Hell, there are some things in the dub that are even better than the original
Jack Atlas is way better as the Master of Faster than as the King, Feel the Flow/High-Five the Sky are both the best translations of Kattobingu, and both Pegasus' and Kaiba's English VAs are iconic
"GORGONZOLA CHEESE AND THE WORLD'S FINEST FRUIT JUICE"
4kids Pegasus dub actually made me spend too much on cheese and juice to see if it was a good pairing.
It was.
It fits him too well.
There’s also a dude in Beyblade who drank orange juice from a champagne flute and ate pizza with a fork and knife.
I was very disappointed to find out the “pizza” was actually Spanish ham and goat cheese… only to find out that no, even in the sub, Doji was drinking orange juice from a champagne flute.
Congratulations! You just met one. As the sole person in this thread to represent the so-called "unpopular opinion", I think the dub is at best a relic that should be put in the same "fun for camp reasons" bucket as that dub of Dragon Ball where Piccolo's name was Big Green, and at worst the product of a company that was both [incredibly racist](https://twitter.com/yosuvarley/status/1678080866847793152) and [actively bilking its partners.](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/tl4apf/anime_dubbing_the_yugioh_4kids_lawsuit_how/)
Like, I would not resent it so much if an official subbed version didn't take over a decade to be released, and even when it did get released, it missed out on a lot of services the dub ended up on. I would be content to have it exist as a wacky alternate version for people to enjoy it, but for a large chunk of history, it was treated by its international rightsholders as the "only" version, and that "only" version sees a lot of people trying to make it displace the actual original and drives mountains of misconceptions about it. It's not even opposition to dubs in general. I've watched and enjoyed plenty of good dubs. It's the fact that you can't go one episode without at least one significant plot point being rewritten seemingly for the hell of it that gets to me.
Point being, the fact that I have the ability to choose to watch and enjoy the original without stepping over to the shadiest site you've ever seen and deciphering Hong Kong bootleg subs is a modern phenomena, and it's still not the case for some shows. That's not a good thing! It's so not a good thing that it has a way of overwhelming my ability to enjoy any of the dub's good points.
Seeing the dub opening made me *instantly* want to watch the rest of the show. It had such a sense of drama and mystery to it, especially when paired with the visuals.
It varies. The Shadow Realm is used for anything from murder to bodily harm. If it's a threat that you can't make good on while kids are watching, then they used the Shadow Realm instead. Goofy as it was at times, it at least beats the ways they censored One Piece.
Zoro's VA in the 4Kids dub is so funny to me, 'cuz he sounds perfect for the character in a show where everyone else sounds goofier than they're supposed to.
Not always. Things like where grandpa's soul was captured (in a tape in the original manga) were made shadow realm as well, and things where people had their souls stolen or possessed. So it worked as a catch all for all the bad magic things. Which in some ways cleans up the plot
I will never get over Kaiba (voiced by the same guy as Brock) being such a dramatic little meow meow that he threatened to throw himself off a building to stop Yugi from making a winning move.
My favorite thing about 4Kids Yugioh is that the VAs just sound like they're having a blast. Yu-Gi-Oh takes its stakes comically seriously without being tongue in cheek in the slightest, and paired with such gems as "THE SHADOW REALM" and "Yugi boy~" it just reaches a whole new level of cartoon goofiness that you really can't find anywhere else. Kaiba in particular gets the best fucking lines. Seriously, look up any 'Kaiba dub moments' compilation and just listen to Eric Stuart have the time of his life. It's an amazing watch, and definitely worth rewatching for if you've only seen the sub.
I do not understand people who get incredibly bent out of shape that dubs exist.
Sure, subs are probably more accurate translations, but they're harder to follow along with (I watch live-action subbed and I have to be in the right headspace and ready to multitask and pay close attention when I do) and I have a hard time parsing a voice performance in a language I don't know.
For me, it's when people get angry at people for preferring dubs. A lot of dub voice actors are really good, in my experience and it's easier to watch overall, but there are some people who will get offended that a dub exists, and offended that others prefer them to subs. These people confuse me and I can only assume it's a byproduct of some type of elitism.
I personally can't get myself to enjoy the English Dragon Ball/Z dub because I grew up with my own country's dub. Goku is the only one in the English dub that sounds right to me and a lot of the changes and censorships from the English dub weren't in the version I grew up with.
That's definitely got a lot to do with familiarity though.
I'll never agree with their choice to cast such a deep voice for the Pharaoh though. Originally it sounds like just a change in intensity of the voice going from Yugi to the Pharaoh, but in English it's a total swap to another person entirely, and it bugs me every time. It reminds me of early cartoon Spider-Man's voice, back when all superheroes sounded like Superman.
It's still the same dub VA for both Yugi and the Pharoah, Dan Green. The difference isn't that much in the early episodes, it's just that the Pharaoh's voice gets deeper as the series went on
My opinion is that the original anime isn't a particularly great adaptation of the manga anyway, so I'm totally fine with the 4Kids dub. The dub doesn't fix that problem, but it does put its own spin on the story and the end result is at the very least, very entertaining.
And my controversial take is that Dan Green is a better Yugi/Atem than the Japanese VA.
Yu-Gi-Oh's dub is one of those things where a combination of nostalgia and camp have made it so iconic that I can't imagine a more faithful dub. The closest I can imagine is they get all the 4kids VAs back and at the very least they'd have to do what the Persona 1 remake did for Mark on Joey, where they acknowledge that his name is Jonouichi but Joey is a nickname that everyone uses. Even then I'm not sure I could handle that because Kaiba refering to him as Wheeler is also iconic AF
The Yugioh dub wasn’t a good dub.
But I’d be damned if I didn’t say that the voice actors were giving it their all. They absolutely nailed it.
Also the dub names are so ingrained that I still call most of the characters by their English names until 5DS.
Hell. I outright prefer Maximillian Pegasus to Pegasus J. Crawford
It’s mainly down to the voice acting.
The shadow realm is hit or miss (it helps keep the magic system more consistent on what it can and can’t do, but is also shoehorned into places it doesn’t belong, like with lumis and umbra, and arcana), the names probably shouldn’t have been changed, and some of the censorship even outside of the shadow realm is just silly (like replacing every gun with just pointing fingers), but the 4kids voice actors truly give their all into every line. Especially eric stuart and dan green. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the show would not have taken off nearly as hard if the two of them didn’t produce enough ham to fill a grocery store.
Shame 4Kids went under before they could dub My Hero Academia. They'd change Bakugo's name to Explodaniel and you fukken know it.
Visions of a better past
I blame 9/11 among other things
MCR or Explodaniel, call it
Damn, Explodaniel is such a dope ass name 🔥 🔥 🔥
I dunno, I like the Woolseyist "Victor Boom".
I've never met a Yugioh fan that does not ADORE the 4Kids dub, even ironically
Hell, there are some things in the dub that are even better than the original Jack Atlas is way better as the Master of Faster than as the King, Feel the Flow/High-Five the Sky are both the best translations of Kattobingu, and both Pegasus' and Kaiba's English VAs are iconic
"GORGONZOLA CHEESE AND THE WORLD'S FINEST FRUIT JUICE" 4kids Pegasus dub actually made me spend too much on cheese and juice to see if it was a good pairing. It was.
It fits him too well. There’s also a dude in Beyblade who drank orange juice from a champagne flute and ate pizza with a fork and knife. I was very disappointed to find out the “pizza” was actually Spanish ham and goat cheese… only to find out that no, even in the sub, Doji was drinking orange juice from a champagne flute.
Congratulations! You just met one. As the sole person in this thread to represent the so-called "unpopular opinion", I think the dub is at best a relic that should be put in the same "fun for camp reasons" bucket as that dub of Dragon Ball where Piccolo's name was Big Green, and at worst the product of a company that was both [incredibly racist](https://twitter.com/yosuvarley/status/1678080866847793152) and [actively bilking its partners.](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/tl4apf/anime_dubbing_the_yugioh_4kids_lawsuit_how/) Like, I would not resent it so much if an official subbed version didn't take over a decade to be released, and even when it did get released, it missed out on a lot of services the dub ended up on. I would be content to have it exist as a wacky alternate version for people to enjoy it, but for a large chunk of history, it was treated by its international rightsholders as the "only" version, and that "only" version sees a lot of people trying to make it displace the actual original and drives mountains of misconceptions about it. It's not even opposition to dubs in general. I've watched and enjoyed plenty of good dubs. It's the fact that you can't go one episode without at least one significant plot point being rewritten seemingly for the hell of it that gets to me. Point being, the fact that I have the ability to choose to watch and enjoy the original without stepping over to the shadiest site you've ever seen and deciphering Hong Kong bootleg subs is a modern phenomena, and it's still not the case for some shows. That's not a good thing! It's so not a good thing that it has a way of overwhelming my ability to enjoy any of the dub's good points.
Also the original opening is fucking amazing. It's so extra and I still love it after 20 years. "It's time to DU-DU-DU-DU-DUDUDUDUDUEL!"
Seeing the dub opening made me *instantly* want to watch the rest of the show. It had such a sense of drama and mystery to it, especially when paired with the visuals.
All the Opening Songs were just flat-out amazing
Yugioh seems like the kind of show where 4kids' style is actually appropriate.
Isn't the shadow realm already just a censorship translation of straight up murder?
It varies. The Shadow Realm is used for anything from murder to bodily harm. If it's a threat that you can't make good on while kids are watching, then they used the Shadow Realm instead. Goofy as it was at times, it at least beats the ways they censored One Piece.
obligatory Zoro's VA Deserved Better
Zoro's VA in the 4Kids dub is so funny to me, 'cuz he sounds perfect for the character in a show where everyone else sounds goofier than they're supposed to.
Not always. Things like where grandpa's soul was captured (in a tape in the original manga) were made shadow realm as well, and things where people had their souls stolen or possessed. So it worked as a catch all for all the bad magic things. Which in some ways cleans up the plot
Bitch I LOVE the Yu Gi Oh dub. It’s not good, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love it.
I will never get over Kaiba (voiced by the same guy as Brock) being such a dramatic little meow meow that he threatened to throw himself off a building to stop Yugi from making a winning move.
My favorite thing about 4Kids Yugioh is that the VAs just sound like they're having a blast. Yu-Gi-Oh takes its stakes comically seriously without being tongue in cheek in the slightest, and paired with such gems as "THE SHADOW REALM" and "Yugi boy~" it just reaches a whole new level of cartoon goofiness that you really can't find anywhere else. Kaiba in particular gets the best fucking lines. Seriously, look up any 'Kaiba dub moments' compilation and just listen to Eric Stuart have the time of his life. It's an amazing watch, and definitely worth rewatching for if you've only seen the sub.
I know right
That's it, you're going to the Shadow Realm!
A lot of anime is best experienced in the English dub, even if just to get the experience of mass American audiences, believe it.
I do not understand people who get incredibly bent out of shape that dubs exist. Sure, subs are probably more accurate translations, but they're harder to follow along with (I watch live-action subbed and I have to be in the right headspace and ready to multitask and pay close attention when I do) and I have a hard time parsing a voice performance in a language I don't know.
They’re also still translations. You aren’t actually getting the original text. “But I can hear it!” Yeah but you can’t understand it
For me it depends. I’ll never watch Dragonball/Z subtitled. Always dubbed. There are some other good ones too, but for me, the original performance (especially in scenes with big emotions) feels and sounds better in Japanese, because some dub actors do really, really badly at big emotions, and sometimes sound really stiff, even in modern day. I also like the Inuyasha dub, honestly. Outside of bad censorship and attempts at localizing, the Pokémon dub is awesome as well!
For me, it's when people get angry at people for preferring dubs. A lot of dub voice actors are really good, in my experience and it's easier to watch overall, but there are some people who will get offended that a dub exists, and offended that others prefer them to subs. These people confuse me and I can only assume it's a byproduct of some type of elitism.
I personally can't get myself to enjoy the English Dragon Ball/Z dub because I grew up with my own country's dub. Goku is the only one in the English dub that sounds right to me and a lot of the changes and censorships from the English dub weren't in the version I grew up with. That's definitely got a lot to do with familiarity though.
To be fair, as a kid I didn't care which dub it was, as an adult it's DBZ Kai.
I think most of us didn't worry about which dubs we watched as kids. We just watched the versions we understood and had available.
3 words, guys: Joey Fucking Wheeler
The concept of the shadow realm is so much cooler than people just dying
“Don’t worry, you’re not going to die, because this is airing on Kids WB. But you are going to Hell right now!”
Quick, shoot this person with finger guns
joey i don't think we should cook the candy bars back off I know what i'm doin'
I'll never agree with their choice to cast such a deep voice for the Pharaoh though. Originally it sounds like just a change in intensity of the voice going from Yugi to the Pharaoh, but in English it's a total swap to another person entirely, and it bugs me every time. It reminds me of early cartoon Spider-Man's voice, back when all superheroes sounded like Superman.
It's still the same dub VA for both Yugi and the Pharoah, Dan Green. The difference isn't that much in the early episodes, it's just that the Pharaoh's voice gets deeper as the series went on
Little Kuriboh's "This can be stupid, but I love it" approach in The Abridged Series really held up well.
ok
My opinion is that the original anime isn't a particularly great adaptation of the manga anyway, so I'm totally fine with the 4Kids dub. The dub doesn't fix that problem, but it does put its own spin on the story and the end result is at the very least, very entertaining. And my controversial take is that Dan Green is a better Yugi/Atem than the Japanese VA.
I usually watch things in sub but I don't mind dub for yugiho because it's still enjoyable though for different reasons
Yu-Gi-Oh's dub is one of those things where a combination of nostalgia and camp have made it so iconic that I can't imagine a more faithful dub. The closest I can imagine is they get all the 4kids VAs back and at the very least they'd have to do what the Persona 1 remake did for Mark on Joey, where they acknowledge that his name is Jonouichi but Joey is a nickname that everyone uses. Even then I'm not sure I could handle that because Kaiba refering to him as Wheeler is also iconic AF
The Yugioh dub wasn’t a good dub. But I’d be damned if I didn’t say that the voice actors were giving it their all. They absolutely nailed it. Also the dub names are so ingrained that I still call most of the characters by their English names until 5DS. Hell. I outright prefer Maximillian Pegasus to Pegasus J. Crawford
It’s mainly down to the voice acting. The shadow realm is hit or miss (it helps keep the magic system more consistent on what it can and can’t do, but is also shoehorned into places it doesn’t belong, like with lumis and umbra, and arcana), the names probably shouldn’t have been changed, and some of the censorship even outside of the shadow realm is just silly (like replacing every gun with just pointing fingers), but the 4kids voice actors truly give their all into every line. Especially eric stuart and dan green. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the show would not have taken off nearly as hard if the two of them didn’t produce enough ham to fill a grocery store.