Anime is a form of media that started off as a fairly niche genre of animation. However, recently, it has grown to become one of the more popular out there. With this growth, anime has moved past simply taking hold of a solely Japanese market and is now adapted on a global scale.
One of the largest foreign markets anime has taken a big piece of is, of course, the US. This has resulted in many English dubs to localize these series which means many of them were changed on entry. This list will be looking at ten series that were changed due to this.
10 Robotech
The 85-episode "anime" created by a partnership between Tatsunoko and Harmony Gold, Robotech, may as well not be an anime at all. This series wasn't simply brought over and changed with a simple English dub but was torn apart and given a different plot all together with a totally new name.
Robotech was largely taken from the anime Macross, but later seasons began pulling footage from the two anime Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.
9 Medabots
Medabots, or Medarot in Japan, is a pretty well-known children's anime from the 90s that was created to advertise the new Natsume RPG and its accompanying toyline of the same name. When this series was brought over however, many changes were made to have it be more suitable for children of the US as well as to localize the humor.
In fact, the localized episodes made for the US were recorded over out of order, making it the lesser of the two ways to experience the Medabots anime.
8 Digimon
Much like Medabots, Digimon is a children's anime from the 90s made to sell toys and a game series. Also, much like Medabots, Digimon falls into the category of an anime that one will want to experience in the original Japanese version if they're interested in actually getting the full extent of the story.
This is due to the fact that Digimon's plot and episode order were completely changed when the series was brought over to the US. Again, much like Medabots.
7 Kinnikuman Nisei
One anime that is now very well-known in the US by various nostalgic fans who were well acquainted with the 4Kids channel is Kinnikuman Nisei, better known in the West as Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy. This series is the sequel to the very popular series Kinnikuman and was heavily changed for its Western debut.
The series was heavily censored due to its mature nature so it could work on children's stations. This meant that there were a lot of liberties with changing the overall plot and episode structures.
6 Bomberman Jetters
Bomberman Jetters is an anime based on the popular videogame series Bomberman. It was localized by 4Kids, much like many other series brought to the States, and was censored to adhere to the country's restrictions.
The show was heavily critiqued on the localized pieces, but all things that remained from the original such aesthetics were praised. Bomberman Jetters was edited a bunch, and the length of each episode was cut down to fit channel schedules. This resulted in a relatively neutered show that removed most of the interesting things about the original.
5 F-Zero: GP Legend
The anime based on the high-speed, sci-fi, Nintendo racing game F-Zero, F-Zero: GP Legend was a huge surprise due to the videogame being somewhat niche. It may have enjoyed some popularity, but, as of late, Nintendo hasn't advertised it much. This made it all the more surprising when the anime based upon the series was localized by 4Kids.
As the usual story goes with 4Kids, F-Zero: GP Legend was heavily edited to decrease violence and alcohol usage.
4 Crayon Shin-Chan
The anime Crayon Shin-Chan can be equated to a Japanese version of Family Guy or The Simpsons. This means lots of jokes about Japanese culture that wouldn't be understood over in the West. Once Crayon Shin-Chan was localized and received an English dub, many of these jokes were flipped for Western relating ones instead.
Instead of jokes about Japanese politics and things relating to their everyday lives, viewers of the States heard cracks on things like Walmart and the US government, instead.
3 Kirby: Right Back At Ya!
Another Nintendo based anime was licensed, dubbed, and localized by 4Kids called Kirby: Right Back At Ya!. An anime based on none other than Nintendo's Kirby, the show was aimed at children originally, though it was still edited heavily behind the scenes at 4Kids. This means editing out almost all text and imagery such as guns and alcohol.
Infamously, the 4Kids airing had some episodes show in the wrong order to coincide with game and film releases. One instance of this had two climax episodes air in the middle of a season, spoiling tons of fans.
2 Sailor Moon
One of the most infamous examples of a show being changed due to localized dubbing is the influential magical girl anime series, Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is one of the most heavily edited anime series that was brought over to the US, and it's editing feels extremely dated by today's localization standards.
The most hated change in this dub comes from the changing of the lesbian relationship between two characters into them being simply cousins. This along with episodes being put out of order or just flat out cut from the Western airing really ruined the full experience and made this original airing horribly dated.
1 One Piece
The 4Kids version of One Piece is probably the most infamous account of a Western dub completely ruining an anime. The reasoning behind this hatred is because this airing was the first witnessing of this amazing shonen of many, and, in turn, largely ruined the Western perspective on One Piece.
So much of this series was edited out, and the dub being completely horrible is only the cherry on top. Please stay away unless you're a One Piece fan that wants to hear the "so bad it's barely good" dub.