The changing of the statements by Chiriko to Nuriko altered the viewers perception of Chiriko at that point in the story and removed a subtle clue to his character.

In episode 20, Pioneer changed some dialog between Chiriko and Nuriko. Chiriko called Nuriko a 'homo' in the original dialog in a very crass and insulting manner. In the English dub that Pioneer produced they changed this dialog into a general argument over a 'horrible sound' Nuriko had made (she had screamed) and a comment by Nuriko about Chiriko's flute playing.

There were other instances of dialog being changed slightly or watered down in Pioneer's version of Fushigi Yûgi, but this scene in episode 20 is the most noticeable and also directly affects the plot and story. The crass way Chiriko refers to Nuriko does shed some insight into his character and gives a clue to the viewer of the events that follow.

The only reason we at Anime´ can see for the change is to avoid insulting people who might consider the use of the word 'homo' objectionable. Which, as far as we can tell, is actually the whole reason it was in the original dialog in the first place (to make him seem crass and insulting compared to the others around him). Although there are people who would find this exchange objectionable, there are other instances in Fushigi Yûgi where similar language and events happen that might be considered as offensive or even more so than this particular scene. Those were left intact as far as we can see up to at least episode 26.

• Please write or otherwise contact Pioneer and voice your opinion about the changes they made to the dub script in Fushigi Yûgi. Remember to be polite as possible and ask for them to not make similar changes in future English dubs. Threatening or sending them flames will only get your message discarded. It's unreasonable to expect they'll redo the existing dub and rerelease FY at this point, but informing them that you do not want them to make changes of this type to the script for their titles may help prevent future changes of this type.