10 Anime Episodes That Were Banned

With anime more popular than ever, guidelines are becoming more strict to ensure the shows don’t offend anyone. However, compared to Western TV, anime is still pretty loose with what it deems suitable for TV, with many Western fans believing some shows go too far. Whether or not fans agree with that, they know anime produces some of the best episodes on TV, glowing with creativity and action.

However, not all anime episodes see the light of day, with many studios taking certain ones down for various reasons. Specific episodes can be taken down or never aired for reasons including insensitive depictions, rights issues, cultural differences, and downright inappropriate content. These ten episodes proved to have one or more problems, resulting in them either being temporarily or permanently banned in certain countries.

10 ‘Pokémon The Series: Sun and Moon’ (2016)

Episode 64: Satoshi and Nagetukesaru! Touchdown of Friendship!

Pokémon is known for having countless banned episodes, so many that this list could only be made up of Pokémon episodes. While this list will feature one more Pokémon episode, it will limit the number of entries to two, starting off with a surprisingly recent episode in the Sun and Moon series. The episode follows Ash as he tries to mediate the growing conflict between two territorial groups of Passimian.

While pretty unassuming, this Pokémon episode was banned because of blackface, an issue Pokémon has previously encountered. To reduce the tension between the Passimmian groups, Ash dresses up as one of them, including using black face paint and acting monkey-like. While Japanese broadcasters found no issue with this, American studios thought it would be misinterpreted as racist and never aired the episode in English.

9 ‘Cowboy Bebop’ (1998)

Episode 19: Wild Horses

Many fans know Cowboy Bebop as one of the greatest sci-fi anime of all time. It takes place in a future where criminals are abundant, and bounty hunters are tasked with stopping said criminals to make a living. Spike Spiegel is one such bounty hunter who works with his crew to clean up the streets. However, his past life catches up with him, endangering his friends in a dark scheme of life and death.

Fans may be surprised that this critically acclaimed series has a banned episode, considering Cowboy Bebop has so many great episodes. But Wild Horses isn’t even the only banned Cowboy Bebop episode, with this list diving into that later. The focus is on episode 19, which was banned because it depicts the Columbia Space Shuttle crashing. However, the episode coincidentally aired before the real-life tragedy, causing a temporary U.S. ban when it happened.

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8 ‘Sailor Moon’ (1992)

Episode 67: The Beach, the Island and a Vacation: The Guardians’ Break

One of the most iconic anime ever and an important show for women’s and LGBTQ+ representation, Sailor Moon is known by most anime fans. The anime follows a group of magical girls fighting evil and protecting the world by transforming into their own powerful forms. The Beach, the Island and a Vacation: The Guardians’ Break is a filler episode for the series in which they travel to a remote island and save a dinosaur from an erupting volcano.

While many fans might remember the heavy censorship Sailor Moon experienced because of death scenes and LGBTQ+ references, DiC banned episode 67 for no apparent reason. The company sought to meet the minimum requirement for syndication in America with 65 episodes, thus cutting episodes 2, 5, 6, 20, 42, and 67. While fans could later watch the earlier episodes, DiC lost episode 67 with Toei Animation refusing to send a new copy, losing it to time until 19 years later.

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7 ‘Outlaw Star’ (1998)

Episode 23: Hot Springs Planet Tenrei

Many fans might be unaware of Outlaw Star, an inventive sci-fi show and one of the most underrated anime of the 1990s. Following Gene Starwind and James Hawking, the show takes fans on a wild ride full of space pirates, mages, and bounty hunters as the two finally realize their dream of traveling to the final frontier. However, they aren’t doing this just for fun; they must protect the mysterious Melfina along their journey.

The banned episode in question is one of the final episodes, Hot Springs Planet Tenrei, in which the crew takes a much-needed vacation, similar to the Sailor Moon episode. However, unlike that show, this episode of Outlaw Star was skipped over on Toonami in America because of its excessive nudity and sexual humour/content. Taking place in a hot spring, there are many crude jokes and naked scenes, resulting in the episode finally airing on TV in 2018.

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6 ‘The Vision of Escaflowne’ (1996)

Episode 1: Fateful Confession

While fairly popular during its time, The Vision of Escaflowne is a relatively unknown anime that mixes the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Serving as one of the first isekai anime, the series follows a high school girl named Hitomi and the prince of Gaea, Van. While Hitomi is minding her business in the real world, Van shows up fighting a dragon, ultimately transporting the two to the fantasy world of Gaea, where they must stop the evil empire from taking over.

This retro anime was no stranger to censorship, with Fox Kids cutting down serious content from violence, profanities, and sexual material in many of the early episodes. The cut content severely hurt the anime, and it eventually stopped airing, never fully completed in America. However, the first episode was never even released, with Fox saying they banned it because there was too much Hitomi. This statement is truly baffling, considering she is the main character, and it is just a bizarre decision.

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5 ‘Ghost Stories’ (2000)

Episode N/A: Am I Beautiful? Kuchisake-onna

Many fans know of Ghost Stories because of its infamous dub, in which the voice actors were given free rein to do whatever they wanted, creating a hilariously offensive anime. While the dub is regarded as one of the funniest anime ever, the original show is a typical kids’ show where children explore haunted houses with spirits. Like Scooby-Doo, each episode involves a new mystery with a different ghastly entity.

While most of these episodes were banned from other countries, this episode never even aired in Japan. After the studio released a trailer for the episode, many parents complained to the studio after the ghost featured what looked like a cleft palette. This issue was often found in newborns in Japan, causing outrage among disability support groups. The studio never released the episode, and it is considered lost media to this day.

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4 ‘Cowboy Bebop’ (1998)

Episode 6: Sympathy for the Devil

It may shock fans that Cowboy Bebop earned another entry on this list, but the show includes somewhat controversial moments that align closely with actual events. While these events aren’t nearly as similar to the show’s oddly accurate prediction of the Columbia Space Shuttle Trilogy, episode 6, Sympathy for the Devil, aired soon after the events of 9/11, with the studio concerned the contents may trigger the audience.

While Sympathy for the Devil is named for this list, it wasn’t the only Cowboy Bebop episode banned because of 9/11. Two other later episodes were also banned for similar reasons, specifically episodes 8 (Waltz for Venus) and 22 (Cowboy Funk). These three episodes feature people falling out of buildings, terrorists hijacking a spaceship, and the destruction of skyscrapers, respectively. While Toonami would air these episodes at later dates, they were temporarily banned.

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3 ‘Osomatsu-San’ (2015)

Episode 1: Osomatsu-kun Returns!

The popular kid’s show Osomatsu-Kun followed the antics of sextuplets, causing adorable chaos wherever they went. Fast-forward nearly 60 years, and they revived the show to create Osomatsu-San, a parody of itself in which the sextuplets are lazy, unemployed, good-for-nothing losers whose antics are no longer adorable but just plain annoying. This hilarious comedy anime remake is known for its gag humor and meta references, which landed them in a world of hurt.

The anime thought it would be funny to have the characters worry about their relevance decades after their popularity. To combat that, they referenced countless popular shows such as Attack on Titan and Naruto. While these parodies were definitely funny, they didn’t go over well, considering the studio had zero ownership over the franchises and never asked for permission. The episode was banned from TV and DVD in Japan and subsequently the world.

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2 ‘Excel Saga’ (1999)

Episode 26: Going Too Far

The 1990s and 2000s were truly weird times for anime; they could do pretty much whatever they wanted, which resulted in some pretty obscure shows that many fans overlook now. One such case is Excel Saga, a comedy anime focusing on gag humor and parodies to deliver a mature show for audiences. The anime follows Excel and Hyatt, two underlings whose evil boss tasks them with destroying a small town. However, the two are horrible at their job and always seem to mess up.

While many episodes feature one reason for their ban, Excel Saga‘s final episode goes out with a bang, checking off everything that would get the episode banned from excessive gore, prostitution, pedophilia, and nudity. Fittingly titled Going Too Far, the director deliberately made the episode get banned. The exact reason is unclear, but he said he just wanted to make a TV episode that was banned. He certainly achieved it as Excel Saga‘s final episode became one of the most infamous episodes banned from TV.

1 ‘Pokémon’ (1997)

Episode 38: Electric Soldier Porygon

Most people expected the infamous Porygon episode to take this list’s top spot. Pokémon is no stranger to banned episodes, with countless controversies ranging from blackface, sexual content, and overuse of guns. However, everyone knows the reason for Electric Soldier Porygon’s ban. The episode features Ash and the gang entering a system in order to stop Team Rocket from using Porygon for an evil scheme.

When a missile was launched at the team, Pikachu used an attack to detonate it. This resulted in an explosion of red and blue lights flashing in quick succession, causing extremely bright strobe lights to blink at a rate of 12 Hz. This effect resulted in nearly 700 people having epileptic seizures, with countless others showing signs of dizziness and nausea. The anime went on a four-month hiatus, with this episode being permanently banned from ever airing on TV again. The company also re-edited many episodes to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, forever changing Japan’s TV guidelines.

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