Bowdlerise/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A work, when translated, is more heavily edited for the new audience.

  • Straight: The Adventures Of Alice-chan is a popular manga in Japan. When it comes to the US, the company translating it removes a lot of the more questionable material such as sex, cursing, drinking, and violence.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Macekre
    • Even kitchen knives and hammers are edited out.
    • Any instances of Accidental Innuendo are removed, regardless of context.
    • The editing is not only done like the above, but also doesn't bother to change things to match the context. This makes Alice-chan's Running Gag of eating too much candy with sugar rush consequences seem disturbingly similar to a drug addiction, and Kenji's implied relationship with Satou turns Squick-inducing when the censored version makes them step-brothers.
  • Justified:
  • Inverted:
    • The Adventures Of Alice-chan is a popular manga with very young children in Japan. When it comes to the US, the company translating it adds things like drinking, sex, and drugs to try to play to an older audience.
    • American Kirby Is Hardcore
  • Subverted: When it comes to the US, the translation company seems that they'll heavily censor it, but they don't.
  • Double Subverted: At least, they don't censor the first few issues. But when the Moral Guardians start complaining, they start censoring for real.
  • Parodied:
    • Revealing outfits are censored by use of magical censorship animals which bounce around ridiculously. The Hollywood Homely character doesn't get one because she's got nothing to reveal. (Happens in the "voluntarily censored" version of Gun X Sword.)
    • See the first Reconstructed, but entirely intentional
  • Deconstructed: The censorship doesn't sit well with either audience. The intended audience finds it too childish, and the original audience finds the censorship pointless. As a result, they voice their displeasure in their buying options.
  • Reconstructed:
    • The censorship creates a number of humorous inconsistencies which causes the translated manga to gain a fanbase that wouldn't have otherwise existed.
    • The censors try to be careful, and not reduce the quality of the show.
    • The show acquires a younger audience, that would be turned off by all the drugs and sex.
  • Zig Zagged: It seems like they will censor it, but they don't at first. Then the Moral Guardians come a-knockin', but even then, they refuse to censor it.
  • Averted: No censorship is attempted and the translation company is upfront.
  • Enforced: "You're telling me I have to follow these rules? Well, I guess you print the checks..."
  • Lampshaded: "Well, we've had to make a few changes to this popular manga..."
  • Invoked: A similar manga is summarily canceled due to the influence of the Moral Guardians. So...
  • Defied: The translation company refuses to censor the manga, stating that they want to please their fanbase.
  • Discussed: "Alice-Chan, this is an intervention. Your need to collect innocuous bags of flour is not only bizarre but also out of control."
  • Conversed: "You really need to read the scanlation of Alice-Chan. The official release completely sidestepped her cocaine addiction."

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