∇
troperville

In an anime dubbed into English and going to air on a cartoon station, there is a very realistic looking .45 that can fire through a magical type of armor. Meanwhile, a character, a friend of the shonen hero, is killed off on-screen by this very gun. So you, as an editor, must remove that gun- replacing it with a pop gun and then have it shoot lasers- and explain that death as the character being knocked out and then abruptly leaving off to Faraway Land screen to fight another battle so it can be ready for kids and not piss off the FCC. 15 episodes later, that very same character has to come back from the dead- and it has to be the dead. That gun and its ammunition- which are lead bullets- have become major factors in defeating the Big Bad. The Big Bad wears the aforementioned magical armor, an armor the gun can shoot through, as its weakness is lead, a rare substance on their planet- except for the fact that you edited it out. So now you have to change the weakness to some sort of magical substance, or even remove the mention of weakness altogether- you decide to go with that. And now you've just rendered the entire anime pointless, as its whole plot is driven by the heroes trying to find the Big Bad's weakness and then find the last bits of lead not stolen. If he didn't have one, they could have just gone straight up to his Obviously Evil castle and ended it all there or, if he can only killed by way of weakness, just not have bothered trying to fight him. Instead, they just spend months wandering around a planet trying to hunt down vague clues about nothing.

And that death? Now you're showing the other characters mourning that character for his abrupt leave to Faraway Land while standing around, [fake] crying over his grave- as you're not allowed to show tears or strong emotion- by the way, despite his name and face and date of death plainly carved unto the tombstone, no one even comes close to mentioning his death as death. Just edit out all that stuff. Pretend that they just so happened to stop by a random tombstomb. Also, one of the character smokes. Early on, you remove the cigar and change it to a sucker. Later on, it's learned that the smoke from the character's cigar is multipurpose and can be used to knock others unconscious, act as an anaesthetic, or power that character up. Problem? You removed the cigar, so now the sucker can do all that- except that suckers don't release smoke, so it has to be his 'sucker-enhanced stink breath.' But it looks funny when he blows his stink breath in someone's face, and the character himself is a tad salty with a mouth for cussin' and cracking brutal jokes, so the execs decide to re-write the character as a Comic Relief. So now a character that was once a Badass has been reduced to mere comic relief, never to be taken seriously except for the fact that everyone takes him seriously. Since no one laughs at him- since he wasn't originally written as comic relief or anything close- the team decides to use CG to add in a kooky robot bulldog character that does, and doesn't bother trying to explain where this character came from. And the whole thing was darkly before, despite its fantastic nature, so why not dumb down the writing with some Narmy Ham voice acting, add in unnecessary (and unnecessarily bad) puns and jokes that no one reacts to, include a 'Previously On' segment with Added Alliterative Appeal, and whenever a character draws someone else's blood, immediately cut away from his/her victim. Before we're done, let's remove any and all fanservice, and promote unity and ethnic friendship by recoloring some of the characters so they appear multiracial, despite the fact that the original race in question is the last one left alive on the planet, and let's also avoid any stereotypes in the process by adding stereotypes that minorities/the racial majority can relate to. What was that about artistic expression in a cartoon? What good is a cartoon if it's not for kids and kids alone? Congratulations. We've just rui- er bowdlerised a once decent work.

Bowdlerization means altering existing programs, plays, etc. so they are less rude and/or offensive. Used in a very negative sense, by those who think the alterations are often done with a ridiculously high fear of lawsuits and/or need for political correctness.

North American releases of anime are frequently targeted with this accusation. Differing cultural norms create separate notions of what is okay to show on television, but some companies take extreme measures to stomp out any preliminary complaints from Media Watchdogs and Moral Guardians — so extreme, in fact, that they pick up a reputation for going undeniably overboard. This may be because of the American perception that cartoons are for kids, so that shows meant for slightly higher age groups that aren't specifically marketed to them are edited down. In fact, one of the most notable Bowdlerizers is actually named 4Kids Entertainment. (And you wouldn't believe how much hate they get for it.)

The upset nature of those is often justified, as, while some changes may seem reasonable for broadcast (editing out blood splatter; a character being riddled by bullet holes; or a cluster F-bomb ), some are less forgivable (changing beer to water, editing out a cigarette even from a bad guy's hand, changing a six-round revolver to a water gun or slingshot, or whenever a situation presents itself where death should be a given, someone- clearly a stand in voice actor- shouts 'I'm Okay!', a random-ass newscast never seen before or again in the series happens to mention that no one was harmed, or someone "unquestionably knows" that no one was hurt in a nuclear explosion in the middle of a bustling metropolis despite absolutely no visual cues aside from overwhelming evidence that no one survived), and there are those that seem to be mass Ass Pulls for a G-rating edutainment factor (editing out entire emotions, such as sadness especially where and when it would be most necessary; completely changing entire paragraphs of dialogue despite nothing remotely resembling suggestiveness or obscenity; adding a particular character, such as a robot or a talking animal, who points out the obvious, delivers 'educational moments,' and/or might even not be drawn the same style as the entire show; removing entire episodes or seasons; or changing character names, especially to names that might even weaken the imagery or symbolism of the original names for the sake of names that don't sound too weird or foreign). In many, many, many cases (add an extra 'many'), bowdlerization causes a plot hole to develop. In the most extreme cases ((one in... damned particular), these plot holes aren't even noticeable at first, but after a period of time, or after the media ends, plot holes begin erupting and rabidly ripping apart the media in question to the point it might seem like random events were flying out of people's asses.

Ironically enough, the same happens to North American movies and series, both inside and outside the US. Since TV audiences are also made by kids and teenagers, movies tend to get edited to be watchable by that part of the audience as well (specially the swearing). This is even worse in other languages, since the movies get dubbed with that in mind, meaning that even the theater releases are cut.

One of the worst sins Bowdlerisers can do- at least to fans of anime and manga- is to de-evolve a seinen anime into a shonen for the sake of "the children." After all, it's a cartoon right? Should be for kids. And all anime is shonen.

Also, this can be done to movies that were originally made for television in an era where standards were looser. TV movies once lauded for their daring when first aired are now edited as much as any R-rated theatrical film when rebroadcast.

Named after Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), who first did it on The Bible and William Shakespeare's plays; for instance, changing Ophelia's drowning from suicide to accident. It's worth noting that Bowdler himself created his "Family Shakespeare" versions as a way to introduce Shakespeare's plays to audiences who would otherwise be barred from experiencing them at all, and actively encouraged people to seek out the originals. Sadly, this cannot be said of most modern Bowdlerisers. Before him, the French Duke of Montausier published "ad usum Delphini" versions of works for the Dauphin (heir apparent) of France. "Ad usum Delphini" is now a synonym of this trope.

Cultural Translation can often contain elements of Bowdlerization. See T-Word Euphemism for a mild form of bowdlerization. See also Cut-and-Paste Translation (which specifically refers to Bowdlerization in translated works and refers more to the final product than the process) and Disneyfication (which generally goes further, in not only removing content, but adding new, "kid-friendly" content). See Bluenose Bowdlerizer for when it happens here on the wiki.

The inverse of this trope is American Kirby Is Hardcore.

Yet another related trope is Bleached Underpants, where a creator self-censors his work to appeal to a broader audience. There is also a Censored Title, for when a work seems to be Bowdlerized, but only the title is for marketing purposes.

Note: Do not pronounce as "boulderise." That would mean hurling boulders at someone. ^note