Censorship (beware, what follows is a rant)

[Eluthia]

For laughs I watched an episode of FoxBox's One Piece.

That was so...traumatic. 0_o The censorship just killed it.

The pirates now drink "juice" instead of beer, for crying out loud! If the censors are going to butcher a series this badly, why even bother to import it in the first place?! I mean, they even got rid of Sanji's cigarette, and I think they must've censored out some blood. I'm not really a One Piece fan (I only watched the first few episodes, and that was a long while ago), but nonetheless I feel indignant watching this pathetic kiddified thing that remains after censorship.

Um, yes, ending the rant now... >_< *sigh* Censorship sucks.

[Christopher]

*Directs to our very own mod Chanel*

She'll have a lovely time ranting with you.

[Amethyst]

Don't watch a 4kids dub and expect it to be un-stupid.

I learned the hard way after what they did to my beloved Shaman King....THEY REPLACED YOH'S POT LEAF WITH THIS WIERD DIAMOND-Y TYPE THING! UGH!

[Chanel]

Preach, girl! ^^

I'm a rabid One Piece fan, so most of my friends (like Chris) have already suffered/are still suffering from my rants on the censored One Piece. Besides the points you brought up, I really really really despise the new "rap" opening song for the English One Piece. Why couldn't they have kept the original song? Inuyasha got to keep its songs, didn't it? I guess that's a booboo on 4Kids's part.

I've watched up to episode 150 now, and the more I watch the more scenes I find that just cannot be censored, no matter what. Seeing how they've drawn the line at blood, cigs, and beer... I'm very curious to see what anyone can do with some of the later One Piece episodes that contain extremely violent scenes that go way beyond what has been censored so far. My friends and I have concluded that hopefully 4Kids will never go that far in the One Piece storyline... hopefully.

(and c'mon. Pirates that don't drink ale, but drink juice??? These people are one step away from photoshopping all the skulls and crossbones in the series and say that all the pirates aren't pirates but actually just sailors. Yeesh)

Aaand this only adds to the debut of Naruto on CN in September, and all the crazy censoring jobs they're going to do to that.

*sigh* ._.

[Runevalkyrie]

I'm a rabid One Piece fan, so most of my friends (like Chris) have already suffered/are still suffering from my rants on the censored One Piece. Besides the points you brought up, I really really really despise the new "rap" opening song for the English One Piece. Why couldn't they have kept the original song? Inuyasha got to keep its songs, didn't it? I guess that's a booboo on 4Kids's part.

I read a similar rant on another forum I frequent, very likely it's a demographic thing. The demographic their aiming at likes rap and boom they come with a rap opening that plays on the show, pretty conventional practice if you look at a lot of edited dubs that have been on TV. It's obvious that they're not catering to the fans of the show and caring more of the general public (if they were, Toei themselves would have some sense and release the coming DVDs uncut as well) However, somewhere on the net there is a clip from a 4kids exhibit (likely a licensing expo) with an English version of one of the openers.

[Christopher]

Preach, girl! ^^

I'm a rabid One Piece fan, so most of my friends (like Chris) have already suffered/are still suffering from my rants on the censored One Piece. Besides the points you brought up, I really really really despise the new "rap" opening song for the English One Piece. Why couldn't they have kept the original song? Inuyasha got to keep its songs, didn't it? I guess that's a booboo on 4Kids's part.

I've watched up to episode 150 now, and the more I watch the more scenes I find that just cannot be censored, no matter what. Seeing how they've drawn the line at blood, cigs, and beer... I'm very curious to see what anyone can do with some of the later One Piece episodes that contain extremely violent scenes that go way beyond what has been censored so far. My friends and I have concluded that hopefully 4Kids will never go that far in the One Piece storyline... hopefully.

(and c'mon. Pirates that don't drink ale, but drink juice??? These people are one step away from photoshopping all the skulls and crossbones in the series and say that all the pirates aren't pirates but actually just sailors. Yeesh)

Aaand this only adds to the debut of Naruto on CN in September, and all the crazy censoring jobs they're going to do to that.

*sigh* ._.

And since I follow Naruto in the same way Chanel follows One Piece, I'll be the one ranting and angry. I've already seen the trailer in english and disgruntled.

Introduce the American spawn to a foreign language, teach them to read with subtitles.

[Runevalkyrie]

Introduce the American spawn to a foreign language, teach them to read with subtitles.

Some dubs are faithful to the orignial (save for some TV-only dubs), it all depends on the studio dubbing it and who's distributing it for what audience (and the edits in dub dialogues on TV are usually either measures by the distributer before they send it to the broadcaster or the main edits of the broadcaster.) Why do want to hinder some who actually like dubs from enjoying anime in the same way you like subtitled or raws?

[Jasujo]

Introduce the American spawn to a foreign language, teach them to read with subtitles.

Some dubs are faithful to the orignial (save for some TV-only dubs), why do want to hinder some who actually like dubs from enjoying anime in the same way you like subtitled or raws?

Yes, how are younger children who can't read yet or who are just beginning to learn supposed to watch anime if there isn't dubs? I think dubs are fine as long as they are done right. Even the not so good ones can be dealable because it still introduces the children or uninformed to anime. Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad and just deal.

I'd rather the hating of all dubs stopped because I'm sure everyone here didn't first start anime on subtitles. The ones that did wouldn't even be enough to fill the board, so dislike them if you want, but cut the hating down, alright?

On One Piece, I think it's more cut because of when it's on, just like Shaman King and Toyko Mew Mew (I refuse to use the other name lol). They are docked as Saturday morning shows for kids on a regular cable network. Other shows like Rave Master, Inu-Yasha, and the coming Naruto will be edited less because they are on evening/late night Saturday on a non-regular cable station.

I wish the One Piece CN was showing was less edited, but I guess they are just showing the same episodes that are already translated, just like when they grabbed Yu-Gi-Oh. Eh, it's better than nothing. *shrug*

[DM was on fire!]

Aaand this only adds to the debut of Naruto on CN in September, and all the crazy censoring jobs they're going to do to that.

Oh, gosh. I really don't want to see that one.

If you think they killed One Piece, you haven't seen the butchering done to Tokyo Mew Mew. Everytime Ichigo says her NEW little motto, I feel like hurling chunks.

I now see that they actually did a halfway good Yu-Gi-Oh!. Although I know they changed the name of the Black Magician Girl as not to "offend" anyone. n_n

[Eluthia]

I don't mind that One Piece's dub OP is a rap song...it's just that it's a really crappy rap song. -_- As for dubs in general, well, I often don't like them (of all the English voices in the One Piece dub, for instance, the only one I can live with is Nami's; Luffy's English voice makes my ears bleed) but then again there are well-done dubs (Princess Mononoke) and sometimes it's a matter of taste. Plus some original Japanese voices annoy me too (Azuma's voice in Yakitate Japan took a while to get used to - I'll never like it, but I guess I can live with it).

Yes, I know that some editing is done to make anime acceptable to the mainstream. But my god, what can be lamer than the mainstream? Plus I wish One Piece had been directed at the teen/pre-teen audience it was meant for, because trying to shave the corners off a square peg in order to stuff it into the round hole of children's cartoons just leaves us all with one very, very mangled peg. Er...excuse the stupid metaphor. ^^;

If companies like 4kids want to import anime for a young audience, they should choose anime that were made for children! Like Bomberman Jetters or Fushigi Boshi no Futago Hime, for example.

The thought of the Naruto dub is rather disturbing. I hope, considering the HUGE fandom for Naruto already in existence, that the censorship will be mild. I doubt there's a way to censor out an entire legion of almost-nude girls anyway.

[Runevalkyrie]

Other shows like Rave Master, Inu-Yasha, and the coming Naruto will be edited less because they are on evening/late night Saturday on a non-regular cable station.

Rave Master I disagee, that is heavily edited and sanatized compared to the other examples. They bleed "oil", all references to gambling is "arcade gaming" because some of the characters are underage, alcohol is "soda" and they get "sugar rushes", and a lot of the dialogue and scenes don't reflect deaths and such.

[Christopher]

Introduce the American spawn to a foreign language, teach them to read with subtitles.

Some dubs are faithful to the orignial (save for some TV-only dubs), it all depends on the studio dubbing it and who's distributing it for what audience (and the edits in dub dialogues on TV are usually either measures by the distributer before they send it to the broadcaster or the main edits of the broadcaster.) Why do want to hinder some who actually like dubs from enjoying anime in the same way you like subtitled or raws?

I have yet to see dubs faithful
As for subs, they are usually quite incorrect as well (though even on the internet this is a problem, however with that they can release v2 of the episodes without you having to rush off and spend another fortune to get a new disc).

Maybe if the general public could see subs they'd like them too?

[ninjausagi]

Now I'm having DiC/Cloverway-ified Sailormoon flashbacks. I'm going to go on a rampage if they even consider dubbing Sailorstars! At least by the time Cloverway Picked up S ans SuperS I already owned S and up in Japanese. "Hey Scouts, let's trash these Nega-scum! They're making me like major peeved!" "Ne Usagi, what's a 'Scout' ? We don't sell cookies. When you say 'Nega-scum' do you mean Dark Kingdom? And why are you screeching like a banshee?"

It's trash like that which turned me away from dub. Some of the subtitled stuff is just as bad. Some companies *coughADVcough* just take the American teenager-ized dub scripts and slap them on the Original Japanese and call it subtitles. Half the time it isn't even remotley close to what they're saying. It makes me glad I learned enough Japanese to understand what they're really saying. I think they forget that when people watch anime, they want to watch what was actually produced not what some idealistic go-getter thinks we would relate to better.

[MyleneFarmer]

It's trash like that which turned me away from dub. Some of the subtitled stuff is just as bad. Some companies *coughADVcough* just take the American teenager-ized dub scripts and slap them on the Original Japanese and call it subtitles. Half the time it isn't even remotley close to what they're saying. It makes me glad I learned enough Japanese to understand what they're really saying. I think they forget that when people watch anime, they want to watch what was actually produced not what some idealistic go-getter thinks we would relate to better.

Hmm....I really hadn't noticed that too badly with the ADV shows I've seen, such as Azumanga Daioh and Noir. Not everything is necessarily word for word how I would translate it (I speak a decent amount of Japanese myself), but on the other hand, many of the changes actually make sense. Azumanga was especially well done in my opinion, especially with the translation notes provided with each disk. Sometimes they changed a few words to something more Americanized, but they noted the change and the reason in the notes. Other times they kept the culturally based notation in the show, but did a nice job of explaining it in the notes. I still need to read the notes for the Okinawa episodes. I could figure out most of the other cultural references throughout the show, but I know next to nothing about Okinawa, except that some of my sensei admitted not understanding half of what was said in Okinawan-Japanese. Perhaps there are other ADV anime that weren't done so well? Or maybe early on they did horrible Americanizations and have learned their lesson? I haven't seen very many from ADV. Only Azumanga, Noir, and Evangelion. Azumanga and Noir I felt were very well done. Evangelion I don't remember all that well. It was weird. I hated Shinji. That's pretty much it. :p

On Jasujo's reference to hating dubs...I hate them. I see they serve a purpose for children, but I still hate them and will not watch them. I could care less if anime are hacked to death in dubs because I simply will not watch them. Sure, I started on dubbed Sailor Moon. That's the only dubbed anime I've ever seen though. I've tried a few minutes here or there when I've come across Adult Swim or the anime they show on International Channel (why do they show dubs there?!?) and have yet to find one that was tolerable. But that's just my opinion. I'll always tell people to watch the sub, that the dubs are terrible, but whether they do or not is their perogative. Doesn't matter to me one way or the other, as long as no one forces me to watch a dub as well. ^_^v

EDIT: Ah, I just noticed that ADV did Slayers. Okay, yes, I can see the "American Teenager-ized dub script" in use in that show very, very clearly. Then again, that's a very old series, so while I don't find it 'justifiable', it is at least a bit understandable that they did it. Wrong and idiotic, but understandable, at least from my perspective. At least it does seem they've learned from those mistakes in the more recent series that I've seen.

[DracolordII]

I also hate the censorship, though cartoon network is planning on doing a block full of subbed anime, and whats really bad about shaman king isn't the leaf, that was a reallatively(spelled wrong)recent change, but the name changes, Howe to Zeke, and tray is a nickname for Horohoro which is already a nickname for Horoku(once again spelled it wrong), the only decent 4kids dub is sonic, and thats only because they had sega's help. In fact the only actually good dub I have ever seen, besides Miyazaki's movies was YuuYuuHakusho(this time the spelling is correct) and the company that brought over th YYH movie not only didn't use the real voice actors but hey never brought over the first movie. And now 4kids wants to bring over Bleach, if they sensor that there is nothing left.