History Bowdlerise / AnimeAndManga

** Maria was changed from having been killed by [[FunWithAcronyms GUN]] to having been "[[NeverSayDie captured]]." This is made even more noticeable by the fact anyone who knows anything about the games knows she's dead. An E rated game can show her dying but not its animated adaptation? This also goes into FridgeHorror territory when you realize that she's infected with a disease that will eventually kill her.
** Molly doesn't [[HeroicSacrifice die in an explosion]] in the dub. Instead, she "[[NeverSayDie flies her ship into space to help other planets fight the Metarex]]."

* The Creator/{{Funimation}} dub of ''[[Manga/KodomoNoOmocha Kodocha]]'' blandly sanitizes many of Sana's more outrageous statements, starting with the title of the first episode — "I'm A Grade School Student With A Pimp" became "I'm A Grade School Student With An Agent". This practice stopped after the first four episodes. Fortunately, the subtitles for these episodes (or at least one of the subtitle options) retain the unsanitized lines.

* The dub version of ''Anime/DemashitaPowerpuffGirlsZ'' has plenty of examples, the most notable examples being from the episode where the Rowdyruff Boys make their debut:

** The Nicktoons TV broadcast version of ''Anime/DragonBallKai'', a version of ''Dragon Ball Z'' that leaves out filler to be closer to the manga, is more forgiving with this scene, cutting out Cargo getting hit but leaving the body unedited a few seconds later (evidently, they're allowed to imply brutality but can't show it, especially if a child is involved). The Nicktoons version also showed Krillin's impalement with all references to the wound edited (though the implication that Krillin's been impaled is still present).

** The 4Kids airing of ''Anime/DragonBallKai'' was somewhat more censored than the Nicktoons version, most famously digitally altering Mr. Popo (who looks like a cross between a genie and a truly unfortunate racial stereotype of an African person, although it's doubtful that the target audience would recognize the latter) to be colored blue instead of black. Even more ridiculous, they reenamed the Galic Gun to the Galic Blast, the Recoome Eraser Gun to the Recoome Eraser, and the Spirit Bomb to the Spirit Blast.

1) Mr. Popo's lips were removed so he doesn't look like a blackfaced minstrel (an outdated racial stereotype that Americans now consider an OldShame). This is slightly better than what the 4Kids broadcast of ''Anime/DragonBallKai'' did with him: they recolored him ''blue''. No wonder Mr. Popo got rid of Blue Popo on the abridged series.\\

** The US intro uses clips fro the Japanese intro but changes the lyrics and context. When Pikachu runs between a girl's legs, the original lyrics are, "Even through fire, water, grass, forests, earth, clouds, that girl's skirt."

* The anime version of ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', while adapting the manga closely in some aspects, had its own examples of this trope:

* ''Manga/SekaiichiHatsukoi'': The scene of Yoshiyuki [[RapeAsDrama brutally raping Chiaki]] in the LightNovel was downplayed to [[{{Bowdlerise}} just a]] [[ForcedKiss forced kiss]] in the anime (as far as it shows).

* The ''Manga/{{Narutaru}}'' anime ended before the major violence happened however with the scenes it adapted several were toned down, usually given a GoryDiscretionShot instead.

* {{Justified|Trope}} with ''Manga/FairyTail'' due to the anime airing in a morning timeslot in Japan. Fights in the anime tend to use BloodlessCarnage, while the manga has no restriction. After Lucy was kidnapped by Gajeel in the manga he threw daggers at her; compare in the anime when she was beaten up by him[[note]]A rare case where Bowdlerising a scene arguably makes it ''worse''.[[/note]]. In the start of the Tower of Paradise Arc, Simon blows up the table instead of slapping Juvia. Also, the DirtyOldMan Makarov says that Lucy has a "Nice Body" and no longer refers to her breasts. In the manga, Erza Scarlet knocks out Erza Knightwalker and [[MuggedForDisguise steals her clothes]] to pull the ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin trick (leaving the Knightwalker topless and in panties), while in the anime, Scarlet simply knocks Knightwalker out and then duplicates her outfit with her magic.

* {{Justified|Trope}} with ''Manga/FairyTail'' due to the anime airing in a morning timeslot in Japan. Fights in the anime tend to use BloodlessCarnage, while the manga has no restriction. After Lucy was kidnapped by Gajeel in the manga he threw daggers at her; compare in the anime when she was beaten up by him[[note]]A rare case where Bowdlerising a scene arguably makes it ''worse''.[[/note]]. In the start of the Tower of Paradise Arc, Simon blows up the table instead of slapping Juvia. Also, the DirtyOldMan Makarov says that Lucy has a "Nice Body" and no longer refers to her breasts. In the manga, Erza Scarlet knocks out Erza Knightwalker and steals her clothes to pull the ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin trick, while in the anime, Scarlet simply knocks Knightwalker out and then duplicates her outfit with her magic.

* Similarly, while the original ''Manga/{{Lupin III}}'' manga by Monkey Punch was aimed squarely at adults, most of the ensuing anime adaptations were aimed at a more all-ages audience. This means that much of the explicit nudity and all of the instances of Lupin committing BlackComedyRape were removed, which also had the effect of softening Lupin and making him more of an AntiHero than an outright VillainProtagonist. The major exception is ''Anime/TheWomanCalledFujikoMine'', which retains the nudity and gritty tone of the manga, but still does not depict Lupin as a rapist.

* Similarly, while the original ''Manga/{{Lupin III}}'' manga by Monkey Punch was aimed squarely at adults, most of the ensuing anime adaptations were aimed at a more all-ages audience. This means that much of the explicit nudity and all of the instances of Lupin committing BlackComedyRape were removed, which also had the effect of softening Lupin and making him more of an AntiHero than an outright VillainProtagonist. The major exception is ''Anime/LupinTheIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine'', which retains the nudity and gritty tone of the manga, but still does not depict Lupin as a rapist.

* The Shonen Jump manga "''I''" received some censorship in its American publication to get an "Older Teen" instead of the more-restricted "Mature"; when the Photoshopped nude photo of Iori went around, her nipples were censored with stars, and similar scenes throughout the series (up until volume 12, where the rest of the series has a "PARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT CONTENT" sticker, still strangely with an Older Teen rating) received CensorSteam or DigitalBikini. The preview in the actual Shonen Jump magazine rated Teen was even more censored, with the opening photo shoot on Iori edited to a PG-rated level and scenes of fondling/groping removed or covered. What's really ironic about this is a couple years later Viz would be fine with releasing ''Manga/AfterschoolCharisma'', which has scenes with bare breasts and similar fanservice to ''I''s, uncensored with an Older Teen and no "explicit content" sticker.

* In France, The TV version of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' is heavily edited to remove scenes with blood and all the sex jokes. If the former is already bad enough as it makes some fight scenes completely unreadable, the latter is somehow worse as an entire character, Mineta, revolves around making [[DoubleEntendre inappropriate jokes]] and overall being an [[LovableSexManiac unredeemable pervert]] which usually ends with him being unceremoniously corrected by Tsuyu and other characters. So here, [[ButtMonkey everybody hates him and beats him up for absolutely no reason]]. Other disturbing scenes such as the one where the Sludge Villain tries to choke Deku to death in the first episode are heavily reduced as well.
* The version of ''[[Manga/FruitsBasket Fruits Basket (2019)]]'' that airs on Australian children's channel Creator/ABCMe cuts all of Shigure's and Ayame's perverted behavior, cuts down a girl's bullying in a way that changes the meaning ([[spoiler:the scene cuts to the teacher walking in before she is burnt with a match, making the viewer believe they only threatened her with it)]], and awkwardly either chops sections of dialogue out or mutes sections that have mild swear words ('piss', 'bitch', 'bastard', 'shit'). One episode was even skipped in its entirety due to references to suicide (episode 19). These edits are supposedly in order to make the show appropriate for a PG rating, even though the uncensored version of the first season was already passed from the Australian Classification Board with a PG rating.

* The version of ''[[Manga/FruitsBasket Fruits Basket (2019)]]'' that airs on Australian children's channel Creator/ABCMe cuts all of Shigure's and Ayame's perverted behavior as well as whole sections of dialogue out (sometimes quite awkwardly) for using the phrase 'pissed off'. One episode was even skipped in its entirety due to references to suicide (episode 19). These edits are supposedly in order to make the show appropriate for a PG rating, even though the uncensored version of the first season was already passed uncensored from the Australian Classification Board with a PG rating.

** Oddly enough the anime adaptation itself was plagued with this in the Japanese version no less (probably because the anime aired on a morning timeslot). Changes that are usually made in edited English dubs were made, such as referring to alcohol as juice. Not to mention all the blood and violence that was either toned down from the manga, or just removed completely.

** When a man is shot point-blank by one of Shanks's men (to show [[GoodIsNotSoft how ruthless and powerful they are]]) Shanks informs the bandit that the gun was full of blanks and the man simply fainted.
*** Which is actually a really, REALLY irresponsible change, as this delivers [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop the message that blanks are perfectly safe to fire at people.]] The truth is that ''nothing'' fired out of a gun at a person is guaranteed to be non-lethal, especially so if you're firing ''point-blank, at their freaking '''temple'''''. Ironically, this is the exact ''opposite'' of the original point of the scene, which had Shanks warning some bandits not to point guns around unless they were fully prepared both to kill with one ''and'' to die by one.

** Oddly enough the anime adaptation itself was plagued with this in the Japanese version no less. Changes that are usually made in edited English dubs were made, such as referring to alcohol as juice. Not to mention all the blood and violence that was either toned down from the manga, or just removed completely.

** The 4Kids airing of ''Anime/DragonBallKai'' was somewhat more censored than the Nicktoons version, most famously digitally altering Mr. Popo (who looks like a cross between a genie and a truly unfortunate racial stereotype of an African person, although it's doubtful that the target audience would recognize the latter) to be colored blue instead of black.

It also needs to be pointed out that many of the anime edits—at least in North America—only apply to the television broadcast version of the show[[note]] Reasons for this include network executives' view of cartoons as still being part of the AnimationAgeGhetto and their fear of MoralGuardians (due to their tendency to either start boycotts or, in America's case, lawsuits); also, the government broadcast authorities—FCC et al—usually have very strict regulations on content meant for children. This also gives the anime companies the chance to [[MoneyDearBoy sell uncensored DVDs and Blu-rays]].[[/note]]. The home video version of that same episode will usually be unedited (exceptions include the English-only versions of ''Manga/ZatchBell'' and ''Anime/{{Digimon}}'', as well as the entirety of 4Kids's output besides the first nine episodes of ''Anime/YuGiOh'').

** Even more unnecessary, however, were the changes made to many of the names (more frequently the [=NetNavis=]' than anyone else's). Some of them can be chalked up to BlindIdiotTranslation, but others are rather obvious cases of overzealous Bowdlerization (like the renaming of [=NeedleMan=] to [=SpikeMan=], presumably as not to be confused with hypodermic needles, or [=ColorMan=] to the idiotic-sounding [=WackoMan=], presumably because they thought their viewing audience was stupid enough to think the name was referring to people of color).

* The "Knights of the Zodiac" Cartoon Network broadcast dub of ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. It got Bowdlerised so bad that it basically ruined the classic series' chances of succeeding in the English market. Even ADV's uncut and much more loyal to the source material DVD release couldn't save it, and after the 60-episode license ran out, that was it. [[NoExportForYou No More Export For You]]. The most glaring examples:

** And, of course, the Flanderization of almost all characters, especially Shun, who was [[{{Chickification}} chickified]] as much as a male character can be; and Hyoga, the Siberian with a surfer's accent.

** Meanwhile, in season one, Zoisite was suddenly a [[ShesAManInJapan heterosexual]] ''[[ShesAManInJapan woman]]'' with a [[ACupAngst flat chest]] and an annoying laugh.

*** Some of the [[RapeAsDrama subtext]] between Nnoitra and Orihime was toned down during the transition from manga to anime. For instance, where the manga has him [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything shove his fingers down Orihime’s throat]] during Ichigo’s fight with Tesra, in the anime he covers her mouth with his hand. This is because the original gesture [[GrettingCrapPastTheRadar was an allusion to a then very common kink in hentai artwork.]]

*** This edit was done by dubbing in Shanks saying the line "When he wakes up, tell him it was a pop-gun." Meaning it might have been meant to be (in the dub) a cork tied to a string, meaning it might not have actually struck the man.

* This is one of the reasons why sets in the Trading Card Game get release schedules that get released months later, as the Western card designers needed time to redesign the cards. This is the reason why for a long time in ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' the Official Trading Card game had huge advantages over the Trading Card game because the Official Card game was always one set ahead.
** From Strike of Neos onwards however it seems averted, because Western card designers decided that they would design cards that will remain TCG exclusive to balance out the problem.
** Many of the cards that originally portray religious symbols, nudity, violent weapons and gore were modified for overseas ''Trading Card Game'' and anime. You can see the list on this [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_modified_cards#Violence.2C_gore.2C_blood_etc.: page]] with examples like Monster Reborn changed the ankh to a stylized crystal and Destiny Board's message from "DEATH" to [[NeverSayDie "FINAL"]].
*** Similarly, the Dark Magician Girl has her bust reduced by editing out cleavage lines, the pentagram brooch replaced by a red jewel, and a single shot in her first appearance edits a close up of her legs to include a mini-skirt (which is gone in the next shot, and from that point on is never seen again). Then again, you can see why some of the cards imagery was toned down. Check out the original art for cards like [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Last_Day_of_Witch Last Day of Witch]], [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Final_Flame Final Flame]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Soul_of_the_Pure Soul of the Pure]]. ...Oh, and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Fiend_Comedian Fiend Comedian.]]
*** She's just one of many who have their busts reduced for the international release. While most of these edits also involved covering up cleavage, some, such as [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Lady_Ninja_Yae Lady Ninja Yae]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Helios_-_The_Primordial_Sun Helios -- The Primordial Sun]], are purely for the sake of reducing bust sizes, and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Artworks:Deep_Sea_Diva Deep Sea Diva]] doesn't appear to have gotten any smaller but has had her clothing slightly recolored to de-emphasize them. Apparently large breasts are considered HarmfulToMinors even if they're fully covered.
*** This phenomenon however only happens with OCG original cards (probably because 4Kids motivates them to do so, they need to feature those cards in their original TCG form on the anime after all). There exist a few very sexual TCG exclusive cards (such as this one, [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake Lady of the Lake]]), that give a whole new light to the matter.
*** Some artwork also modifies characters' agonizing faces in pain and changes them into looking peaceful/calm, and removing implications that they're dying, like from drowning or having their souls drained out from their bodies. References to black magic don't get a pass either, where the Oujia Board from the Destiny Board card has been removed and changes people who look possessed to have them meditate instead. Guns or references to it are also cut out.
** The TCG itself gets toned down. In the OCG, it happens quite frequently that decks can heavily OTK. To prevent such very fast aggressive decks being played in the TCG they get banned or limited right before they get a release. A good example of this would be Temple of the Kings. A card that was [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/September_2010_Lists banned]] before the [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Structure_Deck:_Marik_%28TCG%29 structure deck that contained that card]] was released.
** There is also a difference between the way the OCG obtains cards and the way the TCG obtains cards. In the OCG it's perfectly possible to buy a set and have the set to turn out to have 9 commons. If you turn out to have such an unlucky set in the TCG it's always due to a printing error, as the TCG sets usually will have 1 rare card. Whilst it is debatable whether or not this is actual bowdlerizing, one can't deny that it makes buying sets look less like gambling.

The Cartoon Network UK airings cuts out some scenes that the US airings were fine with. In episode 5, when Whisper strangles Jibanyan with his collar and later when Nate slaps him with a paper fan were cut out. Unlike the above mentions, these scenes are harmless (the edits possibly had more to do with a rule the BBFC has where [[https://www.digitalspy.com/fun/a364688/secret-world-of-alex-mack-dvd-rated-15-by-the-bbfc/ any show with imitable behavior will be slapped with a high rating if left unedited]]) and hardly GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

The Cartoon Network UK airings cuts out some scenes that the US airings were fine with. In episode 5, when Whisper strangles Jibanyan with his collar and later when Nate slaps him with a paper fan were cut out. Unlike the above mentions, these scenes are harmless and hardly GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

* The English version of ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'', released as ''Anime/GlitterForce'', by Creator/SabanBrands has a number of changes and cut episodes. Of note is a number of episodes that rely on Japanese slapstick comedy and an episode focusing on Yayoi's DisappearedDad. In a strange case of trying to hide where this is taking place, a multi-part storyline that originally had the heroes on a trip to Kyoto was changed to an Asian Expo of sorts.