Summary
Localization is a funny business and sometimes a thankless one too. There are anime fans who’ll rally against it and call for their show’s translation to be more direct. Yet most of them would likely be left in the dark when presented with direct Japan-only pop culture references, customs, and wordplay. There’s an art to translation and localization that makes it necessary.
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That said, there have been some questionable ones around. Older shows often suffered through cuts, censorship, and other edits, likePokemonturning onigiri into donuts, the boot-on-a-spring gun inOne Piece,andDragon Ball Zsending defeated foes “into the next dimension”. They were lucky, as these anime dubs changed their show’s whole plot.
9Ghost Stories
Ghost Storiesis one of the most famous examples of a dub doing its own thing. The story goes that, when ADV Films picked the show up in 2005, they told the dub cast & crew to do whatever it took to sell the show. To director Steven Foster, this meant chucking out the Japanese script and turning it into a gagfest. Particularly as the original Japanese show wasn’t all that great to begin with.
It wasn’t strictly the case asGhost Storiesdid fairly well during its original run, though notwithout some controversy. There’s now a more faithful Animax dub, but that first ADV dub is pretty funny. Not all the jokes have aged well as it’s pretty heavy on the slurs, but it has a few gems in there (“Drop the Krispy Kremes, Serpico! We need your help here!”).
8Super Milk-Chan
Ghost Storieswasn’t the only show ADV Films did the gag treatment on. They did the same toSuper Milk-Chan, a superhero parody where its lead, a 5yr old who may or may not have superpowers, sometimes takes on missions from the President of Everything to stop one criminal or another. Other times she leaves it but takes the credit if they get stopped anyway. At first, ADV translated it straight for Adult Swim, where it passed without mention.
Then they made a more Americanized version with their own gags, pop culture references, and the odd live-action skit with the voice actors. For example, Episode 8 loses all of its sound effects due to a technical hiccup, so the cast have to fill them in acapella-style. All while Marcy Bannor, the VA for Milk-chan’s robot Tetsuko, is accidentally given ecstasy instead of an aspirin.
7Crayon Shin-chan
WhileSuper Milk-Chan’s gag dub actually helped it catch on, Adult Swim’s take onCrayon Shin-chanwas more divisive. Based on the late Yoshito Usui’s manga, the original show was a popular prime time show about on par withThe Simpsons. Except its occasional rude gags weren’t so family-friendly outside of Japan. So, they got toned down or scrubbed entirely in other markets, like in the first US dub via Vitello/Phuuz.
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The second one, handled by Funimation for Adult Swim, decided to double-down instead. Episodes were reordered and dubbed with a new gag script featuring original jokes of their own. Some of which haven’t aged well because they got dark (gags about race and domestic abuse), and others simply because they were of their time (e.g., Shin’s friend Kazama got turned into a pro-war Republican called “Georgie”).
6Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Still, it’s not like it’s only the Americans who like to mess around like this. Japan actually returned the favor by giving the belovedBeast Wars: Transformersa gag dub, along with every subsequent US-madeTransformersshow untilTransformers: Prime. The US was much kinder in regard toTransformers. Or at least they were for one show in particular.
In Japan,Transformers: Car Robotsflopped so badly that it was pulled from TV schedules before its finale could air. By contrast, Saban Entertainment gave the show new life asTransformers: Robots in Disguise. Namely by rewriting episodes and teasing that it was connected to the G1 show. It ultimately wasn’t, but it gave parents something to reminisce over while watching it with their kids.
5Fist of the North Star
Fist of the North Staris one of the most iconic shonen shows around, inspiring nearly every subsequent series fromJojo’s Bizarre AdventuretoBobobo-bo Bo-bobo. It wasalso really violent and gory. Yet AB Groupe, infamous forDBZ’s “Big Green” dub, had to fit it into the French kids’ showClub Dorothéealongside other mature shows likeCutey HoneyandNicky Larson(akaCity Hunter).
The French cast protested, calling the show “Nazi propaganda with swastikas everywhere” (note: there are no swastikas at all in the show). So, AB Groupe let them run the show, turning the newly dubbedKen Le Survivantinto a gag comedy (“Times are decidedly hard, and so are boiled eggs”). It was eventually canceled after 84 episodes, which is still more than the 36 English speakers got with the straight Manga dub.
4Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Zhas gone through the wringer localization-wise, from Roshi’s blue beer glass to Tien seeing invisible parachutes. However, for all their ups and downs, Ocean and Funimation were downright faithful compared to AB Groupe. Beyond “Big Green”, they also were in charge of localizing the show for France, which they would then hand over to the rest of Europe for translation. If they made any errors or cuts, they got carried over to the whole continent.
Related:The Mystery of Dragon Ball Z’s ‘Big Green’ Dub
For example, Portugal’s Novaga studio had to translate AB Groupe’s censored French version for the rest of the country. The cast were also allowed to improvise gags (e.g. King Kai calling the fire brigade when the planet’s about to explode). It’s just as well, as Novaga only had 7-8 actors to voice all 115 characters during its run. The result was a mess, but one that’s remembered fondly in a “so bad it’s good” way by Portuguese fans.
3Marmalade Boy
Based on Wataru Yoshizumi’s manga,Marmalade Boywas about Miki, a girl whose life is upended when her parents announce they’re going to divorce and swap partners with a couple they met on holiday in Hawaii. As such, she ends up with a new foster brother called Yū who, despite some hiccups, ends up becoming her best friend, then possibly more than that.
This was a little too complicated for Mediaset to handle. So, they re-edited it into a completely different show. Some episodes were cut up and merged together, others were skipped entirely, drifting further and further away from the manga’s plot (e.g. Yū’s father is rewritten to be Miki’s mom’s partner with no relation to the boy at all). There were enough bits left over to make a second season, but it never got released.
2Gatchaman
Science Ninja Team Gatchamanis simultaneously one of the most familiar old school anime and the least familiar. It got localized four different times, with the first three changing the material significantly from each other. The original show was basically astandard super sentai showset on Earth. 1978’sBattle of the Planetsturned it into a space-based show where 5 teens and their robot buddy protect the Earth from Zoltar.
The robot, 7-Zark-7, was an original creation by Sandy Frank Entertainment meant to capitalize onStar Wars’ fame at the time. Sandy Frank would re-dub the series again in 1986 asG-Force: Guardians of Space, skewing closer to the source material but still cutting down the violence. Saban would bring it back to Earth in 1997, mashing up the first 2 Japanese series before ending it without a resolution. It wasn’t until 2005 that the West got an uncut, untweaked version via ADV, simply calledGatchaman.
1Samurai Pizza Cats
Finally, afterGhost Stories,Samurai Pizza Catsis the next best-known dub that threw out the original script and did whatever it wanted. Though unlike that show, it wasn’t because the crew didn’t care for it. Saban Entertainment had a hold of the showfor the Westbut didn’t have anything else for it. No translated scripts, no notes, or anything. So, Saban made their own gags.
The original show,Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, was already a lightheartedPower Rangers-meets-feudal-Japan animal show.Samurai Pizza Catsjust upped the ante with wackier gags, puns, and jokes that are a little dated. Case in point, the catchy theme song was sung by writer Michael Airington while he was both drunk and doing a Paul Lynde impersonation.
