Digimon Adventure 02 Episode 5: Destroy the Dark Tower | Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Iori feels he must leave kendo practice with his grandfather to help Jo and the others respond to an SOS sent out by Gomamon.

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Title Card:

Title Change: Destroy the Dark Tower is changed to Old Reliable….I don’t mind this at all because both titles are equally boring. Guys, seriously, both Iori/Cody and Jo/Joe are considered some of the most boring characters in Digimon – they don’t need boring titles helping them out.

As for the title card, that’s also a big ‘meh’. The colors are boring the shot’s not interesting….just meh.

They remove a closeup shot of one of the Gizamon getting whipped as well as a few more times from further away, showing Ken.

Gomamon points out that Gizamon can’t travel well on land while dub!Gomamon replaces this line by saying someone should use the whip on Ken instead.

Ken asks why Gomamon believes he has a right to tell him about Digimon. In the dub, he tells Gomamon to never talk to him without calling him ‘sir’ and to never talk to him period.

Gomamon getting whipped is removed.

Why didn’t Ken have Dark Rings on the Gizamon before they even started working? If it does make them stronger and makes work easier…??

Wow, was Ken’s VA told by the director to sound as whiny as possible when he said “I want you to make me some hot chocolate.” I could hear a pout at the end. Also, obviously, this is a dub-only line.

I think Jo really shows how cool he is in these little moments. He’s so obsessed with good grades and school and yet he is perfectly fine skipping class and a big quiz because he thinks Gomamon is in danger. Jo may be boring sometimes, but he can also be really cool.

Iori’s grandpa asks if something’s bothering him or if there’s a girl he likes. Cody’s grandpa asks if he’s losing interest in martial arts or finds spending time with him boring.

Iori’s grandpa asks is he’d like Chu-Chu with a kissy face. Since ‘Chu’ is a word commonly used as a kissing onomatopoeia in Japan, he realizes that Iori is thinking he said something weird, so he points out that he was talking about Chu-Chu jelly with a blush on his face. In the dub, Cody’s grandpa just says prune juice will cure all of his problems with the kissy face, goofy expression and blush…..Uh….kay.

Now, as for what Chu-Chu jelly is, after some digging through endless Legend of Zelda results, I found that Chu-Chu jelly is apparently this universe’s version of an energy….snack/drink that is basically an energy drink/health drink in jelly/jello form in a drinkable packet.

The dub doesn’t include Iori telling his grandpa to tell his mother he’ll be late.

Iori’s grandpa says he’s starting to resemble his father, Hiroki. In the dub, he just says no problem is too big for prune juice.

Why exactly does Joe find it weird for the Digimon to be in the real word? Did he forget that like 1/3 of the first series took place in the real world with the Digimon? It was a pretty big thing…

Daisuke and Miyako don’t mention anything about Jo being a doctor in the original. They just greet him. Also, Kari adds a correction to Yolei and Davis saying that Joe’s not a doctor yet.

Originally, Jo says they’ll eat the snacks in the Digital World. In the dub, he says they’re for an emergency. Also, I find it a bit weird that Joe went and got snacks when Gomamon sent an SOS. I mean, it’s nice and everything, but a distress call usually means ‘Come right now, I’m totally screwed’ not ‘Take your time, it’s not a big deal, maybe get me a Snickers.’

While not a major change, Upamon tells Iori that he was just about to go into the Digital World by himself. In the dub, he annoyingly screeches ‘YOU MADE IT!’ over and over.

Originally, Iori tries to politely introduce himself to Jo. In the dub, Cody excuses Upamon to Joe stating that he’s hyperactive. I don’t really get why Upamon is such a ball of caffeine but Armadillomon is such a slow and laid back character.

Jo originally says he wonders where Gomamon is. In the dub, he says he’s always so prepared because he watches a lot of those survival shows.

Well, they sucked all the emotion out of this scene. Originally, Gomamon seems slightly surprised that Jo came, and Jo says that even if they’re far apart he still worries about Gomamon. In the dub, Joe asks him if he knows what day it is. Gomamon says Saturday and Joe says it’s Thursday, but Gomamon never understood the days of the week so he’s fine.

While the next line from Gomamon is the same, originally, Jo says that he received Gomamon’s SOS on his Digivice. In the dub, he says Gomamon’s going to wipe out his entire first aid kit. This seems weird because Joe is obviously holding up his Digivice as he says this.

Armadimon says that if he sent out an SOS, Iori wouldn’t come after him. Gatomon then asks what he’s pouting about. In the dub, Armadillomon says he always gets teary eyed in reunions and he might cry. Gatomon then tells him not to cry because his tears will turn to icicles.

While the next exchange is mostly the same, humor is added to the dub version of Joe saying Gomamon looks like he’s badly wounded. This shot is again made odd by the fact that you can clearly see Joe tearing up. I wouldn’t mind so much if he had any emotion in his voice like his Japanese VA does. It would just seem like he’s trying to make a joke as to cover up his emotions. He’s basically speaking normally and making a joke while he’s supposed to be crying over his terribly wounded Digimon.

Takeru says it will be difficult to get across the snowy tundra. In the dub, he says he now understands what Matt means when he says TK’s walking on thin ice…..What? Given the context, what does he mean by that, and how did looking at a lot of snow make you understand? Saban, if you’re going to try to make pun-ish jokes, at least have them make sense.

Attack Name Change: Armadimon’s Scratch Beat is changed to Claw Chop.

Attack Name Change: Hawkmon’s Feather Slash is changed to Beak Buzz Saw….which makes no sense because, as the original name implies, he’s using the feather on his head to cut through things, not his beak.

The Digimon say they’ll do anything to destroy the Dark Tower. In the dub, they complain about having to pull the sled.

The animation on the sled ride is just silly. Most of the time it just looks like a cardboard cut out sliding over the scene.

Very very very tiny change, but when Iori goes into the river, someone yells out ‘Iori!’ In the dub, no one yells Cody’s name. Makes it seem like no one but Gomamon either notices or cares that he went over into icy cold water.

Jo originally has cold medicine while Joe has herbal tea.

Armadimon originally apologizes to Iori for how he’s been acting like Iori doesn’t care about him as he didn’t realize that he left his kendo lesson to be there. In the dub, Armadillomon just says they should take a nap.

I honestly don’t know why this little side plot was removed. It’s not much, but it is a little bit of character and relationship development for Iori and Armadimon.

In the original, Jo says he ditched a quiz like Iori balked out on his lesson because he wanted to help out the Digimon. He made his decision to go just like they all choose to help out the Digital World. Despite being Chosen Children, they are ultimately the ones who decide to do what they do. In the dub, Joe says he always felt like he needed to be out there doing something too, but now he realizes that even staying behind can benefit them all in the end. He also peppers little jokes that really don’t work into his dialogue like saying he thought the feeling was nausea and how the big picture isn’t a wide-screen TV.

Jo expresses sympathy that he’s asking the wounded Gomamon to stall Shellmon while the others destroy the tower in the original. In the dub, he doesn’t. Also, original Gomamon doesn’t make jokes, he just distracts him by saying ‘Hey, look over here.’

Additionally, Jo internally hopes that Takeru, Hikari and the others hurry up and destroy the tower so Gomamon won’t have to fight anymore. In the dub, he just internally facepalms at Gomamon’s famous charm.

A wipe transition is added between the gang getting to the tower and Gomamon’s first distraction.

Another wipe is added after Fladramon’s first attack and before the second distraction.

Jo just yells Gomamon’s name. Joe tells him to try knock-knock jokes.

Why did Armadimon just now Armor Digivolve? Yeah, sit there and gawk while the terribly injured Gomamon tries to dodge a gigantic dinosaur in a shell.

Even though they say the same ‘I’ll protect you, Iori/Cody’ line, Digmon’s VA just completely ruins the emotion of the line. You can at least try to sound like you’re slightly in pain. Digmon’s obviously wincing.

This next edit’s a little weird in a couple of ways. First, they edit out Digmon getting pummeled while he’s protecting Iori. When they cut back to the first few frames of it, they quickly wipe transition to Fladramon’s next scene. In addition, instead of Flamedramon yelling ‘Fire Rocket’ he just says ‘Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage’ again. Yeah, Flamedramon, you said that already. We know what you are. You’re not a Pokemon.

They remove more of Digmon getting pummeled and replace it with the earlier shot of Digmon wincing.

Boy, they can’t catch a break in this episode. First Gizamon, then Frigimon, then Shellmon now Ebidramon.

Dub, that’s Pegasusmon’s Mane Wind not Star Shower….you can tell because it’s not stars….and is hair…from his mane…in the wind.

I find it a bit stupid on Ken’s part that he had two powerful Digimon handy to take out a wounded Child level Digimon that can’t evolve and one new Chosen Child when all he had was a bunch of Frigimon going against the others….one of whom has a Digimon with the power of fire….

Did they kill Ebidramon? Unlike Shellmon, they don’t show his ring being destroyed, and the last shot of him is engulfed in a huge explosion a la Harpoon Torpedo.

Originally, Jo says he’ll come immediately if Gomamon needs him. Joe says Gomamon will have plenty of time to work on his jokes when he’s in charge of this frozen wasteland.

Iori is intent of finishing what he starts. Cody’s focused on having good manners.

I love how they flat out explain how the new Digidestined are meant to be combinations of the old ones. They only do it for Iori/Cody here, but it’s apparent in them all. That’s probably another reason why Ken’s the best of the new group – he’s the only one that wasn’t made as a chimera between any of the old Digidestined.

Ken yells at Wormmon for not speaking when spoken to despite him telling him earlier not to speak. Dub!Ken asks Wormmon what plan B is. He says it’s to become friends with the Digidestined. Ken calls him a fool, and Wormmon says he can’t spell.

Hikari says she’s heard that Iori’s house has the best ohagi. Kari says she’d love to meet Cody’s grandpa.

Hikari says Daisuke can’t come because he and Chibimon (Demiveemon) would eat everything. Kari asks why he has to do everything she does. He says it’s because they’re partners, but Kari points out that Demiveemon is Davis’ partner.

Iori says his mother can make enough ohagi for everyone and then they start inviting themselves over while Daisuke laments that everyone’s muscling in on his time with Hikari. In the dub, Davis sulks that Demiveemon is his partner instead of Kari.

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Overall this episode was fine in the original, nothing particularly great or even good, but alright. Dub-wise….it was pretty bad. I do like Joe, even if he tends to get the worst jokes in the dub, and I’m pretty okay with Iori/Cody as he’s the second most interesting of the new kids, but since they seemed intent on removing every single lesson and emotion from the episode, we’re left with a hollow shell. Joe only has a small shot where he seems really concerned over Gomamon, which is when he skipped his quiz, and Iori’s subplot with Armadimon thinking he didn’t care about him was completely removed.

Plus, since the beating was removed, it didn’t seem like Digmon was really doing much to protect Cody. Yeah, he took one water blast to the back, but that was it in the dub. I kinda understand why it was removed, but it was no where near as bad as when Gabumon was getting beaten up. Plus, he has armor, a few swipes to the back can’t be hurting him that much.

Additionally, they changed the big conflict with Iori to begin with. Instead of him finishing what he starts and living up to his own responsibilities as an individual, there’s some confusing crap about being true to himself.

It’s just a big mess that didn’t need to happen at all outside of having Iori bond with one of his crest-sakes.

Next episode, a Mimi and Yolei-centric story.

…..Previous Episode

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AVAHS – Digimon Adventure 02 | A Very Digi Christmas Review

Plot: It’s Christmastime for the Digidestined, but the festivities are soured when Arukenimon floods the real world with a slue of Digimon and a control spire.

Breakdown: Twas the first day of December and all through the blog

Twix began writing this monologue

About all of the Christmastime posts she would write

though her self-imposed deadlines gave her quite a fright.

Each day, a review will grace this domain

Some of them cheery, some of them pain.

The year 2020 we all wanted to forget

and look forward to a new year with minimal regret

Channeling all of her holiday glee,

Twix kicked off her AVAHS jubilee

So gather around, all those seeking some fun,

AVAHS will bring cheer until day 31.

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Welcome to 2020’s A Very Animated Holiday Special! This year, I thought we’d kick things off with an anime episode. I’ve mentioned before that, despite Christmas being big in Japan too, there just aren’t that many Christmas specials in anime. However, there is one anime Christmas special that is, well, special to me: Digimon Adventure 02 – A Very Digi Christmas.

A Very Digi Christmas was the first ever anime Christmas special I ever saw, and it was pretty much the only anime Christmas special that I knew of for several years until I eventually watched the Pokemon Christmas Special. If you know me, you know I already adore Digimon, so this arrangement was made for me.

This episode occurs near the end of the series, so a lot of stuff is going down, but that doesn’t mean that Christmas is put on hold. Not only is Ken holding a Christmas party at his house, but all of the new Digidestined are bringing the Digimon of the old crew back to the real world as gifts for them.

There is a LOT to love about this special. Ken’s being a big sweetheart. He’s super shy about inviting the other kids to his house for a Christmas party, but eventually invites the whole group, even Cody, whom he believes still doesn’t like him (and vice versa.) Then we get some nice character development for him as he starts relaxing and enjoying the company of his friends at the party. He’s able to finally be his real self while also finding some semblance of happiness after all of the crap he’s been through his whole life, and that’s just great. Ken’s character arc has always been the best of the franchise, and he’s still my favorite character alongside Izzy.

The other kids getting reunited with their Digimon was also great, although I don’t really understand why the old kids don’t keep their Digimon around 24/7 like the new kids do. Before, they were protecting areas from the Digimon Emperor. Why did they choose to stay after Ken became a good guy? Am I forgetting something important?

There are several little scenes here and there that help highlight the lighter tone of the episode, at least to a degree. You even have a short discussion between TK’s mom and Davis’ dad about their kids as they bump into each other in the street, and some woman who works with Ken’s mom mentioning that she recently had a delightful conversation with Ken and he’s changed for the better a lot lately. Little notes like that make everything feel a bit homier.

Even the stuff with the main plot is really good. There’s not much of it because they’re trying to focus more on the holiday (which makes the battle seem rushed, but it’s not awful) but they foreshadow the big finale coming up very ominously. It’s clear that they’ll not only need all of the Digidestined for this fight, but they’ll also need to somehow do damage control all over the world. The biggest threat is coming, and they’re in for a massive fight unlike anything they’ve ever faced before.

That being said, this special sticks out in my mind for a…different and slightly sadder reason.

Matt’s concert.

What’s wrong with Matt’s concert, you ask?

Before the concert, we see Sora shaking in nervousness as she tries to get up the courage to give Matt some home baked cookies she made him for the event. Tai shows up, wanting to invite her to the concert as a date, but she makes it clear through (purposeful) awkward fidgety dialogue that she can’t because she wants to get backstage so she can give Matt her gift.

This was the first indication that Sora was more into Matt than she was into Tai, who, for years, had been pegged as her main love interest. I never fully understood why they shifted gears to Matt both in and out of universe, but, spoiler alert, the two end up married with two kids while Tai has a kid with someone off-screen.

This change is very controversial in the Digimon fandom. Some people find the change to be one of the most baffling and unfitting decisions they’ve made in the entire franchise, and some find it to be more fitting that she fell for Matt. Others were simply heartbroken that basically the main pairing of the series fell apart with so little in terms of explanation or closure.

Me? I was some combination of A and C.

I always supported TaixSora. TKxKari was my OTP, though, and….even they didn’t seem to end up together….*huff* I thought Tai and Sora were really sweet together. They complemented each other well and helped each other grow. To suddenly shut the door on this pairing…during the Christmas special….was just a lot to process.

Remember, this is little child me. I was used to the main pairings in shows that I liked either being completely ambiguous or ending with them together. I’m not certain, but this was probably the first time I had ever seen a main pairing fall apart like this.

Not to mention that Matt never seemed to be romantically interested in Sora, so this fully came out of left field. Don’t get me wrong, they were close friends, and their eventual romantic relationship seems healthy enough, but this is one of those pairings where one party always seemed more interested than the other. At least with Tai and Sora the feelings always seemed very mutual.

By the way, the irony that the girl with the Crest of Love unceremoniously severed her romantic link to someone who has been her main love interest for the past four years (At least. There was ship-teasing even when they flashed back to them as younger kids.) while in the process of going after a new one is not lost on me.

Looking back to this episode as an adult, though, I do have to say….it’s not perfect, but they do handle this situation a lot better than I ever gave them credit for.

Tai and Sora are older now. They’ve changed in a variety of ways. They’re not the same people they were when they were kids in the Digital World. Sometimes, people just grow apart. And other times they just fall out of ‘love’ and move on to people they believe they connect with more. It happens, especially when you’re as young as they are.

What I truly never realized about this scene was how well it showed Tai’s growth as a person. Even Agumon points this out, but I think I was always too baffled by what was happening that I didn’t put too much focus on how it was happening.

Tai didn’t get upset or mad at Sora. He understood that Sora’s eyes and heart were elsewhere now. He swallowed his pride and even encouraged her to go see Matt. It obviously hurt him, but he knew that would make her happy. One huge aspect of love is putting the other person’s happiness above your own. He’s truly grown up at this point, especially considering his once fierce rivalry with Matt. You’re a good man, Tai.

Just another reason why I’ll always love this series.

…..Now, what I DIDN’T appreciate was adding salt to the wound by having June zoom by him, knocking him down, and then listening to her gush about how all of the girls just love Matt. That was unnecessary…

Some minor notes about this episode:

– Uhm, Matt has a televised concert!? Considering his band only seems to know how to play one song, I don’t see how this happened.

– Davis nearly referenced strip poker. No, I’m not kidding. Yolei asks what card game they all want to play next and Davis says “How about strip pok–” and he’s cut off. I don’t understand how that flew by censors at all. ‘Poker’ isn’t even the questionable word in that phrase! These kids are 11!

– When the new group is about to bulk DNA Digivolve, Tai says they’ll finally get to see what all the fuss is about with these DNA Digivolutions. Funny he should say that because he’s the first person (With Matt) to ever pull off a DNA Digivolution. Does he not remember Omnimon?

– The guy backstage at Matt’s concert was hilarious.

– Ken’s mom had a funny moment. She’s tearing up because she’s so happy that her house has the laughter of children in it again, and she tries to stop herself from crying like this. “Oh I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. Quick! Think sad thoughts!”

All in all, this is a very nice holiday special and just a great episode as a whole, particularly for Digimon fans. Yes, the shipping stuff might sting even now, but I’ve grown to accept it. It wasn’t meant to be. Tai accepts that harsh reality, and so must we all. They ended up happy, and that’s all that matters.

…..Still not accepting that Kari and TK didn’t end up together, though.

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Digimon Adventure 02 Episode 4: King of Darkness, Digimon Kaiser Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: The Chosen Children are determined to free the Digimon who are under the Digimon Kaiser’s control. Gabumon, caught up in the mess, sends out an SOS. Yamato and the others arrive to help him as well as some captive Digimon, but a Redvegiemon and his Vegiemon cohorts won’t let them leave in one piece. With a control spire over their heads, Daisuke butting heads with everyone, and V-mon getting into trouble of his own, they’ll need to find some way to make Gabumon evolve to help get them out of this mess.

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Entire Series Edit: The clips for the recap are different from the original, but the recap itself is the same.

Title Card:

Title Change: King of Darkness, Digimon Kaiser is changed to Iron Vegiemon.

Taichi says they should get back to school because Koushiro and Miyako are probably worried. Tai says he can smell the cafeteria food from there, to which Davis responds that it’s the peanut butter and jelly bean sandwich he’s had in his pocket all week.

Cody: “Yuck!” My sentiments exactly, Cody.

The Dark Towers are called Control Spires in the dub.

They cut out Gabumon getting hit by Redvegiemon.

Also, everyone giggle at the fact that the Digimon Index screen shows Redvegiemon as Red Vagimon.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

And shouldn’t veggie be spelled with two g’s?

I kinda like Redvegiemon’s dub voice over the original’s. I dunno, there’s just something about him sounding like his VA is doing a Jack Nicholson impression that gets to me.

Originally, Redvegiemon says the punishment for trying to escape is 100 hits. In the dub, the punishment is smelling his rotten roots. This is to cover up the fact that Gabumon is getting pretty badly beaten in this scene. Likewise, all of the shots of him getting beaten are removed and the dialogue is merely Gabumon saying the smell is gross.

They keep in the final strike, which sends Gabumon flying, but they edit in Redvegiemon going down to the ground in the dub where he didn’t in the original.

They obviously completely change the song that Yamato sings, but they kinda sound similar. I really like both of them. However, I remember the dub song gets repetitive throughout the series since it seems to be the only song his band sings…

Needless to say, the rock puns in the next scene aren’t in the original.

Jun says she gets all the cute boys to sign her shirt, but it’s a perfectly white shirt. You can’t even see where Matt just signed it.

Jun originally doesn’t say that she hasn’t washed the shirt in two years nor does Takeru say that there isn’t much room on the, again, perfectly white shirt.

The e-mail that Takeru receives from Miyako is translated for the dub.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Tailmon originally said that the TVs that are strewn about the Digital World can be used to send an SOS to the real world. Agumon did the same thing in a previous episode. In the dub, Gatomon asks why the things on top of the TV are called rabbit ears. She believes they should be called cat ears since rabbits don’t sleep on top of TVs, cats do.

Another instance of very clear ‘poop’ being changed to ‘digisludge’.

Daisuke berates Takeru for not having any ‘telepathy’. Iori corrects him and says he means to say ‘delicacy’ and then Hikari, Takeru and Iori laugh at him. In the dub, Davis again gets TK’s name wrong calling him TA. Cody laughs that Davis forgot how to spell TK and the others join in.

In the dub, Patamon acts like a prisoner, which he shouldn’t considering he’s wearing a fake Dark Ring.

I don’t get it. Why is it perfectly okay to show V-Mon pinning down a Vegiemon and punching him repeatedly in the face, but the earlier scene with Gabumon had to be censored and changed to him smelling gross roots? It’s basically saying ‘Good guy beating up bad guy (who is really just a good Digimon under the control of an evil being) is perfectly fine. Bad guy beating up good guy, showing the wrongness of the situation and creating deep sympathy for Gabumon, is bad.’

(Late-Stage Edit: After doing more comparisons on the other Digimon series…..yeah, it really does seem to be a double standard with Saban that the good guys are commonly censored when being hit, but the bad guys rarely if ever get the same treatment. Is it because little kids might get upset when their heroes are hit while they’ll be happy when their enemies are hit? I really struggle to understand this.)

Daisuke just says that his sister always talks bad about him behind his back. She doesn’t like him, but he doesn’t like her either so they’re even. In the dub, Davis lists off all this embarrassing stuff about him that he thinks Jun told TK, like chewing his toenails, sucking him thumb and wetting the bed.

Yamato gets mad because Daisuke is badmouthing Jun. Matt gets mad because Davis has a big mouth….but really all he said was that Jun badmouths him and then went on to explain completely embarrassing stuff about himself, so I don’t see why Matt would get that mad about it. He also only spoke with her for a minute, so for all he knows she does indeed constantly talk shit about him behind his back. At least in the original, there was the added comment of saying Daisuke dislikes his sister to help justify Yamato’s anger a little.

Takeru doesn’t add the fact that Daisuke’s younger than Yamato thus he ‘doesn’t know any better’. And TK, really, you’re using that excuse? He’s the same age as you are, and you know better than to act like that about your siblings.

V-mon just says ‘Daisuke’ before the scene cuts back to the others. In the dub, Veemon starts a knock knock joke.

The Gazimon say they’ll go find a rope as thanks for saving them. In the dub, they say they’ll hang onto each other and make a rope out of themselves so they can ‘hop down the bunny slope’. You’d think Gabumon would refuse and just say to help him get a rope, but, nope, he says it’s a great idea….

It’s very brief, but they cut a tiny sliver of the first strike Redvegiemon gives to V-mon and put a white flash in there to help censor the punch.

Attack Name Change: Red Hot Machine Gun is changed to Chili Pepper Pummel.

Attack Name Change: Hazard Breath is changed to Stink Jet.

For some reason they remove the yellow strike marks near V-mon when he gets slammed down by Redvegiemon.

They do the same ‘cut out of a bit of the strike, add a flash’ censorship when Veemon’s getting beaten.

They cut out the strike to his stomach.

They cut out two more hits to V-mon’s face.

They cut out V-mon trying to crawl to Daisuke and then getting hit in the back….Wow, that’s pretty sad.

They technically remove the shots of V-mon getting beaten, which is just reshowing the previous beatings being treated as new ones. They keep the overlaid shots of them, but they only show stillshots of each beating instead of showing the animated version like the original does.

In addition, the four-way splitscreen showing V-mon’s pained expressions is supposed to come on one piece at a time. In the dub, they all show up at once.

They remove another strike to V-mon’s stomach.

They remove recycled animation of V-mon getting beaten some more and instead just steal a stillshot of it to show him standing up against Redvegiemon.

Daisuke offers to take V-mon’s place in the torture. Davis just tries to convince Veemon that he’s happy now to……I….uh…don’t know. He got into this to cheer Davis up, but he can’t get out because Davis is saying he’s happy. He could just give up, but he’ll still keep getting beat anyway.

Again, the strike to V-mon’s head is slightly cut and a flash is thrown in to censor it a bit.

They remove more of the beating, which, again, is really just slightly altered recycled animation.

Another stomach strike censored with a little cut and flash.

Redvegiemon originally says he’ll send V-mon to hell. He obviously doesn’t do so in the dub. As a bonus, Yamato and Gabumon don’t originally tell V-mon to duck when he’s about to get hit again, he just does it on his own.

Entire Series Edit: Like the original series, there’s a vocal song accompanying every evolution in the original. It’s the same every time, though changed between types of evolution. In the dub, they also use the same song for Digivolutions, but it’s just the Digimon theme song.

Redvegiemon just screams when he’s on fire. In the dub, he says “I’ve heard of grilled vegetables before but this is ridiculous.”

Revegiemon asks what he’s been doing the whole time. In the dub, he asks, when he sees the Dark Ring, if he got married when he was asleep.

Taichi says they have to destroy the spire at the Gotsumon’s home as well. They just say they’re taking them home in the dub.

Daisuke apologizes for his behavior and the fact that V-mon got into trouble because of it. V-mon then says Daisuke’s matured quite a bit now. In the dub, Yolei says she’s happy the Gotsumon are gone because they’d scratch her CDs just by touching them. Cody then says that they’d clog the sink every time they’d brush their teeth. Davis says that they were still pretty cool.

Because the final shot of the original fades to white, they have to use a stillshot of Ken’s face taken from earlier in the scene and place it at the very end of the scene to add ‘To be continued’ and the final narration in the dub.

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This episode was….meh. Nothing really interesting happened, though this is probably the most edited episode of Digimon I’ve ever dealt with so far. Usually all I have to note in these series are dialogue edits, but they did a lot of censoring here. It wasn’t 4Kids level, but still.

Other than that, Davis was a brat, the Vegiemon and Redvegiemon weren’t threatening very much outside of the extended beatings. The story was just more ‘rescue Digimon from controlled evil Digimon’ and there was a lot more recycled footage than usual. The main revelation for this episode was the spawning of the control spires and learning that their new mission is to destroy them all, though Davis has a really good point in saying that the Digimon Emperor could just build more. The old Digimon can’t protect all those areas.

Next episode looks like basically the same episode only replace Yamato’s presence with Jo, Daisuke’s little character development with Iori’s and put snow on it.

….Previous Episode

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Digimon Adventure 02 Sub/Dub Comparison – Episode 2: Digital Gate, Open!

Plot: Miyako and Iori finally get their turn to go into the Digital World, but when Daisuke and V-mon get kidnapped they’ll have to find their new Digieggs and discover their partner Digimon, Hawkmon and Armadimon to save them from the Digimon Kaiser.

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Title Card:

Title: Digital Gate, Open! is changed to The Digiteam Complete! Which is not really true since Ken is a part of the Digiteam and TK and Kari have yet to get their Digieggs/new Digivices at this point.

Iori and the others talk about how they have to get home soon or their parents will worry. Cody and the others talk about the various awful foods they’ll be having for dinner when they get home. Even though I don’t see how stuffed peppers and salad is that bad. I love stuffed peppers.

Jo says he has a national test tomorrow. In the dub, he says he has an oral test on laryngitis.

I love how Izzy in both versions says the other computers don’t have open gates, but you can clearly see that all of the other computers are just off.

Taichi doesn’t say the reason he’s having trouble in high school is the girls being much older (they’re the same age as him. Well, okay, upperclassmen, no.) He just says he’s having trouble adjusting to the workload.

Miyako says her clothes look cool. Yolei says her clothes make her look like she’s part of the cool crowd….What cool crowd is in your school, Yolei? What kid considered cool or popular wears a pilot hat, a vest, puffy bright red pants and boots? I’m legitimately curious.

Iori says they have to help Daisuke and V-mon. Cody says he wants to go home. Brave little loyal Cody.

Ken doesn’t make a bad pun about him ‘hanging out’ in the original. He just say that Daisuke’s finally awake.

V-mon doesn’t make a joke about the great view. He just tells Daisuke that he was captured.

Cody: “This Digivice you were kind enough to give me is starting to make noise.” This line is basically the same in the original, but Iori just says his Digivice is reacting to something. No one in the group gave Cody the Digivice, it was sent to him when the Digiegg of Courage was picked up.

What is up with the placement of the Digieggs anyway? Daisuke’s was by itself, Iori and Miyako’s were together, Hikari and Takeru’s were together and the remaining eggs are scattered. Is there any logic to the placement or is it just because the plot said so?

Only Miyako and Iori’s Digivices are reacting when they approach the temple. The rest of the group take note that theirs aren’t responding to anything. The reason for this is because the Digivices are reacting to Miyako and Iori’s respective Digieggs. In the dub, everyone’s Digivices are reacting, and not only that but Sora can tell just from a tiny red dot on her Digivice that it’s detecting a building.

At this revelation, Piyomon asks Tentomon if it’s because of the nearby Digieggs in the temple. In the dub, Biyomon reacts to Sora saying that there’s a building nearby and says there’s no buildings besides the temple, but it’s closed. Tentomon then says they couldn’t book enough weddings or Bar Mitzfahs. While it is a pointless change, that joke is a little funny.

Also, Biyomon and Tentomon know about nearby Digieggs when they’re clearly looking for Digieggs? Why didn’t they say anything before?

I’ve always been a little bothered that Iori got the Crest of Knowledge. Wouldn’t that better fit Miyako or is that just me? She’s the super-nerdy Koushiro fangirl. It only makes sense. She should’ve gotten Love and Knowledge while Iori got Sincerity/Empathy and Reliability/Honesty, especially considering that Iori had a problem with empathy later in the series after Ken joined.

He is fairly smart, but he’s more about feelings than brains. But, of course, Miyako got Love and Sincerity because they were the two GIRLS crests. Pft.

Name Change: Armadimon is changed to Armadillomon.

His Index screen is changed to reflect this.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Oh great, notes about dialects….I suck at this. Armadimon speaks in a Nagoya dialect and adds “dagyaa” to a lot of his sentences because I guess that’s common. Armadillomon doesn’t do the same, but he has a southern accent if that’s supposed to be our replacement for that.

Hawkmon originally just says “That is a problem, then…” without being rude. In the dub, Hawkmon is almost offended at the rejection to fight and calls Yolei a ‘defective human’. Ouch. Feel that new Digidestined love between partner and Digimon.

I know I’ve mentioned how I was ambivalent about Hawkmon and Armadillomon before, but now that they’ve appeared and actually said words, I’m starting to get annoyed for some reason. Hopefully the original will make me appreciate Hawkmon’s relationship to Miyako and Armadimon’s relationship to Iori better as well as V-mon’s relationship to Daisuke, because, as it stands, I still just don’t like this season’s Digidestined/Chosen Children or their relationships to their Digimon much.

Miyako thinks to herself that Sora’s hands are warm when she’s holding them on the Digiegg of Love. In the dub, Sora’s speaking over this and says she’ll also be Yolei’s friend for life.

Name Change: Holsmon is changed to Halsemon. In my opinion, I think the dub’s is better even if it’s only slightly different.

His Digivolution screen and Index screen are changed to reflect this.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Armadimon’s Armor Evolution screen is also changed to reflect his name change, but since it’s constantly spinning in the background, I’ll have to ask you to trust me since getting a screencap would be difficult.

Here’s another thing that always bugged me about this series. All of the Armor Digimon say something related to the crest that they have as a title. Flamedramon says “The Fire of Courage!” Halsemon says “The Wings of Love!” Shurimon says “The Samurai of Sincerity!” Raidramon says “The Storm of Friendship!” Submarimon says “The Reliable Guardian of the Sea!”

What does Digmon say?

He says…”The Drill of Power!”……one of these things is not like the others.

In the original, he says “Steel Knowledge!” What was wrong with that? He has steel drills. Steel. Knowledge. It sounds a lot cooler and makes a lot more sense than the ‘Drill of Power’.

The funny thing is that they actually recognize that they screwed this up because much later in the series they make Digmon say “The Drill of Knowledge!” then he makes some joke about how he wanted to add that in there. I forget which episode it was, but I distinctly remember that.

You can clearly see that when it transitions from Sora and Miyako to Iori and Izumi that the background didn’t change in the least, only the characters in the shot did.

We get a sincere moment from V-mon as he says that he’s been waiting his whole life to meet Daisuke and now that he has, there’s no way he’d turn around and become the Digimon Kaiser’s slave, even with a Dark Ring. In the dub, Veemon says he’d never be his slave so he might as well destroy him. Ken agrees and sends the ring down, which makes no sense since the ring won’t destroy him. Veemon tries to get out of it by saying he was just kidding.

Attack Name Change: Halsemon has two attacks – an eye beam and a beam blade that comes from his wings. His eye beam is called Red Sun while his wing attack is called Mach Impulse. In the dub, both of these attacks are called Tempest Wing.

Digmon says they’re there to rescue V-mon and Daisuke, and V-mon thanks him. In the dub, he says ‘Sorry to burst in on you’ while Veemon says ‘You could’ve knocked.’ I have a grave feeling a lot of Armadimon’s lines are changed in the future.

Tailmon tells Ken that he won’t get past her. In the dub she says “This litterbox ain’t big enough for the both of us.”

Wormmon originally say he won’t let her hurt Ken. In the dub, he says “Keep your claws to yourself you big bully.” Oh yeah, She’s the bully. Uh huh. Makes sense.

Another problem, common in many dubs but more noticeable than usual, since the original line to start Armor Digivolution is ‘Digimental up!’ it forces the dub kids to say ‘DigiArmor energize!’ like ‘DigiArmor eneeeeeerrrrrr-GIZE!’ due to the lip flaps.

Flamedramon tells the other Digimon to aim for the Dark Rings. In the dub, he just tells the others to show them what Armor Digimon can do to slaves of the emperor.

Attack Name change: Flamedramon has a secondary attack called Knuckle Fire – it’s when he shoots fire from his hand. In the dub, it’s also called Fire Rocket like his other attack.

The Snimon in this dub sounds awful. He sounds so bored. This is especially hilarious when he says his Twin Sickles attack.

Digmon originally says nothing but his attack name. In the dub he precedes this with “Guess we’re the drill team!” Because Drimogemon is also drill themed…haha. See what I mean about his dialogue?

Digmon’s attack is kept the same, for those wondering – Gold Rush.

There’s no joke by the Digimon that were slaves about getting the emperor a cappuccino, they just say the pain of getting attacked was nothing compared to being the emperor’s slave.

After Daisuke says they should go home but before we see them transporting, we see a closeup of Ken as he says “I wonder what Digimon I should play with next.” This is removed.

Taichi just says Fujiyama-sensei has a lot to talk about. In the dub, Tai says Mr. Fujiyama was talking to him about the birds and the bees. Wow, Saban. A sex reference for no reason? You naughty dubbers, you. However, he follows this up by saying when it comes to girls Mr. Fujiyama has a lot to learn. Did he get the explanation of the birds and the bees wrong or is Tai clueless when it comes to sex?

While both versions bring this up, most of the scene in the computer room is talking about how the new Digimon followed them and how they reverted to their In-Training/Baby II forms when they transported. Iori also says that they didn’t mean to take them, the Digimon followed them.

Patamon and Takeru then wonder why he and Tailmon didn’t revert back to their earlier stages when they came back….and they never give an answer. Takeru says it might be because of the different Digivices, but Patamon and Tailmon continue to transport back and forth without reverting even after Takeru and Hikari get their new Digivices.

I’d wager it’s because they’re older and more experienced in evolving, but it’s one of those things that is never explained.

The dub, as I said, covers a bit of this but they don’t ask why Patamon and Gatomon didn’t revert and there’s no question about how or why the new Digimon followed them. Iori’s line is also changed to make him wonder how his small In-Training Digimon could turn into a ‘huge’ Digimon like Digmon.

In the original, Piyomon and Tentomon said they stayed behind because they want to try to find out more about the Digimon Kaiser. In the dub, there’s no explanation as to why they were left behind, but they reiterate that they’ll be okay since the emperor never comes out at dark.

To add tension to the regular ‘to be continued’ thing, they super-impose the removed scene of Ken from earlier onto the final shot of the episode. They also change his line to “Oh really? Well excuse me if I don’t go shaking in my boots.”…which makes no sense because it’s not like Ken can hear them, especially not since they’re now in the real world.

Next episode will showcase Takeru and Hikari getting their new Digivices as well as their new Digieggs to make Patamon and Tailmon armor evolve. As for their armor evolutions, I really like Pegasmon, but he’s no Angemon. And Nefertimon always kinda creeped me out with her face. Also, I get her attack but it seems stupid that she essentially throws a slab of rock at her enemies…

…..Previous Episode

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Digimon Adventure V-Tamer (Manga) Volume 4 Review

Plot: Taichi faces off against two of Neo’s aliases; Sigma and his Piemon and Mari and her Rosemon. Meanwhile, Neo takes his newly evolved Arkadimon and his army of evil Digimon to Holy Angemon’s castle to start a war.

Breakdown: Tie-ins with the anime include seeing Piemon (Piedmon), though he’s obviously not the same Piemon. We also have Igamon, who was a minor enemy in A02, and Rosemon, who is the Perfect/Mega level of Lilymon/Togemon/Palmon. We never see this evo in the first anime, but she is in Tri.

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This volume starts out very strong, but the second half is lackluster. The first half is the battle against Sigma, a masked boy who speaks through a computer voice, and his Piemon. This battle is incredibly interesting and intense. They cover all of their bases with this one by having it take place in a fascinating and threatening environment, making Piemon a huge threat and having Sigma end up being fairly relatable by the end.

Sigma’s a very shy boy who never had any friends, and he puts on a mask and talks through a computer in order to stay hidden and protect himself from others. Despite this, he commands a very powerful Digimon in Piemon. Not only that, but he also controls his own dimension in which he can read all of Taichi’s commands and instantly counter them by manipulating the space around them.

He’s definitely a tough opponent to beat, and his final resolution, in the battle anyway, was very good. I hope he decides to become an ally in the future, but that may not be possible considering something that happens to him in his last scene. I won’t spoil it, but it’s basically another show of Neo’s utterly heartless nature and leaves Sigma broken in his wake.

The second battle is against Alias #2, Mari and her Rosemon. Mari is a Net Idol who is pretty airheaded, and the same can pretty much be said of Rosemon. In their initial attack on Taichi and Zero, they make all sorts of stupid mistakes, like Mari steps on the thorns Rosemon spread on the ground, then she takes off her shoes and steps on them again. Then she unleashes sleep gas on them and accidentally makes her and Rosemon fall asleep too. Really, she’s a complete joke for most of her debut until she reveals that she’s nearly killed a new ally, Igamon, in order to stop him from sending a message to HolyAngemon.

Then we, through a series of ridiculous events, find out that, surprise, she’s been faking being a weak idiot this whole time and is actually super evil and mean. Well, they make it out like that, but I don’t find her to be nearly as much of a threat as Sigma was. Rosemon has the ability to control Digimon with her Rose Whip, but it’s quickly broken through external pain. Through some help from Igamon, they take her down rather easily.

The only reason this battle is even worth paying attention to is because, when Mari’s faking being an idiot, she and Taichi actually make the scenes pretty entertaining and funny. The battle itself, however, was just extremely disappointing both on its own and as a follow up to Sigma’s battle. Nothing interesting or shocking happened, and the whole intention of it from the very beginning was, laid out in literal black and white, stalling tactics to keep Taichi away while Neo and his army approached Holy Angel Castle.

When Mari’s not being an idiot, she also loses everything entertaining about her. She’s a bitch, sure, but she’s not a memorable or entertaining bitch.

And that’s volume four…….Oh wait, we have a BONUS to go over!

There’s a side story included with this volume that melds with Adventure 02. The season two group is fighting a powerful Digimon called Parallelmon who has the power to shift between dimensions and absorbs Tamers. Most attacks on it are useless since his abilities allow him to break apart and absorb them. Daisuke is sent to manga!Taichi’s Digital World and has to face Parallelmon together with him in order to send him back to his dimension.

Daisuke, however, is feeling like his friends aren’t really his friends since they don’t seem to listen to him and appear to like Takeru much better. I won’t spoil the whole thing since it’s a great side-story, but it was a fantastic Digimon concept, story and even character arc for Daisuke.

This impresses me since Daisuke isn’t exactly my favorite Digimon character. Manga!Taichi’s personality meshes well with Daisuke’s, and it was a great idea for them to meet up. They crammed a lot of connection and friendship development between them in a short amount of time, and it worked very well.

We also got manga!Taichi explaining the significance of the goggles to Daisuke, stating that anime!Taichi would only give those goggles to someone who is very dedicated to their friends. (I could nitpick that considering that that had nothing to do with Taichi giving him those goggles, in the anime anyway. But eh.)

All in all, the first half of this volume was really awesome and the second half was just meh. The side story was fantastic, and the cliffhanger of Neo attacking Holy Angel Castle were also really great, but I can’t help but admit that the Mari parts, at least post-screwing around, were the weakest part of this volume.

Recommended Audience: This volume stays on the more violent end of the spectrum but still nothing really bad enough to earn anything above a 7+

Next volume, Neo has reached Holy Angel Castle, and Taichi still has one Alias to fight before he can get there. Will the Castle and every Digimon in it be destroyed while they wait for Taichi?

……Previous Volume

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Digimon Adventure 02 Episode 1 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Three years after the end of Adventure 01, the Digital World comes under attack again – this time by a human threat known as the Digimon Kaiser. It’s up to a new team of Chosen Children, plus an older Takeru and Hikari, under the guide of the old Chosen Children to save the Digital World. We’re also introduced to the concept of Armor Evolving which is supposedly on par with or more powerful than Adult level (Adult seems to be more impressive to the group later on) through the power of Digieggs made by the old crests.

Preface: Ah, Digimon Adventure 02….how I both love you and have several issues with you. I love Ken, his storyline and the darker tone of the show. Armor Evolving is pretty cool. The new Digivices are neat. I also like how the old Chosen Children still get to do stuff, albeit minor, in this series.

….I don’t like the new Chosen Children, the Child Digimon or their storylines for the most part. I’ll explain more in detail through this series and in the main review, but for now let’s start at square one.

Most changes that were just carried over from Adventure 01 will likely not be included here for the sake of avoiding redundancy. Some might sneak in, though, just because my memory is awful.

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The original introduction to the new series was sentimental, and Takeru didn’t give much information beyond it being three years later. In the dub, the intro seems more upbeat, and TK explains what everyone’s up to lately. Tai’s in high school (a bit pointless to say that since most of the group is in high school now, middle school in the original) and that’s pretty much it. He still plays soccer, I believe, but you barely ever see him do it. Matt’s trying to be a rock star, Sora’s playing tennis a lot, Izzy’s in high school/middle school too, Mimi moved to New York and Joe’s still studying to be a doctor.

The opener, as the last season, was changed. The original song isn’t fantastic, but it’s okay. The new dub theme for this season is just a slightly modified version of the old theme. Basically exactly the same barring the inclusion of “Armor Digivolve!” in the middle.

Strangely, it seems like more clips were removed, added and rearranged for the dubbed theme. Last season, very few clips were omitted from the theme, if any, now there are numerous removed, some added and changed.

Basically most of the clips of Submarimon, Shurimon and Raidramon are removed, a shot of a crying Ken imposed over the Digimon Emperor is removed (wouldn’t want to preemptively sympathize with the bad guy), the ending animation with the kids running with their Digimon is replaced with a photoshopped title card and old shots from the previous theme were inserted.

As with Adventure 01, we get custom title cards each episode. This one has a silhouette of Davis and Veemon with the title The One Who Inherits Courage. Again, as with the previous season in the dub, we get no title cards and instead have the titles over scenes in the episode. This episode is Enter Flamedramon.

Title Card:

TK’s mom doesn’t mention what her article is about in the original. In the dub, it’s about the historical significance of toilet paper….

Nitpicky, but the name boxes that show up when the characters introduce themselves are square in the original and long ovals in the dub. Also, obviously, the text is changed to English so kids can read it.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Miyako Inoue is changed to Yolei Inoue…..I have no clue why. Usually names are changed to make them easier to pronounce or change them to something more English sounding, but why Miyako to Yolei?

Also, because of her name change, she doesn’t explain that her name is spelled like Kyo in Kyoto, but is pronounced Miyako. In the dub, this is replaced by Yolei nerdily telling us precisely how long it takes them to get to school….To the best of my knowledge, she’s not as Izzy-ized as Izzy was in the previous series, but I’ve never seen the original version of this sooooo…

Name Change: Iori Hida is changed to Cody Hida….I’m not entirely getting these changes even further. In the first series, the changes had some connection to the original name. Matt for YaMATo, TK for TaKeru, Kari for Hikari, Izzi for Izumi (Koushiro) and Joe was just English-ized from Jo. What does Yolei have to do with Miyako or Cody with Iori?

Not to mention that Cody’s voice is awful. His original voice is just that of a regular kid. In the dub, his voice sounds incredibly raspy like he’s trying to quit smoking. He sounds more like Genkai from Yu Yu Hakusho than any kid I’ve ever heard. Cody is voiced by Philece Sampler who also voices Mimi!? Wait, wha? Mimi and Cody are voiced by the same person? Damn, that’s some range you got there, lady.

They edit out Miyako and Iori bowing in greeting to Takeru. I guess because that’s a Japanese custom, but they have no qualms showing tons of other Japanese stuff. Takeru’s must’ve been just shallow enough to keep in.

Miyako tells Iori that she’ll fix his computer if his mom makes ohagi, which are basically riceballs with various toppings. In the dub, Yolei says she’ll do it if his mom makes brownies.

Entire Series Change: Miyako’s catchphrase is ‘Bingo!’ Yolei’s is ‘Perfecto!’

Takeru says that Daisuke can’t be Taichi since he’s in middle school now whereas TK says Tai’s a much better soccer player than Davis. Look, I get that they both have goggles, but Davis and Tai don’t look very similar at all. Tai has giant crazy brown hair, Davis has moderately spiky way shorter maroon hair. Even their facial features aren’t very similar.

Name Change: Daisuke Motomiya is changed to Davis Motomiya

Hikari responds to Daisuke stating that they’re in the same class again by saying she’s glad to see him. In the dub, Davis says it’s great luck that they’re in the same class again and Kari says “I wouldn’t call that ‘luck’”

Daisuke said some kid said his goggles looked cool, but he didn’t even know him. In the dub, Davis says some new kid confused him with someone and that he probably thought he was a movie star.

It’s odd, in the original the teacher doesn’t introduce himself before he introduces Takeru, and he addresses Hikari by (last) name. In the dub, he has a name, and he calls Kari “The girl with the camera around her neck.”

Originally Daisuke is having inner monologue over the entire scene after it’s shown that Takeru and Hikari know each other. He’s just getting angry since Takeru seems to already know Hikari so well. In the dub, Davis only has inner monologue over the shot of him, and he’s acting like TK’s asking Kari out a date. When the scene switches to Kari and TK, we hear TK say he thinks the teacher looks like Ogremon.

Tai: *when Agumon reveals that he can’t Digivolve* “Did you forget how? It’s just like riding a bike. Now start pedaling and DIGIVOLVE!” Geez, Tai, pushy much? He said he can’t. Leave the poor guy alone.

Wait, where did Taichi get a D-Tector?

Originally, Miyako says she’s accidentally opening an email meant for Koushiro, but wonders why he’s getting one since he already graduated to middle school. I don’t even know how she has access to Koushiro’s email… She notes that it’s from someone named Yagami (Taichi’s original last name.) and recognizes that someone in her class, Hikari, has the same last name.

In the dub, she just opens the email like it’s hers and wonders about the message being “Come to the Digital World right away. The Digimon need our help!” She thinks it’s about some online game. She sees that the message is from Tai Kamiya and says there’s a girl in her class with the last name Kamiya so the email must be hers.

The text on the screen got translated to English.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Daisuke says “Hey, you!” to Takeru which prompts Hikari to say “It’s not “you.” His name’s Takeru-kun.” Daisuke asks what Takeru’s deal is with Hikari. Takeru doesn’t understand so he laughs because he thinks Daisuke is joking. Daisuke gets frustrated and says it’s not funny.

In the dub, Davis calls TK “Buddy” to which Kari corrects him as the original version. Davis then mistakenly calls TK, “TJ or JB or whatever” and continues the conversation as per the original. TK laughs because he thinks Davis is jealous of him and Davis stews at the insinuation.

Most of the next segment with Koushiro explaining the email from Taichi is the same but there are two changes. 1) He never calls his D-tector a ‘computer’. While the wide range of that word technically does stem to PDAs, which is what I assume the pre-tweaked D-tectors were, most people don’t call every electronic device that has similar functions as computers ‘computers.’ Nitpicky, but still.

2) Izzy says his battery ran out because he was playing too much Trigonometry Trivia last night on the Internet. Izzy, I know you’re an uber nerd, but Trigonometry Trivia? Seriously? And there are really other people on the internet who would want to play that too? Knowledge is power and whatnot, but come on.

Again, the email is translated.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Tailmon says that the Digiegg of Courage must’ve been there for a long time in the original. Gatomon says “It must’ve been rough on the chicken who laid that thing.” Now that I’m an adult and I know the full mechanics of chickens laying eggs…..yes, Gatomon…….It must’ve been hell. I will now cringe for a few hours. Excuse me.

Daisuke says that, since Taichi’s in trouble, they need to go to the Digital World as fast as they can. In the dub, Izzy just states that they’re going to the Digital World and Davis says he’s going too.

Davis once again mistakes TK’s name, this time TC, when Daisuke does not.

Daisuke says he’s going to the Digital World because he can go with his new Digivice. Koushiro says that’s true, as long as what he has is an actual Digivice. Davis asks if he can get Donkey Madness on his Digivice (Obvious poke at Donkey Kong) Izzy says the Digital World isn’t a game and that if he was really sent a Digivice it’s for a reason and he should take it seriously.

The color schemes of the Digivices never fully made sense to me. Davis’ is blue I presume because one of his Digieggs is Friendship, of which the crest color is blue. Yolei’s is red for her Digiegg of Love, but the others make no sense to me. Cody’s is yellow. That’s the Crest of Hope’s color, which is TK’s crest. Cody holds the Digieggs of Knowledge and Reliability, purple and gray, not Hope.

However, Cody’s Digimon is yellow, so I thought that might make sense, but then we get to Kari and TK. Kari’s new Digivice is pink, for the Crest of Light. Also makes sense. However, since Cody took yellow, TK’s new Digivice is green for the Crest of Sincerity. If we were going by Digimon color, Davis’, Yolei’s and Cody’s would make sense, but Gatomon’s not pink and Patamon’s not green!

During the trip to the Digital World, the dub adds in a song from Digimon’s soundtrack – ‘Here We Go’ by Jason Gochin. It’s a very frequently used song.

Another thing I never understood was the clothes changing. They explain it later in the series like their new clothes reflect their deepest wishes or something, but their outfits are just confusing. Davis has a fiery jacket and gloves, Yolei has a pilot hat, vest and old-timey pilot pants, and Cody has a plain beige shirt, which may or may not be martial-arts themed. This is supposed to be supported further by the fact that Ken got a cool Digimon Emperor outfit which disappeared when he became a good guy again.

However, it really just makes no sense to me. Yolei has no desire to be a pilot – she’s into computers. Though she may like flying through the air and has a bird as a Digimon, she’s shown no desire to be anything aviation related.

Cody’s outfit just MAY be martial arts related, I’m really unclear on that. Since Cody practices Kendo, this makes a little bit of sense.

But what’s up with Davis’ outfit? It really doesn’t change at all barring his jacket. Does he want to be on fire? We know he doesn’t want to grow up to be a firefighter or anything since he wants to open a noodle cart. And if that whole thing with the clothes does happen for whatever reason, why don’t TK’s and Kari’s and the old Digidestined’s outfits change when they go into the Digital World? They’re almost always wearing the clothes they had on when they entered the Digital world.

If anyone has any answers to this, feel free to offer up the information. I’ve watched this series several times over and have yet to make sense of it all.

As with the first series, the eyecatches for the commercial breaks are edited out. If they change in the future, I’ll update.

Daisuke doesn’t ask if all Digimon come from vending machines like Davis does.

Tailmon doesn’t make the joke that all Digimon will have to punch a time clock under the Digimon Emperor’s rule like Gatomon does.

Tailmon explains that since her Holy Ring (Tail Ring in the dub) was removed, she’s lost half her power….Well, that’s an unfortunate weakness, Green Lantern. And you weren’t even that powerful as an Adult/Champion level to begin with so that’s pretty sad. In the dub, Gatomon just talks about the Dark Rings.

Dub!Ken: *while trying to choose a Digimon to attack the group* “Einie, meenie, miney, mon!” *sigh*

TK: *in regards to the Digiegg of Courage* “It looks like a deflated beach ball!” …..Whaa? No it doesn’t. It looks like a Digiegg…..What….part of this, in any way looks even a little like a deflated beach ball?….Or even an inflated beach ball? In the original, Takeru just points out that the Digiegg has the Crest of Courage on it.

Ugh and here we get the little annoyance himself, Veemon or as he’s known in the original, V-mon….Because…I dunno. Look….I adore Digimon. It’s one of my favorite franchises ever, I’d even put it above Pokemon in terms of everything but games, but I just don’t much care for the second generation of Digimon.

They all seem more annoying than charming whereas none of the original Digimon seemed annoying to me. I also never felt the same connection between the new Chosen Children  and their Digimon as the original kids or the Chosen Children in Tamers. Veemon in particular annoys me, especially in the dub, because his voice is awful. Granted, none of the new Digimon voices sound great, but Veemon’s is just grating to me.

V-Mon is changed to Veemon on the Index Screen.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, as the last series, the Index screens are originally covered by a narrator. In the dub, Agumon does it this time, but a bunch of people and Digimon do it over time.

Veemon: “Tell me Davis, what hurts?”

Davis: “Everything but my earlobes.”

….Okay that was funny. Originally, Daisuke just thanked V-mon for saving him.

V-mon originally tells Daisuke over and over that he has to say “Digimental up!” to activate the egg. In the dub, Veemon never tells Davis that the trigger words are “Digiarmor Energize!” so I have no clue how Davis knew what to say. Maybe it’s like magical girl anime where the leads just inherently know what to say to call upon their powers.

Name Change: Fladramon is changed to Flamedramon. And the background words are changed to reflect this. (Also, just to be thorough, V-mon’s name in the Digivolution Screen is changed in the dub accordingly.)

Subbed:

Dubbed:

I will admit, as much as I dislike Veemon, I absolutely adore Flamedramon and Raidramon. I even have old toys of them that transform into the Digieggs of Courage and Friendship. And they’re both voiced by Steve Blum!……I hate Exveemon, though. A lot.

To get this out of the way, I’m ambivalent about both Hawkmon and Armadillomon. Hawkmon’s dub voice reminds me of Stewie from Family Guy, and Armadillomon is just forgettable and fairly lame with an annoying southern accent.

Halsemon’s really cool, Shurimon’s okay. Aquillamon’s a redder, male Birdramon rip-off.

Digmon’s ehhh, made all the worse by his relentless stream of puns in the dub. Submarimon’s so damn useless, but I enjoy the design. Ankyllomon is just a bigger version of Armadillomon with spikes.

I will never understand why they tried to make the concept of traditionally evolving the new team so fascinating. Their Adult forms are deep fried lame. Their Armor evolutions are so much better in terms of design and powers.

Fladramon’s Index screen is changed to reflect his English name.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Common practice in the original series – there’s a vocal song when V-mon first Armor Evolves. In the dub it’s just regular music.

However, after we get a scene with Ken, the dub inserts the also common Digimon soundtrack song ‘Run Around.’

Wait, Daisuke gets a D-Tector after the Digiegg of Courage gets sent to his Digivice? Then where did Taichi and Koushiro’s come from?

All Wormmon says in the original is “Ken-chan.” In the dub he asks Ken what a ‘foe’ is.

Taichi doesn’t outright say that Daisuke’s the new leader of the Chosen Children in the original. It’s implied, and we all know because, well, goggles, but saying it is just a little insulting. Do they never get a say in this?

Gatomon/Tailmon: “The Digimon Emperor/Kaiser never appears at night.”

….Are you sure? Because in the first scene and the flashback Gatomon had both look like they take place at night. Maybe it’s just incredibly smoggy, I can’t tell with the art.

As with the original series, the ending theme and next episode preview are removed for plain credits on another showing of the dub opener.

I will say that the Dark Rings always seemed like a Black Gear rip-off, but at least we have a new and interesting enemy.

Next time, Miyako and Iori will get to do stuff, we’ll get to see Sora, and Miyako and Iori will get their Digimon as well as perform their first Armor Evolution.

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