Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (English dub)
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Kazuki Takahashi (October 4, 1961-July 4, 2022) |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (English dub) | ||
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 4Kids' lowest point at dubbing Yu-Gi-Oh!.
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Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is the second main spin-off of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series which began airing in Japan on April 2, 2008, as the successor to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. It eventually succeeded by the Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime, which premiered on April 11, 2011. Alongside the previous two series, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's was acquired by 4Kids Entertainment for localization, dubbed in English, and broadcasting in the United States.
Summary
Set in the distant future, where the upper-class population lives in Neo Domino City (New Domino City in the English version) and the lower class in a remote island where Domino's sewage transported Satellite. Yusei Fudo, the 18-year-old protagonist, lives in Satellite and makes it his objective to reach his rival Jack Atlas, who lives in Neo Domino. The series focuses on the five Signers. People embodied with a mark of one of the legendary Five Dragons who serve an ancient deity called the Crimson Dragon, their conflict with the Dark Signers, and the Three Emperors of Iliaster.
The Dub's Bad Qualities
- The main problem with the dub is that it has massive story rewrites that cause plot holes and directly contradict characterization. Some examples include:
- Rex Goodwin claimed to be the fifth Signer, even before his identity revealed, while it wasn't originally. Instead, Rudger Goodwin was originally the fifth Signer until he cut off his arm and became the Dark Signer leader. And Rex took Rudger's arm and replaced his artificial arm with it, in effect making him both a Signer and a Dark Signer, which the dub did not bring up at all.
- In the first episode, Rally steals a chip for Yusei's D-Wheel, causing Security to hunt them down to Yusei's duel against Ushio/Trudge. In the dub, Jack Atlas was the one who set up the chip for Rally to obtain for seemingly no good reason other than to give more depth to Yusei's grudge against Jack. Even though Jack and Yusei have a rough history with each other regarding Yusei's Stardust Dragon and his previous D-Wheel, Jack never shows any intention to have Yusei thrown into the facility.
- In the original version, Misty harbors an intense hatred towards Aki because the latter was allegedly responsible for the death of Misty's brother Tobi. However, in the dub, Tobi "was taken to a different facility" and Misty is trying to "find him", but she doesn't have any specific reason for hating Akiza specifically from the rest of the Arcadia Movement. This was intended to censor death, which ended up backfiring.
- Sherry LeBlanc is lost to a wormhole and is presumed dead during the Momentum Express arc only to then return as an antagonist during the Ark Cradle arc because the Momentum Express arc and the entire Ark Cradle season were both cut in the dub; Sherry disappears with no explanation and never mentioned again.
- Since the Moment Express arc cut, it's never explained how Yager/Lazar becomes the director of security. The Ark Cradle/Divine Temple also inexplicably appears as a threat without being properly introduced.
- Like in all the 4Kids dubs, it suffered from severe amounts of censorship due to overly strict network standards.
- It also ended up creating one of the most infamous edits out of the 4Kids dubs, Carly's death. In the original version, Carly has pushed off a window and falls to the ground, killing her immediately. While in the dub, a "shadow realm portal" randomly appears for no real reason as she falls and Carly's very-clearly dead body seen as "talking" after she should've hit the ground.
- The Crash Town arc heavily censored, down to the ending of the final duel against Lotten being cut.
- Some card effects were stated incorrectly, which made the duels hard to follow for the fans.
- Some of the episodes cut from airing, which it ended up producing even more plot holes.
- There have been some cheesy dialogue moments like this scene.
- The final season completely cut, instead ending the series with Aporia's defeat in the WRGP, seemingly erasing the Ark Cradle and leaving massive plot threads completely unresolved.
- Also, the dub was canceled due to being forced by Konami to air Zexal, thus making the whole dub pointless.
The Dub's Good Qualities
- The dub made some moments more emotional.
- The Japanese sub version is good and much more emotional.
- Tetsu Trudge/Ushio, the hall monitor of Yugi's school and the bully, does have some likeability when he helped Yusei and the others fight the Dark Signers.
- Awesome voice acting for most characters, especially Greg Abbey as Yusei.
- The theme song, Hyper Drive is pretty good.
- It was one of several songs that viewers could vote for, with "We Ride to Survive" deserves an honorable mention.
- The duels are still good despite the occasional errors.
- Some funny moments like when Jack teases Akiza for having a crush on Yusei and moments involving Carly.
- Most characters are still well portrayed, like in the Japanese version.
- Akiza is portrayed by far the most faithfully of the main cast, as her reasons to fight to remain pretty much the same as in the Japanese version (barring slight censorship allowing kids to watch). Even though her arc in season 2 amounted to "getting a Duel Runner and a sultry biking suit", this wasn't imposed by 4Kids, but rather the Japanese rewriting the show in a hurry after Carly's voice actress revealed to have been the member of a dangerous cult. It also sadly meant Jack and Carly's romance arc had to be cut as well.
- The dub was one of Cassandra Lee Morris' earliest roles and served as a stepping stone to more iconic roles such as Kyubey, Ritsu Tainaka, Taiga Aisaka, and Morgana.
- It's more tolerable than Zexal and Arc-V.
Reception
The Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's dub generally considered not only the weakest dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! that was localized by 4Kids Entertainment but also considered one of the most hated dubs that 4Kids localized next to their One Piece dub. The dub canceled due to 4Kids sued by TV Tokyo and NAS, and pair pressureYu-Gi-Oh! Zexal by Konami, with the entire final season left unaired in English.
However, the dub received average reviews from critics due to the nice voice acting.