Localization =/= censorship. Nowadays localization has been intertwined pretty closely with censorship, but changing Satoshi to Ash wasn't censorship, it was just good business 25 years ago, especially for a target demographic that was like 4-12 years old.
but changing Satoshi to Ash wasn't censorship, it was just good business 25 years ago
That's literally the same argument they use right now in this moment to call what they are doing not-censorship.
The official producers at Shogakukan in Japan demanded all violence*, sexuality and religion be removed from the product before it came to North America. The name change was just incidental as part of their bigger goal to also de-Jap the entire product while also censoring it to hell and back.
The success of this product for 4Kids is what would embolden them to censor future products much more brazenly and egregiously, leading to them the absurd levels later seen in their dub of One Piece or DBZ Kai.
So even if you want to argue it wasn't so, it was setting the groundwork for them to feel comfortable doing so shortly after. Meaning the distinction is meaningless as trying to pretend socialism and communism totally aren't one into the other.
"That's literally the same arguement" doesn't mean the arguement is never appropriate; a hammer isn't the right tool for every job, but it is the right tool for some jobs.
If the character names are Satoshi, Satoru, Sakamoto, Yoshitaka, Yoshimitsu, Yamaguchi, Yamamoto, Yamasaki, and so on, guess what will happen to a little kid who doesn't know Japanese? They will zone out, they will forget who is who, and they will be less likely to enjoy the show. Children don't like things that confuse them, it's the same reason why the kids the suck at math all hate math, whereas the kids who are good at math enjoy it.
Okay, so the name thing can be justifiable. Never even had it as the point being talked about, was just thrown in as a funny detail because I used the localized names while talking about localization. That's why I just called it incidental to the greater goal, which was to completely de-Jap the entire product.
You want to explain how being forced to remove all violence, sex, and religion isn't censorship either? How about removing numerous instances of random salutes or matches? What would kids get confused about there that demands they must do so?
Localization =/= censorship. Nowadays localization has been intertwined pretty closely with censorship, but changing Satoshi to Ash wasn't censorship, it was just good business 25 years ago, especially for a target demographic that was like 4-12 years old.
That's literally the same argument they use right now in this moment to call what they are doing not-censorship.
The official producers at Shogakukan in Japan demanded all violence*, sexuality and religion be removed from the product before it came to North America. The name change was just incidental as part of their bigger goal to also de-Jap the entire product while also censoring it to hell and back.
The success of this product for 4Kids is what would embolden them to censor future products much more brazenly and egregiously, leading to them the absurd levels later seen in their dub of One Piece or DBZ Kai.
So even if you want to argue it wasn't so, it was setting the groundwork for them to feel comfortable doing so shortly after. Meaning the distinction is meaningless as trying to pretend socialism and communism totally aren't one into the other.
*between people presumably
"That's literally the same arguement" doesn't mean the arguement is never appropriate; a hammer isn't the right tool for every job, but it is the right tool for some jobs.
If the character names are Satoshi, Satoru, Sakamoto, Yoshitaka, Yoshimitsu, Yamaguchi, Yamamoto, Yamasaki, and so on, guess what will happen to a little kid who doesn't know Japanese? They will zone out, they will forget who is who, and they will be less likely to enjoy the show. Children don't like things that confuse them, it's the same reason why the kids the suck at math all hate math, whereas the kids who are good at math enjoy it.
Okay, so the name thing can be justifiable. Never even had it as the point being talked about, was just thrown in as a funny detail because I used the localized names while talking about localization. That's why I just called it incidental to the greater goal, which was to completely de-Jap the entire product.
You want to explain how being forced to remove all violence, sex, and religion isn't censorship either? How about removing numerous instances of random salutes or matches? What would kids get confused about there that demands they must do so?