movies/tv Looking back, is 4kids' One Piece that bad to watch

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

The 4kids dub of One Piece is infamous in the anime community for it's extensive, and often times confusing edits and censorship, as well as it's bad voice acting, and heavily rewriten story and dialogue. 4kids' handling of the show was hated by many fans of the original, and it was this show that single handedly made them as infamous as they are today. However, today, we now have an offical japanese subtitled translation, as well as a more faithful english dub courtesy of Funimation. With this in mind, is 4kids' version of One Piece as unwatchable as it was back in 2004? I recently saw a few clips and episodes of the 4kids dub of One Piece, from mostly episodes I saw of the Funimation dub. After seeing the more faithful dub from Funi, the amount of nonsensical changes 4kids made to the show are... actually kind of hillarious.

 

Now don't misunderstand, the 4kids dub of One Piece is absolutley terrible, horrendous even. But, it also happens to be one of the best "So bad, It's good" anime I've seen. The talk about how it's a disgrace to One Piece and how it should be killed with fire, those claims may have held weight back when the 4kids version was the only official english "translation" (Use that term very loosley with 4kids) avalible. But now that we have the far superior Funimation dub of the series, it's easy to look back on the 4kids dub as a hillarious un-intentional parody of Saturday Morning kids anime dubs. Seriously, give One Piece 4kids' a watch thinking of it as a parody, you'll probably find it hillarious. This is my opinion though, and you still may think the 4kids dub is unwatchable, and hey that's fine. But seeing a good chunck of the uncut Funimation dub, I think the 4kids version is funny romp of stupidity. What do you think? Is the 4kids dub So bad, It's good?

[Guest]

One Piece is just bad in general.

 

And 4Kids dubs are not bad because of inaccuracies, but because they insult the audience to the nth degree. "Oh kids wouldn't understand what a freakin' RICE BALL is, even if it was explained. Better change that to a donut even though they look nothing like donuts thus confusing them more."

[Envy 6,202]

One Piece is my favorite series, so no, I can't really look back at it and laugh. 4Kids gave such a bad impression to many of my friends, that none of them would ever give it another try, not even the ones who love other Shonen series like Bleach and Naruto.

 

I met some coworkers who got into One Piece recently, and that's neat... But I literally had no One Piece friends before then, and I do blame it on 4Kids. By the time I was able to try to talk those old friends into One Piece, it was super long. The bad first impression killed it for them.

 

Oh well... I guess One Piece has finally achieved some success around here. The episodes are simulcasted and have been for years now (so many years now that the simulcasted episodes are now being dubbed - time sure flies!), the chapters are being released simultaneously with Japan, and the FUNimation dub is not only great, but also garnering enough success now where the seasons are getting licensed really quick. (The wait for the licensing of season 4 was agonizing... now it's like "We have the next season!" and it's just...expected. lol)

[Limeblossom 482]

  On 2015-12-03 at 2:02 PM, Key Sharkz said:

And 4Kids dubs are not bad because of inaccuracies, but because they insult the audience to the nth degree. "Oh kids wouldn't understand what a freakin' RICE BALL is, even if it was explained. Better change that to a donut even though they look nothing like donuts thus confusing them more."

That's why I shun the 4Kids versions. They dub almost everything. They even dubbed an Italian animation while the animation studio itself already made an English version which is more accurate and doesn't treat the fans like brain damaged babies.

Edited December 3, 2015 by Limeblossom

[Megas 27,786]

The 4kids Dub of One Piece did a lot to hurt the anime's reputation in America, and for the obvious reasons.

 

And this goes for any anime they dubbed, including arguably the better ones like Pokemon.

 

- Changing entire major plot points "fo da children"

- Getting rid of generally any action

- Removing any traces of death would and using really dumb ways and changing the source material entirely just to avoid ever mentioning death even in shows where it's common(including DBZ where the concept of death is nonexistent anyway, making their changes even more dumb) 

- Terrible editing often with the dumbest outcome possible(poison netf suction cups and invisible guns anyone?)

- More often than not their edits come off as both xenophobic and even racist making some black characters white(and don't even get me started on Blue Mr Popo)

- Terrible westernization and removing anything Japanese because god forbid kids know that other countries exist let alone make cartoons

- Dumbing down shows to the point where it isn't even the same show anymore

 

4kids has been the subject of much deserved ridicule for years, which spawned many parodies mocking them for their terrible localizations(including the legendary Yu Gi Oh Abridged)

[Limeblossom 482]

  On 2015-12-03 at 3:07 PM, Thrillho said:

4kids has been the subject of much deserved ridicule for years, which spawned many parodies mocking them for their terrible localizations(including the legendary Yu Gi Oh Abridged)

I heard the story about LittleKuriboh attending the same convention as the 4Kids employees/employers and they where pissed . Not only are they ruining animations, they're also easily offended.

Edited December 3, 2015 by Limeblossom

[TheMisterManGuy 344]

  On 2015-12-03 at 3:07 PM, Thrillho said:

The 4kids Dub of One Piece did a lot to hurt the anime's reputation in America, and for the obvious reasons.

That I think we can all agree on. Still, I find the 4kids dub to be hillarious for it's sheer amount of WTF. It's like a trainwreck you can't stop looking at. That being said, I can understand the hate it gets considering what it did to the series reputatuion.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,803]

The 4kids dub of this show is one that is so bad, it baffles my mind to why it existed ever. The characters voices were abysmal with Usop being okay if I recall. The entire plotline was delivered in such a childish manner and even then, how did they expect that series to do anything? There is no blood whatsoever in the 4kids version and there is a main character that uses SWORDS as his weapon. That was just a disaster in thinking. 

[StormdustPony 471]

as bad as the 4Kids One Piece was i have to thank them.   They got me into One Piece in the first place, back when i was a little one.

 

I had Direct TV, and my internet was Dial-Up.  I had no way to watch anime besides what was on tv.

 We didnt get the HuesNet thing until 2ish years ago, and i wasnt even home then.

I still love one piece, even tho im a few months behind now.