Like most other animes, the first I saw of digimon was the dubbed version on Fox. While I enjoyed the anime itself, the cheesy dialogue and all-around bad music never failed to grind on my nerves. Later, I got the chance to see clips of the original Digimon online, and as I expected, it was about a million times better. This page is meant to stroll through the Digi-Dub and check out just where it went wrong...
But the biggest problem with the dub was the 'kiddiefication' of it. The common idea in America is that "It's animated, so that makes it a 'cartoon'. If it's a 'cartoon', then it's a six-year-old kids' show." So, to avoid as many phone calls from 'concerned parents' as possible, scenes were removed that were deemed 'too graphic' (even though there was barely any blood or excessive violence anyways), and the script was heavilly watered down, eliminating any words that were too harsh (light swearing like 'damn', 'hell', and an occasional 'shit', plus most references to death or religion, or just stuff they felt children wouldn't understand). Said script was replaced by one that seemed to make light out of nearly any dire situation and turn it into a joke. A very bad joke. Jou said it best in one episode, (in response to a wise-crack from Gomamon) "That was so funny I forgot to laugh." This isn't to say that the original version is totally devoid of comedy; there are plenty of genuinely funny moments (and even the dub did retain some of them). But that's different from somebody constantly coughing up jokes and idiotic puns every 10 seconds.
Many of the main characters got a bit of an overhaul as well. Most of their names were changed to sound more 'American'. Taichi became 'Tai', Yamato became 'Matt', Koushiro became 'Izzy', Jou became 'Joe', Takeru became 'TK', and Hikari became 'Kari'. Only Sora and Mimi retain their original names (looking back, I'm surprised that Sora wasn't changed to 'Sara' or something like that). It seems almost hypocrytical; America usually bends over backwards to cater to 'diversity' and 'cultural awareness', but I guess anime is the only thing where that doesn't apply. Not just first names, but Taichi's last name was also changed, from Yagami to 'Kamiya'. I don't understand why; it still sounds Japanese, and so do everyone else's last names that went unchanged. I've heard rumors that the name was changed because 'Yagami' reads 'I'm a gay' when turned backwards, but that sounds like a longshot and I've seen no verification of that.
Everything mentioned above I could probably forgive, but the greatest sacrilage commited against this great piece of work was the removal of the anime's completely mind-blowing soundtrack. Damn, that music was awesome. Music is a wonderful thing; in a case like this, it either makes or breaks a scene. Well, when Saban decided not to buy the rights to the soundtrack and figured they'd whip one up on their own, they all but killed Digimon in in a single blow. Unlike the original tunes, the dub soundtrack lacked any kind of emotion whatsoever. The main theme song had a pretty nice beat, but the damn lyrics just get too repetative too quickly. By far the worst in the soundtrack was the god-awful "Hey Digimon". Who's bright idea was it that "Hey Digimon" would be a great tune for fight scenes and how many kinds of narcotics was he on?
Blue freeze beam from mouth:
Japan: Cocytus Breath
USA: Metal Wolf Claw (Huh? How does a breath attack suggest any mention of claws?)
Big missile from chest hatch
Japan: Garuru Tomahawk
USA: Metal Wolf Claw (again), Giga Missile (for the record, though, this move was translated correctly in the US version of Rumble Arena)
Barrage of freeze missiles
Japan: Grace Cross Freezer
USA: Metal Wolf Claw (*sigh* three different attacks with the same name?), Ice Wolf Bite
Another example is MetalGreymon's Digimon Analyzer screen. There, his signature attack was correctly translated as 'Giga Destroyer' (Though 'Giga' was mispronounced as 'Gisha'), but when the attack was actually performed a few seconds later, it was called 'Giga Blaster'. Make up your minds, Saban!
I did like the voice actors, though. Joshua Seth did Taichi's voice, and he did a superb job, along with most of the others in the cast. There were a few voices that sounded really fake (like Angemon and his bad Superman impersonation), but overall, the voice cast did quite well, considering the script that was put in front of them.
The problem is, Nimoy, and Nimoy alone has been blamed for every single problem fans had with the dub. I personally think that's a little unfair. There is one thing, though; during the last few episodes of Zero Two (about the time he left), the script got noticably better in terms of moronic jokes. They were much fewer and farther between. But even after he left, that didn't mean the dub was saved. Terry Lee O'Mally, the producer, still had to read and approve the script, and Bob Bucholz was another writer working with Nimoy. While idiotic jokes didn't appear as often, they were still there, and there was still plenty of watering-down of the script, censors, name changes for the hell of it, and replacing the soundtrack with sub-par music.
More than Nimoy, I actually blame this crybaby society of ours. With television being (along with video games) the primo scapegoat for anything our kids do wrong, producers and script writers have to be so, so careful about what is put on TV. With all of these media Nazis trying to stomp all over our 1st Amendment and taking anything they don't like off the air, TV producers have to do this sort of thing if they want to stay in business. It's really sad...
First, the good stuff. Sort of. The music was considerably better than Adventure. Saban's soundtrack department did some new songs for the fight scenes that were a vast improvement over 'Hey Digimon'. They were still no match for the original soundtrack, however.
My biggest beef with dubbed Zero Two was the script. You thought it was corny in the first season? Ha! Ha, I say! I'd swear that a second grader wrote the script. Dramatic silence is a rare treat. It doesn't matter if someone's lips are moving; there has got to be somebody talking, whether what they're saying makes any friggin' sense or not.
Along with moronic filler dialogue, the voice acting took a turn for the worse. Some voices from the new characters just weren't up to par. Daisuke sounds like a whiny little wuss when he talks (more on him later) and Hawkmon, while he is very polite to his human partner in the original (he frequently addresses her as "Miyako-san", which translates loosely to "Miss Miyako"), he just sounds extremely snooty in the dub. And I'm still not too sure about Armadimon's redneck accent. Plus, Wormmon (and Stingmon for that matter) sounds like he has some bad nasal congestion, and Ken sounds a lot like Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory (I wonder if they were VAed by the same guy...).
As for Americanized names, Daisuke became Davis, Miyako became Yolei (Why? It still sounds Japanese), and Iori became Cody.
I suppose the major factor that was driven home, was Daisuke's infactuation with Hikari, and her reatcions to him. Sure, Daisuke had a big crush on her in the original, but I suppose the big difference was the fact that she was actually interested in him too. The dub seemed to change parts of the script to just make Hikari a stuck-up little bitch around Daisuke and even seemed to imply a romantic releationship between her and Takeru instead. It's true they were very close friends, but the original never seemed to indicate their relationship went any further. This, however, lead to plenty of jealousy that dub Daisuke harbored towards Takeru; his biggest trademark being deliberately pronouncing his name wrong. That never happened in the orignal.
There are plenty of moments where Saban gives us a cheap laugh at Daisuke's expense. Even his own partner doesn't give him any respect:
DAISUKE: Why doesn't anyone listen to me?!
V-MON: What'd you say?
The music was still changed. At least the theme song and the evolution themes weren't the same tired old tune. But I'm not sure that jungle drums were very appropriate as an evolution theme.
The part I liked best, of course, is the fact that bad jokes were few and far between. Finally, they were allowed to let the show turn serious for a while. Death was allowed to be discused openly, and Junpei even said "This sucks!" in an early episode. While I don't consider that to be swearing, I still doubt the dubbers would've used it in previous seasons.
Regardless, however, I'm still hoping that we'll get to see the uncut Digimon here in the US eventually. Digimon fans outside of Japan finally seeing (and hearing) what they've been missing will be a wonderful thing. So far, there's been no word on it. The enetire first season was released on a DVD box set last summer in Japan, so here's to hoping we'll see a subbed release here in the US and elsewhere as well.
