What if 4kids dubbed XY/XYZ?

[JapaneseVersionFan22]

Would it be more awesome than how TPCI treated it?

 

[BigDocFan]

I'm sure they would have done a lot more edits regarding the violence

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

The music might be better, but you know they'd censor stuff, like the crucifix thing or Lysandre's death

 

[Sakuraa]

I feel like it would be much worse. Cringey voices and most likely massive edits of things that don't need to be edited out :/

 

[BigDocFan]

I do wonder who would be voicing which characters had 4 kids remained in the dub, I do miss the likes of Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachel Lillis, not forgetten the late Maddie Blaustein

 

[Flynn]

Don't they still dub Yugioh? It'd probably be like that.

 

[Gabo2oo]

The music might be better, but you know they'd censor stuff, like the crucifix thing

TPCI censored that.

 

[Cresselia92]

I don't think it would be better, to be honest. However, it could still be a fun experiment to do.

 

[Charmander4]

The writing and voices would be far better. It wasn't just the VA from 4Kids that were good, the writing was just much more sharp and not lowest common denominator like we have now. It would've been more broad in trying to get older fans and not 6 year olds.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

TPCI censored that.

Not completely, just the arms

 

[Gengarzilla]

No, it wouldn't have helped. Let's let 4Kids go already if you ask me.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

The XY English dub would have been much better had 4Kids done it as opposed to TPCi, imo: for one thing, I think 4Kids would've kept the OST in the XY Movies going off the last ones they did in AG, same applies to the Pikachu Shorts, which as we all know TPCi replaced a majority or all of the OST in them.

Furthermore, I feel the script writing would've been more fluid, genuinely more natural all around, and I think 4Kids would've done a much better job writing Team Rocket's dialogue in a more natural, cohesive way, rather than shoving slang, alliterations, and outside of motto rhymes every few lines down their throats in addition to Jewish catchphrases peppered in Meowth's dialogue, despite them still being the characters with the most rewrites and some rhymes on occasion back then, too. Additionally, the protagonists' dialogue would've been less "Try, try," "Wowie," "Wow, wow, wow," "That's the way we roll," "Step on the gas" like and generally Ash wouldn't say kay or so psyched nearly as often as he does now. I could elaborate on the script, but that's the gist of what I feel would differ. 4Kids' writing had improved over time in terms of doing good translations rather than the random rewrites in those mid-late Kanto eps. pre the League, although I feel it peaked in Orange Islands in terms of accuracy (and was the best the dub's ever been there writing-wise), Johto and Hoenn actually fared pretty well script wise in their dub as well (the only weak scripts for them later are primarily Charizard's Burning Ambitions, Movie 5, and most of Chronicles, even some Chronicles eps. got decent scripts at times).

Voice acting, touchy subject for many and it's bound to arouse dissent among both factions here, but I (speaking solely for myself) generally prefer all the VAs 4Kids cast for anyone from Generations 1-3 with a 4Kids or TPCi English dub voice myself, so I honestly feel Ash & TR would've sounded better in English with Taylor & company pitch wise, but the emotion would've also been more expressive and energetic rather than monotone like TPCi comes across as rather often to me. I feel the Pokemon themselves would've also sounded better (for example, Talonflame would've sounded more bird-like rather than jock-like, and Goodra less Scooby Doo-like, more majestic instead, imo, just to name off a few examples).

Finally, we get to the subject of the OST kept in the Anime dub itself: while 4Kids had improved dramatically in keeping the OST in the Pikachu Shorts and Movies in their later run, the downside was the rapidly increasing music replacing in the Anime dub itself for them (kind of the opposite of their earlier run, isn't it, in this regard?). While 4Kids didn't ever get as bad about how much replacing of the OST in AG's Anime dub they did as TPCi did in XY's dub, I don't think this would've been any better were they in charge over time- however, I do think the quality of the dub music itself would be better than what Goldfarb comes up with had Loeffler & Corallo's team stayed together, I actually find myself humming to a few tunes from their era whereas TPCi's dub music from the start has come off as bland as well as lifeless to me, and nowadays it's the "circus, elevator, UFO" stuff the fans on other sites label it to me as well.

Sure, I can concede we'd possibly have a few more violence based edits and maybe some more minor errors (that said TPCi now order kanji edits too, even 4Kids kept the kanji on the drums in "Cheer Pressure" in AG whereas the XY dub kept no kanji at all, and TPCi did a rather notable edit for the Ash crucifying scene in XYZ's dub in addition to "Greninjo," "You'll catch cold," etc. errors along with repeating the Voltorb/Electrode goof 4Kids did in Pikachu Short 3 in Hoopa's Surprise Ring Adventures 5 for them among others), but other than that those very infinitesimal things in my eyes, I think 4Kids would've done a significantly better job than TPCi did with XY.

I honestly miss them dubbing this Series in general into English, despite being defunct and dead now save for the 4KMedia remnant living on to dub Yu-Gi-Oh, with a different production team there for the most part: for all their faults, I actually genuinely enjoyed most of the product 4Kids put out with Pokemon, and still feel the way their major cast was (and is) treated to be a sad turn of events.

*Waits to be bashed for having a legitimate opinion that is reasoned out as well as I could do so*

The writing and voices would be far better. It wasn't just the VA from 4Kids that were good, the writing was just much more sharp and not lowest common denominator like we have now. It would've been more broad in trying to get older fans and not 6 year olds.

I don't disagree with this, so there you go.

 

[Johtohfiller]

If nothing else Team Rocket would have been much better.

 

[JapaneseVersionFan22]

How would 4Kids treat the dialogue if they had dubbed XY/XYZ? Can you think of any examples?

And how would Veronica Taylor make Ash sound like in Ash-Greninja scenes?

 

[Shift]

We can't. You win. Satisfied?

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Serena: "This is perfect! Lumiose City is the perfect place for our first meeting."
Grace: "Yeah. As soon as he meets you, he can jump right off the tower!"

 

[Likeitornot.]

@JapaneseVersionFan22 I just merged the thread you created with this one as I felt there is room for discussion about how 4Kids would treat the dialogue in XY/XYZ in this thread. If you have any questions/topics in relation to 4Kids dubbing XY/XYZ, you can use this thread.

 

[Sakuraa]

I just can't envision being able to take 4Kids dubbing XY(Z) seriously. Most of their dialogue was so cringey, even in scenarios that were supposed to be serious. And given that a lot of the Kalos saga was dealing with really emotional, serious plots I personally feel like the entire atmosphere of the series wouldn't be as powerful.

 

[Team Gaara]

Worse. XYZ is, arguably, more serious of a series, sort of like how DP was. So 4Kids probably would have done away with a lot of seriousness in attempts to make jokes and have a lot of characters have goofy French accents, along with more childish dialogue~ 4Kids in general just censors things that don't need to be censored and considering that there was more seriousness in the plot with Zygarde, it's pretty much a given that I probably wouldn't have been able to take it as seriously, as it would have likely been edited. Oh, and they probably would have played up on Amourshipping, which could be good or bad depending on how people feel about ships~

Perhaps I could see them doing SuMo decently, as it's a humor filled series, but they would certainly have done poorly with XY (and by poorly, I mean, not as good as TPCI, not that it wouldn't have been enjoyable at all)~

 

[Nicolas721]

What would have worried me the most would be the cultural references. They made a couple of references to the internet in the first seasons, I don't want to imagine what they would have done with smartphones and things. I can picture Monsieur Pierre (renamed François because wynaut) saying "In order to vote, download our app from the Poke-store, and give a like to your favorite Performer!".