I remember reading a book called "Samurai From Outer Space":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846
and in it there was a section about the concept of "Fifteening". Fifteening is a term coined by the Britains where you actually UP the foul language in a show or series in order to make it more "Edgy". If anyone remembers early fansubs of DBZ (I'm talking way back here), then you might recall them making everyone swear every 5 seconds.
Either sub or dub, if you add a swear where there wasn't one originally, that's fifteening.
But does that mean that what Kyo says is Fifteening? Depends on what he says.
In Japan, there are a number of acceptable ways of voicing displeasure with words that English speakers would consider swear words:
KUSOU! ("Darn it!" to "Shit!")
KISAMAA! ("Bastard!")
CHIKKUSOU! ("God Dammit!")
In Japan, these words are not as offensive as even little Goku says it when he faces a rotten opponent.
Even in the anime Sonic X, in the 2nd episode Sonic says, in ENGLISH (yes, with all the other dialogue in Japanese), "Shit!" when he gets spotted by a camera. In Japan, Shit is not that offensive of a word, even in English. They don't tie it to bowel movements the same way we do.
HOWEVER, one might ask "Well how do you bitch someone out then"? Glad you asked! In Japan, it's not specific words that you say but HOW you say it! Many words in Japan have different ways of saying them, and there is a sort of slur that is added to speech and words in order to make them offensive. It's not one word that is offensive in what you say, but rather the whole sentence.
There is actually a book I remember seeing about how to properly swear in Japanese. I can't seem to find the exact link to it at the moment, but a website that comes pretty close to it is this:
How to speak Yakuza:
http://www.jingai.com/yakuza/introduction.html
So that should be a start. To wrap up, there are some words that no matter WHAT context you say it are just bad. One common in anime is "Shine Bakayarou!" which is "Drop Dead, You Idiot!", and while two words, no matter who says is in any context at any time for any reason, you WILL piss people off!
Although an article I came across from earlier this year:
http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/japa ... code_o.htm
shows that there are some interesting new additions to Japanese swearing popping up thanks to the immigration of American customs.
The best example? Well it goes something like:
"Fuakkyu"
~Otaku-Man
I mean it's just a typical thing that people always say. You know like the Bitch word.
