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'Blame Your Mother' - A rant on all the moaning about 'American Censorship'm [Incompleate]
'Blame Your Mother' - A rant on all the moaning about 'American Censorship'
[Work in Progress]
Everyone who's had any sort of encounter with the Yuugiou fandom has heard end less rantings about the 'Evils' of 4Kids or Shonen Jump or Upperdeck or some other company involved with Yuugiou - The American Version blaming them for the 'horrible censorship' of the Japanese anime. Most of these people seem to have it in their head that these companies are going out of their way to edit this show JUST to annoy them. They rant that the cards are censored, covering up flesh and obscuring any symbol that could be construded as religous. They rant that the dub is censored, taking out the violance, the cursing, covering up any hint at anything adult. They rant that the English translated manga in censored. The say the companies are evil and out to ruin everything, not realizing that the reason for all the changes is a lot closer to home.
Parents want what's best for their child. If they think seeing violance or symbols of violence is going to cause their child to be violent, they're going to do their best to keep their child from being exposed to that. This means if there's violence in a TV show, they won't let their child watch it. If there's symbols of violence in a card game, they're not going to let their child buy it. Similarly, if a parent is religous or is conserned that their kid will be swayed to the darker side, they will be doing their best to protect them from any influence that would go agaist what they want for their child. You say the words "Black Magic" in a church and you can bet there'll be a stir. You show a pentacle to a religous mother and there's a good chance you will be branded a devil worshiper and banned from the house.
The primary goal of any company is to make money. A company that's primary market is children that has parents refusing to buy it's products because they are deemed a bad influence on children is not going to make money, so the company will take steps to make their product 'Child Safe.' This means anything that could possibly upset a parent will be removed or obscured.
American society is one that likes to find something to blame for it's personal problems. "It's my bosses fault I haven't gotten a raise." "I got a bad grade because my teacher hates me." "Oh it's not his fault, he has ADHD." "He's not a bad kid, he just has fits when other people do things he doesn't like." "Look what you made me do." Video games are blamed for school shootings, TV is blamed for any sort of bizzare behavour, other people and other things are blamed for any thing unacceptable.
In order to be a 'good company' that gets the approval of parent's pocket books everywhere, a company has to be sure not to have any elements that could be used as blame. Especialy since America is a country with one of it's mantra's being 'Sue them!' Comercials advertise 'If you've done this and had this happen, you may be intitled to money.' America is a country where people will sue fastfood chains for making them fat and the cable company for makign them lazy.
[[ More to come when I ever get around to it]]
[Work in Progress]
Everyone who's had any sort of encounter with the Yuugiou fandom has heard end less rantings about the 'Evils' of 4Kids or Shonen Jump or Upperdeck or some other company involved with Yuugiou - The American Version blaming them for the 'horrible censorship' of the Japanese anime. Most of these people seem to have it in their head that these companies are going out of their way to edit this show JUST to annoy them. They rant that the cards are censored, covering up flesh and obscuring any symbol that could be construded as religous. They rant that the dub is censored, taking out the violance, the cursing, covering up any hint at anything adult. They rant that the English translated manga in censored. The say the companies are evil and out to ruin everything, not realizing that the reason for all the changes is a lot closer to home.
Parents want what's best for their child. If they think seeing violance or symbols of violence is going to cause their child to be violent, they're going to do their best to keep their child from being exposed to that. This means if there's violence in a TV show, they won't let their child watch it. If there's symbols of violence in a card game, they're not going to let their child buy it. Similarly, if a parent is religous or is conserned that their kid will be swayed to the darker side, they will be doing their best to protect them from any influence that would go agaist what they want for their child. You say the words "Black Magic" in a church and you can bet there'll be a stir. You show a pentacle to a religous mother and there's a good chance you will be branded a devil worshiper and banned from the house.
The primary goal of any company is to make money. A company that's primary market is children that has parents refusing to buy it's products because they are deemed a bad influence on children is not going to make money, so the company will take steps to make their product 'Child Safe.' This means anything that could possibly upset a parent will be removed or obscured.
American society is one that likes to find something to blame for it's personal problems. "It's my bosses fault I haven't gotten a raise." "I got a bad grade because my teacher hates me." "Oh it's not his fault, he has ADHD." "He's not a bad kid, he just has fits when other people do things he doesn't like." "Look what you made me do." Video games are blamed for school shootings, TV is blamed for any sort of bizzare behavour, other people and other things are blamed for any thing unacceptable.
In order to be a 'good company' that gets the approval of parent's pocket books everywhere, a company has to be sure not to have any elements that could be used as blame. Especialy since America is a country with one of it's mantra's being 'Sue them!' Comercials advertise 'If you've done this and had this happen, you may be intitled to money.' America is a country where people will sue fastfood chains for making them fat and the cable company for makign them lazy.
[[ More to come when I ever get around to it]]
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I just have a minor 'WTF' over the removal of Jounouchi's plot line. What in heck was so wrong with that? Bah.
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I like it so far. ^^ It states a lot of truth. Keep it up! <3
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did have problems with them changing the plot, like messing with Malik's motivations and everything, and other stuff in Battle City.
That's right. I think if it was restricted to standard censorship, there wouldn't be as much bitching, but a lot of changes are made for no reason, not just in the BC dub but elsewhere, and it's very frustrating.
I think it's unfortunate that society at large seems to be disinterested in accountability and teaching over TV babysitting, but it's also unreasonable to expect that Yuugiou's American release would have tried to be something revolutionary. To must adults and self-proclaimed "otaku", Yuugiou is just a flash in the pan phenomenon with no staying power or intrinsic "value". Contrary to what some fans believe, I don't think this attitude is the dub's or the American company's fault. I put it this way:
"The Yuugiou dub is fast food. The Yuugious sub is fast food in a silk wrapper."
Plus, the idea of 4Kids wanting to spite older fans is ridiculous as the idea that the dub somehow ruins the reputation of Yuugiou. Notice how no release of Yuugiou in North America is devoid of any ties to the edited version?
Whoo, sorry for the off-tangent rant.
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That's right. I think if it was restricted to standard censorship, there wouldn't be as much bitching, but a lot of changes are made for no reason, not just in the BC dub but elsewhere, and it's very frustrating.
Alot of the changes in Battle City were because Yuugiou in america was aimed at a younger group. You couldn't have someone trying to kill the main chara [just 'defeat' them like in the 80s super hero cartoons :D] so that had to be changed. My main bitch tehre is WHY remove Jounouchi's side plot for that arc? What's wrongn with wanting to become a 'true duelist'?
Most of the edits and stuff I can see being deemed nessacary because of the age group they aimed it at, but you do get some that juist make you go WTF like the removing of all text and the fugly card edit [the makign it all one big image thing.]
and the Sub isn't fast food, it's diner food. Slight diffrence in how it's prepaired and aimed at a diffrent crowd.
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Yeah, that was what I was referring to. Also, Yugi's motivations; there was almost nothing in the dub about Yami Yuugi wishing to find his memories and needing the God Cards and the Items for that. It was a real waste for me, since it was a more..."personal" motivation instead of just generically trying to "save the world from evil".
but you do get some that juist make you go WTF like the removing of all text and the fugly card edit [the makign it all one big image thing.]
Yeah, now that's all stupid.
and the Sub isn't fast food, it's diner food. Slight diffrence in how it's prepaired and aimed at a diffrent crowd.
You think so? I was hinting that at their cores, the sub and dub are just the same; fun, kiddy "popcorn" series, but the sub has prettier music and takes itself more serioiusly--all "outer" factors that don't change the essential chessiness of the show.
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