Plot: The girls and guys of Mew head to the beach for some vacation time. We learn that Lettuce, ironically, doesn’t know how to swim. When she meets a girl named Iruka who is being bullied for being afraid of the water, she takes it upon herself to learn how to swim alongside her.
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The first scene was originally a flashback/fantasy of Shirogane talking to Ichigo about the trip to the beach and her imagining the Blue Knight speaking to her in a similar fashion. This is replaced by a repeat of the final scene in the last episode.
They edit out a shot of Lettuce before the title screen.
A shot of the cabin is replaced by a shot of a palm tree.
They remove numerous shots of Zakuro taking off her towel as well as a shot of the guys gushing over her.
Here’s your visuals, pervs:
Here’s a weird edit: They leave in the shot of the guys gushing over Zakuro with hearts in their eyes but they remove half of the guys from the shot because……They defied the laws of physics?
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
They also replace a shot of Mint gushing over Zakuro for what was supposed to be an earlier shot of the guys gushing over Zakuro with heart eyes. Dunno why. They’ve been really supportive of MintxZakuro this whole time.
Ah, here you are, you awful paint edit, you. Not the last of these if I do remember correctly. Lettuce’s bathing suit is digitally altered as she’s sitting to cover some of her thighs and more of her butt. However, they do it in such an awkward manner that it makes her look like she’s wearing a damn diaper. The fact that her bathing suit is white certainly doesn’t help this.
Subbed:
Dubbed: 
So you can show all the girls in bikinis that you want, but diaper them up when they’re sitting because that’s just too risque.
As Ichigo explains the finless porpoise (or the black finless porpoise in the dub), a text box with the Japanese name ‘Sunameri’ is on screen. In the dub, it’s erased. This happens with each subsequent explanation with the other animals as well. Also, we’re 19 episodes in and they’re just now educating us on the various animals that their powers derive from?
Subbed:
Sunameri – 
Iriomote Wildcat – 
Parakeet (Mistranslated in the subs – Mint’s animal is actually a blue lorikeet.) 
Dubbed:
Sunameri – 
Iriomote Wildcat – 
Blue Lorikeet 
Also–
Zoey: “That’s weird. You’re infused with a fish!”
You know, for a person who is about to go on an encyclopedia-esque ramble about the specifications of sunameri, you got the most basic and simple fact that most people would probably know about the thing incorrect. Sunameri, black finless porpoises, are mammals not fish.
And for the sake of nitpicking, sunameri are also not dolphins. They’re porpoises and strongly resemble dolphins both in appearance and behavior, but they aren’t dolphins. And if we wanna get unnecessarily annoyingly nitpicky, yes, adult finless porpoises are typically not black in color, making their name seem odd, but the babies are mostly black with a little gray.
They cut out a short scene of Lettuce talking, explaining that she simply doesn’t swim and that it has nothing to do with the Mew powers.
Both Ichigo and Zoey say that they may be infused with iriomote wildcats, but they have no desire to play with mice. Yes, the whole chasing butterflies, landing on your feet no matter what and your insane desire for fish don’t count towards cat behavior, huh?
Mint agrees and says that, while she’s infused with a parakeet, she has no desire for karaoke. In the dub, she says she rocks karaoke.
Pudding says she was eating meat long before she became a lion, and when her animal card pops up, chibi-Ichigo has to explain that Pudding is once again confusing her animal with a lion when she’s really a golden lion tamarin, a monkey. When the girls look at Zakuro, she sprouts wolf ears and says What? Do you want me to eat you?” since her animal is a grey wolf. All of this is removed (as well as a shot of a palm tree) again, and I really have no idea why this was removed. Was 4Kids getting sick of having to paint so much or did they just get tired of all this education?
Pudding and Kiki basically say the same thing, that Shirogane/Elliot’s a great surfer, but Kiki’s line is this;
“Dude, he’s totally rippin’ some nard (?) barrel!”………….That’s it 4Kids, I’m taking the record player!
Corina: ‘And here I thought they were total geeks’ Well, one of us was right in our assumptions because I thought you were a bitch.
They edit out a shot of a sea slug before we see Tarb.
Tarb: “I’m tellin’ ya, the stuff you find down here is totally whack!” One more line like that and you’re not going to the sock hop either, 4Kids!
They edit in a shot of the jellyfish before the commercial in the dub and a shot of a palm tree after the commercial ends.
Name Change: The kid that’s being picked on is named Iruka. In the dub, she’s Cassandra.
Because I guess they couldn’t find a suitable English name to make this work (Ariel might’ve but eh copyrights) a line is forced to be lost. The kids picking on Iruka make fun of her saying it’s ironic that a girl named Iruka (meaning Dolphin) can’t swim. In the dub, they just say she’s afraid of some monster in the water.
Ichigo and the others merely tell the boys that it’s not nice to pick on a lone girl like Iruka. In the dub, Corina tells the ‘losers’ to get lost, and Zoey threatens to show them what it’s like to be picked on. Because that’s a mature lesson for the kids right? Being bullied? Call them losers and threaten to bully them back.
The boy calls Ichigo “oni-baba” or ‘old hag’. In the dub, he calls her ugly.
They remove a shot of….uh…I don’t know how to really describe this, but after Ichigo gets super angry at being called an old hag, she becomes pure white and cartoony and spins around, but this is removed.
Ichigo laments on the kids’ behavior and says “Kids these days”, which prompts Mint to say that saying such a phrase really does make her old, and then she goes all cartoony again. Since the line was changed, Corina just says to let it go and Zoey doesn’t go cartoony.
Iruka has the “word” ‘PiPo’ on her shirt. This is erased from the dub.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
A shot of the girls is removed after Mint says that Lettuce and Iruka can learn together.
They remove a short scene where the girls ask how she’s going to try to teach Iruka to swim on her own when she doesn’t know how.
Zakuro says it’s hard as a swimmer to know what a non-swimmer feels like. In the dub, she says the plan might work, especially if Bridget learns her true identity. I don’t even know what she means by that.
Slightly nitpicky, but Iruka says she still loves the sea and, in fact, does know how to swim. Cassandra says she wasn’t always afraid of the water and doesn’t mention the fact that she can swim.
Iruka says she was reaching for an ark shell. Cassandra says she was reaching for a periwinkle.
So wait, her story has nothing to do with monsters and everything to do with a near-drowning experience? Then why were those kids making fun of her for being afraid of ‘monsters’ in the water in the dub?
Iruka talks about the various things she loves about the sea and how she’d love to be able to swim so she can be free in the water again. In the dub, Cassandra basically acts like she wants to learn how to swim in order to have those kids stop bullying her. Yeah, kid, it’s not like bullies don’t just move on to other topics of ridicule when they find a suitable target.
Lettuce wants to jump into the water to hopefully give Iruka the courage to swim again. In the dub, she says something about having to face your fears and mentions that she read something like that on a fortune cookie once.
Mint doesn’t ask how Lettuce’s glasses are still on like Corina does to Bridget….And, nice, your friend nearly dies and you’re more concerned about how her eyewear wasn’t lost in the sea.
Lettuce thanks everyone for saving her, Bridget laments over how stupid it was of her to jump into the water.
Cassandra: “I’m a failure at seven.” Who talks like this at seven?
The girls seem to be in Hawaii in the dub as Wesley says “And as they say on the island ‘Ahaaina’ which means ‘gathering for a meal.'” In the original, Japan being an island and all, they’re just on a Japanese beach. And this is the first indication that they’re on an island in the dub period. I figured the dub placed them in California and they went to the beach considering that going to said beach wasn’t taken as that big of a deal. That was word for word what he suggested; going to the beach. The beach is a far cry from ‘Wanna go to Hawaii with me?’ Even if they live in a state close to Hawaii, that’s still a long trip and a plane or ship ride away.
The line in the original was just ‘itadakimasu’, which is a common Japanese phase said before eating that is usually translated as ‘Thanks for the food/meal’. They did match this line, just in a different foreign language so…good job?
Iruka says it’s time to move on. Bridget says it’s a beautiful day.
The original lifeguard doesn’t say anything before we see his face. He yells to the swimmers to get out of the water because it’s dangerous. In the dub, they make a joke out of this. The lifeguard tells himself to stay calm, and then we see his face as he yells to the beachgoers to “Run for (their) lives, for the love of Pete!”
Corina: “Cyniclons!”
Kiki: “Who would’ve thought!?”
Quite literally everyone watching ‘would’ve thought’.
Ichigo asks why Pai and Taruto are there. Taruto says it’s none of their business, and Pai says they’ll leave the sea the way it is. Zoey surmises that the two are talking to the girls. Tarb asks if the girls missed them, and Sardon chuckles and says “Good one, my ironic young friend.” Good what? Asking enemies if they missed you is like the most overused villain quip ever uttered. That’s not even really irony, either. Are you studying humans through Alanis Morrisette?
Taruto says their new Chimera Animals look like they’re from outer space. Ichigo points out that they’re typical sea life just made larger. Pudding’s in the background marveling over the animals while Zakuro points out that it’s going to rain soon. Taruto then gets mad that everyone’s ignoring their creatures and not being scared.
In the dub, Tarb just says how great the new predasites are, Zoey acts unimpressed by them, and we cut the scene with Pudding and Zakuro talking to jump straight to Tarb getting mad saying that it took him a long time to find good creatures.
This episode basically solidifies that the girls really don’t give a crap about who sees them transform. Then again, I suppose when your superhero identity is literally just putting ‘Mew’ in front of your name, it’s pointless either way.
In the original, we only see Lettuce and Ichigo transform, and they actually both get full transformations. We don’t even get clips of the other girls transforming. In the dub, it’s a complete mashup.
THEY EDITED OUT THE MOTTO AGAIN! YAY!
The starfish monster yells “Starfish, Charge” when he does his attack. He’s silent in the dub.
The jellyfish monster yells “Electric shock attack” when he shocks the girls. He’s silent in the dub.
When Pudding and Mint are shocked, they do that cartoony thing where you flash back and forth from them to their skeletons. In the dub, the skeletons are removed. I can’t even begin to tell you how many kids cartoons I’ve seen this gag on, not to mention that 4Kids has no problem showing skeletons, but hey, since when do they make sense?
Mint only points out that there seems to be no weakness to these creatures. Corina wants to run off and head to the mall.
Name Change: The boys who were bullying Iruka are named Komura, Takeshi and Yousuke. In the dub, Komura’s changed to Tommy, and the other boys are left unnamed.
The starfish says as he tries to smash Lettuce to “stay down.” In the dub, he’s silent again.
They cut out a shot of Iruka and Komura spinning around in the water with Lettuce following.
A flashback immediately following the flashback of Iruka telling Lettuce that she’ll swim again someday is removed.
They won’t show Lettuce’s transformation because of three seconds of mostly covered nudity, but they’ll keep that shot of the camera zooming right in on her boobs no problem. Feh.
Pai wonders if the light is sunameri power. Sardon says there must be something in the water causing her transformation.
Mint points out that creatures who live in the dark depths of the sea have strong reactions to bright light like the one Lettuce is creating. The dub says the same thing basically but they have to dumb it up;
Corina: “That bright light’s having some strange effect on those fishy freaks over there.”
All the Mews have their attacks shortened yet Ichigo’s is full……It’s the same in both versions, that just pisses me off…It’s even worse considering we don’t even see the other girls’ attacks even registering. It’s like they threw the clips in under contract or something.
It also bugs me that, while at least the favoritism’s on another foot, Lettuce is the only one who ever has a transformation because of the Mew Aqua. It would’ve been nice to see the other girls get cooler powers and better transformations with the Mew Aqua instead of basically stagnating and getting jack squat the entire series.
This episode is interesting, albeit a little cliché, but there are several aspects that bug me.
Next episode, Pudding has fallen ill, but she has to take care of her siblings, her job and her duties as a Mew Mew. The other girls try to help her out as much as possible by trying to alleviate her workload. We also get a clearer depiction of her backstory meaning this will likely be a rough one.
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The Anime Madhouse 
Actually, incredibly, 4Kids got something right–Mint’s animal is actually the Tahitian blue lory. I couldn’t even find any precise results when googling “white-throated lapis lazuli parakeet”, so that seems to be entirely made up. Meanwhile, google “Tahitian blue lory” and you’ll find pics of the exact bird shown in that screencap.
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You’re right. For some reason I never caught this mistake even though I have since gone through several info pages for her character since the writing of this post. I’ll edit this now. Thank you for pointing this out to me!
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