Is Spacetoon the Arabic Version of 4Kids?

[Mr HooPoe]

One thing that people have seemed to obsess over is 4Kids despite being defunct. Personally, I know too little of 4Kids to have a reasonable discussion with others on this website about it. All I know is that it butchered Japanese animated series to no end, going so far as to seem xenophobic and creating theme songs loathed by people. The biggest offender, according to the general population, was the dub for One Piece because of its major edits for children in the United States.

I get that looking back on past tales of animations is important, as I do that myself a lot, but why not focus on tales that are still happening today like with Spacetoon? For those who do not know, Spacetoon is an Arabic network launching in 2000 to be a source for animation around the world for children to watch. (Many people did not view animation as the type of thing to be enjoyed by all ages and treated it as child's play-- they still do to this day-- and modify the shows for children to enjoy.)

Their history is fragmented and has had bits lost throughout time, but they have been known for shamelessly "cleansing" shows from Japan for children-appropriate content particularly since 2002 when many shows were forced to follow a more conservative approach. Such changes included modifying Detective Conan to match the customs of Arabic culture instead of being its own thing.

While their theme songs are received more positively (in the Arabic world, western cartoons just change the vocals while eastern cartoons have rewritten theme songs entirely), they do rewrite the shows (often completely) to be both appropriate for children and rather nationalistic. They have dubbed many shows that would not seem to be appropriate for children in the Arabic world on their own, including One Piece. However, the biggest offender in that category may be Ranma 1/2, which approached the concept in an unusual way, to say the least.

Also, their methods of censorship...are complicated and overly blatant. The Arabic dubs of Japanese cartoons have always had a way with editing clips to evade inappropriate content, but it is especially overused in the dubs used for this network. In the 2010's, they tried to please teenagers by releasing some restrictions in editing...which led to weird and uncanny pixelated effects covering women's legs. Look, if you get to the point where the censorship overtakes the show itself completely, why even dub it?

Personally, I do not think that Spacetoon is the culprit here, as it is merely the outsource for cartoons worldwide (which I plan to detail in the future). The real culprit is that Venus dubbing company that creates the dubs for the network. By that logic, 4Kids must be supported by a separate dubbing company as it must be just a block airing on FOX.

Thoughts on this?

 

[SpecialColorfull]

Well, that's very much an interesting and rather accurate comparison. However, Spacetoon much like 4kids does have the good side of bringing lots of anime exposure in the Middle East. 4kids also brought exposure to anime in America and abroad.

Not that I dont live in the Middle East so Im probably all wrong on this.

 

[Mr HooPoe]

Actually, Spacetoon was designed to keep the anime for younger children by the 2000's. Anime was pretty popular with the general population, especially children, during the 1970's and 1980's.

 

[SpecialColorfull]

I see. I heard there was less censorship. Especially in the era of Grendizer and so on.

I do admit I love the dubbed Openings Spacetoon had to offer lol. Especially Digimon and Ojamajo Doremi.

 

[Takao]

Spacetoon is owned by a branch of a government. That alone is far worse than 4Kids, whose edits were mostly done at behest of their own sensibilities or the BSP of the network, rather than FCC guidelines.

I can't speak to the condition those early anime shows aired in the Arab world, but if they made it relatively in tact, then once again, far worse than 4Kids. 4Kids was instrumental in introducing visibly Japanese animated shows to the US television market. There wasn't really a prolonged wave of content until Pokemon. Prior to that, you had shows that people assumed were just domestic productions or one-offs that were largely forgotten.