Thongs=bad
This is mainly stemming from the post by Brigid at Mangablog where she talks about the censoring of the Del Rey Book Air Gear. I say censoring when it really is just the cover which gets a small modification - now you see the Thong, now your don’t kind of thing.
That’s reasonable enough: Middle America probably isn’t ready for a panty shot on the cover of a book, especially one that’s going to be shelved with books for younger readers, and it’s hard to buy a book if bookstores won’t carry it.
I agree, and if you add to that the fact that Del Rey is owned by Randon House you can appreciate them being more cautious then others.
Posting today we get another manga with potentially explicit covers, this time from Tokyopop in Kamiyadori. Ed voices his concern over at Mangacast;
But honestly I wonder why they would when the cover below should alone be cause for concern. The covers vary from scissor gun carrying beautiful people to naked people (volume two has another girl naked in the snow). Good to see them release seinen (well techinically this is shonen??!!) but I hope this is shrinkwrapped and has the original cover reprinted inside.
Fairly similar circumstances (though to me the Kamiyadori is more explicit then just an exposed thong), but that to me is the crux of my problem with it.
I think everyone knows by now I’m from the UK where we are certainly a little more lax about such things. That’s not to suggest we’d get an uncovered thong or what not from Tanoshimi when Air Gear is released (they are after all owned by Random House too ^.^), but certainly levels of nudity particularly in magazines and advertising is simply accepted as the norm for want of a better word. The tide is certainly changing here in the UK especially for ‘lads mags’ like Maxim and Nuts where people are campaigning to get them relagated to the top shelf with the official porn mags, but were not quite the 51st state just yet.
As more and more titles get licensed I think the chances of us hitting this problem again and again is only going to occur with greater frequency, is it not time that you know, just maybe we could let a little thong get through? I personally think that is such thing definitely bares re-examining I mean it’s not nudity, she is semi-clothed/semi-naked depending on your predilection. I’m sorry in Tokyopop’s case I think, rightly, that the cover will have to be changed for the western market (I also don’t like that either, but I’m much more realistic that those covers go much too far to argue for), but the Air Gear example is being over-protecting.
This is just my opinion and I’m not suddenly expecting everyone to agree with me (because that would freak me out!) but is a thong really going to destroy the moral fabric of society as we see it? The obvious counter argument is that bookstores will not take it, and if it cannot get into bookstores then publishers aren’t going to release… and the vicious circle slowly closes, but whats stopping the bookstore from taking it?
Are they stuck on that concept that manga is for kids only, is that what they are trying to protect against (both for themselves and their consumer).
Nothing is going to change for Air Gear, and that’s fine, Del Rey are releasing it and they are the last publisher I would look at for taking a risk like this. But just once in a while, it would be nice not to have to resort to such over-reactions such as this when really everywhere else you look is far worse in terms of content.
July 23rd, 2006 at 4:51 am
I am hoping once the manga creep has left it’s mark, the need for this type of thing is not necessary as people will be used to the idea of mature titles vs. children’s titles.
The Del Rey cover IMO is not very “explicit” but I suppose some Mom is gonna flip.
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:19 am
I find it sad that the publishing companies have to be so paranoid about things such as thongs on covers. I honestly see no issue in it, hey, it could be a lot worse, like no thong. Now in that case I would understand a change but this to me seems rather trivial. If there is a kid out there that has not seen a thong in their life, then they probably are not living in civilization.
Also Jack, I think no matter what some Mom will flip, there are a lot of people out there that just use these sort of moral crusades to make themselves seem holier then thou, if it isn’t a thong on a cover it’s a short skirt, no matter what, with the rising profile of manga and anime, and the precedents set by previous issues that to my opinion could not had been resolved worse, I don’t expect the army of God or Morals to ignore manga in the future. All that publishers do by “toning down†covers or content is to delay the inevitable instead of making a stand.
I personally couldn’t care less if I see the thong or not, but the idea pisses me off. I really hope that in the future thing will change and manga will be accepted as an art form that is not targeted just towards children.
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:34 am
I agree, the thong means nothing. It’s the idea that really gets me as well.
I’d prefer that artists like OG are free to express themselves. I’ve said this to Ed Chavez when I first started going through all the Ten Ten scanlations last month or so… OG has a vision of manga that’s almost fetishy and has such a way with sex, fashion and art. Even though his actual plot is lackluster it has a soul that just should not be “diminished”.
Anyway, slapping stockings on her is not that bad of a compromise. They could have done much more drastic edits to the cover.
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:48 am
Yeah, like put her in a nun outfit…and not the OG kinky kind.
I personally am a big fan of OG because of the way he incorporated his hentai roots into shounen manga and turned it into a very interesting hybrid where sex and violence mix together but keep a certain polished set up feel, to me reading TenTen censored was like “paying a hooker to give you blue balls”…
Hey I’m glad somebody else thinks OG is indded Ohh great!, a lot of people seem to bash it because I guess it makes them seem more intelectual-pompous hating it then actually saying “Yeah it’s got no plot but the boobs and ass really make up for it”…it’s entertainment and OG delivers enough for me to be interested…
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Hey.. your find a lot of love for Oh Great here.. he was after all the first mangaka I read… and trust me it wasn’t TenTen!
//Anyway, slapping stockings on her is not that bad of a compromise. They could have done much more drastic edits to the cover.//
That’s kind of the whole point though. The edit is fine.. it is the reason for DOING the edit that is just so wrong its ridiculous. And everlasting is right, if it isn’t the thong it will be something else.. until you cannot show anything at all, and that to me is a dangerous road to start walking down.
July 23rd, 2006 at 9:58 pm
“Hey I’m glad somebody else thinks OG is indded Ohh great!, a lot of people seem to bash it”
what did you mean by this? i’m not following completely… [i’m not dissing on your spelling either]
I think OG is like the Rolling Stones in way — their music in the 60s/70s was average/good but what makes them the ROLLING STONES is the sex and mystique of them. OG is that way for manga IMO.
July 24th, 2006 at 3:13 am
I meant a lot of people seem to say nasty stuff like “well at least we didn’t lose much” when refering to the Ten Ten edits and stuff like that. And yes defenetelly Rolling Stones. Good one Jack!
July 24th, 2006 at 4:14 am
ok, i see what you’re saying —
I think we are right. If they say “well at least we didn’t lose much” it has went over their heads. I’m actually looking for OG to get even more insane and f*cked up in the future storylines.
I’m not even a Ten Ten fanboy!
October 18th, 2006 at 10:06 am
[…] Remember back in July I wrote a post on Del Rey’s edit of volume 02 of Air Gear. Okay, so it wasn’t a major thing really but still it was a cover edit outside the original Japanese release. I wrote back then that I was wondering if it wasn’t time we could allow a little thong through on a cover, it is hardly more sexually explicit then any other type of material you could see just walking down a busy high street. But many people did make pertinent arguments about the fact that a title like this would get shelved amongst many other “safer” titles and really in the end it is just one change to an otherwise good manga so should we just lump it anyway? […]