Duelingbook Forum

Disclaimer: i know back then we weren't as "Offended" as kids of today.

Most of us here, I'm willing to bet, grew up with the original series of Duel Monsters with Yugi, Atem, Seto Kaiba, Joey, Mai, Tristan, Pegasus, ect.

Yugioh: a tv show meant for kids. Contains: Friendship, Hardships, and Laughter. Seems family friendly right? Hell naw! You forgot the following:

- Imprisonment!
- Thievery
- Soul Stealing
- Attempting to achieve World Domination (Thief Bakura had a goal of obtaining all 7 millennium items so he could rule the world)
- Suffering (The Shadow Realm)
- Anguish (Shadow Realm)
- Revenge
- Bullying

Yeah all that seems appropriate for KIDS! NAWT! Thats some seriously DARK content if you ask me!

god only knows what else i could throw into all this

I feel you. 4KIDS!'s attempts to adapt shounen animes into tv series made for everyone are laughable. Weren't the manga and Toei's Yu-Gi-Oh! in 1998 clear indicators of what they would have to deal when localizing Duel Monsters?

Censorship, like death of some characters or people threats with guns, and inserting stuff like "the shadow realm" or nothing at all in the case of weapons could have easily be avoided if they knew how to target ideal audiences better. I mean, we had animes Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho in the late 80's to 90's that were no strangers to those concepts.

All things considered, I just find unappealing how the some cards must be molded by English anime adaptations, like Osiris becoming Slifer, Masterpiece becoming Halfway to Forever, Kattobingu Challenge becoming Hi-Five the Sky, or even Legacy of the Duelist, which failed to reference a music theme from the anime after adaptation. Next thing you'll know, someone will be making a card referencing the "Heart of the Cards", despite not being a thing in the original dub at all.

The shadow realm is censorship. Whenever a character was "sent to the shadow realm" they outright died or were dying in the manga and original Japanese anime with the sole exception of Aknadin threatening to send someone to "Yami no Sekai" which probably was just him saying he'll send his opponent to hell. The localization/censorship department at 4kids was too dumb to think through the implications of the Shadow Realm being a quasi-hell dimension and it being worse than dying. The manga before Pegasus is introduced is rather dark with the highlight most people know being the Pharaoh lighting someone on fire.

Debt wrote:The localization/censorship department at 4kids was too dumb to think through the implications of the Shadow Realm being a quasi-hell dimension and it being worse than dying.

While I think you're correct on the hell analogy and 4kids certainly not thinking this one through, I believe the main reason for their choice was, that you can always return from the shadow realm in their Version or at least be brought back. All the while your body would be in sort of a coma. I see how some adults might think it would be easier on kids that way, but when I watched all that as a kid, I read the Manga at the same time and I really didn't feel unsettled by either Version. Kids can stomach a lot more, than what adults give them credit for.

Finger Guns! Just... finger guns.

This also isn't just a "yugioh" anime thing either.

Even Spider-man The Animated Series was censored to hell back in the 90s.

Of course anything that was animated (for the most part) was seen as a cartoon, which generally attracted kids more than anything.