Watson's Guide to the Images in the Video Girl Ai Hate Censorship Page (http://www.ottawa-anime.org/~eyevocal/aihatecensors/) Remember that these changes were done by request of Jump Comics in Japan, not by Viz Comics. As much as I have against how Viz handled the OVAs, this is definitely not their fault. Note that this also contains *SPOILERS* for the manga, so proceed at your discretion. TANKOUBAN VOLUME 3 ks3-09.jpg (panel 5, 51.8k): After searching for Ai for a week after she goes missing, Youta finds her in his room, with the spectre of her body floating in midair and her being on his TV screen. She is being recalled to the Video World, and has returned to say goodbye to him. He is begging her not to disappear, and in this panel he is calling out, "AI!!" CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-11.jpg (panel 1, 26.7k): Ai's body disappearing. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-25.jpg (panel 3, 53.1k): Youta has just climbed the glass staircase in the Video World to reach Ai, and finds her bound to this framework. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-28.jpg (part of panel 1, panel 2, 37.9k): Ai talking to Youta: Ai: You're an idiot, you coming after me in this place... Unplug the cord behind my right hand, quickly... Otherwise, I'll really disappear. [This speech balloon was cropped.] Youta: Okay. That one! CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-29.jpg (panel 5, 33.1k): Youta is trying to free Ai from the framework. He has stepped on a cable on the ground and she gets shocked as a result. She is screaming "KYA" in pain. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-30.jpg (part of panel 2, 9.2k): The Gokuraku computer has possessed Ai, clamping a helmet over her head and giving her eyes an evil look. This is how she looks after the process. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-33.jpg (panel 6, part of panel 7, 29.3k): Two more panels of the posessed Ai. The computer has just attempted to punish Youta (through Ai) by bringing back a humiliating memory of an attempt to win the favour of a girl as a kid in elementary school. He is rushing forward to try again to free her (cropped from panel 7). CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-37.jpg (part of panel 4, 9.6k): The possessed Ai. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. jb3-43.jpg (149.7k): The computer is releasing Ai from the framework. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-44.jpg (part of panel 1, 13.2k): Youta with Ai, after the rescue. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. jb3-45 (panel 1, 30.5k): Youta and Ai about to kiss, just before they leave the Video World. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-46.jpg (parts of panels 2 and 3, panel 4, 34.1k): Youta and Ai wake up in his bedroom after returning from the Video World. He tries to wake her up: Youta: What?...have you...passed out?" CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-47.jpg (whole page, 85.1): Continued from above: Youta: Her body's cold! It's like she's dead!! Is this for real?! Why is this happening?!! CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. jb3-49.jpg (panel 1, 27.1k): Recap of the end of the chapter above: Youta: No kidding! Hey!! Wake up! Are you dead?!! CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-50-1.jpg (part of panel 1, 10.9k): The old man from Gokuraku has appeared on Youta's TV screen, and is telling him to bring Ai to the slope where he encountered Gokuraku: Gokuraku: The tape was destroyed by the main computer. So I have to dub to a new tape. [This part of the panel was cropped.] Youta: Okay, good! It's that slope, isn't it?!! CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-50-2.jpg (part of panel 3, 13.7k): The old man has just told Youta to put some clothes on Ai before bringing her to Gokuraku or people might become suspicious. He is replying with "I--I see." CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks3-54.jpg (panels 1 and 2, 63.9k): At Gokuraku, Ai is strapped into a machine so she can be dubbed to a new tape. Youta is exclaiming "Wow" at the sight of the equipment. CHANGE: The machine was slightly redrawn to conceal her thighs and hips. ks3-56.jpg (panel 3, 29.9k): Ai in the dubbing machine. CHANGE: The machine was slightly redrawn to conceal her thighs and hips. ***** INTERIM SYNOPSIS: After the dubbing and Ai and Youta's reunion, Rolex appeared and took her from him, and Gokuraku disappeared, leaving Youta alone in the street. The new school year begins, and he has to repeat a grade due to the number of days he was absent in the previous year while he was looking for Ai. A cute girl named Nobuko Nizaki, who was briefly in the same art club as Youta, is a new junior student at his school (and a homeroom classmate), and she latches on to him. She applied to this school specifically to get closer to "Senpai." Ai appears in his homeroom on the second day of school, but when Youta talks to her, she doesn't know him. Her personality has also changed and she is much more daring, including being very unconcerned about the ability of the boys in the class to see her panties. Youta figures that this is how Ai would have turned out if his VCR wasn't damaged when he first played her. Later, she makes a game out of letting the boys guess the colour of her underwear, and even traps Youta into it when he tries to tell her to cut it out. Due to this, he falls back on a relationship with Nobuko, all the while hoping that Ai will remember him. It turns out Ai is now living in a room with the old man, who had been expelled from Gokuraku. He has given her false memories in an attempt to let her peacefully live out the rest of her days. Slowly, Ai's memory does come back, starting with her new self's vague attempt to get closer to him through the panty-colour game and culminating in her calling Youta's house from a train station, just when he and Nobuko have kissed and fondled a bit in bed (amid much struggle with themselves), and they decide to go to her. Because of this, Youta and Nobuko's relationship becomes strained, and a boy named Matsui Naoto tries to catch Nobuko on the rebound, without success. Rolex appears to him, despite his not appearing to be worthy of Gokuraku's help, and gives him a video called "Please Cheer Up--Mai Kamio," which he proceeds to watch in the audio- visual room. After watching it once and feeling insulted by it, Rolex tells him to watch it again, believe and pray, and Mai would appear before him. He does, and she does. Rolex has told Ai that "[her] friend would soon be born," and she is shocked to see this happen, especially since she came to figure out that she was created the same way. It turns out that Rolex is doing this (A) to try to pit "the perfect thing" (Mai), against "the imperfect thing" (Ai), and (B) to see how an unworthy boy would handle a Video Girl. And here is where we resume our tour... ***** TANKOUBAN VOL. 5 ks5-19.jpg (entire page, 106.4k): Mai and Matsui in the audio-visual room: Matsui: [She...she really seems to listen to me...then it's not worth it to restrain my desires...] I...I'll touch you. SFX: Mai: Yes. SFX: Mai: Ha. SFX: Matsui: S...soft. And warm... CHANGE: Deleted. ks5-20.jpg (entire page, 107k): Continued from above: Mai: Hah hah. Matsui: [How soft and warm...a girl's body is...] Mai: Hah hah. Matsui: Hah hah hah. SFX: Matsui: Mai-chan... SFX: Matsui: [I began to think of Mai as my old-time girlfriend... I don't care who she is anymore. Anyway, I just want to be with her forever...] CHANGE: Deleted. This is the change I hate the most, since these two pages actually say a lot about Matsui's personality--he's not just horny, he's very lonely as well--and hence were pretty important to the story. ks5-33.jpg (panels 2 and 4, part of panel 3, 59.7k): The next morning. Matsui and Mai are still in the AV room. She is awakening: Mai: Um. SFX: Matsui: Are you awake? CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-34.jpg (panel 4, 33.7k): Mai standing before Matsui. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-35.jpg (part of panel 3, 4.8k): Matsui holding Mai's wrist. She has asked him if he stayed awake all this time, and he replies that he has because he's afraid she'll disappear if he went to sleep. Although the balloon was cropped from this scan, he is saying to her, "What a wonderful body. I never get tired of looking at you...". CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-36.jpg (panels 2 and 5, parts of panels 1 and 3, 30.9k): Matsui and Mai kissing and embracing. He is saying, "I love you...". She breaks off the embrace and stands up. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-37.jpg (almost entire page, 82.4k): Continued from above: Mai: I don't know about love so much. I don't like that word. SFX: Matsui: I'm sorry. I'll never say it again, so please don't hate me. Mai: Don't worry. I don't hate you...Now...cheer up. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-38.jpg (small part of panel 1, 8.2k): Continued from above. Matsui is still on his knees in front of Mai. Although he and the balloons were cropped: Matsui: Are you sure?... Mai: I'm sure. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-47.jpg (part of panel 3, 11.5k): Matsui and Mai have been in the audio- visual room for an entire week without food or drink, since Matsui refuses to let her leave (he doesn't want anyone else to see her) or leave himself to get food (he's still afraid she'll disappear if he takes his eyes off her, and has even given her a bucket to go to the bathroom in). No one has gone near the room, since this is happening during final exams. They are both asleep/unconscious on the floor. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-48.jpg (parts of panels 1, 3 and 4, panel 5, 39.8k): Rolex shows up in the room and sees the state that Matsui and Mai are in. He finds that, like he thought, if a person unworthy of Gokuraku was given one of their videos, he would lose his logic and go crazy. In panel 5, he is walking over to the VCR that Mai's tape is playing on to rewind it. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-49.jpg (most of panel 3, 53.9k): Mai's body during the rewinding. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ***** INTERIM SYNOPSIS: After taking Mai back, Rolex gives Matsui a pill to erase his memory of the past week, which causes him to scream in pain. Nobuko meets up with Youta, and she greets him cheerfully, holds his arm and walks with him--she still likes him. They are walking together after discussing what to do during summer vacation. Ai meets up with them, which makes him nervous. She complains about the sight of the two of them together making the day seem even hotter, gives him a dirty look, and then smiles, laughs and tells him, "Don't make your girlfriend cry," which surprises Youta. She says to herself afterwards, "I don't mind...being your sister...He might break up with his girlfriend, but if it's his sister, I can stay with him all the time...I wouldn't mind that..." When Youta and Nobuko are about to kiss, they hear people yelling that Matsui tried to kill himself in the audio-visual room. Nobuko thinks that this happened because she rejected him, and goes to visit him in the hospital every day. When Youta tries to take her up on the plans they had been making, she can't make it because Matsui's mother now insists on her coming to see him, since "he seems to rely on [her]." He suggests that they get together, but he has plans of his own for the one day she isn't visiting Matsui. She observes that everything seems to "conflict," and Youta says to himself that the word seemed to indicate how their relationship has become lately. Meanwhile, Ai is in her room, and she's now starting to feeling pained over seeing Youta with Nobuko. Mai enters, saying that she wants to be friends with Ai. She replies, "A friend!? You liar! Those eyes don't show any scrap of love, such cold eyes," which causes Mai to scoff at her. She then tries to destroy Ai by altering her magnetism (in a way that fanboys would get a kick out of), but the old man from Gokuraku turns up and drives Mai away with a crucifix carrying Ai's magnetic charge. Youta notices that Nobuko only talks about Matsui on the phone, and goes out to find something else to do. He sees her on the street, carrying a bag of flowers, catches up with her and they go to a teashop. She comments on his openmindedness in not getting upset over her going to see Matsui all the time, but then they wonder inside and aloud if they're drifting apart. After going their separate ways, the old man and Ai meet Youta, and Ai goes to live with Youta again. ***** ks5-88.jpg (panel 1, 34.7k): The first thing Youta sees in front of him when he wakes up the next morning. I might add that he was shocked (and not in a good way) to see this, especially since he set up the spare room for her to sleep in. CHANGE: Replaced with a magnified section of the second panel. ks5-97.jpg (part of panels 1 and 5, panel 4, 58.6k): Ai comes into Youta's room again, wearing an apron, and asks him if he'd like to eat. He say yes, and in panel 1 she says, "Good! It has to be like that!!" and turns to reveal this view. Dialogue in panels 4 and 5: Ai: Gee, you saw it. Youta: What do you mean, I saw it!! You dressed to be looked at!! What are you doing! Ai: The underwear felt so bad because I sweated, so I washed them. I don't have a change... CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her (was the dialogue was changed to reflect this, and if so, how?). ks5-98.jpg (most of panel 2, 20.7k): Continued from above. Youta replies "Even so--" in the first panel. She says, "Here," as she does this. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-99.jpg (tiny part of panel 6, 6.2k): Youta has shown Ai to the spare bedroom she had lived in the first time around so she can dress, and she is beginning to crawl on the bed towards the wardrobe. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-100.jpg (part of panel 3, 10.2k): Ai is looking through the clothes. She has just asked Youta why he has so much girl's clothing, unaware of the fact that it's all hers. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ks5-101.jpg (small detail of panel 2, 9.3k): Ai asked Youta if she can wear these clothes, and when he tells her she can have them she says, "Neat!" This is a small drawing, but you can easily see how happy she is in it. CHANGE: Panties were drawn on her. ***** INTERIM SYNOPSIS: This is a long set-up for one last picture, but a lot happens in these 78 pages, so bear with me. ^_^ Youta unknowingly reveals that he has eaten her cooking before, and she tells him that, although she has lost her memory, she felt she had been at this house before, which is why she did things like going to sleep in his bed (while not mentioning that it's also to make him act more "brotherly" towards her). She also says that she thinks it's better that she's lost her memory, because "(i)t would be a pain to remember now. The old days wouldn't come back even if I remembered them, so..." Later, they both play at a water park, where Ai carries her crucifix in a holster on her leg in case Mai turns up again. We find out that Youta doesn't like slides because, in kindergarten he used to play on the slide with a girl who would take his hand and pull him up at the bottom. He liked her and felt that she liked him, too, so when she moved away, it made him terribly sad and he cried while sitting on the bottom of the slide. Youta runs into Nobuko, which catches both of them by surprise and makes them ill at ease. She tells him she's here with a friend, and she had called and left a message on Youta's machine arlier. He tries not to appear too emotional, and Nobuko thinks that he seems not to care about her. Ai calls out to Youta about the water slide, which makes Nobuko start to cry. When Ai tries to talk to her, Nobuko splashes her and runs away, and Ai tells Youta to go to her, quickly. When Ai finds her, she brings her to Youta and leaves them alone to talk. Nobuko tells him that she knew that he liked Ai, and that "(y)ou just want my body, right, because we didn't go all the way." This last line makes Youta snap, and he slaps her face, then catches himself and starts apologizing. She sheds more tears, says that she will do her best to start hating him, and runs away again. Later, in their rooms, they think about what happened today and decide to visit each other...at the same time. Their trains even pass in opposite directions. When she reaches his house, she rings the doorbell, hears Ai's voice over the intercom and runs away crying. During this time, he's sitting on the steps of the train station, feeling stupid because he doesn't know where her house is. He phones her house, and finds out she's gone to visit Matsui, and he feels that their relationship is now finished. Ai finds Youta brooding in the spare room over the den, and suggests that they go somewhere with some other people. At the hospital, Matsui asks Nobuko why she comes to see him, since she's obviously still hung up on Youta. He says that he doesn't remember why he was unconscious in the audio-visual room, but knows that he doesn't have the guts to kill himself, so she shouldn't feel any blame, and that her visits will just hurt him because he wouldn't be able to give up on her. Moemi meets with Youta and Ai at a coffee shop, and they decide to take a three day/two night trip. He suggests that Takashi come along as well, which takes her aback, but she agrees anyway. During the visit, Nobuko tries to call Youta to sort out her feelings with him (which upsets Matsui), but he forgot to turn on the answering machine before leaving. Takashi arrives at the coffee shop, and he and Moemi are obviously not comfortable when they see each other. He asks Youta why he called him out, and he replies that it's because they didn't make up their minds towards each other and his own feelings towards Moemi are "wandering like a ghost in my mind! Let it die well!" After they argue briefly about what happened between him and Nobuko ("You said you were rejected, but wait it out. That's all it was? A spat?"), Youta says that the main reason he called Takashi was because his uncle owns a big hotel. He is able to get them three nights, starting that night. Ai suggests that he invite Nobuko, but he feels that he's acted horribly towards her, and that he's trying to forget about it. Nobuko calls right after they leave, leaves a message on his machine, and tells herself that she really wants to take back the words, "I'll do my best to start hating you." At the beach, Ai is ecstatic at the sights, and nearly strips both herself and Moemi, earning a yelling at from Youta. He later talks with Takeshi in his room about what's happening, and Takeshi says, "Even though you say you can forget about Nobuko, maybe there's someone you like without knowing about it," which causes Youta to realize that maybe he might love Ai most of all. Nobuko cuts Matsui's hair in the hospital, and he asks her to take respon- sibility for being nice to him, since he can't forget about her, and holds her close and tightly. Inside she apologizes to him because she "can't forget about Senpai like this." Ai and Moemi reserve the hotel's hot spring, and settle in to talk. Ai teases Moemi a bit, of course, including saying that "I like Takeshi" is written all over her face, among other parts of her body. ***** ks5-180.jpg (panel 1, 31.1k): Ai and Moemi in the hot spring. Moemi is replying to the above statement by saying, "...It sounds very pitiful, but you're right. It's hard to forget if I start to really like..." After this, Ai figures that it must be the same for Youta and Nobuko, which makes Moemi wonder why it should concern Ai. CHANGE: The water level of this panel is redrawn to completely conceal Ai's crotch. If the artwork and the story so far has piqued your interest, well, get out there, buy all the tankouban and download the fan translations if necessary (or buy Viz Comics' version, if you don't mind waiting several years for them to finish it and can deal with their horrid translations at the beginning) and enjoy. Dave Watson aj153@freenet.carleton.ca.fuspamma http://www.ottawa-anime.org/~eyevocal/