Yu-Gi-Oh’s English Dub Actually Cut the Series’ First LGBTQ+ Hero

Among the various changes that the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! made, one of the most controversial erased the series’ first LGBTQ+ hero. 4Kids Entertainment was infamous for heavily editing the anime they licensed to make them more appropriate for children, and Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of the worst examples. In addition to cutting out nearly all instances of violence, the English script often rewrote characters completely. The characters themselves were often the biggest victims of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s English dub, and that, unfortunately, included cutting out the series’ first LGBTQ+ hero, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s Jaden Yuki.

A lot of what made Jaden an LGBTQ+ character isn’t established until near the end of GX’s run, so even if someone were watching the series in Japanese, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to not catch on to it.

Even so, the English dub still cut out an incredibly progressive part of Jaden’s character and the franchise, as a whole, and that’s nothing but disappointing to see.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s English Dub Censored Jaden Yuki’s LGBTQ+ Identity

The Dub Made a Love Interest Platonic & Changed Another Character’s Gender

The way that Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s English dub censored Jaden Yuki’s sexuality all stems from the season 3 dub. Prior to season 3, Jaden showed virtually zero interest in the opposite sex, but after meeting Jesse Anderson, the two develop a bond that was all but stated to be romantic, with the main antagonist of the season, who was explicitly in love with Jaden, even comparing Jaden’s feelings for Jesse to Jaden’s feelings for them. All of this was heavily censored in the English dub to keep their friendship solely platonic, so anyone who only watched Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in English wouldn’t know that Jaden was supposed to have feelings for Jesse.

The biggest way Jaden’s sexuality was censored, however, was through his relationship with season 3’s villain, Yubel. Originally, Yubel was an intersex character who expressed their love for Jaden through sadomasochism, and after helping them move past that, Jaden reciprocated and fused their souls together so they could never be separated. Unfortunately, the English dub rewrote Yubel to be female and cut out the romance angle of their character so that they simply wanted to play with Jaden. Jaden’s status as an LGBTQ+ hero was conveyed uniquely, but the English dub’s changes made it easy to miss.

Why Did Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s English Dub Censor Jaden’s Sexuality?

And Why Does it Matter to Some Fans?

It’s unfortunate that Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s English dub censored Jaden’s sexuality, but that begs the question of why it was censored. GX was released in the mid-2000s, and at that time, the idea of a show targeted to children having an explicitly LGBTQ+ character was virtually unheard of. In recent years, it’s become easier for children’s media to have explicitly LGBTQ+ characters, but it would have been far too challenging for GX’s English dub to get away with it back then without backlash.

Even if there was logic behind Jaden’s sexuality being censored, it was still a major problem. While children’s media has become increasingly LGBTQ+ positive, there are still many problems with representation, most notably through studio interference. It’s still important for children’s media to not shy away from positive representation, so Yu-Gi-Oh! GX having its LGBTQ+ main character censored stopped the franchise from having an amazing early impact on representation.

How English Dubs of Anime Have Improved Since Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Dubs Have Improved in LGBTQ Representation Since

In the decade-plus since Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s English dub aired, censorship of LGBTQ+ characters and relationships has grown far more rare when anime is translated. Characters in popular shonen like One Piece’s Yamato, Attack on Titan’s Hange, and My Hero Academia’s Tiger are all presented with their LGBTQ identities intact. Even outside of shonen anime, Zombieland Saga’s Lily retains her trans identity in all English translation, as does Skip and Loafer’s Nao in a big win for diversity.

The greater acceptance of Queer rights in America combined with the growing presence of LGBTQ characters makes erasing a character’s identity not just disingenuous to the original work, but could be met with a fair amount of criticism and backlash. While this is all fortunate for modern anime, it does leave classic anime dubs that were changed such as Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in an awkward spot.

The positive thing for any fan who feels they missed out is that anime is bigger than ever. As a result, a far more accurate subtitled translation for many series that saw substantial changes is not difficult to find. Any fan nostalgic for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX can watch the full series subtitled on Crunchyroll. Still, despite the problem of censoring LGBTQ characters in anime being largely a thing of the past, it’s still disappointing for any fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX who grew up with the series but missed one of the ways it was so forward-thinking with its LGBTQ+ characters.

All episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX are available on Crunchyroll.

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