I have blacklisted the dub ever since Episode 2. 4Kids seems bent on stripping the original version of as much dignity and integrity as possible. Let me give a few reasons why:
-Noboru Gongenzaka was renamed to Gong Strong. This is not even a real name. Furthermore, just because he has a pompadour hairstyle, they gave him an Elvis voice and made him address himself in the third person, even though he's clearly supposed to be the militant and disciplined samurai-esque fighter who reflects traditional Japanese values. I can't take Gong Strong seriously.
-Yuzu Hiragi was renamed to Zuzu Boyle. I bet 4Kids was thinking, "Oh, hey, let's call her Zuzu Boyle because it sounds like Susan Boyle because Yuzu uses music-themed cards." Yet another reference to a famous person that has no relevance whatsoever to this show. And "Zuzu" is a nickname you give your dog or a younger girl, not an actual name. Why can't they just keep the actual names of these characters?
-Strong Ishijima's name transition to The Sledgehammer was not bad. What's bad is that they gave him an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. Why do they keep projecting references to famous people onto these characters? They have no identities of their own.
-They made the mistake of using Yuya's VA to voice his younger self, and it sounds embarrassing.
-Futoshi, now renamed Frederick, sounds like an adult German man. I could excuse the German accent if he at least sounded like a child, but it seems like 4Kids took one look at this character and just shrugged their shoulders.
-They've been reusing the same voice actors for everything lately. All the females from ARC-V and Zexal sound exactly the same.
I'm sticking with the Japanese dub--it's far more compelling, has immensely better music, doesn't make a complete mockery of itself, and doesn't make me cringe.
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