Plot: The next Space-Time Monster, Horurun, is spotted in 19th century France in the hands of a young Auguste Rodin, the famous artist.
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Title Change: Doodling Horurun is changed to Artie.
Name Change: Horurun is changed to Artie.
While both versions start out in the Land of Time, Saban opted to put a further establishing shot of the Land of Time right before the establishing shot that the original used for some reason.
The delivery robots made a joke that pretty much couldn’t be translated. They said “Aino ni takuhaibin” which translates to “A delivery for Aino.” but one of the robots joked “Aino takuhaibin” which means “A delivery of love.”
They remove a long behind shot of TP Lady grinding all up on the portrait and instead reverse a short sequence of Dyna and Mite shrugging in confusion about her.
An establishing shot of the lab is switched out for a different establishing shot of the lab/Bureau of Time and Space. The one they replaced it with is at sundown.
Oh my god…..Horurun is such a dorky little cutie pie. I love it too much.
They skip over the sequence of the kids traveling through space/time to get to 19th century Paris. In the dub, they use old recycled footage to insert their own sequence for this because it’s really necessary for some reason.
Also, they slightly shift the shot of the kids exiting the portal from after the establishing shot of Paris to before it.
Even though it is awful, none of the original kids say the first monster drawing they see was based on a ‘bad’ drawing done by a kid like Pterry does.
Flint: “Whoa, a little self-control, Getalong!” Pot, kettle, black.
Horurun’s name plate is removed.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
Oh wow….oh woooww…it’s like they paid Brian Donovan to give as few shits as possible when he was supposed to be in a lot of pain after getting his shin kicked.
Dyna and Mite originally point out that, even if TP Lady had Horurun bring the painting of the masked man to life, it wouldn’t be real. She responds that she doesn’t care because of the mysterious matters of a young maiden’s heart. In the dub, they don’t discuss this.
While the discussion of TP Lady’s age is kept, they don’t have them be so brash as to talk about her needing wrinkle cream.
They insert a far shot of Auguste running away before we cut back to Genshi after he jumps on TP Lady and the others.
In the original, Sora realizes the guy on the roof was Kyoichiro and goes “Ah! He disappeared again!” when he falls off the roof. In the dub, Sarah must believe he was a weathervane or something because, when he falls, she says “Ah! This whole town’s falling apart!” They’re continuously make Sarah oblivious to this dude in the dub, and what’s worse is that, in the original, Sora obviously knows Kyoichiro was trying to guide her, so she goes in the direction he pointed, but in the dub it makes her look like she thinks she’s following the directions of a rickety weathervane….
A short reaction shot of Auguste is cut.
Excuse me. Are you telling me Auguste spent a full week with Horurun, constantly trying to make a drawing for his mom, and only now does Horurun use his ‘turn anyone into an amazing artist’ power on him? The day of his mother’s birthday?
Urghh they seriously just let him walk up and stamp Horurun…..Come on, guys.
Name Change: Waruhorurun (Geez, the awkwardness of that name.) is changed to Artie-kon.
Name plate removed.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
The little boy trying to mess with Ridon was originally trying to use it as a toilet. Saban obviously didn’t keep that little fact, changing it in dialogue to a rocking horse, but uh…..Saban….maybe be more careful with your frames. Why do I say that, you ask? This little boy clearly has no bottoms on. And I mean, he clearly has no bottoms on. Saban, you knew the original context of the scene. You had to have known he was trying to relieve himself….you had to have noticed….that, especially when the kid is flipped upside down and you can see it peeking out from under his shirt. Come on, Saban. Don’t make me whip out 4KidsPraising!Twix. Their frame by frame censors were next level and you even didn’t try. Shame.
They changed the sign for Sphin’s game show from “Sphin’s Riddle the World: Paris Edition” to “Riddle Griddle.”
Subbed:
Dubbed: 
Forgive the partial screenshot. It pans and never shows the entire sign full out.
Why is the punishment for getting the riddles wrong now a big collection of monsters? I thought, if you get three riddles wrong, you end up mind-controlled by it.
Sphin’s first riddle is kept the same (The riddle is, “Sphin was taking some color photos at the zoo, but they all came out black and white. Why?”)
Sora and Sarah both stupidly blurt out the correct answer to Sphin’s riddle. (She said pandas, but I guessed zebras, which still would’ve been correct.)
A shot of Auguste appearing behind Waruhorurun is swapped from before the shot of him crying and opening his arms to afterward.
Waruhorurun doesn’t talk in the original. He has really bad dialogue in the dub.
Oh so Sphin doesn’t transform today…..What was his purpose being here, then?
I find it to be kinda depressing that, immediately after Auguste says he won’t forget Horurun, Putera mind wipes everyone…
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All in all, I really enjoyed this episode. I figured I would because I love art, even if it’s silly doodles, so this story’s right up my alley. Horurun is so adorable, and I love its power.
The story itself is very sweet. Rodin just wants to make a nice gift for his mother.
Believe it not, I really like that they showed him as a terrible artist. He is about ten years old here, and that’s right when he picked up drawing. Rodin did struggle a lot in the art world before he solidified his masterful skills. He had poor eyesight that made it difficult for him to follow along in school, but he found some solace in drawing because he could get the paper up close to his face to see his progress.
Despite having such passion for art that he enrolled in an art school when he was 13, he was rejected by Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a very prestigious art school in France, three times and denied entry into art exhibitions quite frequently. In fact, he wouldn’t really be recognized as a prominent artist until he was 35 when he became so inspired by the works of Michelangelo and Donatello on a trip to Italy that his work really started taking off.
This is not only (exaggerated, but) accurate to his story, but it is a great message for aspiring young artists. It doesn’t matter if you start out poorly. With enough work, dedication and passion, you can become an amazing artist, too.
…..That being said….
The actual message of the episode is problematic.
Why? Because Rodin suddenly got insanely good art skills via Horurun’s power and…..there’s never any indication that it wore off or anything. The Horurun he drew was made while utilizing those abilities, and that same drawing was brought to life by Horurun as a sculpture for his mom. (Isn’t that risky? Shouldn’t they have taken that from him before they left for the present?) We never see him draw again after that, so we don’t know if it was temporary or not.
Toki-G/Old Timer said that he was inspired to become a great artist because he still held Horurun/Artie in his heart somewhere, which is fine for this world’s canon, but it’s also implied that Rodin could become a great artist because of the power bestowed to him by Horurun/Artie, so it kinda ruins the whole narrative I had going there. Yeah, kids, if you start out bad at art, don’t worry. A time traveling chicken might pop up and magically give you great artistic capability! Then you’ll become one of the most famous artists in the world through your unearned art powers!
Finally, in spite of wondering just what purpose Sphin even had being in this episode (It showed up only to get knocked out and couldn’t actually help because Sora’s an idiot.) I did think the scene with that little riddle game show was the best out of the episode because it was so funny.
Next time, no new Space-Time Monsters, it seems. Instead, TP Lady has her sights set back on Love-Love!
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The Anime Madhouse 
It’s been a while since you reviewed Flint the Time Detective. Very nice. I don’t think I remember that episode. I agree with the problematic aspects of Rodin potentially having those powers even after the main characters leave. It’s like “cheating” to become good at something instead of working hard to develop those skills. There’s a reason why I find Hikaru Shindo to be more interesting learning how to play Go than Yugi playing Duel Monsters, if that comparison makes sense.
4KidsPraising!Twix? Oh no! Hahahaha!
Funny you bring up Flint the Time Detective because I recently saw a show that was on Fox Kids close to the same time that I didn’t know was mostly animated in Japan when I saw that title floating around on RetroCrush.
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Thank you 🙂 I totally get that comparison. That’s why I’ve always liked Joey better than Yugi. His duels are always much more interesting because he’s much less experienced, he has to constantly adapt and learn and he has no super-smart card playing spirit in his head. Dude became, from what GX stated anyway, third best duelist in the world based purely on his developed skill and hard work. Even Kaiba was a gaming prodigy, so Joey’s aces in my book.
Hard work and slow development is always so much more interesting than people who are prodigies or have super special cheating abilities like unique powers or bloodline advantages or ‘chosen one’ prophecy powers. I get that, with some characters, it’s a matter of self-insertion to a degree like ‘Whoa! This character’s so awesome and praise-worthy even though everything comes easy to them!’ and they make a spectacle out of being so unrealistically or undeservingly awesome, but the opposite is always so much more compelling. Maybe it’s a more appealing viewpoint when you’re younger to have the prodigies and ‘chosen ones’ *shrug*
I know it’s just a kid’s show and probably no one would carry this with them, but it’s also a little insulting to Rodin’s legacy. Like, yeah, the dude didn’t work his ass off for half his life to achieve success in the art world – he just had super powers from a time-traveling creature.
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You’re welcome, Fiddletwix. I’m glad my comparison made sense. Come to think of it, Joey’s duels were less predictable which was better storytelling. He eventually became 3rd best in the world? I haven’t seen GX, but that’s cool he eventually made it that far.
Exactly! If I can bring up another anime example, it would be Naruto. I remember a video I saw a really long time ago about anime series who fail their own philosophies and that was on the list. The guy who did the video talked about how problematic it was for having all the powerful characters being prodigies, bloodline abilities, or having spiritual attachments. It’s no wonder why Rock Lee was infinitely more likable and relatable then most of the other characters. If you look at the Neji/Naruto fight especially with the major part of the former’s character development and mindset of believing the best ninjas are the geniuses/prodigies/superior bloodlines/sealed abilities, etc., he was literally proven right since Naruto would’ve lost had it not have been for Kyubi inside him. Sure it wasn’t how he wanted it to happen, but I don’t think the implications were all that present with the writers.
Very true and I do wonder about the potential takeaways. While it’s not as offensive as the Columbus episode you mentioned, it still has major issues. Even I wonder about how stories like this could’ve affected me in hindsight since I always felt like I needed to be good in a short period of time when I was learning something like a sport, game, skill, or other talent. It was frustrating doing my best to work hard at whatever, but I never saw the results most of the time. Not going to lie, I even quit a lot of things back then and I kick myself for not sticking with certain things back then, but that’s a story for another day. They could’ve at least erased Rodin’s memory like they do with the other episodes and still find a way to keep that inspiration there to work hard at his craft.
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Well, being fair, those were Pegasus’ personal rankings (Yugi (1) Kaiba (2) and Joey (3) with GX duelists Aster Pheonix taking up 4th and Jesse Anderson taking fifth) so maybe it’s not official world rankings, but this is Pegasus so it’s as good as an official ranking I’d think. I was always on the edge of my seat with Joey duels. He had heart of the cards moments, but never anywhere near what Yugi had. Plus, he’s such a fun guy with an interesting deck.
They could have made SUCH a good example of the true power of hard work by having Rock Lee and Neji finally fight and having Lee win, especially after he recovered from those terrible injuries. That fight was something they built towards and would’ve been so beneficial to them as characters and to the entire series. But nope. The two never fight, and Neji dies in a manner that basically spits in the idea that Neji wasn’t bound by fate (he died protecting Hinata and Naruto. Technically, yeah, he did it of his own volition, but branch family members in the Hyuga clan are meant to die for the main family members, so having him die that way after giving him such peace with resisting his given fate so much seems really backwards.)
The fact that Naruto not only has the Kyubi but is also one of the sole living heirs to a powerful clan, is the son of one of the most skilled Hokage ever, AND is the reincarnation of one of the most powerful ninja in history (with Sasuke basically having an identical pedigree, technically) is just really frustrating considering they did start the series having him struggle so much to even do a simple clone jutsu. Naruto could’ve easily been an underdog story. Like, have Sasuke get frustrated because he has all these bloodline powers, he’s a prodigy, and he has the curse mark and blah, but Naruto’s just a simple kid who, though hard work and determination, manages to keep besting him…..The more I think about that, the more I just wish Lee and Neji were the main characters. Their rivalry has so much more potential than Sasuke and Naruto’s if you ask me. Doesn’t help that Sasuke and Naruto’s rivalry in itself was ALSO something born of fate, ffs….But they broke their fate to keep fighting because….they fought a lot? I guess. But then they stopped once they literally maimed each other? Yay?
Yeah, you never know what affects you on a subconscious level. I’ve had those similar circumstances a lot. So few people can actually relate to being prodigies or having a specific talent in one thing that it can be really easy to trick yourself into thinking you’re just not good enough because you’re not instantly shining more brightly than everyone else – That you’re not the ‘special’ one. Makes it all the more tragic in shows where they eventually start ignoring the side characters who don’t have that shine, ESPECIALLY if you really like the side-characters and connect more with them than the main characters, which I almost always do. I wonder if, subconsciously, some kids also think they’ll start to be ignored if they’re not the stars of the group because of that. Like, even if you get good, you’re still not good enough to deserve the attention.
I do really appreciate characters where, even if they are prodigies or whatever, their first directive is a love of what they do. The kids of characters who will smile even if they lose because they had fun. Because it shows people that the importance lies in your love and passion for something, not necessarily in being the absolute best.
They did erase Rodin’s memory in the end, though Toki-G said he might have subconsciously still be inspired by Horurun – but they needed a scene that showed his magic talent powers either faded or were reversed. I guess, maybe, they can just take Toki-G’s words of Horurun subconsciously inspiring him as a claim that Rodin did lose his powers, but they needed to be way clearer than that to convey that information properly. Even just extending the line to “Once the kids left, Rodin lost the powers granted to him by Horurun, but he kept his friend in his heart, even if he couldn’t remember him, and became a famous artist.” would’ve worked, but they couldn’t be bothered to tie up that massive loose end I suppose.
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Gotcha. I wondered how the rankings worked. Since Pegasus owns the Duel Monsters brand in-universe, that does make a lot of sense.
I know, right? I would’ve loved to seen a fight between those two with Rock Lee coming back after recovering from those injuries. Talk about dream match as well as a missed character development opportunity. I hoped it would happen especially while seeing the Lee/Gaara fight where Lee activates the Lotus gates and Neji’s jaw drops while he’s going at supersonic speeds. While I’m not as familiar with Shippuden, I did hear about Neji’s death. Thanks for expounding on those details.
So Naruto is also a reincarnation to a super powerful ninja in addition to those things? Dang, he really got all the plot coupons and protagonist immunity (patent pending on the latter). That is just too much. I think that would be more interesting for a villain instead of the lead hero, but that’s just me. Lee and Neji being the main characters would be WAY more interesting given their rivalry, character development, and Lee had to work harder than Naruto ever did in becoming a good ninja.
Thank you for relating. I was never able to relate to prodigy characters even before I knew what a Mary Sue was. I didn’t even think about how side characters could have that effect. Like you, I’ve liked characters in movies and series more than the main characters more often than not. Those implications could make sense to younger and impressionable audiences thinking that they won’t be good enough.
I see. Those characters can be a rarity.
Sorry, I meant erasing the memory as well as showing that the effects would be erased, negated, etc. A line like that would work. Funny how random bloggers can come up with better ideas than the actual studios from time to time.
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you don’t have an idea of how nice it is to see articles about this obscure anime, and to see differences beetween the original source and the stuff we got overseas? it’s such a treat! i’m looking forward into reading more from your blog since i really enjoy these readings.
please keep doing them!
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Thank you very much! I’m so happy you’re enjoying them! I love making any content on older/more obscure anime, and it’s awesome that there are still people around who also enjoy reading about them. I’m definitely completing the series, so don’t worry about me stopping. 🙂
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