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The Dub: Non-canon, or just a separate continuity?

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Title says it all. In cases where the dub obviously deviates from the original Japanese version, do you consider these events entirely "non-canon" or just part of their own continuity?

I'm not talking about things like sandwiches rolling down hills. :p I mean actual plot or characterization differences, like English!Mew (Movie 1) not being a huge bigot, or 4Kids' heavy emphasis on PokéShipping which, if it existed, was much more subtle in the original.

In short, a "separate continuity" would consider, for instance, Satoshi and Dent to be different characters from Ash and Cilan, existing in what amounts to an alternate universe, rather than merely thinking of Ash as "English!Satoshi".

Myself, I have no real opinion on the matter, I'm just curious what the rest of you think.
 
TPCi and 4kids aren't real. They didn't happen.

Well, if there are slightly different characterisations that are consistent the whole way through, then the dub has its own continuity. Anything else is non-canon. Like in DP when they kept saying contests were annual when they clearly weren't, TPCi should just be ignored for making a stupid edit.
 
My way of thinking is closer to separate continuity, because I can't consider something officially released as non-canon, whether it makes sense or not.

In any case, by "Mew being a huge bigot", are you talking about Mew saying that clone Pokémon are inferior because they're copies in the Japanese version? Because that's a completely fake rumor, Mew only says that the original Pokémon won't lose to the clones if neither are using their moves in the Japanese version. That's pretty much it.
 
I personally think that any dub that changes events should be considered it's own continuity, while any dub that remains faithful to the original is the same, just with a dubbed language. For Pokémon, it tends to be a mix of both, but I'd say the dub would be it's own continuity because of, as mentioned, the FirstMovie!Mew not being a bigot and such varied choices throughout the dubbing process.
 
In any case, by "Mew being a huge bigot", are you talking about Mew saying that clone Pokémon are inferior because they're copies in the Japanese version? Because that's a completely fake rumor, Mew only says that the original Pokémon won't lose to the clones if neither are using their moves in the Japanese version. That's pretty much it.

I stand corrected, thank you for clearing that up.
 
Do you guys mean Mewtwo?...-.-
There's a rumor on the internets that Mew has a line (translated by Nyarth) in the first film about how the clones are unnatural and have to die. Its line is actually Mew saying it believes the originals will win.

It's like the "Butterfree die after mating" rumor that's heard a lot.
 
Separate continuity works for me. I'm a huge fan of 4Kids work with Pokemon, so seeing their dub as another show on it's own rather than just some wrong version of the Japanese version is nice. Same way I see Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, I don't want to acknowledge it as ruining anything, I'd rather pretend everything's fine with that justification. I hold no similar bias in favor of TCPI though, and watch the subs of episodes they do, so no comment on them for this question.
 
If you're not asking for 'opinion' I guess 'its own continuity' makes sense.

If you just want each one's opinions, well, I just consider the dub non-existent as far as script goes.
When I saw the differences between Shigeru and Gary's lines during Joutou prior to the league that was when I picked this mindset.
 
It's a shame that the overwhelming majority of the fans in the Western world are stuck with the dub continuity, never realizing that a lot of what they think they know was pulled out of 4Kids / TPCI's asses.
 
As a Pokémon fan, I kinda feel the responsibility to correct those people who stick with the dub and dub-based continuity if it's relevant to the story. Not exactly convincing them to watch Japanese, but at least be aware that a lot of what they know might not be that way originally.
 
It's a shame that the overwhelming majority of the fans in the Western world are stuck with the dub continuity, never realizing that a lot of what they think they know was pulled out of 4Kids / TPCI's asses.

So did Richie ever evolve his Eevee or what?
 
It's probably stuck in limbo forever, never to be seen or retconned out until the Japanese version says that he has caught an Eevee or not.
 
Whenever the dub gets too carried away with making stuff up, there's always the risk that it will come back to bite them on the butt pretty hard, as it did with Lola.

Lola is, pretty much, the singular reason why I'm not inclined to view particularly radical dub changes as "canon", more a misinterpretation of what's actually happening.
 
I don't even consider it non-canon or a separate continuity. They're the same series to me, except one is the original Japanes version and the others is a dub with some alterations because of translation errors or TCPI just being stupid. I don't pay much attention to the differences because in the end, I just don't care. To me, there's no separate continuity and the dub is still canon.
 
I don't see how dub could be either of those? Dub is just translated version of original, existing anime made by company of another country(in pokemon case Japan). Making it canon and same continuity like raw, original version of it.

Sure, sometime English and other countries dub companies has tendency to alter dialogue from original script and characters due to cultural, religious, racial, irrational fears or because of whatnot other tangles. But aside from first pokemon movie which heavily changed dialogue to give different impression of what Mewtwo story was originally about and sometime changing dialogue from characters, ommiting certain scenes giving to inexperienced viewer entirely diferent picture from something writers originally wanted to convey on screen(like in chronicles from my recent watching for example changing Misty dialogue in "Date with Delcatty", changing ending of "Oaknapped" episode and what Tracey or prof, Oak said etc. making you draw different conclusion).

In most cases to my knowledge dub stays more or less faithful to original Japanese version of pokemon anime, character thoughts, storyline and situation traced by writers. Not straying away much from original point creators of this show wanted to make and events they depicted on screen. Giving to viewers basic gist of what is happening and in what direction protagonist, pokemon and anime is planned to go. There are exceptions like i said, but more or less way i look at it Dub is canon just as much as original version.

It just happens that dub company isn't sometime authentic to original character dialogues, portrayal of their emotions and plots from story which originally exist in scripts and true version. But even than based on watching anime and its scenes in most situations they can give you insight of where writers supposed to take storyline of movie and main anime episodes, specials etc.
 
My philosophy is, whenever the English dub makes a stupid, like winning a League = Pokémon Master, or pretty much the entirety of Pokémon Chronicles, just ignore it, facepalm and move on.
 
I suppose non canon as it deviates from the original source.

Whenever the dub gets too carried away with making stuff up, there's always the risk that it will come back to bite them on the butt pretty hard, as it did with Lola.

Lola is, pretty much, the singular reason why I'm not inclined to view particularly radical dub changes as "canon", more a misinterpretation of what's actually happening.

What do you mean?
 
In the fifth episode of the series the dub had Brock's father say that his wife was dead.

Then Chronicles happens and we see that Brock's mother is still very much alive.

This "continuity error" doesn't occur in the original version because Takeshi's father only ever says that Takeshi's mom left home.
 
In the fifth episode of the series the dub had Brock's father say that his wife was dead.

Then Chronicles happens and we see that Brock's mother is still very much alive.

This "continuity error" doesn't occur in the original version because Takeshi's father only ever says that Takeshi's mom left home.
That was by far one of the stupidest things 4Kids did, but in their defense back when EP 005 aired in 1998 nobody knew at the time that Brock's mom would ever show up. Their worst mistakes to me were the first movie & Legend Of Thunder. You, Dogasu explain why I hate those dubs in your comparisons much better than I could.
 
Please note: The thread is from 10 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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