Tokyo Avenger is about a teenage thug in the Tokyo Manji Gang. The smaller Symbol (卍), the Buddhist swastika, appears on the Japanese-language manga title and throughout the original anime. It has been removed from the English language version of the anime, apparently because it could lead to confusion with the Nazi swastika.
Sankaku complex (NSFW site) advises that the icon has been removed from the Crunchyroll release – something fans have noticed since the series began airing.
For example, here is a screenshot from the Japanese opening:
And the Crunchyroll one:
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As Kotaku previously reportedIf you’ve ever been to a Buddhist temple in Japan or looked at a Japanese map, you’ve likely seen Manji swastikas. The manji has long been a sacred and auspicious symbol in Japan and throughout Asia.
The Japanese have another word for the Nazi swastika: haakenkuroitsu (ハ ー ケ ン ク ロ イ ツ) or “hakenkreuz”, which is German for swastika. The Nazis’ swastika is often tilted, but not always; However, Japanese Buddhism uses both left and right facing manji. The left-facing horizontal manji is used to mark Buddhist temples. The Tokyo Manji Gang has nothing to do with National Socialism.
The manga debuted in 2017, a year after the Manji symbol became slang among Japanese youth. The old auspicious meaning remained, but gained a number of new meanings in Japan. For example, children would say it when taking pictures, like the English word “cheese,” and it is also used to refer to a mischievous or excitable personality. Other uses are “appear strong”, “high class”, a symbol for someone who is running (sometimes with Final Fantasy‘s Cactar) and a play on words with the Japanese word water (ま じ), which means “seriously” or “really”. Again it had nothing to do with National Socialism.
It has It has been reported that there were plans to remove the Manji symbol from Japanese maps because Westerners might mistake it for Nazi use. the hate groups continue to accept. Given the influx of international tourists in the pre-Covid era, the terrible stigma of the Nazi brand, and the similarity of the symbols, that’s understandable. Things can be further puzzled by the fact that Japan was Germany’s ally during World War II.
This is a lot of context that is needed to understand the meaning of the character! If you didn’t know that and just look at the anime, you’d think it was about a hate group. Its involvement could be distracting and confusing. The decision to remove the symbol in the English language version comes as no surprise and is understandable, even if this Manji is not a malicious mark because the Nazi is safe.
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