"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."
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how can people honestly hate the gx dub? not only is it surprisingly good, it’s fucking hilarious and self-aware.
I like the voices for the characters if that means anything. xD
we’ll just call the post under this link:
REASONS WHY JADEN SHOULDN’T HAVE BOUGHT WORD (a post that’s unreasonably long and ultimately pointless)
I think you are the first person I’ve ever met to prefer the GX dub over the original Japanese version. Holy shit.
I have a bit to say here, and it might sound angry, but this is not at all directed towards you! It’s just me being pissed off at 4Kids.
The thing is, Yu-Gi-Oh in general isn’t really meant for children under the age of 10. I’m aware that Japanese audiences are much more accustomed to violence, sex, and death, but even so, this franchise sometimes takes it a bit far even for young Japanese children. And as for American audiences, I’ve seen other anime shows for children that are dubbed by other companies that don’t censor nearly to the degree that 4Kids does. 4Kids seems to think that even the mention of death or children seeing any form of violence will poison their minds and they’ll grow up to be juvenile delinquents or criminals, or even cause children to have nightmares and parents will become angry, so they insist on removing every single reference of death or violence to make it “kid-friendly”. But that’s exactly the problem. They’re trying protect children from reality and the inevitable. All human beings will one day die. It’s inevitable. And yet they’re denying that something so natural even happens. (Like in the second half of season 3, Jaden literally kills his friends in the original Japanese version but 4Kids is just like “Oh no! Characters are actually dying! Let’s change it to ‘sending them to the stars’ so they aren’t actually dead but just transported to another place.) It really pisses me off that they do that! We can’t “protect” our children forever from reality. The sooner they open their eyes to reality, the better and more prepared they will be. I found the Dark World arc to be much sadder in the Japanese version because Judai actually kills his friends and contemplates committing suicide. (If it weren’t for the whole “sending them to the stars” part, I would’ve liked season 3 a lot more.)
And besides, having those references to death and violence not only gives better character development to the characters in the show, but it attracts fans to the characters more because they can relate to real life problems. For example, in the dub, Bonaparte just took up the position as Vice-Principal and was so busy with his job that he had no time for his wife and son, Marcel. However, in the original Japanese version, Napoleon and his wife were constantly fighting to the point that they got divorced and he just left without any consideration for his son Martin, or even saying good-bye. Now, I can’t relate to Martin at all since my biological parents are still together in a happy marriage, but all of my friends (even ones who don’t watch Yu-Gi-Oh) can relate to him. I literally don’t have ANY friends in real life whose parents are still together. Why the hell would they change that? And really, I just didn’t like how 4Kids portrayed the characters. I honestly believe we Westerners should care more about politeness like the Japanese. They changed the characters so much that they made most of them like Alexis and Chazz to be complete snobs, and it’s so infuriating when Alexis really isn’t like that and Chazz is most of the time only a snob in the first half of season 1. Our society shouldn’t value rudeness the way we do. Jaden may have been very rude and a jerk in the dub as well, but he was like that in the Japanese version too, so I didn’t mind his behavior in the dub too much. In fact, he was even more of an asshole in the original version than in the dub. It’s part of who he is as a character. It’s not like he means to be that way, he just does it unintentionally or he’s not even aware that he’s being rude or an asshole. (I can’t handle his 90’s slang however.) 4Kids didn’t even try to make them like their Japanese counterparts in any way. If 4Kids actually wanted to “try despite what our ‘culture’ tells them is and isn’t okay” and keep their characters the same as in the Japanese version, then they could’ve easily just fucking done it. I don’t understand what’s so bad about being polite, really. It’s not a big deal. In fact, keeping the politeness may influence our society to be more polite to each other.
4Kids didn’t even attempt to do a direct translation of the dialogue of the characters, either. They completely just changed the dialogue so that it’s not at all like the original Japanese version. Like in Jaden’s duel against Banner in season 1. 4Kids wrote it so that Banner was telling Jaden that he “fixed” all of Jaden’s previous duels to make it seem like he was strong. In the Japanese version, Daitokuji is talking to Judai about how fusion and alchemy are one and the same, and claims that Judai is a to-notch alchemist. I was quite pissed off at this, as they had no reason to change the dialogue. Alchemy is not a part of Japanese culture, it’s something that’s spread out across the world from Egypt, China, Europe, and even the Middle East. Even American children would be able to comprehend this and know that alchemy is a science. (Maybe 4Kids jumped to the conclusion that alchemy was like witchcraft but then again what the hell because magic is a reoccurring theme in Yu-Gi-Oh regardless of what series it is.) As for some of the Japanese puns, I can understand why they would change them so we can understand. But they could’ve come up with better jokes than they did that we would understand. 4Kids has a crappy sense of humor, you have to admit.
Hopefully I don’t sound like a complete bitch in this post and I hope you aren’t mad at me for saying all of this, but this is my honest opinion, and actually, the opinion of a LOT of GX fans. (If it sounds like I’m trying to convince you, then it’s unintentional, I swear.) I say all of this, because I too first watched GX in the dub and I was a GX hater. It wasn’t until I started watching the original Japanese version that I became a fan, and instantly fell in love with GX. There is nothing wrong with loving the dub, though. I say, go on and love it with all of your heart. I don’t really care too the dub, but as I said before, I do love the voice actors. Some people I know don’t like Matthew Charles as Jaden, but I fucking adore him. There are even a few scenes in the dub that I thought were better than the Japanese version, and I’m planning on pointing them out in my liveblog. Even 4Kids’ portrayal of Yubel, holy shit. I love (and prefer) Yubel in the Japanese version, but I also love how 4Kids made her so evil and playful at the same time while obsessing about Jaden. I FUCKING LOVED IT. Yubel in both version are amazing. Even though 4Kids changed her character, I still loved her in English because she managed to creep the living hell out of me in the dub.
Whatever the case, let’s both love GX with all of our hearts, regardless of whether it’s the dub or the original. (I agree, Zane was an angry psycho in the dub with one of the sexiest voices ever. I love Zane Truesdale so much.) :D
That’s kinda my thing too. I’ll probably get more in-depth with it all whenever I finally get around to some actual GX comparisons, but the character changes, the dialogue edits (THAT AMNAEL ONE THOUGH; also see most of Season 3 involving Yubel’s love for Judai [one example from 129] [another from 149] [also when Chazz calls Jaden out: the point is still kinda there, but at the same time it’s not…]), and notably the music editing leaves a lot to be desired in the GX dub. Sure, there’s some good tracks in the dub (and I do like the one GX tune I heard on that Soundcloud playlist put up by some of the composers), but the way they’re used kinda sucks… and having more moments of silence wouldn’t have killed them either.
And that’s another thing too, the combo of music and dialogue changes alter the mood that was originally going on. A good example: the Shou/Syrus scene in 137 when he’s flashing back about Judai and ultimately throws away his Duel Disk. The dub has this whole “oh yeah it’s my show now, no more Jade–wait, why do I remember him saying different things to me” thing to tie in with the unnecessary thing thrown in earlier about Syrus being a sidekick (and Season 3’s fourth-wall-breaking in general was also a huge turn-off–an amusing one, but still mehhh), action music going on, but the original? Sadder music as Shou can’t forgive Judai and tries to walk away from him, but he remembers his times with him, and throws his Disk away because he’s frustrated about him still popping up in his head.
Now, all that said, I do like the voice actors, for the most part. I actually did like Charles as Jaden, moreso earlier on when he had the slightly older voice going on; same with Alexis’s VA up until both of them changed their voices a bit circa episode 26. Chazz’s was also good–until the raspy reign of rasps started for him in 90. Zane was great throughout (minus some rasps in Season 3), and their best choice: Maddie Blaustein as Sartorius (RIP). Like, given the extremely slim chance of a proper redub, I’d love to see what they can bring to the table. That’s the thing about most 4Kids VAs though: a lot of potential, usually bogged down by the way they handle things. :/
So basically, I do have a slight fondness for the GX dub because that’s how I started watching it, and also ‘cause of the VAs and a couple moments here and there, along with a bunch of stuff I’ll give them credit for eventually in those comparisons, and I can respect if people do like it better, but–and this applies to every YGO series really –you’re missing out on a lot if you only watch the dub.
like season 4also ark cradle(via alicethedragonvalkyrie)