Review What were the dumbest visual edits/censorship examples to everyone over the years in the Pokemon English Dub?

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Disney XD. I don't understand why you don't understand that. It's the same thing with that channel forcing digimon datas squads bombernanimon becoming citramon, an orange digimon even though dubs on kidswb(for the most part) and fox kept bombs intact.

I understand that, but did they have to put appendages on them too? Disney XD is more strict than CN, but was less than Kids WB.

I still think it's still dumb, though, hard to believe a dub that aired in 1999 on Kids WB on local TV could get away with it and it couldn't in 2020 on a cable network?

(The vomit edit, I could understand)

 

[Poke Trey]

I understand that, but did they have to put appendages on them too? Disney XD is more strict than CN, but was less than Kids WB.

I still think it's still dumb, though, hard to believe a dub that aired in 1999 on Kids WB on local TV could get away with it and it couldn't in 2020 on a cable network?

(The vomit edit, I could understand)

TV Networks man. They wont budge if given the chance.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

SM-

View attachment 172606
For god sakes, even 4Kids left wine cups alone! Why were they changed to orange juice glasses, just WHY?

Actually....

And that wasn't the only instance of changing wine and wine glasses during the 4Kids era.

And just to contribute to the thread, for my money, this was the single most pointless edit in the dub's history:

Why Kids' WB thought a Pokéball symbol, of all things, on a badge case, in every single instance throughout the whole Hoenn saga's run on the tv station, needed to be changed into a rectangle is anyone's guess.

 

[JyuRaposa]

I understand that, but did they have to put appendages on them too? Disney XD is more strict than CN, but was less than Kids WB.

I still think it's still dumb, though, hard to believe a dub that aired in 1999 on Kids WB on local TV could get away with it and it couldn't in 2020 on a cable network?

(The vomit edit, I could understand)

As much as I see your frustration with something being allowed years ago being taboo in recent years, you need to remember that TV censors change their rules in a drop of a hat. For example, Lorelei/Prima was allowed to have her cleavage shown uncensored back in Season 2, but Caroline had her cleavage edited out in Season 8. Jessie was allowed to be a wine expert in Season 1, but by Season 7, they edit out wine glasses (AG071 and AG096, the former had to redraw Meowth's hand) and replace the wine to something milky (AG084 for example recolored James' wine to strawberry milk). EP001 and EP003 had slaps removed, and EP009 had a violent scene cut. But the rest of Season 1 and 2 didn't have other violent scenes edited out. Season 3 is when they start to have impact stars to cover up some scenes (Ash being hit in the face by a baseball comes to mind). AG082 also had some violence cuts involving Fighting type Pokémon, but the very last episode 4Kids dubbed, Pasta La Vista, didn't have a violence edit. Mentions of god (or religion in general) can be wishy washy at times. A cross was allowed in Season 1, one Season 5 episode had "heaven" used, two season 7 episodes had "god" mentioned. But the others in between? Rewritten out.

Again, I do agree that it is somewhat ridiculous to be censoring certain scenes, figuring out what would be censored and what wouldn't be is impossible because censors can have a problem with something in one episode, but okay with it in another, and suddenly against it in another.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Actually....
View attachment 172698View attachment 172699
And that wasn't the only instance of changing wine and wine glasses during the 4Kids era.

And just to contribute to the thread, for my money, this was the single most pointless edit in the dub's history:
View attachment 172700View attachment 172701
Why Kids' WB thought a Pokéball symbol, of all things, on a badge case, in every single instance throughout the whole Hoenn saga's run on the tv station, needed to be changed into a rectangle is anyone's guess.

It was wine glasses to per se water in the wine cups in most other instances, to clarify, they still kept the actual wine cups intact and didn't turn them into orange juice glasses per se.

I'm not sure if that one was Kids' WB mandated as well, because this is from later in the Season 7 dub in Hoenn in the UK & Australia airings via "A Six Pack Attack."

TRio getting drunk on water, apparently.

The latter is indeed Kids WB exclusive in Early Hoenn, and then 4Kids decided to roll with that in mid Hoenn, apparently.

Re: the badge case edit, I heard TPCi also changed a badge case in XY on CN, in XY003 but in that instance randomly recolored it, as trivia. Why? I don't know. I agree the rectangle was pointless though, but apparently, 4Kids were mandated to do it as you can't advertise products or something supposedly (and yet Kids WB was fine with Ash's hat and May's bandana with the same logos, go figure...I don't get it, either).

I think the Hoenn Anime dub is angelic compared to most of what came after, personally, in general though.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

It was wine glasses to water in the wine cups, to clarify, they still kept the actual cups intact and didn't turn them into Orange Juice glasses like the TPCi SM era.

Take a closer look at the glass cup in the edited screenshot - it's no longer a wine glass there.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Take a closer look at the glass cup in the edited screenshot - it's no longer a wine glass there.

That is true, sorry, was still editing my post above when you replied to clarify.

Re: the other edit @JyuRaposa, fair points, but I think AG145 went uncensored save the random sign, and "A Shroomish Skirmish" didn't via 4Kids in that case, not Kids WB- the latter was on them in that instance, just being paranoid, but apparently they at least cut that out at the very end. I agree with the rest, but still, disheartening per se.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

That is true, sorry, was still editing my post above when you replied to clarify.

Re: the other edit @JyuRaposa, fair points, but I think AG145 went uncensored and "A Shroomish Skirmish" didn't via 4Kids, not Kids WB- the latter was on them in that instance.

Fair. Though, I think the above example from Season 7 was likely just an oversight, because there was another instance of Giovanni's wine glass being changed as late as Season 8 (the episode "Training Wrecks", for reference):

...although I guess the liquid drink remained because it already looked enough like orange juice to not warrant an edit. Lol.

In any case, the original point was that 4Kids had also censored wine and wine glasses, too, regardless of the extent to which either they or TPCi have done it.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Fair. Though, I think the above example from Season 7 was likely just an oversight, because there was another instance of Giovanni's wine glass being changed as late as Season 8 (the episode "Training Wrecks", for reference):
View attachment 172709View attachment 172710
...although I guess the liquid drink remained because it already looked enough like orange juice to not warrant an edit. Lol.

In any case, the original point was that 4Kids had also censored wine and wine glasses, too, regardless of the extent to which either they or TPCi have done it.

That’s fair. I can’t believe the edit actually arguably looks a little better than the OJ glasses due to the liquid staying put there, but it is indeed still pointless be it for 4Kids or TPCi- I stand corrected on that front. I guess I'm glad they overlooked it at least once in Season 7 later there, for some reason?

Pretty odd 4Kids didn’t go censor crazy in their final dub episode in S8, vs one in S7 on violence, in the reverse. They evidently grew a spine on letting some violence go again, and not shying away from ramen (albeit just calling them noodles) at the end I suppose, there’s that?

On that note, TPCi carried on 4Kids' tradition in changing the color of liquids, in a Saban DBZ style edit as well: kids can drink juice, adults can't drink beer I somewhat get but...WHAT are the adults drinking? Green is a weird color to change it to.

 

[snowmint]

It's probably a vegetable smoothie... And where are the Johto edits? Was the series so boring at that time that 4kkds censored nothing? They turned a picture of Jynx into a flower apparently.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

It's probably a vegetable smoothie... And where are the Johto edits? Was the series so boring at that time that 4kkds censored nothing? They turned a picture of Jynx into a flower apparently.

I recall they cut out a picture of Miltank feeding Meowth via its udders, off hand: that, I can kind of get doing like the Ash vomit scene in SM.

 

[Yash]

And just to contribute to the thread, for my money, this was the single most pointless edit in the dub's history:
View attachment 172700View attachment 172701
Why Kids' WB thought a Pokéball symbol, of all things, on a badge case, in every single instance throughout the whole Hoenn saga's run on the tv station, needed to be changed into a rectangle is anyone's guess.

I'd guess they thought it was based on a real product and wanted to avoid being accused of product placement, the same FCC law that forced 4Kids to redraw all the cards in Yugioh.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I'd guess they thought it was based on a real product and wanted to avoid being accused of product placement, the same FCC law that forced 4Kids to redraw all the cards in Yugioh.

That's what's been speculated, indeed, Kids WB had 4Kids do some of the edits (not all of them, some was obviously them being themselves on silly censorship) and that was one of them, at least in Season 6 IIRC- so I won't fault them for that.

It was obviously them on "A Shroomish Skirmish" though in Season 7, given Season 8's "Pasta La Vista!" they would actually let something slide they didn't in 2005, in 2006, which goes against type for them in this Series (in the Anime) but odd trivia.

I'm willing to bet TPCi had to do the pink shuriken edit in SM and both 4Kids + TPCi did the wine cup changes due to Kids WB & Disney XD, though, respectively.

 

[SushiBurrito]

1. Changing rice balls into sandwiches and crackers even though they showed rice balls (albeit with a stupid name change) all the time in Kanto and Johto

2. Removing the kanji from Misty's fan at the Bon Festival even though she and literally everyone else is wearing yukata with paper laterns hanging up. If a child is stupid enough to not get the characters are Japanese or at least Asian the kanji wouldn't have done anything

 

[PurpleMummagi28]

While this isn’t a visual example, I have to mention the dubs treatment of Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus when describing their roles in the Pokémon world. The dubs, as per guidelines regarding the separation of church and state, can’t use certain words or phrases like “god”, “deity”, or “creator of the world” when referring to the Pokémon of Myth and Arceus. This censorship led the dub to imply their higher standing and powers as legendary Pokémon by referring to the Pokémon of Myth as “rulers” or “masters”, and Arceus as “the one who brought forth” “the one who they say shaped the world”. This denotes the fact that in the original Japanese version of the anime, as well as many of the English canons in other media, such as the GAMES, they are considered ancient deities or gods of creation.

I know that the canons for each media are different, but the fact that the anime is literally supposed to be an adaption of the game stories to TV, shouldn’t some things be the same all throughout?

I get how a parent could potentially sue if they heard their kid say something about Arceus being God, and TPCi was just making sure they’re covered, but it still seems very stupid to me, that even mentioning a fictional god on the air is breaking a law.

(The strange thing is that in the Sinnoh movies they were calling Dialga and Palkia “deities” and said Arceus “created it’s entire world”, though something tells me that because the movies were direct-to-video the dub could get away with keeping uncensored scripts as they weren’t made specifically for mandated broadcast TV)

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Regarding the "drunk off water" thing, they were drunk off water, that wasn't a change. They're drinking it out of a fountain that they for some reason found in a cave.

How could a parent sue if their kid said something about Arceus being God? What possible law would that be breaking?

 

[Antiyonder]

Surprised they didn't take a page from DBZ's Ocean Group dub and replaced alcohol with foamy sea water.

 

[Princess Viola]

While this isn’t a visual example, I have to mention the dubs treatment of Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus when describing their roles in the Pokémon world. The dubs, as per guidelines regarding the separation of church and state, can’t use certain words or phrases like “god”, “deity”, or “creator of the world” when referring to the Pokémon of Myth and Arceus.

?????????????

The separation of church and state would have nothing to do with the Pokémon dub not using religious (or pseudo religious) terms like the examples you provided.

(Also the show wasn't even airing on broadcast TV in the US by the time you're even talking about. Not like it makes a difference because separation of church and state is not 'can't use certain words or phrases' what the hell lol)

 

[snowmint]

Taking out brocks maracas for who knows what reason.

 

[Poke Trey]

I guess not having the Z-move text on screen like they do in the games, I get why they had to, but it would've been a nice detail to add.