Line #41 Main/LensFlareCensor


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/StrikeWitches https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lens_flare_censor.jpg]]]]
2
3	The use of {{Lens Flare}}s (or perhaps some other stream of light) to hide something from sight. May give the impression that the censored areas are phosphorescent. The trope is fairly prevalent in anime, largely because other mediums make it hard to realistically do this. However, it's not impossible, and it does show up from time to time.
4
5	See also CensorSteam, CensorShadow.
6
7	----
8	!!Examples:
9
10	[[foldercontrol]]
11
12	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
13	* ''VisualNovel/TheyAreMyNobleMasters'': Miyu's bare chest is covered by the bright glow of a light positioned behind her.
14	* ''Manga/{{Saki}}'': in the Hot Springs episode, TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}} Club president Hisa delivers her lines with her back to the morning sun as it tops the trees. Between the lens flare at an oh-so-convenient angle and the sun over her shoulder, her only discernible features are on her face.
15	* ''Manga/GirlsBravo'': When Kirie steps into an elevator of Fukuyama's design, which doubles as a 'scanning' machine, it was presented in the original network debut as a very, very bright light that obscured anything that might be suggestive.
16	%%* In ''Anime/StrikeWitches'', even on ''night'' scenes, beams of light will appear out of nowhere. Thankfully DVD releases remove most of them.
17	%%* The "sunlight beams at night" happen on ''Literature/CatPlanetCuties.'' too, which is not shy of using this on general.
18	%%* ''Literature/AriaTheScarletAmmo'' uses this to censor... girls in their ''underwear''. Is this show aired at grade schoolers or what?
19	* ''Manga/ManyuHikencho'' uses huge white bars to censor bare breasts in its initial broadcast. However, since it's an action-comedy ''about'' huge breasts, this makes many episodes virtually unwatchable until the light- or non-censored versions are released.
20	%%* Happens during extremely violent attacks in ''Anime/BloodC''. Unlike the above examples, nudity is left untouched, oddly enough. Also, Saya hacking up monsters into bloody chunks is left uncensored, but when it's a human, they break out the censor.
21	* ''Anime/SpacePirateMito'' uses lens flare to conceal Mito's deceased husband Kogero's features.
22	* In the second half of ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Aikuro goes around wearing nothing but a utility belt with a [[HandOrObjectUnderwear conveniently placed pistol holster in the front]]. For all the instances in which this is insufficient to cover his privates (which is quite often), bright pink lens flare is called upon to aid in the effort. Like most tropes in the show, it's exaggerated to the point of parody. HIS nipples also have the flare-censor, which wasn't added in later but literally lights up the room around and tends to blind people. No one else in the show gets it, though anyone else who ends up exposed instead has BarbieDollAnatomy. Except for Mataro (an elementary school student who doesn't get much detail anyway) and Guts (a dog).
23	* In ''Anime/OccultAcademy'', Bunmei's naked entrance is obscured by the fact that the sun is right behind him. His shadow, on the other hand, is not. The lens flare is solely for the viewer's benefit, judging from Maya's rage after he lands.
24	* Parodied in ''Anime/HyperdimensionNeptuniaTheAnimation'', where the lights are sentient entities assigned to cover girls' private parts at a nude beach. Unfortunately for Nepgear, her lights get blown away by a gust of wind and she is exposed.
25	%%* When the clothes of most of ''Anime/{{Etotama}}'''s Eto-shin girls are magically removed, Lens Flare Censors hide the naughty bits, much to Nya-tan's annoyance. The girls go on to point out that the Lens Flare Censors are animated in, so they can't be removed as part of the blu-ray release.
26	%%* ''Manga/ToLoveRu''. Not much in the first anime (in a occasion this replaces SpeechBubbleCensoring), but often in the TV adaptation of the sequel "Darkness". Instead, the BD edition is uncensored.
27	%%* ''Manga/MakenKi'': Used to obscure the girls' naughty bits whenever they're undressing and occasionally during bath scenes, along with CensorSuds. {{Averted}} in the [=DVD=] release.
28	* One early episode of ''Manga/DragonBall'' has Yamcha peeking into Oolong's trailer to see if he can spot the dragonballs, Bulma happens to wake up at that moment completely nude, a glare covers up her nipples as she stands in front of the window. The sight causes Yamcha to faint as he had a fear of girls at this point. The English television release had the glare cover up her entire chest.
29	%%* Features prominently in ''Manga/YuunaAndTheHauntedHotSprings'' with the amount of WardrobeMalfunction which occurs in the series. Especially prevalent in chapter 24.
30	* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'':
31	** Parodied in the first bonus "fanservice" chapter (since the series prides itself on being fanservice free). Kaguya ends up falling on top Fujiwara in the school showers, but when we get a full body shot of them just about everything is covered up from the beam of light from Hayasaka's flashlight. Ishigami (who is reading a chapter of his favorite manga that also falsely promised fanservice) proceeds to complain "It's the fucking [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall_effect Tyndall Effect]]!"
32	** While the manga used a KissingDiscretionShot, the anime version of Kashiwagi giving her boyfriend a french kiss has a lens flare blocking out the point where their lips (and tongues) make contact.
33	* ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'': As part of his symbolic resignation from his job as a real estate salesman and the start of his new career as a comedian, Kencho strips down as he jumps to the safety of another rooftop. His naughty parts get covered by the glare of the sun as Akira laughs it up.
34	* Parodied in ''Manga/GabrielDropOut'' with an in-universe example. All of the angels have their dignity protected by "divine light" whenever their private areas are exposed. This also applies to [[MinionWithAnFInEvil supposed demon]] Vignette whose ''entire body'' is protected by a "god class" divine aura. On the other hand, the more traditional demon Satania gets a demonic variant.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	%%[[folder:Comic Books]]
38	%%* The ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic featuring The Mighty Endowed. Her "huge tracts of land" are censored out via this method.
39	%%[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
42	%%* Most Japanese films shown in UK cinemas during the 1970s and 1980s had lens flare censorship, notably the film released as ''Yellow Emmanuelle''. It also had English subtitles at the bottom for the English viewers, and Japanese subtitles at the left side for Japanese readers of (presumably) English dialogue.
43	* A blatantly out-of-place footlight covers... something that would otherwise hang into view... at the end of ''Film/TheFullMonty''.
44	** In the theatrical version, the stage lights go way up so that nothing is visible. The cast members involved take their curtain call wearing bathrobes.
45	* This gets used in ''Another Ending: Genm Vs. Lazer'', the movie sequal to ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' when [[MadScientist Kuroto]] is celebrating the creation of his new [[InfinityPlusOneSword power-up item]] by a waterfall, wearing nothing but the [[TransformationTrinket Game Driver]]. It also covers up what little necessary something the actor ''actually is'' wearing.
46	* During the ''Film/ManOfSteel'' scene where Jor-El is embuing Kal-El with the planet Krypton codex, the genetic template of all Kryptonians, the baby actor was in the spaceship cradle, in full glory. When they broadcast the scene on television, the special effects team ramped up the lens flare of the transfer beam, covering the baby's bits.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
50	* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' uses lens flares to cover the genitals of cadavers, instead of the usual sheet that other forensic shows tend to use. The corpses tend to be [[BarbieDollAnatomy anatomically incorrect]] anyhow, as sometimes they don't superbright the women's chests, and you can see that they (along with about 80% of the male cadavers) have no nipples. It's particularly notable that the size of the lens flare changes depending on the state of the cadaver, even within a single episode. A male cadaver's chest will be lit normally, while a female cadaver's chest will initially be hidden by lens flare, only to be lit normally once it's been open for autopsy.
51	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' has employed conveniently placed standing magnifying glasses that create a lens flare/distorted light effect on bodies.
52	%%* ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' often uses this to hide the contents of cases in previews of upcoming episodes.
53	%%* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' used this in their [[Music/InsaneClownPosse Thrilla Killa Klownz]] video "Magical Mysteries," when Ryan Phillippe (as an unnamed Thrilla Killa Klown) grabs his crotch as he raps, "And all you scientists can suck our bleep."
54	%%* Used in an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' to cover the backside of a naked man walking down a highway.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	%%[[folder:Music Videos]]
58	%%* Music/HollyValance's "Kiss Kiss" video. An entire career founded on lens flare hiding potential nudity.
59	%%* Used ''extensively'' in the music video for Methods of Mayhem's "Get Naked".
60	%%* In Music/{{Hyadain}}'s "Four Fiends of the Elements", this is what we see when Rubicante [[SexyCoatFlashing shows us what's under his mantle]].
61	%%[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Video Games]]
64	* ''Bayonetta'' series:
65	** The first ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'': Jeanne gets her outfit destroyed in her fourth and final battle. Before making a suit out of her own hair, she is seen with a purple light covering what would have been a view of her crotch from behind.
66	** ''VideoGame/Bayonetta3'': Turning on the [[AdjustableCensorship Naive Angels Mode]] has Bayonetta's entire body glow in light when she strips off her dress in the Prologue and before she weaves her suit from her hair.
67	* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura : Peach Beach Splash'' has defeated opponents disarmed and fallen rather than killed. The player then has an opportunity to amass bonus points by further saturating the victim. If this humiliation succeeds in scoring ten thousand points within ten seconds, part of the victim's swimsuit will detach from the stress. Only some lens flare prevents a clear view of bare nipples or exposed labia.
68	* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'': Lens flare censoring is especially prevalent in the anime sequences in the ending, in which the male and female protagonists are both naked and in some sort of other-dimensional space. They are running and jumping, leaving a lot of work for the poor animators.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Web Comics]]
72	* Many of the delinquents in ''Webcomic/WeakHero'' smoke, but showing under-aged characters smoking doesn't sit well with Korean censorship laws. This is mostly worked around by having the characters hold their lit cigarettes and nothing more, but on the rare instance that they have a cigarette in their mouth then it'll be obscured by a ball of light.
73	%%* Used in [[http://www.sundayat10.com/images/scratch/opera-house1.png this]] Sunday@10 pinup ("somewhere between SFW and {{NSFW}}", according to the author).
74	[[/folder]]

Context Main / LensFlareCensor