Editing of Anime in American Distribution - History

History

The first few anime series and films to be brought to the United States were all bowdlerized for American audiences, with violence, deaths, sexual references, and other things the intended audience might find offensive, completely edited out, since the audience of most anime was assumed to be made up of young children. However, over time, anime has broadened its target audience from young children to also teenagers and young adults as well as middle-aged adults and older people in North America.

These titles included the earliest anime films to be brought to the United States in 1961 (and the first three feature films ever released by Toei Animation):

• Panda and the Magic Serpent (白蛇伝, Hakujaden?, The Tale of the White Serpent) (August 14, 1960)
• Magic Boy (少年猿飛佐助, Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke?, Young Monkey-Jump Sasuke) (December 1959)
• Alakazam the Great (西遊記, Saiyūki?, Journey to the West) (August 14, 1960)

The first anime series to be translated were not exempt:

• Kimba the White Lion (ジャングル大帝/, Janguru Taitei?, Jungle Emperor)
• Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム, Tetsuwan Atomu?, Mighty Atom)
• Speed Racer (マッハGoGoGo, Mach GoGoGo?)

Robotech (which was adapted from three separate series, 1, 2, and 3) (1985) and Star Blazers (宇宙戦艦ヤマト, Uchū Senkan Yamato?, Space Battleship Yamato) (1979) broke this tradition by leaving in some of those elements and preserving the drama of the original, uncut Japanese versions. However, their plots, at some points, were heavily modified.

Founded in 1987, Streamline Pictures was the first North American company founded primarily for the intention of distributing translated anime uncut and faithful to the original content. Streamline Pictures founder Carl Macek had worked for Harmony Gold USA during the mid-1980s, most notably on Robotech.

In the early 1990s, several American anime companies began to experiment with licensing less children-oriented material. Some, such as A.D. Vision, Central Park Media, and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American anime market (although, as of late, companies such as Geneon Entertainment, Central Park Media, and A.D. Vision have since folded). Others, such as AnimEigo, achieved more limited success. Many companies created directly by Japanese parent companies did not do as well, most releasing only one or two titles before folding their American operations, although Pioneer Entertainment (later Geneon Entertainment following its purchase in late 2003 by Dentsu) and Bandai Entertainment) managed to survive well into the later half of the 2000s, although Geneon closed down its North American operations in 2007.

The localization and editing processes were far more heavy in the past, when anime was largely unheard of in the United States. A famous example of this was when Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was first released outside of Japan in the mid-1980s. Renamed as Warriors of the Wind, this release cut more than half an hour out of the original version and attempted to market the film as a children's action film, rather than the heavier environmentalist drama Miyazaki intended it to be. In 2005, Nausicaa was finally released uncut on DVD in the Western world, featuring a brand new dubbed soundtrack by Disney that was faithful to the original and included the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.

However, in recent years, these localization processes have been used less because of the demand for anime in its original form. This "light touch" approach to localization and editing has proven to be popular with fans, as well as viewers formally unfamiliar with anime. The "light touch" approach also applies to DVD releases, as they often include both the English-dubbed audio version and the original Japanese audio version with subtitles, are often uncut, and lack commercials. Anime series with edited television versions may have uncut DVDs.

In recent years, a change in audience demographics has led to a greater emphasis being placed on releasing (or re-releasing) anime with fewer changes, especially on DVD, on which there are fewer content limitations. Often, these releases (such as the Disney releases of Studio Ghibli productions) include both English-dubbed versions and the original Japanese versions, usually with subtitles.