It seems like we all long for things from our past these days. With Cartoon Network airing Toonami during the Adult Swim block, pangs of nostalgia begin to stir within us as we relive those days from our youth. This year marks the fifth anniversary when FUNimation made the announcement that they had obtained the rights to One Piece, a little after 4Kids had announced they would not be dubbing any further episodes of the series.
Within those 5 years, FUNimation has turned what was once a charming and wise-cracking series into a serious series about friendship, swearing, bloody fights and some goofiness. We got music that sounds like it was made actual instruments instead of made by a professional with a synthesizer, Sanji lost his accent and traded his lollipop in to become a chain smoker. Luffy's Gum-Gum attack names now involve guns in some way as if to come across as "edgey" and "cool." The worst of it all is that FUNimation seems to have animated new footage over what 4Kids made and even edited some things! For example, Kaya is originally unable to use a sword again, but for some reason, FUNimation made it so that she died!
Probably the most noticeable things is that they didn't use the same voice actors. Instead, everyone sounds completely different. The new voice actors don't even try to sound like them. As I mentioned earlier, Sanji lost his accent and isn't even deep voiced anymore. Zoro sounds like Piccolo and Usopp sounds like Krillin from Dragon Ball Z. They don't sound unique at all!
I wrote this as I want to raise awareness of how long it's been since this has happened and felt I couldn't stay silent any longer. We have to get the original cast back and show FUNimation that that's not the One Piece we all know and love.
Most of these things were present in the japanese anime from the beginning. Sanji was always a smoker, luffy always used gum gum gatling as an attack, and Kaya did die in the original japanese cut. This was a very serious series to being with. Yes, it has a lot of lighthearted elements but 4kids made multiple edits and turned a great series into a laughable one.
ReplyDelete^ Spot the person that doesn't own a calendar.
DeleteIt is the very things that 4Kids did that made this series so enjoyable. Then put on top of the great lines and voices from the 4Kids One Piece, it was literally heaven coming into my ears and eyes.
Deletelol, I completely forgot it war April 1st. My most hated day of the internet.
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