00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most absurd edits made
00:11to anime.
00:20Number 10, Bomber Nanimon Digivolve to… Citramon. Digimon Data Squad. It's not out
00:31of the ordinary for a Digimon to drastically change appearance during Digivolution, but
00:36getting a whole different color scheme exclusive to the English dub, that's a new one, even
00:41by Digimon standards. And yet, that's exactly what happened in Data Squad's American broadcast.
00:48Bomber Nanimon's explosive look gave these censors major pause. So, allegedly, they gave
00:54the dub an ultimatum. Find a way to change the character, or cut the episode entirely.
01:00That's how we ended up with an orange-themed villain of the week trying to take over an
01:08amusement park with the power of fruit. Yeah, Citramon doesn't quite hold the same menace,
01:14does he?
01:22Number 9, Where There's Smoke, There's Jotaro. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stardust
01:28Crusaders. Jotaro Kujo is one of a kind, and as part of that, the esteemed Joestar is occasionally
01:40seen with a cigarette either in hand, or between his lips. The animators understood
01:46the assignments, but that didn't mean Japan had to agree. The country forbids any media
01:51depicting minor smoking, and since Jotaro is only 17 in Stardust Crusaders, all instances
01:58of him with a cigarette had to be edited. Not with a simple animation change, though.
02:03No, the censors saw fit to paste a big black streak across Jotaro's face anytime he lit
02:10up a cigarette. If their goal was to not draw attention to underage smoking, they majorly
02:16failed.
02:26Number 8, Shadow of a Doubt, Sonic X. Despite its legendary catalogue of anime titles, 4Kids
02:34Entertainment's reputation in the world of English dubbing is pretty infamous, and
02:39scenes like this are precisely why. It's the middle of a climactic, cosmic-level fight
02:48to the finish, and Chris is practically begging Shadow to help. The hedgehog doesn't just
02:54say no, he gets his point across with some serious roughhousing. It's a deeply impactful
03:00moment that proves Chris' determination to sway Shadow, but fans of the English dub
03:06don't get any of it. Instead, they edited the scene to bits, eliminating any violence
03:18or emotion from the proceedings. So, where did Chris get all those scuff marks? Ask 4Kids.
03:26Number 7, the saga of a strange selfie, My Hero Academia. Not even recap episodes are
03:39immune to the ironclad might of regional censors. No matter how small the moment may be, in
03:45the Arabic dub of My Hero Academia's fourth season catch-up, they went out of their way
03:50to alter the selfie reporter Taneo Tokuda takes with Deku. We'll admit, the original
04:09was a bit creepy. What kind of reporter smiles like that while hugging a teenager? But the
04:15altered frame is so unbelievably derpy, it stands out even more. Instead of seeming uncomfortable,
04:22Deku looks like he's being held at gunpoint by someone off-screen. No matter which version
04:27of My Hero you watch, this selfie is not worth posting.
04:31Number 6, Finger Guns Blazing, Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters. 4Kids strikes again, this time they're
04:44up against Yu-Gi-Oh and it's use of real firearms. You may be wondering, how did they
04:50edit around this one? Well, that's the thing, they kind of didn't. Kaiba is instead threatened
04:56by men pointing invisible finger guns. Seriously, it sounds like a joke that shouldn't have
05:01made it out of the meeting room, let alone into the official English dub. But from 4Kids,
05:08we shouldn't be surprised. This is the same company that invented the Shadow Realm so
05:13that it wouldn't have to acknowledge that characters die. Although, if the villains
05:18were really using finger guns, death wasn't really much of a threat anyway.
05:23Number 5, Heaven and HFIL, Dragon Ball Z. In a show with blood, death
05:42and scream-heavy struggles for survival, American censors drew the line at the word
05:48hell. Even worse, they weren't even very creative with it. In what might be one of
05:53the laziest attempts to censor ever, the dub simply coloured over parts of the trademark
05:58hellish uniform. By removing the bottom line from the middle E and L, hell became HFIL,
06:06a.k.a. The Home for Infinite Losers. All things considered, that's a good name for
06:19it, because anyone subjected to this laughable dub edit is certainly losing out. If they
06:25really had to change the name, they could have at least put a little more effort into
06:29it.
06:30Number 4, Sanji's Sweet Tooth, One Piece. Oh, 4Kids, you never learn, do you? As if
06:43the Sonic X and Yu-Gi-Oh! debacles weren't bad enough, it's nothing compared to what
06:48they did to poor, poor One Piece. See, Sanji smokes. He has a cigarette in his mouth in
06:54almost every single scene. It's not something you can edit or change without fundamentally
07:00changing Sanji. But did that stop 4Kids? Of course not. Afraid of promoting smoking
07:06to children, they meticulously turned every one of Sanji's cigarettes into lollipops.
07:12It's not even funny, it's just sad. When English-speaking fans complain about character
07:17traits being lost in translation, this is what they're talking about.
07:27Number 3, From Lovers to Cousins, Sailor Moon. Back in the 90s, when the Sailor Guardians
07:42were making their way to America, the idea of same-sex couples was still in its infancy.
07:48So, rather than faithfully portraying the romance between Sailor Neptune and Uranus,
07:54the dub completely covered it up by getting very, very inventive. Instead of lovers, the
08:00two were introduced as cousins. If the thought of that isn't weird enough on its own, the
08:13dub didn't doctor any of the footage to match, meaning these two family members got
08:17extremely touchy with one another. If there's a silver lining, it's that the 2014 Viz
08:23dub gave Neptune and Uranus the English romance they've always deserved.
08:34Number 2, Brock's Jelly Donuts, Pokemon. There's no point talking about eye-rolling
08:40dub changes without acknowledging one of 4Kids' biggest gaffes of all time. Yeah, that's
08:46right, we're not done with 4Kids just yet. See this scene where Brock offers Ash and
08:51Misty some rice balls? For some truly unexplainable reason, the English-language version makes
08:57the Pewter City gym leader call them donuts. It's such a laughable change, it's evolved
09:08into a meme representing all the worst parts of English dubs. It's hard to even wonder
09:17what 4Kids were thinking. Did they forget to edit the footage? Did they think no one
09:22would notice? Whatever the case, no one's ever forgetting Brock's opinion on rice
09:27balls.
09:48Number 1, Zabuza's Sword, or lack thereof, Naruto. Say what you will about dub changes,
10:07but most of the time the alterations at least deliver a new interpretation of the material.
10:19We say most because that doesn't apply to Germany's dub of the original Naruto. Apparently,
10:25they didn't like how threatening Zabuza was with his oversized sword, so they got
10:30rid of it. They didn't replace it or edit around it, they just scrubbed it out from
10:36every single shot and called it a day. It's hard to emphasize just how ludicrous it looks.
10:42Zabuza wields empty air, throws around an invisible blade, and even stands on a hilt
10:49that isn't attached to anything. This censorship isn't just disappointing, it's flat-out
10:55embarrassing. Would you have watched One Piece if it were still dubbed by 4Kids, but without
11:01all the censorship? Let us know in the comments below.
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