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Answerman - What Kind of Content Restrictions Does Shonen Jump Impose?




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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13233
PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Restrictions have definitely gotten lax to a pretty obvious degree. To-Love-Ru Darkness and to a lesser extent Ayakashi Triangle shows you how explicit Jump is willing to get. Hell, some chapters of Ayakashi Triangle were not posted to Manga Plus due to content.

Outside of Jump, explicit sex scenes have become the norm. Whereas before when a web novel was adapted any sex stuff was removed (SAO's infamous 16.5 for example), there are lots of (usually) isekai harem titles that have plenty of on screen sex. To my knowledge these aren't age restricted in Japan.

Light novels as well include more descriptive sex scenes and don't get an r-18 label such as spoiler[sister new devil and hxh academy].
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:12 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Restrictions have definitely gotten lax to a pretty obvious degree. To-Love-Ru Darkness and to a lesser extent Ayakashi Triangle shows you how explicit Jump is willing to get. Hell, some chapters of Ayakashi Triangle were not posted to Manga Plus due to content.

Outside of Jump, explicit sex scenes have become the norm. Whereas before when a web novel was adapted any sex stuff was removed (SAO's infamous 16.5 for example), there are lots of (usually) isekai harem titles that have plenty of on screen sex. To my knowledge these aren't age restricted in Japan.

Light novels as well include more descriptive sex scenes and don't get an r-18 label such as spoiler[sister new devil and hxh academy].

Although some anime adaptions actually cut out the sex (I know Black Summoner did).
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:13 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Restrictions have definitely gotten lax to a pretty obvious degree. To-Love-Ru Darkness and to a lesser extent Ayakashi Triangle shows you how explicit Jump is willing to get. Hell, some chapters of Ayakashi Triangle were not posted to Manga Plus due to content.

Outside of Jump, explicit sex scenes have become the norm. Whereas before when a web novel was adapted any sex stuff was removed (SAO's infamous 16.5 for example), there are lots of (usually) isekai harem titles that have plenty of on screen sex. To my knowledge these aren't age restricted in Japan.

Light novels as well include more descriptive sex scenes and don't get an r-18 label such as spoiler[sister new devil and hxh academy].

Using the examples listed in your spoiler tag, I wonder why those 2 titles didn't get an R18 label on their covers.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 3:36 pm Reply with quote
Kadmos1 wrote:
Using the examples listed in your spoiler tag, I wonder why those 2 titles didn't get an R18 label on their covers.


I know the r-18 qualifications for visual media (genitals shown which are then censored) but don't know the qualifications for text. Most volumes of those two examples only featured heavy petting, no penetration. This changes for the final volumes. I use them as examples because in the past fanservice titles like that never (or very rarely) went as far as penetration but obviously something changed during their publication. Newer novels have sex from the beginning.
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BalmungHHQ



Joined: 11 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:13 pm Reply with quote
All I know is that time a few year ago when Tadahiro Miura pulled off that page-opposite light technique to artificially create an image with nipples in the magazine was a pretty big moment of creativity to sneak around regulations.
What a legend.

Vaisaga wrote:
Restrictions have definitely gotten lax to a pretty obvious degree. To-Love-Ru Darkness and to a lesser extent Ayakashi Triangle shows you how explicit Jump is willing to get. Hell, some chapters of Ayakashi Triangle were not posted to Manga Plus due to content.

Just to make this point a little more clear: Unlike the original To Love Ru, TLR Darkness was serialized in Jump Square, which had a slightly higher age demographic, so that magazine was naturally more lax with letting erotic stuff get by.
Ayakashi Triangle has also left Weekly Shonen Jump recently, with current chapters now serializing online on Jump Plus, a service which is no stranger to titles filled with sex, such as World's End Harem.

So it's not that restrictions are getting more lax per say, rather there are more alternate spaces where more erotic material can find its home, since they target older audiences.

Vaisaga wrote:
Outside of Jump, explicit sex scenes have become the norm. Whereas before when a web novel was adapted any sex stuff was removed (SAO's infamous 16.5 for example), there are lots of (usually) isekai harem titles that have plenty of on screen sex. To my knowledge these aren't age restricted in Japan.

Light novels as well include more descriptive sex scenes and don't get an r-18 label such as spoiler[sister new devil and hxh academy].

This type of stuff really varies a lot depending on the exact companies and artists involved. I wouldn't go so far to say it's the "norm" yet, but there are interesting cases to look at in the industry as a whole.

It's true that outside of the more mainstream weeklies like Jump, there are shonen magazines that let a lot get by, for example Kadokawa's Shonen Ace magazine publishes Harem in the Labyrinth in Another World, a title which regularly features the characters having sex. And like you said, such titles often come from the recent boom in web novel adaptations, since those stories were all originally written online with no restrictions.

But even original manga can get away with a lot recently. For example, Futabasha's seinen magazine Monthly Action serializes the series Tsugumomo, a battle manga which can have some pretty graphic erotic material at times. But just recently, that company and author actually collaborated to get a special edition R18 volume of Tsugumomo published by one of Futabasha's adult branches, Angel Club. It's a rare case where a 30-volume seinen battle manga (which has had an anime adaptation to boot) got an officially-sanctioned R18 piece of media released by the original author & company.
However, despite this, the R18 Tsugumomo book got de-listed on Amazon/Kindle, so there always seems to be some risk involved in the form of retailer pushback like that.
Regardless, the R18 book still sold well enough for a reprint to be ordered, so it appears to have been a successful experiment. I'm curious how many other creators/companies have taken note of this...

Anyway, all this being said, even though I still wouldn't quite say it's the "norm" just yet, I can see why you say so, and trends are starting to lean that way.
We're certainly living in interesting times, lol.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:30 pm Reply with quote
BalmungHHQ wrote:
Regardless, the R18 book still sold well enough for a reprint to be ordered, so it appears to have been a successful experiment. I'm curious how many other creators/companies have taken note of this...


Actually back in 2003/2004, Godannar's second season was funded in part due to an official hentai artbook.

Also it's interesting that shoujo manga has always had more sex in it than shonen manga.
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Minos_Kurumada



Joined: 04 Nov 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:35 pm Reply with quote
There is an scene in the Kaguya-sama manga where Ishigami breaks the 4th wall and tells Shirogane "Did you know that Young Jump allows sex scenes as long as they are not more than 4 pages long?".

Kaguya's manga have these kind of "Did you know manga" scenes from time to time that the Anime doesn't adapt, I just thought it was relevant.

Though, it's quite obvious these kind of thing it's used as a way of "Clickbait", remember the infamous "You can see Azuna's niple for half a second if you buy the Blu-ray" in the SAO movie and Chainsawman's spoiler[lesbian orgy double spread] that could only be seen in the webpage.
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#ONSK



Joined: 30 Jan 2023
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:45 am Reply with quote
If someone could clarify something about this for me, but I was under the impression that certain manga can get censored in the magazine serialization but uncensored in the tankobon volumes.

Meanwhile this is particularly speaking of the serialization magazine's guidelines which may not all apply when put onto into dedicated tankobon volumes considering the magazines are more publicly accesible i.e. it's more understandable someone flipping through the shounen jump to have an issue with say a scene from Ayakashi Triangle, versus a person who buys the tankobon who likely knows what they're getting into. And I don't know about Japan, but in the US I'm under the impression there's some kind of policy, if not law, that requires the explicit manga (or material in general) sold in bookstores to get plastic wrapped so people can't just open it up and read it on accident. Is there something similar in Japan? I know Japan has adult only sections, not that I'm aware of how they delineate what goes where though.

I feel it's the same with anime. With the Redo of Healer the TV broadcast version was heavily edited and otherwise censored and was uncensored in an online release. The comic festa releases get multiple versions with the broadcast versions having with major cuts meanwhile the18+ version is posted online on the festa site. Again an action to go to a specific site that probably makes you confirm you're 18+ and has other warnings etc to know what you're getting in to. Same as how TV programming schedules more adult content later in the day/night to prevent kids from watching it.

No comments on novels as I have no idea how that works.

I think all of it is generally just trying to mitigate any unaware people of the public from scrutinizing content so I could very much see the more accessible mediums having stricter guidelines while the more dedicated mediums (tankobon, blurays etc) have gotten even more fanservicey/explicit (and I very much think we've gotten way more borderline-h series).

Anyways I just thought it might be important to add the distinction of serialization versions versus tankobon versions. I know some series are censored like the hentai with black square boxes on them in the magazine serialization (kinda like square enix's mangaUP app censoring, though they knew what's a boob/crotch vs elbow skin fold lol) e.g., Who Wants to Marry A Billionaire etc.

Plus, I'm definitely curious about guideline differences in digital vs print serials, if there are any.

Speaking of, though I don't think the [Tokyo Ghoul spoiler] spoiler[sex scene in Tokyo Ghoul is really the explicit fanservice we're talking about, but considering the more serious nature the sex scene was handled, was that any different from the serialization vs tankobon?]
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#ONSK



Joined: 30 Jan 2023
Posts: 8
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:26 am Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
BalmungHHQ wrote:
Regardless, the R18 book still sold well enough for a reprint to be ordered, so it appears to have been a successful experiment. I'm curious how many other creators/companies have taken note of this...


Actually back in 2003/2004, Godannar's second season was funded in part due to an official hentai artbook.

Also it's interesting that shoujo manga has always had more sex in it than shonen manga.


I was reading the Love and Heart manga and was surprised when spoiler[the next volume jumped to 18+ rating with an explicit rating on the outside. Reading into it there was a sex scene explaining the jump in rating and it did surprise me]. Lovesick Ellie, being about a girl who tweets out her horny fantasies, spoiler[it was less surprising that the main couple had sex at the end, I mean it's kinda in the synopsis that she's a horny teenager, but I still was shocked when i was reading it ^^;; Don't think the physical volume has come out for that yet, but I expect it to also be the case where one volume jumps in age rating.] So I agree I feel more sex scenes in shoujo manga, or at least releases stateside, are happening overall(could simply be more shoujo is getting licensed though comparatively) though I can't say I quite agree (nor quite disagree though) on more sex in shoujo over shounen.

But I do think there is something to be said about how sex scenes/nudity are handled in shounen vs shoujo manga. I feel that it depends on the context of how it's done. When I first read the comment I mentally guffawed, but thinking on it there is a difference between outright sex and fanservice. I could see there being harsher guidelines for shounen nudity because fanservice has a different intent whereas sex in shoujo manga are more often an emotional/character relationship milestone than trying to fulfill (for lack of a better term) hornyness. It's difference between how the nudity is handled. Of course there are examples in shounen where it's taken more seriously (Shuzo Oshimi works or spoiler[Tokyo Ghoul]) and examples of female fanservice manga (Yakuza Lover) but fanservicey fare (when there is nudity/sex involved) for shounen is more common over shoujo.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 10:25 am Reply with quote
#ONSK wrote:
Anyways I just thought it might be important to add the distinction of serialization versions versus tankobon versions. I know some series are censored like the hentai with black square boxes on them in the magazine serialization (kinda like square enix's mangaUP app censoring, though they knew what's a boob/crotch vs elbow skin fold lol) e.g., Who Wants to Marry A Billionaire etc.

Going with the black bar thing, weird how they do that on some mags but not others. For example. "Seikon no Qwaser" is nearly hard-core XXX and has enough mature content to warrant a R18 sticker on the manga. However, I have never seen that on any of its manga covers.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
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Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2023 6:46 pm Reply with quote
#ONSK wrote:
If someone could clarify something about this for me, but I was under the impression that certain manga can get censored in the magazine serialization but uncensored in the tankobon volumes.


I managed to get that answer for you. I saw your question and copy-pasted your question and the URLs to your post and asked that same question on Anilist today. I got your answer:

DagothUr on Anilist wrote:
Since the magazine has a wider audience some things may be censored like nudity, but when you release the tankobon you can break those rules because the audience comes specifically for your work. Many Ecchis do this like Ayakashi Triangle.


So that means beside Ayakashi Triangle, & many other ecchi titles (and I assume manga titles with graphic violence, and very questionable contents that is "too hot" to be shown uncensored) that are being serialized in manga magazine with a wider demographic could be censored just out of precaution & for decency.

#ONSK wrote:
I think all of it is generally just trying to mitigate any unaware people of the public from scrutinizing content so I could very much see the more accessible mediums having stricter guidelines while the more dedicated mediums (tankobon, blurays etc) have gotten even more fanservicey/explicit (and I very much think we've gotten way more borderline-h series).

Anyways I just thought it might be important to add the distinction of serialization versions versus tankobon versions. I know some series are censored like the hentai with black square boxes on them in the magazine serialization (kinda like square enix's mangaUP app censoring, though they knew what's a boob/crotch vs elbow skin fold lol) e.g., Who Wants to Marry A Billionaire etc.


Yep, basically the censored version on manga magazine, and uncensored in tankobon version is very much like how anime get censored on TV in Japan, but uncensored on blu-ray/home video/streaming release.

So this is basically buy the tankobons/blu-rays to see the uncensored version.
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theotheranimeman



Joined: 19 Nov 2022
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2023 12:45 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
Restrictions have definitely gotten lax to a pretty obvious degree. To-Love-Ru Darkness and to a lesser extent Ayakashi Triangle shows you how explicit Jump is willing to get. Hell, some chapters of Ayakashi Triangle were not posted to Manga Plus due to content.

Outside of Jump, explicit sex scenes have become the norm. Whereas before when a web novel was adapted any sex stuff was removed (SAO's infamous 16.5 for example), there are lots of (usually) isekai harem titles that have plenty of on screen sex. To my knowledge these aren't age restricted in Japan.

Light novels as well include more descriptive sex scenes and don't get an r-18 label such as spoiler[sister new devil and hxh academy].


I wouldn't go as far as to say that explicit sex has become the norm in manga. The only category where it really seems to be a norm is isekai or harem manga/light novels, because that's a huge selling point in the vast majority of them.
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DuwangKaizer



Joined: 19 Mar 2023
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:35 pm Reply with quote
To the author of the article,
The 18+ sticker you're referring to is actually called "Seijin Comic" (成人コミック), not "Seinen Comics". The Seijin Comic sticker, which translates to "Adult Comic", is exclusively used for Hentai Manga and should not be confused for Seinen Manga.
[/img]https://www.paradisearmy.com/doujin/img/img_156.jpg[img][/img][/url]
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