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In my few years of watching anime, I have noticed varied amounts of _ecchi-
ness_ portrayed and the corresponding censorship it generates. I mentioned
"varied" because I have noted differences in censorship techniques
(black/white bars, excessive lighting) and the amount dealt to the scene. For
instance most non-ecchi anime have the breasts censored, some only have the
nipples removed, and a quite a few bare them completely. The quite few who go
the extremes may even be classified as _hentai_ already.

**Points in case** (I wanted to include pics but then decided against it):

  * Partial covers: Gokukoku no Brynhildr, Infinite Stratos, Trinity Seven

  * Bared completely: HighSchool DxD, Yosuga no Sora, Elfen Lied

My question: How does Japan implement various levels of content ratings (G,
PG, R18+)? Is it the production studio who applies these varying amount of
censorship or is there a committee assigned that does it? Does the same apply
for violence/gore censorship?


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Who applies censorship on an ecchi anime?


Japan does not have any rating system for normal television. Some satellite
television requires an 18+ age check to contract some channels.

DVD/BD and movies have a rating system similar to North America
(G/PG12/R15+/R18+).

Most such censorship in anime is "self-censorship". Each TV station has a
different code, and the code is different for different airing time slots.
Morning anime and evening anime have more restrictions. Late night anime have
less restrictions.

TV stations do not explicitly state what the code is, but the director of
[Bokurano](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokurano:_Ours) wrote [a blog
post](http://blog.goo.ne.jp/moriphy/e/e9298e3448666bcdc83acd3c2e92fc11) that
says that he was asked not to show blood in the anime.

They have restrictions on blinking the screen (which can cause epileptic
seizures), drinking alcohol, tobacco, violence and fanservice (ecchi) scenes.

One important group about censorship is [BPO](http://www.bpo.gr.jp/)
(Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization). BPO is an
organization concerned with ethics of broadcasting for all TV stations.
Sometimes, they ask TV stations to remove shows which were deemed bad for
children.

Another reason is the shift in animation business models. The old model got
most of its profit from commercials. In that time, anime production removed
entire non-compliant scenes instead of adding lighting. But recently, anime
production gets more profit from DVD/BD than from commercials. They find that
broadcasting a censored version and selling an uncensored version on DVD/BD is
a better strategy to increase sales.


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[kumagoro's answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/16916) is relatively
good when it comes to _mandated_ censorship, but there's another common case
of voluntary "censorship" which is done voluntarily by production studios. For
_ecchi_ anime like the ones listed in the OP I think this is likely at least
as common as any other reason for censorship.

The majority of television anime which get this treatment are late night
shows. These late night shows operate in a very different way from traditional
shows; they have to buy their own airtime from stations and rely on some
combination of DVD sales and revenue sharing with the original source
material. Because of the time slot and the fact that they are purchasing the
airtime themselves, most of the broadcast guidelines simply don't apply. There
is some more information on this at [Why does anime usually air at night in
Japan?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4013/why-does-anime-usually-
air-at-night-in-japan). In any case, at the end of the day, most series need
to sell DVDs to make a profit. The TV-aired version is essentially an
expensive, high-quality advertisement for the DVDs and the source material.

The trend we've started to see with the rise of late-night anime is an
increase in self-censorship. Most commonly, this is just airbrushing over
shots with fanservice or with various other techniques. These are
characteristic of the TV versions; such censorship is removed for the final
DVD releases. Among the examples you listed, I'm quite sure that the DVDs of
both _Gokukoku no Brynhildr_ and _Infinite Stratos_ have uncensored nudity.
_Trinity Seven_ possibly will as well, but I haven't seen any of the DVDs yet
(the first just came out yesterday) so I can't confirm this. By censoring the
TV release, this makes consumers more likely to spend the (rather large amount
of) money required to purchase the full version. There's also been a rise in
DVD bonus features and DVD-only episodes for similar reasons. So, to first
approximation, the reason such censorship exists is because _studios stand to
make money from it_.

* * *

Nowadays, the unusual cases are the ones where the TV broadcast is uncensored,
like _High School DxD_. In most cases like this, only the broadcast on certain
stations is uncensored or with reduced censorship. The most notable such
station is probably [AT-X](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT-X_\(company\)), a
premium channel which airs anime. They're known for having lower censorship,
partly because of the premium status. In many cases, these shows air both on
regular stations (in a fully censored form) and on a premium channel like AT-X
in a partially- or fully-uncensored form. It's generally assumed that in such
cases some agreement is made between such stations and the producers which is
mutually beneficial, though the details of such agreements are private. Also
note that even in the case of shows like _High School DxD_ which aired on TV
with essentially no censorship, there were modifications made to the final DVD
product and short specials added to boost sales.

Interestingly, overseas simulcast companies like Crunchyroll also make
agreements with producers to air their content outside Japan. Since DVD sales
overseas aren't such a concern, the version they give to these streaming
companies is sometimes less censored than the Japanese TV version. One recent
case of this was _Rail Wars!_ , for which the Crunchyroll version had far more
uncensored underwear shots than the Japanese broadcast versions (but still no
nudity, which was present in the DVD releases). This drew the ire of many
Japanese commenters on various internet message boards.

* * *

I should state that this really only applies to TV anime, which is pretty much
the only place you see this anyway. It doesn't apply to _hentai_ series, which
almost always release directly to DVD. Such shows are basically always
uncensored, except insofar as they are required to be censored by the law.
Likewise, OVAs and specials aren't typically censored in the way I described
above, since those are finished products. If you see censorship in other
places, it's probably for other reasons, but for the series you're talking
about this is the explanation.


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