Plot: The girls learn of Mint’s brother, Seiji, who used to be really close to Mint but drifted apart from her as he was under more and more pressure to be an elite student. Learning of how lonely Mint’s home life is, Ichigo and the girls take it upon themselves to bring Seiji to Mint’s ballet performance and hopefully respark the closeness between the two siblings.
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The girls just tell each other they did a great job today. In the dub, Corina complains about her lack of tips, to which Bridget replies that maybe she’d get more tips if she actually waited on tables. Heh, yeah you tell her, Bridget! Corina’s about to reply, but since this entire conversation was shoehorned in, it’s cut off by Kiki’s next line.
The writing on the inside of Lettuce’s locker is painted away. Yet another moment where I honestly never would’ve noticed if I didn’t know to look for that stuff.
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Dubbed: 
Aoyama invited Ichigo to the library. Mark invited Zoey to a benefit for the Kendo team.
More text on a sign behind Pudding is erased.
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Dubbed: 
Ichigo says her dad can’t pay for a new dress until he gets his paycheck. Zoey says she doesn’t get her allowance until next week, and her dad won’t help her because he keeps telling her to be more responsible. Eh? She has a part-time job as a 13 (well, 15 in the dub) year old. A part-time job I’m not even sure she’s supposed to have considering that Japanese schools seem to commonly have rules about having jobs. That’s not a show of responsibility?
Mint actually says she doesn’t mind lending Ichigo a dress. Corina starts denying Zoey this favor in the dub before Zoey practically begs.
Another sign removed behind Mint.
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Dubbed:
Pudding says they want to see Mint’s house because it’s so big and cool like a castle. In the dub, Kiki says she and Bridget are coming along to ensure that Zoey doesn’t make any fashion faux ‘poes’
Why are there two extremely deep voiced women in both rows of Corina’s maids?
Name Change: Mint’s brother, Seiji, is changed to….Sergio……..Really, Sergio?
Ichigo says Mint’s closet is bigger than her own room. Zoey says the closet is bigger than her house.
As I noticed some Mew mark removals, I got to thinking. I spent a lot of time wondering why the Mew marks sometimes get removed and other times don’t. For Ichigo, it’s obviously the placement being too far near her crotch I guess. Plus they’d have to just remove the concept of the Mew marks entirely to avoid not bringing them up or the scenes where they’re highlighted on screen, though I wouldn’t put it passed them either….But you want to know what I really think?
And, be prepared, it’s dumb.
….I think they removed them because they seem like tattoos and they didn’t want kids to think tattoos were acceptable. See? I told you it’s dumb but, again, would you really put it passed them?
Seiji’s going to study abroad in a year, Sergio’s going to college.
4Kids leaves some things off of the long list of food given at dinner, but I’ll definitely give them props for getting as much as they did which was about 98% of it.
Mint’s father and mother are away in a ‘foreign country’ on business and typically aren’t home very often. Corina’s dad is apparently missing dinner to have a meal with clients from overseas while her mother is at a charity function. I was thinking about skipping this note, but it does skew the tone of ‘her parents are never around’ to ‘her parents aren’t around tonight and maybe don’t spend enough time with her.’
Pudding says she loves ballet and she ‘performs’ it by spinning plates on sticks and riding on a ball. Chibi versions of the other three, as seen from the back, comment on her performance with Ichigo saying how good she is, Lettuce pointing out that she’s just riding on a ball not doing ballet and Mint calling her a monkey. This entire scene is removed.
Mint’s grandma says she plans on inviting Mint’s father and Seiji to her ballet performance. I don’t know why her mother’s not included. In the dub, she says she’s inviting her mother and father. Why Sergio isn’t invited is not explained either.
Mint only says the ballet performance is not something to show amateurs. In the dub, she says her mother and father never went to her previous performances so why start now?
A much longer scene is removed after the dinner. Ichigo’s father is upset that Ichigo is going on a date with Aoyama so he tries to convince her to go to an Edo craftsman gathering with him instead, but she says no. Her mom and dad talk about her date for a bit before segueing into talks about how they used to go on dates to the library. They argue about who was pestering who about going on dates when Ichigo starts thinking to herself that Mint must spend a lot of time alone at her house. I honestly don’t know why this was removed.
Oh goodie, 4Kids making girly songs again. Happy day. Oh and there was no vocal song accompanying the flashbackbuytheiralbum.
Ya know, Mint’s grandma says Seiji ‘chose the path of an elite’ but it really seems like he was forced into it by his parents. The flashback practically indicates that he was essentially kidnapped on a regular basis to get him to focus on his studies.
Seiji tells Mint in the flashback that she’s lucky because all she does is enjoy ballet, which can be construed as him being jealous that she gets to spend her time doing what she loves. In the dub, he berates her for doing ballet, tells her to grow up and stop taking dancing so seriously, which can’t be construed any other way besides he’s an asshole.
They cut to a black screen for a second after they zoom in on Mint’s eye because, well, the pupil is black. In the dub, they cut this out and fade over to the next shot. What, did you think kids would get bored and change the channel with that less than a second of blackness?
Mint says she won’t fall behind Seiji. Corina says she’ll show Sergio that one day she will be famous.
Bridget: “Come on, Zoey, don’t have a conniption!” A CONNIPTION!? Look, 4Kids, if you’re so strong in your stance that your audience is a bunch of inbred zucchinis who have all undergone a lobotomy, stop using words like that. Also, you’re old.
They made a booboo. I avoided bringing this up before because they could’ve meant the same thing, but in the original, Mint’s grandma says the performance is this weekend, and in the dub it’s supposedly tomorrow afternoon. Well, an entire day goes by and no recital, so it couldn’t have possibly been scheduled on the day after the dinner.
Aoyama tells Ichigo that it’s okay to cancel their date, because if she found it necessary to cancel whatever came up must’ve been very important. There’s an odd period of silence where Ichigo just thinks to herself that Aoyama is very important to her, but tomorrow she really has to do this for Mint. Well, I assume that’s what she was going to say. She trails off after ‘Tomorrow I really…’ and Aoyama says it’s still okay, and they can see each other anytime.
In the dub, Mark talks about how it’s okay for her to cancel because the benefit party’s just going to be a bunch of posers and jerks who think they’re so cool just because they’re on the team – something Aoyama would just not say.
He’s not the type of person to ever badmouth people behind their backs. Considering this is the second time Mark has done this, maybe he is. He continues talking, something that actually makes more sense than the original, as Zoey thinks to herself that she hopes he would be this understanding if he ever found out she was a Mew Mew.
A shot of the sign that says ‘Ikumi Ballet group 2002 performance’ is removed.
Also, blurry and unreadable Japanese text on a sign in the background is actually changed….to blurry and unreadable English text….good….job…??
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Actually I can make out some of it. The Japanese version is the sign that was cut from before and the English…..all I can make out on the English version is ‘(illegible) Ballet Academy.’
They mirrored the scene with Ichigo and Pudding at Mint’s house because……uhhhh…..*shrug* They usually only do the mirror thing when someone’s driving because they drive on the left side of the road in Japan and they don’t want to confuse the kiddies who would obviously notice that and question it so severely it would spark WWIII, but this has no purpose at all.
Oh now they decide to leave the shot in with their purty new sign….that I still can’t read very well thanks to the ugly font choice…..Fairhiem Ballet Academy?
The SCRIBBLES behind Mint in the dressing room are removed and replaced by a silhouette of a ballerina.
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Oddly enough, this scene of Ichigo and Pudding at Mint’s house is not mirrored. I don’t get it.
Wait, okay, now it’s mirrored again….OH BECAUSE THERE’S A CAR IN THE SHOT….Still doesn’t explain earlier because the shots were all of the girls, but that explains this.
Even though both versions have the car with a blank license place in the shot before, fairly close up even, 4Kids, being ever so helpful, makes their license plate read “BXWRTH” in the closer shot when it was still blank in the original. Nice complete and utter waste of money there.
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Subbed: 
Signs at the ice cream shop are removed, an entire sign was painted away at the dress shop, and the scene is mirrored all the way through.
Sometimes I don’t know how 4Kids manages these things but a sign that you see for less than a second is digitally painted to have its text removed in another shot that goes by so fast I can’t get a screencap. Shots like this just baffle me. Erasing these things is pointless enough, but the effort that goes into going through the footage frame by frame to catch and edit minute stuff like this….geez.
Pfft nice going, 4Kids. They keep mirroring this scene because they’re in the street, but they also mirror the shot of Mint’s photograph that has been shown numerous times in the episode because of it. So meticulous to get miscellaneous garbage but they fail to catch that.
The text on Seiji’s book is removed.
They shorten the scene of the car, notably the shots of the storefronts. And when they pass the storefronts, they erase all the text from the signs.
This is just a performance by a ballet group, not a special performance by the graduates of this supposed ballet academy.
It’s bothering me that we keep seeing that ‘BXWRTH’ license plate. Not just because it’s pointless but also because it’s constantly moving, making it that much more difficult, expensive and pointless to do.
Guy running the ballet I suppose: “Ten minutes to sparkle time!”
Sparkle time? Really?
They erase the Mew marks from Mint’s back.
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Pudding says they have to transform. Kiki says ‘Whoever said feathers were soft?!’ a joke that’s supposed to make sense given that they’re fighting a bird-ish enemy, but doesn’t make sense because they’re not being hit by the feathers.
There’s no singular shot of the transformer in the original and oh wait, let me guess. I’m STILL not going to be able to compare Lettuce’s transformation sequence, right?
MmmFRIGGINNOPE. They transform in sequence after Mint starts them off in the original, and we get a damn mashup in the dub. Neither version gives us the full transformations of all the Mews, with Mint getting a full one in the original and the others getting a mashup, but the dub has a complete mashup.
I’m starting to lose hope that I’ll ever get to do this. Also, since this is obviously a Mint-centric episode, Mint was supposed to get the focus on her transformation today. Thanks for screwing that up too.
I thought I’d be free of Mew Mew power in my face today since Ichigo originally just includes her catchphrase in the end of her transformation sequence, which 4Kids wouldn’t have done because it would ruin their precious song. However, they reused stock footage of it because they love us so much, awww.
In the original, we hear ‘1, 2, 3’ chanted over and over as the monster dances, which gives Mint an idea. This isn’t present in the dub.
See, the feather attack would’ve been a fine place to make that dumb joke from earlier.
Mint says that she won’t forgive the monster for hurting her brother. Corina says she’s dealt with divas like this before (you’ve dealt with girls who were bird monsters?) and declares she’s a dancer….yeah, so much better than declaring that she’s fighting for her brother….
Wow, I’m actually surprised the character who got spotlight today actually got to finish off the monster. Even in episodes with focus on other Mews, that usually always goes to Ichigo anyway.
Zoey: “Yeah?! We’ll see about that slime-maclon!” Ooh…..Burn.
More signs are erased and replaced by random ballerina silhouettes. Also, a tiny symbol above the doorway behind Mint is removed.
I love how Mint’s dance performance is just still shots of it overlaid on the stage. Then again, this is Studio Pierrot we’re talking about. Wouldn’t want them to actually animate stuff.
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This episode was decent enough. We never see Seiji again to my recollection, but it does allow us to connect more with Mint. The dub is pretty awful as usual, but not really outstandingly awful.
Next episode, we finally meet Zakuro, yay! Which means, dear god, we finally meet Renee. This next episode is going to be long and painful….To give you a sneak preview, we have 4Kids dealing with a language barrier scene again, tons of crosses and a new transformation sequence (as well as possibly Lettuce’s?…..Please?) to tackle. Yep, it’s going to be fun.
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The Anime Madhouse 