Why is the japanese version of SONIC X better?

[Mangoaxe5]

Robotnik: "I don't like the way you attacked Chris and Cosmo. Its one thing to TAKE THEM PRISONER AND THREATEN them, but when you actually hurt somebody that's going too far!"

[SEGAMew]

Chris and Cosmo probably deserved it.

[sonfan1984]

Please tell me that Robotnik does not say this in the japanese version of Sonic X?

I think he only says it in the 4Kids dub....

[Aquaslash]

You know what's funny? People are NEVER happy with Sonic voice actors. Hell, even back when we had the old Sega cast, people still complained.

"WE WANT JALEEL WHITE BACK! RYAN DRUMMOND SUCKS AND SOUNDS RETARDED!!!"

Once Jason is replaced, people will want him back.

Incidentally, since this post, he has been replaced, and I freakin partied hard :V

[Ebby]

A few episodes of the Japanese Sonic X have pretty good humor. The in show music is way better than the stuff in the dub, but that's really it. It is still a bad show. I used to like Sonic X, but that was when I was 14 or 15 and I was just happy to have another Sonic cartoon. Now, I just can't deal with it, dubbed or subtitled.

Oh well, I still have AoStH! =D

[Rabid-Noodles]

IMO I thought it was better mainly for the fact they included crush 40 and Jun Senoue's music in a few episodes, and the fact it wasn't censored so you aren't left on a cliff hanger like, wheres molly? 4Kids made it seem like she flew of to somewhere in space whereas you see her plane get blasted to bits and pieces on the jp version. But that's just my interpretation.

[KrazyBean]

Because the English dub changes a number of things. There are a ton of poorly placed jokes, it changes scenes and plot-points and there are scenes that are missing entirely. In the "space saga" Molly is killed in the Japanese version, whereas the dub has her live on to fight another day- besides being unfaithful, they forgot to edit her gravestone out of one of the shots. This is the definition of a bad dub.

The music is changed too. I think the Japanese version had the better tracks. They were more fitting to the overall style and mood of the show, with a lot of techno and rock mixed in, as well as using some bits of music from the actual games. In the dub, there are some pretty good orchestrated pieces, but the music that isn't part of an action sequence sounds incredibly out of place. Its use of clarinets and horns makes it sound more like something from Warner Brothers than Sonic.

Also the voice acting sucks, except for Mike Pollock.

Not that I liked Sonic X. I thought both versions of the show sucked ass, but the original cut is the lesser of two evils.

Let's not forget the various Swear Words in the Japanese show...mostly "Shit", "Bastard" and "Damn"

[DarkLight]

Let's not forget the various Swear Words in the Japanese show...mostly "Shit", "Bastard" and "Damn"

And going by how much cussing there was in StH, swearing can become tiring to hear especially when the characters try to sound serious instead of, you know, emote and be credible.

[MugiMikey]

SEGA has final say over 4Kids just as they have all final sayings for the Archie published Sonic Comics and Jazwares figures.

Yeah, and the Archie comics are bad too. Actually, way worse than Sonic X.

Let's not forget the various Swear Words in the Japanese show...mostly "Shit", "Bastard" and "Damn"

Besides Sonic saying "shit" in episode 2, everything else is just the result of fansubbers trying to make the show look too hardcore for its own good.

Incidentally, since this post, he has been replaced, and I freakin partied hard :V

It seems to have split the fanbase up a bit more (which is seriously stupid), so yeah. I know plenty of people that want him back and plenty of people that don't.

[sonfan1984]

I know some people on youtube who is protesting and petitioning Sega to bring the 4Kids actors back. It didn't work when the fans was protesting Sega to bring Ryan Drummond and the SA voice cast back and I'd doubt it would work now.

[DarkLight]

I know some people on youtube who is protesting and petitioning Sega to bring the 4Kids actors back. It didn't work when the fans was protesting Sega to bring Ryan Drummond and the SA voice cast back and I'd doubt it would work now.

And thus the cycle of the voice-actor wars continues anew...

[RDNexus]

Guys, there's something wrong here...

I've watched though Sonic X' SA1&2 Arcs, and according to Sonic News Network's Sonic X section there was supposed to play, in each of the game's adaptations' final battle, the main theme of said game...

Well, the episodes I have don't play such music, instead they play a usual dramatic theme for battles...

What went wrong here? Is there another version of the episodes with the themes?

[Core]

Guys, there's something wrong here...

I've watched though Sonic X' SA1&2 Arcs, and according to Sonic News Network's Sonic X section there was supposed to play, in each of the game's adaptations' final battle, the main theme of said game...

Well, the episodes I have don't play such music, instead they play a usual dramatic theme for battles...

What went wrong here? Is there another version of the episodes with the themes?

I don't remember anything about Open Your Heart, but Live and Learn do play during the last episode of SA2's arc. Of course, it was replaced in the 4Kids version, just like the rest of the soundtrack. So you'll only hear it in the Japanese (or French) version.

[RDNexus]

I don't remember anything about Open Your Heart, but Live and Learn do play during the last episode of SA2's arc. Of course, it was replaced in the 4Kids version, just like the rest of the soundtrack. So you'll only hear it in the Japanese (or French) version.

The version I'm watching is THE JAPANESE...

Oh! TCH!!! I was seeing Ep38 this moment... xD

Only in the final minute they played it... They should have done it during the battle...

I should have watched all of the episode before making stupid questions here...

Sorry, all of you xD

BTW, I'm not a fan of Sonic X, and I prefer even more to stay away from the 4kids version.

Edited January 25, 2011 by XRick

[KyleTalaidCNA]

Also The Japanese Version Dubbed in Tagalog on GMA7 (2004, 2017) & GMA NewsTV (2018)

Which it did not censored based terms from the MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board)

[DabigRG]

Because they made the show in the first place and thus had full control and familiarity over what went into it.

[Your Vest Friend]

If there is a difference, to me it's so negligible as to not be worth the look. 

[DabigRG]

On 3/12/2010 at 10:34 AM, Crow the BOOLET said:

Silly censorship is silly. 4kids censor some of the silliest things but not all of it.

 

In episode 18 4kids censor up the part where Eggman shocks the group of crocodiles so you would randomly see belly up crocodiles in front of Eggman.

 

Like I said silly censorship. And the fact they didn't got the 2nd to last episode right either.

Oh yeah, I do remember that.

I thought he just beat them up himself.

On 3/12/2010 at 12:05 PM, PC the Hedgehog said:

 

 

At risk of insulting the world of music, I thought that little ditty was, dare I say, kinda catchy.

 

Same.

On 1/14/2011 at 5:42 AM, SEGAMew said:

Cream complaining about being given a passport/license/papers to certify her as a pet rather than a sapient being are cut out.

Wait, what? When was this? 

On 1/14/2011 at 6:25 PM, -Mark- said:

SEGA actually forced 4Kids to rerecord one line in episode seventeen, because they got it so horrendously wrong.

 

When you first hear Tikal, she says (quite sensibly) "The servers are the seven chaos". Having never played or even researched the games, 4Kids obviously had no idea what this line was or meant, or that it had any kind of importance. In the first US TV airing of the episode, the line had been changed to "Collect the seven chaos emeralds, and te mystery will be revealed".

 

Then SEGA went apeshit, bitchslapped 4Kids around a bit and they changed the line to the proper, direct game reference.

Oh yeah, I do recall something like that.

Never heard of SEGA changing the line there though.

On 1/15/2011 at 1:41 PM, Spinneret said:

I think both versions are bad. I have a lot of problems with Sonic X

 

1. Sonic and his friends are transported to Earth, but in the games Sonic and his friends have always lived on Earth.

2.Eggman comes from Sonic's world, but yet in Sonic X's SA2 arc we learn that Eggman's grandfather lived on Earth, which makes no sense since Eggman lived on Sonic's world till Chaos Control brought him to Earth.

 

Hilarious in Hindsight.

[Tori Himemiya]

12 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Oh yeah, I do remember that.

I thought he just beat them up himself.

Buh? I never thought I'd get quoted for something I'd said in 2010 in 2019 but its clear I'm a way different person. Its nice to see how much I did change from then though.

I will say I would mention a lot of changes that 4Kids did during the localization which includes translation errors and censorship but that's pretty easy to pick up if you're really good at checking the smallest details. I will say there are a lot of translation issues early on like for example Eggman's base being named "Chaos Control" for example. And if something feels sped up or cut awkwardly then they censored it, namely for violence like Shadow hitting Chris during the latter's big speech.

I'm only really mentioning it for the topic's sake really. I've just gotten really good at picking up localization errors over the years. I won't try to nitpick on things because that takes too much time and not every change is bad but its interesting when you have an eye for it.

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, Crow the BOOLET said:

Buh? I never thought I'd get quoted for something I'd said in 2010 in 2019 but its clear I'm a way different person. Its nice to see how much I did change from then though.

Well this was a random egregious bump, so....

 

yeah.

[Mark_The_Dephiles]

A whole host of reasons really. First off, the original soundtrack was replaced in the English version for some reason, and I don't just mean the songs that have Japanese lyrics, I mean the entire soundtrack. This is unfortunate because most of the Japanese instrumental songs are just better and much more memorable than most of the English ones. The dialog is more nuanced and fits the stories better. (I remember having a lot of parts in the English version that left me outright confused but made much more sense after watching the subbed Japanese versions) This is in part due to the absurd amount of censorship and unnecessary changes 4kids decided to make. One of the worst examples of this is in the Molly episode where they actually cut out a character death completely and tried to act like that character was going to come back in another episode or something.  And then there is just an enumerable amount of small dumb things like removing text and replacing gun sounds and wine bottles.

[Skull Leader]

The only thing that might be better are the dialogues, but the actual animation is still the same thing with the same problems that makes one wonder if this was actually done by TMS.

The only thing that might be better are the dialogues, but the actual animation is still the same thing with the same problems that makes one wonder if this was actually done by TMS.

[DabigRG]

Actually, there was a video that investigates the animation process a bit. Unfortunately it apparently got claimed for copyright, so I can't link it.

Basically, there was only one person checking the key frames.

 

[Romaniac]

I honestly don't mind the dub version, seeing that I hate reading subtitles, and I think the voice acting is great for the dub. I do have to admit the rif for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER gets very annoying after about 3 episodes. The music is way better in the japanese version but you wouldn't know any better if you watched the english version without knowing the other exists. I'm really on both sides here.

[E-122-Psi]

I could argue that the 4Kids dialogue at least tries to make the cast more likeable, just the translation was utterly slapdash and awkward. The Japanese version is sometimes pretty on-the-nose about its flanderisation and more passive aggressive characterisations, it's more blunt about how the cast almost orgasmically love taking Knuckles down a peg (and Knuckles doing far less to fight back), or how Amy is basically a violent tempered bitch who only pretends (badly) to be a sweet little girl, something the dub sometimes tries to tone down. The jokes and dialogue are often far more poorly written as a result, but less mean spirited.

To paraphrase the two for comparison, in the scene after Knuckles is bullied into finding a key in SA2 and Bokkun sends the Egg Golem on him, the Japanese version has Sonic far more curt:

(angrily) "We asked him politely to get us a key and he brings back a monster?"

"What do you mean? I got the door open!"

(sarcastic) "Yatta." (basically translates to 'whoop di freakin' doo').

 

The 4Kids dub however is scripted more like banter:

(snide) "I got the door open. Are you happy now?"

(coy) "Hmmm....I GUESS so."

The Japanese version seems to play off Sonic almost like a jerkass boss, chewing out Knuckles for failing after he (from his point of view) made such a fair and respectful request, and Knuckles just kind of acting wimpy and defensive. The dub on the other hand has more playful nuance, with Knuckles biting back more. It's clear from the last bit that Sonic just likes messing with him.

 

The exception it seems to dither with is making its villains sympathetic (though even then it seems to submit in areas they realise it's become key to the story, it almost does it for Eggman TOO much by the end). Yellow Zekova is a key case of this, though I get the feeling that was more due to his rather grizzly death sequence in the original than trying to keep things black and white. They kinda hit a Morton's Fork with their heavy censorship in Season Three.