Naruto (manga)

title_name=Naruto

Toonami and YTV Broadcast

On Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 9:00PM EST, Naruto had its hour-long premiere in the U.S. on Cartoon Network's Toonami. The first and second episodes were shown from 9:00 - 10:00, and an hour-long encore was shown from 10:00 - 11:00PM. Leading up to the series' English-language premiere, many fans expressed fears that it would receive a treatment similar to that of One Piece, which was heavily edited and Americanized for broadcast in North America. The rating for the edited version of One Piece is TV-Y7, but the unedited version is TV-14. Surprisingly, though, Naruto was aired at the rating level of TV-PG rather than the TV-Y7 rating, which is normal for Toonami. Many elements that were expected to be edited out of the broadcast version were left in; many of these elements are not normal for a block aimed at pre-teens.

Related Topics:
Cartoon Network - Toonami - One Piece - Heavily edited and Americanized - TV-Y7 - TV-14 - TV-PG

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• The Lord Hokage smokes a pipe. Both the pipe and the smoke are left intact (the pipe is not changed into a toothpick like in past shows).
• Most kanji is present. A minimal amount of it is translated into English (mainly episode titles).
• The Sexy no Jutsu technique is unedited. This technique enables the user to transform into a beautiful young woman who is naked, although covered by smoke.
• A minimal amount of blood is shown.
• Naruto says "This sucks," in the first episode.
• All references to Japanese food are left in.
• References to death and killing are present (although this is not new for Toonami, many past shows had the dialogue changed so the characters would "destroy" or "get" enemies).
• Scenes of what would be considered innappropriate behavior are left intact (such as Naruto looking at a girlie magazine (although the girls are in bikinis, this is not an edit) and sneaking into a girls' locker room (the scene only consists of a shot of the locker room and the audio of the girls' screams).
• Naruto's and Sasuke's accidental kiss scene was edited. Instead of showing the kiss outright, the shot of Sakura and the other girls of the class looking at the scene was lengthened with kiss sound effects added to imply that the kiss had happened.
• Tazuna's alcholic beverage was completely uncensored.
• The scene where Naruto stabbed his hand was censored (by repeating the scene where he brought the knife up, then digitally painting the whole scene red and inserting the knife "ching" sound), but after the actual stab, the blood remained 100% intact.

It is expected that Cartoon Network will continue to take these risks, at least for the time being. This is not the first time the network has done this; the uncut broadcast of Dragon Ball Z features much of the same elements.

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There are fans who watched the subtitled (see Fansubs) original Japanese version of Naruto who do not like the English version of Naruto played on Cartoon Network. The primary complaint of these fans is the choice of voice actors. Of these fans, most are older and some are newer, view the choice of voices as annoying and screechy. There have been some voices which were met with much acceptance, such as Konohamaru and Ebisu. However, Sakura and Naruto's voices have been widely criticized.

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It should be noted that not everyone share these same views. Studio Pierrot has said that they prefer many of the English VAs to the Japanese cast. When comparing the voice acting of the Japanese version and the American version, it is disputed whether one is inferior to the other, or whether the fans who watched the Japanese version are not used to the voices of the American version.

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Also, the alteration of the opening and especially closing themes to loud, pop-heavy, and shortened themes annoys many loyal fans of the ever popular J-pop/J-rock Naruto soundtrack.

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Also, like Rockman.exe before it, many claim that Naruto was dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, when in reality, it is dubbed by Animaze, who have previously dubbed Cowboy Bebop and FLCL. Thus, these claims are completely ridiculous in the context of Naruto's dub as are comparisons to One Piece's US Dub which was produced by 4Kids.

Related Topics:
Rockman.exe - 4Kids - One Piece

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On Friday, September 16, 2005, at 9:30PM EST, the first episode of Naruto premiered in Canada on YTV. As YTV and Cartoon Network both air the same version, there aren't any differences in regards to editing. As in the U.S., Naruto aired in Canada with a PG rating. YTV also aired Naruto with an advisory stating that the show contained scenes of violence and was intended for an older youth audience.

Related Topics:
YTV - Cartoon Network

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