Well, when I saw the headline, that Viz had edited Fullmetal Alchemist, I had assumed what I thought to be the worst. Maybe Lust’s breasts would be edited to show less of them or something, I don’t know. Some ridiculous thing. But I found my imaginative brain to be utterly lacking compared with the outright ignorant bullshit that these companies pull off. In volume 8 of Fullmetal Alchemist, Viz has edited out a cross that one of the characters is attached to with chains. It’s been edited to look like he’s attached to a a large slab of rock instead. Now, this edit wouldn’t even normally bother me, because it has all of dick to do with the story line, making it generally rather senseless, but there’s an obvious undertone to this edit, and that’s that Viz wanted to avoid somehow upsetting their Christian readers by seeing a person up on a cross. That is absolutely fucking ridiculous for a number of reasons. The first reason is that anyone who gets offended at the idea of a crucifixion because of their religion is an asshole who needs to get shot. Thousands upon thousands of people were crucified in days of yore, and even other Messiahs of the period were crucified, they just didn’t “win” the cult war. Secondly, for any company to make changes based on a possible pair of angry letters is fucking unacceptable. Your market doesn’t consist wholly of the sort of idiots who would get pissed off about that sort of thing, but why should the more accepting, less uptight group get what they want, when you can censor things just in case.
Generally, I would send Viz a bitchy e-mail asking for an explanation, but I would likely just get the same “We edit for blah blah market, the author approved it, blah blah” I don’t really care if the author approved it. It’s not for him. I’ve got a shot of the side-by-side comparison up after the jump. It’s a bit wide, but I left it full res, like a pimp.
Total utter bullshit to try run away with this “in the fear of angry letters”, okay you _might_ just _might_ get 1-5 angry letters from some goofball religious fanatics, but what’s the point? Those blockheads would represent some 0.00001% portion of the whole audience, yey, good going Viz. One more reason to hate them :D
It’s just totally ludicrous to say “author permitted, general acceptance blah blah blah” to justify this kind of edit, crucifixion of all things. Wait what, when Spartacus died and his army lost to the Romans, the Romans thought of warning other by crucified 2000 guys along a road, merry bunch of soldiers hanging there. Crucifying isn’t for the Christians only and not their goddamn keepsake for that matter :D
Well, who would even get mad about it is my point? I mean, I’m sure I have some Christian readers, but I have trouble believing they’d be pissed. Of course, there is that large group of people who don’t seem to grasp that this shit wasn’t made for them to begin with, and if it can’t entertain them in the original form, then maybe they should just seek out some other form of entertainment. I mean, what other medium can you think of where they tailor an already created piece of art to suit the viewer? When was the last time a movie had scenes removed, or the translation played fast and loose for sake of it “making sense.” This lack of world awareness that America, and American companies, has is just too much. Tons of people in this country live their entire lives without learning anything about the cultures of other countries. Hell, rich and famous people don’t even know who the first president was. FUCK SAKE!
Also, thanks for the very apt example of the crucifixion that took place back in the day.
I’m a catholic and I’m not one bit offended by that crucification scene. I mean hello? Jesus wasn’t the only one who died on the cross, it’s a common punishment used in the Roman days to punish criminals.
Viz is just trying too hard to be politically correct, and it’s annoying.