Funimation has changed a line of dialogue in their dub of YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World to infer that a character considered a mild insult to be misogynistic, as opposed to the mild annoyance displayed in the original.
Originally released in 1996 as an eroge visual novel, YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World follows protagonist Takuya Arima as strange and unexplained phenomena lead him to travel between parallel worlds in a search for his father, who had supposedly died years ago.
In 2019, the visual novel was adapted into a 26-episode anime series by animation studio feel., who recently produced the popular Dagashi Kashi and Please Tell me! Galko-chan anime series. The series was subsequently licensed for a North American simuldub by Funimation.
In the first episode of the 2019 anime series, a small but humorous interaction occurs between protagonist Takuya Arima and classmate Mio Shimazu.
In the original subbed version of the episode, after being questioned by Masakatsu Yuki about whether or not he has romantic feelings for Shimazu, Arima denies this possibility before running into Shimazu by chance and teasing her with facetious greetings and her reactions being caused by “that time of the month”: [This interaction occurs at 5:15 in the episode]:
Yuki: Wait, boss. You sure know a lot about Shimazu-san. Don’t tell me…
Arima: No way in hell do I want to date that ice queen.
Yuki: Yeah, that’s right! But you know, Shizamu-san’s nice to everybody else, but she’s really mean to you. Ah! Shimazu-san!
Arima: Hey. Milday.
Shimazu: Stop calling me that, please.
Arima: Then how about “Mio-chan, the school idol!”
Shimazu: Why do you make me so mad?
Arima: Not sure. That time of the month?
Shimazu: How crude!
However, in Funimation’s dub of the episode, the dialogue between Takuya Arima and Mio Shimazu was changed to ham-fistedly reference current Western discourse surrounding male and female interactions, implying that Arima had ‘cat called’ Shimazu and that Shimazu found this to be ‘misogynist.’
Yuki: Wait a minute…why do you know so much about Shimazu? Fess up!
Arima: Calm down. I’d never date that ice queen.
Yuki: That’s good to hear. It is kinda weird though, because she’s nice to everybody. It’s only you who really seems to set her off. Ah! Shimazu!
Arima: Hey. So, what’s up sweet cheeks?
Shimazu: Don’t call me that. You know I hate it.
Arima: Sorry, do you prefer “Queen of the World”?
Shimazu: I’ll never understand how you can get under my skin so easily.
Arima: Good question. Maybe it’s just that time of the month?
Shimazu: Ah! You’re such a misogynist!
This is not the first time that Funimation has taken liberties with their dub productions to inject contemporary politics into an anime series.
In 2015, the dub of Prison School was changed by voice actor Tyson Rinehart to directly accuse a character of being a “GamerGate creepshow.”
In 2017, dialogue referencing Lucoa’s appearance in a hoodie in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid was altered to chastise “pesky patriarchal societal demands.”
The dub of Interview With Monster Girls in 2019 has bullies negatively accusing a character of being a “social justice warrior” for standing up to them.
Hajimete no Gal’s dub featured embarrassing references to speeches made by President Trump and ‘strawman’ rhetoric which equates those who enjoy anime fan service to “jailbait” loving “freaks who hate women.”
While more changes to YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World’s script may be present, said changes have yet to be verified by the author at the time of writing.