Content guidelines, in terms of what is permissible to show on television, vary from country to country, and this is especially true of shows intended for younger audiences. For something as diverse as the anime medium, localizing popular series for Western audiences has been far more challenging than simply translating the dialogue. Ever since anime first came to the United States, Japanese animated series and movies have been heavily retooled to match perceived audience sensibilities. This has often resulted in unintentionally hilarious edits, with changes ranging from the laughably tone-deaf to the outright bizarre.

This notorious trend is particularly apparent in localized anime coming to America in the '90s, as the medium really began breaking into the American mainstream. Though many of these infamous edits are from the early localization efforts, comedically awkward censorship continues on into anime's more recent translated productions. Changes made ranged from clumsily trying to...