Sacrilege!

Quoting the Weasl:

On a side note Del Rey has confirmed that they have indeed commited sacrilige in the form of editing their English release of Akamatsu-sensei's (author of Love Hina) latest manga, Magister Negi Magi. I guess I'll have an extra 10 dollars come April.

Endquote.

Quoting AnimeOn DVD:

'with the artists knowledge' should read as 'to the atonishment of the artist'.

' I was browsing Akamatsu-sensei's online diary at http://www.ailove.net/diaries/diary.cgi to see if there was any news of an upcoming Negi-ma anime, but the latest entry had an entry about Akamatsus astonishment about the revisions that were done to the American edition of Negi-ma. Behinds will be covered with panties, and side views of breasts (nipples are either not drawn in or covered by strands of hair in the original) will be covered with towels. Akamatsu mentioned something about America's censorship being like how South Korea was years ago, and that Europe is less strict. '

Bastards. Right, I'm getting on them ASAP. I thought they were going to treat an Akamatsu work *better* than they did Love Hina, not infinitely worse. If it bothers you, too, get on them as well.

Right. I'm on Del Ray like slime on politicians. I thought they'd be handling things *better* than Tokyopop did Love Hina, not infinitely worse. Who's with me?

See? Our immediate and strong negative reaction had a positive effect on the industry. Actually, of course, I think it is AnimeOnDVD that deserves the credit for having the credibility to make a difference. All Hail!

Maybe that's the crux of it: Del Rey is a well-respected brand among 'decent folk' for it's sci-fi and niche book releases. They're playing this more conservatively than manga companies because they do have that 'other market' to keep reputation. So this is their form of compromise. Just a thought.

Laters. =)

Stan

Excellent! I was obviously beaten to the punch(ing) here

<snip>

Speaking of that 'other market', when did Del Rey start shrinkwrapping and putting warning labels on the Robert A. Heinlein books that they publish?

If they're going to give that treatment to one author's works, they should give that treatment to all authors' works, IMHO.

But those are book literature, not infantile comix. ;p

(C'mon, you know there's a double standard there, just like between live-action and animation. Many in the literary world still do not like Neil Gaiman winning their literary prize with his comics.)

Laters. =)

Stan

Having read the first 3 volumes of Negi, it gets edgier. No outright nudity (where it 'should' happen, it's Akamatsufied), but there's one scene where Negi's students get him in the bath and out of his clothes (against his wishes), which is kind of risque (quote 'Let's make it get bigger!'...'But he's only 11; I don't think it will!'...'Well, why wouldn't it?'.

I think it's not so much the display of nudity but the implication thereof, the frequency thereof, and the ages of the 'victims' which is the issue.

The Taiwanese edition carries the same warning label - I don't think it did for vol. 1, but 2 onwards have them.

But in this case, there may be good reason to shrink-wrap it.

Partial spoilers for LoEG Vol. 2 below

v

Something extremely _nasty_ happens to Hawley Griffin (the Invisible Man) in Chapter 4.

Something which Mr. Hyde, of course, is responsible for.

It's nasty enough that the publisher would have the entire collected volume shrink-wrapped simply to avoid legal problems.

John L. Friese

It's not just that; pictures of nudity are considered far worse than textual desciptions of nudity by our society. And when the pictures look like cartoons aimed for young kids you can see the problem.