Follow Me On Twitter! / hensama24 In a new series, I'll take a look at all of the localization differences between Rockman.EXE and Megaman NT Warrior. This video focuses on Episodes 1 - 9, what I call the WWW Arc.
@@MASJYT I never found blades traumatizing. The idea of a magic energy blade is actually kinda cool, too. I just don't like it when they're made too bright.
Sometimes the censorship in anime makes things worse like that. I remember the 4Kids version of Dragon Ball Kai recolouring all blood to look like dirt, grime, and sweat, and in many cases it made everyone's injuries look a lot more painful, which is definitely not what they were going for.
3 things I’ve noticed: 1.) The swords getting censored makes them more like energy swords, which kinda fit the cyberspace setting of the anime. 2.) Gutsman getting minibombed on the crotch is funny to me 3.) the “Gril” text on the poster is actually “Griffith”, which was a car TVR made back then. It was one of their popular models
As a kid I always thought the sword battle chips were more like lightsabers or other laser swords so the blurring effect didn't bother me. I would even argue that the elec sword used at 3:20 looks better with the glow in the effect.
I guess VIZ media wanted to ‘Americanise’ the scene, based on their belief that one cup tea bags are common in the U.S instead of using a tea pot, which is common in Japan.
Some of these changes are so bizarre, like adding pixels trailing off a severed arm that was already pixellated just makes it look more like blood! And I know that other dubs censored swords to energy swords but why change something thats ALREADY an energy sword to look more like star wars?? You'd think they'd wanna avoid copyrighted stuff...
True, but from what I heard, most of the changes were done to keep the dub as sensitive as possible, as it aired a year and a half after the 9/11 attacks, which was the reason FireMan was renamed TorchMan, and most scenes involving the buster aiming were cut, along with the cuts requested to comply with Kids WB's standards and practices.
@@jeremyriley1238 Half correct, the US has always had a thing against Gun's or "Gun-Like" things in "Kid's Show's". Several early episodes of Pokemon were completely unaired in america because of that. But also, the Columbine School Shooting happened in 1999 and was still fresh in america's mind. So around 1999-2006, guns were pretty much banned from all Animations, even Toonami(which airs with Adult Swim) had several anime censored, even though those anime weren't made for kids. Edit: Correction, guns are still pretty much a No Go in animation in america. Luckily it's no Longer TV that broadcasts most Dub, people usually watch Dub on streaming sites now and there's very few TV networks that still air Anime.
@@Zurenza actually it was just one episode of Pokemon that was unaired in America because of gun violence(though apparently 4Kids did receive the episode as clips of it are shown during the Pokerap). Guns were actually shown in series like Batman the animated series and more realistic looking guns were going to be in Beware the Batman until the Aurora shooting at a showing of Dark Knight Rises happened.
This was such an nostalgic video and I personally need you to finish the series. Thank you for putting in the time to make this video so thorough! You Rock Man!
I wonder if you'll ever cover Mega Man Star Force? That one...is such a nightmare to try to cover it's Frankenstine's Monster-esque approach the english dub tried to do.
Honestly, Star Force's dub was actually pretty decent, but I wish they would've finished it at least, it was REALLY good. I also like the songs they did for Sonia's stuff. It was generic pop music yes but it was actually pretty good, better imo than what they did with the original just playing the main theme song over and over from what I remember. And they actually kinda fit the theme of the game/show.
Its funny they felt like they needed to tone down the violence from or inflicted on essentially digital characters in a fictional world. That is twice removed from reality! Three if you count the fact that it's a cartoon. I really don't get censoring the Mega Buster shooting the screen. It's a arm cannon that looks nothing like an actual gun. I do believe the glow effect on the swords were done to give it a more "cyber" look to it.
the no guns pointed at camera was, I think, either an FCC thing or at the very least, a network thing. You can find Bruce Timm talking about it when working on Batman the Animated Series.
This aired in the US in 2002 so 1 year after 9/11 and 3 years after the Columbine shooting. As a result violence and anything gun related in kids programming came with heavy restrictions. It also why as time passed and people moved on some restrictions were relaxed
@@TheJjcczz yeah Transformers Robots in Disguise had some scenes edited out due to violence cause of 9/11 and one episode "Spychangers to the Rescue" actually got redubbed after it's first airing to remove references to the MacGuffin device potentially exploding.
Gutsman getting hit by that mini-bomb has got to be considered dirty fighting for Navis! Then again, maybe it's a reference to Gutsman being weak to bombs in the classic games.
6:26 But why? We already know it's tea... the dialogue specifies it's tea... where they afraid children would mistake it for coffee and try to drink it? Like coffee is alcohol, or something like that?
While some of these changes were typical 4Kids shenanigans, I actually liked the Login/Logout sounds. It really drove things home when the "System Voice" also said "(Navi) Deleted."
I enjoyed Mega Man NT Warrior when I was a teenager. I never understood why episodes were not broadcasted in order. Episodes 7 and 8 were broadcasted as "the lost episodes" after the Gospel arc. The official DVDs from Viz have these episodes out of order.
Never understood why viz despite not doing a bad job by censored tv dubs standard which is really low anyway never just released an uncut dub for their few Censored tv dubs like zoids,zatch bell and this with the same cast
It costs money and time to get all of the voice actors in again (not to mention audio mastering and directing) to do an uncut dub when the goal was only to make something that targeted a specific TV market which apparently needed it censored. There is almost definitely a licensing cost for anything extra that Viz does. So basically, if it is censored and as big as Dragon Ball or Naruto, it will probably get an uncut version in time. One Piece has gone through this immediately after FUNimation got the show. If it was censored, at best you'll be waiting a while and probably for a recast of many characters if Zoids or MMBN become relevant enough for them to license it.
@@thelastgogeta There's a sneaky way around that. Make the uncut dub first, and that way you don't have to add anything in, just take it out. Releasing an uncut dub should be the default approach. TV shows on home video were a relatively new concept at the time this show came out, but it wasn't so new that there wasn't a legitimate market for it. Even 4Kids knew this, as they at least attempted to put out uncut anime.
@@nicksrandomreviews ADV kind of did that with Saint Seiya, they made an uncut dub that went straight to DVD and then DiC made their edited version called "Knights of the Zodiac" when ADV released on DVD under their ADV Kids sub-label.
I went back to watch this this week and Light's second english voice is the same person who did Light Yagami and everytime he spams battlechips i cant help but giggle thinking it has the same energy as when Light writes names into the notebook!
I think we can all agree that the sword blur was actually a pretty ok censor. We all thought they were supposed to be like energy swords or lightsabers, so it worked out in the end.
Honestly, the biggest thing that turned me off this show as a kid was the English VAs making Lan & friends sound like they're in their 30s. I guess they figured the main characters wouldn't sound cool otherwise. Either way, I'm glad I gave the Japanese dub a chance, because this anime is totally worth watching.
Having an older more experienced voice actor voicing a younger character is better than having a less experienced voice actor just to "fit" the character.
I don't know Lan's 2nd voice fitted him way more imo, but tbh kids nowadays sound older than they look. I don't mind them sounding 30 since my ears won't bleed from hearing annoying high-pitched voices.
That was one reason why I didn't get into the anime back then, and that was when didn't know about subs/dubs. It wasn't until years later I revisited it and enjoyed the original.
I was a teenager in high school and still pretty new to anime when this aired on tv. I watched it and was like "cool, I remember Megaman from when I was little". I had no idea that this was actually based on a spin-off series of games that were pretty new at the time. Incidently, I didn't start really getting back into the Megaman franchise until later, when I was in college and bought the Anniversary Collection on GameCube.
I am a huge fan of Classic and X series and when I saw this airing I looked at it as the lame Mega Man because I didn't like the designs and it wasn't the Mega Man I was used to. I only grew a little interest in this version of Mega Man when I played Network Transmission on Gamecube which played more like classic 2D Mega Man games. I am excited to really dig into the Battle Network collection thats coming out cause I played half of Battle Network 1 on Wii U and I enjoyed it.
Honestly I'm on the other side of the fence about the Japanese songs. I prefer when the songs get translated. Lyrics are one of the most important parts of a song, and if you can't understand it, then you lose half the meaning.
For the most part considering that this is a kids anime, these edits aren't horrible, I still think it should have been edited less but at the sametime some TV stations would probably have issues with some of the violence in it so it makes sense.
I like that the colors of the anime are more vivid/brighter on the eng dub version. Also the announcer things that they do in the eng version are pretty cool additions
This show is such a treasure. I think the brasilian dub I watched came from US too, by the early 00's all animes started coming from english instead of the actual japanese. had no idea how censored this show was.
The Latin American Spanish dub was also based on the English dub. The way some anime are dubbed into Spanish is quite interesting, some old shows like Digimon, Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2 and Sakura Cardcaptor were dubbed directly form the Japanese version, while other dubs like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Zatch Bell used the 4Kids version as a base. That led to some confusion, for example as a kid I used to watch Ranma and in many episodes the characters were eating onigiri which were translated as rice balls, but in Pokémon the onigiri were referred to as donuts (because they had to translate the U.S. scripts), that always confused me as a kid, and later I found out that both Pokémon and Ranma were dubbed in the same studio
While I prefer the shots of MegaMan actually aiming his blaster and the more ‘violent’ bits that the dub cut out, I think I have a certain soft spot for the slightly blurry blades, as it feels more like a proper energy sword that glows and would burn/shock than the uncensored originals that just look like stylized icicles
I never knew they blurred the swords. Seeing as it’s called a “Cyber Sword”, as a kid I assumed it was because the blade was made of energy. Like a lightsaber. Honestly, I prefer the blurred energy sword.
Its important to understand shows that were dubbed by 4kids and by the WB weren't meant to be shown on Crunchyroll or adult swim. But rather Saturday mornings where there is a whole bunch of laws and regulations that have to be followed. They were cut so the network wouldn't get in trouble.
everything cool and all buuuut... could you guide me at getting the Japanese Dub myself? ( found some rips out there, and one I found just have the raws but no subtittles added, the same with Rockman Shooting Star Anime )
Actually what 4Kids did was pretty common for dubs of children's anime back then. It was mostly because of strict BS&P that the networks had and them not quite getting how to market anime to a mainstream audience.
Almost like it was something common for shows of that time. The networks had very strict codes and having less censorship would get your show pulled. The gun thing for example. For some it was banned. for others, show them if used responsibly. They also had the "no show guns pointed at the screen" thing.
It wasn’t so much pointless as reactionary this aired 3 years after Columbine and 1 year after the 9/11 attacks. As a result the US imposed stricter standards then relaxed them to a degree as time went on
Jesus, imagine if there was a Mega Man Zero anime made around this time that doesn't stem away from the tone the og games set and they had to localize it
Not sure if that's a smart intentional blur move or it just happened to work with the swords. My country might have the Japanese Version dubbed in my country while also getting a Japanese Copy of the first part of EXE (up to the part where Rockman got deleted) so I might have missed the US Censoring but it did looked better imo.
Does Any one know where I can watch this? I can find season 1, 2, and axess, but cant find anything after that. Id buy the dvd's if I could find them, worried this is gonna become, at least a partially lost anime
Some of the censorship for this show had to do with 9/11. Things like sword, fire, and even bombs, were triggering so they usually tend to avoid those though they did lax up on some of those as the dub goes on. But yeah, there's a big difference between 4kids and Viz and that Viz will actually localize something while 4kids doesn't see the point in it if it serve no purpose other than being a bigger prop.
I'm sure you've been made aware by now, but that isn't strawberry lemonade in the English version, it's strawberry milk. They say this out loud several times throughout the show.
Any good talk about Megaman NT Warrior or Battle Network. Me: _The most relaxed feeling in the world_ Quick question: what is that theme at the end of the video discussion? Edit: "Oh I'm an idiot. It's part of the Megaman Network Transmission OST." 😅
I'll admit there's some weird changes but I also feel the dub removed some awkward moments like iirc when Megaman was deleted there's just silence as it cuts to like multiple characters and I feel that moment when they added lines there in the dub made the scene way less awkward and jank. but then in axess you have them censoring Lan getting hit by Shademan but the next cut you see Lan on the floor like how'd you end up there??? Edit: the two VA's Lan had is interesting because they actually sound like they could be the same person as I don't hear any difference from them lol, maybe just different tones? It's crazy because I legit could not catch that on the DVDs.
Was so jealous this show wasn't on my cable options if it was on YTV or Foxkids I didn't have the option to watch it so this is a nice adventure for me.
Here in Philippines we have japanese version that been dub into our language "Tagalog"but seeing this make me upset it got so much content that cut to not air just because they want to fit it from 20 minutes for airing 10 minutes commercial interrupt shit in 30 minutes daily show routine Damn I must to watch it again later for cut content I miss thank you for showing this video to me sir 😄👍
I think part of the reason the buster aimed at the screen was removed had to do with America removing such things for a time due to a movie showing that and being a hot issue for a good while.
Similar to how much USA censored Pokemon, One Piece and Monster Rancher a lot. saying "cool" for that techno pop ost they replaced with is actually an understatement
I remember loving the NT Warrior series, then I tried to keep going by watching the subbed stuff where the dub stopped, and I couldn't get into it. I felt like the banter between Megaman and Lan was less punchy, or just replaced with the two of them saying each other's names. Is this just me? I didn't give many episodes a try, to be fair.
That is true, I personally liked the dub a lot, cuz of the witty comments which even as you get older, you can still appreciate and even find them funny.
No they weren't. Wtf. The voice sounds terrible and the swords look more like an actual sword (what kind of braindead idiot censors an energy sword in the first place)
I'm curious now because you consistently refer to Yai drinking "strawberry lemonade," was that a translation of the original Japanese? In the dub she refers to the drinks as "strawberry milk" on multiple occasions. Also a general change throughout the series is that most chips whose names contained real-life weapons have been changed, "shotgun" became "blaster," "bomb" became "boomer," interestingly one of this style of change was actually in the games as well, "spreadgun" became "spreader." Also on more than one occasion "bubbler" is pronounced "babbler" and I'm genuinely unsure if that was a deliberate change, a translation error, or the actor flubbing the line and not noticing.
bubbler is babura in Japanese (Bubble Slimes were called Babbles in early Dragon Quest locs) I think Spreadgun becoming Spreader was because of character limit
