Anime. It’s a wonderful, beautiful thing that so many of us just love. There have been video games inspired by anime, anime inspired by video games, and to us fans the art of the Japanese people is something that can make us laugh, cry, and talk about happily.

Sounds cosy, right?

Wrong.

There is undoubtedly tension in the fans’ community, and why? It is all to do with a little something called DUBS.

Japanese anime ‘dubbed’ into English. Cool! Wonderful! For most of us it’s a real blessing, because though we love Japanese anime, having to read subtitles all the time distracts us and sometimes it’s very hard to watch someone talking in a language that sounds to us like super-fast gobbeldegook.
But unfortunately, this is where the trouble starts, and usually, it is to do with the companies that do the dubs.

The two main companies who do anime dubs  are 4Kids and Funimation.
4Kids. They did the Pokemon dub about ten years ago and guess what? People loved it, especially children. Even now I hear more people talking about the Pokemon dub than the original Japanese version.
But when they decided to do Yu-Gi-Oh, problems began to arise. The trouble was that Yu-Gi-Oh in Japan is a show for teenagers and adults, but 4Kids passed it off as a kids show. Well, OK. The themes were mild enough for kids, but during the dubbing process they had to cut out things like blood and guns and swearing that were in the original.
And the fans went APE.
How could 4Kids destroy some of the main themes in the anime!? How could they cut scenes out!? Some fans were, understandably, furious.

Well, what most people fail to realize is that this wasn’t all 4Kids’ fault. There are rules in America and Britain about what you can and cannot put on a kids’ show. For example, you cannot have someone with a gun anymore. Laser guns are fine, but if you’ve got a children’s program, you cannot have someone waving a pistol. So they had to cut it out. They didn’t have to do that with Pokemon. Has anyone noticed that you got virtually no complaints about that dub?
Well, Yu-Gi-Oh was a problem, but it didn’t cause nearly so much of a stir as what they decided to dub next…

Sonic X was one of the animes that really got the fans ranting. And it was simply because there were scenes cut out to make it kid-friendly.
Well, curiously, when I was 11 and watching Sonic X, I didn’t care two hoots about how much they had cut out. Why? Because there was still enough of the original anime left to tell the story. When I was a kid I wasn’t looking at Sonic X, Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh to be good programs with voice acting absolutely top-notch. I simply liked them because they told a story that sucked me in and took me on a journey no matter how much was cut.

Then the 4Kids cast replaced the original Sonic cast for the games and all hell broke loose.
Now, I can understand why so many people were so angry. To most Sonic fans the old cast were the only voices of the Sonic characters they knew, and to have different voices was very odd and upsetting.
BUT to some people the 4Kids cast were welcome. Some actually liked what the 4Kids cast did and how they played the characters. Some people preferred the 4Kids actors over the original cast.

What really makes me see red is what happened next.

Did the old cast fans graciously accept the 4Kids fans’ opinions? No! Suddenly people who actually liked the 4Kids cast were bombarded and being constantly told that the other cast were better. And they weren’t the only ones.
Just because the 4Kids cast were different, suddenly they were also the targets of fans’ flames. Take Jason Griffith, who now plays Sonic and Shadow. I’ve seen some truly ghastly and sick things being said about him all over the internet that just make me want to throw up. And then people complain that he was shirty with them when they commented on his MySpace page! Well, if all you could see was fans constantly flaming your work, wouldn’t you be upset?

He’s a person. He isn’t fans’ property. He isn’t a board for people to fling insults at. If all he’s seeing is people being horrid about him, then of course he’s sometimes being unpleasant to fans, and the chances are he’s not going to be able to get any better.
And he is not actually a bad actor. The companies he works for aren’t stupid – they wouldn’t hire people if they were bad actors. Jason played Sir Aaron in Pokemon and did a fabulous job, but no one seems to notice. They are too involved in putting him down for his role as Sonic, and that really isn’t fair.

Does the fact that they replaced the old cast mean that the 4Kids cast are the worst actors ever? No! Is this endless publicity of how greatly the 4Kids cast ‘suck’ helping the fans? Of course not! It’s dividing us, and this one-sided opinion isn’t realistic.
I like the old cast very much. They were absolutely great at playing Sonic and the others, but my personal preference is the 4Kids cast. Some like both and some don’t care either way. But constantly putting down one cast isn’t actually helping their growing fanbase. Every flame of the 4Kids cast that I see actually makes me even more determined to stand by my opinion and love Jason Griffith and his fellow actors for what they do. It’s not improving my opinion of Ryan Drummond or David Humphrey or any of the others at all; it’s actually making me resent them for producing fans that can be so horrid and downright prejudiced.

Now, this isn’t fair on the old cast, but it is honestly how some of their fans are making me feel.

Also, the idea that the 4Kids cast are only dubbing the games for the money is totally ludicrous. Vic Mignogna – a very well respected voice actor – said once that voice actors do not get paid a lot for what they do. It’s curious: anime dubbing is one of the hardest forms of acting there is, and yet it pays the least. The money they get helps the bills, but it doesn’t make these people rich. They are in the business because they love acting, not because they want to make a lot of money.

Anyway, going back to the issue of anime dubbing. The company that no one seems to mind dubbing the animes is Funimation. This is the company that dubbed Dragonball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist. Both are extraordinary animes in themselves, but the fact is they are not kids’ programs. They are meant for teenagers, which means that the swearing, blood and guns in the story isn’t a problem. 4Kids dubs animes for children. Funimation dubs animes for teenagers. Why on earth are teenagers flaming 4Kids for children’s programs? It’s silly, isn’t it?

If you don’t like what 4Kids has done with dubbing the anime, Americanizing it and making it kid-friendly, then don’t watch it. Don’t spend your money on it. Go and watch the original Japanese version with subtitles. No one is going to stop you. You’re not doing any harm. The only time you are doing harm is when you go to great lengths to tell everyone else how much you hate it and spoil it for the rest of us.

We all have opinions, but it’s an opinion for a reason. Just because someone likes the dubs or a particular cast does not make them an idiot. Some of us enjoy what the companies do with the dubs, and we would be able to enjoy them more if people stopped bashing them and complaining about them.

In fact, what is all of this flaming and complaining doing to us? It’s making us miserable and angry. Is that what these animes are all about?
Think about it… what did those companies make or dub the animes for?
For money. OK.
But there was something more.
These animes were made to be enjoyed, to be entertainment. The characters were made to be cared about and befriended, to take us on a journey through our imaginations. They were made to make us happy, not sad. They weren’t made for us to fight or insult or debate over. It should entertain us. Yet I find that I am sitting at my computer, pouring my heart out and complaining about people complaining. Am I any better than the people I am trying to get through to?

Have I ever tried to force people to like the 4Kids cast? Well, actually no, I haven’t. I’m not saying that anyone has to like the 4Kids cast, or any cast that dubs the animes. BUT what I am saying is that we shouldn’t pick on people who think differently. Isn’t that what most of the characters we have grown to love represent?
We should respect other people’s views, and see that just because we hate something doesn’t make it bad.

I cannot expect this article/speech to make major changes, if any at all. But please, please, please, people, do not insist that your opinion is the only one everyone is allowed to have. I would like to watch my dubbed and cut Sonic X and Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs with a clear conscience! And I have no objection whatsoever to my Internet neighbours watching the original Japanese version if they wish, or playing Sonic Heroes and enjoying the work of the old cast.  But if people say that I am being a dumbass, a shithead or anything of that ilk just for supporting something that I like, well…

Let’s do fandom peacefully and properly this time, shall we?