Ever watched the Kirby anime and felt
something was a little, well, off? Maybe it was
the music, or something in a scene didn't look right,
or maybe you just couldn't stand Meta Knight's 'Taco
Bell Dog' accent. Ever felt it was just too different
from the games?
Whichever it was, your fears are
justified- the Kirby anime underwent a lot of changes
when it was dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment to be aired
in the US. Some big, some small, and they all worked
together to completely change the series! Characters were altered to be almost
unrecognizable, music was changed,
hell even the animation went through some changes.
Where to begin though? Well, chose
your poison, find out what's been changed in the dub
and what you're missing out on!
Title:
Originally the show is called 'Hoshi no Kirby' which
can be translated as 'Kirby's Star', 'Kirby of Star'
or even 'Stellar Kirby'. In Japan, almost all of
the Kirby games are called 'Hoshi no Kirby' with the
game's subtitle after it. The dub got the rather odd
name of 'Kirby: Right Back At Ya'. It doesn't
have the same feel.
All the episode titles are changed as
well. You can see a full list here.
The Names:4Kids
kept some names and ditched others. How about a
nice table of some of the main ones so you can see
what has been changed?
Japanese
English
Fumu
Tiff
Bun
Tuff
Memu
Lady
Like
Parm
Sir
Ebrum
Sir
Meta Knight
Meta
Knight
Dr.
Escargon
Escargoon
Holy
Nightmare Corporation
Nightmare
Enterprises
Nightmare
Switching
between NME and Nightmare (can't make up their
minds.)
Pupu
Village
Cappytown
Lololo
Fololo
Lalala
Falala
Lola
Fofa
Dakonyo
Kit
Cosmos
Chef
Oosaka
Chef
Shiitake
Those are just some of the main
ones. Most of the Cappies keep their names, with
the exceptions of Chief Borun (Bookem in the dub) and
his wife Sato. (Buttercup in the dub) Also, the
three Cappy kids... Well they mixed em up a bit, so a
visual may help. XD
Also, did you know that Dreamland was originally 'Pupupuland'?
Even in the games, so it makes sense to change that. 4Kids typically does okay with
keeping the names for game characters and such right
at least! (Except for poor Lololo and Lalala.)
Also, what we know as 'monsters' are
actually 'demon beasts' or 'majuu'. You can also
just translate it as 'demon' for some things, but
literally- and accurately- it's demon beast or demon animal. Kinda fits
with the 'Holy' Nightmare bit eh? (The Japanese word
for monster is 'kaijuu' or 'bakemono' so it's not the same thing.
=P Translating 'majuu' to monster is like translating
the word for orange into lemon! Close, but no cigar.
Not as demonic either.)
The Voices:
Kirby is pretty much the only character that retains
his original voice, but only most of the time. Even the SHEEP and other
characters that don't even speak get dubbed over.
If you want some good comparisons of
the voices, just head over to the
video clip section. You'll have a change to
hear a lot of characters in Japanese and English!
In most cases, the original voice for
a character is the best for them, no matter the
language. When you change the language, it's
important to keep the character's personality and
tone! If they sound like a cute little kid in
Japanese, then they shouldn't be loud and obnoxious in
English!
Yet, this is exactly what the Kirby
dub does on too many occasions. =(
Did you know sometimes Kirby speaks
human language? (Poyo is a language itself, but we
can't understand it.) Usually only a word or two, but
he can! But more often than not it's cut in the dub.
Originally he'll say his own ability and attack names
too!
Tiff's dub voice does sound much like
her original, and for the most part it's a decent
match. However, you may notice that dub Tiff
likes to shout- a lot. She only does rarely in
the original- which is good because her original
scream is grating! XD
Dub Dedede has a southern accent and
misuses words a lot- in the original, he speaks fairly
normally (and correctly!) and the main odd thing he
does is add 'zoi' to the ends of his sentences because
of the accent he has there.
Escargoon sounds kind of depressed in
the dub, wouldn't you say? In the original he
sounds more energetic if anything! There's much
more variation to his voice, which I can say much more
about most of the original voices than the
dub.
Meta Knight... Well we all know what
we think of HIS dub voice! Originally, he speaks
normally, though formal and polite- he's a knight
after all. Having him speak very formal english
in the dub would have been more accurate.
One thing I've noticed is that his dub
voice doesn't convey emotion very well without making
that silly accent sound worse. Originally Meta
Knight shows a lot of emotion- and he gets surprised a
lot too! He doesn't know everything, like the
dub sometimes tries to imply. (That and no
puns. He's usually pretty funny originally, but
not because of bad jokes!)
It's best to listen for yourself
though! The differences are amazing.
The Music: Here's
where 4Kids really screwed over the Kirby fans. In the dub,
Kirby not only gets a whole new theme which doesn't
match the feeling of Kirby at all, but a whole new background soundtrack as well!
And as typical of the anime they dub, they have lots
of cheesy sounding music playing nearly non stop.
You can download many of the songs
from the original soundtrack here. The only bad thing about this
soundtrack was it didn't have all of my favorite
songs. XD
In the Japanese version, the music is
much less dramatic with very few exceptions.
It's usually more low key and soothing, which fits the light
hearted character of the show. There are some dramatic
battle themes, but they're typically put in just the
right scene for best effect! And as with most
anime, they know when to use silence instead of
music. In addition, many times when the
characters are outside, there will be 'natural'
music. Birds or crickets chirping, water in
streams, the wind... Very nice and perfect for the
scenes.
In the dub, there are certain tunes
they'll play at certain times- Always. No matter
what. Like Meta Knight's 'Mexican Fanfare', or
that off-key violin when Tokkori's in the scene.
They kinda overdo it! (While in the original MK has a Spanish-y
theme, but they don't play it EVERY time he appears!
No, I'd say they play it in less than half of his
appearances.)
Or when Kirby inhales. You know in the
dub, whenever he does they do that guitar thing then
that same music, every time... Same as when he
transforms. Originally, they will sometimes play the
song 'Special Ability is Inhaled!' but not every time!
They actually use some variety.
The original has a
soundtrack more reminiscent of the games- in fact in
later episodes they actually used remixed,
orchestrated versions of songs from the games!
Yes, you read that right. In Japan
they get game music in the anime! From the
Castle Lololo theme to the ending theme to 'Revenge of
Meta Knight'.
I was also surprised at how dark
the show felt at times. There's a lot of very
tense music at appropriate times. All in all the music
can make the same scene feel completely different in
each version!
4Kids
actually didn't change much of Kirby's overall plot,
believe it or not. Almost all the lines and such
are changed of course, and some character
personalities tweaked, (and others completely changed)
but the basic idea remains the
same.
Many of the biggest mistakes and
changes were made earlier in the series. For example,
in the dub Tiff seems to be surprised that MK is 'on
their side' and doing nice stuff to help Kirby. In the
original, she always knew he was a friend!
The character who got the biggest
personality make-over is undoubtedly King
Dedede. Ever wonder 'hey, Dedede isn't a
villain! He's a bully in the games but he doesn't want
to kill Kirby!' Well, you're right! In the
original anime, Dedede is just like in the games. He's
mean and a bully, and he's rather jealous of Kirby but
he doesn't outright hate him and want to kill the
little guy!
In the original Dedede doesn't think Kirby
should be the hero, so at first he's just trying to
prove that Kirby can't save Dreamland by trying to
send monsters to beat him (and fails
XD). He tries to kick Kirby out of Dreamland
even, but he gives up eventually... Not
completely though.
But what about all the monsters he
orders? Well first off, in the original he
doesn't know that 'Holy Nightmare' is an evil company!
(Why do you think they call themselves 'Holy'? Dedede
isn't the brightest bulb...) Dedede orders monsters to get Kirby
at
first- but later he also does it
because he likes playing pranks, or other reasons.
(Like getting the Ice Dragon to cool off Dreamland, or
how the octopus was just his pet in the first episode,
or sometimes just to mess with the Cappies like
Slice'n'Splice) But when monsters do try to kill
Kirby... That's Nightmare's doing, not Dedede!
In Dedede's mind, if he can find a
monster to defeat Kirby, then that will prove to
everyone Kirby isn't a great hero, and he'll have to
leave.
As you'll notice in later eps,
Dedede's really stopped trying to use monsters to get
Kirby- though sometimes the dub will make you think
otherwise! (Like in the episode with Kirby's one year
anniversary- originally, Nightmare hid that monster in
the cake, and in the dub they had it so Dedede knew
all about it. Sheesh, can't the guy just do a nice
thing?)
Another thing they left out was some
important stuff about Star Warriors. The dub
only uses one term- Star Warriors. But in the
original, there's more than that! There's a group of
soldier's called the 'Galaxy Fighter Team'. Meta
Knight and Kirby are both called 'Star Warriors', but
people like Joe's dad or Sgt. Cosmos are part of the
Galaxy Fighter Team. It may have just been the
name of the army itself, while an individual is a Star
Warrior. But, I'm not sure if
they're two different things, or the two different
names for the same thing! I don't know why 4Kids
didn't include it though.
Ever watched Dedede and Escargon and
thought 'hey, they're pretty close...' Well they
are! While the dub likes to fool you by having
Escargon say he's only nice to Dedede to get a raise,
originally he says he really loves Dedede!
I'm glad they keep in some, but I don't
like how they cheapen their relationship in the dub.
=(
And the biggest plot flub...
Remember the episodes 'Air
Ride-in-Style' parts 1 and 2? Episodes 50-51?
Well, those are actually episode 96-97, 'Crisis of the
Warp Star' in Japan. In order to blatantly advertise Kirby's Air Ride, they took these very
important episodes and stuck them in the middle of the
series!
See, those episodes are the beginning
of the 5 part finale of the Kirby anime! (It
might be the end of a season or the end of the series-
no one knows yet. But cross your fingers for a new
season!)
Unfortunately, by doing this 4Kids may
have ruined the impact of these episodes, and may
have created some plot holes as well. (As a
correction to something I stated earlier- Kirby
actually gets the Wing Star in a different episode.
And it was really all a dream. =P I
was misinformed. Bad Ivy, bad.)
4Kids also sometimes moves episodes
around to fit holidays- such as moving the New Years
episodes closer to New Years, or the ghost eps to
Halloween. These are small changes and don't really
hurt the plot, so they can be forgiven.
A few episodes have also been skipped.
You can read my synopsis of the episode 'The Ring
Story of Memu and Parm', but there is also the episode
'The Story where No One Becomes Toothless'! The first
is a very cute and funny episode, there was no reason
to cut it! The second... Well it's a bit sadistic, but
it had some heavy morals you'd think they'd want to
show. (Brush your teeth kids. *grin*)
The first few episodes got the most in
terms of scene changes and cuts. In the first episode, originally
they started with the scene with Kirby in space- in
the dub they started with the scene of Octakon eating
the sheep. Also, originally Kabu tells the
people of Cappytown about Night and Holy Nightmare
Corporation in the first episode- in the dub he
doesn't tell them about it until episode 3. I do
not know yet what else was changed regarding what he
told them. (I still need to have it all translated!)
In episode 2, Kirby is trying to find
a job and a place to live. But in the dub he
skipped over some places! Like the police station! And
of course Tokkori messes things up.
You can watch the entire clip over in
the video clip section!
And he even tried for Sammo's bar!
Look, it's Mix Kirby!
And they tend to make odd small cuts
here and there they really don't make sense.
I'd list them all but...
As I said before, 4Kids cuts out most of Kirby's
speech- even when he speaks English. (Probably because
his accent is too Japanese. Sheesh...) Thankfully that too was lightened up in later
episodes. In early episodes, they changed nearly everything
he said! Instead of 'poyo' they sometimes had him just
make... random babyish noises. Weird eh?
Other visual edits are 4Kids
standards... Cutting out the Japanese lettering that
spells out 'Kawasaki' on his restaurant, and changing
chain saws to... glowing light sabers. (Even
though they still show these 'light sabers' slicing
through screaming trees? Riiight..)
Also, they changed the background for
the Salesguy! In the original it shows the company
logo- Holy Nightmare.
And there's the first Dedede
Car. In the original it's camouflage color, they
made it orange and yellow in the dub.
I am impressed however that 4Kids
leaves in the death scenes, like with Chilly or
Kirby's puppy.
And of course all the dialogue is
changed. A lot of puns are added, a lot of things are even outright
removed.
They go overboard with the dubbing
sometimes! Like I said earlier, they even dub characters that don't
talk. The Sheep, Kirby's robo-puppy, DynaChick,
Galbo, nothing's safe! (I don't know why they change
them. All I notice in the dub is they're much more
obnoxious sounding perhaps...)
And this is only a very tiny sample of
the changes, because, well, I haven't seen every
episode in Japanese. Sucks, eh?
Well I'm working on 'Operation: Hoshi
no Kirby V 2.0' now. Basically, I'm going to
translate the Japanese episodes! But I need
help. (And it's a secret. =P Sorta.) If you have a good knowledge of
Japanese and wish to help,
please email me. lucrecia84@aol.com
Aside from that...
I'd have to say 4Kids worst crime here
is not releasing their Kirby DVDs with an uncut,
Japanese subtitled version for the fans to see!
They've started releasing some of their other shows
like YuGiOh and Shaman King uncut- let them know you
want uncut Kirby!
You can contact 4Kids and tell them at the very least
we want DVDs - uncut Japanese with subtitles! We want to see Hoshi no Kirby like
it was meant to be! ^_^ Maybe in a big box set
after the series ends here! Cut eps included!
I have phone numbers, addresses and
emails of the best people to contact. Just be sure to
be courteous and type well. The more who let
them know, the better! =) Even if you just call or
email to ask when they're going to release Japanese
versions of their DVDs, that works! It lets them know
there IS a demand for it!
Remember, BE POLITE. Rudeness
will only get you ignored!
