Mangagamer wants censoring Soul Link ¬¬

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

[color=#0000FF] http://www.mangagamer.com/main/Titles/D … /soul-link

Picking from the Hot News section of his site…[/color]

04 Dec 2009
Thank you for your feedbacks regarding “Soul Link”'s CG.

A total of 6 CGs from the game will be removed due to having an arguably underaged looking character naked.

Because we don’t want to risk getting the law in the way of our future releases, we have decided to cut this CG from this release.Just to reassure, no part of text was removed from the game.

I hope you understand that it was a difficult decision made under the current circumstances, and if this issue comes up again in the future, we will be sure to let you know before the release.

02 Dec 2009
MangaGamer.com is pleased to announce the upcoming release of “Soul Link”, the second game to be released by game developer Navel.

The slated release date of “Soul Link” is end of December.

#2

that’s too bad, but yeah Nanami is very young.

#3

i don’t care about soul link as long as manga gamer keeps the rinrin route in koihime muso

#4

This has already been mentioned and discussed here in the thread starting on page viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6469&start=75.

#5

http://mangagamer.wordpress.com/2009/12 … -censored/
Soul Link Will Not Be Censored

Mangagamer +1
JastUSA -1

#6

Wow, I’m actually surprised that they reversed their decision. This will probably make people happy now. I was planning on getting this game either way.

#7

(Dancing the dance of joy) go MG go!

#8

While this is superficially true, keep in mind the differences between the two cases. In Family Project you had an underage girl whose underagedness was a critical plot point. In Soul Link, from what I understand, you had a nonhuman who merely looked and acted somewhat childlike. Would JAST have censored Soul Link, going by their standards to this point? I speculate that no, they wouldn’t have.

Good news, all the same.

#9

dang who knew that would happern wohoo.

#10

[color=#0000FF]JAST and G-Collections would teaching a lesson from Mangagamer about respecting your customers as well after this fact u_u
Where’s your totally uncensored version who promises along soon nowadays of Kazoku Keikaku ham mistress G-Collections???[/color]

#11

[color=#0000FF]Don’t matters at all,censorship is a fucking censorship in any case,don’t matter who as the case -.-[/color]

#12

What I’m getting at is that the reactionary, emotional response I’m seeing to this incident as a whole seems to obscure the essential points of the matter.

Let me present a scenario using JAST’s upcoming localization of Demonbane as an example (let’s pretend the Family Project incident never happened, for simplicity’s sake). Right now the current expectation is that Demonbane will be completely uncensored.

Scenario 1: 2 months later, JAST proceeds to release the game uncensored.

Scenario 2: 1 month from now, JAST announces that all CG associated with a (hypothetical) scene involving a loli being raped will be cut from the release. An outcry ensues, and JAST responds by promising the scene won’t be cut. One month later, JAST proceeds to release the game uncensored.

What’s the difference between these two scenarios? The end result is the same. As I see it, there’s only 2 noteworthy differences.

  1. In scenario 2, JAST shows that they’re concerned about releasing games with loli rape.
  2. In scenario 2, JAST demonstrates that they’re willing to listen to their fans and ultimately alter executive decisions in response to a fan outcry.

Let’s apply this analogy back to the Soul Link situation. Substitute Mangagamer for JAST, Soul Link for Demonbane, and “loli being fingered” for “loli being raped”, and you basically have the Soul Link situation. As much as I don’t get the outcry against MG in the first place, I don’t understand the praise for them now. The MG of today is not really any different than the MG of one month ago. Both are/were expected to release uncensored versions of Soul Link, as well as subsequent games. From my perspective, I’m more concerned now, because since I now know they’re antsy about lolis, their future titles might be carefully chosen to avoid lolis altogether. I’m very pleased however that their PR has improved leaps and bounds over what it used to be.

Compound that with the argument that what MG intended to censor is something that probably isn’t on JAST’s radar, and I really have a difficult time seeing how statements such as “JAST -1, Mangagamer +1” are justified. But don’t take my word for it; after all, I’m just another JAST fanboy right? :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

JAST could really learn a lot from this example. I’m willing to even bet that sales will be better due to the position they took in reversing their decision.

Looking forward, hopefully they will come around before the translation of Yin-Yang 2. If they even translate it, that is.

#14

Just according to the keikaku…

#15

First I heard that a vn will have an english version. Soon afterward I heard that the vn was outstanding. Then the publisher said that they would remove a few part (cg). And finally it turned out that the removal was canceled. Therefore, I will still dance.
Now, is the score +1 against -1 valid? JAST wanted to have something released censored, part of the fan complained, and it did NOT budge. MG also got the first two stages, and finally decided to stand by customer’s wish. So was the score valid? Guess so, at least for me and perhaps a few other people.

#16

I think it will be interesting to see the legal aspects of this.

If, as I suspect, no legal problems arise due to the CG, then it might set an example for treatment of future imports and translations.

Jast and other companies namely fear legal issues, and are unwilling to even test the waters. Right now, Mangagamer has stepped into the shallow end, the kiddie pool (no pun intended). Hopefully they will continue to do so and venture further out, since the water isn’t as full of sharks as most have been led to believe.

#17

[color=#0000FF]Consumers always had the reason,in anything and all circunstances u_u
Don’t matter who as a loli being fingered or being raped,it’s a fucking censorship after all in any cases -.-[/color]

#18

I don’t even understand the point you’ve been trying to make. I mean, if the title under question is a “deep-story” VN, you wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about whether something is censored of not if “the story” isn’t affected anyways, so why care about peoples’ comparisons of the companies if their opinions revolve around something that’s completely irrelevant to you? :roll:

#19

Also Mangagamer is based online in Netherlands, while JastUSA ships physical … well one can guess where xD
I don’t know the laws of both, but they’ll probably vary…

#20