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As I have been watching anime, I have found that a lot of the more modern
shows which contain content not suitable for TV viewing use bright light to
censor bodily parts, overly violent/bloody imagery, etc.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8dpNDm.jpg) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yzd6Dm.jpg)

When I watch older shows, like Evangellion below, there are also scenes that
are inappropriate for viewing, but the shows usually solve this by
conveniently placed items or viewing angles.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HSrJJ.jpg)

In some other shows, there are also placeholder images which are sometimes
placed on top of the area to be censored, a sort of combination between the
two.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BteiEm.jpg) ![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RUbDXm.jpg)

But at least these two alternatives are usually slightly humorous and do not
feel overly forced, whereas bright light from nowhere usually breaks my
immersion with its very unnatural feel.

I find some shows have become unwatchable because of this trend - I dropped
Tokyo Ghoul recently to wait for the DVD release, because I couldn't tell what
was happening in certain scenes (lack of light in this instance, but same
concept).

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0Rxeo.gif)

Where has this trend come from and which anime was first to include it?


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2014-07-24T17:18:50.003
13031
2017-09-16T08:26:09.633
1530
question
anime-history censorship
When was the first usage of 'white light' censorship in anime?


TV Tropes has a
[page](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CensorShadow) on the shadow
censorship, which is essentially the same thing. The basic idea comes from
overall censorship laws, such as exist in Japan. As [this
article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_japan) mentions, a common
means of censoring genitals is a "mozaiku" or mosaic, which is pretty much
just a pixelization of the area. [This
page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Japan#Censorship_laws) talks
about the airbrushing over of female genitalia in pornography magazines.

The white bars (or shadows) seems to be, from what I can tell, attempts to
censor genitalia (and sometimes violence/gore) in relatively unobtrusive ways.
Shadows and light flares can more easily pass for being just a part of the
scene than random people's faces, black bars, blurring, or pixelization.
Similar things happen in [this](http://www.movie-
censorship.com/report.php?ID=4737), for example, where clouds obscure Naruto's
jutsu.

The light flares are also sometimes used to block faces or people, especially
in pictures, though that it more of an in-universe censorship (when they're
dead or need to be kept a secret, etc.) than censorship because of the law.

As for why not all of them are done in the way that the Neon Genesis
Evangelion scene was done, I have two answers. The first is that it is often
done for laughs or to add comedic effect, which is not necessarily what is
being aimed towards in gory or sexy scenes. The second is that it is not
always practical. A lot of work would need to be put in to making some scenes
be able to always have something in front of the genitalia or wounds of the
character, while light bars, shadows, or clouds are a lot easier.

As for which anime had it first, I currently can't find that, but I thought it
would be more helpful to post this at least.


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2014-07-24T21:11:54.173
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2014-07-24T21:11:54.173
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answer