Plot: Lettuce has fallen for an older guy who also loves reading. While she gets up the courage to confess to him, Pai decides to crash the local library for information, and it just so happens to be the regular meeting place for Lettuce and her crush.
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We start off on a bad note this episode with a scene swap. A scene of Mint and Ichigo walking through town is placed at the very beginning of the episode when it’s supposed to come way later. The actual start of this episode is supposed to be Lettuce at school.
I think the reason for this is so Corina and Zoey can narrate over Bridget’s scene instead of letting Bridget do it herself. Because screw Bridget.
They remove a shot of Lettuce slowing down as she approaches her old group of friends.
They remove Lettuce putting her shoes in her locker and then forgetting something and running back upstairs.
They erase the text on the sticker, which just makes you wonder why they zoomed in on it.
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Signs + Text = Bad.
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By the way, what’s up with that last shot? Why did they erase everything but the circle and square?
They remove a shot of Lettuce crossing the crosswalk.
Corina and Zoey’s narrating is getting really annoying. Teenage gossip, with implications that Bridget is being a creepy stalker (and Corina actually says ‘stalker’) is much less sweet than Lettuce narrating about how she’s falling for this guy.
All of the books in the library have text on them…because books. In the dub, all the text is painted away. Too many shots for this – just trust me.
The book that the guy, Norihiro, pulls down is titled ‘Lamaze is Not Difficult’, which was the book next to what she wanted. Embarrassed, she takes the book anyway. In the dub, the book is called ‘How to Tell Him How You Feel’. There’s no mention whether or not this was the book she wanted, but given the title change, I suppose so. I’m gonna guess 4Kids didn’t want to touch upon pregnancy topics in the least in regards to a teenage girl.
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Name Change: Lettuce’s crush is named Norihiro Edomurasaki. In the dub, he’s Ian.
Norihiro points out that he’s seen Lettuce around the library a few times and that Lettuce seems to really like books. He points out that it’s rare to see girls hanging around libraries to read nowadays and, because of that, he’s taken a slight interest in her.
In the dub, Ian says he’s in his second year of college (oddly they did get his age right) and that he’s a literature major mostly focusing on Russian literature. He lists off how this means he usually reads about sad people, hunger, cold weather and poverty and jokes about how that makes him a real cheery guy.
Norihiro asks what kinds of books she’s interested in. Ian asks her what her story is because he sees her reading harder stuff like Shakespeare instead of music magazines and teen romance like he’d expect a teenage girl to be interested in. I might be paranoid, but I really feel like this is 4Kids talking here. ‘We don’t get Lettuce. Why does she read books? She’s a teenage girl. Shouldn’t she be playing Polly Pocket and gushing over Nsync and making me sandwiches?’
Lettuce says she likes foreign travel guides. She loves to look at pictures of shores from foreign lands and says it’s relaxing. Bridget says Shakespeare wrote about teen romance and then quotes Romeo and Juliet. She says she’s probably a weirdo for liking such serious stuff and then says when she wants lighter fare, she reads travel guides.
Another scene swap, because we’re still in Zoey’s little story, they fade back in on the scene of Zoey and Corina after the flashback is over. In the original, we cut back to Lettuce again heading to the library to see Norihiro.
In the original, Ichigo doesn’t know that Lettuce likes a guy, so she asks Lettuce why she’s so chipper today, but she just smiles and says its for no reason. Ichigo asks if something good happened, and Lettuce replies “Not really.” Ichigo then asks if she got a boyfriend, which causes Lettuce to blush and vehemently deny it. Ichigo turns into a little chibi-demon thing because she believes Lettuce is lying. Lettuce fumbles a bit in her words of denial, and Ichigo stands firmer in her stance that she did find a boyfriend. Lettuce admits it, and says to keep it just between them, and Ichigo agrees until she decides to yell it to the other girls.
In the dub, since Zoey already knows, she asks how her new boyfriend’s doing, and Bridget gushes about how they talked about Dostoyevsky. Zoey doesn’t know what that is, but says it’s great. Bridget says it’s great having a secret crush, and Zoey says that it’s even better because she told Corina. Bridget freaks out that Zoey told Corina because she knows Corina will tell everyone. Zoey turns into the little chibi-demon and says maybe everyone should know, but Bridget says it’s just a crush and it’s on an older guy at that. Zoey asks why her love should be a secret, and Bridget says she just wants it to be one before Zoey yells to Corina in the back to keep Bridget’s crush a secret.
As the girls are thinking of Lettuce’s possible boyfriend, Zakuro thinks of a shadowed guy smoking a cigarette. In the dub, the smoke is edited out.
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And here’s the big edit that still baffles and confuses me to this day, but, oddly enough, is merely a contender for the most confusing edit of the episode. As they’re still picturing what Lettuce’s boyfriend looks like, Mint thinks of a blond ballet dancer.
In the dub, this picture is removed and replaced with Renee’s picture and the dialogue is even changed to saying it must be someone cute, but everyone has their own views of what is really cute. So there’s no denying that this scene implies that Corina thinks Renee is cute and would be her version of a great romantic partner.
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I just do not get this. I mean, I can’t think of really any instances where 4Kids has been shown to be anti-gay, but then again there’s not a whole lot of that content in their shows besides Harley from Pokemon, and they left him entirely alone. James’ crossdressing was also left alone outside of the banned episode.
I just don’t understand why they’re purposely pushing for it here so fiercely. *shrugs* Maybe there are shipping wars in 4Kids. Maybe there was something really wrong with the ballet dancer, and Renee was the only person they could think of to replace him.
The other reason I can think of is that they didn’t want to show a male ballet dancer because it’s a guy doing something seen as feminine, but they’ve shown guy ballet dancers several times and again, James. Hell, Ash did it once or twice too.
The final theory I have is that 4Kids might have thought that her crush on Renee is so legit that thinking of another person as a romantic interest, a guy even, would be….kinda cheating on her? And they didn’t want Corina to be doing something like that? It’s a huge stretch, but it’s all I’m coming up with. This just really confuses me. The smoking thing I understand, but I just don’t get this.
When asked if he’s tall, Lettuce says no. In the dub, she says he kinda is.
Mint asks if he’s an athlete, and Lettuce says no. Corina asks if he writes her a lot of poetry, and she says he’s never written her anything.
Ichigo asks if he’s younger than Lettuce, but she says no. Ichigo then gets up in Lettuce’s face and asks what he’s like. Lettuce starts going on that he’s tall (wait, you just said he wasn’t) and that he loves reading but then she trails off and says he’s not her boyfriend. Zoey says there’s one thing she still wants to know, so she gets in Bridget’s face and asks if he’s a good kisser. Bridget says she wishes she knew because he’s so smart and cute, and then she gushes over how crazy she is about him.
It should be noted that this line change is pretty creepy taking into consideration the original. In the original, Lettuce is 12-13 years old and this guy is 18-20. Yeah, please don’t find out quite yet if he’s a good kisser.
It’s actually kinda creepy in the dub anyway. He’s at least 20 in the dub because he’s two years into college and she’s 15 in the dub. Not as creepy, but still creepy and probably illegal.
After Lettuce blows up and says he’s not her boyfriend, Ichigo sits and coyly teases her some more. In the dub, Bridget says Ian’s not her boyfriend and Zoey sits and coyly points out that now they know his name is Ian….Uh, excuse me. He introduces himself in the flashback that you narrated, heavily implying that Bridget told you all of those details. Can’t you people keep anything straight?
Ichigo asks flat out if Lettuce loves Norihiro. Zoey asks if she’s even told Ian that she has a crush on him.
The girls then yell, as Lettuce responds in silence, that she really does love Norihiro. In the dub, her silence is taken as denial that she’s told him so they yell “You have to tell him!”
The scene with Taruto and Pai is kinda changed. Pai is gathering data on humans, and Taruto wonders why since humans are worthless. He explains that a humans’ true abilities vary from person to person. Body and mind work separately. Taruto says that this only means that humans are imperfect, and Pai responds that he needs more data.
In the dub, Sardon says he’s coming up with new strategies. Tarb asks why he’s doing that because their regular strategy of ‘charging in and kicking butt’ has worked just fine in the past. Yeah, that’s why you’ve never once won against them, huh? Sardon says he needs to learn more about humans perhaps by reading their books. Tarb then asks over and over where he thinks they’re going to get human books.
Seriously, 4Kids, if you couldn’t make a line to fit all of the mouth flaps, just cut the scene and move on. No need to make him repeat the line like an idiot. Sardon then replies that they need a library card.
The scene from earlier with Lettuce going to the library was just swapped to this point.
And they changed it to something stupid. How nice. Anyway, the scene is entirely the same as the original until Lettuce gets to the library and sees Norihiro checking in. Originally, this had no talking.
In the dub, he clearly says he’ll see the librarian tonight, and she giggles and tells him not to read too much. Gee, I wonder with all of the capacity of my brain cells if he’s romantically entangled with this young lady? Well, gang, looks like we have another mystery on our hands.
The book that Lettuce has is called ‘Appeal of Tahiti’. In the dub, it’s ‘Fiji: A Guide’. Tahiti, Fiji, eh they’re both foreign places, and islands to boot. Who cares if they’re if they’re over 2000 miles apart and are in no way the same place?
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Norihiro doesn’t talk about his college work, he just says he bought the book at a bookstore he frequents, but figured Lettuce would like it better.
Norihiro talks about how he rarely smiles anymore, and he likes seeing Lettuce smiling like she is now. Lettuce says he can smile more and talks about how she used to be sad and miserable all the time, but now she has a better attitude on life because the people around her are encouraging. She then encourages Norihiro in doing the same.
In the dub, Ian talks about how Bridget reminds him a lot of how he used to be when he was her age, but now he spends all of his time engrossed in books. This line also supposedly makes Bridget sad because he’s pointing out the age difference between them. He continues to tell Bridget to not end up like him and that life is meant to be lived not read about. He apologizes and says that lately he’s been thinking that he hides from life in books. Bridget says she knows how he feels because she used to use books as an escape as well, but then she realized that reading was a way of connecting to people by reading about stuff like loneliness and courage.
The eyecatches are different starting now, and they’re still removed in lieu of the ones 4Kids made.
The girls originally just hint that the book means he likes Lettuce. In the dub, they say the book’s a sign of a bigger message – that he wants to go away on an island cruise with her. Uh….huh.
The girls just yell “Good luck!” In the dub they yell “You go, girl!”
We’re at the scene that was shifted to the beginning so let’s tackle this. In the original, Mint and Ichigo are talking about how nice it is that Lettuce has a guy now, and Mint says she’s more surprised Ichigo has a boyfriend. Ichigo is about to deny that Aoyama’s her boyfriend, but then turns around, laughs and says this isn’t something to discuss with someone who has never had a boyfriend. Mint sneers for a bit before going chibi and floating off into a picture of Zakuro saying that she’s fine as long as she’s with Zakuro.
Ichigo gets a freaked out look on her face before gushing over how nice it would be to go to an island like the one in Lettuce’s book with her boyfriend. She then fantasizes about it. The fantasy includes her and Aoyama on a beach about to kiss when Ichigo’s stomach growls. Aoyama smiles and says they should eat dinner and Ichigo agrees.
She’s horrified, however, to find the table covered in gross food like frogs, lizards and bats. While she’s completely grossed out, Aoyama is happily eating away, making Ichigo freak out both in the dream and in real life, which prompts Mint to just leave her while she’s crying about her fantasy.
In the dub, the girls are complaining about the long day they just had at work. Corina asks why it took so long to clean up a smoothie machine accident, and Zoey points out that it would’ve gone faster if Corina had helped. Corina says she had other work to do, but Zoey says checking the folds on the napkins isn’t work. Corina says it is, Zoey freaks out a bit before getting a dreamy look on her face about the fact that Bridget opens the café tomorrow and not her. That’s when the opening scene with Bridget starts, and they start narrating the story. Blah blah blah already explained this part – when we cut back to the girls, Zoey is gushing over the ‘geek love’ I mentioned before, and Mint just walks away.
Few things;
The signs are removed in this scene.
That scene with Mint gushing over being with Zakuro is removed.
And the entirety of Ichigo’s island fantasy is removed.
You’ll have to trust me on the signs, there are a ton of them as they’re walking through town.
Also, considering that the fantasy sequence is used in another episode, I won’t bother getting screencaps of that scene.
While the dialogue is basically the same in the scene with ‘the Beckys’ in terms of subject matter, they could not be more painfully obvious with theirs in the dub. “Don’t you wanna lend us money so you can be our friend?” Try making after-school specials, 4Kids.
Lettuce is also nicer than she is in the dub. In the original, she just tells her bitchy ‘friends’ that she’s busy and can’t go with them. In the dub, she says she has better things to do.
The signs all over town are removed. And isn’t it a bit funny that in an episode where reading is one of the focal points that they still remove every bit of text they can get their hands on?
What’s that smell? It smells…kinda like….a crappy pop song, oh god no. *listens*….Eh….At least it’s not ear-bleedingly awful in regards to melody…Let’s see about the lyrics. Making friends…blah….then I saw you….blah…is this more than a crush? Yada yada….I wanted to show you how I feel, so I wrapped it in a meal…….If that wasn’t exactly what was happening here, that line would be stupid in a sea of bland love song clichés. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the other lines. It’s like they really wanted to shove the details of this scene into the song, so they made one line about cooking a meal for someone you love in an otherwise completely stale sack of ‘I like this guy a lot’.
To be fair, there’s a lyrical song in the original too. Melody-wise, it’s about as interesting. Lyric-wise, it’s a lot better.
They remove the shots of the island before the little clipshow. They also remove Lettuce getting up and an exterior shot of her house.
If Sardon barely knows what a library is, why and how did he make that quip about the library card earlier?
Name Change: The librarian, Norihiro/Ian’s girlfriend is originally Satsuki. In the dub, she’s Sabrina.
Norihiro thanks Lettuce specifically for encouraging him and allowing him to be a better person. In the dub, he thanks Bridget for reminding him why books make him a better person and that he needs to go save the girl he loves.
Kiki: “We’re gonna turn you dust mites into dust weaks.” I actually had to think about why this is a pun for a second. You need to work on your one-liners, 4Kids.
Originally she just says today’s Chimera Animals are funny.
They remove Ichigo’s motto (Throw the parade!) as well as a short shot of Lettuce saying “You guys…”
Attack Name Change: Fuu Hyou Sen (Windy Ice Fan) is changed to Ice Wind Blast. That’s actually pretty close, so Kudos.
Well, this is no shock now, they completely removed Lettuce’s transformation scene so in the dub she just pops up transformed and attacks. I should mention, however, that while she is ‘naked’ for a bit, there is no damn reason why her transformation should be removed.
All the other girls are kinda naked for a bit, and I don’t see Lettuce’s nakedness being on screen for too long in comparison. It’s all silhouette anyway. What a load. If it was such an issue, then a short and edited transformation is better than flat out nothing. They CAN show certain segments of it because they’re included in the mashup, so I don’t get it at all. It’s also worth mentioning that all of the other girls, as I’ve mentioned, have segments of their transformations removed too anyway, so this makes even less sense.
It still bugs me that this is Lettuce’s big episode and yet she still has to call on Ichigo to ‘finish them off’.
Pudding explains that Lettuce wasn’t affected by the Chimera Animals hypnotic reading because she likes books so much……well that’s dumb. In the dub, Kiki just cheers for Bridget and we’re left to wonder why it didn’t affect her.
And here we are at the other contender for most confusing edit of the series, one I can hardly find a single excuse for. The engagement ring that Norihiro gives Satsuki has an emerald on it. I dunno if that’s to give a nod to Lettuce for giving him the courage to propose, but it’s bittersweet symbolism either way.
In the dub, it’s painted white and turned into a diamond….I mean, it might just be because diamond engagement rings are the most common but…..why? Just…why? I don’t get it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this edit. I don’t….I don’t get it! Why are you searching for new and improved ways to confuse and anger me 4Kids?! Why!?
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The girls are quiet after they see Norihiro propose to Satsuki until Ichigo says “Lettuce…” Lettuce then interrupts and says she’s alright as she sheds a tear. In the dub, they basically ruin the scene by Corina asking “That’s not Ian is it?” and then Ichigo says “Anyway!” while Bridget sheds a tear and then says it’s not Ian and that Ian couldn’t make it. As we cut to the shot of the trees, Kiki says they saw her talking with him and Renee quiets her.
Lettuce narrates at the end again, but Zoey rears her stupid head in to narrate again like it’s her damn story. They basically say the same thing, but dammit this is Lettuce’s/Bridget’s episode, shut the hell up!
Zoey: “After all, if there’s anyone who has read the words ‘Tis better to love and lose than to never love at all’ it’s Bridget.” The quote is “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” This is an episode about reading, dammit.
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God this episode was mangled to crap. Completely unnecessary scene shifts, story changes, scene removals etc. They’re just getting worse. And then they throw the ring curveball at me and I just get blindsided.
As an episode, originally, though, this is pretty alright. I never wanted to see poor Lettuce get heartbroken, especially since she has a grand total of two romantic interests over the course of the series and they both end up with her getting rejected, but it was pretty well-written and interesting.
Next up is the Blue Knight’s debut.
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The Anime Madhouse 
“In the dub, Ian talks about how Bridget reminds him a lot of how he used to be when he was her age, but now he spends all of his time engrossed in books. This line also supposedly makes Bridget sad because he’s pointing out the age difference between them. He continues to tell Bridget to not end up like him and that life is meant to be lived not read about. He apologizes and says that lately he’s been thinking that he hides from life in books. Bridget says she knows how he feels because she used to use books as an escape as well, but then she realized that reading was a way of connecting to people by reading about stuff like loneliness and courage.”
The fact that they added this semi-profound dialogue, in contrast to all the other dumb changes, is just odd from 4kids.
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