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Localization Issues

In coming overseas, ElamenSTAR faced many challenges, not all of them stemming from Shuuan's penchant for unapologetically over-the-top violence and coarse language. American localization teams also had to deal with implied anti-religious themes, drug and alcohol usage depicted as positive and consequence-free, rampant misogyny, constant glorification of occultism, pornographic interludes, gratuitous mockery of indigence, obesity, handicaps both physical and mental... and that's the short list. Trying to edit all of this for American sensibilities contributed significantly to the show's costs, and along the way certain canonical sacrifices had to be made.

The result, insofar as the was a result, was The Wizbits Cartoon.

A Note On Names Between Versions

UDI changed some of the names for the American release of エラメン☆. Here are the original names below, with romanizations for the Japanese-illiterate. For more info about differing names between versions, see this page.

Main Protagonist/Earth Elemenstor:ランデル - Lander (It is readable as Landel, Rander or Randeru)

Dancer/Air Elemenstor:ズラ - Zura (Could be read as Zula)

Poleboat pilot/Fire Elemenstor:ウエンデル - Wendel (Uenderu, or Wenderu)

Tuba player/Water Elemenstor:フィーラ - Phila

Note that Doodle never appeared in the original Japanese version of the show.

Continuity Issues

ElamenSTAR's content, in its original Japanese form, was intended as canonical by Realmworlds Publishing until Mich Fehkoo's takeover in October of 1994, when final storyboarding was taking place for the production of the first season. MGC in January of 2001 "restored" that canonical status for the purposes of the greater ElotH universe.

So ElamenSTAR is considered canon. There are several differences between ElemenSTAR and the American Wizbits that allow this to be true. Firstly, the Japanese Anime didn't often make an effort to "tie it all together" by naming minor characters after minor (and sometimes even major) characters from the 13 Book Elemenstor Cycle. Although there is the slight naming confusion outlined on this page, it's no where near as extensive as in the American version. This practice would lead to all sorts of continuity issues for the North American series, which makes the Books somewhat confusing at first for readers introduced to the materials through the Wizbits.

Finally, the target audience of the American cartoon was the young 6-12 demographic, while the Japanese audience was in their teens and twenties. The difficulties in such an ill-advised conversion process was further compounded by a cultural divide over issues such as violence, nudity, sexuality, religion, and the occult. Blood is shed in virtually every episode of ElamenSTAR, nudity is less ubiquitous but nonetheless common, and select episodes go so far as to dabble in explicit sexuality. Demons and spirits and magic in general are approached more darkly as well. The changes made necessary by American taste do not destroy the compelling setting, but they dramatically impact both characterization and plot.

Another important difference comes at the end of the series. When the Four Underdogs face off against Char Reyarteb in the final battle of ElamenSTAR, the battle is the one outlined in Book 4. Notably the four are unable to defeat Char. At this point the Ocumen intercedes and makes a speech about how the underdogs are indeed destined to one day defeat Char Reyarteb, but that they do not yet have the power to do so. Using powers of Brainmanglement Elemenstation and telesorc'ley, he returns them to their home towns with no memory of having met each other, or fighting Char Reyarteb. However, this process of mind-manipulation led to the events which occur in the final ElamenSTAR episode The Ambulatory Dresser that Shouted I at the Heart of the World where the inner workings of each of the Four Underdogs' minds are laid bare.

After the events of Countdown to Infinite Wizbits, the events of ElamenSTAR are now considered to be in the pre-crisis timeline. While that doesn't mean the events in ElamenSTAR didn't happen, it means that after the events of Crisis that they no longer exist in the main timeline. ElamenSTAR, however, along with the Radio Dramas, should be noted as the root of most all alternate incarnations of the Four Underdogs as they are the earliest creative works done with these characters.

Specific Changes

When watching the English version of The Wizbits, it's important to note that on its journey to American soil, the show was heavily modified in order to better fit in with American expectations. While the German production company, DiK, is reviled for their awful work on other shows such as Fruit-chan no Jimbo and ,CRACK\\LOGO, The Wizbits enjoys a large following in the US, partly due to the popularity of the CCG and toys in its target age group. The following is (hoped to be) a comprehensive listing of the differences between the original Japanese episodes and their U.S. distributed counterparts.

• The original theme song was replaced by an Americanized version with a completely different melody and no references to the original's "honorable suicide upon failing to buy mentioned merchandise."
• The first episode was never aired, as explained in Wish Upon a Wizbit.
• Season 1 Episode 2 (Wet Party) contained nudity that was concealed by digitally drawing "bikinis" on the women, or cutting scenes entirely (This is why the English version contains a 30 second "Skip Says" segment at the end of the show).
• The flashback in Season 1 Episode 11 (Bumble Rumble (Part 1)) was created from old footage in order to fill space cut from Part 2. The missing footage explained the death of Skip's father at the hands of Char Reyarteb, and was deemed too violent for American children.
• Several episodes of Season 3 were never aired at all in the US or were combined to form other episodes. For example, #58, "Shock! Sexism in the workplace!", which featured the plight of barmaids and "hostesses" in The Inn Definitely Not Run By Doppelgangers was used in the infamous Christmas Specials.
• In the Japanese version of the show, the Four Gems are unlocked in a series of episodes as part of the overall story. But, when it was translated and edited for an American audience, the producers wanted more action and less storytelling... hence the one-episode runthrough, and severely confusing story elements. Reused animation became the norm, and the quality of the show suffered severely.
• The first two seasons of The Wizbits were actually all Season 1 episodes of ElamenSTAR, however due to budget concerns only 12 episodes were re-done for American audiences to guage popularity. Afterwards, the rest of the Season 1 episodes (except for The Holy Messiah Carpenter!) were re-done as Season 2 of the American show. Finally, the first 13 episodes of ElamenSTAR season 2 comprise the entirity of Wizbits season 3, as production was halted after James Langomedes was arrested on illegal exporting charges.
• As outlined in the NewType filmbook for the first ElamenSTAR movie, the inconsistencies in the names between the characters and their original versions (outlined in Book 4 of Tycho Brahe's Elemenstor Saga) are explained as follows. These name changes do cause the series to lose a little bit of credibility, however it should be noted that the Four Underdogs are barely mentioned in Book 4.
• The Dancer and Air Elemenstor was named ズラ (Zura), as a play on the Japanese verb ずらす, which means to shift or to move around.
• The Tuba Player and Water Elemenstor was named フィーラ (Phila) in order to reuse the official canonical name. This also continued a naming scheme where both female elemenstors' names ended in a "ra" sound and both males ended in a "ru" sound. While in the original text her name is Myrtle, this was not the case here because...
• Phila's furniliar was named マーテル (Myrtle). Shuuan-sensei felt this was a more appropriate name for the furniliar.
• Doodle never appeared in ElamenSTAR at all- he was an original character in the American version. Episodes in which he appears were usually re-animated and re-written to include Doodle. One notable instance of this is in "Doodle's So Cool!" where the storyline was extensively rewritten to bring focus on Doodle's exploits, perhaps in an effort to sell the character to an American audience. The original episode in Japan was named "The Sound of Ondori" and bears only a very superficial resemblance to the reworked American version.
• Season Three of The Wizbits featured a set of minor characters and their rivals only appearing in ElamenSTAR, including a displaced Japanese schoolgirl. In the American cartoon the lead girl was turned into a villian for Curse of the Guranbignoth, and the other characters were removed entirely. There are rumors that a new Japanese series titled Elemenstor Gearstrike is in production based on these characters.
• J-Pop bands such as Rubirocks had musical numbers in seasons 3-5 of ElamenSTAR, which were replaced by classic rock songs in the English version. The choices clashed horribly with the director's tastes in music, but so far only one will be replaced for the DVD release. Even the fans of the Japanese version find the original music in questionable taste.
• Throughout the course of the series, especially during the infamous last episode, gratuitous Judeo-Christian symbolism is used throughout the series. Tomono Shuuan explained "There isn't a lot of Christians [in Japan]. We just thought Christian stuff looked cool. He he, I guess the dubbers had their work cut out for them, didn't they?" Indeed they did, as many crosses and pentagrams had to be painted out for the dub release, along with other verbal references in the Japanese script such as "hell" or "demon" or "devil" or the common occuring "hell demon devil".