Sword Art Online Censors Controversial Sexual Assault Scene for
Sword Art Online has been one of the biggest anime franchises to have come out in the 2010's and was one of Toonami's first big acquisitions in the modern era. Being praised for its engaging story, stiff and relatable characters, cute romance between Kirito and Asuna, amid other things, but panned for its harem aspects, hit or miss writing, amid other factors, the show has been immensely praised by fans and at the same time generated enough of sour grapes and vitriol from its critics. Project Alicization in particular has been considered to be one of series creator Reki Kawahara's all-time works, receiving acclaim from extra earth building and character evolution for Eugeo and Alice, and the struggles Kirito and Asuna face as they have to work difficult to get out of this predicament makes for a compelling story arc. All the same, Alicization isn't perfect, and that was on full display last weekend on Toonami.
Whether it's legitimate or toxic, criticism isn't new to this serial, and these three criticisms take been among the most evident among fans and critics throughout the show's run. Those being his over-usage of attempted rape and sexual assault tropes and scenes, Asuna being reduced to a "damsel in distress waifu figure" since the Fairy Dance arc, and Kirito'due south reputation of existence a harem rex as successive arcs has consisted of him teaming up with a girl who falls in love with him, only for her to find out that he's already taken by Asuna and gets largely sidelined in successive arcs.
The first in particular would achieve the forefront during Episode 10 of Alicization: Taboo Alphabetize, as Humbert and Rios used a legal loophole to rape Ronye and Tiese as their "punishment." Of grade, Eugeo and Kirito were not going to let that happen to their disciples, and did what they had to do.
Anticipating a backlash, and with the scene existence more than graphic than the previous ones, Aniplex placed content warnings at the beginning of the episode, and even censored parts of the scene on all the streaming services they put the show on, in comparison to the Japanese airing, which was uncut.
(And for those interested in the comparing, here's a video link that shows the censored and uncensored versions. As said moments were censored on Toonami, viewer discretion is brash.)
The concerns do have justification. Using rape and sexual assault as a plot device tends to be a very sensitive subject, specially for those who has been victimized past such a traumatic outcome or know someone who has. Not to mention for a action prove who's main demographic is aimed at teens and immature adults, three attempted rape scenes is a fleck much, and whether you think the scenes are well written or not, that depends on who y'all ask. On the other paw, showing such scenes at least brings awareness to these situations, especially with the electric current #MeToo motility trying to make these issues come up to low-cal and helping to empower victims to fight back.
When it was time for Toonami to premiere the dub, Drawing Network's standards and practices department would act accordingly past censoring what they needed to to make information technology broadcast appropriate every bit they practice with any other prove with such nature, though merely enough was kept to warrant a TV-MA rating. However, many detractors of Sword Art Online have argued that just censoring the episode isn't practiced enough and accept gone as far every bit pleading to Toonami to abolish and blacklist SAO from airing on the block considering of it. But if you asked Toonami caput Jason DeMarco his opinion on the situation; while he may not necessarily exist a fan of such moves either, he doesn't run across it every bit a big bargain equally his critics practice, especially considering that Toonami has likewise acquired titles that also have their fair share of controversial content and accept received less vitriol every bit a issue.
Yes, Toonami edited it down A LOT, and we did tape the entire scene. From the beginning, we were told exactly what the scene entailed and zero was dropped on u.s.a. unexpectedly. A huge thank you to managing director @alexvondavid for creating a safe environs for the actors. #SAO
— 💛 Deneen Melody 💛 (@DeneenMelody) April 7, 2019
Interestingly plenty, between the menstruation when Toonami completed SAO ane and premiered SAO 2, Toonami picked up several shows that pushed the boundaries of what Toonami and Adult Swim as a whole have shown in regards to violence and sexual content; including Black Lagoon, Hellsing Ultimate, and Kill la Impale. During a podcast with Anime News Network dorsum in 2015 (mentioned in 59:05 though i fabricated a condensed video below), Jason DeMarco said that he received zero complaints near the content of Fairy Trip the light fantastic outside of a pocket-sized vocal minority of detractors.
And more recently, I asked Jason DeMarco this question on Twitter this week regarding the controversy:
Although SAO creator Reki Kawahara has since regretted creating the events of Episode 10 and vows not to make another, many of your critics have insisted that SAO should be disqualified from airing on Toonami because of his usage of sexual assault, even though in that location are quite a few of these same folks who seemed to accept no problem when Hellsing, Kill la Kill, and even I Slice aired such events on Toonami. I call back a few years back that yous said you lot received zero complaints regarding airing the Fairy Trip the light fantastic toe arc outside of trolls who decided to brand it a big deal and have since went on to air more graphic shows similar Black Lagoon, the previously mentioned Hellsing and Impale la Impale, and JoJo'southward. What are your thoughts on the usage of "uncomfortable moments" for lack of a better term on Toonami and Television set in full general?
Jason : "Hmm… good question (and a complicated one). I call up that anime has, for a long time, treated the subject field of sexual attack in an overly casual way. This is partially due to the male dominated nature of the anime manufacture, and partially due to the differences in social mores between the U.Due south. and Japan. However, I think that today's anime audiences are more connected and global, and as such, are more able to push button back on what they feel are overly casual, graphic, or only poorly executed stories that involve sexual assault in anime. My personal feeling is that sexual assault should be something that is merely used in a story if information technology'due south absolutely cardinal to our understanding of the character, and even then, it should be washed in a non-salacious way if at all possible. That's just my preference though.
There are many anime (and we've aired a few) that use things like sexual attack or the THREAT of sexual assault every bit thematic and story drivers. We will air a show that might have a scene or 2 we aren't into if the rest of the series is one we are into. In the case of SAO I think viewers have every right to wonder most the inclusion of the scene in ep. 10 and enquire why it needed to be in in that location and whether or not the testify is worth watching. I remember information technology is. You lot may disagree. We don't experience bad editing the scene down heavily, since the creator himself admitted he went a fleck also far with it. Anyhow, as with annihilation we air on Toonami, information technology's all looked at and approved past our Standards & Practices department and edited to fit Tv ratings standards. Thankfully, that difficult work is *their* job, not mine! ;)"
I personally would concord to Jason'southward statement on the matter, and would also hold to the matter in regards to where people are cartoon the lines are splitting hairs. Practise these attitudes keep when other series that accept their fare share of controversial moments become well requested, like Goblin Slayer, Berserk, or Fairy Tail? Or if these same type of sentiments are brought up against fan favorites that have their own off-white share of controversy (especially shows that are loved by SAO's biggest critics), like Kill la Kill, Hellsing, JoJo'due south, and I Slice? Why wasn't the backfire against SAO as strong as say, when Ragyo molested her children, or when Nami and Robin were also damsels-in-distresses, or Hirohiko Araki's knack of mutilating pets? If the answer basically is more or less "Information technology'due south only wrong when SAO does it" or "they justify it because those shows are better written, and I hate SAO's" then I sure don't want to exist a part of those fandoms.
And to what terminate would Toonami demand to conscience for people to exist satisfied? What would happen if advertisers raised concerns and Standards and Practices said "yous can't air shows with sexual assail anymore." What if Jason and Gill actually did listen to their haters and blacklisted SAO from returning? If you inquire me, I highly doubt the Black Lagoons, Hellsings, Kill la Kills, and JoJo'south Bizarre Adventures of the world too would have been approved to air on Toonami on the grounds of content; or y'all would take seen them aired with heavier censorship then they already were, and it would exist close to impossible to see other TV-MA rated shows get picked upward past Toonami. Do keep in mind, we are in a time where people are getting a piffling more lax with violence and sexual content in media; where cable TV programs are allowed to say the southward-bomb and that Game of Thrones and Law and Order: SVU are among the highest rated programs. There is a segment of the population that aren't happy that Toonami did censor that scene as information technology is, and if Toonami did decide to skip episode ten entirely (similarly to what they did with Outlaw Star episode 23 back in the day) and rejected many of the in a higher place mentioned shows on similar grounds, I'grand pretty sure they would be a lot more anger then they already is.
That being said, Reki Kawahara has apparently heard the complaints, and although the assault on Tiese and Ronye showed that the Taboo Alphabetize equally the bylaws of the game is flawed and full of loopholes, Kawahara has since said that he has regretted created the scene (every bit well as the other previous ones) and you tin can rest assured this volition exist a ane-off event and the last of such moves past him.
Kawahara too mentioned that his usage of sexual set on equally a plot device was due to his early influences equally a writer. Long time anime and manga fans would tell you lot that some Japanese media tend to be quite a bit more fanservice-heavy as Japanese viewers tend to be, for lack of a better term, more than tolerant when it comes to both violence and sexual situations in media, at least compared to their western counterparts. So in that regard, it's probably no surprise that up and coming writers like him would go on the tradition of bringing in such tropes. Nevertheless, as Kawahara has continued to mature as a author, in addition to receiving feedback from western fans, he says that he would rather not employ rape to "express catharsis" nowadays.
Reki Kawahara would even repent publicly to Tiese and Ronye's Japanese'due south vox actors for it.
ティーゼ役の石原さんとロニエ役の近藤さんも辛いシーンをきっちり演じきって下さいました。ありがとうございました！ そしてすみません本当にすみません
— 川原礫;絶ナル5巻5月発売 (@kunori) December 8, 2018
Translation: "Ms. Ishihara, who plays Tiese, and Ms. Kondo, who plays Ronye, both performed a painful scene with aplomb. Cheers so much! And I'grand distressing, I'm so lamentable."
いまさらですが、SAOになぜこういう展開が多いのかというと、私が中高生の頃に読んでいたライトノベル（当時はまだそう呼ばれていませんでしたが）や伝奇もの、冒険ものが少なからずそうだったからで、代表的タイトルを挙げれば『黄金拍車』の呪縛みたいなものに筆を引っ張られていたからなのです。
— 川原礫;絶ナル5巻5月発売 (@kunori) Dec 8, 2018
"This may be a fleck late, but if you lot're wondering why SAO has and so many of those scenes, a considerable number of light novels (although they weren't chosen light novels dorsum and then), epic sagas, and chance stories I read back in middle school contained those plot elements. I would cite Ōgun Hakusha (Gold Spur) as a representative championship. My writing was bound to that as if it were under a spell."
最近になってようやくその呪縛も解けてきまして、現在はそれ以外の方法でカタルシスを演出していきたいと考えております。物語上どうしても必要なシーンならばやはり書かざるを得ませんが、その時はライトノベルではない本として書きたいと思っています。
— 川原礫;絶ナル5巻5月発売 (@kunori) December 8, 2018
"These days, the spell has finally worn off. Present I would adopt to express catharsis through other means. If it was an admittedly necessary scene for the story, I would write it, just I would adopt to do that in a volume that isn't a lite novel."
(Translations by Kim Morrissy and Anime News Network)
This besides ties in to another common criticism with the series, and that is Reki Kawahara'southward habit of creating strong and independent characters, but treatment them very poorly and often forgetting nigh them as the story progresses, beingness used as nothing more than props or window dressing at best.
During my SAO 3 preview article, I mentioned that the residue of the original bandage including the members of Kirito'southward ever growing harem will be largely forgotten throughout most of Project Alicization, a movement that had fifty-fifty the novel's artists protesting somewhat with the "More than Deban" meme (Deban translating roughly to screen fourth dimension).
Although Eugeo, Alice, and some of the other new bandage members have some very likable and relatable traits, and the 48-52 episode count helps things out in regards to development, some take found it difficult connecting with them as well much knowing that going by previous trends by Kawahara, volition likewise be shoved aside and largely forgotten one time the next arc in the series comes around to getting finished and animated.
And there is Asuna. Although she has been given some time to smoothen, more often than not in Mother's Rosario and Ordinal Calibration, since the Fairy Dance arc she has largely been relegated from her co-protagonist role, which has given her the reputation of existence a "useless damsel-in-distress waifu" that has been put to the sidelines as Kirito continues to "cheat" on her. Withal, the harem is mostly one-sided every bit Asuna is the only girl Kirito loves back, and I don't think Asuna gets every bit much credit that she is but as capable as Kirito is. During my interview with Bryce Papenbrook, the vocalism of Kirito, I asked him his thoughts regarding Asuna:
A major criticism near the evidence is that since the show begun the Fairy Dance arc, Asuna for the almost office has been reduced to a "dryad in distress effigy" and her function has been basically hit or miss ever since. Without going too much into spoiler territory, permit's but say that Reki Kawahara got a lot of criticism for shoving aside Asuna for quite a scrap during Alicization although during the story line she'll be actively trying to go Kirito out of this mess. Some arraign Asuna falling in love with Kirito as the impetus for being turned from a strong feminist personality to beingness a weak and useless grapheme and the symbol of all the show'due south bug. What are your thoughts on this?
Bryce: "I totally disagree, I recall Asuna is an extremely strong character and that the "damsel in distress" perspective, I don't really understand because she was, yes, trapped in a cage, but in that unabridged arc, she continued to fight all the style upwardly until the end. She never gave up. So I don't see her as a weak character even through that arc. And the fact that she falls in dear in someone doesn't make her any weaker in my opinion. I think she maintains a strong office throughout the entire evidence. I've ever seen Asuna as an extremely stiff graphic symbol. So I disagree, everyone'due south gonna encounter the testify a different style, but in my opinion, Asuna is a very stiff graphic symbol."
Kirito's knack of collecting girls to his harem has led to criticisms of the SAO cast existence filled with too many shallow characters that aren't getting plenty grapheme evolution. In response, Reki Kawahara has heard these complaints most his poor treatment and usage of his female characters, and during an interview with Dengeki Online, he has said that Asuna and the other female characters are going to get more active in the story from now on.
According to Anime News Network contributor Kim "Frog-kun" Morrissy: "Reki Kawahara says that later on going to overseas fan events, he has come up to realize that he should write stories with "political definiteness" in mind. Because of that, he's been trying to requite the female characters more agency and says that it is incorrect to care for them as trophies."
Reki Kawahara says that after going to overseas fan events, he has come to realise that he should write stories with "political definiteness" in mind. Considering of that, he'due south been trying to give the female characters more agency and says that information technology is wrong to treat them as trophies. pic.twitter.com/prquqrPDxD
— 🐸🐸 Frog-kun 🐸🐸 (@frog_kun) January xix, 2019
While Kirito and his relationship with Asuna will still be the main focus of SAO, Kawahara has admitted that this has become an issue and he does plan on including more story of the girls outside of just being members of Kirito's harem in the future. No incertitude information technology'due south a calorie-free at the terminate of the tunnel for the "more deban" club and information technology also might exist a good sign for fans of Eugeo and Alice also post-Alicization…of class, that's assuming they survive.
Nosotros accept been seeing this with some of Reki Kawahara's more contempo works already. Ordinal Calibration, which was being written as Kawahara put the finishing touches on the Alicization novels, focused on Kirito and Asuna'southward relationship rather than just calculation another girl to the dynamic. And yous'll be seeing much more of this with the next story arcs in the works, with Unital Ring and the Aincrad reboot in the Progressive series. In that location'southward as well a side story in the works in Girls Ops where the story focuses on the Harem/More Deban club while Kirito and Asuna are abroad doing their own thing.
And in regards to Project Alicization, although Kawahara has gotten criticism for sidelining Asuna from much of the activity equally she is forced to scout Kirito recover from Johnny Black's assault helplessly, her role is still major to the storyline and Kawahara volition eventually make upwardly for this past unfolding and unleashing her moves in time and giving her meaning activity in the second half of the story arc. Due to spoiler reasons, yous'll just have to wait and see how it goes.
In the end, I think Toonami made the right move for the situation. Censor what they need to censor, listening to legitimate concerns, and ignoring those who wouldn't be making much of a ruckus if information technology was another evidence. Regardless of what you recall of the controversies or Reki Kawahara as a person or a writer, SAO continues to be a successful franchise despite information technology, and equally long equally fans proceed to watch and Aniplex and Toonami are notwithstanding interested in airing the show, i don't see the prove going away anytime presently (hiatuses aside).
Merely Reki Kawahara deciding to address the prove's glaring issues is also a step in the right direction, and really all that anyone tin ask for at this point. As the Sword Art Online franchise continues to prosper and see more than seasons for years to come, hopefully the time to come of this franchise will see a story that will go out fans feeling much better, and hopefully Toonami volition go on to testify it to its cease. Now if only Kirito can just get the harem to back off and ally Asuna already…
Sources: Dengeki Bait-and-switch, Anime News Network, Jason DeMarco, Bryce Papenbrook
If you are a victim of sexual assault and need aid or know someone who does, nosotros recommend calling the National Sexual Assail Hotline at 1 (800) 656-4673 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 (800) 799-7233.
Source: https://toonamifaithful.com/why-sword-art-online-was-allowed-to-return-to-toonami-and-why-reki-kawahara-promises-no-more-damsels-and-assault-scenes-going-forward/
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