Yu-Gi-Oh!
- The "Shadow Realm", which plays a huge part in the dub, doesn't exist at all in the original version. There were Shadow Games, which could be played in another (unnamed) dimension, and the penalty for losing said game could involve being sent to a prison dimension. These three concepts were combined (rather elegantly it must be said) into the idea of the "Shadow Realm" — a place where two combatants fight a duel and the loser is trapped there forever. The problems with this approach arose when 4Kids implemented Shadow Games where they didn't exist, simply as a replacement for death. In one notable example, a battle involved the contestants being locked in place with spinning "shadow disks" edging closer as life points were lost. If the disk touched them, they'd be "sent to the Shadow Realm". In the original version of this story, the disks were simply buzzsaws that would dismember the loser. In another example, duelists fight on a glass floor at the top of a high-rise building. In the dub, if they lose they'll be sent "plunging to the Shadow Realm." In the original, they simply fell to their death. Strangely the duel in which the loser would be pulled by a heavy anchor to the bottom of the sea was left in uncensored (maybe because in the end nobody died).
- http://www.yu-jyo.net/
showcases all the differences between the original episodes and the versions that 4Kids aired. - In an episode of the VR arc, Seto and Mokuba are tied to crosses in the original. The crosses were edited to become vaguely shaped hunks of rock when the show came to the US.
- In the Rare Hunters Arc, Joey is beaten by a group of duelists and runs off to sulk on the beachside, Tristan shows up and punches him to remind Joey that Serenity needs his support. Instead, 4Kids cuts the whole scene out with only Tristan and Joey appearing out of nowhere with no explanation for where Joey was.
- In any given episode where guns are used, the gun will be edited out, leaving characters (including intimidating guards) pointing their fingers at each other — though that doesn't stop anyone from acting like they're holding instruments of harm. For instance after Bandit Keith loses to Joey he pulls a gun out of his pocket and points it at Pegasus' head, but in the edited 4Kids version he points his finger at his head. And he still talks like he's going to shoot him. They realize that guns can't be deleted during Solomon's flashback in Egypt. Ahmet instead threatens Solomon with a slingshot.
- Apparently, religious references are also off-limits — in the arc Digital Nightmare of the original series, all Bible references, including allusions to The Apocalypse, The Flood, and The Creation, were edited out. In fact, the main antagonist's deck was called the "Seven Days of Creation" in the original, which went missing, yet again, from the dub. The Flood is still none-too-subtly implied when the main antagonist, by name of Noah, uses a card called Shinato's Ark as his Deck Master. Anyone even remotely familiar with the Bible would realize that it was an allusion to Noah's Ark, but — unlike the original — nothing is made explicit.
- Any and all mention of the Yugi/Anzu/Yami Yugi Love Triangle is almost completely excised; the only unambiguous scenes left in involve Rebecca invading Yugi's personal space and visibly irritating Tea, purely for Rule of Funny. Surprisingly, the Joey/Mai Unresolved Sexual Tension is left completely untouched and practically on display for all to see, up to and including the distress Mai's Face–Heel Turn causes and Valon's attempts to Murder the Hypotenuse.
- They cut a reference to Mai having been a casino dealer on a cruise ship prior to playing in the tournament. Let that sink in. They cut a reference to gambling in a show centered on a card game. And yet gambling cards in Joey's deck are perfectly fine.
- They toned down the torture Marik received during his childhood and changed his motivation from avenging his father (he doesn't know he's the one responsible) and freeing his family's destiny from being tied to the Pharaoh to becoming the new Pharaoh of the entire world, making him less sympathetic in the process.
- The dark pasts of Dartz' three henchmen:
- Amelda grew up in a war-torn country and his little brother was eventually killed. The dub changed it to Alister's little brother being captured. Never mind that the dub kept in his ghost comforting Alister later.
- Rafael was stranded on an island due to a shipwreck that also killed his family. The dub changed it so that his family escaped the ship in a life raft and left him behind. After he made it back to civilization, the dub cut out a scene of Rafael visiting his family's graves and instead had him claim that he found his family, but they had forgotten about him and didn't want anything to do with him. Never mind that the dub kept in him later meeting his family's ghosts and they were very happy to see each other.
- After the nun who raised Valon was murdered by some thugs who also burned her church to the ground, Valon angrily killed them in revenge and was arrested for it. The dub cut out the sequence with the nun and instead claimed that Dartz covertly framed Valon for a crime that got him arrested.
- In the original, Yubel gives Professor Viper a false vision of his son still being alive, using it to lead him off the edge of the elevated duel arena he was dueling Judai on to his death, before transporting everyone else to another dimension. Since 4Kids can Never Say "Die", Cobra's death walk was hastily cut out, abruptly jumping from the very start of the false vision straight to the dimension-hopping. Bizarrely, they left in Professor Stein falling to his death in an extremely similar fashion, an event which happened around six episodes previously.
- During Jaden's duel with the Gravekeeper's Chief, the Chief summons Gravekeeper's Assailant. For her first attack, she uses a Flash Step, giving Jaden no time to react. For her second attack, she moves at normal speed, giving Jaden enough time to activate his face down cards and save himself from losing. In the Japanese version, the Chief slaps the Assailant in the face and yells at her for this, saying if she had used a Flash Step like before, he would have won already. The dub cuts out the slap and just has him yelling at her. Jaden's disgust at the Chief's cruelty remains.
- Part of the Society of Light arc revolved around a Kill Sat that the bad guys were planning to use to scour the Earth of all life. The 4Kids dub claimed the satellite fired a brainwashing beam and that the bad guys were planning to use it to take control of the world (which is admittedly more sensible than many examples from the series, since the Big Bad had been mind-controlling people left and right throughout the season), but forgot to edit out the satellite's laser destroying the landscape before the heroes could stop it.
- When Yusei's getting marked as a criminal in that dub, he utters, "Is it supposed to tickle?" Compare the original Japanese scene, where he falls to the floor and starts screaming and writhing in pain. It's also difficult to claim that the change makes Yusei more badass, seeing as how the laser that burns the marker onto Yusei's face in the Japanese version is just changed into a harmless spray for the English dub.
- In Episode 57 of the original Japanese release, Rudger cuts off his left arm (the one with the Signer birthmark), places it in a capsule of preservative liquid, and gives it to his brother Rex. In the dub, Roman does not cut off his arm, and somehow "seals" his birthmark in the capsule.
- In the same episode in the original Japanese release, after being defeated by Yusei, Rudger blows up his prosthetic arm, destroying the bridge they were dueling on and sending Yusei plummeting into a reactor. In the dub, since what happened in the original could be seen as committing suicide, it's the destruction of Roman's Earthbound Immortal Uru that causes the bridge to blow up.
- When Yusei is watching the tapes of children being tortured by Sayer, Jack's assistant kindly points out that the children are not in pain, in fact they are creating the electrical shocks surrounding them. However this does not explain the shown child screaming his head off. Instead of being killed by the shocks, the kids go "missing" in the dub.
- In episode 35, Yusei gets a large shard of glass embedded in his stomach after falling off his Duel Runner. In the dub, however, the shard and blood are edited out and instead of screaming in pain as he does in the original, Yusei says "Ah, my gut!"
- In the original, Carly is thrown out a window and falls several stories before crashing through the roof of another building, which kills her. In the dub she is just shown disappearing into a cloud of smoke and her body is not displayed. However the implication that she died is still there.
- Another, but a rather interesting one — CITV airs Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's over in the UK. For some reason, the scenes in which Jack punches Yusei in episode 43 is cut. Jack grabs Yusei and then it cuts to Jack glaring before going into the next scene. Then a few minutes later, Yusei is on his knees, and around 10 seconds later, he's lying flat on his face. What REALLY makes this jarring though is that Yusei's "Why did you punch me?" line was not cut out. A fight scene edit from a network that also airs shows like Ben 10 and Huntik...
- And there's the duel against Lawton. In the original, Lotten calls off the duel and tries to escape, but Kiryu catches up to him and forces the duel to continue. But since Kiryu's final move involved his monster shooting Lotten in the head (never mind that it was just a hologram), the dub changes this to Kalin catching up to Lawton and arresting him, declaring that he's not going to bother finishing the duel since Lawton was a coward and abandoned it.
- When Yuma goes to the bathroom, Astral, who at this point is ignorant of human society, tries to follow him. Yuma says he might die (of embarrassment) if seen, and Astral takes it literally. The dub has Yuma say he might turn into a gerbil if seen. Astral still takes it literally.
- Giant Killer/Grinder, anyone? (Though his name change manages to redefine questionable, because look how much grinding he does on screen.)
- In the Japanese version, Umimi announces that she's retiring from dueling because she is pregnant. In the dub, Brooke retires because she got a job as a teacher.
Manga-to-Anime Edits
- With Yu-Gi-Oh!, 4kids didn't start the Bowdlerization. Both original Japanese-dubbed anime adaptations of the manga are themselves Bowdlerized. There's less violence and Mind Rape compared to the manga, in part because the second series skips the first 60 or so chapters (the story before Duelist Kingdom), but even what did get adapted was toned down a bit (like Marik's father's death being slightly less bloody in the anime).
- The whole franchise as we know it, even before 4Kids gets involved, is majorly toned down from the original manga. Yami Yugi was a character more like The Spectre. The bad guy of the week would end up doing something despicable — actually despicable, not "being arrogant about being good at a children's card game" despicable — and finally Yami Yugi would come out and challenge him. A Shadow Game could be anything a Millennium Item holder challenges you to, and the challenger risks his life while the challenged risks suffering the "Penalty Game" that follows — a curse placed by the challenger.note Even with guns and without the Shadow Realm, the Yu-Gi-Oh you know is as far removed from the early manga as any example of In Name Only, if not more.
- There was some bowdlerization in between the original Japanese Duel Monsters and GX. In duels, the various gruesome ways monsters were destroyed (slashed, impaled, eaten, etc.), were generally replaced with an attack causing a monster to explode.
