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Censorship is usually seen as an act against the author's will. Talking with
an editor in my country (Italy) working for a publishing house in the erotic
manga market, he tells me that censorship for erotic manga is done in two
verses: removing [censor bars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censor_bars) and
obfuscation necessary in Japan (decensorship) and removing elements not suited
to Western audience or in a gray legal area, e.g. child nudity. Both of those
censorship and decensorship are done with the author consent, becoming a
[self-censorship](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-censorship) and generating
a new derivative work featuring important changes.

Shortly: is censorship of manga _always_ done with author consent both in
erotic and mainstream publications during localization? Is there a common
practice around the world on this topic about manga localization? Are there
any cases of censorship of manga publications done without author consent in
Western countries?


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manga-production censorship
Is manga censorship in Western countries always done with author consent?


You are over-thinking it. I guess we only talk about official localizations
here, since in non-official ones, anything can be done.

When an official localization is made, some kind of contract is being signed
between the possessor of rights for the manga (the author, a publishing house,
doesn't matter), and the company that is going to make the localization.

Since this contract is an legal document, it covers, among other things, the
limitations (if any) that will be set for the localizer. Obviously, since
different countries have different laws regarding nudity in press (as in your
example), the contract should probably have clauses that regulate such
possible changes (censorship or decensorship).

Whether or not the author _himself_ is aware of this, depends. Sometimes the
holder of the rights will inform him, sometimes it will not. For example, when
official localization of Spice and Wolf into Russian was being made, the
author himself didn't know about it, since it was the publishing house who was
holding the rights on the manga, hence it was regulating all the localization
aspects.

And after all, if the laws of some country forbid, for example, nudity in
press, then there is _no choice_. You either change the manga to meet the
laws, or it is not going to be published.


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