Why do they dub teen anime for little kids?

Question

When they dubbed Shaman King I was okay with it. Then I find out they changed a lot of things. I got ticked. The same thing happened with Naruto. They know that these animes are for teens so why do they butcher it for little kids to see.

Answer 1

Because there's a huge culture gap between Japanese culture and Western culture. I wrote a whole media paper on this last year, and would love to try and find it for this, but I think I destroyed all evidence upon finishing it. : D (Actually, it was an essay on accounting for Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" being so popular in Western culture, but the first 6 or so pages were background information!)

Japanese anime caters for all ages, from young female (mahou-shoujo/magical girl) stories, to adult male (shounen or hentai) anime. It's widely accepted that manga/anime are read by everybody.
But the fact is, in Western culture, cartoons are targetted at children. There really aren't many cartoons to cater for adults, although lots have risen in recent years - only difference is that they don't follow the same cinematic styles and narratives. They're more generic looking, and the humour is much more toilet humour or random humour you'd find in cartoons like Robot Chicken or Family Guy.
To watch cartoons or read graphic novels as an adult in this culture is looked down on as sad and geeky. Have you ever noticed that? I suppose that's just the way the stereotype has been driven. Yes, it is ridiculous and sad, but even though there is quite a large adult audience, the majority will probably be kids. Fortunately, with all of the mainstream anime being fed into Westerm culture these days, it will be more widely accepted! (Much like Akira and Ghost In The Shell, which I wrote whole paragraphs on, haha.)

Cultural values and beliefs differ a lot too. It's surprising how much swearing you find in anime and manga, but they try to replace it with empty-insults or even babble in English, because we don't teach our children to swear or be impolite. They may be exposed to more swearing, but they're also disciplined to be much more polite.

Finding that they call Ren Tao 'Len/Lenny' in Shaman King was frustrating enough, but finding that they had replaced One Piece's Sanji's cigarette for a lollipop was going a bit too far. 4Kids is widely criticized for it's bad dubbing and distribution of anime, and like I said, with the rise of anime hopefully more adult-orientated companies will emerge and take care of it. I just pray they do well with Bleach, I can't imagine them censoring/manipulating out all of the blood and swearing, afterall.

Sorry I get rather passionate about talking about these things. I hope it somewhat helps though. Just my 2 cents, you know? If you'd like any content of my essay to support anything I've just said, just email me.
Take care. :)

Answer 2

Most Americans seem to think that if something is animated and if it comes from Japan and isn't porn, then it is supposed to be for kids. Look at Sailormoon and the first 53 (?) dubbed episodes of Dragonball Z. Probably two of the worst dub jobs ever. For one thing, we don't want to offend the religious nuts, so Goku won't go to hell, but instead go to HFIL (home for infinite losers). We also don't want our three-year-olds to know that when the Sailor soldiers transform (except Sailormoon herself) that they have body lines, implying nudity. No, don't let our little kids know that Sailormars has boobs!

I often think that Americans really need a good reality check. If you overprotect your kids, nothing good can come of it.

Answer 3

AMericans change the words, take out the violence and whatever good there was in teen anime, when they dub it for kids. Well, kids in America watch cartoons more than teens do, and most people call anime "cartoons". If little kids watch popular anime, it will most likely be very popular in the country. They're crazy

Answer 4

Naruto wasn't really dubbed for little kids. If you watch some of the other dubbed episodes like "The Tenth Question: All or Nothing!" or "A Failure Stands Tall!", you'll see they kept alot of stuff.

For example, in "The Tenth Question: All or Nothing!", Kiba says "That's bull!", and in "A Failure Stands Tall!", Hinata is unconcious and her sensei Kurenai says that she (Hinata) is going in cardiac arrest. Hinata also coughed up quite an amount of blood.

Answer 5

Young Teen Anime Porn

Answer 6

because kids in japan know real life. and i guess poiled americans are be taken cared of?........hahahah

japanese naruto is a million times better than the subbed ones

Answer 7

i really agree with the "shopping is my anitdrug" girl(first person who answered) i think kids in japan are lil' more mature and stuff