It’s not just Netflix. In Indonesia, censorship extends all the way into the realm of children’s cartoons most people would consider wholesome and family-friendly such as “Doraemon”.
The following tweet from Twitter user Andika Tri Saputra features a screenshot of “Doraemon” playing on local channel RCTI in which the character Shizuka, who is a 9-year-old girl, has the bottom half of her swimsuit blurred out. The image struck a chord with netizens and has been retweeted over 430 times as of the time of writing:
“Oh my God… So that’s how it is KPI [Indonesian Broadcasting Commission]…”
To be fair, “Doraemon” has long been censored to varying degrees in Indonesia because, like many other Japanese children’s cartoons, it occasionally has instances of child nudity (which is not a big deal in Japanese culture).
But the blurring of Shizuka’s bikini seems to have struck netizens as particularly ridiculous and an example of the double standards of Indonesian censors.
“Cartoons are censored, however sinetron stars wearing sexy clothes aren’t censored. Wrong focus of duties and responsibilities.”
A similar controversy arose last year over the blurring of a bikini worn by Sandy, the squirrel girl character on “Spongebob Squarepants”.
Netizens have been blaming KPI for the censorship, but as Redditor grandiaziel pointed out, the broadcasting commission does not censor shows before they are aired. That is the job of Indonesian Censorship Agency (LSF), which also wants Netflix to be banned in Indonesia for not letting them censor the streaming service’s content.
However, KPI did get children’s cartoon “Dragonball” taken off Indonesian airwaves last year, citing complaints about its violence (although it was replaced by “Naruto,” which is another cartoon with similar levels of violence).
Do you think censors went too far in censoring Shizuka’s swimsuit?
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