Osamu Tezuka:

• Adolf: Considering it deals with the Axis Powers Deliberate Values Dissonance is heavily invoked, however one thing that smacks of the pure sort is Lampe's assassination of Hitler. The Nazi high command have grown to resent him so much they order his death despite the fact they know he's already suicidal and Lampe shoots him while he's already got the pistol to his head! To a Japanese reader, this scene would have a profound impact due to the tradition of Seppuku. From a Japanese perspective, robbing a man of the right to end his own life "honorably" seconds before he pulls the trigger is probably the cruelest way possible to kill somebody, definitely a fate worthy of a genocidal maniac. Most Westerners would probably see it as terribly unnecessary, or at worst, giving a historical monster a "good death" rather than letting him take his own life in shame.
• The Dark Horse collection for Astro Boy contains a measured disclaimer discussing this. In short, it acknowledges that people are sometimes depicted in a manner that would be considered racist today, but it was not Tezuka's intent, and to censor his work without his input would be disrespectful and also cause no meaningful change to the world.
  Many non-Japanese, including people from Africa and Southeast Asia, appear in Osamu Tezuka's works. Sometimes these people are depicted very differently from the way they actually are today, in a manner that exaggerates a time long past or shows them to be from extremely undeveloped lands. [...] This was never Osamu Tezuka's intent [...] Nonetheless, we do not believe it would be proper to revise these works. Tezuka is no longer with us, and we cannot erase what he has done, and to alter his work would only violate his rights as a creator. More importantly, stopping publication or changing the content of his work would do little to solve the problems of discrimination that exist in the world.
• Apollo's Song: A woman trains the protagonist to be a professional runner because many back then believed strenuous activity like running might be harmful to a woman's reproductive health.
• Black Jack has a problem when it comes to gender conformity:
  • A boy is considered odd for enjoying and being good at feminine things like sewing. He later discovers that as an infant, a doctor saved him from dying of a brain injury by transplanting pieces of a recently-deceased woman's brain to his (though the doctor does say the woman's brain cells ought to have completely merged with his, by the age he is when he learns this).
  • A woman has her uterus and ovaries removed, and lives as a man afterwards due to the fact that "she cannot be a woman anymore" (i.e., give birth and be a mother). A lot of debate has sprung up as to whether Kei/Megumi Kisaragi is a victim of sexist ideology or a bona fide Transgender man.
  • Related to this, the fact that Black Jack and Kisaragi Kei were forced to be apart because the latter could no longer live like a woman does not age well in modern times.
• Kimba the White Lion has aspects of the series that did not age well:
  • The depiction of Africans (which went straight into Darkest Africa territory and blackface) and Arabs (whom were given very stereotypical appearances and characterized as extremely greedy).
  • Leo the Lion (or Susume! Leo), the follow-up series, features an episode where Leo/Kimba attempts to teach his son Rukio independence by dragging him out into the middle of nowhere and making him fight his way back home on his own. Though Rukio is obviously terrified for most of the journey, it's revealed at the end that he was never in any real danger because Leo was secretly following him every step of the way. This is intended as a heartwarming story about a well-meaning dad using Tough Love to teach his son an important lesson. To contemporary audiences, especially Western ones, it just looks like a physically and emotionally abusive nut leaving his child for dead.
• Princess Knight: The series operates under the idea that men and women are naturally inclined to act in certain ways. Princess Sapphire can do "manly" things (swordfight, adventure, etc) because she has both male and female hearts. If her male heart is removed, she instantly becomes timid and prone to swooning until she Takes a Level in Badass ^note Osamu Tezuka apparently didn't think a pure Action Girl was impossible. In the 50s manga, she is nervous but brave enough to fight after she permanently loses her male heart. If her female heart is removed, she derides anything remotely feminine as "girly".

Rumiko Takahashi:

• The general attitudes on sexuality are always a bit played for laughs in Takahashi's Ranma ½, but there are still some uncomfortable moments. Most notably, a short arc concerning a Stalker with a Crush named Tsubasa Kurenai, who is obsessed with Ukyo. The ongoing gag is that everybody assumes Tsubasa was a girl, and 'her' lesbian crush on Ukyo is Played for Laughs. Towards the end, Ranma (while male) attempts to "cure" Tsubasa's lesbianism by asking her out on a date.
  • In a flashback, Dr. Tofu is shown crushing on a high school-age Kasumi. Kasumi should be 16-18 in the flashback, while Tofu can be presumed to have been his late teens or early 20s.
  • Nodoka Saotome and her seppuku pledge. A Western attitude would have been to dismiss the stupid thing on several grounds (she never agreed to it — it was Genma who declared he'd do it and then wrote it up before running off; she really does love her son and doesn't want to have to kill him; and the pledge is so ambiguous as to be impossible to live up to). The Japanese attitude is that Nodoka is, while suffering, a good, loyal, dutiful woman to keep it alive and be condemned to murdering her own family if she decides they haven't lived up to it. Being willing to commit suicide herself after executing them is seen as romantically tragic — or at least humorously old-fashioned.
  • Teenage characters being given or buying alcohol (such as from a vending machine or to celebrate, like how alcohol is given around to party during the Orochi arc) can be Values Dissonance for places that have strictly enforced no drinking/selling to policies for teens.
  • In general the series is deeply rooted in 1980s standards of gender roles where gender equality wasn't a thing at all, with plenty of sexist Double Standards including but not limited to Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male, All Men Are Perverts, Does Not Like Men, Designated Girl Fight, and The Unfair Sex. There's generally no way to write around this since the series' Gender Bender core plot as well as the start of Ranma and Akane's relationship (it eventually evolves beyond this) are based on this and are the source of many gender bending Funny Moments; due to this reason the 2024 anime adaptation keeps those intact, but does make a point of stating at the very beginning that the series takes place in 1980s Japan. How Ranma, the main character, is a cisgender male Gender Bender who gradually gets used to his gender bending curse (though he mostly refuses to admit it and wants to be cured from it above all) and starts to like his ability to switch between genders at will to take advantage of the strictly defined gender roles and advance on his goals, complicates things further. All in all, it's nothing too egregious for its time and is part of the charm of the series. Additionally, the voice actors indirectly commented on this in an interview for the anime remake, claiming that "The Way Rumiko Takahashi's work portrays men and women in accordance with the times is part of its appeal".
    • Also related to old-fashioned gender roles, Akane's Tomboy Angst and being horrified that Ranma can do several feminine things better than she can (cooking, sewing, etc), Ranma stressing about being seen enjoying desserts as a boy, or Ukyo being aghast that Akane is even more tomboyish than she is all comes off as archaic, pretty restrictive, and illogical by modern standards.
    • Notably however, the 2024 anime adaptation does change how gender roles are portrayed to get on with modern sensibilities when they don't affect the core plot. For instance, in the original manga and anime, when Akane reminisces about her youth alongside Dr. Tofu and Kasumi after getting her hair cut, being tomboyish is portrayed as a negative thing and feminine Kasumi berates her for not being ladylike telling her that she should stop fighting because "Fighting is not something girls should do" and that "Dr. Tofu won't like her if she continues acting like that". In the 2024 anime however, this is notably changed and Kasumi instead tells her "What a tomboy you are" while giggling and smiling, instead accepting her tomboyishness as a normal part of her character since childhood and not trying to force to change her at all. Akane instead just sees that Dr. Tofu prefers feminine girls with long hair like Kasumi and cuts her hair solely for that reason, which is still in accordance with the original plot while at the same time addressing the outdated gender role.
  • While not particularly egregious for their time, the series' portrayals of Chinese characters and attitudes toward LGBT sexuality would not go down well in the 21st century. Shampoo was essentially the poster child for Anime Chinese Girl and the others weren't much better. Any hint of homosexuality was met with immediate disdain or disgust from most of the cast, basically being synonymous with "pervert". Akane and Ranma spend Tsubasa's whole arc insisting the apparent lesbian needs to get a boyfriend; once Ranma finds out Tsubasa is a crossdressing boy, he proceeds to beat the crap out of him. These days, especially where international audiences are concerned, it's unlikely the material could get away with that kind of thing, which would be called out a lot more harshly.
    • In the original Japanese version, Ranma is called an "Okama" by some Arc Villains such as Pantyhose Taro. "Okama" is an extremely offensive and degrading term to call feminine homosexual men and crossdressers, and as time moved on and LGBT awareness increased, it has become even more offensive to the point that it's taken out of Updated Rereleases of anime, manga, and games that featured the term. Ranma 1/2's predecessor Urusei Yatsura also used the term for the character Nagisa (a crossdresser like Tsubasa) and it and any other degradatory language and implications were notably taken out from its 2022 anime adaptation to get on with modern sensibilities.
    • In Ukyo's second appearance, a group of random girls witness a cross-dressed Ranma climbing out of a bin, where he was flung by Akane. They immediately fling his dress away and start beating the crap out of him (in the manga version, he climbed out of the dress himself, but he's beaten into unconsciousness and Ukyo has to salvage him, while in the anime he walked away on his own feet). There's no way that would fly in today's society, and sure enough, the scene is gone in the Reiwa-era anime.
  • The aversion of Nipple and Dimed was very common for anime and manga made at the time, and could even be shown on prime time without issue. In modern times, it has become a lot rarer for works aimed at general audiences to show it (barring hentai and raunchy ecchi and seinen titles) due to a crackdown on sexual content for both broadcasters and publishers. This is reflected in the 2024 anime adaptation, where they opted to depict Barbie Doll Anatomy instead.
• Urusei Yatsura
  • Secondary character Ryuunosuke Fujinami is a girl who has been raised as a boy by her father (because he wanted a boy). Once she hits adolescence, she becomes torn between her ingrained nature and her desire to embrace her gender, something which her father violently opposes (and she violently counter-opposes). Being a Takahashi series, the whole thing is Played for Laughs, which would be fine, except that nobody in the cast even considers calling child services for Mr. Fujinami's years of abuse. Even the teachers refuse to help... except for that one time when Onsen-Mark tries (and fails) to teach Ryuunosuke how to be a proper lady — an episode that itself has issues due to looking way too much like he's dating her, which is a huge no-no in the West.
  • The series' overall Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male is often criticized in the current day. Lum electrocuting Ataru incessantly, Ryoko's sadistic abuse of both Mendou and Tobimaro, and Shinobu's Hair-Trigger Temper towards men are all Played for Laughs and they rarely catch any karmic retribution for any of it, unlike Ataru and Mendou's near-instant karma when they do something wrong.
• Maison Ikkoku:
  • A major sticking point with western fans is main character Godai's relationship with Ibuki, a high school girl who follows him around, insists they're "meant to be", and tries to ruin his maybe/maybe-not relationship with his beloved out of jealousy. The problem everyone has is that Ibuki is annoying and Godai doesn't really love her... not that she's sixteen or seventeen years old, and he's at least twenty and a student teacher at her school. In fact, everyone acts like he just may hook up with her anyways, and they don't particularly comment about the morality of it aside from breaking his "true love" Kyoko's heart. Even worse, Kyoko had married her own teacher years earlier, when the age difference was even bigger, and it's viewed as a perfect relationship. In many countries (not only in Japan), a consensual relationship between a teenage girl and an adult is not only not taboo but very common, unlike in the US where it is generally seen as abhorrent. A large part of this is because in those areas, the age of consent is usually lower than in many parts of the US. The level of acceptance varies from country to country; in some, it won’t be an issue if the age difference isn't too high (for example 16/20), but it can be an issue if the age difference is quite notable.
  • The series definitely reflects the more traditional, rigid gender roles in Japanese society (especially during the 80s, when the story was set/written) which may be off-putting to Westerners. For example, the expectation that women will leave their jobs upon marriage (plenty of Western women still do this, but it's not assumed anymore) and with it, that a man should not propose/a woman should not encourage him to propose unless he's in a good financial state. This is one thing that turns a lot of Western fans off Kyoko, since in the West, women with such expectations are stigmatized as "gold diggers" who are too lazy to work themselves. And there are also a few suggestions that Kyoko is approaching Old Maid age at 22 years old, though this mainly comes from her overbearing mother who is desperate for grandkids.
  • Sexual harassment is generally played for laughs, and early on Godai attempts to kiss Kyoko more than once while she's asleep or unconscious; this absolutely would not fly today, especially not in western countries. Yotsuya's voyeuristic behavior in particular would probably qualify him (at least in the minds of others) as a candidate for the sex offender registry.

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You:
  • The official English publication has Kusuri creating "medicines" as opposed to drugs.
  • Conversed in fourth wall breaking fashion in Chapter 109. Rentarou tries to justify serving his girlfriends Serious Kids Beer^note a non-alcoholic beverage that simulates drunkenness by pointing out that Doraemon created a gadget that simulates drunkenness, but the Big Cheese of the Publishing Biz rebuts that it was a different time.^note From 1983 to be exact.
• 20th Century Boys: Friend Land has no trash cans. Instead, guests are supposed to drop their trash on the ground for the janitors to clean up. This is merely strange everywhere else in the world, but it's shocking in Japan, where cleaning up after oneself is a civic duty.
• 7 Seeds has an in-universe example with Team Summer A and the other teams. Summer A goes through hell and back to be chosen for the 7 Seeds Project. Since they were brought up in a sheltered institution, they know nothing about the other teams but simply expect them to have gone through the same Test to be chosen, to be fully taught and trained in survival and expecting almost inhuman levels of deep knowledge or athletic abilities from everyone, including young children. They certainly see the value differences when they learn that the rest of the Teams are chosen from the general public and Team Summer B is even made up of "mundanes" who are considered social failures!
• 8 Man (1963): The original 8 Man got his powers by smoking cigarettes became this trope more and more as people began to accept that cigarettes caused cancer.
• After School Nightmare: Mashiro's gender identity is based on a very hard division between masculine and feminine (among other things largely ignoring the concept of homosexuality), to a point it can come across as offensive to some Western readers. And that's before getting into the problems with the ending that reveal that Mashiro technically doesn't have gender issues because they're actually two different people struggling for possession of one life, not one person struggling with their own identity.
• Aho Girl: Of the Slapstick variety. Much of the humor of Aho Girl derives from the fact that it is Role-Reversal of the typical Anime Comedy setup. Yoshiko, the female protagonist and Lovable Sex Maniac Idiot Hero here, is frequently the victim of abuse from her Tsundere male love-interest, Akkun. The fact that the series is playing with anime tropes, especially in the West, where Male on Female abuse is viewed in a harsher light, leads to this.
• Ai Yori Aoshi: Tina's ongoing sexual harassment of other women often in the form of groping their breasts. While it's Played for Laughs (and sometimes presented as hot, since Tina is a Gorgeous Gaijin), ever since the #MeToo era (and more societal awareness that even women can be sex offenders), this comes off as disugsting and tone-deaf. And even though this anime aired before that era, in America, groping is seen differently than it is in Japan and not many people found it funny.
• Akame ga Kill!: Bulat is often praised by Western audiences as a novel character when it comes to gay representation in anime for being both very open about his sexuality and also being incredibly badass and masculine, which is seen as subverting the usual stereotypes of effeminate Camp Gays. While he is also very well-loved in Japan, there his hypermasculine traits and fitness hobbies are seen as dripping with Macho Camp, meaning he plays the stereotype straight rather than subverts it.
• Akazukin Chacha: Doris's depiction, a Creepy Crossdresser who seeks to attract Seravy, and Seravy's resulting blanket dislike of crossdressers or even being hugged by a grown man. This is definitely not a depiction anybody would like in more modern times for being very grossly transphobic.
• AKB0048: Episode six tells us that if a fan sends you violent death threats because they don't like the job you're doing as a professional entertainer, they really just want to make the act better and you should take their advice to heart. Contrast that with American media, where such people will always be portrayed as unhinged, Mark David Chapman-esque nutjobs who have to be tracked down before they fly off the handle and kill somebody (the fact that in the same episode, said fan is about to make good on that threat if not for someone intervening at the last minute further supports this). In fact, two years after that episode, somebody did try to murder members of AKB48 with a hacksaw at a fan meeting, which resulted in a sweeping revamp of venue security and one of the injured singers left (or was forced to leave) since she was psychologically incapable of attending further meet-n-greets.
• Albegas: The Vice Principal of Aoba High School is in love with Danko, tries to hug her at every opportunity he can, and grabs her breasts with both of his hands in the first episode. This would be considered sexual harassment in the West, but in Japanese media at the time, it was treated as a common, albeit inappropriate, comedic trope.
• Angel Beats!: Yui's insistence that marriage is the ultimate happiness for a girl can raise some eyebrows among modern American audiences, particularly those critical of 'a woman's place is in the home' ideology, and those who have viewed or experienced an abusive or dysfunctional marriage.
• Angel Cop: Since Japan doesn't have a significant Jewish population or much knowledge of anti-Semitic canards, the idea of having the villains be Jewish financiers backing communist terrorists is almost completely unproblematic there ^note especially when you consider the fact that anti-Semitism has never been a widespread phenomenon in the country. Not so much in the West, which is probably why the English dub changed them into a cabal of non-specific American bankers.
• Area 88: The manga and OVA have not aged well due to the racism and sexism therein.
  • In the manga and OVA, the mostly white mercenaries at Area 88 react poorly to the arrival of three African pilots, who are quickly revealed to be villains. When the three African "enforcers" corner Shin one night with the intent of killing him, all of the other (mostly white) mercenaries drive them off. A 1979 Japanese audience may not have blinked at those scenes, but to most modern viewers, the scenes are horribly racist.^note This was not lost on Eclipse Comics' 1987 English adaptation of the Area 88 manga. They were concerned that for the majority of the manga's run the only Black characters to appear were villains. Kim would not yet appear during the American run of the series. In a letters page, the editor admits that they had considered redrawing the Enforcers to look more Caucasian, but ultimately decided against such whitewashing.
  • There are also other examples of political incorrectness that come across as racism today. Mick exhibits a bad example when his first words upon meeting Shin was "Hi, are you the Jap pilot?" and to comment about how Japanese have "all sorts of weird names". Mario is called a "wop" at one point and Mario responds to Shin's reprimand about being more careful by saying "I know, I know. Don't lecture me, Jap!". Saki is also looked down upon by some due to his Arabic Muslim heritage, a sad precursor to modern day anti-Muslim sentiments in both western countries and East Asian ones.
  • The manga and OVA do not address the uncomfortable racial implications of a mercenary corps of mostly white, European and North American men killing brown people in northern Africa.
  • Readers may have found Shin and Mickey's behavior toward Saki's private soldiers to be amusing in 1979. In modern times, especially after the sexual harassment scandals of 2017, it's creepy as hell.
• Armitage III: Depending on the interpretation one takes, the background plot can cause this. Japan, at at the time of the series' production, had a falling birthrate and was very uncomfortable with that fact, and there was a well-entrenched conservative movement who blamed the falling birthrate on feminism causing women to be more independent. Thus, the plot of the series: The Greater Scope Villains, the Straw Feminist Earth government, threaten The War of Earthly Aggression — and send assassin/saboteurs to Mars — because they fear the loss of political power that will follow if Mars' Thirds successfully manage to combine the roles of Sex Bot and Uterine Replicator, thus meaning men will abandon human women for quiet robot housewives instead. Whether or not the fears of the government are accurate or just an attempt to maintain power are left to the viewer.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • Unlike most of the students, Yuma Isogai was placed in Class 3-E for having a part-time job, which was regarded as a serious violation of the school regulations. Though this looks like another one of Kunugigaoka Academy's ridiculous, unfair policies to some readers, it's actually pretty common for schools in Japan to forbid their students from working so they can focus on their studies.
  • The concept of Class E and the school system in general tend to have some Westerners wonder why no one has come and shut down the school for mistreatment of its students. In Japan, and other Asian countries, it is not unusual to place students into a class based on their overall performance, putting smart students in one class and the more academically challenged ones in another, such as Class E. In addition, bullying children simply for not being smart or for standing out too much is a seriously common occurrence among students and families, and most schools in Japan would respond to the bullying with maybe a verbal warning or even victim blaming. A more in-depth explanation can be found here but overall while Assassination Classroom may exaggerate the school system, it's not too far off in its portrayal of how the outcasted students are treated by those around them.
    • At the end of the series, once the full details of the Class E system are revealed to the public, the public outrage forces the school to disband Class E and sack the Chairman. But this is less about how the class was treated by the rest of the school and more about how the kids were secretly being taught to be assassins and had a world-threatening monstrosity as their teacher, which Asano had agreed to keep concealed from the public.
  • Some Americans may feel shocked by the stag beetle episode. Bug hunting and selling is acceptable in Japan, but it'd be considered poaching across the sea; especially since they're selling the animal for its abnormal coloration.
  • While Irina's sexual advances on her students are meant to be played off comedically, many of the audience (mostly outside of Japan) are put off and horrified by her doing, especially since the students are not yet of age.
• The 1960s volleyball manga Attack No. 1 falls into this. Kozue and the athletes work themselves to the bone and sacrifice their own health for their training, with even the coach being indifferent to the effects of the rigorous training and telling them to do better. This mirrors Japan's overwork culture and sense of duty towards the collective, but in the West this comes off as masochistic.
• Mikasa from Attack on Titan sometimes receives flak from Western audiences concerning her devotion to Eren. This generally stems from a misunderstanding of her devotion, which is driven by the Pillars of Moral Character. She owes him a debt for coming to her aid, helping her to accept the harsh reality of life, and adopting her into his family. To repay her debt to him, she has become his champion and protects him with her life. This reversal of roles, with the heroine protecting the hero, is incredibly progressive for a Shonen series. Her honor-driven devotion also doubles as Fridge Brilliance, as the lone character of Asian heritage in a European-styled society. However, some viewers' confusion may also stem from the slight romantic undertones that Mikasa is shown to have towards Eren (who only views her as a sister), which is considered quite Squicky by Western standards since they're introduced as adoptive siblings. Anything remotely sexual or romantic between adoptive siblings is just as taboo as between blood siblings in the West. Mikasa's devotion to Eren is somewhat mediated by the fact that Eren has a nasty tendency to get himself in fights he cannot finish, and as such, she needs to bail him out. This is like how an older sibling protects the younger from danger. It's because of this quality that another camp of fans in the West hate Eren for constantly endangering himself and forcing Mikasa (or anyone else) to come and save him.
• Ayane's High Kick: The series premise is about a girl who aspires to become a professional wrestler but is duped into taking kickboxing lessons instead. A viewer only familiar with American pro wrestling might scratch their head wondering how can someone be so dense, but this confusion only reflects how different pro wrestling is in Japan. Historically, Japanese pro wrestling (puroresu) has been influenced by striking martial arts like Karate and Muay Thai, so even its most theatrical forms often contain big exchanges of strikes, and thus it's not any kind of stretch that someone could be taught only punches and kicks and still think they are learning pro wrestling. Ayane herself rationalizes it this exact way, for instance when she reasons Kunimitsu might be training her to be like Yumiko Hotta, a real life wrestler who has a karate background and uses many kicks in her matches. This was even more intuitive at the time the OVA was produced, The '90s, when Japanese wrestling was going through a realistic stage called "shoot-style", which ended up leading to the founding of the first Mixed Martial Arts promotions in Japan.
• Azumanga Daioh:
  • Mr. Kimura's self-proclaimed fascination with high-school girls is treated as creepy and unacceptable by the show and its characters (as it would be in real-life Japan), but because he never actually goes beyond staring and saying off-putting things, he's allowed to keep his job. In almost any other country, this would be viewed as less of a gross but not necessarily dangerous obsession and more of an excuse to get close to underage girls so he could molest them, meaning Kimura would be shown the door — if not had charges pressed — the instant he brought it up. While he's still supposed to be a comedically unrealistic teacher in the same way Yukari is, it's very unlikely his behavior would be treated so harmlessly and Played for Laughs in manga and anime from later decades.
  • Sakaki's low self-esteem and her wish to be shorter and cuter like Chiyo would seem downright ludicrous to western viewers. This is because Japanese beauty standards for women put more emphasis on being petite—a trait Sakaki doesn't have, being a tall and (seemingly) Aloof Dark-Haired Girl. Japanese culture also places more value on conformity than individuality, so Sakaki's insecurity stems from feeling isolated from her peers. Even then, her height and bust—while larger than average for sure—are much less extreme in the west than in Japan, where she's taller than most fully-grown men.
  • One aspect of Yukari's personality that's meant to indicate her lack of maturity is the fact that she still lives with her parents. In 1999 (when the manga was first published), this would be an obvious flaw from a Japanese perspective, as well as several western countries. After global recession and changing societal standards, it's become increasingly common and acceptable for millennials to keep living with their parents well into adulthood, thus making Yukari's situation more understandable.
• The Beautiful Skies of Houou High is about a Butch Lesbian who gets sent to an all-boys school by her abusive mom hoping that she'll become straight and give her grandkids. While it's a comedy, the story is on the side of the mother and dead serious about it. Western audiences didn't bite, and it bombed so badly the English publisher discontinued the release after the first volume. It didn't go over well in Japan either, but more because of its misogyny than because of its homophobia.
• Bitter Virgin goes into the topic of Abusive Parents. Very early on, Hinako Aikawa reveals how she was raped more than once by her stepfather and was made pregnant twice. The first time she miscarried. The second time the doctor said that she would never be able to have a child again if she had an abortion. So she gave birth to the baby via Caesarean section, and gave him away to be adopted. Her mother was in denial over it, but after the second time, she could deny it no longer. Her mother drove the stepfather out of the house with a knife. Needless to say, Hinako has a load of issues. By Western standards, it would be considered horrible that the stepfather was apparently never punished and society seems to be mostly against Hinako. By Japanese standards, Hinako would be considered Defiled Forever, and Hinako would probably be blamed for the abuse and be unable to seek help.
• Bleach:
  • Momo Hinamori loved and respected Aizen even before she became his lieutenant, and he used this to manipulate her into trusting and worshipping him unconditionally. After discovering Aizen's (fake) corpse, she attacked Gin (of whom her childhood friend Hitsugaya had warned her earlier). Not long after, she received Aizen's last letter addressed to her in which he named Hitsugaya as the murderer. Half-crazed from pain, she tried to fight him, but had a breakdown in the middle of the fight. Later on, she was informed of Aizen's deceit by the man himself, who went on to stab her. Yet even after this she still couldn't accept the fact that Aizen betrayed Soul Society and believed that he was framed — behavior in line with the Yamato Nadeshiko characterization female characters often receive in Japanese entertainment. American fans hate her for this and think she's a stupid, weak woman. Japanese fans think she's a woobie and love her.
  • Ukitake (and Rukia) both have a scruple that if a person is fighting for the sake of their personal pride, you should never intervene, even if they're going to be killed (Kaien does, in fact, get possessed by a Hollow as a result of Ukitake and Rukia's non-intervention^note Although Rukia had wanted to help Kaien until Ukitake ordered her to stand down, forcing Rukia to Mercy Kill him). While this is tied to the Japanese sense of honor, fans from other background often have a less positive view of it, because honor doesn't mean anything when you're dead, and because sometimes some other goal is more important than one person's personal pride.
  • A more specific example occurs in the Hueco Mundo arc, when five characters come to a crossroads with five different paths. Ichigo says that they should pick a path to go down, but Rukia and Renji insist that they split up and go down different paths, because wanting to stay in a group is an insult because it implies that they aren't strong enough to be self-sufficient. While the characters end up split the group, many Western fans view it as idiotic because Ichigo is right that their enemies are extremely powerful and splitting the party reduces their chances of success. However, the fact that Ichigo accepts this reluctantly, and the fact those arguing for it are expressing old-fashioned samurai values may point to it being an in-universe bit of dissonance. Ichigo's viewpoint is seemingly validated by the fact that they all end up badly injured, and have to be saved by reinforcements from Soul Society.
  • A teenage Masaki downplays rumors of her involvement with her secret fiancé Ryuuken by stating that they're cousins. The reactions of her friends range from "Yes, but more importantly, he's not your type and you're not his" to "WHO CARES? HAVE YOU SEEN HOW HOT HE IS?" Comparing the Japanese fandom's reaction to the American fandom's reflcts the strong taboo against cousin marriage in American culture vs. the Japanese attitude that cousin marriage is somewhat odd but generally acceptable^note Granted, it's quite a recent taboo in American culture anyway.
  • The Japanese attitude towards child abuse is that it's best left as a private issue. To Western audiences, Chad and Orihime living alone without any adult guardians before they even turned 15 is... fantastical... at best and breathtakingly irresponsible at worst. In America, the acceptable response to Chad losing his parents and guardian would be a foster home or group home placement. To Orihime's parental abuse, giving physical custody to her out-of-town aunt. Reality Is Unrealistic, however, as in many Western countries, even the US, there are many officially or de facto emancipated minors.
  • Bleach really really likes Japanese Spirit-type development, and there are many instances where characters will manifest new abilities or powers through sheer force of will or just by wanting it hard enough. While in Japan this is generally accepted, a lot of Western fans view these developments as Ass Pulls.
• In Bloom Into You, at Sayaka's old school, she gets into a Gay Romantic Phase relationship with an older girl after the latter confesses to her, but one day, the older girl suddenly breaks up with Sayaka, saying that they aren't "little kids" anymore. Some time later, after Sayaka starts attending Toomi East, she meets her ex again, at which point the older girl apologizes for making Sayaka interested in girls, and expresses the hope that Sayaka is back to normal (i.e. heterosexual). The older girl's attitude is the product of Japanese views on homosexuality dating back to the Meiji era, in which girls sometimes go through a Gay Romantic Phase, which they outgrow in favor of having boyfriends. That said, Sayaka, who has the Sympathetic P.O.V. in those scenes, is deeply hurt by her ex's actions, which are presented as deeply misguided at best, and when she meets her ex again, subtly makes the point that she's still a lesbian. It's also worth noting that Riko and Miyako, both adult women, are in a committed, if hidden, lesbian relationship, and have been shown kissing.
• Bokurano:
  • In the anime episode revealing Misumi's backstory, a twenty-something yakuza member falls in love with Misumi, a student at the time, and marries her.
  • The idea of abuse being something that the families deal with is also dealt with here, as while plenty of the cast members get upset with Ushiro for hitting his younger sister Kana ^note Although she's a relative in the anime and only an adoptive sibling in the manga, no one does anything about it. Then again, this is played with in the manga, in which Ushiro's best friend, Kanji, admits that he didn't tell anyone about it because Kana herself asked him not to, for Ushiro's own sake.
  • Spanking is portrayed more favorably than in many Western works. Maki's adoptive father is portrayed as a good father despite the fact that he spanks his daughter, and Maki herself says it takes a lot of courage for him to do so. Ushiro disagrees, noting that his adoptive father has never spanked him (the two share a more distant relationship than the Anos). Maki exasperatedly calls Mr. Ushiro "useless", and Ushiro cynically replies that spanking someone doesn't take courage.
• Bunny Drop:
  • Six-year-old Rin is quite independent, cooking certain foods and going to school with no adult supervision (she goes with her same-aged friend). The latter can be a bit worrying in countries where "Stranger Danger" is a common train of thought; however, Rin and her friend Kouki are at least told what to do if someone they don't know approaches them while they're unsupervised.
  • When Haruko runs away, the end of the episode/chapter has her deciding to just bear her unhappy marriage and relationship with her in-laws. She is not encouraged to fight for her own happiness despite the obstacles as the message of an American show might be. Deconstructed after the Time Skip, when Reina casually mentions that her parents separated at some point, suggesting that it wasn't the right path for Haruko.
  • On a related note, the scene when Daikichi's sister expresses concern about her fiancé's desire to start a family immediately runs into some minor Values Dissonance. Daikichi does give her good advice (of the "talk to your husband, it's no use talking to me!" variety), but largely dismisses her concerns, deciding that the "leisure activities" his sister wants to keep are expendable — you have plenty of time to yourself at work, right? While very upbeat on one level, suggesting that spending all of your time at work or with your children is not automatically a huge sacrifice, a more Western audience would probably take her concerns more seriously and agree that someone who wanted to keep a free-wheeling lifestyle isn't yet cut out for motherhood — and it's unfair for her fiancé to expect her to get pregnant, give birth, rearrange her lifestyle and cope. Of course, the fact that she's a bit of a Jerkass loses her sympathy points.
• The Bush Baby:
  • The Rhodes have an African servant named Hawa who performs all the menial jobs of the household.
  • The white schoolchildren in Kenya are told that their fathers were "working towards handing over the responsibilities of the country to its native people", which comes off as if they're sugarcoating the effects of colonialism.
  • Jackie's schoolteacher bemoans that her school "is shrinking in white [British] schoolchildren".

• Candy♡Candy has the main character, Candy White Ardley and her friend, Annie Brighton, being mocked for being adopted children. To a modern, Western audience, this would come off as odd at best and downright cruel at worst. However, considering the time period of the show and the fact that it comes from Japan, where adoption, even now, is not looked on favorably by some, the ridicule becomes more understandable.
• Cardcaptor Sakura:
  • The series has an astonishingly casual view of teacher/student relationships, featuring three prominent ones in the manga. Sakura's mother and father met when he was a high school teacher and she was his student. Her brother Touya dated one of his teachers when he was in junior high. One of Sakura's prepubescent classmates has a crush on their teacher... and he returns it! But then, it's Clamp, and in the anime, Sakura's classmate's crush isn't returned like in the manga.
  • Sakura's mother Nadeshiko's (female) first cousin, Sonomi loved her, and Sonomi's daughter Tomoyo harbors similar feelings for Sakura (her second cousin). Neither Sonomi nor Tomoyo's love are requited, but the story doesn't express disapproval of either character's feelings.
• Case Closed:
  • People tend to view Kogoro and Heizo as child abusers due to their harsh treatment of Conan and Heiji in early run of the manga. At the time, a smack to the head would not get the same reaction in Japanese culture as it would in American — and partially Played for Laughs with the cranial eruptions, especially in early stories and the anime originals, compared to the later manga and manga adaptations. Additionally, Heizo's one punch of Heiji is used to discourage Heiji from going after a dangerous mob boss, and then uses the fact that Heiji's primary reaction is to get mad for the dismissal of his detective skills and continue investigating as a distraction to get the police force in place to catch the whole gang. Somewhat understandable in context, but still harsh in hindsight in modern times.
  • Kogoro's alcoholism in the early episodes, which is almost always played for laughs. Likewise, the drinking culture in Japan was more forgivable in the past and such depiction was common in the Japanese media of the time. Both the manga and the anime have since phased out this trait as time passed.
  • In "Murder at the Ski Lodge", two of the teachers are introduced hitting on Ran and Sonoko in an attempt to get with them. This is portrayed as good natured mischief at worst. In modern times, teachers attempting to flirt with high school students would be seen as very predatory behavior. On a similar but lighter level, multiple characters treat the 25-year-old Dr. Araide as a possible husband for Ran, despite her being 16 and a student under his care.
  • Also, age gap relationships (especially with a high school student) were portrayed in less of a negative light in earlier chapters. For example, the Desperate Revival arc has an adult doctor victim in a relationship with a high school girl and it wasn't really remarked upon. Flash forward to the Sister Birthday Party murder case and the victim who tried to flirt with a high school girl is depicted as sleazy and creepy.
  • People who just started reading or watching the series will be confused about stories that revolve around some fugitives trying to blend in with the society and escape the statute of limitations after committing a serious crime years if not decades ago, (they can no longer be convicted if the case passed the expiration time), as Japanese legislation in 2010 has abolished statute of limitation for crimes that are subject to the death penalty, such as murder and robbery that result in death. The most notable example is the Symphony Cruise Ship case from volume 23 manga which involved an intricate Wounded Gazelle Gambit by the culprit who happened to be a former bank robber to avoid suspicion, and it was considered smart planning for its time, but would not make any sense if it was made in the context of today's era law.
  • The manga has (notwithstanding Sera's one-time flirt with Ran in her debut) touched LGBT topics all of twice in its run, both for extreme Cringe Comedy. The first: Dr. Agasa finds a kid he knew from his old neighborhood has grown into an outrageously stereotypical Okama, and looks plenty eager to get away as far as possible (albeit because he mistook the guy for his First Love). The second: Eisuke thinks he saw two men kissing in a gym and freaks out, and is only defused when one of them reveals she's a muscular short-haired woman.
  • This contributed to the series's commercial failure in the US. The anime is supposed to be a children's show, aired at (in Japan) 7:30 PM Mondays for most of its televised history (or even early morning and late afternoon in certain regions), and the structure of the story is along the lines of a children's show. However, the sheer amount of Family Unfriendly Deaths (many, to the point of almost all episodes and cases revolve around murder cases) caused serious problems in the West, and importers were given the choice of cutting or timing out of its intended demographic. Interestingly, though, it was quite successful elsewhere, especially in non-English speaking countries such as Indonesia and most of the Middle East.
• A Centaur's Life: Gabriella Eckens of ANN suggested in her review for the ninth episode that because of the series's criticism of political correctness, this work may seem offensive to someone living in the West, where anti-PC culture, xenophobia, and censorship are heavy issues, especially since the show juxtaposes such serious topics as the Holocaust or colonialism with Cute Monster Girl Fanservice.
• Part of Chainsaw Man's backstory states that the dreaded Gun Devil first arose after a terrorist attack in America involving guns in the 1990s, and that its presence led to widespread adoption of gun control legislation. Suffice to say, a lot of Americans probably cringed and/or laughed at this notion: Alternate History of the series notwithstanding, the 1990s was about when American Gun Politics started to take on their utterly intractable current form.
• Citrus:
  • Early on in the series, Yuzu and Harumi stop to do karaoke on the way home, and end up getting in trouble merely for not going straight home, not for anything they did on their detour. While Japanese schools are concerned about the students getting into trouble and thus adversely affecting the school's reputation, Western viewers see this rule as overly harsh. It also doesn't help that Aihara Academy is described as a fairly strict school, at least compared to what Yuzu's used to.
  • Mei being upset with her father because he changed into a happy-go-lucky free spirit while he was traveling abroad, in opposition to the image she had in her head of him as a stern teacher who puts his job ahead of anything else. In Japan, working long hours and being a stern disciplinarian are considered to be sacrificing your own feelings for the sake of your family and being a good role model. Mei is therefore getting upset because her father betrayed the image she had of him. In the West, that would be considered neglect, at the very least, and viewers would wonder why the hell Mei is getting so angry that her only living parent was trying to be nice to her and seemingly rebuild their relationship.
  • Around the time Yuzu and Mei start going out, Yuzu considers telling two of her old friends about it, but reconsiders when she hears them mock two women for flirting in public. Part of their reaction is because Japan is more heteronormative than many Western countries, and part is because public displays of affection are disapproved of.
• Codename: Sailor V:
  • When DeVleene sells highly addicting and incredibly fattening chocolates on Valentine's Day, Artemis tells Minako that he doesn't want to see a fat Sailor V. While seen as comedic in the early 90s, decades later, a line like that sounds rather cruel for a deuteragonist in a children's story, especially from a Nice Guy like Artemis.
  • More generally, the age gaps in the story would be looked upon more critically in more modern times. Minako kisses a 15-16 year old when she's 13, and even kisses Wakagi once—a man who’s in his late 20s. Similarly, while it's never made explicit, many on this Wiki see Sakurada's comedic fangirling for the 13-year old Sailor V as attraction, especially since her crush on Ace is BECAUSE he reminds her of Sailor V. Luckily, Sakurada has more of a sisterly relationship with Minako after discovering Sailor V's identity, but it's a rather odd thing to leave ambiguous.
  • In chapter 2, when Artemis insults Minako for not being sufficiently girly, Minako snaps that he's a "fag cat". Yeah... Other English translations of the manga have her call him a "cross-dressing cat" instead.
• A Couple of Cuckoos: The number of Arranged Marriages the characters are involved in may come across as rather ludicrous to a North American audience, especially for a series made/set in the 2020s. However, arranged marriages are still fairly common in Japan, especially among wealthier families.
• Crayon Shin-chan:
  • The title character flirts with girls 20 years older than him, which is seen as creepy and inappropriate in the West. Doesn't help that one of the girls Nanako becomes his crush. Additionally, his tendency to shake his naked butt and front and make inappropriate comments are seen in the west as crude and offensive.
  • Similar to Love Hina, the manga/anime plays physical abuse towards husbands, accusations of flirting, and theft of women's stuff all for laughs; in Japan and and only in Japan. Not so much everywhere else.
  • While Shin is definitely a troublemaker, Misae/Mitzi constantly hitting him as punishment can still make her come off as an Abusive Parent to Western audiences. In Japan, however, hitting children was actually a common form of discipline at the time, so long as there's a justified reason for it. The Vitello dub softens Mitzi's discipline to where she gives Shin "noogies" instead of hitting him.
• Cybot Robotchi: The fact that many jokes center around Robotchi lifting the skirt of the resident Ms. Fanservice. She appropriately gets mad and calls him out and it's still Played for Laughs.
• In Dear Brother, Nanako sometimes angsts about being an adoptive child. Worse, her stepbrother Takehiko (the "Oniisama") is taken away from his dad/Nanako's adoptive father when his parents get divorced and they're not in contact for years: this is because Japanese divorce laws are very different from those in North America and Europe, and since Takehiko's mother was the one who filed for divorce, she got full custody and Takehiko simply was not allowed to meet with Professor Misono.
• Death Note:
  • Raye Penber's heavy-handed Stay in the Kitchen speech to his (former FBI agent) fiancée makes his later murder less a tragedy and more an instance of him bringing it on himself in the eyes of many readers, especially because Naomi was much more competent than he was. On the other hand, it makes you really feel for Naomi – which works heavily in favor of the story. Especially because in Another Note The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases she just finished working with L on tracking down and killing Beyond Birthday.
  • In-Universe (and possibly for reader) example: In Episode 23, Light refuses L's suggestion to carry a gun to assist in Higuchi's capture, citing that it's illegal for a citizen to own a gun in Japan, while L (who is of mixed ethnicity and is presumably not native Japanese) has no problem with carrying one, and neither does Watari. Similarly, earlier in the episode, Soichiro refuses to take one from the also non-Japanese career criminal Wedy, citing that he's no longer a police officer, and suggests that Wedy shouldn't have a gun, either (Aiber, however, declines to do so for personal reasons).
  • A more pervasive one is that the Japanese legal system tends to only prosecute cases where a conviction is assured. Hence, people in countries with higher acquittal rates can find it odd that the series never once brings up the idea of wrongful conviction, with Light always assuming that people accused or incarcerated really did commit those crimes. This is made worse by the fact that the manga stated explicitly in the second chapter that "Kira's" highest total kills by country to that point took place in the United States, a country with a particularly ugly history of Miscarriage of Justice. Tsugumi Ohba does attempt to handwave this with a statement that Light researches his targets before killing them, but realistically he only has so many hours in a day and, particularly in the early 2000s when the story was being written, there's only so much you can do on the Internet from half a world away. Then again, Light has a rather skewed sense of morality despite his claims otherwise.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu Academy:
  • A Running Gag of this AU is Giyu constantly getting on Zenitsu’s case about the latter allegedly dyeing his hair blond, even with Zenitsu insisting that his hair color is natural. This is the result of Japan being a country where most people aren’t naturally blond and dyed hair is often associated with delinquents, so Giyu’s actions make more sense. To audiences from North America and Europe (where natural blondes are more common, and dying one's hair isn't considered as big of a deal), Giyu comes off as excessively harsh, especially since he sometimes physically attacks Zenitsu over his hair color and also wonder why Giyu has such a hard time believing Zenitsu is a natural blonde.
  • The second chapter of the manga begins with Sanemi giving students their graded exams. He states that since the test score average is 88, that anything under a 44 is a fail, with Tanjiro barely passing at 46. This makes sense under Japan’s grading system where grade inflation is much less pronounced. In the West, it would be very odd for anything below a 65 being considered a passing grade. It also makes Sanemi come across as uncharacteristically lenient since he is a very harsh teacher.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
  • Tanjiro wears hanafuda earrings. This is not out of place in the Taisho era of Japan (the era where Kimetsu no Yaiba is set). However, this caused a stir amongst Chinese and Korean viewers as said earrings depict the rising sun motif, which was the same symbol of Japan in WWII when it occupied and committed mass human right abuses in said nations. In context, they represent Tanjiro's heritage, but both (out of many) countries have unpleasant memories of Japan's imperial past. Some foreign dubs edited out◊ the symbol◊ and replaced it with a less offensive marking.
  • Tengen spanking Aoi is a disciplinary action that isn't out of place for the era this show is set in. Modern day fans (particularly ones in the US) view it as unacceptable, whether it be for perceiving it as sexual or disagreeing with spanking as a form of punishment.
  • Another example with Tengen comes from the fanbook where he compliments the female Hashiras by saying they have wide hips that are good for giving birth. A lot of modern fans find this offensive and sees it as him reducing them to baby-makers. But considering what life was like in historical Japan and the cultural norms of the time, it was seen as a compliment back then^note It's pretty common for families to have so many kids due to lower life expectancy and wider hips means a lower likelihood of complications during birth. This criticism also doesn’t really line up with Tengen’s character since he respects the female Hashiras and he doesn’t treat his wives as mere baby-makers that his clan encouraged which is one part why he left his family in the first place.
  • More than a few Western fans are confused as to why Mitsuri, who appeals to modern beauty standards, is consistently rejected in her marriage interviews, to the point that most of them mocked those who rejected her as blind hopeless idiots. However, she is the complete antithesis of the Yamato Nadeshiko which was seen as the "ideal bride" in the conservative culture of Japan, particularly during the Taisho era. Her vibrant pink and green hair, extroverted personality, and incredible strength is seen as undesirable in a society that valued the quiet, demure type of woman like Amane Ubuyashiki and Lady Tamayo.
• Destiny of the Shrine Maiden: The show, made in an era when same-sex relationships were taboo rather than mainstream, seems to treat the more problematic elements in Himeko and Chikane's relationship (stuff like Chikane sexually assaulting Himeko, and Himeko still pining after and making excuses for Chikane, despite, well, the aforementioned sexual assault), behavior that would at best been seen as extremely abusive and unhealthy in a heterosexual relationship, as somehow more "acceptable" out of some misguided belief that same sex relationships are or should be held up to very different standards from straight ones, even when it comes to what is considered abusive or problematic. Even without accounting for physical molestation and sexual assault, Chikane's feelings for Himeko are often seen as marred by obsession and possessive jealousy by modern audiences due to the series emphasizing dramatic tropes and developments like Star-Crossed Lovers over realistic relationships, which was pretty normal at the time for this kind of work.
• A Devil and Her Love Song: How the series handles bullying in some instances. This is most notable with Anna. Anna is mute and was being bullied and made fun of at Maria's old school. Maria stuck up for her, leading to the pair of them being ostracised. However, the series later plays it as though Maria was in the wrong for having done so, as Anna felt driven out by her former friends and hated herself. Later on, Maria thinks she did the same to her mother, as her calling out the people who gossiped about her mother being raped led to her mother being friendless. In Japan there is a much greater emphasis on fitting in and getting along with others, even if they're being cruel to you over things that aren't your fault (Anna's disability in the former case, Maria's mother's rape in the latter). As a result the storyline comes off as presenting Maria being in the wrong for coming to Anna's defence even though she was her only real friend, and Maria being in the wrong for defending her mother from malicious gossip (when she was only a young child, no less).
• Devilman: The scene where Ryo/Satan claims that he loves Akira because of his female side would sound incredibly homophobic for today's audience and would definitely rub some people, especially the LGBT community, the wrong way. Still, the manga came out in 1970, and for that time, an author even thinking of having a man explicitly proclaiming his love for another man, regardless of the reason, was already quite admirable.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure:
    • Mimi's official Japanese character description outright calls her selfish, while her official English character description says she isn't. This is because the West and Japan have different ideas as to what degree being "selfish" actually means. In Japan, self-sacrifice is a big part of their culture, even for the most mundane of things, whereas the West values independence and being forward with issues. Digimon Adventure tri. even brings this out as a Deliberate Values Dissonance after Mimi comes back from New York in Determination. However, the English dub of the original series did have Mimi acting much more selfishly than she ever did in the original, perhaps as a way of translating that idea.
    • Mimi often deals with a Digimon Abhorrent Admirer pair (Sukamon and Chuumon) who have adult voices and it's played for laughs while she is a preteenage girl. Her disgust at them is treated as laughable by the series and when they are revived she is shown enjoying them chasing her. This sort of gag has aged badly in the wake of the #MeToo and #TimesUp Movements where women have confessed to dealing with some form of sexual harassment and assault from men, even as very young women and minors. On the plus side, more viewers are likely to cheer for Mimi whenever she denies their advances, especially when she gives the duo a Megaton Punch in the sequel.
    • Leaving two pre-teen children alone to take care of themselves, particularly with one of them having a history of sickness, while you're at work is less controversial in the East than it is in the West, especially in the 2020s. With this in mind, the events of Tai's flashback leading to Kari being hospitalized raises a lot more criticism towards their mother Yuuko than it did back in the 90s, especially in America. Tai was shown in the prequel film cooking breakfast for Kari when he was seven, something else that would terrify a lot of parents in modern days who wouldn't let their kids near a stove.
    • There's a scene where the DigiDestined hitchhike and are picked up by a total stranger. Possibly in an attempt to quell the issue of kids getting into cars with strangers, the English dub changed it to Sora's cousin Duane giving them a ride.
    • During Yamato's attempt to hitchhike, a woman suggestively invites him, an 11 year old boy, into her convertible. That wouldn't fly in most countries back then and even today. The English dub, per the censorship guidelines of the time, cut this scene.
  • Digimon Adventure 02:
    • Sora's 02 Girliness Upgrade is somewhat controversial. For Japanese fans, they openly welcomed it and saw it as a sign of maturity. Western fans were more upset about it and felt that she lost a unique part of her personality. The Western dub played a role in this because of its Alternative Character Interpretation, as the script and Sora's character descriptions played up her Tomboy nature more. Furthermore, another layer to the dissonance is driven by Sora's character arc being about her obligations to her family's business, and her epilogue career choice being intended as a middle ground between her own desires and paying respect to her family's business, something that was lost in translation in the American dub.
    • Also, Yolei, the technician and computer scientist of the team, ending up as a housewife in the epilogue has been criticized in the Western fandom, as it enforces Stay in the Kitchen stereotypes despite her being one of the group's most valuable members. In Japan, however, women are expected to retire from work once they get married to raise children at home.^note There's even a word for it in Japanese: "kotobuki taisha." In fact, Yolei even has an Image Song where she is excited to become a Yamato Nadeshiko and dreams of being a housewife. However, compared to when the show first came out, more women in Japan are eager to continue working after pregnancy, showing that this ideology in itself is becoming outdated. That being said, it's more implied in the Japanese version that Yolei was on maternity leave due to having her third child, something that would require her to be away from her job for a while until she could get things settled.
  • Digimon Adventure: (2020):
    • Joe's infamous focus on his studies over saving the world(s) strikes again, but this time is elaborated on much earlier than his appearance in Digimon Adventure tri. His debut episode shows that he is revealed to be studying for an exam that is taking place next year right in the middle of the summer camp. He even spends the majority of his time in the Digital World studying and is only worried about failing his entrance exams instead of being trapped in another world. Around this time, the entirety of Tokyo is suffering from a power failure. In Japan, the pressure to excel often takes up priority, often to an unhealthy level. This even becomes a running gag about him.
      Mimi: We're falling!
      Joe: But my entrance exam scores can't fall!
    • Western viewers might be at least a bit surprised to see the eight-year-old Hikari and Takeru (and the eleven-year-old Taichi) sharing an onsen in Episode 53, as in the west, contexts where children of a certain age are expected to be nude are usually sex-segregated just like adults. In Japanese culture, different standards about children's nudity and sexuality apply; while modern bathhouses also separate children by sex, having a boy and a girl their age using the same bath in a given circumstance would be still considered innocent and harmless, while Tai would also get pass for being her brother.
  • Curiously alluded to in Digimon Tamers, when Takato's parents discuss if they should let their preteen son and his dinosaur pet go to an strange world where God Knows Which Dangers Lurk.
    Mother: [angsted] But he is only ten years old! He's just a kid!
    Father: [stoic] There was a time not long ago where he should have been old enough to travel alone.
  • Digimon Frontier: The entire reasoning for Calamaramon being uglier than Ranamon is essentially the Japanese equivalent of the Old Maid concept, usually called "Christmas cake" (that is to say, an unmarried woman over 25 is probably going to stay that way for the rest of her life), with youthful traits being idealized and traditionally mature traits being shunned. Hence, the cutesy, Idol Singer-like water sprite turning into a mature-looking woman with sharper features (well, and a squid for a lower body) causes her fanbase to abandon her for the still-cute-looking hero. This idea is far from universal in Japan, and indeed, later shows would simply treat Calamaramon as attractive if a bit unconventional and weird, but it's very unlikely that a series made outside of it would feature what seems to be a wholehearted endorsement of the concept.
• Domestic Girlfriend:
  • The plot is about the relationship between a 23 year old female teacher and her 17 year old student. While this is portrayed as being unacceptable in the story, as it would be in the West, how the fallout is handled is quite different. After getting caught, the teacher makes an arrangement with the school to help cover up the relationship in exchange for a forced transfer and breaking off all contact with the student. This is presented as a noble and selfless sacrifice on her part, taking all the blame, because being caught up in the scandal would ruin his future prospects in Japanese society and his dream of being a successful author in particular. In the West, since he's the minor, he would be viewed entirely as a victim who wasn't in any way at fault and she would get all of the blame regardless, making this arrangement appear more like her trying to get away with a slap on the wrist than the great sacrifice that it was meant to be portrayed as in Japan, something that confused several western readers.
  • Hina not wanting to go to the police when she is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend is due to a Japanese perception that you deal with your own problems and going to the police for what is essentially a domestic dispute would be a significant failing on her part. To Western eyes, she's being selfish and stupid. Somewhat subverted when her friends and family also criticize her for not getting the police involved sooner, and she herself later admits that she made a big mistake in not doing so.
  • Occurs in-universe where the American-raised Al doesn't understand a lot of the typical Japanese cultural norms and fictional tropes.
• Dominion Tank Police: One of the front desk background gags has a lisping Camp Gay guy complaining that his boyfriend beats him up. The visibly disgusted cop is backing away and telling the guy not to touch him in case he has AIDS. This would not fly in any modern media today due to increased awareness and sensitivity regarding LGBTQ+ representation.
• Doraemon: For being one of the most popular anime of all time, if not one of the most popular Japanese multimedia franchises since 1969, you'd be shocked about how many moments wouldn't fly well on other countries, or in recent years.
  • Shizuka's bath scenes and some of the boys' nudity here and there might be a little shocking if you're not from Japan, which is laxer on nudity and plays these strictly for laughs. It's likely why other countries as well as the US dub that aired on Disney XD had all of the nude scenes from the back censored, but who really knows why they made that decision.
    • By the late 2010's and early 2020's, the former specific gag has been pretty much been abandoned likely due to Japan's current standards and practices putting in place, and due to some Moral Guardians condemning the original scenes to be inappropriate.
  • The manga and 1979 anime series contain a surprising number of direct references to suicide, which isn't something you'd normally put in a kiddie comic or make jokes about in the States. In the manga story Chapter 111: "I Loved a Cat" Doraemon is worried about not being good enough for Mii Chan^note A remote controlled toy cat. It Makes Sense in Context and, while lighting a bundle of dynamite, claims "I'M GONNA BOMB MYSELF!" before Nobita stops him. Another example is "A Robot Pet Dog", in which Doraemon gives Nobita a robot dog named Chukemper, who is programmed with Undying Loyalty to Nobita to the point of being a Knight Templar. After Chukemper's extreme behavior gets Nobita on Shizuka's bad side, Nobita announces that he would rather die. The chapter ends with Chukemper handing Nobita a noose.^note The 1979 anime series includes this scene, but adds an ending where Doraemon saves Nobita by deactivating Chukemper, while the 2005 anime adaptations either omit the scene altogether or have Nobita claim that he'd rather move far away instead.
  • Some might find that Gian's bullying and the kids' constant fear of poundings from him is highly tasteless specifically if you think of cases of Bully Brutality brought to light in recent years, where kids are often injured or killed by violent aggressors like him.
  • Likewise, Gian getting beat up by his mother brings some unfortunate implications about child abuse. Same applies to Nobita being chased and spanked by his own mom. Heck, in Nobita's case, his mom would sometimes be chasing him with something in hand, implying that she's going to hit him with it. Even future Shizuka is shown punishing her son by spanking him.
  • Some stories in the manga involve gags that would be considered sexual harassment towards Shizuka and not a silly (or child-friendly) joke to U.S. readers, like Nobita using Doraemon's gadgets to peek under her skirt.^note Shizuka's panty shots are Values Dissonance on their own, but most of them are meant to be innocent. (However, this is actually a subversion, since in the chapter Nobita has NO intention of doing that, Doraemon is too negative-minded).
  • In a few of the manga chapters and anime episodes, sometimes the kids' parents lock them out of the house for misbehavior. This seems cruel and dangerous to the West but is pretty standard in the East.
  • In the early years, there were some explicit references to Hitler and the Nazi regime, such as the Dictator Switch using him as an example, Doraemon dressing as Hitler at the ending interlude of the 1981's version of "The Grown-Up Scolding Pass" episode and even one gadget specifically designed to literally pass as the Fuehrer himself and make the user being able to give orders to the WWII German soldiers. Despite Hitler being portrayed negatively in the stories, due to the shock of people finding Nazi references in an anime targeted to children the 2005 anime remake removed those references, as this can be seen in the Dictator Switch remake where Hitler was replaced with a generic dictator.
• Dororo (2019): The anime can be misread by some Western viewers as a moral conflict between Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru, or a culture clash between collectivism and individualism. In truth, the anime delivers a sharp critique of feudal-era Japanese values—especially the idea that sacrificing an individual for the "greater good" of the domain is noble. The samurai Kagemitsu Daigo makes a deal with demons out of desperation and ambition to save his war-torn land from famine and plague, sacrificing his newborn son's body in exchange for prosperity. Kagemitsu then crafts a nationalist myth casting himself as a hero and Hyakkimaru as a demon threatening peace. Tahomaru, raised on this ideology, sees protecting the land—even through violence—as his sacred duty. But the anime steadily dismantles this worldview. It shows how short-sighted and morally bankrupt it is to build a nation's peace on a foundation of dehumanization, lies, and family betrayal. The anime comes to the conclusion that a land built on a single person's sacrifice cannot thrive, as it's revealed that Hyakkimaru—had he not been sacrificed—might have become the very leader Daigo had hoped for.
• Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon:
  • After Hinako makes a mistake at work, her boss reassures her by saying that she's always smiling, as a young woman should, and suggests that Asahi should smile more. It's treated as relatively harmless, although Asahi bluntly suggests that her boss take an anti-sexual harassment course, but would be significantly more frowned upon in the West.
  • Hinako and her work friends are in their mid-twenties (Hinako is 24 and Mikoto and Ayano are implied to be the same age) but are in a hurry to get married. This might seem odd to a Western reader, as marriage is seen as less important than it is in Japan.
• Dream Hunter Rem: Being such a gleeful product of The '80s, the series entertains a long list of points that would not fly today: the empowered protagonist wears campy Stripperiffic attire, at one point advises a girl to find a boyfriend not to feel lonely (and kisses her completely out of the blue), later finds a perverted PE teacher that is completely Played for Laughs, and has two grown men in love with her despite being implied to be a high-schooler or so.

• Esper Mami's main character (who is 14) worked as a nude model for her father throughout the anime and manga's run. This would be considered CP in many societies. Scenery Censor was completely ignored (although Barbie Doll Anatomy came into play, except for her nipples, and in the finished paintings), and Mami, as a model, had no real nudity taboo, to boot. It did help that the finished paintings were done in a very artistic style, and the Fanservice aspects of something like that were completely averted.
  • Sankarea meanwhile shows that times change and context matters, as the same happens except that the titular character didn't become the model willingly, but forced upon by her unhealthily obsessive father as she bears the image of the family's late mother.
• Any time Patrick "Panther" Spencer shows up in Eyeshield 21, and they begin talking about the "black man's" superior genes and body. If you tried doing something like that in Western culture, well... just look at Jimmy the Greek. Many of the initial instances are from the mouth of Leonard Apollo, who is plainly shown to be a scummy racist, but by the final arc in the series, seemingly every character (and the narrator) starts to do this every time Panther is involved in the game.
• Even Though We're Adults: While marital infidelity and divorce are not treated lightly in Western countries either, here their social and legal ramifications are shown to be quite a bit more serious in the context of Japanese society, and the shadow of Ayano's transgression hangs over her and Akari for much longer than it would in a similar romance story produced in the West.
• A filler episode of Fairy Tail has Lucy, Natsu and Happy stranded in an ice labyrinth, having been unable to eat or sleep for three days and slowly succumbing to hypothermia. Lucy establishes earlier on that her celestial spirits are on vacation. Considering how she and two of her closest friends are explicitly dying due to their dire situation, it can seem somewhat frustrating to a Western viewer that Lucy is that unwilling to risk being rude by disturbing a spirit. It helps that Lucy's first Celestial Spirit, Aquarius, often is quite temperamental about being summoned at a bad time.
• Fire Emblem: Champion's Sword: The fan translation has Tiena calling Al "Retarded" in the third chapter, a word that has long since been considered an offensive slur.
• Fist of the North Star:
  • Rei's Stay in the Kitchen/Defeat by Modesty moment with Mamiya has not aged well, and comes across as highly sexist to most modern viewers/readers, especially Americans.
  • Another source of dissonance for Western audiences can arise from Ken's forgiving of villains because of their Freudian Excuses, even if they're mass murderers (Shin, Thouzer, Ryuga, Raoh, Falco), serial rapists (Yuda), or Social Darwinist tyrants (Raoh, Shin, Kaioh, Baran) who have killed many of Ken's True Companions (Raoh with Rei and Fudo, Thouzer with Shu, Ryuga with Toki, Kaioh with Shachi). In Japan, criminals who show remorse for their crimes are often treated less harshly, so Ken's forgiveness can seem less misguided if seen from that perspective; contrasting those in the West where they are far less forgiving of those who committed heinous acts. Although, it should be noted that said forgiveness comes after they've been inflicted with fatal wounds and/or doesn't stop Kenshiro from neutralizing their threat.
• Four Knights of the Apocalypse:
  • Calden's physical abuse of his daughter is treated as a brief lapse in judgment from an essentially loving father, in accordance with conservative Japanese norms at the time.
  • Guinevere's young age makes her Forceful Kiss of Lancelot very unnerving, especially because of her refusal to accept she did anything wrong and her confidence that Lancelot will take her as his lover by the time she’s 16 years old while he will be 20. The manga is set in medieval times—where girls as young as Guinevere could be married off to older men of power, albeit nominally—but that realism doesn't make it less disturbing to Lancelot or the reader.
• Fragments of Horror features a story called "Magami Nanakuse", which focuses on the horror of the Broken Pedestal when a girl meets the eponymous novelist and finds out that she's malicious, supernatural and... a Creepy Crossdresser. The girl even resorts to shaming Nanakuse for presenting as a woman when she gets angry at the author. It's likely due to Nanakuse's similarities to author Junji Ito that this was meant to be a meta-commentary on how Ito sees himself as an impostor for having his hardcore horror works published in girls' magazines and thus feels like his works are dissonantly dressed up to an extent, but the execution within the story can feel to a progressive Western audience like needless homophobia or transphobia toward a villain who has plenty of traits that are actually worth being afraid of.
• Free!: A good part of the discussions over the end of the first season chalk up to the very Japanese mindset that goes by the "team above everything" mentality. For the Japanese, Rei's decision to let Rin have his spot for the relay was the most selfless and kind action he could ever pull, making him the hero of the day and possibly even more of a team member than before; for the Westerners, it's completely unfair as it's seen to stunt Rei's reason to even be there and it totally derails his character and motivation. On the other hand, many Western sports teams also expect athletes to put the good of the team above their personal desires, as expressed in the "There is no 'I' in team" and other related sayings. That said, the Season 1 finale had a huge whiplash in the Japanese fandom as well, and there were just as many Japanese fans as Western fans who were disappointed and thought that it was incredibly unfair toward Rei. Many of them were upset that we never saw any of the other characters appreciating Rei's sacrifice (not even a "thanks") and that this made Rei seem like he was ultimately just an outsider in the Rin drama. There are lots of "fix-it" fanart on Pixiv and similar image hosting websites set during season 1 of the other characters apologizing to Rei, and lots of fanfic where he angsts about how, after everything, the team still chose Rin over him. Eternal Summer has a bit of an Author's Saving Throw for this when Rei goes to Rin for training where Rin admits to Rei that he feels like he owes him for his Heroic Sacrifice and later tells Sousuke that while they are from different teams, Rei is still his friend.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • The Running Gag of Winry badly beating up Ed for the damage to his automail arm has come across as a pretty straight example of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male with the increased visibility of male abuse victims. If the roles were reversed, the scenario certainly would NOT be Played for Laughs. It doesn't help that the damage inflicted on Ed's arm usually isn't even his fault, which can almost come across as Blaming the Victim.
  • While the series is usually praised for its portrayal of heavy themes like racism and genocide, some have criticized the portrayal of black looking characters being drawn with "donut lips". Jerso stands out for being the most prominent character to fall under this description, although his lack of stereotypical behavior prevents him from being a full Ethnic Scrappy.
• Fruits Basket:
  • Katsuya's conservative, proper family objected to him marrying Kyoko, not because she was a middle school-aged girl at the time (13-15) while he was very recently given a job as a teacher at her school (in his early twenties), but because she had been a delinquent. Granted, they are his family rather than hers, and that last one could be a point of contention for anyone, but generally, Americans tend to frown more on disparities between age and power dynamics (adult/minor, teacher/student, etc) than social standing as the Japanese.
    • Most of the Honda family also looks down on Tohru as a Black Sheep, not only because she's the result of Katsuya and Kyoko's union, but also out of the belief that she could become a delinquent like Kyoko, which stems from the Japanese view that a child of a criminal will inevitably become a criminal themself. To a Western audience, this not only comes across as ridiculous since Tohru is as far from being a delinquent as anyone could possibly get, but also because having a delinquent/criminal parent wouldn't be anywhere near the level of ostracization as one would face in Japan.
  • Several characters within the Sohma family are into each other in a romantic way, which comes off as incestuous to western viewers. However, most western fans don't quite grasp the fact that the Sohma family is a clan of 150 members, not simply a large family. Despite having the same last name and referring to each other as "cousins" (which is mainly out of formality rather than actual relation), most of them are only related very distantly by blood or not related at all.
  • Tohru's remark that "marriage is every girl's dream" may have been intended to sound romantic, but would now be viewed as a rather old-fashioned idea. Funimation's dub of the 2019 anime changed this line to a more general statement about how everyone dreams of finding a soulmate, which is much less dated.
  • Kagura's antics, while over-the-top, were considered standard comedic tropes in anime and manga during The '90s (especially with the popularity of Rumiko Takahashi's works and how often she used those tropes with her own characters). These aspects of her character were kept in the 2019 anime, but modern viewers don't consider her treatment of Kyo very funny, especially with Kyo getting beat up multiple times in Kagura's intro episode, characters simply taking her antics as a sign of how passionate Kagura is towards Kyo (and several blaming Kyo for all the destruction she causes), and a flashback of Kagura pulling a knife on Kyo when they were children. As a result, Kagura's character feels very much like a product of the time when the manga was first written.
  • According to Takaya, this is largely the reason why the characters no longer smoke in the 2019 anime, as the original manga was first published in 1998 and is thus "a result of a different era".
  • Hatsuharu proclaiming he "won't give up" on Rin after she breaks up with him and later forcefully kissing her after she tells him not to touch her is portrayed as romantic gestures on his part, but definitely doesn't fly as well in the time of the remake's release as it did when the manga was written. While Rin is later revealed to still be very much in love with Haru, the portrayal of his actions and said reveal not coming until way later down the story can still leave an odd impression for contemporary viewers questioning how much Haru respects Rin to treat her like he does at those times.
• Fushigi Yuugi: Nuriko got hit hard with Trans Equals Gay and other '90s misconceptions about LGBTQ characters. Additionally, as an example of cultural values dissonance at the time of the show's release, the English dub changed or softened some of the homophobic/transphobic comments directed at Nuriko by other characters.
• Future Boy Conan:
  • Jimsy trading food for cigarettes and smoking them would never be allowed to be shown on TV these days.
  • The Industrian High Council letting themselves be killed by their island sinking is treated quite casually, and Dr. Lao basically tells Lana not to stop them. Committing suicide out of extreme shame could be considered at least somewhat normal in 1970s Japan, but in many other places and more recent times it would be considered a bizarrely dark thing to allow, especially considering Dr. Lao's words to them which seemed to have inspired it.
  • Captain Dyce's attempt to woo Lana would not be seen in a good light, let along comedic in modern media.
• Future Card Buddyfight: The main reason that Qinus Axia was changed from a trans woman to a Camp Gay man is because the Japanese version was extremely transphobic towards her (multiple remarks about her being a "manlady" and Drum stating she "doesn't understand gender" as one of her flaws being just some of the insults used).
• In one Future Robot Daltanious episode, some bandits steal Sanae's kimono and Danji is so angry he almost beats the daylights out of them. To Westerners, the reaction to this would be "why all this fuss over something so petty as clothes?". However, in Japan, kimonos are Serious Business, they can actually cost the same amount as cars, and are crafted by skilled designers. It's why Sanae choosing to forgive them is supposed to make her look angelic and forgiving. However, to viewers who don't have this context, she looks like a pansy who's unwilling to press charges from people who stole from her.
• GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class: Professor once defied Intelligence Equals Isolation by refusing to take higher-level typography qualifications despite being qualified for them, so that she's on the same level with her classmates. More individualistic countries call this practice "dumbing yourself down," and not recommended that you do this in real life.
• Gakuen Babysitters:
  • Kamitani constantly hits his baby brother Taka when he acts up. This is meant to be Played for Laughs, but Western viewers may not find the act to be at all humorous, even when (or especially when) it's depicted as harmless. This could be attributed to the more lenient attitudes toward family discipline in Japan at the time before it was prohibited in 2020, where striking one's child was generally frowned upon, but not considered grounds to call Child Services except in extreme cases. This is made considerably worse when Taka smacks his younger cousin Tsumugi for breaking his prized toy sword, when Taka only wanted to be a good older brother in his own right. This is further muddied by Kamitani also hitting Kirin at one point - hitting his kid brother is bad enough, but a little girl not even related to him is a big no-no, though at least in that case, he's called out on it.
  • Western fans tend to be put off by how often Usaida lets the kids run around the school by themselves while unsupervised; though they probably have a point considering how young the kids are, this still reflects how in Japan parents are more willing to let their children go out unsupervised than in most western countries (particularly in the United States).
• Gals!:
  • 16 years old Miyu is in a relationship with and eventually marries after she graduates Ran's older brother Yamato, who's a working 25 years old adult. While this isn't as uncomfortable as it could be due to being portrayed in a relatively tasteful, love-dovey way (they don't do much more than occasionally kiss, at least when they aren't being interrupted), it still reflects how Japanese society has a different attitude towards age gaps in relationships than many western countries do.
  • The English dub tends to use the word "retard" quite a bit. While this may not have seemed so bad during the early 2000s, when the dub was made, the word is now considered to be much more offensive than it was back then.
  • The European Spanish dub features racial jokes at the ganguros' expense, something which would absolutely not fly today.
• GaoGaiGar: Child characters appearing naked. Not a big deal at all in Japan (where nakedness in that context just indicates innocence) but raised some eyebrows in the West.
• Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet:
  • In episode five, Ledo gets chased by a trio of sexually aggressive transvestites, and he ends up with his clothes ripped and lipstick marks all over his face.
  • For some, the idea of 14/15-year-olds (Melty/Saaya/Amy) belly-dancing in Fanservice-y outfits is considered uncomfortable, perhaps even unacceptable. However, despite misrepresentation that belly-dancing is a sexual dance, it's not inherently considered such in real life - individuals may perform the dance in a sexual, seductive manner, but otherwise it is merely another form of dancing, like many others. In fact, it's considered acceptable to all ages in it's natural form, not only to see but to perform, as it's meant to make women feel empowered and teach them bodily acceptance, two pertinent and (usually) non-sexual values. The second Log Book further adds to this by revealing that it is something almost exclusively done by the young with Bellows noting that she considers herself too old to engage in it.
• GARO: The Animation: Germán's relatively hands-off parenting of León tends to garner conflicting responses from the fandom. In the setting, despite only being 17 and still recovering from the trauma of his mother's death, León is treated with the agency as an adult not just by his father, but everyone else as well. Because of that, even with Germán's laxed approach to disciplining him, it's León held fully accountable for his actions.
• Genji Monogatari Sennenki: The whole lifestyle of the prince would be considered outrageous on actual days, but back then, it was expected as part of a noble's life. Genji, therefore, exaggerates even for that time standards and some of his enemies try to use this against him.
• Genji Tsuushin Agedama:
  • Despite both being in the fourth grade, Ibuki and Rei are prone to several moments of fanservice, whether they be forced panty shots or full-on nudity. Even Onyomiko's very Stripperiffic outfit would raise a lot of eyebrows in this day and age.
  • Given the rise of domestic and global terrorism, Rei and her grandfather are a lot harder to forgive to an adult viewing this in the twenty-first century than to a kid viewing it in the '90s, and it doesn't help that they had to toe the line between making them effective villains and not letting them cross the Moral Event Horizon.
  • If it wasn't at the time, it's safe to say that Suzuki's lolicon tendencies, specifically his chronic sock fetish, would be raked over the coals in modern years.
• Genkaku Picasso: Considering how commonplace and accepted Yaoi Fangirls are now in fiction and Real Life, giving one a detailed Freudian Excuse for the way she is (as well as making her a Female Misogynist) just feels...odd.
• Get Backers: Jokes about Kazuki's effeminate looks and crossdressing, as well as jokes about Shido "allegedly" using his "Beast Mimicry: Horse Form" to seduce Hevn into giving him jobs and to seduce Madoka into becoming his girlfriend, would not fly if they are made in today's more sensitive era.
• Getter Robo:
  • The manga draws a lot of ideas and values from eastern philosophy and Buddhism, which may come across as somewhat "hippy" to western readers.
  • The original manga features a black man whose design is... rough, to put it kindly. To Ishikawa's credit, he did get much better about this in later series.
  • Benkei lamenting Genki's Hollywood Autism at the start of Armageddon can be hard to listen to considering how much research on the disorder has progressed in the decades since the OVA's release.^note Not helping matters is that he said "It's a shame he had to become Autistic." It should be noted that this line is only present in the English dub, whereas in the original, Genki's behavior was result of trauma from Michiru's death and seeing her Invader-infected corpse.
• Ghost Stories: The Gag Dub's frequent use of homophobic and ableist slurs was, while still offensive at the time, pretty common in American media of the time, particularly works that thrived on Refuge in Audacity, such as South Park, but also in shows for more general audiences, such as The Office (US). Since the 2010s, these words have become a lot less acceptable to throw out so casually, and can be quite jarring to the modern viewer.
• Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin:
  • The Ginga series' treatment of its female characters can be seen as questionable at best and outright misogynistic at worst to a Western audience. Not only are there very few female dogs around to begin with, but they are almost always weak and/or whiny damsels whose only purpose is to be saved by their husbands so they can give birth to strong male heirs. Even the few cases of female dogs who are explicitly stated to be competent fighters end up as Faux Action Girls. The series, however, heavily features themes of honor, loyalty, sacrifice, and war, strongly echoing elements found in traditional Japanese samurai epics where women held submissive, domestic roles. ^note While historical female warriors (Onna-musha) did exist, the samurai code, Bushidō evolved during the long peace of the Edo period to largely diminish their roles as combatants on the battlefield.
• Girls und Panzer:
  • An in-universe case in the "Little Army" prequel manga. Emi Nakasuga, a girl whose ethnicity (German-Japanese) and temperament are not unlike Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, has a difficult time in Japan due to her Brutal Honesty not sitting well with most of her Japanese classmates. It's also revealed in the sequel to Little Army that when she goes back home to Germany, she doesn't fit in there either, in part because of her half-Japanese ethnicity, and partly because her abrasiveness doesn't do her any favors.
    Emi: I hate lies and flattery. There's no point in wasting praise on the selfish. That's why I hate this country.
  • In the sixth OVA, Hana gently admonishes Saori's "bad manners" for cheering and clapping during Rabbit Team's gymnastics performance^note In contrast to their luck for most of the series, Rabbit Team is one of the few who actually is competent at a celebratory event, indicative of how the Japanese don't approve of clapping during performances.
  • In the Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu spinoff, Sodoko, a disciplinary member that few students take seriously, becomes drunk with power and starts a severe crackdown. Among the new regulations is forcing students to dye their hair black, a bit like the K-On! example. Before long, however, virtually everyone comes to the conclusion that Sodoko is going too far, and decide to put her in her place in the end.
• Godannar where the 29 year old main character, marries a 17 year old highschooler. Everyone is shocked that he got married, but no one seems to care that said bride isn't even old enough to drink. What's considered another dissonance about the marriage is how quickly it happened, considering the death of his previous lover. Generally widows are expected to grieve for a very long time in Japan before remarrying, if they do at all.
• Golden Kamuy's depiction of bears as man-eaters who seem to take pleasure in hunting and killing humans may raise a few eyebrows among readers from other countries. Bears Are Bad News has been a Discredited Trope in the West for a few decades thanks to the efforts of wildlife conservation organizations and advocates; while they are definitely animals that are considered to be very fearsome and dangerous, the common perception of bears in the West is that of animals who will be happy to leave you alone if you do the same to them. Many sports teams, schools, and governments in America consider their local species of bear to be their mascot, and they're frequently seen promoting national parks. In contrast, the main Japanese exposure to bears comes from the Sankebetsu incident of 1915, where a bear attacked and killed seven people before finally being shot. This incident along with a couple of others led to the Japanese perception of bears as man-eaters and considering that in Hokkaido today the native brown bear population numbers less than 2,000 in remote areas, it's hard to see this stereotype changing anytime soon. After all, the public's opinion of an animal species can't really be changed if there are hardly any of those animals around anymore, and it doesn't help that the males of the last subspecies of bear native to the Japanese islands, the Shiretoko brown bear are so aggressive that females with cubs deliberately seek out hunters and fishermen for protection.
• In Gon, Gon, a small T-Rex, frequently eats animals, mainly fish, alive, often taking one bite and leaving them to die. While gross to many Western audiences, this is common practice in Japanese cuisine.
• In an early scene of Grave of the Fireflies, the mother of the two main characters goes off to a shelter, leaving her son to carry his toddler sister around while the town is under attack. While Westerners would probably consider this to be an appalling act of abandonment and reckless endangerment, the original intention was more likely to be that the son was the man of the house since his father was away fighting and was old enough regardless, so his mother trusted him to take care of things. According to the bonus material, this careless behavior was explained by the fact that previous American bombings had been relatively light and aimed at industrial sites only. "Just another raid. Nothing to be worried about. Let's do what the government ordered and get to the holes in the ground that have to pass for shelters." Oh boy... In what turned out to be both a Cultural and Generational Dissonance, most younger and (especially) Western viewers side with Seita when he decides to leave his aunt's house after a fight. The director's intent was for Seita to be seen in the wrong for not sucking up his pride.
• In Great Mazinger, lots of people don't understand why Tetsuya feels so horribly jealous of Kouji's position as Kenzou Kabuto's true firstborn son, to the point of refusing to help him in battle at some point – which causes Kenzo's death in the end. This is because Tetsuya is an orphan, and in a society where family and stability are all, orphans are extremely looked down upon even in adulthood. Therefore, when the full-blooded son and heir of the man who raised him came in, Tetsuya was shit scared of being abandoned again and he thought that if that was the case, the still very traditional Japanese society would likely make him a pariah. It was was, WAY more complicated that mere jealousy between two adoptive brothers.
• Great Teacher Onizuka:
  • Onizuka's response to Tokiwa's plight of having been gang-raped is along the lines of "you are a girl, you are weak, you are always going to be a victim, roll with it". He also does nothing to punish the guys who raped her in the first place. In the West, Onizuka's response would be considered hideously sexist, but in Japan, it's just seen as a harsh reality and people who have a problem with it need to suck it up.
  • Onizuka in general is a fan of resorting to Corporal Punishment or other acts of humiliation to teach his students a lesson. Since he was put in charge of the problem class of the school that the rest of the faculty have already written off as lost causes, his methods are often treated as unorthodox but fair. Something like this wouldn't fly in real life.
• GTO: The Early Years:
  • The 90s were a different time, but the casual sexism, homophobia and transphobia of the main characters can still be jarring. See the constant teasing that Eikichi can't get a woman because he must be gay, or the Unsettling Gender Reveals of the Oni-Baku's Drag Queen neighbor and Misato. Fans have also criticized the handling of the villains Takezawa and Akutsu, both of whom got, if not a Heel–Face Turn, a Reformed, but Not Tamed treatment (and Akutsu was a full-on rapist, kidnapper, and attempted murderer).
  • Shinomi, an otherwise highly sympathetic character, is very transphobic after she finds out Misato is a trans woman (though part of this may be because she felt threatened by Eikichi liking another girl).
  • Notably, in the 2020 live-action adaptation they strongly implied that Kaoru Kamata is actually transgender rather than a crossdresser, and (s)he is treated sympathetically by Eikichi and the narrative.
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics: The dissonance of violence and frightening material is the reason why the English dub censored a couple of scenes, and did not air 12 episodes on Nickelodeon. Japanese children television programs have no qualms with scaring young children, something which the United States discourages.
  • In a more general sense there's also the fact that the stories themselves were all more or less presented exactly as they were originally told with little to no editing, thus often averting Politically Correct History and containing subject matter that would be heavily looked down upon in the modern era. For example, the kings in the stories "King Grizzle Beard" and "The Worn Out Dancing Shoes" offer up their own daughters as prizes to random men without a thought to their consent or opinion in the matter. (The princesses in both stories make it abundantly clear that they don't agree with this at all with the one in "King Grizzle Beard" loudly complaining and throwing a tantrum every chance she gets and the three in "The Worn Out Dancing Shoes" resorting to drugging the would-be suitors with a sleeping potion and getting them sent to the dungeon to avoid marrying them.) Needless to say such a thing would be unthinkable in most civilized places in modern times but back in the day that was really how such matters were usually settled.
• Groizer X: Professor Tobishima and Baku casually admit that they were part of the Japanese military air force in World War Two, something Westerners find appalling. And viewers from other parts of Asia (notably China, the Philippines and South Korea) who have memories of what they did to their nations. Granted, it's not shown what exactly they did, but the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) are not viewed favorably by most of the world and remembered for the cruelty they inflicted first and foremost. The anime portrays them as heroic for what they did, and Tobishima credits his flying experience with the skills he passes on to Joe.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam:
    • Iconic as it is, the Bright Slap scene still features both Bright and Fraw calling out Amuro for not "acting like a man" or being too depressed, in a way that would be judged as reinforcing toxic masculinity if the show had been released in modern times. As a bonus, Bright also seems to believe corporal punishment is an important part of parenting, given his comment about how Amuro's father was too soft on him for never hitting the boy. The English dub recognized the implications behind this and smartly excised the toxic masculinity by changing it so that Bright is more angry at Amuro for being petulant, making his reasons for being upset at Amuro more understandable.
      Dub: I've got no more time for you! You've got to do some growing up fast if you want to survive this thing!
      Sub: That's why you're soft! Growing up without getting hit will never make you a man!
    • In a similar vein, Sleggar interferes physically in the relationship between Cameron and Mirai twice, punching Cameron when he argues with Mirai and later slapping Mirai while she's rejecting Cameron's offer to aid White Base. While he gets some pushback for the slap from Cameron but the rest of the crew who saw the slap stand by and do nothing. The show generally presents Sleggar's actions (along with Sleggar's insistence that Cameron should be more physically assertive with Mirai) as in the right or as least noble to the point that Mirai later romantically propositions him.
    • In episode 22, Fraw is bathing with the children. Considering she is much older and not a family member, this comes off as rather weird and questionable. She also has no issue making all three of them bathe at once in spite of one being a girl and the other two being boys.
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam:
    • In one episode, Kamille tries to defend himself for his arrogance by calling himself an autistic child, and Emma gets even angrier at him for making excuses. In the context of Japan at the time, autism was synonymous with general anti-social behavior, so Emma's frustration is born from Kamille saying that he is blameless for being a kid with problems socializing. In the more modern definition of autism, Emma's reaction comes off as more unfortunate because it seems like she is brushing off Kamille having a disorder and the effects it has on him.
    • A great deal of the show's remarks on gender and the role it plays in combat are outdated to modern viewers. The English dub, created in the early 2000s, toned down quite a bit of the show's sexism. For example, when Amuro has Katz join him, he refers to Katz being a man and needing to protect his mother and sister. In the English dub, Amuro instead remarks that Katz is the oldest and makes no mention of gender.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ:
    • In the Shangri-La arc Fa's former competence disappears completely and she's primarily relegated to Kamille's nurse, ending with Bright choosing not to rescue her at all from the wreckage of the Methuss so she can go take care of Kamille. While it didn't cause an uproar back in the day, modern viewers find this incredibly sexist, robbing Fa of character agency and degrading her character.
    • As pointed out by mecha analyst Argonbolt, despite Elle and Roux supposedly being equal pilots and crew members to the boys, they are still shown doing the ship's chores and laundry while the men are never shown getting involved with those tasks.
    • In episodes 30 and 31, Ghardaia is shown as a quaint, low technology town populated by black Africans on the surface... And predominantly white people^note Referred to as "Franks" in-universe, suggesting they are white people and Mukokuseki is not in play with far vaster technological advancement underground. While showing a technologically-advanced African city was leaps and bounds ahead of most anime at the time, it still seems to imply that the white people were the ones responsible for the technological improvements the city benefitted from.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory:
    • A big part of the reason Gato and Delaz are less popular in America than in Japan is that the values they are meant to embody are very Japanese. The two can be seen as honorable samurai willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause, nobly following what they see as their master's will and interests even if that cause is evil, and making them similar to sympathetic characters in period works that a Japanese audience is likely familiar with, especially the lionization of refusing to surrender and grasping at straws to keep fighting even after the war is lost. English-speaking audiences are less likely to find such a thing inherently noble, especially when the straw being grasped is a mass-destruction terrorist attack directly targeting millions and millions of civilian lives.
    • Gato and Delaz were also still reasonably popular as part of the general Misaimed Fandom for Zeon in America... But their plan hinges on a mass-murder terrorist attack. Stardust Memory originally aired in 2000 as part of the Toonami block; after the infamous terrorist attacks of 2001 they underwent a lot of Character Perception Evolution.
    • A brief scene of Kou injecting some kind of drug to keep piloting for 18 hours straight at the climax of Operation Stardust raised hackles in Japan, where a main character using drugs, even out of desperation, is extremely contentious and turned many fans against Kou altogether. For people in other countries where drug use is less stigmatized, the scene is not particularly noteworthy.
    • Monsha sexually harassing and groping the female mechanics is meant to be Played for Laughs and characterize him as a buffoon. Modern audiences see him as a Sexual Predator Bully and find his near-total lack of punishment for his antics frustrating. He got a dose of Adaptational Karma decades later when the Advance of Zeta series showed he not only ends up scarred and disfigured during the Gryps Conflict, but had to take refuge on a Zeonic colony on Mars, relying on the kindness of the very people he most despised.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The Gundams are theoretically designed by the nations they represent and modeled after something iconic to that country. In practice, this often results in the Gundams being modeled off of stereotypes of those countries. Mostly this winds up falling under Narm Charm (like Neo-Holland's Gundam being an actual windmill) but it's safe to say that some of the designs, like India having a Cobra Gundam piloted by an evil snake charmer, probably wouldn't have gotten out of the concept art stage if the series were made today.
  • In Gundam Build Divers, the threat of the game-hacking Break Decals being used by cheating "Mass-Divers" is a serious thing to Gunpla Battle Nexus Online. However, the threat of such a thing is left in the hands of the players, which includes the main characters (a group of novices) and the #1 player of the game. To Western audiences, this stretches the Willing Suspension of Disbelief a little too far as a game-breaking threat that big should be attacked by GMs, mods and devs descending upon the game and throwing everyone out and patching the game so that it never happens again. In Japan, things like that tend to be self-policed by the players, who don't go after someone higher up unless it's super important.
    • The fact that it's self-policed by the players in the first place. In plenty of Western countries, where the Lord British Postulate is common, this would be seen as a monumentally stupid idea. Indeed, some of the most infamous events in online RPGs were the result of players deliberately looking for ways to break the game just so that they could kill other players' avatars when the others couldn't fight back, or damage things that normally couldn't be. The idea that no one, or at least, a small enough group to the point that it could be contained, would exploit the cheats is simply nonexistent in the West.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED the scene where Cagalli and Kira go their separate ways has their family members gasp in astonishment when Cagalli hugs him. While Westerners likely won't see what the big deal is, public displays of affection are under a lot of scrutiny in the East and often only for serious couples. It adds a level of subtext to the fact that they know that the two of them are siblings.
  • Gundam Sousei: Tomino is showing groping female staff, something that is completely unacceptable in modern-day Western society.
• Gunslinger Girl: The story takes place in Italy, but any Italian would find all of the relationships unspeakably cold and distant since the author, in a classic case of cultural projection, has depicted the characters with Japanese reserve instead of Italian brio — even to the extent of them bowing on occasion. This becomes a bit of Fridge Brilliance for the relationships between the girls and the handlers/staff because it represents just how uncomfortable everyone is around these walking killing machines. And the distance between Giuseppe and Jean is part of the point, though many of the more background characters are straight examples.

• Hanamaru Kindergarten: No one ever seems to raise an eyebrow over the fact that a teacher knocked up his barely legal student, and ran off to America with her. In Japan, the law states that the male party has to be 18 or older and the female party has to be 16 or older. In addition, anyone getting married under the age of 20 has to have the approval of the parents. In some foreign countries such as America, it can indeed "raise an eyebrow" but it is perfectly okay in Japan, though the students and teacher marrying may be a bit of a topic raiser.
• The scene in Hanasaku Iroha where Minko cuts up a fish to demonstrate her skills to some more experienced chefs. She does it very well as far as an untrained eye can tell, but the older chefs react, with dead seriousness, as if she had shoved it through a paper shredder, and tell her she must be a moron for thinking she could ever be a chef. Presumably, this was meant to inspire her to work towards even greater heights of perfectionism, but to a non-Japanese viewer it seems cruelly harsh and, well, perfectionistic. Another scene has Ohana fangirl over someone putting on their work clothes and gush about how she did it with "not a single wasted motion," which seems weird for the same reason.
• Hamtaro:
  • Stan's treatment of female hamsters other than his sister Sandy qualifies. Bijou is particularly uncomfortable when they first meet; she objects to him spinning her around and refusing to give up her paw.
  • There's also the ways Sandy objects to Stan flirting despite having Maxwell as a boyfriend. Usually she just drags him away while making a sarcastic comment, though she has used violence a few times.
• Hell Girl has a lot of Values Dissonance, though interestingly, some of these values are also criticized. Recurrent themes are how molestation, rumors and bullying are treated. One of the most striking examples is the reveal in season 3: Yuzuki's father was a bus driver. One day, an accident occurred due to a malfunction, which resulted in numerous deaths, among them Yuzuki's father. However, since the malfunction could not be proven, the father was blamed, and by extension, his family. Yuzuki and her mother were completely shunned by the public. The mother died from a cold because their doctor wouldn't treat her, and Yuzuki died alone in their home.
• Hello! Sandybell:
  • Sandybell's father Leslie slaps her in the first episode as a means of discipline. Despite this he's remembered as a loving and caring father by the girl when he eventually dies.
  • Many times, it's proposed that Mark and Kitty get married. This is despite the implication that Mark is close in age to Sandybell (who is 12). This also would have been illegal since the anime takes place in Scotland, where the youngest age one can get married at there is 16.
• Her Majesty's Petite Angie is a Period Piece about Victorian England made in 1977 by Nippon Animation. The main character's father is the Viceroy of India. To make things worse, the anime is stated to take place in the latter half of the Victorian era, which means it was during the time that Indian revolts against the British Empire were becoming quite common (until Britain finally left the country in 1947). AnimeBargainBin Reviews pointed this out...
  Anyway as shocked as the old woman is about Charlotte's^note Angie's name was changed to Charlotte in the English dub dangerous new pass time she promises not to tell her parents, who are currently away in India. It wouldn't be fair to spoil all the fun they must be having enslaving all those indigenous people...
• An unusual reversal with Highschool of the Dead. In the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse, the teenage protagonists learn to use guns, drive without licences, steal things to survive, and rely on themselves rather than authority/government figures. Not unusual to Americans, but in Japan (where the story takes place)? Definitely.
• Hikari no Pansy: The depiction of the Wandering Minstrel of Romanis. The manga goes beyond the usual stereotypes of them being plundering thieves and depicts them as child kidnappers who force their victims to dance and work in the minstrel alongside them.
• His and Her Circumstances
  • The series' plot is kicked off with Arima discovering Yukino's "secret", namely that she isn't as perfect as she pretends to be at school. Yukino fears that her entire reputation will collapse and people will shun her. Western readers may be confused as to why such a huge deal is made of this; being seen in your comfy clothes in an unusually cheerful mood might be mildly embarrassing, but certainly not something that will forever tarnish your reputation or that someone could even use to blackmail you. While Yukino's fixation on her image is meant to show how self-centered she is before her Character Development, some Asian cultures do tend to put pressure on people to avoid showing too many flaws in public.
  • Arima is alienated by the rest of his family (with the exception of his aunt and uncle, who genuinely love him and consider him their son) due to both of his parents being involved in criminal activity, with his father Reiji explicitly being the Black Sheep of the Arima family because of it. This is due to the Japanese belief that a child of a criminal will inevitably become a criminal themself; while having criminal parents may cause problems in other countries, it wouldn't be such a huge cause of stigmatization as it would be in Japan.
• Horimiya: A running gag and plot is that Miyamura is desperate to hide the fact he has tattoos from his friends and teachers. In the West, tattoos aren't seen as a big deal, and many subcultures actually consider them fashionable; In Japan, however, tattoos are a taboo subject and are mainly associated with criminals, particularly the Yakuza.
• Idol Densetsu Eriko:
  • In the first episode, Rei (who's 15) hits on Eriko's dad. Eriko has an Imagine Spot of Rei running off with him as her and her mother are left behind. Rei is framed as a harpy that seduced him, even though she's a teenage girl and Mr. Tamura is old enough to be her father. Western viewers would be more inclined to be suspicious of Tamura for not quelling Rei's blatant flirting with him.
  • Rei's unrequited love for Eriko's dad, to the point she thinks of him when singing a passionate love song. In Japan, this would be seen as heartwarming, but in the West this is squicky since she's a teenager and he's an adult man.
  • When Shinya Uchida and Eriko's uncle are arguing over who gets to have custody over Eriko, Uchida states that since Yuusuke has been divorced two times, that means he's unfit as a parent for her. In the West, divorces are normalized (in the US, half of all marriages end in divorce) so this wouldn't be seen as an issue, but in Japan, there's a lot more stigma about it.
  • In episode 14, Eriko is labelled a "slut" when a magazine publishes false rumours about her dating Akira Kazami. Western viewers would be confused as to why Eriko is receiving backlash for something so trivial. However, in Japan and Korea, idols are expected to present a "bachelor" image to fans for marketable purposes, and them having boyfriends/girlfriends is a taboo. Eriko's reputation is damaged so badly, that one of her performances is cancelled since mothers don't want their children to watch her.
  • Related to the above, Eriko, a 14-year-old girl, expected to present a "bachelor" image to fans, some of who are way older than her.
  • In episode 34, Eriko and her mother Minako bathe in the nude together. Saunas are a big part of Japanese culture and it's normal for families to bathe naked, but some Western countries^note Families bathing nude in saunas is normalized in countries like Finland and Americans would be put off by that.
  • Some of the anime's more "sensual" scenes were deleted in the Arabic release. A young girl showing her body in the manner Rei does when singing would be considered heavily shameful in Middle Eastern societies.
• In Ikki Tousen, when a character is revealed to really be the incarnation of Wang Yun rather than who he had previously claimed to be, it's treated as a huge shock and evidence that he's completely evil. Wang Yun was a hero in the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it seems the Japanese don't think too highly of him. That was before, well, Zuo Ci (the one who was Wang Yun) actually betrayed and manipulated his friends... This was one of the more heavy plot rewrites in the anime, which was made after Wang Yun's identity was known to the reader, but before he revealed it to the characters. In the manga, while he's still manipulating everyone behind their backs, he's got good intentions, and is treated as a hero. Even in the anime, he's mostly just setting the villains up to kill each other.
• I Married My Female Friend: Sayaka's Career Versus Family quandary in Chapter 17— as much as she enjoys being a mother, she wants to go back to work, but since she can't find childcare, she may have to extend her maternity leave— is even more difficult in Japan than it is in the west. Women are expected to take up most of the burden of raising children, so daycare options are more expensive and less common than in the west, so women will likely be forced to work part-time, if they work at all. As such, Sayaka is under more pressure to continue her parental leave and has more to lose career-wise if she does. Sayaka's husband Takumi and sister-in-law Kurumi seem to also be in favor of Sayaka extending her maternity leave, since when Kurumi asks if Sayaka wants to spend more time with her baby, Sayaka remarks that Takumi said the same thing. In the knight heron fan translation, Takumi goes so far as to call Sayaka "irresponsible" for expressing a desire to go back to work, but that may be a mistranslation; in the official localization, Sayaka claims she was the one who called Takumi irresponsible for saying things would work out.
• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor demonstrates Japan's more accepting - even positive - attitude toward suicide than the West. When desperate situations happen in early episodes, almost every single character except Tylor himself start talking about dying a heroic death, and Tylor's self-preservation instinct is treated as a sign of his incompetence. What makes this weird is that, while it would be perfectly in-character for someone like Yamamoto – who was The Ace until Tylor showed up – to act like this (and he does), it even extends to the Marines on the ship who are the kind of malcontents you wouldn't expect to be so eager to die.
• Isabelle of Paris, being a 70's anime about a French girl during the 1870s, is full of this trope:
  • In episode 3, Isabelle rejects a rose Jean gave her. Her reason?
    Isabelle: "You're ten years too young to be hitting on me!"^note Keep in mind, both Isabelle and Jean are no older than fifteen.
  • While it may have been deliberate, Isabelle's sister Geneviève has a crush on her piano teacher, who's known her since she was very young. This creates a power imbalance between the two, and it gets even worse when it's revealed that he impregnated her.
  • Isabelle's response to Victor praising her for repairing the puncture in hot air balloon also counts.
    Isabelle: "Women are good at sewing."
  • Irma encapsulates many unfortunate stereotypes of Romani people, such as playing the tambourine, working in a circus, and being Andréa's sensual Manic Pixie Dream Girl. It doesn't help that she's introduced as being part of a gang that steals and sabotages for a living (granted, they are depicted as heroic and mostly white).
• It's Tough Being Neeko:
  • In Chapter 14, Neeko has a breakdown in which she complains about how she's unlikely to get a job or get married as she is. In response, her mother slaps her across the face. It's meant to be a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! gesture, but Westerners would likely see it as a parent physically abusing their (adult) child.
  • Neeko suffers from depression, extreme social anxiety and possible PTSD (putting on a suit reminds her of a failed job interview), leading some viewers to suspect that she has an undiagnosed mental disorder. If she does, her family hasn't even considered getting her psychiatric help, most likely because of Japanese attitudes toward therapy. Instead, Mrs. Niito's best idea for helping deal with the problem is to trick her daughter into helping out part-time at an electronics store on the Switch's release day. That move proved rather controversial among readers, with some saying that it was the best option she had, and others believing that it could only have worsened Neeko's issues.
  • Uriko quits her job because her superior was sexually harassing her. In the West, the superior would likely end up out of a job instead, especially after the #MeToo movement.
• Jewelpet (2009): Westerners will at the very least tilt their heads in puzzlement when hearing about how Rinko's dad bought her a toy piano instead of a real one because he just had to lend money to a friend. In Japan, putting others' needs ahead of your own is the moral thing to do; the problem is that "your own" also includes "your family's needs".
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood: While Dio is treated well by his adoptive family, he's never considered George's son the same way that Jonathan is, which might come as a shock to modern viewers. Dio himself doesn't seem to mind his status in the family, possibly because he's planning to betray and murder his adoptive father.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency: The fact that Stroheim is an unrepentant Nazi, has done some horrific things in-universe (though he's at least portrayed as A Lighter Shade of Black), and is still on the side of the heroes makes a lot of his scenes come across as awkward today, especially among Western audiences. At the time, Japan's alliance with Germany in World War II was still a relatively recent memory, and the Nazis, while their crimes were known, weren't looked back on as negatively as they were and are elsewhere. Could be considered Deliberate Values Dissonance, since the story is set in 1938, before World War II started and the true extent of how evil the Nazis were became widely known, but it also counts as unintentional Values Dissonance since it's unlikely that someone would try writing a Nazi character like this in any modern media.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable: One of the clues Jotaro discerns about Kira's identity was that since he brought his suit jacket into a tailor to get the button replaced, he wasn't married, otherwise he would have had his wife do the job. This assumption that wives always handle this kind of chore can seem baffling to people who live in countries in which married women might work outside the home.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: It's not by much, but Western fans are often confused as to why so many characters in Golden Wind — criminals, gangsters and mafia members, at that — view drug dealing and trafficking as such a heinous evil; by comparison, a lot of other (Western) fiction about the mafia and organized crime might mention drugs as a way to pay the bills and leave it at that. This can be explained by Japan's much firmer stance on drugs; as our own page on the Yakuza explains, even the organized crime in Japan views drug dealers as the lowest of the low.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: In the manga, while playing catch, Jolyne randomly says that F.F. throws, "like a queer",^note In the original Japanese, she describes F.F. as looking like an "okama" (a Japanese-language slur interchangeably referring to Camp Gay or otherwise effeminate men, crossdressers, and trans women), which was changed in the tankobon release to the more neutral "gei" (which is more associated with Macho Camp or Manly Gay men). something that would probably be commonplace in the West (especially among hardened delinquents like Jolyne) in the early 2000s, the time of release, as well as 2011, when the story takes place, but would probably be quite a no-no since at least 2014. David Production opted to leave the line out of the anime. However, there is still a nod to this dialogue in the first opening, "STONE OCEAN", which features a rainbow over F.F. throwing a baseball.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands: One of the first pieces of trivia we learn about Dragona Joestar is that they only ever eat watermelon for breakfast. In America, this can raise a lot of eyebrows, particularly since Dragona is Ambiguously Brown and it's implied by the racist Hawaiian cop that they might have African heritage, specifically, when eating watermelon is infamously considered a racist stereotype of African Americans. However, in Japan, watermelon has historically always been considered a luxury item due to it being an expensive imported fruit — for Dragona to be eating it as often as they do is meant to be an indication of their demanding standards and their ability to afford to live above their means because of the money they and their brother earn from their criminal enterprises. Araki apparently caught wind of this and decided to change their favourite food from watermelons to papayas when the first volume of the manga was released.
• Joker Game:
  • In both "Asia Express" and "Codename: Cerberus", the D Agency spies of each episode strike up conversation with children and even play with them out of the blue. Especially in the latter, he even picks up a toddler girl and walks around with her to show her some dolphins. In the 21st century, strangers interacting with children would be much more likely deemed to be far, far more sinister, and their parents would be much less likely to let their children play with them.
  • The school director expelled Akira for using Combat Pragmatism against his opponent. This sort of reasoning is unbelievable in modern standards considering that Akira was just defending himself and had never used his pocket knife. And yet, the director seemed fine about students fighting each other and bringing pocket knives in school which is no longer applicable today due to various incidents of school stabbings and killings committed by minors which is a huge social issue in Japan.
• Jungle de Ikou! features a girl (approximately 10 years old) who is given the ability to turn into a busty Earth goddess by means of a somewhat sexualized tribal dance. Such a premise would be rejected on sight by any studio in America; in fact, some online reviews from Western viewers have denounced it as pedophilic.
• Junjou Romantica: A complicated one involving Fuyuhiko, Haruhiko and his mother, and the Usami family. While not uncommon in the West for there to be illegitimate children, having or being one can still carry a degree of stigma. In Japan however, it could destroy a family's whole social standing and being a bastard was considered incredibly shameful. Natsuko's intense hatred of her husband may have originated largely from Fuyuhiko having an extramarital affair that resulted in his lover's child. Not only did Fuyuhiko favor Haruhiko and even adopt him into her family after his lover's death, if it were ever exposed the Usami Group was inherited by a non-blood relative, it could easily bring devastation to their entire company. However, it speaks volumes to how much Fuyuhiko loved Haruhiko and his mother. Fuyuhiko continued caring for them, trying to help Haruhiko's mother with the many hardships of being a single mother and his attempt to guarantee Haruhiko a stable position and acknowledgement as his successor. Status of being an illegitimate child would most likely end any living Haruhiko made for himself and if any familial conflicts broke out legally between Akihiko and Haruhiko being half-siblings, Haruhiko would still be considered the elder brother as he was officially adopted. Fridge Brilliance to why Fuyuhiko tried to arrange the engagement to Kaoruko, so Haruhiko would marry into the family too.
• Jushin Liger:
  • Ken's habit of skirt-flipping wouldn't mesh well with modern viewer, as this is considered straight-up sexual harassment rather than him being just being a mischievous little kid, especially since he's supposed to be the hero. It has become a lot more rare for anime/manga leads to be openly perverted, and has become more relegated to Butt-Monkey side characters.
  • The series has a lot of Fanservice, some of which goes well beyond panty shots, that could never be found on a modern anime aimed at younger viewers.

• Kamui Den: Western readers will (or rather would) likey experience this, though it's hard to say whether the often brutal treatment of female characters is more due to the author's nihilistic bent or actual historical attitudes toward women in feudal Japan.
• Kanojo ni Naru Hi:
  • Sagara's character arc and reasons to ultimately identify as female can be very alienating to Western readers, not only because of different views of genderqueerness, but more general philosophy of individualism versus harmony. Basically every reason given for Sagara to follow the Second Law of Gender-Bending is based on how they fit into the environment around them (what Kurokawas finds attractive; what will make dating Narumi more socially acceptable; positive changes to Sagara's lives where their sex was incidental), not their own self-perception. Sagara's ultimate decisions—that they're a girl even if they wish they were "still" a boy—is fundamentally nonsensical to almost anyone who accepts gender identity as an explicit concept.
  • By that same token, Kurokawa's attempts to get Sagara to act more feminine can come off as much more intrusive and manipulative than intended.
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!: The series depicts the animation industry through a lens of Japanese Confucianism, consistently depicting Asakusa and Mizusaki (and by implication, animators in general) as only having themselves to blame for their hardships in part due to their lack of compliance with Kanamori, who stands above them in the Confucian natural order as their producer. The Western perspective, meanwhile, is that it's often the superiors (e.g. producers or executives) who are responsible for workplace hardship, with the workers often being overworked and underpaid. Consequently, some Western reviewers have criticized the series for misrepresenting the industry as a result of this difference in cultural philosophy.
• Kennel Tokorozawa (1992):
  • In Japan, the anime is viewed as a comedy, and the human/animal relationship gets less backlash due to the idea in Japan that sexual perversion can be a funny joke. However, overseas viewers detest it because the idea of a dog and a human being in love unironically is too disgusting too stomach, and it doesn't help that the dog has many fantasies of outright violating his owner.
  • All of Chika's friends agree that she should carry out her feelings with the dog. Overseas viewers don't see it that way; instead Chika would be encouraged to see a psychiatrist for her feelings or turn herself in jail.
• Kilala Princess: Kilala kissing Rei, a complete stranger then, believing he needed a "true love's kiss" to wake him up like in the movies when he really was just sleeping, may turn off some readers.
• In Kinnikuman, the characters of Brockenman and his son Brocken Jr.'s wrestling gimmicks are the fact they are Nazis, complete with visible swastikas. Brocken Jr. is even a good guy! This isn't seen as that big a deal in Japan, but neither character was released in Mattel's release of the Kinkeshi as M.U.S.C.L.E, and he was replaced by the Native American Geronimo in the NES tie-in game. In France, which obviously doesn't have good memories of Nazi Germany, the series was pulled from Club Dorothee shortly after Brocken Jr. was introduced. However, the series aired in its entirety in Catalan, an area of Spain that was a member of the Axis Powers. In the second series and Kinnikuman Nisei, their swastikas were replaced by a skull and crossbones and an eagle, respectively.
• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: The infamous episode 89 with the Tiff/Fumu anime scene was a Take That! to anime and otakus that sexualized minors. This is something that (thankfully) doesn't happen in western animation, where this scene was perceived more as an example of the called out issue than the parody it was intended as; leading to the scene to be heavily edited in the 4Kids dub to remove any overly sexual shots and the context was changed to them making her a Dumb Blonde in the dub instead. Not helping matters is the small Misaimed Fandom this scene ended up causing, meaning this episode's efforts fell on deaf ears. One line in the same episode that got lost in all the controversy was Fumu offhandedly remarking about cheating on her diet. This joke would've never flown in America, especially not when people are far more critical of diets and diet culture being targeted at young girls.
• No one in Koi Kaze seems uncomfortable by the fact that Nanoka is sixteen and her boyfriend is twenty-seven, they only ever bring up the fact they're siblings. A large amount of the Squick the series induces comes from the age gap combined with the incest. If Nanoka was six years older, it wouldn't be nearly as uncomfortable to Western viewers, while Japanese viewers see it as, while not the norm anymore, certainly not as much of an issue, especially with Japanese gender roles praising a hard-working husband having a supportive, healthy wife, preferably young and capable of giving birth to many equally healthy children.
• A smaller but no less striking example happened in K-On! during the episode where the characters are supposed to take portraits for their future passes. Most of the episode is concerned with Yui's bad haircut, but an off-hand comment goes along the lines of "If you can't prove your hair to be naturally non-black, the school will dye it black before taking the photo." This kind of thing has happened in Real Life Japan where it's accepted, while Western parents and child services would take out the Torches and Pitchforks.
• Part of the drama in Kotoura-san comes with the fact Haruka doesn't (and can't) use Tatemae to keep her (and others) secrets to herself, due to the way her Mind-reading powers works—she can't turn it off, nor can she distinguish between words and thoughts—and with the Tatemae being an important part of the Japanese culture, it's no wonder why she's rejected by her peers.
• Lady!!: It's implied that Arthur has feelings for Lynn, but settled for Sarah out of sympathy for her illness. This is unlike in the anime where Arthur and Sarah mutually had feelings for one another. Because they have a large age gap, this rubbed many fans the wrong way.
• Lady Jewelpet: Momona's crush on her first cousin isn't seen as weird or squicky in Japan.
• Laid-Back Camp:
  • Nadeshiko is revealed to have been Formerly Fat due to her eating habits. The fact that she lost weight after her sister Sakura suddenly got fed up with her eating so much and made her bike laps around Lake Hamana can come across as unnecessarily harsh body-shaming to a Western audience.
    • Usually, the counterpoint to this is that Nadeshiko is much healthier, happier, and possesses immense stamina thanks to this treatment.
  • The fact that the club jokes about Ms. Toba's alcoholism is eyebrow raising, given a teacher with her problems would rapidly be fired from a western school.
  • Chiaki, a high school student, works part-time in a liquor store. In America and most other countries, that's flat-out illegal. In some American states, minors can't even enter liquor stores, regardless of if they're with an adult or not.
• The Laughing Salesman:
  • One episode of the 1989 series featured Moguro getting a woman's boss, who has been sexually harassing her, fired, under the condition that she never dates another man again. The episode's conflation of sexual harassment and consensual relationships as well as the woman's punishment comes across much harsher to a modern audience.
  • The 1989 series' final episode, "The Way of the Husband and Wife", has Moguro encounter a man called Kaji Daisuke and his wife; Kaji wants to be able to help out around the house more because both of them are employed, so Moguro gives him lessons on how to be better at housework, with the warning that he mustn't forget that he's only supposed to be doing his share of the chores, not doing all of the housework for her. When he decides to quit his job and focus on the housework after his wife gets a higher-paying promotion, Moguro DON's him by making him pregnant with the child they wanted to have. In an era where stay-at-home househusbands have been normalized, this punishment feels rather unwarranted. It admittedly loses some of its sting because both Kaji and his wife seem to be perfectly happy even despite the oddness of their situation.
• Little Ghost Q-Taro: The manga chapter "The Collection" had Q-Taro spraying black paint with a paintbrush to anyone for a face-print collection, with humor related to Blackface comes across as more disturbing to Western viewers or a modern audience.
• Love Hina:
  • The fact that the majority of the cast is under 18 yet not living with their parents or family will raise a bit of eyebrows in the West — one can argue for Naru being emancipated, but not so much for the others — especially Shinobu, who's the youngest of the girls at only 13 years old. However, in Japan, this is not that strange at all: children are given a lot of independence since very early age, and it's not rare for high school students to live away from their parents' houses in student inns like in Love Hina, or even in a small apartment if their families can afford it.
  • Motoko often grapples with Tomboy Angst and feels that she's a failure as a woman because she's not girly enough. This is rooted in Japan's generally strict views on gender roles, and it doesn't help that she comes from a traditional family.
• Love Lab: The blackface scene. There's no way they would have gotten away with that on an American show.
• Love Live! Sunshine!!: While Chika using a lollipop to lure Ruby out of hiding was intended to be Played for Laughs and cuteness, some viewers were disturbed by the fact that it is a common tactic used by kidnappers and child predators to attract children.
• Lovely★Complex: A modern viewer or reader will consider Seiko a trans girl and will treat her as such, but her handling is somewhat haphazard; while she's specifically told that she's not disgusting and there's nothing wrong with her, and her femininity is encouraged by most of the cast, the subtitles and certain translations will refer to her with he/him pronouns, and call her a false woman.
• Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow is about an English family that immigrates to Australia and is set in the 1800s. It's depiction◊ of the Aboriginal Australian man is very racist. When Lucy-May meets him, he's portrayed as wearing no clothes except loincloth, as are the Aborigine children. He's also incapable of speaking the same language as Lucy May, so instead of bothering to learn his name, Lucy May simply gives him a nickname ("Hercules") and addresses him by that for the whole show. The only positive thing about his portrayal is that Lucy May treats him with kindness and no different from the way she treats fellow white people. She doesn't judging him by his inability to speak her language and happily strikes a friendship with him over flying a kite.
• Lucky Star: As Yutaka and Minami become closer as friends, Yutaka tries to call Minami by her given name instead of formally addressing her as "Iwasaki-san", but keeps backtracking on it out of nervousness. It isn't until Minami offers to help Yutaka out if she gets sick at the fireworks show that Yutaka is moved enough to call her "Minami-chan". While calling someone by their first name isn't considered a big deal in most western countries, in Japan people are much more formal about addressing others and will only call each other by given name if they're especially close.
• Lupin III:
  • Lupin III: Part 1: The sexualized torture Fujiko goes through at the hands of Mister X is played at least partially for fanservice. Also, she and Lupin make cracks about it after the fact, with Lupin joking that he should have gotten there later after seeing her torn up clothes. While such types of fanservice can still be found in anime today, it's much less acceptable in the 2020s than the 70s. In modern times, sexual violence of any kind is a fair bit less likely to be portrayed in such a way, and it would likely be treated with a heavier gravity by characters in universe than it was here. That being said, the torture machine was brought back in the "Is Lupin Still Burning?" OVA as a celebration of the franchise, so this particular instance may invoke a Grandfather Clause.
  • Lupin III: Part II
    • In one episode, Lupin wears brown-face to disguise himself as a custodian in the Egyptian museum. This would definitely not fly in today's media due to the blatant racism.
    • In another, Zenigata dresses as a Native American, which didn't mean much in the 70s, but in much later years would be deemed inappropriate, especially since he does the Battle Cry.
• Lycoris Recoil: Among the critiques the series receives from western fans is the fact that even though DA is portrayed as unethical even by those aligned with it, those around it aren't nearly as willing to defy or try to end DA as would be expected if a group like DA was to be operating in a country like America. This stems from a difference in views on authority and stability between the two cultures as Japan is far more collectivist, focused on the greater good over the individual right, and far, far less prone to outright distrust of the government and elites than the West is, meaning that where Japan would see an extreme action taken that is worth critique but should still be worked with for the greater good, the West would see as unfathomable corruption that needs to be taken down the moment its discovered. The fact that, while both cultures have a history of protest, western protests are much more prominent, successful, and known for having extreme actions taken against them means that western fans have additional concerns of what the Lycoris and LilyBell would be used for instead of the strictly counter-terrorism and crime that the Japanese would perceive them as being used for.
• Mad Bull 34: Sleepy's extreme Cowboy Cop tendencies were already a pretty tough sell to people who believed in due process back in the 90s, but with the new 10s and especially the new 20s bringing increased attention to Police Brutality and corruption in law enforcement Sleepy's antics become a much harder pill to swallow... and that's before getting into the series's treatment of women and minorities, which includes such tropes as Missing White Woman Syndrome, Disposable Sex Worker, and Scary Black Man. Given that it's a view into the life of American police officers in crime infested New York city as written by Japanese writers this was almost impossible to avoid.
• Magical Girl Site: Kiyoharu is a sympathetic transgender character, however the way characters address her invokes this. Even her close best friend Kosame will casually out her with something along the lines of "Kiyoharu looks like a girl" or "Kiyoharu is actually a boy". Getting mockingly called a crossdresser, however, is a Berserk Button of Kiyoharu's. This type of casual misgendering is often considered offensive in many places and being Forced Out of the Closet is frowned upon.
• Magic Knight Rayearth has a young girl named Aska wanting to be beautiful more than anything in the world. She is asked whom does she want to be beautiful for. In a Western country such as the USA, wanting to be beautiful for its own sake or to be healthy in order to do things you enjoy would have been enough of an explanation. But Japan, having tighter gender roles, a woman's beauty was more for a man than for herself.
• Majokko Meg-chan:
  • In the first episode, Papa slaps Meg when she argues with him, and Mami claims that he wouldn't have done it if he didn't love Meg. Albeit he was immediately sorry and did apologize for it, such an act would be called abuse today.
  • Also, Rabi's inappropriate behavior often goes unpunished, he gets away with much of it without so much as a scolding, and it is uncomfortable now to watch him try various schemes to peek at Meg naked or in her underwear. And also in episode one, Papa basically tells Meg that Rabi's antics are just something she has to put up with because she's the older sister and is supposed to be more mature. Not such a great message for today's girls.
• Massugu ni Ikou:
  • In Japan, it's fairly common to keep your dogs tied up in the yard. In countries like America this used to be common, but has come under fire for animal neglect reasons.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: While Michal was intended to be sympathetic to viewers because of her loneliness and emotional instability, one of the things she does is tell Kaito that she'll die if he doesn't be with her. It has since been recognized that using threats of suicide/self-harm to control someone is a form of emotional abuse^note Refer to "Self-Punisher's Threat". The fact that her response to rejection is to guilt-trip Kaito proves that she isn't mentally ready for a relationship, but nobody calls her out on this.
• The translators not realizing this created issues for the dub of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. In the original version, when Kobayashi rejects Tohru's romantic propositioning early on, it's with the claim of "But I'm a woman." To the dubbing team, this read as homophobic, and so it was changed to "I'm not into women or dragons." The issue is, in Japan, serious same-sex romantic relationships are not nearly as normalized as they are in modern America, and consequently, in many Yuri Genre works, it is something of a Stock Phrase for one of the characters to say some variant of "But we're both girls." The implication is not meant to be intolerance, but rather naïveté: the character never truly considered that two women could be involved in a serious relationship, that was the main obstacle for her forming one, and her partner will go on to prove her wrong. This made the change unexpectedly controversial because it changes the meaning of Kobayashi's statement to suggest she does fully understand women can get involved in those kinds of relationships, but considers herself straight regardless. At that point, Tohru's pursuit of her despite a stated Incompatible Orientation reads as much less sympathetic.
• Mischievous Twins: The Tales of St. Clare's: Colin decides to play pretend, and he chooses to imagine he's an Indian chief. He wears a crude feather crown while also doing things like screaming and climbing roofs. If this was aired today, it would have been reviled for being a racist depiction of Native Americans.
• Miss Machiko, a kids' show about 8 year olds sexually molesting their teacher, who can't keep her clothing on or intact for more than a few hours. Somewhat tame to be honest, although the Parent Service is blatant, and the show completely averts Barbie Doll Anatomy – Machiko's nipples are visible in the opening credits. Oh, and also the female students are involved in fanservice scenes despite their age.
• Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku: In chapter 21, Hikage and Hinata talk about dieting, with the punchline being that neither of them need to diet because their usual meals are so scarce that they never get fat. While this comes across as humorous to Japanese audiences, Western audiences would be more likely to raise an eyebrow at Hinata talking to a nine-year-old about dieting, and the punchline being about starving people in poverty being thin enough to not need a diet.
• Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors is a World War two propaganda film that features Japanese folk hero Momotaro and loads of adorable animals going to war and brutally killing British soldiers. Japanese viewers of the time would see Momotaro as a hero. Modern Japanese, citizens of a country that officially doesn't have an army, cringe.
• My Deer Friend Nokotan: Anko's Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies towards her own sister Torako tend to come across as far more divisive to Western viewers, thanks to siscon jokes being seen as far more Squick-inducing (even if both countries view such a relationship as equally, extremely taboo). While plenty Western viewers may still find her antics funny, with them growing on some that didn’t at first, plenty consider her the worst aspect of the show, in smaller cases even enough to turn them off of the show altogether.
• My First Girlfriend Is a Gal: In the manga, after her feelings for Junichi become clear, Yuki convinces Yui that she needs to quit live streaming. For Western readers, this can seem like a crazy leap of logic, but in East Asian countries, female entertainers (like idols and, indeed, some streamers) often remain single due to Contractual Purity, as they are expected to treat their fans as their "boyfriends", and it's considered "disrespectful" to the audience to give their love/attention to another man. Ranko, however, proves that her audience already knew she was totally in love with "Doggy" and was actually rooting for her to get her man.
• My-HiME:
  • An interesting case is that of Shizuru Fujino. Fan opinion on her seems divided after her Face–Heel Turn over her feelings being rejected, but the image portrayed in the same scene seems to depend on background. In Japan, Shizuru is confronted for three major breaches of behavior: abandoning her position as student council president to take care of Natsuki, being a lesbian, and "taking advantage" of Natsuki as she slept. The first is a dereliction of a duty Shizuru willingly took up, which is a big thing in Japan's duty-centered society. The second is a sign of immaturity, implying that Shizuru is acting childishly by pursuing this kind of thing at her age. The third is both true and false: while Shizuru did kiss Natsuki while she was sleeping, the greater implication of sex going on was incorrect and Natsuki is misunderstanding/jumping to conclusions. Nonetheless, stealing Natsuki's Sacred First Kiss without her consent is a serious faux pas. However, in many a Western market (except Italy), Shizuru's status is more ambiguous. The first charge of dereliction of duty seems rather frivolous, as most would consider saving a friend from a potentially life-threatening or major injury to be more important than student council duties. The second is similarly frivolous to most, with Shizuru's biggest offense being Cannot Spit It Out. The third, again, is generally misinterpreted to imply that Shizuru actually did rape Natsuki, but the concept of kissing her while she's asleep is not considered a big deal. This ironically leads to a conflicting view of Haruka who is accusing Shizuru. Either she's being a dutiful, proper moral standard calling her rival out on her misbehavior, or she's being a cruel, oversensitive shrew blowing the whole thing out of proportion. There's her later snap and killing spree, but even that's a debate for another page.
  • Interestingly enough, Yukino and Haruka call out Shizuru on different issues in this scene. Haruka is the one who complains about Shizuru abandoning her duties, and when Shizuru merely replies that she will give up her position to Haruka, Yukino complains that Shizuru has not properly acknowledged Haruka as a rival despite her efforts. Yukino then mentions that she saw Shizuru kiss Natsuki as she slept, as well as something else earlier (although the word "rape" is never used). After Shizuru mocks Yukino for voyeuristic tendencies, Haruka slaps Shizuru and then says she and Natsuki are disgusting for acting in such a way with each other (by contrast, Yukino is implied to have an unadmitted and most likely unrequited crush on Haruka), and then Shizuru slaps her in response and says that it was only something she did on her own. One has to wonder why Haruka would blame Natsuki if Yukino is correct that it was rape, unless both have different ideas about what happened. Compare the following quotes.
    Yukino: I saw what you did, like how you kissed her back there. I saw what you did to Natsuki as she slept. How could you do that, to someone who trusts you as a friend?
    Haruka: Two women behaving like that with each other, you're filthy. Both you AND^note emphasized in the dub Natsuki Kuga!
  • If an English-speaking viewer has seen only the dub (in which Shizuru has a cultured Southern accent), one gets the impression that her descent into Psycho Lesbianism is more a result of "I'm a lesbian, and all lesbians are psychos, so that means I'm a psycho" kind of deal, with the conservative implications of her accent accounted for. Japan has some slightly... dated views on homosexuality. Also see My-Otome, which takes place in a world where lesbians are much more accepted, and Shizuru is a significantly more sane character – as well as a shameless flirt.
  • In one of the audio dramas, several 15-17-year-old characters drink alcohol on Mai's birthday. However, in this case, Natsuki is shocked that Aoi has alcohol in her room, some of the people present point out that it's not allowed under school rules, and Nagi breaks the fourth wall to tell the viewers they should only drink once they're 20.
• My Neighbor Seki: Yokoi is often hung up on what's appropriate for boys and girls to do, with one example being the Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits entry on the main page. This is the product of Japan's more strictly defined gender roles, but may rub some Westerners the wrong way. At the same time, Seki directly goes against those roles by unashamedly playing with doll houses and knitting, which depending on how he's supposed to be viewed by the audience, may be Values Resonance instead.

• Nana & Kaoru:
  • The lack of Safe Words in Nana and Kaoru's BDSM relationship may raise some eyebrows amongst American readers, especially those who are familiar with the tenets of Safe, Sane, and Consensual. Safe words are far less common in the European and Japanese S&M scenes, where considerably greater responsibility is placed on the dom for the safety and enjoyment of a session.
  • In some ways this can be seen as a sign of an even deeper divide. In America, acknowledging sexual desires is the norm, where in Japan it's looked down upon to be too open about your desires. So, where many Western kinksters could read this book wondering "why doesn't Nana just SAY she wants this..." in Japan it's considered quite normal that she isn't able to.
• Naruto:
  • The core reason why a substantial part of the Western fandom hates Sasuke moreso than the Japanese fandom. Many eastern cultures place greater emphasis on respect and honoring one's extended family. As Sasuke's revenge quest can be seen as piety to his clan, many Japanese fans are more willing to accept decisions as honorable or at the least understandable. While a point can be made about the author saying that he is self-centered in an interview, it doesn't change the fact that since it is not clearly said in the story his actions will look a lot more understandable for people in the Japanese fandom not aware of said interview, hence the different reception.
  • An early chapter had Naruto impersonate Sasuke so that he could attempt (and failed) to get a kiss from Sakura. It was seen as harmless comedy back when it was written in 1999, but by today's standards, trying to kiss a girl under false pretenses is seen as incredibly creepy.
  • Rock Lee is shown using the Drunken Fist in Part One, when he's 13-14. In the coming years, portraying underage substance abuse is considered less acceptable even in Japan, but it is outright unacceptable in the West. The English dub's broadcast on Cartoon Network had to remove this detail, and so did the English manga.
  • Many fans groaned at a flashback showing Kurenai's father telling her to stay out of the fight with the Nine-Tailed Fox because she must one day have children. While this is extremely sexist from a Western viewpoint, it is somewhat different for Japan. Namely, perpetuating one's lineage is seen as extremely significant in Asian cultures, and having one's bloodline die out is seen as equal to not existing. The series also has an overarching theme of passing the Will of Fire to the next generation. It's telling that, while the 'have a child' speech was seemingly only directed at Kurenai, there were plenty of male characters prevented from fighting, too. Conversely, some female ninja, such as Iruka's mother, went into battle and died (though Kurenai was about sixteen at the time.)
  • Itachi's teenage girlfriend was an Uchiha named Izumi. They're distant relatives from the same clan (which is why he has to kill her when he massacres his clan), but many non-Japanese fans are still uncomfortable with their relationship.
  • In general, the reveal that Naruto and Sasuke are "reincarnations" of past historical figures tend to spark a groan from a lot of Western audiences, who see it as them being simply preordained to be amazing or working with a cheat sheet, or start asking why no other character in the story is reincarnated. The meaning to Japanese audiences is meant to be more that Naruto and Sasuke are just the latest form of a pair of archetypes (a hard worker and a genius prodigy) in a cycle of Eternal Recurrence, rather than that they are the exact same guys as the prior incarnations but in new bodies.
  • Naruto Gaiden: Karin keeping Sarada's umbilical cord in a box has Squicked out more than one Western reader. However, it's a Japanese tradition called "Hesono o": after the umbilical cord dries and falls off, it's placed in a special wooden box and kept both as a memento and as a well-wish for the child. And it's not restricted to Japan, either; many other Eastern countries have this tradition. It's similar to the Western tradition of cutting a lock of hair from the newborn baby and keeping it for good luck.
• Invoked in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Asuka (who is half-white and grew up in Germany) is utterly baffled when she discovers that her bedroom door has no lock, which Misato states is in keeping with Japanese customs. While true at the time, this would seem very bizarre to most Western viewers, German or not; Americans in particular greatly value their privacy. This changed after the 2000s, however, with many houses in anime and manga being depicted with locks on every door and only very old/classical Japanese architecture buildings still lacking them (which also led to Accidental Pervert becoming less common).
• In Noragami, Mutsumi is bullied by her classmates simply due to her supposedly self-absorbed way of talking and her teachers favoring her. Mutsumi often refers to herself in third person, which in Japanese culture is seen as narcissistic. However, the manga and anime play it up as if she deserves this, making it seem like her fault for not reaching out to her classmates when they were telling her to kill herself. It comes off very offsetting to many Western viewers to see her getting bullied for such trivial reasons like this.
• Nutcracker Fantasy: The romance between Clara and Fritz in both the Japanese and English versions is a sore spot for many viewers because A. In the Japanese version, they're Kissing Cousins, which was changed in the English dub to have Fritz be a friend of Uncle Drosselmeyer, and B. While their ages aren't specified, Clara is definitely still a child while Fritz is visibly older and at the very least seems to live by himself, wheras in the original story he seemed to be around fifteen. The incestuous issue ironically could have been avoided entirely if the creators had made Drosselmeyer Clara's godfather instead of uncle like in the source material (Fritz in this version is the Nutcracker who just so happens to share the same name as Clara's brother from the original story). As for the possibility that Fritz is an adult romancing a child, the English dub tried to somewhat downplay that as well, changing some lines of dialogue from Clara to be less fawning over Fritz and greatly shortening the ending of the movie where they get together, but they still shot themselves in the foot by casting a middle-aged man in the role who defiinitely sounds much older than Clara. The story does take place in the 1800's where these sorts of relationships were definitely more common, but it's still weird from a modern perspective.
• Oh! Family: Being made and set during the 80s, this series tends to make jokes about gay people that wouldn't be considered as funny today.
  • Kay can't go five minutes without mentioning his homosexuality and hook-ups. We are also supposed to laugh any time he brings home a boyfriend, because his relationships always fail.
  • Ralph identifying as gay, until he meets the right woman and dumps his boyfriend for her. No, he's not bisexual, the series explicity states that until he met Fee, he "thought he was gay".
  • James' homosexuality is also Played for Laughs. His boyfriend, Leo, is a ridiculous-looking effeminate gay man, and we're supposed to laugh at his vitriolic hatred of women. He also demands that his heterosexual son Ralph exclusively date men, which plays into the stereotype that LGBT people want to "brainwash" children into being gay.
• The Old Crocodile: The Egyptian natives’ stereotypical depiction isn’t as big an issue in Japan as it is in the Western world.
• Omamori Himari: Rinko Kuzaki would regularly punish her childhood friend, Yuto Amakawa, either by slapping him, punching him, or hitting him with a nailed baseball bat, over reasons beyond his control (namely his fetish for big-breasted girls like Himari or Lizlet, unknowingly triggering Rinko's A-Cup Angst). This type of behavior is seen by Japanese audiences as cute and endearing, due to how common the Belligerent Sexual Tension trope is in most romance animes (especially the harem kind), whereas Western audiences would consider this Domestic Abuse regardless of the gender.
• One Piece:
  • As per typical of most Shonen series, an uninitiated American might be surprised that such a bright, colorful show that's ostensibly "made for kids" (according to Oda himself) features swearing, alcohol use, heavy tobacco use, scantily clad women, and the occasional Family-Unfriendly Violence like bloody mid-combat amputations — all of which have increased over the series' run. The most dissonant value though would probably have to be the buxom, Stripperific, and Male Gaze prone Rebecca (among a few other teens like Vivi and Shirahoshi, who often had the 19/21-year-old Sanji hitting on them) who's only 16-years-old, which would be a major no-no on a kid's network in the West. So, it's no surprise that, aside from Funimation, this show has largely been Bowdlerised whenever it's green-lit for America, and have outright but given up on editing it for kids. If the show is to air it is to be aired/streamed uncut.
  • It's not uncommon in One Piece to see a loving parental figure hit their child at least once or even actually beat them frequently, such as Garp, Zeff, or Bellmere. At the time, disciplining through corporal punishment in Japan was largely seen as perfectly acceptable as long as it was warranted and done to make the kid a better person. Out West, however, this depiction of parenting is far more likely to be scrutinized as child abuse regardless of the preceding circumstances, to the point where the 4Kids dub censored scenes of Bellemere physically disciplining Nami and Nojiko.
  • Romances between adults and young teenagers are treated as normal throughout the series, such as Kyros getting Happily Married to Scarlett when he was 25 and she was 16. Even the one-sided examples, such as 29 year-old Boa Hancock falling in love with 17 year-old Luffy, while Played for Laughs, are never treated as predatory. While the Arranged Marriage between 16 year-old Pudding and 21 year-old Sanji is portrayed negatively due to them being forced into it and how it exists to serve Big Mom's nefarious goals, the age gap never comes up as a reason against it, and Sanji being attracted to her (alongside other 16 year-old girls like Shirahoshi) isn't treated as creepy. In the West, however, such age gap romances are considered ephebophilic, including in areas where the age of consent is 16 or 17, and Western readers are more likely to be squicked as a result.
  • The ending of the Skypeia arc, which has the Skypeians and native Shandians live in the Upper Yard together, is rather divisive in the west especially among those who believe in restorative justice. Detractors argue that the Skypeians got off easy and should've given the Upper Yard back to the Shandians. Similarly Luffy and Nami stopping Aisa from attacking Gan Fall while inside Nola and Nami's subsequent speech to Aisa about how Gan Fall is not responsible for the past is divisive in the west with detractors arguing that Nami is tone policing Aisa. Conversly, supporters argue that the ending is consistent with series' rejection of collective guilt and that Nami's speech to Aisa is more about having Aisa realize that neither she nor the present day Skypeians and Shandians have to inherit the 400 year war and that the present day Skypeians and Gan Fall are not responsible for the crimes their ancestors have committed, in addition to pointing out that Gan Fall expressed guilt for what happened and is trying to make amends.
• Papillon, a manga about a handsome guidance counselor who helps a young girl gain confidence in herself, contains quite a lot of scenes wherein he makes very sexual comments, grabs her breasts or butt, puts his head in her lap, etc. When she screams or gets mad, he says that he's only joking. It's always played for laughs, and the girl is attracted to him, so it supposedly seems like harmless flirting to a Japanese reader. However, it looks like nothing but sexual harassment to a Western audience, especially because the man is one of her teachers and almost ten years older than she is.
• Papillon Rose: The R concept's villains are all trans women, with the text not being much kinder to trans lesbian Papillon Adonis (her civilian name is Futanari, a controversial term for fantasy-intersex women), and noting that antagonist Shiorintie was reborn with her ideal body like it's a problem. Suffice to say that this is all considered a lot less funny, being recognized as perpetuating harmful and transphobic stereotypes.
• According to Persia, the Magic Fairy, "Africans" wear barely any clothing, are all close to animals and live as cavemen. Other character state that the main reason Persia is such a Wild Child is because she was raised in an "African culture" instead of her parent's traditional Japanese culture. The portrayal of black characters◊ is even worse.
• Pet Shop of Horrors:
  • Pet Shop of Horrors runs into a lot of values dissonance, as many of its episodes have an odd, twisted kind of moral to them. They often come off as Count D being a bloodthirsty bastard rather than an Aesop-dispenser. Sometimes, it's unclear if this is dissonance between Western and Japanese values, Count D's and the other characters' values, or the readers' and the mangaka Akino's values. But in most cases, we're clearly supposed to find Count D's values unconventional and shocking.
  • A good example is one episode where the man who has "vengeance" visited on him is implied throughout to have murdered his wife by pushing her over the railing of a cruise ship. Turns out she jumped, because she overheard him talking to the woman he was actually in love with. It seems that she was a huge bitch who always had to have whatever she wanted, and she decided she wanted him and railroaded him into it. She became "heartbroken" at their words and killed herself. The story still seems to treat him as if he's to blame, and his fate is treated as a Karmic Death.
  • Also, our very first introduction to Count D in the manga chapter "Dream": Angelique's actions may have been seen as selfish and overly emotional to a Japanese audience, but to many Americans she seemed to be motivated by love for her pet, and her punishment came across as over-the-top cruel. Yes, she broke the rules. But even if she hadn't, her bird would still have been eviscerated, and Count D never even warned her.
• The Pokémon franchise:
  • In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, both Misty and Jessie's costumes and designs had to be edited for the English translation, as both characters wear very skimpy and revealing outfits and have large chests. Creator Toshihiro Ono usually writes more mature manga, and he still self-censored some of the art, believing he'd made it too risque. It later was further altered for the foreign releases, though.
  • Magical Pokémon Journey had two gay characters and How I Became a Pokémon Card had a transgender boy as the protagonist in one story. Considering these manga were aimed at children, it wouldn't fly as easily in some places, especially for the time.
  • Pocket Monsters has shown the genitalia of the protagonist and his Pokemon several times. While intended as nothing more than Naked People Are Funny given that most kid-oriented Japanese manga did such kind of joke, nudity is considered inherently sexual in much of the West, making this perhaps the greatest barrier the series has to more widespread exposure.
  • Pokémon the Series:
    • The first Japanese theme song said that "Pokémons can be everywhere, including below that girl's skirt" with "Kyaaaah!" as a punctuation. Today or even at the time outside Japan, those kind of jokes wouldn't fly and would be considered to be sexual harassment. The line wasn't translated for the English dub, but the shot in question with Pikachu running underneath a girl's skirt and her doing a Marilyn Maneuver was kept.
    • Brock's Casanova Wannabe tendencies haven't aged particularly well. While it's never portrayed as a good thing (as he is near constantly humiliated by his friends and Pokemon each time he tries), his habit of intrusively flirting with women he just met out of nowhere is a form of sexual harassment, which has become hard to play for humor, especially when it's a sympathetic protagonist doing it. The only reason this gag was kept in the series' later years despite sexual harassment becoming a more recognizable problem in the 2020s was the Grandfather Clause.
    • In Lt. Surge's only appearance, when Ash and his friends first arrive at his gym, it almost seems like Surge is hitting on Misty… keep in mind Surge is an adult who looks to be at least in his 30s while Misty is only 10. Even as a joke, this would never fly today.
    • Episodes featuring more explicit references to Japanese culture were originally banned in the Korean dubs, due to the tensions between Japan and Korea.
    • A couple of episodes were edited down or even outright banned in English dubs due to sexual themes, especially those involving children (usually Ash's female companions) or other controversial subjects. This includes the dub editing out a joke where Tommy, who was raised by Kangaskhan, asks Misty if he can nurse on her breasts (which is changed in the dub to him asking if she's a person or a Pokémon, with the shot of her breasts removed), episodes involving Jynx before Ruby and Sapphire being removed from U.S. rotation or heavily edited due to Jynx resembling Blackface, and completely banning two episodes: one that featured Misty in a swimsuit contest competing against James, who's in drag with very large Fake Boobs and the other that featured a grown man pointing a gun at Ash.
    • In an episode where Team Rocket steals a Ditto, Jessie tries to get it to transform into her childhood crush by showing it a picture of him, and asking it what he would look like as an adult, all while blushing very heavily. While with some thinking, you can easily infer that she never let go of the crush she had on someone who was at an acceptable age for her at the time, and she simply never saw him as an adult, it being framed this way would definitely raise some eyebrows today.
    • Zoey's behavior and tone of voice toward Dawn were changed in the dub. She acted pleasantly toward Dawn, had a sweeter tone of voice and constantly complimented her. It seemed like she had a crush on Dawn. Zoey's original rough-and-tumble attitude could easily have been misconstrued by the censors as imitable rude behavior and a lack of good sportsmanship, so her overall manner was softened for the dub, adding yet more fuel to the shippers' fire.
    • In the Best Wishes arc, Gym Leader Lenora had an apron that was part of her job as an archaeologist. However, the English dub edited the scenes so that the apron was being carried over Lenora's shoulder, as it resembled the "mammy" stereotype, which is considered racist.
    • In XY, a common criticism of Showcases in the West is that only females doing them made it seem like men are not allowed to be performers nor do things that aren't related to battling with Pokemon in Kalos, especially as the activities didn't have anything that required someone to be female. However, it should be noted that Showcases are a parody of the Idol scene in Japan, where females and males are portrayed very differently, and in general, there are much fewer unisex activities in Japan than in the West. Because Showcases resemble female Idol singing since they are from the perspective of Serena, it would not make sense to the show's native Japanese viewers that males would be doing those so they were left out.
    • The whole deal with censoring Serena's kiss. In Japan, displays of affection such as hugs and kisses are more encouraged to be done in private, with doing so in a public place like an airport being frowned on, or at least shocking. As such, this is a scene that would be avoided for potentially encouraging younger viewers.
    • In one episode, Ash dresses as a Passimian, a lemur-like Pokémon with a dark muzzle. Part of the costume involved Ash painting his face black. It was banned in America because it resembled blackface, which is a bigger issue in America than Japan.
  • Pokémon Adventures: Crystal is going through a Heroic BSoD when she meets her mother, who slaps her back to her senses. A parent hitting their child for any reason, even if it's supposed to be for the child's own benefit, wouldn't really fly with Western audiences like it would for Japanese audiences at the time, so the scene was changed to her giving Crystal a shocking Death Glare instead.
• Power Stone (Studio Pierrot): Ayame referring to Rouge as "that gypsy woman" in an early episode^note When Ayame has sabotaged Rouge's date to the opera with Falcon so that she can go in her place definitely comes off in bad taste by today's standards, given that "gypsy" is now considered a nasty racial slur, on top of the description being entirely incorrect given that Rouge is Middle Eastern rather than Roma.
• As innocent and wholesome as the Pretty Cure franchise is, it has some moments that give western fans pause...
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure has Nagisa tell Mepple "She's not his wife" when he demands he make her food. Most dubs use Bowdlerized Woolseyisms like "I'm not your servant!" in the Blue Water dub to remove this. In fact most of Mepple's more sexist statements are toned down.
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: The second ending, "Ganbalance de Dance", includes a line that basically says, "if you're too negative, you'll get a hunchback (oh, no!)". Needless to say, this comes off as rather insensitive today.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has an interesting angle with its three major pairings, Nozomi/Coco, Komachi/Natts and Urara/Syrup. While Japan sees nothing wrong with the three, younger Western fans love to invoke Die for Our Ship against them. The first problem is the Interspecies Relationship with the pairings as Coco, Natts and Syrup are all secretly animal-style fairies common in the Pretty Cure franchise. The other is their age as the three guys all have some manner of jobs as either humans or fairies — Coco spent time as a teacher, Natts runs a shop and Syrup is a mailperson. Because of this, these fans believe that they're adults and shouldn't be in any sort of pairings with the teenagers. Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~ made this worse when it shows that Coco still has feelings for Nozomi years later and the series ends with the two getting married, leading to these fans accusing Coco of being a groomer.
  • This series, as well as Doki Doki! PreCure and HappinessCharge PreCure!, feature some side characters that come off as truly unfortunate transphobic caricatures by modern standards.
  • HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!:
    • Once again, we have a Teacher/Student Romance situation as a plot point. This time, between the seemingly immortal Physical God Blue and the rather green Megumi. While this plot element eventually builds up to nothing, the fact that the season spent a huge chunk of time to it is enough to bring angry reactions among Westerners.
    • To some, the International Cures can fall under this, since their designs use base-level assumptions of the culture in which they originate from (The Bomber Girls, for example, is a Texas-based Pretty Cure team that has a Caucasian girl dressed in a Native American motif along with her two partners having cowgirl motifs, which would not fly, especially now). And that is not going into the accusations of whitewashing as the Hindi and Egyptian Cures are designed with the same fair skin as everyone else, the only international team with darker skin being the Hawaiian team (and even then, it's not by much compared to everyone else).
• Princess Princess (2002): In Japan, the series is intended as little more than a fresh and harmless Moe work about crossdressing guys. However, it's portrayal of the "Princesses" would be more likely viewed as objectification of transgender people in the West, where due to the historical mistreatment of trans people, the act of crossdressing is generally treated more seriously.
• Princess Sarah: The anime was made to appeal to traditional Japanese values, particularly about respecting one's elders/superiors no matter how abusive, because collective good trumps individual rights, with Miss Minchin's obsession with reputation and monetary gains being portrayed as somewhat understandable despite her inhumane treatment of Sarah. Japanese society's strict adherence towards conformity also explains why Minchin and Lavinia's actions get swept under the rug, unlike in Western countries where child abuse and its psychological ramifications are taken much more seriously. As of The New '20s, even Japan has taken steps in re-assessing the country's archaic values thanks to greater worldwide awareness of school bullying and its long term effects. Because of this, modern viewers tend to find Sarah's all-loving and forgiving nature to be very unrealistic and hard to relate to, while Miss Minchin, whom the anime's director (Fumio Kurokawa) viewed as "sympathetic", is more likely to be judged as an abhorrent monster who should never be allowed to work with children ever again, let alone receive financial support from her victim (something that never happened in the book).
• Promare: From the Japanese crowd, surprisingly. The English dub's version of Galo reviving Lio (particularly the part in the sequence where he's telling the dying Lio to keep clinging onto life) is pretty infamous among fans. One particular line, where Galo tells Lio to "stay with [him]"^note In place of "Kieru na!", or "Don't disappear!", drew eyebrows since its use as a line in rescue or medical settings is uncommon in Japan. It is however known in the romantic "be by my side" context—as such, many fans saw it as a bit of Ship Tease akin to an Anguished Declaration of Love.
• The Go Nagai mecha anime Psycho Armor Govarian has such a horrid depiction of its only Chinese character, Tongari◊, that it looks straight out of a racist caricature from the 1920s. He has a blatantly obvious Non-Standard Character Design, yellow skin, "Asian" eyes and never loses his stereotypical cultural outfit, even when he's in the robot (in contrast to the other characters that don their uniforms). In contrast the Japanese characters look more cutesy and handsome.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • The anime's penultimate episode has Madoka's mother, with a little convincing, allowing her 14-year-old daughter to go out alone into a dangerous superstorm with no explanation beyond "I need to save a friend". It's hard to imagine a Western parent letting their child do such a thing, even without the extra factor of Madoka's best friend having recently died under mysterious circumstances which the mother (correctly) suspects her daughter knows something about. This can put viewers in an awkward situation, because the audience knows Madoka really does need to go on this dangerous quest for ridiculous-sounding reasons—her mother made the right decision, irresponsible as it may seem on the surface. Also, during this scene, Madoka's mother resorts to slapping her to try to get her to come to her senses; parents hitting children was more accepted in Japan at the time than it is in the West.
  • Themes of selflessness and making sacrifices for the greater good are far more common in Japanese works as a whole, but Madoka outright writes them into the laws of the universe. The main divider between whether an action is viewed as good or bad is whether the one performing it is thinking about themselves. This is a big part of why Madoka's tendency to run head-first into danger with no plan or ability to fight is viewed far more negatively in the West. It counts as selfless because she's only thinking of those who need help, but not about those who will need to help HER.
  • Kyosuke's attitude towards his hand being non-functioning after his accident has him pity himself, angrily snap at Sayaka for constantly bringing him violin music to listen to, which feels like torture for him because he can't play it anymore, and to overall consider himself worthless. His attitude comes off as whining and annoying to many people in the West because as tragic as it is that he lost the use of a hand and can't play his instrument anymore, he's taking out his anger at someone who isn't at fault. His attitude is better received in Japan due to them still being rather discriminatory and ostracizing to people with physical disabilities (compare A Silent Voice), and his inability to use a hand would be seen as not being able to do much for society as two healthy hands could.
  • Much like in Bleach, Mami Tomoe and Homura Akemi are teenagers being allowed to live alone. While Homura's implied, but not outright stated to be an orphan, Mami is explicitly an orphan. Rather than either of these girls being in foster care, they're allowed to live completely alone with no supervision of any kind, something that would be seen as grossly irresponsible overseas.
  • In Puella Magi Oriko Magica, Oriko is completely ostracized from her peers and told she should drop out of school from shame after her father was caught embezzling funds and killed himself in shame. From a Western perspective this is ridiculous, but in Japan children of criminals are often assumed to be no better than their parents.
  • After her father killed himself, Oriko is left to fend for herself in her childhood home, and even worse, she has family who could take her in but are forced not to by Oriko's cruel grandfather. In the West, the Mikuni family would get investigated for Parental Neglect for not taking care of Oriko.

• Queen's Blade: While not as notable as other series, there's a notable point of contention about some plot points in both the gamebooks and also the TV series regarding the Vances, especially Leina, at least for some Western viewers: Most of the drama and tragedy from Rebellion could be avoided if Leina had a bit of common sense regarding her own family, since it's very clear she already knows her sisters aren't exactly the nicest or the most stable people around. Especially Claudette, as she already knows all the crap her sister has to endure due to the fact she's an illegitimate daughter. Her reasoning for trusting the entire Continent to her anyway is similar to the motivation of Sasuke Uchiha, albeit not as harsh: It's due to her filial piety towards her own family, even if it is NOT perfect in any way, something even her own mother acknowledges in a flashback scene in the second season. In Japan, the concept of filial piety is given much more importance than in the West.
• Rascal the Raccoon: Rocky, an African-American boxer who taught Sterling some self defense is drawn having big, pink lips. This was corrected in other black characters from next WMT entries like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980) and Tales of Little Women.
• Played for Laughs in Reborn! (2004). In the Italian mafia, a subordinate kissing their boss on the cheek is not unusual. In Japan (and done to Tsuna by newly-introduced Chrome), it's Ship Tease.
• Re:CREATORS: While characters such as Hikayu are a dime a dozen in Japan and a mainstay of the country's output of fiction, in some western countries the sexualization of such characters is seen as Squicky and exploitative. It probably explains why the series' inclusion of such a character, while seen in Japan as a way to reference a common facet of the country's entertainment media, perturbed several foreign viewers.
• In Rent-A-Girlfriend, Kazuya gets a visit from his father Kazuo, who confronts him about hiding some secret from him, then punches him in the face in a fit of anger. In Western countries, this would come off as abuse, but Japanese countries at the time would be more tolerant of a parent hitting a child. In fact, while Kazuya's annoyed about this coming as a result of a misunderstanding^note Kazuo thought Kazuya had borrowed money from his girlfriend Chizuru, when, in fact, Kazuya was paying her for a rental. Since Kazuya doesn't want him to find out about Chizuru being a rental girlfriend, he doesn't correct him, he understands that his father would be angry if he had actually done what Kazuo thought he had. In fact, Kazuya believes that his family spoiled him while growing up.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena:
  • Anthy hits this hard in America, where a dark-skinned person being treated as property by light-skinned people brings up some uncomfortable cultural memories that Japan doesn't have (and where dark skin color typically indicates that someone is Indian, for whom these aren't stereotypes, especially not in Japan).
  • Chigusa's backstory involving her rage at Masaomi choosing the girly Koto over her, and her subsequent hatred of passive, feminine girls, from the video game makes more sense when one considers how strict Japanese gender roles are (especially since her story took place in the past, when they were even stricter). Her dominant personality and masculine interests are seen as "undesirable" and something to pressure girls out of in Japan, and her height, which of course she can't help, would be seen as extremely intimidating. Chigusa was not just lashing out that a guy chose another girl over her, but lashing out because it seemed everything about her being undesirable was confirmed.
• Rilakkuma and Kaoru: Western viewers are less sympathetic to Kaoru's struggles, as most of her concerns have to do with living as a woman in Japan (with most of her experiences drawn from real-life struggles from the female staff). One instance that causes a divide is Kaoru being desperate to finding a boyfriend and getting married (more specifically the Quitting to Get Married and Old Maid tropes). In Japan, there is a lot of pressure and expectation for women to marry and eventually quit their job to take care of their children, while in the West, it's widely accepted to work while having children.
• Romeo's Blue Skies: Dante and some other members of Black Brothers making fun of Nikita for joining in a boy's group like the Wolf Pack. Something like this could be seen as sexist to contemporary viewers.
• In Rurouni Kenshin, the main character Himura Kenshin is 28 years old, while his love interest and eventual wife Kamiya Kaoru is 17. Such an age gap would be seen as inappropriate if not outright illegal in countries like North America, but it's more common in Japan, especially during the time of the manga's setting.
• Sarazanmai:
  • Tooi is shown to grow and sell marijuana (though he just refers to it as "herb" in the subs, possibly the Japanese equivalent of "weed") and also carries a gun around. Though he's obviously too young to be doing any of those things, most North American fans are likely to just make jokes about it (especially since cannabis is now legal in Canada). However, Japan has much stricter laws on drugs and gun ownership, so the fact that Tooi is shown with marijuana at all is much more serious from a Japanese perspective.
  • Kazuki's issues over feeling disconnected from his family after finding out he's adopted may come off as Wangst to western fans since his adoptive family clearly loves and cares for him and his birth mother seems content that he has a good family to look after him, but it's more understandable when you take into account how being adopted, happily or otherwise is much more stigmatizing in Japan for various social and legal reasons.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Or rather, cultural beliefs dissonance. Nozomu is Squicked out by the Christmas holiday because he was born on November 4 and thus follows the still-prevalent Asian belief that the average human gestation period is 10 months and 10 days...thus he thinks he was conceived on Christmas (which, in Japan, is celebrated more as a romantic holiday rather than being about religion or family). It's even worse for Kageru, since he was born on December 24 and thus believes he was conceived on Valentine's Day—two romantic holidays in one stone.
• Sazae-san:
  • Much of Sazae's home life seems quaint by modern standards, and even in Japan, the series is enjoyed primarily as nostalgia for the Showa-era boom times. This is in contrast to the comic's postwar origins and Sazae's (for the time and place) extremely liberated, feminist views.
  • In an early episode, when Tarao is being bratty, Sazae punishes him by locking him in the shed for several hours, and even forgets he's in there until after dinner. This wouldn't fly in modern days for multiple reasons, even in Japan.
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: What ultimately drives many newcomers away from the show, in favor of its reboot, Gatchaman Crowds. There are so many instances of assault, physical/verbal abuse, and sexism (mostly towards women), that they unfortunately sour the show's well-intended environmentalist message. Examples include:
  • Ken punching a young girl in the stomach in an early episode did not earn him too many favors in Western fandom. Neither did him slapping the same girl later in the episode, or him slapping Jun in episode 40 (to be fair here he was reprimanding her for running off on her own and almost getting killed and making the rest of the team worry).
  • Jun being slapped by Joe in another episode tends to get more cringe reactions, along with another slap moment from Ken in "Gatchaman II". In moments that aren't related to her being slapped, her fright over a robotic ant in an early episode or other moments where she comes off less strong or relying on Ken for advice tend to be critiqued. The "Battle of the Planets" and "G-Force" adaptations attempted to vindicate her by either cutting these moments of panic or changing her lines to make her sound more knowledgeable or tougher. All of these can definitely be chalked up to different standards of the era and culture, though it can still be jarring to see.
• Scum's Wish: While it is normal in many Sinosphere-influenced cultures to refer to older friends as older sisters or older brothers, some Western viewers have found Hanabi's regular use of the word "Onii-chan" for Narumi rather annoying because of the creation of the erroneous Brother–Sister Incest perception, especially when combined with the 2010s trend for Little Sister Heroines. Everything becomes even more embarrassing when for the author uses the same colors for Mugi's girlfriends as for him. And then with Ecchan, there comes a Kissing Cousins subplot...
• Seito Shokun! is hailed as a feminist work for many reasons, but many readers find it icky that the main character Nacky gets into a relationship with her former student Tobio, who is eleven years younger than her. Bear in mind Nacky knew him back when he was a minor.
• Sgt. Frog: This is one reason why the anime ultimately failed to become a hit in North America, despite ADV Films and Funimation's attempts to promote it. While the anime is Tamer and Chaster than the original manga, it still has some moments of fanservice that Americans would consider to be too risque for a kid's show, and a lot of the Japanese jokes are too difficult to understand. Not to mention a lot of fanservice moments involve characters around their young teens.
  Funimation Narrator: Natsumi's a minor, that's inappropriate.
  • The Running Gag of Giroro crushing on Natsumi can come off as creepy since she's about 13 and he's evidently much older.
  • Similarly, Angol Mois crushing on Keroro who she lovingly refers to as "uncle" can be interpreted as incestuous. Though, this is more about how "oji-sama" (a more general term) is translated in English.
  • The above are all lampshaded or played up in the Funimation dub. Though, most moments are still played straight, so it doesn't entirely avoid this.
    • Outside of the dub, Giroro's crush was lampshaded, being called perverted in episode 293 as a joke. Though, this is followed by a similar joke with Tamama's crush on Keroro as the punchline, adding another example to this list.
• Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō:
  • In the rare episode that Shimajiro's mom gets mad at him, she chases him around the house with the implication that he's going to get spanked if caught. In Japan (and a large chunk of Asia for that matter), spanking your own children to discipline them is still acceptable practice. If they had lived in North America, Europe or the Pacific, it would end badly for the Shimano family (as spanking used to be a common punishment and is still used in some territories, but the punishment has been increasingly associated with child abuse). Tellingly, the episode "Dad Is Embarassing" had the scene where she almost slaps Shimajiro edited out in later revisions of the episode due to feedback from western Moral Guardians.
  • Some episodes reveals that the kids are occasionally asked by their parents for a body massage for extra pocket money or some other favors. In the West, this amounts to child labor. In the East, familial piety means the kids are obliged to help soothe dad's aching muscles or mom's headache.
  • Same applies for the fact that Shimajiro and Co. being Free-Range Children and even sometimes helping out with their parents' business (as with Mimirin's and Marurin's case). In Asia, kids are instilled the sense of independence and responsibility at a rather young age, something that isn't normal in modern western society.
  • And then there's the several potty training episodes. Now, potty training episodes are by no means rare in the West^note Little Princess, Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Bear in the Big Blue House had one, and then there’s the legendary It's Potty Time! video. But due to the fact that the show took some strange directions that Western potty training videos averts ^note for example, anthropomorphic toilets and use of scatological humor, combined with the fact that potty training videos tend to end up as cheap humor fodder among teens and young adults, and that the first two Shimajiro videos uploaded to the internet were potty training episodes, the franchise pretty much gained notoriety for that back in the turn of the Millennium when videos on the internet was still a new thing.
  • One CGI episode encourages children to help strangers, throwing the Too Smart for Strangers trope straight out the window. Apparently this is a wholly Japanese thing because the Japanese value close-knit communities and encourages everyone to look out for each other. This is unlikely to end well for the kid outside of Japan.
• Shirobako: Hiraoka, who has several years of experience in the animation industry, is expected to defer to Aoi, a recent college graduate who has all of one anime series under her belt, when he is hired at Musashino Production. While ranking employees based solely on time served with the company is nothing to bat an eyelash at in Japan and Hiraoka doesn't help his case by being a lazy Jerkass about it, most viewers anywhere else in the world would find it absurd that an experienced employee would be ranked the same as an entry-level college graduate with no work experience just because he is new to the company. In the West, new hires with industry experience expect to be placed at higher pay grades, but this concept is not common in Japan.
• Shugo Chara! was a hit shoujo anime in Japan, but this trope is likely why was never dubbed in the West. In addition to a couple of risque jokes and situations, the protagonist is an elementary schooler, one of her love interests is a seventeen-year-old, and said love interest's younger sister has an incestuous crush on him.
• Silver Spoon: A minor but notable case of this is the attitude towards meat-eating. The faculty at the school where the series takes place regularly bribes the students with Mongolian barbecue whenever some big task needs doing, such as when the school's baseball coach motivates the baseball team with meat dinners before important games. When the main character meets a friend from the city, said friend asks incredulously if he can eat as much meat as he likes, since he goes to an agricultural school. All this comes across as pretty strange to many readers in North America, where arable land is more plentiful and meat cheaper, but in Japan meat is fairly expensive and an occasional treat rather than a dietary staple for most people. In America, it's seafood, what the students regularly eat, that is the expensive item reserved for occasional meals^note Even "cheap" fish like tilapia and salmon are usually double the price of pork and ground beef, and may be more expensive than the cheaper steak cuts. Crab and lobster can easily exceed the price of even the most expensive steaks in North America.
• Slam Dunk: Takenori Akagi's very African American-inspired appearance make the gorilla jokes and comparisons very uncalled for by Western audiences, as African Americans have been historically compared to monkeys and apes. This racial connotation, however, doesn’t exist in Japan and it was meant to be a simple nickname based on his immense physical presence, size and aggressive playing style.
• The entire starting premise of Slow Start involves main protagonist Hina starting high school one year later than her peers because she missed her high school entrance exams on account of mumps. The resulting Rōnin situation is such a massive complex for Hina that she actually considered becoming a hikikomori out of shame, and she only didn't go through with it because she was sent to a different town to study. This is incomprehensible to any non-Japanese reader where entering a grade at the "wrong" age isn't such a huge social issue, owing to the lack of divide between upperclassmen and underclassmen. A major part of the story is Hina angsting about whether to come clean to her friends about having spent a year as a Rōnin, and when she does, they don't judge her unfavorably at all.
• Soar High! Isami:
  • In the first episode, Toshi accidentally brushes against Isami's chest out of clumsiness. While she is rightfully pissed and yells at him to apologize, and Soushi drags him away for his own safety, the whole interaction is played as comedic when both are no older than 11. Granted, Toshi did feel horrible about it.
  • Soushi hitting on the homeroom teacher, Miss Takagi, is played as a joke, based on Japanese culture revering teachers and viewing gestures like his as playful. In the West this just comes off as creepy. The most infamous example is when he starts singing praises about her in her swimsuit.
• A Breather Episode in Soul Eater in the manga just before Maka Albarn discovers that the Kishin is hiding on the moon features the gang taking a trip to a Northern-European looking village... to hunt a whale. Whaling in Japan (and by extension, Iceland, Norway, and various Inuit tribes around the northern hemisphere)? Acceptable. Whaling in other countries? Frowned upon, often heavily criticized due to certain species being increasingly rare, and illegal.
• Sonic X:
  • In Episode 10, there's a bit where Cream takes Chuck's advice and gives a Love Confession to one of Eggman's robots, causing it to balk. In Japan, this is just a harmless bit of comedy, whereas overseas a six year old girl being romantically involved with anyone is considered a source of Squick, regardless of the circumstances. The 4Kids version cut the scene short and changed it to Cream politely asking the pitcher to go easy on her, which is one of the few changes agreed to be for the better.
  • Rouge (18) is known for using seduction as a weapon. When she participates in a tournament for a Chaos Emerald, she fights Tails (8) who's stronger than expected. She wins by kissing him and then throwing him out of the ring. In the 2000s, it might sound like a funny scene. In the 2020s, with the advent of the #MeToo movement and society's growing aversion to pedophilia, it doesn't sound so funny anymore.
• Space Runaway Ideon: In-universe Kasha is mocked by some of the crew of the Solo ship for being too manly due to her Blood Knight personality, with them commenting she should have been born a man. By modern standards Kasha wouldn't even register as a tomboy, given that her only "manly" trait seems to be her penchant for violence and she's otherwise very stereotypically girly.
• The Splatoon manga has a Running Gag of the protagonist pantsing people and losing his clothes. What's simply Naked People Are Funny in Japan comes out as just weird in places like the US.
• This may be why Sugar Sugar Rune never really found much of an audience outside Japan, as it has very traditionally Japanese views on femininity (the view that No Guy Wants an Amazon is very prevelant; in fact, it's one of the main aesops of the series) that can come across as odd or offensive to Western readers. And it doesn't help that in the series, people in the human world generally agree that No Guy Wants an Amazon, even though that actually varies from country to country and person to person.
• Suicide Island's premise is that hospitals in Japan are so overwhelmed with attempted suicides that the Japanese government decides to wash their hands of this and simply send the suicidal people to an isolated island. Oh, the suicidal people are given a choice and have to sign a form if they choose to die. The protagonist, who is suicidal, did not know that when he signed the form, he was going to be put on this island, rather than be killed off shortly afterwards. The story contains elements comparable to Battle Royale, only the government is not forcing the people on the island to kill anyone. There is obviously a large amount of Values Dissonance here, but this manga is clearly examining the concept of suicide from the Japanese perspective.
• Super Dimension Century Orguss was made in the mid 80s in Japan, and it shows:
  • The ending theme for the first season freely uses the word gypsy, which at the time was socially acceptable but in the intervening years has become seen as a slur towards Roma.
  • Early on, Kei forcefully kisses Mimsy despite her repeated, vocal protests and this is treated as romantic. In a post-#MeToo world only someone portrayed as a scumbag would kiss someone who was actively protesting against it.
  • On an Amon woman's eighteenth birthday, she has a fever, then another, after which she cannot have a child and is no longer considered a woman. The idea that the only women are those who can have or have had children is hilariously offensive on various levels by today's standards, especially in the west. Never mind the idea that only those under 18 can have kids comes off as very squicky by modern standards.

• Tales of Little Women: More of a cultural dissonance than anything. When Amy is whipped at school for bringing forbidden pickled limes into class, she runs into Laurie upon leaving class. Laurie advises her not to tell her family what happened but to humble herself and return to school, unlike the original novel where she does tell her family and Marmee lets her study at home for a while. This part was most likely changed to fit Japanese sensibilities more than American sensibilities.
• In Teasing Master Takagi-san, chapters set in the future (and the spinoff "Moto Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san") depict Takagi as a housewife. Some Western readers and critics angrily accused the author of encouraging a Stay in the Kitchen message, as Takagi is depicted as being a very bright student. Many other readers were offended by this view, especially the implication that simply wanting to be a housewife instead of going out to work is some sort of failure. Meanwhile, her marriage is depicted as being a very loving one, and very traditional in the sense that while her husband Nishikata is the breadwinner, Takagi is the one who gets the last say for anything to do with the home.
• This Monster Wants to Eat Me: At the start of the story, Hinako, a 16-year-old girl, lives by herself, since her aunt, who cared for her until then, moved back home. While the Japanese might accept such an arrangement, Westerners would find it terribly neglectful.
• Shoujo manga Time Stranger Kyoko was Cut Short after only a year of serialization (from 2000 to 2001), as the female protagonist's headstrong personality made her unpopular with Japanese readers. Creator Arina Tanemura mentioned in a 2012 interview that the manga "just wasn't released at the right time" to have a more assertive heroine like Kyoko, and that it was the reason why Mitsuki, the protagonist of her next manga Full Moon, was given a shyer personality.
• Tokyo Mew Mew:
  • One possible reason why Quiche is the fan-preferred pairing for Ichigo in the West is that his Establishing Character Moment, stealing Ichigo's Sacred First Kiss, is far less shocking to Westerners than it is to the Japanese. This is arguably not so much the case in a post-#MeToo era, where people now tend to be more sensitive to consent and the pitfalls of romanticizing predatory behaviour.
  • Also, Bu-ling is seen as silly and fun in the West, and that's true to an extent in Japan too, but she also comes off as somewhat of an Ethnic Scrappy. This is lost in translation because the stereotypes she plays into (large family, loud, does ridiculous things, left alone by her lone parent, etc.) are the exact opposite of the stereotypes Chinese people have to deal with across the ocean (only child, The Stoic, suffering under an Education Mama).
• Tokyo Shinobi Squad takes place in a future where mass immigration has turned Tokyo into a Wretched Hive of violence and organized crime. Extremely restrictive immigration policy has long been the norm in Japan, so the idea of mass immigration causing crime and terrorist attacks isn't thought of as very remarkable. To non-Japanese readers, this comes across as highly nationalist and disturbingly xenophobic. Even in Japan, it's still considered an extremist position to push for tightening the country's borders even further.
• Tomo-chan Is a Girl!:
  • The manga's main premise—a tomboyish girl being unable to get the boy she likes to notice her feelings because he doesn't see her as a girl—is very dependent on how gender roles are strictly enforced in Japan. In the west, especially in North America, a girl who doesn't act very girly and/or has more male related hobbies wouldn't usually be seen as "less of a girl" because of it. To the manga's credit, it has been said a few times that Tomo worries too much about not being girly enough, and Tomo's boyish qualities are also a reason Jun likes her.
  • Mostly just confusion for American readers, but because Fumita's trying to play up the Kissing Cousins angle with Carol and Misaki, some American fans were questioning why, since one of the parties is a foreigner and wouldn't immediately go down that route because of the stigma against incest, even distant incest like between cousins.
• Tomorrow's Joe: The first anime often had Noriko's parents bickering, which is fair. It gets worse when they get violent with each other at one point - and this is Played for Laughs.
• Transformers Beast Wars II will never, ever be officially translated into English for Western audiences. The reason? The Jointrons, who act like stereotypical Mexicans, are really lazy, and two of them transform into bugs.(The last one instead transforms into a lobster.)
• Transformers: ★Headmasters:
  • Arcee's sudden change from fighter who does not hesitate to get into a fight into serving as the secretary of the Autobots would stun people who know her from the American cartoon, as women are rarely depicted in Japanese media of the era as intentionally looking for a fight.
  • The show features plenty of alcohol references with the Transformer characters frequently being shown consuming energon in what are clearly wine glasses and outright say "energon wine" at one point to defy the G-Rated Drug trope; while not a problem in Japan, it would be considered inappropriate for children's media in the West.
• Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, while not as bad, and quite progressive in retrospect, still has quite a bit of this:
  • Alcohol is clearly shown being drunk on screen, being drunk by both factions, and the Decepticon Headmaster Juniors are able to enter bars despite being completely underage. In Japan, this would not matter much, but it would be considered completely unacceptable in Western animation.
  • Shuta and Cab both have crushes on Minerva, and both insinuate that whenever she comes to Cancer's defense, it is because she has feelings for him. Similarly, when Cab is caught spying on Minerva during a swimming competition and inevitably gets caught by the coach, all it takes is a simple "I'm sorry" and Minerva forgives them. While they are children, in nations like the U.S, where sexual harassment is becoming an increasingly relevant issue, there is no way a kid's show could possibly get away with comments like this.
  • In one episode, Gilmer calls Minverva a cute madonna while removing her helmet. In its Italian origin, it refers to a woman who is important, so that definition wouldn't be so bad. However, madonna in Japan is used to refer to cute girls and Minerva is only 15. Gilmer's comment is played completely for comedy, but in many Western nations, such a comment, especially in this context, would immediately bring fears of abduction to mind.
  • Before the birth of the Headmasters Junior in the episode of the same name, Metalhawk tells Minerva that becoming a Headmaster Junior is too dangerous because she's a woman. Such a comment would be seen as unacceptable in the contemporary TV industry.
• Transformers Victory:
  • Killbison and a human farmer each give the finger a few times. In Japan, at least at the time, the gesture wasn't considered offensive, but it would be completely inappropriate in a kids' show in America and several other countries.
  • In Jan's public school, the children mention being forced to clean the school. In Japan, this is a part of life, but in other nations, unless it was a mess that happened by accident, students cannot be forced to aid in school maintenance.
  • When Holi is revealed to have a girlfriend, the Micromasters make comments declaring that she is cute and has a great body. While the scene is light hearted and clearly played for comedy, such comments about women would not make it into a more modern-day kid's show in Japan, and it wouldn't have gotten into a television show in America in the 80's, let alone today.
  • Jan using the computer to complete his homework is depicted in the show as a form of cheating. In today's world, this type of attitude would be seen as incredibly outdated, as most work in school is done on the computer.
• In A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, some of Koyuki Honami's schoolmates ask her to go out with them for ice cream at a café that offers all-you-can-eat ice cream for five people per day(meaning they have to make a beeline there), but one of them realizes the serious "perfect" honor student Koyuki won't want to. A teacher then shows up and points out a passage in the student handbook stating that students are forbidden from making stops on the way home from school. While the teacher is comically intimidating, and Western viewers find that this policy of regulating student conduct off of school grounds to be overly strict, some schools do have this rule to prevent students from getting into trouble while in uniform and causing the school's reputation to suffer.
• Tsurezure Children: Kaji and Akagi's romance focuses on the latter helping the former break out of her delinquent ways and becoming a more serious student with real ambitions. Unfortunately the way Akagi goes about helping Kaji is what led to him being more of a Base-Breaking Character in the West. A lot of his teasing and prodding of Kaji can easily come across as him being manipulative and controlling, and trying to "groom" Kaji rather than help her.
• Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai: Tsuyoshi selling his sister Keiko's panties. In Japan, this sort of sexual harassment is considered harmless as it isn't straight up rape. While in the West and many other places, this is seen as a rather disgusting thing to do, especially to your own flesh and blood (imagine violating your own sibling's privacy like that). No wonder many foreign dubs cut it out.
• Ultimate Muscle: One of the good guys, Gorgeousman, wears an outfit clearly modelled after the Confederate Flag, a symbol that has become increasingly controversial over the years due to its association with slavery. Unsurprisingly, 4Kids censored the costume by removing the blue in the stripes.
• The Useless Senpai and The Talented Kouhai: The story is a somewhat unconventional take on the Senpai/Kohai trope, with Ochiai being the Butt-Monkey of the team despite her seniority, while Tsukioka is the one to act as a mentor of sorts to her. Readers who aren't familiar with the strong divide between upperclassmen and underclassmen in Japanese schools, and how senior student are expected to set an example to their juniors, may not get how subversive this can be.
• Uzumaki: In Western culture, burying a body in the ground as opposed to cremation is very common. But in Uzumaki, it plays with the Japanese thought of walking on top of dead bodies directly beneath your feet in graveyards to be deeply unsettling.
• In ViVid Strike!, Rinne gets bullied by some of her peers for not being a "real" rich girl once they find out she's adopted; this reflects how in Japan, adoptive children are often discriminated against due to social and legal reasons (as blood ties are considered very important there). That being said, the Lyrical Nanoha franchise features many cases of loving adoptive families (Lindy with Fate, Fate herself with Erio and Caro, Nanoha and Fate with Vivio, and the entire Nakajima family), and the bullies are easily the most despicable characters in the season.
• W-Change!! seems to conclude that one person's dreams aren't as important as the responsibility of continuing the family legacy. Both Maki and Fukama are heirs to two very influential Yakuza groups who otherwise pretend to be normal students. Maki, in particular, staunchly refuses to acknowledge her "family business" and would rather wash her hands clean of them rather than take the mantle of the clan's future head. Halfway through the series, Fukama declares that he needs "to wake up from his daydream" and tells Maki that he intends to stick with the underworld and succeed his clan, giving up his dreams of going to university and entering normal society. Maki goes through a Despair Event Horizon after this, but eventually learns to accept her family and marry Fukama to become a Yakuza bride. Such an ending is almost unheard of in Western works, where the hero would always choose their dreams over family expectations, but most Asian countries do prioritize family legacy over individuality.
• Wagnaria!!: Kozue accuses Mizuki of being a naughty girl for her lesbian attraction toward Yachiyo, and that she should stop her unproductive thoughts and finally fall in love with a man. Regardless of Mizuki's true feelings, this still shows that in Japan homosexuality is mostly seen as "just a phase" to be grown out of.
• In Wakaba Girl, the main character manages to make three new friends during her first day at school, which is all fine and dandy... but it's the way they make friends with her that comes across as odd. Do they find common ground, a shared interest, or are part of the same club, thereby gradually getting to know one another and developing a healthy chemistry with one another? No, they become friends solely because they happen to be classmates! From a Western point of view, this seems extremely shallow, coming off as a bad, shoehorned in attempt at forcing characters to be friends instead of letting it happen organically. But in countries like Japan and Taiwan, it's actually fairly common for people to form friendships over something as extremely tenuous as having gone to school together, and considered a much bigger deal. There's a cultural expectation that one should always be obligated to be close with their classmates, even if they have absolutely nothing in common, to the point of pretending they're friends, and the idea that the friends one makes later in life will never be as strong as the ones they made during childhood because the former takes more effort. Westerners would see this kind of friendship as extremely shallow and tenuous, and in Western cartoons, more emphasis is put on getting to know someone, finding common ground, and openly communicating with one another before people decide whether they're friends or not.
• Wandering Son:
  • The level of independence the cast has can be a bit awkward to some viewers. For example a nine-year-old being left at home alone, told by her mother to open the door to a stranger and give them money. In the West, this goes against several rules that children are taught, such as when left alone, don't open doors to strangers, and just tell them to put whatever they've brought at the door. The children are also allowed to roam wherever they please (and without telling their parents either), hang out with adults their parents don't know, and stay over at said adults' places. Their parents are more annoyed by the fact they're keeping secrets than the fact they're hanging out with adults they don't know.
  • Cool Big Sis Yuki has behaved towards Takatsuki in ways that seem like either sexual harassment or like she's sexually attracted to him; her blatantly flirting with Takatsuki in their first meeting doesn't help. It's just teasing on Yuki's part, but Takatsuki is an elementary schooler while Yuki is an adult. Her boyfriend Shiina once gave Takatsuki an accidental Crotch-Grab Sex Check when they met (he was trying to see if Yuki was cheating), and touched his chest to confirm his physical sex, which made Takatsuki upset. After Shiina apologizes it's not mentioned again.
• WATATEN!: an Angel Flew Down to Me: Among Westerners, the premise of an adult having a crush on a fifth grader and it being Played for Laughs caused many to back away from the anime adaptation the moment it got announced, with the show additionally receiving negative reviews as a result of how disconcerting many found its concept to be. In comparison, such a premise was more readily accepted in Japan and as such the show tended to be better received.
• The entire premise of Wedding Peach is baffling to western audiences, as the middle-school aged protagonists constantly dream of getting married and their Magical Girl transformations are wedding-themed. This contributed to Wedding Peach's anime never airing in North America. Western-styled weddings were trendy in Japan in the early 90's and women marrying straight out of high school was not uncommon at the time, while marrying straight out of high school is uncommon and discouraged in western society, often being attributed to shotgun weddings.
• Welcome to the Ballroom:
  • The story tends to fall back on traditional Japanese gender roles; the female dancers have very little agency while their male partners tend to make most of the decisions for both of them, despite how real ballroom dancing puts emphasis on equality and clear communication between dance partners. Episode 6 really ignited some of the Western fandom's anger with one particular scene before the start of the Tenpei cup: the one where Tatara made a wager with Gaju in front of everyone, as their female partners (Shizuku in particular, who's just silent most of the time) just passively agree to it. As ballroom dancing is more about pairs than either individual members, this made some Western viewers come out of it thinking the boys were using their partners as bargaining chips^note Though Gaju himself is enraged at Mako (who is the one that asked to become Tatara's partner) for doing so.
  • During the Training Camp under Hyoudou, a handful of readers were made somewhat uncomfortable at the other dancers being unnecessarily harsh towards Tatara compared to Chinatsu, given that Tatara has only been training under a year by that point and Chinatsu also shares some fault for being a difficult partner.
• Xabungle: Episode 7 introduces the Toran-Torans, a group of Always Chaotic Evil Savage Indians who routinely attack and steal from the Civilian family living on the island. They're mentioned to be routine alcoholics and chronic liars as well as perpetually murderous, and Hotor, the crazy old man stubbornly refusing to leave their land, is given the story's sympathy over them. It would be very unlikely to have such an unsympathetic depiction of Native American expies today. Even worse, later episodes reveal the Toran-Torans aren't even the same species as the Civilians and were considered a failure by their makers.
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches:
  • Not an offensive example, but the scene where Yuri rides his bike to school to make a stylish and unusual entrance may not translate well to all readers. For example, countries like Denmark and the Netherlands have an incredibly widespread cycling culture, and it’s more the rule than the exception that high school students ride their bikes to school if they live nearby and don’t have a driver’s license/car. As such, Yuri’s Big Entrance may look like a completely banal entrance to these readers.
  • In chapter 227, when Yamada says he hasn't thought about his future and doesn't have to a clue about what he'll study at university, Shiraishi starts a speech on how great it is that Yamada says he doesn't know. To many Western readers, it can seem really weird that she showers him with praise for just giving a simple and neutral reply to a question. However, in Japanese culture it's seen (especially in formal contexts) as somewhat rude to straightforwardly say "I don't know", and people will often try to tiptoe around the question and give non-answers instead. Thus, Shiraishi praises Yamada because she thinks it's cool that he is so true to himself that he's willing to break some norms for his individuality.
• Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon: While it's a divisive pairing all over, Sesshomaru/Rin is still a little less controversial in Latin America and Asia than in the US and Europe, which frame it as grooming due to Rin being a child when she first met Sesshomaru. This is chalked up to the pairing following a common convention of supernatural romance stories that are present in the region's folklore that often emphasize the "immortal/mortal" dynamic rather than the "age gap" dynamic.
• Your and My Secret: The whole premise is very dependent on Japan's strict views on gender roles, given that the two leads are praised for conforming to their switched body's dated gender stereotyping, which may feel jarring to modern audiences.
• Your Lie in April: Saki physically abused her son Kousei on many occasions, at least once in front of witnesses, with some people noticing the bruises on Kousei and suspecting abuse, not to mention that Saki's Stage Mom tendencies were so well-known that rumors spread that Kousei was "his mother's puppet." However, apart from one bystander going to get a staff member, no one seemed to intervene, since Japanese society considered abuse to be a matter that is handled within the family at the time.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters):
    • The various moments of Ship Tease between Joey and Mai can fall into this for some viewers, especially later on when it's implied that Mai is starting to return the feeling, considering that Joey is a high-school teenager and Mai is in her mid-twenties. Oddly, despite being notorious for its censorship, this aspect was almost untouched by the dub.
    • One KC Grand Prix episode has a duel between Yugi and Vivian Wong where aside from using Solomon as bait, Yugi will be forced to become her "love slave" if he loses the duel against her. While she's clearly treated in wrong, none of the other characters takes her threat seriously. 20 years later, with the growing awareness of the plights of sexual victims, this moment did not age particularly well due to the perceived Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male. Notably, the 4Kids dub tones this down by having Yugi go on a date with her if he loses, while Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series keeps the "love slave" stipulation, but has Yugi flat-out call the police to have Vivian arrested.
    • There are a few instances in both the anime and manga of Sugoroku showcasing Dirty Old Man habits regarding Anzu, Ototgi's cheerleaders and Vivian Wong. Naturally, the 4Kids dub heavily downplays or changes these instances in the anime.
    • An early chapter of the original manga (which is adapted as the second episode of the 1998 anime adaptation) makes a big deal about Anzu (along with Miho and Honda in the anime) secretly working at Burger World since their school doesn't allow students to have part-time jobs; many Japanese schools do have this rule, due to not wanting students to be distracted from their studies. In the anime, when Yugi and Jonouchi talk about stopping at Burger World after school, Honda also reminds them that their school also forbids them from making stops on their way home. While this may seem even more strict than not allowing part-time work, this is because many Japanese schools are concerned about students causing trouble while in uniform and thus damaging their school's reputation.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
    • Dr. Crowler's portrayal as a stereotypical effeminate man, not to mention the jokes in the English dub regarding him resembling a woman really haven't aged well going into The New '20s as this type of characterization is now viewed as perpetuating harmful stereotypes about gender expression that rely on the assumption that an effeminate man is inherently a laughing matter or "less of a man." (In the Japanese version, the "feminine man" aspect isn't really present, with the gag being more that he's a foppish Funny Foreigner—something that was conversely completely excised from the dub.)
    • Similarly, the jokes that the dub regularly makes about Chumley/Hayato's weight have aged poorly due to the increased awareness of the harmful effects of fat-shaming.
• Yuki Yuna is a Hero has some fanservice featuring the middle schooler characters, more prominently with Togo, which turned off some English-speaking fans.
• Yuri Is My Job!:
  • Hime once asks why a school for rich girls like the one that the café portrays is willing to let its students talk about taking part time jobs. In Japan, many schools do not allow their students to have part time jobs, especially not a prestigious one like the one portrayed by the café, and the localization notes explain this rule. That said, Hime's school seems to be an exception.
  • The series being a parody of "Class S" relationships in media aimed at girls and young women (particularly Maria Watches Over Us, where such relationships are a huge part of the setting) is frequently lost on foreign audiences since the Class S concept doesn't really exist outside of Japan.
• Yuri!!! on Ice:
  • A lot of the debate around whether the show ultimately "went far enough" in portraying Victor and Yuri as an Official Couple can be seen as this. Some fans have argued either that it does go pretty far and is pretty progressive for a country where LGBTQ relationships are far less normalized than they are in the U.S. Others come from the angle of pointing out that Japan is a far less physically-affectionate culture, especially with public displays of affection (and despite this, they still get The Big Damn Kiss very publicly), or that Japanese audiences are more used to subtle indications and don't need physical relationship milestones and "I love you" statements to indicate a romance. The milestones that Yuri and Victor hit aren't really that different from many popular heterosexual anime romances. It's worth noting that this variety of Values Dissonance seems to be especially common with Americans, as European viewers have similar expectations for subtlety in their media compared to Japan.
    • A specific difference is that, like most other LGBT characters in anime and manga (including in most Yaoi Genre and Yuri Genre works), neither Victor nor Yuri has a "coming out" scene or announces their specific sexuality label. This is a pretty big sign of "canonicity" in Western LGBT media (often treated as more important than how it's reflected in their relationships on-screen, to sometimes frustrating results) and may reflect the difference in Western viewers' debating if the couple has "gone far enough" to be canon. This reflects a larger cultural difference, with Japan being a far less individual-focused culture, and viewers preferring to figure out things on their own rather than have them specifically spelled out to them.
  • In the first two episodes, several characters don't hesitate to point out that Yuri has gained weight (and Yurio continually calls Yuri a pig even after he's gotten back in shape) which many Western viewers find to be in poor taste. However, in Japan people are far more blunt about telling larger people that they need to lose weight for various reasons (the overall pressure for societal conformity being just one of them). This could also be an issue of getting lost in translation, since the specific Japanese word used to call Yuri a "pig" is more of an affectionate one... but in English, calling someone a "pig" is a huge insult regardless of how you put it.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • As noted here, the series dates from a time when heteronormativity was the status quo. There's a few Parental Bonus off-color jokes about Homoerotic Subtext and Yusuke once mocks minor villain Miyuki for being transgender ("You're not a real crossdresser, you just can't make up your mind!"), neither of which would pass today, particularly in the West. (The same article notes that mangaka Yoshihiro Togashi treated the subjects better in his later work Hunter × Hunter) On the other hand, Sensui and Itsuki are not treated poorly despite canonically being gay. Sensui is one of the strongest threats Yusuke has to deal with in the entire story in fact.
  • While Yusuke and Keiko's relationship has aged well for the most part, some of his actions towards her would be classified as sexual harassment. While the series does acknowledge his behavior as not acceptable in-universe to an extent, as he is frequently slapped by Keiko for his advances, it's unlikely that any woman would find this kind of behavior endearing or acceptable today.
  • In one instance, when Yusuke is knocked out, Botan cheerfully advises Keiko to capitalize on the chance to take his virginity, which the context seems to treat as just a juvenile joke, presumably on the basis of it being woman on man. Joking or not, a heroic character casually proposing to commit a rape would certainly not fly so easily today.
  • During the Cartoon Network broadcasts, the Non-Nazi Swastika on Kazemaru's forehead was removed. The censors were unaware that it was the traditional Buddhist manji, not a Nazi hakenkreuz. The English translation of the manga instead just adds a Note from Ed. in the margin explaining it.
  • When Yusuke sees the crowd of people lining up to be Genkai's next student, the dub changed his line to him comparing them to the freaks at a comic book convention. While it does fit his character to make such a comment, it would instead come off as insulting the audience, who are more likely to go to such events. Especially after The New '10s when comic-book conventions started to become less stigmatized.
  • Out of all the scary black men that show up in the Dark Tournament arc, Makintaro◊ looks the most like a blackface caricature, complete with Sambo lips. Stereotypes of black people were and still are acceptable in Japan, unlike in the West.
  • Also Bakken, who happens to be even worse, as he looks like a much more realistic depiction of a man of African descent. It doesn't help that, unlike Makintaro, who dies quickly with a much more overtly monstrous appearance/power to offset his unfortunate appearance, Bakken is fleshed out more in personality as a violent, cowardly brute whose comeuppance comes from the light-skinned protagonist with no one liking him, not even his teammates. Retroactively, it's an awkward experience to sit through beyond the Hate Sink trait he's supposed to embody, with some skipping it in favor of the much more favorable fight of Yusuke vs Jin.
• Zoids: Chaotic Century:
  • In the Japanese version, Dr. D is a Dirty Old Man and there's a running gag based around him sexually harassing Moonbay. In the English dub these scenes are deleted outright or recontextualized.
  • Stinger, a minor recurring antagonist, is a heavily stereotypical mincing Sissy Villain who gets a sadistic thrill out of making his opponents squirm and drawing out their suffering, to the point where he's nicknamed "The Fisherman." In a show whose rogue's gallery includes a number of dictators and terrorists, he still stands out as being particularly evil and depraved. Such a portrayal would be considered outdated or offensive in a modern context as this type of characterization has become criticized for associating queer traits with villainy and sadism.
• Zoids: New Century: The portrayal of Harry's robot Benjamin is problematic, if not unusual for an anime from 2001. In the Japanese version, he's given an extremely flamboyant, stereotypically gay voice and has an obsessive crush on the masculine-coded Judge robot. The English dub gives him a more high-pitched, cartoony voice instead and censors his queerness outright by giving the Judge he's in love with a feminine voice (along with deleting a homoerotic gag in which he wears a coconut bikini while getting oiled up by his companion Sebastian.) This doesn't reflect well on either side of the production team, with the show's only openly queer character being a gay stereotype in one region while having their queerness erased in another.