Yu-Gi-Oh! is a little bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I guess I've always appreciate it for what it *could* be as opposed to what it is (or how its used as little more than a marketing hype machine in the US, butchered to pieces). OK, so its used to seel cards/toys/etc. in Japan, too, but I still believe that the intent of the creator shows through in the original product. After being introduced to the manga, I began to appreciate it a lot more. Especially the pre-Duel Monsters stuff which just showed a certain appreciation for the world of gaming in general. The egyptian influence is really neat, too, IMO.
Anyway, I picked up the first two volumes today at Best Buy ($15 each, 3 episodes a disc) to see how good the series is completely uncut. I had an alterior motive, as well....the idea that if I support the uncut version of YGO (not Shaman King, I don't like SK that much), then there is a greater chance of uncut One Piece DVDs coming out.
The DVDs themselves are pretty bare-bones and even the packaging is sort of cheap, but there's not much they could've added anyway. The DVDs come with a redubbed English audio track closer to the original script and a couple Japanese Audio/Eng. Subititle options. One is a normal translation, while the other replaces the Japanese character names with the US ones.
Also, the original op/eds are intact and so is the original score. And, of course, everything that was cut out/edited/changed is there now. So, the story ends up making more sense, and the changes in theme and character motivation made in the edits is gone. There's still a sense of friendship and believing in yourself, but the characters no longer blather about "Heart of the Cards" every two seconds. Its there in some sense, but its more believing in yourself and your ability to use the cards than some metaphysical force actually living inside the cards.
The original score makes such a huge difference, its amazing. 4Kids has a way of fucking up the scores and replacing them with non-stop, generic background music. Hearing the original, you realize how important music can be to setting up the mood. So, the whole thing feels a lot more engaging and a lot less silly. I would also say that the fights feel more kinetic. Faster, maybe. There's less time spent dicking around and yapping about strategies (though there is a little bit, it doesn't go overboard) and it just feels better overall.
For anyone remotely interested, I'd say I recommend watching the original version of the series, its certainly far, far better than the edited American version in just about every aspect.
Anyway, I picked up the first two volumes today at Best Buy ($15 each, 3 episodes a disc) to see how good the series is completely uncut. I had an alterior motive, as well....the idea that if I support the uncut version of YGO (not Shaman King, I don't like SK that much), then there is a greater chance of uncut One Piece DVDs coming out.
The DVDs themselves are pretty bare-bones and even the packaging is sort of cheap, but there's not much they could've added anyway. The DVDs come with a redubbed English audio track closer to the original script and a couple Japanese Audio/Eng. Subititle options. One is a normal translation, while the other replaces the Japanese character names with the US ones.
Also, the original op/eds are intact and so is the original score. And, of course, everything that was cut out/edited/changed is there now. So, the story ends up making more sense, and the changes in theme and character motivation made in the edits is gone. There's still a sense of friendship and believing in yourself, but the characters no longer blather about "Heart of the Cards" every two seconds. Its there in some sense, but its more believing in yourself and your ability to use the cards than some metaphysical force actually living inside the cards.
The original score makes such a huge difference, its amazing. 4Kids has a way of fucking up the scores and replacing them with non-stop, generic background music. Hearing the original, you realize how important music can be to setting up the mood. So, the whole thing feels a lot more engaging and a lot less silly. I would also say that the fights feel more kinetic. Faster, maybe. There's less time spent dicking around and yapping about strategies (though there is a little bit, it doesn't go overboard) and it just feels better overall.
For anyone remotely interested, I'd say I recommend watching the original version of the series, its certainly far, far better than the edited American version in just about every aspect.