“Where’s the Dong??” – the Confusing Mechanisms of BL Censorship

If you’ve spent a good amount of time in the spicier part of Japanese BL fandom, it’s likely that you’ve encountered some form of censorship. A dick scratched out here, a hole whited out there — basically anything to keep the images from being completely explicit. It may have left you wondering, in a genre focusing on guy-on-guy romantic and sexual relationships, why is there nary a peen to be seen?

This phenomenon isn’t unique to Japan, though – it’s also present in Korean webtoons, for example, and other adult-oriented media in countries where anti-obscenity or anti-pornography laws exist.

It begs the questions: what rules are in place, if any, that keep us from enjoying our pr0nz in their uncensored glory? And, what point even is there if the intended audience is over 18 anyway, and we already know full well what’s going on behind those teeny tiny censorship bars?

I decided to take a trip down the rabbit hole and explore this sometimes annoying, often confusing, yet in some ways necessary aspect of BL and share my findings with you all. Please note that this article pertains to Japanese BL manga specifically — it’s the type I’m most familiar with, dealing with it on a daily basis for work and enjoying it in my free time as well. The censorship landscape may look different in other countries and across different media, so this is but a small case study!

The Law of the Land

The ubiquitous censorship of adult media in Japan — be it manga, novels, games, or even straight-up pornographic videos — all stems from the restrictions imposed by Article 175 of the Criminal Code (first established in 1907):

Article 175 (1) A person who distributes or displays in public obscene objects such as documents, drawings or recording media contained in electronic or magnetic records is punished by imprisonment for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine, or both imprisonment and a fine. The same applies to a person who distributes obscene records including electronic or magnetic records through the transmission of telecommunications.

(2) The same applies to a person who possesses the objects referred to in the preceding paragraph or stores electronic or magnetic records referred to in the same paragraph for the purpose of distributing them for a fee.

Japanese Law Translation, with interpretation aided by good ol’ Wikipedia

As you can see, the law is worded pretty vaguely, which leaves it up to the interpretation of law enforcement. And, like many obscenity laws, it all comes down to personal judgment — there’s no rule on the books stating “1/2 a penis is OK, but 3/4 is jail time.” However, in general, nobody wants to have to stand before a judge and justify why their cartoon furry porn clearly isn’t actually meant to arouse anyone, and if you DO get turned on by it, it sounds like a skill issue.

And so, Japanese adult media largely operates on a self-censorship system, in which creators place their own censorship over their works — sometimes according to standards set by publishers or distributors — to prevent any legal issues down the road. These standards may seem arbitrary, as they’re largely based on precedent and thus are constantly changing, but there are certainly some identifiable patterns. For example, the emblematic “mosaic” commonly used in adult videos is where we get the stereotype of pixellated Japanese porn from . But how about when it comes to BL manga, a 2D art form?

The Various Forms of Banana Casings

To circumvent the laws around “obscene materials,” but still get the point across, so to speak, BL mangaka use various methods to cover up the schlongs. One Twitter user made a handy visual of some of the more common methods of censorship in BL, along with their personal reactions to each:

https://twitter.com/suuungrapher/status/1460965050554875905?s=20

(From the top left:
“Whited out: Sad”
“Ghost/lightsaber: Very sad”
“White bars: Happy”
“?: Pretty happy”
“Whiteout plus ?: Very sad”
“Whiteout plus white bars: Why?”)

Now, what method a professional BL artist chooses to censor their work may either be their own choice, or decided by their publisher. It turns out, many publishers of eromanga set their own censorship guidelines, to be followed by every series they put out. I once stumbled upon a whole book containing the exact rules and methods utilized by each major publisher (more on that later), though I’m not sure if the info in it was provided by the publishers themselves or just based on observation. It was full of fascinating charts and diagrams, with plenty of interesting details (such as, for one company, “assholes don’t need to be censored, UNLESS they’re being expanded or penetrated”). The slight differences between each publisher made me wonder how these lines are drawn at all (haha get it?).

In addition, according to various forums on the internet (the most reliable source, I know), the censorship in print books tends to be “heavier” than digital-only books, and in some cases the censorship of the same book may vary based on the retailer. This makes sense; in this wonderful article detailing the pros and cons of digital manga publishing, Ames touched upon how digital manga tends to have looser restrictions regarding erotic content. But, because nothing in this world is so simple, this isn’t always the case. So when you purchase a book, unless you’re very familiar with the patterns of the publisher/retailer you’re buying from, it’s hard to guarantee what form of censorship you’ll be met with once the story starts getting hot and heavy.

However, if you’re really set on getting the most detailed banana for your buck, and want to see as little censorship as possible, the “R-18” category might be just what you’re looking for.

“R-18” vs. “General” Content, and the Divide Between Indie and Commercial Works

“R-18” is the rating given to manga that has been judged to be inappropriate to minors and is subject to regulations regarding its distribution — in addition to having the bare minimum of censorship. This may seem like a no-brainer to people from, say, the U.S., where overtly erotic content is clearly separated from “all-ages” content, but in Japan the line is a bit fuzzier. The vast majority of BL, for example, would fall under “general” and not “R-18.” Even if it’s not exactly “family-friendly,” unless it’s particularly graphic or extreme, it can be sold and displayed pretty much anywhere. (Fun fact: some BL series have both “general” and “R-18” editions available, and you can probably guess which one is more explicit .)

Fanmade works and other independent publications are a bit of a different story, though. I spent this past Sunday at my second home Tokyo Big Sight, where Akaboo — a major doujinshi event sponsor — was holding an event.

In addition to requiring any graphic sexual content be properly censored (and having patrols on the event floor to do random book checks), Akaboo takes the separation of “all-ages” and “R-18” works very seriously. They know that the fans do be horny, and want to let them have their fun while not crossing any lines that could get everyone involved in legal trouble.

That being said, they’re also opposed to setting hard rules to be applied to each and every work to be sold at their events, as they believe such restriction will limit the range of creators’ self-expression and thus undermine doujin culture as we know it. (Source: Akaboo Official Guide)

To help make sense of these seemingly contradictory values, Akaboo is constantly making efforts to help event participants understand what exactly constitutes “R-18 content.” They even sometimes set up an “educational booth” at their doujin events specifically aimed at teaching fans and creators the distinction between ippan (“general”) works, which can be found on the shelves at major bookstores and purchased by anybody, and R-18 works, which can only be sold by certain stores and require age verification to purchase.

I once wandered into their booth out of curiosity, and spent a good chunk of time flipping through manga samples set out on tables, divided into “general” and “R-18.” The point of the booth was to give visitors a chance to look at examples of works in both categories and see if any common distinctions between the two “genres” stuck out. My personal takeaway was that manga featuring more “taboo” kinks or drawn-out sex scenes tended to be rated R-18 — but in terms of censorship alone, there weren’t any clear differences that set the two categories apart.

This is also where I encountered the aforementioned book breaking down each major publisher’s preferred style of censorship, and what guidelines they hold their works to.

The booth also had a “feedback book,” where guests could write down their thoughts regarding the booth, what they learned, etc. When I paged through the book myself, the general tone of the comments was confusion and even annoyance (“I thought the heaviness of the censorship or frequency of sex scenes determined a work’s rating, but it looks like that’s not the case.” “Why must our [fanmade] works be treated as R-18 when publishers can put out just as explicit works under a ‘general’ rating?”).

It seems censorship is a contentious topic even within Japanese fandom, to say nothing of discussions by international fans.

Mini Tangent: Dr. Sou’s Very Scientific Survey

Just for funsies, I decided to conduct a small survey of doujinshi artists’ chosen method of self-censorship. I selected 10 “R-18”-rated doujinshi books from my personal collection that I’d recently purchased — either from this most recent Akaboo event, or from J Garden back in October.

Now keep in mind, this is just a miniscule sample of the bajillion R-18 books out there, and the works sampled only represent my personal fandoms and tastes — so please take any results with a nice industrial-sized salt lick; this is all just for fun! 😀

Here’s what I found, with a pie chart to make it look extra unofficially official!

And, as a bonus, here’s a visual of the ball censorship ratio — it seems the family jewels aren’t considered as risky as their phallic counterpart, but they do tend to be obscured in some way (especially the area where they meet the shaft):

After hours of poring over 2D obfuscated dongs, I was rolling out my own tinfoil hat theories as to what keeps the humble doujin artist in heavily self-censored R-18 hell while the big publishers get to slap some white-out over kinky sex scenes and still earn that family-friendly “general” rating. That’s when my much more levelheaded colleague Ames pointed out that it’s just as likely that it could all just come down to personal preference and what the artist is comfortable drawing — which makes sense. Not all BL artists want to draw thick, veiny hogs, just like not all BL fans want to see them — go figure.

OK, how about translated manga?

By now, you may be wondering: if the above rules ONLY apply to content made and sold within Japan, how about manga that’s been translated and will be sold to an overseas audience, in countries that don’t have such strict obscenity laws?

Well, again, there’s no single answer across the board. It all depends on the original publishers’ willingness to grant overseas distributors the rights to the raw image data, as well as said distributors’ ability to get that content out into the world, be it in digital or print format, and promote it to its intended fanbase. The hurdles are there, but it’s certainly not impossible — SuBLime, for instance, has a special tag to denote uncensored works on their titles list, and rumor has it that KUMA has a growing collection of uncensored works available in print.

So, where does eBook Renta! stand in all this? Well, being a global digital manga retailer based in Japan puts us in a unique position — we can offer steamier stories than you’d probably find in your average Barnes and Noble, but we’re still bound by Japanese law — and it’d really suck if the popo were to suddenly raid our office building and confiscate all our precious hot yaois. And so, we try to err on the side of caution, and hold our English translated works to the same standards as the original Japanese editions.

…And, because we host manga from many different publishers, who each set their own standards when it comes to censorship, this means you can find all different types of censorship in the manga we offer, varying by publisher, artist, and sometimes even series.

If you’ve been a little confused thus far, don’t worry — we’re just as confused as you. Our dear Takochan, who’s in charge of accepting or declining pre-translated works on eBook Renta! based on whether or not they meet our guidelines, often has to double-check with other members of our department, and has been baffled on more than one occasion (why are the nearly fully-rendered monster dicks in Renta!TW series allowed on our site, but a partial shot of a semi-erect dick a no-go?). He once asked for a clear-cut list of what’s OK and not OK for Renta!, and received these guidelines in response:

OK	No-no
Visible outline of the dick    Depiction of fluids	Visible suspensory ligament   Visible veins Visible glans

But, don’t get me wrong; censorship rules aside, this isn’t at all to say that we disregard the importance of dongs in BL entirely. One of the guidelines we follow as manga checkers here at Renta! is to be careful that, in sex scenes, no translated dialogue or sound effects cover up the “good bits” as much as possible — and this includes lightsabers and the like. No matter how much is left up to the readers’ imaginations, we try to provide as much material as possible for you to work with when you let your minds fill in the blanks!

Conclusion

So, what can we make of all this? Should the dongs be set free, or are some things best left up to the imagination?

Personally, I’ve gotten so used to censored BL that honestly, I find it a bit jarring when I do stumble upon totally explicit BL content. I don’t feel like I’m “missing out” when I purchase a censored volume of BL just because there could potentially exist a more “complete” version of the manga. I think it’s important to remember that the primary readers of BL manga are Japanese, and will likely only ever be able to experience the art in its censored form — and thus the mangaka keep this in mind when they create their art, and craft each ero scene in a way than fans can enjoy it regardless of how visible the genitalia are. Perhaps the rules in place have pushed mangaka to get creative in how they depict physical intimacy, and given birth to works that are just as clever as they are sexy.

But, on the other hand, I can see why fans of an artist would like to see their drawings in their entirety, or be bothered by the random unnatural splotches of censorship that can take them out of a scene.

Again, it all comes down to personal preference. And for better or for worse, for the time being, censorship is just a fact of life in Japanese BL.

Now, as a little treat, and to end this all on a lighthearted note, I’d like to share a case of both clever and funny examples of self-censorship.

Ames (who knows my BL tastes a little more than I’d like to admit at this point) recently sent me this Twitter post by ComiComi Studio, an online BL retailer, promoting their upcoming release of Nobiru Hoshi’s もっと可愛くなっていい (Motto Kawainu Natte Ii) volume 1. (Content warning: man tiddy and prominent BULGE)

…Meanwhile, this was the version of the same image we found on Nobiru Hoshi’s personal Twitter — and THIS was the one marked with a “sensitive content” warning!

https://twitter.com/hoshi_nbl/status/1731641243346853994

As a BL fan, how do you feel about this topic? We welcome any and all opinions on the matter, and would love to hear what you personally want to see in BL, so leave your comments below!

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Dr. Sou OUT!!