‘Naruto’ studio president: Censorship of anime weakens its global popularity

The president of the anime studio behind “Naruto” and “Bleach” believes that self-censoring anime to appeal to overseas audiences will ultimately hurt its global appeal and make the content “boring.”

Key points:

Michiyuki Honma, president of animation studio Pierrot, made the comments in an interview with Japanese entertainment news outlet Natalie.
He said that toning down anime’s content would make it unappealing to overseas viewers.
Honma mentioned how “Naruto” found success by not heavily censoring its overseas release.

Catch up:

Moden viewers say they mainly consume anime from mainstream platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video. Crunchyroll, which helped popularize anime to the global audience over the past decade, is still a popular choice among Gen-Z viewers.

The details:

During the interview, Honma opened up on the overseas success of “Naruto,” “Naruto Shippuden” and “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.”
He noted that “Naruto” was less censored for violence and fanservice than some other shonen anime of its era. Honma said that this decision paid off, helping make it one of the most popular anime of all time.
Honma lamented how some anime studios have censored their content in an effort to make it more appealing to a wider audience.

“It’s difficult to create works that are designed to be popular overseas or intended to become long-running series. Of course, I do keep that in mind to some extent, but if you make anime with just that goal in mind, it ends up becoming boring. Like, ‘Let’s not show characters smoking because it’s going abroad. Let’s tone down the violence a bit. Let’s avoid sexy imagery.’ If we limit Japanese anime with such restrictions, there’s no way overseas audiences would want to watch it.”

Honma added that works that are a hit in Japan are also a hit overseas. He said that while replicating “Naruto’s” success could be challenging, it shouldn’t lead to certain compromises.

Tangent:

In addition to the Naruto franchise, Pierrot is also renowned for anime series such as “Bleach,” “Tokyo Ghoul,” “Yu Yu Hakusho,” “Black Clover,” “Ghost Stories,” “Great Teacher Onizuka” and “Saiyuki.”
Honma was instrumental in doubling Pierrot’s sales since becoming president of the studio in 2012.

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‘Naruto’ studio president: Censorship of anime weakens its global popularity

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