Digital Bikini

When a naked character is given a computer-created bikini or underwear to preserve their modesty. This can potentially be used on figures wearing clothes already if the original costume is deemed too risque. A close relative of Censor Steam (and Conspicuous CG if the need arises). Compare with Family-Friendly Firearms, when guns are digitally altered into more censor-friendly fictional weapons.

Not to be confused with bikinis made of electronic components (if there is any such thing... yet).

Examples of Digital Bikini include:

Anime & Manga

• Tenchi Muyo! became the Trope Namer when it was aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami, pioneering the technique to avoid cutting the many plot-critical scenes set in hot springs or baths. The best part is seeing the bathing suits painted on characters wearing tightly wrapped towels around them.
• In Inuyasha, in the very first chapter, the Centipede Demon who drags Kagome to the past via the well was supposed to be bare-chested (but with Barbie Doll Anatomy). In the dub, the monster's breast lines were digitally erased, which was not even was left consistently in all scenes.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam when it was aired on Toonami, a bikini top was put on Rain when she's forced to "pilot" the Devil Gundam. Making this especially silly is that the character in question is not only a victim of Barbie Doll Anatomy, but is also completely silver and looks like a statue (due to DG Cell infection).
• In the ill-conceived Toonami airing of two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, one could see Misato taking a bath in a bikini. The entirety of the "Giant Robot Week" left one to wonder which big executive at Cartoon Network was holding the Idiot Ball when they planned that.
• The English dub of Zatch Bell apparently put underpants on the title character (in the original Japanese he walked around with nothing under his dress—yes, he wears a dress) because in Japan nudity on young boys isn't frowned upon (this also happened with young Gohan in Dragon Ball, though in the dub they just cut the scene). This led to a few confusing scenes where he's doing stuff like holding his boxers while wearing boxers and swimming with them while his clothes -- including the boxers—can be seen on the bank.
• Sailor Moon episode 119 features a Daimon called U-Chouten who basically wears large star shaped pasties over her nipples. This was deemed too risque for Cartoon Network and the episode was sent back to Cloverway so they could add a digital bikini top to her; meanwhile, Cartoon Network skipped the episode in its initial run—despite it being a pivotal episode wherein the identity of Sailor Saturn is revealed. Though they did air it later, this really annoyed fans.
• The American broadcast of Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team had these added when the male and female leads took an impromptu hot springs dip.
• Outlaw Star put a Digital Bikini on Melfina when she went into the water tank to control the ship, never mind how she was just covered behind her crossed arms and part of the tank already. The same goes for when she is first "discovered", which is a popular comparison shot—the fetal position just didn't cover it.
• Naruto
  • In the games, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Konohamaru when they do the Sexy Jutsu.
  • Also happens in the "uncover Kakashi's face" episode with the Haze ninjas in the onsen, who are suddenly wearing heart-patterned boxers. In the original version, conveniently placed leaves are covering their buttcracks, but not their buttocks.
• Later volumes of the Indonesian translation of Doraemon have Shizuka wearing a black Digital Swimsuit when taking a bath.
• Underwear is given to Goku in various scenes of Dragon Ball. It's usually pretty noticeable, too. Later dubs get more creative with covering things up.
• CMX's infamous Macekre of Tenjho Tenge had digital bras drawn all over the place, among other things.
• Numerous humanoid monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh! were originally depicted as being naked (though with Barbie Doll Anatomy), but in the 4Kids dub, clothes were digitally painted onto them. Likewise, monsters (and even certain human characters) who were depicted with either very few or very risqué clothes had their clothing modified digitally to be less revealing.
• A scene in an early episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has Asuka and her friends in a hot spring-like area of the Obelisk Blue dorms. In the dub, swimsuits are digitally painted onto their bodies. A much later episode features Misawa taking off all his clothing and running across part of the island naked. The dub gives him a pair of underpants, and the ones he originally threw aside are painted away.
• Mew Mew Power, the 4Kids dub of Tokyo Mew Mew, gave Zakuro/Renee underwear before her clothes form during her Transformation Sequence, even though it goes by so fast it's almost impossible to tell (video comparison here).

Fan Works

• There is a variation in the Harry Potter fic Dumbledore's Army, where Ginny is looking at pictures Harry drew of her, and comes across one where a bikini was drawn over her nude body later—obvious to her, since Harry never saw her in a bikini.

Films -- Animation

• A scene in The Brave Little Toaster shows a woman with stars over her breasts. The DVD has this edited into a bikini.

Films -- Live-Action

• Also seen in live-action movies edited for TV lately, e.g. putting shorts on the thonged Hank Azaria in The Birdcage.
• Showgirls on a non-PPV channel has ridiculous black digital bikini tops drawn on the dancers.
• A lightly censored version of Crank on a free channel had this on an originally topless masseuse.
• In the film My Father the Hero, a father (Gérard Depardieu) takes his 14-year-old daughter (Katherine Heigl) on vacation to a beach resort. At one point she wears a very butt-revealing swimsuit (somewhere between a thong and a G-string); the edited for television version has digitally added panels to her cheeks, making it even less revealing than the average swimsuit (yet her father is still freaked out by how much ass she's showing).
• When Amelie was shown on the satellite TV channel Ovation TV, a bikini was photoshopped on the topless dancer Nino asks to cover for him at work. No, Nino is not a male stripper, he just works in a porn shop.
• In the Australian film release of Quantum of Solace, a woman is sexually assaulted by the evil General in the ready-to-blow-up hotel. She is thrown on to a bed, showing her pubic hair in an upskirt shot. However, in the Region 4 DVD, the upskirt shot shows underwear, presumably added by the magic of CGI.
• The poster and print ad for the 1981 James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only showed a leggy woman in a rear shot, from the waist down, wearing briefs that revealed a substantial portion of her gluteal region. (The model for the photograph is rumored to have used a conventional pair of women's underwear ... worn backward.) The newspapers in some communities, such as Arizona Republic, carefully drew in a pair of more modest shorts.
• Anck Su Namun in The Mummy Returns had this for the airline versions and the trailers. Otherwise it was hot, sexy Body Paint.
• Inverted in Machete, where Jessica Alba wore a bikini while filming a shower scene which was digitally removed later to make it a "nude" scene.
• Natalie Portman in the green band trailer of Your Higness. The original red band version has her wearing a thong.
• When ABC aired Diamonds Are Forever, they put black bra straps across Plenty's back in one scene, and colored her tan briefs to match.
• In Polish HBO's 1998 promo for the Howard Stern's movie Private Parts, in one part they masked Jenna Jameson's breast with crude bikini done in Microsoft Paint. You can see that here (skip to 2:42, the whole video is almost SFW)

Music

• The video for Rascal Flatts' 2003 country hit "I Melt" gained noteriety for becoming the first video in the genre to feature nudity. Scenes include guitarist Joe Don Rooney's bare buttocks, and model Christina Auria taking a shower in the nude. After conservative groups complained, an edited version, with pixelated "bikinis" on each, was released for airing during daytime hours on CMT. Great American Country, a competing country music-oriented network, however, insisted on a new video ... and when Rascal Flatts refused to release one, GAC pulled the plug on the song.
• The European cover art of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" had a picture of a nude girl on a bicycle. (interestingly enough, the picture was taken at a nude bicycle race held to promote said album...) However, when the LP came to America, the record company painted a bikini on the girl.
• Erykah Badu gets pixellated by the end of the "Window Seat" video.

Pro Wrestling

• A 1988 feud between Jake "the Snake" Roberts and "Ravishing" Rick Rude involved an incident that was Played for Laughs and Subverted. The feud itself was sparked when Rude (who had a post-match routine where he would kiss a pre-selected woman in the audience) was spurned by Roberts' real-life wife, Cheryl. To agitate Roberts, Rude began wearing tights with Cheryl's likeness spray-painted on them, prompting Roberts to warn him to stop wearing them or he would come to the ring and take them off himself. Roberts held true to his promise when Rude wore them to the ring ... and he indeed tore them off Rude, causing him to flee in terror and embarassment from the ring completely naked ... with Rude's groin area digitally pixelated. Rude indeed was "nude"—or so the home audience was led to believe; the crowd saw Rude wearing a flesh-colored thong, and the pixelation was done to create the illusion that Rude had been stripped of his skivvies.

Video Games

• The introduction movie for the PlayStation version of Soul Edge has Sophitia interrupted whilst bathing by a god appearing from the water. In the Japanese version she's naked, but everywhere else she's wearing a white swimsuit. Although to their defense, at very least the swimsuited version is playable.
• In Metal Gear Solid, Johnny Sasaki is seen bent over with his butt in the air in his underwear in the Japanese version. In the US version, on the other hand, the underwear is removed and replaced with a pixelized censoring. The pixelized version did NOT make it into the US release of MGS4, and you can see what they were trying to cover up in the original PS 1 version anyway by crawling right next to his ass and using your binoculars to zoom through the pixellization.
• In the PC game Princess Maker 2, you can take your daughter Olive on a vacation as a way to build your relationship and decrease stress. How old she is and what season it is—as well as where you're vacationing—determines which of the photos you'll be shown. Most of said photos are innocent by the game's standards, but the translators decided to slap MS Paint clothes on Olive sunbathing and swimming naked. To be fair, she's supposed to be 12 or 13 in the sunbathing photo. In fact, the four beach summer vacation photos had this. The "sitting on a pool" and "resting in a quiet beach corner" ones had Olive actually wearing more see-through shirts/dresses, so these were slightly altered to not look so transparent.
• Odd example: the pre-release box art for the Western release of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice depicts one of the game's kunoichi in her usual cleavage-baring top about to operate on a Prinny. In the final release, the middle of her top is filled in with black.
• In the Japanese version of Riviera: The Promised Land the girls wear bikinis during the bath scene, but in the US version they do not (certain parts are hidden by Godiva Hair). Same goes with Yggdra Union.
• Delphi in Giants: Citizen Kabuto—but only in the US English version. The game comes with both US and UK English as installation languages, rendering the whole exercise moot for anyone who realizes that the original UK version is uncensored.
• Castlevania's Werewolf has turned into a naked human since Rondo of Blood, but in Order of Ecclesia, they added a pair of boxer shorts. A closer look reveals that the boxers spontaneously appear between frames.
• Final Fantasy VI localization follows Nintendo of America's guidelines with depiction of nudity. The Esper Siren was originally shown with a bare butt, but was edited to wear shorts in the US SNES version. PS 1 version retains the original. The GBA port had her partially covered, not as much as the SNES version.
• In Abadox, the princess Floating in A Bubble was naked in the original Japanese version. The U.S. version painted some clothes over her body.

Western Animation

• A commercial promo for Archer paints tights on a woman passed out in his bedroom who is nude in the actual show.

Real Life

• For Drew Barrymore's birthday, Steven Spielberg gave her a copy of her Playboy spread with this effect applied by ILM.