Are all B-Games from Japan Censored?

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Well, you just asked one of the most commonly asked questions concerning ecchi content :smiley: but you did in fact get the right answer. The Japanese stuff has to be censored by law. [Edit: More specifically this is a Japanese domestic law, affecting all the makers of such games.] Youā€™re not allowed to show ā€¦ penetration or pubic hair, I think, so male and female organs get the fuzzy treatment.

There are very few anime or games that are made and distributed in Japan uncensored. In fact I dunno that I know of any. This is undoubtedly because of the huge crew it takes to make an anime or game, which is fairly easy to target for violations.

Some people who draw adult manga donā€™t censor their work. They can get away with it because many of them work under pseudonyms and it can be like one guy doing the artwork.

So yeah ā€“ these games are all censored in Japan. Anytime a company brings over one of these games ā€“ or indeed an h-anime ā€“ they uncensor it. The uncensoring is often of poor quality and the sketched-in bits donā€™t look nearly as good as the remainder of the artwork (you may have noticed this).

In PeaPriā€™s case I believe they involve the original artist to do the redrawing.

As I understand it thereā€™s essentially no chance PeaPri will release any censored game in the near future, so donā€™t worry.

[This message has been edited by Nandemonai (edited 02-17-2006).]

#2

I think the artist has drawn uncencored pictures first, then cencor them later. So when PP gets a game to translate they get all the original artwork, which in most cases is uncencored. If they happen to be cencored, I think PP rather choose a different game where the original files are uncencoredā€¦ I am not 100% sure though, please correct me if I am wrong

[This message has been edited by NocturnalOcean (edited 02-17-2006).]

#3

Unfortunately, most of the time the original japanese artists draw the artwork for the bgames censored. Thatā€™s why takes so much time to Peapri release new translated bgames. In order to uncensor a bgame, they need:

(1) to contact the original artists and ask them to redraw the art CGs of the game uncensored;
(2) to contact the programers of the original company who released that bgame and ask them to reprogram the entire bgame including the new, uncensored CGs;

And keep in mind most the time the original artists has his/her own works to do and the original company has its own bgames to release, so you canā€™t expect their help anytime soon.

Thatā€™s why is so much more easy to release a censored bgame. Take CRITICAL POINT for example. The collectors edition (with censored CGs) was released many months before the normal version (with uncensored CGs).

#4

If the games could remain censored and still sell here, I imagine things would be MUCH faster. Unfortunately people have demonstrated time and again they wonā€™t accept it.

#5

Some doujin-games (bishoujo) and fan-made bishoujo games may lack mosaics through - or have them to a much lesser effect, so much in fact that it does almsot no difference anywayā€¦ Just for your info .

#6
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Gilis:
Unfortunately, most of the time the original japanese artists draw the artwork for the bgames censored. That's why takes so much time to Peapri release new translated bgames. In order to uncensor a bgame, they need:

(1) to contact the original artists and ask them to redraw the art CGs of the game uncensored;
(2) to contact the programers of the original company who released that bgame and ask them to reprogram the entire bgame including the new, uncensored CGs;

And keep in mind most the time the original artists has his/her own works to do and the original company has its own bgames to release, so you can't expect their help anytime soon.

That's why is so much more easy to release a censored bgame. Take CRITICAL POINT for example. The collectors edition (with censored CGs) was released many months before the normal version (with uncensored CGs).

Wow, that's very informative. I had no idea. Thanks for the info.

#7

I Personally prefer Bishojo without Hentai.

Like: Tokimeki Memorial or Memories Off

Sadly, enoughā€¦ these great titles would most likely never get translated.

[This message has been edited by MadCat (edited 02-22-2006).]

#8

You mean bishoujo games without EROTIC scenes, right? Because basically ANY light-themed ero-game can be considerated without ā€œhentaiā€ scenes.

Anyway, thanks to Hirameki who released EVER17, DRACONIA and others, i think we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Who knows? Maybe someday they release some very famous non-erotic bgame, like KANNON, CLANNAD and so on.

#9
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Gilis:
Unfortunately, most of the time the original japanese artists draw the artwork for the bgames censored. That's why takes so much time to Peapri release new translated bgames. In order to uncensor a bgame, they need:

(1) to contact the original artists and ask them to redraw the art CGs of the game uncensored;
(2) to contact the programers of the original company who released that bgame and ask them to reprogram the entire bgame including the new, uncensored CGs;

And keep in mind most the time the original artists has his/her own works to do and the original company has its own bgames to release, so you can't expect their help anytime soon.

That's why is so much more easy to release a censored bgame. Take CRITICAL POINT for example. The collectors edition (with censored CGs) was released many months before the normal version (with uncensored CGs).


I really don't see how it would be realistic for an artist to DRAW the CG censored from the start. This would make everything infinitely more difficult. More likely they would draw the whole scene then put the mosaic over it on a seperate layer. To remove the mosaic, the artist would have to open the file and turn off the layer with the mosaic on it. This may have been what you meant but I wasn't sure about it.

#10

If you as an artist know a particular area is going to be blurred out and non-visible in the final product, are you going to spend a lot of time gettin the details exactly right for something that will never be seen?

I would expect that what was under there before the mosaic was slapped on it was a bit rough, having the general outline but lacking details and shading.

Although it would depend on the artist - some of them would probably be perfectionists.

#11
quote:
Originally posted by Keadil:

I really don't see how it would be realistic for an artist to DRAW the CG censored from the start. This would make everything infinitely more difficult. More likely they would draw the whole scene then put the mosaic over it on a seperate layer. To remove the mosaic, the artist would have to open the file and turn off the layer with the mosaic on it. This may have been what you meant but I wasn't sure about it.

I think they actually alter the underlying data. If it were possible to do what you're describing -- 1) demosaicing would be trivial for PeaPri, but more importantly 2) it would also be trivial for the Japanese public. I think that would fall foul of the regulations so I'd expect this to not work.

Also there's the issue papillon raised about 'the images probably weren't that well-detailed in that area to begin with'.

#12

Thatā€™s what Iā€™m saying, it is possible to do this. It is then exported as a picture file, but as long as you have the originals then changes shouldnā€™t take very long. The parts under the mosaic may indeed be less detailed, but Iā€™m sure they are at least drawn to some degree. The only thing there would be is to refine that small portion of the drawing. Itā€™s not really very simple to just leave some area out of a drawing and keep everything proportioned properly even if that area will never be visible. Also, the supervisors may want more or less area with a mosaic around it. This leaves the option of drawing the whole thing, or clarifying very early into the drawing just how much should be visible, and of course plans can change as well. Also, I see PP saying a lot lately that coding is causing a lot of the problems and delays. I havenā€™t seen them saying that artwork has caused them to be significantly delayed.

#13

Anyone know why the hell pubes have been uncensored in photos in Japan for 15 years now, but theyā€™re still censored in erogames and anime? Theā€¦ other hole can be shown in photos and porn as well, but it seems to be censored most of the time in games/anime.

Iā€™ve been living here for a year now and I love this country 100X more than America, but certain hypocritical things like this occaisionally piss me off. Waiting for an uncensored version of games like Air and KimiNozo seems to be nothing more than wishful thinkingā€¦

[This message has been edited by Buster D (edited 02-28-2006).]

#14

Hmm, interesting. Got a list of what games are CSA-rated?

#15

The CSA Member List includes only 14 erogame-related firms, but a few names (Hobibox, Himeya, NitroPlus and Pandahouse, for example) are easily recognizable.

Edit: One of the CSA members is Meteor, a young software house which has produced three very good games (Shinju no Yakata, KoiQ! and Yumekumi!). Shinju no Yakata is both its first game and its masterpiece: if you loved Nocturnal Illusion (AND if you can read difficult Japanese), you MUST buy this new $9.99 game from Himeya!!

[This message has been edited by Baldo (edited 03-01-2006).]

#16
quote:
Take CRITICAL POINT for example. The collectors edition (with censored CGs) was released many months before the normal version (with uncensored CGs).
I wish they had put more effort into it and taken even longer time when editing the art in Critical Point. the editing was flawed.
I can excuse the redrawn pubic hair even though it kinda made me laugh - I could even take a blind eye to the way the protagonists 'general' had been redrawn ... but the protagonist commenting about how another character has no pubic hair and the picture of this other character shows us that she does... well that was just lazy in my opinion.

#17