Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun (Flint the Time Detective) Episode 1 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: The Land of Time is in ruins, and the king of said land, Toki G wants to seek out a new Time Detective to fix the time stream, stop the evil actions of TP Lady and her cohorts and save the Land of Time. He finds a great candidate in the caveboy named Genshi.

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Preface: This is probably the show I know least about. I remember seeing previews of it while watching KidsWB but I never sat down and watched….any of it. Hell, I never even knew the plot before this comparison. Hopefully I’ll be able to do the fans justice.

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The theme song is completely changed, clips and music-wise. It’s weird – the entire theme is just tribal-like chanting, and Saban actually puts a lame sing-a-long word prompt with Flint’s head as the prompt at the bottom of the screen. It’s not particularly bad, and it’s somewhat catchy. As for the original theme, it’s actually much better, clips and music-wise. It has a rather unique style to it.

Saban uses a stillframe that’s used near the end of the song for their title card. The original uses an animation of Genshi’s hammer. Since I don’t think these change over the course of the show, I won’t be taking note of title cards.

Title Change: Ishi Ishi Uhho! is changed to Hammerhead Rock!

I guess they didn’t misplace the opening narration, they straight up removed it. It was a scene giving the backstory of the show. There was a Land of Time that got attacked and nearly destroyed, and now time is out of sorts. It’s up to Genshi and his friends to help put time back in proper order.

Name Change: TP Lady (Time Pilfer Lady) is changed to Petra Fina.

TP Lady just says “Music start!” and we get nothing besides that for a bit until a vocal song pops up. In the dub, she says “Set the course!” and then says to set the goal for some time in BC. The dub also adds in a bunch of inner dialogue in Petra Fina’s thoughts about how she’s going to get the Time Shifter, and soon she’ll have enough Time Shifters to give to her ‘Dark Lord’ to destroy the Land of Time. Wow, if there were ever a more cliché plot, I’d have a more original response. She also says a bunch of stuff about how she loves evil and how much of her life is evil, including how she dresses.

Name Change: Genshi is changed to Flint Hammerhead.

The vocal song is not in the dub.

TP Lady excuses her purposely walking off of the plane by saying her personality is to always charge forward. In the dub, she just says she thought they were on the ground.

TP Lady seems far funnier than Petra. And her dub voice is really awful…..but….sounds….really familiar….like….I know her grating villain voice from something beloved from my childho——–RITA REPULSA! Ah, Barbara Goodson….the VA for Rita Repulsa in The Power Rangers, Naota of FLCL, Masaru of Kikaider, and Laharal of Disgaea as well as a crapton of other things. The best VA with a nails-on-a-chalkboard voice. Sadly, as much as I love her work, I don’t think she’s the best VA choice for Petra Fina since she really is just full on using her Rita voice, toned down just a little. Eh maybe she’ll grow on me.

The two goons with her just say ‘farewell’ as TP Lady gets eaten by the pterodactyl. In the dub, they each tell each other to get her.

I just witnessed a girl in red leather go back in time in a ship that looks like it belongs in Samurai Pizza Cats with a frog person and I don’t know what, turn a pterodactyl into a fossil using a ray gun, meanwhile a caveman and caveboy are chasing a triceratops on foot and the conflict is resolved with a fairy thing that looks like an eggplant with lips coming out of nowhere and putting a love spell on them……Anime, you so silly.

Love-Love’s Name Plate is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

TP Lady says she didn’t know people existed in that era. Petra says to keep an eye on them because they look suspicious…..Cavemen in prehistoric times look ‘suspicious’? I mean, yeah. Cavemen didn’t exist with dinosaurs, but I don’t think she’s talking about that.

The weird goon guy says in surprise that she fossilized Love-Love, but she says it’s okay because they can change it back later. In the dub, they act like she intentionally did this. The goon is impressed with her shot and she boasts about perfect she is.

By the way, TP Lady masquerades as the other two human protagonists’, Tokio and Sora’s, teacher Ms. Aino. I was surprised when I thought they left her name alone, but then I checked the wiki….they didn’t. Her dubbed name is Ms. Iknow….Get it? I….KNOW? I don’t know how that’s really a joke, but there you go. Also, Saban, I see what you did there, but Iknow would not be pronounced that way given how it’s spelled as one word. It would likely be ‘Ick-nao’ or something.

Name Change: Sora Yamato is changed to Sarah Goodman. Her brother, Tokio, is changed to Tony.

Sarah is voiced by Tiffanie Christun who voiced Yolei in Digimon Adventure 02 while Tony is voiced by Brian Donovon who voiced Davis in Digimon Adventure 02 and Rock Lee in Naruto.

Tokio says fossils are boring since they’re just rocks. Ms. Aino says that may be, but the person to find the fossils that she’s looking for will instantly get a 100 on their next archaeology quiz. The kids react with “Really?!” In the dub, Tony says they’ll never find any fossils, and Ms. Iknow says anyone who doesn’t want to look for fossils can just wait on the bus. And the kids just give the same robotic ” Yes, Ms. Iknow.”

Despite not having that same line about the 100 in the dub, Tony still has the same drive as Tokio about digging up fossils to get an A.

Tokio makes a somewhat sexist remark about how women fantasize while men have to be realistic. This is not present in the dub. He just says if they find a fossil, it’ll probably stink.

I don’t get how Sora and Tokio are twins. I know fraternal twins only look as much alike as any other siblings, but they don’t even look related. He has blue eyes, she has green. He has brown hair, she has hot pink. I would say she dyed it, which is possible….but this is anime.

Tokio finds something in the ground and believes it to be a fossil when it’s really an old toilet. He jokes around by pretending to use it, but Ms. Aino smacks him in the head and we see him lying on the ground as Ms. Aino leaves. The bit from Ms. Aino reacting to the find, Tokio pretending to use the toilet, him getting hit, and him on the ground are all removed.

It’s weird, because Saban doesn’t even try to give the slightest explanation as to what it even is.

When we cut back to Sora, she’s upset because Tokio is so embarrassing and that’s ‘typical of men’ (they’re both sexist – that’s nice). In the dub, she’s angry because apparently we’ve jumped somewhat in time with no indication, and she’s upset because they’ve been digging for over an hour and found nothing.

Sora thinks to herself as she finds the fossil that it’s amazing that the fossil has been waiting over 200,000 years to meet her. In the dub, she thinks it looks like a pineapple, but she believes it to be a fossil.

Sora says as the fossil bounces around “Could this thing really be alive?” Ya know, something a sane person might say. Sarah says “Hey there! Looks like you want to be friends!” Ya know, something a person who’s not allowed to hold anything sharper than a marshmallow Peep would say.

The eyecatches, as expected, are gone in the dub. They’re actually kinda cool. They show the time monster in fossilized form then uncover half of it in a checker pattern before the break. When the show returns, they uncover the rest. Today’s is Love-Love’s fossil.

It actually reminds me of Pokemon’s “Who’s that Pokemon?”

They add a panning shot of the city during this part.

The sign for the Yamato O Parts Research Facility is painted over to say ‘The Bureau of Time and Space’….which it isn’t. That’s a completely different, much larger facility that we see later on.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Saban scene shifts in order to add more dialogue to the little robot pterodactyl, Putera, and Tokio. Also, the professor is just incredibly sleepy because he pulled an all-nighter, he’s not being woken up by an equation after sleeping for three days.

Name (And Gender?) Change: Putera was originally a female (voiced) robot. Saban changed her to a male (voiced) robot named Pterry.

Professor Yamato asks if whatever they need can wait since he’s tired and it’s Sunday…Sunday? That can’t be right. Why would they be at school on a Sunday? Uncle Bernie says it’s okay, and he can see what they brought since he needs to get up anyway. Also, if they were up in the hillside, how did they get to the bureau so quickly? Surely they can’t think Ms. Aino wouldn’t realize they’re missing.

So Saban didn’t scene shift, they scene cloned. They left the shots that they added in for no reason earlier in the places that they were already in.

While the scene with TP Lady and Dyna and Mite (the goons) is kept mostly the same, the dub adds in this weird line.

“Whodya call?”

“Dynamite!”

…..It sounds like they were trying to reference Ghostbusters and Good Times both at the same time………

Name Change: Apparently, Dyna’s name was changed to Dino in the dub because, according to the Wiki, Dyna’s a girl name so they gave him a more masculine sounding name. No, I’m not kidding.

The original doesn’t have Professor Yamato spout out a bunch of stupid ‘equations’ (E=MC2 to the fourth power? That doesn’t even make sense.) like the dub does.

Uh oh, Sora prays to God hoping that the fossils can be revitalized since they must’ve been lonely in the ground for 200,000 years. In the dub, Sarah says that mantra that you’re supposed to say when you wish upon a star and says that her wish is to have the fossils revived so that they can “appreciate life on earth.”…..Whaaaaa? They’re not aliens. They’re fossils. And let’s say she actually meant so that they can appreciate being alive again….who’s to say they didn’t before?

Name Change: Toki-G, the ruler of the Land of Time, is changed to Old Timer….haha.

Putera says Genshi gained the power of speech through that weird light. In the dub, he says the Professor’s revival program did it.

By the way, Flint’s voiced here by R. Martin Klein, whom I know best as Gomamon from Digimon and 001 from Cyborg 009. I wish he did more work. I like his voice.

Sora and Tokio ask why Genshi’s dad didn’t get turned back to normal too, and the Professor says it’s a mystery. In the dub, Sarah and Tony ask if he’ll remain a rock forever, and the Professor says definitely ‘yes’.

Sora calms Genshi down by saying not to worry because she’s sure they’ll be able to restore his dad to normal one day. In the dub, Sarah tells Flint to calm down and say he can be part of their family now. Yes, kid. Forget about your rock-dad and become a family with these weird strangers.

Genshi just keeps hopping up and down gleefully about how he and his dad will get to be together forever again. It’s actually very cute. In the dub, he takes this scene to awkwardly introduce himself and his dad.

Name Change: Oto-tan is changed to Rocky Hammerhead.

Name Change: Love-Love is changed to Getalong…….I feel…..like this is a Care Bears reference…..but I really don’t want it to be.

TP Lady either thinks to herself or says (I can’t tell) that children who don’t obey orders should be punished. Petra thinks to herself that if they were back in class she’d flunk her just for being ‘perky’. I don’t think she’s using that term right. Perky generally means upbeat and happy not demanding and protective like she was acting before that line.

In the original, TP Lady is the one who has a very short flashback to dealing with Genshi and Oto-tan. The scene in particular is just the scene where Genshi pushes the Love-Love fossil behind him and them both getting ready to fight. In the dub, Flint’s having the flashback to remembering Petra and the scene is changed (with a ripple effect) to Flint taking out the ship with a rock, the time criminals under their ship and Petra fossilizing Getalong, Flint and Rocky. The shots of Petra in close up are removed as well.

When Oto-tan increases in size, he yells ‘Fighting Spirit!’ It also seems like this effect wasn’t included in the tech that the Professor added to him since he seems surprised when he does it and says ‘A mystery…’ In the dub, he says ‘Hammerhead, rock!” when doing this (*eye roll*) and Tony says ‘That’s a cool effect’ while the Professor says ‘I guess’.

Weird note here, but Petra and the others say ‘Our failure was a success!’ as their robot cat ship thing flies off into the sky with fireworks….I would say this is a poke/homage/rip-off of Pokemon’s Team Rocket blasting off scenes, but I can’t be sure. The shows came out at roughly the same time both in Japan and the States….

Tony: “We would’ve been gopher bait without you.”…..Gopher bait? Huh?

They remove a small scene where Genshi says he’s hungry. Genshi also doesn’t ask if he gets his own cave like Flint does.

They do add a short scene of the Professor talking for no reason.

When the dubbed Professor asks Flint if he wants to live with him…..little creepy.

Space-Time Monsters are changed to Time Shifters.

The Chief of the Time Bureau says to give Genshi a Time Ride and a Time Detective booklet. In the dub, he says to give him a Time car or card, I couldn’t tell.

In the original, as I just mentioned, Genshi gets a Ridon (a dinosaur-shaped time machine) and a Time Ride, which is a belt that remotely calls the Ridon. In the dub, the Professor says HE invented the Time Cycle and is giving it to Flint.

Sora says that Tokio will just have to keep trying to be a Time Detective and Tokio says of course he’ll become one someday too. In the dub, Sarah selfishly says that since they helped save Flint, they should get a reward too. Tony says the only reward they’ll get is detention from Ms. Iknow.

They remove a shot of balloons before the ending credits sequence.

Oddly enough, the background shots for some of the ending theme were kept in order to make some sort of epilogue explaining how Flint’s living with them now and he’s a great kid who’s quickly becoming part of the family. They remove some shots, such as Genshi rolled over, the kids all running, the kids at a table, a closeup of Tokio, a closeup of Sora, a short flashback scene to Love-Love, the kids making bubbles and being outside during the sunset, another flashback of Love-Love and the final still frame.

As expected, the next episode preview is removed.

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All in all, this seems like a great candidate for comparison. The original is charming enough, but I keep feeling similarities to other shows. The dub is just blah. It’s not the worst dub in the world, but it’s plenty worthy to be on my comparison list.

There are 39 episodes of this show and to the best of my knowledge it’s fully dubbed, so here’s to the future!…..or the past….But this takes place in the 25^th century….with a cavema – Forget it. Here’s to more episodes!

Next Episode, Honey-Honey’s debut!

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Pokemon Episode 30 Analysis – Sparks Fly for Magnemite

CotD(s): None, really.

Captures: Ash’s Muk – Muk is a very powerful member of Ash’s team, so of course he keeps him at Oak’s 99% of the time despite having an open spot on his roster. Muk is very attached to Oak and will constantly tackle hug him, much to Oak’s dismay, even though Oak does have a fondness for the pile of goo.

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock arrive in a gross, desolate factory town called Gringy City. This area used to be a bustling factory town, but became nearly abandoned and loaded with pollution after the town became too saturated with factories.

Pikachu suddenly falls very ill, so Ash rushes him to the nearby Pokemon Center. The odd and seemingly uncaring Nurse Joy claims Pikachu has a cold and takes him in, but the power quickly goes out. The Pokemon in the ICU will be in grave danger if they don’t get the power back on, so Ash and the others go to the police station to get some answers.

Jenny tells them that she’s been trying to contact the people at the power plant to see what’s going on, but there’s no answer. Ash and the others are about to make their way towards the plant to investigate when Pikachu suddenly emerges from the bushes, still incredibly weak and unsteady on its feet. Misty tells Ash that Pikachu is probably scared that Ash will abandon him there, so he agrees to take Pikachu with them.

When they arrive, they find the place seemingly deserted, but Misty gets the sneaking suspicion that they’re being followed. Her suspicions are realized when they see Pikachu being accosted by a Magnemite.

Misty surmises that the mysterious Electric Pokemon caused the power outage, so Ash decides to capture it. He stops himself when he realizes that Magnemite is acting strangely around Pikachu, like it’s in love. However, Brock questions how an inorganic Pokemon can be in love with an organic animal Pokemon.

Ash manages to shoo the Magnemite away when they’re met with yet another problem – a legion of Grimer invading the hallways. They are easily angered when called stinky or smelly, and a Muk emerges when Misty yells out that they smell bad.

They run from the Grimer and Muk, and they soon bump into two of the power plant’s employees. They hole themselves up in a room, and the employees tell them that the water intake for the generator is plugged with Grimer. Without water, the generator cannot run, but they can’t take on so many Grimer without Pokemon of their own. They suggest Ash, Misty and Brock take care of the Grimer problem for them so they can get the power back up and running, but Ash doesn’t believe Pikachu is well enough for the job.

Finding no other option, Pikachu goes out into battle and Ash reluctantly agrees to let him battle. However, his efforts make little headway. A swarm of Magnemite and Magneton emerge from the ducts and shock the Grimer away from the halls and from the water intake, allowing the generator to turn back on.

While the Grimer flee, the Muk remains and challenges Ash. Pikachu steps up, but its Thunderbolt isn’t quite strong enough to take down the huge pile of sludge. His friend, the ‘Stalker’ Magnemite from before, comes back and helps take it down with a Thunderbolt of its own.

Ash captured Muk, but is disgusted when he realizes that the stench of Muk comes through the Pokeball.

Later, Pikachu is fully recovered, and one of the power plant employees states that Pikachu sometimes enter states of seeming illness when they have too much electrical energy built up. When Pikachu battled, it had discharged enough to make it feel better. The Magnemite ‘stalker’ starts to ignore Pikachu, and it’s revealed that it was only attracted to Pikachu because it was magnetized when it was sick. Now that it’s better, it has no desire to follow him.

Ash, Misty and Brock chastise Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny for the state of their waterways and tell them to clean up the pollution to help stop the Grimer from returning. Ash and the others continue on their journey, but not before sending the smelly Pokeball of Muk to Professor Oak so they won’t have to deal with the stench.

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– With a name like Gringy City, you’re basically damning the place to eventually earn the monikers of ‘depressing’ and ‘desolate’, Mr. Narrator.

– It’s no shock (puns!) that there’s an environmentalist message in this episode, even if there’s something odd that I’ll have to address about it near the end. However, this is one of those times where it might be justified for two reasons.

1) It fits well with the capture and Pokemon featured in this episode.

2) The inspiration of this episode very loosely stems from the novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’, which focuses on a post-apocalyptic world ruined by radioactive nuclear fallout. Obviously, it’s toned way down just to show a, well, gringy, city ruined by pollution, but still.

– Here’s one of the things about this aspect of the episode that does piss me off a tad – Nurse Joy. Since they have to shove the green message down our throats, obviously they have to come across someone who is a lazy, inconsiderate ass wipe. The Nurse Joy they come across is constantly yawning, doesn’t even give the clearly sickly Pikachu a second look and brushes it all off as a cold. Even if she does provide evidence towards her claims (that Electric Mouse Pokemon discharge sparks from their cheeks when they’re getting a cold) the damn thing is still barely able to walk and needs treatment.

To be fair, she mostly drops this behavior after the power outage occurs, but still.

– Another Pokemon Center without it’s own generator? As someone who is also much further ahead, technically, on an unrelated viewing of the series, this is practically a trope at this point.

– Oh good, Joy’s also an incompetent boob who let Pikachu escape. Also, to get this out of the way, we see later that she neither seems to notice nor care. Good job.

– Uh, Jenny, why are you not going to the power plant? What the hell are you planning on doing about this problem while they go there? It’s nice to know you give a crap, but sending a bunch of children off to do something that appears to be your job seems ill-advised.

……Are you….are you the only cop on duty? I know this place is basically a ghost town, but it seems like plenty of people still need power around there. Several factories seem to still be functional when they get there, hence why the pollution in the air is still an issue.

……Wait a damn minute…..they have power at the police station! They have power or a generator there but not at the Pokemon Center? The hell?

– How does Misty know Pikachu is worried Ash and the others will leave and never come back? They’ve been separated several times at this point and this never came up. In fact, when Pikachu and the other Pokemon were stranded on the Island of Giant Pokemon, he had complete confidence Ash and the others didn’t abandon them and that they’d find them. He leaves for all of 30 seconds, telling Pikachu he’ll come right back after he gets the power to come back on and Pikachu has a panic attack and runs after him. I don’t get it.

– Oh yeah, Ash. Your extremely ill Pikachu is suddenly screaming out in discomfort so just tell it to shut up over and over without even looking back to see if it’s okay. Best. Pokemon. Trainer. Ever.

– Dexter: “This very mysterious Pokemon is of the Electric type.”

Ash: “What’s a Pokemon like that doing here?”

……………………..…..…..…..…..…..……………………………………………………………

.……..…..………………………………..

What’s an Electric Pokemon…..doing…..at…..….……..a………….power plant…….…

Mystery of the goddamn century.

– Misty: “It caused the blackout! Magnemite shut down the power plant!”

Brock: “This one? By itself? No way!”

Misty: “Well….Dexter said it’s mysterious.”

Well, gosh, since when did being mysterious mean you’re instantly guilty? I hope our court system doesn’t work that way.

“Well, the evidence presented here is mostly melted Skittles from the prosecutor’s pocket, and some of the documents are written in crayon and finger paints, but I don’t know what makes you tick. Why you are who you are. Where you came from and what your goals are. Your eyes are dark and seem to see right through me, whilst I cannot do the same…..GUILTY.”

Ash’s expression is priceless.

– Ash: “These things really stink!”

*Grimer get agitated*

Brock: “Ash! Don’t say anything that might insult their Pokemon pride, or make them mad!”

You’d think Pokemon that are literally living piles of sludge would be prideful of their stink. Erika’s Gloom never seemed to have esteem issues about it.

– I’m actually impressed that Ash knew immediately that Muk was a different Pokemon and not just a huge Grimer, considering the fact that it’s dark in that hallway and Muk really does just look like a huge, slightly darker colored Grimer.

– Ash, stop yelling at the poor power plant employees about the power outage. Isn’t it obvious that the place is being overrun by tons of Pokemon and that the blackouts are out of their control?

– *explanation as to why the plant’s not working – lots of Grimer mucking (more puns!) up the water intake and causing the generator to fail*

Ash – “SO DO SOMETHING!”

Oh sure, they look like experienced Pokemon Trainers and it’s not like they’re not obviously trapped in the place by legions of Grimer and you’re being an asshole, stop it.

– Misty: “I hate to say it, but if we don’t act fast, we’ll be on the menu!”

….What makes you think the Grimer are going to eat you?

– Oh boy, let’s rage me up!

Dick: (their canon, non-spoken names are Dick and Philip, based on the author of the novel, but I don’t know who is who, so pbbt.) You guys are all Pokemon Trainers aren’t you? You’ve got to use your Pokemon to help us out!

Philip: “That’s right! If you can get rid of the Grimer, the generator will work!”

Why, what a logical and completely smart suggestion, Dick and Philip. I’m certain this will be responded to with the same amount of logi–

Ash: “What do you expect us to do!? Pikachu is sick! It won’t be able to take out all of those Grimer at once!”

.….….…..…..……..………….*DEEP*

.….….………………………………….….….….*SIGH*

Ash…..are you fucking kidding me!? I know you’re notorious for derping out on the fact that you have more than Messiahchu in your party, but this is epic levels of ‘What are these things on my belt for again?’ dumb. Is the pollution killing off one of the two brain cells you have left?

And, what, ladeeda, the few people in this place that actually have the means and abilities to take care of the Grimer can’t do a damn thing. You better feel like an asshole for yelling at Dick and Philip now.

What’s even worse is, obviously, Ash isn’t the only one derping on the ‘I haz Pokeemanz?!’ front for a change. Misty, Brock, you’re forgetting that you also have at least half teams of Pokemon with you. Brock, let out Onix for God’s sake. It may wreck some stuff, but it would plow through those Grimer like they were silly putty on a driveway in July. Vulpix would reduce them to smelly puddles.

Why do characters always have to be turned into idiots for plot convenience?

– And let’s just go further with this, because there’s a bigger issue here.

Ash: “Pikachu, you’re the only one who can help!…You…you’re our last chance!”

Yes, my clearly sickly Pokemon who can barely stand! I am forcing you out into battle, possibly killing you right now! I have no choice but to do this, ya know. You’re our last chance….out a totally honest one chances. Not twelve, the amount of Pokemon we have collectively! I am absolutely abysmal at Pokemon Training. But hey, at least we get a LITERAL MARTYR SCENE FOR MESSIAHCHU.

– Ash: “An adult Muk, and its child!”

This shot always confused the hell out of me, even as a kid. There’s so much wrong with this one sentence it’s actually intriguing.

First, there is clearly only one Muk in the room. I guess 4Kids thought that since the front shot of the Muk didn’t mesh up well with the side view that immediately follows, they assumed there were two Muk there?

Second, saying a Muk is an ‘adult’ is both incorrect and correct. An evolved Pokemon is typically considered ‘adult’ by default considering how much time usually has to go by for evolution to happen and just going by stages, but there can be no ‘child’ Muk because an offspring of a Muk would be a Grimer. They are born at base evo stage.

Unless they’re saying that the shot looks like a Grimer, which is possible, even though it’s obviously the same Muk. I guess you really have to give 4Kids slack when it comes to evos that look so similar to their pre-evos. Afterall, it’s not like paying an iota of attention to what’s happening on screen or, oh I dunno, reading the original script, would help them at all.

Finally, Ash captures Muk, but the supposed ‘child’ vanishes. We’re left to assume Ash just technically orphaned a young Grimer. Nice.

– You wanna talk captures that weren’t really earned? Muk was only captured because Magnemite lent Pikachu a hand….err….magnet. Also, I thought you were firmly against matches in which the sides aren’t even, Ashy boy?

– Ash: “I did it! I captured Muk! Ash Ketchum saves the day once again!”

You unfairly captured Muk with the assistance of a wild Pokemon and using a two-on-one approach. You didn’t save anything. You needlessly put your Pokemon in insane amounts of danger, letting it head off into a one-on-possibly hundreds match when it’s sick as hell and you all have plenty of Pokemon who could’ve handled it easily.

The lone Muk posed no threat to the power plant, either. The only reason anything was saved was because the Magnemite and Magneton burst in to help Pikachu because one of them was attracted to it (PUNNZZZZ).

You are an egotistical dumbass of a person who is more disgustingly slimy in this episode than the Grimer and Muk combined.

– Dick: “Ah, when an Electric Mouse Pokemon builds up too much electrical energy, it becomes magnetized and seems like it has a cold.”

….Why a random power plant worker seems to know Pikachu physiology like the back of his hand, even moreso than a Nurse Joy, aside……..how little training is Ash doing that Pikachu is actually getting sick because he hasn’t discharged enough electricity?

Also, if Pikachu was magnetized, so strongly to the point of basically making a Magnemite fall in love with it, why was the magnetic pull not affecting anything else? Ash and co. don’t have anything metal with them? Dexter wasn’t screwing up?

– Yes, Ash, Misty and Brock. It’s totally Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny’s responsibility and/or fault that the pollution in the water is so bad. I’m so sure they’ll get right on cleaning up the entirety of the fucking ocean. Especially considering they seem to have such a vast and helpful community to give them a hand with all that.

Maybe their mayor is an avocado and hasn’t noticed the massive pollution problem. Maybe they have hundreds of millions of dollars to convert their factories over to greener solutions. I’m also certain that cleaning the place up and making it as bustling as it was won’t start the whole vicious cycle all over again.

A bunch of ten year old kids surely opened the eyes of seemingly two of four confirmed residents of this giant PSA town.

– Nurse Joy: “Thank you, Ash” Don’t thank him. “You worked so hard to make sure all of these Pokemon survived” No, he didn’t “that you’ve inspired me to be a better nurse.” You better become a better nurse because, as of now, Dick and Philip seem far more qualified for your job than you are. Pikachu could’ve blown up under your care for all we know.

Jenny: “We salute your fine work!” Stop feeding his stupid ego.

– Well, whatever. At least now Ash has a pretty powerful Pokemon taking up his sixth party seat. I can’t wait to see how much Muk will help him…………Ah, how nice. A random check-in with Professor Oak. Wonder what he’s up to.

Oh look…..he’s getting a Pokemon from…Ash…..

Alright, look, I will tell you a secret. The main reason I’m upset about this minor twist is because the whole crap about Muk’s Pokeball being smelly, and him being unbearably smelly at all, isn’t a thing after this episode. Meaning the reason Ash had for sending Oak Muk is just a pointless plot device so Ash won’t have a Pokemon that’s even marginally high-powered (besides Messiahchu of course) on his team.

I just don’t get why they don’t want him to have strong Pokemon. Having stronger Pokemon on your team and facing greater challenges based on how powerful your Pokemon are is part of the growth of this journey…..It’s kinda….the point of the game it’s based on too. I always feel like they’re stunting his growth as a Trainer when they take away these strong Pokemon.

I wasn’t that upset back when I first watched this because I thought the reasoning was good enough, even if the fact of Pokeballs being unable to contain smell when they do all sorts of unrealistic stuff for the sake of convenience (Ex.: weight, temperature, other powers etc. don’t matter when contained in a Pokeball) was a bit dumb. Now that I know Muk can be carried around without issue, it pisses me off a little.

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This episode was stupid. I don’t even really feel like elaborating all that much. It was stupid. I will admit, it was an interesting and rare instance of having four Pokemon debut in the same episode (Magnemite, Magneton, Grimer and Muk) but, outside of that, hardly any part of this episode makes sense.

You’re either being force-fed environmentalist messages that don’t work too well in context (or out, for that matter. They’re literally just suggesting ‘hey kids, clean up the air and water! We won’t give suggestions on how to do that, but just do it.’) or you’re following a non-sensical pile of stupid, irrational decisions and plot conveniences for the sake of ‘we don’t like to put effort in writing’.

And some of these decisions are worthy of your anger because Ash is being an arrogant hypocritical jack-off, 10x stupider than he normally is, putting his Pokemon in life-threatening danger for absolutely no reason followed by him ditching a newly captured powerhouse for the sake of avoiding an issue that isn’t even an issue in the future.

It just seems like an incredibly sloppy way of getting Ash another Pokemon while also patting themselves on the back for eeking out an environmentalist message of some sort at the same time. (Pollution is bad. Stop it, okay?)

Next episode, Gary makes a surprise appearance when there’s a huge rush to capture some trouble-making Diglett. And there’s a surprising development with Team Rocket.

……Oh right! Yeah! Team Rocket was in this episode….they just didn’t interact with the group, didn’t do anything important and didn’t say or do anything interesting or funny so I just omitted them from the plot synopsis…..yep.

Previous Episode….

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SjSBS – Tokyo Mew Mew Archive (COMPLETE)

Looking for Episodes 1-26? Check out the Sub Dub Comparison for the series here.

Episode 27: I Love You: Aoyama’s Shocking Confession

Episode 28: Kitty Panic! The Key to the Mystery is Her Kiss!

Episode 29: A Forbidden Love? I Can Understand Cats ~ Nya!

Episode 30: Be Honest! Unspoken Love in the Crystal Ball

Episode 31: Father’s Back – One-Game Match for Ichigo

Episode 32: Princess Fight – The Hero Can’t be Bought for Money

Episode 33: A Fiancé Appears – Pudding’s Fated Marriage!?

Episode 34: The Most Important Matter – The Ability to Trust Someone

Episode 35: Don’t Cry – Lonely Little Zakuro

Episode 36: Shirogane’s Past – The Secret of the Mew Mew’s Birth

Episode 37: Shining Tear – Celebrating Christmas with Just the Two of Us

Episode 38: Miracle of the Holy Night – No Secrets Anymore

Episode 39: Sweet Trap of the Lavender

Episode 40: Two Becoming Friends?! Pudding in Imminent Danger!

Episode 41: The Wind Brings Happiness: A Heartfelt Prayer

Episode 42: Zakuro’s Dilemma: Only Four Mew Mews Now?

Episode 43: Friend or Foe? Fight Onee-sama?

Episode 44: The City Turns into a Forest – What Protects Ichigo’s Smile

Episode 45: The Riddle Dissolves! The Truth About the Blue Knight

Episode 46: New Reinforcement! Protect the Earth Together

Episode 47: The Power of Love – I Will Protect Aoyama-Kun!

Episode 48: The Labyrinth of the Alternate Dimension! Kisshu’s Gamble!!

Episode 49: The Awakening of Blue: Another Appearance!

Episode 50: Ichigo’s Trial: I Am a Mew Mew

Episode 51: Final Battle! I Believe in Your Smile

Episode 52 (FINALE): For the Earth’s Future, We’ll Serve You~Nya!

SSBS – Tokyo Mew Mew Episode 27: I Love You – Aoyama’s Shocking Confession

Plot: After saving the city from Kisshu’s latest plot, Ichigo rushes to the bus station, desperate to see if Aoyama is still there. After searching for him in the rain, Ichigo collapses and cries believing that Aoyama left and hates her now since she blew off their date and never even returned his calls.

Aoyama comes out of the shadows revealing that he’s been there the whole time. Despite being elated to see him, Ichigo can’t bring herself to make up a good excuse as to why she was so late. As they quietly stare at each other, Ichigo thinks to herself that she might not have any right to loving Aoyama since she’s always lying to him. As she tries to say something to Aoyama, he suddenly embraces her and confesses that he loves her.

Jolted by his confession, Ichigo embraces him back. Aoyama breaks the hug for a bit to gently fix her hair, but she quickly bolts away from him after realizing that her cat ears had started to emerge after getting excited from Aoyama’s words and embrace.

Aoyama, believing he’s offended Ichigo or that she doesn’t feel the same way, gives her a handkerchief and starts to leave. She stops him and does her best to hide her ears with the handkerchief and her now emerging tail with her hand. She draws up the courage to also confess her love to him, and they embrace once more.

The next day, Ichigo floats through everything in a daze of love and happiness while everyone wonders what happened to her. Deep Blue, having been struck with some of Ichigo’s attack in the last episode, continues to cry out in pain. Deep Blue questions Kisshu’s loyalty and Kisshu explains that he merely wants to see his true form. He theorizes that Deep Blue is not a real being at all and is more like an embryo that has yet to be born.

Deep Blue, Pai and Taruto continue to doubt Kisshu’s loyalty, and Kisshu reveals that his real intentions were to help Deep Blue awaken with the power of the Mew Aqua. He laid a trap in which he’d give some of the Mew Aqua to the Mew Mews and send some of the Mew Aqua powered attack through a portal and back to Deep Blue as confirmation that it would help him awaken. He kept the plan a secret from Pai and Taruto since they are too loyal to Deep Blue and would’ve stopped him.

He wants to awaken Deep Blue so he’ll truly have the power to save his people. He willingly accepts whatever punishment Deep Blue has for him, even death, since he did it for the sake of his people. However, Deep Blue agrees to his plan and merely commands him to get him more power from the Mew Aqua.

Meanwhile, Shirogane and Akasaka find that they cannot revert the Mew Aqua Rod back to its original state, so they store it in a safe in the basement.

After spending some more time alone with Aoyama, Ichigo arrives at the cafe to start her shift. She believes her friends will be mad at her for being late again, but they’re surprisingly okay with it since they believe she was dumped the night before and was too distraught to come in on time.

She clears the air and all of the girls are happy for her. However, they quickly become surprised and embarrassed when Ichigo reveals that Aoyama is actually with her at the moment and wants to try some cakes.

As Ichigo dresses for work and Aoyama browses the menu, there’s a sudden alien alert. Kisshu, Taruto and Pai have finally caught on to the location of the Mews’ base, and they’ve come to take the Mew Aqua. Shirogane knocks Aoyama out with a drug and puts him in a safe place to allow the girls to transform and battle the aliens.

While Pai and Taruto distract the other girls, Ichigo runs to the backroom where Kisshu has attacked Akasaka and Aoyama. As Ichigo’s about to be attacked while protecting Aoyama, Pudding blocks the attack with her Pudding Ring Inferno.

However, she quickly blabs that Akasaka went off to get the Mew Aqua Rod in the basement to help defeat them, incidentally telling Kisshu exactly what he needs to know. Kisshu halts Akasaka in the basement. Akasaka tries to throw the staff to Ichigo, but Kisshu intercepts. Thinking he’s won, he’s astounded when the staff suddenly stops shining.

Akasaka states that Mew Aqua is merely a container for energy not a generator of energy. Ichigo must’ve used up all of the Mew Aqua’s energy from the staff in the battle the night before, thus it’s now mostly useless. Realizing this whole plan was for nothing, Kisshu attempts to unleash his rage at the girls. However, Ichigo won’t even let him get an attack off and Ribbon Strawberry Surprises them away from the cafe.

With the cafe now in shambles, Akasaka and Ichigo move Aoyama to a nearby field. Ichigo feels regret for getting him wrapped up in trouble again. She’s about to kiss him in his sleep, not even caring that her ears and tail have popped out again, when she realizes that the transformation is not stopping and she’s been turned into a small black cat.

Breakdown:

– The girls faces after Ichigo says Aoyama and her confessed their love for each other are priceless.

– Is there any particular reason Aoyama was hiding behind the wall that whole time?

– Nice. They only show Ichigo transforming again. For a second, I forgot who the only Mew who mattered was.

– And of course the others are relegated to being a mostly-off-screen distraction.

– Pudding saved Ichigo? One of the other girls served a purpose? Wha-wha-wha?

– And she ruins the moment by being a blabbermouthed idiot. Hooray.

– If Ichigo can jump from the top of the stairs to the bottom without issue, why did Akasaka risk the staff at all by throwing it?

– Speaking of the Mew Aqua Rod, why is that necessary? They’ve beaten the aliens tons of times before without the staff’s help. Will you even let them battle for more then 45 seconds without breaking out the thing you put in hiding to protect it from these very beings?

– Why is the staff just now losing its shine? And surely Akasaka and Shirogane had to have known the staff was completely out of power or nearly out of power when they put it in the safe, so why even get it out to begin with?

– Here we get more Ichigo favoritism with her new full cat transformation. One could argue that this isn’t favoritism since it’s really something bad that happens to her, but it’s still more Ichigo focus. It’s still another ability she gets that puts more spotlight on her. It’s still a power added to her character to create more tension.

Just as none of the other girls have any animal features pop out when they’re excited or distressed, none of them ever fully transform into their given animals either (not counting Lettuce turning into a mermaid since that’s brought on by Mew Aqua and only Mew Aqua), which would actually be pretty interesting a la Fruits Basket.

Events like these make me truly wonder why the other girls even exist other than to pad out the series. All they seem to exist for at this point is support for Ichigo, whether in or out of battle, and whether their support even matters or not (see: stupid barriers that are never shown to do anything) They’re at an extreme point of stagnation already, and we’ve only reached the halfway point in the series.

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I like the first half of the episode much more than the second. The first half seems like episode 26 runoff while the second seems like a filler episode crammed into 11 minutes. Aoyama and Ichigo’s confessions were very well written and directed, and Kisshu dealing with the aftermath of his plan, as well as showing a bit more of his gentler side with how much he’s devoted to his people, was also well done. It’s odd that the villains were more informed and prepared than the heroes this time around yet they still lost.

I’m still slightly bitter about the cat thing. Not as much as the Mew Aqua Rod or the Rose Bell (Upgraded Strawberry Bell), but still. That bitterness will honestly have to wait because this ability is a source of a lot of confusion and ridiculousness to me. But let’s save that for the next two episodes.

I will ask why Ichigo turns into a pure black house cat when her animal is an iriomote wild cat. If her logical transformation isn’t convenient to the plot or the aesthetic of the show, either don’t make the power or don’t give her that animal as her source of power.

Next episode, Ichigo, now a cat, tries desperately to turn back to normal. Aoyama picks her up and decides to take care of her. Will she ever be able to turn back to a human and escape without Aoyama finding out who and what she is?

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Episode One-Derland: Cardfight!! Vanguard

Plot: Trading card games have become incredibly popular over the years, and there’s one game that stands as the most popular – Cardfight!! Vanguard. Kai is the best around, but finds he’s bored with battling even the toughest players in town.

A very shy and timid boy named Aichi truly loves the game, but he’s never really battled before. He just likes the cards. One day, his most prized card, Blaster Blade, gets stolen by a bully and then lost on an ante battle to Kai. Aichi challenges him for at least the chance to win his card back. Graciously, Kai lets Aichi borrow Blaster Blade since he’s new to the game and even explains the rules as they battle. But is Aichi’s bond with Blaster Blade enough to defeat Kai?

Breakdown: Shounen gaming anime. So we meet again. Like I’ve mentioned before, I sure do have a soft spot in my heart for shounen gaming anime and I’m glad to say that this is one of the better anime in recent memory. Why? Because they take it easy.

Sure, the monsters do show up as actual creatures and implement real attacks, but the thing is that all of the battles, so far anyway, are merely in their imaginations. Now, you might be thinking ‘Wow, that sounds really…..stupid.’ And it’s understandable that you would think that, but consider any time that you’ve played a trading card game such as this. A lot of people do the same thing. It’s just illustrated for the audience here.

As I was saying, they take it easy. At least so far. The game is just a cool game. They have fun with it, but they’re not going over the top or going bonkers with ‘the world rests on our ability to play a card game’ stuff. The worst that happens is that Aichi gets beaten up for a rare card, and, in my experience with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards back in the day, that’s, sadly, not unrealistic.

They also do a pretty great job introducing the characters. Kai’s a very skilled player and a stoic character, but he’s definitely not an ass like most characters in his archetype tend to be. He has mercy, he enjoys the game and he helps people out. He has a couple assy moments, but they’re not that bad, and one of those moments turns out to maybe not be assy.

Aichi is also likable since he’s not the big loud undefeated newcomer that usually is the main character trope in these shows. However, he might have the stink of ‘prodigy newcomer’ on him. He really loves the cards and seemingly is very interested in playing the game, he just has trouble making the connections to actually battle people.

Even the bully in this situation, Morikawa, wasn’t over the top Muahahaha villain-esque bully. He was an idiot brute who uses force to try and reclaim whatever honor he thinks he has.

The only bad character so far to me is Taishi. He’s Kai’s ‘friend’ and really his only role in this episode is to make fun of people and crack jokes that aren’t funny.

Since Aichi is (seemingly?) a complete newbie to the game, they do a very thorough job explaining the game to the audience without shoving exposition in our faces. It’s also really not a complicated game at all, and I’d like to give it a try some time.

The art is obviously pretty simplistic and none of the character designs stand out well, but the animation isn’t too shabby, especially for this genre.

The music’s alright and fitting, though the OP and ED really haven’t hooked onto me. Broken Engrish abounds, too.

Verdict:

Congrats, we have another Shounen Step-By-Step contender! This show seems to be off to a great start. I really love when shounen gaming anime just have fun for the love of the game, and I really hope it keeps up.

Update: Shounen Step-By-Step started!

Next Episode

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.Hack//COMPLETE_FRANCHISE | .Hack Alcor (Manga) Review

Plot: A twin blade named Nanase is a new member of the newbie-assisting guild, Canard. She joined to get closer to Canard’s guild leader, Silabus, but ends up being overshadowed by the powerful Alkaid.

In an effort to win Silabus’ attention, Nanase sets out to be stronger than Alkaid. A PK named Bordeaux knows Nanase and has a grudge against her, so she targets Silabus to break up their friendship. Nanase has to work through her own shortcomings and lack of self-confidence to become strong in her own right.

Breakdown: I really didn’t think much of this manga for the first few chapters. While this character is technically someone canon in the games (though this PC is not) she’s completely new to the series, and the starting chapters with her simply aren’t very interesting.

She has a crush on Silabus and is very jealous of Alkaid. Since Alkaid is so powerful, Silabus frequently admires her abilities and talks to and about her often. However, this does not mean that he ignores Nanase. He includes her in things all the time and never forgets that she’s with them, but she still feels ignored because of Alkaid.

Nanase herself isn’t powerful at all. In fact, I don’t know her level, but she really doesn’t look like she even knows what she’s doing. Which just makes it even more confusing that she was a member of Kestral. Frickin’ Kestral. She doesn’t look like she could or would PK a fly, yet basically the biggest PK crew in The World: R2 recruited her? Was it a quota thing?

The game character that Nanase’s player, Yuasa, makes is Sophora, which makes even less sense to me. It just doesn’t seem like it fits. I know Nanase eventually finds her own inner strength, but Sophora’s personality just doesn’t seem like that would be the logical next step.

I did eventually start liking this manga because it addresses her situation in a way that isn’t very preachy. You’d think she’d try and again to beat Alkaid and eventually best her at something, but it doesn’t win Silabus’ attention and may even push him away, she learns to not be jealous, hugs, the end.

But nope. She complains about not getting praised, Alkaid asks her what she’s done to be praised for, and with no answer Nanase pretty much has to figure out her own brand of strength. There are hardships to overcome, mistakes made, and she has to surmount them and find her own path without blaming Alkaid for everything.

In that respect I liked how the story went once I got into it, but the storytelling itself feels a little disjointed as I had a hard time figuring out where we were in the story.

This manga also does something a little different from many incarnations of the Dot Hack franchise and that’s focusing a little more on player behind the character.

A lot of times in Dot Hack games, manga and shows, the focus is 99.9% on the game with only mentions of what’s happening in the real world, mostly someone falling into a coma and CC Corp being weasels. This manga, while not stressing the real world aspect too much, does incorporate it throughout the story, which I found to be a welcome change of pace and a slight fix to a problem that is present in the other shows, games and manga.

Without much focus on the real world counterparts of the characters, it’s hard to really care that much that they’re in comas or are having other bad things happening to them. Sure, you grow to like or even love the characters, but considering that the players behind the characters, like in real life games, are sometimes drastically different from their players, it creates a disconnection.

For example, Sora in .Hack//Sign, a complete ruthless asshole of a character, is actually a ten year old boy in real life. You feel a little strange directing your malice towards him when you realize that.

Then again, it’s also weird when people make characters who look a lot like their real selves. I get both situations – drastically different for a more immersive role playing experience, closer for a more personal one – but it’s a little weird seeing it as a third-party.

I actually believe that Nanase and Yuasa looks just enough alike to create a connection between the two without feeling odd. However, this is ruined again when Yuasa becomes Sophora, but here Sophora only appears once or twice.

The dynamic between Nanase, Silabus and Alkaid feels very real, and I’m glad they didn’t go too far into drama territory to mess that up. There is a situation in which the sanctity of the group is called into question, and it does present a realistic problem where their ability to truly trust someone is tested.

Nanase, while being a little immature and mopey is likable enough, at least beyond chapter one. She’s meant to be a little annoying to begin with so we can see her own personal growth and discovery of her actual strength. However, this is muddled a little bit considering she’s Sophora….I really can’t grasp that.

Silabus is as nice, helpful and friendly as ever. He’s always been one of my favorite R:2 characters. Despite still being clueless with girls, he’s just as friendly with Nanase as he is with Alkaid and really anyone else. He treasures his friendship with Nanase and always avoids thinking the worst of people, even if that gets him into serious trouble.

Alkaid is still likable, though slightly abrasive sometimes. I wouldn’t say she’s a mentor to Nanase, nor would I even say she’s established as a hurdle to jump, but she and Nanase hold a good relationship when Nanase’s jealousy isn’t getting in the way. Alkaid is not as trusting as Silabus in the least, but she’s not afraid to admit when she’s wrong, and despite losing to Endrance time and again she keeps on truckin’.

The art here is chibi-fied a little bit. I’d say it’s mid-chibi. Not small enough or cartoony enough to warrant calling it chibi, but still seems like the characters are shorter and more cartoony than the average art of this franchise. I liked the art, though nothing particularly blew me away.

Bottom Line: Alcor is slightly confusing in its place in the franchise as a whole, especially since Nanase and her connection to the group is all but forgotten in the games. Sophora never talks about her Nanase days, never states that she used to be someone named Nanase, and she never contacts Alkaid or Silabus or anyone else that she used to play with as Nanase. The connection with Sophora still confuses me a bit as I just don’t feel the connection between the three.

However, on its own it’s a fine addition to the Dot Hack world and actually does some things better than this franchise usually does. It even adds more aspects of MMORPG activities. Not as much as Dusk/Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, but still adds to the ambiance.

It’s a good story of a seemingly weak and shy person finding her confidence and strength both in-game and in real life, and, while I may not feel much for the final ending, I feel the ending of Nanase as a character was a good one.

It’s a short, nice story that anyone, even people who aren’t fans of Dot Hack would enjoy. Non-fans might be a little thrown by certain cameos like Pi and Kuhn, though. They don’t even explain Kestral or Endrance very well. Not explaining Kestral well is especially baffling. They keep saying ‘Oh she was a member of Kestral’ and it’s obviously a bad thing yet you’d never know why if you didn’t know the second gen games or .Hack//Roots.

Recommended Audience: Nothing really questionable. We don’t even get any comas or heavy tones outside of some in-game drama. E for everyone!

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.Hack//COMPLETE_FRANCHISE | Dot Hack Franchise Mega Thread Archive

.Hack//Alcor (Manga)

.Hack//XXXX (Manga)

Pokemon Extravaganza: Movie 03 (Sub) Entei: Lord of the Unknown (Crystal) Tower

Plot: A Pokemon researcher named Shurri/Spencer has been looking for the elusive Pokemon Unknown/Unown for years. When he finally finds clues to their existence, he is suddenly taken by the Unknown and trapped in another dimension.

He leaves behind his beloved daughter Mii/Molly, who also summons the Unknown through tiles that her father found during his research. In her grief over losing her father, and her mother not being around for reasons never made clear, the Unknown decide to grant her wishes, giving her her own reality to do whatever she pleases.

It’s up to Satoshi/Ash and the others to free her from this false reality and stop the Unknown from causing more trouble.

Breakdown: See, that’s a much better movie poster. Entei looks bitchin’, Mii’s set in an awesome shot (doesn’t happen in the movie, but still looks good), Satoshi is admittedly placed awkwardly again, but nothing major, and the only character I don’t find a lot of point in having on the poster is Rin/Lisa, but I don’t mind. I do kinda mind Chikorita being that big on the poster when Fushigidane’s/Bulbasaur’s so small, seeing as how they both had equal screen time I believe, but again, nothing major.

I don’t expect to be writing too much for this alternative review given that Movie 03 seems to be 4Kids’ best dubbing effort to date. The Bulbagarden comparison really doesn’t note much in terms of changes, barring some scene shifts that actually make sense, and some of 4Kids’ lame dialogue insertions and changes. But let’s see how it fares anyway. Because the changes are so minor, I’ll be reviewing the original version in quarters.

Beginning to Title Screen

The original makes no tiny implication that the Unknown took Mii’s mother and that’s why Shurri’s so intent on finding them. He just says he’s been looking for them for a long time.

Name changes of Mii to Molly and Sully Snowden (or Shurri Snowdon. I don’t really know. Every Wiki I find lists it as the first one, but it’s conflicting with other sources) to Spencer Hale (which, if his name really is Sully Snowdon, didn’t need to be changed.)

His assistant, John, was also changed to Schuyler…..Yes…his original name was John. One of the English-est English names ever to English in England, yet 4Kids still decided to replace that with Schuyler.

Title screen to Halfway Mark

More name change notes: Lisa was original Rin.

The theme from the original is pretty good. Definitely gets you amped up for action.

Misty said that Greenfield was a place that she always wanted to go to when she was a little kid. Apparently, in the original, Kasumi says that it was voted as being the number one place that girls want to visit. Silly boys and their lack of appreciating landscapes.

Because of this, Takeshi says there must be tons of beautiful girls there to see the sites. Brock does say the same thing in the dub, but the only reason he assumes that there are beautiful girls there is because Lisa said everything’s beautiful in Greenfield, thus the girls must be too.

Am I the only one who thinks the crystal looks kinda pretty? The mentions of it being ugly aren’t in the original, but I think it’s kinda pretty, especially with the giant flower-like structure at the bottom.

There’s no mention of Mii’s mom in the news cast, so I have no clue where the original mentions any indication of her mom leaving.

Hanako sounds way happier to see Satoshi at first than Delia did.

We get a little more backstory on Hanako and Shurri as Satoshi actually recalls that he supposedly helped Hanako a lot with her homework and that he visited quite frequently after he moved away. If anything, this just makes their situation even more confusing because, again, these characters are never seen nor spoken of after this movie.

Also, her homework? She went to school? Satoshi went to school? What!?

Rin’s a lot less abrasive than Lisa.

Oh…Takeshi kinda hits on Mii too. Eugh.

Also, I guess I should note that Takeshi only says that Mii’s dream Pokemon are stronger than he thought. Not that they’re stronger than real ones, even though they clearly are.

Halfway Mark to End

Kasumi introduces herself as ‘the prettiest girl in the world,’ which is pretty egotistical if you ask me.

And no, you still don’t get to see the continuation of Kasumi and Mii’s battle. Maybe it was too much to animate under water.

Satoshi says while he and Lizardon are fighting Entei that if things keep going this way, Mii will be alone forever. Ash only repeated that they have to get Molly out of there. The original actually makes the fact that Mii gasped in surprise and then was hugged by Hanako make more sense. While it can make sense in the dub, perhaps being surprised at how much these strangers care for her, it makes more sense in the original. I know this kinda seems like I’m reaching for things to note, but it does hold weight.

Likewise, Takeshi only points out that Mii’s a great Trainer because Gomazou/Phanpy’s Rollout was great…..Then again, if her dream Pokemon really are stronger than the originals by default or even just unrealistically strong either way, that’s nothing to compliment her on. If anything, the fight between Mokoko/Flaaffy and Zubat was more impressive strategically.

I mention this because, in the dub, this is where 4Kids shoehorns in the whole ‘A big part of battling is knowing when to stop.’ line……And I have to note that the dub, while being cheesy and a frightening feeling of deja vu to the first movie, at least makes more sense on praising her for that instead of the power of her dream Pokemon.

Okido/Oak actually tells Satoshi to go after the Unknown and stop them, not to run out of the mansion to avoid being trapped there forever. While the dub, again, is understandable, the original makes more sense because, if they don’t stop the Unknown, who knows how much land they’ll encase in crystal.

Mii never once calls Entei by his name when she’s cheering him on….And dammit, yes, the dub actually may make more sense again.

Molly calling Entei by his Pokemon name indicates that she finally realized that this was indeed simply a world of illusion and Entei wasn’t really her father despite the fact that she still deeply cared for him. Then again, her still viewing Entei as a mirror of her father and continuing to call him ‘papa’ despite knowing the truth can also be a big moment too. Hm.

As expected, neither version explains what the hell the Unknown are about, why they were doing all of this etc. meaning this movie shares the same issue as the dub.

It’s funny how many movies take place at night and have the very ending take place in the morning.

End Credits

The comparison stated that the scene switch, notably changing Shurri’s reappearance to directly after the Unknown disappear instead of at the beginning of the ending credits, was made to ensure audiences that Molly didn’t end up alone in the end if they didn’t bother to watch the end credits. And….I like 4Kids’ placement better.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with showing him coming back in the end credits, it’s perfectly fine, but it does make more sense in a way to have him show up as the final part of the montage where all of the illusions go away.

Oh and yes, we made it from start to finish without any mention as to where the hell Mii’s mom was. Not a damn one. She just pops up in the end credits. Okay, that’s not entirely true. When Shurri disappears, they say that Mii is all alone now, indicating that her mother must’ve left for good or disappeared too, but there’s nothing beyond that.

Give 4Kids credit, at least they gave slight hints for a reasoning behind her absence. This version gives us zilch. A Wiki page I found said only that she ‘left,’ whatever that really means and where they got that information is beyond me. I assume it meant that Shurri was so obsessed with finding the Unknown for some reason that she left out of frustration, but there’s no indication that he’s obsessed at all, just that Unknown is the Pokemon he’s been researching for a while.

If she did leave because of that, 1) Why not take Mii with her or at least visit her frequently? 2) That’s a pretty bitch move. 3) Why would she just happily come back in the end like nothing happened? 4) Why wouldn’t she come back for her once Shurri was gone? 5) Why did her butler and John act as if she was an orphan now?

If she like left on a trip or something, I guess that’s plausible, but then why would Mii be confused as to what her real mom looks like? Why would she be alone on many occasions? Seriously, if she were on a trip or something or even divorced from Shurri, she’d still likely takeover custody of Mii or immediately come back for her in the event that something happened to Shurri unless she’s just a horrible person.

I’ll just go ahead and say my take on it is either to flesh out the theory about her disappearing because of the Unknown (Also, I love how the English version of Unknown is just a misspelled version.) or they should’ve killed her off.

I get it, they wanted Mii to have a really happy ending to her story, but it just seems so forced to throw her mother in there with no indication as to where she’s been this whole time. Even though the dub does subtly hint as to her story, it even seems forced there.

The point is, while I’m happy that they’re all together again, it just raises an untold amount of questions that will never be answered and seems pointless other than to give Mii two parents to make her as happy as possible, which, considering that Kasumi seems to have no parents, Takeshi basically lived without either parent and had to stand in as a dad for his family until both spontaneously came back, and Satoshi may as well have a single mom, seems a bit insulting to those without both parents.

As for the ending song, ‘The Day a Rainbow was Born’ by Kumiko Mori, it’s very nice and beautifully sung.

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Now for my final verdict. As much as I like to dance the night away on 4Kids’ grave, I have to be fair and mature. I need to suck up my pride and say what needs to be said.

…..Yes, the 4Kids dub was probably as close to perfection as they’ve ever gotten in dubbing anything, at least until this point. Barring the average 4Kids-isms like being too obvious with certain bits of dialogue, changing basically all of Team Rocket’s dialogue and changing the music, they did a great job on the dubbed version. Only a line or two was lame, the music was fantastic and many of the changes had actual reasons behind them that were either understandable or actually beneficial.

In fact…..Oh God, this is gonna hurt……

I…..

……..Like……urgh…..th–…..the….

………..

………………….

………………………

I LIKED THE 4KIDS VERSION BETTER!!

Okay, it’s not a huge revelation considering how much I gushed about it and given how I actually praise 4Kids several times in this review, but god I just feel so dirty saying positive things about 4Kids’ productions.

I feel like, maybe, 4Kids isn’t entirely responsible for the quality of the movies, though. It just seems like sometimes they’re pressured into not being assmuffins by either Warner Bros., Miramax or some other third party. Even if that’s true, it just shows that 4Kids CAN do dubs perfectly fine, they just choose not to because screw you.

The original still has better voices and better acting of course, but I fell in love with the dub a long time ago and I can’t deny that it just does some things better. This doesn’t make it a better version. If anything, I think it’s pretty evenly balanced between the two. I just prefer the dub better.

You happy, 4Kids? Enjoy your moment of victory for there will be seldom if any other occasions for such a thing.

I feel like I need a bath now.

Recommended Audience: Same as the dub.

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CSBS – Danny Phantom S01 Ep02

Plot: Jack shows off his new invention, the Fenton Ghost Fisher, a device meant to capture ghosts, to Danny. When he leaves the room briefly to go to the bathroom, Danny grabs the fisher and catches a dragon ghost. He combats the ghost for a while before knocking off the dragon’s amulet, which lands in his backpack. The dragon reverts to the form of an 18^th century English girl who runs back into the Ghost Portal stating that she wanted to go to the ball.

Danny, thinking the whole event is over, resumes his day. A school dance is coming up, and Danny decides to ask out Paulina, the prettiest and most popular girl in school. However, he makes a fool of himself in his nervousness thanks to his ghost powers. Sam steps in to defend him, insulting Paulina in the process. As revenge and believing Sam to be his girlfriend, Paulina later accepts Danny’s invitation. She also mistakenly believes the amulet in Danny’s backpack is Sam’s.

It’s up to Danny, Sam and Tucker to retrieve the amulet before Paulina also turns into the dragon and causes havoc at the dance.

Breakdown: This episode always annoyed me a tiny bit. While we’re amping up the stakes with the Dragon Ghost, the way that it works basically amounts to ‘bitches be crazy.’

We see the Dragon Ghost three times in this episode.

The first, the 18^th century English girl reveals that she turned into the dragon because she was upset that she couldn’t go to the dance.

The second, Paulina triggers it by getting upset that they don’t have a trendy new and discontinued fleecy tee in her size.

The third is the most understandable with Sam turning into the dragon when Paulina reveals that she was only dating Danny to get revenge on Sam, believing them to be dating, and she plans on dumping him in the middle of the dance since Sam revealed that they’re not dating. While this is more admirable, it’s set up like Sam’s more upset that Paulina’s shallow (she keeps repeating ‘shallow girl!’ in dragon form) than she’s upset for Danny, who is soon to be heartbroken.

Not to mention that this makes no sense anyway. Why would Paulina think Danny’s dating Sam when he’s asking her out? I’d think if my boyfriend asked another girl out to a dance, the relationship would be beyond over in a millisecond.

I do like the different reactions all three of them are having to this dance, though. Danny’s getting up the courage to ask his crush out to the dance. Tucker’s asking anyone with boobs and a pulse, and consistently gets shot down. He somehow lands Valerie, who will become very prominent later, but Danny forces him (through possession) to dump her for Sam. She’s been badmouthing the dance the whole episode, and they only catch on right before the dance that she’s partially upset because no one’s asked her out. Danny possesses Tucker to claim Valerie canceled and to ask out Sam. While Tucker initially protests, he changes his tune rather quickly when Sam comes out looking beautiful.

The sub plot with Danny’s dad was insanely unnecessary, though, besides to show off Danny’s newly discovered possession ability. Lancer understands that Danny keeps dropping his pants because they, seemingly, don’t fit well (it’s really his ghost powers) and fixes the situation by giving him a belt, yet he still calls in Danny’s dad for a parent-teacher conference because this is somehow a fault of Danny’s that needs to be discussed with a parent.

Then he, of course, has to invite possessed!Jack to be a chaperone to the dance purely to keep this plot going further and fabricate tension.

All in all, the episode’s pretty good, but there are a few major things about it that irk me. It just felt a little on the sexist side, is all.

Oh, and just because I feel I have to mention this because meme(?) this is the episode where they have that line exchange –

Sam: “Promise me you’ll keep your pants up.”

Danny: “I’ll do my best!”

I don’t know why this became a slight thing. I mean, it’s a funny-ish joke in context, but outside….is it just hurr hurr, this is kinda innuendo? I don’t really get it.

Next Episode, Danny deals with Skulker, a ghost hunter.

…Previous Episode

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I”s Pure Review

Plot: Seto Ichitaka has been in love with Iori for a long time, but he could never get up the nerve to tell her how he felt. This six episode OVA follows Seto and Iori through various trials in their relationship. Will Seto ever get his dream girl?

Breakdown: Let’s just get this out of the way, this OVA is based on an H-game. Okay? Okay. That being said, there’s no sex. Sorry, hentai enthusiasts.

This OVA proceeds another OVA called From I’s, but I’ve yet to see that. It doesn’t seem like this OVA is a sequel or a situation where you need to do homework, so I’m taking this at face value.

The relationship between Iori and Seto toggles between a crush and borderline stalkery. Seto is very much stalkery and creepy in his adoration of Iori. He truly does love her, yes, but he’s creepy. He’s also a bit of a jerk, and this gets progressively worse as the episodes go on.

Want an example? Okay. He finds out that his childhood friend, Itsuki’s, house has gone up in flames and Itsuki’s missing, but he decides that he wants to stay on his date with Iori instead of seeing if she’s not a smoldering pile of side character.

The plot is also fairly Three’s Company-ish and predictable. For example, Teratani, Seto’s best friend and cool guy/pervert, gives Seto a picture of a naked girl that’s digitally manipulated to have Iori’s face on it. Instead of ripping it up, he accepts it and guess what happens. She finds it. Oh and finding out that he had it (In his schoolbook, no less) made her quite perturbed.

Episode five is just annoying. It introduces us to Iori’s manager, some woman whose name I’ve forgotten, and the instant, and I mean instant, that you see her you know she’s a Yayoi from White Album-esque villain. She’s a bitch and only wants Seto to stay away from her star. I should point out that they’re not even dating at this point – she just wants Iori to have no friends whatsoever, I guess.

Iori’s not much better. She’s one of those characters who never sees what’s blatantly obvious (even when, at one point, it is made as obvious as humanly possible) She’s not very likable after a few episodes. She’s not hateable, really, but there’s not much to like about her.

SPOILER ALERT. MOVE ON TO BOTTOM LINE TO AVOID SPOILERS. THANK YOU.

In the final episode Seto decides to actually listen to the manager and coldly break up with Iori to save her career that was never in any danger. Seto has a brief moment of slight scariness in saying that he’ll always love her from afar as his face is mostly in shadow….okay….*shudders*

Teratani’s brother randomly finds a website called The Marionette King, and all it says on it is that he’ll take Iori’s soul. This freaks Seto out, even though celebrities always get vague threats and weird messages, especially over the Internet. He decides he’ll be her secret bodyguard. And by ‘secret bodyguard’ I mean ‘stalker’.

He starts training himself through martial arts books and camps out in front of her studio in a hoodie with a pair of binoculars watching Iori all day…..I checked, this isn’t a horror anime.

The Marionette King does show up. I won’t explain who he is, but his appearance and motive make no sense. He should be targeting Seto, not Iori. He gets the jump on Seto and slams his head into the wall. They fight some more and Seto knocks him off of the roof where Iori’s bodyguards grab him after he spouts psycho nonsense. Seto then plops onto the roof in a small puddle of blood from his head wound.

Cut to the hospital, Seto is in a coma and the doctors can’t figure out why. I’m not Dr. House or anything, but I think it might have something to do with the severe concussion he got from his head slamming into the wall.

They say his life will be in danger if he doesn’t wake up soon, so Teratani and his friends decide to go see Iori at the big important play she’s acting in. They beg Iori to go with them, explaining everything that happened because of her manager, that Seto still loves her with all of his heart and that he really needs her right now. Yayoi (She’s given no real name that I know of, and she’s basically the same as her, so I’m calling her Yayoi.) gives the same stupid grin she’s been giving since her debut and shoos them away even after hearing that someone’s life is in danger.

What’s even worse is that after she hears that Seto got hurt while trying to protect Iori from the psycho, she smiles and says her bodyguards were the ones who caught the guy, so his efforts were pointless, which they weren’t. They never would’ve known about the Marionette King if Seto hadn’t gone after him. Though I do have to say that Seto got really lucky. All that was said on that webpage was that he’d take Iori’s soul. He didn’t specify a time or a place, yet he seemed to know exactly when and where he’d strike. He also targeted the first creepy-looking guy that he saw and got lucky there too.

Iori actually doesn’t go with them despite their pleas and hearing that the man she loves and risked his life for hers is dying because of her. Wow. That was actually unexpected. Unexpected and ungodly horrible.

Later, back at the hospital, Iori calls, wanting to talk to Seto. Apparently her reasoning was that she didn’t want to disappoint the people in the play or the audience by leaving.

Boy, way to have your priorities straight. Your loved one is in a coma, dying, for trying to protect you from a psychopath and you can’t even ditch a play to see him? Who cares about the people at the play?! Don’t you have an understudy? That’ll be a great story to tell your kids. “Mommy, tell us again about how you ditched Daddy for a stupid play as he was dying after saving your life.”

Oh and get this, she even said that after this play that she’d quit acting. If you’re gonna give it up anyway, why not leave the damn play!?

And before you can say “Don’t you wake up, you damn bastard. That’s way too cliche, way too overdone, way too corny, way too lame” he wakes up after hearing Iori’s voice on the phone. I was seriously rooting for him to either not wake up or flatline right there just to slap Iori in the face for not going to him personally.

END OF SPOILERS

The main couple’s okay, but they’re not very likable. I was never rooting for them (I liked him with Itsuki, and it would’ve been much more interesting if we started out with SetoxIori but moved to SetoxItsuki. It would also be more realistic and not computer-chair-gnawingly cliche.)

The plot’s very convoluted and stupid at times, and in other times it’s a chore to sit through.

Art and Animation: The art and animation are a high point for the series. It’s all very clean and fluid. The art alone is simply very nice to look at, but nothing very awe inspiring.

Music: The music was decent. The OP was okay, and the BG music was alright.

Voice Acting: Japanese – The voice acting was fairly well done. I had no real complaints.

Bottom Line: Like there are turn-your-brain-off action movies, this is a turn-your-brain-off romance/drama series. However, even then, it’s nothing to write home about. Also, I still feel uneasy about how stalker-y he is sometimes, and that ending is so cliche and cheesy it’s silly.

Additional Information and Notes: I”s Pure is the sequel to From I”s. It was based on a manga written by Masakazu Katsura, who has also written Zetman, DNA2 and the Video Girl series. It was directed by Mamoru Kanbe, who has also directed numerous episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura and Elfen Lied. It was produced by Studio Pierrot.

Episodes: 6

Year: 2005 – 2006

Recommended Audience: There’s some sexual themes, but no one even kisses. Some fanservice, one sexual assault scene, no swearing, no gore or anything. 13+

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