Friday, December 2, 2011

New Pages, Thoughts on Censorship

Now that my image hosting is up again, I've been able to post the under-construction character pages. Vanguard has a huge cast outside of the core four members, so it'll take a while to complete that. I've also started a catalog of censored cards and episodes, listed by country.

To elaborate a bit, I'm conflicted on the issue of censorship. As someone who was born into a family that has always been deeply involved in the arts, any censoring of someone's work, be it painted, written or sung, is appalling to me. However, the censoring of Vanguard cards is bringing some alternate arts that were originally featured only in the anime, before the official art had been decided on, to life. It's a treat to see the alternate artwork for Silent Tom and Demon Eater.

On the other hand, we have terribly sloppy jobs like Lozenge Magus and Cheer Girl, Tiara. These censored releases are really bad and I'd much prefer the original artwork to them. Having taken classes in art history, I feel terrible for every artist who has their work adjusted for the values of a different culture. Vanguard is fundamentally a game, so it has to be modified to become marketable in each area of its release, but that doesn't make censorship right. I'd prefer that society adjust to accommodate art, rather than adjust art to accommodate society.

Obviously, this view is from an artist's perspective, so it's going to be at odds with the beliefs of others. Right now, there isn't a clear answer to the issue of censorship but to judge for yourself, so I've made this comparison gallery for everyone.

Game Set!
-Matsu