Seven Seas and Censorship
Feb. 16, 2021
TL;DR Turns out Seven Seas has not only been translating Japanese media, but has been engaging in moral editorial work. Don’t buy anything from Seven Seas until they’ve made an apology and proven themselves worthy of your money again; until then, just sail the high seas for their stuff if you really want to read it.
Seven Seas has been caught with their pants down, and apparently it’s not even their first rodeo either. Their first instance of completely removing content from a published light novel was their original Classrom of the Elite release.
It’s quite mind-boggling why Seven Seas would do this, considering they had to have understood people would figure it out eventually. Still, let’s give the actual company a break here, and instead assume it’s the team that translated the source material.
Which one here is responsible here? Is it only one of these people, or were several involved in the blatant act of censorship? Was it orders from above, editorial censorship, a rogue translator that went out of their way to moral police, or a combination of the above? For now, no one besides the company and/or at least one of these people would know. However, the editor-in-chief, Adam Arnold, should have been aware of it to some extent at the very least. If he wasn’t, then Seven Seas should probably consider having the guy fired for his blatant ineptitude and failure to oversee the translation process of a major release.
The same people that’s been involved in the translation of Mushoku Tensei has been the team behind other series from Seven Seas, and as such one now has to doubt all the other works they’ve been a part of. If they’ve gone and censored this one series, then who’s to say they haven’t done that to all the other series they’ve been in charge of.
That said, if this is the fault of orders from higher up, then the company should no longer be considered a trustworthy source for light novel or manga translations. Until they’ve provided evidence that they are to be trusted once more, one should no longer be buying from Seven Seas. If, however, you should feel the need to still consume the translated works, then get yourself a good VPN and go sail the seven seas. A certain cat-tracker will guide you towards the right files.
Update: According to further information, the translators involved claims that they did not cut content. So who’s to blame here? The digital early release might’ve had different content, but without proof there’s little one can do but to speculate.