By TokoyamiTheDark
Many people complained about 4Kids being horribly dubbing animes licensed to it, and Pokemon was no exeption before 4Kids lost their license. They not only ruined the show with voices, but also by editing images thanks to airbrushing. So, you want a few examples on how 4Kids ruined the series according to some fans?
1. ALL Japanese symbols are erased, giving a weird hollow feel-like in the show.
2. Japanese foods are replaced by North American foods, where in an episode, they dramatically edited Ash so he would hold a huge subway sandwich rather than a tini onigiri (rice cake)
3. Scenes with Japanese cultures are cut, since they don’t match America’s cultures
4. Even money isn’t spared ; a Japanese yen was replaced by an American penny in one of the Indigo League episodes thanks to airbrushing
5. Sometimes, to match America’s cultures, scenes are mirrored, which some makes no sense at all!
But if you thought those was bad, then you saw nothing yet, because the movies’ dub are far worse than the TV animation. Here’ I’ll explain how horrible were the series « Pikachu’s Vacation » were dubbed.
The Japanese intro of Pikachu’s Summer Vacation had one of the most joyful songs in all movies, composed by Hirokazu Tanaka, a famous Nintendo musician who began his career at making music in 1989, in the game Super Mario Land. In the English dub, it is a mere song called « Vacation » composed by Vitamin C. Hirokazu’s song has heartbeating sounds each time a new Pokemon picture was shown, following the rhytm. However, with Vitamin C, the rhytm no longer follows the song, so camera clicking noises were added as if someone was taking pictures.
The Summer Vacation’s narrator is Mama-san while the Winter Vacation’s narrator is Papa-san. However, the dub has an ugly machine talking rather than the voice of a man or a woman. Mama-san says things that are true and indeed follow the movie’s situation while 4Kids totally messed-up the translation, sometimes making no sense at all! Here’s an example when Squirtle and Bulbasaur confront Snubbull an dits gang:
Mama-San : « Yes, yes, Pikachu! Fighting won’t do any good! »
Machine : « Translation activated ; let’s set a good example for the baby. »
See the translation don’t match the original at all and makes no sense? Well, there are other things that 4Kids spoiled, as they tried to make Pokemon an American show rather to let little kids know that it came from Japan. Even I thought this was American when I was young due to all the edits. Other edits in Pikachu’s vacation includes the narration before the swimming race :
Mama-San : « Yes, yes, before going swimming in the water, you must do warms-ups! »
Machine : « It isn’t unusual for Pokemon to challenge each other in contests of speed. »
When Pikachu and Raichu stars doing a mad race around the park, the dialog between the Japanese version and the dub changed a lot, so much that the whole situation has been edited :
Mama-San : « Aah! Pikachu, you too? What are we gonna do? Pikachu! Raichu! Come back here! Where are you going!? »
Machine : « Pikachu and Raichu are both Mouse Pokemon of the Electric ability. Combined voltage approaching shockingly dangerous levels. »
The English sentence makes no sense at all. It would have been best if they kept the Japanese dialogs, but no, they had to ruin it all. But now 4Kids lost their Pokemon license, and the series are much better with VIZ Kids medias.
Tags: Pokemon TV Show