playing field to get rid of questionable, often inappropriate elements to make the content appropriate for younger audiences. This is also why it is a highly contentious subject among fans as it gives in to the ‘anime is for kids’ stereotype and sometimes sabotages the experience. Censorship comes disguised as localization as well, with older anime at the brunt of heavily censored content. Today we’ll discuss some of the most censored anime of all time. 

Here are the best Censored Anime that changed the entire show

5. Yu-Gi-Oh!

The association of any anime with 4 Kids comes along with heavy censorship. Everything that was deemed even slightly not-child-friendly either gets cut or censored into something ridiculous. Yu-Gi-Oh! anime became a victim of this. In the history of dubbed anime Yugioh easily goes down as one of the most censored anime. The different dubs came with unique flaws and unnecessary censorship.

The changes included making the guns invisible which appeared as if characters were attacking with their index fingers, this led to the birth of the Pegasus meme. The concept of death was completely cut out with the introduction of a non-canon concept, the shadow realm. Unlike the other changes, this change was received well by fans for its supernatural connotations.  

4. Sailor Moon 

 

Sailor Moon can easily secure the top spot in a list of most censored anime. In an attempt to localize Sailor Moon for the Western audience, a lot was changed and censored from names to the number of episodes. Sexual orientations and gender identities of different characters were changed, and Uranus and Neptune were turned into cousins.

All the fanservice was cut down along with the violence and deaths. Due to this, the episode count was also condensed. Religious implications were removed or changed conveniently. Most of these changes were rectified in the Viz Media dubbed version. 

3. Crayon Shin Chan

In Japan, Crayon Shin Chan was aimed at the Seinen Demographic. The original anime contains ecchi and degenerate humor along with nudity. When the show reached overseas, it turned into a kid’s show. The show was originally so inappropriate that the censorship led to the length of the episodes being halved. 

Initially, some questionable scenes were kept intact but with time more and more scenes had to be removed. 

In many European and Asian countries outside of Japan, Crayon Shin Chan is fondly remembered. The censored and uncensored versions feel like different anime with all the changes. In its home country, the series didn’t undergo similar censorship but the manga is much more crude than the anime. 

2. Tokyo Ghoul

The themes of Tokyo Ghoul are graphic and gory, given how the anime is about creatures who devour humans. Most scenes were bloody and hence underwent heavy censoring. The censorship isn’t subtle or minor in any way either. Whenever a scene involved blood, the bloody part would be concealed with black squares, the entire screen would go black occasionally or the colors would be inverted. 

A huge part of Tokyo Ghoul’s appeal is how gory it can be at times, the censorship takes away from the experience. On the bright side, there are uncensored versions available that are easily accessible. 

1. One piece

When 4 Kids acquired the licensing rights of One Piece in the United States, the anime series was severely censored. From cigarettes to wounds, everything was changed. In the censored version, Sanji always had a lollipop in his mouth with magical smoke around it instead of smoking cigarettes, blood was white instead of red with guns and blades being invisible.

Scenes that were too explicitly violent were cut if they couldn’t be censored. Some storylines were altered to play down the severity of situations. In 4Kids One Piece, Bellemere didn’t die but instead was left in some dungeon. And it’s believed that she lives there till this day.

One Piece also underwent censoring when the manga was adapted into the anime. While the manga didn’t shy away from being graphic, the anime toned down the gruesomeness of some scenes including Whitebeard’s face staying intact. 

The censorship in One Piece garnered mixed reactions with some fans taking everything in light humor and making memes out of it, while others were more agitated. 

Conclusion 

Besides making the content child-friendly, censorship is also a way to increase the sales of Blu-ray in Japan. Censorship has different parameters around the world but the dampening impact on the experience is pretty uniform.

This is why we follow a no-censorship approach with the Spiel Anime Newsletter. We strive to deliver an informatively fun and uncensored glimpse of all things anime, twice a week!