Censorship in a Nutshell (Updated)
There’s been a huge hubbub on the Internet recently over FUNimation’s decision to censor “objectionable content” from the home entertainment release of their recent acquisition Dance in the Vampire Bund. I’ve already been more than vocal about it on Twitter. Here, I’m just going to summarize my thoughts:
- What FUNimation is doing is censorship. They are removing “material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations.” That is censorship.
- People are making assumptions about why FUNimation is doing this, claiming it’s because of the Handley case or it’s a “smart business decision.” We know nothing yet.
- If you support a company’s decision to censor, then by the laws of logic, you support censorship.
- If you are truly against censorship, you should be fighting this decision, not supporting it. Allowing this to happen or just “dealing with it” is only going to help set a precedent.
- For further reading see here, here, and here.
Also note that I am not boycotting FUNimation. I will still continue to support their non-censored releases.
UPDATE 3/10:
FUNimation has issued a follow-up statement regarding this. While they plan to continue to release edited versions of the episodes via online streaming and television broadcast (likely FUNimation Channel), they are “considering” releasing the home entertainment version (DVD and possibly Blu-ray) unedited. They stated that the episodes that have aired so far are suitable for a home entertainment release, but being that there are still episodes that have yet to air, the final decision is up in the air (see what I did there?).
If the DVD/BD release does in fact turn out to be unedited, then I will be okay with this. I am okay with censorship as long as there is an unedited version available (without having to resort to fansubs or overpriced R2 DVDs). I will now be hopeful and optimistic that FUNimation will choose to give the fans what they want: an unedited, uncensored home entertainment release.
Posted on 2010-03-09, in Editorial and tagged censorship, dance in the vampire bund, funimation. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Janai
Antz
OtakuAnthony
jaysteevee
vtine
matty
machineslife
Nyanman
I completely agree that censorship is wrong. But I’m honestly up in the air as to whether or not I will boycott Funimation. I had full intention to buy the Dance in the Vampire Bund DVD release when it came out, but when I found out that it was censored, I’m completely put me off of it. And then the fact that Funi would censor something on a DVD release that costs a decent amount anyway has really made me very angry at the company. They have a lot of Funi DVDs as they seem to license shows I like, and I like to own things that I like. But, as it stands now, I may just keep fansub versions of anime that Funi licenses instead of buying from them. I guess I’ll make my final decision on it if and when we get a better response from Funi.
@Lheage
I wouldn’t boycott Funi completely. Just boycott the release of the Dance in The Vampire Bund. When you boycott Funi completely you are just don’t more harm then good to the anime business all together. It would hurt them more and let them know that we support edit-free stuff if they see that this doesn’t do good. Funi seem to know what is being said on the internet and I am sure they can connect the two together if the see Dance has low sales but notice that all their edit-free stuff has high sales.
I understand why Funi is doing this but I don’t understand why people are willing to boycott Funi all together. I think that is just a stupid idea. Just boycott this series and that is all. No need to make all other good animes suffer because of this one anime.
Funi isn’t going after someone’s life to destroy it.
I believe FUNimation was pressured into this by the progressive movement. See my article for detailed analysis of the situation.