Thread: The Pros and Cons of 4kids

Originally Posted by Blackjack Gabbiani

Well, if they had the budget then that they did later on, they could have changed the gun into something else. Heck, even a laser gun would have been doable.

And how would Kaiser have gotten a laser gun? Plus, don't laser gun kill as well as regular handguns?

I don't think they do. Not unless they're very high concentration.

As for how he would have gotten it, it's Pokemon! They could be run-of-the-mill weapondry there!

Originally Posted by Blackjack Gabbiani

I don't think they do. Not unless they're very high concentration.

As for how he would have gotten it, it's Pokemon! They could be run-of-the-mill weapondry there!

Still, a laser gun that looks like a regular handgun would be very silly. Even for Pokemon.

That's why I said if they had the budget then that they did later on, they could have changed it into one.

Originally Posted by Blackjack Gabbiani

That's why I said if they had the budget then that they did later on, they could have changed it into one.

It's still be silly. But then again, that'd be a good laugh for me.

Pros:
- Good acting.
- Nice opening songs.

Cons:
- Americanitis. Got a lot worse with time.
- The editing got worse at time went on. As Dogasu's Backpack will show you, 4Kids went really crazy with the edits during the Hoenn arc. I really liked the one where they edited a bit of Caroline's cleavage.... that was very tiny and hardly visible already.
- Constant background music. It's like a moment of silence is illegal. And the fact that as time went on, less Japanese music was used.
- Dialogue changes. It might, key word might, work with Team Rocket, but the dub writers really went overboard with this..
- Pun-based titles: This didn't really happen at the beginning of the English Dub. This got worse with time.

Hmmm... seems like a number of our gripes weren't so bad at first but got worse with time.... We can only imagine how much more the dub would've been changed from the Japanese version if 4Kids still had the show.

After being away from them for 5 or so years, I'm quite happy 4Kids no longer dubs the show, but that's another story.

Awesome Intros
Pun-based Titles

The titles are much better than those overly long, descriptive and boring Japanese titles. The only bad dub title was A Different Kind of Misty because it was incredibly misleading.

Pros:
I wanna be the very best

Cons:
Everything else.

Originally Posted by Ranger Jack Walker

Awesome Intros
Pun-based Titles

The titles are much better than those overly long, descriptive and boring Japanese titles. The only bad dub title was A Different Kind of Misty because it was incredibly misleading.

Really? I think, Dragon Ball (Z) Kai, for instance, puts the long anime titles to good use. Even the 4Kids dub keeps them. Again an example of inconsistent editing between shows. Only you 4Kids, only you.

Plus, when punny titles are used every episode, it's easy to get tired of them. Heck, even some of the most important and serious titles had punny titles. Plus, it's not like every Japanese episode has a long title. Groudon Vs. Kyogre and The Lonely Snover, anyone? At least the latter got to keep its Japanese name in the English version.

There are exceptions but when I see a title like Eve of Battle! Satoshi's Pokémon All Together!! I have no idea what to say. Thats a really boring title. Compared to the dub version where its An Old Family Blend! which is much better.

Originally Posted by Ambipom666

Pros:
- Good acting.
- Nice opening songs.

Cons:
- Americanitis. Got a lot worse with time.

Well keep in mind that when Season 1 was made, it wasn't expected to travel to America, and thus, there were a lot more Japanese references. As time went on and Pokémon got more global, Japanese references were not used in the original.

Interestingly, I think in the games, Johto was far more Japan-inspired than Kanto, which the reverse was true in the animé.

I think I've spent more than my fair share of time complaining about what 4Kids has done to the show. So rather than complain about all the horrible shit they did for the millionth time, I'll make a list of what I actually *did* like about the dub instead.

• I do recognize that Pokemon was 4Kids' best dub. That's not really saying much, all things considered, but it really was one of the better made-for-TV dubs on the air in the late 1990s. I think the only dub from that era that can really compare is Ronin Warriors.
• The scripts, for the most part, were pretty spot-on. Yes, there were a ton of annoying rewrites, but those really only accounted for about 20% of the script. The rest of it was actually pretty decent.
• Rachel Lillis is a pretty amazing voice actor. While I often feel like a lot of the other voice actors may do really well with one aspect of a character at the expense of every other side, Rachel Lillis was good no matter what Misty's mood was. When Misty needed to be angry, she sounded angry. When she needed to be caring and nurturing, she sounded caring and nurturing. She didn't just have one voice for Misty and apply that to every situation (*coughcoughEricStuartJamescoughcough*), and it really made her performance stand out. Her Jessie voice was really good as well.
• I liked Max's English voice better than I liked Masato's Japanese voice. But to be fair, that's just because I find Masato's Japanese voice to be extremely annoying.
• Some of the little jokes and jabs they'd add in every now and then were pretty good, I have to admit. I think "Claydol Big and Tall" is actually funnier in English than it was in Japanese, for example.
• The three Advanced Generation movies they dubbed were done really well, I thought. And I don't think any of us ever expected to hear part of the Japanese ending theme used for the Jirachi movie.

I'm sure there are other good things I can find to say about the 4Kids dub, but this is all I can come up with at the moment.

I do think the bad faaaaaaaar outweighs the good, but it wouldn't be fair if I didn't bother to give credit where credit's due. The 4Kids dub did have its good points.

Originally Posted by Ranger Jack Walker

There are exceptions but when I see a title like Eve of Battle! Satoshi's Pokémon All Together!! I have no idea what to say. Thats a really boring title. Compared to the dub version where its An Old Family Blend! which is much better.

You're also using a poor translation of a Japanese title. It's not the writers' fault that some foreigners with an elementary grasp of language translation are offering such a bad misrepresentation of the series.



And as far as "The Legend of Dratini" goes, please read the "Couldn't it have been censored just like any other episode?" section on this page.

Originally Posted by CrackFox

Pros.

Voices were very fitting for the characters.
The dialogue was delivered well by the VAs.
The dialogue was often very humorous.
The extra 'shippy' bits they added.
The themes were always very catchy.

Yep, that's about how I feel too. Great voices, funny scripts.

I mean, I don't think whatever Meowth said in the japanese version of Wishmaker Jirachi could be funnier than "They're stuck in a dark place with impending doom and no way out. ..That sounds like my life." delivered by Maddie Blaustein

In my opinion the best thing 4kids ever did was their dub of Mewtwo's Origin. It conveyed the feeling of the original japanese wonderfully. They added music to the last scene, yes, but it fit it perfectly, giving the final scene of Mewtwo in the blackness and incredibly eerie and sad feeling..

And the worst thing 4kids ever did IMO was cut Mewtwo's Origins out, and replace the soundtrack of the first movie.

Originally Posted by Dogasu

I do think the bad faaaaaaaar outweighs the good, but it wouldn't be fair if I didn't bother to give credit where credit's due. The 4Kids dub did have its good points.

Yeah, but for 4kids, I'm willing to look past the bad points for my own enjoyment. If there are good point that make it worth watching, then I'll watch it.

Originally Posted by Dogasu

You're also using a poor translation of a Japanese title. It's not the writers' fault that some foreigners with an elementary grasp of language translation are offering such a bad misrepresentation of the series.

Thats the translation on Bulbapedia. If that is indeed a poor translation than the article needs to be eidted as well.