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 25th century….with a cavema – Forget it. Here’s to more episodes!
Next Episode, Honey-Honey’s debut!
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The Anime Madhouse 