LewdGamer editorial: Censorship in English eroge releases

[sanahtlig]

LewdGamer writer Rillania, their resident expert on visual novels, reviews censorship in English eroge releases and argues why visual novel fans should no longer support titles simply out of obligation or because the industry is too frail to endure criticism.

LewdGamer editorial: Censorship in Western Eroge Releases (NSFW)

[CatSoul]

"MoeNovel wanted to make KonoSora a game that “even 12-year-old French girls could enjoy.”

I find this hilarious every time I read it. France is a very liberal country; the film Nymphomaniac: Part 1, which featured close-up, unsimulated sex, was rated as suitable for twelve-year-olds there. French girls are not the issue.

[Canicheslayer]

1 hour ago, CatSoul said:

[...]the film Nymphomaniac: Part 1, which featured close-up, unsimulated sex, was rated as suitable for twelve-year-olds there. French girls are not the issue.

Wrong. It was rated as suitable for sixteen-year-olds No seriously, I see your point. But recently, the situation has changed in France : There's a sort of (ultra-)catholic lobby : Promouvoir. They have managed to censor (by trials, for example) several movies like Blue Is the Warmest Colour or Antichrist. They lose a sort of licence we call "Visa d'exploitation"). I'm pretty sure this lobby want to attack video games

/end of the off-topic

[Soulless Watcher]

3 hours ago, Canicheslayer said:

Wrong. It was rated as suitable for sixteen-year-olds No seriously, I see your point. But recently, the situation has changed in France : There's a sort of (ultra-)catholic lobby : Promouvoir. They have managed to censor (by trials, for example) several movies like Blue Is the Warmest Colour or Antichrist. They lose a sort of licence we call "Visa d'exploitation"). I'm pretty sure this lobby want to attack video games

/end of the off-topic

What?! They censored Antichrist?!?! I want to see what fucking family brings the childrens to watch Willem Dafoe get his dick chopped off.  

[Canicheslayer]

2 hours ago, Soulless Watcher said:

What?! They censored Antichrist?!?! I want to see what fucking family brings the childrens to watch Willem Dafoe get his dick chopped off.  

Just like Nymphomaniac, The movie was already "strictly forbidden to the under 16". But Promouvoir wasn't satisfied. Three times (2009, 2012 and 2016), the lobby succeeded in banning Antichrist from french movie theaters (no problem for the DVDs and Blu-rays, I suppose). In 2009 andin 2012, the gouvernment (the ministry of culture) quickly relicenced it...but I don't know what's they'll do this time.

[sanahtlig]

Discussion here has been fairly restrained, but on /r/visualnovels discussion has been pretty active, and I've responded a number of times with my own viewpoints and insights.  Those interested can observe the discussion here.

[Tyr]

8 hours ago, CatSoul said:

"MoeNovel wanted to make KonoSora a game that “even 12-year-old French girls could enjoy.”

I find this hilarious every time I read it. France is a very liberal country; the film Nymphomaniac: Part 1, which featured close-up, unsimulated sex, was rated as suitable for twelve-year-olds there. French girls are not the issue.

This isn't an insinuation to Franc's liberality, it's a quote from MoeNovel itself, said during an interview. And naturally it was said because France has one of the biggest anime fandoms in Europe.
I can't even fathom how this quote can be misinterpreted so wrong, lol.

[Decay]

I thought the whole issue sprung up because a 12 year old french girl actually liked their facebook page or something along those lines, and they decided to make a story out of it.

[Shinobu Nyan]

Eroge releases are more or less censored in Japan as well as I understand. There was some censorship law thing or something around 2000 I think that addressed digital censorship. That's why there's a sudden change from uncensored to censored. I read this a LONG time ago so I don't remember it that well at all. But basically the amount of change in a western release is removing scenes that were already edited over with mosaics. So a double censorship buff for us in the west.

[CatSoul]

22 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

This isn't an insinuation to Franc's liberality, it's a quote from MoeNovel itself, said during an interview. And naturally it was said because France has one of the biggest anime fandoms in Europe.
I can't even fathom how this quote can be misinterpreted so wrong, lol.

 

That's exactly how I interpreted it. I know it was a quote from MoeNovel, and France having a large anime fandom doesn't change the fact that something like an uncensored If My Heart Had Wings could probably be accepted as suitable for 12-year-old French girls by the country's censorship board.

[Tyr]

It's not about whether France allows 12 years old girls to watch porn or not. It's about catering to 12 years old animu fangirls who don't want to look at porn. The "12 year old girl" here is a metaphor for a very dominant type of anime fan who doesn't want to cross the border between ecchi and hentai even though he would legally be allowed to. Those people don't want. And this group was the target audience of MoeNovel.

[sanahtlig]

28 minutes ago, Shinobu Nyan said:

Eroge releases are more or less censored in Japan as well as I understand. There was some censorship law thing or something around 2000 I think that addressed digital censorship. That's why there's a sudden change from uncensored to censored. I read this a LONG time ago so I don't remember it that well at all. But basically the amount of change in a western release is removing scenes that were already edited over with mosaics. So a double censorship buff for us in the west.

I'm pretty sure Japanese eroge have had mosaic censorship since forever.  It's just that before a certain point it was uncommon to depict explicit sex with exposed genitals in games.

In any case, one shouldn't conflate mosaic censorship required by law with removal of sexually explicit content in whole or in part for Western release.  The arguments for and against the two types of censorship are very different, and different groups may be against one type of censorship but tolerate the other.  The mainstream porn crowd will rage against mosaics but want to steer clear of anything with loli sex, while the eroge purists (especially the hardcore ones who import games and play them in Japanese) are often fine with mosaics but rage when sexual content is removed or the game is "Westernized" to make it more acceptable to a Western audience.

[Canicheslayer]

21 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

It's not about whether France allows 12 years old girls to watch porn or not. It's about catering to 12 years old animu fangirls who don't want to look at porn. The "12 year old girl" here is a metaphor for a very dominant type of anime fan who doesn't want to cross the border between ecchi and hentai even though he would legally be allowed to. Those people don't want. And this group was the target audience of MoeNovel.

Exactly. And hopefully the European/PEGI system (the EU board for Video Games censorship) isn't so permissive.