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The negative issue of the censored animes


Toshio Tenma

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Well, whenever an anime is imported to America, the work ends up heavilly edited to fit the "kid's friendly" rule which says that any animated work is a cartoon and should be suitable for children.

However, that rule often take away the original joy of any dubbed anime who become less emotional and less coehent than their original versions.

Yes, it's possible to mention a certain quality of the dub, but at times that quality is not enough to prevent people from rejecting the dubbed work and going after the japanese version.

The joy of the anime would be it's original storyline which is very important that if it's re-scripted, then not even a good sounding dub can save it from becoming a failure.

Also despite sounding good, some characters may get more annoying than their original version to the point of being talking rude quotes which doesn't even suit their original personalities.

Sometimes, the dub even remove important scenes or background information which would help the viewer understand the plot and characters.

The removal of the original sound tracks is also a negative point, specially if they're replaced with uninspired techno sounds.

The incorrect order of episodes can be rather troublesome since it doesn't link the story arks all together, after all new characters appears before their actual introduction.

Is worth to know that despite having fans who are not so picky about the dub, the original authors of imported animes are not always pleased by the suscess.

Specially considering that most of their ideas got lost due the censure and Tezuka was a rather old example:


Posted Image


That image came from the 2002 publication of Astro Boy Vol. 2 by Dark Horse during the introduction of the story "His Highness Lord Dead Cross."

Although Tezuka had generalized, since not all americans agree with wars and neither the censure of animated works, what he said is not quite distant of the truth.

Specially considering the same politicians who censure animes with their "kid's friendly rule" sent soldiers to war in order to kill each other.

Something rather too much for those politicians who claim that having fantasy violence is bad when they're still being hypocrites for taking part of cruel actions like ordering the bombing against innocent villages during the Vietnam war (something even explored by Tezuka himself in the Scara Ark from the original manga).

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I am not some anime expert but at least I kind of acknowledge this is a result of some big-time cultural and moral differences.

 

I am from China, and Japan and China share something similar:

- languages (both have Chinese word characters and languages can reflect very much cultural and moral similarities)

- faces (some times when I see a man/woman in the far street I cannot really tell he/she is a Chinese or Japanese)

- sharing similar religions: i.e. Buddism and other Eastern ones

- geographical equality and convenience:  i.e. food, products, climate, even facing some similar natural disasters, closer distance between two countries

- some same viewpoints:  i.e. men go out to work, women take care home

- customs:  i.e. common practice to pay respect to late family members constantly

- race feuds (old-time war stuff and the "fishing island ownership" stuff)

- some governing and trade policies

- tastes (most of the time Chinese from admire and accept Japanese ideas very much, but heck, not the other way around)

- believing in some same myths and urban legends

- ..... and more.....

As a result, there is no such censored anime thing ever happening to the Chinese markets.  And most Chinese enjoy the original anime, non-altered, like you.

 

Another one is Taiwan.  Taiwanese love Japanese stuff even more.

 

However, for the Western countries like U.S.A., while Japan is kind of a "small brother" to U.S.A., both parties don't share very much aforementioned cultural and moral similarities.  Japanese buys Americans' ideas very much, to an extent that it can be called a worship.  Yet, IMHO, Americans seem not to, from admire to accept, some Japanese ideas (big-time example is religions).  Hence some anime censor takes place.

 

Correct me if I was wrong............

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Everyone have their opinions about it.

 

I realized that Astro Boy is just a over ratted dub and it keept being dumb and dumb as the new series progressed.

 

Since most americans are used to it, few ends up believing that is better watch the original series.

 

And really, I don't think that just sounding good can save a dub which have a bad story...

 

That following quote is my understanding about the plot of Astro Boy 2003 dub:

 

"My son fleed home, so my solution was creating a robot son based on him. Humans are unreasonable, even my own son, so I'll stick with a robot copy, because they don't need to have blood and bones." And then Dr. Tenma shutdown his child robot after he showed signs of revolt. Even the final message that a son doesn't need to be blood related don't make sense anymore since Dr. Tenma left a run away son at loose and don't cared to go after.  

I believe that a good voice acting doesn't justify a horrible story.

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This is why I keep it with the fansubs,

who do quality work because they

love the authenticity of the work

the people translate and set.

Much like those people who in

Mugen try to recreate characters 1:1

(with a bit refreshing for making Eye Candy.)

 

Beside the seiyu are excellent.

While I find the older anime had

better seiyu, but maybe it is only

my nostalgic familarity.

 

The theme is much darker in the story

at some point the Anime itself is already fluff

in comparism to the Manga because the

parts which are important to understand are left out

the characters are left out to have more action

than story telling.

 

So when in the West people start to censor more

then one has only a Bonsai.

But it is not only in Anime but also the Sentei Genre.

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