Detective Conan in the Arab World

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Detective Conan in the Arab World

Newer Detective Conan Arabic Logo.PNG

Info
Language: Arabic
Continents: Asia and Africa
No. of Episodes: 404 (378 The Japanese way)
Dubbed by: Venus Centre

The Detective Conan anime was first dubbed in the Arab World in 1998 and was aired on Qatar TV, and on March 31st 2000, the first episode was broadcast on Spacetoon. Currently, new seasons shows first only on SpaceToon, and in the past, on its now-defunct sister channel Space Power. The series is dubbed by the most famous anime dubbing centre in the region, Venus Centre (مركز الزهرة Markaz Az-Zuhra).

Detective Conan in Arabic is called المحقق كونان Al-Muhaqqiq Konan, which literally means Detective Conan.

The Detective Conan series has became very popular in the Arab world and is one of the best ranked animes of all time. Venus Centre continues dubbing Detective Conan. As of November 2014, up to 400+ episodes were dubbed.

Most of the characters kept their main names, but names with four syllables are often reduced to two syllables (i.e. Mitsuhiko is called Mitso). Most of the characters only have a given name and not a family name or vice versa. Most of the cases characters kept their original Japanese names as well, but some are changed because they sound similar to another character (e.g Yuuko from Episode 3 was renamed شوكو Shuko because it sounded similar to Yoko Okino's name. All of the TV specials are always divided into two or four episodes and the first four films have been dubbed so far. On 2018 the 22th movie was also dubbed and released in Dubai cinemas on November 29th.

Cast

Character Voice actors
Picture Name Name Notes
Conan Edogawa 60px.jpg Conan Edogawa آمال سعد الدين
Amal Sa'ad Adin
Shinichi Kudo 60px.jpg Shinichi Kudo مأمون الفرخ
Mamoon Al-Farkh
Seasons 1 and 2 and Movie 22
زياد الرفاعي
Ziad Rifai
Seasons 3 to 5 and Movie 1
كامل نجمة
Kamil Najmah
Seasons 7 to 8 and Movies 2 to 4
Ran Mouri 60px.jpg Ran Mouri سمر كوكش
Samar Kokush
Episodes 1 to 355 and movies 1 to 4 and Movie 22
نور أبو حسون
Nour Abu Hassoun
Episodes 356 to 376
Kogoro Mouri 60px.jpg Kogoro Mouri مروان فرحات
Marwan Farhat
Ayumi Yoshida 60px.jpg Ayumi Yoshida رندة جيلات
Randa Jileto
Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya 60px.jpg Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya رغدة الخطيب
Ragdha Khatib
Episodes 188 onwards and movies
Genta Kojima 60px.jpg Genta Kojima أمل عمران 
Amal Omran.
Ai Haibara 60px.jpg Ai Haibara فاتن عيدو
Faten Eido
Shiho Miyano 60px.jpg Shiho Miyano فاتن عيدو
Faten Eido
Hiroshi Agasa 60px.jpg Hiroshi Agasa مروان فرحات
Marwan Farhat
Sonoko Suzuki 60px.jpg Sonoko Suzuki آمنة عمر
Amna Omar
Heiji Hattori 60px.jpg Heiji Hattori رأفت بازو
Raafat Bazo
Episodes 48 to 78, 189 to 221, 277 onwards and movie 3
زياد الرفاعي
Ziad Rifai
Episodes 117 to 174
عادل أبو حسون
Adel Abo Hassoun
Episodes 222 to 224
فادي وفائي
Fadi Wafai
Episodes 238 to 263
Juzo Megure 60px.jpg Juzo Megure محمد خير أبو حسون
Mohamed Khair Abu Hassoun
Wataru Takagi 60px.jpg Wataru Takagi
Kaitou Kid 60px.jpg Kaitou Kid مكسيم خليل
Maxim Khalil
Episode 76
زياد الرفاعي
Ziad Rifai
Episode 134
رأفت بازو
Raafat Bazo
Episodes 219 and 356
رائد مشرف
Rayid Musharaf
Movie 3
Ginzo Nakamori 60px.jpg Ginzo Nakamori مأمون الفرخ
Mamoon Al-Farkh
Episode 76 (part 1)
أيمن السالك
Ayman Al-Salek
Episode 76 (part 2)
عادل أبو حسون
Adel Abo Hassoun
Episode 219
محمد مصطفى
Mohammad Mustafa
Movie 3
محمد خير أبو حسون
Mohamed Khair Abu Hassoun
Episode 356
Saguru Hakuba 60px.jpg Saguru Hakuba عادل أبو حسون
Adel Abo Hassoun
Episode 219
Gin 60px.jpg Gin زياد الرفاعي
Ziad Rifai
Episodes 1–230
منصور السلطي
Mansour Al-Salti
Episode 309–311
مأمون الرفاعي
Mamoon Al-Rifai
Episode 345
Vodka 60px.jpg Vodka علي القاسم
Ali Al-Qassim
Episode 1
واصف الحلبي
Wasif Al-Halabi
Episode 128
مروان فرحات
Marwan Farhat
Episode 129
منصور السلطي
Mansour Al-Salti
Episode 176–178
رأفت بازو
Raafat Bazo
Episodes 230 and 345
مأمون الرفاعي
Mamoon Al-Rifai
Episodes Episode 309–311
The First Logo

Theme song

The opening and ending song from season 1 to season 4 were different from the original Japanese intro. In season 5 to the season 8, a remix of the previous tune with the same lyrics was used. Both the endings were simply the tune instrumental. The first four seasons used a logo which is simply the Detective Conan in Arabic in red on a cross-hair. The current logo (used from season 5 onwards) is very similar, but the cross-hair is different.

The dubbed show sometimes used Japanese themes:

  • An instrumental version of Mune ga Dokidoki accompanying a creditless version of the opening of the first episode aired unedited.
  • The introductory 30-second parts of episodes with the first, third and fourth opening themes were left in, then cutting before the Japanese vocal part directly to the episode. Those introductory parts were removed from episodes using the second
  • Insert songs in the first three seasons (episodes 1-127) were left in using their vocal versions. Subsequent episodes would lower the volume of the BGM or replace it, or in the case of endings edit that part out entirely.
  • The movies kept the endings, using instrumental versions. An exception is the third movie's ending which had the B'z song start normally, then fading to the first movie's ending theme.

Censorship

When the dubs for the episodes 1-125 aired between 1998 and 2002, the censorship was somehow light, mainly focusing on removing excessive gore, and digitally editing scenes with women's clothes to have the skirts cover the knees after the same dubbing studio received backlash over Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water dub (1995) which didn't edit the revealing titular heroine's outfit and even kept some scenes with nudity - also midst a general negative perception of anime due to the airing of Dear Brother (which dealt with themes of suicide, incest and lesbianism) and an edited version of Grave of the Fireflies (which dealt with child death in war) as children programs earlier.

The themes weren't affected: the audio generally matches the original unedited version, with a generally accurate translation that creatively replaces some problematic words for the target audience ("Hell" as "Where the Dead Go", "Devil" as "Evil One", alcoholic beverages as "Drinks", "fiancé" for "boyfriend/girlfriend", "drunk" as "needing sleep" but otherwise unedited). Unlike several European dubs, the episodes 12, 35, and the ending of 5O made it to the Arabic dub - references to suicide, romance, characters being unfaithful partners, or nude were kept. Some gory cuts were kept but sped-up. Blood was generally uncensored. Positions of authorities (diplomats, prime ministers, senators) would get translated though as the generic "official". Some occultism stars and imagery (the goat for example), and manjis (as well as actual swatsikas in other works by the same dub house) were removed as well.

The show went on to become the center of a controversy surrounding multiple real-life suicide cases involving children imitating the suicide case in episode 26, as well as the Pokémon controversy (originally started by the trading cards being used for "gambling") where local religious clerics would try and associate elements of anime with satanism and degrading youth's education.

The studio would then adopt an ultra-conservative censorship, going as far as editing out entire scenes with women without long pants (skirts, jupes, and clothes exposing top cleavage, while tolerated before, are no longer allowed) and replacing them with long frozen frames, criminal confessions rewritten to have almost the same script about remorse and how awful they are instead of the actual motives stated in the Japanese original, Black Organization code names (save for Gin, and "Belmutt") altered or replaced to remove alcohol references starting with episode 126 onward (Vodka becoming Vokka), and even altering plot-relevant episodes featuring them and introducing several continuity errors (like making Gin a "leader of the BO" who "knows about Sherry's (adult) face and that little boy") which wouldn't be fixed until later episodes accurately translating it. Any references to suicide or romance was removed, and romance references were occasionally replaced with "Ran, so when is your wedding taking place?".

Afterwards, the show wouldn't be shown on as much networks as before, most of the high-profile voice actors would go elsewhere, and the dub studio produced a seperate heavily edited and censored abridged dub with the whole plot replaced with Islamic fundamentalist religious preaching and all of the music, Japanese names, and adult women would be removed altogether (which caused a controversy of its own on mainstream media over the religious message and its medium, and the dub studio's translation ethics -even though the religious dub was completely separate from the main dub). This dub was produced and endorsed by the same company that did the Arabic dubs. Additionally, some of the unaired Japanese material (like the visuals for the original openings) would be used in abridged dubs for toys, toothpaste, pens, among others. Fans would take the Arabic audio and try fitting it on uncensored Japanese raws and upload it online.

Initially dismissing negative fan reception as "overly kiddy", claiming the dub was targeting a children audience, the studio aimed to target a teen audience much later starting with episode 235 onward, where, while some episodes are still heavily censored, many darker themes are allowed again, along with women with skirts - ones with clothes not reaching knees or covering enough cleavage would have some colored overlay covering it.

Trivia

  • Detective Conan is the longest dubbed TV show in the Arab World.
  • Officially, Detective Conan is divided into seasons, although (جزء) is literally translated to part.

See also

Detective Conan in Other Countries
North America USA & Canada
South America BrazilLatin America
Europe AlbaniaBelgiumDenmarkFranceFinlandGermanyHungaryItalythe NetherlandsNorwayPolandPortugalRussiaSpainSwedenUnited Kingdom
Middle East Arab WorldIran
Central Asia India
Southeast Asia IndonesiaMalaysiaPhilippinesSingaporeThailandVietnam
East Asia China (TaiwanHong Kong) • JapanKorea