Anime That is Cut in the UK: The Definitive Thread

Just Passing Through

Just Passing Through

The Wildcard
It's a question that gets asked time and again recently on these forums. Is this anime cut.

So I figure maybe we should have a definitive list. Stick it in a FAQ somewhere so people can ignore it and ask anyway...

To my knowledge, these anime are cut by the BBFC in the UK.

CODE GEASS - LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION - R2 - TURN 10 - WHEN SHEN HU WINS GLORY 1s

That's one episode of Code Geass R2, 1 second is the smallest unit that the BBFC measures, the actual cut (of a sexually suggestive but not explicit image) is just a few frames, and this was accomplished by replacement, not excision.

EDIT: Confirmed from retail release, while the original Beez DVD release was cut, the subsequent Blu-ray debut and DVD re-release from Kaze is uncut.

Rosencrantz said:
Just got home, poped my disc in the player and can confirm UNCUT
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PARANOIA AGENT V3 1m 20s

This is the most egregious cut in UK anime, and one that I hate. A scene of a child trying to hang herself in the Happy Family Planning episode is removed completely, a significant plot point.

UPDATE: MAY 2021

Paranoia Agent is now uncut on Blu-ray from MVM. It's time to double-dip

IKKI TOUSEN - DRAGON DESTINY 2m49s

The actual show is uncut. What's missing is the 1st OVA episode in its entirety. A little girl groping adult women's breasts was enough to make the examiner's head explode.

NINJA SCROLL 53 seconds

The first DVD release of this was cut. The cuts were waived in 2004, so if you got the second DVD release (the two disc collection) you should be fine.

Urotsukidoji, Legend of the Overfiend and Return of the Overfiend are all cut. If you need to ask why, you should never watch it.

La Blue Girl is banned. La Blue Girl Returns is cut by over half an hour, cuts substituted for something less offensive... It is hentai after all.

The Darkness Series boxset

More Hentai

Alien of Darkess cut by 1m47s
Mission of Darkess cut by 7m29s
Idol of Darkness cut by 2m54s
Spy of Darkness banned by the BBFC

If anyone can think of any other cuts, please post them here.

Updates...

The Wings of Honneamise has an approximately 2 minute scene with an attempted sexual assault removed from the UK VHS release and TV showings.

This was a choice made by the distributor to obtain a PG rating for retail. The original, uncut film was passed by the BBFC at 15.


fabricatedlunatic said:
Leatherman The Perfect (lol) Edition, an R18 release, was cut by 9m 7s "to remove dialogue and subtitles suggesting a lack of consent to sex, and likely to encourage an interest in underage sex."

The other day a poster mentioned another R18 title that was heavily cut, but I can't recall the title in question and nor can I recall which thread it was. D'oh.
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Shiroi Hane said:
Angelic Layer, although the cut was only to the VA commentary track (Monica called herself a "retard"):

"Company chose to remove some uses of derogatory language referring to mental and physical disability for PG category in line with BBFC Guidelines. A 12 uncut was available to the company."

Angelic Layer - Pure White Blanche. Kaede's Smile
Battle Doll - Angelic Layer - I Don't Want To Lose! I'm Believing In Hikaru

I only remember one episode being cut, although two discs are listed (one cut by "0s").
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Song Substitutions

Not just in the UK, but altered (not cut) in all English speaking territories...

Eden of the East Series, all except episode 1 has the opening Oasis song replaced due to licensing issues.

K-ON! Volume 1, episode 1, Tsubasa wo Kudasai, an instrumental piece, is replaced by Aura Lee (Love Me Tender), again for music licensing reasons.

Girls und Panzer episode 8, Russian folk song replaced by Tetris theme, animation also edited.

AL's BD release of Neon Genesis Evangelion Is missing Fly Me To The Moon, thanks to a reminder from N-11

Shiroi Hane said:
I seriously wouldn't consider that "cut", but along the same lines - Lili Marleen was changed for something else in FUNimation's release of Strike Witches and I doubt the UK release will be any different.
https://twitter.com/x/status/11370062025
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confirmed!

Shiroi Hane said:
I only have one volume of Speed Grapher, and it doesn't have Girls on Film.
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The Japanese Broadcast release had Duran Duran's Girls On Film as it's opening theme.

NormanicGrav said:
I was doing some random research on cut anime and I found this list, so feel free to add any of this to the front page.

Adventure Duo 1: 1m 8s cut. Originally called 'Adventure Kid', but BBFC advised changing the name in case children found the title appealing. It's a bit of a smut fest this one, so it's mostly non-consensual sexual activity that is removed. Such instances attribute toward many of the cuts on this list. Passed 18.

Adventure Duo 2: 7m 35s cut. Lots more cut, much for the same reasons as part 1. Passed 18.

Adventure Duo 3: 9m 28s cut. Still enough of a running time lest to warrant a release apparently, but this was in the days that anything with an 18-cert would sell lots regardless of how the story played out. All 3 OVAs were originally released separately on VHS, and would later be compiled on both video and DVD, hence separate entries. Passed 18.

Angel Cop 1: 2 seconds cut. Cut of a person being shot repeatedly in the head. Boom. Passed 18.

Angel Cop 4: 7 seconds cut. Torture scene toned down. Not sure of the details, but what was left in was an open infected wound, maggots, a knife, and a kettle of boiling water. Passed 18.

Big Wars: 3 seconds cut. No idea on this one. Kiseki released it on VHS, but that's all I know about it really. Passed 18.

Catgirl Nuku Nuku: Unknown length cut. Not the BBFC, but the distributor decided to remove a shot of someone scratching his bits before submitting the video. Passed PG.

Crying Freeman 4: 3 seconds. Cut for sexual violence. All of Crying Freeman's edits tread this a path of sexual violence. This one refers to a women being stabbed in the boob, I only know as they show it in the end credits anyway even though it's cut out of the main feature. Passed 18.

Crying Freeman 5: 17 seconds. Either naughtiness or violence. Probably a mix of both. Passed 18.

Crying Freeman 6: 58 seconds. Same again here. Manga apparently considered the cuts as such a blow that they compiled OVAs 5 and 6 onto a single VHS tape. Passed 18.

Dangaioh: Unknown cuts. Nothing to do with the BBFC. Dangaioh was originally three 45 minutes OVAs and were condensed down into one 71 minute and 23 second 'movie'. Something definitely happened there. Passed 15.

Fist of the North Star volume 2: 1m 3s cut. This is the original TV series. The show has a reputation for its extreme violence, but when the violence is directed a children, the BBFC steps in. Passed 18.

Gunbuster Episode 2: 36 seconds cut. Sights of bobbly boobies cut in order to get a lower certificate, even though you can still see the Gainax Bounce in other episodes. Cuts were retained when released on DVD. Passed PG.

Guy - Awakening of the Devil/Second Target: 39 seconds cut. Unsure, but it was probably unwelcome touching or ripping off of clothes given the nature of the rest of the show. Passed 18.

Guyver episode 12: 20 seconds cut. The final installment of the original OVA series. Probably to do with further depictions of the lead's girlfriend losing all her clothes. This title was popular with younger audiences back in the day so I doubt Manga would've wanted an 18, even if it was probably an option. Passed 15.

Hannape Bazooka: 14 seconds cut. Not seen this one, but if I were to guess it was probably sexual in nature in this Go Nagai comedy. Passed 18.

Hentaipalooza Collection 1: 7 seconds cut. Frankly given any hentai released to the adult market, I'd expect a lot more to go than just 7 seconds. Passed R18.


Kekko Kamen, Adventures of: 3m 59s cut. Go Nagai sex comedy of an essentially naked heroine beating bad guys up with her nunchaku and thigh presses. VHS version had all sorts of cuts, but the later DVD release by ADV was 100% uncut (although it uses a different dub). Passed 18.

Kekko Kamen, Return of: 19 seconds cut. More of the same, and again it's all since been made available uncut on DVD. Passed 18.

Mad Bull 42 Part 1: 43 seconds cut. Cuts for violence, both regular and sexual. It's quite a nasty little show, so while I think some instances would've been fine on their own, the overall impression of the work probably worked against it. Passed 18.

Mad Bull 34 Part 2: 1m 19s cut. Details of a rape and graphic images of a guy getting beaten up are removed. Passed 18.

Makyu Senjo 1: 23 seconds cut. No idea what's missing, but I wish they'd have cut more. It's awful. Passed 15.

Makyu Senjo 2: 12 seconds cut. Ahahahaaaa I don't care! Passed 15.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (a.k.a. Warriors of the Wind): Not a BBFC issue at all. Warriors of the Wind is a cut-down version of the Ghibli-classic, that removed over 25 minutes of material to western audiences and was rated U. Nausicaa is now happily available uncut and PG.


Odin: Presumably Manga tried to do us a favour by removing 45 minutes from this dull anime before submitting it to the BBFC. It didn't work. It's still dull. Passed PG.

Rei Rei: 8 seconds cut. Tentacles. Yep. Passed 18.

Ringetsu 1: 26m 24s cut. Porno stuff. The good, the bad and as the BBFC saw it, the illegal (to be fair, it probably was pretty nasty throughout). All the Ringetsu anime are so cut it makes to wonder why they even bothered pursuing it. OVER HALF OF IT'S GONE! Passed R18.

Ringetsu 2: 22m 7s cut. Over half gone again. You'd figure there's so little left you'd wonder how this could even serve its intended purpose. Do adult shops even accept returns for crap porn? (Please don't answer that, I don't want to know) Passed R18.

Ringetsu 3: 44m 16s cut... that's just stupid. Apparently this one includes incest along with the rest of its transgressions, hence being probably the most cut anime in the UK ever without actually being banned. Passed R18.

Shuten Doji 1: 40 seconds cut. The third Go Nagai title to appear on this list. Probably involving an unfortunate girl in there somewhere. Passed 18.

Steamboy: Unknown Cuts. Nothing to do with the BBFC but instead the distributor's choice in releasing the proper version as a limited edition, with the regular version having 21 minutes and 15 seconds cut from it. Both versions are passed uncut as PG.

Street Fighter V volume 1: 2 seconds cut. Assumedly decided on ADV's part to get a lower certificate and reach a wider audience. Passed 12.

Street Fighter V volume 2: 5m 8s cut. I get having a small cut for a lower rating, but 5 minutes is a big chunk of action to cut out, especially when a show's selling point is indeed that very thing. The episode preview clues me in that the violence involved crude weapons (eg. chains). I think ADV threw in the towel after this one as many of the later volumes of the series are 15. Passed 12.

Urotsukidoji (a.k.a. Legend of the Overfiend): 2m 12s cut. This is the big one. Sex, rape and tentacles for the masses. Although relatively (or should that be 'arguably'?) tame compared to some of the other things on this list, this is the one that is most well known for causing trouble at BBFC HQ. There's a lot to get through, so I'm just going to reel them off with little detail as they all invariably have the same type of content. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji II (Legend of the Demon Womb): 3m 12s cut. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji III (Return of the Overfiend) Episode 1: 3m 31s cut. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji III (Return of the Overfiend) Episode 2: 7m 22s cut. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji III (Return of the Overfiend) Episode 3: 3 seconds cut. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji III (Return of the Overfiend) Episode 4: 8m 7s cut. Passed 18.

Urotsukidoji IV Episode 1: Refused certificate. If you're gonna get those tentacles out, make sure the kids aren't in the house... so to speak. Submitted twice. Banned twice.

Urotsukidoji IV Episode 2: Found little info on this one on BBFC's website, but the lack of its release essentially means it got banned.

Urotsukidoji IV Episode 3: 2m 31s cut. The franchise was a pretty big seller, so it'd be silly not to release this even if the first two episodes of the chapter were unavailable. Right? Passed 18.

Urusei Yatsura TV volume 4: 5 seconds cut. There was a big thing back in the day against martial arts weaponry. This time it was nunchaku. Thankfully they're a lot more relaxed about such things these days. Passed PG.

Violence Jack - Slumking: 25 seconds cut. Violence Jack suffered pretty badly at the BBFC with its depictions of post-apocalyptic nastiness. Cut shots of a woman being sexually assaulted in this one. Passed 18.

Violence Jack - Hell's Wind: 6m 43s cut. Lots of violence cut out. Chainsaw evisceration and decapitation, people pulled apart by motocycles and a particularly grotesque POV shot of a woman's clothing being cut off with a knife. Passed 18.

Violence Jack - Evil Town: 30 seconds cut, or so the BBFC's website says. Manga had already removed a lot of content before submitting, as in its complete state it was probably one of the most effective pieces of horror ever made. I'm serious, it's strong stuff. I've seen a much more extended version, and even that has the worst parts pixelated (Japanese censorship in action). After the VHS releases all of Violence Jack was put out on a single DVD, and all cuts were held. Passed 18.

Wicked City: 1m 48s cut. Much like in Kawajiri's Ninja Scroll, his female leads tend to fall afoul of particularly nasty creatures (and by creatures I mean men). Passed 18.
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Click here for NormanicGrav's post in full, as I've edited out repeated information.

NormanicGrav said:
First title to be cut in ages:

Battle Girls: Time Paradox

8 seconds have been cut due to the following:
Cut required to remove a scene in which the nudity of a character who is presented as under 16 is presented in a sexualised manner. Cut required in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and the Video Recordings Act 1984.

Title is still rated 15.
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No point linking to the BBFC anymore, given the uselessness of their site.

My Girlfriend is Shobitch is cut.

Episode 3 has 2 minutes and 49 seconds of sexual innuendo involving an infant removed.



Relaxo has noticed that the US and UK releases of Lupin III The First are altered, removing Jigen's cigarette smoke during the opening sequences.

forums.animeuknews.net

Anime That is Cut in the UK: The Definitive Thread

Manga replaced music quite a bit in the 90s, though most of those dub tracks have been lost to time due to licensing. Cyber City Oedo 808 was one, as @RadFemHedonist mentioned, and AL have thankfully resurrected that. Manga replaced all the music in the Space Adventure Cobra movie with songs...
forums.animeuknews.net forums.animeuknews.net
 
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It's worth noting that the hanging sequence is left intact in part in the preview for the episode and also exists in its entireity on some DVDs in the UK (possibly screener DVDs) as when I rented Paranoia Agent from lovefilm, the scene was 100% intact.
 
The Wings of Honneamise has an approximately 2 minute scene with an attempted sexual assault removed from the UK VHS release and TV showings.

This was a choice made by the distributor to obtain a PG rating for retail. The original, uncut film was passed by the BBFC at 15.
 
Leatherman The Perfect (lol) Edition, an R18 release, was cut by 9m 7s "to remove dialogue and subtitles suggesting a lack of consent to sex, and likely to encourage an interest in underage sex."

The other day a poster mentioned another R18 title that was heavily cut, but I can't recall the title in question and nor can I recall which thread it was. D'oh.
 
Stickied since it does come up a lot! Also, topically, Manga tweeted thus recently:

None of our releases are cut apart from #LegendoftheOverfiend. It's only cut if the #BBFC say its cut. So, UK #anime fans. Stop...worrying about whether or not a MangaUK DVD or BD release is cut. They never are.
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http://twitter.com/#!/MangaUK/status/113962249558822912
http://twitter.com/#!/MangaUK/status/113962334594142208

While this isn't entirely true if you take their entire back catalogue into consideration, their intent to release everything uncut comes through loud and clear.

R
 
Rui said:
While this isn't entirely true if you take their entire back catalogue into consideration, their intent to release everything uncut comes through loud and clear.
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Yup, Crying Freeman and Fist of the North Star both have had some cuts in some of their video tape releases, If I (or the bbfc website) are not mistaken
 
Technically Manga are correct since they no longer own the licenses for anything cut during the VHS days (they did release Violence Jack on DVD but I don't think they have it any more). EDIT: Except Overfiend of course.
 
Angelic Layer, although the cut was only to the VA commentary track (Monica called herself a "retard"):

"Company chose to remove some uses of derogatory language referring to mental and physical disability for PG category in line with BBFC Guidelines. A 12 uncut was available to the company."

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AVV195456/
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AVV190804/

I only remember one episode being cut, although two discs are listed (one cut by "0s").
 
Shiroi Hane said:
Angelic Layer, although the cut was only to the VA commentary track (Monica called herself a "retard"):

"Company chose to remove some uses of derogatory language referring to mental and physical disability for PG category in line with BBFC Guidelines. A 12 uncut was available to the company."
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:lol:

That made my day. How uptight must those censors be? My image of the BBFC is just Mary Whitehouse sat in a bare, windowless room with her face pushed up to a small 1960's CRT TV with notepad and pen at the ready.
 
bbfc-retard.jpg
 
Not just in the UK, but altered (not cut) in all English speaking territories...

Eden of the East Series, all except episode 1 has the opening Oasis song replaced due to licensing issues.

K-ON! Volume 1, episode 1, Tsubasa wo Kudasai, an instrumental piece, is replaced by Aura Lee (Love Me Tender), again for music licensing reasons.
 
Just Passing Through said:
K-ON! Volume 1, episode 1, Tsubasa wo Kudasai, an instrumental piece, is replaced by Aura Lee (Love Me Tender), again for music licensing reasons.
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shoulda stuck this in, sounds nothing like the eva version ;)

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4c6ZB3X3vU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4c6ZB3X3vU?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>


i assume the UK version of Speed Grapher has "girls on film" removed from the op too
 
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