(OOC Disclaimer: For those who don't know anime history, the BBC once tried their hand at dubbing anime in the early 80s. After doing a few episodes of Urusei Yatsura, they quietly ditched the project. This DBWI is about if they tried their hand at something with more weight to it, and how the Thatcher Government had a lot of Moral Guardian figures backing.)
The BBC's dub of Rose of Versailles, perhaps unsurprisingly in hindsight, was one of the more intriguing stories about Western Europe's relationship with Japanese animation. Originally dubbed in order to create Masterpiece Theatre-style television with just radio actors and a script, it had just been a modest success to provide what were more modern updates to what Dickens did with A Tale of Two Cities. That was what would've happened, had not certain backbenchers in Parliament loudly complained about the show's approach to the French Revolution and how it would influence how children see politics.
What happened next was the Streisand Effect in action: seeing how politics was taking a turn for the ugly-as-all-Hell, more people tuned in to relate to a world turning upside-down. Especially for political satirists, who would use characters like Oscar and Andre as straight men for their French Revolution parodies. Despite the success, the top brass at the BBC decided that political controversy was less of what they needed. For Auntie, future anime projects from Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater would see less spectacular but more consistent returns.
With that in mind, what do you think would happen if the project never happened? Do you think the Anglosphere would still see animation as a front in the culture wars? Or would it be just be medium that was a bit more blase?