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

[AgedVeteranofShow]

For me, and I'll go by saga:

OS-

Spoiler

It's even more dumb because 4Kids would let Brock say rice balls in "Pokemon Paparazzi" to me. What was the point, guys?

AG-

What is the point? Sure, it's actually a sandwich in the dub this time, but WHY?

DP-

What is THE point? Everyone can tell it's Sinnoh Now, as is! The Now is already in English, below!

BW-

Apples are NOT berries, dubbers! These are apples! Even 4Kids knew that, in Season 8, TPCi...in Season 16, kept referring to berries as such for no reason.

XY-

Ash look stoned in the dub, but in the original, he's crying out in pain! Is THAT the best edit they could order OLM to do for them, really?

SM-

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

JN-

Kids are NOT going to turn into Hitler because of one scene, TPCi!

And now, my vote for the all time worst visual editing/censorship from the Pokemon English Dub Over 25 years:

When TPCi censored two things in JN, even 4Kids kept unedited/uncensored and uncut in AG's last two seasons. Jesus christ, folks...

Spoiler

It speaks for itself. Even 4Kids had the sense to leave Brock's maracas unedited/uncut in Season 7, and Ash freezing in Season 8, but TPCi censored both in Season 25's dub at the very end of the Series in English! Lame.
Thoughts?

 

[Skyryan2468]

The To Be Continued and Next Time a New Beginning being deleted is a bad thing for me. Also the JN004 Train Guy Moustache removed kinda reminds me of Henry Cavill's Moustache being CG'd out in the Josstice League. Zack Snyder FOREVER!

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

The To Be Continued and Next Time a New Beginning being deleted is a bad thing for me. Also the JN004 Train Guy Moustache removed kinda reminds me of Henry Cavill's Moustache being CG'd out in the Josstice League. Zack Snyder FOREVER!

When even 4Kids kept the "Next Time, a New Beginning" in EP274, and TPCi didn't in JN147...embarrassing, tbh.

LMAO, true.

 

[BigDocFan]

The dumbest edits for me is the Rice Balls being edited or called Donuts

Other occasions that were unedited previously but became edits were half frozen in JN141 and Brock's maraca's being edited out

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

The dumbest edits for me is the Rice Balls being edited or called Donuts

Other occasions that were unedited previously but became edits were half frozen in JN141 and Brock's maraca's being edited out

Understandable. Though I thought the 4Kids dub was superior to the TPCi dub overall, in a lot of facets (it's actually the popular opinion, but a genuinely valid one in this case, IMO), I really wish 4Kids didn't dance around food topics in such a silly way. I wish TPCi didn't censor things even 4Kids kept in JN's dub, as well.

 

[R.O.B.]

4Kids: Donuts/rice balls, at least with the sandwich they actually bothered to do a paint edit.

TPCi: Berries/apples or the removal of Brock's maracas, the former is self-explanatory and the latter didn't need to be censored at all, no one ever complained about them.

 

[BigDocFan]

TPCi: Berries/apples

I heard that was something to do with the lip flap, a bit like Lorreli

 

[Volts Risen]

I heard that was something to do with the lip flap, a bit like Lorreli

That reminds me... where in the heck did they pull out the name "Prima"??? What happened in the anime that DIDN'T happen in all of Lorelei's other English appearances?

 

[R.O.B.]

I heard that was something to do with the lip flap, a bit like Lorreli

But they use the same amount of syllables don't they? Either way there's like a million other alternatives they could have used.

 

[snowmint]

That reminds me... where in the heck did they pull out the name "Prima"??? What happened in the anime that DIDN'T happen in all of Lorelei's other English appearances?

"Prima" means important performer... Thats what she is in her episode, correct?

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

"Prima" means important performer... Thats what she is in her episode, correct?

I think so? Likely they decided to change her Japanese name that sounded similar to it for that reason?

 

[JyuRaposa]

I heard that was something to do with the lip flap, a bit like Lorreli

Lorelei's name wasn't changed because if lip flaps. Kanna was referred to with honorifics 99% of the time, making the syllables match. And even if it didn't, there was never a rule that states that you need the names to be the same number of syllables. You still have Satoshi to Ash, Kojiro to James, and Purin to Jigglypuff. Plus, 4Kids made a lot of rewrites for that episode, more than usual. Not helping that there was also a higher number of dubbing errors than usual such as two Pokémon being misidentified and Jynx was commanded to use Ice Beam when it was actually using Ice Punch.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Lorelei's name wasn't changed because if lip flaps. Kanna was referred to with honorifics 99% of the time, making the syllables match. And even if it didn't, there was never a rule that states that you need the names to be the same number of syllables. You still have Satoshi to Ash, Kojiro to James, and Purin to Jigglypuff. Plus, 4Kids made a lot of rewrites for that episode, more than usual. Not helping that there was also a higher number of dubbing errors than usual such as two Pokémon being misidentified and Jynx was commanded to use Ice Beam when it was actually using Ice Punch.

My theory is they did that because Lorelei was the first member of the Kanto Elite Four, and they thought Prima rhymed with Kanna, personally.

Re: the breast edits in S01, Stuart himself has said he wishes 4Kids dubbed "Beauty and the Beach" sans that censorship, but I think that's somewhat defensible since little kids on Saturday Mornings seeing that would bring out droves of angry soccer moms asking for the Series to be boycotted in 2000 if they did.

 

[Yash]

My guess is just whoever was in charge of writing that episode didn't have enough game knowledge to realize Lorelai was a game character. The whole lip flap explanation always felt like an excuse by the fans, especially with how lip movements actually work - you can open your mouth and say the name "Lorelai" without closing your mouth once, unlike "Prima" with its plosive "m" sound. And if that was really a concern, they could have just shortened her name to Lori or something (maybe even giving it as a nickname for Lorelai) and made it more obvious she was the same character.

Also, 4Kids' Pokemon dub in general has terrible lip sync, at least early on - Dogasu's most recent comparison pointed out how often during the motto animation you'll see James' mouth move three times for "Kojiro," but he only says "James" in the dub. I don't know if 4Kids ever started doing this, but I noticed in TPCI episodes, they'd always have him say "and it's James!" to cover that.

btw, to the OP, guessing the reason 4Kids let Brock call onigiri "rice balls" in Pokemon Paparazzi is it's one of the few instances where we actually see Brock making them, and he's literally cooking and throwing rice around. The whole practice was absurd, but it probably got just too silly for them to try and say he was making donuts or something. It reminds me of how their dub of One Piece infamously changed Zoro's rice balls to cookies in the second episode, but then much later during the Alabasta arc, called them "rice balls" during a scene where Luffy and Usopp were playing with them (Usopp sticking his finger through one to make it look like him, Luffy making a snowman out of his and calling it "Vanilla Rice"). It was probably easier to change it in the first instance since it was just static food for the most part, but the later scene would have been way too much work to reanimate.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

My guess is just whoever was in charge of writing that episode didn't have enough game knowledge to realize Lorelai was a game character. The whole lip flap explanation always felt like an excuse by the fans, especially with how lip movements actually work - you can open your mouth and say the name "Lorelai" without closing your mouth once, unlike "Prima" with its plosive "m" sound. And if that was really a concern, they could have just shortened her name to Lori or something (maybe even giving it as a nickname for Lorelai) and made it more obvious she was the same character.

Also, 4Kids' Pokemon dub in general has terrible lip sync, at least early on - Dogasu's most recent comparison pointed out how often during the motto animation you'll see James' mouth move three times for "Kojiro," but he only says "James" in the dub. I don't know if 4Kids ever started doing this, but I noticed in TPCI episodes, they'd always have him say "and it's James!" to cover that.

btw, to the OP, guessing the reason 4Kids let Brock call onigiri "rice balls" in Pokemon Paparazzi is it's one of the few instances where we actually see Brock making them, and he's literally cooking and throwing rice around. The whole practice was absurd, but it probably got just too silly for them to try and say he was making donuts or something. It reminds me of how their dub of One Piece infamously changed Zoro's rice balls to cookies in the second episode, but then much later during the Alabasta arc, called them "rice balls" during a scene where Luffy and Usopp were playing with them (Usopp sticking his finger through one to make it look like him, Luffy making a snowman out of his and calling it "Vanilla Rice"). It was probably easier to change it in the first instance since it was just static food for the most part, but the later scene would have been way too much work to reanimate.

I honestly think that might be a valid theory, too, they didn't seem to be very knowledgeable about the games in general (I think TPCi's dub was overall worse, but the one thing I'll give Cathcart, is he was pretty knowledgeable in that department- with a few exceptions, he called Hearthome City "Eterna City" in the first dub episode of S11, confused Houndoom for Houndour, and erroneously in S19 Natochenny's Ash said, "GreninjO, water shuriken," as well to name a few examples that these errors 4Kids was infamous for in those days still occurred under TPCi later as well, just less frequently).

I think what 4Kids' Pokemon dub did later on to rectify the lip sync issue a little was "And James" instead of just "James," so they basically set the framework on that particular aspect for TPCi later on, IMO.

I agree, but glad they didn't hide from it a few times: the fact they knew what they were, but were too afraid to just go with that the whole time, will always strike me as odd though. There are two other instances where they just called them rice balls as well in the 4Kids Era, in "A Tail with a Twist" and "A Corphish Out of Water" in AG's first dub Seaosn in Season 6 (odd, give it was 2003, but they did in fact do so: the first time was from TRio, and the last time, was from none other than Brock who said, "Well, guys, our rice balls...are now slush balls" there).

 

[snowmint]

Nah 4kids was generally good with lip sync. Even the Ultraman Tiga dub was shocking done decently with the lip sync. Watch the yokai watch dub, that had terrible lipsync to the flaps.

My guess is just whoever was in charge of writing that episode didn't have enough game knowledge to realize Lorelai was a game character. The whole lip flap explanation always felt like an excuse by the fans, especially with how lip movements actually work - you can open your mouth and say the name "Lorelai" without closing your mouth once, unlike "Prima" with its plosive "m" sound. And if that was really a concern, they could have just shortened her name to Lori or something (maybe even giving it as a nickname for Lorelai) and made it more obvious she was the same character.

Also, 4Kids' Pokemon dub in general has terrible lip sync, at least early on - Dogasu's most recent comparison pointed out how often during the motto animation you'll see James' mouth move three times for "Kojiro," but he only says "James" in the dub. I don't know if 4Kids ever started doing this, but I noticed in TPCI episodes, they'd always have him say "and it's James!" to cover that.

btw, to the OP, guessing the reason 4Kids let Brock call onigiri "rice balls" in Pokemon Paparazzi is it's one of the few instances where we actually see Brock making them, and he's literally cooking and throwing rice around. The whole practice was absurd, but it probably got just too silly for them to try and say he was making donuts or something. It reminds me of how their dub of One Piece infamously changed Zoro's rice balls to cookies in the second episode, but then much later during the Alabasta arc, called them "rice balls" during a scene where Luffy and Usopp were playing with them (Usopp sticking his finger through one to make it look like him, Luffy making a snowman out of his and calling it "Vanilla Rice"). It was probably easier to change it in the first instance since it was just static food for the most part, but the later scene would have been way too much work to reanimate.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Nah 4kids was generally good with lip sync. Even the Ultraman Tiga dub was shocking done decently with the lip sync. Watch the yokai watch dub, that had terrible lipsync to the flaps.

The Yokai Watch dub is a faithful adaptation, but I do agree: also, JYB as a child is a weird choice (Hasbro aren't the first, Saban's Digimon Adventure 01 and even the 2020 Studiopolis Remake dub have Taichi voiced by a man instead of a woman in English- in the Saban dub, Joshua Seth- in the new remake, Zeno Robinson aka TPCi's Goh), much as I like his Ichigo & LeLouch.

 

[R.O.B.]

Studios loved casting him as underage characters around that time, Nate from Yokai Watch as you mentioned, Nobi from Doraemon, Guren from Tenkai Knights...

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Studios loved casting him as underage characters around that time, Nate from Yokai Watch as you mentioned, Nobi from Doraemon, Guren from Tenkai Knights...

He's thoroughly unconvincing as little children, IMO.

Regardless, one of the most stupid edits from the Pokemon dub to me, to keep it relevant- from Sun & Moon's dub under TPCi:

Pink. Shurikens. PINK. WITH APPENDAGES.

(Even 4Kids left them intact in Indigo League, just...why?)

 

[snowmint]

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.