When it comes to localizing anime, some changes are necessary and inevitable. That being said, some dubbing studios and localizing teams took things a bit too far for reasons that range from understandable to confounding.

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Instead of just being dubbed, these anime were essentially rewritten from the ground up because the localizers misunderstood what they were adapting. While some of these dubs became guilty pleasures, others actually damaged the originals.

10 Salami Studios Gave Astro Boy (2003) An Edgy Makeover

Atom Leads The Fight In Astro Boy

The entire point of Astro Boy is that Atom (or Astro) is a boy. Not only does his childish innocence rekindle optimism in others, but his story is meant for kids and the young at heart. This may be the case in Japan, but America has a different view of things. Long story short, Astro Boy's 2003 remake turned Atom into an American-styled badass.

Salami Studios basically turned Atom into a superhero, as seen in the anime's emphasis on robot fights. Scenes of Atom just being a boy were shortened or cut, and his playful demeanor was replaced with a rude and snarky one. Things got so out of hand that Atom was needlessly shown to be angry in almost all the anime's promotional material.

9 FUNimation Entertainment Downplayed Dragon Ball Z's Playful Side

Goku Joins The Z Fighters In Dragon Ball Z

To the Japanese, Dragon Ball Z is a fun adventure about quirky fighters who go on amazing quests. To Americans, though, Dragon Ball Z is an extremely cool battle anime about the greatest fighters and their legendary brawls. This was the result of FUNimation's localization, which emphasized how manly Goku and the Z Fighters were.

That's not to say that the original Dragon Ball Z was a comedy, but it had a better balance of humor and grit. Fortunately, the American dub did its job so well that it gave the Saiyans a very loyal fanbase. Unsurprisingly, these same fans were taken aback by the recent dubs that stuck closer to the source materials' carefree and lighthearted feel.

8 4Kids Entertainment Struggled To Sanitize One Piece

Helmeppo Threatens Coby In One Piece

When it comes to terrible dubs, no company is as notorious as 4Kids. The studio made a (bad) name for itself in the early 2000s with its questionable dubs like its so-bad-it's-good take on Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, but its work on One Piece was arguably the worst. In fact, the dub was so bad that it stalled the Straw Hats' momentum in the West.

Despite its cartoonish style, One Piece is a violent story of rebellion against an oppressive world. 4Kids was contractually forced to tone down the anime for kids, as evidenced by the sloppy censors and rewriting of everyone into loudmouthed caricatures. This turned the otherwise inspiring One Piece into a joke among Westerners, who only took it seriously around a decade later.

7 Kids' WB Reverse-Engineered Cardcaptor Sakura Into A Shonen Anime

Sakura and Kero team up in Cardcaptor Sakura.

Cardcaptor Sakura may not be the first magical girl anime, but it's one of the most influential and important. To many, Sakura Kinomoto was an aspirational childhood heroine, especially because she was unafraid to show her femininity and vulnerability. This wasn't the case in the anime's first American dub, which cut out anything deemed "too girly."

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Nelvana dubbed all 70 episodes, but Kids' WB edited it so much that only 39 were left. Changes included a new title (Cardcaptors) that downplayed the anime's shojo roots, Sakura being rewritten into a spunky tomboy, and any hints of same-sex romances being dropped. Needless to say, Cardcaptors misunderstood everything about the original.

6 DiC Entertainment Turned Sailor Moon Into An Americanized Punchline

Usagi Freaks Out In Sailor Moon

When DiC acquired the rights to Sailor Moon, their intention was not to introduce Americans to the Sailor Guardians but to have an answer to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. To wit, DiC doubled down on the characters' tomboyish action-oriented adventures over their domestic and school lives and increased the anime's comedy to a ridiculous degree.

The end result was a laughably moralizing Saturday morning cartoon that capped every episode with a cheesy PSA, not an English dub for one of shojo anime's most important pillars. Even if the original Sailor Moon diverged from the manga in certain aspects, it kept its source material's feminist messages and themes intact — which is the exact opposite of what DiC did.

5 Fox Kids America Excised The Vision Of Escaflowne's Romantic Core

Hitomi And Prince Van Team Up In The Vision Of Escaflowne

When The Vision Of Escaflowne made it to the West, it was dubbed in English by Ocean Productions. The classic fantasy was aired uncut in Canada and the United Kingdom, but it was basically remade for American audiences. Thinking that Hitomi and Prince Van's love story was "too romantic," Fox Kids re-edited the anime into an action fantasy.

Some of the most egregious changes included the removal of the first episode (which was then reworked into flashbacks) and replacing Yoko Kanno's melancholic score with a generic and upbeat one. This dub only aired 10 episodes before being canceled due to abysmal ratings. A proper and uncut dub was released years later on DVD, long after the anime's hype.

4 New World Pictures Turned Galaxy Express 999 Into A Western

Tetsuro meets Maetel in Galaxy Express 999

Galaxy Express 999 is a meditative trip around the universe, where the spunky Tetsuro and the mysterious Maetel contemplate life, death, and their odd yet genuine friendship along the way. Despite all of this, New World Pictures had the smart idea of redubbing the somber movie into a space Western when they got its rights in 1980.

Besides rewriting the characters into generic Western archetypes, this actionized Galaxy Express 999 cut 30-minutes to quicken the pacing. The movie finally got the dub it deserved in 1996, but only after years of being disowned and mocked. Unsurprisingly, New World Pictures' dub was produced by none other than B-movie king, Roger Corman.

3 Showmen Inc. Remade Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind Into A Juvenile Dark Fantasy

Nausicaa explores nature in Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind

One of the biggest reasons why Studio Ghibli's movies only made it to America in 1996 was because of Warriors Of The Wind, an incredibly bad and disrespectful localization of Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. If Nausicaa was a moody environmental crusade that questioned man's place in nature, Warriors was a lowbrow action-packed fantasy.

Believing that Nausicaa was too serious and boring, Mason International and Showmen Inc. cut out 95-minutes, excised the anti-war and environmental themes, and rewrote the story into a formulaic fantasy. Unsurprisingly, this infuriated Studio Ghibli so much that they stuck to limited American releases for nearly a decade before striking a deal with Disney.

2 Harmony Gold Forced Four Anime Together To Create Robotech: The Movie

Mark Rides His Sick Bike In Robotech The Movie

In brief, Robotech is Super Dimension Fortress Macross' odd remake that combined Macross with parts of Genesis Climber MOSPEADA and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. The war between mankind and the Zentradi was rewritten into a kid-friendly generational war for resources and, despite criticism from purists, Robotech won kids over.

However, the can't be said for Robotech: The Movie (or Robotech: The Untold Story). The movie was an interquel that shoehorned the adult-oriented Megazone 23 into the mix, resulting in a kids' movie with graphic scenes. After poor test screenings, Harmony Gold buried The Untold Story before quietly releasing an edited version as a DVD bonus.

1 Central Park Media Couldn't Make Sense Of Garzey's Wing

Chris Meets A Fairy In Garzeys Wing

To be fair, Garzey's Wing is almost impossible to understand, regardless of what language it's in. The plot is a confused mess, the worldbuilding is convoluted, and the dialogue sounds artificial. Even if they tried, Central Park Media couldn't do much to salvage this incomprehensible OVA. That being said, they didn't give it their best shot.

If Garzey's Wing was a guilty pleasure in its original state, Central Park Media turned it into a bona fide cult classic. This was (accidentally) accomplished through the actors' stilted performances and the fact that they obviously didn't understand what they were saying or pronouncing. Garzey's Wing may be hard to comprehend, but it's easy to laugh at.