Are You A Dub-Hater? Then Read This
All right, a lot of people hate the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub. Heck, maybe you do too. (Yep, I’m talking to you, the reader of this sweet editorial of mine. Cool, huh?)
Now, even though I’ve read through summaries of Japanese episodes (on the websites of fans who are MUCH more “in the loop” than I am), I still like the dub, and probably will continue to like it as long as it shows here where I live, in the US. Sure, I wonder why people feel the need to cut up perfectly reasonable shows, and why they feel they need to censor everything out, but it’s been done, and there ain’t a lot we can do about it. Considering the political climate of the US, I’m surprised they let any foreign stuff show here at all. *grumble grumble* *cough*stupidBush*cough*
Personally, I feel like there’s a reason why certain parts of the story were cut out for the American version (and the reasons aren’t censorship reasons). I think there was an underlying story in the Japanese version that needed to be brought out and made obvious in the US version. The show’s messages, when metaphorically analyzed, are surprisingly simple:
“Have fun, play with friends and live life, but make lasting connections and love your friends and family enough to be willing to help them in times of great need.”
“Those who believe in the concrete reality of this world will gain the benefits of it and no other world; those who believe in the unseen and the unproven world will reap much more.”
Now, in your opinion, don’t those messages need to be delivered in a time when young children are growing up in wartime and falling economies all around the world? I think it’s very necessary to show that friendship still counts for something, and something quite important, even though countries go to war and hate each other for very stupid reasons. I also think it’s very important to give kids the hope that there is much more to life than what can be seen with the physical vision, because if physical reality is all there is, the world is a very sad place indeed. Hell, the suicide rate would increase threefold if it were suddenly revealed that the world we live in is all there is to hope for. In this time of murders, drive-by shootings, robberies, terrorism, war, deadly drug deals, mobs, and all other forms of violence, it’s very comforting to know that there’s a world beyond this, a peaceful world that we all have the power to tap into----the principal idea behind the now-famous statement “the heart of the cards.” I know both the Japanese and the American versions have these messages, but the dub simply translates it into simpler words for the children----who are our future, like it or not.
In short, even though you might think that the dub is chopped up into pieces sometimes (which it is), and that its original story has been destroyed (which it might have been---I don’t know for sure), it’s still useful, and it still has some deep meanings to impart. We as teenagers tend to have the shortest attention spans, and collectively we seem to always want a story that’s complex and has angst and death and blood and violence, because that’s what we’ve grown up with, and that's what we crave. My question is, what’s so damn wrong with a show that has funny dubbed-out stuff (the pointy fingers instead of the guns in the episode Everything’s Relative, for instance)? Might that, indeed, not be a mistake on the dubbers’ part? Could it not be instead a statement that the people who think they’re so macho and powerful when they have a gun actually look pretty stupid and immature? One could certainly pull that meaning out of it.
Just because you think the “good parts” (i.e., the blood, the cussing, the gritty violence, etc.) have been cut out and left on the editing room floor does not mean the dub has nothing to give you, my friend. On the contrary, your little brother or sister may be watching the American YGO dub, and be growing spiritually and learning things about the realm beyond us. You, as a teenager, however, may yearn for blood and violence and character death because it’s the way “they” intended it---and some dub-haters just can’t be bothered to watch a show that might have some positive themes and an actual uplifting message in it. Why? All because some people think that the dub has been made just for kids, and unfortunately, we as teenagers always want the stuff that tears at our hearts and not the stuff that comforts them. Let me tell you, sometimes kids are more astute than we are----we have just forgotten how to see so clearly and so honestly.
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