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So, it wasn't his fault mostly?
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It wasn't. Mostly.So, it wasn't his fault mostly?
Interview with former 4Kids translator Paul Taylor.
He wasn't directly responsible for the rewrites or censorship but there is quite a bit of apologia for it, so be warned.
Most shockingly though he reveals he made up localized character names whenever they weren't in the style guide, which took even his supervisors aback. Apparently only a handful of his made-up names made it into the final dubs though; many seemingly got changed (again).
15:00 is where he talks about making up names that weren't in the style guide.Can you give the timecode please
Edit : Nvm.I've found it, it's around 35:00
Not to sound disrespectful to 4Kids' staff but damn, they really like shifting the blame away from themselves don't they? Whenever one of them gives an interview or podcast or any information about dubbing the series in general, they always seem to find a way to excuse the dub's flaws, and their unapologetic behavior just turns me off.So, it wasn't his fault mostly?
I always assume that when it come to TR specifically. Everyone else seems to have the right dialogue, but they really like to give the others something else entirely.I find it interesting that the information present in the Thunders/Jolteon Pokédex entry in both languages comes directly from the Japanese Pokémon Red and Green games while the part the dub added in comes from their western counterparts Pokémon Red and Blue (which were in turn based on the updated Blue version from Japan). 4Kids wasn't making stuff up out of thin air like they usually do; the dub writer clearly did actual research here. But the question is why? Did someone at 4Kids realize the first Japanese Pokémon games and the first ones that came out overseas had completely different Pokédex entries, and this was their way of compromising?
Also, just an FYI, Dogasu, but the name "Ethan" didn't actually pop up in the games until the Pokémon Gold & Silver remakes in 2010. It's a funny observation but the timeframe you've given is misleading.
I think the fact that the Rocket trio are already comedic villains makes the dub writers more comfortable with injecting their own sense of humor into their dialogue, for better or worse; it almost feels like they just can't resist the urge to "punch up" everything when they're on screen. And yeah, maybe the fact that some of their banter is genuinely difficult to translate makes it easier in their eyes to just bulldoze over everything.
And yeah, looking back I've occasionally mixed up the two in my head myself.The Marumine/Electrode episode towards the end of the Orange Islands saga having a similar Western aesthetic only makes this episode stand out even less.
I looked around and couldn't find terms like "Soldier Spear (Beedrill)" used anywhere else so I think this is information exclusive to this animated series...? Regardless of where it comes from it's an interesting collection of tidbits that dub viewers unfortunately aren't privy to since 4Kids always cuts all these post-episode segments out.
RustyTrubbish said:Also related to the site and kind of a nitpick, but can the PokeTsume stuff be unpinned from the top of the main page? The series ended almost a month ago after all.
Everclear said:It's like you're saying "I was so fortunate to have seen the original Japanese version and enjoyed all the awesome things about it that the dub lacked, I sure feel bad for all the people who weren't as lucky as me~".
Huh that actually makes sense, I believe Honda's name in Yugioh was changed to Tristan for similar reasons, sure Honda is a Japanese car company but 4Kids lawyers probably didn't want to take any chances(especially not after legal threats from Uri Geller had forced them to retire Kadabra and Alakazam from the Pokemon TCG as one of their original Japanese names is basically "Urigellar")My guess with the Ford -> Ethan change is that they might have felt weird about him being named directly after a real person, so they instead changed it to the name of a character from the movie. I recall the directors of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame talking about how they wanted to name Quasimodo's gargoyle buddies Anthony, Charles and Lon after Anthony Quinn, Charles Laughton and Lon Chaney, the three "original" Quasimodo film actors (from the 1956, 1939 and 1923 movies, respectively), but Disney's lawyers were concerned about blowback from their estates, which is how they came up with the names Victor and Hugo, being that Hugo was long dead and the author of the very work they were adapting. (oddly, the third gargoyle was named LaVerne as a homage to LaVerne Andrews of the Andrews Sisters, meaning they named one after a real non-Victor Hugo person anyway, but maybe since the reference wasn't specific to the source material they felt they could get away with it?)
Only other thing I can think of is they didn't want a character with the same name as a major American car company.
Either of those explanations aside, it is certainly just as likely (if not moreso) they just pulled it out of their asses. Lord knows I learned from doing One Piece Uncensored 4Kids loved to make changes just for the sake of making changes.
I think for One Piece they do as Toei did have to approve every single change they did and they were perfectly OK with all of it. If I had to guess the reason for skipping episodes it might be because Dragonball GT had gotten pretty good ratings despite skipping over it's first 16 episodes.I'm speaking more to the name changes 4Kids made with One Piece (although there were plenty of pointless visual/dialogue/etc. edits too), like changing Trace to Ace or Cobra to Nebra.
Frankly I'm also not convinced they couldn't have gotten away with more considering their dub of Shaman King, while still heavily localized, got through almost completely unscathed as far as censorship went, but that was always less of an issue for me. One Piece was a bad fit for Saturday mornings but neither Standards and Practices nor Toei (who often also catches strays for the 4Kids dub being terrible) forced them to rescore the show with ill-fitting music, give terrible voice direction and casting choices, rewrite so much of the scripts with childish potty humor and forced puns, skip over entire story arcs so they could introduce the more marketable Chopper sooner, etc. etc. I could go on but I'm sure I've already put out a million words on the interwebs about how I don't think 4Kids deserves much benefit of the doubt for how most of their dubs turned out, One Piece or otherwise.
I mean, that can really be said for every anime, can't it? The Japanese license holders always have the power to put certain conditions on what liberties an American production company takes when dubbing one of their shows. Even back in the 60s the only reason the Speed Racer anime kept its iconic theme song was because the rights holders in Japan insisted on it.I think for One Piece they do as Toei did have to approve every single change they did and they were perfectly OK with all of it. If I had to guess the reason for skipping episodes it might be because Dragonball GT had gotten pretty good ratings despite skipping over it's first 16 episodes.