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| 5 | [[quoteright:300:[[Anime/SailorMoon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_makototalents_2.png]]]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:300:Despite the dub, the episode keeps visually referencing Lita's... [[BuxomBeautyStandard talent]].]] |
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| 11 | ->''"Contrary to the common opinion, the average American adaptation of a French play fails not because it deodorizes the original (and so perverts the original and makes it a thing ridiculous), but because it actually transforms the French play into a more immoral document than it was in its original form. True, this process is not intentional, but the result is the same."'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''George Jean Nathan''' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Whether we like it or not, all viewers should be familiar with {{bowdlerization}}, especially when it comes to translating and localizing foreign shows (mostly {{Anime}} from UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}). Thanks to America's [[AnimationAgeGhetto attitude over cartoons being only for kids]] and [[ManChild adult]] [[AnimatedShockComedy kids]] in the cases of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Creator/AdultSwim, and FOX's animation line-up (both the Saturday night line-up and the Sunday night one), anything in anime deemed too mature for the new, younger target {{Demographics}} has to be cut and covered up, especially any sexual {{Subtext}}, {{Double Entendre}}s, and [[NeverSayDie anything concerning violence, grievous bodily harm, or death]]. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | So why is it that so many adaptations seem to contain more blatant {{Subtext}} than the original? |
| 17 | |
| 18 | '''Well, there are several reasons:''' |
| 19 | |
| 20 | * [[AccidentalInnuendo By accident]]: The dubbers just did a bad job and did not adequately cover up the original intent of the material but changed and warped enough circumstances to make it all the weirder--for instance, creating IncestSubtext by trying to turn lovers into close relatives or changing a perverted character's sexually-charged lines, but doing nothing (or next to nothing) to cover his or her actions (sometimes writing them off as something else in a truly piss-poor fashion that makes it funnier than what was originally intended). At the very least, they unintentionally add new {{Unusual Euphemism}}s to the vocabulary of the fanbase. |
| 21 | * Intentional: Just because the original line may be too risque doesn't mean it has to be toned down. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Do not confuse this with {{Dubtitle}}. See SpiceUpTheSubtitles for when lines that are innocuous in the original are made inappropriate. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 30 | * ''Anime/SailorMoon'': |
| 31 | ** The original North American dub is notorious for re-popularizing the UnusualEuphemism of "talent" for "breast size". Arguing over who should play the lead role in their production of "Snow White," Makoto says she should be chosen because of her large boobs. The [=DiC=] dub has her claim instead to "have the most acting experience and talent," but doesn't edit the gesture that makes it ''abundantly'' clear what Lita ([[DubNameChange as Makoto is named in the original dub]]) actually means - nor does it remove the focus on her breasts, the ''boing'' sound effect, or Rei/Raye's reaction shot when Lita repeats her claim a few moments later. |
| 32 | *** The Mexican dub made a similar euphemism, but replaced talent with "experience." However, when she repeats the claim, it was changed to "Having a nice body." |
| 33 | *** In the German version, Makoto says that she should get the role because she is "...a real woman, as you can see," which is arguably not an improvement over the original (just like the English version). |
| 34 | ** Making Mimete's game of Twister a little too much like sex. Not helping is the fact that she's thinking about going after a cute male marathon runner, her leg being in the air, bobbing suggestively as if she's in the throes of gymnastic passion, or the voice actress making Mimete's moans more sexual in the English dub than in in the original Japanese version. Considering that ''Sailor Moon S'' aired on Creator/CartoonNetwork (home of a lot of animated programming for kids that go to places that Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel can't/won't), this probably isn't so much dub text as it is business as usual. |
| 35 | ** Nephrite's reaction upon seeing Sailor Moon transform for the first time: |
| 36 | ---> '''Nephrite:''' I watched while you changed. It was fascinating. |
| 37 | *** The [=DiC=] version kept in "I watched while you changed," but made it the last part of the sentence. The first part in the American dub was something to the extent of "So Sailor Moon is really named Serena." |
| 38 | ** The scene in the S season where Usagi/Serena [[IntoxicationEnsues accidentally got drunk]] at a party and started chattering with the exchange students was changed to her drinking "[[FrothyMugsOfWater too much juice]]" in the dub, but as with the Twister scene, the voice acting made her seem ''more'' drunk than in the original. |
| 39 | ** The English dub infamously tried to [[HideYourLesbians hide Haruka and Michiru's relationship]] by constantly declaring them "cousins" and then [[IncestSubtext not removing any of the romantic imagery]]. |
| 40 | ** Foreign dubs that tried to hide the fact that the character Fish-Eye was a cross dressing gay {{Bishounen}} by turning him into a woman hit a snag in an episode where he pulls off his dress to reveal a very male chest in front of a group of people. Some dubs just played the scene as is, with the female Fish Eye's chest in full view, which meant that the scene could now only be interpreted as featuring a very flat-chested woman with nipples on full display, or casually revealing that she was trans/intersex all along. One English dub edited the scene to remove all the obvious shots of the chest, resulting in a scene where a woman strips and spends the whole scene topless for no reason, her naked breasts just out of frame. |
| 41 | ** In one episode, Usagi farts after eating too many sweet potatoes. The dub changed this to Usagi eating protein bars and gaining weight and cuts out the fart sound effect, but kept Usagi's reaction, which includes her fanning her face. |
| 42 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 43 | ** ''Naruto'' features the infamous line "I'm gonna screw YOU up, Naruto!" |
| 44 | ** And there was another instance in episode 53 of the first anime where Jiraiya was training Naruto (who was just wearing his boxers) and while Naruto was concentrating on his chakra energy Jiraiya stares at him for a bit before saying, "You're quite sexy when you get naked." Even better in the English dub where Jiraiya says almost seductively to Naruto: "Amazing! You know...you have quite a tight sexy little body." |
| 45 | * ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'': |
| 46 | ** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'': The dub said that T.K. and Matt were half-brothers in the third episode, probably an assumption made by the dubbers because the two had different surnames. You might think Matt's parents split up and T.K. was the child of Matt's mother's second marriage, until we later see in a flashback their parents going their separate ways when T.K. was 4 and Matt was 7. While the dub ignored the earlier line and treated them as full siblings moving forward, thanks to the dubbers' mistake, it was now made to look like their mother cheated on Mr. Ishida and T.K. was the product of that affair that Mr. Ishida didn't learn of until later. |
| 47 | ** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': |
| 48 | *** The Kaiser and Daisuke had enough FoeRomanceSubtext, but the Emperor tells Davis how "seeing you squirm is so delicious" and mockingly calls him "pretty boy." |
| 49 | *** Kari refusing to help the Scubamon defeat their evil master makes her look like kind of a bitch, even if they were being forceful about it. In the original version, they were instead trying to make Kari their bride to produce offspring for them, making her objection all the more reasonable. |
| 50 | *** In one earlier episode, Izzy, in the dub only, mentions that his laptop died at night while playing trigonometry trivia. Seeing as this sounds like an intelligent-sounding excuse, one can only wonder what a teenage boy just getting into high school and probably going through puberty would be doing on his laptop at night. |
| 51 | ** In the original Japanese version of ''Anime/DigimonTamers'', all the Digidestined are 10 except for Ryo, who's 14, and TagalongKid Suzie, who's 7. In the dub, however, all of the 10-year-olds were [[AgeLift aged up]] to 12 except for Rika, who gains an additional year and becomes 13. Unfortunately, Rika's ''mother's'' age was given in supplementary to be just 28, and the dubbers gave no indication that this was any different, dropping the age difference between mother and daughter from the already borderline unacceptable-for-a-kids'-show 18 years to [[TeenPregnancy an absolutely scandalous 15.]] |
| 52 | ** There's also a case in ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'', where Izumi/Fairymon has an AssKicksYou attack. Presumably, the dubbers thought the move was a tad risque, so in the English dub, Zoe/Kazemon never [[CallingYourAttacks calls that attack]]. She ''uses'' it, she just never ''calls'' it. (Well, officially. She does taunt her opponent the first time with "How 'bout a little 'love tap'?") It makes it look like the human girl came up with the idea to thrust her butt at the enemy, as opposed to being just part of her Mon alter-ego's SpecialAttack list. (Incidentally, smacking things with her butt never accomplishes much - one time she even hurts herself trying. And yet she keeps doing it on occasion.) |
| 53 | ** Episode 11 of ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' has a scene where Akari, having just broken free of Lillithmon's mind control, swings at her with the Code Crown she was almost about to surrender to the villain. This opens up a small cut along her cheek which bleeds a little, and the fact that she's been caused to bleed causes her to go full RedEyesTakeWarning and combines her henchmon into a super-powered form. In the dub, not only is the blood removed from where Angie strikes Laylamon with the Code Crown, but the cut is as well. However, no attempts were made to change anything else, as the body language involved makes it quite clear what had originally happened. She still snaps, but there's little reason for it in the dub. |
| 54 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh'': |
| 55 | ** While the English dub may be infamous for its {{bowdlerization}}, it does have its moments. |
| 56 | --->'''Téa:''' (with a wink) Florida has the best beaches! Aww man, I think I forgot to pack my bathing suit! |
| 57 | ** In the backstory, an entire village was sacrificed to create the Millennium Items. In the original, the villagers were melted into the gold, but in the dub, it's said that the villagers housed evil spirits (which admittedly do exist in lore), and the Items were forged from those evil spirits. Since Aknadin explains this to a bunch of soldiers right before he brainwashes them, it looks uncomfortably like authority [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman justifying the deaths of innocents]] by [[{{Dehumanization}} dehumanizing them]]. The soldiers yelling at the villagers to show their evil spirits when none exist looks even worse, since it's clear that the villagers didn't make it out alive. |
| 58 | * ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': |
| 59 | ** The implications of Bastion's infamous night with Taniya are even stronger in the dub. Adding lines about having kids, the honeymoon, "We had passion!", and Bastion screaming throughout the night... well, "dueling all night"... |
| 60 | ** TragicMonster Yubel in the original has a case of AmbiguousGenderIdentity: they switch between a male and female voice, use the pronoun [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns “boku”]] and are referred to as both "he" and "she" at different points. In the dub, the male voice was removed and Yubel is all female. But then, in the very final episode, Yubel shows up in a flashback as a human, speaking with a deep, unmistakably ''male'' voice (Creator/MarcThompson, to be precise). The result is that the transformation that was supposed to change Yubel also seemed to have changed their gender as well, suggesting an involuntary sex change. The fact that Yubel was strapped to a table during the "ritual" does ''not'' help. |
| 61 | * ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'': |
| 62 | ** The dub somehow makes Yusei's first duel with Sherry sound even more like a metaphor for sex. |
| 63 | ** The original last line of the first episode was Yusei saying, "Look out Jack Atlus, I'm coming." When it was met with riotous laughter at an early preview, it was quickly changed before the air date. |
| 64 | * In ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] inserted a hell of a lot of innuendo that wasn't there in the Japanese version. Some people even prefer the dub due to the creativity of the ParentalBonus moments. |
| 65 | ** In "Beauty and the Beach", a {{dirty old man}} gets turned into a dirty old man who may or may not be sexually abusing his grandchildren. When he sees Misty in a bikini, his original Japanese line is something to the effect of "Come back in about eight years and we'll have some fun". In the dub, his body language (right down to the blush and lewd grin) stay the same, but the line becomes "[[{{Squick}} You remind me of my granddaughter]]!". |
| 66 | ** Downplayed during the beauty contest in the same episode; Misty's catwalk is accompanied by her whining about how degrading the whole experience is (most likely to cater to the MoralGuardians), but since earlier in the episode she was actually enthusiastic about the idea, it sounds as though this litany of complaints is token and Misty secretly likes the attention. In the original Japanese, she was a ProudBeauty the whole time. |
| 67 | ** In "The Kangaskhan Kid" Tommy's father asks him if he remembers him, [[FanDisservice holding his shirt open]]. In the original he was asking him if he remembers how his mother used to breastfeed him. |
| 68 | *** Speaking of this episode, the infamous ''Manga/TheElectricTaleOfPikachu'' manga has a chapter that is an adaptation of it. In one scene, Tommy starts breatsfeeding on Jessie, causing her to panic and James to angrily chase the two in order to get the kid off her chest. It was changed internationally so Tommy would instead ask Jessie if he could ''ride her pouch'', which becomes pretty suggestive considering where pouches are placed on real-life marsupials [[note]]On the abdomen, near the crotch area[[/note]]. The fact that James also yells "I wanna ride too!" when chasing after them doesn't help. |
| 69 | * In the English dub of ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' when Itsuki explains Sensui's backstory he says that he had been stalking Sensui to get closer to him. There is no such reference in the Japanese version, nor the manga. |
| 70 | * ''Manga/SorcererHunters''. In the original anime, Gateau flirts with Marron a bit. In the ADV dub, well... |
| 71 | -->'''Gateau:''' So, Marron, if we ever wanna, now would be the chance.\ |
| 72 | '''Marron:''' Let's make sure they don't kill him first, then we'll see.\ |
| 73 | '''Gateau:''' Prick tease. |
| 74 | * In ''Manga/GhostHunt'', there is a case involving a game of hide-and-seek. However, one of the children is mute, so he hits a stick against a nearby object to show that he's ready. In the original, Mai makes a comment about how he's hiding in the woods and that he's hitting trees with the stick so that they can find him. In the dub she says, "He's just out there in the woods, beating his stick all day." Yeah. |
| 75 | * The afternoon Creator/{{Toonami}} edit of ''Anime/OutlawStar'' changed the line "she's nuts to get naked" to "she's nuts to get wet", creating an entirely new, much dirtier innuendo. |
| 76 | * The Creator/{{Saban|Entertainment}} and later Creator/{{Funimation}} ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' dubs tended to do this. The most obvious one was the scene where Frieza has the Dragon Balls and says that having the Balls makes him feel like caressing them. Fortunately, it was "fixed" in Funimation's redub of those episodes, though you can't deny the scene isn't nearly as entertaining. |
| 77 | ** In addition, in the dub, Captain Ginyu is sitting in front of the Dragon Balls and says "What lovely balls!". This was never "fixed". |
| 78 | ** This also occasionally happened in the dub for ''Manga/DragonBall''. It's hard to tell how the double entendres came about though, because there's no way Pilaf's line "I can't rule the world with one ball" wasn't intentional. |
| 79 | ** The Polish dub of ''Dragon Ball'' featured some good examples. One being the scene with Yamcha taking a peek at Bulma taking a shower (seen in full nude). The dub suggested Yamcha was scared of SHAMPOO instead of feminine attributes. |
| 80 | *** The Blue Water dub (an English dub showed in English-speaking countries other than the US, Australia, and New Zealand) of ''Dragon Ball'' had this gem from the same scene: |
| 81 | ----> '''Yamcha''': Not Dragon Balls...definitely not Dragon Balls. |
| 82 | ** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler comes BackFromTheDead in one of the movies. While [[NotUsingTheZWord they only call him "The Dictator"]], and [[NoSwastikas his insignia is just an X]], one would expect the dub to downplay how much he's obviously Hitler, but they did the opposite. In the original, when he catches a glimpse of the blond, ubermensch Super Saiyans, "The Dictator" calls them a bunch of poseurs. In the American dub, "The Dictator" actually likes them and seriously considers making them part of his Army. |
| 83 | ** And of course, there's Vegeta's death scene in the Frieza Saga. In the dub, while explaining Frieza's history with the Saiyans, he says that he was forced to serve Frieza under the threat of killing his father and subsequently led astray by Frieza's influence. As he buries Vegeta, Goku talks about how he pities Vegeta after learning what he had been through, rather than expressing his newfound respect for his Saiyan heritage. In short, the dub chose to detail how Frieza affected one individual rather than the Saiyans as a whole. |
| 84 | ** Super Buu's fight with Gohan after absorbing Piccolo and Gotenks. In the dub, Super Buu cruelly uses [[BreakThemByTalking guilt inducing words]] based on the fact he's absorbed Piccolo and Goten, telling Gohan that he let his brother and master down in an attempt to break him mentally as well as physically. In the original, Buu mostly just brags about his new power and how he's overwhelming Gohan with it. He does play mind games with Gohan as well, but to a much lesser extent; taunting Gohan with Piccolo's words and the fact that he's beating Gohan with his own friends' techniques. The dub basically took this aspect of the fight and turned it up. |
| 85 | ** In the Frieza arc, Chi-Chi gets into a huge argument in Capsule Corp over her determination to head over to Namek and bring back Gohan, by herself if need be, when other (saner) cast members try in vain to point out to her that Goku's already there and there's a lot of dangerous aliens (not Namekians) around. When Yajirobe arrives to inform the group that Piccolo, and by extension Kami, revived, Chi-Chi panics. And the reason differs from the original to the dub. In the original version, Chi-Chi is worried that Gohan could turn into a delinquent, which is more of a joke that would make sense in [[JapaneseDelinquents Japanese culture]]. Whereas in the English dub, Chi-Chi (more justifiably) is scared of Piccolo in general and believes that they've lost their marbles if they think that's something to be happy about. Her reaction is heavily implied to be because she, with her own eyes, saw Piccolo ''nearly kill'' her husband on the day of her engagement (which was at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, but still), which is much more understandable why she wouldn't want Gohan anywhere near him. |
| 86 | ** The Ocean Group dub has Vegeta claim that Goku's then-unseen father, Bardock, was "an average fighter, but a brilliant scientist" who created the Power Ball technique, adding another layer to the first Goku vs. Vegeta fight. (In the original, no one person is accredited with creating or discovering the Power Ball, and Bardock was a lower-class warrior.) |
| 87 | ** Speaking of Bardock, his unpleasant qualities were toned down in the Funi dub, presumably to make him easier to accept as a protagonist; he expresses some moral compunction at the beginning over Frieza regularly sending out his team to commit mass murder and undergoes a more obvious HeelFaceTurn over the course of the special. |
| 88 | ** The fat Majin Buu spoke regularly in the original Japanese version. In the English dub, he speaks like a toddler and in third person. |
| 89 | * The ''Manga/IkkiTousen'' manga is translated in America as "Battle Vixens", and is quite liberal with adding a lot of dub text, including people swearing much more than the Japanese version. Fans of the series find these changes hilarious, while detractors of the series hate the changes that add a fair amount of juvenile humor to what could be a deadly serious story. |
| 90 | * ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', not exactly known for its subtlety in the first place, had even more innuendo inserted into the English adaptation of the first volume for no readily apparent reason. |
| 91 | * ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' features a lot of just-plain morally questionable lines in the English dub, such as when France refers to America and England strangling each other as "releasing sexual tensions" and Japan's response to Italy commenting on allegedly shrinking this "thing" during their "getting acquainted" hot spring soak. In the Japanese version, he says, "You now know my secret. I guess I have no choice." The American version: "Japanese people [[GagPenis grow-a]], not [[{{Pun}} show-a]]." |
| 92 | * ''Anime/BattleOfThePlanets'' is best known for being an edited translation of ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman''. However, while it was heavily edited to remove violence and other undesirable aspects, the American-original animated segments with the [[TheScrappy much ridiculed 7-Zark-7]] and his love interest Susan contained plenty parental bonuses and innuendo, such as Zark mentioning Susan's measurements and him becoming flustered and aroused at the sound of her very voice. |
| 93 | * In the ''[[Anime/CardcaptorSakura Cardcaptors]]'' episode "The Show Must Go On", Madison's song still comes off as being about her unrequited love for Sakura, given the lyrics and that it still cuts to Sakura as Madison is singing it at the end, as if the song is about her. In another episode Kero gets drunk from eating Brandy filled chocolates. The Nelvana dub leaves out the fact that the chocolates were boozy and Sakura is simply mad Kero ate her dad's chocolates... [[DrunkOnMilk Except Kero still sounds absolutely wasted, arguably even more than the original]]. |
| 94 | * While ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' never portrays Pipimi and Popuko as anything beyond close friends bordering on PseudoRomanticFriendship, the German dub changes a line about the latter asking Pipimi how much she loves her into how much she'd like to fuck Popuko against a wall. |
| 95 | * In the third episode of ''Anime/MagicalDoremi'', Aiko claims that she can see Doremi's underwear, accompanied by Doremi covering her front in reaction. The dub instead has Mirabelle say that she can see Dorie's epidermis (another word for skin). Her reaction is left in, making it seem as if she used an UnusualEuphemism for the area where Dorie holds herself. |
| 96 | * The first chapter of the ''Manga/TheElusiveSamurai'' portrays [[RulingFamilyMassacre Ashikaga Takauji's killing of the Hojo clan]]. When the narration accounts for their fate of individual members, the English version much more directly implies one of them was [[RapePillageAndBurn sexually assaulted]]. |
| 97 | -->'''Japanese''': The daughter: Kiyoko was looted and murdered.[[labelnote:Raw]]その娘・清子略奪の上惨殺[[/labelnote]]\ |
| 98 | '''English localization''': Attackers violated and murdered Chikaaki's daughter Kiyoko. |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 102 | * ''Film/MysteryMen'': In French, the Furriers were translated into the "Fourreuses", a made-up word that sounds like ''fourrure'' ("fur"). This is a perfectly legitimate translation... in Europe. In Canada, however, the verb "fourrer" (i.e. "stuff" as in food) is commonly used to mean "fuck" ''specifically'' in the sexual sense, with unexpectedly lewd implications for a G-rated movie! |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 105 | * The French dub of ''Series/GoodOmens2019'' made the HomoeroticSubtext between Aziraphale and Crowley even more overt, especially in the bandstand scene where Crowley replies to Aziraphale's insistence that he doesn't even like Crowley with not only "You do!" but also an added "You adore me!", which was not in the original English script. |
| 106 | * In the 18th episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''s final season, Dean responded to Castiel's love confession with "Don't do this" and there's no verbal indication that he may reciprocate Castiel's feelings. In the Spanish dub of the same episode, Dean instead responds to Castiel's love confession with "And I to you", turning the whole thing into an unambiguously mutual declaration of love. Given that this dubbed line doesn't resemble the line it replaced in the slightest and that the cast members have stated that a reciprocal confession from Dean was never scripted in English, one can only assume that either there was ''major'' miscommunication between the English writers and Spanish dubbers or there was a hardcore [[PortmanteauCoupleName Destiel]] shipper on the Spanish translation team. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 110 | * ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': |
| 111 | ** When comparing the original OCG artwork to the censored TCG artwork of "Aquamirror Cycle", the OCG artwork shows Gishki Emilia in pain but having survived the forced ritual summoning events of "Aquamirror Illusion". The TCG version's attempt at downplaying this instead makes it look like she is dead due to the [[DiesWideOpen neutral expression on her face]]. |
| 112 | ** The original artwork of "Arrivalrivals" features Alchemic Magician [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//6/67/Arrivalrivals-LOD2-JP-VG-artwork.png pulling on Slacker Magician's cheek]] in the usual {{Rubberface}} fashion, only to be interrupted by Akashic Magician. The international release [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//3/3e/Arrivalrivals-LOD2-EN-VG-artwork.jpg removed the cheek pinch]]... which also removed the main thing showing that what's going on is slapstick. Instead, you now have Alchemic grabbing Slacker's wrist while she has her mouth wide open in some kind of gasp, complete with a little tear. Add in the fact that it seems to take place between "Xyz Tribalrivals" (which shows Alchemic and Slacker [[FanserviceFauxFight having a pillowfight]]) and "Staring Contest" (which shows Akashic and Alchemic having a glare-off while Slacker sits in the background looking sleepy and confused), and suddenly the whole scene gains an InterruptedIntimacy connotation (with a sidenote of a love triangle) that wasn't really there before. |
| 113 | ** "Tragedy of the Guillotine" depicts a dangerous looking guillotine, which, while not showing any blood or actual decapitation, was deemed too much for the TCG. The redrawn version was renamed to "Tragedy" and instead shows a woman being stalked by a creepy guy in a trenchcoat. The rather [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/e/ea/Tragedy-TF04-EN-VG.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20121012190426 horrific looking art]] and implied sexual assault probably makes the card even more likely to upset MoralGuardians than a guillotine ever would. |
| 114 | ** The OCG artwork for "Foolish Return" shows an arm bursting out of a coffin with a bouquet of flowers, which the TCG version changes so that the arm comes out of the floor instead. This not only fails to hide the card's connection to death (it's an obvious reference to "Foolish Burial" and has a similar graveyard-related effect), but while the original art just implied that someone died, the censored version further implies that said person was [[ConstructiveBodyDisposal murdered and hidden under the floorboards]], ''[[Literature/TheTellTaleHeart Tell-Tale Heart]]''-style. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 118 | * The German version of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' cuts several scenes down [[BannedInChina to fit the country's exacting violence standards]]. One scene shows Ashley cornered by monsters. In the original version, they close in on her and then attack, knocking her down. In the German version, the camera just fades out as they close in on her, staring menacingly at her scantily clad form. Of course, this led to many excitable gamers jumping to [[RapeAsDrama the most obvious conclusion]]. |
| 119 | * The online RPG ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'' seems to have someone in the translation department playing some games. On several occasions, lines are written in such a way as to make characters look foolish, however on two occasions in particular, things just get weird. For instance: "So these machines train these girls to be maidens? How does that work?" - "I'll leave that to your imagination.", and the direct translation of Commander Curtz attempt to be more "human" by addressing a young female character as 'Lumia-chan', turned it into a rather more creepy 'Lumia dear', further worsened by Lumia's worried reaction. |
| 120 | * The localization of ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'' censored out a scene of [[FanDisservice naked dead robot breasts]], and removed some fanservice of the 14-year-old Katrina Gibson by aging her up from fourteen to eighteen, redrawing her to look older and removing some of the edgier bits. However, they did rebel, once - in a scene where Katrina was wearing a towel, the redraw gave her visible nipples. |
| 121 | * The localizations of the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX Rockman X]]'' games have occasional...odd translation choices. Notable instances include Zero yelling "I'll do you first!" to an opponent. |
| 122 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 123 | ** The [=J2E=] fan translation of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has Kain call Rosa "[Cecil's] little whore", making it explicit that he was never in love with Rosa but merely a jealous misogynist who can't stand the thought that his best friend has her and not him. This makes Kain come off as a much darker character, with the original Japanese script and official translations treating Kain's fixation on Rosa more sympathetically. |
| 124 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': |
| 125 | *** When Terra meets Sabin, it's after a boss fight against a martial artist who attacks with two bear minions. She says she mistook Sabin (because of his size) for one of the bears at first, and he takes it in good stride. The SNES translation, possibly due to a misunderstanding due to lack of context, has her mistake him for "[[GymBunny a bodybuilder straight out of the gym]]" and Sabin still playfully refers to himself as a "bear" in inverted commas, making it seem like she thinks he looks gay, and he's happily agreeing. |
| 126 | *** Celes's attempted suicide had to be censored for the SNES version, and is obfuscated with lines about how jumping off the cliffs would allow a person to 'perk up again'. Since none of the scene's blocking, context or sound design is changed, it ends up going from a trope-standard suicide scene to a scene where the normally serious Celes is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness making morbid jokes about her desire to die]], which gives the disturbing impression she's losing her mind. |
| 127 | *** When Locke's girlfriend Rachel dies in an Imperial attack, he talks to an alchemist, who uses special herbs to embalm her corpse perfectly, having her lie in stasis like royalty. The SNES version, hamstrung as it was by its serious NeverSayDie problems, could only let her die if she was brought back to life in the next scene, and so Locke has the alchemist use his herbs to bring her back to life in an ageless, eternal sleep. It reinforces the ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' allusion in a game full of classical theatre references, and seems like a good idea on paper, but ends up turning Locke from a basically sweet guy who just can't move on from his grief into a misogynistic creep keeping a drugged, CameBackWrong woman in his basement without the knowledge of her family and friends, who all think she's still dead. This also makes it worse when he uses the Phoenix esper to bring her back to life - in the original, Phoenix's magicite is cracked, but still has enough power to bring Rachel back to speak to Locke one last time. In the SNES translation, it wakes Rachel from her coma and then she dies for real. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice one, Locke.]] |
| 128 | *** Celes is incredulous after being asked to disguise herself as the opera star Maria, but in the original Japanese it's because she thinks that, as a soldier, there's no way she could [[HoneyTrap seduce a handsome ladykiller]] (with the humour being that she [[AllWomenAreLustful eagerly runs into the dressing room immediately afterwards]]). In English, she complains she's "a general, not some opera floozy!", which gives the scene - and her whole character development from that point - a [[RealWomenDontWearDresses sexist]] vibe not in the original. The original also emphasises that both Celes (and presumably Maria) ''like'' the thought of Setzer kidnapping them, and it's only a problem because the Impresario selfishly wants to keep running his show rather than have his diva elope; in the English the Impresario is more sympathetic and the consent implications are lost, so it comes across more that Setzer's a sexual predator who kidnaps women against their will. |
| 129 | *** When faced with an army of Espers in the Japanese and GBA versions, Kefka reacts with cheerful surprise as he can't wait to kill them all. In the SNES version, he taunts them by saying that he can't wait for them to go against his Magicite army as 'you just might see some familiar faces!'. This turns it from being eager to fight and win, to cruelly taunting bereaved families that he's going to use their own undead family members to kill them. |
| 130 | *** Lakshmi is a sexy Esper whose appearance fascinates Owzer, causing him to commission multiple artists to paint her and never being satisfied with the result. Her costume and special move was toned down in the SNES localisation, but her name was changed to "Starlet", adding a sleazy CastingCouch vibe to Owzer's obsession with getting her picture which wasn't in the original. |
| 131 | *** Gameplay example: in the SNES version, the Death spell was renamed "Doom" due to NeverSayDie. This also meant they couldn't mention it killing anyone in its description. Instead, the description says it ''removes the target's soul'', which is arguably even worse. |
| 132 | ** A case where this is more serious can be found in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance''. The American version removes Cid's alcohol problem, changing him from drunkenly oblivious to "crying in the gutters." The scene still makes sense since Cid's alcoholism was brought on by his inability to get over his wife's death, but it makes his boss look like a [[MeanBoss real asshole]] in the English version for yelling at a grieving man for crying. |
| 133 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': The English dub likes to play up the Aerith/Cloud/Tifa love triangle. For example, when the trio are stranded in the sewers, Tifa pulls Cloud aside and suspiciously asks if anything is going on between him and Aerith, which he denies. In the original Japanese, Tifa was suspicious about why Aerith is helping them for no reward. |
| 134 | * ''Dragon Power'' made only a weak effort to cover up its origins as a ''Franchise/DragonBall'' LicensedGame. Players familiar with ''Dragon Ball'' (which wasn't released in the U.S. until later) can still recognize, for instance, the Turtle Hermit as Master Roshi. In this version, the Hermit insists that Nora (i.e. Bulma) give him her "sandwich," which looks suspiciously like a pair of panties flipped upside down. So, is ''that'' what he calls it? |
| 135 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'': |
| 136 | ** "Just like your Mother, you never want to stop". Said by the main character's father to his son in ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings''. In the original Japanese version, it sounded less like an innuendo and made it clearer he was talking about her mother being a hard worker. |
| 137 | ** A translation error in the original release of the ''VideoGame/Mother3'' FanTranslation essentially took one of Abbey's lines from after Abbot explains where her head injury came from ("There never used to be any creatures like that before that were so hard to describe. These things were all [[BuffySpeak fly-y, mousey, buggy, and bitey]]."), and changed to have her deny his story ("There was no bizarre creature. It didn’t fly. It wasn’t mousey. It wasn’t buggy. It didn’t bite me."), making it look like [[DomesticAbuse he hit her]]. |
| 138 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' added more ShipTease between Ike and Elincia in localization, and toned down Ike's HoYay with Soren. The sequel reversed both of these, [[DubInducedPlotHole leaving a lot of English-speaking players confused.]] |
| 139 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': |
| 140 | ** The DLC was censored for the American release; a shot of a female character (the local HotWitch Tharja) trying on a swimsuit with [[MaleGaze her butt pointed at the camera]] had the butt partially covered with a curtain. "Partially" is the key word here; many have pointed out that they find the censored image ''more'' suggestive, since with the bikini bottom covered up it draws more attention to the part of Tharja's butt that you can see, and makes her look like she's either [[GoingCommando not wearing anything at all down there]] or getting ready to remove what little clothing she's wearing. |
| 141 | ** Chrom's supports with Sumia infamously added a ton of StayInTheKitchen subtext that wasn't in the original Japanese. Changing Bento to pies seemed like a good {{Woolseyism}} at first, pies make a lot more sense for a MedievalEuropeanFantasy than bento does. Unfortunately, most westerners associate pies with outdated housewife stereotypes, and the localization makes this worse by having their LoveConfession center ''entirely'' around pies and cooking, when the Japanese version didn't mention food there. Combined with the localization removing most references to Chrom admiring Sumia for her strength in battle (replaced with [[AllGirlsLikePonies Sumia going on about how much she loves braiding her Pegasus' hair]]), and the support comes off in a very different light than it did originally. |
| 142 | ** An example of the intentional type. In the Japanese version, [[spoiler: Walhart]]'s supports with Morgan if he was their father had him merely somewhat emotionally-distant. In the localization, [[AbusiveParents he's outright physically abusive]], even threatening to ''kill'' Morgan at multiple points. |
| 143 | * When Snake rescues Meryl at the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Meryl says Ocelot tortured her "and things even worse than that", implying she was sexually abused or raped by him. In the original script, she'd said something more neutral along the lines of "and all kinds of things" which didn't carry the same implication, and considering later games would make it explicit that Ocelot is gay, is rather awkward in hindsight. |
| 144 | * Before its release, ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' suffered backlash over the animation of Mr. Game and Watch's forward smash attack, which was inspired by the Game & Watch game ''Fire Attack'', since it depicted a stereotypical Native American (keep in mind that the original minigame was also censored in compilations). At some point before the game was released, they removed the feather on his head... while failing to remove the loincloth, and it now looks like a mad naked man with [[SuddenAnatomy visible genitalia]]. |
| 145 | * In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'', due to Inklings and Octolings not having interacted for years, Pearl is unaware that Marina is an Octoling until later in the game, where Marina's past is revealed. In the localization, Pearl is already aware of Marina being an Octoling, so the scene where Pearl learns about Marina is rewritten to focus more on the latter's background as a former member of the Octarians. |
| 146 | * This is what caused some of the more notorious problems in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM''. In English, Adam Malkovich's constant micromanaging of independent bounty hunter Samus (including the infamous "authorization" system that forces Samus to cross hot areas without shielding, among other problems) make him come off as a glory-seeker on a power trip at best, or creepily mirrors an abusive relationship at worst. In Japanese, Samus is and has always been under Federation military jurisdiction, so at the very least Adam does have legitimate chain of command over her. |
| 147 | * The [=DeJap=] translation of ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' had an originally implied wet dream sequence become a very blatant one, with Arche flat out screaming Cress's name in pleasure in her sleep. There's also the infamous line from Klarth where he muses that Arche probably "fucks like a tiger". |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 151 | * ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Several members of the Remnants of Despair are described as being so obsessed with the deceased [[spoiler:Junko Enoshima]] that they did things like transplanting parts of her body onto themselves. This included one female member who implanted herself with parts of the deceased's reproductive system in an attempt to literally bear her children. This is {{Squick}}y enough on its own, but the translation's vague wording makes it even worse, simply stating that someone "tried to have children with [[spoiler:Junko]]'s dead body", implying an ILoveTheDead scenario. |
| 152 | [[/folder]] |
| 153 | |
| 154 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 155 | * In the Creator/DisneyPlus version of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' episode "Perfect", the vasectomy joke is changed to one about a tooth extraction. Despite this, a scene of a character looking at another's butt shortly after the joke is kept. |
| 156 | * There's an episode of ''{{WesternAnimation/Chowder}}'' in which our title-character [[PottyEmergency really has to pee.]] Many crude but innocent jokes follow. Now, for some reason, when it got dubbed into Hungarian, they translated the "go" part of "go to the toilet" as "elmenni", which means just that (to go [away]). However the correct phrase would have been "kimenni" (to go out), since "elmenni" has another, drastically different meaning in Hungarian: namely, [[DoubleEntendre "to come"]] (yes, the opposite of "go"). The voice actors obviously saw through this blooper, as you can tell by the peculiar way they stress the word. |
| 157 | --> '''Mung''': ''Did you ''COME''?''\ |
| 158 | '''Chowder''': ''No.'' |
| 159 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches'' episode "The Kitchen Boy", Oggy grates up the cockroaches' bottoms into Olivia's pasta dish. The scene of them angrily marching off with their naked butts visible is cut in some broadcasts, leading viewers to believe that he grated them up completely. |
| 160 | * Another example from a Hungarian dub, this time from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow''. "Punchies", the punching game that the characters often engage in to settle minor disputes, as well as just plain old punching is consistently translated as "öklözés" -- fisting. If viewers happen to miss the part when the characters are shown punching each other, and only hear them talking about fisting, what a good fister Mordecai is and how Rigby doesn't like being fisted... it can lead to confused faces. Or not, given the nature of the show. |
| 161 | * The Polish dub of ''[[Franchise/{{Shrek}} Shrek the Halls]]'' replaced the line "a good Christmas goose" with "pokazał jej ptaka" ("[he] showed her a bird"), which sounds quite innocent... until you realize that in Polish "ptak" (a bird) may be interpreted as a euphemism for... [[BiggerIsBetterInBed something else]], especially in context of that scene (Fiona lying in bed). It even caused a protest from two Polish [=MPs=] who claimed that such jokes are unacceptable to be shown on Christmas in a kids' movie. |
| 162 | * In the Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', Krabby Patties are called "crab burgers", which seems OK at first, until you realize Mr. Krabs, one of the main characters, [[UnfortunateImplications is a crab himself]], and that most of the characters on the show are fish themselves. |
| 163 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': |
| 164 | ** In the Swedish dub of the episode "Hit the Diamond," quickly nicknamed "the gayest episode ever" by its fans, the one word description of Ruby and Sapphire's behavior as "flirting" was cut. But there was no way to take out their constant steamy looks and romantic body language that runs throughout the whole episode. |
| 165 | ** It's suspected that the wedding between these two in "Reunited" was preemptively designed to thwart any attempt at this, by having the tomboyish Ruby (and hence the one more likely to be claimed to be male in dubs trying to erase homosexual content) be the one wearing a dress while the more girly Sapphire is in a tux. The hypothetical rewrite would either make "boy" Ruby [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide reveal a sudden love of crossdressing]] or turn Sapphire ''into'' a boy, meaning [[RewatchBonus he was proudly crossdressing every episode before]]. |
| 166 | * In the latter episodes of [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 the first animated series]] of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', Michelangelo's Nunchucks were considered "too violent" by the UK (who also changed the name of the show to ''Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles'' as the word "ninja" had connotations of assassinations and UK censors did not want children to think that killing is cool) and in a severe case of FridgeLogic, Mike's nunchucks were replaced with a grappling hook. Needless to say Leonardo and Raphael were apparently lucky that nobody noticed on how they use bladed weapons. [[note]]This might be something to do with the fact that while ''bladed'' weapons can't be sold to minors under British law, stuff like nunchucks were in a bit of a grey area at the time, and the "DontTryThisAtHome" disclaimer rarely if ever works on teenagers.[[/note]] |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
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