- Please please PLEASE REVISIT DOING UNCUT DUBS! Of both series past and series going forward. I and many other people in the fandub enjoyed the uncut DM episodes that were made back in… *checks masterpost* 2004–OH MY GOD–and with the cast back in action thanks to the Dark Side of Dimensions movie, it’d be a perfect time to revisit and treat the classic series well. Same for GX and 5D’s, but those would arguably need redubs the most, especially given their last arcs were never dubbed. ZeXal and ARC-V as well, of course; the latter since the original music is one of the biggest draws to the show, and without it the English dub as-is feels stale. Bonus points if it can get simulredubbed, if that’s a thing. For future series, pulling a FUNimation and dubbing for an uncut release FIRST would be the way to go, because then not only can they edit/record extra lines for TV as needed, but we get the uncut DUAL-AUDIO product on DVD, they can put up both edited and unedited versions on their website or Crunchyroll, and everyone wins. This is probably my biggest want.
- Addendum to this, but assuming uncuts were a go, I think in many cases reprising the dub VAs would work excellently (I know I’d want Mark Thompson back as Kiryu in 5D’s or Matt Shipman back as Shun in ARC-V), but for the less stellar choices originally made, maybe consider someone who gets the spirit of the original character better? Thinking how Chris Sabat sought to handle casting/directing for Dragon Ball Kai to fix the bad choices they made in the original DBZ dub.
- Try to commission a better remaster of the DM series, if at all possible. Or better yet, A REDOING of DM that makes it FOLLOW THE MANGA. Otherwise, I’d take a co-commission for a Yu-Gi-Oh! Kai that streamlines things more without the filler and a more accurate dub. That’s what we expected the current remaster in Japan to be, but it’s been sorely disappointing to see that it’s nothing but a crop job.
- #1 kind of covers this, but please try to stick to the original dialogue, unless there are untranslatable puns (*cough*bananadork*cough*), ease up on the trash talking if it wasn’t originally there, and keep personalities intact. Admittedly ARC-V’s dub has overall done a better job of this, but then we get things like near the end of Synchro where Sora’s being snotty towards Moon Shadow for no reason. Also, MORE CONSISTENT TRANSLATIONS. My biggest irk with the ARC-V dub is how the Action Duel chant was handled, from getting 80% adapted to being completely rewritten each time. By doing that, you lose a lot of the charm the original gives the viewer.
- Work with TV Tokyo/NAS/Marvelous Entertainment/whoever to either use or distribute the show soundtracks here in the US. Bonus points for commissioning the unreleased music from the Japanese versions of the series for release.
- Try to put on more non-TCG advertising for the brand. I wish we had Japan-level advertising going on here, but of course the previous dubs gave YGO this stigma that uncut dubs would be helpful in tossing aside, and once that interest gets vested back in, who knows, it could hit Pokemon levels of popularity.
- More merch from the shows would be great, like Reiji’s glasses from ARC-V.
- It’d be nice if they could revisit the Tag Force games and actually provide voiceover for those, but I’d take Tag Force Special getting voiced if it’s at all possible. I do appreciate them finally giving us a voiced YGO product in Duel Links.
- Chiming in for simulcasting for the next YGO series to avoid the more questionable speedsubs. Bonus if we get ARC-V before it’s over.
- Always here for more fan interaction!
- Duel Disks with actual VR IRL when
I… think that’s all for me? Though I’m sure others have said some of the same. I’d also like to thank them for the strides they’ve taken to help the fandom by finally getting much of the [dub] franchise on DVD, finally giving us legal subs for most of the franchise, and all the other things like voicing for Duel Links, bringing Takahashi over, having the VAs do these events… With DSOD’s release, this is an interesting time for the fandom, and if they do take to heart what a lot of us have to say going forward, it could make for a very bright YGO future ahead.