Plot: The Mews find the fifth member of their group – Mint’s idol, the famous Zakuro Fujiwara. She’s seemingly going around and fighting Chimera Animals on her own, but she won’t admit that she’s the mysterious Mew. When they finally catch her in the act, they, especially Mint, are crushed when she vehemently refuses to join them.
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They remove a small scene with a close up of Kisshu where he says “She must be it…”
They remove a short scene of a church and Zakuro praying because religion. And here we gooooooooooooooooo!
Really love how, even when the characters are reading something out loud, the text still gets removed. ♪ Just take a look, it’s in a book, it’s somehow-knowing-what-blank-boxes-and-shapes-say rainboooooooooowwwwwww.♪
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Another short shot of Ichigo, hoping the picture’s not of her to avoid being outed to Aoyama, is removed.
The scene with matching up the cutouts is the same, for the most part, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but I do have to mention that it’s not a good way to ‘prove’ that the girl in the photo is none of them. The pictures would have to be taken from the same distance and the end result would have to be in the same resolution in order for it to even start to count in comparison.
Anyway, one stupid and just meanspirited change occurs when Pudding’s comparing Lettuce’s picture. In the original, she says Lettuce is too curvy to be the girl. Which…I dunno if she’s saying she’s fat or if she’s saying she has big hips and boobs.
In the dub, she says the girl can’t be her because she doesn’t have ‘Grandma hair’ like Bridget. Where the hell did that come from? ‘Grandma hair’? Lettuce’s hair looks fine in terms of style. Straight with two long thin braids has never been known as a ‘grandma’ hairdo as far as I know. And her hair is green, not gray or blue or anything, so I have no clue what this is even indicating nor why Kiki would be a little brat.
The shot of the girls thinking about who the girl could be is shortened.
Text is removed from the back of the magazine.
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Dubbed: 
Text is removed and replaced on Mint’s fanbook. Also, I still find it just so insanely convenient that she happened to have that with her when they discovered Zakuro. (Sorry the screenshot’s not spot on. The shot is moving, and that tends to mess up the screenshots in the dubbed version, so I had to take it when it stopped. The text above Zakuro’s head is gone for the record.)
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Dubbed: 
After Bridget calls Corina’s book/magazine thing a fan obsession book, Zoey says this; “I thought only boys bought these.” Okay, there’s two reasons why this line is weird. First, what does that mean? Only boys can be big enough fans of someone or something to buy a fanbook about it?
Second, considering the subject here…..does she mean……like….in a porny way? Like this is Corina’s secret dirty book of Renee pictures? Because there are already plenty of hints in the original that Mint has a crush on Zakuro without that.
To push this even further for some reason, Zoey asks if it’s Corina’s and she says “No, some guy left it on the table the other day.” In the original, she just admits she bought it, but purely on a whim.
Wow, they even left in her heart eyes and crush-like gushing over Zakuro. Give 4Kids this much, they’re definitely not Nelvana because this would be on the cutting room floor in a second.
Huh, they also left the shot of Zakuro in the ‘profile’ scene alone despite the fact that it looks like Zakuro has no shirt or bra on.
But hey let’s ruin all of 4Kids’ good, if not somewhat creepy, work in this past minute for getting the details of Zakuro in her profile completely wrong.
Zakuro was born on September 6th and is a Virgo. The dub has her birthday at December 3rd and lists her as a Sagittarius.
Zakuro is 172cm tall, which is roughly 5ft 7in tall. Renee is listed as being 6ft 1in tall, which would just be a horribly jarring state of proportional error if you paid attention to her beside the other Mews.
Zakuro weighs 49kg which is roughly 108lbs. Renee is listed as being 130lbs.
Zakuro knows French, English, German and Chinese. Renee knows Spanish, French, Japanese and Portuguese. I will give them props for mentioning the dreaded J word, and actually swapping it from English to J word, but there’s no reason to change the rest.
Zakuro is a model and an actress. Renee seems to be a singer and actress (possibly model too) with nine #1 hits and other popular songs.
In addition, whereas Mint is gushing over her features like her black opal hair (uh….it’s purple…??), glittering sapphire eyes, and legs as white as platinum (Okay, come on, she can’t not be in love with Zakuro.) Corina talks about her perfume line and gushes about how much she wants to meet her and be her.
Oh thanks for shoving some of the Mew Mew motto in my face during Corina’s little fan splurge. Really enjoyed that.
Akasaka says it might be a coincidence set up by God that someone who Mint adores may be the fifth member. This is omitted.
There’s a scene shift of a better drawn Kisshu (You can always tell it’s a somewhat important episode when they kick up the budget.) talking with Deep Blue about his latest failure in reference to the scene at the start where Zakuro destroys the fish monster. He then says he has an even better idea – to use her to destroy the other Mews. This scene is not supposed to occur until after the scene with the woman being saved from the bat Chimera Animal by Zakuro. I guess they shifted it to make it for a better scene to end on before the dub-only commercial.
The girls are merely auditioning for a joint America and Japan produced musical that is starring Zakuro. In the dub, they’re auditioning for ‘Real Talent Paris’ – a TV show that sounds like America’s Got Talent where Renee is acting as a guest judge. Must be a stupid talent show if all of the contestants are merely singing and dancing….then again, that is a good chunk of reality talent shows these days…
Also, the sign is changed to reflect this.
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Because of this change, Mint’s remarks about hopefully getting the part of Zakuro’s little sister are changed to telling Bridget to stay focused since they’re only there to see if Renee’s a Mew Mew.
Ichigo just thinks of being famous. Zoey says she’ll start a hat line called ‘Luscious Lids.’………That is just horrible name.
To make the fantasy of her and Aoyama more intimate and dramatic, she calls him Masaya in it. Since Mark is always called Mark, this can’t be mirrored. Though, I guess she could’ve called him ‘darling’ or something.
Name Change: The director of the musical, Junyano Koshiba, is splashed with French-ness and named Monsieur Lepain, a renowned French fashion mogul.
Well, let’s start with the cross removals. Zakuro always wears a cross necklace. In the dub, the sides are removed, leaving a stick.
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Dubbed: 
Ichigo just stammers in Zakuro’s appearance. Zoey says this insanely dumb line; “How cool! She’s wearing sunglasses!” Yes, plain black sunglasses. The peak in high fashion. Now available from your local Wal-Mart.
An external shot of the building is removed because they didn’t have their commercial at that time.
They remove a shot of Pudding spinning plates and Ichigo getting angry at her escapades.
Despite making the English dude French, they keep in his first lines as English. I guess this might make sense because he’s addressing people that he knows speak English. Better than approaching a native in a foreign country and expecting them to know your language.
The director guy’s assistant doesn’t say anything about his therapy in the original. He just apologizes to him.
They remove a shot of Ichigo bowing in apology to the producers.
This line’s changed, but I find it funny for some reason. In the original, Ichigo says to just make her, Pudding and Lettuce leave since they were at fault, and the director’s assistant says no. In the dub, Zoey says “For what it’s worth, I really like your handbags!” and then the assistant says “He doesn’t make handbags!”
Oh and yeah, just as the other American person spoke broken English, same with the supposedly American character here. I give Zakuro a pass because it’s her secondary language, but when you have characters who are American, get native English speaking VAs or at least people who are fluent. I especially love when he says “It seems to me like they’re wasting my time.” because he drawls so much on ‘time’ like it’s ‘tiiiiiimeee.’
Because of the commercial, they replay the shot of the others girls and of Zoey speaking.
Zakuro starts speaking English after she takes off her sunglasses. In the dub, she doesn’t start speaking French until after she sits on the table.
Also, Zakuro politely calms the other assistant down whereas Renee rudely says “I don’t think I was talking to YOU.”
Prize line; “To me it seems very ridiculous in a STRANGE.” And yeah, that’s the entire sentence. He’s not cut off or anything, that’s all he had to say. Just beautiful.
As for French guy, well, I didn’t speak much Spanish and I speak even less French. I honestly have no clue of how they’re doing on that front. I do think the stereotypical French accordion music is a bit much, though. Why don’t you use that fancy digital paint to put a beret on his head while you’re at it?
And, as before, the subtitles are unreasonably huge, and they are going really fast because of how few words they can keep on the screen with that big font. If you don’t think kids can read, don’t believe they can speed-read.
They remove another short shot of Zakuro telling the assistant that the auditions will resume after she does a performance….This is weird writing. Why exactly does Zakuro need to do this? I mean, he says it’s to set an example for the other girls, but uh….that seems really weak.
I would like to formally congratulate whoever was in charge of editing Zakuro’s necklace because I purposely watched the teeny tiny itty bitty cross during her fast paced dancing and dammit they stuck to that edit. That must’ve been a digital paint bitch. I salute you for your efforts Mr or Ms. Digital painter. I’m sorry your bosses were xenophobic, textphobic, religion phobic old fogies.
Can I just say how stupid it is for Mint/Corina to go off like that in front of a whole group of people babbling on about the Mew Mew stuff? She reveals more in the dub than she does in the original, but either way that’s stupid. She could’ve blown their whole cover with that.
Again, Zakuro, while being blunt, is far more polite about rejecting Mint than Renee is. Renee even calls Corina a psycho. Also, her bitchy dialogue doesn’t even make sense. She has a bunch of girls constantly pestering her about her being a member of their superhero club? She must attract a bunch of really misguided fans.
Some still-screens are removed after Zakuro leaves the stage, but they leave in the first still screen making it seem really awkward when transitioning into the next scene.
A shot of Mint looking out the window is removed.
Shirogane’s a little blunt in merely saying that he supposed Zakuro couldn’t have been the Mew then. Elliot’s a straight up asshole saying that’s what happens when one stuck up brat looks up to another.
Okay, look, I badmouth most of the characters for one reason or another, Corina most of all because she IS a stuck up brat, but when dealing with the actual characters in the show, this is just cruel, and even Shirogane wouldn’t be that crass about her situation. He even laughed about her calling Corina a psycho. Why are so many of the characters in the dub made out to be obnoxious dickheads? This episode is particularly bad in that regard.
Mint says she forgives Pudding for what she did and mentions sadly that it’s not her fault. In the dub, she also forgives Kiki, but she says ‘it’s not your fault my life no longer has meaning’. I would say this is 4Kids being as subtle as a rock to the face again, but I also think they’re overdramatizing it.
Ichigo asks Lettuce if she thinks Zakuro really isn’t the fifth Mew Mew. Lettuce responds that, if she’s not, then the girl in the picture is still a mystery. In the dub, Zoey asks Bridget why Renee would deny being a Mew Mew. Bridget then asks why she’d want to give up her great career to be a freak, work in a café and fight aliens.
Ya know, Bridget, if you never became a ‘freak’ you’d never have this great circle of friends as opposed to that nice trio of bitches you had as “friends” before. Since when do you find this life so deplorable anyway? And thanks to Bridget being bitchy now too, though in a different way, that means only three characters in the dub, Zoey, Wesley and surprisingly Corina are the only ones who haven’t been complete assholes at one point in this episode. That’s just awful.
Akasaka and Shirogane nod to each other quietly whereas Wesley and Elliot just stare at each other. NODDING IS NOW A 4KIDS NO-NO. EVERYONE UPDATE YOUR RULEBOOK!
Oh great another transformation mashup. There goes my Lettuce transformation comparison again….
However, I can note one thing I never noticed from the mashup – Lettuce’s scenes are mirrored for absolutely no reason. Unless she transforms into a car in it. I wouldn’t know. I NEVER SEE IT!
And you know something else?
I supposedly never will.
I was flipping through the Mew Wiki for information, and on Lettuce’s page it says the dub never once shows her transformation full out because she’s ‘naked’ through most of it.
That’s just stupid. Put your digital paint powers to good use, 4Kids. Don’t rip off the fans of Lettuce just because you’re chicken. Sailor Moon was able to show their transformation sequences, so can you. Next episode that they transform in the mashup, I will show all of the scenes that are missing from the mashup in the dub as this will merely have to count as the actual transformation comparison.
Oh great, dub Ichigo says the motto before they even get to the place where the bad guy is so they couldn’t have heard it. Great job. I really think 4Kids just edited that onto the typical transformation mashup scene to save time. And how lovely to have that motto in my face (GET IT!?) twice in one episode. At least the first time didn’t add the final line.
It’s hard to tell but a cross is removed from the front of the church.
Mini-Mew: “There, Zoey! Inside the creepy dark place!” It’s called a church…Or maybe it’s Dracula’s castle. Hell if I know in the dub.
The girls are informed by Shirogane and Masha that the fifth member is being attacked. The girls aren’t aware of this in the dub, merely that a predasite is attacking.
They remove a shot of the stained glass windows even though I don’t see any religious symbols on it.
They don’t announce that it’s Zakuro until they actually see her take off her hat and transform. In the dub, they know before she even turns around.
Also, a closeup shot of her cross necklace is removed.
A cross on top of the church is removed. (Hint: it’s near the left tower)
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Dubbed: 
A cross on top of the alter is changed to a spike.
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Oh but now they show the window! Hey, how about making sense for a change?
HAHA, 4KIDS MISSED THE CROSS IN THE SCENE WITH THE BIRDS! Should’ve put the necklace guy on that!
Since the cross on top of the altar was changed to a spike, it looks like Dren is standing on a spike. Ouch.
In the original, Kisshu plans to kill Zakuro in order to ensure that she doesn’t team up with the Mews. In the dub, Dren makes off like Renee’s now a part of his team.
While I thought this would mean that Dren would take her silence as defiance in the order to attack the girls and then attack her for it, he just mutters off poems for some reason and sends the crows to make her more powerful.
Oh hey at least I get one transformation sequence to compare today.
Zakuro’s Transformation Comparison: Zakuro’s awesome electric guitar theme is changed to pop-song-ness. 😦 Also, they don’t include her saying, what would be in the dub, ‘Power Pendant Activate’. They also cut out the shots with lip flaps since they make her say nothing for some reason.
Zakuro in front of the DNA strands is removed.
A shot of Zakuro’s hands is removed.
They speed up the shot of Zakuro running to the camera on all fours.
They don’t remove her final shot? Well, I guess it’s just flowers and a moon as opposed to the gold things the other girls get but still.
Renee: “EAT THIS, CROWS!” Yeah, eat my poorly written dialogue, crows!
Kisshu states incredulously that she turned all of the Chimera Crows back to normal at once. In the dub, Dren makes this pun “Careful, Renee. Wouldn’t want to get crow’s feet!’
A close up shot of Zakuro’s ZaCross Whip is edited to remove the sides since it’s meant to be a cross shape. Since you didn’t get a good view in the first episode, here ya go.
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They shorten and I think speed up the shot of Zakuro’s attack where we sift through several shots of her transitioned in her eye.
No attack name change note here because she doesn’t say anything when she attacks. She just goes ‘Huuhhh HA!’ For the record, it’s Ribbon Zakuro Spear.
I’ll give 4Kids credit for actually explaining their made up plot about Renee supposedly joining the Cyniclons. It’s because she wanted to lure him there to kick his butt. Great plan that resulted in you not even trying to capture him or anything.
Zoey: “How cool, she single-handedly defeated Dren!” Yeah, I’ll complain about that in a minute. Thanks for reminding me.
And for another dose of ‘Everyone in the dub’s an asshole’, Zakuro just says she doesn’t need friends. Renee tells the girls they’re all freaks. Nice, bitch. Also, they’re freaks for what reason exactly? The powers? The animal traits? The outfits? The fighting aliens? Cuz you have those too, darlin’.
Yet when Zakuro actually does get insulting with saying girls like Mint are annoying, the dub has her say forcefully that she’s merely not interested in joining their team. I will never understand these people.
Ah, because we have a storyline that wasn’t all wrapped up in 30 minutes, 4Kids puts To Be Continued… at the bottom of the screen. Is that the first time they’ve done that in this show? I don’t remember.
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Zakuro’s so powerful that she’s easily been beating Chimera Animals all over town, transformed a flock of Chimera Crows back to normal just by the light of her transformation, and she went hand to hand with Kisshu and a Chimera Animal at once and took them out easily. All by herself, mind you…
So…..why is she not the leader again? Call it Tokyo Bark Bark, it would work. Especially considering that she’s a wolf and thus would fit a leader role perfectly and they, ya know, eat cats. Plus, I hate that she’s this powerful, yet she’s not much better than the other Mews in terms of role when she actually does join the Mews because she’s not the leader.
Zakuro is abrasive, and I can’t remember really enjoying her character that much. She was kindhearted and mature, but I never really grew to really like her a lot.
I’m not even sure how much I liked this episode, to be honest. The dubbed version is just awful and full of so much meanspirited garbage it’s just more annoying than usual to watch.
Next episode, Mint mopes about Zakuro not joining the group and then Zakuro joins the group.
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The Anime Madhouse 