Author: Gabriel Persechino-Forest Published: November 8th, 2018
Sony has decided to enact a new sweeping censorship policy that affects its entire Playstation brand across the world. It seems every company these days is attempting their own plan at censoring and controlling content for their customers and Sony’s play might be the most ambitious yet. They have essentially put forth a new set of rules for what games are allowed to include to be sold on the Playstation 4 platform and while those rules have not been made publically available, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure them out; as extreme violence is still welcomed in all its forms but sexuality focused on female characters is now closely monitored and severely suppressed.
It started with Senran Kagura Burst: Re:Newal‘s PS4 release being delayed so XSEED could remove the game’s intimacy mode (Which allows you to interact and “touch” the game’s characters in suggestive ways). The Switch version, in a rather ironic twist, retains the intimacy mode. When this occurred, the company made it abundantly clear that Sony was responsible for why they had to make these changes. And this was following Super Seducer‘s and Omega Labyrinth Z‘s bans from the console earlier this year by Sony. There were warning signs, but I don’t think gamers were truly ready for what followed.
Next up was Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san‘s PS4-only game, which saw several of its images and content severely censored as a direct result of Sony’s new policies, who are in affect on their entire platform, including Japan; ending the once lofty dreams of the “Japan doesn’t care and it won’t affect them” crowd. Those who analysed the game saw that the images, once uncensored on the official website, were recently replaced with new, edited versions of the same images. Here are the comparison shots.
Warriors Orochi 4‘s PS4 release (As well as the Xbox and PC versions, who appear to be ports of the PS4 version) has had its boob jiggle/boob physics removed due, again, to these new policies. Only the Switch version is confirmed as uncut thus far. This censorship, which evidence suggest was made last minute, affects both the Western and Japanese version of the game.
And finally, we have a confirmation that the PS4 port of Silverio Trinity is currently undergoing an investigation by Sony’s new “Standards” and could be the next target on the chopping block.
Now for a real nightmare-fuel scenario, imagine what could happen if Sony decides to apply this to games that were already released on the PS4 or on previous consoles. Wouldn’t you like to get a patch of Soul Calibur VI that “Updates” your fanservice or buy a digital PS2 or PS1 game that’s been made “Mainstream friendly”. This has not occurred, I’m just saying they are many ways this nightmare can get worse and the thing with censorship is that it usually only gets worse as long the people take it.
Sony’s new policy on the matter appears to only target female-related sexuality and does not affect violence or male-related sexuality. A Sony representative from the UK branch confirmed that there is indeed a new “Standard” in place and that all games will now be subject to it. I try to avoid jumping to conclusions, but given that Sony has no qualms showing lesbian women kissing on-screen (E3 presentation) and that games focused on hot homosexual dads (With very sexual content surrounding the male characters) can pass the new test, it does seem that only content that either highlights female sexuality or focuses on heterosexual interactions are being specifically targeted.
We are talking about far-reaching, platform-wide censorship here. This is not a laughing matter and if successful, it may not only get worse, but be replicated by other companies. It should be obvious to anyone who looks at modern society that we are entering a new era of societal-wide censorship under the umbrella of political correctness (One that is bordering on thought control and social engineering at this point) and it is high time we started resisting this development (Boycotts, complaints, awareness campaigns…) because trust me, you do not want to see what society will look like after they are done with it. If it’s any consolation, gamers on every major social media outlets appear to be livid over this. But unless it actually hurts Sony’s wallet, it is doubtful anything will be done.
It should be mentioned that while this is done in the name of “Stopping the objectification of women”, which has a nice liberal, progressive spin, the end result bears little difference to the censorship of old where women had to be covered up and sex was seen as obscene from first, Christian standards, and then, conservative “American values” standards. They have definitely changed the rhetoric, but they are doing the same thing. This is suppression of female sexuality and, considering how beautiful women are now dehumanised and encouraged to “Love themselves” by repressing their sexuality and covering up, it is also slut shaming. They have changed the wording but the act is still the same; something which is abundantly apparent when you realize that men who are shirtless or sexy are still not only allowed, but praised, just like the old days when men were deified for their physique while women had to hide theirs. This is female sexual oppression and slut shaming, only, it bears the name “Feminism” now.
Sony as a whole has been increasing its communist-style “Moral values” censorship as Naughty Dog has been recently pushing highly “Feminist” ideals and intentionally admitted to virtue signalling in their games and the company’s movie division had attempted an initiative to censor their old movies to remove so-called “Objectionable content” (More on that below). Sony has been trying to change their image and brand and the implications has serious warning signs for the anime community (Aniplex anyone?). All of this certainly amounts to a grim future for Funimation, an anime company that is also owned by Sony. And perhaps, now people can get a better grasp as to why big corporations buying niche studios is always a Trojan Horse.
Source: Article Image: Play-Asia
Sony’s Censorship Hits a Roadblock
Earlier I had talked about how Sony was planning to censor their own movies to make them more “Friendly” to a general audience. It seems Sony is ending that initiative now. A big show is being made that this was a conflict of interest, had problematic contract implications and involved industry players, but usually when such a serious initiative is cancelled, it is due to outrage and responses from the customers, from the community itself, regardless of the mainstream media theatrics. This, perhaps, is proof that this censorship can be fought. But it has to be fought, it won’t go away on its own if people just stand there and accept it, make excuses for it. Such initiatives are a new way for corporations to test the waters of what they can get away with; sort of like how Deadpool is being remade into a PG-13 version, if that were successful, wouldn’t it be convenient for Disney, who doesn’t want R-rated content in its Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Article Update (19/11/18): Sony’s Censorship for the PS4 Gets Worse
We have confirmation of the worse possible scenario, Sony has begun introducing “Patches” to already released titles that retroactively censors them. Nora to Oujo recently received “Updates” that censored the game’s art. Not to mention that certain scenes have been completely removed. Mary Skelter 2‘s Chinese release also received a post-launch “Patch” censoring the game to meet Sony’s new requirements (Sony is officially worse than China in censorship it seems). This so-called patch actually caused major bugs and gamers had to find a way to remove the censorship themselves. Yes, people’s games are being censored post-release and post-purchase. People are actually starting to suggest in comment sections that maybe Sony should be legally liable for this mess at some point. They are censoring already purchased products without warning or consent and are even causing said products to become defective.
More games have also been announced as receiving the censorship treatment: Both Date a Live: Rio Reincarnation and Dragon Star Varnir will be censored on the Playstation 4 when they are released. Game Tengoku CruisinMix Special has seen censorship on the English version of the PS4 release, in the form of censoring the fanservice images that appear during certain segments of the game. And finally, the elephant in the room, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Scarlet. As expected, the PS4 version will be severely censored, removing a number of key features which include the gold fan, softening gel and parts of the jet black fan (These are features that allows you to see the jiggle physic in different effects with crazy bouncing). Costumes are also being removed from the game.
It is worth noting that a petition has been made on Change.org that attempts to make gamers’ distaste for the censorship known, but over the course of the last few days, thousands of signatures have disappeared with Change.org responding that “They were signatures without a valid email address or people withdrew their support”. The website did not address people who claimed that their signatures were removed and they were forced to re-sign though.
Political Correctness
A new board game called Kamigami Battles opened a Kickstarter and featured sexy as well as highly suggestive artwork. This immediately resulted in hordes of SJWs attacking the artwork as being offensive. The critics weren’t your run-of-the-mill SJWs either, they were game reviewers, board game creators and so on… all calling for the artwork to be altered. Thankfully, the makers of the game made it clear they have no intention to censor their product to satisfy the perpetually offended.
Eiichiro Oda made a controversial comment in One Piece’s 89th volume which was in fact an innocent joke that the usual suspects found “Inappropriate” and “Offensive”. The twist though is that it was the nationalists this time who got angry because they believed Oda was criticizing a “Hero”. Sadly, Shonen Jump’s department caved in and apologized.
In an article published a while ago that I missed, it seems Anime News Network attempted to confuse readers about a white supremacist rally taking place at the same time as Otakon. The way their article was worded made it seem as if there was some sort of link between the two events, even though they were completely unrelated. Many saw this as an attempt to politicize the medium by forcing the topic of left-right politics in a fanbase that doesn’t care using two completely separate events. It also provided the news network with an excuse to mention to users that they couldn’t hold certain views in their forum.
Sachiiro no One Room‘s live-action drama has been cancelled on TV Asahi (Though still played on ABC) amid virtue signalling over how “It portrays real-life kidnappings in a positive light”.
Normalization of the Medium
It’s no secret the Western Establishment want to “Normalize”, to mainstream anime. If they succeed, they can use the “We need to make the medium for everyone” rhetoric as an excuse for cultural imperialism and censorship… I mean changing “Problematic tropes”.
First off we have a panel that focused on establishing a “Link” between hip-hop and anime. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t mean much but hip-hop is one of the elements of modern American culture often used to push agendas and to make things “Hip” and “Cool”; to get normies to support or care about something. So of course the mainstream media attempting to link hip-hop to anime comes at a suspicious time. And they appear to be pushing this hip-hop thing hard. The article even highlights:
This is more than just a passing trend. It’s an exciting, new, constantly evolving way for creators to tell their stories.
Then we have Vice, an outlet that couldn’t have cared less about anime, not only encouraging people to watch it, but specifically going through Netflix series. Since Netflix is the Western ambassador in the industry it should come as no surprise it is behind them that Vice would show support. If you read the Vice article, please be warned that they try to be cool and it makes for a really painful read.
And, of course, Fandom.wikia tells people which anime you should watch if you’re a Marvel fan. Considering how mainstream Marvel movies are, it is simply an attempt to lure people who previously didn’t care about anime into suddenly caring about it and seeing it as “Just another mainstream hobby”. In case you think I’m the only one seeing it like that, here’s from the article itself:
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated movies and television and broken box office records. They’re credited with putting superhero films into mainstream pop culture. What many viewers may not realize is that there are many anime with similar themes and content.
I’d like to believe I’m being over-analytical over this, but given that the mainstream media didn’t give the medium the time of day before (Even when it was very popular) and that since Kim Kardashian made her anime remarks, they have all been relentlessly and continuously pushing the hobby non-stop and highlighting “How mainstream” it is while criticizing anime’s “Problematic” elements… Yeah, I’m seeing the same warning signs that accompanied the downfall of video games and comics.
For those who haven’t had a chance to read them yet, here are my articles dealing with these issues:
Political Correctness in the Medium
These companies are all they same; they LOVE the celebration and glorification of death but even mild acknowledgement of the female form (knowing women are the source of birth and new life in the world) is absolutely SHAMED and FORBIDDEN by these same companies.
They definitely want to promote one concept over the other, that’s for sure.
Also it’s really ironic how the Nintendo versions are the only uncensored ones. Who’d of thought this would happen back in the SNES/Genesis days :/