Hi! I Think this might have been asked before, but What excatly happened to the quality of the 90's Moomin anime making the brighness go so down when it comes to most versions out of Japanese one? Why is it so dark compared to the Japanese orginal version? (plus why some of the cencoring mouts smiles,some facal expresions, weapons, ect )?
I can comment regarding the darkness. Many European countries received copies that simply had issue with the lightning and for one reason or another, these were decided suitable for publishing. It should be remembered that in early 90s, the standards for children’s TV series and the way the footage was handled was very different from the meticulous way it is today.
But the footage itself has never been altered or censored. The European (for exmaple, Finnish) version that aired is identical to the Japanese outside of the lightning. Instead, episodes with questionable content were censored entirely. For exmaple, an episode where Snorkmaiden is threatened with a knife was unaired in Finland.Â
@moomintrivia​
Thank you about explaining the darkness. But! Actually the footage IS altered, such as smiles removed, gun pointing censored out, facial expression altered like here. An these are just few examples I could find, I am sure there are some more. First is Japanese footage and second is Finnish footage
(I tried to make them side by side but for some reason my PC didin’t allow me to do that sorry)
Thank you! My aplogies, I focused so much on the question of censorship and weapons, I forgot about these little adjustments. I’m so glad you were able to combine these into such a nice collage. :)
The show did have some animation changes during the newer releases into DVD in Japan. These are the brighter ones here, compared to the darker footage used in Europe since European release had that light issue, and Europe never received these upgraded versions as far as I know.
Like we can notice, there is a slight bump in quality as well (like how smoothly Little My’s head turns or how much more expressive Moomin looks in some scenes). It’s less about censorship and more about upgrading. Moominpappa did have the gun with him in the original and European version as well, but he did not smoothly flip it past the bars for that small scene, for example.
But unfortunately I cannot remember if the issue was just wanting to upgrade or if there was actually some need to upgrade the original footage due to company related issues and availability. If anyone knows more details, please do share!
I can understnd why they would remove guns, but why the faces? Why remove smiles?
@milamilkshakes
@somnolent-snufkin
I just wanted to clarify that it’s the other way around: the dark ones are the originals aired originally in Japan and used currently in Europe. The bright and clear ones are the newer Japanese DVD versions, which have been edited. My apologies to you and all other readers for not making it clearer. :)
So in essence, they added smiles and added the gun for the newer Japanese edition. I think @ibabblealot has a great point here in the comments, they were probably a bit excited about the opportunities offered by new DVD remaster and HD technologies. The additions are actually rather fancy in terms of animation. Notice how smoothly Little My’s head makes an unnecessary turn or how nicely Moominpappa flips out the gun?
Though this does make it funny when we look at the scene where Snufkin jumps. He is now even more excited than before!
But for Europeans, this might seem like censorship now. Since the current edited Japanese version has these changes, while we still use the originals without the smiles and the gun.
