Censorship in The Drillimation Series

Like with many popular Japanese imports, The Drillimation Series has been subject to censorship when it was being localized in North America and other countries. Many of these changes include alteration of scenes, dialogue, and character appearances.

Character appearances

 * Before the English dub of Star Trigon began, Drillimation Studios California president Marc Summers had a bit of a fight with Hiroshi Takajima. Miyuki Takara was widely recognizable by her bushy hairstyle and breast size. Summers wanted Miyuki Takara removed from the anime, as he said her appearance was deemed to be inappropriate for their target audience of children. Animators from Drillimation had reacted poorly to her design. Takajima did not want Miyuki Takara removed from the anime, and instead told the team to change her physical appearance entirely. Her redesign had smaller breasts and less suggestive clothing.

Episode context

 * Many episodes had their pop culture references Americanized, as Summers felt that an American audience, especially their target audience of children, would not fully understand most of its references to Japanese culture or media. Mostly, the references to Shintoism were kept, although the Shinto shamanic actions were Christianized.

Touhou Project

 * Up until the Driller Engine 3 Era, Nintendo had strict policies regarding the use of religious symbols in North America. All references to Christianity are removed from the North American and European localizations of the games. One of Yukari Yakumo's spell cards, being Bewitching Butterfly Living in the Zen Temple, depicted a left-facing swastika. The shape is actually a manji, the Buddhist symbol for "good fortune". The spell card did not cause controversy in Japan but did from a few complaints in North America and Europe. Drillimation cleared the confusion by telling Drillimation players in GamePro about the manji. The spell card was changed entirely in the Super Nintendo version due to similar controversies in The Legend of Zelda.