History Woolseyism / ANIME

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Works with their own page:
* ''Woolseyism/DragonBallZ''
* ''Woolseyism/YuGiOh''
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[[folder:A - C]]
* In ''Manga/AshitaNoJoe'', the bantamweight champion Jose Mendoza, hailing from Mexico, speaks English pretty much every time he's heard. In the Italian dub of the anime, all his English phrases are rended in Spanish.
* The original ''Tetsuwan Atomu'' (''Anime/AstroBoy'') intro was instrumental. When NBC dubbed the show for their English audience, lyrics were added, sung by a children's chorus. The Japanese producers were so impressed, the following season a similar intro was created for Japanese audiences. This started the trend of animes featuring songs in their intros.
* In ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'' Irina teaches the students English in the Japanese version, complete with a discussion of how a native-English speaker viewers a native-Japanese speaker's use of L and R. In the dub, she instead teaches grammar and how assassins use social skills, with the L and R lesson converted into one about icebreakers.
* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'':
** 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.
** In the Korean dub of ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'', Osaka (named after a major Japanese port city whose population is stereotyped as hicks with a distinct "country" accent) is now named Busan (a major Korean port city whose population is stereotyped as hicks with a distinct "country" accent). She also speaks in the distinct Busan (Kyongsang-do) dialect.
** In a late chapter of the manga, [[GenkiGirl Tomo]] is testing [[TeenGenius Chiyo]] with some really bad brainteasers. In comes Osaka, the {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, who thinks out of the box and nails every one. As the translation notes mention, these were extremely hard to translate - a few required Woolseyism to work in English. For example, "What bird gets in trouble with the police? / ''Sagi''" (where the answer translates as both "heron" and "fraud") becomes "There are five apples on a table. You take away two. How many have you got? / Two." However, they left one alone that worked in both languages: "A truck carrying pumpkins, eggplants and tomatoes approaches a sharp curve, what drops? / The speed" remains. "If ''nihongo'' (the Japanese language) is Japanese, what is ''eigo'' (the English language)?" changed. (The answer is "Japanese" - the word ''eigo'' is Japanese, as are ''furansu-go'' (français), ''doitsu-go'' (Deutsch), ''supein-go'' (español)...
*** The English dubs took a different route - they kept the same answers, but altered them mostly into puns. It doesn't always work. "What fruit do you eat in the summertime?" In Japanese: Persimmon (kaki) sounds like Summer (kaki). In English, "Persimmon, it's fer swimmin'!" "Who's always busting up cars?" In Japanese, "haisha" is both "dentist" and "smashed car". In English, someone who bangs up a car is a dent-ist. "What kind of bird doesn't get along with police?" In Japanese, as mentioned before, "sagi" is both "Heron" and "fraud". In English, "A rook", referring to both a crow and a card sharp (not to mention its similarity to the word crook). "Who built Osaka Castle?" In Japanese, the carpenter; in English, the mason. The Japanese/English and the truck riddles are unchanged.
** [[BeachEpisode Another episode]] has Osaka pondering the nature of hemorrhoids. In Japanese, she asks whether it's spelled as "ji" or as "chi" with a tenten (which sounds almost exactly like "ji"). In the English manga, she instead asks whether she would look under H (for hemmorhoids) or R (for 'roids) in a dictionary. The anime, however, left the entire conversation untouched.
*** The anime ''does'' leave in some visual aides though, so that the viewers won't be ''completely'' confused.
** The dub also evidently has Osaka assume Chiyo-dad to be UsefulNotes/BillClinton instead of former prime Yoshirō Mori. Either way... it's an [[EpicFail epically-failed spot check]] as there's no way that cat looks like ''any'' politician. One element of the joke falls flat though: Chiyo-dad took offense to being compared to Mori, who was widely disliked and best remembered for his numerous gaffes, while Clinton was a rather popular president during and after his tenure; a better comparison nowadays would be to UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, who was also gaffe-heavy and left office as one of the worst-regarded presidents to date.
* ''Anime/BeastSaga:'' Ruri-Saizen tends to translate the animal puns into English quite well. Expect to hear stuff like "What the Beast", "What the Shellfish", and "[=UnBearable=]".
* Gin Ichimaru of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' 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.
** Dondochakka, also from the same show, adds "de yansu" (dont'cha know) at the end of his sentences. Since this also cannot be accurately replicated in the dub, they gave him a stereotypical Bronx accent and translated the phrase to "Ya know what I'm talkin' about?"
** Calling the Shinigami "soul reapers" was probably one of the highlights of the English dub. Tite Kubo (''Bleach''[='s=] author) himself has said that "soul reaper" is closer to what he intended them to be than "death god", which is the literal translation of ''shinigami''.
** Yachiru calling Kenpachi "Kenny" instead of "Ken-chan" is just perfect.
* ''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]].
* In ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'', the kids agree to name the giant robot "Zearth", a play off the Japanese pronunciation of "The Earth". The official English translation explains the name by instead invoking XtremeKoolLetterz.
** Near the end of the manga, Ushiro, who usually uses rough speech and calls himself "[[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns ore]]", switches to "boku" when talking to Waku's parents, an unusual show of politeness that Machi teases him about after they leave. In the English localization, he instead calls Waku's father "sir," thus resulting in Machi calling Ushiro "sir."
* ''Anime/BurstAngel'' has Jo in the Japanese original come up at one point with a LineOfSightName when interrogated, "Jo Kareraisu" (she was eating curry rice at the time). The English dub changes it to "[[YourMom Jo Mama]]".
* ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'':
** The names in many dubs were replaced with more local names, they stuck, and to this date, Tsubasa Ohzora and Genzou Wakabayashi are officially known in Latin America and Europe as Oliver Atom and Benji Price. They also had every single name changed from Japanese to Western. Although this might look rather odd being everybody from Japan, the names stuck, and to this day, none of the old fans knows who are Tsubasa Ohzora, Genzo Wakabayashi nor Kojiro Hyuga, but everybody knows who are Oliver Atton, Benji Price (Thomas Prince in France) and Steve Hyuga (Latin America) or Mark Lenders (Europe).
** The re-dubbing made it as Oliver Tsubasa, which sounded pretty badass, too.
** This situation was also found in Hong Kong, but a smaller range of characters were renamed. In the three names mentioned above, Hyuga was kept, Genzo Wakabayashi was renamed Lam Yuen-sarm by dropping the kanji of "waka" and pronounce the rest of the name in Cantonese. Tsubasa was a more extreme example: he was called Dari Chi-wai, nobody know how that name came from, and it ''stuck''.
** Dai Chi-wai may be named after the actor working for TVB (the TV channel that dubbed the anime) who also belonged to the HK Stars Soccer Team. Also Misaki Taro was changed to Mak Tairoi with only the 'ta' kept, probably in part because one of the Kanji in the surname is pretty much Japanese exclusive.
** Same in the Arab world. Everyone knows Captain Majid, few people know it's really called ''Captain Tsubasa''.
* An interesting (and oh so very famous) Woolseyism in the Brazilian version of ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura'': "Aiaiai, Yukito!". Explaining - in the original version, Sakura always calls Yukito "Yukito-san". To help with the {{Lip Lock}}ing, the writers made Sakura say the quoted phrase; it doesn't have a direct translation, it's just a dreamy way to refer to him (something like "OMG Yukito!", but not that intense). They even made a joke, later in the series, in which she literally refers to him by that, [[HilarityEnsues as if "Aiaiai" was a part of his name]]. In one way or another the fandom fell in love with it, and it became Sakura's catchphrase in Brazil. In fact, many fans get disappointed when, by watching the subbed version, they see that it has no Japanese equivalent.
* [[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".
* When ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'' was translated and localized, the staff researched and added 1920s slang to the dialogue. (The setting was America during the Roaring Twenties). To most viewers, it went pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, the research was a bit too good, and sometimes ending up in the "HaveAGayOldTime" territory. For example, the dub used the word "bimbo" to mean a tough male (as per correct 1920s usage).
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** In episode 9, Milly ({{Cosplay}}ing as a CatGirl) greets Kallen with "Good morning-[[VerbalTic meow]]". The English dub changed this to "Good meowning". Later that same scene Lelouch says that Kallen doesn't need a costume; in the original he says it's because she's already wearing a mask, while in the dub he says she's already catty enough.
** Two Words: [[TotallyRadical Badass mother]].
** Then we also have the infamous "[[spoiler:Euphinator]]" incident near the end of the first season, where Lelouch says the wrong sentence to the wrong person at the wrong time. The English dub makes it so that he still makes the mistake, but changes the actual sentence into something that a person might actually say in that situation. Admittedly, this might qualify or not depending on exactly which translation from the Japanese is used.
** In the penultimate episode, [[spoiler:Lelouch uses TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat against his brother Schneizel, which drew complaints for the fact that Schneizel is very intelligent and wouldn't fall for it the way PsychopathicManchild Mao did. Compared to how the fansubbers initially translated this part, the dub seems to make it a bit more believable by making Lelouch's speech more vague, having him ask more questions, and removing a portion where he anticipates Schneizel's reaction and interrupts in '''precisely''' the right moment with precisely the right response.]]
** In "Nunnally Held Hostage", the English dub changed Rivalz's complaint about Suzaku being "clueless" to "Don't give me your [[{{Wangst}} emo routine]]!" For anyone who's seen countless complaints from anime fans about characters (Suzaku included) being too emo, the English line is ''hilarious''. Particularly because '''a)''' [[Creator/YuriLowenthal Suzaku's English voice actor]] also voices [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Sasuke]], one of the Emo Kings of Anime, and '''b)''' Suzaku responds to this remark with complete befuddlement, saying only, "Emo?" c) The acting - Creator/BrianBeacock's ''perfect'' delivery of the line - the joke is that Rivalz is the one being wangsty here (he's freaking out because his crush is on a blind date) - and Creator/JohnnyYongBosch's delivery of Lelouch's reply.
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[[folder:D - F]]
* The first couple of episodes of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' are full of misleading information[[note]]Although much of it can be blamed on the fact that a lot of Contractors are lying pricks.[[/note]], some of which gives the impression that Creator/StudioBONES changed their mind about how the setting worked halfway in. Thus, the English dub switched several of Jean's lines to be more in line with how events are portrayed in the rest of the series, made some of Hei's behavior a bit clearer, and went the PragmaticAdaptation route with Mao's [[NarmCharm incredibly-stupid-but-awesome]] line about Hei's BadassLongcoat being bulletproof ''only when he wears it'' by replacing it with one that was just as awesome and ''not'' totally dependent on the RuleOfCool: "Hei doesn't wear that coat as a fashion statement." *beat* "It's bulletproof." *CurbStompBattle*
* In Spain THE example of this trope would be ''Manga/DashKappei'', known there as "Chicho Terremoto". The characters all have Spaniard names and they explicitely say they live in Spain. And even though there were clear Japanese customs (like eating using chop sticks and having Japanese characters written all over the place), the script adaptation was so thorough [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief it was actually believable]]... and damned straight hilarious. Some of the catch phrases used in the series, like Kappei's/Chicho's trademark "¡Tres puntos, colega!" ("Three points, bro!"), became extremely popular in Spain during the early and mid 90's.
** Why the dub turned out like that is understandable: the dubbing studio got an Italian-dubbed version, with some Italian names and some English sounding names (for example, the main character "Kappei Sakamoto" was renamed "Gigi Sullivan"), and many efforts to set it in [[CanadaDoesNotExist definitely not Japan]], at a time in which there was no way to check what the show was originally like. No wonder they chose the "to Hell with it" route and made an almost new Spanish dub. For example, the above mentioned Kappei ended up with the unmistakably Spanish name "Chicho López".
* ''Anime/DeadLeaves''. The Japanese version is sort of short on humor, making it more of a strange action movie; however, the English dub has [[RapidFireComedy about three times as much dialogue]], most of which is [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments side-splittingly hilarious.]]
* Ah, ''Manga/DeathNote''. A story so intricate that it leaves very little room for changes of any kind... and yet, this little gem somehow snuck in:
--> '''Misa:''' I would never dream of living in a world without Light!\\
'''L:''' Yes, that would be dark.
* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' has a few in the English dub.
** "June Bride": the bride is told that her favourite drink (lemon tea) is for kids, and that it'll "rot her teeth". In addition, her childhood friend used to give her tea from a candy shop his parents ran, which is part of the reason she still drinks it into adulthood. Because kids almost never drink tea in Western countries (even ones that're probably loaded with sweeteners and sugar like the tea is), they changed the drink to "lemon punch". Punch is definitely something kids are more likely to drink in the West, ''and'' they're pretty sugary so the point about rotting her teeth still gets across; it's a common phrase parents and dentists use to get kids to not drink sugary drinks.
** In one case, a person using Ran as her alibi is surprised that her father is the famous detective Kogoro Mouri.[[note]]It's actually highly possible that she didn't know - Ran looks almost ''nothing'' like her father.[[/note]] "Mouri" was changed to "Moore" in the English dub. Both aren't uncommon surnames, so viewers can readily accept that she didn't think they were related.
** "Billionaire Birthday Blues": Moore sees the first victim with his head in the fountain. In the subtitles, he says "This is no time to be sleeping" but in the dub, wonders if he's feeling alright because, well... if you saw that scene, would you think someone's sleeping?
** Another line was altered in the television statement murder case. Kogoro mentions that certain phone lines can be easily intercepted and picked up, and gives an example of how an adulterer could be caught by pretending to organise a date with a mistress. In the sub, he says that he and his wife are "Separated", whereas in the dub, he says "The wife is out with the kids" - which is ''much'' more provocative. The next episode also takes that line out of context - and it keeps the awkwardness of Ran and her mother seeing it on television intact.
* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
** Tailmon was renamed Gatomon, because Tailmon is a Digimon cat and "gato" is Spanish for "cat".
*** Specifically, a male cat (a female cat is "gata"). The script writers thought she was a male at first, but found out her true gender in time to change the pronouns, but kept the name.
** In the English dub, Chichos, the little Mexican girl who has a crush on Ken in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' became Rosa. "Chichos" means "love handles" in Spanish and also sounds awkwardly close to "chicos", which means "boys" in Spanish. And there's the fact that Rosa is actually a girl's name in Mexico and other places.
*** Funnily enough, the Spanish dub keeps her name as Chichos.
** The line that made TheMovie worth it: "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis YOU'VE ... GOT ... MAIL!!]]"
** There were also plenty of good wisecracks in ''Digimon'''s dubs that were perfectly in-character and well-timed. For example, pretty much ''anything'' Etemon, Myotismon (originally Vamdemon), Puppetmon (originally Pinnochimon), and Piedmon said in the dub just seemed to ''work'' for their characters. It certainly helps that Creator/RichardEpcar was the voice of Etemon and Myotismon.
** This was the same company that did the widely-loved GagDub ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats''.
** A couple more gems: The ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' dub put one in. When Touma introduces himself and lists some of his achievements, Masaru calls him Tonma, which is a Japanese pun insulting him. No way ''that'' would work in English...instead Marcus calls him "Nerdstein"...which is a pun off of his last name, "Norstein". It ''works''!
** There was some LullDestruction in ''Adventure 02'' that was a bit funny; even added a BrickJoke. Early in one episode, the principal says, "Would the person who put the Jelly Donuts in the swimming pool please report to the office?" Then later in the episode, some kids run by Kari and say, "...and then I put the Jelly Donuts in the swimming pool."
** A long-standing point of some uncertainty in the fandom is that the ''Tamers'' series treats Adventure as part of its internal fiction. The english dub served to make this facet less ambiguous, via bits like Kazu namedropping Yolei.
** In Digimon Adventure Tri: Loss, there was a long sequence where all the digidestined were separated for a few minutes by an attack that transported them to different parts of the digital world. In the original Japanese, the scenes showing where everyone ended up were mostly just still, silent images with not much happening in the, except for one part where Agumon, Gomamon, Koushirou, and Yamato stood on train tracks and watched silently as a train almost ran them over. The characters were brought back together by some convenient portals a few seconds later, and the whole sequences seemed very boring and pointless. The English dub, on the other hand, added dialogue for the separated characters, creating banter between characters that normally don't get to interact much. The train scene was especially improved, since now instead of watching silently for a good thirty seconds as a train ran them down, Agumon and Gomamon argue about the train being a mirage the whole time.
* 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.
* 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 show -By the Japenese- they used clever dubbing to transform this series into a SleeperHit with cult status among latin american otakus.
* ''Anime/DuelMasters'' was seen as little more then a ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' rip-off when it premiered, so in the U.S. it was given a GagDub overhaul with tons of BreakingTheFourthWall humor and Lampshading all the cliches.
* ''Anime/ExcelSaga'':
** When ADV asked about how the English script changed some of the jokes to things more familiar to a western audience, Creator/ShinichiWatanabe stated something to the effect of: "I don't care, as long as it still makes people laugh."
** ADV gets '''extra''' props for not only preserving nearly '''all''' the jokes, but adding in '''new''' jokes where the joke is in the subtitled version, and its punchline is in the '''dub''' and ''vice-versa'', acting as a little bonus for people who take the time to watch in both forms. They even went one better with the dub of Puni-Puni-Poemii!
** [[Manga/ExcelSaga The manga's English translation]] include an encyclopedia-like appendix at the end of each volume explaining the translation changes, the meanings and contexts of the original jokes, and why the translators weren't sure these would work for Western audiences. Overlaps with CulturalTranslation, as many were pop-culture references or ended up as pop-culture references.
** The Italian dub gets everything right too. Along with jokes and puns being adapted in the correct way, some references were rewrote for the Italian audience: for example, when Excel is playing baseball against the team of monkeys, she starts singing the Italian opening for the ''Goku no Daiboken'' anime. Also, the Excel Girls, who in the original version are named after Yumiko Kobayashi and Mikako Takahashi (the singers of the show's opening), in the Italian dub are instead named after Federica De Bortoli and Perla Liberatori, Excel and Hyatt's Italian voice actresses.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** The Funimation dub takes its liberties with gags that either don't translate well from Japanese or would otherwise sound fairly awkward if translated word-for-word.
** Lucy often shuts herself inside Horologium, a talking clock, who is soundproof from the inside out, requiring Horologium to relay her messages to those outside and ending them with "...is what she says." The dub takes this one step further by having Horologium mention ''how'' Lucy says what she does, such as "...she yells furiously" or "...she asks tearfully."
** Cancer has this tendency to end his sentences with "-ebi" (which means "shrimp", despite the fact that he's supposed to be a crab), which completely catches Happy off guard when he first expects Cancer to say "-kani" (which means "crab"). In the Funimation dub, Cancer ends all of his sentences with the word "baby" instead, which ruins Happy's image of him (that and the fact that he didn't expect such a badass-looking guy to be some lame hairstyler). The French dub stuck close to Japanese with Cancer finishing all his sentences with "homard" (lobster).
** At one point, Natsu and Happy are [[ItMakesSenseInContext pretending to be ninjas]], and the common anime way to do that is to [[VerbalTic add "nin" to the end of sentences]]. The dub has them adopt bad Japanese accents.
** Juvia's ThirdPersonPerson characteristics are dropped virtually in their entirety, since they have a completely different connotation in America (where it usually portrays someone as self-centered and arrogant) than it does in Japan (where it signifies youth and/or immaturity). She also drops the "-sama" she adds to Gray's name in the original Japanese version, instead calling him things like "my love" and "my dear". Somewhat hilariously, Gray takes absolutely no notice of her terms of endearment whatsoever.
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'':
** The English title is itself an example of a pragmatic translation. The original Japanese title, ''Hokuto no Ken'', literally translates to the "Fist of the Big Dipper", which doesn't exactly carry the same connotation (''Hokuto'', the Japanese name of the Big Dipper, means the "Northern Ladle"). Since the Big Dipper asterism is often used to locate the North Star in the sky, the title ''Fist of the North Star'' is used in its place in order to convey a similar meaning, while maintaining its link with the Big Dipper.
** The rival style of ''Hokuto Shinken'' is known in Japanese as ''Nanto Seiken'', which is named after after the "Southern Ladle", a Chinese asterism equivalent to the Milk Dipper in the west. Most English adaptations localize its name as the "Sacred Fist of the South Star", contrasting how ''Hokuto Shinken'' is known as the "Divine Fist of the North Star" in English translations. However, other translations take it further by localizing its name as the "Sacred Fist of the Southern Cross", after an actual constellation. Its fitting, since the name of Shin's city (the first ''Nanto Seiken'' master to appear in the story) is "Southern Cross Town", and the symbol of ''Nanto Seiken'' itself is called the "Bloody Cross".
* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'':
** In the Japanese version, Kurz Weber is quite foul-mouthed. His English voice actor, Creator/VicMignogna, prefers not to swear unless absolutely necessary, and asked if he could tone down the dialog as they went. The guys in charge essentially said "As long as it works"; Vic responded by giving Kurz more jokes and witticisms, which do indeed "work" with his fast-talking TheCasanova[=/=]HandsomeLech personality.
** The Rugby episode from ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. Whole quotes are ripped from ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' (the Japanese version may have come from an adaptation/translation for FMJ but the English dub used the source material)
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** In the English manga, Ling's name is [[SpellMyNameWithAnS changed]] to Lin. So in [[spoiler:the memorable AscendedMeme moment of calling the second Greed "Greedling," the nickname of the second Greed is changed to "[[SlasherSmile Grin]]."]]
** Also in the English manga, Envy greets Dr. Marcoh with a [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny "What's up, Doc?"]]
** The very title. 鋼 literally just means "steel," but "The Steel Alchemist" doesn't have much of a ring to it in English.
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[[folder:G - I]]
* One of the best-known but least-recognized Woolseyisms of all time: the title of ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''. The original Japanese name is ''Kokaku Kidotai'' which translates literally to "''Mobile Armored Riot Police''". Not even the most ardent fans argue that the international title is not vastly superior and more fitting. It was Woolseyed by WordOfGod, as the original Japanese printings used it as an English subtitle.
* ''Anime/GhostStories'' was originally a fairly serious anime (with only some occasional humor) that pretty much tanked in Japan, while in the U.S. it was completely overhauled into a GagDub with tons of irreverent humor and BreakingTheFourthWall jokes and was a huge hit. Some have commented that it has so little in common with the original that it feels like an officially licensed "Abridged" series, which certainly made the dub controversial when it first premiered, but [[VindicatedByHistory it's now considered one of the best English dubs of all time]] by many Anime fans and the changes were even approved by the original Japanese licensor-Aniplex.
* The translation of the ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' manga, by Viz, some of the jokes (particularly puns) get new translations that fit. At other times, the translations instead explain sayings and puns that are integral to the plot. Of course, since even in the original the main characters had MediumAwareness and NoFourthWall, the translation will also include a LampshadeHanging here and there about the original version and how some things just can't translate well or at all (producing new jokes in the process).
* In the CombiningMecha anime ''Anime/GoLion'', one of the five founding members of the FiveManBand was a SacrificialLamb, killed off in the sixth episode, his position on the team filled in by TheChick. Sometime later, his brother showed up for a few episodes before commiting a HeroicSacrifice in the GrandFinale. When World Events Productions imported the show to America as ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'', it had a strict NeverSayDie policy. So in ''Voltron'', the [[CompositeCharacter two brothers were merged into one character]], Sven, a founding member who was "seriously injured" in the sixth episode, came back sometime later, played a key role in the finale, and survived. The result was an EnsembleDarkhorse, so popular among fans that when ''Voltron'' was renewed for a PostScriptSeason, Sven turned up in a quarter of the remaining episodes.
* In ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'':
** One character, Tomoko, has the nasty nickname Toroko, referencing her ditziness and clutziness. This is adapted as "Slomoko" in the translation. The Italian dubbers adapted that as "Tontako", which comes from "tonta" that means dumb or slow-witted.
** There were massive variations between the dub and the sub, to such a great an extent that some characters had wholly different personalities and mannerisms depending on the translation.
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
** The title character starts a club called 'Sekai o Ōini Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan' (Haruhi Suzumiya's brigade which will greatly enliven the world), or SOS Brigade. In the English dub, this became the 'Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya's Brigade, a name which manages to get the same point across while maintaining the [[FunWithAcronyms silly acronym]].
** An alternate translation is "'''S'''ave The World By '''O'''verloading It With Fun: '''S'''uzumiya Haruhi's '''Brigade'''", which was originally made up by the fans but then adopted as official by the translated Light Novels.
** Also, Kyon's "Supersize me!" comment about future Mikuru's breasts was not in the original Japanese dialog; it was an 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.
*** The line was actually translated the same way in a fansub that predates the dub by a few years.
** Don't forget the opening credits for "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina." In the original, Kyon is credited as doing "Other Menial Tasks," but the dub gave him a different title. What's a funnier and sadder name for his position? [[spoiler:Chore Boy]].
** There was a cool Woolseyism in the official Russian dub, namely, the episode zero, which was a parody of low-quality fanmade movies. The original opening song of this episode featured a line of heavily accented GratuitousEnglish "Come on, let's dance". The Russian dub also featured this line, with Russian accent as heavy as the original Japanese one.
** In the first chronological episode, after Kunikida drops his line of Kyon liking weird girls, the original Japanese is Kyon warning Kunikida not to say things to cause misunderstanding. The English dub had Kyon sarcastically telling him to speak louder so everyone can hear him. Fits his DeadpanSnarker attitude well.
** In ''Manga/HaruhiChan'', at the end of episode 2, Kyon says "Yasu is the culprit". This is a ShoutOut to ''Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken'' (''The Case of the Portopia Serial Killer''), an old mystery game that is popular in Japan but little known elsewhere. This made some viewers outside of Japan confused. The English dub replaces the line with "TheButlerDidIt".
* The original introduction of Anderson in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' TV has Alucard simply call him a pervert. The dub, on the other hand, has him bring in a conflict from the original otherwise absent from this version: "You ''Catholic!''"
* The Mexican dub of ''Manga/InuYasha'' has a local Japanese joke becoming Shippo asking Inuyasha "¿Me entendiste inutil?" (Do you understand me idiot?) and Inuyasha calling him "rata de dos patas" (two-legged rat), in allusion to a famous song by Mexican ranchera singer Paquita la del Barrio.
** An early episode of the English dub has Inuyasha tell [[BrattyHalfPint Shippo]] "[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Laugh it up, fuzzball!]]"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:J - L]]
* One of the main protagonists of [[Manga/SteelBallRun Part 7]] of ''Franchise/JojosBizarreAdventure'' is Gyro. In Italian, a person would pronounce that "Ghiro", meaning dormouse. Solution? Write it as J.Lo (Pronounced fairly close to the original "Gyro" in Italian.) The fact that it's also an Araki-style music ShoutOut (to Jennifer Lopez) is just icing on the cake.
** In [[Manga/StardustCrusaders Part 3]], a minor antagonist has the [[MusicalThemeNaming Musical Theme Name]] of Captain Tennille. For the AnimatedAdaptation, the official subtitles on Crunchyroll had to change his name for legal reasons, and went with Captain Dragon; this retains the original reference, as the Captain's real name is Daryl Dragon.
** Many English scripts for the series, including those used in the video game ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle'', changed character names to avoid issues with copyrights, but at the same time manage to maintain the MusicalThemeNaming the series is well known for. In some cases, these alternate, lawyer-friendly names came directly from author Hirohiko Araki himself; one such example is the Part 3 villain J. Geil, who was renamed "Centerfold" in English adaptations, which was the title of a [[Music/TheJGeilsBand J. Geils Band]] song.
*** Another fine example comes from ''All-Star Battle'', where [[Manga/DiamondIsUnbreakable Josuke Higashikata]] (Part 4)'s Stand was changed from [[Music/WishYouWereHere Crazy Diamond]] to Shining Diamond, preserving the Music/PinkFloyd reference and avoiding any legal entanglements.
* ''Anime/{{Keijo}}'':
** In the Keijo universe, girls fight using their busts and butts. In Episode 5, one girl unleashes an attack which in the original Japanese was called called "Shoryupai" (Rising Dragon Boobs), a clear reference to Street Fighter's Shoryuken (Rising Dragon Punch). HorribleSubs translated this as "Shoryucans", cans being a slang term for boobs.
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'':
** In the anime, when Siegfried makes his appearance, Honoka and Apachai mistake his name for a Coke float. The English dub changes this to them getting him mixed up with {{Stage Magician}}s Siegfried and Roy.
** Also, at one point Niijima offers Kenichi some advice, leaving with the [[StrangeSalute Vulcan salute]]. Kenichi, baffled, copies the motion, but doesn't comment on it. In the English dub, he mockingly calls him Dr. Spock.
* The English dub of ''Anime/KillLaKill'' translates Sanageyama's bragging about his exceptional eyesight as, "I've got special eyes, remember?", a reference to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9YBwa0O1Zc this famous 1-800 CONTACTS commercial.]]
** Later, in episode 17, Mako tells the others, "Have fun storming the stadium!" This is almost a direct quote from ''Film/ThePrincessBride,'' where Miracle Max yells at the heroes, "Have fun storming the castle!"
* The ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' [[Anime/KirbyOfTheStars anime]], where Customer Service of the Holy Nightmare Corporation is changed from a polite and humble Japanese salesman to a [[HonestJohnsDealership shady used car salesman-style merchant]].
** There's another pretty good one in the ''Kirby'' anime, where the Holy Nightmare Corporation is renamed "[=NightMare=] Enterprises" so that it abbreviates to "NME".
** Creator/EricStuart's decision to use a Hispanic accent for Meta Knight as a ''Franchise/{{Zorro}}'' shout-out was also a good one.
* All dubs of ''Manga/KOn'' translate the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXKJa-NQsUU Untan!]]" scene with equally cute noises. All of 'em... except the French dub, whose translation team looked at the animation and had [[TorosYFlamenco another idea in mind]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAFcox4tvy4#t=1m42s They ran with it.]]
* 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.
* 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 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!"
* ''Anime/LuckyStar'':
** The dub managed to add an allusion familiar to Western viewers. In [[ShowWithinAShow Lucky Channel]] episode 9, Akira Kogami told Creator/MinoruShiraishi that he sounded like a "nerdy turtle". That's because Creator/SamRiegel, Minoru's voice actor, plays Donatello in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003''.
** There's also the discussion about whether guys their age who asked out [[OlderThanTheyLook Kanata and Yutaka]] would qualify as {{lolicon|AndShotacon}}s; the dub uses the full "Lolita complex", which works for the most part but results in Soujiro insisting that he "also has a Lolita complex".
** One scene involved [[YuriFan Hiyori]], [[IllGirl Yutaka]], and [[TheQuietOne Minami]] getting ready for a game of dodgeball, with Yutaka and Hiyori on Minami's opposing team. The Japanese version had Hiyori screw up terms leading to very UnfortunateImplications before she shutting up. The English version has her use the terms "pound" and "nail" that have connotations that also lead to UnfortunateImplications of Hiyori's... [[YuriFan interests.]]
* The noticeably old-looking ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' was dubbed for the North American market with lots of pop culture references that certainly didn't exist at the time of its writing, much less in the original Japanese script. In addition to the pop culture references, bits of dialogue would frequently be adjusted to fit the Western audience, or sometimes to add a joke to a line that was played straight in the original. Despite this, the dub was faithful to the series, changing little more than the phrasing and delivery of some dialogue. Though it did create a problem when the cultural references in a show clearly set in the '70s were updated to something recent. Sadly (or thankfully depending on your point of view), once the TV deal for ''Lupin III'' ended, the dub dropped this convention and later episodes released to DVD are dubbed straight. Probably one of the best bits of new dialogue was when Zenigata had chased Lupin into a subway tunnel at night. When a train came by in the original, he just said there wasn't a train this late, and that there was anyway when it came. The dub changes it to this:
-->(train can be heard)\\
'''Zenigata''': Nah, must have just nodded off for a sec. Probably one of those sex dreams I've heard about.\\
(train is coming down the tunnel toward him)\\
'''Zenigata''': [[FreudWasRight This symbolism's very disturbing!]]




[[/folder]]

[[folder:M - P]]
* The Latin American Spanish dub of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' replaced the [[PowerTrio girls']] [[MeaningfulName names]] with culturally appropriate equivalents. Therefore, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu (light, ocean, and wind, in Japanese) became Lucy (from Lucí­a, a female name for "light,") Marina ("of the sea,") and either Anaís or Anemone (the first means "chaste" or "pure," reflecting the character's personality, the other is related to her element, wind.) Similarly, ''Magic Knight Rayearth 2'''s Nova was renamed Luz (literally "light.") Regrettably for the otherwise excellent localization, several other [[ThemeNaming character names]] were victims of poor romanization or outright ignorance, such as Alcyone being renamed Alanis.[[note]]Albeit it's very probable she was named after the singer Alanis Morrisette, who was very popular in Latin America in that time.[[/note]] Interestingly, "Lafarga" was altered to "Rafaga"...which is ''correct'', as the villains were all named for cars and the Honda Rafaga was the sister car to the Honda Ascot.
* ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'' has a scene in which an ElvisImpersonator runs a hot-dog stand, with cheerleaders in [[{{Eagleland}} red, white, and blue]] [[WearingAFlagOnYourHead bikinis]] popping out of nowhere. What does the English dub do with a scene that could easily be [[UnfortunateImplications offensive]] to American viewers? Use the word "fuck" [[ClusterFBomb 16 times in 31 seconds]], and give the vendor a [[NarmCharm hilariously bad]] Elvis accent, [[CrossesTheLineTwice of course]]. The result is a character who probably [[MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales amused American audiences far more than he amused Japanese ones]].
* ''Manga/{{Magikano}}'':
** The dub has at least one English-exclusive gag per episode. One episodes has a character walk into a room and say "Let's go to that flea market! [[MemeticMutation The one that's like a mini mall!]]"
** Others include: "You can never hope to defeat us, for we are armed with the power of balls!", "I ''thought'' I smelled [[BrotherSisterIncest incest]]", "You really are a yuri girl in a yuri world." and "It's in her god-damned DNA!"
** And the final polish? An ending song you can all sing along. [[RhymesOnADime Wait, that rhymed.]]
* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':
** The English translation has some rough spots, but it compensates by throwing in some truly funny quotes not present in the original (such as Negi meekly asking for a cookie when [[MarshmallowHell wedged between a woman's breasts]]), giving Eva some more [[DeadpanSnarker snarky dialogue]] ["They who have the most guns, kick butt" and "Are you on CRACK!?"], and Makie's "His ''you-know-what'''s getting ''you-know-whatter''!").
** The dub by Creator/{{FUNimation}} of ''Negima!?'' is chock full of them. Examples include a reference to ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' regarding a pun on Mana's name (doo doo doodoodoo), Haruna belting out "All By Myself" in episode 19, and LargeHam Chris Sabat as the narrator referencing the song "Hungry Eyes". With all the chupacabra bits it's surprising ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' didn't get a ShoutOut.
* Even though the song was changed from the Japanese original, the U.S. theme song for ''Mameshiba'' keeps in spirit from the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngHAHM8pv_0 (It even has a version of the original "One-a-day trivia... la, la, la, la" tagline from the original song at the end.)
* ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'':
** Ruri plays an edutainment game that has her pick out the kanji pronounced "ai." The dub gives her the irresistably obvious pun "the ayes have it."
** The approximate doubling of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' shout-outs, since the two shows were dubbed by the same studio.
** If the translator's notes are anything to go by, properly doing justice to [[HurricaneOfPuns Izumi's]] dialogue was enough to drive a man insane.
* ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': Chibodee Crocket, the American Fighter, has an informal and competitive personality, and often refers to his opponents by their nationality rather than name. In the original, this lead to him saying things like "Hey, Japanese!" to Domon... which has [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII obvious]] UnfortunateImplications for American audiences. The dub changes it to "Hey, Neo-Japan!" instead.
* The ''Anime/MonColleKnights'' English dub contained LullDestruction. One use of it was actually rather creative and turned one into a RunningGag. During the launch sequence, one of the characters (Gluko) would ask a logical question of some kind and start a debate with Eccentro and Batch. They talk about it for awhile during the launch sequence before Batch and Eccentro get tired and say, "Never mind, Gluko!"
* ''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 the official Viz release, Funimation dub and even other scanlators 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.
*** 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, 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." 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.
* In ''Manga/NabariNoOu'', a thug mockingly calls Yoite a "shinigami" due to his ability to kill people instantly without touching them. The Yen Press translation changed this to (what else?) "GrimReaper".
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** In the original anime, the title character [[VerbalTic finishes many of his sentences]] with "dattebayo", which means something along the lines of "...you know?" Adding "~ttebayo" to the last verb of a sentence is something children may do when an adult is studiously ignoring them. This was translated into "Believe it!" for the Viz dub, which suits [[BrattyHalfPint Naruto's character]] well enough: Like "~ttebayo," it's an attempt to demand attention, and it's annoying. It also conveniently matches the mouth flaps. However, it was dropped after the second arc of the series. Recent episodes and games and the Road to Ninja briefly revived it (and [[spoiler: his mother Kushina's]] tic) as "Ya know?" \\
\\
The Brazilian version (based on the American) used something similar to "That's it!" ("É isso aí!"), sorta like the original one. The Latin American dub used "¡De veras!" as the catchphrase. It roughly translates to "really!" (in the "seriously"/"not lying" sense). The mainland Spanish dub had "¡Vaya que sí­!", which could be translated as "You betcha!" in English.
** Rock Lee [[AntiquatedLinguistics never uses contractions]] in the English dub to match with the fact he uses a very polite speech pattern in the Japanese version. To achieve a similar effect in the Latin American dub, he was given a military pattern of speech with an enthusiastic accent.
** When Jiraiya is interrogating two ninja from the Hidden Rain Village, he threatens to turn them into frogs. In Japanese, "turn you into a frog" is "kaeru ni kaeru", so it's a pun using homophones. Jiraiya is then embarrassed when the two ninja don't laugh at his bad joke. In the english dub, he uses the terrible pun of "flog [them] into frogs" for the same effect.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
** Let's start with the name itself; in Japan the series is titled ''Shin Seiki Evangelion''. Other changes included changing ''shito'' to "Angel", both of which mean "messenger"[[note]]"Angel" comes from the Greek ''angelos'' via the Latin ''angelus'', both meaning "messenger"[[/note]] and "Human Complementation Project" to "[[Creator/CordwainerSmith Human Instrumentality Project]]". Many of these changes were chosen by the creator.
** Episode #14 has a show on the radio in Shinji's hospital room. The Japanese version is a one-joke stupid pet trick about a counting dog (playing on "wan" being both "bow-wow" and how a Japanese person would pronounce "one"; "what's 325 minus 324?") The talking pup is in the dubbed version, but his vocabulary is a bit larger, since the translation crew adapted an old joke about a talking dog. Of course, since it's ''Eva'', they subvert it by jumping to the punch line without explanation. "Who was the greatest baseball player who ever lived?" [[spoiler:"[=DiMaggio=]?"]]
** Also from ''Eva'', in the original Japanese version of the AlternateUniverse segment at the end of the final episode, Gendo Ikari responds to his wife's questions with a series of disinterested affirmative "Mmm"s. In the English dub, they engage in playful banter instead... which, after the cold-hearted normal Gendo we've seen up to that point, can be either pretty unnerving or absolutely ''heart-melting''.
--> ''[the sound of Asuka and Shinji fighting is audible in the background]''
--> '''Yui Ikari:''' Asuka's so sweet to come pick him up every morning, and he doesn't appreciate it.
--> '''Gendo Ikari:''' Is that so, dear?
--> '''Yui:''' Yes, dear. And you have to get ready too!
--> '''Gendo:''' [[DoubleEntendre I'm]] ''[[DoubleEntendre always]]'' [[DoubleEntendre ready, dear.]]
--> '''Yui:''' [[ContinuityNod Gosh, you are just like Shinji]].
--> '''Gendo:''' You ready?
--> '''Yui:''' Any time! I am the one who gets complaints from Professor Fuyutsuki if you're late for the meeting!
--> '''Gendo:''' That's true. He's your biggest fan.
--> '''Yui:''' ''[laughing]'' Oh, ''you''! Cut that out and get ready!
--> '''Gendo:''' ''[sighing]'' Yes, dear. ''[quietly]'' [[Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey She who must be obeyed]]...
*** Interestingly, it's ''this'' version of Gendo that a lot of the LighterAndSofter AU offerings seem to run with.
** 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]].
*** In Asuka's first episode, and after her first bout of spoken German, she commands Shinji to "think in German". The Japanese version has him say "baumkuchen", which is a type of German cake popular in Japan. The English dub replaces this with "Strudel? Bratwurst?", which are two German foods more familiar to Western audiences and gets the humor across better.
** The Mexican dub also turned Asuka's occasional GratuitousGerman into full-fledged PoirotSpeak (with BilingualBonus to bout), and replaced her flawless Japanese with Spanish spoken with a rough German accent.
** The German dub, meanwhile, made Asuka's German more fluent & realistic compared to her somewhat broken speaking in the Japanese original.
** 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."
** The other instance of PrecisionFStrike in the movie is surprisingly powerful as well: "SO FUCKING WHAT IF I'M NOT YOU?!"
** In the Japanese script, Asuka refers to Shinji, Kensuke and Toji collectively as the "stupid trio". What's the English equivalent of that? "Film/TheThreeStooges"!
** As much as they are mocked, the cadre of accents for the members of SEELE helped make the various members distinct and emphasized the fact that they were a multinational organization. Their accents were eliminated in the ''Rebuild'' dub, though.
** The infamous [[spoiler:MindRape]] scene in Episode 22 also translates well and is more unnerving because it has more... emotion in the lines.
** 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.]]
** In ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Evangelion: 1.0]]'', a particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example of AsYouKnow involving Ritsuko's explanation of Operation Yashima is turned into a sarcastic LetMeGetThisStraight, which is (somewhat) less jarring than the original and plays right into Ritsuko's personality and relationship with Misato.
** In episode 1, Ritsuko explains that the possibility of Unit 01 activating with Shinji is 0.000000001%, which has led their team to nickname it "the 0-9 system." Misato then asks if that means it won't work. In the original, Ritsuko replies that it's not a ''zero'' percent chance. In the English dub, she tells Misato that "it's '0-9', as in ''[[GratuitousJapanese oni]]'', a Japanese devil."[[note]]Which becomes something of a LogicBomb considering that the series is ''set'' in Japan...[[/note]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Luffy, on an island with women who have never seen a man before, notices that the women are fascinated by his having testicles after he names them, and the Japanese word for testicles is similar to "golden balls." The English manga uses the euphemism "family jewels," to similar effect (this line is also present in the Funimation subtitles). In another case, while Magellan in the original script talks about Hannyabal going into soliloquy while criticizing him , which contains a pun on the word for poison (Magellan's powers), he complains that Hannyabal has a "venomous tongue" in the English manga.
** The French translation of the manga has many ups and downs, but the ups are quite good, such as Emporio Ivankov's kingdom.
** The English manga translates Kamabakka Oukoku ("Crossdresser-filled Kingdom") as "Kamabakka [[DragQueen Queendom]]".
** In another example, during a [[ADayInTheLimelight Captain Buggy-centered]] BreatherEpisode, Buggy encounters a [[PlantPeople shrub man]] named Gaimon, who is basically a short AmbiguouslyBrown guy who wears a box as clothes. In the original Japanese version, Buggy asks him if he is a "boxed son," a play on the Japanese phrase "boxed daughter," which means a girl who has been sheltered her entire life. The Viz manga translated this as "boxer," with an entirely different setup, and the Creator/{{FUNimation}} dub renders it as "Jack-in-the-box."
** In Japanese, Kaku's speech pattern is pretty formal and old-fashioned, lampshaded on him talking like an old man. The English dub has him frequently use more old-fashioned words than the other characters, like "nifty" and address Luffy and Nami as "champ" and "little miss" when he first meets them.
*** Similarly, the fight between Zoro and Kaku includes one exchange in which Zoro mocks one of Kaku's Japanese-specific {{Verbal Tic}}s. The dub reworked it into Kaku boasting about his giraffe powers, ending with calling Zoro derisive names, and Zoro responding by deliberately misinterpreting it as Kaku coming up with ridiculous names for himself, like 'Giraffe-boy' or 'Giraffe-fool'.
** In the English dub, Franky's introduction song calls him "Water 7's [[WesternAnimation/HongKongPhooey number one super guy.]]"
** The Italian version of both the anime and the manga changed the name of Emporio Ivankov's people from "Newkama" from "The Transformed"[[note]]In Italian "Transformati" rather than the usual "Trasformati"[[/note]]. As in "Transformed into Transgenders". And they managed to insert it [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar in the heavily-censored dub]]. (The manga still did it first.)
** One of the Mujiwara Theatre bits, "No Respect Time" features Rufy and his crew as Mafia families. What did they do in the Italian dub? They gave everyone a Sicilian accent during the skit, of course. Also, Sanji's [[GratuitousItalian "Mamma Mia!"]] was replaced with "O Bedda Matri!", its Sicilian dialect equivalent.
** One very early villain is Captain Kuro, the leader of a cat-themed pirate crew. His ultimate attack, spelled "Shakushi" in Japanese, is actually an ''extremely'' heavy pun on a Japanese turn of phrase that would not at all make sense in English. The phrase is "Cats and rice ladles," a euphemism for a large grouping of pretty much everything - a close English equivalent is "Everyone and their brother." The Japanese word meaning rice ladle is written with two kanji, "shaku" and "shi," and in the attack name the "shi" kanji meaning rice is replaced with a different but identically pronounced one meaning "death." In all three English versions - manga, 4kids dub and Funimation dub - this attack is named "Cat Out Of The Bag," which preserves the spirit of the joke by creating a pun on an ''English'' cat-related turn of phrase.
* The first episode of ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' ended with Haruhi joking that she should start calling herself "''ore''," the Japanese male equivalent of "me." Since America does not have any gender-specific first person pronouns, the English version ends with her deciding to start using "'dude' and 'bro'" more often.
* ''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 the mind that the Japanese could learn more English cursing to use for Japanese.
* Stephen Paul's fan-translation of ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'', a manga by Creator/NaokiUrasawa (of ''{{Anime/Monster}}'' fame) based on a storyline from ''Manga/AstroBoy'', gives President Alexander's speeches a repetitive, buzzword-loaded style based on that of George W. Bush. Considering much of the events that drive the plot originated in the Middle East, this is incredibly appropriate.
* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'':
** The English dub's name for the hero, Ash Ketchum, is an impressive wordplay. His family name is not just a play on the series tagline of "Gotta Catch 'Em All!", but [[http://ketchcetera.com/etymology.html an actual real-world name]]. Meanwhile, his given name is inspired by his Japanese name, Satoshi. In a similar vein, his rival's name, Gary, is inspired by his Japanese name, Shigeru.
** An early episode has Misty crying out "Mushi!" (bug) prompting Ash, in a cow suit, to reply "Ushi?" (cow). The dub has quite a clever workaround, "Maybe it's a Cow-terpie."
** The pun and portmanteau-heavy names didn't translate with any degree of significance to non-Japanese ears. In every locale, new names were given to the {{Mons}}, with fresh puns - for instance, Hitokage (Japanese for "salamander" -- lit. "fire lizard") was rendered into Charmander (char = to burn, mander = from "salamander"), which hinted at the little creature's ability. The names of the humans were changed too - for instance, Kasumi (meaning "mist") was changed to the luckily similar-in-meaning English name Misty. Strangely, Satoshi, an OnlyOneName, grew a surname in his Woolseyfied variant to fit the length and mouth-flaps - he became Ash (which sounds a little similar to 'Satoshi') Ketchum ('catch 'em' = GottaCatchEmAll, a clever tie-in of the series' then catchphrase to the character).
** The most recently versions feature Dawn, as in Hikari means light, Dawn means sunrise, giving a beautiful meaning as the original version. Given that Pokémon USA is the American extension of the Pocket Monsters Team, it might be pretty much intentional.
** Also, TeamRocket's dialogue, which is probably the most memorable part of the show.
** And in the Latin American Spanish dub, where several Team Rocket jokes are re-written with Mexican slang and jokes on Latin American pop culture. It works depending on the dubbing team. Sometimes the Team Rocket trio gets memorable, genuinely funny, or meaningful dialogue, but the TPCI dub often has them spout ''constant'' rhymes, alliterations, and terrible puns, to the point of making watching them nearly intolerable. Part of what makes this so polarazing is that many jokes are so Mexican that are completely incomprehensible to other latin american viewers.
** When the motto changed (for all territories), there was complaining because the original was just ''that good''.
** Used in ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' where Bill, speaking in Japanese as though being from a different part of Japan, is given a Southern accent in English.
** Another impressive Woolseyism in the ''Pokémon'' anime occurred in the second movie, ''Anime/{{Pokemon 2000}}''. The movie involves a ProphecyTwist, with the relevant line in the prophecy being "The water's great guardian will rise to quell the fighting, but alone its song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash." The characters eventually realize that "turn to ash" refers not to destruction, but to Ash Ketchum. The Japanese version of the prophecy simply mentions "an exceptional trainer", eliminating the ProphecyTwist entirely.
*** In the same movie, Lawrence III stated that his collection started with an ancient Mew card. It being the first item in his collection wasn't stated in the original Japanese version itself, but rather in a promotional pamphlet that explained his backstory and gave the name of his [[CoolPlane airship]]. As the pamphlet was [[NoExportForYou Japanese-exclusive]], they added that tidbit in so that at the very least that part of his backstory is made clear to the audience, especially when said Mew card reappears.
*** A nonverbal variant also occurred in the English version of Movie 4. The original Japanese version's only hint at Samuel and Professor Oak's connection was during the credits when Tracey stumbles upon Sam's sketchbook in Professor Oak's closet. Although it was a common way to confirm a connection in Japanese media, America's media worked a bit differently, so 4Kids commissioned the Japanese animators to animate additional scenes that would foreshadow Sam and Professor Oak's connection to Western audiences.
** In the Polish dub of ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'', Team Rocket's CatchPhrase uttered before they become a TwinkleInTheSky is "Zespół R znowu błysnął!" ("Team R shines again!"), making it deliciously ironic.
** In "March of the Exeggutor", the inept magician was stated to wanting to go to Broadway to participate magic tricks in the Japanese version. The dub changed it to Las Vegas because Broadway is not a place where magicians would practice parlor tricks (unless he wants a career in stage production musicals...) whereas Las Vegas is more likely for people like him.
** 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.
* ''Manga/PopTeamEpic''
** In episode 3, after recieving a letter complaining about the anime's excessive usage of reference jokes, Popuko promises that a fix... and then says [[VideoGame/PriPara "Gotcha!"]]. Since ''VideoGame/PriPara'' is not well known outside of Japan, some foreign versions write around it to preserve the joke: the English dub haves Popuko say [[MemeticMutation "That hit me right in the feels"]] right before the "Gotcha!", while the Italian sub replaces it with Popuko doing a [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Ned Flanders]] impression.
** The episode 11 sketch where Pipimi turns into a tree is based on a simple pun: "Ki ni naru" can mean both "I'm interested" and "Turn into a tree", as Pipimi turns into a tree after getting interested in a book Popuko is reading. The English sub went with Popuko asking if she wants to read it, and Pipimi answering "I ''wood''". The English dub kept the original lines with Pipimi's line becoming "I'm in''tree''sted". The Italian sub changes Popuko's line into "Don't look at this, it would make you angry", with a new pun based on the Italian word "Inalberarsi", that means "getting angry" but includes the word "albero" ("tree"), so it can be interpretated as "shutting inside a tree".
* The dub of the first ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' movie slipped in several extra jokes which proved to be pretty popular, such as C-Ko's rambling plot summary at the end (in the original Japanese she simply shouted "Yoohoo!" over and over.) The following sequels were all dubbed by another company, who played it pretty straight for better or worse.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Q - T]]
* The English adaption of the Korean manhwa ''Manhwa/{{Ragnarok}}'' gives several places and characters 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.
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** Similar to the Cyrano de Bergerac example, the original dub switched out Kuno's quoting of Japanese poetry for quoting of appropriate Shakespeare.
** The Russian translation of the ''Ranma ½'' manga added the secondary title "Пол Ранмы" (Pol Ranmy), which can mean both "One half of Ranma" and "Ranma's gender".
* ''Anime/ReignTheConqueror'':
** Several lines that seem to work better in English than in the original Japanese, probably owing to the fact that the character designer, PeterChung, speaks English but not Japanese.
** Aristotle had a particularly good go of it, with sayings like, "My hope is for complete restoration of order in the Greek world, but I would trade it for a faster horse."
* The intro to ''Anime/RingingBell'' has a narration explaining the symbolism and moral of the movie, just in case you didn't get it. In the Japanese version it's just quiet (and to foreshadow that this wasn't some cute kids movie).
* In ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', there are several changes to the scripts of its component shows that actually make sense no matter where you stand on the debate.
** Roy Fokker's name was originally transliterated as "Roy Focker" in the original Japanese ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''. Not only does the ''Robotech'' spelling more correctly suggest the homage to the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII aviator Anthony Fokker (as was the original intention), but it keeps the name from sounding like a ClusterFBomb.
** Episode #18 has a scene where the three Zentraedi spies are teased by the BridgeBunnies about having a Minmei doll. In the original ''Macross'', Sammie jokes Rori (Rico) in a friendly manner for being a "lolicon" but neverthless thinks he's cute and drags him off to a disco for some fun. In ''Robotech'', Sammie just finds it a little dorky and doesn't use any terms that relate to sexual perversion. In Japan, lolicons are considered a little weird in their fetish for young girls, but ultimately harmless. In American culture back then, it was far less acceptable for a woman to find a man cute because he likes dolls, and lolicons remain a ''big'' no-no even nowadays.
** Bowie Grant was orginally Bowie Emerson in the original ''Anime/SuperDimensionCavalrySouthernCross''. And he was the son of Rolf Emerson. ''Robotech'' changed this to Rolf being Bowie's godfather and Bowie being a nephew of Claudia Grant (surname [=LaSalle=] in the original ''Macross''). This does, admittedly reflect some ValuesDissonance of the times (Bowie was Black, Rolf appeared Caucasian, yet they were father and son; American cartoon audiences may not have been quite ready for this in 1985) but it also works well because out of it, we eventually get the introduction of Bowie's father, Vince Grant who would be a main character in ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles''.
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'':
** The teasing nickname "meatball head" as a replacement for "{{odango}} atama", which means "dumpling head", because an ''odango'' is a specific kind of small round dumpling, about the size of a meatball, and the same size as the balls of hair in the title character's hairstyle. In the West, saying "dumpling" would, of course, call to mind something much bigger and differently shaped.
*** This was changed again in the recent Viz Media redub and sub to 'bun head', which fits even more because 'bun' is the name of both a hairstyle and a food.
** It is also arguable that [[CulturalTranslation the changing of the main character's name]] was well thought out, still mirroring its original relation to the moon. Her original name, Usagi, means rabbit, referencing to the folklore of a Moon rabbit and possibly to [[{{Odango}} her hairstyle]] as well. With the dub's Serena, as many are more familiar with, is a play on Selene, a moon deity in Greek mythology, and derives from [[{{Reincarnation}} her alternative name]] from the original Japanese version. It also introduces a nice bit of ThemeNaming with that particular line. Serena was chosen because it comes from "Serenity" - her true mother's name. And Chibi-usa (which essentially means Usagi Jr) was changed to Rini, a shorthand for Serena. So the dub change has the daughter being named after her mother in some way.
** Other fans may prefer the English translation of the manga, in which Usagi is renamed Bunny with the nickname "Buns" as both a short form of her name and a reference to her hairstyle. Although this does cause some weirdness with her future daughter also being named Bunny but nicknamed Rini (Serena/Rini in the anime dub and Usagi/Chibiusa in the original Japanese make more sense).
** Setsuna Meioh, or Sailor Pluto's, name was changed in another well-thought-out case, going to "Trista". Setsuna can be translated something like "sad/lonely" and Trista comes from the Spanish word for "sad".
** Haruka's name is translated to Amara. This name has two meanings - "bitter" and "to love". Haruka/Sailor Uranus is indeed very bitter about her mission but she is still able to love Sailor Neptune.
** Even the fans who hate the NA dub seem to agree that they like Creator/DiC's music choices. One that specifically stands out is ''Carry On'' during the season 1 finale. It's rare to find someone who agrees that the Japanese piece was a better fit. See, Carry On was a song written specificly to fit the animation, and complements it quite well. The Japanese scene just used the Opening, and it was a very poor fit. Similarly, another song from that episode called A New Day tends to be seen in the same light. It was made to compliment the animation and was about the entire cast, while the original song was only about Usagi and Mamoru's love rather than the fact that the cast just entered a new phase of their lives. Ironically, despite both song choices being well liked they're in the dub episode most hated by a majority of the fanbase.
** Despite [[ShesAManInJapan her reason for existing at all]], [=DiC=]'s Zoisite has quite a fan following of people who were just that impressed by Kristen Bishop's performance. Enough that when she was announced as Emerald's voice actress, there was much rejoicing.
** "Jupiter Thunderclap Zap" makes a whole lot more sense and is more fitting than "Sparkling Wide Pressure". Particularly since it ties in with mythology a Westerner is likely to be familiar with (the Roman god Jupiter was known for, among other things, hurling thunderbolts).
** Her one-off attack in [=SuperS=] was called "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Super Supreme Thunder]]" in the original, but renamed "Superior Sparkling Thunder" by Cloverway.
** In the original Japanese finale of ''[=SuperS=]'', Nehelenia hurls Chibi Moon off the rising remnants Dead Moon Circus, now thousands of meters in the air, down to the city, and before Sailor Moon dives off to save her, she glares at the queen and says the standard "I'll never lose to you" line. In the English dub this is changed to "I still pity you," which was fittingly poignant since many times earlier Nehelenia had [[DontYouDarePityMe flew into a vicious rage at seeing a sympathetic look towards her.]]
** In the episode of Mimete's death, her replacement/murderer Tellu says "goodbye, idiot" before pulling the plug on the dimension warping machine Mimete was using to bolster her power. In the dub, Telulu says "Ta-ta, Mimet", which is a rather poignant callback to how she figured out Mimet was trying to steal her job. Mimet used a voice-altering device to pass herself off as Dr. Tomoe and tell Telulu over the phone that her job was cancelled, signing off with a "ta-ta", which Telulu immediately realized was something the doctor would never say. Telulu was smugly rubbing in Mimet's slip-up before killing her.
** Changing of "Lemures" to "Remless" in the English dub. While Lemures is an actual name, the campy Monsters of the week are apparently Nehelenia's subjects with their dreams stolen - and dreams happen during REM, so it makes sense in an odd way.
** The "Dieting" episode. The English translation from the 1990s focuses a bit more on exercising until you pass out from exhaustion - a message that's still relevant to the intended audience. (In Japan, "dieting" means anything done to lose weight, and usually refers to excercise, not eating habits)
** Mary Long's dubbing of Molly is one of the most often criticized elements of the 90s dub, but her performance in "A Friend in Wolf's Clothing" was absolutely ''heartbreaking'', coupled with the dub's choice of background music which just redefines [[spoiler: Nephrite/Neflite's death.]]
** In the original Japanese, Ami speaks with a light Kyoto accent which serves to show how refined and ladylike she is. Her English voice speaks with Received Pronunciation but with enough American pronunciations in there - to make her sound like she's from the classier parts of New England.
** The Italian version changes most of the names (translating Usagi's name into ENGLISH among other things), but some of the names fit like a glove, like Rea (from Rea Silvia, a Mars priestess who's mythologically the mother of the founders of Rome) for Sailor Mars, Marta (which means 'Lady') for Sailor Venus, Marzio (a name of one of Rome's kings) for Tuxedo Kamen, Milena ('Graceful') for Sailor Neptune, Morea (medieval name for Southern Greece) for Sailor Jupiter.
** In the Latin-American dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Queen Nehelenia uses rather archaic speech patterns without any contractions. It works very well, combined with her voice actress's contralto voice.
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'':
** The shonen fighting anime was translated into Italian by Enrico Carabelli as ''"I Cavalieri dello Zodiaco"'' (''Zodiac Knights''). Trying to convey for Italian viewers the same sense of mystery and awe that classical mythology, which they are all too familiar with, inspired in the culturally distant Japanese, he cranked up the "epicness" of the dialogues, added quotes from classical Italian poems and '''Dante's Literature/TheDivineComedy''', and generally raised the stylistic level of all dialogues. Though he also introduced a number of inaccuracies and misinterpretations of the original plot, the dub had exceedingly good reception; and to this day many Italian fans say that they don't actually like ''Saint Seiya'', they like the ''Cavalieri''. Notably, the first four movies were later re-released with a more faithful translation. Fans did not appreciate at all, and newer products either get two dubs, one in Carabelli's style and one more faithful to the original, or the Carabelli-style dub only.
** On a similar note, the (''really'' good, voice-acting wise) Latin American Spanish Mexican dub of ''Saint Seiya'' used the Italian opening translated into Spanish, and to this day, any Mexican born between 1985 and 1990 insists that the best anime opening is the one from ''Los Caballeros del Zodiaco''.
** Brazilian dub's Saga's laugh. Even if you don't speak Portuguese, you'll find it memorable. The redubbing did it as good as the original, and put a professional rock band to adapt the original Japanese openings into a nice Metal-driven Portuguese version, instead of the J-rock in the original version. It's claimed to be one of the best versions in the world, because not only includes the Woolseyisms of the Italian and Mexican versions, but adapt their own as well. And then, there's Saga's "morra, Seiya" (Die, Seiya), which sounds extremely awesome and hammy as wells.
* In the fifth episode of ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'', Mugen is looking through an ukiyo-e catalogue and just gives a vague description of its lewd content (one fansub simply translates it as "Oh, oh. They're doing it."), while the dub gives his reaction as "damn, doin' it with a [[MarsNeedsWomen squid]]", which has the side benefit of further deepening the series' AnachronismStew, since the painting referenced, ''Dream of the Fisherman's Wife'', wasn't painted until about 200 years later.
* ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'':
** It is a great example of a Woolseyism, if you discount the fact that there wasn't much of an option of translating the show to begin with. The translators were given the raw Japanese footage -- and no transcripts. So instead of having to work out all the dialog, puns, and cultural references, a whole script was written from scratch that is still considered to be good entertainment. Considering the general irreverent nature of the source material, this actually works.
** Rumour has it they weren't even given the audio to go with the raw footage. The reason? Apparently the Japanese company ''wanted'' the show to be one giant Woolseyism to make it feel original in each country it goes to. It worked as the North American version in particular is noted by the creators as what they should have tried for in the first place.
* In ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', Rin uses [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology onii-sama]] to refer to her brother, the protagonist. Fansubs translated this as "dear brother", which works to humorous effect, as she generally uses the term in not very affectionate contexts (i.e. "did that [[CatchPhrase leave you in despair]], dear brother?")
* The Argentine dub of ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' replaced the line that Lain tells to the gun-toting junkie from chapter 2, from vaguely prophetic nonsense to pure prophetic awesome. In the Japanese original, she says "No matter where you go, everyone's connected"; in the dub, however, she says "Nobody will escape, not even you, once everyone's connected".
** Also, the voice that says the chapters' names was made ''much more'' scary and ominous.
** The name "Wired" was also translated as "Nexus", which is much more descriptive and fits much better the context.
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'': The [[Creator/FUNimation FUNi]] dub is full of these -- Natsumi using her leek on Giroro's boobytraps is turned into an outright reference to the [[MemeticMutation Loituma Girl]]. As mentioned previously though, the [=FUNi=] dub doesn't really know whether it wants to be this or a GagDub. It's sort of both.
* ''Anime/CrayonShinChan'''s Creator/{{FUNimation}} dub also had to modify the reference humor so viewers would understand them. To add the icing on the cake, a lot of the dialogue was fit for where it ended up: Adult Swim.
* ''Anime/SonicX'':
** The American translators got a good one in in the first episode. In both cases, there is a memorable scene where Sonic, standing on a Formula One racecar, gets yelled at by the driver to the effect of, "What if some kid tries this?" In the original Japanese, Sonic duly warns any children in the audience not to stand on moving cars. In the American version, he takes the silliness (arguably mixed with real-world FridgeLogic) one step further:
--->'''Sonic''': Kids, never use Formula One racecars to chase hedgehogs!
** Makes for a nice nod to the absurdity of some of the 'Sonic Says' segments of the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' cartoon, as well.
* [[Manga/SquidGirl Ika/Squid Girl]] has a VerbalTic in the original Japanese, using de geso (or Squid Tentacles) instead of other copula such as desu. Since English doesn't really have an equivalent, they went with the titular character using marine life puns (You bet your beak, inkvade, and of course, [[AscendedMeme You gotta be squidding me!]]).
* 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?), often utilizing very {{Painful Rhyme}}s. 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, but to keep it from becoming an InconsistentDub, the rhyming stayed.
** The Hungarian dub of ''Slayers'' is a GoodBadTranslation. The fans love it to death despite its flaws, and the first three series spawned a more than 70 pages long errata forum. The biggest problems with it stemmed from the translator being clearly clueless about fantasy, the translator changes and never comparing notes. This resulted beginners mistakes like trying to translate things that should be left alone (monster names, character names etc.), but also unbelievable ingenuity in places (for example most spell incantations. At least the ''Sárkányiga'' / ''Dragon Slave'' one is memetic).
* In ''Manga/SoulEater'', to communicate with [[{{Shinigami}} Lord Death]], you fog up a window or mirror and write on it with your finger "42-42-564", pronounced in Japanese "shi-ni-shi-ni-go-ro-shi", which is a homophone for something like "[[FourIsDeath Die, Die, Kill!]]". [[LostInTranslation Obviously, this doesn't translate into English]]. The Creator/{{FUNimation}} dub replaced this with the [[SublimeRhyme catchy little rhyme]] "Call forty-two, forty-two, five-sixty-four, whenever you want to knock on Death's door." This works out nicely, because Lord Death runs a ExtranormalInstitute and took on a BunnyEarsLawyer, CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass alter ego to avoid scaring off any potential pupils.
** It also has "Shinigami-sama" being changed to "Lord Death".
** The anime has a good one with the PronounTrouble in relation to Crona. The English dub uses male pronouns for Crona, while characters do acknowledge that they don't actually know whether the [[DarkMagicalGirl Dark Magical Person]] is male or female. So when Medusa is telling Stein and Spirit about her child, and refers to Crona as "[[ItIsDehumanizing it]]", it just highlights how bad she is. The way the actress delivers the line makes your skin crawl.
* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'':
** A toast originally made in sake is changed to a toast made in "water, from a favourite spring on Earth". At first it looks like FrothyMugsOfWater, but given the context, the change adds considerable depth and pathos to the scene. This comes up later, at the end of the series, and again, the scene is far more moving than it would have been with simple sake.
** In the first episode, Mamoru Kodai refuses to retreat because he can't face the shame of defeat and prefers an honorable death in battle. Alex Wildstar (the dub version) refuses to retreat because he decides Avatar needs cover for the retreat. Essentially changing a Japanese version of HonorBeforeReason ([[ValuesDissonance that American viewers would not understand]]) into a HeroicSacrifice--and thus increasing the poignant effect of Alex's younger brother blaming Avatar for Alex's death. This change was good enough that it was adopted for both the Live Action and 2199 remakes.
* While there were still cuts in the dub of ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', they did try to keep true to the Japanese dialogue as much as possible. In the dub, the "Ninjas" were instead referred to as "assassins" -- which is actually correct.
* ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' makes frequent use of 2chan memes, as several of the characters are frequent posters of the ImageBoard in question. Most translations - dub, sub, official and unofficial alike - switch these out for more familiar English memes found on 4chan, Reddit and Livejournal.
* The [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer/Geneon]] dubs for both ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' and ''Anime/ElHazardTheMagnificentWorld'' both occasionally employed Woolseyism, usually for the improvement of the script. For instance, in the scene where Washuu has Tenchi restrained in her lab with the intent of getting a semen sample, the original Japanese dialogue makes her sound like a bored hooker offering options to her customer ("Should I use my hands, or my chest, or...?"); the English dub dialogue, on the other hand, plays up her whimsy without ever really disguising what she plans to do ("Let's shake the dew off this lily!").
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'':
** In episode 11 after [[spoiler: Kamina's death]], Simon's speech about [[spoiler: how Kamina's death hasn't stopped him and his friends from continuing their fight]] has a slower, more emotional build-up in the English version than in the Japanese.
*** Speaking of [[spoiler:Kamina]], in the original Japanese, his [[spoiler:last words]] are "Farewell... Comrades...", but in the English version, he says "Later... Buddy...". A simple change, but it's obvious which one [[TearJerker is the more touching]], not to mention [[spoiler:[[BigBrotherMentor fits his personality more]]]].
** There's also the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjF_g2GF34 EAT THIS!]]" "[[BigNever NEVERRRRR!]]" exchange in the dub of the FinalBattle. Its alleged[[note]]most likely sarcastic[[/note]] superiority to the original split the fanbase in half.
* The Italian dubs of the ''Anime/TimeBokan'' series were done by different studios, but the best job is probably the one done by the studio who adapted ''Anime/{{Yatterman}}'' and ''Yattodetaman''. Jokes are adapted in an almost perfect way (The "almost" is because you can't really translate Japanese puns in Italian, so you often see characters overreacting to nonsequiturs), Japanese references are often replaced with Italian ones (one of the main examples: the reporter that appears during the mecha fights in ''Yattodetaman'', originally a caricature of the show's producer, is renamed Nando Martellotti, turning him into a parody of an Italian sports reporter from the 70's named Nando Martellini), and the spirit of the series is kept perfectly (albeit [[ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange it sometimes fails]], like in the scenes where [[FourthWallMailSlot the bad guys answer to fan mail]]: They change the names of the fans with Italian ones, same for the cities the mail was sent from, but then they also show the photo of whoever sent the letter and it's clearly a Japanese person)
** In a similar way as the ''Saint Seiya'' example above, Italian funs take very seriously the concept of translating and adapting these series. When the ''Royal Revival'' OAV were released and the Italian dub randomly kept in Japanese the names of some characters from ''Yattodetaman'' (including calling the HumongousMecha "Grand Deity" rather than "Kingstar" and translating literally its summoning chant rather than use the one from the show's dub), the founder of the Italian Time Bokan Fan Club (who personally likes ''Yattodetaman'' more than the other series) felt insulted and in his book about the franchise the paragraph about the OAV ends with a rant on how the Italian dub is a shameful disgrace because of that. After this little accident, he actually contributed to some later releases: When ''Kiramekiman'' was released he was going to be the main script adapter for the Italian dub, but after an issue between the Italian and Japanese productions halted the show's production the dub was never done (the aforemented book still mentions how the main characters [[DubNameChange would have been called in the Italian dub]]). Later he not only managed with web petitions to release both the ''Yatterman'' live action movie and 2008 remake, but he also contributed to the former's dub and, while the latter is getting a sub-only release at the moment, he managed to release it in two variations: Faithful Version (Subs are regular translations of the original dialogue) and Vintage Version (Subs are done in a way that sounds more like the old dubs of ''Yatterman'' and ''Yattodetaman'', getting more freedom on some adaptation choices and sneaking here and there some [[MythologyGag references to the other Time Bokan series]])
* One of the characters in ''VisualNovel/TogainuNoChi'', [[PsychopathicManchild Gunji]], is unable to tell the difference between cats and dogs. This leads him to calling the Vischio's "dog" (actually a boy who has undergone BodyHorror) Tama, a common name for cats in Japan, while calling a stray cat he finds Pochi, a common name for dogs in Japan. The translation changes these to Mittens and Poochie respectively.
* ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'': Like ''Car Robots, Transformers: Galaxy Force'' has a cast of {{Expies}} which ''Cybertron'' also renames. We welcome back Jetfire, Hot Shot, Red Alert, and others instead of getting characters who look a lot like them, have the same roles as them, and yet totally aren't them. And being liberal with translations of lines makes characters' dialogue a lot more fun to listen to than the blander translations of ''Armada'' and ''Energon'' (even when they were accurate) yet without ''ever'' weakening scenes with forced attempts to make series lighter.
** Also, ''Galaxy Force's insane'' reliance on StockFootage as {{Filler}} became more bearable with new dialogue. (Optimus once even had time to realize a subordinate's unspoken plan and go over it in detail internally during a nearly-solid-minute TransformationSequence as he went to SuperMode and then combined with Leobreaker.) There were also some unfitting plot elements that ''Cybertron'' makes much smoother.[[note]]''Galaxy Force'' had characters able to make damn near ''anything'' happen just through HeroicResolve, a feat known as [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Burning_Justice Burning Justice]] but ''Cybertron'' connected it to the various magical artifacts that were around and being majorly underutilized in the original. [[/note]] Also, you know that sound Primus-related artifacts make, that only humans can hear, making the human sidekicks necessary? Not in ''Galaxy Force''. At all. The Omega Frequency is 100% Cybertron. The beauty of it is how skillfully done it was - even major changes in mechanics never result in any confusion. MagicAIsMagicA even when Magic A has ''completely different rules'' from Magic Z in ''Galaxy Force''.
** And though making it a ''direct sequel'' to ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' had some [[PlotHole less smooth aspects]], it also added a ''lot'' to some of the characters. In ''Galaxy Force'', "Master Megatron" (no relation to that "Megatron" guy from the unrelated Armada and Energon series!) happens to have design aspects that resemble the Unicron character from said unrelated series (who has nothing to do with to the unnamed dark god in the backstory of ''Galaxy Force!'') and it is never commented on. On the other hand, ''Cybertron'' Megatron is the same guy from ''Armada'' and ''Energon...'' and his new ability to use magic aura willpower powerups is attributed to the "Armor of Unicron." It never fails to jibe with onscreen events - some of the feats Megatron does without explanation in Galaxy Force are ''so very'' much like the things Unicron's power was used for in ''Energon.'' The result is one Megatron who was [[UnwittingPawn used by Unicron]] in ''Armada'' and ''Energon'' but turned the tables on the Chaos Bringer, and in ''Cybertron'' is using what's left of ''Unicron.''
** Also, Starscream's being TheStarscream instead of his NobleDemon ''Armada'' self may seem like quite an alteration of the character... but Megatron's "you'll always be a loser" speech to a supercharged 'Screamer in ''Cybertron'' recalls ''Armada'' Starscream's mentioning of lack of respect Megatron gave him after all of his then-genuine devotion... then saying Unicron took precedence over their personal feelings. By ''Cybertron,'' he's simply had enough, knows from experience the Autobot way won't work for him so a HeelFaceTurn is out... and Unicron's out of the way now. The gloves come off. In the original, ''Armada'' Starscream's pretty much the same in both versions, as is his returning in Energon to live and die a brainwashed pawn, and ''Cybertron'' Starscream just wants power. Dub ''Unicron Trilogy'' Starscream has all the badassitude of the original... and a ''hell'' of a character arc.
* ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' has plenty, becoming much more popular in the US than its Japanese original, "Car Robots," was in Japan. Much of the cast and several story concepts were given the names of their closest counterparts from [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1]] and WesternAnimation/BeastWars, making them returning beloved characters who speak in established series terminology. A ''ton'' of {{Mythology Gag}}s were worked in as well, and all fitting perfectly - major bonus if you've seen the earlier series, while not the least bit confusing if ''Robots In Disguise'' is your first Transformers experience.
** An extra one from the Italian dub: the Matrix Blade Omega Prime uses in the last episode is renamed "Space Halberd", the same name that was used for [[Anime/UFORoboGrendizer Grendizer]]'s Double Harken, as an awesome reference to old-school mechas.


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[[folder:U - Z]]
* The English dub of the ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter'' anime changes some of the dialogue to make some jokes work better or makes other bits of dialogue more comedic. It also makes some of the characters like Pai and Jacky more snarky. One notable thing it did was, during the explanation of special moves OnceAnEpisode, the English narrator would exaggerate the last adjective, such as "This technique makes the fighter ''invincible!''" Another example, in one episode where Akira needs to wear a purple suit, he says it makes him look like a pimp. Overall it works and gives the series a bit more flavor that wouldn't get through on a literal translation or subtitles alone.
* It's no doubt that ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' really wouldn't fit on a Fox Kids timeslot, but some people actually find the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZXbrqPjKM dub's theme song]] to be ''better'' than the original. When said about a soundtrack by Music/YokoKanno? This is ''quite'' impressive.
** Speaking of which, the title "The Vision of Escaflowne" is actually a Woolseyism. The original title, which probably sounds better in Japanese, translates to something like "Escaflowne of the Heavens". The English title both sounds poetic and refers to Hitomi's visions at points throughout the series. It's no wonder [=FUNimation=] kept the title alive for their re-dub.
* Viz's English translation of the ''Manga/YakitateJapan'' manga does a pretty good job of translating the bad Japanese {{pun}}s into just-as-corny English ones.
** In an early chapter, Ken Matsuhiro challenges Kazuma and Kawachi to create truly "mare-velous" bread that even a horse would want to eat; the original version involved a pun on ''umai'' (Japanese for "delicious") and ''uma'' (the Japanese word for "horse").
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': It [[GagDub took to mocking]] the {{serious business}} of the show in the third season. On a merely functional note, Manjyoume uses '[[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns ore-sama]]' which wouldn't translate at all, but is a bit important to his character. So instead he [[ThirdPersonPerson calls himself]] [[SpellMyNameWithAThe 'The Chazz']] to mark the arrogance/absurdity of it.
* A line in ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is only funny in the context of the original, where Yusei is being marked a criminal and he mutters, "Is this supposed to tickle?" Taken in the context of the original, where they used a laser to etch a mark into his skin, well...
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'':
** Brazilian dub. Both the old and new dub opted for adding many dated (and boy do I mean ''dated'') puns and expressions to enhance humor (and, sometimes, even drama). It's considered extraordinarely funny or extraordinarily awesome; either way, the fandom really dug it.
** The English dub made many similar changes. Among them include when Yusuke first arrives at Genkai's Tournament and sees the crowd of people vying to be her student, Yusuke originally just makes an AsideGlance on how weird everyone is. In the dub, it was changed to the very [[DeadpanSnarker fitting]] "I haven't seen so many freaks since that comic book convention." Another was having a greater emphasis on the [[spoiler: implied romantic relationship Genkai and Toguro once had]], making their scenes together during the Dark Tournament more tragic.
** Something similar to the ''Digimon'' example above, the woman who Raizen has a child with in feudal Japan speaks in {{Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe}} to convey the [[AntiquatedLinguistics older language]]--in the subtitled version only, which is curious, considering the dub's love of this trope.
** One that still gets the point across was in the anime. In the anime, there's a flashback where Sensui first met Itsuki and just as he was about to kill him, asked if he had any regrets. In the manga, Itsuki names a minor celebrity who would be performing on a show tomorrow that he wanted to watch, and it touched Sensui because he watches the same show, too and it taught him how human Youkai can be. The manga was able to sidestep this by explaining who they were. The anime, however, couldn't, ergo Itsuki mentions that his favourite TV show will be airing its final episode tomorrow, and he wants to see how it ends.
* The English dub of ''Anime/YoKaiWatch'' has many:
** In the Japanese version, Jibanyan ends his sentences with "-nyan". In the English version, this is changed to him replacing almost every "n" sound with "nya".
** Other Yo-kai seem to have their [[VerbalTic Verbal Tics]] and [[CatchPhrase Catch Phrases]] localized as well. Komasan's is changed from "Mongee!" to "Oh my swirls!" and Dismarelda's is changed from "-juban" to "No filter".
** Komasan and Komajiro are given a Southern accent in the English version. Fitting seeing how they're country bumpkins.
** Many of the punny-named Yo-kai are changed to an equivalent in the English version. For example, Donyorinne (a Yo-kai who is always in a bad mood) is changed to Dismarelda, Samugari (a dog-like Yo-kai who is always shivering) is changed to Pupsicle, and Himojii (a Yo-kai who makes people hungry) is changed to Hungramps.
** In the Japanese version, the money-wasting Yo-kai Spenp came from the "bubble era", an era in the late 1980s when real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. The English dub changes this to him coming from the "yuppie era". Yuppies (short for young urban professionals), are well-paid young middle-class professionals who worked in the city and possessed a luxurious lifestyle, but the term has deragatory connoctations as it became associated with decadance, mindless consumption and shallowness. The term originated and mainly used in the 1980s, so the "yuppie era" works both not only in maintaining Spenp's origin as the 1980s, but also the same connections to spending money haphazardly.
*** The Italian dub takes the concept in a similar way and gives Spenp a Milanese accent, hooking him to the Bauscia stereotype. Bauscia (which is a dialectal term meaning "showoff") is a term that in the 19th century referred to people who offered themselves as tour guides for foreigners only to get some money, but later on it began to be used to refer to middle-class Milanese people who waste huge quantities of money just to rub in everyone's face how rich they are.
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* In Spain THE example of this trope would be ''Manga/DashKappei'', known there as "Chicho Terremoto". The characters all have Spaniard names and they explicitely say they live in Spain. And even though there were clear Japanese customs (like eating using chomp sticks and having Japanese characters written all over the place), the script adaptation was so thorough [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief it was actually believable]]... and damned straight hilarious. Some of the catch phrases used in the series, like Kappei's/Chicho's trademark "¡Tres puntos, colega!" ("Three points, bro!"), became extremely popular in Spain during the early and mid 90's.

* ''Anime/Keijo'':

* [[Manga/SquidGirlf Ika/Squid Girl]] has a VerbalTic in the original Japanese, using de geso (or Squid Tentacles) instead of other copula such as desu. Since English doesn't really have an equivalent, they went with the titular character using marine life puns (You bet your beak, inkvade, and of course, [[AscendedMeme You gotta be squidding me!]]).

* [[Manga/ShinryakuIkaMusume Ika/Squid Girl]] has a VerbalTic in the original Japanese, using de geso (or Squid Tentacles) instead of other copula such as desu. Since English doesn't really have an equivalent, they went with the titular character using marine life puns (You bet your beak, inkvade, and of course, [[AscendedMeme You gotta be squidding me!]]).

* ''Anime/DeadLeaves''. The Japanese version is sort of short on humor, making it more of a strange action movie; however, the English dub has [[RapidFireComedy about three times as much dialogue]], most of which is [[CrowningMomentOfFunny side-splittingly hilarious.]]

* Stephen Paul's fan-translation of ''Manga/{{Pluto}}'', a manga by Creator/NaokiUrasawa (of ''{{Anime/Monster}}'' fame) based on a storyline from ''Manga/AstroBoy'', gives President Alexander's speeches a repetitive, buzzword-loaded style based on that of George W. Bush. Considering much of the events that drive the plot originated in the Middle East, this is incredibly appropriate.

** Bakugou's choice for his hero name is "King Explosion Murder." 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.

** Bakugou's hero name in the original version is rejected because it sounds way too much like his actual name (while also being a bad pun). The English version instead has him pick "King Explosion Murder" for his hero name, which is instead rejected for sounding both like a villain's name and completely ridiculous.

** Isuku Midoriya decides on "Deku" as his hero name in the Japanese version because Uraraka tells him that "Deku" sounds like "you can do it." Because it absolutely 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.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': 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]].

* The first couple of episodes of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' are full of misleading information[[note]]Although much of it can be blamed on the fact that a lot of Contractors are lying pricks.[[/note]], some of which gives the impression that Creator/StudioBONES changed their mind about how the setting worked halfway in. Thus, the English dub switched several of Jean's lines to be more in line with how events are portrayed in the rest of the series, made some of Hei's behavior a bit clearer, and went the PragmaticAdaptation route with Mao's [[NarmCharm incredibly-stupid-but-awesome]] line about Hei's BadassLongcoat being bulletproof ''only when he wears it'' by replacing it with one that was just as awesome and ''not'' totally dependent on the RuleOfCool: "Hei doesn't just wear that coat as a fashion statement, you know." *beat* "It's bulletproof." *CurbStompBattle*

** The dub managed to add an allusion familiar to Western viewers. In [[ShowWithinAShow Lucky Channel]] episode 9, Akira Kogami told Creator/MinoruShiraishi that he sounded like a "nerdy turtle". That's because SamRiegel, Minoru's voice actor, plays Donatello in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003''.