hentaiFREEfree essay: on the BBFC

HFF Essays.

context // impact on anime // what hff would like // footnotes

updated 4 January 1999 -- amendments to BBFC certification fees to include concession rates; footnotes amended..

Note: The proponents of hentaiFREEfree live in the UK. While hentaiFREEfree is not intended to have a nationalistic bias per se (and it is largely in response to American anti-pornography campaigns), we do feel that HFF is well suited to discussing the impact which British film and video censorship has had on the anime market, and illustrating the problems which can arise when censorship occurs.

context

In Britain, films and videotapes (and some computer games) are classified by an organisation called the British Board of Film Classification (originally Censorship; the change was made partly for PR and partly to reflect the fact that their role is mostly classification; nevertheless, they do still engage in a modicum of censorship.)

If you are British, you should probably skim the explanation that follows; some of it may still come as a surprise - or you may be able to correct any errors I have made.

Classification is nominally optional for films - it is up to local authorities what cinemas are permitted to show - but, in practice, necessary in all but certain art houses (such as the ICA/New Media Centre in London). It is mandatory for videotapes, except for those educational, sports and music videos which do not depict material that would otherwise require restrictive classification (no exemption for Hurricane Live, alas.)

Videotapes may be classified as Uc (particularly suitable for small children), U (universal), PG (parental guidance), 12, 15, 18 (for people at or above that age), or the experimental R18 (only for sale in sex shops); or classification may be refused altogether. The classification scale is similar for films, but lacks the Uc and R18 ratings. (The BBFC provide a more detailed explanation.)

The BBFC has these powers as a result of the 'video nasty' scare around twenty years ago. 'Video nasties' was a term used by the tabloid press for violent horror films released on video; it was noticed that a number of notorious murderers had owned these tapes, and in the resulting knee-jerk reaction BBFC classification was made mandatory.

This was, of course, absurd. It's not at all clear that the numbers involved were statistically significant; no attempt was made to discover if a similar proportion of young men who were not murderers owned video nasties - and even if an unusually high proportion of murderers did own these tapes, it is not at all clear that there was a causal relationship in the direction suggested (ie, it may not be that watching these films makes you disturbed enough to murder; it may be that if you are disturbed enough to murder you are more likely to enjoy these tapes. The latter is no reason to stop innocent people enjoying them).

This conclusion is rather like going to France, seeing two pairs of men greet each other by kissing cheeks, and concluding that:

all Frenchmen kiss each others' cheeks;
that this habit is purely confined to Frenchmen and
that kissing cheeks may turn you into a Frenchman!

[These tapes may well have provided killers with a modus operandi; but I think that human history demonstrates that if people lack inspiration for such, they are more than capable of thinking up unpleasant ways of killing each other unaided.]

impact on anime

Unfortunately, the BBFC's classification powers produce a number of very damaging consequences for the anime community.

The first of these is not an inherent consequence of classification, but of the way it is funded. From 1 July 1999, the BBFC charge a flat fee of £11.68 per minute for the first hour/£7.75 per minute for the 2nd hour for English-language works (there is a concession rate of £7.80 per minute for the 1st hour/£5.20 per minute for the 2nd hour for subtitled works) to classify a tape, regardless of the number of copies sold. There is no provision for the dub and sub versions being substantively identical in the translation; each version must be certified separately. Furthermore, if an additional DVD or laserdisc is to be released, this must be classified separately as well, as must supplementary material being placed on the new release (such as deleted scenes)! This makes it difficult to sell anything where the expected sales are small or uncertain; and it is a sad fact that while the fans prefer subs, dubs typically outsell them by a considerable margin.

Special interest material is hit very hard by this; the odds of getting a release of anything experimental, innovative, or in any other way outside the mainstream of pseudo-cyberpunk violence and tentacle porn that is anime in this country are very limited.

Read that again, Mary Whitehouse[2]; the BBFC's censorship encourages releases of violence and tentacle porn. You've only got to compare the Manga[3] (sic) section in a British video store with the equivalent in the USA; if it exists, it's 90% dubs of Overfiend, Ninja Scroll, and Fist of the North Star. Anything suitable for children? I don't think so. In the USA, start at Kiki's Delivery Service and work down - but they don't have mandatory film and video censorship to 'protect children'.

But that's not enough; as I said, the sub and the dub pay for certification separately. The dubs sell better; in a marginal market, the dub is probably the only financially viable version - especially as the set of fans who will only watch subs is considerably smaller than the set who prefer them if they are available.

Then there is the practice of 'fifteening'; the introduction of damned gratuitious swearwords into the translation in order to boost a tape to the '15' rating (the point at which lost sales from age are much less than sales gained from teenagers looking for something 'interesting'), with no regard for how bloody jarring they are.

It is illegal to sell an uncertified videotape in this country, making it difficult for UK fans (who typically have NTSC[1] video equipment) to obtain imports (the American fan base is much larger, and hence there would be a greater variety of titles even ignoring the reasons discussed above; and many fans speak Japanese) - any business importing and selling such tapes would be constantly risking the wrath of the law - even though most or all of their business would be selling titles which would pass certification (often, they have done so dubbed) to informed adults.

In conclusion, the effect of the BBFC on British fans wishing access to non-hentai material is all bad; the range is greatly restricted both in variety and accessibility of subs, and if we wish to buy imports we have to brave the vagaries of HM Customs & Excise ourselves. What about hentai material? Oddly enough, one of the best-selling anime titles ever (in the UK) is the Urotsukidoji (Overfiend) series - cut to within an inch of its life, but still vile beyond belief [4] - so much for the allegedly positive effects of the BBFC.

what HFF would like

We believe that certification should be made optional, as in the USA and those parts of Europe that have video certification laws at all. The video nasty scare was nonsensical; it will not transform our youth into drooling maniacs overnight if they are permitted to watch A Clockwork Orange[6]. We would be content if uncertified tapes could only be sold by mail order or in specialist outlets - but why not permit their sale from physically distinct regions of existing video stores? Certain types of material (such as child pornography) would remain illegal; but any vendor uncertain about their material should be presented with clearly written rules [5], and permitted to submit it (at a reduced cost) for a simple yes/no answer as to whether it is legal. (We must continue to avoid the equally ridiculous situation that exists in the USA, where you cannot be sure if your material is legal or not...)

Failing that, the certification fee should be a charge per tape sold; this would permit the release of material which would not now be commercially viable, and the classification and release of a work as both sub and dub. Classifying such works would lose the BBFC money, true, but they would also make more money on popular works (and clearly the charge should be adjusted until their income was the same); and, in any case, as an arm of government, their purpose is not to make money.

Failing that, a single classification fee should cover subbed and dubbed versions of a work in any language and on any format, provided that the producers will affirm that the translations are substantively similar.

footnotes

1: The Americans and Japanese have a different standard for encoding video than our PAL; NTSC is somewhat inferior (hence Never Twice the Same Colour), but it's too late to get them to change to something sensible. The French use SECAM (Sauf Etre Contre Les Americains), which is more or less the same as PAL; the rest of the world one standard or other, usually modified to be slightly incompatible. [back]

2: Founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, and for some time chief bluenose thereof. Notorious for pronouncements about what 'decent people' like, and probably believes that most adults don't masturbate; still very much the name one associates with spurious prudery. [back]

3: The UK's largest distributor of anime are the oddly-named Manga Video, who had an enormous success with Urotsukidoji (Overfiend) and Akira (works the American rights to which they do not own), and who have become practically synonymous with anime in this country. To illustrate the dub/sub issue, take a look at what portion of their catalogue is available subbed. (It's worth noting that their planned DVD releases for this year will include sub tracks, but this may be too little, too late.) [back]

4: Lest anyone believe that we are engaging in the same behaviour that we criticise hentaiFREE for; if you want to watch Overfiend, go ahead. Our proposed modifications to the BBFC would let you. We just don't like it ourselves; and we believe that the cuts (and the generally available dub) remove what merit it might have. Central Park Media have plans to release a complete Urotsukidoji DVD set in the US, Region Zero, with what appears to be everything restored -- but good luck getting it into the UK. [back]

5: Such rules should not produce the current situation where it is legal to show a real naked 18-year-old human who has been chosen especially because she appears younger - but not to show drawings of a non-existent naked human who appears to be 20, because the accompanying text says she is 16. [back]

6: While A Clockwork Orange passed the BBFC in 1971 with an X certificate, it was withheld from UK distribution by Stanley Kubrick out of annoyance at the reaction of local authorities (who have the final say as to what can be seen in cinemas). Following the death of Kubrick, the film was resubmitted and passed at 18 without cuts (as a feature film, note, and not a video); the rationale officially provided is that "the Board does not consider that concerns expressed at the time of the film's original release, about its possible influence on young people, are a serious issue now." [back]