10 That Rap Song
First and foremost is that "rap" theme song. It goes by many names, Ya-Yo Rap, Gum-Gum Rap, One Piece Rap, all of which don't describe accurately how awful it is. Openings for anime are usually a given and can range from forgettable to straight-up bombastic, but there are rarely any "awful" ones. Yet, in the '90s, a lot of shows in the US had "openings" as well, like with Power Rangers, Pokémon, and even Digimon. But, the one they made for One Piece is just so lazy.
9 The Greatest Swordsman Roronoa...Zolo?
This wasn't just a flaw that happened in the west, the character Zoro, the man of a thousand swords and right-hand to Strawhat Luffy, is sometimes translated to Zolo by both fans and professionals alike. This is due to the Japanese not really having an "r" sound in their language, and the two letters constantly get mistranslated due to this slight issue. But, in the 4Kids dub, a lot of fans speculated that this change was a combination of the R/L issue was just mentioned as well as the character's name being too close to the literary character of "Zorro." Our real question, though, is how the two Rs in his last name avoided this problem. We could've been forced to deal with calling him Lolonoa Zolo as kids if things had gone differently.
8 Not Even A Hint Of Smoking
This is probably one of the most visually obvious changes in the 4Kids dub, other than the guns (which we'll talk about soon). Basically, 4Kids thought that One Piece was a story meant for children, but soon learned upon starting the adaptation that there was murder, adult themes, and violence throughout it. Rather than being professional and either dropping it or not censoring it, they made a large effort to "kid-i-fy" everything in a show where characters fight with guns and swords constantly, including removing any signs that characters smoked.
This was most obvious with Sanji, the cook of the Strawhats who is always smoking but would now be sucking on a lollipop instead. But, with the character of Smoker, who always smoked 2-3 cigars at once and literally turned to smoke, this was horrifying because he now just had smoke coming from his mouth constantly, and it just looked so offputting.
7 A New Type Of Gun Censorship
So here it is, by far the most obvious change from the source material to the 4Kids Dub, the lack of guns. In One Piece, the conflict most occurs between the Pirates and the Marines (and sometimes characters in-between). And, guess what, both sides carry guns. It's dark, it's violent, but it's realistic. And bullets fly constantly in One Piece, with multiple characters getting shot in just the first few couple arcs. So, removing the guns from the story is pretty difficult, and 4Kids didn't do the best job removing them. Other changes to shows from that time period would change guns into airsoft guns, make it so the characters would do finger guns instead, or even just turn them into clubs, but 4Kids wins the award for the most hideous yet creative attempt.
6 How Horrifying, Poison Suction Cups?
Again, One Piece is a violent story. People die, people bleed, and Luffy especially takes a lot of injuries. Even before he sets out to be a pirate, Shanks loses an entire arm saving him. Then, when he does set out and finds a crew, the kid gets impaled with poisonous stakes thanks to a pirate named Don Krieg. But not in the American version. No, in this version, Don Krieg isn't shooting spikes, he's shooting...suction pads with poison on them? Wow how awful. Still, we would sort of love to play as "Suction Cup Don Krieg" in any of the One Piece games.
It's just so comical! That should work, given how cartoony One Piece is, but it's just so obvious this wasn't the intention of author Eiichiro Oda.
5 Not An Ounce Of Blood In Luffy's Body
Now on paper, this should be less offensive than the guns or the needles right? You can show someone's injured or even dying without showing blood, it's not difficult. But, not when blood plays a large part in the story. For example, Luffy fights a man named Crocodile in Alabasta who can turn his body into sand. Luffy figures out that the only way to hit this man is if he wets Crocodile down with water first. Well, past a point in the fight, he runs out of water, so what will he do? The answer is Luffy uses his own blood to make it possible for him to hit Crocodile! It's such a simple solution that's also so awesome narratively, but the 4Kids dub completely ruins that by removing all the blood in the scene.
4 Don't Trick The Audience For Even A Second
If you thought that there was a line that 4Kids wouldn't cross censoring the original One Piece dub, you'd be wrong. It doesn't stop at not showing guns, violence, or blood, no there can't even be a hint of murder even if its obviously fake! At one point in the Arlong Park arc of One Piece, Nami has to keep her act up as "part of Arlong's Crew" so she pretends to stab Usopp with a knife, instead cutting her own hand and pretending it's his blood. But in the dub, they added in extra dialogue during Usopps smoke bomb that has the two "planning out" faking Usopps death.
3 Let's Just Skip Entire Arcs
Little Garden is an island early on in the Alabasta sage where the crew first fights against the upper echelons of Baroque Works for real. It's a fantastic island because we get to meet our first Giants, learn about Elbaf, see how bad things can go thanks to the fight between Mr. 3 and the crew, and get to know Vivi some more.
But, in the 4Kids dub, this island is entirely skipped! In fact, when Zoro reveals his scars on Drum Island that he would have received on Little Garden, he instead says he got them "from a bear trap". Did no one read/watch ahead before the adaptation started?
2 In Fact, Let's Just Skip The Motivation For One Of The Straw Hats
Skipping Little Garden is bad, really bad, but we can look past it. But whats unforgivable in the 4Kids dub is skipping past Laboon. Laboon is a whale we meet on the other side of Reverse Island that has heavy ties to Dead Bones Brooke who people meet much later in the story. But more than that, Laboon is where we meet Vivi, where we meet Crocus, who was on Gol D. Roger's ship, and where we see how well Luffy can solve problems with a simple solution.
1 And Finally, Why Don't We Just Change The Past?
4Kids Entertainment wasn't satisfied censoring any and all death in the current events of One Piece, they had to go back and retcon the deaths of characters from the past! Basically, instead of killing Bellemere in the Arlong Park Arc, they changed it so that he implies that Bellemere is "in a dungeon somewhere." If that's true, why didn't Nami talk to her at all after stopping Arlong? Oh right, because she's obviously dead and this was a poorly thought out change.
