Ok so, wow the dub is a MESS when the whole thing about the Wicked Runes bit, mainly b/c they changed them from the kanji word for each emotion to a garbage symbol.
See, in the sub, after Judai beats Zure, 5 little orbs are released, each with a different Kanji(anger, hate, doubt, anguish, and sadness), and at the end of the episode we see them vanish and the (the kanji for each emotion) appear on his friends. Which triggers a change in behaviour in his friends. Each one acting according to the emotion written on them, i.e Manjoume becomes more angry than usual, Asuka is unusually despondent etc...
This gives enough clues that one can figure out they’re being influenced by each of the runes to act like this. Which is confirmed in the next episode when we see the marks appear on them
Judai then duels Brron, who reveals his captured friends, and activates the Wicked Runes, sucking each one into the book.
Now in the dub, the little orbs with symbols are released BUT, since the dub decided ‘oh no, we can’t have Japanese writing’ the edited them into, symbols that mean literally nothing, we have no idea what they are/mean. They’re just, symbols.
Like, look at these-
I don’t know how I’m supposed to get anger, hate, anguish and sadness from those(cept Manjoume’s, it at least look angry)
And while we do see the orbs vanish and the behaviour changes remains, the symbols being changed to garbage, means for at least half an episode we get 5 of the main cast acting very ooc, for no explained reason and orb and symbols that mean, basically nothing(until the duel with Brron and we find out what those are supposed to mean).
Also, the editing of the symbols on his friends/the orbs in the dub makes me laugh because,
the dub fuckin, left this card intact.
That says ‘Anger’ right there, and is, in the sub, the symbol on Manjoume. Apparently card art is a-ok for kanji, but not anywhere else.
While the dub, this is what we see for ‘anger’ on Manjoume
Yeah that really says ‘anger’ and really matches the mark on the card. /sarcasm
Good job.
Bonus, in the sub, at the end of the season, when Judai is duelling Yubel, we finally see the mark of doubt leave Shou, when he finally overcomes his doubt. It glows one last time before lifting off his skin and vanishing.
This never happens in the dub. At some point they stop showing the mark(much like the sub does, as it’s not shown all the time), but we never actually see it leave him.
