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Gag in which the camera cuts away or is interrupted by a bumper explaining the following scene is too disturbing to see, or more importantly would not be allowed by the broadcast network.
Trope name comes from an episode of Freakazoid where a cartoon supposedly filmed in "Relax-O-Vision" cut away from scenes that were purportedly too much for the kids to watch to relaxing images like ocean waves or a fish-tank, accompanied by the theme from A Summer Place (more commonly known as the ubiquitous "peaceful music"). Polar opposite: Screamer videos on Youtube, and screamer flashes.
Examples:
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- Inversion: Excel Saga substituted scenes of sunsets and seashores for footage of bloody violence in "The Koshi Rikdo Assassination Plot" — but didn't change the soundtrack, so you got to hear everything that happened. A similar gag occurs in "Take Back Love!", where random pictures of Puchuus are used to cover up the visuals (but not the sounds) of a non-consensual lesbian sex scene. Conversely, in "Butt Out, Youth", peaceful music is used to cover the horrible sound of Excel dragging metal claws across a blackboard.
- One version of the Puni Puni Poemy trailer (available here) opened with a short message that they removed anything offensive to anyone so that it could reach "the widest possible audience". The result? A black screen. Remove anything offensive to "most people"? Another black screen. Remove "anything that might get us sued"? We finally get the trailer, with black screens with funny text replacing some scenes. This entire affair is made very funny when you remember that this version appeared on a Milk-chan DVD! The uncensored version, by the way, is available here.
- In episode 16 of Gakuen Alice, a bumper screen comes up with the giant Piyo and the stuffed bear. The bear holds a sign which simply says, "Please wait for a moment." ("Ibaraku omachi kudasai.") in place of the violence Mikan undoubtedly intends to visit upon Natsume.
- In episode 30 of Keroro Gunsou, it cuts away from Giroro being stretched in a body-sculpting aid/medieval torture device to cute, fanservicey shots of Natsumi.
- In addition to having a small cartoon man with a sign censor minor infractions, Hayate The Combat Butler also uses Relax O Vision during particularly egregious acts of senseless violence, mostly involving replacing the visuals with a landscape or façade shot of the area/building, or by mild Fan Service. The audio isn't affected, however, making it abundantly clear what's going on.
- Azumanga Daioh: Nyamo's drunken sex ed lesson is overlaid with relaxing music and uplifting visuals, such as windchimes, a paper lamp, and the earth with the sun rising in the north, occasionally cutting to the students'
embarrassed enthralled faces. A similar shot of Chiyo and Tadakichi is used as a Vomit Discretion Shot earlier in the series when a drunken Yukari pukes in the street.
- A somewhat literal usage of this trope occurs in Gundam Wing, when Treize broadcasts images of a peaceful, sunlit field to Lady Une's Leo while encouraging her to calm down.
- "Nice Boat." A real-life example: The infamous case of the violent anime School Days being taken off the air as a reaction to a violent murder, and being replaced by a half-hour long clip of a boat peacefully floating on water.
- This is not an uncommon way for Japanese television censorship (voluntary or no) to take place, which is why there are so many manga/anime examples. When used inside a story for some truly nefarious/egregious censorship, though, it can be pretty creepy (e.g. in Neon Genesis Evangelion, there are several layers of secrets regarding the Evas and Angels; since it isn't really permitted for the general public to know much about them at all, TV broadcast kicks on the Relax-O-Vision in one episode, which makes military nerd and borderline conspiracy theorist Keisuke suspicious).
- Done in the Persona 3 manga in an omake. Minato is playing a rail simulator, and sets the speed to "Excessively powered mach speed" to the point where the rails started to melt from the friction. It shows Junpei's horrified face with the caption "Please enjoy Junpei's expression in place of the graphic scene on-screen" with horrible bold sound effects.
- Relax O Vision is used in Yu-Gi-Oh whenever one character punches another, having the characters out of frame, both in the original footage and the dub. However, it only occurs once or twice in the original, and numerous other times punches are shown on-screen with no cutaway (these on-screen punches are of course cut out of the dub), so the couple of occasions they do use Relax O Vision are rather out of place..
- Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series Lamp Shades this by having characters say "It is heavily implied that I am punching you!"
- Never used in the manga.
- In an odd case of Values Dissonance, 4Kids DIDN'T decide to censor the scene during the Battle City Finale when Obelisk The Tormentor punches Yami Marik during a Shadow Game, despite the fact that Obelisk's fist was the size of Marik's ENTIRE BODY and (since the Shadow Game makes the creatures physical, rather than holograms) sends him flying several feet backwards, ending up sprawling him on the ground. Probably because Yami Marik qualifies as a Complete Monster.
- In Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan, the non-DVD versions have a rather... calming photo of a beach in place of Dokuro-chan and her sister respectively molesting (read: washing the back) the protagonist.
- In an episode of Ranma 1/2, particularly severe beatings are replaced by (animated) footage of heavy construction machinery in operation. Subtle.
- Suffice to say, that scene was used in the abridged series with the sounds of a vicious beating playing while showing the "not-very-subtle symbolism," a-la the first Excel Saga example.
- Used in Mahou Sensei Negima when Negi, possessed by the magic of The World Tree in the Mahora Festival arc, gives Asuna a very passionate kiss. Just as it's implied that Negi starts to slip a little tongue in, we cut to a peaceful sea-side view with a cute turtle (Tama from Love Hina) in the foreground. "Everybody please wait for a while. Talk for a while".
- Used during episode 6 of the K-On! anime, when Mio trips over a microphone cable and gives the entire auditorium a very clear view of her striped blue-and-white panties. This is shown in the 4-koma, but in the anime the scene cuts away to a blue-and-white striped bowl of rice.
- In the fourth episode of Princess Lover, there is a brief picture of a mountain as Seika beats Haruhiko into the wall.
- Ep.7 of ToLoveRu has a fight between Ren and a mountain ape interrupted with the scene cutting away to Haruna showering. Yes, showering.
- In the Yu Yu Hakusho manga at the conclusion of the Sacred Beasts arc, Kuwabara tricks Yusuke into thinking that Keiko and Botan were killed by the zombies that attacked them. Upon learning that they're really safe (though not before freaking out), one panel cuts to a picture of a kitten while Yusuke gives Kuwabara a savage beating (even for him) for his twisted little joke.
Comedy
- A slight variation was seen in a sketch on The Whitest Kids U Know, when Trevor and Timmy Break The Fourth Wall by explaining that they couldn't think of the ending to the sketch and instead have a girl take off her top and bounce around "to help DVD sales" because her exposed breasts are censored on television but would be uncensored on the DVD.
Comic Books
- In a few Asterix books, particularly violent brawls only happen off-panel. In Asterix in Belgium our heroes get in a fight with Romans, which is hidden by a flowery curtain pulled over the panel. A caption says (something like) "Let us draw a veil over this unpleasant spectacle..."
- Played with in Asterix: Mission Cleopatra where a voiceover announces that due to the violence of the few next scenes, a short documentary on crayfish will be shown instead. The view then cuts to Roman soldiers flying all over, with very audible punch sounds.
- Used as an alternate cover for the current volume of X-Force featuring X-23 and other mutants killing people, where all the blood was replaced by rainbows and kittens.
Live Action TV
- On Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a sketch involving a four-star restaurant in the middle of the jungle cuts out just as bushmen are about to attack the diners. A faux BBC apology plays over the scene, with the announcer describing what's going on in rather graphic detail.
- Another Python episode features the ridiculously violent "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" sketch, which is followed by two minutes of waves lapping against a beach. The footage was filler, as the show was a few minutes short that week. The example still stands, though.
- In yet another episode, the two main characters are rushed by raging, armed Soviet soldiers - a "SCENE MISSING" card pops up - the two are safe and back home. The End.
- Top Gear: Split-Screen Optional, non-censorship rather anti-boredom motive. "Now I'm going to talk about all the German technical stuff but for those not interested in all that, on the left-hand half of the screen we'll be showing kittens!"
- Repeatedly on Have I Got News For You, of the "we're being censored" variety.
Newspaper Comics
- In a Liberty Meadows strip, the "graphic and nonpolitical correct" panels have been replaced by a picture of a bunny, who says: "Gosh, I'm so cute and nonthreatening."
- Liberty Meadows has invoked this several times. One time, there was a mundane one-panel comic “Yard Apes” (“I’m e-mailing Grandma a hug.”) drawn as being taped over an implicitly fanservicey image.
- The original radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy included an interlude during the approach to Magrathea where, supposedly in order to help combat rising stress levels in the galaxy, it was carefully explained to the audience that no one was going to get killed in the ensuing confusion — although one unidentified person would be bruised on the arm. The novelization did this too, as did the television series, the latter of which used posterization and other special effects to obscure the action as the Book explained what was going on.
- The same series of course includes the famous Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, which help you take a relaxed attitude to danger by going black at the first hint of trouble to prevent your seeing anything that might alarm you. A pair of these glasses were provided as feelies with the text adventure game. They're totally made out of opaque plastic.
Video Games
- The special ability "Devour" in Final Fantasy VIII cut to a scene of a peaceful meadow with a disclaimer about sensibilities, rather than show the character consume the monster. When the move was successful, a sound bite played of something gruesome happening out of sight.
- From the Dragon Quest games, the move known in the U.S. as "Puff-Puff" cuts away from the actual "Puff-puff" (which is a somewhat Unusual Euphemism for... ahem, well let's just say that only females normally have the Puff-puff ability...) Some male characters can use it too, but it isn't nearly as pleasant and in fact does damage.
- There is a Double Subversion in VIII. One of the secret places is a sort of brothel, where you can get a "Puff-puff" from one of the girls. There is a black screen, because the character is blindfolded, and we hears sounds of something squishy, but then the screen brightens up, and we just see the girl squishing a couple of slime dolls against the character's head.
- The Super Move of Morrigan Aensland in the Darkstalkers series, if it connects, closes red curtains over the playing field for a few seconds, during which silhouettes give you a vague idea of what she's doing to her opponent. Never mind the fact that she's a succubus...
- Tales Of The Abyss. THIS scene
- Not to say he didn't deserve it mind you. He is a Jerkass after all.
- In Space Quest 3, if you don't get off the garbage conveyor in time, "NOT A PRETTY SIGHT" covers the disposal unit as Roger is shredded. Rather than relaxing the player, it actually serves to make this way of dying funny.
Web Comics
- Schlock Mercenary plays with the fourth wall by having a character argue with the narrator, wanting to see the grisly wound that's covered by a censored panel.
- Whenever sex is meant to be portrayed on Girly, the panel instead shows a scene with the characters involved dancing with happy mammals in a world where everything has an incredibly cute face and sings "Lalalala". It was even done in thought bubbles!
- In Captain SNES, panels are occasionally replaced with an image of the the Nintendo Censorship Angel.
- Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth has this one here when Flintlocke is using Beaverstick (don't ask) to fight against an Everblooming. Naturally lampshaded by the character immediately that they want to see the fight.
- Nodwick at one point features a panel explaining that Nodwick's brain turning into coleslaw followed by his head exploding couldn't be shown, so it cuts straight to the aftermath.
- Suburban Jungle usually covers up fight/predation scenes with a text banner announcing "A scene of indescribable carnage" or words to that effect. http://suburbanjungle.com/d/20020920.html
- Similar to Girly, a DMFA bonus strip replaces a sex scene from a Visual Novel with a little girl chasing butterflies.
Western Animation
- The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, "Here There Be Dwarves": R. Lee Ermey, of all people, pops up to explain that a fierce battle between dwarves and elves is too gruesome to show during a family time slot, so they'll be showing a shot of a cute koala instead. In a partial subversion, they accidentally briefly cut back before the carnage is over, and Ermey remarks "That was entirely my bad! I misread the signal."
- In the Courage The Cowardly Dog episode "The Magic Tree of Nowhere", this happens after Courage climbs into a hive. The camera pans across a beautiful field while only Courage's screams of pain can be heard in the background.
- In the Drawn Together episode "Alzheimer's That Ends Well", Wooldoor covers Clara's genitalia with himself, explaining that they cannot show it because of the FCC. When he proceeds to explain what FCC stands for, his mouth is pixelated and his words are beeped out.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Gee Whiz." Pretty much the entire episode is a parody of this trope combined with religious censorship.
- Variation from Dave The Barbarian: "And so our heroes defeat the muffin in an exciting battle, which we can't show you because it would be much too expensive for a cheap show like this."
- South Park's portrayal of Mohammed ordering food at a stand was censored by Comedy Central. After much kerfuffle, Comedy Central replaced it with Relax O Vision, allowing Matt and Trey to describe the scene and express their feelings about the censorship. (Oddly enough, South Park had showed Mohammed previously without having censorship problems.
- The theme song to the Earthworm Jim cartoon includes a cut away from Peter Puppy-monster induced ultraviolence to Jim in a hammock accidentally swallowing a butterfly to relaxing music, and then back to the aftermath of said violence.
- Freakazoid, as seen in the article's beginning..
- Variation: in a Tex Avery Screwy Squirrel cartoon the squirrel is chased by the dog into a pitch-black cave where loud violent noises rage. Squirrel steps out into the light, telling us "Sure was a great gag, folks - too bad you couldn't see it!"
Web Original
TV Tropes
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