From invisible swords to jelly donuts, anime censorship can get pretty bizarre. Join us as we count down the most absurd edits made to beloved anime series in foreign dubs. These changes range from hilarious to downright confusing, altering characters and storylines in unexpected ways.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.