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

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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

"Alittleacorn" wrote: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!)

I have no problem with voice actors having voiced many different characters; in fact, I find it amusing to note the similarities, & look up the actors to see if both were from the same one. :lol:

I believe the cute scenes were cut for 1 of 2 reasons (I probably already said this, though :p ):
  1. Simply to trim it so as to allow for more commercials
  2. To make it more appealing to little boys, who hate being cute.

About the Eternal Boy episode: It was not even in the Korean DVD set.

I am currently watching both the J & E versions of the B&W series, the latter of which also removed references to death. See my review of Memory Day for an example. I will defer from repeating the details here, so please read my review. :astro:

I am also currently reading Fred Patten's book, Watching Anime, Reading Manga, in which he makes numerous references to highly rated programs that were cut to pieces and doomed to failure by being shown in "the kiddy time-slot ghetto" (298).

BTW, welcome to the forums, Alittleacorn.
Last edited by jeffbert on Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sgupta
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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

Great comments!

I just watched the Denku/Denko/Denkou (I've seen it spelled different ways heh) episode a couple weeks ago, and yes, the changes in that episode as ALittleAcorn recounted are quite startling!

I wasn't sure if he/she was a boy/girl actually. I know in the US version she's a girl, but in the Korean subtitled version I have (which has overall excellent subs except in a VERY few cases like this one), they actually refer to Denkou both way - sometimes he, sometimes she, so I suspected but was never sure.

I was especially touched by the scene under the bridge of a beat-up and pyschologically/emotionally beaten Denkou. It's such a simple scene yet it reaches right into your heart. This is the type of scene that when cut really boils my blood because censors feel they have to "protect" children from it. This is a scene, well-presented and very well done, that can actually teach kids things like empathy and compassion. It's brutal only in the way it brings out emotion, and it's so sad to me this is considered worse in Western countries (most especially the US; I'm not sure it's the case as much in some others) than empty violence or action for action's sake, etc. It's what makes Astro Boy so moving!

I also agree wholeheartedly on the cute scenes. There are some truly darling scenes that were cut!

Fafner, I see your point about them choosing to cut the scenes to put in more commercials, but I think the second point speaks louder as to why these scenes were cut in particular. There seems to be this (in my opinion frightening) hypermasculinity in Western Culture where if boys are at all sensitive or cutesy or effeminite, it's considered a terrible thing (and they're picked on, bullied, and even not accepted or attempted to be "changed" by many adults!) It's almost to the point this stuff is taboo, and too many kids are just treated like they aren't okay if, say, they're boys but like flowers. (On an Olympic note, that's one of the reasons I like ice scater Johnny Weir so much - he is what he is and nothing else will do - lol.).

I actually tend to think it's not so much that all boys hate being cute (some do to be sure, but not all by a longshot). It's that it's so socially unacceptable that they feel incredible pressure and are conditioned NOT to be. Which in my opinion is wrong as I think diversity is beautiful. I like girls who are tough and tomboyish and boys who are more sensitive - I think it would be a pretty boring world without some variation.

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Postby fafner » 14 years ago

"sgupta" wrote:Great comments!
Fafner, I see your point about them choosing to cut the scenes to put in more commercials, but I think the second point speaks louder as to why these scenes were cut in particular. There seems to be this (in my opinion frightening) hypermasculinity in Western Culture where if boys are at all sensitive or cutesy or effeminite, it's considered a terrible thing (and they're picked on, bullied, and even not accepted or attempted to be "changed" by many adults!) It's almost to the point this stuff is taboo, and too many kids are just treated like they aren't okay if, say, they're boys but like flowers. (On an Olympic note, that's one of the reasons I like ice scater Johnny Weir so much - he is what he is and nothing else will do - lol.).

My post count in this discussion is 0 (at least was before this post), I think you have mixed me with jeffbert ;)

I actually tend to think it's not so much that all boys hate being cute (some do to be sure, but not all by a longshot). It's that it's so socially unacceptable that they feel incredible pressure and are conditioned NOT to be. Which in my opinion is wrong as I think diversity is beautiful. I like girls who are tough and tomboyish and boys who are more sensitive - I think it would be a pretty boring world without some variation.

Some people fear diversity, they prefer uniformity even if it's boring.
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Postby sgupta » 14 years ago

LOL, my apologies! I did mean Jeffbert (can't edit anymore or I'd fix it)! I think I was reading multiple posts and just put the wrong name or something - sorry. =oP

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Postby tailz » 10 years ago

*Revives thread*
Yay! Finally a thread where I can rant and complain about english dubs!

Anyways, I liked the astro boy 2003 english dub. It had some pretty great voice acting in it. But, wow. I didn't know they took out soo many scenes. They literally butchered it to death. lol.

I like both the 60's and 03 english dubs. Though, as for the 80's(*Cough* and Black Jack 90s *Cough*) english dubs, I say this: The original Japanese dub is better, always will be JP dub, JP dub for the win. :lol: :D
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Postby Windswept Cloak » 10 years ago

All the reasons mentioned by everyone above is why I hate the English dub for the 2003 series.
I joined this forum in late 2013 when I was 15 going on 16. Ignore my oldest posts, they embarrass me so much that I've considered permanantly leaving the forum more than once. I've grown out of my fangirling phase over Black Jack, Atom and Uran ages ago but the memories still embarrass me at times... :unsure: Though, I try to be more open-minded about it and accept it as an "interesting stage of my life". :tezuka:

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Postby fafner » 10 years ago

"Kuo-Yi" wrote:If everyone in the world is the same it would be so darn boring. Someone go tell the people in the country where I live that fact. Seriously. :mad:

Many people prefer to be bored rather than facing something new, for them it is frightful :shifty:
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Postby Prettywitchiusaka » 10 years ago

"tailz" wrote:*Revives thread*
Yay! Finally a thread where I can rant and complain about english dubs!

Anyways, I liked the astro boy 2003 english dub. It had some pretty great voice acting in it. But, wow. I didn't know they took out soo many scenes. They literally butchered it to death. lol.

I like both the 60's and 03 english dubs. Though, as for the 80's(*Cough* and Black Jack 90s *Cough*) english dubs, I say this: The original Japanese dub is better, always will be JP dub, JP dub for the win. :lol: :D


Indeed, they did cut a lot from the dub version. That being said, I do feel that the dub has itself it's. I think that the Pluto episodes are done very well in English, and while it removes some character growth for Shadow, I love the dub version of episode 24 for how evil the Micro Bears are.

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Postby tailz » 10 years ago

Oh, yes! I loved those episodes! I don't know why many people hated them. Seemed pretty good for an english dub to me. :shifty:

I just don't like the 80s AB series and 90s BJ english dubs cause of its voice acting. (AGH! Why do I let this distract me from enjoying them! Stupid personality and voice acting statements! :d oh: ) no offense to english dub lovers, btw.
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Postby Prettywitchiusaka » 10 years ago

"tailz" wrote:Oh, yes! I loved those episodes! I don't know why many people hated them. Seemed pretty good for an english dub to me. :shifty:

I just don't like the 80s AB series and 90s BJ english dubs cause of its voice acting. (AGH! Why do I let this distract me from enjoying them! Stupid personality and voice acting statements! :d oh: ) no offense to english dub lovers, btw.


I can definitely see your point there.

While I do agree that most of the edits made to the dub were stupid, I still think that the dub is enjoyable to watch. Me personally? I like both, so for me it's more a matter of what mood I'm in (when I want to watch some Astro Boy, that is)


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