Can a One Piece Y7-FV dub be done right?

[kenjisalk]

TV PG is the more realistic option. I dunno why Disney XD or Nicktoons wouldn't be interested in a show with over 100 episodes in the can (sans some light edits), and I'm sure Funimation/Toei want to get this thing on TV in some capacity (nobody takes on dubbing a near 500 episode and running series and just shoots for meager DVD sales).

I'm willing to bet we'll see some solid news as to the broadcast future of One Piece by the end of the year, at this rate.

[Yonkou255]

Yeah, me too.....


But Id rather spare my heart the dissapointment.

[travisg]

TV PG would have to be the closest thing we could ever hope to get, unless some sort of miracle happens.

I would love it to be left untouched, except for all of the swearing, besides an occasional hell, but that will never happen so as long as episodes are left intact and not skipped I would be happy.

[Yonkou255]

Okay, Im desperate at this point so I hope I wont be flamed much if I said I hope Funi gets it to air in Toonzai.

DBZKai gets 300,000 viewers. Not as much as OP could get on Cartoon Network but still something

[Kaiolino]

If you care more about popularity than proper representation of the anime, then you should really check your priorities.

[Yonkou255]

.....

You are right. Someone who cares only about its popularity really does need to set his/her priorities straight.

But I DO care for proper representation, Ill have you know.

[firecrouch]

Hey even if it was censored to hell we'd still get uncut DVDs, and it's exposure to a wider audience, good enough. And just because it could be heavily censored if it's the FUNimation dub that's fine since it's a good dub.

[Yonkou255]

Ok, lets be more optimistic ok?

DBZKai, for all we joke about "Blue Popo" and "Laser Shotguns" gets away with a lot. People DIE, there are no "I can see their Parachutes" or "Just wait till my arm grows back".


[youtube]I4rduESrpdQ[/youtube]

[AegisVolt]

Sorry to bump this old thread but this new Answerman article made the curiousity in me come Back full force!


I still think One Piece can be done on TV-FV Y7. 4Kids just overedited the whole thing!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2013-11-22

Here's the article if you cant follow the link!

Michael asks:The Japanese approved the 4kids One Piece cast, script, and edits. So, what went wrong with 4kids that they lost the license (other than Funi acquiring it)? If Toei were upset with how 4kids was treating One Piece, I think yanking it from 4kids would seem hypocritical because there were other edited anime shows on American TV before 4kids had One Piece. Butchering an anime title to make it more kid-friendly on American TV has been going since the 60s.
4kids is a company anime fans never stop loving to hate, even though the One Piece "incident" happened almost a decade ago, uncut and uncensored One Piece has been available legally for years through Funimation, and 4Kids itself (which emerged from bankruptcy last year and rechristened itself "4Licensing Corporation", seemingly having nothing to do with kids' entertainment) hasn't touched an anime property in a long while.
Fans may have hated what 4Kids did to One Piece (and to a far lesser extent, the other shows in its canon), but as Michael pointed out, Toei Animation was always hands-on, approving the changes they were making, the casting decisions, and everything else they were doing. The fact of the matter is, they were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole: One Piece is a show with boozin', fairly substantial violence, boob jokes, guns, and themes that would be considered adult-oriented in America. You simply cannot air any of that on American kids' television. You cannot. It is not allowed. No TV network will do it, for fear of FCC crackdown, parental backlash, and who knows what else.
It was a business decision to try to adapt One Piece for American television, because that meant that all the huge commercial potential of the show could be explored in the biggest media market in the world. Millions of dollars were being chased, and when that much money is potentially up for grabs, very few companies care very much about maintaining the artistic integrity of a cartoon. And actually, very few companies care about that anyway. (The "normal" American anime companies, as they are now, are a giant anomaly as far as media publishers go.)
So they did what they could within the pretty awful limitations they had to work with, trying to appeal to the market they HAD to appeal to in order to have a massive, mainstream, Yu-Gi-Oh!-sized hit. The resulting show, aside from not adhering to its origins, just plain sucked. They had to change too much, and the story just didn't hold together anymore, and audiences rejected it.
We'll likely never know the fine details of how the arrangement between Toei and 4Kids ended, but it was likely not a straightforward licensing deal to begin with: the companies were partnered to bring the show to American audiences, and when that venture didn't work, they dissolved the partnership. It's possible some money changed hands or debts were forgiven, but the end of the story is, there was a mutual parting of ways, Toei got back the rights, and then Funimation picked up the show.
And aren't ya glad?

I still stand firm in this belief.

[Maron]

The fact of the matter is, they were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole: One Piece is a show with boozin', fairly substantial violence, boob jokes, guns, and themes that would be considered adult-oriented in America. You simply cannot air any of that on American kids' television. You cannot. It is not allowed. No TV network will do it, for fear of FCC crackdown, parental backlash, and who knows what else.

So they did what they could within the pretty awful limitations they had to work with, trying to appeal to the market they HAD to appeal to in order to have a massive, mainstream, Yu-Gi-Oh!-sized hit. The resulting show, aside from not adhering to its origins, just plain sucked. They had to change too much, and the story just didn't hold together anymore, and audiences rejected it.

RollingStone, the whole point of the reply was to state that One Piece doesn't work as a children's show by American standards, and that 4Kids and Toei's attempts to try to make it look as one was what led to the original dub's demise, not that they overedited it. the substantial violence, guns, blood, and adult themes mentioned are things that would NEVER be aired on Vortexx due to FCC backlash, it doesn't have to do with 4Kids wanting to make it more edited than it already should be. As a result, you lose a lot of the show's integrity. It's not as simple as removing some blood during a fight scene or flashing the screen during a few punches.

Their dub fit the standards of a Y7-FV rating, and a FUNi dub would be the same thing basically, except with good voice acting and the original music (and no horrible puns). I'm positive it would be less ridiculous, but there's no possible way to handle it without it making no sense. And again, what kid's block would want to air a show that is simultaneously airing for adults on a different network? What kids would enjoy a show with (what would have to be) butchered fight scenes? A show where, due to liberal editing, would likely leave the viewer with no sense of worry or concern for the characters? Even with Kai's numerous edits you still are able to process that you're watching a fight, they can get away with that in ways OP just can't.

With the original dub aimed at such an audience being such a notoriously colossal failure it would take a remarkably significant lapse in judgement to even consider going such a route. If a show like Fairy Tail, which has extremely minimal use of language (seriously, in the first 48 season alone the strongest word used is "crap", only used a handful of times at best) and complete lack of blood was rejected for air on that network simply due to the voluptuous female character designs (which would then take far too much effort to edit), how would a show like One Piece which carries similar fanservice levels at times (particularly later on), on top of the violence and blood and language mentioned previously have any chance at all?

[AegisVolt]

Again, Maron wins at life. You are so nice and polite and didnt say anything like "LOCK THE THREAD IMMEDIATELY!".

I guess we'll just never know. Fuck Toei.

[firecrouch]

I mean I could see definitely see like a TV-PG "One Piece" on kids/tweens cable like Hub or Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network or something. That'd be cool. But in this day and age a Y7 show is a whole different beast

[Zetto]

Yea, I mean if Funi wanted to put One Piece on a channel for kids I would assume they'd want to air it as TV-PG instead of TV-Y7, because A) there's less to edit, B) the uncut DVDs would be less of a shock to the people that buy them, and C) hopefully by making the series edgier and aimed at an older audience would cause young kids to think the series is cool, since tweens and teens would sit and watch a PG show, whereas they'd be less likely to watch a Y7 show.

[Maron]

I think TV-PG is doable if FUNi ever decided they wanted to tackle a younger demographic (their TV-PG dub on Toonami was pretty good and I believe it would've gotten more lax with the edits in time) but a Y7 dub is just impossible for me to imagine. Too much would be objectionable.

[AegisVolt]

I guess Vortexx could use a G rating like they do with wrestling...

[Death-T]

I think it could be done right for the most part. If done 'right', I think a hypothetical Y7-FV dub could garner a huge following in the U.S like Yu-Gi-Oh or Naruto. That would mean more games and merchandise being brought over among other things. Of course I would only accept a Y7 dub if it were accompanied by an uncut DVD release. If One Piece could get the leeway that Naruto got on Toonami a few years back then it could be done easily and retain the story just fine. If you censor it more strictly, then some story elements like Belamir being killed right in front of her kids might be lost.

Anyway. Censor the blood, keep the language PG, and do the best you can to retain the story while keeping all the names, terminology & original background music intact with accurate translations, and do justice to the show in terms of voice work and direction then a Y7 dub could still do great. You don't gotta butcher the show, change names, terminology, replace the music, make terribly inaccurate scripts, take all Japanese culture out of it, and do horrible voice work to make a show kid-friendly. You just gotta take some of the violence and pervy jokes out of it.

Unfortunately, the time for that is long gone. 4K!Ds kind of ruined whatever chance One Piece had to become massively popular in the States. At least we have an uncut broadcast and uncut DVDs, that's really all you could ask for. I only wish One Piece were done right from the beginning so that it might be more popular, and it's future more secure. (they could be cranking out new One Piece episodes 10 years from now, hopefully the show's cult following will be enough to sustain DVD sales for that long)

[Zetto]

Even when the dub was censored on Toonami we got the uncut DVDs, so I don't think we have to worry there, but I think that One Piece can be successful in the States, it just needs more exposure, so that's out of our hands, all we can do is keep supporting the series.

[Oathkeeper]

Thank you! I think the Vortexx lineup could use a show like Funi One Piece.