Please any Japanese company that owns a franchise that has received an international release, please stop having the franchise and it's medias edited in their releases in other countries, except for the dubbing and translation into the languages of those countries. Many of the edits are pointless and don't matter to the viewers, like edits to the original Japanese culture. Some of the edits are just simple censors to sexual content, but other times it's things that people see in real life almost everyday, that's a type of edit I think is completely unnecessary. As for the edits to Japanese culture, it should never be a problem for a media to have cultural influences, and people should be encouraged to learn about those influences. It helps to unify and make the world a better place. Popular video game franchises that have large fan bases and are still being censored in their release in other countries include the Fire Emblem and the Xenoblade franchises, which contain recent games that have been edited in their U.S release.

You might want a clear example of how far censorship of Japanese content has gone in other countries, so let's look at 3 classic anime that are hugely popular in the U.S, and got edited dubs there as well, and let's look at those edits. They also happen to be associated with monsters and are marketed at kids in the U.S. I'm talking about Yugioh, Pokemon, and Digimon.

In all 3 of these shows the original soundtrack has been replaced, an example of censorship to Japanese culture. In Yugioh and Pokemon, any violence between humans is removed, including a simple fistfight, or a cut to something like when Misty slaps Ash in the very first Pokemon episode. In Digimon, very small scenes of violence that last a couple seconds have been removed, like a violent scratch. Every drop of blood in Yugioh has been removed. In Pokemon and Yugioh, anything that is the slightest bit emotional is taken out, including being an orphan, or a friend being betrayed by another friend, or a deep backstory. In all 3 of these anime, dialogue has been heavily censored, bad language is removed, catch phrases, jokes, and puns are added, and character developing lines are replaced with card game related lines, etc. In Yugioh, any reference to death is removed, including removing deaths and making stuff up like the shadow realm to cover them up, or taking out something as small as a light that covers a city since it might simply spark a small image everyone's gonna die. In Yugioh and Pokemon, drugs are removed. In all 3 shows, Sexual content is edited out, but in Yugioh, even when it's innocent, skirts are made longer and cleavage is edited. In Yugioh and Pokemon, any text or consumerism is removed instead of maybe just translating Japenese text and keeping the English text as well as the famous brands that there's nothing wrong with. In all 3 shows, American names are given and the dubs for Pokemon and Yugioh make viewers think it takes place in America. They also edit the original Japanese culture by changing things like rice balls to sandwiches in Pokemon. Changing Jein's name to Henry in Digimon for some reason meant the need to remove a scene where Jein explains he's Chinese, since apparently Henry is a name that can't be given to Chinese people. Regardless, there's no need to change the name in the first place. There's nothing wrong with Chinese and Japanese names. In Pokemon and Yugioh weapons are removed, like holding a gun which is changed to pointing a finger, and in Pokemon an episode was skipped for numerous instances of team rocket pointing a gun at an old man. Even if it's not a weapon, if it's dangerous and can influence people in the slightest way possible, it's removed. like removing a lighter in Pokemon that was just being used to survive. Also in Pokemon, an episode was skipped for having flashing lights that gave kids seizures, removing the specific scene with those lights is all that should've been necessary. Also 2 and a half Yugioh seasons were skipped in their English dub U.S releases.

Also let's be honest, these 3 anime don't have to be targeted at kids. In some cases, they probably shouldn't. Just look at Yugioh, a series that many Americans believe is a corny card based anime for kids, yet it's whole origin as a franchise started with some very grim comic stories. Here's a brief description of Yugioh to understand it.

It started out as a 38 volume manga. In the first 7 volumes Yugi Mutou is introduced as a nerdy teenager who has no friends, until he risks his life defending people who frequently bullied him. That triggered them to befriend him. He then solves the millennium puzzle, a puzzle he's been trying to solve for 8 years. Now whenever he or his friends get bullied, the puzzle causes him to get possessed by a pharoh who then challenges the bully to a shadow game, a game where the loser can die or get a mental illness. One of these shadow games revolved around duel monsters, a card game, and fans loved it so much that after the first 7 volumes the story revolved around it. Though it was still an insanely grim story with horribly cruel antagonists. The first yugioh anime made was 27 episodes long, It was based on the first 7 volumes. The second anime was based mostly on events that took place after the first 7 volumes but repeated some. It was 224 episodes. Both anime had minor story changes and were toned down in violence compared to the manga, but the second anime, while slower than the manga and included the addition of 3 filler arcs, still had some very deep scenes and was violent enough to keep death and show characters coughing blood. The Yugioh spinoff anime can also have a few bloody, emotional and deep scenes, as well as death. Though nothing beats the original 38 volume manga, it has insanely violent scenes left out of the 2 anime based on it. I mean Bakura actually massacres people, Pegasus makes bandit Keith die by making Keith shoot himself, in fact Pegasus dies at the hands of bakura who licks the bloody millennium eye. Yugi literally burns a criminal to death, and he blows up a school bully. The list goes on, but the bigger point is, there's a new Yugioh movie coming out called, "The Dark Side Of Dimensions" and it's canon of and a sequel to the original manga. In fact it's directed by the author of it himself, and it is being described as "darker than what yugioh fans are used to." I don't think anybody wants it censored but it's English trailer already shows Yugi saying, "It's time to duel" which is a dub only catch phrase.

After reading this, I hope you can understand. So please protect the integrity and the original artwork of your franchises by preventing any of the media in them from being edited in any way in other countries, except for the dubbing and translation to that country's native language.