Top 10 Times America Ruined Anime

“Smile PreCure!” (2012-13) & “DokiDoki! PreCure” (2013-14)

Despite the name change to “Glitter Force”, this sparkly overhaul failed to shine. Or, really, step out of the original’s shadow at all. This dub of the popular “Precure” series suffered from an excessive amount of unnecessary westernization, from the title all the way to the character names. The Japanese influences were completely overshined by empty glitter, and so was anything resembling tension or emotion. Instead, the show is stuffed full of corny jokes and overacting that doesn’t even come close to capturing the franchise’s earnest spirit. It’s even worse in the sequel, “Doki Doki,” which had nineteen episodes cut from the dub - and boy, can you tell. A fairy tale, this is not.

“Duel Masters” (2002-03)

This English dub fell into the familiar trap-card of taking serious artistic liberties with its source material. Instead of adapting the story faithfully, the series saw fit to cram in unfunny and mean spirited jokes about anime tropes. The clear cut corners in other parts of the localization, like stilted voice acting and disparate scenes obviously cobbled together, adding to the idea that the script was making fun of the show instead of celebrating it. It’s a shame since there are some chuckle-worthy moments, but the overall lack of respect for the original makes this card hard to lay in any position other than face-down.

“Cardcaptor Sakura” (1998-2000)

When fans say half of this show was lost in translation, they aren’t speaking figuratively. The dub saw several heavy changes to better align it with other popular battle-anime, focusing on the action-oriented aspects and rebranding the series as just “Cardcaptors.” But that’s not the worst of it, that honor belongs to the inexplicable decision to not air over thirty episodes of the series. For those counting, that’s nearly half of the show that was dubbed, but not broadcast. This isn’t just censored scenes or rewritten dialogue; these are entire episodes of content that were skipped for no good reason. If their goal was to kill the show by making it impossible to follow, then this was a resounding success.

“Sailor Moon” (1992-97)

Somehow, America couldn’t even censor this show right. While it was never explicitly stated, the “S” season heavily implied that Michelle and Amara were more than close friends. But, at the time, these lovebirds weren’t allowed to fly in other regions. So, the dub took the laziest approach possible and shoehorned in extra lines about them being “cousins.” Not only is it a gross erasure of a groundbreaking same-sex relationship, but the dialogue does little to do away with the frequent innuendos, lingering looks, and physical intimacy. In trying to circumvent controversy, they created a whole new one by suggesting these ‘cousins’ are much closer than they should be.

“Ghost Stories” (2000-01)

Full disclosure, many find the Western version of this show to be far superior, but that doesn't mean it’s faithful to the original. It shows little to no respect for the Japanese interpretation, and completely abandons the straight-faced, spine-tingling chills of its episodic storylines. But, it’s hard to be too upset about it when this is, bar-none, one of the most hilarious dubs of any anime, ever. Given near complete creative freedom, the writers went absolutely nuts with the script, and even allowed actors to improvise in the booth. This is tough one because people have always held this dub in high regard, but recent years have shown a changing of attitude, where some think they should’ve been more faithful to the source material.

“Devilman: The Birth” (1987)

Akira and Ryo’s spat over the fate of humanity is a tale as old as time, but unfortunately, so is poor localization. In this early-age English dub, there wasn’t quite the same caliber of talent attracted to the medium that there is today. Inevitably, that led to some lackluster results. Horrible sound mixing, flat acting, and an unintentionally hilarious script render this iconic story a caricature of its former self. At the very least, there’s still plenty of enjoyment if you embrace the so-bad-it’s-good quality. But as a comparison to the emotional and captivating original, it’s clear that this Devilman belongs back in Hell.

“Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1995-96)

The world’s leading streaming service re-dubbing one of the most influential anime of all time should’ve been as successful as fighting an angel with an EVA Unit. Unfortunately, there was some very crucial context scrubbed clean from a certain bath scene. Originally, Kaworu confesses his love for Shinji, which leads to one of the series’ most interesting pairings and a downright iconic finale. But, Netflix removed the word “love” entirely, even in the subtitles, drastically reframing their whole relationship into something boringly platonic. It once again washes away a queer relationship for no justifable reason, leaving the story and character ters lacking any of the same emotional gravitas.

“Beast King GoLion” (1981-82) & “Armored Fleet Dairugger XV” (1982-83)

When Voltron was pitched as the quintessential combining-mecha fighter, they meant in-universe robots, not the shows themselves. Instead of merely dubbing an anime, the Voltron creators decided to take their idea’s concept to heart and pulled footage from two unrelated series to make the franchise we know today. Naturally, the storylines, characters, and themes of the original works are completely unrecognizable. While the footage itself is admirably stitched together, the series’ Frankenstein origins still prevent its elements from combing into the perfect mech. To be fair, it is impressive to make an adaptation that wrecks not just one, but two series at the same time.

“One Piece” (1999-)

Even more infamous than the fabled treasure Luffy’s after is how notoriously awful this dub is. Reportedly, 4Kids acquired this legendary shounen as a package deal with other series, and failed to screen it in advance. When the show they’d done zero research on somehow didn’t meet their standards, they decided to strip it of literally anything identifiable. The violence, comedy, and story beats were watered down more than the starboard of a pirate ship. Alongside overly excessive censorship, bland casting, and a truly horrible opening rap, it’s just impressive that even a character made of rubber was able to bounce back from this.

“Digimon” OVA’s (1999-2000)

When Fox requested a blockbuster outing for their popular monster anime, they discovered “Digimon” didn’t have any feature-length movies. What it did have was a prequel short, a forty minute sequel to the first season, and a noncanonical two-part OVA from the second. So, preposterously, they crammed over two hours of footage from three unrelated stories into one frenzied, eight-five minute feature that’s barely coherent enough to be called a film. The admittedly stellar soundtrack and clever comedy are let down by unreasonably frenetic pacing that cuts everything but mindless fights. Even though it’s an adequate guilty pleasure, it fails as an adaptation in every conceivable way, and even years later, the digi-rap still haunts our nightmares.