Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: April 6th, 2018
Danmachi: Memoria Freese was announced for release by Crunchyroll and when asked about the state of the release, the company had promised it would be uncensored. It appears they were outright lying though as users on Reddit noticed that some art has been changed and a petting mini-game (Where you can touch the characters) has been removed. A community manager actually came to the sub-reddit for the game and said this:
Hi! Official DanMemo Community Team here. The “touching” feature was removed from the English version of the game, yes. Not as a matter of censorship or depriving non-Japanese audiences of anything, but due to what is appropriate and not appropriate for English audiences. Hope that answers your question!
You read that right. Removing content from the game is neither censorship nor does it prevent you from enjoying the full experience of the game, according to the community manager. Re-read it again if it hasn’t fully sunk in. You also have to appreciate the part of the response where they decide on their own authority what is and is not “appropriate” for an English audience; as if we are now all perpetual children whose choices have to be made for us by those who “know better”.
Once again, another example of censorship on a game specifically aimed at an audience who would want those features in the game; and all in the name of making sure we are served “proper” content, communist-style.
To add insult to injury, the feature removed was actually advertised by Crunchyroll in the English trailer for the game (1:40 min. mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5fLwHR3TuU
One Angry Gamer and members of the comment section have called Crunchyroll‘s advertising then removing the feature false advertising and some have registered a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission complaint assistant.
Edit: As is now apparent, the video featuring Crunchyroll’s trailer has been taken down. For posterity, here is a new reupload of the same trailer by Azarioplays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jshH8QEkDmg
You can also see the updated article on the topic here.
In other news, another article made by mainstream media trying to explain to the average folk what anime is has come out. There have been many articles trying to teach the average Joe what anime is in the last few months from multiple mainstream outlets and it confirms what I have been saying about mainstream media attempting to normalize the medium.
Source: Article Image: Taken from Dan-Memo trailer