Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 18 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Ichigo is saved by the mysterious Blue Knight. Her friends join up with her to fight off the aliens, but the mystery of who the Blue Knight really is gnaws at the girls. They surmise that Shirogane might be the knight, but does that mean that the usual distant and blunt Shirogane really has a deep desire to protect and care for Ichigo?

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In the original, the scene with Mint’s battle against the fish and Pai is up first after the recap. In the dub, the scene with Bridget and Kiki fighting Tarb and his radish creatures are the first scene.

They cut out a closeup of Zakuro’s face after she transforms.

More scene swapping. The scene following Zakuro’s transformation was supposed to be checking back with Ichigo and the Blue Knight. In the dub, they continue with Renee and Corina’s battle until it ends.

The next scene is the continuation of Zakuro and Mint’s battle, so let’s check this out.

Renee still doesn’t get a name for her attack?

Zakuro says she returned because she felt uneasy and that it seems like the aliens are dispersing them to take them out. In the dub, Renee says she was attacked by a giant carrot at the airport, which doesn’t make sense because that would mean Tarb was there and he’s at the park. She then says her agent will have fun explaining that to the tabloids. I bet he will if you transformed there to defeat it.

Next scene is the continuation of the battle between the Blue Knight and Kisshu in the original. In the dub, they’re just now starting the scene with Zoey, the Blue Knight and Dren.

However, they smush these two scenes together in the dub, so I can tackle the continuation anyway. The only real difference is Kisshu wants to know why the Blue Knight saved Ichigo whereas he just asks who he is in the dub.

Next scene in the original is the start of Lettuce and Pudding’s battle with Taruto.

Kiki: “We can’t beat these beets!” Urgh.

Corina barely ever says her attack name anymore either. Weird.

Let’s recap; Mint barely took on one of the Fish Chimeras by herself. Lettuce and Pudding took out a few Radish Chimeras before running away. Zakuro took care of all of the Fish Chimeras single handed and then went and took out all of the Radish Chimeras single handed………

Why…is she…..not….the…….leader?

That reminds me, why didn’t the aliens actually go after Zakuro? I know she was planning on leaving, but if this plan is to take all of them out then why not actually send a Chimera after her in the original? Or at the very least wait until you can corner all of the Mews equally before implementing this plan.

Ichigo’s little fever dream or psychic communication with the Blue Knight or whatever that is happens only a few seconds after they return the scene to the fight between the Blue Knight and Kisshu. In the dub, it happens after Dren’s spin attack fails and he attacks again.

Kisshu’s line as they’re fighting is asking if the Blue Knight’s a Mew Mew. In the dub, he asks why he’s protecting Zoey.

The scene following Kisshu’s spin move thing is the continuation of Ichigo’s dream thing. In the dub, this is where the dream starts.

Originally, the silhouette of the Blue Knight slowly fades away and fades further as the shot pulls out. In the dub, we get a flash transition back to the starting shot of the tree.

A short scene of Ichigo sitting there and asking ‘why’ is removed.

You’re telling me that the Blue Knight couldn’t dodge that lunge? Kisshu gave plenty of warning, yet he stupidly used his left arm to block.

There’s no flashback to Shirogane in the first episode saying Ichigo’s heavier than she looks. So, I guess they’re seriously trying to make the Blue Knight seem like he’s Elliot.

Okay I have to stop here and go into a bit of a tangent. Like I’ve mentioned before, several of these SDCs were pre-written on a forum I moderate, cleaned up/rewritten and then posted here. When I first compared this episode, I was working off of the subbed copy that seems most common online (the version with the time stamp in the corner)

Now I’m using better HD versions that are cleaner and don’t include that intrusive time stamp. Since I want to replace all of those lower quality screencaps, I have to go back to my old ones and make sure I’m pinpointing the same shots. I mentioned in my initial comparison that I was baffled to hell because it seemed like 4Kids purposely redrew and reanimated this scene of Shirogane in order to simply change his clothes.

Allow me to explain; Shirogane shows up because he’s worried about Ichigo fighting while she’s sick. He does the same in the dub, but, like I said, he’s wearing different clothes. Original-wise, he was wearing another of his fairly regular outfits, with a white vest and purple pants. Dub-wise, he’s wearing the clothes he most normally wears, the black vest with the white pants.

Shirogane was wearing the dubbed outfit (his regular clothes) when he was seen with Aoyama earlier. Since we can assume he was going to visit Ichigo and a day hasn’t gone by, it seems weird that Shirogane would show up to the fight wearing a different outfit.

I first thought that 4Kids actually went to the trouble of ‘fixing’ this shot for consistency purposes, which, while being farfetched, wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibility because they did something similar in the first (second in the dub) episode where they briefly changed Shirogane’s hair color from black to his actual blond due to a supposed animation error, even if it was just for a few frames. This possibility did blow me away though because that would be a hell of a lot of money and effort to go through just to fix an error most people wouldn’t catch.

The only other possible explanation I could think of is 4Kids got a version of the raw episode that was altered after the episode aired in Japan for whatever reason.

The newer, better quality, episodes I found now have Shirogane wearing the outfit he wears in the dub, which pretty much confirms that this wasn’t a 4Kids edit.

Now, my second theory could be right, but I have another theory now. I think that, since the lower quality TV recorded episodes have this animation problem but the higher quality episodes have it fixed, the first versions were probably released on TV with this problem and the animation error was fixed for subsequent DVD releases which 4Kids must’ve gotten.

Now I’m really glad I’m going back to get better quality screencaps for this comparison because that ‘change’ was one of the biggest and most confusing moments I had in this series. Now I can lay it to rest. And let me swallow my pride and say ‘Sorry 4Kids.’

For the sake of…something or other, here are all of the screencaps to grasp my confusion.

Error:

Dub:

Fixed:

Text is removed from Akasaka’s computer again.

Ichigo says she feels like she knows the Blue Knight. Zoey says the same but says she feels like she knows him from a long time ago. But….the Blue Knight is Mark. At least he’s supposed to be. Why would she feel like she knew him a long time ago if he’s a guy she currently knows?……………………Don’t go Sailor Moon on me, Mew Mew Power.

Oh, but here, the original animators get stupid. They fixed the instance of Shirogane running to Ichigo in the main scene and the flashback, but when Pudding’s imagining her chibi-ized version of events, they fail to change the chibi Shirogane back into his regular clothes. He remains in his super cool purple pants. If you’re not going to go the extra mile for consistency, don’t do it at all. If anything this ‘fix’ makes the consistency WORSE. Way to go, Pierrot.

…..*sigh* Also, another instance where I must apologize to 4Kids because I first allocated this error to them. Damn you, Pierrot, for making me double apologize to 4Kids. You make me sick!

Pudding doesn’t insinuate that Shirogane has a secret crush on Ichigo like the dub does.

Shirogane says he has no clue who the Blue Knight is and denies even seeing him. Elliot does know who the Blue Knight is (well, not his identity, but the knight anyway) but denies being him.

Shirogane just says to prepare for opening. Elliot says to “Turn her (Kiki) off before opening because she’ll scare the customers.” Jerk.

Ichigo flashes back to Shirogane’s concerns from the previous episode. However, she’s putting words into his mouth because she’s imagining him saying the words about protecting her that Akasaka thought he’d say. In the dub, Zoey’s going a mile a minute about how weird it is that she’s thinking about Elliot but can’t decide if it’s actually Elliot she’s thinking about or the possibility that Elliot’s the Blue Knight.

Ichigo wonders if Shirogane is really the Blue Knight. Zoey wonders if Elliot really is in love with her.

Ichigo schedules a date with Aoyama for the day after tomorrow. Zoey sets a date for tomorrow.

After Ichigo spins around gushing about her date, we see her mom on the other side of the door smiling and nostalgically saying “Ahh, youth.” This is removed.

A bit of Kisshu and Pai talking is removed. (Before Pai gets angry.)

The scene is shortened further at the end, but it’s just a repeat of the talking footage from the beginning of the scene with different dialogue. However, Taruto enters the convo too and says that no matter the case, they still have to beat the Blue Knight and the Mews. Kisshu agrees.

They remove a shot of Ichigo floating by Lettuce and Pudding to the right at the beginning of the scene at the café.

The orders Ichigo fills are Marron Chante and Strawberry Blanc Mange. In the dub, it’s a Chestnut Sundae and an apple something. Kiki speaks over the rest, though I could’ve sworn she said appletini.

Japanese text is removed from the building.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They cut out Aoyama and Ichigo visiting the aquarium. Well, duh. Didn’t you see those killer fish from earlier? They deserve to be edited out.

They remove the word ‘Bolow’ from the vender.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

I have no clue what Bolow means…Bolo tie?

Aoyama specifically asks if what’s bothering Ichigo has anything to do with Shirogane. Mark asks if it has to do with work.

Aoyama says Ichigo should talk it over with her friends. Mark says that she can talk it over with him any time.

They edit out Ichigo bowing and apologizing.

Ichigo says the thought that was bothering her all day was that she thinks Shirogane is the Blue Knight. In the dub, she just says she couldn’t stop thinking about Elliot.

Also, because of this change, they remove the flashbacks to both the Blue Knight and Shirogane telling her that she’s heavier than she looks. Then again, they showed this earlier so I guess it’s technically a scene swap.

They also remove the scenes after the flashback before we cut back to the café. Pudding says she was right in her deductions, and Lettuce asks why he’d transform. Ichigo says she doesn’t know but they should keep this suspicion a secret.

We cut to the train station where Lettuce and Pudding bid Ichigo farewell. Ichigo’s about to head home but she decides to finish some stuff up at the café first.

Wait a minute, this episode technically ended on a cliffhanger yet no ‘to be continued.’ Weird.

The scene shifts are getting bad and it’s really starting to piss me off. I can do comparisons all fine and dandy when the scenes match, but when I have to play tag with the scenes that I’m comparing it drives me nuts. Thank God I only have seven more episodes to do.

As for the episode itself, it’s also quite boring. I’m a little annoyed that now Ichigo is in a love square, pentagon if you count the Blue Knight and Aoyama as two separate entities. Every guy’s jonesin’ for Ichigo’s 13-year-old bod. It starts to wear on the nerves after a while.

Half the episode is really just dedicated to Ichigo acting weird because she thinks that Shirogane is the Blue Knight. The other half is a fairly interesting battle, and maybe it’d be more interesting if I didn’t already know who the Blue Knight was. Again, though, that might be 4Kids’ intentions for the Blue Knight to be Elliot somehow. I honestly don’t know, and we never will know. They don’t discover BK’s identity until after episode 26 so 4Kids never gets the chance to screw that up.

Next episode, the girls and guys of Mew go to the beach for some fun. It actually ends up being a fairly Lettuce-centric episode and one that holds a very funny paint edit. It also has one of the most infuriating aspects of this series.

This is also the episode where we’re introduced to Mew Aqua, but I don’t know if it’s called that in the dub.

….Previous Episode

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AVAHS – Niko 2: Little Brother Big Trouble (A Christmas Adventure)

Plot: Niko has been spending a lot of time with his father, Prancer, since last year. However, his mother’s none too keen on Prancer letting him stay out late or trying to go Santa Speed. Despite this, Niko still wishes for and believes that his mother and father will get back together some day.

When Oona reveals to him that she is indeed interested in bringing a father figure back into their family, he is ecstatic since he believes his mother is getting back together with his father. However, he’s quickly crestfallen when he discovers that not only are both Oona and Prancer uninterested in getting back together, but the father figure Oona had in mind was a reindeer named Lenni.

Niko is clearly upset at this news and becomes even more devastated when he learns Lenni has a young son named Jonni. Not interested in gaining a new dad or a new little brother, Niko pushes both of them away as much as possible. But when he tries to ditch Jonni during a game of Hide and Seek, Jonni gets taken away by eagles who are working for Black Wolf’s vengeful sister, White Wolf, and it’s up to him to be a good big brother and get Jonni back.

Breakdown: Last year I talked about how Niko and the Way to the Stars was a welcome surprise in the holiday movie genre. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable little family movie for Christmas.

Niko 2 is also a perfectly enjoyable movie, but it’s only barely Christmassy and it’s not really as good as the first one.

Much of the movie focuses entirely on a plot that has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. In fact, the Flying Forces and Santa and Christmas as a whole seem really tacked on. Prancer and Oona butt heads, but they never settle things between them. Niko and Prancer only spend the first scene together and then nothing.

They never would have revisited the Flying Forces or Santa’s Fell again after the first act unless two stupid things didn’t occur. First, White Wolf decided to get to Niko through his father, which is why she and the eagles attacked the Flying Forces. Piss poor excuse to get them involved. It’s really such a bother to catch one flying reindeer fawn who can’t even go Santa Speed so target the Flying Forces?

Second, Julius decides to lie about Jonni being taken to Oona by saying Prancer and Niko decided to spend time with Jonni, basically pinning responsibility for the whole thing on poor Prancer, a guy who is seemingly trying to be a good dad to Niko but keeps getting the short end of the stick. (And, what’s dumber, Julius basically becomes an honesty advocate and head shaker towards Lenni and Niko for continuing the lie HE made in the first place)

Not to mention, Santa’s Fell somehow feels even worse this time around. It never seemed too fantastical, but the factory is a lifeless toy factory with literally no one in it. No elves, no nothing. It’s self-running and maintaining equipment apparently. Santa makes a brief appearance cloaked kinda in shadow just to say hi to Niko and reunite with Tobias. And Niko visits his dad all the time but it seems like Santa hasn’t seen Niko in ages.

Well, if Christmas isn’t a big highlight, I guess the only thing we can bank on is the main plot. As a whole, the main plot isn’t that bad. It’s a predictable cliché from start to finish, but it isn’t that bad. I never felt bored or annoyed for the most part, and it’s totally harmless. However, I have to call out some laziness in the conflict.

First of all, the antagonist being the sister to the antagonist from the original movie, wanting revenge for their death; wow, that’s Disquel levels of unimaginative.

Second, the eagles are a total joke. At least Black Wolf and his pack were kinda threatening in the last movie. The eagles are just complete comic relief. The only reason White Wolf even has eagles as a posse are to get to Santa’s Fell without going the same long route Niko took in the last movie. And yes, the eagles carry her like a fish to Santa’s Fell. It’s a bit ridiculous.

Third, White Wolf is in no way scary or threatening. She’s a ‘hands-off’ ‘let my minions do everything’ villain. At least Black Wolf was proactive for the entirety of the first movie. White Wolf just sits in the shadows of the eagles’ domain and commands them to do things for half the movie. She’s not even commanding the eagles out of respect or fear, she manipulates them because they have a crush on her and later because the Flying Forces banned them from the skies for no given reason. Her eyes don’t even constantly glow like Black Wolf’s. Guess that trait wasn’t genetic.

She also wasn’t taken care of in a decent manner. She’s basically tied up and that’s it. I guess she’ll just die of starvation or else the plot really isn’t over since eventually she’ll get out of those ties and go after Niko again, even more fiercely.

Lenni and Jonni are both perfectly fine new characters. I was really worried they’d make Lenni out to be a secret jerk and then Oona and Prancer would get back together or Jonni would be an annoying little brat and I’d end up wanting to play reindeer games with his face, but they’re both perfectly nice characters.

If anything, Oona’s the one I’m more annoyed with this whole movie. She obviously sees how much Niko loves his father and wishes they got back together, so what does she do? Instead of sitting him down gently and explaining that she and his father will never work and he should learn to love their slightly disjointed family and maybe learning to lay off Prancer and then later leaning into ‘Hey I’ve been dating this new guy….’ what does she do?

One day, out of the blue, after essentially leading Niko to believe that she and Prancer will be getting back together by being vague in their conversation and not disclosing who she’s talking about, she reveals that she’s been dating Lenni behind Niko’s back for some time now and that he’ll be moving in immediately. Oh and also, he has a young son, he’s Niko’s little brother now. Deal with it.

Then she pretty much expects Niko to be instantly fine with all of this, even though it’s clearly bothering the hell out of him. She briefly speaks with him about it, but it’s, again, basically just expecting that Niko will be fine with everything.

When Lenni lies to her about the situation with the boys, he says he wants to go up to Santa’s Fell to confront Prancer and she’s all ‘Whoo! I’ll go with you and give my two cents!’ Whoo yeah, he needs a talkin’ to what with his mild leniency with Niko; having fun with him and spending time with him and training him in flying and whatnot. What an ass.

Also, the reason Lenni and Jonni suddenly moved in is because she’s pregnant with Lenni’s kid. They give ‘subtle’ hints at it throughout the movie, but it’s obvious she’s preggers and both Lenni and Oona know and have known for a while. And she never tells Niko. She had to have told him some time between the final climax of the movie and the birth of the kid at the end, but she doesn’t mention it before then. Mother of the year.

We get another new character in the reindeer, Tobias, who is a pretty old reindeer living by himself out in the wilderness. His shtick is Mr. Magoo. He’s blind as a bat and frequently does silly things because he can’t see well. Also, he’s kinda looney. I went back and forth with liking Tobias. On one hand, he can be funny, but on the other hand his shtick is horribly cliché and one-note. On one hand, his backstory is kinda interesting and his life at the moment is a bit sad, but on the other hand his backstory kinda doesn’t make sense and is a bit dumb.

Last note, the thing with Niko attempting to go Santa Speed is arguably the most predictable part of this movie. It’s completely obvious that he will be able to do it by the end.

The art and animation are about on par with the original movie’s, though the lip-synching is noticeably worse.

The voice acting is alright, though, again, the emoting and vocal volumes need work.

The music is completely forgettable, and we don’t even get a song from Wilma to spice things up.

Bottom Line: I have more problems with this movie than I did the last, but it is a perfectly fine movie. If you were a fan of the original, give it a shot. If not, skip it. Also skip it if you’re looking for a fun Christmas movie. Despite the tagline being ‘A Christmas Adventure’ there is a staggering lack of anything really Christmassy. If anything, it seems to purposely skip out on it, and the stuff they do include seems really forced.

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