Reddit reviews Ninja Scroll

Sorry for the late response. It's been a busy weekend, and I've been mulling my wording because my point here is a slightly pedantic one. ;)

> But why be mad about the censorship at all if it didn't damage the film? By admitting that the censorship was impactful, you admit it took out something that greatly added to the film.

Censorship carries its own baggage, and our reaction to it usually has more to do with principle than this or that particular instance. Regardless of what was removed, censorship still damages the integrity of the product as a representation of the original work and grates our ideals about freedom of speech, leaving us feeling patronized and cheated by an inauthentic experience. Once we become aware a publication was censored, we very often revise our opinion of it even without having seen the uncensored version.

The BBFC cut was also used for Manga's 2000 release of Ninja Scroll (MANG7611). I found an old thread in which fans were reacting to that discovery. This comment summarizes the mood nicely:

> Man am i disappointed, not because i am some perv who wants to watch animated sex scenes but that i spents one and a half times as much money for a DVD version which should be the best only to find its cut.

Amazon merges reviews for multiple editions of a film's release, so reviews of both cut and uncut editions are mixed together here, but those from ~2000/2001 are often sharply divided between those who mentioned the censorship – "★★☆☆☆ Its Cut !!!!!!!" – and those who didn't – "★★★★★ It stands as an all time classic along with Akira and Legend of the Overfiend."

For the most part these are off-the-cuff fan reactions, not level three consumer critiques, but they support my hypothesis that negative reactions to the censored version were about the authenticity of the product's representation of the film rather than the quality of the film without those scenes.