My Hero Academia Goes Viral Over Its Latest Bout of Censorship

Anime is no stranger to censorship. From sci-fi classics to harem rom-coms, the industry has endured its fair share of edits. The topic never fails to catch attention, so of course, all eyes are on My Hero Academia at the moment. After all, the anime was just hit with a surprising bit of censorship in the Middle East, and it is all due to… Eri?!

Yes, you read that right. Not long ago, the Arabic dub of My Hero Academia made an interesting edit to Eri. The change was noticed by fans after a recent episode hit SpacePower. The network airs throughout the Middle East, and it hosts several anime including My Hero Academia. It was there Eri was introduced in the anime’s Arabic dub, but her name has been changed.

Rather than Eri, the girl is known as Rei in the Arabic dub. Nothing else has been changed about the girl, so you might be wondering why the swap was made. It turns out this bit of censorship was done for the sake of localization as Eri means something NSFW in Arabic.

The word Eri in the Syrian dialect of Arabic is not nice at all. It turns out the word translates to “my d-ck” locally. As such, My Hero Academia’s dub was altered for SpacePower because the name Rei is as innocuous as they come.

Obviously, it wouldn’t do to have a kid named Eri in the Arabic dub given the word’s localized meaning. This is also far from the first time such changes have been made to names in Arabic dubs. For instance, Star Wars has tons of different names for its characters globally due to localized concerns. And now, it seems Eri of My Hero Academia has joined that illustrious list.

What do you make of this latest bout of anime censorship? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!