 Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything One Piece. And today, we're going to be delving into the darkest timeline as we discuss some of the worst changes made by the Four Kids dub. And I think it's definitely time to do this because I've pretty much ignored the Four Kids adaptation for the large majority of this channel's life. But in reality, it is such a huge part of almost every English speaking One Piece fans experience with the series. I mean, for example, my very first exposure with One Piece was the Four Kids dub. And as a result, it took me probably about another whole year before I actually decided to give the series a chance. And even then, a lot of that chance involved watching this dub for far longer than I'd like to admit. But you have to understand that I'm an old man and back in my day, sourcing anime online was not the easiest of things to do. And even finding good quality manga was a pain. Oh, and everything was wildly illegal, but that's not going too deeply into that. In any case, we now find ourselves here today to discuss this abomination. And some of you out there may ask, why are we only examining five things that Four Kids did horribly and pretty much every second of every episode could qualify? And it's because five is about all I can handle for one day. And so as a result, the criteria for this list is as follows. To be considered one of the worst Four Kids changes, a moment or choice must deviate so ridiculously from the original intention of One Piece that it either becomes a parody of itself or tears a gaping hole in the One Piece canon. Speaking of nothing on this list must be canon. And in fact, immediately after the conclusion of the video, I suggest we all just forget everything we've spoken about. But with that out of the way, let's begin, I guess. Welcome to the top five worst changes made by the Four Kids dub. Number five. Lollipop Sanji. All right, we're starting with a very basic and well-known one here. And that's precisely why we cannot ignore it. So look, here's the deal. Coming from an English-speaking Western country, I get why they censored the cigarette. You're marketing the show to kids, even teenagers, and it does actively promote smoking. Through the idea that Sanji smokes and Sanji is cool, therefore, smoking must be cool. That doesn't mean it isn't absolutely ridiculous though. And the primary issue is that, admittedly, like most things in the Four Kids dub, it is impossible to take Sanji seriously, ever. Because he's always sucking on a Lollipop. It takes away from great dramatic moments and sort of comes to define Sanji in a way that the cigarettes never did. The thing about smoking Sanji is that cigarettes are an accessory. It's a character trait. However, a Lollipop provides a much more bold statement. And instead of being a badass kicking chef guy, Sanji becomes the Lollipop dude because it's just impossible to ignore. And just like that, you have a perfectly captivating character reduced to the status of a temporary candy. And look, to be honest, this change is but one of many to do with smoking. And some may argue that other characters were impacted more heavily by this censorship. But I disagree simply due to the fact that Sanji is a key protagonist. And so this particular decision has a much greater long-term impact on the series as a whole. But of course, it certainly wasn't the worst change made by Four Kids. Number four. Crocodile's Hook. Now, if you're looking at this image and thinking, huh, what's wrong? That looks exactly how I remembered it. Well, you'd be correct. This is quite possibly one of my favorite shots in the entire series, both in the anime and the manga. I love the colors. I love the silhouetteing. But most of all, I love the feeling it gave me when I first laid eyes upon it, which was shock and uncertainty. This was the first time that Luffy had truly been in a no-win situation and nobody was coming to save him. It was dark and wonderfully suspense building for a generally bright and happy Shonen series. All right, so with that in mind, let's examine what Four Kids managed to accomplish with this shot. Glorious, isn't it? The sheer lack of attention to detail, emotional intent, and any form of artistic integrity is almost a piece of art in and of itself. It's a perfect representation of how to ruin something beyond repair. I mean, in this masterpiece, Luffy really does look like more of a reclining Renaissance nude, nestled carefully within the inviting crescent of Crocodile's Hook, which is really odd because he was yelling at him just full of life a second before this happened. Not only that, but Luffy has also quite magically developed some sleeves on his upper body, despite the fact that he was wearing a sleeveless top in the shot immediately prior. This shot really does belong in a gallery, like a gallery of shit. Sort of like a museum of what not to do ever again, because I understand that, hey, maybe getting impaled is a bit dark for children's TV, but if you are going to go to the effort of censoring something for that audience, then at least get rid of the sleeves. This is lazy, confusing, pointless, and I cannot believe that someone was paid cash money to take time out of their day, perhaps even week to make this happen. And with this sort of artistic integrity in mind, let's move on to number three. The, um, this thing. So this is probably the crowning achievement of four kids editing. So I get it, you're making a show that is focused towards children and you're not too keen on the whole gun violence aspect. Cool, entirely understandable. Although I do question the sanity involved when choosing to adapt a series that, especially early on, has such a huge focus on guns to the point where it is absolutely impossible to edit them all out. So as a result, we get things like making them look like water pistols or chucking corks in them, which is sad, but that's one thing. And it's entirely another when we are presented with this. Now, I honestly can't tell if the result of this gun edit is because someone was feeling incredibly uncreative that day, or because someone was feeling far too creative that day. Either way, this is what we have. And I struggle to explain what this device is or why Kobe, Luffy, or even the audience cares. As far as I can tell, what was once a gun is now some sort of precarious trigger-activated power hammer. Which first of all, the implications of that are so much more brutal than an actual gun because it implies that HellMapper was willing to use blunt force to quite violently injure and possibly kill Kobe. And I guess that might be where making it look so ridiculous comes into effect because it minimizes the thought of potentially bludgeoning someone to death. But the problem is also that, well, Kobe could just run away because this weapon is no longer a projectile and will have an incredibly short range. So what we have is a completely unthreatening, threatening scenario, in which the weapon is too ridiculous to accomplish anything. And instead of a watchable scene, all we have is a mind full of fuck. The best thing I can say for this change is that it does not impact the story going forward. It's ridiculous no-spost at the height of four-kid shenanigans is isolated. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our top two contenders. Number two, Bellmere's Dungeon. So this entry is so much less kinky than I made it sound. But as we explored in the previous contender, four kids doesn't like guns. And thankfully, coming up, we have a more merciful edit than the Helmepo abomination. However, it comes at a much greater cost. So as I'm sure we're all familiar with, and if not, well, spoilers for a little series called One Piece. But the climax of Nami's flashback is when our long murders Bellmere by shooting her in the head in the manga or the chest in the anime or the head in the anime specials. Whatever the case, he shoots her. Now, not only is the weapon a problem here, but so is the general idea of death. Because remember, this is kids' television and death is not a topic for 7.30 in the morning, unless of course, there are dragon balls involved. Sadly, no balls here, just rather unreasonable fish. And as such, the four kids' team had to come up with their most creative solution yet and replace the gun with our long pointing, menacingly, as well as replace the gunshot itself with the following dialogue. How about a nice room in a dungeon for the rest of your days? But this really just, I, God, I don't know where to begin. I guess that the implication is that Bellmere eventually died in prison, coming naturally to the end of her days, but this just clashes with everything. With Bellmere dead, Nami's despair is so profound as is the rest of Kokyashi Village. It is enough to crush them into subservience, but with her alive at any point, the goal would shift from finding enough money to buy the village to freeing Bellmere. I mean, unless of course, Nami, Nojiko and the rest of the village just decided to let her rot in what has been described as a nice room in a dungeon. Sounds quite pleasant, actually. And look, I know that the implication is that it's not a nice room at all, and Arlong is being a delicately evil prick, but the fact is that this word choice was not made to suit the character. It was made to lighten a moment that had already been significantly lightened, like you can practically hear the four kids show runners in a meeting as this dialogue is being played out. Hmm, so our anti-death policy means that we can't kill Bellmere. So how about we have the fish guy point threateningly at her? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. A threatening point is far too dark for this company. How about when he points at her? He offers her some nice accommodation. You know what, Steve? You're right. Everyone can enjoy that. Everyone except anybody watching the show because this one move lessens the development of Nami's character, it wrecks any sense of fear regarding Arlong, and it just looks and sounds plain shit. But not quite as shit as number one. Iceberg Laboon. There is no doubt in my mind that this is by far the biggest travesty committed by the four kids dub that irrevocably changed the series as a whole. So basically, if you're unfamiliar with this change, once the straw hat's clear reversed mountain enter the grand line, in the four kids' version, they do not encounter Laboon. Instead, what they see is a giant iceberg to which Luffy fires a cannonball at, and they promptly move on with their journey. And this is not a simple edit like admittedly everything else on this list has been. This is actually the removal of an entire arc because if the straw hats don't encounter Laboon, then none of reverse mountain actually happens. And this is very, very bad because this is where the crew meet Crocus here about Raftel for the first time and are given a log pose in which to sail the grand line. And when they also meet Vivi here for the first time, so reverse mountain is pretty pivotal for a mini arc. But if I had to speculate as to why they got rid of the entire thing, I'd say it has to do with Laboon self-harming and the idea of the Baroque works agent's mission to kill him. But this decision just ruined everything because as a result, holes needed filling. The crew needed a log pose which conveniently appeared on the ship without anybody realizing they needed a forehand as well as a convenient recollection of memory featuring reused footage of previous episodes to understand how it works. But should the four kids stop have continued, there would have been a completely unfixable issue which is that Laboon and Crocus are incredibly important to the world, especially in the case of future straw hat pirate Brooke. In fact, his entire dream rests solely on one day being able to visit the whale that was made into an iceberg. So look, while everything else on this list has been bad, some might even say pure vandalism and destruction of property, this particular change is reckless, inconceivable and irredeemable. And so it reigns supreme in my mind as the worst change made by the worst company. But that pretty much doesn't for the top five worst changes made by four kids. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the ground line with you Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but apply to other anime and manga series, then please do check out my second channel, New World Review for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigans takes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your own worst changes made by four kids. This has been the ground line review and I'll see you next time. Do you think aliens exist? Yeah, sure, why not? They might not be the oval headed anal probing beings that we've seen in a lot of media, but I find it pretty shockingly hard to believe that there is no other sentient life in the universe. Plus aliens have been confirmed to exist in one piece so why not real life, eh? Whatever happened to Zora's buddies, Johnny and Yosaku? Ah, fun question here. So if you're an anime only watcher, you'll probably have no idea what became of this dynamic duo. However, they have popped up in the manga during one of the post time skip cover stories. And essentially immediately after Arlong's defeat, these two parted ways with the straw hats and continued the whole bounty hunting game. However, they were so, so terrible at it that they gave up and decided to become fishermen in Kokuyashi Village where they live to this very day. Have you ever read slash watched one piece? No.