Glitter Force

Glitter Force is the English version of mh:besttvshows:Smile PreCure! (スマイルプリキュア！ Sumairu Purikyua) dubbed by Saban Brands.

Premise/Plot
The subordinates of The Shadow Realm (Bad End Kingdom) had come to collect and spread Bad Energy to revive their master and bring the “Worst Ending” to the universe. But thanks to the mascots Candy and Pop, Emily (Miyuki), Kelsey (Akane), Lily (Yayoi), April (Nao), and Chloe (Reika) gain the power to transform into 5 Legendary Glitter Force Warriors to collect the Cure Decor and revive Jubiland (Marchenland)’s royal queen.

Somewhere in the universe exists a place called Märchenland, where characters from fairy tales live. Near the corner of Märchenland exists a world called Bad End Kingdom, where the antagonists of all fairy tales gathered. In order to show everyone the "Worst Ending", the people of Bad End Kingdom traveled to Earth to collect Bad Energy. If the villains succeed, all the worlds in the universe will suffer from the "Worst Ending".

In order to prevent the "Worst Ending", the 5 Legendary Warriors, Pretty Cure, need to collect Cure Decor, the power of happiness of Märchenland's Queen. The Cure Decor, however, has been stolen and hidden away. Set to the task of finding Pretty Cure, Candy the fairy follows the 5 Beams of Light to Earth, where she meets a flustered Miyuki, a transfer student on her first day of school, and already running late...

Why This Dub Sucks

 * 1) The title change led to many backlash. This is because Futari wa Pretty Cure, the first season in the Pretty Cure series, did receive an English dub under the name Pretty Cure, and Saban subtitling any show based around their Power Rangers franchise. This is like when 4Kids renamed Tokyo Mew Mew into Mew Mew Power (Because the dub takes place in the USA instead of Japan) and Ojamajo Doremi into Magical DoReMi (DoReMi being a fusion of the main characters’ dubbed names; Dorie (Doremi), Reanne (Hazuki), and Mirabelle (Aiko)).
 * 2) * The title itself is also very unoriginal and really laughable. And how does glitter have to do with anything with the show when there’s no glitter at all, but mostly sparkles?
 * 3) The dubbing is so bad that it actually made fans consider Saban to be the spiritual successor to 4Kids Entertainment.
 * 4) A lot of the characters were miscast in this dub as the voice acting talent does not match with their personality. For example, Kelsey (Colleen Villard) doesn't sound like a tomboy and sounds so high pitched. Lily's English voice (Alex Cazares) sounds a bit too old or mature and raspy for such a shy, timid, and crybaby character. Candy's English voice is migraine to the ears since she's voiced by Debi Derryberry (the voice of Jimmy Neutron, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Clay from Playhouse Disney: Imagine and Learn, Nergal Jr. from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Coco Bandicoot), though she’s a great actress, she’s a bad choice to voice Candy. Emily's English voice (Laura Bailey) sounds irritatingly scratchy-sounding. Pop (Todd Haberkorn) sounds like he has nasal congestion despite being a mature fairy. Brute (Keith Silverstein) sounds rather ridiculous than intimidating. Brooha (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) sounds like every generic witch’s voice. Queen Euphoria (also Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) sounds like she’s depressed and sick.
 * 5) * Not only the voices don’t match the characters, but it wastes talents of amazing dub actors/actresses like Laura Bailey, (who dubs Miyuki/Emily, Cure Happy/Glitter Lucky) who’s known for dubbing Maka Albarn from Soul Eater and Soul Eater NOT! and Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist, Colleen O'Shaughnessey (who dubs Akane/Kelsey, Cure/Glitter Sunny) who’s known for Sora from the Digimon franchise, Kate Higgins (Reika/Chloe, Cure Beauty/Glitter Breeze), famously known for dubbing Ami Mizuno aka. Sailor Mercury from the Sailor Moon franchise and Sakura Haruno from the Naruto franchise, Keith Silverstein (Wolfrun/Ulric, Akioni/Brute, Joker/Rascal), who dubs Hisoka from Hunter X Hunter and the fan-favorite Mermaid Sisters from Carole & Tuesday, and Todd Haberkorn (Pop), who dubs Komiya from Aggretsuko, Kimihiro from xxxHOLiC, Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail, and Death the Kid from Soul Eater.
 * 6) The names have changed, and even the original Japanese names that already have English names are given different names (e.g. Cure Happy/Glitter Lucky, Cure March/Glitter Spring, Cure Beauty/Glitter Breeze, Royale Queen/Queen Euphoria and Joker/Rascal).
 * 7) * The settings aren’t safe from this, their names are changed as well despite already having English names too (e.g. Märchenland/Jubiland and Bad End Kingdom/The Shadow Realm (this name also refers to the other Shadow Realm from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 4Kids dub).
 * 8) Like many of 4Kids Entertainment's dubs, the dialogue is inaccurately translated:
 * 9) * Cure Peace/Glitter Peace's catchphrase is an infamous example as she says "Puppies and kittens. The power of love."
 * 10) * Another laughable example is "It’s like a fairytale, with girl power, and makeup!".
 * 11) * There is even out of place dialogue added, example is the transformation scenes, and it’s obnoxious to listen to.
 * 12) * They even add dialogue about phones and online chatting despite the characters not even using them, such as Glitter Peace (Cure Peace) mentioning "video chat" during Chloe (Reika)’s goodbye.
 * 13) * Its English dialogue tries too hard to be funny, but instead it feels more annoying and cringeworthy, like when Kelsey (Akane) calls out a lame pun on Queen Euphoria (Royale Queen) by calling her "highness" because of her height in episode 21 (24 in the original), or a lady joking that the meal Emily and Lily (Miyuki and Yayoi) cooked was made from a bird’s nest in episode 13 (14 in the original).
 * 14) It suffers from Americanization (a trend common with many of 4Kids Entertainment's dubs), with characters given American names, and Japanese references removed. For example, okonomiyakis are called pepperoni or Japanese pizzas. This was just like Pokémon's infamous rice ball edits, either calling them "jelly-filled doughnuts" or redrawing them as sub sandwiches that came from Subway.
 * 15) * Speaking of okonomiyaki, episode 10 was removed in this dub just because the episode was heavily focused on okonomiyaki. Hypocritically, there are other episodes that show this food and its name is referred in episode 22 (25 of the original) without these episodes being cut-off by the dub.
 * 16) * Another example of the okonomiyaki, in episode 18 (21 in the original), Kelsey (Akane) wished she would flip 50 "pizzas" without dropping any instead of wishing for family business to succeed and make lots of money. Plus, Who would wish to flip pizzas? You can’t flip pizzas when they look finished!
 * 17) * Many writings, signs, books, advertising, and other Japanese texts are replaced with cheap text fonts in the dub, the most infamous and laughable part is when Kelsey’s (Akane) restaurant in the dub is renamed into a generic "Restaurant"
 * 18) * Not to mention they’re poorly edited, not matching the mesh of the objects.
 * 19) * To add salt to the wound, they renamed the settings in Japan. Such as Osaka (a real-life location in Japan), being renamed to the Asia-Pacific Expo. Also, the Asia-Pacific Expo isn’t a city, it’s a building where people go try Japanese food. Mount Fuji renamed The High Altitude Weather Station. And the Kyoto Tower renamed The Expo Tower.
 * 20) Similar to Doogal, numerous ridiculous pop culture references are added that weren’t in the original Japanese version. Example is Emily (Miyuki) telling herself she’s not in Kansas anymore when getting sucked into the library, which is a reference to The Wizard of Oz.
 * 21) It uses unnecessary modern slangs like "besties", "epic win", and "selfies", which weren't even used in the original Japanese version. It tries way too hard to appeal to younger kids to be "hip and cool".
 * 22) Scenes with flashing visuals or fast movement are darkened and dimmed as an attempt to reduce the risk of viewers getting seizures. This never happened in the Japanese version due to the Dennō Senshi Porygon incident and since then, we can simply turn down the brightness and backlight from our TV's menu settings, which makes this decision pointless.
 * 23) * There are also scenes that dimmed when they have nothing to do with seizures, such as characters running, panicking, pillow fights, getting knocked to the ground, strong winds, lightning, power beams, falling, and even the transformations. It’s like darkening all the scenes of Sonic running in Sonic X and Pokémon using their powers in its anime series. This proves how very sensitive and stupid Saban is.
 * 24) * Not only are all scenes are darkened, but also tinted. Yellow is mostly tinted in most of the "Season 2" episodes, which can be painful to watch for some viewers.
 * 25) The new English soundtrack is horrid and most of the music videos are songs from the now-defunct Asian girl group, BLUSH. The theme song, for example, completely contradicts the premise of this series. The song "All-Stars" (though not being an original song for Glitter Force) has some hypocritical lyrics like "Shopping sprees" "Spend all our money. Forget about all our problems." Kids would listen to it and think to be a star, they have to spend all their money and never worry about going bankrupt. Which is actually a really irresponsible and bad moral for kids.
 * 26) * Most of the music sounds like teen pop, which goes against the demographic of the original Pretty Cure series where both kids and adults can enjoy the series.
 * 27) The so-called "exclusive" music videos are terribly animated that look something out of YouTube Kids. The characters look hideous with flat colors rather than blends, and the effects are photoshopped. The models also look like they were made from MMD (Miku Miku Dance) and Blender, the backgrounds from some of the "exclusive" music videos looks like they were taken from Google Images and Windows Desktop Backgrounds, proving how cheap Saban Brands could be. Ironically, they literally look like MMD and Blender Music Videos.
 * 28) * Speaking of the "exclusive" music videos, they’re cringeworthy to look at.
 * 29) ** The "Wake Up, Shake Up" is a dub of the end credits for the second-half of the original Japanese named "Full Bloom * Smile!". They cut and edited some parts of the original and the lyrics literally follow what the main characters are doing in the credits.
 * 30) ** "What We Need" is another dub of the end credits for the first-half of the original named "Yay! Yay! Yay!". It repeats the same exact scene from the beginning and the lyrics also follows what’s happening in the credits.
 * 31) ** "Run (All Together)" is the first music video to use the MMD and Blender models and the poor backgrounds, there’s no floor and the main characters are in space, the lyrics are cringeworthy to listen to.
 * 32) ** "All Stars", just read WIS #10.
 * 33) ** "Believe in You" is pretty nice to hear, but the background for the music video is basically an ocean at the beach and the characters are standing on hearts with their trademark colors.
 * 34) ** "Yeah" is not only a music video, but an announcement for "Season 2" of Glitter Force (when it’s not actually a second season but a second half of the original Japanese anime). The effects look okay, but they also look lazy.
 * 35) ** "You Can’t Stop Me" has to be one of, if not, the worst out of all the music videos. The main characters are dancing in the middle of the road and the vehicles (such as Cars, Buses, Trucks, Vans, etc.) and background look like stock images that can be easily found in Google Images.
 * 36) ** "Every Woman" is kinda unpleasant to look at. The characters are dancing in questionable and unnerving ways that can make you uncomfortable.
 * 37) ** "Lucky Girl" is kinda nice, but the backgrounds used here however makes it seem as if they’re dancing in a loading screen.
 * 38) ** The final music video "Glitter Force" is basically a remix of the main theme and the characters are dancing on the clouds with rainbows.
 * 39) False advertising: Glitter Force is advertised as a "Netflix Original Series", like most other acquired series. In reality, it is a Japanese anime series that premiered in 2012, ended in 2013 and was dubbed in English two years later. It would be more accurate if it was advertised as a "Netflix Original Dub" at MIPCOM 2015, because that's what it actually is due to Netflix's egotistical agenda.
 * 40) Eight of the episodes weren't even dubbed, which resulted in many plot holes and a loss of character development in these episodes.
 * 41) It is only available to watch on Netflix, which may be a redeeming quality, but anyone who doesn't have an account for Netflix and internet access won't be able to watch it, or because nobody would want to watch this bad excuse for an English dub anyway. Heck, even they don't own Netflix!
 * 42) Many of the emotional scenes were banned and ruined as it either went from sad to humorous or just cut out entirely:
 * 43) * When Glitter Spring (Cure March) reunited with her siblings, they weren’t crying because they were back together, they are crying because they’re happy. SERIOUSLY?!?! HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!?!
 * 44) ** Plus also, they cut the scene where it was briefly implied they were killed.
 * 45) * In the intro for this show, they replaced Lily (Yayoi)’s introduction with a scene from an episode where she’s smiling. The original scene featuring her was shocked to see the viewer and almost started.
 * 46) * Another example is that they removed an episode where Glitter Peace (Cure Peace)’s father was dead because it featured a death of a parent. That's right, they can’t show an episode of dealing with a death of a loved one.
 * 47) * In episode 35 (43 in sub), when the girls and Candy were crying over Chloe (Reika) leaving for her trip abroad, the dialogue changes already did something to minimize the emotional impact the scene had, but the real kicker had to be when Candy asked her if they could have chocolate. Since they cut out some scenes of the characters crying, they had to insert this line in to tear up any hint of the emotional energy that they cut out the scene when they're crying.
 * 48) * In episode 40 (48 in the sub), they edited the scene where they don’t want to say goodbye to Candy and Pop, they cut out the scenes when they're crying and the dialogue in the dubbed scene sounds ridiculous.
 * 49) * In the same episode, when Candy leaves her friends, she sounds ridiculous when she bids her farewell. And they added dialogue when they didn’t even cared that she’ll be gone forever and they cut out the scene when they all cried.
 * 50) It spawned a second installment of the Glitter Force franchise, which was called Glitter Force Doki Doki, which is DokiDoki Precure's English dub. It can be argued that this installment is worse than this as 19 episodes were cut from the dub. It doesn't help the fact that most of the problems of this dub weren't fixed in this installment but rather it shares these from its predecessor listed here.
 * 51) Combined with Power Rangers (Super) Ninja Steel, this show effectively put an end to Saban Brands and its shows.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) At least the original versions of Smile PreCure! and DokiDoki! PreCure are much better, though many fans wish they could get a good fandub (or a DVD dub of a company that is known to make good dubs such as Funimation, ADV Films, Viz Media, Geneon Entertainment (USA), DKP Effects/DKP Studios, Nelvana, and The Ocean Group) of it so it'd be also better than these awful dubs.
 * 2) Despite the bad voice acting, it has a tons of great actors.
 * 3) It's quite interesting and unique to have Debi Derryberry in an English dub of a Japanese anime again after Zatch Bell!, the HD remaster of Sailor Moon, and its remake, Sailor Moon Crystal.
 * 4) It has some funny moments were Buffoon (Akanbe) gets hit by every X he gets when Chloe (Reika) gets the questions right in Episode 15 (16 in the original).
 * 5) Some of the voicework is pretty decent, such as Chloe (Reika), April (Nao), Ulric (Wolfrun), Rascal (Joker), Pop, Lily (Yayoi) And Maya (Mana) (depending on your opinion).
 * 6) Thankfully, Saban has lost the rights to the PreCure series due to it's end, so we won't be getting anymore Glitter Force seasons.

Reception
Unlike Smile PreCure!, which received positive reception, Glitter Force was panned by critics and fans alike and is widely considered to be the second worst english dub of all time, next to the 4Kids dub of One Piece.

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