Western Anime and Manga differ from other countries. I already went over this on the What is anime and manga?. You can read that topic to get a good idea of what I mean by differences. Japan tends to have darker mangas that are usually aimed at younger groups. The American groups tend to change this because they fear the effects it will have on those who watch it. Like Yu gi, Oh! GX, the fourth season was never released because it had a much darker tone than the other seasons. However, this is the same company that published the Shadow Realms seasons. The did edit those seasons, so they weren’t graphic, but they completely exed the fourth season of GX without even trying to write the darker parts out. They also will not release it even now after a whole decade has passed since that season was released. There is One Piece that was nitpicked by 4kids to make more kid-friendly, but luckily enough, the original episodes were eventually released. Another show 4kids got their hands on was Rurouni Kenshin, which is commonly known as Samurai X. They altered this show as well. You can see I do not like 4kids entertainment since they screw stories up.
Now, for the manga. If it doesn’t sell well, they will stop promoting the manga in stores. I’ve read some series that was never finished because of this. They couldn’t keep the license for the manga, so it had to be taken away. One popular series had this done, which is Trinity Blood. It was never released into American after volume twelve due to the original writer’s death. After that, others continued his work, but they never gave the license back for it. There is another not very popular series I was reading, but I can’t think of the name. I will need to go search for it. I’ll add the title once I find it again. It’s about this girl who gets into an accident down some stairs. She is then sent back in time in the Edo period, I think, she is the daughter of a noble family which she freaks out because she knows nothing of her life there. She requests the aide of a gentleman who she tells the truth to so that he can help blend in. Grant it, the reason she is there is that the guy she had a crush on is another noble during the same time. Sadly, they never continued the series, which was upsetting since I was enjoying it. There many mangas that have entered this limbo-like state here in the US, which I wish they would publish them again if possible.
Do you know any anime and manga that changed because of where you were? What do you think of Western manga and Anime? Do you prefer the non-edited version? or Do you like the edited versions?
