Ah 4kids, even though they're basically dead now, their legacy of hillariously bad english dubs and censorship will forever live on in the anime community. But what makes 4kids editing so terrible compared to people who can do it right? Well the answer is a bit hard to explain.
Some people hate 4kids just because they edit anime to be more kid friendly. Now, this actually isn't why 4kids was so terrible. It was pretty obvious that a show like One Piece, couldn't air uncut in a prime time slot aimed at youth audiences, so of course, it would need some editing. However, it wasn't just that 4kids edited anime, it was that they made unnecessary changes to the source material. For example, removing guns in Yu-Gi-Oh! and One Piece, now if Batman: TAS and Batman Beyond can show gun use, if Cartoon Network can allow gun use in the original Toonami airing of Gundam Wing, why can't 4kids shows use guns? I watched action movies when I was 9, does mean I'll become a blood thirsty gun slinger? No. Kids aren't that stupid.
Another example, removing any instance of sexuality or inuendo. Now, I understand a Western kids show is limited in what you can show sex wise. Even on more mature programming, Sexuality is somewhat limited. But kids cartoons have had inuendo and blatant sex jokes for a long time. And when a character wears something even slightly revealing, it has to be covered because kids would be scared of even the tiniest bit of cleavage or skin showing. In the oringinal Toonami airing of Tenchi Muyo, They couldn't actually show naked people, honestly, how could you expect them to? So what did Cartoon Network do? They attatched bikinis/underwear to the naked characters. This is not only bypasses the censors, but also preserves the somewhat sexual nature of the scenes. 4kids removes them completely.
Whith the exception of Shaman King, Characters don't die in 4kids dubs. They get sent to the "Shadow Relm" or are written out in the most contrived ways possible. Again, Kids cartoons can show death all the time. Adventure Time does it, Billy and Mandy was a show about death himself, and shows like Korra and Young Justice not only imply people dying, but they actually show people getting killed in pretty brutal ways. Drawing another comparison to Toonami, while some of its shows didn't state death directly, most of them did. The Toonami airing of Rurouni Kenshin implied death and blood all the time. Death is not something you need to hide from kids, it needs to be shown, or at the very least, mentioned. Hell Disney kills off characters in their movies, even the "Kiddy" Nintendo has death implied in several of their games.
Also, 4kids in many shows skipped over certain plot elements, and even skipped entire story arcs because they either thought they were irrelevant, or thought kids couldn't handle them. You can't do that when dubbing an anime, you need to use All of the source material, no matter how relivant. You can just discard important plot points like that. What's worse, 4kids even changes the outcomes of several characters.
4kids has to add music and talking to scenes where it wasn't necessary. Do they think kids are just that ADD that they'll get bored with at least 30 seconds of silence? Againg, other kids shows have avoided this.
Lastly, 4kids needs to remove all instance of Japanese culture so that they can fool kids into thinking these are American shows. They also have to remove any instance of text because everyone knows kids are too stupid to read. First, what is wrong with exposing children to new cultures? I understand if its a japanese pop culture reference, I don't live in Japan, so I don't know many japanese celebraties. But changing the show to take place in America? That's just insulting to the shows' country of origin. Second, why should kids not be exposed to on screen text? Does 4kids think their target demographic is a bunch of brain dead morons?
Bottom line, it wasn't that 4kids made edits, it was that they made edits that didn't need to be made. Most of what 4kids has edited has already been done by many other kids cartoons. 4kids versions of anime were terrible because they treated the audience like idiots. Also, the dialogue in their dubs sounds like they were written by 5 year olds.
Some people hate 4kids just because they edit anime to be more kid friendly. Now, this actually isn't why 4kids was so terrible. It was pretty obvious that a show like One Piece, couldn't air uncut in a prime time slot aimed at youth audiences, so of course, it would need some editing. However, it wasn't just that 4kids edited anime, it was that they made unnecessary changes to the source material. For example, removing guns in Yu-Gi-Oh! and One Piece, now if Batman: TAS and Batman Beyond can show gun use, if Cartoon Network can allow gun use in the original Toonami airing of Gundam Wing, why can't 4kids shows use guns? I watched action movies when I was 9, does mean I'll become a blood thirsty gun slinger? No. Kids aren't that stupid.
Another example, removing any instance of sexuality or inuendo. Now, I understand a Western kids show is limited in what you can show sex wise. Even on more mature programming, Sexuality is somewhat limited. But kids cartoons have had inuendo and blatant sex jokes for a long time. And when a character wears something even slightly revealing, it has to be covered because kids would be scared of even the tiniest bit of cleavage or skin showing. In the oringinal Toonami airing of Tenchi Muyo, They couldn't actually show naked people, honestly, how could you expect them to? So what did Cartoon Network do? They attatched bikinis/underwear to the naked characters. This is not only bypasses the censors, but also preserves the somewhat sexual nature of the scenes. 4kids removes them completely.
Whith the exception of Shaman King, Characters don't die in 4kids dubs. They get sent to the "Shadow Relm" or are written out in the most contrived ways possible. Again, Kids cartoons can show death all the time. Adventure Time does it, Billy and Mandy was a show about death himself, and shows like Korra and Young Justice not only imply people dying, but they actually show people getting killed in pretty brutal ways. Drawing another comparison to Toonami, while some of its shows didn't state death directly, most of them did. The Toonami airing of Rurouni Kenshin implied death and blood all the time. Death is not something you need to hide from kids, it needs to be shown, or at the very least, mentioned. Hell Disney kills off characters in their movies, even the "Kiddy" Nintendo has death implied in several of their games.
Also, 4kids in many shows skipped over certain plot elements, and even skipped entire story arcs because they either thought they were irrelevant, or thought kids couldn't handle them. You can't do that when dubbing an anime, you need to use All of the source material, no matter how relivant. You can just discard important plot points like that. What's worse, 4kids even changes the outcomes of several characters.
4kids has to add music and talking to scenes where it wasn't necessary. Do they think kids are just that ADD that they'll get bored with at least 30 seconds of silence? Againg, other kids shows have avoided this.
Lastly, 4kids needs to remove all instance of Japanese culture so that they can fool kids into thinking these are American shows. They also have to remove any instance of text because everyone knows kids are too stupid to read. First, what is wrong with exposing children to new cultures? I understand if its a japanese pop culture reference, I don't live in Japan, so I don't know many japanese celebraties. But changing the show to take place in America? That's just insulting to the shows' country of origin. Second, why should kids not be exposed to on screen text? Does 4kids think their target demographic is a bunch of brain dead morons?
Bottom line, it wasn't that 4kids made edits, it was that they made edits that didn't need to be made. Most of what 4kids has edited has already been done by many other kids cartoons. 4kids versions of anime were terrible because they treated the audience like idiots. Also, the dialogue in their dubs sounds like they were written by 5 year olds.
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