Ablution

Every time 4Kids Entertainment airs an anime dub, I cringe, and I swear a puppy dies or at least becomes gravely ill. Alright, the latter doesn't happen, but I'm wary of any anime 4Kids touches, including one of its latest offerings, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

Let me make it clear, it's not the voice acting in 4Kids dubs I dislike. 4Kids employs good voice actors, and once they've settled into their roles, they're a good listen (the One Piece dub is an exception). It's not changing the character names to English ones–that's been done in anime for a while now, although it'd be nice to have the rest of the cast keep their names, not to mention not changing character names which aren't Japanese. Overall, 4Kids dubs are acceptable and at the least, passible. My beef with 4Kids is how far they go to edit their anime.

The company is well named–it does provide entertainment for kids, and the anime they license and dub are modified for that purpose. Now, I'm aware there are broadcast standards kid's programming must adhere to, but 4Kids goes beyond those. Their edits tend to ruin any realism and water down the premise. Let's take the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, for instance. Anyone remember the two thugs pointing their fingers at Seto Kaiba while trying to capture him? Yep, there were guns, but they were edited out. Guess someone thought that was better than providing the thugs with brightly colored guns (hey, they came up in the One Piece dub). I'm for gun control, but I'm against lessening the danger and ruining the realism–I'd laugh if two unarmed goons pointed at me in that fashion. Death takes a holiday as well; instead, the characters are threatened with being sent to the Shadow Realm. Yugi's strapped into a wall as buzzsaws come closer as his life points drop? English dub says that instead of chopping off his legs, the blades will send him to the Shadow Realm. Oh, and they're glowing. A Duel atop a building where zero Life Points means a bomb explodes under your feet and you plummet to your death? Sorry, the bomb is now a device that sends you to the Shadow Realm. Oh, and let's not forget the disappearance of any written text in some scenes, even if it was English text–if there is a regulation that calls for that, I'd like to see it. I'd like to go on, especially about changes in characters' personalities, but you can watch Yu-Gi-Oh! the Abridged Series online to see what else 4Kids did and to understand why some people call the real game a children's card game.

However, original or English dub, the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime does have some inherent obstacles to potential viewers. One is that the anime establishes the central trading card game, Duel Monsters, as a serious sport. I emphasize “serious” since that's how the characters treat the game–a win could earn you respect and admiration from others, a loss could result in a crying fit, and anyone who played the game well was treated like star athletes. Don't forget about GX's Duel Academy, where you study the game and take classes on it. In addition, all conflicts, even the “save the world” ones, were resolved using said game. No punching, kicking, or using weapons–just a card game, which can leave people wondering why the bad guys didn't just shoot Yugi, Judai (a.k.a. Jaden), and their friends in order to achieve their goal. Granted, Duel Monsters was tied to ancient Egyptian magic, but it was still a trading card game. The shows also come off as a glorified commercial to get kids into playing the real Yu-Gi-Oh! game, but then, so is any of the Transformers series. As long as the stories are good and the characters engaging or not too annoying, I don't mind if a cartoon is a 30 minute toy commercial.

In short, unless you like trading card games and are capable of accepting that one can be taken seriously to the point that it's used to save the world, the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is not for you. I happen to like the real game since it's the closest I'll get to commanding a robot army. I even choose to hold my nose and watch the 4Kids dub since it's the only licensed version, but I will watch fansubs to compare the original to the dub.

Anyway, back to 5D's. To be honest, I wasn't surprised when I learned 4Kids would be bringing us the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. They gave us the Duel Monster anime and its follow-up, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, so why wouldn't they secure the licensing rights to 5D's? My only surprise is that 4Kids didn't finish GX. It had only one more season to go, and it isn't clear on if it will ever air in dubbed form. For now, we get Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, 4Kids style.

Set in the future, 5D's tells the tale of Yusei Fudo, who lives in a society in which where you come from determines your social position. People who live in Neo Domino City are the elite, and people who live in the ghetto of Satellite, like Yusei, are lower class. Yep, this show deals with the difference in social classes. Not bad for a show that deals with a card game. Yusei wishes to retrieve his best card, Stardust Dragon, from his former friend, Jack Atlas, who is now the best D-Wheeler in the world and the game's self-proclaimed King. As in previous series, there is a supernatural element that will be revealed more as the show progresses.

Now here's the innovation to Dueling the show's creators came up with: Duelists can now ride D-Wheels in Riding Duels, which is basically racing around a track while playing your cards. LittleKuriboh, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, called the concept “playing card games on motorbikes,” and a good number of people couldn't take the idea seriously. I admit I was one of them, but as I watched the fansubs of the show–I wanted to see it before 4Kids got our its version–I saw it was more than playing card games on motorbikes. Yes, we get regular Duels as well, but we also get some interesting characters like psychic Duelist Aki Izayoi. 5D's is not Shakespeare, but it's good entertainment. For players of the game, the show introduces new cards and concepts, including Tuner Monsters, Synchro Monsters, and Synchro Summoning.

Like a loyal little Duelist, I watched the series premiere on CW4Kids. Although I will curse 4Kids for what they've done to the Yu-Gi-Oh! series and One Piece, it has somewhat redeemed itself with the Dinosaur King dub. Sure, that dub never explicitly says the main characters live in Japan, but from what I've heard, the changes were the character names, the jokes, and the occasional digital swimsuit. The dub opening theme is annoyingly commercial, but it's a good show to watch. Hence, I didn't have high hopes that 5D's would adhere closely to the original script, but I was looking forward to a decent dub that kept the main premise, although with changes reasonable and not. To help me compare and contrast, I watched a fansub of the episode and the dub.

First, the opening. Sadly, it wasn't a version of “Kizuna,” the original first theme. 4Kids posted on its website several songs for visitors to vote on to be the show's opening theme, and “Hyper Drive” won. If I had voted, that would've been my pick since the other songs didn't really fit the theme “Kizuna” presented or were plain annoying. I'll miss “Kizuna,” but “Hyper Drive” works, and unlike the original's dub theme, it's an actual song. Also, after a few viewings, I'll get used to it, and I can always find the original theme online to enjoy. As for the footage, it's made up of material from the original opening, although when the characters are shown, Aki, who shows up later, isn't used.

Now for the episode. Yusei, his Satellite friends, and his rival Jack are introduced, with Jack beating a challenger to his crown. Yusei's friend Rally gives him a chip he needs for his Duel Runner, which attracts Satellite Security. In order to keep Rally out of trouble, Yusei challenges Tetsu Ushio, a Security member, to a Riding Duel–if Yusei wins, Ushio will forget about the theft and the day's events. That's the episode's source of good old Dueling action.

Oops, a few changes need to be noted. Although Yusei and Jack kept their names, anyone with a Japanese name got an English one. Mukuro Enjo, the poor fellow who Duels Jack in this episode, is now Hunter Pace. As for Ushio of Satellite Security, he's now Officer Trudge. Instead of Neo Domino City, it's plain old Domino City. D-Wheels are now Duel Runners, and Riding Duels have become Turbo Duels. 4Kids also modified a few things. Instead of being a regular challenger to Jack's crown, Pace is introduced as the previous champion. Jack is still arrogant, but his King schtick is no longer present, and he sports an accent. Perhaps to make him an even bigger jerk, the dub script writers had him call in Security; he had nothing to do with it in the original. While this episode is the first time Ushio has met Yusei, Trudge now has a past with him at a reeducation center. I'm guessing this was done to explain Trudge's looking down on Yusei and his willingness to Duel him instead of just arresting him–the original had Ushio accepting without question and Yusei telling him that he is different from other Security since he accepted his challenge. I'm guessing someone thought that was ridiculous and decided on giving the two a past. That amuses me since it tells me 4Kids does want to maintain some realism. One thing I'm glad that didn't change was Rally's gender. He's a boy in the original despite his appearance, and he's a boy in the dub. Interestingly, when Security arrives, Rally admits to stealing the chip in the original while he's still denying it in the dub.

Well, as I expected, the episode got snipped and modified in some places. As in previous Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs, the cards are formatted so that their pictures are blown up, leaving space for a Monster's Level, Attribute, Attack, and Defense, or a Spell or Trap symbol. The Life Point counters are changed from the original. The sequence before the opening was altered: the original shifted between Jack and Yusei riding on their Duel Runners; the dub cuts out Jack and shows only Yusei. The glimpse of Yusei's Duel Runner having problems is replaced by a scene of cheerleaders that is shown later in the original episode (the background is the giveaway–it's blue while the sky during the Turbo Duel is purple), and the scene change from Domino City to Satellite, which shows the great contrast between the two locations and gives viewers an idea of how far apart the class gap is, is gone. Background music is changed, and where there was silence in some scenes, 4Kids chose to put in dialogue. The dub had Yusei thinking about settling the score with Jack–in the original, Yusei kept silent, his face pretty much telling us he was upset over something. The vanishing text struck again–Yusei's Duel Runner no longer displays the current time, for instance. The dub script takes some liberties with the original dialogue, but overall, the gist of the original story is there. The dub added moments when aspects of a card or gameplay is explained. I think some cuts were done to make room for these segments. Oh, and in the original, Yusei does a chant when he Synchro Summons. Guess what? No chant.

As a Yu-Gi-Oh! player, two things stuck out in my mind. First, I had a problem with Trudge saying he was removing his current Monster from play to Summon Handcuffs Dragon. The original Japanese line used the term “Release,” which means “Sacrifice” or “Tribute” (the Japanese game changed a few gameplay terms when the starter deck and booster series tied in with 5D's came out) I'm not sure who checked the script, but major fail there since Tributing and removing from play are different gamewise. Someone apparently didn't bother understanding what Release meant. Second, when Yusei plays a card near the end of the Turbo Duel, he explains what it does in the original while the dub has him talking about how living on the street has made him stronger. This irked me because he didn't explain his Monster's next action, which was possible because of the card he played. However, when compared to the original dialogue explaining card effects, the dub dialogue actually sounds more interesting and realistic while the original was dry and to the point.

As for the dub voices, they didn't make me want to throw heavy objects at the TV. My only concern is Yusei's. The original portrayed him as a calm and collected type; the dub voice is a bit lively. Also, he seemed chattier than in the original.

To sum it all up, the 5D's dub is what I expected from 4Kids: presentable with changes made, usually for no apparent reason. If you love the original, stick with the fansubs. If you prefer your anime dubbed in English, go ahead and watch, but expect a passable and watered down serving of children's card game playing.

This series is recommended for people who like the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game and other trading card games, math, and fighting with monsters. Oh, and if you don't mind companies watering down your anime.

From the desk of H.A. Senidal, 9/16/2008