Throwback #94 - Food for Thought?

Anime, as with any Television broadcast, is toned down or other words, censored. Sometimes the scene may be too violent, grotesque, or even outright disturbing and that's why Warnings & Parental Advisories were put into effect. Adult Swim is a channel that broadcasts Anime on Saturdays and I've begun to notice some censorship. One prime example of Kill La Kill. Yes, the fan-service in the show is too much for some viewers, but when you deliberately cut off a scene that progresses the story, then why the f*ck are you putting it out there? It could do one of two things ~ lower our expectations of that scene or outright not matter one bit. To me, censorship can go both ways and seeing censorship in my favorite Anime didn't really grind my gears too much because I've already seen it. Viewers who haven't seen Kill La Kill might not know the difference, but at least I know what's up when a scene is either cut or toned down. Bleach has had a few censorship issues and the prime example that I know if is Tier Harribel. If you see her, she's nearly naked. So what did they do? They covered the bottom half of her BEEWBZ and that solves the problem. Another case that I wanted to explicate in terms of censorship in Bleach is the scene where Szayelaporro Granz began eating his fraccion in order to replenish his power & health back at 100%. In the Manga, this was not censored. You see him, with one bite, eat his own henchman like he was some sort of fruit. In the Anime rendition, he converts his Fraccion into a purple orb and begins chowing down on it. Was this scene really that grotesque that they felt the need to tone it down? Apparently so. I watched the Anime rendition of this scene so I didn't think about it too much. When I read the Manga, I was thinking to myself "That looks so much more fearful than him turning his henchman into a orb." I mean the Espada are supposed to be intimidating as f*ck and eating his own is like saying "Hey, don't f*ck with me." Maybe they were scared that it was promoting cannibalism or perhaps it truly is too violent for the minds of 14-15 years. Who knows. All I know is that this scene in the Manga is cooler than the Anime. Like I've said, censorship can go both ways.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Throwback. Throwbacks will continue for 6 more weeks. Stay classy as always. BF II post is posted above.