Why Was Wicked City Cut in Britain?

Wicked City reached the English-speaking world twice in 1993. In America, Streamline Pictures released its dub on 20 August 1993, directed within Carl Macek’s operation and played comparatively straight. In Britain, Manga Entertainment chose not to use it: they commissioned a separate British dub, and submitted the film to the BBFC.

The British version that reached video shops was shorter and rougher at once. The BBFC removed 1 minute 48 seconds, with the cuts falling on scenes of sexual violence, while Manga UK’s script ran more profane than the American one, a house style that British fans of the era will remember from across the Manga catalogue. Same film, two accents, two lengths, two reputations.

Australia, characteristically, got both: the Manga UK dub arrived on VHS in 1994, a 1995 bundle tape paired Wicked City with Monster City using the Streamline dub, and when Madman Entertainment took over Manga distribution in 1997 the Streamline version became the standard and the British cut was phased out.

The reunion took twenty years. Discotek Media announced the license at Otakon in 2015 and released a Remastered Special Edition DVD in 2016, followed by Blu-ray: the uncut film, the Japanese track, both English dubs preserved as alternate audio, and a commentary by Mike Toole. The British Wicked City survives now as a feature on an American disc, which is the most video store ending imaginable.