History Woolseyism / AnimeAndManga

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':

** This was the same company that did the widely-loved GagDub ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats''.

** A small wordplay in Episode 12, when Ruri explains to the higher ups of Earths United Forces that the Nadesico's computer Omoikane chose its name, one of them says "I don't care if it's Omoikane (Japanese for "Heavy Bell") or Karuikane (Japanese for "Light Bell"). The Latin Spanish dub instead has him saying "No me importa si es Omoikane o La Mohicana" ("I don't care if it's Omoikane or The Mohican"), probably owing to their similar pronunciation.

* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' is an ''ungodly'' raunchy anime that pokes fun at American cartoons, and has ''a lot'' of {{Engrish}} [[ClusterFBomb swearing]]. So when the time came for Creator/{{FUNimation}} to dub it, they approached it as an American adaptation of an American-esque Japanese show instead of going for a straight translation. The end result is a GagDub with tons of RapidFireComedy, {{One Liner}}s, CharacterExaggeration all around, and even ''more'' swearing, all while managing to keep to the original script for each episode. And given [[WidgetSeries the nature of the show]], ''it works''. Gainax actually asked the dubbers to make sure that the dub was as profane as possible, with the goal in mind that the Japanese could learn more English cursing to use for Japanese.

* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' originally relied quite a bit on Japanese popular culture humor and puns that would probably not be understood well in the US. The English dub kept the spirit of the show by removing them and instead using many ''English'' puns and culture jokes. This results in many half-hearted puns coming out of nowhere, completely out of context, and sounding incredibly awkward. Good thing, then, that the show is [[WidgetSeries supposed to be completely random]].

-->Team Rocket [[Film/KnuteRockneAllAmerican does one for the Gipper]] at the speed of light

-->Team Rocket does one for the giver at the speed of light

** Done to a less pleasing effect in the [[spoiler:"false Asuka" segment of the extended version of the scene from the Director's Cut. Rather than have all five fake Asukas take on the mocking voices of Misato, Rei, Hikari, Ritsuko and Maya (in that order) as they impersonate her lines from previous scenes, they all have Asuka's normal voice. Not only does this kinda kill the impact that the original Japanese version had, but it also causes Asuka's cries of "No! That's not the real me!" to make less sense.]]

** The show's move to Creator/{{Netflix}} helps show the reason for this trope. For legal reasons they had to create a new dub, and they wound using a translation closer to the original Japanese. Fans generally think that it sounds awkward and less dramatic compared to the original.

** Also, Kyon's "Supersize me!" comment about future Mikuru's [[BuxomBeautyStandard breasts]] was not in the original Japanese dialog; it was an [[ThrowItIn ad-lib]] by the dub's VA. In the actual dialog, he merely said "Huge!" when he saw her chest. Humorously, this line actually made it into the official English dub.

* In the original dub of Manga/PrincessJellyfish, WholesomeCrossdresser Kuranosuke sometimes slips up with the male pronoun "ore" when he's meant to be a woman--Tsukimi, to cover for him, quickly shouts "Olé!" in excitement, as if that had been what he said. In the English dub, Kuranosuke instead calls himself a boy when he slips up, prompting a manic "Oh, ''boy''!" from Tsukimi.

* The English adaption of the Korean manhwa ''Manhwa/{{Ragnarok}}'' gives several places and character names pulled from Norse mythology, whereas in the original the names kind of brought together about a million different world mythologies; for example, a summoned dragon originally named after the Babylonian ocean god Tiamat was changed to Nidhogg. Of course, this created a different problem because the comic is supposed to tie into ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'', which used the original names.

* ''Woolseyism/MyHeroAcademia''

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** The usage of the term "Quirk" as a way to refer to the series' superpowers (the equivalent name in Japan is closer to "Individuality") came up from earlier scanlations. It caught on so much that other scanlators, Funimation dub, and even the official Viz release had to follow on it, making the term universal among the western fandom. The French version went for "Alter", which keeps the meaning, is easy to remember and actually sounds pretty cool.
*** The Italian translation of the manga keeps "Quirk" as the name, while the anime subs went with "Uniqueness".
** Class 1-A's Rikido Satou has the superpower "Doping", which lets him [[PowerUpFood become stronger by]] [[SweetTooth eating sugar]]. The English translation renames his power "Sugar Rush", which describes the ability much better while also removing the [[UnfortunateImplications drug reference]].
** Izuku Midoriya decides on "Deku" as his hero name in the original version because Uraraka tells him that "'Deku' sounds like 'you can do it.'" Because it doesn't sound like that in any language except Japanese, most other languages' version of this conversation change it to Uraraka telling Midoriya that she thinks "Deku" sounds cute.
*** Similarly, the reason Bakugo calls Izuku "Deku" is changed from being shorthand for "dekunobou" or "good-for-nothing" in the original Japanese, to an implied abbreviation of the longer insult "Defenseless Izuku" in the English dub.
*** Italian translations went with "'Deku' sounds like the name of someone who engages himself in every thing he does"
** In the Japanese version, when everyone's selecting code names, Yuga and Mina choose the names "I Can Not Stop Twinkling" and "Alien Queen", respectively. In Japanese, both of these were considered to be somewhat awkward instances of GratuitousEnglish, and the class's silent reaction to both was negative. In English, however, "Alien Queen" sounds pretty cool (many would argue much cooler than her eventual name of "Pinky",) while "I Can Not Stop Twinkling" sounds utterly bizarre. So in the English dub, the moment was turned into a joke about Midnight (the pro hero helping decide on the names) having hilariously inconsistent taste (plus one about [[YouWannaGetSued the possibility that Mina would get sued]]), and the class's reaction was changed to incredulity that Midnight accepted Yuga's name with minor alterations, while Mina's much cooler-sounding name was rejected.
*** Bakugou's choice for his hero name is "King Explosion Murder" (''Bakusatsuou''). In Japanese, it's rejected because it sounds way too much like his actual name (while also being a bad pun). The English version instead has his peers reject it for sounding both like a villain's name and completely ridiculous.
** Tsuyu's insistence on being referred to on a FirstNameBasis may fly over some heads due to how it's more formal in Japan to use LastNameBasis. In the English dub, she asks that she be called "Tsu" as an AffectionateNickname.
** All Might makes a lame joke by holding a cotton candy and saying, "Watashi ga kita! Wagashi ga kita!" ''Watashi ga kita'' is his catchphrase which means "I am here!", and ''wagashi'' is the Japanese word for sweets. The English dub changes it to "Fine and dandy! With cotton candy!"
** In chapter 169 Mina wants to show off her breakdance DanceBattler skills. In the original she calls everyone over by saying to look at her, in the official translation she says "[[Music/BeastieBoys Check-check check-it check-it-out.]]"
** Some of Bakugou's nicknames for other students are changed in the dub. For example, instead of "half and half" he calls Todoroki "[=IcyHot=]", after a medicine that's well known in the west.
** Tengai tries to get [[BloodKnight Rappa]] to be more respectful towards their organization. Rappa's response is to splice an expletive into his boss's name. One early fan translation decided to translate this as ''Overhole''.

** A very good one from the Italian dub. In "Hatch Me If You Can!", Jessie and James are disguised as Heidi and Peter from ''Anime/HeidiGirlOfTheAlps''. So what the dubbers did? They put lines from the Italian opening of that series (still very popular in Italy) in the Team Rocket motto. And it worked.

** Osaka speaks with, as could be judged, an Osaka dialect. Typically, characters with accents in anime might be given a southern accent in the dub, if it was acknowledged at all. The dub team for ''[=AzuDai=]'' went out of its way to think about the aspect, deciding that not only was a Texas accent more appropriate for Osaka, but a ''regional'' Texas dialect of an area of the state that they felt most accurately reflected a similar lifestyle to Osaka. See KansaiRegionalAccent for more on the subject. Creator/ADVFilms' being based in Houston might also have had something to do with this.

** Gin Ichimaru speaks using the [[KansaiRegionalAccent Kyoto dialect]], which is polite but indirect. His voice actor in the dub, Doug Erholtz, uses polite language, but with a mocking, facetious tone of voice to indicate the character's duplicitous nature.

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPp3nl6JmiQ one scene]] in ''Anime/TheLegendOfBlackHeaven'', while visiting America Watanabe finds himself accidentally giving the middle finger to a ScaryBlackMan, not knowing what it means, and gets beaten up while being insulted for being a freaky tourist. In the original, although with SurprisinglyGoodEnglish, the other man sounds like the first American tourist they found off the street; in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNK-_t-8OOE the English dub,]] he is voiced by a LargeHam much more befitting the stereotypical ScaryBlackMan, and armed with even more ClusterFBomb than before. Compare the relatively bland "You want more, huh? Say hi to the people in Jersey for me" to "SAYONARA, fucker! I'm sendin' you back home!"

** Say what you will about Creator/TiffanyGrant's delivery as a whole, but both the writing and the pronunciation of Asuka's GratuitousGerman dialog [[SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage improved vastly in the dub]].

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** The infamous [[spoiler:[[DudeShesLikeInAComa mastur]][[ADateWithRosiePalms bation]]]] scene in ''The End of Evangelion'' is followed by Shinji saying "I'm the lowest" in the Japanese version. [[PrecisionFStrike His line in the dub]] is quite a bit more poignant, also reflective of his mental condition at this point: "I'm so fucked up."

* [[TheHero Touma Kamijou]] from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' calls [[ShockAndAwe Misaka Mikoto]] "biri biri" due to her electrical powers. A literal translation would be "zap zap" so instead the dub has him call her "bug zapper" or just "zapper".

* One of the more bizarre villains in ''LightNovel/{{Dokkoida}}?!'' was Hyacinth, a bondage queen who could make her slave Pierre transform into various space critters via acts of BDSM. In the original Japanese, the joke was that Pierre would ''henshin'' (transform) through ''hentai'' (BDSM). When being told about this ability, the hero Suzuo gets the two meanings confused. The English dub attempted to retain the joke by calling this ability the '''S'''pecial '''M'''orph attack, referring to it as S&M attack for short and allowing Suzuo the same type of mix-up.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* The protagonist of ''LightNovel/KyoKaraMaoh!'' is made fun of for his name, Yuri Shibuya, because of an alternate translation of "Yuri" and the fact Shibuya is a district in Tokyo, creating the joke "Shibuya Yuri, Harajuku Furi". (Literally, Shibuya's at an advantage, Harajuku's at a disadvantage) Rather than use a joke that wouldn't make sense without an explanation, the dub simply changes it to "Yuri is short for urine." He still uses Harajuku Furi as an alias, though.

* The Hungarian dub of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' [[DubNameChange renamed]] Lina Inverse to Verselő Lina, roughly "Rhyming Lina", and accordingly, her episode recaps and previews, as well as her magic spells, are all rendered in verse (Inverse - in verse, get it?). The script also inserts a couple of jokes into scenes where there were none, making up for those that couldn't be (or plainly weren't) translated. Although as the series progressed, a lot of the Woolseyism got toned down, to keep it from becoming an InconsistentDub, the rhyming stayed.

** The line that made TheMovie worth it: "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis YOU'VE ... GOT ... MAIL!!]]"

* When ''Anime/DottoKoniChan'' was brought to Latin America, the local Japanese jokes and double entendre were replaced by [[GagDub allusions to local culture and fads as well as Mexican slang]]. Combine this with a ''[[LargeHam very]]'' [[LargeHam enthusiastic cast]] that was clearly having ''lots'' of fun with this, and the fact that [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the popularity of anime in Latin America]] made several jokes [[LuckyTranslation very easy to localize]], [[RuleOfFunny and it works really well]]. Part of what makes this so notable is the fact in Japan this show was SoOkayItsAverage at best. During the peak of Anime popularity in Latin America, many B-list series were imported because they were much cheaper than massively popular ones, so when they imported this mostly forgotten (by the Japanese) show they used clever dubbing to transform this series into a SleeperHit with cult status among Latin American otakus.