A Satirical Take on Censorship

When Western audiences think of animation, there’s this assumption that it’s just for kids, as if cartoons are something you’re meant to outgrow, like a childhood stuffed animal. But let’s be real—animation is a medium, not a genre. Japan took this notion and gave us something wonderful, fantastical, and sometimes very strange: anime. There’s anime for every demographic—from wholesome family-friendly series to stories so dark and thought-provoking they leave you sitting in silence, questioning your life choices for an hour after each episode. It doesn’t shy away from controversial topics either—incest, age-gap relationships, infidelity, and all sorts of social taboos that live-action media often tiptoes around.

This openness is ironic, given Japan’s reputation as a reserved, buttoned-up society where even public displays of affection can earn you disapproving glares. But that’s the beauty of anime and manga—they act as a pressure valve, allowing creators and audiences to explore the very topics that polite society refuses to acknowledge.

I remember watching Doraemon as a kid, thinking it was just a fun little show about a blue robot cat. It turns out that it had some surprisingly mature themes. There’s an episode where Nobita casually wishes to die—yeah, heavy stuff. And yet, Doraemon is arguably more tame than a lot of Western-made cartoons, which makes it all the more ridiculous that it was considered too inappropriate for American kids. Meanwhile, Ren & Stimpy and Courage the Cowardly Dog were traumatizing an entire generation.

This brings me to Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist, a 2015 anime that takes Japan’s commitment to censorship and cranks it up to 11. Imagine a dystopian future where even the slightest mention of anything remotely sexual is illegal. Kids grow up with zero knowledge about reproduction, relationships, or even basic anatomy. It’s like 1984, but instead of Big Brother watching your political leanings, he’s monitoring your browser history for “indecent thoughts.” The story follows Tanukichi Okuma, a poor, unsuspecting high schooler who gets roped into a resistance group called SOX, led by Ayame Kajou (a.k.a. Blue Snow), a self-proclaimed “pervert terrorist.” Her mission? To corrupt the youth by handing out dirty magazines and screaming obscenities in public. And honestly? Iconic.

The satire is obvious—Japan has a long history of censoring explicit content, dating back to Article 175 of the Penal Code, which requires genitalia to be blurred or covered in adult media. It’s why you’ll find pixelated body parts in hentai, but somehow, tentacles are totally fine (don’t ask). In 2010, Japan took it a step further with Bill 156, which pressured publishers to self-censor anything deemed harmful to minors. Even though this series is set in the near future of 2030, Japan’s strict rules on censorship go back way further than that. The aforementioned Article 175, the law that restricts the sale of pornography both physically and digitally, was first enacted in 1907. If caught selling pornographic content, you could face up to two years in jail and a fine of 2,500,000 yen (around CAD 24,000). Buyers weren’t exempt from punishment either. Shimoneta is aware of all the policies in effect regarding real-world politics and memes to the farthest extent. Shimoneta takes these real-world laws and runs with them, showing how an overbearing government creates a society so repressed that people don’t even understand their own desires.

Enter Anna Nishikinomiya, the poster child for “This is why sex education is important.” She starts off as your typical morally righteous student council president, enforcing the government’s strict decency laws. But when she experiences sexual attraction for the first time, she snaps. Without any frame of reference for what she’s feeling, she spirals into full-blown obsessive stalker mode. She assaults Tanukichi, sniffs his belongings like a deranged bloodhound, and genuinely believes that breaking into his home and pinning him against a wall is a form of romantic expression. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so terrifying. And I find that to be the point—Shimoneta isn’t just making dirty jokes for the sake of it. It shows how repression doesn’t eliminate desire; it just warps it into something unhealthy. Anna’s arc is both darkly comedic and genuinely disturbing because it mirrors the real-life consequences of inadequate sex education.

Beyond censorship, Shimoneta also plays with themes of identity and gender roles, especially through the character of Oboro Tsukimigusa, a gender-fluid individual forced to conform to societal expectations. While primarily a comedy, the anime sneaks in sharp critiques of how rigid societal norms can erase personal identity. As someone whose passion for exploring their sexual identity is censored, she has no way to understand who she is and why she has the feelings she does, forever condemned to live in a society that vilifies her normal human desires. This is subjugated even further when considering the highly prestigious school they attend, regardless of academic supremacy, lacks basic education for sex (you know the thing that creates human beings)

Sex education—or the lack thereof—is a major theme in Shimoneta. In the show, kids are so ignorant about reproduction that they think kisses are a form of life-threatening contamination. It’s funny because it’s exaggerated, but the underlying truth is uncomfortably real. Japan has been criticized for its abstinence-heavy approach to sex-ed, which often glosses over consent, contraception, and LGBTQ+ topics. The result? Rising social anxiety around relationships, declining birth rates, and a whole lot of misinformation. In India, where I’m from, sex education isn’t a thing either. That leads to misinformed youth, rising teenage pregnancies, and generational cycles of ignorance.

Both Shimoneta’s society and our own carry the assumption that young people, due to their developmental stage, don’t know their own good and thus aren’t ready for the “dangers” of sexual imagery and coarse language. As Anna's mom says in episode four, “Today’s youth are psychologically immature, filled with dirty thoughts, and are unable to control their bad feelings. We adults have a duty to guide you to a higher moral ground.”

This is what I think ultimately has to be turned around, and what Ayame fights against. Misinforming teenagers—or not informing them at all—about sex and its surrounding elements isn’t protecting them. If anything, it’s hurting them, forcing them to go through puberty without understanding what’s happening to them. Sex education is a fairly new invention, but in my opinion, it’s one of the greatest things to happen to school systems around the world. Instead of following conservative values that treat sex as a taboo topic, we should educate young people, because it’s a natural part of being human. Only through knowledge and open discussion can we remove the shame surrounding sex, and maybe even the concept of perversion itself.

One other thing worth mentioning is Shimoneta’s own censorship. Every dirty word is replaced by a sound effect, and many provocative images are covered up by stickers. The irony is hard to miss—Shimoneta is literally censored while criticizing censorship. Just looking at modern TV anime, we see a heavy reliance on censorship: light beams, smoke, and shadows covering up the screen to the point that you barely know what’s going on. It’s kind of disrespectful, both to the artist and the audience. The mere fact that Shimoneta itself is censored proves how relevant its subject matter is.

Anime often gets even more sanitized when brought over to Western audiences (as if American kids haven’t already seen and heard everything). Some of the changes are just plain ridiculous. One Piece turned Sanji’s cigarette into a lollipop. Pokémon tried to convince us that rice balls were “jelly donuts” (nice try, 4Kids). And let’s not even talk about Sailor Moon, where Zoisite was magically transformed into a woman to avoid showing a gay couple, and Neptune and Uranus were suddenly “cousins.” Because nothing screams unromantic like intense lingering stares and holding hands.

Western censorship tends to fall into four categories:

1. Sexual Content – Anything suggestive gets toned down or removed, even if it’s harmless.

2. Violence – Blood and gore get censored, but somehow guns and explosions are totally fine.

3. Cultural Differences – Japanese foods get renamed, honorifics disappear, and suddenly, everyone sounds like they’re from California.

4. Moral Values – Anything that challenges Western norms gets altered or erased altogether.

Don't get me twisted, censorship should be enforced for actual children who are impressionable, but extreme censorship on mildly complex themes does more harm than good. I mean look at me, I watched Black Swan at the age of 8 and I turned out fine! Right?... Jokes aside, my parents were pretty lenient and open if I had questions about anything I was too young to understand, but because I was given a positive response to curiosity, I never harboured damaging opinions and negative emotions towards things that I would inevitably be exposed to as an adult.

Shimoneta delves into problematic territory at times that I don't always agree with, but it serves as an amusing experiment for audiences to indulge in. At what point is censorship too much? And at what point should it be enforced further? I don’t know the answer, but a world where dirty jokes don’t exist tells us that maybe what we suppress says as much about us as what we permit.

Also, even if this series is not for you (which is totally okay), I urge you to check out the opening, which is just hilarious and incredibly catchy