I love Yugioh more than anything and I enjoy the dub because its comforting and familiar, but the one thing I absolutely hate about it is how they completely changed Seto’s character. I know it’s 4Kids, but it still grinds my gears.
In the manga and Japanese version, Seto is actually a really down to earth person and not the egomaniac that the dub makes him out to be and it really does a disservice to how good of a guy he actually is. Like yeah he’s still a pretentious jerk, but in the sub/manga he is actually much kinder and always fully takes responsibility for his actions:
-During Duelist Kingdom, Seto acknowledges that it was really shitty of him to put his life on the line and force Yugi to forfeit the duel. In the dub, Seto kind of writes it off as “Yeah that duel didn’t count”
- In the manga, it even shows that Seto was the one that gave Yugi & Co. a ride back to Japan on his helicopter
- Seto fully acknowledges that there is actually a pharaoh inside of Yugi and it is a completely different person doing the dueling. He doesn’t believe all the Egyptian stuff is “magic hocus pocus”
- When Bakura passes out after his duel and they beg Seto to land the blimp for medical help, the dub Seto says “He knew the risk but we have a doctor on board so stop whining”. In the sub rather, Seto empathizes and says “We already have equip medical staff on board in case something like this happened and we were too far away from land to seek help.”
- During Noah’s Arc, Seto tells Mokuba he is not at all proud of the decisions he made in the past but at the time it’s what he felt he had to do to make a good life for the both of them. In the sub, he says something like this but it’s very much “I only look towards the future now” dismissive tone. He is much more reflective in the sub
-When Jou dies after his duel with Marik, the sub version has Seto acknowledge him as a true duelist in death and that he really wasnt as bad as Seto though he was in a heartfelt proclamation. In the dub, Seto basically just says “maybe he doesn’t suck”.
- During Waking the Dragons, Seto went to see Pegasus because he thought they were the one stealing the KaibaCorp stocks. During the duel, Seto was very confused and didn’t say much because he knew it wasn’t really Pegasus. In the dub, Seto berates “Pegasus” the entire time and doesn’t even acknowledge until the last second that it might not be Pegasus
And the one that makes me most mad:
- When Alistar reveals himself and tells Seto the story of the war caused by Gozaboru and the death of his brother, Mokuba steps in to say it wasn’t Seto’s fault and it was the old KaibaCorp and Alistar has no reason to be mad at Seto. Seto then stops Mokuba and explains that when he took over KaibaCorp, he recognized that he had to take on the past sins of his step-father’s war company and it was 100% his responsibility, so Alistar had every reason to be mad at him. In the sub, Seto berates him and calls him insane and makes fun of the memento of his dead brother.
There are other moments I’m probably forgetting about, but none of this stuff occurs in the English adaption. If it does, it is really downplayed and made to sound sarcastic. Seto has his okay moments in the dub (calling Yugi the true king of games/admitting the egyptian stuff is real…) and I understand why they even changed other aspects of the show’s plot (death/shadow realm, marik killing his father) for global audiences, but Seto could have still been a pretentious asshole while still being kind and considerate. He isn’t given nearly enough credit for the good person he really is.
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