Plot: Genshi, Sora and Tokio head to America in 1906 where the Space-Time Monster, Nekketsu, has befriended an 11-year-old George Herman Ruth, known later as the legendary baseball player, Babe Ruth.
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They add in a stock shot of Ms. Jinguuji talking between when the kids enter the building and when they pan across the room.
Name Change: Nekketsu is changed to Batterball
The original doesn’t state that Nekketsu has the power to instill people with great athletic prowess like the dub does. All he does is control any type of ball and create balls.
There’s no excuse for this change. In the original, Genshi hears “batter” and mistakes it for the word “butter” and gets excited. In the dub, he hears clearly but thinks they’re talking about batter for pancakes. Granted, the joke here isn’t better or worse than the one in the original, but there was no reason to change it.
Title Change: Get Fired Up! Nekketsu is changed to Batterball
The original just says they’re heading to 20th century America. In the dub, they specifically say 1906. I don’t know why the dub is consistently more accurate on the year than the original is, but give Saban their props. When the original keeps saying (#)th century, it’s way too vague. Technically, this episode was made in the 20th century, for crying out loud, and 1906 is just barely on the cusp of the 20th century.
As usual, the dub chooses to show the kids getting on Ridon up on the second floor and descending down to the transport bay while the original hasn’t shown that in a while.
Nekketsu’s name plate is removed.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
Originally, George asks Genshi if he’s okay. In the dub, they make him an idiot by making him ask if Flint’s an asteroid.
Apparently, Saban transformed the shoes of those bullies who were kicking Batterball into clown shoes because they add horn honking sound effects whenever they stomp on Batterball.
I think this has happened enough now to add this note.
Entire Series Edit: In the original, the Space-Time Monsters can’t talk. They just say their names or make random sounds, like Pokemon. In the dub, they can seemingly all speak English fluently.
In the original, Genshi introduces himself as a friend and then proceeds to dance around while singing his ‘Friends’ song. In the dub, Flint says he’s there to protect George and Batterball. George asks what a small kid like him can do, and Flint just…..dances to the chanting from the theme song for some reason.
George wonders if Genshi even understands what he’s talking about. In the dub, he says Flint probably takes a lot of vitamins. Fun fact: vitamins were discovered by Casimir Funk who coined the term “vitamins” (originally ‘vitamines’) in 1912, a full six years after this episode takes place. I honestly just checked that for the hell of it, thinking vitamins were way older and this joke worked, but nope.
Sora tries to remind Genshi that playing baseball is not what they came here to do. In the dub, Sarah says giving Flint a mitt will keep the ball out of his mouth….??
Tokio then says it’s not fair for Genshi to catch and that he should have a shot at bat…….Dude, he literally just caught ONE ball. George literally batted ONCE. You’re saying that arrangement is unfair? In the dub, Tony suggests letting Flint take a few swings while they look for a mitt. That’s better, admittedly, but George has a mitt. We just saw it a second ago.
Putera says that’s not what Sora was talking about, and Sora laments that even Tokio’s not focused on work anymore. In the dub, Pterry says he bets Flint can hit, and Sarah says she hopes Flint doesn’t mistake the bat for a French fry. Ahahahah, and all, but they do realize that Flint’s a caveman…..bats are basically just thinner clubs.
What’s with these baseballs, by the way? They have no stitching. Were actual baseballs really expensive back then or did the animators just not put them on for some reason?
Sooooooooooooooo…..Tokio’s all like ‘This isn’t fair!’ when Genshi is made the catcher ONCE, but Genshi using his stone hammer as a baseball bat, that’s perfectly fine?
Dub!George: “No way he’s going to hit my curve.” I know jack shit about baseball and even I can tell that pitch wasn’t a curveball. It just kinda swayed back and forth.
Yes, George did cheat by using Nekketsu/Batterball, but, again, it’s also cheating that Genshi/Flint used his massive stone hammer when batting….
Pterry: “Boys will be boys.” I friggin’ hate that saying.
Getalong: “But why?”
Sarah: “Why? Because I think boys are ridiculous and juvenile.” Ah the common casual sexism in children. One of many things in the ‘Problematic yet generally overlooked’ bucket.
……..Also, Sarah, that does not answer Getalong’s question at all.
Sora originally said that she doesn’t understand why boys get so heated over stuff like this, which is still sexist but not nearly to the extent Sarah was being.
I love how TP Lady/Petra Fina, Dyna/Dino and Mite are all super happy with themselves for pulling off their plan of grabbing Nekketsu/Batterball while everyone was distracted, even pointing out that that was, specifically, their plan……when…ya know….they could’ve just made off with Nekketsu scot-free if they just left the kids to their personal squabbles instead of drawing attention to the fact that they were stealing the Space-Time Monster/Time Shifter….
The Masked Man originally suggests making doubles with him in real life. In the dub, he tells Petra that her serve is almost as beautiful as she is.
Oh god, the original actually plays the ‘Wahh wahh’ horn when TP Lady gives in to the taunting and agrees to the game when she said the taunting wouldn’t work. Give the dub credit, they didn’t mirror that music cue….
Putera and Love-Love originally pretend they’re the announcers for the game. In the dub, Pterry explains that, per the rules of the game, Petra’s team pitches first since they’re the visiting team (aren’t they all technically visiting, though? Barring George.)
Honestly, this IS is a stupid idea considering TP Lady has control over Nekketsu…the Space-Time Monster who controls balls….
They flip the shot of Tokio hopping around to get the ball and repeat it after Petra starts running.
When the scene returns to normal play, they also flip the shot of Sora running after the ball for some reason.
It’s really weird that George is blaming Genshi/Flint for getting hit with the ball. It’s obvious Nekketsu did that.
They mirror the shot of Flint running through the wall, I guess to make it not as obvious that they reused that shot in the original……Who the hell keeps putting random walls on the field?
Still running commentary, Putera asks Love-Love about her opinions on the game. Since Love-Love can’t talk, she just mutters her name over and over. In the dub, Pterry asks Getalong what they should do. Getalong says “Who cares? It’s just a game of baseball.” Uh….yeah….it’s a game of baseball where the lives of one of your fellow Time Shifters hangs on the outcome…..Pterry points this out, but since when is Getalong such a jerk?
Right before showing George getting emotional, they insert a shot of Pterry talking into the camera to Petra Fina, for some reason, apologizing for Flint and Tony’s catch……???
Sora says it feels like everyone’s been best friends for a long time. Sarah tells the others that they have a game to play.
Alright, if just using Ototan as a bat isn’t against the rules, surely using Fighting Spirit when at bat is. Again, TP Lady’s team is cheating too, so it doesn’t matter, but I’m still a little hungup on Tokio’s comment from earlier.
Name Change: Reiketsu is changed to Batterball-kon
Name plate removed.
Subbed: 
Dubbed: 
Reiketsu seems to only be able to say “Unbelievable” and grumbles in English. In the dub, he can still speak full fluent English.
They repeat a shot of Batterball-kon juggling Flint and Rocky before George yells at him.
Wow, George sounds way too old when he says “Batterball, put ‘em down!”
They repeat the closer shot of Flint and Rocky being juggled before Petra laughs.
Merlock: “Hello, Pretty Sarah.” Hello, Creepy Merlock.
Did….did Kyoichiro’s legs seriously give out from under him and cause him to roll down the hill?…..Why? Because…he was flustered by Sora? What?
They change the shot of Flint talking to George to a repeat shot of him talking from a few seconds before.
They insert the shot they cut in order to place that repeat shot in there to right after George starts to rear up for his hit. Such purposeful edits today.
TP Lady angrily lamented that she’d never be able to make doubles with the Masked Man now. In the dub, she comments that they won by being nice and she hates nice more than anything.
They extend the scene of Petra, Dino and Mite leaving by showing them in the time stream and showing Petra yanking on Dino and Mite’s heads.
They remove a short scene with Toki-G explaining everything. Old Timer says the same dialogue in narration, though.
Another instance of a day shot being swapped for a sunset shot. This makes even less sense because the shot immediately following this one takes place outside where it’s clearly day again….
The original more or less implies that Nekketsu is depressed because he had to leave George. In the dub, they claim it’s because he hasn’t been able to play baseball since he arrived in the 25th century.
In the original, since I guess we didn’t have enough story to fill the full 20 minutes, they add a new segment called Toki-G’s Space-Time Monster Course where Toki-G explains the specifics on some of the Space-Time Monsters discovered so far. In the dub, they make up an entirely new segment that’s not so much a proper segment (Where Sarah would be acting as a host speaking directly to us) and instead cuts to a scene where Sarah is updating her ‘Flint File’ which hasn’t been mentioned until now, and she basically does the exact same thing, only she goes over more Time Shifters and forms than Toki-G did.
The segment also continues on with Tony telling Sarah to come along since they’re taking Batterball to a baseball game. She refuses because they have too much homework. They fight, just like in the episode from which these clips are taken, but at the very last second they makeup and say they’ll do what the other wants.
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So that was……an episode.
What a dreadfully boring episode, to be honest. I might be slightly biased because I already find baseball to be a snorefest (although, fun fact, I wrote a paper on Babe Ruth when I was in middle school. I had to dress up like a baseball player to deliver it too. Don’t remember why, but there it is.) but, seriously, there is NOTHING to this episode besides the gimmick of baseball. NOTHING. It’s the same song and dance we’ve seen nearly a dozen times already without any substance to it.
At least they didn’t pull a Rodin and imply that Babe Ruth got his athletic ability from a Space-Time Monster, but outside of hitting Baseball!Genshi, George didn’t do anything of note. He hit one good home run, which Genshi caught in his teeth after jumping up about six stories, and then he cheated after he took a turn pitching by using Nekketsu to manipulate the ball so he could make an impossible catch. George didn’t come off as an unlikable kid, but he wasn’t that likable and did nothing impressive. The ‘emotional’ parts also felt very shoehorned in. He was pretty boring.
Nekketsu is also a weird Space-Time Monster. He controls…..balls? He turns things into balls?….Wow? Impressive? Not to mention that Nekketsu’s voice is very odd. It’s too deep.
Granted, Reiketsu’s a little better. Wielding four spiked clubs and being able to shoot nearly endless amounts of baseballs at high speeds is pretty intimidating. Truth be told, I’ve always wanted to try a batting cage, but I’ve always been worried the machine would go nuts and shoot balls at me. Silly, yes, but leave me alone.
To make matters more boring, we don’t get a new good transformation of one of the Space-Time Monsters today. They don’t even call for backup in this episode.
At least Genshi didn’t get hungry in this episode, but that’s not much consolation.
I didn’t even get to really research anything today, and that just overcooks my noodles.
All I got to research today was vitamins.
VITAMINS.
Based entirely on an off-handed remark.
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VITAMINS!
….Moving on….
Next episode seems a bit strange….We’re introduced to a Space-Time Monster called Ammon, who is hanging out with…..Dracula….so….either he’s hanging around a fictional character and acting as if he’s a historical figure…..OR…..we’re going to be focusing on Vlad the Impaler, the actual inspiration behind Dracula…..who was one of the most cruel mass murderers in history…..Uh huh….I get that there’s a lot of ‘Well, Vlad had a point’ in regards to his leadership and rule, but dude was still bathing in the blood of tens of thousands of people. So, uh, I dunno where this episode will lead us, but we’ll have to wait and find out.
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The Anime Madhouse 
I don’t think I’ve seen that episode before. Sounds pretty wacky with Babe Ruth and the baseball stuff. I actually didn’t know that about vitamins being invented during that time. It’s fun learning about things from blogs. HOLD UP! The dub actually corrected a mistake in the Japanese version, by Saban of all companies to do it in an edited version? Wow, just wow! The only other example I can think of a dub correcting a mistake in the Japanese version was Yugo the Negotiator where ADV Films changes a HUGE error that a plot point was a part of where Yugo is in Pakistan during the first arc of the series and asks help to read a newspaper containing a clue where the hostage is. He does this because he struggles because he’s not great at reading Arabic. WRONG, JAPANESE VERSION! The official language of Pakistan is Urdu and the dub corrected that. I was in high school when I first saw that anime and even I knew that was a big screw-up with me being a huge geography nerd even to this day (you can thank Carmen Sandiego for that).
Reiketsu can only say “unbelievable”? Cue EMF song over here. XD
Very fun review, Fiddletwix!
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