 Pikachu yellow =
Original text (2000) |
 Ditto pink =
Additional text (2003-08) |
 Wobuffet blue =
New segments (2004-08) |
  , American Style...
If you're a fan of any Japanese animé, and have been introduced to your favorite shows through American television, by now, you're probably aware that several aspects of these English-dubbed imports have suffered in the translation. Known for its more mature themes, animé has a reputation for being edited by U.S. censors for harsh language, violence, nudity, homosexuality, etc... once they travel overseas (although most American-made shows get away with far worse, and the kids are watching!) When I was a teacher, the relatively new subject of multiculturalism was already heavily integrated into the curriculum to give children an opportunity to learn about and respect other cultures. But like the Borg, who assimilate other cultures to match their own, those prepping animé for America see fit to exclude the knowledge of animé-based Japanese culture from our multicultural melting pot. Select Pokémon episodes have been edited, delayed, and even deleted simply for being "too Japanese", including the Americanization of traditional Japanese holidays such as Girl's Day ("Princess vs. Princess") and Children's Day ("The Purr-fect Hero"). From writing over normal dialogue with trendy buzz phrases (I can't even watch dubbed Sailor Moon anymore!) to giving characters American accents (cowboy, Valley Girl, surfer dude) to renaming foreign foods (rice balls have been called everything from donuts to sandwiches to popcorn balls...even painting over rice balls altogether!), the U.S. dubbers are determined to keep Japan out of Japanese animé. Even cute, clean animé, such as Hamtaro, if for nothing else, will continue to be censored for their planet Earth-based show taking place in Japan. Between the two, obviously-Japanese-looking food (such as rice being eaten with chopsticks) has been dubbed 'Chinese food' and even passed off as 'meatloaf'!
I'll never forget a classroom poster that depicted cultures from around the world, showing people from various countries wearing native costumes and performing traditional dances. But what was shown to represent the United States? A fat guy sitting at a fast food counter scarffing down a burger and large fries! I can't tell you how many times the dubbers have tried to give us the illusion of Ash doing exactly that. If Ash consumed the amount of burgers he claimed to crave in the dub (vs. the few he was actually seen eating or spoke of), he'd be as big as a Snorlax! It took eight years since the edited first season of Sailor Moon aired on U.S. television for the uncut series to be released on DVD. How long must we wait to be able to fill in the blanks for Pokémon? I mean, if he's really eating cheeseburgers in every other episode, then fine, but for now, we'll never know! Imagine my pleasant surprise when I first saw The Prince of Tennis, an English-dubbed (for the first 50 episodes anyway) animé so true to the original Japanese that it could actually use a few subtitles (on lists, signs, scoreboards, etc...), but at least on Prince of Tennis, you can be sure that burgers are burgers and sushi is sushi!
 Ironically, while U.S. schools are embracing this need to surround our future leaders with foreign language and culture, there has been a rising underground backlash from parents who consider it anti-American. Nowadays, bilingual (particularly preschool) television shows and hard to ignore, but easy to target for that very reason. I can't speak for all of them, but as previously mentioned, there's a lot more to "Go, Diego, Go" than 'brainwashing' kids into speaking Spanish, just as there's so much more to Pokémon than the thunderbolt-induced seizures that it will unfortunately always be remembered for. Not only is the show set appropriately in a Central/South American rain forest, where Spanish is the native language, it centers on educating children about the animals and environment they call home, and our hero Diego exhibits an enthusiastic, genuine, non-political kindness toward animals that's the most important lesson of all. That same pure, unconditional compassion for all living creatures has always been a core value in the Pokémon world that sadly no one can see when working to so blindly condemn these otherwise beloved characters for something else. Language may seem to create borders, whether it's all around us or masked by dubbing, but compassion is universal.
 And no offense to Nick Jr.'s newest cross-cultural cutie "Ni Hao, Kai-lan", but I find it a bit hypocritical to be airing an American-made show that focuses on educating kids about Asian culture (in this case Chinese), when for years, Americans have been doing everything possible to erase any such cultural references from Japanese-based programs with aforementioned dubbing and paint-overs. While the answer may be 'yes' to the question 'do we want our children to learn about other cultures?', one now has to wonder if maybe the real issue is with the teacher?
 When you can walk into Best Buy and find an aisle full of bilingual/subtitled animé, yet, all you can find of Pokémon are the same edited English-dubbed episodes that already aired on television in the children's section, you have to wonder if there will ever be an official alternative to those fuzzy fansubs on YouTube. And in a world that often boasts "complete, uncut, uncensored" when it comes to what you can get on DVD, Pokémon seems to be one of the last hold-outs. But after ten years, fans have read the comparisons, groaned at the paint-overs, and the banned episodes have never really been a secret as we've held our breath waiting for the opportunity to bring the Japanese Pocket Monsters home. But while no one profits from free fansubs, the Pokémon powers-that-be are sitting on a gold mine when there are so many fans like myself who would gladly pay for a superior-quality DVD that I could hold in my hands and keep forever...and an honest chance to finally "catch 'em all" (I have been watching American Pokémon for a long time)!
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