http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Ri00XuYlI
It was recently revealed that Maken-Ki Two will air first on Tokyo MX before airing the next day on AT-X. The implication here is that because AT-X is getting the show a day later, it’s a bit of a “re-run” and therefore unlikely to differ from the version that airs on the “main” broadcast source, which in this case would be the all but guaranteed censored version on MX.
Tabris from Sugoi Blog seems completely convinced that we won’t get an uncensored airing. I’m not 100% there, but I think he is probably going to be correct. And for reasons beyond the scheduling.
First, this series is made by Xebec, and you might remember that Xebec’s previous ecchi masterwork, To Love-Ru Darkness, did not provide an uncensored edition for AT-X either, which drew a thunderous roar of online complaints. Those complaints didn’t stall interest in the series though. To Love-Ru Darkness’ first BD volume sold at least 12,000 copies, making it one of the highest selling anime of that season, and making it one of the higher selling nude ecchi series ever. It sold nearly six times more copies than it’s closest nude ecchi competitor that season.
If Xebec thought they were gambling by taking the censored on TV approach, I don’t think there is any way to look at their sales results and not think that gamble paid off. And given the struggles of more forthright series like Hagure Yuusha and Dakara Boku wa H ga Dekinai, I don’t think it’s terribly surprising that we’ve seen recent ecchi series act in a much more coy manner with their nudity (recent examples: Yuushibu and Walkure Romanze).
Even dedicated ecchi companies such as ARMS seem to be picking up on this as well. ARMS just about always has an uncensored broadcast for their nude ecchi series (Ikkitousen, Queen’s Blade, etc), but their most recent series- Sekatsuyo- has refrained from having an uncensored version and is very, very likely to have nipples on BD.
Now I’m sure fans hate this. But I’m totally fine with it for a few reasons.
The first is sales help. If this method boosts sales by even a small percentage, then it helps perpetuate the current ecchi boom a little further into the future. Don’t just assume this trend with gratuitous nudity in anime will last forever. The current trend isn’t even the first ecchi boom, though it has been the longest lasting and most impressive. Odds are decent that one day we’ll eventually see the industry slip back into the tyranny of the blank boob dark ages.
Now, anything ecchi that Xebec makes probably doesn’t need to be making any more money. I’m sure that even with an uncensored broadcast, Maken-Ki Two would still kill it when the BDs hit store shelves. Still, rooting for their success is still pretty important, because the current ecchi boom sure as hell isn’t being fueled by the bottom quarter sales numbers of the majority of nude ecchi series out there. It’s fueled by the handful of runaway successes that rake in “easy” sales.
It’s a bit of a fool’s gold phenomenon where companies think any random nude ecchi project will be the next High School DxD or To Love-Ru sales force. There has to be a few carrots out there to dangle in front of profit hungry production companies. Maken-Ki Two will very likely be one of those.
The second reason, and I admit I could be totally full of shit on this point, is that it feels like censored broadcasts are more daring and allowed to push the envelope further. I know there is direct evidence against that idea (Seikon no Qwaser, Manyuu Hikenchou, Queen’s Blade), but in several cases I got the sense that an otherwise timid director threw caution to the wind a bit more thanks to the knowledge that his work would not air uncensored on TV.
To Love-Ru Darkness is a good example I think. That series took some pretty R-rated source material and was very faithful to it during the third season. This from a bit of a wimpy director who was afraid of animating Mikan nudity from the manga. They didn’t just show nipples in that series. No, there was something downright intense about the nudity in that series. There were a couple scenes in that show where they basically show as much lower body nudity as you can possibly get away with without getting arrested. Do they push the envelope quite as far without the element of concealment? Maybe, but my gut feel says they don’t.
OniAi and Nakaimo seemed a bit extra daring on BD and they did not offer uncensored TV broadcasts. Again, I’m not saying I am right, but that’s the feel I get. Sometimes my gut feeling can be wrong.
The third reason is that, if the production began with knowledge of a censored broadcast, they could storyboard it to emphasize non-nude tease much more effectively. Though I hate non-nude tease ecchi with a passion, I have to admit that they do “soft” fanservice far, far better than most nude ecchi series do. It’s not too often we get those super tantalizing cleavage shots and then also get to see the rest later on.
I don’t know why nude ecchi series suck so bad at the non-nude aspect, but it’s definitely a very real trend. You will probably never see a nude ecchi series with non-nude sections that compare to, say, Sora no Otoshimono. If you do, you are probably in the midst of watching the greatest ecchi anime of all time.
Anyway, it would be nice if more nude ecchi series put some real effort into their non-nude fanservice portions, and having a censored only broadcast would provide some incentive to that end.
The fourth reason I am okay with censored broadcasts, and this one might just be me, but I like the anticipation. I like having a real reason to care about BD release dates. It’s like opening a present every time you get a new BD that shows us nipples that were previously obscured. I especially love it when a series surprises us with nudity on BD, the way that Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge did recently.
And though fans hate having to wait, I still plan on being alive and an anime fan 6 months later, and there is plenty of other material to enjoy in the meantime.
Now, on the off chance Maken-Ki Two does give us an uncensored broadcast, I will of course be doing weekly videos for it in place of the current FREEZING Vibration projects. Doing FREEZING every Friday has been fun, and it would be nice to have a similar project next season that can be counted on to deliver nipple sightings every single week. But if it doesn’t, oh well. It will be fun seeing how Xebec handles an anime like Maken-Ki all the same.
