DragonBall Z Kai TV Network Version (CW4Kids\Toonzai\Vortex)

[DB_Fan1991]

I agree. It's like the issue with the priest in The Little Mermaid where everyone thought that... protuberance was an erect penis while Disney had claimed for years it was just his knee scuttling around in his erratic movements. Being the mature and sensible person that I am ( ) I always took Disney at their word. But then the 2006 DVD came out, and, whatever it was, it was digitally edited out. And I admit that pissed me off, both at having the movie edited in the first place, but also because since they cowed to silly urban legends and puerile joking among fans, it seemed to validate that those urban legends were right in the first place. This isn't quite the same thing since it's a decision made by an independent body, but it still just seems pointless, especially considering the TV series has never made an issue about it before now, be it in the '90s under Saban, the Toonami run, or, even concurrently, on Nicktoons!

Just to add to that, the questionable material in Aladdin (Good teenagers take off your clothes) & Lion King (the word Sex in the stars) were also removed from the DVD release as well. Now back to Dragon Ball Z Kai and the crazy edits made on Toonzai.

[Zephyr]

I can't wait to see what they do next. Whatever it is though, I doubt it'll top this.

[Super Sonic]

I'm one of the few (if not only) black guys on this board and am not too keen on Popo's appearance, but this I have to say is incredibly stupid. Guess we know that 4Kids is still scared of that crazy black lady.

[Gaffer Tape]

You're not the only one. Only a few posts ago, Big Momma posted thoughts on the subject, and I know jjgp is black as well. Not that that diminishes your opinion at all. Just throwing that out there.

So now I have to ask... what crazy black lady are you referring to?

[Big Momma]

You're not the only one. Only a few posts ago, Big Momma posted thoughts on the subject, and I know jjgp is black as well. Not that that diminishes your opinion at all. Just throwing that out there.

So now I have to ask... what crazy black lady are you referring to?

She's the reason Popo is edited in the VIZ manga, IIRC.

[DB_Fan1991]

You're not the only one. Only a few posts ago, Big Momma posted thoughts on the subject, and I know jjgp is black as well. Not that that diminishes your opinion at all. Just throwing that out there.

So now I have to ask... what crazy black lady are you referring to?

She's the reason Popo is edited in the VIZ manga, IIRC.

Her name is Carole B. Weatherford there is a whole article about it on a famous Pokemon site. http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/r ... nx_01.html The second page talk about Viz's censoring of Mr.Popo's lips.

[Zep]

They could have just went the Viz route and coloured over his lips... I mean, it'd still be pretty silly and might not look right, but it would A: Be a lot less silly than THIS and B: Would be much easier to edit than recolouring his entire body. For me, it's just his big lips (and maybe his pale palms) that make him appear a racist caricature; the jet black skin is something you could probably get away with.

[xzero]

I don't know how many of you actually saw the TV airing, but I caught it. It's actually hard to watch the scene with Kami and Popo. That blue is so off-putting, and it just looks overexposed. It kind of hurts your eyes.

[Metalwario64]

It's actually hard to watch the scene with Kami and Popo. That blue is so off-putting, and it just looks overexposed. It kind of hurts your eyes.

I agree. It's just so deep and over-saturated compared to everything else, so it just looks very harsh and clashes terribly with everything else.

[Lance Freeman]

*Looks at blue Popo*

What? Seriously? That's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it?

[TonyTheTiger]

I mean he is just a deity enslaved to a lamp and a green alien who happens look black. That's not of.... Oh wait.

A lamp? What does Popo have to do with a lamp?

And, bah, that was totally unnecessary. I thought it was bad enough when Viz painted over his lips, but this is just ridiculous. I've seen plenty of people tease the character of Popo for having a resemblance to stereotypical portrayals, but I've never heard of anyone seriously up in arms about it. If it was perfectly fine on broadcast television in '96, I can't for the life of me figure out why he's blue now! Then again, I also can't figure out why Goku has a ball of light over his head or any of the other stupid censors, but eh...

I seriously feel like this has become some kind of meta joke. Like the people responsible for censoring the show got all indignant for one reason or another and thought to themselves, "They want censorship? We'll give them fucking censorship!" And then they do a shit load of things that are meme worthy.

[LeprikanGT]

I don't think I could come close to explaining just how stupid and senseless I think the Popo edit is without using every cuss word imaginable like 17 times each. Are people THAT worried about kids seeing a black ....magic person from the 80s? What are they going to do when they get around to Killah when they get to that tournament? Have a blue man with a box top fade with boxing gloves?

*Sigh*.....sickening.

I'm truly worried about what they will do when the series starts getting into some serious stuff like blood and guns and death. I'm glad I opted not to watch that edit. I mean if you edit and edit of something thats been editted, at some point it won't even be the same show anymore.

[El Diabeetus]

I'm still only disappointed with the edit since it was so horribly done. I mean come on, they could of at least added an outline like this:



I whipped that up in 10 minutes on Paint. You're telling me people getting paid to do this can't do that.

Why not make him a sky blue and you have the next (giant) smurf.

[Gaffer Tape]

Well, since someone brought it up Killa, I mean... no one's ever seemed to have a problem with Black... the black guy who's actually a black human! Viz never painted over his lips!

So if nobody minds, I'd like to ask a question, particularly to our forum-goers of African descent, but not exclusively to them. Are the representation of stereotypical physical traits inherently bad, or is it just in the overall portrayal? I mean, I'm of Polish descent. Guess what we're stereotypically known for? Low intelligence. I don't know why. Does it bother me? No. Not really. And apparently Polish people seem to have higher foreheads than certain other people, a physical trait that I do share. But is it any more insensitive to depict cartoon black people with prominent lips than it is to depict, for example, Asians in a way that shows the epicanthic folds in their eyes or depicting white people as not having rhythm? Yes, I am aware of the extremely unfortunate depiction of African-Americans in the past through such things as minstrel shows, etc., and that Popo might indeed be influenced by that design, but, again, he's not human. And while he does have traits like referring to himself in the third person, he's introduced as a high-ranking earthly deity, is stronger than Piccolo Daimao, and is all around a great guy. But now he has to be blue...

In regards to the earlier link you guys sent me about Jynx the Pokemon, I did enjoy that article, and it was interesting, and the "crazy black lady" at least seems to be a fairly competent writer who makes some decent points and not just some wild reactionary. One thing that struck me as weird, though, is in regard to a question about other Pokemon that seemed to hint at other racial stereotypes. And the answer was quite plainly stated that the difference in that scenario is simply that no one has complained about it. While I'm not trying to state with any certainty what is valid in terms of what's considered racially insensitive, I find that to be a pretty damn silly way of defining it. If someone complains, then it's bad. If they don't, then it's okay to ignore it? Sigh. I find this whole thing odd to say the least.

[bkev]

I think his lips haven't been censored, perse, but haven't they been recolored in the past to a more fleshy tone? Or am I making this up?

[LeprikanGT]

So why exactly are people editting/worried about Popo being 'black and racist' but not Killa? When Popo isn't even a HUMAN, for all we know he is an alien and thats what his people look like. That edit was completely uncalled for.

That's going to render parts of this useless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOVORQzNmrM

[Saimaroimaru]

Face it. Mr. Popo is a giant smurf. CW and its previous incarnations aka 4kids aka the devil of anime ruin anime. I was ticked off to see Yugioh go exclusive on that station again(Yes I like Yugioh, move on).

CW should just put on this on their screen while DBZ Kai plays on their station every Saturday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIk47527MA

At 0:08. Anyone notice he looks smaller?

[Big Momma]

For anyone who hasn't seen, here's a next episode preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4uZ_z2I ... re=related

Actually looks pretty cool.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

For anyone who hasn't seen, here's a next episode preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4uZ_z2I ... re=related

Actually looks pretty cool.

Yeah, I really like that comic book style it has going on.



Also, can we not turn this thread into a racial debate. I know I'm not a mod, but I've seen too many Jynx threads on Pokemon forums and I really don't want a similar thing here.

[sangofe]

According to Toonzaki we need a "reality check": " Anyone who does not recognize that Mr. Popo's character design would be viewed as racially insensitive in the US needs a reality check. " http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toonzaki/ ... opic=15923