Plot: Genshi, Sora and Tokio head to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in the 16th century to retrieve the Space-Time Monster, Moaiwa.
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Title Change: Evil Spirit Moaiwa was changed to Moah.
Name Change: Moaiwa was changed to Moah.
They add an establishing shot of the research facility before showing Flint.
Genshi doesn’t count while Flint does. This change is fine if not welcome because you’re supposed to count to ten when you play Hide and Seek.
The original just says Moaiwa is in the ancient south Pacific whereas the dub says Moah is in 16th century (when they leave, they say specifically 1560) Easter Island……Does 16th century count as “ancient”? I don’t feel like it does. Additionally, during the extra bits always added before they head off on the Time Cycle in the dub, Dr. Goodman tells them specifically to go to Anakena Beach, which is where many moai reside. In the original, specifics on location are not given. Finally, Ptery says that the island is called Rapa Nui by the people who reside there (Polynesians). This information is also not given in the original.
While it is really cool that the dub has all this extra educational information, they kinda tarnish it by having Goodman ask them to bring him back “an egg or something.” He often asks for souvenirs, but how random to ask for “an egg or something” from Easter Island…
Pre-Posting Edit: I finally understand what the heck he was talking about there. Easter Island…he wants an egg…….Like an Easter egg……Ugh. Easter Island isn’t even meant to be called that until 1722 when Dutch navigator, Jacob Roggeveen would rename the island to that since he visited the island on Easter Sunday.
The overhead shot of the island was originally immediately after the group emerged from the time stream. In the dub, it’s after Sarah comments on how small the island is.
I can’t believe I have to note this, but, originally, Genshi’s fart (that was so powerful it shot him off his feet) is what caused the awful smell. In the dub, I guess it was Flint’s small burp.
Also, Sora originally asks what the noise was, in response to Genshi’s fart. In the dub, she says the ocean breeze smells nice until she smells Flint’s burp.
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Originally, the shot of Genshi flying off was reserved for after was see Moaiwa full out. Then we got rewind effects on screen, Genshi’s fall being rewound, the shot goes close up to Genshi, watching as he eats his potatoes before falling back down. In the dub, Saban edits it so that Flint flies off when Moah emerges from the ground, then after he is shown full out, they reverse the footage instead of showing the rewind and closeup so it looks like a more natural fall. I actually like this change because the original had me thinking Moaiwa could rewind time for some reason for a second. Doing that effect, rewinding and showing that Genshi ate his potatoes before coming back down just seems like a needless waste of time. Just a few seconds, but still.
Why did they give that obviously very young kid such an old voice in the dub? He sounds like he’s going through puberty when the kid looks no older than five.
Genshi’s more upset that TP Lady ruined their potatoes than he is about threatening to take Moaiwa like Flint is.
They cut out TP Lady jumping off of Moaiwa and onto the Masked Man, probably because they end up laying down on top of each other.
They reversed and repeated the shot of the Masked Man putting his arm around TP Lady to lengthen the scene.
The kids originally say, “Divine Guardian!” “Lord Moaiwa!” In the dub, they say, “Moah fell over!” “He tripped on that stick!” He didn’t trip on Merlock’s cane, by the way. Merlock stuck the cane in the ground and it spooked Moah so much that he fell over.
TP Lady says her heart belongs to the Masked Man. In the dub, she tells Dino and Mite that Merlock knows how to really talk to a girl.
Sora questions what he means by saying she shouldn’t do anything dangerous. In the dub, she questions him calling her a lovely young lady.
Ammon tells Sora and Kyoichiro to get away from each other. In the dub, Bindi asserts that Merlock was talking about her when he said “lovely young lady.”
When TP Lady butts in, she says she agrees with Ammon and says they should be apart because no one deserves to be happy until she finds happiness with the Masked Man. In the dub, she just tells them to be romantic on their own time. This is, admittedly, nitpicky.
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Name Change: Waruiwa is changed to Moah-con.
It’s so weird how they’re only now purely relying on Love-Love to calm the Space-Time Monster down. I’ve mentioned previously that it’s weird they don’t utilize Love-Love’s power more, and now they’re suddenly doing it out of nowhere.
Kyoichiro originally says how lucky Love-Love is to have Sora say such kind things to it. In the dub, Merlock tells Sora he’ll protect her even if Waruiwa gets everyone else. Admittedly, he does follow it up by saying “Not a good approach…” but yeah….Kyoichiro’s just distracted while Merlock said a pretty insensitive thing.
Ammon just yells Kyoichiro’s name after Sora yells at him. In the dub, she says “Who’s lovely now?”
Ototan says “No more erupting” after he plugs up Waruiwa. In the dub, he says he doesn’t think it worked and he thinks they have a problem.
They repeat Genshi and Waruiwa rushing towards each other a couple times.
TP Lady mostly blames their luck or the universe or what have you for their repeated misfortune while Dyna and Mite agree. In the dub, she blames Dino and Mite.
Dyna and Mite originally say they were right, he really was a soldier of the earth. In the dub, Dino asks if workman’s comp will cover their injuries from the volcano.
The kids originally say they have to protect the field. In the dub, they say they won’t abandon Moah because of everything he’s done for them. Admittedly, I kinda like the dub better. I get that they do have to protect this field because it’s their main or possibly only source of food, but it’s a little more touching that they don’t want to abandon Moah even though he’s the one causing the problem.
Ammon complains that Kyoichiro shouldn’t only be nice to Sora (he only drags her away from the volcano erupting – not Ammon or the children who are one foot away.) In the dub, Bindi yells that he shouldn’t run off on his own because it’s dangerous. The original, while mostly being meant as more whining from Ammon because Kyoichiro’s favoring Sora over her again, is better in this situation because, uh, yeah Kyoichiro. It’s pretty messed up to only run off with Sora when you have a trusted friend, several other friends and children sitting there about to get melted by lava.
When Ammon catches up to them, she berates Kyoichiro for not protecting her too. In the dub, she tells Merlock that Sarah’s just a big headache, which acts as a pun because immediately following this Merlock runs into a tree.
When Kyoichiro protects Sora from Super Mosbee, Ammon just yells his name over and over. In the dub, she tells Merlock that this is proof Sarah is nothing but trouble.
The dub omits mentioning that the tidal wave was caused by the earthquake.
They splice in a reaction shot of Tony before Petra and the others fly off.
When Dyna flies off, he says “Moaiwa, we don’t care any moai-re!” In the dub, they just scream, which is fine because that joke was awful, even though, oddly, it would work better with Moah than Moaiwa.
The reaction shot is taken from a scene immediately following that where Tokio tells Mosbee to freeze the tidal wave. When he looks back, he’s astounded to see Mosbee has de-transformed back to his normal state out of exhaustion. In the dub, everything but the reaction is removed.
Name Change: Super Moaiwa is changed to Moah Master.
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In the original, it’s implied that Moaiwa created the moai statues. In the dub, Moah specifically summons these statues, calling them the guardians of Rapa Nui, as if they were underground the whole time, and Tony asks who made them and why. I greatly appreciate this change because this is another instance of the series making off like they created history. It completely erases the mystique and wonder of the statues and replaces it with “Oh a magical rock monster made them.”
While we don’t know exactly why the statues were carved, the strongest theory is that they were representations of the ancestors of the villagers, facing towards the village to watch over them (though a select group of seven were pointed towards the ocean presumably to guide travelers to the island.) They were considered sacred symbols of power and believed to encapsulate a person’s spiritual essence.
Interestingly, the statues were carved from tuff, which is solidified volcanic ash, giving Waruiwa’s power a bit more validity.
I want you to take note of the fact that they specifically don’t face the ocean….
The scene I’m discussing right now has Super Moaiwa summon dozens of moai to act as wall to protect the island from the tidal wave….and all of the statues are facing the ocean.
Additionally, while we also don’t know for certain how the statues were toppled (many have been set standing once more) accounts range from earthquakes to tribal clan conflicts to Christian settlers knocking them down as a means of erasing the religious icons from the area while they were trying to convert the islanders to Christianity. There’s no indication they were knocked over from a tidal wave.
Kyoichiro officially recognizes Genshi as his rival. In the dub, he praises him and says he’s a hero.
In the original, Ammon says she wants him to recognize her as his girlfriend. In the dub, Bindi says Merlock is her hero. In both versions, she still kisses him on the lips. Her crush on him is really getting unsettling.
Back in the lab, they double down on the change to history. Tokio says the islanders wound up believing the moai statues were the children of their divine guardian and that they inadvertently discovered the secret of the statues. Professor Yamato states that the islanders adopted the statues as guardians against tidal waves, which is also probably wrong. In the dub, they say they believe Moah really was the guardian of Rapa Nui, but they still don’t know where the statues came from or who made them and why. Dr. Goodman explains that scientists believe the people who used to live there made them, but there’s no way to know because the inhabitants of the island disappeared many years ago. Again, props to Saban for this change. Even though it’s not detailed (I don’t know exactly how much they knew about the moai in 2000, so I’m giving them a break here.) it is far more accurate and reasonable than the original’s explanation.
In the original, Yamato suggests playing jump rope. In the dub, Goodman just tells them to play outside and Moah says “I like to jump.” which sounds random.
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Overall, this episode was one of the most enjoyable based purely on how much action and tension there was. Not only is Moaiwa a unique Space-Time Monster in that it’s so large in its base form and massive in its bad and super forms, but the fact that Waruiwa is such a powerful and huge creature that can cause volcanic eruptions just by slamming into the ground over and over is really cool. A volcanic eruption is certainly one of the most dangerous things to happen on the show to date, if not the most dangerous. Him being able to regenerate and break apart and control his broken body parts was also awesome.
It was also nice to see Super Mosbee again, and it was awesome to see him do something as incredible as freeze an actively erupting volcano. Having both of Moaiwa’s transformations in today’s episode was pretty cool, although I think this would have been a good time to have Love-Love transform….
While it was kinda out-of-the-blue, I also liked how sweet Genshi and Ototan were being to each other this episode. They’re always kind to each other, but they were constantly having cute moments today for some reason.
Additionally, Saban did quite a good job with this episode barring some vocal oddities and a few weird lines.
There were some negative points, though. We never really learn what base level Moaiwa’s power actually is besides jump/till fields with its jumping. I also don’t understand how Moaiwa’s jumping tills fields considering jumping on soil is kinda the opposite of tilling. I don’t know why Moaiwa has such a thing about jumping either. It’s based on a statue, which can’t jump….Also, while its bad transformation does have the awesome power of being able to crumble apart and put itself back together, it can’t really use its volcanic eruption power unless it’s right by a volcano, but that’s very minor, especially since we’ll probably never see Waruiwa again.
Super Moaiwa was pretty cool, even though the design is kinda……weird. Why doesn’t it have a mouth, exactly? Its power is also weird. It just….makes moai statues? How are those helpful? I had to stretch my suspension of disbelief pretty far just to believe they’d stop a tidal wave. I can’t see how they’d be helpful anywhere else.
The villagers were also an odd situation. Why were they all children? Where were the adults? Are they entirely reliant on sweet potatoes for food? They just seem so fiercely protective of their field that I have to imagine it’s a significant part of their food resources at least, even though seafood is right there. Why don’t they find it more of an issue that Genshi ate their massive pile of potatoes? According to a quick Google search, it takes about three months for sweet potatoes to be fully grown. It’s definitely not a quick fix. Also, while this information was discovered long after this episode aired, Polynesians on Rapa Nui did indeed eat sweet potatoes. I feel I should still ding them a bit there because there’s no way they could have known that was accurate back then, but it doesn’t matter.
Then, of course, there’s the issue with changing history. I can forgive Saban entirely for not being too detailed with their explanation about how the moai were created or what their purposes were. Even now while we have more information and can make numerous deductions, we can’t really say entirely for certain, but the original was just stupid. I don’t like when this show rewrites history like that, and in such a lazy manner. It was literally just that this Space-Time Monster randomly had the power to create the moai…..and it did. They didn’t even get that much right because they made a big to-do out of showing them in the entirely wrong orientation. However, Moaiwa was BASED on the moai, wasn’t it?….So….???
Finally, Kyoichiro was just awful in this episode. He’s a Space-Time Detective too, but he didn’t seem to care much at all about anyone but Sora. He does this a lot, but children were about to get melted to death in lava and he didn’t give a crap.
Next time, we meet Space-Time Monster Elekin in Edo era Japan alongside Hiraga Gennai. The plot already sounds confusing, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose.
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The Anime Madhouse 