Meandering Mondays: Lost in Translation: One Piece

Hello again everyone, this week I'm going to do another article in my series about localization of anime with one of the most notorious dubs of all One Piece.  For those of you who have never heard of it One Piece follows a crew of pirates searching for One Piece a legendary treasure hidden by the King of the Pirates. 

Warning spoilers Ahead


So the first thing to note about the dub of One Piece is that there are 2 versions the 4kids version and the Funimation version.  This article will mainly be concerned with the 4kids dub since it was much more heavily localized and has a much larger reputation. 

A key piece of information to know about the 4kids dub is that 4kids acquired the license without any knowledge about the series as part of a bundle with several other shows.  Afterwards they discovered that the show was for a much older audience than the shows they normally work with and chose to edit the show to match their demographic since they were contractually obligated to produce the dub.

One of the changes they made to better market the show to their audience was a completely redone opening which very accurately explains the premise of the series and was updated as new members joined the crew. This differs greatly from the original opening in terms of content and musical style

4kids opening

Original Japanese

The next group of edits primarily concern the removal of content deemed too violent for a Saturday morning cartoon.  The case of this I am most familiar with is the death of Kuina.  Kuina was a childhood rival of Zoro and the 2 swore that one of them would become the greatest swordsman in the world.  In the 4kids dub it is said that she was attacked by a mob and injured so severely that she could never wield a sword again while in the original series she fell down a flight of stairs and died.  The significance of this change is relatively small in terms of the story but the choice to substitute falling down a flight of stairs for a an attack by a vengeful mob seems interesting when trying to make the show more child friendly.  

To round out today's article we come to the most notorious change in the series, the removal of all tobacco products.  The two main instances of this are the replacement of Sanji's cigarette with a lolipop and the removal of Smoker's signature cigars.  Sanji's change is almost purely aesthetic and has no real impact on the plot of the series but its constant presence makes in much more agitating to some fans.  Smoker's change on the other hand is dramatic.  In every appearance Smoker has bandoliers of cigars on and is smoking at least 1 at any given time.  In the 4kids dub the cigars are removed and the smoke from them is claimed to be a result of his devil fruit power.  Later on in the dub his power is explained as being steam based instead of the original smoke.  However the most intensive alteration is that Smoker's name is changed to Chaser in the 4kids dub.  

This should cover the main differences between the 4kids dub and the original Japanese.  Personally I watched the 4kids dub when it aired on television and didn't find it particularly lacking.  I'll be back later this week for the anime review so see you then.