I'm hoping the negative press makes FUNi change their minds since this is pretty stupid.

Ah yes, "loli." Fictionalized depictions of underage females, which allegedly have artistic merit. We have dismissed that claim.

As adverse as I am to boycotts and petitions and the like, I've got to say that this is a pretty crappy thing to deal with as a fan and would make me decide against purchasing the product.

I think they should have not even bothered with series at all. Much better series. Not that I've seen this show. It's just what I've heard.

Funimation isn't stupid. I KNOW they had to expect a reaction of the sort when they announced this, so why do it? And why license a show they were going to censor anyway if it contains content they don't want us to see? I know good and well they don't just license shows off the cuff without knowing anything beforehand. This doesn't make any sense.

Damnit! Sorry that was written wrong. Lets do it again.

I think they should have not even bothered with series at all. There are much better series out there. Not that I've seen this show. It's just what I've heard.

I can understand an anger against censorship, and especially against self-censorship, but I think a boycott of an entire company for such a reason is stupid. Funimation has done a lot of good for the world of North American anime, and I'm not going to snub my nose at the company as a whole.

The right way to send a message is simply to not buy those particular DVDs that have been censored. When Funi sees that, they may think, "Censoring these isn't going to -increase- sales, but it's definitely going to -decrease- sales." The people who are interested in the series without knowing about it before hand aren't going to know that it has potentially objectionable content, and would likely make a purchasing decision without that factor even coming to bear. So they're not picking up additional sales that way. What they're losing, though, is the fan that already knew about it who decides to not purchase due to censorship issues.

This censorship isn't being done for some reason as understandable as "We want to run Vampire Bund on Adult Swim," or "We'd like to release this in edited form to the tween audience!", which lends credit to the idea that it's a response to the Chris Handley case.

I mean...I'm not watching the show; aside from Castlevania games, I have little interest in vampires. But, to paraphrase a statement I read on the ANN boards, "If they didn't think they could turn a profit selling the show in its standard, unedited form, why did they go to the trouble of licensing it?" Do they just think sales might be bolstered because people are into vampires these days?

This is stupid. I'm not normally pro-censorship or anything, but I'm siding with FUNi on this issue. I'd much rather them censor one anime as opposed to having their balls land in court for child pr0nz.

Everyone's acting like they're going 4Kids on the show. They're (probably) not going to change the music. Not going to deviate from the script. And I think you guys are forgetting the part that "With this in mind and with approval of the licensor" they're editing it with permission from the Japanese.

So they edit/cut a few lolicon scenes. While it's ironic with their upcoming release of Panties Witches, I think they're doing the right thing. That being, saving their butts from getting sued.

And anyone who boycotts FUNi altogether because of this needs their head checked. Don't buy the Vampire show because of censorship? Fine. But boycotting an entire company because of it? It's just showing immaturity. (The majority of the parties doing the awah-wah-whining will just download it illegally anyway..)

I don't watch Vampire Bund and I don't plan to, so this doesn't really affect me, but it still doesn't seem right since (as was said) FUNimation is known for releasing uncut product. They should grow a quad and keep the DVDs uncensored.

@Jon

I fucking love you.

That is all.

Entire internet is babies.

@Setre: I know. Well, not that I know, but I didn't mean it like that. It's, um... Wow, it's really hot in here.

I just think this is all stupid. There is no reason to do this. It's pretty much like telling the fans to go watch the fansubs instead. You can't combat fansubs and free content when they have unedited versions. If they knew they were gonna need to edit the show they should not have licensed it. Alot of people didn't expect the show to get licensed for that very reason. Now fans get excited that it's coming and then are pissed off because it's being censored. There really is no logic in it.

Why announce it? Are the seeing how people are going to react and then change their decision later? Are they gonna release a uncut version later on down the road to leech more money out of fans? I mean really it makes no sense to announce "hey I know everyone is excited for this show btw we are gonna censor it." It doesn't make sense.

This makes sense, I mean just watching one ep makes it obvious that it needs to be censored. I was surprised that they picked this one up so quickly though.

Can someone please explain to me why everyone is up in arms about this?
I am not understanding why anyone should be mad unless they like naked loli's..

Everything has artistic merit...Art is an opinion. Which is the problem. People telling other people what is wrong...from what I read the only real censorship is a scene where aKira puts sunscreen location on Mina. Wow. Censorship is fail. This is fail. Not that I'd buy it anyway cuz the anime is no where near as good as the manga and is kinda boring.

Once again is anyone surprised by this? Seriously? I'm against priacy and I buy all my anime, but this is what fansubs and manga are for.

@ The dark prince: People are up in arms about this because of FUNi's reasoning. For example, I could delete all the comments in this thread, then soundly rationalize it by saying they "contained controversial elements which, when taken out of context, could be objectionable to some people." Heck, you can use that rationalization to censor ANYTHING.

Hell, why not prohibit the sale of Bibles and other religious texts? Those "contain controversial elements" and are "objectionable to some people."

For some reason this reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged and invisible guns. Hmm.

Why even bother to pick up a series if you're going to censor it? All censoring does is piss off more people.

It's also scary to see the amount of people who are for the censorship of a non-broadcast show that will be bought/downloaded BY CHOICE, because it doesn't agree with their tastes.
I don't give a shit if it's loli, guys with exploding heads, or puppy kicking; censorship is wrong, and people have the choice whether to view it or not. If Funi doesn't have the balls to go uncut with this one, drop it and take one of the other many shows playing this season that WILL get them money without the controversy.

...i'm confused. i've seen all 8 episodes so far, and I really don't see anything wrong....Some blood and LOL almost sex...but things to censor? Nothing that hasn't been any other show Anime @_@

Funimation there's still time to pass this hot potato back to Japan and take Durarara instead. Vampires are played out; they're on the wane anyway. The next rising trend in the supernatural? Dullahans.

FUNi is just making sure that no moral otaku gets offended by a loli vampire...

this shit needs to be nipped (lol) in the bud

like it or not a a lot of anime feature loli content, censoring one series is just gonna cause a slippery slope of censorship

inb4 hopefully no one buys the dvds or watches the streams

I'm. So. Excited. First the Nick Simmons fiasco and now this?! I am going to spend the whole weekend reading angry comment threads. Some people read Star or People or something - my guilty pleasure is passionate anime arguments. Wheee!

(I, also, find this license/censorship odd and a bit hypocritical. Their choice of language in justifying the edits was a poor decision because it seems to teeter on the edge of a slippery slope leading down into 4Kids territory.)

Eh, any publicity is good publicity right?

Not gonna lie, this one doesn't bother me so much.

Cool, now I can attribute totally ignoring the streams of DitVB to meritorious political activism as opposed to mere laziness.

Actually, Akira putting the lotion on Mina's pre-pubescent body is relevant to the story- their claim that it's superfluous- which is usually true in these cases whether you agree with censorship or not- is a total lie. The fact that Mina is stuck in a child's body (and Akira's reaction to it) is a huge part of the show.

SSH KAREN DON'T SHATTER THEIR ILLUSION

Anything can be used out of context in a way that offends people, lame excuse.

I hope they release a super edited version where all you get is a white screen with the censor beep sound since I don't know if I can handle actually seeing such a horribly offensive show.

Well, I understand why they're doing this, and personally know that they're freaking out over nothing.
I understand the viewers point about this being the wrong action, but boycotting is a bit much don't you think?? I'll just not buy this anime when they release it like this. Let's all make a FACEBOOK/TWITTER/MYSPACE GROUP AGAINST THIS.

I think another reason people are up in arms about this censorship is the timing. Funimation licensed Vampire Bund practiallly mid season, meaning that it's probably going to be harder to downlowd with the wave of C&D orders that are going to be thrown out.

also @Karen: I agree with the continuity issue it kinda reminds me when cartoon network refused to broadcast the hotsprings episode of Outlaw Star, claiming the same issue.

Remember Tsukuyomi Moon Phase? FUNi lisenced it years ago and it had loli vampire stuff in it, too!

Wait, what?
"...cited by press and fans as one of the best anime series out of Japan this season."

In what universe do people whose names don't start with Jon and end with Snyder like Vampire Bund? I don't watch it but that's because nearly everyone told me it sucks butt. Sure, you are allowed to like it, but FUNi shouldn't just tell stuff which, IMO is not true, because I objectively read other peoples opinions on the show. If you want to license a series from this season that has been cited by press and fans as one of the best anime series out of Japan this season, license flippin' Durarara!!

"They see me streamin'...
They hatin'...
Censoring
an' tryin'a catch me watchin' 'loli'"

...I can't believe I just came up with that. That's what happens at 3AM. >_

For the anime industry who has been long and hard trying to fight for the fansub communities dollars, this is a moronic move.

Their justification was you could always watch their dvds/blurays with Japanese audio and subtitles (ignoring their horrible translations) if you were a purist. Unfortunately with IP's like Dance in the vampire bund, they cannot use this argument. Most people who care about this sort of thing watch anime by and large for the difference in culture. If you are removing sections of the show, you are destroying the anime, and thus, the anime. It's no different than selling a picture of the Statue of David with a black censor bar where his penis is.

I hope this is an isolated case. Otherwise, they're missing out on what actually makes anime, anime. I for one, will be downloading fansubbed Japanese dvd rips of Bund once the show is complete.

As much as a like owning the DVD releases of the anime I like, it looks like this will be one series I won't be buying any time soon. Unless this is a really evil marketing ploy by Funimation who will turn round and go "LOL just kidding" and then everybody buys the stuff because they're happy now.

Though they're not Kadokawa, so I don't think they have people that evil.

Folks, trust me: FUNi has an extremely competent legal department. They'd much rather lose your business than end up in the crosshairs of some federal prosecutor with a copy of 18 U.S.C. Section 1466A (the "PROTECT Act") in his sweaty hand.

The legal standard for what constitutes kiddie porn in the eyes of Uncle Sam has now been set, both in extant case law and now in U.S. V. HANDLEY: any "drawings or cartoons, that depict a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and is obscene, and depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral- genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between person of the same or opposite sex, which lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" are illegal.

And what, exactly, constitutes obscenity? The legal definition of obscenity is defined in current case law in MILLER V. CALIFORNIA, 413 U.S. 15 (1973) -- the famous "Miller test" -- which defines it as any artistic work, taken as a whole, which the average person, applying contemporary community standards (not national standards) finds appealing to the prurient interest; which depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions; and which lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Note that all a prosecutor has to do in order to get an obscenity indictment under the Miller test is to convince a grand jury in some specific location that a work is obscene by local community standards. This essentially means that a U.S. attorney can indict someone as a possessor of obscene material based only upon the opinion of the federal grand jury in some remote backwater location -- the Iowa Fourth Circuit, for example.

The Navarre Corporation's lawyers are not stupid. They are not going to jeopardize the stockholders' money by risking a PROTECT Act indictment -- not for VAMPIRE BUND, anyway. Boycott them all you want -- it won't make one bit of difference.

As always, these are solely my opinions, and do not represent the opinions of Navarre Corp., FUNImation, or anyone except me.

This should surprise absolutely no one. Aspects of Bund (*cough*lotion scene*cough*) are unreleasable in the US, since they can be very easily classed as obscene. Blow up Mina's naked nipples on a large screen in Iowa and try and argue that it isn't something the jury doesn't want in that state...

And anyway Vampire Bund sucks, so no one cares.

Does the manga version have anything in it that could cause it to get censored or outright cancelled in the U.S.? I've been thinking of getting the manga for some time but now I'm reconsidering.

What was the point of licensing this series? Funimation is producing an impending failure.

Telegouf07, the manga most definitely would be censored. It probably would never get published in the West, like Kodomo no Jikan.

I don't get why everyone is so angered by this. I know there's an anti-censorship craze going around, because people think they're "mature" enough to "handle" any content thrown at them or something, but this is not the point. The point is naked loli is sick and wrong and shouldn't be in public media. If you're not offended by naked loli then you need to check what's going on upstairs in your head rather than fighting the censorship.

Censorship should be around for public broadcasts and such so those that don't want themselves and more importantly their children exposed to foul subject material don't have to see or hear it. Children are highly impressionable and being exposed to this stuff at an early age does affect them in a negative manner. Also the more foul things that are tolerated (anti tolerance is needed for some things) publicly the worse a society becomes over time until it eventually collapses. But this is not a matter of opinion. Study history of cultures/civilizations/society/etc. and it's the same story for each one. I could go on, but this is supposed to be a comment not an essay :p

Fuck you, Funimation. I will continue to download the fansubs of this series.

@B-chan: I'm not going to argue with your legal know-how, but I think the "then why did they license it in the first place?" argument still stands. They've opened themselves up to a tremendous amount of criticism on behalf of a series that is neither very good, or likely to be that profitable in light of the fansubs now being superior versions.

I guess what I mean is, I think there's a difference between saying "this is stupid" from a legal perspective (which, for the reasons you stated, it probably isn't), and being stupid from a business/PR perspective.

Way do most people buy the DVD release of any given show other then to support the company? Because it is uncensored. with that said I think if you have a problem with board line material that seem inappropriate then don't buy it or watch it. If people do a little research on Mina Tepes they will learn that she never ages, and as such her body is usually that of a prepubescent girl or some thing along those lines.

With that all said it is a ANIME not a LIVE ACTION which would be a major concern with the whole C.P problem. If it is animated most of the time no real children where even involved in the drawing process what so ever.

@saikouninja: What if I started forcing my own morality on you as well? What if I stormed into your house, took all your books and DVDs, then burned them because I thought they were "sick and wrong" and a "threat to society?" You would be pretty upset with me, and rightfully so.

Vampire Bund is not being broadcast on network or cable TV. It's being streamed online, and released on DVD and Blu-Ray. I can understand the need to censor the online streams... but why the home media releases? The only way kids would be exposed to those is if their parents were stupid enough to buy them something marked 'mature'.

I'm offended because Funimation licensed a piss poor show like this instead of something good, like Durarara.

@Dragonpup: See, you just made me imagine how I would feel if FUNimation DID license Durarara!!, only the censored all of Celty's scenes because some people might find headless Dullahan's disturbing. Now, THAT might motivate me to get some serious boycottage going on.

Everything should be uncensored.

Closing statement:
"DEAL WITH IT."

End of argument.

@Karen: While amusing to ponder, headless moe is a whole different league than naked 11 year old (who's secretly 300 years old. Shhh!).

Seriously, the anime is just plain bad. I get the feeling the director is trying to piss people off with the most obtuse and idiotic camera work in decades.

@dragonpup: While I have no love for DitVB and naked kids are an especially touchy issue, it wouldn't be that hard for a 'moral' group to find a reason to freak out over Durarara!! either. We may not specifically have laws on the books about depictions of headless women in bondage being cut open with scalpels by small children, but many people would claim that scene was obscene if they saw it out of context.

Someone defending that could point at a variety of torture scenes in film and so on through history, to establish artistic value. Try arguing that in front of Mina Tepes' naked nipples, though.

Someone could argue ANYTHING- that's the point.

Oh well. You still can't police the Internet. It's not like tons of people haven't seen the original version already.

This is what rating systems are for. If you ignore them, or if you're a shitty parent, it's your own fault.

You know something else? It's weird that anime get censored while manga don't. They just get plastic wrap and adult stickers. TV shows have ratings that appear on screen, and the DVDs have a rating system, too. So fuck you if you can't handle that.

First and most of all I would like to introduce myself, I am new to the site but I have been keeping up with you guys for a year so far thanks to a friend of mine from school.

@mechwarrior surprisingly the manga of Vampire Bund, which was brought over here by Seven Seas is uncensored from what I have seen last time I went to Borders.

Continuing on, there are already plenty of anime where there are characters below the age of eighteen that are depicted nude. Elfen Lied, End of Evangelion, Full Metal Panic the Second Raid, Gunbuster, and plenty of other shows are guilty of this. This didn't stop anime companies in the US from bringing these shows uncut. Also didn't Funimation bring over Rin Daughter of Mnemosyne? If I remember correctly there was a scene where a female character who looks younger than 14 was having sex with other women and the same character ended up being raped by the main villain of the series later on. Note that this series was brought over uncut without any issues. I know Funimation is trying to avoid any lawsuit due to the Christopher Handley incident but as Jon Snyder says, the parents have to be idiots for their kids to be exposed to that. If anything perhaps the best route Funimation can go is to drop the series and let Media Blasters have it and license Durarara instead.

Wow, looks like we're close to "Minority Report" times, huh? FUNi can take a risk for the story, but not take 1,000 year old l01i (or subsequent uncensored things there within). Clearly, they could go the route of MangaGamer w/ Higurashi, but the moral****try of the Handley case has shaken them (it may or may not affect "winning the war on pants" lol). Some people are right: look at the damn ratings to avoid the problem if you're good parents, and some of us have actually seen it uncensored, fansub and/or manga.

One of a few things will happen:
1) They release the series uber-censored and hemorrhage money b/c most of us won't buy it that way,
2) They will eventually just give out the most censored Japanese broadcast version,
3) Wait some time for that crappy case to blow over and release the series late this year or early next year (not holding my breath),
4) Eventually say fuuu this, and give it to someone else intentionally.

It is sad that the same company that took a risk with Rin, Strike Witches, distributes When They Cry (ep. 13 or 14 anyone?) is putting on the kid gloves with this title. Oh well, that's what fansubs (or Crunchyroll) are for.

Oh, I almost forgot. Good luck to those who will try to "boycott" FUNi. They'll surely be lining up to buy (the Japanese govt approved) Strike Witches soon enough. The company's the best thing going in the English-speaking anime industry, so it's pretty hard to avoid them for long.

FUNi screwed up by licensing this in the first place.

The so called PROTECT act (which protects nothing) is simply going to make it harder to watch anime and/or read manga. I don't particularly car for loli/shota stuff but it shows up so much it gets difficult to avoid.

Keep in mind that technically even anime/manga that portray high school aged characters in sexually oriented stories are going to be illegal, in the US, under this law.

for shame funi for shame. I thought you were past doing douchebagish crap like this. You've lost some of the respect I had for you. To be fair I can understand what could possibly drive them to a decision like this but I mean seriously. I think the old saying "if you dont like it dont watch it" applies here. There is no need to kill the joy for everyone else.

@Jon Snyder

Ah, you'll have to forgive my ignorance I was unaware that it wasn't being broadcast publicly. As to my morals in an individuals home I spoke nothing about that. My post was about keeping such things out of the public where it would be "unavoidable" unless you knew to avoid it beforehand. Such as skipping a channel on TV. I have no business meddling with your personal life and nothing in my comment was phrased in a way that could be misunderstood as such.

No surprise here. Not sure what Funi was thinking picking this up anyways, it's not like there's a huge market for naked loli vampires outside of the otakusphere.

Not sure why anyone would be surprised or upset about this, it's Funimation.

The last time I actually thought about Funimation was when I noticed their translations for Dragon Ball and Yuu Yuu Hakusho were actually decent(their video quality was not, however). Back on topic, I don't watch or care about streamed trash but censoring Blu-ray/DVD or any other "home" release defeats the purpose of even creating them in the first place. You just don't put anything into a home release that has been altered in any form from how it was created originally.

This is stupid. I bet Funimation is just going to say:
"The dvd is edited while the Blu-ray is UN-CUT UNCENSORED" Look what they did with dragon ball z.
I suspect they don't want multiple complaints about this and how it should be censored but if its already censored from what was given to them from japan then the blame falls on japan.
Remember though: People are stupid. Yes some idiot would buy this for little Billy or Suzie without actually looking into it. then become outraged when Billy or Suzie starts to imitate it. Instead taking the blame themselves for for not doing any type of research.

@B-chan Scientific purposes? The statute actually gives permission for simulated child porn for scientific purposes?

Courts will allow the use and ownership of fake child porn for scientific purposes, but not certain strains of stem cells. We live in a stoopid society.

Someone could argue ANYTHING- that's the point.

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