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Insulting Cultural Edits

S

SilverSkitty

Not evil,just insane
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Ever since 4Kids dubbed Pokemon,there have always been several cultural edits.

For example,when Ash catches a Mankey,Brock cooks onigiri for lunch and calls them "jelly-donuts". Now how stupid are the children of today,to actually believe that rice and nori wrapped together,is called a jelly-donut? The idea of jelly filled onigiri is revolting.

All japanese characters are erased,leaving blank sighns. When I was younger,I actually thought Pokemon was an american cartoon. I thought that anything japanese took place in Japan Town,San Francisco.

The dub and original frames of the ramen shop
 
Do we need another 4kids topic? They're done, over, so long.

Let's just let it rest.
 
PUSA is likely to do the same thing anyway, why people forget that Nintendo has taken grand steps to Americanize the franchise is beyond me.

Who do you think named Haruka, May? Or changed all the Gym leaders names?

It was all NOA. 4kids just changes the names of the filler characters to make them consistent.
 
4kids would probably change all the filler names anyway.

Any company that comes up with "Tyranno Hassleberry" must be worse then PUSA.
 
That picture of the ramen shop doesn't make any sense.. why would they edit out the Japanese characters if they're still holding chopsticks? You can't really Americanize that scene anyway.
 
4Kids kept some names...
Scott85 said:
PUSA is likely to do the same thing anyway, why people forget that Nintendo has taken grand steps to Americanize the franchise is beyond me.
Click to expand...
PUSA is really good at customer relations. It's going to be very interesting to see how they are in practice.

As to the topic, it obviously isn't a jelly flavoured rice ball. Just as it isn't a sandwhich, popcorn ball or whatever else they have been called.
 
FabuVinny said:
4Kids kept some names... PUSA is really good at customer relations. It's going to be very interesting to see how they are in practice.
Click to expand...

I still think we're far more likely to be hearing Wendy instead of Wakana, and Sally instead of Saori. ;)
 
I agree with you. ;)

Though it would be interesting to see the reaction to Wakana being Wendy after the Tetsuya/Tyson thing.
 
I fail to see the massive problem that giving English names to characters in an English dub is meant to cause. This isn't a Studio Ghibli film, it's Pokemon - an animated cartoon for kids. What's a name like Wakana or Saori meant to mean to them?
 
Doctor Oak said:
I fail to see the massive problem that giving English names to characters in an English dub is meant to cause. This isn't a Studio Ghibli film, it's Pokemon - an animated cartoon for kids. What's a name like Wakana or Saori meant to mean to them?
Click to expand...

Well... I agree with the first sentence anyways... (Not saying pokemon isn't a kid's show, but saying that's not an excuse. Some japanese childrens and books shows for toddlers shouldn't ge their names changed)

Pokemon is a show that's not suppose to be japan. Okay sure the regions are loosely based on real world places, but very loosely. Pokemon is suppose to be world wide with european castles and windmills, american farms, tropical jungles, and such. All those arn't in Japan! Plus a majority of it is pretty generic in the sense that any person can relate to that place.

That said, I don't think they should hide it when they do japanese things, Japanese Noodle houses don't exisit and are not common in the US, Eur, and Aus? I think not. People know what it is, and I doubt a kid will be shocked to see someone eating a rice ball. Also if a parent is shocked into disbelief because the kid is asking them what a rice ball is then they have problems. So, having japanese signs where it makes sense (restuarants and such) is fine. To be honest though, for the most part I see signs in the made-up pokemon language. The Japanese festivals should be fine to.

4Kids is just over protective. I mean, after the Yu Gi Oh incident a lot of younger fans I talk to already know this is edited and want to see the real versions of stuff. It also isn't appropreate and comes off as stupid to anyone who doesn't know with characters like Sweets Sanji, and lock-jaw mc smoker... editing english signs in One Piece and Pokemon out is also equally stupid.

but that doesn't mean all edits are bad.
 
I don't know what's going on with the "Hassleberry" thing, but...

Name changes aren't that big of an issue for me, except when they change already English names to other English names... ::grumbleKategrumble::

As for the jelly doughnut thing... If you don't know what an onigiri is, it's really not that much of a concern. Before I knew Japanese culture, and what an onigiri was, I was like, whatever, they're eating something.
I agree that it'd be better to introduce children to other cultures. But... ::sigh:: Sometimes it's easier to call an onigiri a jelly doughnut.

bell02_alpha said:
Pokemon is suppose to be world wide with european castles and windmills, american farms, tropical jungles, and such. All those arn't in Japan!
Click to expand...

Yes, but they've also included Japanese temples and gardens. I agree, the structure of it is meant to be international.
 
bell02 alpha said:
Pokemon is a show that's not suppose to be japan. Okay sure the regions are loosely based on real world places, but very loosely. Pokemon is suppose to be world wide with european castles and windmills, american farms, tropical jungles, and such. All those arn't in Japan! Plus a majority of it is pretty generic in the sense that any person can relate to that place.
Click to expand...

This is the reason why I don't have such a problem with Pokémon characters being renamed depending on the language of their country of airing. After all, we don't call animals the same things that they're called in Japan, do we?

But yeah, them renaming people or Pokémon who already have English names pisses me off.

fruitsmoothierevenge said:
As for the jelly doughnut thing... If you don't know what an onigiri is, it's really not that much of a concern. Before I knew Japanese culture, and what an onigiri was, I was like, whatever, they're eating something.
I agree that it'd be better to introduce children to other cultures. But... ::sigh:: Sometimes it's easier to call an onigiri a jelly doughnut.

Yes, but they've also included Japanese temples and gardens. I agree, the structure of it is meant to be international.
Click to expand...

The difference is that temples and gardens are well-recognized symbols of Japan and more likely to be accepted by children, who may not be able to read clarifying subtitles, and their parents, who don't want to look ignorant when their child asks what something that is Japanese and obscure is.
 
Come to think of it, the Pokemon World looks more American then Japanese. Why we have some temples and castles here and their, we have alot of mountains and little towns like those here in the US.
 
The Pokemon world reminds me strongly of the setting for the Earthbound games, which was a campy representation of 1940s/50s America - which is generally what the world looks like, except for some small details (The Bellsprout Tower) and asian-based Pokemon (Ninetales and Shiftry).
 
I'm not being ignorant, but Japan being a chain of islands obviously doesn't have as many open fields as their are in the Pokemon worlds.
 
Please note: The thread is from 18 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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