2003 Astro Boy English vs. Japanese Release Dialogue Changes - Wow...

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Fauna
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Postby Fauna » 14 years ago

What part of the FCC's hardcore guidelines required cutting down emotional moments, removing songs and footage of children playing, giving it a shaky 1.33:1 screen size, and making the entire show a bit angrier?

I understand what you mean, as my brother and I have watched the 2005 version of Zatch Bell, which had less violence and sexual material (i.e. bathing suits edited on during hotspring scenes). That's very understandible if it was to be broadcast during a children's block. This and Astro Boy are two totally different situations, as they thought the only way to grap viewers was to have Astro be a snotty Megaman.

I've seen both versions of Astro Boy 2003. Sony didn't water it down because of the FCC, they made it cold and sharp by trying to make Astro a punk. The fact that they refuse to officially bring over the Japanese version, and that people are trying to defend them, just adds insult to injury.
Last edited by Fauna on Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Fauna
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Postby Fauna » 14 years ago

Oh, geez. I didn't mean for all of that to insult you personally, but I just have very strong feelings against Sony's actions. They had a good thing going with the Metropolis import, and then blam. It wasn't until the final story arc in Astro Boy that they truly got their act together.

I see how they treated all of the characters, i.e. having Wally Wingert give almost all the young men the same voice, renaming Star System characters, changing so much dialogue to their ideal, and it just makes me...sad. The entire North American time period the show was brought into makes me sad. It's like watching Robotech and Macross...in one, you have more action and upbeat storylines; in the other, you have more symbolism and hard emotion. There are people who stick to either one, and I shouldn't have been rude. It's only a cartoon, of course. I'm more emotionally-attached to the Canadian-dubbed 1980's series as I grew up with that, but when the only way to grab audiences is the (working) method of inserting more action and uptalk, it's...sad.

And on Megaman...I have nothing against him. I see his franchise as being more involved in action, and that seems to be what they were going after in the dub.

So, let's just let this end here. Someday, like Macross, Astro Boy 2003 might see a redubbed uncut release.
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MegaAstroFan75
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Postby MegaAstroFan75 » 14 years ago

Seeing as Mega Man is a video game it does center on action. I like the Astro dub I guess because he's consistently more similar to Mega Man. Maybe it's just cause I wish Mega Man could have an anime with such awesome artistry and such. But nonetheless the slightly more mature acting Astro just has an impact on me.

Just because something is action oriented doesn't mean it's cold. Even in the dub with all the robots and humans he fights Astro is constantly saying that he doesn't want to fight. Especially with the Blue Knight.

I guess I just find it cuter to have a kid being all superhero like the dub has him. And I loved the interaction between him and Zoran in her first couple episodes, that was super cute. I found generally after the introduction of Zoran it got less rocky.

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Postby AstroRex » 14 years ago

Oh I just LOVE the idea of a KID who is a superhero! I wish there were MORE stories like that out there! I find it very inspiring to read about a young person who uses his special powers and abilities to do great things. This is one of the main reasons why I chose my main characters in my novel to be preteens when they became superheroes as well.
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Dr. Tenma
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Postby Dr. Tenma » 14 years ago

My main problem with the dub is moreso that they removed so much animation from each episode- dialogue can be explained or redubbed, but the roughly five minutes cut out of each episode is strictly off limits to the overseas fanbase and that's a real shame. Looking at each episode as 25 minutes (the length it would be had the time not been cut), that is 1/5th of each episode missing- meaning the equivalent of 10 episodes out of 50. That's pretty major when you ponder it.

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Postby animegirlalways » 14 years ago

"sgupta" wrote:I remember the early 90's Batman for example (much of which I have on DVD), where all of the villains were carefully thought out with deep motivations for their actions. I've noticed in more recent animated versions, much of that's eroded...



I have the first two volumes of the 90s Batman too. It was the only Batman series (including its sequel series Batman Beyond) that I like. :heart:

The only thing I didn't like when I bought the Batman volumes 1-2 was the episodes are not in order, kind of like most of the 2003 Astro Boy US DVD complete set. Like the 2003 Astro Boy series the order of the episodes didn't diminish my love for the series though! :wub:
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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

I actually counted the seconds missing from a few of the episodes; not only was the content itself shorter, but even the opening and closing sequences were shorter. Still, I would not say that even 4 minutes were missing, 2-3 minutes at most were gone.


BTW, welcome to the forums, Dr. Tenma! :tenma:
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Dr. Tenma
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Postby Dr. Tenma » 14 years ago

Thank you, Jeffbert, glad to be here! From the limited lurking I have done this has proven to be a stable, active and friendly community through and through- a true rarity in this day and age for the internet.

That's good to hear, too- I have mainly been going based on what I've read elsewhere for the 5 minutes cut fiasco, and although from what limited viewing I've done of the Japanese version I have noticed differences, I've never actually counted. It's good realizing I didn't miss out on as much as I thought I did!

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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

MegaAstroFan75, oh I definitely still see the dub as worth owning even though I like the Japanese content much better personally. I'm quite enjoying watching and comparing the two versions. I can see someone liking the dub's attitude better even though I don't personally. As already mentioned, I do quite like the dub's voicework as well as the US music even though I like the Japanese voices/music too. I think no matter your take on the dub content, what they've done to the video and audio quality is a travesty, but that's a production issue.

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Postby Alittleacorn » 14 years ago

The English 2003 anime started out okay for me, but after a few episodes rehearing the same voice actors began to irritate me. Not to say they were bad (I thought Astro’s voice was done very well), but to hear the same voices for a bunch of the characters ruined the English dub! An example, the one who did Kari in Digimon, did one of Astro’s friend, all the little girls and that teddy bear too. I found it difficult to enjoy the episodes when thoughts such as ‘I’ve heard you before, you don’t sound any different’ distracted me.

For censorship, it’s not uncommon for scenes to get removed for violence and other suggestive scenes in an anime, brought over to America from Japan…BUT TO CENSOR SCENES OF A KID PLAYING WITH TOYS!? A JOKE! I was shocked to see what adorable scenes were removed when I viewed some of the Japanese version, such as:

-Astro peering at a flower with a ladybird on it and watching it fly away
-Astro lying on his stomach observing suckling puppies with their mother dog
-Astro gets splashed by Uran at a water fountain and falling in
-Astro teaching a girl to use the cross like toy with the floating balls

Omg, Such cute scenes are not suitable for children! It might traumatise them, they might get bad ideas! Start drinking, use drugs and play Grand Theft Auto all day! WE MUST PROTECT THE INNOCENT MINDS OF CHILDREN FROM HORRIFYING IMAGES OF A NAÏVE ASTRO BOY WITH CUTE FLUFFY ANIMALS!!!

…-_-

Sorry, I needed to let off some steam there @_@

Anyways, it is obvious to see the Engish version was toned down for a younger audience (such as shots of Astro brutally hit by an attack, Tomoe’s death, Tenma shutting Astro down and so on) the most noticeable I’ve seen so far is the episode with Denku (The robot that can turn invisible)

First Denku is a boy not a girl

In the English episode Denku has an electric type device strapped around his waist that Astro states will disrupt the city’s power and ‘could’ be the end of them.

In the Japanese version, it is a BOMB. The true plot is Astro and co are searching desperately for Denku before he blows up. Scenes of Denku running from the cops firing at him were censored. You can notice one of these changes when Astro flies to save Denku. As he picks him up, there’s an explosion behind them, caused by the cops shooting. Even the explosion in the sky was edited to blue for the English dub to give off the impression of an electrical explosion, but when Astro and Denku are seen descending the sky is orange again.

Along with a clip of Denku’s arm getting shoot (explaining the tear on his sleeve) Another clip they removed was of Denku sitting under a bridge with only a few minutes left on the timer. Denku, aware of his situation, is staring lifeless when a blast from a firework startles him, making you believe for a second that the bomb has gone off.

Though they did a good job concealing plots such of this, I hate the fact they’ve chopped off a really good anime and turned it into an out of date tuna sandwich! Cute scenes or violent, they destroyed the English dub of Astro Boy by trying to make it for 5 year olds than having it true to what it should be for all ages.

So to sum up I prefer the Japanese version more to the English. The voice acting, music and the story is far more serious and more intense than the English version can stand up to.

And if you want to blame somebody for ruining it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmyPdrKdIOQ

Blame that Marc in this video who orders the poor group around! And probably ordered them to remove the butt machine guns too! (They could’ve at least done it like a one off joke like in the movie!)


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