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4kids
In producing a version of One Piece for the North American market, 4Kids considerably changed the animation[1]. These alterations include:
Cuts and Removals
As of June 2006, the equivalent of 32 episodes of material had been cut from what were originally 102 episodes. Among the removed was the Warship Island arc, the Laboon arc and the entire Little Garden arc. All removed episodes and arcs were written around, sometimes contradicting the continuity established by the dub.
For example, in order to explain Mr. 3's presence after the Little Garden arc, it was told that he followed the Straw Hats since "Roguetown", when Baroque Works didn't even know about them at that point. Also, how 4KIDS will write around Little Garden's role in Enies Lobby, where it has an important role in, remains to be seen.
Sound
Removing the original symphonic score and replacing it with music produced on a synthesizer. Replacing the opening theme (originally a succession of upbeat pop songs) with a "rap" theme (though an English version of the original theme, "We Are" was used in an early promo)
Alterations
Many firearms were changed to look less realistic, and some were edited into other objects. Most often, Marine guns are turned into water guns while the others are simply colored green.
Altering some dialogue to utilize different types of humor, often pun-based, sometimes even during scenes meant to be entirely serious. Removing almost all text, and replacing the word "MARINE" on Marines' clothing with the word "NAVY". Removal of all kanji. Changing of Japanese references to something more "American" (i.e. onigiri was changed to chocolate chip cookies). However, more Japanese references have started to slip in recently, such as an onigiri being kept.
Changing the skin colors of characters to avoid potential racial insensitivity
Renaming
Renaming many locations and attack names. Many attack names in other non-English languages (i.e. French, Italian, etc.) are given English names. These are often not proper translations of the name, and are sometimes different names completely (for example, most of Sanji's attacks, which were originally French cooking terms, are changed to food-based puns).
Altering many character names. Some names that were originally English were changed to apparently make them sound more exotic. Examples include Portgas D. Ace (Portgaz D. Trace) and Edward Newgate (Ward Newgate). In addition to this, several other names are changed for content, like Captain Smoker (Captain Chaser) and possibly Cobra (Nebra), while others use uncommon romanizations of names, like Zoro (Zolo), Nefertari Vivi/Cobra (Nefeltari), and others.
Censorship
Toning down of emotional scenes, often due to bad voice direction, lines, and inappropriate music. Toning down violence and other extreme situations
Removal of all religious references (Mihawk's cross dagger was changed to something else, and Miss Merrychristmas's Christmas tree was colored purple, and her name changed to Ms. Groundhog's Day).
Virtually no death scenes are shown, regardless of their importance to the plot. However, death has been referred to more often in the recent episodes. The removal of all blood takes place, even when significant to the plot, such as in the third Luffy vs. Crocodile fight. In this fight, it was changed Luffy saying, "I've had plenty of time to work up a nice sweat," implying that he could defeat Crocodile with his sweat.
Overall Dubbing
Despite the numerous edits, One Piece was one of 4Kids' more violent properties. The producers had left in certain unavoidable excesses; blood, appendages being ripped off (such as Shanks' arm and Zeff's leg), and a character being killed by gunfire. Errors were occasionally made in scene edits. Since the dubbed version of the Drum Island arc began, more violence and references to death were included, and no new arcs had being skipped or episodes joined together, save for a few filler episodes.
Criticism
A sticking point for criticism from fans was 4Kids' marketing strategy for the franchise; although the show is enjoyed by a fairly broad audience in Japan and consistently scored high ratings from teens, children, and even adults, 4Kids decided to initially air the show on Saturday mornings and focus solely on the lucrative 6–11 demographic. It now airs at night on Cartoon Network and has been receiving much higher ratings from the 9-14 demographic, but the new timeslot has brought question to the necessity of the excessive editing the series continues to receive. Also, the broader potential audience that could be reached through an uncut DVD release is still being ignored completely. Over time, the editing had decreased, perhaps due to the fact that the show was airing on a later time slot, although the production still resembled that of a typical 4Kids localization.
- 4kids Dub Episode Chart
- List of Name Changes in 4Kids
- List of Edits in 4Kids