At some point in all of our lives, we’ve had guilty pleasures. It happens. While we (collectively) are more accepting of people liking shows aimed at a younger demographic today, that certainly wasn’t the case back in the early 2000s.
Being a 90s kid meant that, of course I loved Harry Potter back then. I also loved Sailor Moon.
So when Winx Club premiered its first episode I became obsessed with the show for a while. Yes, the dub was handled by 4Kids… we’ll get to that in a bit. I remember being spellbound by the end of the first episode, and stuck around for the whole season.
I’ll be honest: I don’t remember much of it because it’s been a long time since then. I’ve watched tons of shows since. In my infinite wisdom, I consulted the Winx Club to see if they know where I might be able to watch the original series.
Oh….
Ohhhhh it’s one of those, is it? Theoretically that shouldn’t be an issue, I think I can get used to voice changes in no time.
So, to give you a quick spoiler free review of the 4Kids dub.
It…
Surprisingly isn’t that bad of a dub. I know that it sounds like I’m praising Satan over here, mainly because 4Kids is behind a lot of crazy censorship of anime back in the day. Culture war people that post on Twitter about anime censorship have no clue what they’re talking about; they didn’t live through the 4Kids era of dubbing and it shows. For context, I used to think that Seto Kaiba was a drama queen for jumping out of a window after two guys in suits point at him menacingly.
Don’t talk to me about “anime being censored”. I know exactly it looks like in the context of appealing to western sensibilities.
However, the 4Kids dub of Winx club is in a lot of ways more bearable than the RAI dub. I actually like how distinctly Y2K and whimsy the 4Kids dub is; not to mention that the voice acting is actually done by industry professionals. The VAs really went all in on their roles, and it felt like they all had some real chemistry going on. The script may have been cheesy but gosh darn it, I love it for that.
And if you have any doubts, take a listen to this comparison on YouTube:
There’s a lot more personality in the 4Kids dub, whereas the RAI dub feels hollow in comparison. It reminds me of the Dic Sailor Moon dub. They’re both iconic to me and I will die on that hill. I could be blinded by nostalgia but I don’t care.
It was indeed my seventh grade guilty pleasure, so naturally I’m far more attached to the 4Kids dub. Not everyone reading this blog will agree with me on that one.
Another thing I like the show is the world building. It’s a fantasy, but it’s also science fiction at the same time. A science-fantasy if you will. Without giving a lot away, the science fiction elements make sense when you consider that it’s highly unlikely that people will want to permanently stay living in a time period prior to 1820. Of course they’d want to combine magic with technology to make life easier.
The schooling system is pretty fascinating in this world as well. There’s one for fairies, one for witches and another called “red fountain” for the boys. I really like that everybody gets their own corner that they can chill out in, it’s just that the witches choose to be shit disturbers (for the most part).
I mainly like Alfea because it harkens back to a lot of the same excitement I felt when entering college. That’s just a me-thing, I suppose. But the way the girls interact do remind me of how things were with my dorm mates back then, which makes the series more charming for me. Interesting that I never felt that way about the friend group back when I was 12. Oh well.
Also, the plot twist about Bloom’s background is really interesting. Won’t spoil it for those going in blind, but it does make her more interesting in my opinion.
By the way, my favorite fairy is easily Techna. Her technology gimmick is highly appealing to me, as is her color scheme. I feel that she’s one of those under appreciated characters in the story. It could be an effect of the 4Kids dub, but I really like Techna.
Her outfit is very reminiscent of a giant squid, which are among some of the most intelligent animals around. It’s pretty on brand for her to have an appreciation for animals like squids, dolphins and other marine life. That’s why it always felt more on brand.
Which is why, while I understand the reasoning for the changes, I never liked her later fairy forms. Much like Musa, it felt like something personalized was removed.
Anyways…
I want to take a slight detour to talk about the Mattel dolls that were released between 2004-2009. Just look at the packaging!
The packaging is so vibrant, whimsy and overall fun looking. I especially love the packing that is winged shaped, it’s a very cute touch. I can’t vouch for the dolls themselves because I was a prideful 12 year old that was secretly too shy to ask for a Techna or Flora on that I’d spot once in a while.
Interestingly, I remember swearing up and down that the dolls came in these plastic colored bags. I am not sure where the heck I got that idea, but it has to be a case of me misremembering things.
Or, the packaging of this specific generation may have misled me to think that they came in plastic bags?
Speaking of dolls released later…
Let’s talk about one particular detail about the early fandom days that I do recall.
While I was one of those Sailor Moon fans who loved this show, there were other Moonies who weren’t too thrilled about its existence. They went as far as to calling it a rip off:
You can read the thread in its entirety here. It wasn’t too uncommon for me to see Moonies to call Winx Club “Bootleg Sailor Moon”, “Wannabe Sailor Moon” and so on. It was part of the reason I never was an active participant in the fandom until around 2008, when it all calmed down and I could enjoy the SMxWinx crossover fanfictions where both the Winx and Sailor Senshi were working together to take down villains. Throw in some cute Pokémon as animal sidekicks and you got a dedicated reader out of me. I loved watching my favorite magical girls come together to defeat evil bad guy OCs that the authors intentionally made to be more powerful than Goku.
Anyways, that thread is one small part of the fandom conflict of the mid 2000s. The most I ever saw from the Winx side of the conflict was a bunch of confused girlies in their early teens who had no idea why SM fans were hating on their favorite fairies and witches.
One thing you need to understand about mid 2000s fanbases is that there were always conflicts about one intellectual property ripping off another. Just look at the Kimba vs Simba debate for a full dose of what it looked it, and you’ll see what I mean.
Let’s move on before I go into a deep diatribe about fandom wars. If you’re too young to have been present for those, just be glad you weren’t like me and stuck in between two fandoms that were in conflict with each other.
Now then, I was going to post a sample of the Winx Club bases that I colored back in 2007-2008ish. But, there’s a problem.
You see, a few months ago I asked my step father if he happened to know what happened to the old Dell Laptop that I used to use up until 2009. Long story short, the screen no longer lights up and I had to connect it to the TV in order to use it. I eventually got an Acer and then a Flipbook instead of the repaired laptop.
If you couldn’t tell, I’ve been through a lot of laptops over the past fifteen or so years. He was unable to locate the Dell Laptop. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to settle for a historical recreation of one of the edits to the best of my memory.
It’s not as messy looking at the original would have been, perhaps it looks a bit too “clean” to be historically accurate. However, the spirit is there. I forget what my Winx OC’s name even was. All I remember is that she dressed like a Mall Goth and had the personality of Starfire from Teen Titans. She was also Bloom’s long lost sister and Techna’s best friend. Or something like that.
This is as close to a historical recreation as we’re going to get.
And she had bat wings for some reason. I really wasn’t aiming to be canon compliant at all, I just put together what I thought would look cool.
Now that I think about it, she gives off Ebony Dark’Ness Dementia Raven Way vibes, while somehow looking a bit preppy at the same time.
Credit belongs to this person here for making the base in the first place, for me to use.
In conclusion, this series was a guilty pleasure of mine back in the day. The 4Kids dub is a delightfully fun watch, and there’s a lot to appreciate about it.
Comments
Post a Comment