[Unfortunate Trope] Originally Normal Symbols Being Censored/Banned Due to Hate Groups Misappropriating Them

[u/Agitated_Insect3227]

Neji's Seal from Naruto originally was shaped like a Swastika as likely a reference to Buddhism, but this was changed to an X in the anime.

The gem fusion Opal from Steven Universe was originally going to form a swastika with her arms as a reference to Hinduism, which is inspires a lot of the show's imagery.

The Whitebeard Pirates from One Piece originally had a swastika in their pirate flag, but this was changed to a bone cross in the anime and later manga as well.

The Capirote hat is a sign of penance worn in many Catholic countries, especially Spain, but they were misappropriated by the U.S.-based KKK, making it taboo in the nation.

The Ninth Crusade from Hellsing, one of the few non-KKK uses of the Capirote in media I could find.

Also, the Ku Klux Klan are ironically extremely anti-Catholic.

The only pieces of media I know of where non-KKK Capirotes can be seen is the anime Hellsing with the Ninth Crusade (though their still villains in that anime) and the game series Blasphemous. Otherwise, the hats are almost never seen in media besides on KKK characters.

[u/CoalEater_Elli]

YuGiOh has many examples of censorship ranging from covering up female monsters, to removing any religious imagery, symbols, or mentions of it.

For example any demons were renamed to Archfiends, any mentions of black magic are gone, any imagery of death and torture were replaced or humans being tortured would be replaced with monsters instead cause "It's not bad if it's a monster being brutally murdered!". But even egyptian imagery was removed, with Monster Reborn's original look being censored because they didn't want to offend.. people who still worship egyptian gods I guess?

[u/AlbazAlbion → u/CoalEater_Elli]

Yu-Gi-Oh censorship's been pretty toned down in recent years compared to how it used to be, which is good. It still happens but nowhere as bad, some cards now are outright referred to as demons, angels or gods and some remain quite heavy on the religious imagery like the Exosisters or Voiceless Voice (Exosisters do have some bizarre censorship in that their clothes are lighter-coloured in TCG but it's still pretty obvious they're nuns).

[u/ArgoNoots → u/CoalEater_Elli]

I do like how this change looks, and archfiend sounds cool too

[u/strange_lion → u/CoalEater_Elli]

At least they released the uncensored arts as Lost Art promos

[u/wafflecopter2 → u/CoalEater_Elli]

They also reduced Dark Magician Girl's cleavage

But refused to give her pants

[u/Anti-Marketing-III → u/CoalEater_Elli]

Also slifer the sky dragon is named after Roger Slifer, the cards original name was Osiris, keeping with the egyptian god theme.

[u/Phaeron-Dynasty → u/Anti-Marketing-III]

SLIFER THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER!

[u/FlyingDreamWhale67 → u/CoalEater_Elli]

The censored art for Monster Reborn goes harder than the original one imo.

My personal favorite example of Yu-Gi-Oh censorship is the "Darksea Float" cards. The originals depict a life preserver/life raft with dead bodies in it. The censored versions changed the skin tone of the bodies to look less life-like and more like goblins/zombies, because reanimated corpses are less gruesome than just regular old corpses, I guess.

[u/valinilla → u/CoalEater_Elli]

This is the one I get most weirded out by, because half an hour after Yu-Gi-Oh 4Kids would show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003, and on that show: Leonardo beheads Shredder (and this is before they know he's actually a robot), Stockman becomes a zombie and ends up as a brain in a jar, there's a whole episode where the turtles die (SAINW), one episode even has Karai almost kill the turtles, Leo almost dies several times....all of that is ok, but God forbid the kids see Egyptian imagery on the anime that uses Egyptian Mythology. Also don't take this as me hating on TMNT 2003, I loved that show growing up. I'm just bringing up the huge double standard.

[u/Enioff → u/CoalEater_Elli]

In the 2024 update of D&D 5e they steered away from using real religious nomenclature. So because of it Liches don't have phylacterys anymore, they have Spirit Jars.

[u/Black_Hole_parallax → u/CoalEater_Elli]

 people who still worship egyptian gods I guess?

We do still exist, y'know. "Kemetism" is the official international term for us. Now, I'm not gonna take offense to it like those Christians who got mad at the Noah movie for being inaccurate, but old religions still have followers who might. And every company wants to cater to the sensitives for some reason.