Top 10 Most Censored Digimon Moments
#10: Sake & Milkshakes
“Digimon Tamers” (2001-02) Apparently, they really do bring all the boys to the yard. Though in this instance its because a bunch of Gekomon are being forced to whip them up to quench the thirst of the sinister Orochimon. Before you start questioning why a giant set of snakes are obsessed with all that frothy goodness, it’s worth noting that they were originally brewing up alcohol! Okay so maybe that just raises more questions about Digimon getting hammered, but still, hard to believe we nearly had a digital booze up!
#9: Gun to the Face
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“Digimon Adventure 02” (2000-01) As the Digidestined embark on a world tour, they endeavour to aid their fellow chosen ones from enemy Digimon, whilst trying to prevent any international incidents. A trip down to Mexico almost saw the end for Ken and Matt, where after being caught but a guard while trying to sneak into a temple, had a gun drawn on them, the kind where you have to ask yourself if you’re feeling lucky. Whelp, like a pair of punks, the two dash away before getting dropped then and there.
#8: Citramon
“Digimon Data Squad” (2006-07) Ok, so they wont let kids see guns. Makes sense, right? But how about BOMBS? Well turns out they went to even greater lengths to censor those. In this episode, the Data Squad is confronted by BomberNanimon - a giant, sentient bomb. They decided the best way around this was to turn him into a much more child friendly…orange. Now named “Citramon”, this bad boy traded in his explosives for citrus fruits which he chucked at the team. It’s the type of censorship you wouldn’t believe unless you saw it.
#7: Cropping Away
“Digimon Tamers” (2001-02) Accidental kisses between two characters of the same gender? Nowhere to be found here, move along! In spite of this little interaction being nothing more than a quick gag following Kazu and Kenta falling on top of each other, the scene was removed completely in the dub. It’s the furthest thing from gratuitous, and while its absence doesn’t exactly take away anything from the grand design of what amounted to a filler episode, its nonetheless interesting to see where the mind of execs were at the time.
#6: No Buddhism
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“Digimon Adventure” (1999-2000) Remember that scene where Joe took on a giant Bakemon and made it lose its power thanks to a chant about mind over matter? Yeah, kind of weird when you look back on it. Turns out, this was an addition on the dub’s part, since in the original, he was actually using a Buddhist mantra to undo the ghost Digimon’s power. Not only does this make way more sense given context, but casts the change in a poor light. Were they afraid about kids being exposed to another religion? Come ‘Murica, you’re better than that!
#5: That’s Not a Toy
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“Digimon Adventure” (1999-2000) Guess firearms were a big problem back in the early days of Digimon. As one of the Dark Masters, Puppetmon was already a little messed up in the head, but toss this now-deleted scene, and his idea of playtime becomes a whole lot more dangerous. Going through his toy box, Puppetmon at one point pulls out what appears to be a real-life gun, before loading it up with fresh ammo. Does the Digital World have a gun crime crisis that we’ve been kept in the dark about?
#4: Zoe’s Outfits
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“Digimon Frontier” (2002-03) While we’re not saying Digimon can’t have the occasional implied innuendo, perhaps the creators might want to be careful with who they choose to do said innuendo-ing. In this instance, we’ve got Zoe, who whilst going through a brand-new wardrobe at a digital resort, shows off her figure in everything from a bathing suit to a full-on bikini. Heck, if she hadn’t noticed that Toucanmon was peeping on her, she would have ended up flashing the audience! Given her actual age, this would have been a bit of problem so they completely took out the third, more racy outfit. Maybe censoring was the best option here.
#3: Cousin?!
“Digimon Adventure” (1999-2000) Don’t get in cars with strangers. It’s a valuable lesson to teach kids, and obviously something the show wanted to enforce. While trying to hitchhike to their next destination back in the real world, the Digidestined luckily manage to catch the attention of Sora’s cousin. Convenient, right? Just one problem – in the original Japanese, that wasn’t her cousin, it was a random stranger who gave them a lift because he found Sora and Mimi too cute to resist. Yeah, not sure how we feel about that.
#2: Mervamon
“Digimon Fusion” (2010-12) Finally, we come to the pinnacle of Digimon censorship, at least when it comes to dramatically downgrading a character’s sex appeal. We can only imagine what the studio’s reaction was when they took a gander at Mervamon. Tall, Amazonian, busty as hell, with an outfit that gives away way more Cameltoemon than expected. The censor machine went into overdrive here! While they couldn’t take away all of her ravenous features, they did do their darndest to cover it up, either by adding more layers, erasing curves, and doing whatever necessary to bring the sexy factor as close to zero as possible.
#1: Apocalymon
“Digimon Adventure” (1999-2000) They may not have changed his appearance, but what the dub did to this final boss was nothing short of character assassination. In case you weren’t aware, Apocalymon was originally meant to be a figure of terror, a monster straight out of your nightmares. His screams, the way he carved up his own body, it was all terrifying. So much so that the dub dialled it back all the way into the negatives by making him a laughingstock. Running on hot and cold water? Jealous of humanity? Always being left with the crust and never the pizza? This was just painful to watch!
