Okay, this isn't a fic, and I'm not going to call it a rant. It's more like a...a...a scratch! Yeah, this is a scratch in the sands, clawed by yours truly.

This is in response to all of the Gundam Wing dub bashing I've seen lately. Now, I realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but an opinion made out of ignorance has bothered me for as long as I can remember.

First of all, the dubs that nearly every bash-fic I've read have been talking about are the cut dubs. As in the blood and swearing and certain aspects of the language have been changed so my six year old cousin can watch Gundam Wing without having his virgin ears and eyes assailed by awful things.

Censorship is a common thing in the United States. You don't like it, find a new country to inhabit because even subtitles can be subject to censorship.

Now if you stay up like the good little die-hard Gundam Wing fans you seem to be, you could watch Toonami's Midnight Run and see the un-cut version. While it took nearly two weeks to get used to the voice changes, I was quite pleased with the job BEI and the Ocean Group did with the translations of Gundam Wing. I mean, come on already. Gundam is Bandai's baby. You think they're going to let any old shmuck company translate and not care about the translation quality?

Which is part of the reason I dislike the bashing going on. I'll freely admit that Duo's voice actor in the English dub is no Seki Toshihiko, and that I much prefer Koyasu Takehito as Zechs, but the voice actress for Relena has actually done a good job, as has the voice actor for Heero. I was actually able to listen to some of Relena's speechs without looking out the window to watch the mud-spattered trucks go by or watch my cat clean her foot for the thirtieth time that hour. And for me to commend the voice actor of Heero is something; I'm a die-hard Midorikawa Hikaru fan as well.

Another thing is that the translations were done very well for the Gundam Wing uncut dub. The pronunciation of the names of people and places all fit perfectly within the range offered by the katakana. As a matter of fact (unlike a certain dub version of the Meikai Yu *Yu* Hakusho movie I got a couple years back) the dub was more correct that my fansubs.

All I'm asking is that people think and research before they open their mouths and insert their feet. Yes, the cut version of Gundam Wing sounds absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous to those of us that have seen other versions, but that awful cut version will expose thousands of young children to the wonder of Japanese Animation. And when those children grow older, they'll eventually discover the uncut version of Gundam Wing, maybe even the subtitled version of Gundam Wing.

So don't go knocking a dub, no matter how bad. I can think of worse dubs I've seen, easily—the Gundam Wing dub doesn't even make it into the top twenty. Even bad dubs serve a purpose—they generate the desire of knowledge for more, and eventually we'll start getting top rate dubs like Gundam Wing. When the people demand better, they get better. But first they have to be armed with the knowledge that there is better out there.