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Why did Cowboy Bebop’s dub air uncensored back in the late 90s-early 2000s?


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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 11:50 am Reply with quote
Back in the late 90s to early 2000s, English dubs that aired on TV had to be heavily censored and heavily rewritten in order for them to be aired. Examples of these are Sailor Moon, DBZ, Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon, Pokemon, and Yugioh in which all of them were filled with heavy censorship, plot changes, cut episodes, bad voice acting, and replacement music. Yet, Cowboy Bebop’s dub remained uncensored and its plot intact when it was aired on TV on Adult Swim back in 2001. So why was Cowboy Bebop’s dub left uncensored on TV?
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Beltane70



Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 3894
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 2023 3:01 pm Reply with quote
All the shows mentioned were targeted at younger audiences and aired on regular broadcast TV networks usually during daytime hours, with quite a few of them showing early Saturday or Sunday morning. Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, was targeted to a much older audience and aired on Adult Swim on the cable network Cartoon Network late in the evening.
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TheFanCon



Joined: 14 Jun 2023
Posts: 48
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:54 pm Reply with quote
I'd say it's because Sunrise Studios (since Gundam series dubs weren't quite as hacked), but then "Ronin Warriors" and Escaflowne by Fox Kids/Saban exist as unfortunate stains on their record.
(Ironically the former still kept the original soundtrack by Osamu Totsuka while the latter didn't.)

Guess they just couldn't market Cowboy Bebop to the lowest common denominator (and if they did, you can be sure Watanabe wouldn't be silent).
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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 5:28 am Reply with quote
And that Animaze didn’t talk down to its audience.
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TheFanCon



Joined: 14 Jun 2023
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 8:48 am Reply with quote
I guess that's because of its founder, Kevin Seymour, who was from U.S. Renditions, one of the few North American companies that brought anime series over in the right way.
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Nobuyuki



Joined: 22 Mar 2004
Posts: 536
PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 10:28 pm Reply with quote
It also wasn't uncensored/unedited.
As documented on the site, starting here: animenewsnetwork.com/edit-list/2001/09#articles
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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2023 6:58 am Reply with quote
TheFanCon wrote:
I guess that's because of its founder, Kevin Seymour, who was from U.S. Renditions, one of the few North American companies that brought anime series over in the right way.

Kevin Seymour knew that animation needs to be respected and handled with care.
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gsilver



Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 618
PostPosted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 10:32 pm Reply with quote
There were a lot of cuts, but it was with the premiere of the late-night Adult Swim block, so naturally it would have a lot fewer cuts than a daytime Toonami screening.

I think that Gundam Wing Midnight Run screening was the only series that was truly uncut, but I think that the late-night screening of Outlaw Star had fewer cuts.
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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 3:32 am Reply with quote
Gundam Seed aired on Cartoon Network with little to no cuts as well.
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Ggultra2764
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Joined: 21 Jan 2004
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Location: New York state.
PostPosted: Sat Jul 29, 2023 4:39 pm Reply with quote
I remember with their launch of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network airing Cowboy Bebop, albeit still with edits to conform to broadcast standards, was an experiment to see if there was any viability of airing anime aimed at an older audience on their network. The attention on the series was strong enough to convince CN to create their exclusive action anime block for Adult Swim through the 2000s and eventually the Toonami block exclusively for anime from the 2010s and onward.
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AsleepBySunset



Joined: 07 Sep 2022
Posts: 209
PostPosted: Sun Jul 30, 2023 4:33 am Reply with quote
There is no "animation for teens" demographic in the west, so anime for teens like dragon ball gets editted down as anime for kids. Cowboy bebop was an anime for adults and fit into the adult animation market, eg, adult swim.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:41 pm Reply with quote
There was tons of anime that aired on cable TV entirely uncut before Cowboy Bebop. Sci-Fi Channel had a whole block of late night anime that aired uncensored or only lightly edited anime like Armitage III, Galaxy Express 999, and Demon City Shinjuku among others. Cartoon Network even aired Vampire Hunter D uncut in the mid 90s. Cowboy Bebop was only unique in being the first anime on Adult Swim which as others pointed out still had edits during it’s initial run. But there wasn’t anything that unique about cable TV airing uncut anime when Bebop was on.
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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:55 pm Reply with quote
But Cowboy Bebop proved that a dub can air on TV without edits being done to the show.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:43 pm Reply with quote
There was uncut anime on cable TV before Bebop and Bebop literally had edits during it's Adult Swim broadcast.
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mgree0032



Joined: 27 Jun 2022
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 5:04 pm Reply with quote
AsleepBySunset wrote:
There is no "animation for teens" demographic in the west, so anime for teens like dragon ball gets editted down as anime for kids. Cowboy bebop was an anime for adults and fit into the adult animation market, eg, adult swim.

Shoujo and Shonen are teen focused.
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