They Changed It, Now It Sucks/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • As a general rule, any time the translated version of an Anime or Manga makes any deviation from the original dialogue, it is likely to draw this reaction from some portion of the fandom. While there are often very legitimate reasons for fans to be less than pleased with a translation, many within the fandom will still be upset even when the changes are relatively minor or more effective than a literal translation.
  • The DiC dub of Sailor Moon has a multitude of hatesites dedicated to it, by people who claimed to get up early to watch it when they were little, for any change made by the dubbers.
    • And just to prove how cyclical this trope is, when it was announced that there would be a remastered rerelease of the original Sailor Moon anime with a much more accurate dub (including retaining the original Japanese character names), a small but devoted group of fans of the original dub absolutely lost their minds.
  • Digimon gets this almost every season. A new cast? No partner digimon? No digivolving? Judging by how many times it's been ruined, you would think the series had died years ago.
  • Readers of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga sometimes had this reaction towards the 2003 anime adaptation.
    • Same deal with Brotherhood, due to slight changes. Also fans of both the manga and original anime often have this about the art style of the newer series.
  • The English dub of Code Geass has fallen into this. Lelouch/Zero's voice, in particular, is a point of contention, due in large part to his English VA not sounding enough like his Japanese one.
  • Prince of Tennis
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie elicited this reaction from some fans when Knuckles was referred to as a mole.
  • There are many Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fans that had this reaction towards translations of show terminology that didn't match up with what was currently in use among the already-existing fandom at the time. There was also some discontent about the switch from Brett Weaver to Kyle Hebert as the voice actor for Kamina when the license for the show changed hands from ADV to Bandai.
  • Gundam franchise:
    • Turn a Gundam received a poor reception among the Gundam fandom, due to having little in common with the "classic" gundam style used by the rest of the franchise.
    • Pretty much every important SEED character had at least 3 (Athrun and Lacus had at least 4-6 apiece) different romanizations of their names, some of these are still in use over the official English transliterations.
    • When Mobile Suit Gundam 00 came around, the fans were against the idea that the new installment would include aliens (which, up to that point, had been a non-entity in the Gundam franchise), and that the Gundams lacked "signature features" of Gundam designs, like mouth vents.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, in addition to the complaint about the inclusion of aliens, generated discontent for being more child-oriented than other Gundam series.
  • The anime adaptation of the game Valkyria Chronicles has received a lot of flak from fans of the game for some admittedly fair reasons (character exaggeration, key characters (Leon and Kreis) being omitted, mood whiplash, changes to key events (lupus and batomys anyone?), changes to some characters, an unwanted love triangle shoe horned in, and needless angst) and some not so reasonable (having the squads at 10 men each rather than 20, getting the armour wrong, not including certain recruitables in squad 7, putting some characters in the wrong 'classes' they were listed as in the game)
  • Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0, in contrast with its predecessor, 1.0. Specific examples include the change of Asuka's surname from Sohryu to Shikinami, alterations to Asuka's personality and role, alterations to make Rei more emotionally open than she was in the series, the introduction of a new character (Mari), and the appearance of Kaworu much earlier than he appeared in the original series.
  • One Piece received complaints regarding the English voices from 4Kids' dub of the series not fitting with the Japanese voices (the alterations to dialogue would be a different trope entirely). Later, when the license changed hands from 4Kids to FUNimation, a different section of the fanbase criticized the FUNimation voices for not matching the ones 4Kids used.
  • Admittedly, some of the fanbase's grievances with Studio DEEN's adaptation of Umineko no Naku Koro ni are legitimate. But when you have people complaining that they used the wrong music in a scene, you know this trope has struck with a vengeance. On the other hand, the Umineko soundtrack is one of the most amazing things ever written.
    • Umineko's original visual novel is now receiving a Play Station 3 port, fans of the original novel are upset to see the original artwork being replaced by more professional and detailed images.
    • Fans of both series dislike the slight change in art style from Higurashi to Umineko, saying it looks even worse than the Narm Charm ridden Higurashi.
    • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni fans also dislike the changes DEEN did to the anime... A lot, since it changes the way you see the story and the way the story is played out. The manga is far better received.
  • Death Note fandom splits less than equally into fans who think the scene on the roof is the best thing ever, and those who don't know what the anime producers were thinking. The anime ending has also been the subject of some debate, with some fans finding it ridiculous and others beautiful. Plus, there's L being replaced with Mello and Near after L was killed off.
  • The first two seasons of Dragonball Z were dubbed into English by The Ocean Group while being licensed by FUNimation; however, the show suffered from poor time slot placement and didn't get a lot of mainstream exposure until it began airing on the Cartoon Network, and then its popularity exploded. To meet the high demand for more episodes, FUNi made plans to dub the rest of the series, but realized it would be more economical to produce an in-house dub at their own facilities in Texas rather than outsource the work to Ocean in Canada. As a result, all the character voices in the third season sounded radically different from those in the previous two, creating a fiery backlash among viewers who had been fans of Ocean's work. To be fair, Funi's voice work at this time was admittedly pretty lousy, although they have since gotten better (see: Fullmetal Alchemist); rumour has it that they were recruiting people off the street with no prior VA experience during auditions, and Frieza was voiced by a woman whose day job was working as a librarian. In Dragon Ball Z Kai Freeza's now going to be voiced by a man, eliminating much of the Narm of the original.
    • I defy you to watch a scene comparison between Z and Kai on youtube and read the comments. You will constantly find people looking for one change in the scene and using that one change and call that justification to call the Kai version bad. It doesn't matter how good the Kai version is. If the scene doesn't last as long, it doesn't let you soak up the emotion. If the music is different, that's the reason why the Z version was better. It doesn't matter if the voice acting quality is better, the words are slightly different so it sucks.
    • Also keep in mind this was hardly the only issue in play when FUNimation took it in-house. Saban Entertainment had creative control over the dub for its broadcast run, and directed FUNimation to Bowdlerize the show mercilessly. Hence the term "the next dimension". If Saban didn't let it go, FUNimation would've turned into 4Kids. And it took a while for them to re-learn to walk after that.
  • The English dub of Monster by Viz has taken some heat for changing the music (regardless of how it's still all the original show's music, just that some of it has been moved), and translating a name as Lunge, when it's generally agreed that Runge is the accurate version due to being a real German name. The major argument against this is that we're lucky the series even got a dub with its huge number of characters and episodes.
    • Later when it was pointed out that all foreign adaptions feature these music changes, fans still blamed Viz for not trying hard enough to ge the original track.
  • Pokémon has one of the worst fanbases out there. It is a common belief that absolutely everything about the new episodes sucks, and that the tiniest change = Ruined FOREVER. New Pokémon? RUINED FOREVER!!! New voice actors? RUINED FOREVER!!! (though this is a pretty legitimate complaint). A new female companion? RUINED FOREVER!!! Team Rocket changed their motto? RUINED FOREVER!!! Team Rocket are Badass now? You guessed it…RUINED FOREVER!!!
    • The eye retcons in Pokémon Best Wishes. Oddly no one minded the change in Pokémon Special, and the change was actually praised in the games (albeit occasionally you'll find fans who prefer the older 90s style).
      • In the case of Pokémon Special, it helps that it's a black and white manga and that no one really paid much attention when only a very few got their eye color changed.
      • There is a small but vocal group that is up in arms about how Team Rocket is now boring because their personalities are now very serious and driven, rather than bumbling and humorous, and that they have stopped showing up in every episode and many times when they do, they don't actually play a part in Ash's current story.
      • Both Pokémon Special and Pokémon get this in multiple ways when compared to the games. Be it the plot, the moves, the characterization...
  • Surprisingly, not many complaints have been made about Nanoha's barrier jacket having its red ribbon replaced with some brooch for The Movie adaptation of the 1st season.
  • The Wandering Son anime gets a lot of this from fans of the manga. It's easier to state manga fans who like it then ones who don't; though people who read the manga after the anime typically have a better opinion of the adaptation then manga fans who watched the anime did. At first it just came from the art style. Compared to other adaptations, especially Aoi Hana which is from the same mangaka, the anime is a far cry from the manga style; far more simplified and stiff. It was however praised for looking like a watercolor picture, and it's high quality animation. Character designs were also changed, specifically few people kept their eye colors from the manga (they always have Black Eyes and Brown Eyes while in the anime they had Eyes of Gold, Purple Eyes, and all other sorts of Technicolor Eyes). However once you get past that, you start getting into the episodes. The series suffers from being very different from the manga. Chronological order is changed, the series begins In Medias Res which doesn't work for manga driven by continuity and Kudzu Plot, Out-of-Character Moment scenes are added, scenes are changed, and the ending of the anime is dramatically different from its equivalent of the manga. It drives more of a "You can't change your sex, and you'll just grow out of this", while in the manga is strict Transsexualism based and Nitori's reaction at the end is in stark contrast to the anime. In the anime he takes a girl's comment about his voice changing with stride and a true smile, while in the manga his reaction is dull and in shock; no smile either.
  • The anime adaption of Aoi Hana is not off the hook either, though. Where killing most of the sub-plots does help to streamline the narrative, it also demolishes a lot of background about the relationship between Akira and Fumi, both in the present time as in their past. This leaves quite a few viewers not acquainted with the manga wondering just what the hell cheery Akira sees in Fumi, who gets across as a whiny, spineless brat without much characterization.
  • The 2011 version of the Hunter X Hunter anime got this from fans of the original anime version.
  • According to some people after the Soul Society arc Bleach started to go downhill.
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