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Like many other famed anime series, there are indeed multiple dubs of the One Piece series. While the Funimation dub is undoubtedly more popular, many American One Piece fans will likely cite the 4Kids dub as their first experience with the series.
Unfortunately for the 4Kids dub, not even that nostalgia can make it watchable (outside of the often-praised theme song). Upon rewatching the 4Kids dub after experiencing the Funimation One Piece dub, the incredible levels of censorship make the series unwatchable.
Follow along as this article explores eight different censorship changes made for the worse in the One Piece 4Kids dub.
8 censorship choices that ruin the One Piece 4Kids dub
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1) Sanji’s cigarette turned into a lollipop
While this censorship choice may seem harmless enough, it certainly changes later in Sanji moments in the story. The most significant of these would be Skypeia when Sanji takes a lightning bolt from Enel and says he was about to ask for a light.
The Whole Cake Island arc would’ve also been affected greatly, as the scene where Sanji cries wouldn’t have been as impactful without the cigarette moment.
2) Guns becoming water guns
Another incredibly questionable censorship choice was turning marine guns into water guns. While the choice is understandable, it undoubtedly changes the story for the worse from episode one.
Instead of showing Luffy is bulletproof due to being rubber, the implication is he’s waterproof, which isn’t true and leads to confusion regarding Devil Fruits and swimming.
3) Onigiri becoming cookies
While this change may not seem impactful, it certainly changes Zoro’s character for the worse. One of Zoro’s signature moves is the Oni Giri (meaning ogre cutter), which was named after the onigiri he was brought when held prisoner by Axe-Hand Morgan.
Changing the onigiri to cookies completely removes the sentiment from Zoro’s signature move, not to mention making the name irrelevant.
4) Helmeppo takes Coby hostage
When Helmeppo takes Coby hostage in the Funimation dub and original subbed version, Helmeppo holds a pistol to Coby’s head. In the 4Kids dub, however, Helmeppo seems to be holding some strange kind of camera device.
While this isn’t terribly impactful to the story at large, it is a frustrating and unnecessary change considering other guns were okay to be water guns.
5) Bellemere’s gun turns into a shovel
Speaking of changing the rules for gun censorship, another ridiculous censorship choice is Bellemere’s confrontation with Arlong. Instead of sticking her rifle in Arlong’s throat (which could’ve been a water gun instead), the 4Kids dub has Bellemere thrusting a shovel down the Fish Man’s throat.
Again, this isn’t terribly impactful to the story at large, but it is still incredibly frustrating.
6) Smoker doesn’t smoke
This change, however, certainly is impactful to the long-term story. In the 4Kids dub, Captain Smoker is shown without his trademark cigar habit and ammo belt full of them. Even more frustrating is he’s still called Smoker and the smoke from the cigars is left in frames unedited.
While it makes sense because he does still have the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, the cigar smoke left in clearly is distinct from the smoke produced by his body.
7) General lack of blood
Across the board, the 4Kids One Piece dub removes essentially all blood seen during One Piece. In a series about fighting where injuries are present from the very first episodes onward, this censorship choice is downright infuriating, albeit understandable.
Not to mention, the Fishman Island scene where Jinbe donates his blood to Luffy would’ve been made incredibly silly under this censorship approach.
8) Wine becomes juice or is removed
Finally, one of the most frustrating censorship choices for a series about swashbuckling and rum-guzzling pirates is the removal of their rum. Nearly any and all alcohol seen throughout One Piece is either changed to be juice or water or is removed altogether.
The biggest problem for this in the long term would undoubtedly be Kaido, for whom drinking is a core aspect of his personality and fighting style.
4Kids cancelled production of their One Piece dub on December 6, 2006.
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This article was modified on Thursday, June 29, at 11:00 pm.
