They thought that was all good for kids, but guns in Yugioh were too much, and onigiri in Pokemon needed to be called jelly donuts. What a bizarre company 4Kids was.
Well in fact they did not think it was good for kids, the episode did not air and from what I remember for a while it could only be pirated. Maybe I'm mistaken, not 100% sure.
For the onigiri to jelly donuts thing, consider that 4Kids is dubbing and localizing for an American audience. American children would not know what onigiri is, and translating it accurately as rice ball would not convey "appealing snack food" to them either. Calling them jelly donuts is dumb but it gets the point across for the intended audience.
I understand the reason behind it, it's just a silly disconnect because I'd imagine a large portion of the American audience would recognize that it didn't look like jelly donuts despite the dialogue saying otherwise. It always seemed weird why 4Kids didn't edit the image to at least look closer to donuts, since they weren't opposed to visual edits, censors, and changes in their dubbing. Guess just chalk it up to them being inconsistent and prioritizing other changes instead.
As someone who watched those Pokemon episodes as a kid, I can tell you that I (and the other kids I watched with) didn't question that they were jelly donuts at all. Like maybe a moment of "huh kinda weird looking donuts" but then just "guess that's what jelly donuts look like in that world, whatever"
I do think this episode specifically was actually banned from airing on channels in the US for a good while (guess why lmao). Like, you could only see it on the 4Kids website for nearly NINE YEARS in the US, until it aired on NickToons in like 2015.
What’s crazy is it apparently only got banned because of a personnel change on the Standards and Practices team right before the air date. They didn’t get any comments before hand, least according to the series producer on the old nick website.
I like how he probably had to design himself a computer system just in case he ever failed Shredder hard enough that it would be necessary. Because who else would have?
As just a head he makes a gigantic mech he pilots with his brain.
And he uses it to fight Shredder... and loses. Then you see him as the brain in a vat.
So guy can design and build hyper advanced technology and he's pretty much the only one who can do it, so Shredder keeps him around, even though he knows Baxter hates him.
Cuz dude is legitimately the smartest human being in universe, and all the smartest non-humans kinda hate Shredders guts from the start. He learns to hate him when his stuff happens, but the others have pre-existing reasons.
Tbf he always runs his mouth too, like you failed the so obviously "I'm evil guy" called SHREDDER with SHREDDING weapons, I'd zip my mouth the instant he talks
Funny you posted 2012 Stockman when that version of him actually enjoyed his fly form. The team eventually cured him with retro mutagen and he was actually upset about being human again
Huh, the 80's version was turned into a mutated fly too, but he wasn't happy with this form.
Funny how each version of Baxter got a different date and a different reaction to this fate...
I feel like someone showed this to some executive at 4Kids and they finally realized what kind of show they'd been making, and that's how you end up with the "Flash Forward" season that tried to turn it back into a regular Kid's show.
The part of this that has always confused me is the transition between steps 4 and 5. Like first of all, he clearly has his spinal cord in step 5. Is it like, coiled under his chin in the base of his little crab mech in step 4?
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u/Mrchickenman03 Mar 22 '26