In the 80s and early 90s, Nintendo was notorious for strict censorship policies. Prohibiting things like Blood, extreme violence, gratouitous sex, religion, or use of alcohol or tobacco. While most of these policies were scrapped with the advent of the ESRB, there's still a rare instance were the company makes a minor change or two so that their games can be playable by kids 14 and under, an important demographic for the company.
But in the anime industry, there was a New York-based children's production company that was not only notorious for extreme censorship, but an example of censorship gone wrong. Although 4kids Entertainment no longer exists, their legacy of heavily edited anime dubs forever live on as a source of humor for anime fans. The problem wasn't just that 4kids censored and edited anime, the problem was that they rarely did it well.
They were pretty much the anime equivalent of an overprotective nanny. Always keeping kids in bubble wrap never letting them get exposed to reality. Most of what 4kids aquired was for kids roughly of upper elementary and middle school age (10-15 years old) in Japan. 4kids, seeing the success of Pokémon, felt it was better to target children younger than that. Thus, the removal of blood, any and all fanservice and innuendo (even if its something relativley harmless), dumbed down, pun-filled dialogue that sounds like it was written by 5 year olds, discarding scenes and even entire episodes that were "unimportant to the main story" (Kids are too stupid to get character development or subplots apparently), And even removing text, Japanese culture, guns, and even the concept of death (kids can't know about these things, they're EEEEEVIIIIIILLLLLLLL!!!).
Say what you want about Nintendo's censorship, at least these days, its subtle and rare. While I don't agree with all their changes (censoring Tharja's ass in the Awakening DLC was going a bit too far IMO), Nintendo at least treats 10-14 year olds with respect, and isn't afraid to expose them to things like death, war, sacrifice, mild fanservice (Great Fairy and Zero Suit Samus are examples), and occasionaly, mild blood. So who do you think is worse?
But in the anime industry, there was a New York-based children's production company that was not only notorious for extreme censorship, but an example of censorship gone wrong. Although 4kids Entertainment no longer exists, their legacy of heavily edited anime dubs forever live on as a source of humor for anime fans. The problem wasn't just that 4kids censored and edited anime, the problem was that they rarely did it well.
They were pretty much the anime equivalent of an overprotective nanny. Always keeping kids in bubble wrap never letting them get exposed to reality. Most of what 4kids aquired was for kids roughly of upper elementary and middle school age (10-15 years old) in Japan. 4kids, seeing the success of Pokémon, felt it was better to target children younger than that. Thus, the removal of blood, any and all fanservice and innuendo (even if its something relativley harmless), dumbed down, pun-filled dialogue that sounds like it was written by 5 year olds, discarding scenes and even entire episodes that were "unimportant to the main story" (Kids are too stupid to get character development or subplots apparently), And even removing text, Japanese culture, guns, and even the concept of death (kids can't know about these things, they're EEEEEVIIIIIILLLLLLLL!!!).
Say what you want about Nintendo's censorship, at least these days, its subtle and rare. While I don't agree with all their changes (censoring Tharja's ass in the Awakening DLC was going a bit too far IMO), Nintendo at least treats 10-14 year olds with respect, and isn't afraid to expose them to things like death, war, sacrifice, mild fanservice (Great Fairy and Zero Suit Samus are examples), and occasionaly, mild blood. So who do you think is worse?
