Vinland Saga Anime Faces Hilariously Bizarre Censorship In China!
You’d never believe the length China went to censor anime! They literally said, “If you find something in a scene dicey, then remove it entirely!”
China is infamously known for censoring anime and manga, as in mainland China, media censorship is primarily managed by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), which employs a stringent rating system: films are either deemed suitable for all audiences or entirely rejected, with no intermediate ratings. The approval process is often characterized by arbitrary, unclear, or confidential criteria, making it challenging to predict what will pass.
If you’re active on Twitter or Instagram, then you might have seen or at least heard about fans talking about censoring blood in anime by turning its color into white (which generates even more meme-worthy content, if you know what I mean).
Recently, the Vinland Saga anime has fallen victim to such censorship, making the content “family-friendly” in their eyes.
During a scene in Season 2, Olmar is seen in a room alongside Arnheid. After a brief conversation, Olmar departs upon discovering that Arnheid’s family is attempting to use her. The woman in the original anime was completely naked but covered herself with a bedsheet.
However, in the episode that aired in China, you’d expect Arnheid to wear some sort of black top but what instead happened is the censor board decided to completely remove her from the scene. And this, in the eyes of the viewers, would make no sense at all! Like who is Olmar talking to??!!
(Above: the broadcast throughout the world
Below: the broadcast in China)
Are these shots legit? Maybe, or maybe not, as seen in past instances like the supposed censorship of Demon Slayer and “Higurashi When They Cry,” which were ultimately debunked as false. However, there is always the possibility that the screenshots did come from the TV broadcast in China, where there is even more rules.
But that doesn’t mean fans wouldn’t take this chance to meme the hell out of this cause’ it is indeed hilarious.
https://t.co/ivPOFzdjOJ pic.twitter.com/Z7BCmkIcqz
— Dan Naturals (@DanNaturals_) May 24, 2024
Giggling because this looks like a template and i can put whatever i want in it now https://t.co/WuBLupOOd8 pic.twitter.com/ayu4gEKdAX
— eiiko (@eiikomae) May 24, 2024
China when they see a naked woman https://t.co/uq3jmmbyWX pic.twitter.com/tFbL9Bhvo5
— Satsuki The Savage (@SatsukiDaSavage) May 24, 2024
About Vinland Saga:
Vinland Saga is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura. The series is published by Kodansha, and was first serialized in the boys-targeted manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine before moving to the monthly manga magazine Monthly Afternoon, aimed at young adult men. As of June 2023, its chapters have been collected in 27 tankōbon volumes.
Vinland Saga Season 2 premiered on January 9, 2023, in Japan, and is now available for streaming on platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll outside of Japan.
The second season has 24 episodes, and although the animation studio responsible for its production changed from WIT to MAPPA, the team working on the anime remains the same as in Season 1.
Kodansha describes the overall plot of Vinland Saga as follows:
As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his family, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band’s leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father.
Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery… the land Leif called Vinland.
Source: somoskudasai.com
