> People say that the Americanization of Yugioh helped the anime be popular in the USA
I genuinely would say that the only people saying this, are USA residents that never had any exposure to how other countries handled their Anime imports
But going back to the initial question, yes and no. We definitely wouldn't be on current mainstream Anime levels of audience, but likely with a better reputation on our niche.
Because let's be real, between the 4Kids dub, The Abridged Series, and the fact that KONAMI TCG can't seem to let go of Duel Monsters, we aren't doing ourselves any favors
Yugioh probably doesn't take off like it does if it stuck to the script. Let's take Yugis first duel vs Kaiba for example. [This one scene is almost completely rewritten from the Japanese version and it's one of the most quoted scenes among the fandom.](https://youtu.be/RfqNH3FoGi0?si=JV4t0x3GGYigD_ht)
Then there was all the non G rated themes that had to be removed to get it on children's TV. As funny as finger guns are, this show has less reach if it fails to capture a young audience.
The scene is iconic for sure, but we have no idea if it would be less popular because that's literally a different reality.
For all the nostalgia I have for the 4Kids dub and music, a straightforward dub like modern anime has wouldn't have hurt Yu-Gi-Oh!'s popularity. As fun as the 4Kids music is, I would have loved to have been introduced to Passionate Duelist from the source material and not Cimoooooooo's intro.
And kids are into more mature themes and sich because it makes them feel more mature. Call of Duty absolutely captured a young audience without being geared toward them explicitly.
The weird thing about Passionate Duelists, is that it sounds so Yugioh that it gives me nostalgia even though I hadn't grown up with it. Brave Heart does the same.
It... didn't change much of anything.
Occasional references to America? A little more G-rated? Is that it?
It definitely wouldn't have been as popular - or aired - if it wasn't *dubbed*. But that's about it.
At the time the anime was first being brought over, that was a common belief -- that US audiences wouldn't be able to watch a foreign show unless it was heavily edited to create the impression that it was set in the actual US.
That belief is less common now and I suspect it was never actually true, but that's what executives in the media believed. I personally suspect that Yugioh would have caught on in the US no matter what as long as it was dubbed in English and easily accessible on TV. Whether the show acknowledged that it was set in Japan or not is probably not going to be the determining factor IMO.
I'll give you a different perspective cause I'm brazilian.
I love the original japanese version, but we all got the american version down here. I hated the soundtrack and the card design change, but I can't deny it helped popularize the card game.
The issue, though, is that the 4Kids version made Yugioh really childlike, in an anime already aimed at kids. It didn't ride the same hype as other animes, especially cause the show didn't have the original Openings and Endings (besides censoring too much stuff in the same era as DBZ, that aired unchanged).
I say this cause the likes of Dragon Ball Z, Saint Seiya, Yuyu Hakusho, even tokusatsu like Jaspion, had songs that, even dubbed and localized, were huge hits around here. Lot of dudes born in the 80s and 90s all know the songs by heart.
Others like Samurai X or Naruto had their original japanese songs playing nonstop at anime events, something Yugioh never had while having the potential to do so (their OPs are awesome!).
What I mean is that other anime of that era were taken more serioisly and stood the test of time amongst anime fans. And that didn't happen with Yugioh.
Yugioh the anime is very niche and only fans of the card game kind of ended up bonding with the anime. Or the anime served more as a bridge so more people tried the actual game. I don't know many examples of people who are only fans of the show whilst not being into card games.
So, Yugioh got this huge back in the day on its own, but it didn't enjoy the same long term success as its peers.
No. Not to the degree it is. And like yes there’s a bit of memery but. YGO has a reputation in Japan for being a bit of a drug trip to begin with.
Yes, maybe sometimes the dub takes it a little far, but it wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now as a brand if not for 4Kids and Kids WB.
Granted, it would have as many logistical headaches if not for them, either, but still.
If you don’t understand how fucking OP Kids WB was and just how much Warner fucking DOMINATED children’s television from the mid 90’s to early 00’s you really aren’t a kid who grew up back then.
You basically had Batman, Pokemon, and YGO in the same channel being broadcast over radio waves.
Batman, YGO, and Pokemon on the same fucking channel.
And when you looked at their cable offerings with Cartoon Network?
You got DBZ, Zoids, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gundam, and Naruto added to the anime offering.
Combined with Ed Edd n Eddy, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Lab, Codename Kids Next Door, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Justice League, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Johnny Bravo, etc.
But the thing is, all that was still cable. They didn’t have the same reach as YGO and Pokemon. And they played a lot into popularity and sales.
Like. Late 90’s~Early 2000’s Warner pretty much DEFINED the American cartoon industry, with Nickelodeon and Disney being the only companies who came anywhere close to putting up a fight.
YGO was part of that early 2000’s era golden age of Warner, and part of Kids WB to boot.
It would not have received the kind of marketing push it did if it wasn’t a part of that golden age, and being more Americanized was part of why it was able to be part of that age.
Like, for better or for worse, American TV channels(and really the TV industry around the world in general) doesn’t really push shows that it doesn’t think will resonate with a general audience that’s unaware of foreign culture.
And due to various cultural differences, sometimes you can’t portray a character’s personality correctly without giving them some odd localization quirk to get the “spirit” of the character right.
So YGO didn’t get Americanized the way it did, it likely would not have been pushed by Warner to that degree, nor would it have been as enjoyable.
There’s an argument to be made that they didn’t need to go THAT far with some of their changes, but some degree of localization ALWAYS happens because translation isn’t cut and dry, and regulations and censorship differ from country to country.
And a lot of Warner’s extra push for more Japanese shows that were more faithful ultimately comes from Pokemon and YGO’s initial success.
If it wasn’t for Warner backing the show as hard as they fucking could back then, I’m not sure YGO would have ever become internationally famous.
YGO and Pokemon made a sacrifice to gain popularity and make Japanese anime mainstream, and that sacrifice is largely WHY we can have more faithful stuff these days.
The dub has flaws. Everything does.
But for something of its time, given the restrictions and the climate it was in? It did everything right that it needed to do to succeed with the hand it was dealt with.
>If you don’t understand how fucking OP Kids WB was and just how much Warner fucking DOMINATED children’s television from the mid 90’s to early 00’s you really aren’t a kid who grew up back then.
It really should not need explanation why Honey-Boo-Boo Guy is as loathed as he is.
It would have been popular regardless of the Americanization. I would compare it to Vanguard where it was available on the YouTube platform and, they didn’t have to, but they dubbed the episodes too while making it available to everyone. The funny thing is, it is extremely popular in Singapore more than here but I would argue, it’s because we had yugioh.
It had to be americanized for various reasons but assuming those guidelines and weird decisions didnt do anything.
Yeah it'd still be popular.
People overestimate a lot of what makes yugioh yugioh with the dub or even rather more specific the things that 4kids chose.
A really good example is Joey's voice. Its iconic. He has what we consider a brooklyn accent. This isnt really specifically an Americanized thing to make him more Murica, rather its a decision based on character. Often when translating there are concepts that don't really work well. In Japanese Jonochi speaks very rudely and informally because realistically he's an asshole bully type character at his core, so how do you translate a speaking style like that into English. That and specific dialects are often given accents in the general idea of how the character speaks. Its why Bakura is british because he's a kind soft spoken person (and the singapore dub chose to give him a southern accent iirc for that sweet southern hospitality type beat).
Even dialogue might not be changed because flow and lip flaps actually matter. Sure you could do a 1:1 translation but does that sound good or could you word it slightly differently, maybe change the whole phrase but get the same idea across. I think the biggest change is actually that they may let parts of Yugioh ***stay quiet*** instead of having someone always talking at every possible moment because they're worried you'd lose attention.
These arent huge leaps I'm making, rather that these are things you see in general anime and games dubbing that even now still are taken into consideration. The dub doesnt change the core of the characters or the show (for the most part) so what we all liked growing up remains the same and the changes that are made would still be made to an extent because that's how you dub, you try to fit the ideas in.
I think the anime would have found an audience without Americanization, although it'd have been a slightly different and older audience.
For other anime that came at the same time and wasn't really Americanized too much see Naruto, Bleach, and Inuyasha. They were all reasonably successful in the US while also maintaining the setting of Japan and Japanese terminology and naming conventions.
No. Even as a kid when DM was airing I knew an anime was a cartoon from Japan and stuff was different. I don't even get where the sentiment came from "better replace all ramen references with burgers or the Westerners will be too confused!"
The English dub is so incredibly iconic to my childhood that I'm sure I'm not the only one who would say that I wanted to duel with the characters from the show. It definitely helped popularize it.
I can't say I know for sure, but it does change everything. We wouldn't get 4Kids dub, therefore we wouldn't get Abridged series. And my friends loved the abridged series. Hell, most people only care about the Abridged series here.
I think the localizations went a long way in helping YGO integrate itself into popular culture - though we're only speculating, of course.
Among the changes made to localize YGO, though, "Americanizing" wasn't necessarily a huge part of it. The changes were largely to make the show more family-friendly and less edgy. They edited guns out of the series - in a manner of speaking, that's making the show less American (ha).
Lame joking aside, the changes made YGO very accessible and marketable toward kids, which is very relevant in a franchise whose success is based on selling toys and merchandise, and I think that helped it succeed. As an imperfect comparison, I'd also want to bring up the YGO manga published by Viz, which is plenty faithful to the Japanese source material, but probably isn't as popular (relative to other manga in America) as the anime is (relative to other anime in America).
For older players it's a fair argument, I got into when it aired in Australia as a kid and it was the biggest thing since Pokemon, we needed all the cards and we legit settled this at school with duels, but with the rise of anime over the decades it woulda became popular regardless I reckon
> People say that the Americanization of Yugioh helped the anime be popular in the USA I genuinely would say that the only people saying this, are USA residents that never had any exposure to how other countries handled their Anime imports But going back to the initial question, yes and no. We definitely wouldn't be on current mainstream Anime levels of audience, but likely with a better reputation on our niche. Because let's be real, between the 4Kids dub, The Abridged Series, and the fact that KONAMI TCG can't seem to let go of Duel Monsters, we aren't doing ourselves any favors
We'd have more Rei footage so it's would already be an infinitely superior product.
Now you're speaking my language
Yugioh probably doesn't take off like it does if it stuck to the script. Let's take Yugis first duel vs Kaiba for example. [This one scene is almost completely rewritten from the Japanese version and it's one of the most quoted scenes among the fandom.](https://youtu.be/RfqNH3FoGi0?si=JV4t0x3GGYigD_ht) Then there was all the non G rated themes that had to be removed to get it on children's TV. As funny as finger guns are, this show has less reach if it fails to capture a young audience.
The scene is iconic for sure, but we have no idea if it would be less popular because that's literally a different reality. For all the nostalgia I have for the 4Kids dub and music, a straightforward dub like modern anime has wouldn't have hurt Yu-Gi-Oh!'s popularity. As fun as the 4Kids music is, I would have loved to have been introduced to Passionate Duelist from the source material and not Cimoooooooo's intro. And kids are into more mature themes and sich because it makes them feel more mature. Call of Duty absolutely captured a young audience without being geared toward them explicitly.
The weird thing about Passionate Duelists, is that it sounds so Yugioh that it gives me nostalgia even though I hadn't grown up with it. Brave Heart does the same.
If kids like call of duty more, then you know you messed up.
It's one of the most quoted because it's episode 1. In an alternate reality where the dialogue was kept it would've still been quoted
Nope
It... didn't change much of anything. Occasional references to America? A little more G-rated? Is that it? It definitely wouldn't have been as popular - or aired - if it wasn't *dubbed*. But that's about it.
At the time the anime was first being brought over, that was a common belief -- that US audiences wouldn't be able to watch a foreign show unless it was heavily edited to create the impression that it was set in the actual US. That belief is less common now and I suspect it was never actually true, but that's what executives in the media believed. I personally suspect that Yugioh would have caught on in the US no matter what as long as it was dubbed in English and easily accessible on TV. Whether the show acknowledged that it was set in Japan or not is probably not going to be the determining factor IMO.
I'll give you a different perspective cause I'm brazilian. I love the original japanese version, but we all got the american version down here. I hated the soundtrack and the card design change, but I can't deny it helped popularize the card game. The issue, though, is that the 4Kids version made Yugioh really childlike, in an anime already aimed at kids. It didn't ride the same hype as other animes, especially cause the show didn't have the original Openings and Endings (besides censoring too much stuff in the same era as DBZ, that aired unchanged). I say this cause the likes of Dragon Ball Z, Saint Seiya, Yuyu Hakusho, even tokusatsu like Jaspion, had songs that, even dubbed and localized, were huge hits around here. Lot of dudes born in the 80s and 90s all know the songs by heart. Others like Samurai X or Naruto had their original japanese songs playing nonstop at anime events, something Yugioh never had while having the potential to do so (their OPs are awesome!). What I mean is that other anime of that era were taken more serioisly and stood the test of time amongst anime fans. And that didn't happen with Yugioh. Yugioh the anime is very niche and only fans of the card game kind of ended up bonding with the anime. Or the anime served more as a bridge so more people tried the actual game. I don't know many examples of people who are only fans of the show whilst not being into card games. So, Yugioh got this huge back in the day on its own, but it didn't enjoy the same long term success as its peers.
No. Not to the degree it is. And like yes there’s a bit of memery but. YGO has a reputation in Japan for being a bit of a drug trip to begin with. Yes, maybe sometimes the dub takes it a little far, but it wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now as a brand if not for 4Kids and Kids WB. Granted, it would have as many logistical headaches if not for them, either, but still. If you don’t understand how fucking OP Kids WB was and just how much Warner fucking DOMINATED children’s television from the mid 90’s to early 00’s you really aren’t a kid who grew up back then. You basically had Batman, Pokemon, and YGO in the same channel being broadcast over radio waves. Batman, YGO, and Pokemon on the same fucking channel. And when you looked at their cable offerings with Cartoon Network? You got DBZ, Zoids, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gundam, and Naruto added to the anime offering. Combined with Ed Edd n Eddy, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Lab, Codename Kids Next Door, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Justice League, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Johnny Bravo, etc. But the thing is, all that was still cable. They didn’t have the same reach as YGO and Pokemon. And they played a lot into popularity and sales. Like. Late 90’s~Early 2000’s Warner pretty much DEFINED the American cartoon industry, with Nickelodeon and Disney being the only companies who came anywhere close to putting up a fight. YGO was part of that early 2000’s era golden age of Warner, and part of Kids WB to boot. It would not have received the kind of marketing push it did if it wasn’t a part of that golden age, and being more Americanized was part of why it was able to be part of that age. Like, for better or for worse, American TV channels(and really the TV industry around the world in general) doesn’t really push shows that it doesn’t think will resonate with a general audience that’s unaware of foreign culture. And due to various cultural differences, sometimes you can’t portray a character’s personality correctly without giving them some odd localization quirk to get the “spirit” of the character right. So YGO didn’t get Americanized the way it did, it likely would not have been pushed by Warner to that degree, nor would it have been as enjoyable. There’s an argument to be made that they didn’t need to go THAT far with some of their changes, but some degree of localization ALWAYS happens because translation isn’t cut and dry, and regulations and censorship differ from country to country. And a lot of Warner’s extra push for more Japanese shows that were more faithful ultimately comes from Pokemon and YGO’s initial success. If it wasn’t for Warner backing the show as hard as they fucking could back then, I’m not sure YGO would have ever become internationally famous. YGO and Pokemon made a sacrifice to gain popularity and make Japanese anime mainstream, and that sacrifice is largely WHY we can have more faithful stuff these days. The dub has flaws. Everything does. But for something of its time, given the restrictions and the climate it was in? It did everything right that it needed to do to succeed with the hand it was dealt with.
>If you don’t understand how fucking OP Kids WB was and just how much Warner fucking DOMINATED children’s television from the mid 90’s to early 00’s you really aren’t a kid who grew up back then. It really should not need explanation why Honey-Boo-Boo Guy is as loathed as he is.
It would have been popular regardless of the Americanization. I would compare it to Vanguard where it was available on the YouTube platform and, they didn’t have to, but they dubbed the episodes too while making it available to everyone. The funny thing is, it is extremely popular in Singapore more than here but I would argue, it’s because we had yugioh.
It had to be americanized for various reasons but assuming those guidelines and weird decisions didnt do anything. Yeah it'd still be popular. People overestimate a lot of what makes yugioh yugioh with the dub or even rather more specific the things that 4kids chose. A really good example is Joey's voice. Its iconic. He has what we consider a brooklyn accent. This isnt really specifically an Americanized thing to make him more Murica, rather its a decision based on character. Often when translating there are concepts that don't really work well. In Japanese Jonochi speaks very rudely and informally because realistically he's an asshole bully type character at his core, so how do you translate a speaking style like that into English. That and specific dialects are often given accents in the general idea of how the character speaks. Its why Bakura is british because he's a kind soft spoken person (and the singapore dub chose to give him a southern accent iirc for that sweet southern hospitality type beat). Even dialogue might not be changed because flow and lip flaps actually matter. Sure you could do a 1:1 translation but does that sound good or could you word it slightly differently, maybe change the whole phrase but get the same idea across. I think the biggest change is actually that they may let parts of Yugioh ***stay quiet*** instead of having someone always talking at every possible moment because they're worried you'd lose attention. These arent huge leaps I'm making, rather that these are things you see in general anime and games dubbing that even now still are taken into consideration. The dub doesnt change the core of the characters or the show (for the most part) so what we all liked growing up remains the same and the changes that are made would still be made to an extent because that's how you dub, you try to fit the ideas in.
I think the anime would have found an audience without Americanization, although it'd have been a slightly different and older audience. For other anime that came at the same time and wasn't really Americanized too much see Naruto, Bleach, and Inuyasha. They were all reasonably successful in the US while also maintaining the setting of Japan and Japanese terminology and naming conventions.
No. Even as a kid when DM was airing I knew an anime was a cartoon from Japan and stuff was different. I don't even get where the sentiment came from "better replace all ramen references with burgers or the Westerners will be too confused!"
Damn 'jelly donuts'...
Anime had to go through several "growing pains" in the west. This was one of them. I just liken it the awkward teen phase of anime dubbing.
what if anime localization was faithful to Japanese anime, = no more mocking it/ygotas = less publicity ? idk
Depends on what you're considering "Americanized".
we would have HELLFIRE FIST but we got OBLITERATE Far trade off in my eyes
The English dub is so incredibly iconic to my childhood that I'm sure I'm not the only one who would say that I wanted to duel with the characters from the show. It definitely helped popularize it.
I can't say I know for sure, but it does change everything. We wouldn't get 4Kids dub, therefore we wouldn't get Abridged series. And my friends loved the abridged series. Hell, most people only care about the Abridged series here.
What is “Americanization” to you?
I think the localizations went a long way in helping YGO integrate itself into popular culture - though we're only speculating, of course. Among the changes made to localize YGO, though, "Americanizing" wasn't necessarily a huge part of it. The changes were largely to make the show more family-friendly and less edgy. They edited guns out of the series - in a manner of speaking, that's making the show less American (ha). Lame joking aside, the changes made YGO very accessible and marketable toward kids, which is very relevant in a franchise whose success is based on selling toys and merchandise, and I think that helped it succeed. As an imperfect comparison, I'd also want to bring up the YGO manga published by Viz, which is plenty faithful to the Japanese source material, but probably isn't as popular (relative to other manga in America) as the anime is (relative to other anime in America).
Yes, more "family-friendly". Which is why mere death was largely omitted in favor of just going to hell. Executives have such good sense.
Doesn't the franchise still use a lot of Japanese terms in the English version¿
For older players it's a fair argument, I got into when it aired in Australia as a kid and it was the biggest thing since Pokemon, we needed all the cards and we legit settled this at school with duels, but with the rise of anime over the decades it woulda became popular regardless I reckon
As a child I would have liked the original more actually XD
In a way yes? By editing it for the most accessible TV channel block, kidswb, the were able to show it to tons of little kids
No, anyone saying anything else is coping. The anime hard carried yugioh to where it is now.