An Absurdly Deep Dive into the History of 4Kids | Part 12: Out of the Box (2005)

On January 22, 2005, 4Kids announced that they would be rebranding the Fox Box as 4Kids TV and would be greatly increasing their marketing efforts through TV, the internet, print sources, tie-ins and more to help 4Kids grow.

Time for another round of new 4Kids content – this time releasing their new animated series based on the new GI Joe toy line, GI Joe: Sigma 6, and dubbing two new shows, Ojamajo Doremi, which would be renamed Magical DoReMi, and Tokyo Mew Mew, which would be changed to Mew Mew Power.

Mew Mew Power got off to a weird and rough start, and it was one of the first real indications that Al Kahn’s views on the company’s content was….a bit odd. It was first licensed in February 2, 2004, and was obviously another effort to help draw in a female audience. When discussing the dub with Animation World Network, he said the more female-oriented shows in Winx Club and Tokyo Mew Mew weren’t purely directed at girls, but were more to attract both genders by “empowering girls while giving boys cute babes and plenty of action to look at.” which is definitely one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard him say, especially considering he’s talking about children. It’s also backwards. Like, yeah, talk about how the girls will be empowered while you also objectify the girls in the shows as being eye candy for the boys in the audience.

What I find most interesting about this interview is that they talk about the possibility of dubbing more mature shows. While the article mentions Shaman King, this was before One Piece had been announced. He said,

“It’s interesting, network TV is always complaining about the loss of their 18 to 35-year-old males. It was a big story a couple of months ago with the Nielsens; all the networks were very hard pressed. If you look at the anime ratings, even the stuff on Saturday morning, you will find that primetime ratings don’t do any better than us, even with our much smaller base. All of which suggests that much older boys will watch anime. I believe anime products that are much more aggressive and sensual are going to become more available in the appropriate timeslots. Certainly we, as a company, are looking at how we can expand our programming opportunities in order to do different things at different times.”

Add “Sensual” to the list of words I never ever want to hear Al Kahn say ever again.

Maybe I’m tin-foil-hatting right now, but this kinda leads me to believe that them acquiring One Piece was less of an accident or oversight. Some sources did suggest that Al Kahn actually did know what he was getting into with One Piece, some people in the company warned him, but he didn’t care…..Purely conjecture on my end, probably a reach, but still, it’s interesting to consider.

Al Kahn also said some things that anime fans probably weren’t too happy with. When discussing importing anime, he talked about how he downplays the fact that they’re imports at all.

“I think the term ‘anime’ is misleading; I think kids don’t know from whence we cometh. By the time we localize the programs, kids don’t even know they’re from Japan any more. We as adults tend to label this stuff, but kids don’t really know it.”

So, apparently, despite the fact that 4Kids was a big part of the anime boom back in the day, and they kept encouraging fans to appreciate what they did in making anime more widely available in the west, they didn’t want kids to know what they were watching was anime?

Indeed, as Tokyo Mew Mew’s original dub title was to be Hollywood Mew Mew. It was later changed to The Mew Mews sometime between February and August, and it was finally changed permanently to Mew Mew Power in August of 2004.

The airing of the show was odd as well. 4Kids released episode 12 as a preview for the show on February 19, 2005. The episode was smack dab in the middle of the mid-season finale and included a shocking plot twist in Aoyama, Ichigo’s love interest, meeting her in Mew form, causing her to panic as she believed this outed her secret identity to him. 4Kids changed this, including changing Aoyama’s, now named Mark, expression from a frown to a smile, and instead of him not really saying much to Ichigo, now named Zoey, they had him accept her and tell her it’s okay to be different. And instead of Ichigo reacting in shock and dismay before running away, Zoey happily responds.

Unlike with the way Battle Aboard the St. Anne was launched as a preview episode before the start of Pokemon, this preview didn’t drum up tension for what was to come. In fact, it did the polar opposite. This basically spoiled the entire plotline about Zoey trying to keep her identity a secret from Mark out of fear that he’d reject her, even though the series would never revisit this again and act as if nothing happened. It would have been much more tense and interesting if they had left it alone because it was a legitimate cliffhanger. They could have had the girls in the audience wonder how badly Mark is actually taking this revelation and how this will affect their relationship, instead of just brushing it off and having him immediately accept her without question.

The next episode preview also called the show The Mew Mews, meaning they didn’t correct the mention of the title in the preview despite it already being changed everywhere else to Mew Mew Power.

As my only fully complete Sub/Dub Comparison, I stand by my assertion that Mew Mew Power is one of 4Kids most mutilated titles. They really went all out with trying to make the show as unrecognizable from the original as possible. In addition to all of the normal edits and localization efforts, they also made everyone very unpleasant, cut out large parts of episodes and swapped scenes for no real reason. They changed storylines a lot, the dialogue was awful, the catchphrase in particular gives me ulcers to this day, and it’s just a very unpleasant experience for the most part with only some songs on the soundtrack being any solace.

The show ended with only 23 episodes being aired on 4Kids TV, and the final three episodes of the first season being aired on Canada’s YTV. The series ended in a cliffhanger, which was driven home further by 4Kids when they overlaid a foreboding shot of Deep Blue over the final scene to end the last episode on, and wrote “To be continued…” on the bottom of the screen.

Why Mew Mew Power ended before it ran the full 52 episodes is unclear.

One theory is that 4Kids’ only licensed the first season and were unable to acquire the second because the original creators of the anime, Studio Pierrot, Tokyu Agency, We’ve Inc., and TV Aichi, didn’t like what they were doing with it, so they refused to allow them to license the second season.

An admin on 4Kids’ forums said,

“Sorry everyone – I’ve seen the 4Kids TV schedule – from now thru April and there is no Mew Mew Power on.

I’ve checked with the television scheduler and 4Kids does not HAVE any more Mew Mew Power episodes – they’re working on trying to get more, but can’t say when or IF this will happen.”

The wording is confusing. Because you can either take this as 4Kids not having anymore episodes and they’re trying to get more, or the television scheduler didn’t have anymore episodes to list and they were working on getting more to fill out the schedule, or 4Kids didn’t have anymore episodes dubbed and they assumed they were working on getting more episodes dubbed.

I can’t imagine 4Kids only got the rights to season one and they planned so poorly that they aired all the way to the end and were like “Oh shit! I forgot! We have to get the rights to season two!” That doesn’t make much sense to me. It also doesn’t make much sense that they’d pull the show three episodes from the end of the season if they were intent on getting the second season. In every official announcement I’ve read on them acquiring the licensing rights, nothing ever mentioned they were only for season one.

In 4Kids’ documents, it said they had the rights to Tokyo Mew Mew until 2010 and doesn’t say it was just for one season. Why would they only get the licensing rights to one season if they were keeping it for six years? Why would Studio Pierrot, Tokyu Agency, We’ve Inc., and TV Aichi give the rights to season one for six years but not season two at all?

Also, that’s typically not how licensing works. You either get the license to the anime or you don’t. They typically don’t separate the license by seasons unless the show is currently airing and is in the middle of a season or something, and Tokyo Mew Mew had long since been over since January 26, 2003.

Either way, I don’t believe this was a case of them revoking the rights because they didn’t like what 4Kids was doing. Partially because it doesn’t add up very well, and partially because I believe the other theory a little more.

The theory in question posits that 4Kids wasn’t getting much revenue from Mew Mew Power since they couldn’t secure a toy or merchandising deal with anyone. I don’t know where the merchandising thing came from. I see a few people saying it, like TV Tropes and even the Wiki, but nothing actually confirming it. The forum thread which contained the initial announcement has 17 pages of comments, but the 4Kids forums are long since dead, and the Wayback Machine can’t access anything beyond the first page.

My one hangup with this theory is – how could they easily get merchandising deals for literally every other property, but not Mew Mew Power? Especially considering that 4Kids has decades of experience with tons of merchandising companies. Japan was able to release merchandise – dolls, CDs, art books, posters, DVDs, toys – they even had all of the transformation items as life-size toys. And isn’t one of the things they say they always do when acquiring licenses is determine if it’s profitable from a merchandising aspect? I can’t imagine no merchandising company would want to take this show, especially since they’ve managed to get toy deals for even their most obscure shows. It’s just very strange.

There IS no Mew Mew Power merchandise in America (there are some DVD releases in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France, but that’s about it) and revenue for the show was poor, according to 4Kids’ financial reports, so it’s quite possible this theory is correct, but I just can’t see why they would have such trouble with it, especially considering that Mew Mew Power wound up being their highest-rated show on 4Kids TV at the time.

2005 would also be the year 4Kids released Ojamajo Doremi, retitled Magical DoReMi. This had been in the works for years. They started discussing the licensing deal with Toei in October 2003, but they wouldn’t solidify the contract until 2004 and the show wouldn’t air until late 2005. DoReMi was another effort to hook in a female audience to 4Kids TV. Unlike Mew Mew Power, however, they intended to have the audience be even younger by having a lighter tone.

4Kids teamed up with Bandai to launch a huge line of merchandise for the show comparative to Winx Club. There were dolls, figurines, toys and even costumes. I’m surprised they managed to get such a massive merchandise deal for DoReMi but not Mew Mew Power. They’re both team-based magical girl shows. The only difference is one is based on witches (which you’d think would make deals more difficult because parents’ groups would probably get pissy) and one is based on animals. I’d actually think Mew Mew Power would be more popular toy-wise considering the cute animal vs. witch thing, but what do I know?

DoReMi was obviously given the same 4Kids editing treatment as any other show, but many people assert that the dub was one of their better efforts. Not great, but it could’ve been worse.

4Kids aired episode four on 4Kids TV on August 13, 2005 as a preview with regular broadcasting from episode one starting on September 10, 2005.

4Kids aired 26 episodes on 4Kids TV and then moved the rest of the series, barring one episode they never dubbed (Due to the on-screen death of a child, religious references, a shot of a dead character, and the frightening atmosphere of a cemetery at night being the backdrop for most of the episode.) to stream on 4Kidstv.com. 4Kids opted not to acquire the license for the second series, Magical Doremi Sharp, reportedly due to poor performance. Despite this decision, they had definitely planned to keep dubbing the series beforehand as evident by their unreleased merchandise for the second series which had been previewed at a toy fair, but I guess it didn’t pan out.

The reasons for the poor ratings were attributed to the show being aired at 7:30AM, which was way too early for many kids even for Saturday morning cartoons, the fact that it was aimed at an even younger audience than usual, and the sad facts that both Saturday morning cartoon blocks were dying and magical girl shows just weren’t entirely popular in America. I mean, I mentioned how Winx Club and Mew Mew Power were doing well, and of course there was Sailor Moon and Cardcaptors, but they really weren’t massive media franchises in anywhere near the same realm as Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!

The fact that 4Kids chose to stream what episodes they had left on their website instead of 4Kids TV kinda drives that point home. Yeah, at this point, we had some modicum of streaming. Kids no longer had to wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch their cartoons. They could either watch VHSs or DVDs or watch shows online. It wasn’t nearly all that good back then considering the video quality was typically bad, there wasn’t a huge selection, and internet connections, usually dial-up, sucked for watching videos, but it was an option.

Airing the show on TV and also airing the show online was always a great idea, but moving the entire show to streaming was basically a death sentence back then. It’s kinda like how when Disney Channel or Nickelodeon wants to silently kill a show they typically move it to Disney XD/NickToons.

Magical DoReMi would be aired one last time on The CW4Kids in 2010 in an effort to get some more mileage out of the show right before their license would be up. It’s really, really depressing that 4Kids had two brand new shows for girls premiering this year and both wound up being canceled within the year.

But enough of the girly stuff. It’s MAN TIME.

Since the girls got new shows, 4Kids had to bring in new blood for the boys. In order to tie-in with the new generation of GI Joe toys being launched by Hasbro, 4Kids created GI Joe: Sigma Six, which shared the name of the new toy line. While the production of the series was handled by 4Kids, famous anime studio, Gonzo, handled the animation.

I watched some of the series recently, and, honestly, it was okay. Not great, but pretty okay. Perfectly watchable, kinda fun, and I say this as someone who loved the classic GI Joe show in her childhood and still enjoys the franchise to this day.

But the toyline bombed, and they returned to the classic version two years later. The show didn’t do any better. 4Kids produced 26 episodes of the show, but stopped airing the episodes on 4Kids TV sometime around or after season one (13 episodes). YTV, however, completed airing the entire run of the series.

The fact that all three of these series bombed rather quickly was bad enough, but 2005 would hold one of the biggest blows the company would ever take. One that they never really recovered from.

Next – Part 13: Pikachu’s Goodbye

Previous – Part 11 – Playing Their Cards Wrong

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Mew Mew Power (4Kids Dub) Review

Plot: Zoey Hanson is a normal teenage girl. She’s has a huge crush on a great guy, is a bit lazy and a little scatterbrained. While on a date with her crush, Mark, she is hit with a strange red light that grants her the abilities of the red data animal, the iriomote wild cat, and turns into Mew Ichigo.

Elliot and Wesley, leaders of the Mew Project, are the ones who granted her these powers, and they tell her that she, along with four other Mews, need to stop the aliens, the cyniclons, from taking over the planet.

Together, Zoey, Bridget, who has the powers of a finless porpoise, Corina, with the powers of a larakeet, Kiki, with the powers of a golden lion tamarin, and Renee, with the powers of a grey wolf, use a cafe as their cover as they try to save the world from the cyniclons, Dren, Tarb and Sardon and their mysterious leader Deep Blue.

Breakdown: Now that I’m a bit less enraged after going through the SDC of this show and it’s original version, Tokyo Mew Mew, I can try my hardest to find the merits of this show on its own, as if Tokyo Mew Mew doesn’t exist.

To get this out of the way, its merits as a dub effort are awful. You know this, I know this, there’s no point in getting into details since practically everything was covered in the SDC. Everyone is changed to be unpleasant as a character 98% of the time, the dialogue is constantly changed, there are untold amounts of edits and scene swaps, and the stories of the episodes are commonly changed to make them kiddier or to dumb them down. Rarely was there ever an episode that was left mostly alone. It’s, as far as I’m concerned, 4Kids second worst dubbed show outside of One Piece – and give that show credit, they kept the names the same, usually, in One Piece.

Getting back to stand-alone Mew Mew Power, I’m going to break this up as much as possible, so let’s tackle the voices first.

Voices

Zoey: Her voice is very grating. I get that she is a teenage girl, but she’s over-the-top typical teenage girly girl, and I can’t stand when she starts screaming. I feel like, in those times when she’s being all romantic with Mark or thinking about Mark, that her VA is rolling her eyes through all of it because she just lays it on so thick.

Corina: Her voice is actually fitting for a little rich snob, but she does sound a bit too old for the role, especially when she’s yelling.

Kiki: I actually don’t find Kiki’s voice to be that bad in terms of her character, but the actual sound is annoying as hell.

Bridget: She’s also pretty fitting, but her acting is hokey very often. She just can’t emote outside of timidness.

Renee: Her voice is also fine, but she can’t seem to do any emotions outside of bitch and monotone.

Elliot: Sean Schemmel does a fine job as Elliot, for the most part, but he does nothing to differentiate his voice from Goku’s, which makes it very distracting. I don’t think I’d mention this if they didn’t reference his role as Goku in the series.

Wesley: His voice is completely forgettable and doesn’t really fit the suave and cool character he’s supposed to be.

Dren: His voice is okay. He doesn’t get the cute lines down as much as…..uh, another show with the exact same character that I’m not supposed to talk about. His voice can be fun, slippery and malicious, but it’s not terribly effective.

Tarb: Gary Oak is a brat. I can’t say anything bad about that.

Sardon: His voice grew on me, but it just sounds so weird.

Mark: I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to give Mark this voice. He sounds way too old. Like I said in the SDC, this kid is supposed to be 15 in the dub yet he sounds like he’s in his forties and probably smoked in his youth. This is by far one of the worst voice casting choices I’ve ever seen.

Mini-Mew: His voice is actually really good. It’s a bit annoying since he talks quite a bit, but the choice of voice was good.

Characters

Zoey: At her best, Zoey is a typical self-absorbed materialistic teenage girl. She can be nice enough, but she has way too many moments of being snarky, bitchy and overall unpleasant. She’s obsessed with Mark to the point of willfully wanting to abandon her duties as a Mew, IE saving the world, just to be with him. It’s incredibly hard to want to root for her or her relationship with Mark because of how unpleasant she is to watch.

Corina: Self-absorbed, lazy, bitchy snob. She rarely has moments where she’s being genuinely kind, and even these moments are turned around to be sarcastic or bitchy. She also doesn’t really have much of a backstory beyond being a lonely rich girl.

Bridget: She’s one of the more tolerable characters, but man is she boring. Her voice and lack of range in emotion mixed with her personality make her really bland. Even her backstory isn’t very interesting.

Kiki: Kiki’s a little entertaining and not quite as annoying as I feared. However, there’s little in terms of filter between her brain and her mouth. I would say she just has no tact, but many of the instances of this come off as bratty instead of just putting her foot in her mouth. She does have the best backstory of them all though.

Renee: She comes off as cold and mean, and at best she’s a seemingly cold older sister type. She can be nice when she wants to be, but these moments are also ruined most of the time by adding in stereotypical teenage girl attitude. You don’t really get to know anything about Renee besides a few character traits as the show doesn’t explore her backstory.

Elliot: He’s very abrasive most of the time and a downright asshole several times, but there are circumstances when he’s trying to be nice. These instances are sometimes ruined by poor dialogue choices or tone of voice, but not as often as the girls. We never delve into his backstory or why the Mew project came to be.

Wesley: Wesley’s a dork. I couldn’t quite find the right word before, but yeah, he’s a dork, especially after the way he was talking in episode 25. What the hell was that, anyway? People on the Food Network don’t talk about food that much.

Mark: Mark is really nice, but down to the bare bones, he’s really boring. He plays kendo, he’s adored by girls, he’s a perfect guy, but he’s boring. His droning insurance salesman voice in no way helps.

Dren: He’s a fine villain, but a bit too cartoony to ever be taken seriously. He has a really stupid manner of speech that is very effeminate and littered with dumb cutesy nicknames and silly wordplay.

Tarb: Well, they weren’t wrong, he’s a brat.

Sardon: Probably the only of the three I would ever take seriously, but his voice makes it close to impossible to do so.

Deep Blue: Kinda pointless to talk about him. He’s a mysterious voice from the shadows who commands his lackeys to do everything and wants to rule the world. His voice is ridiculous, and he’s a lot like Giovanni from Pokemon except he somehow manages to do less on his own.

Blue Knight: There’s also not much to say about him. He’s this show’s Tuxedo Mask, though he doesn’t show up nearly as often as TM does in Sailor Moon. He’s obviously voiced by Sean Schemmel with a sore throat and he does nothing but save Zoey, protect Zoey, and give her pep talks before vanishing.

Story

Outside of using animals, fighting aliens and using DNA instead of magic as a magical girl power base (which is pretty silly to note as an original thing since they must still be relying on magic to a degree) it’s on par with most other magical girl anime dubs. Typical teenage girl voices, overly girl-ifying everything most of the time, and following roughly the same character archetypes and structure. Renee and Kiki kinda break the character archetype mold, though.

The ending is completely unsatisfactory, obviously, since the dub project was canceled.

The stories can sometimes be goofy, but I never expect full seriousness out of magical girl shows. They are usually aimed towards kids and are partially comedy shows.

The dialogue is bleh. If I can compare this to a similar-ish show and not the original show for a second, take Kim Possible. Both aimed at kids, both focus on teenage girls as the main heroes, both are no strangers to very girly things such as pop music, cheerleading, and of course, boys. The dialogue in that show, while being lame sometimes, mostly in the catchphrases, was overall snappy, realistic and, best of all, funny. The dialogue in this show is lame, forced, dated, not that realistic and not funny.

The music is very poppy, very girly, and the lyrics are almost always nauseatingly girly and lame. However, the music department at 4Kids is very good at making earworms in terms of their melodies. Their insert songs during the emotional scenes are forgettable, but ‘Supernatural’ and ‘We’ve Got the Animal Instinct’ admittedly grew on me. The OP is very catchy as well.

The art and animation don’t stand up to the average western cartoons and even many of the anime typically found on the same block. Better than Yu-Gi-Oh, but that’s like saying being beaten with a branch is better than being beaten with a plank of wood.

Pierrot really did blech work on this show. The colors pop, the transformation scenes are well done, and when they actually decide to use their budget the show doesn’t look half bad. However, most episodes look like crap for the most part. The animation is average at best, and the art can be horrible at worst.

Is There Anything The Dub Did Better Than The Original?

I can’t really avoid comparing the two versions here as I really want to give 4Kids some credit.

Yes, they did something better than the original and you probably already know what it is – giving the other girls more time to shine.

While I doubt this was made with fairness between the characters in mind (it’s probably a marketing strategy both for their soundtrack and their character merchandise) they do give more focus to the other girls when they can in terms of showing them transforming and doing their attacks. In the cases of Kiki and Bridget, they even make up additional attack names for them to seem more diverse even when they don’t do anything different.

The original has this really nasty habit of favoring Ichigo far more than even the average magical girl show favors the leader. The other girls get what they get at the start and usually get nothing more. Mint can kinda fly, though she usually just floats. It’s possible she can also talk to birds. Zakuro might be able to talk to dogs/canines in general. Lettuce was able to turn into a mermaid twice with Mew Aqua. Pudding got jack squat.

Ichigo, however, gets three different weapons, three different attacks and always gets the final shot. She has cat ears and a tail pop out when she’s upset and she eventually turns into a cat fully.

While one can argue that those abilities are the curse of this project, it would be better to give similar abilities to the other girls. After all, they’re supposed to be itching to be back to normal, right? If transforming is a choice, this Mew project deal doesn’t affect the other girls nearly as much.

Have Mint sprout wings or talons. Have Pudding sprout monkey ears and a tail. Have Renee sprout dog ears and a tail. Have Lettuce…..uhhh….sprout…a fish….tail? Hell, just have them take on animal behaviors like Pudding jonesing for bananas, Lettuce having irresistible urges to swim, Mint wanting to eat bird seed, Zakuro chewing on bones.

You can get really creative with this yet they never do. They don’t even explain what everyone else’s animals besides Ichigo’s are until more than halfway into season one. She gets practically all of the focus in every episode unless it’s a special character-driven episode, and even then focus shifts to Ichigo much of the time.

It was a nice change of pace to have more focus on the other girls, however minor it may be. Is it really so much to ask to properly showcase a TEAM show without always having the focus and all the fun stuff go to one damn character?

They also had a few moments where their dialogue or story changes were better than what was originally there. Slightly….Just slightly.

Bottom Line: It’s a terrible, horrible, butchered little dub, and I stand by my statement of ‘Second worst 4Kids’ dub ever.’ It’s an average dubbed magical girl show at very best, and I don’t fault anyone who liked this show as a kid.

I never got into it as I was too busy watching Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon and Digimon. Doing/reading sub dub comparisons on those shows makes me cringe sometimes with how awful the dubs can be, but elements of the original version still shine through, just like it does here, and I can see how people would be allured by that. It doesn’t seem to do much harm to kids in terms of messages, it just doesn’t have much to offer. There are and were better similar shows out there for kids to watch.

Recommended Audience: Ichigo’s boob shadows and Kisshu’s stomach/groin lines were painted away because they were too risque. I think no one can argue with E for everyone.

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 26 (MMP FINALE) Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Kisshu seems to be gaining the upperhand against the Mews as his Moth finally emerges from the cocoon. It’s a struggle to merely keep the moth from getting into the city, let alone destroy it. When everything has been thrown at it and nothing seems to work, it’s up to Ichigo to find it within her to save the day.

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Let’s psych ourselves up shall we!?

I don’t normally do post-first-episode intros, but since this is the first SDC I’ve completed so far, I think it warrants one. Allow me to formally welcome you to the final SDC of Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power.

Thank you, thank you. It’s been a trying journey, but we’re gonna make it over this final hurdle! I started this comparison on an old forum in 2013 and finished it mid-2015. After getting swept up in a wave of too many comparisons, I decided this, being the shortest and most completed so far, would be the main focus and I would get back to the others later.

This series is 26 episodes and took nearly two years to complete.

I had nearly 60 episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh completed in less than a year.

That pretty much shows how much of a chore this comparison has been. I just reached a point where I didn’t want to do it anymore. At least the other shows, while being poorly dubbed, though ranging in dub quality, are usually entertaining. This is just painful. Everything about this dub is unpleasant, and the only thing getting me through it was the new and fantastic ways 4Kids continued to amaze me with their stupid and nonsensical changes in terms of visuals, audio and script.

Keep in mind, the end of this SDC does not mean the end of Tokyo Mew Mew. 4Kids lost their license after season one and never got to dub season two. You may all cheer again.

The reasons aren’t entirely clear, at least from what I’ve been able to find. They either lost the license because the original creators were unhappy with the quality of the first season or 4Kids dropped the project after season one because apparently it wasn’t marketable enough, which I find to be complete bull.

Outside of shounen gaming/fighting anime, magical girl anime is the easiest anime to market. Just look at Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. I really just think 4Kids didn’t know how to handle shows that specifically focused on a female demographic, which really explains their utter lack of shoujo shows outside of this and Doremi, another SDC that will be premiering soon.

I will be continuing this project after the finale by continuing on in a Shoujo Step-by-Step and reviewing the Japanese episodes. I know I’ve made a full review of TMM, but that is pretty old and now I’m getting a new view on the show, so it will hopefully be entertaining and fun.

Let’s start the torture so we can finally end our pain. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mew Mew Power’s series finale!

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Wow, 4Kids wants to celebrate the finale too by doing something they really haven’t done in this series so far; fully breaking the fourth wall! Both versions start with a recap of the previous episode’s events, but the original’s is from Ichigo’s point of view recapping the events from their side of the story (searching for Mew Aqua, getting exhausted, date with Aoyama, Tokyo Tower, moth etc.) and the dub is from Dren’s point of view explaining his moth, his armadrillos searching for Blue Aqua and Zoey being luvey duvey with Mark. Dren starts his recap by saying “Hey, Sardon, remember what I did in the last episode?” Hehe, it’s funny because he’s not supposed to know he’s in a TV show. He must be channeling his inner Team Rocket.

They also mess up their damn flashback again because Mark just says he has a surprise for Zoey and she never learns what it is. In the flashback, he outright tells her that he has two tickets to the Bon Bons concert and Dren mocks him saying that. The dub’s flashback includes more clips that weren’t included such as Masha flying up to the cocoon (which, according to Dren, was just what he wanted him to do. *shrug*) Dren’s armadrillos, shots of Dren and the others and the very last shot of the previous episode.

Scene swap! The original then goes onto a scene with Pai and Taruto investigating where the Chimera Moles stopped. The dub goes on with Mark and some kid named David after kendo practice. Let’s tackle this then.

The start of this scene is cut off because bowing. You can barely see them they’re so far away, so no real point in a screencap.

Name change: Aoyama’s senpai is not named. In the dub, he’s named David.

Aoyama’s senpai doesn’t mention where he got the tickets, he just says he’s surprised Aoyama wanted them. He also mentions that Aoyama’s fangirls will be crushed now that he seems to be formally dating Ichigo. In the dub, David says he gave him the tickets because his girlfriend dumped him “So no tickets for her.” Then he acts passively bitter over the fact that Mark has a girlfriend and now he doesn’t and leaves him by saying “Have fun with my girlfriend’s tickets.”

The following scene after this was originally the girls arriving at the tower. In the dub, they place the scene I mentioned before with Pai and Taruto after this.

Text on the pole is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Kiki: “Superheroes coming through!” Yes, yell that in a crowded area, Kiki. Not like you guys have secret identities or anything.

They cut Ichigo’s running short after she goes through the crowd of people; same for Pudding and Lettuce. Also, Ichigo has inner monologue running of her continuing the conversation that the group was having with Akasaka in a bit of an audio flashback. All he’s saying is stuff about the moth that we already know. This is not included in the dub. They do have a dub-exclusive exchange of Elliot telling the girls to hurry and Zoey pointing out that he’s in the back and asking “What’s the matter, Elly? Too many pastry puffs?”

Signs behind Lettuce as she’s running are de-textified.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They either shortened the scene of Mint running to avoid showing this shot, or they removed a pole with a sign on it that goes by in the background as Mint’s running. It is literally only visible for a frame or two but I watched the dub version three times and I can’t even see the pole. I’m going to bank on it being cut because I also can’t see a different pole that has caution lines on it.

I had to go frame by frame for those screencaps they go by so fast. Pfft.

They remove text from the clock.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

After the scene with the girls running but before they arrive at the tower is where we see the scene with Aoyama and his senpai from earlier in the dub.

Pudding just points out that Kisshu’s there. Kiki says “Look, it’s a flying dweeb!”

They remove Ichigo telling Kisshu to shut up as well as Akasaka pointing out that it’s a diversion tactic.

The original has very shortened versions of the girls’ ALREADY SHORT AS IT IS transformation sequences back to back; Mint first, then Lettuce, then Pudding, then Zakuro. Then our almighty Ichigo, the only Mew who matters, gets her transformation sequence at the end in full. In fact, they friggin’ change the music cue like she is above the one the other girls were using. Rrrgh.

The dub once again decides to be fair and uses their traditional full-on transformation mashup with ‘Supernatural’ playing.

Kisshu talks about how refreshing it is to be up at that altitude, Pudding agrees and Lettuce says she doesn’t like it because she’s getting chills. Dren asks if the girls are ready to party, Kiki gets excited, but Bridget says it isn’t that kind of party.

Zoey: “Mew Mew style…”

Nnnnn……Nnnn…..Endure….must endure….

“Mew Mew grace…..”

Just…..one more…….time…..

“Mew Mew power…..”

Rrejwlrkjerlkwelrkjweljrlekrlwejrlkejrlksajdf’pashdvposahrfpohjw

“In”

“Your”

“Face”

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

RRRRRRARRRHGFHHGH…….*gasp* *gasp* *pant pant pant*……*sigh*…………..Hehehe…..hehehehehehe…..it’s done….it’s over….I survived! NO MORE MEW MEW POWER IN MY FACE!!

Ichigo’s attack is cut a bit in the original and full in the dub.

Edit: Hello everyone. I’m revisiting this Sub/Dub Comparison after completing it, and before posting it because I’m sane, because two days after finishing it and thinking I was done for good, I remembered a video that showcased some of the more prominent paint edits in Mew Mew Power, and it showed an edit I completely overlooked.

After Ichigo’s attack fails, we see a back shot of the girls slightly to the side. Since it’s a somewhat revealing shot of Lettuce’s backside, they painted her dress to be quite a bit bigger to cover what you could see of her butt and most of her thighs.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Not as laughable as the diaper she had on in the mermaid episode, but still.

“Now, Twix,” you ask yourselves, “How could you miss such a dramatic change?”

Quite frankly, while I’ve trained myself to look for the tiniest indications of text and signs…..I am not nearly as apt to constantly stare at a 13-year-old girl’s ass…..

End of pointless pre-post edit.

They shift a shot of Ichigo looking at Kisshu.

After Ichigo looks at Kisshu, we cut to Aoyama at the meeting place. In the dub, we continue on in the battle sequence.

After a shot of Ichigo panting, Aoyama calls her on the phone. In the dub, they cut to Mark’s scene at the meeting place.

Text on the overhang is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Aoyama says he’s come too early. Mark says Zoey’s late as usual, which she’s not because they left in the shot of the clock, both versions told her to meet him there at 5:00 and the clock clearly says 4:27. Well I guess if 4Kids thinks kids can’t read words, they probably don’t think they can read an analog clock either. (And, remember, this is back in the day when people were commonly taught to read analog clocks.)

For some stupid reason, they cut this scene short. The only part that they cut off is Aoyama smiling. Good. No one should be smiling here.

Text is removed from the little gift shop vendor.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

The dub didn’t convert the distance correctly when judging how far the Chimera Animal is from the tower. In the original, it’s 20 km. In the dub, it’s 20 miles. 20 km converts to 12 miles.

It’s here where the start of the scene with the girls before it cut off to get to Aoyama’s shot is. Eugh, I’m dizzy just saying that.

The screen on Ichigo’s phone is changed to merely say ‘Mark.’

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, look very very very very closely and you can see they also removed some random shapes from a couple of buttons on her phone too. They’re not text, they’re just shapes.

Text behind Aoyama is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

I think they trim the shot of Ichigo starting to cry a bit.

Ya know, I appreciate what the girls are doing, trying to face the enemy alone to let Ichigo go on her date……….but that uh….world…..ending…moth…..About to hatch……Even Ichigo wasn’t able to put a dent in the cocoon with her Strawberry Surprise…..so the moth inside must be pretty nasty…….Hate to tell you guys this, but the writers really made you guys suck in terms of power, except Zakuro. Now’s not the time to be sending ‘I get all the powerful, new and fun things’-Ichigo off to catch a concert.

The earlier shot of Ichigo looking at Kisshu was shifted to after he gets angry at the idea of Ichigo leaving for her date. Because….that was a good use of time wasn’t it?

The blue banners flashing on Akasaka’s screen have text on them. This is removed from the dub. Those oh so useful blank warnings.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Zakuro originally says to attack the moth before it flies away. In the dub, Renee says the transformation must’ve weakened it, so they should attack now…..the transformation was a process to make it stronger; what makes you think it’s weak because of it?

So I guess, in the end, Zakuro’s attack never gets a dub name. Corina rarely ever says her attack name, and Renee never gets one by default; they never even name her weapon. Weird.

They shorten Pudding’s second attack in the dub.

Attack….Name….Change?? Pudding just keeps using her Pudding Ring Inferno over and over as she chases the Chimera Moth. The dub has her keep saying ‘Goody gum drops’ when she repeats the attack over and over. Does that mean, like Bridget, they kept the exact same attack animation and effect yet gave it a different name to pretend it’s something else?

Let me get this straight; Renee gets no weapon name, no attack name and only grunts when she attacks.

Corina gets no weapon name, one attack name and hardly ever says it after the first time she does it.

Bridget gets a weapon name, four attack names and hardly ever goes without saying it.

Pudding gets a weapon name, two attack names and is half and half with saying it.

I applaud the effort to at least give the illusion that the other girls are getting more stuff to do, but if you’re just going to take away stuff from a couple of the girls for no reason as well, why bother?

They cut out Ichigo powering up her Strawberry Bell. I dunno.

They have kicked up the budget for this episode, being a season finale and all, but man the animation when Ichigo got knocked off the moth. Ick.

Aoyama seems to hear Ichigo thinking to herself ‘I want to see you, Aoyama-kun.’ In the dub, he seems to only hear her screaming as she falls. Not sure how to take this, to be honest. The original obviously shows some sort of connection between the two of them while the dub kinda just has Mark hearing her, but she is an awful long way away.

Ichigo, hearing yet again that the Blue Knight was born to protect her, starts saying that she loves someone else, but is interrupted by him saying that he doesn’t care because loving someone is noble. Love overcomes all difficulties and opens a path to the future. In the dub, Zoey asks who he is, he says it doesn’t matter and gives Zoey a pep talk.

BK: “You have the power to beat this thing, Zoey. Because you love and are loved in return, and that love makes you strong.” It’s roughly the same message as the original, though they omit the insinuation that she loves Aoyama…..but did he seriously say ‘love’ three times in one sentence? Am I watching Moulan Rouge?

Text on a building is gone.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Another record scratch…..*rubs temples*

4Kids, you made BK say “THAT love makes you strong” not “YOUR love makes you strong.” He literally said this less than a minute ago. You really forgot in that time?

They cut out a reaction shot of Kisshu.

The flashback in the original has a green tint to it. Outside of the normal fuzzy border they always add, the flashback is unaltered in the dub.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Zakuro originally theorizes that the Mew Aqua may only cause a reaction in them, IE glowing, when they’re emotionally charged. Renee says they have been looking for something that’s been in their hearts this whole time. Both versions give off basically the same information, but man the dub is cheesy.

So the others are reduced to being a barrier again…..nice…Also, the barrier doesn’t even seem to do anything. At least show the moth bumping into it or something. It just makes it seem like they’re doing nothing AGAIN.

There’s a lyrical song as Kisshu and Ichigo are racing to the Mew Aqua in both versions. It’s….actually not too bad of a song. It matches the tone and melody of the original’s pretty well, even if it’s a bit poppier, though I can’t really judge the lyrics since the song is so soft you can barely hear them.

Ichigo originally says that magical words are coming to her from her heart, and she recites the words “O virga Mew Aquae luce!” Zoey just parrots the speech BK gave her earlier and gives no other words as she revitalizes the wand.

Weapon Name: The Mew Aqua Rod is changed to the Strawberry Scepter.

Attack Name Change: Ribbon Aqua Drops has been changed to Blue Aqua Drops.

I have no idea why, but they edit the shots of the girls saying “Ichigo” one at a time, to stop their lips from moving and ultimately stop them from saying their lines……To be completely honest, I kinda like the dub’s version better because that whole shtick is kinda annoying to me, to be honest, even if there is simply no reason to have done that.

Shirogane originally says “Keichiro, I must glorify them!” (In response to the girls saving the day) Keichiro then responds with “Sure. They are wonderful goddesses.”

Elliot just says “Well, I think it’s safe to say our girls just saved the world.” Wesley gets no line.

Again, I kinda prefer the dub because the original lines are just really cheesy.

They cut out a shot of Ichigo’s skirt as she’s running.

The original simply ends on the shot of the area where Aoyama is supposed to be. In the dub, as a bigger cliffhanger, they impose the silhouette of Deep Blue over the shot, perhaps to indicate that Deep Blue may have done something to Mark, and they add ‘To be continued…’ on the shot.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

——————————————————–

And it never will be continued.

I actually feel bad for the people who only know of this show as a dub. Not only is it terrible, but it ends with practically everything unresolved.

You never find out who Deep Blue is or who the Blue Knight is, Zoey and Mark’s relationship is left hanging, though considering he never seems mad at her, it’s not that much of a worry that they’ll break up. You never find out if they beat the aliens or anything. Oh and yeah, you never get a continuation of the very first episode where they manipulate it to make it seem like Mark learned who Zoey was.

You’re left completely in the dark. If I was watching this with no knowledge of the original, I’d be pissed. To be honest, though, with how much they’ve changed, I don’t see how they would’ve continued on, anyway.

I can not be happier over the fact that this comparison is over. It’s been a real challenge, and having one comparison under my belt leaves me excited to get others done. Other than One Piece, this has been the most mangled show I’ve seen so far.

Updates for the Tokyo Mew Mew Shoujo Step-by-Step will be a little slow as I focus on other things, but that shall be completed as well. I really am getting a fresh pair of eyes on this show after doing this project, so I expect it to be interesting.

I have one more thing I want to do before I close this comparison out, and that’s give Mew Mew Power, as a whole, an objective review. You probably already know my feelings on this series if you’ve followed this series from start to finish, but on its own, as a stand alone show, is there any merit to it?

Thanks for following the series, and here’s to more SDC’s in the future!

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 25 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Akasaka and Shirogane have found a clue to the whereabouts of Mew Aqua deposits. They send out the girls every night in search of the Mew Aqua since their bodies can be used as a sensor. The girls quickly get exhausted from being overworked, and Ichigo seems to be suffering the most as not only is she extremely tired but she hardly ever has time for Aoyama anymore. Tensions reach the breaking point, and Kisshu has a new trick up his sleeve; one that could wipe out humanity in an instant.

—————————————

Starting with scene swap? Aw, you shouldn’t have…..seriously. The original starts off with a scene of a street where the ground suddenly collapses before we get our title card. The dub starts off with Zoey, Blonde and Brunette at school, which was originally the scene that followed the title.

The scene with Ichigo/Zoey’s friends is the complete opposite. In the original, her friends tease her because they know she’s going to the park afterschool because Aoyama goes there everyday at the same time. Word is buzzing around school about them, Aoyama’s fangirls are freaking out, but they say that his fangirls shouldn’t deter her from true love.

In the dub, the girls talk about the fact that Zoey supposedly hasn’t been spending much time at all with Mark, and rumor has it that she has a new boyfriend. She denies this and says she’s merely been busy with the café and hasn’t had the time to be with Mark as often. Brunette doesn’t believe that the café is the only issue because even they haven’t been spending much time with her, and she also believes she must have a new boyfriend. Blonde pops up and says that Zoey is probably busy preparing a surprise party for Mark for his birthday and Zoey goes along with that story.

*shrug*

Originally, Aoyama invited Ichigo to watch his kendo club activities. In the dub, the meeting is canceled and he asks to walk home with her.

Ichigo’s ring tone is the ending theme? Silly meta.

Zoey’s ring tone is a generic ring tone song? Silly possible copyright issues.

They remove when Ichigo apologizes to Aoyama for leaving because that would be polite and kind; wouldn’t want her to do that.

Ichigo keeps denying that she’s angry. Zoey doesn’t deny this, and in fact says things like “This better be good!” and “I’m not in the mood!”

The nuts in the cake are chestnuts not macadamias. Also, Akasaka doesn’t keep talking about the cake in such deep detail like Wesley does mostly because the cake is just being used as a visual aid to discuss important world-save-y things and not being the next feature on the Food Network.

Ichigo asks what he means by Mew Aqua being in underground pockets of clay……eh, that’s pretty self-explanatory, Ichigo. Zoey says all the talk about cake has made her hungry.

Why the hell does Wesley keep talking about the food examples like he’s trying to sell them? You’re trying to explain something important; there’s no need to tell us how light and fluffy the mousse is or that the strawberry is organic.

Shirogane tells the girls that these clay deposits are most prominent under the ground in the Kanto Plains of Tokyo. Elliot says that finding the crystals won’t be as easy as cake or mousse.

I don’t really get it. The girls have been really close to Mew Aqua before and haven’t had reactions yet the way they’re supposed to find these underground Mew Aqua deposits is by using the light they emit when they experience a reaction to it as a sensor?

Wow, 4Kids got lazy with this digital paint. Shirogane holds up a paper with the headline “Mysterious Cave-Ins; Completely Inexplicable!” The dub also says this, but replaces the upper text with the name of the dub paper ‘Daily Chronicle’ and they very clearly blur out all of the other text because they were too lazy to have some intern type up some filler text.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They place the scene from the very start of this episode between the two separate shots of the newspaper.

Because of this, a small shot of the girls was removed.

Outer shots of the completely random lightning are removed.

And I mean it, this lightning seems like it came out of nowhere purely for emphasis of the weight of this development. It was perfect weather out before this meeting happened, and they’ve been talking for like two minutes.

Ichigo says the situation sounds serious with a very worried look on her face….Zoey….being the ditzy little sack of crap she is, hears the news and thinks with a worried look “That means I’ll never be able to see Mark anymore.” Because boys > saving the world.

They add a flash transition after this scene for some reason.

The Chimera Animals who can sniff the Mew Aqua and/or clay deposits are called Chimera Moles in the original. In the dub, they’re called ‘Armadrillos’

Now why is Dren suddenly acting even dumber than usual by adding stupid nicknames and word play every five seconds?

They shorten the final shot with Kisshu and remove the line about him saying he’ll use the power of Mew Aqua to reveal the identity of Deep Blue.

Ichigo points out that she has blisters all over her hands. Zoey says she needs a manicure because girly! ❤

Ichigo complains about how she can’t find any Mew Aqua. Zoey complains about manual labor being “so uncool.”

Wait a minute, what the hell!? They showed Ichigo’s pose at the end of her transformation this time! In fact, it was really the only part of the transformation period. You mean they could’ve kept that in this whole time and didn’t for no reason? ….*sigh* That’s 4Kids for you, I guess. This really shortened transformation is the same in the original, but 4Kids also replaces these transformations with their own all the time so I don’t get it.

They cut out Ichigo declaring her attack before we see her doing it.

They keep the shortened transformation and show a part of the transformation that they’ve never shown, yet they replace the shortened attack with the regular version? Urgh, headache.

Shirogane doesn’t say the artifact is ‘beautiful’ which it really isn’t considering it looks like a rusty pipe with a heart on top. So the rainbow stone is ‘tacky’ and ‘ugly’ yet the tetanus stick over there is ‘beautiful’…..welcome to upside-down world!

And oh goodie, that means we’re almost at more Ichigo favoritism time. Hoo-freakin’-rah. Is it really too much to ask for to give the other girls something, anything else to do? Every other magical girl show I can think of allows the other girls to get more powerful, giving the biggest props to the lead still of course, so why the hell does this show just keep letting the other girls stagnate? At best, the only additional powers of the other girls is Mint being able to talk to birds and Zakuro maybe being able to talk to dogs. That is it. They get no new weapons, no new attacks, no new abilities, no nothing. It makes them really boring and dare I say pointless to have them around most of them at a point. I know I keep bringing that up, but seriously….

They shift a short scene of the Chimera Moles digging and Pai watching their progress on screen.

Shirogane flippantly responds that their search methods right now can’t be helped. In the dub, when he hears the girls complaining he says “I don’t want to hear it!” *huff*

Why did Shirogane need to send out Masha to tell Akasaka about making the search area smaller? Especially considering how slow Masha seems to fly. I’d like to introduce you to these things called ‘cell phones’. It’s that thing in your pocket that lets you talk to people from far away.

Masha initially detects the cocoon as an alien, then believes it to be a bird’s nest, crashes into it, then when he pulls away from it he says he’s mistaken most likely because he’s tired. In the dub, Masha detects a predasite, doesn’t know what to make of the cocoon, crashes into then keeps screaming that his eyes are burning, supposedly because of the poisonous properties of the moth….but I think it’s more likely because Masha’s eyes get little question marks in them when he emerges from the cocoon because he’s confused. These question marks are kept in the dub, but make no sense anymore because Mini-Mew’s not confused, he’s in agony because his eyes are burning….from the question marks? I don’t know. And chalk this up as another odd instance where 4Kids makes something scary/worse for no reason.

The short scene with Pai that I mentioned is switched to after the scene with Masha. And they, for some reason, cut it so that instead of seeing two shots of the Chimera Moles back to back and then Pai we see one shot of one ‘armadrillo’ then Sardon, then a shot of a different armadrillo. Where can I buy those question marks to put in my eyes?

They add in a night shot of Tokyo Tower that I suppose is from later on between the final shot in the sewer and the next day at school.

I don’t really know why they did that either because we don’t even start the small scene at school since we cut to commercial here in the dub.

Ichigo complains about how late she is and how the girls probably left without her. She briefly complains about the fact that she has to do this day after day, but then says that she should do it because finding the Mew Aqua is very important. Zoey on the other hand does nothing but bitch about the fact that she needs to keep searching for Blue Aqua in her off time. Then she complains about never being able to see Mark anymore and laments over the thought that Mark may already have a new girlfriend by now. In other words, this world saving thing is like totally ruining her life and stuff and is like totally uncool and stuff.

The scene with Aoyama and Ichigo is edited and changed. Ichigo runs up to Aoyama, he asks if she’s going home and she says yes, but she’s also in a hurry. Aoyama then says she’s always busy lately and we get a commercial. This part of the conversation is removed and the clips for the conversation have been shifted, some removed entirely.

Her bending down to set down her shoes, her putting her shoes on and running up to Aoyama are removed.

The second half of the conversation doesn’t get away without changes either. Aoyama says she’s been really busy and wonders if it’s because of the café. She says it’s sort of because of that. Aoyama then asks if she’s a bit tired because she looks pale. Ichigo seems surprised that she’s pale, then he apologizes for holding her up before they each bid each other farewell.

In the dub, Mark says he’s missed her. Zoey says she’s missed him too. Mark then asks her if she’d like to see a movie sometime, she says yes and they depart. Because why be caring and have a nice moment when you can be all ‘Miss ya Zo (and he does call her ‘Zo’ here)’ ‘Miss ya too Mark’ ‘Movie sometime?’ ‘Kay’

Zoey: (Inner monologue) “I feel awful. How can I treat Mark like this?” Like…..what? Saying you missed each other then saying you can go see a movie sometime? You….bitch?

Shirogane says that he knows they can do this because they have plenty of free time and nothing better to do. The line about “nothing better to do” is echoed in Ichigo’s head as she finally flips. Elliot says she’s had a real attitude problem lately and then mockingly insinuates that she hasn’t been seeing her boyfriend enough, which is the line that echoes in Zoey’s head before she flips.

Half of the chibi-ized rant is gone. It’s cut off right after the girls nod. The rest of the rant includes Ichigo’s tail and ears popping out, the girls implying that Ichigo’s snapped since it’s been so long since she’s had a date with Aoyama, and Ichigo’s licking her shoe like a cat. Shirogane pops up and says “Ah you mean Ao-something?” which makes Ichigo freak out even more.

Also, right before Shirogane’s line, he makes a weird face. This is also removed.

After Ichigo leaves, Akasaka says he’s gone too far. Lettuce says it’s not Shirogane’s fault, Ichigo’s just tired. Mint then says that Lettuce is speaking for Ryo again, making her blush. This is a poke at the fact that Lettuce has a crush on Shirogane that is rarely ever talked about, explored or anything. In the dub, Wesley says that didn’t go well, and Bridget says that Zoey didn’t mean it when she said Elliot was a slave driver. Corina then said she’s right because slave drivers are sweethearts compared to Elliot, and Bridget says Corina didn’t mean that either and blushes while she says this for some reason.

Kisshu has no inner monologue, self-praising or otherwise, while he’s lying there. Also, they take the upside-down shot of Kisshu’s eye and make it right-side up because do you really believe they have a reason? Seriously?

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Ichigo says it was on a beautiful day such as it is in the shot when she and Aoyama had their first date. She then wonders, if Shirogane really is the Blue Knight, then how could he treat her like that? Zoey regrets acting the way she did at the café and then says she overreacted, but she’s not sorry because Elliot shouldn’t have treated her like that. She then, completely unprompted, says Mark will probably never talk to her again ever.

Ichigo just says to whoever is behind her to leave her alone. Zoey believes it’s Elliot behind her and tells him to not bother apologizing, which is weird because Mark in no way shape or form sounds like Elliot.

I’m gonna side with both Ichigo and Zoey now because if you’re being run so hard into the ground that you randomly faint, then you’re being way overworked.

The sign for the nurse’s office is translated.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, the signs behind Ichigo have their text painted off.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They add in a record scratch after Mark reveals that he was just taking her temperature (she thought he was going to kiss her; and scratch that up to two record scratch moments today, the other being her meeting with Mark during sunset.) Also, Ichigo doesn’t have a fever, and Zoey does.

There’s some animation on the screen of Ichigo’s phone as she plays her ringtone. It’s out of focus because the shot’s on Aoyama, but still. In the dub, this is changed to having the screen say ‘The Bon Bons’ which is guess is the name of the band that does the generic ring tone on Zoey’s phone. While the phone itself is out of focus because the shot’s on Mark, the screen is crystal clear. That’s either a magic phone or Zoey need glasses badly.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Aoyama mentions that the song is by Candy 5. Mark says the song is by, well, *pokes above* It should be noted that there is no mainstream group that sings the first ED. The singers of the song are actually the Mews’ voice actresses. It’s possible that the name ‘Candy 5’ is indicative of the fact that they work in essentially a sweets shop, and of course there’s five of them. Also, I suppose they made the name The Bonbons as a throwback to that.

Ichigo wonders if Aoyama’s just saying that he likes Candy 5 to be nice. Zoey gushes over the fact that she found a guy who likes ‘chick rock’. *grumblegrumblegrumble*

Ichigo thinks to herself that Aoyama was so nice to bring her to the nurse’s office and stay with her, yet she even forgot to merely say ‘Thank you’. In the dub…….Just read it.

Zoey: (Inner Monologue) “Oh you’re such a sweetheart, Mark. Who cares about saving the world, anyway? I only wanna be with you.”

Well, that sums it up pretty friggin’ nicely doesn’t it? This is everything that I hate about Zoey. I praise Ichigo because, while she can be lazy and complain sometimes, she knows what her responsibilities as a Mew are. She knows that she and her friends are humanity’s only hope of survival. She knows this requires sacrifices, and while she doesn’t always like it, and she by all means doesn’t have to, she still stands up and knows that she has a duty to do so. Even if she didn’t have to, she’d still feel like she should because lives are at stake. She doesn’t sit there and gush over Aoyama in battle like certain magical girl show main characters who shall remain nameless. She braves through her fears, puts her desires aside and tries her best to fight for what’s right.

ZOEY is a ditzy little boy crazed bitch who is constantly complaining about her responsibilities as a Mew and obsessing over Mark. “Who cares about saving the world?” Soak that in. She does not care about saving the world or the people in it because it requires work. She’d rather just be luvey duvey with Mark. I’m not saying Elliot’s not being an ass here. Hell, everyone in this damn (dubbed) show is a huge ass, bitch or otherwise unpleasant character, but that doesn’t give her any more of an excuse.

This show as a whole is made all the more of a chore to sit through because Zoey is such a terrible character. Every second she’s on screen and every time she belts out that ear-stabbingly awful motto, I just want to slap her. She is Ichigo in character design only. Otherwise, she’s a little typical teenage brat.

The text message is translated and painted.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Ichigo quietly whispers slowly “Thank you so much.” Zoey just says it in her regular voice. Also, I’m nearly certain they sped up that clip so her speech would sound more natural.

Ichigo apologizes, very genuinely, for how she acted earlier. Zoey doesn’t apologize at all, she just awkwardly reports for work.

Zoey: “Hi Marky Mark!”

Is that even a joke? Like….really, a Marky Mark reference? Kids will CERTAINLY get that, and that will never be dated ever ever ever.

ANOTHER RECORD SCRATCH!? ARE YOU FRIGGIN’ KIDDING M—-*sigh* Nevermind. It’ll be over soon….

They left the graphics on the Candy 5 tickets relatively alone, but obviously all the text had to be painted away and changed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Stop calling him ‘Elly’, I will shank you.

They changed Tokyo Tower to…’City tower’? They can’t even come up with a name for the place they live in or is it literally just ‘City’? Hey guys come to the beautiful city of City. It’s in the great state of State. In the country of AMERICA BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY COUNTRY!

Guys, if you can’t squeeze in the word ‘you’ at the end of Sardon’s sentence due to the lip flaps, either change the visuals or the line. He said it so quickly and softly I honestly just thought he said “I think I’ll accompany.”

Akasaka knows precisely that there’s a Chimera Moth in the cocoon and worries that it will hatch that very day. Wesley just knows that there’s something with an alien cocoon that needs to be stopped quickly.

Next episode—Oh who cares? Next episode is the last episode of Mew Mew Power!

Blow up the balloons, bake a friggin’ cake, hell break out the good booze glasses; WE’RE ENDING THIS!!

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 24 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Ichigo is taking over for Zakuro’s personal assistant while she’s out sick. Zakuro has a jewelry modeling show for Pop Jewelry soon, and, as she’s working, she meets Tsukiko Yamada, an aspiring jewelry designer but mostly overlooked lackey for Pop Jewelry. She made a necklace out of a rare rainbow stone that she wants to use in the show, but no one will listen to her. The girls discover that the rainbow stone may be the crystallized form of Mew Aqua at the same time that the aliens do, and it’s a fight for the rainbow stone while also fighting for Tsukiko’s dream.

————————————————-

Say it with me everyone; the text on the signs were all removed!

Subbed:

Dubbed:

One of Ichigo’s friends says Zakuro was voted Best Dressed. In the dub, she says Renee’s modeling for Rayburn Jewelry.

The letters A and I are erased from the rings.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

A stands for Aoyama and I stands for Ichigo, which is a bit weird because she’s seeing these rings in a daydream of him proposing to her, I presume anyway…so wouldn’t it be better to use his first name ‘Masaya’ instead? Who calls their significant other by their last name?

Ichigo says it’s scary for her because Aoyama’s always popping up out of nowhere. In the dub, Zoey says, because of how they acted in the arcade, that she should stop being friends with Blonde and Brunette at once. I agree. Do that.

The stories as to why Mint/Corina is upset is roughly the same, but in the original Zakuro’s attendant merely caught a cold. In the dub:

Kiki: “Some mover guys dropped a grand piano on Renee’s personal assistant.”

Bridget: “The doctors say she’ll be okay, but until she’s up and walking again–”

Nonononnononononononononono……..come again?

Kiki: “Some mover guys dropped a grand piano on Renee’s personal assistant.”

Bridget: “The doctors say she’ll be okay but until sh–”

Nonono, one more time?

Kiki: “Some mover guys dropped a grand piano on Renee’s personal assistant.”

……..Uh…..is this Looney Tunes? Someone had a GRAND PIANO….DROPPED ON THEM….and….they’re not a stain on said grand piano?

She’ll be okay? Until she’s up and walking again? When will that be? When they discover a cure for death!?

I have a feeling they meant to say ‘dropped a grand piano on Renee’s personal assistant’s foot’ or something. You just do not get a grand piano dropped on your person and live, especially if they were moving it with a pulley system to get it onto a high level building or something. Hell, even if it was her foot, that would still be like ‘probably lose your foot’ level damage. What was wrong with merely saying she had a cold?

Zakuro says Ichigo has brawn. Renee says she has more inner strength than every one of them. This change is merely made so that Zoey can make a joke about it when she’s lugging all of Renee’s crap around.

Ichigo says even she’s not strong enough to carry all her stuff. Zoey asks why Renee isn’t going around in limos and stuff like she thought all popstars did.

Pudding says the spirit of cooperation is important, and Lettuce says they’re all friends. Kiki says the reason Renee doesn’t drive around in limos and stuff is because she’s environmentally-friendly, because we haven’t brought up that message in a while. Then Bridget points out her environmental-friendliness by stating that the bags are pleather.

The ending of this scene is cut off for some reason. In the original, Ichigo is told that Zakuro is going to a roll-out event for Pop Jewelry (which additionally means that they changed the name of the company from Pop to Rayburn in the dub.) She imagines the rings she saw earlier and suddenly gets really excited to help Zakuro. Mint then stews about Ichigo’s sudden happiness at being Zakuro’s assistant.

In the dub, they extend Ichigo’s muttering a bit and make her complain about having to haul the stuff around. The rest is removed for some reason.

Scene shift, yay! The next scene in the original is Kisshu and the others researching some new rainbow stone that has something to do with Mew Aqua. In the dub, it’s the scene with Elliot, Wesley and the girls researching it. I’m basically obeying the flow of the dub now, so let’s tackle it.

They cut out the shot of Wesley explaining the rainbow stone at the start of the scene.

Mint calls the stone ‘plain’ while Corina calls it ‘Ugly’….really? It’s kinda pretty. Not the best cut in the world, but it’s a rainbow gem, why would it be plain or ugly?

Shirogane says they had a special agency investigate the stone, and apparently it can detect drops of Mew Aqua. Elliot says that the first thing he thought of the rock was that it was ugly like Corina said and then goes on to say ‘that tacky rock’ has similar properties to Blue Aqua….Am I missing something? What is the hate with this gem? Do I just have awful taste? I mean, a rainbow rock in jewelry would go with anything wouldn’t it?

They add in another shot of the girls from behind to extend the scene and have Corina call the stone ugly again. Can we start an anti-bullying campaign against rocks? This is getting really mean.

Also, Akasaka says he believes a rainbow stone will be included in one of the jewelry pieces at the jewelry show that Zakuro is in. In the dub, they haven’t tracked any down yet.

More scene swappage as the next scene in the original is preparations for the jewelry show while the dub’s brings us back to the meeting with Dren and the others.

Kisshu asks if Taruto’s information is reliable, and he says he’s confident that it is. In the dub, Dren asks why he’s staring at some gaudy rock—Okay seriously, leave the poor rock alone.

Anyway, Tarb says it’s because the ‘gaudy rock’ is the answer to beating the Mew Mews.

The aliens’ screen says ‘Power Search’ and it’s erased in the dub, which is weird because the Mew Mews screen said ‘Rainbow Stone’ earlier and it was left alone.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

I can’t quite understand what the sign behind Zakuro says, though I think the first part says ‘Pop Jewelry’. It’s painted away and replaced with ‘The Future is Now: Rayburn Jewelry.’

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Originally, Ichigo is talking to herself about how Zakuro is beautiful like jewels. In the dub, she’s loudly acting like some obnoxious fashion show announcer while also imagining that Renee’s modeling jewels that Zoey made famous.

They cut out some shots of Zakuro getting prepared for the show. Also, the guy doing her hair is originally silent. In the dub, they make him babble on in what I can only call a stereotypical gay guy voice. Because men who are hairstylers, right? Pfft.

Ichigo also is thinking about the rings Zakuro is going to showcase that night while the guy is talking over this in the dub.

Name Change: Tsukiko Yamada is changed to Gretchen.

Ichigo asks if Tsukiko is okay. Zoey asks if she’s alive. I just found the dub to be kinda rude is all.

They cut out some of the conversation between Ichigo and Tsukiko after she falls into the boxes. Her glasses are messed up and then she fixes them while we get a long shot of Ichigo obscured by the box. In the dub, it cuts straight to her glasses being fine and her getting up to help.

Ichigo, like Zoey, says that they (or in the dub, SHE, because Zoey’s rude) made a mess, but Ichigo also adds that she’d be glad to help her. Tsukiko starts crying because, since she’s constantly messing things up, everyone either yells at her or ignores her yet Ichigo is being kind to her. In the dub, they cut out the shot of the messed up boxes and remove the line about Ichigo wishing to help her. Instead it jumps from Zoey pointing out the mess to Gretchen crying about the fact that she can’t do anything right.

Ichigo asks for Tsukiko’s name and she gives it. Zoey gives the suggestion that she should be in a wrecking crew. *sigh* ….Zoey….goddamn it.

Tsukiko explains that she polishes gems day in and out. She was really impressed with Zakuro at the rehearsal and we see a fantasy clipshow of Zakuro modeling the jewelry. This is removed.

Tsukiko’s credo is different between the versions. Tsukiko says she knows the rainbow stone may be kinda plain (I still don’t get this. The rainbow stone actively changes colors!) but she believes a gem’s true value is in how much it brightens the person wearing it, and she believes it will brighten up Zakuro very well. In the dub, Gretchen says most people think the stone is ugly (urgh) but she believes it has a real future in fashion, and she has to convince the big wigs in the industry to get over their conservative tastes to see that.

Uh, first off, conservative; yet another word 4Kids shouldn’t think their audience knows.

Second, conservative tastes? Isn’t that kinda the opposite of what’s going on here? The gem is seen as plain and whatnot, which would technically be what a conservatively viewed person would prefer right? The other option is people who are so set in the trends of fashion to change them, but come on, this is the fashion industry. It thrives on change, even in the slightest. That’s why it’s a kinda a joke when someone says something is ‘so yesterday’.

Originally, the chief and the other higher ups won’t listen to Tsukiko’s ideas because she’s a bad worker. In the dub, it’s because she’s an intern.

Ah, scene shift. This is where the scene from earlier in the original with the girls learning about the rainbow stone comes from. In the dub, we cut straight to the next day at the show.

I don’t know how it happened, but somehow I became conditioned to instantly correlate the name Gretchen with the Gretchen from Recess.

Zakuro asks why Tsukiko doesn’t ask the chief herself if she’s sincere about the necklace, but Tsukiko says no one will listen to her so Zakuro has to be the one to show everyone. Renee asks her the same thing, and Gretchen says the producer thinks the stone is ugly and she has no chance of changing his mind.

More scene swappage. After the midroll, we originally cut back to the show. In the dub, we get a commercial and cut back to Gretchen in the street. It’s a very short shot just of her walking and we cut back to the actual scene right after so…..yeah.

In the dub, they keep focusing on the future of fashion accessories, and even Gretchen said she believed the rainbow stone has a big future in fashion. This just lends credence to my earlier confusion about why the stone is actually having problems being accepted. If this show is all about changing trends in jewelry then why are the higher ups so determined to not give the rainbow stone, a very unique gem, the time of day?

After we see the girls in the audience, they cut out Ichigo running up to Zakuro.

Ichigo tells Zakuro that the show’s about to start but Yamada’s nowhere to be found. In the dub, Zoey says:

Zoey: “Between you and me, you can be really cold sometimes.”

I don’t think you know how ‘between you and me’ works. It’s usually used in situations where you’re either keeping a secret or talking about/insulting someone behind their back. The only person who would get insulted by what you’re saying now is Renee, and that’s who you’re talking to.

After Ichigo says that, we see the shot the dub used as the first post-commercial shot. In the dub, this is obviously removed.

Zoey’s being a lot more lecture-y to Renee than Ichigo is to Zakuro. Ichigo’s merely trying to make a plea for Tsukiko while Zoey’s bitching her out.

The guy who tells Zakuro about the interview merely says “I don’t know…” when Ichigo asks for more time. In the dub he tells Zoey “Who are you, and why are you talking to me?” Why the hell is everyone an asshole in this dub? Does Americanization in shoujo shows mean ‘Shove a stick up everyone’s asses’ to 4Kids?

On the electric billboard outside, the shot changes to two different shots of Japanese text. In the dub it’s changed to ‘The Future is Now: Rayburn Jewelry.’

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Tsukiko says to herself that she really is a failure. Gretchen says she should move back to Ohio and work at a mall kiosk.

Also, this makes this scene not work. Once Tsukiko says that she’s a failure, she hears Zakuro on the TV saying “That’s not true.” This is meant to sorta make it seem like Zakuro is talking directly to her. She says the same thing in the dub, but since it’s after “I should move back to Ohio and work at a mall kiosk” it doesn’t make it seem like Renee is talking to her, making the shot lose some impact.

Signs are painted, yayaaayayayayyaayayya!

Subbed:

Dubbed:

The messages of Zakuro/Renee’s speeches are the same…..but Renee adds that the reason she knows that girls need to find their own inner beauty and share it with the world was because when she started out no one would sign her as a singer because they said her songs were boring. So, she decided to record and distribute them herself. It’s not a bad change, and I’m all for characterization…..even if it’s made up here, but still.

The original’s first display was the Blue Sky Aquamarine series. I honestly cannot understand half of what the announcer is saying in the dub as she’s forcing a really snooty accent, but I’ll try my best….Luscious Blues from the….Portal Heart collection?

Zakuro says “You came back!” in a pretty happy tone. Renee says, with a ‘tude of course “So, you came back.” Because no one can be pleasant in this show.

The incredibly small, impossible to read, Japanese text on Ichigo’s phone is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

There’s an important change in the next scene. Tsukiko and Gretchen both beg the producer to put the rainbow stone in the show, but the producer sarcastically suggests that she model the stone in the show if it’s so important to her, and, in the dub, Gretchen is the one who makes the offer.

The reason this is important is because the dub is completely against what we know of this character. Sure, she’s gained some confidence to push her dream a little more, but you don’t go from as spindly and quiet as she’s been to offering to model in the middle of a live show, televised no less, because of one pep talk. Look at the way she’s standing as she’s talking to the producer. She’s still really slumped over and giving off no sense of confidence. The reason she eventually does it is because the comment is taken as a challenge to prove herself, and Zakuro gives her more confidence later.

The producer obviously still mocks Gretchen for her offer, but the fact is that she is already ready and confident enough to model the stone on her own as she made the offer to do so. The mocking at this point really just presents a bit of padding.

As expected, the producer is WAY more of an asshole in the dub. He does suggest sarcastically that she should model the necklace, while the girls behind her laugh, but then he merely asks what Tsukiko knows about jewelry and says they need to go back to work. In the dub he says:

Producer: “You want ME to let you strut your stuff on the runway? The fall LOSER line is being modeled next week. Tell you what, when I decide to throw my career away, I’ll give you a call!”

I really hate this dub….

They cut Ichigo’s lines after the producer leaves. She says the only reason that the jewels in the show are shining so brightly is because Tsukiko worked so hard on them. In the dub, she just says “That guy…!” and then Dren shows up.

I paused for a second after this, and, man, sometimes you just gotta appreciate Pierrot’s work.

That is some kind of terrible.

I hope I didn’t praise Pierrot much in my Tokyo Mew Mew review, which I will probably redo now that I’m taking a much harder look at this series, because man this series can look horrible sometimes.

Tsukiko says she’ll leave the retrieval of the necklace to Ichigo before she falls unconscious. Gretchen laments again about how nothing goes right for her before falling unconscious……Yeah, I’d say once it’s come to an alien stealing your life’s work, it’s pretty safe to say that the world doesn’t particularly smile on you often.

Wait a minute, why are they okay with showing Ichigo pinning Kisshu down, but they do everything to edit out Kisshu pinning Ichigo down? Double standard?

They even leave in the line about asking for a kiss as he’s being pinned by her. Wow.

Scene swap; we originally don’t see Masha alerting the other girls to the Chimera Animal until after Ichigo transforms. In the dub, since 4Kids wanted to use their transformation mashup again (though, oddly, instead of mashing up the four of theirs transformations, they only do Mint, Lettuce and Pudding’s. It’s weird because the way they set it up makes it very easy to have Ichigo in there too), they place this scene right after Ichigo gets slapped.

Again, this is one of those times where I don’t care that they did this because the original was being a jerk again. Instead of just skipping their transformations altogether in the original, they have them all yell out ‘Mew Mew Mint, Lettuce, Pudding Metamorphosis!’ while showing us a shot of the hallway! And then they burst into the hallway transformed. That’s almost more insulting than just skipping the whole transformation sequence entirely. Hey, we’d rather show a shot of a hallway than show our main characters transforming. Who cares about them? You saw Ichigo transform, and that’s all that matters.

4Kids did something weird to the transformation sequence though. Because it’s just Corina, Bridget and Kiki transforming right now, they misplace a clip of Mint’s transformation and play the clip backwards to make it look like it fits.

In the hallway, Taruto says he discovered this piece of Mew Aqua, so they shouldn’t steal it. Pudding says she (or they) found it first, so it’s not stealing. In the dub, Tarb says they found the Blue Aqua so it’s finder’s keepers. Kiki then says that it’s loser’s weepers so he should get ready to cry. Then she runs away.

…Wha? Why would you say something like that just to run? And instead of Taruto telling the girls to wait, he says “What’s that mean?!” to Kiki’s comment. Which also doesn’t make sense because if he knew “finder’s keepers” surely he knew the rest of it was “loser’s weepers.”

Pudding offers to keep Taruto busy. Corina basically makes her do it while Kiki complains about it.

So here’s something new……..they cut out Ichigo’s transformation entirely in the dub. Which is fine, I mean, we’ve seen the other girls transform off-screen enough, and it’s nice to see Ichigo’s kept aside for once….but why? They have mashup transformations for specifically just these four girls considering they were a group before Zakuro joined, so other than possibly time constraints I can’t see why Ichigo’s transformation was omitted entirely.

They also include the beginning of Ichigo’s attack in the dub as it starts off at her spinning in the original.

The bright attack that the Chimera Turtle uses is called Diamonds are Forever. It has no name in the dub.

Ah Blue Knight appearing in the nick of time just as Ichigo’s about to be attacked. I really hate this trope.

The rainbow stone being stolen is news to Ichigo. In the dub, she knows, which she couldn’t because Pai’s the one who took it and she hasn’t seen Pai yet. Last she saw of it, it rolled under a curtain.

Why does the dub announcer need to say who’s modeling the jewelry mid-show?….I’m pretty sure the only model there IS Renee.

This episode is ripe for weird screencaps.

All of their faces look weird in that shot, but man the Blue Knight….the spacing between his eyes is just…wow.

The dub omits the fact that the way they won was because, since the Chimera Turtle is…well, a turtle, it can’t get up when laying on its back…….which shouldn’t be true in this instance since it’s humanoid. It can easily get up……Eh whatever.

This is in both versions, but it still confuses me. Pai/Sardon says they have no interest in the rainbow stone anymore because it merely reacts to Mew/Blue Aqua, it’s not actually made of the material. But….isn’t a stone that reacts to Mew/Blue Aqua still useful? You’re looking for Mew/Blue Aqua and it’s a Mew/Blue Aqua detector…*sigh* Eh whatever.

Corina gushes over Renee just like Mint does, but she says this:

Corina: “I mean, talk about Mew Mew style, Mew Mew grace…”

Mew Mew live grenade in your face.

What? They left in Zakuro winking with a little heart popping up and Mint’s (albeit funny) super blush and cartoonish burst into flames? Yet they’ve erased blushes from Aoyama’s face before. This company purposely seeks to make no sense.

The announcer originally says that all girls can shine brightly; the brilliance is within you. That plus Tsukiko’s show slowly starts making the producer change his mind. There is no narration by the announcer in the dub, and he just says to hire her as soon as possible. I wouldn’t really note this, but the dub seems like bunk to me. It’s like he changed his mind because she’s all pretty-fied now not because he’s starting to come around to Gretchen’s way of thinking.

By the way, why did the announcer announce Gretchen’s necklace as the beginning of a new rainbow stone line for Rayburn Jewelry if the producer, IE Mr. Rayburn, the owner, didn’t approve of it?

They cut out Tsukiko throwing her bouquet.

Lettuce says Tsukiko was very pretty, and Mint adds that Zakuro was too. Bridget says that Gretchen was almost as pretty as Renee, and then Corina gushes and says no one’s prettier than Renee. Glad we’re ending on a ‘You’re pretty but not THAT pretty’ note.

Ohmahgawd guise. 2 moar episods!!223123

*cough* Uh anyway, my thoughts on this episode? Eh, it was okay. There were many elements that I thought were weird, and we got a random sudden appearance from the Blue Knight who hasn’t appeared in a while. The defeat of the villain made no sense, but Tsukiko was a decent enough CotD. The art and animation in this episode was noticeably poorer than usual though.

Next episode has Ichigo being unable to really see Aoyama much because of work overload.

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 23 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Ichigo’s friends have suddenly become madly in love with Akasaka and Shirogane. Ichigo decides to help them confess their feelings, but the appearance of Mew Aqua makes the situation even more complicated.

———————————

Getting off to a bad start with a scene removal/misplacement, the original starts with a shot of a river at night cutting to a drop of Mew Aqua before we get our title screen. In the dub, we start off at the scene following this which is the café scene.

The sign outside the café is painted and actually translated….to a degree of course.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Is it just me or does ‘gotta’ look wrong written in that sentence?

When Ichigo faces the audience with question marks in her eyes, she’s yelling out “Why?!” In the dub, she says it’s gross that her friends are in love with Elliot and Wesley. I wouldn’t bring this up if not for the fact that the dub doesn’t really make sense with the question mark eyes.

During the flashback, the letter ‘K’ is removed from a sign behind the thug. Because…yeah, kids will never know what a K is. This is why your young demographic sucks, Special K cereal!

I find this paint edit even stupider because 4Kids has purposely replaced words with the specific letter K before. Remember Kaiba’s company building?

Subbed:

Dubbed:

In the next shot, we see the garage door full out. It used to say in printed letters ‘World Tane Museum’ Instead, 4Kids painted over this with a huge ugly splash of graffiti.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Remember, museums are bad. Vandalism is good!

More text, even the incredibly small and totally unreadable ‘text’ in the black sign, are also removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

By the way, how lame are these thugs? One of them gets flipped and they’re all ‘AHHH RUN AWAY!’

The tea that….uhh….Brunette friend I know I’ve learned the name of but don’t care, has is merely chamomile. In the dub, it’s Lazy Jane’s Peppermint Pleasures.

Akasaka states that chamomile was the tea he was looking for. In the dub, he recites the company tagline of Lazy Jane’s tea. Also, he omits stating that he wants to buy it because he keeps going on like he’s their damn spokesperson.

Brunette friend says she has the money to pay for the tea since she dropped it, but Akasaka says it’s fine since he’ll be using it the instant he gets home. In the dub, she keeps going on about how she didn’t mean to drop it, and Wesley says she actually did him a favor because he’s been looking all over town for it. Yeah he never would’ve found it had you not dropped it on the floor.

And this sales associate is a bit of an ass for giving Brunette friend a dirty look for dropping the tea. It must happen all the time in stores, and she barely poked a hole in it. That mess could be cleaned up with a broom and dustpan in five seconds. Lighten up.

Before the end of the flashback, Brunette friend is shown giving goo-goo eyes to Akasaka while surrounded by hearts. This is removed.

Brunette Friend originally says that she’s never met a man with such a kind smile. In the dub, she says that any man who drinks Lazy Jane’s Peppermint Pleasures is the only man for her. If that was an actual brand, I’d really believe this whole scene was a commercial. And is she really so shallow and/or obsessed with this brand that her relationships may hinder on it?

Woman: “Oh darling, I can’t wait until we’re married. We’ll have a wonderful future together. A nice house, some kids, maybe a cute little dog. I just can’t wait to share my life with you!”

Man: “I feel the same way, sweetheart. Would you like any tea?”

Woman: “Oh certainly! Make mine Peppermint Pleasures, please!”

Man: “Oh that’s only available in Lazy Jane’s brand; I don’t have that.”

Woman: “Aw, you’re all out?”

Man: “No, I use Motivated Joan’s brand tea. Has a slightly better taste and is a bit cheaper.”

Woman: “THE WEDDING IS OFF, YOU BACKSTABBING SON OF A BITCH!!” *storms off*

Ichigo asks if it’s a coincidence that her two best friends fell for Shirogane and Akasaka. Zoey says that it looks like they have really deep crushes on Elliot (“The attitude king,” as he’s referred to here) and Wesley (“Prince Charming the second” as she refers to him) and then says she hates her life. I can get how it’d be annoying to have one of your best friends be in love with someone you dislike, but why is she upset about the other liking Wesley? She likes him just fine doesn’t she?

The next scene is removed. In the original, we cut back to school. In the dub, we cut to a scene with Deep Blue having a meeting with Dren and Tarb. I’ll tackle the removed scene first then go to the meeting.

It’s the end of the school day, and Ichigo is talking to Aoyama about the situation. She says Shirogane’s abrasive and Akasaka might be too old. She also worries about them getting hurt, so she doesn’t know what to do.

Aoyama tells her not worry because he believes Shirogane and Akasaka would never intentionally hurt them. Plus, the most important thing is to support the girls’ feelings of love as they’re very important. Ichigo agrees and we cut out. I guess this was removed because this actually shows a mature conversation about this situation and doesn’t involve treating Shirogane and Akasaka like they’re assholes.

Now for the meeting….

And….they didn’t really change it at all. Good on ya, 4Kids.

The scene that follows this is pushed back a bit. Instead, the shot of the river from earlier is placed here as the group continues to talk.

An establishing shot of the café is added before the scene with the boys researching because of 4Kids’ commercial.

Like always, the text on the computer is removed.

Incredibly minor details but;

1) The herbal tea shop originally was given no name. In the dub it’s Gourmet Galore and More.

2) The tea that he’s serving is the same tea he bought that day. In the dub, it’s Lemon Zinger.

The girls say the traditional ‘itadakimasu’ before drinking their tea. In the dub they say that the Lemon Zinger tea ‘sounds zingy’.

Brunette Friend clamors over Akasaka’s smile. She, in response to Wesley saying that he finds the tea subtle and refreshing, thinks to herself that she finds him subtle and refreshing too in the dub….not sure what that means.

Blonde friend asks Shirogane why he saved her, and he responds that he was walking by and felt like it. In the dub, she thanks him for saving her to which he responds sharply that it was no big deal.

Afterward, she gushes over how cool he is while in the dub she gushes over how crabby he is.

All the girls say while musing about the secret Akasaka and Shirogane could be harboring is maybe they’re fighting to save the world with a super-woman. Not exactly sure why they’d say specifically a super-woman, but whatever. In the dub, they get way too specific by saying they’re probably teamed up to fight aliens with a bunch of half-human half-animal superheroes.

Blonde friend babbles about how Shirogane’s probably a nice person beneath his rough exterior while dub!Blonde friend babbles about the food she’s going to make him for lunch. Oh she also adds this stupid line about napkins. Because he’ll truly be blown away by napkins with little cupids on them.

Brunette friend talks about how Akasaka is likely carrying a heavy burden secretly in his heart and she hopes her poem will mend the wounds. In the dub, she basically says Wesley’s really refined and intelligent so she’ll search her soul to create the perfect poem for him.

Shock beyond shocks, the signs in the next scene are all painted free of text. There are a bunch of other signs that are painted free of text as they walk, just trust me on that.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, what is that store? Mold Seven? What?

Ichigo talks about how it’s weird that she never noticed the attributes about Akasaka and Shirogane before her friends fell in love with them. Aoyama then says that liking someone allows you to see merits in a person that others may not see – that’s the power of love. He then wishes them the best, Ichigo agrees and then thinks to herself that she sees Aoyama’s smile in a more radiant way than anyone else, and she hopes one day that her feelings will get through to him.

In the dub, Zoey talks about how love is weird in the way that one day you’re just walking along and, boom, love hits you. Mark says he heard that love changes your body’s chemistry. They cut out Ichigo nodding in agreement, and her inner monologue is changed to her thinking she’s so lucky to have met him. They also cut out a shot of him near the end before we cut.

They included this line purely to add in a new pop song that can pucker up and kiss my ass.

….Sorry….Anger’s getting the better of me in this episode. Let’s carry on.

They cut out a shot of a bunch of poetry books on Brunette friend’s desk. And they paint away the title of the book that she’s holding as well as all text on the books from the further away shots.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Bonus:

Ichigo says the café is closed today so the boys should be in the office. In the dub, one of the friends says it’s exciting.

4Kids not only adds in cheesy piano music when Blonde and Brunette go to give their gifts to Wesley and Elliot, but when they say they’re too busy, they add a sound of someone slamming the keys of a piano. That’s basically the piano equivalent to a record scratch.

Ichigo just yells at the boys to wait and then says “What the…” after they leave. In the dub, Zoey yells that they’re rude and then says “Men are beasts”…..They excused themselves politely and said they had an emergency to attend to in both versions. They also apologized for needing to leave. That’s not rude and in no way warrants calling them ‘beasts’.

I get that these are young teenage girls we’re dealing with, but why are they so devastated merely at the fact that Akasaka/Wesley and Shirogane/Elliot were too busy to take their gifts at that moment? They could always do it later…..Okay, in the case of Blonde maybe not because the food might spoil, but still. She can always make a new lunch or put it in the fridge, and Brunette’s poem won’t rot. You caught them at a bad time. It’s not the end of the world.

They cut out a shot of the presents at the café and Ichigo explaining that they left them there for them to enjoy later…..so wait, they did that and they’re still moping and giving up completely? Man, either teenagers are more wishy washy about this stuff than I remember or they’re just lame.

They exchange a wipe transition for a fade. The most exciting of edit notes!…..XTREEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!

Ichigo is also mad at the boys but moreso because they ran off during such a ‘critical point’ in their confession. Zoey says this as she rants through the park:

Zoey: “Of all the mean, low-down, rude, egotistical, chauvinistic, arrogant, pigheaded tricks I’ve ever seen, this takes the cake!”

……….Bitch, shut up.

I know you’re angry, but this little tangent is completely uncalled for.

Let’s see, what did they do in this episode so far? Elliot saved Blonde. Wesley was kind to Brunette. They kindly put aside something important they wanted to do, something involving, of all things, investigating Mew…..*sigh* sorry, this is the dub so BLUE aqua, for the sake of having tea with a couple of lovesick kids. Then they politely excused themselves, as they were clearly leaving and you guys were interrupting them YET AGAIN, mind you, and apologized for leaving.

How is that mean? Low-down? Rude? Egotistical? Chauvinistic; a word I’m pretty sure you don’t even know the definition of? Also, nice that you’re basically calling them sexist when earlier you said, word for word “Men are beasts,” hypocrite. How are they arrogant? Pigheaded? Hell, how was anything they ever did a TRICK?

Out of all of the stupid, nonsensical, moronic, mean-spirited, childish, bitchy, and completely uncalled for lines I’ve ever heard from this show, this one takes the cake!

The following few lines are basically the same, with Zoey of course being more brash, but Zoey adds this:

Zoey: “You big ape!”

Elliot: “Who are you calling a big ape?”

HAHAHA, GET IT!? BECAUSE SEAN SCHEMMEL’S MOST NOTED AS BEING GOKU FROM DBZ!? GOKU’S A SAIYAN AND THEY TURN INTO GIANT APES! It’s funny because references.

And yet they turn around to make a nice comment where there was none. After relaying that there are signs of Mew Aqua in the river, Akasaka says he and Shirogane wanted to investigate the area first before sending out the girls to do a more thorough investigation and possible retrieval. In the dub, this is changed to Elliot apologizing again for being ‘rude’ (He REALLY wasn’t. Not even the abrasive Elliot/Shirogane was really being slightly rude.) to her friends, but they really needed to investigate the area. Then Zoey says, understandably….’Oh.’

Ooohhhhh you mean when you said you had an emergency to take care of and work you needed to do that you actually had an emergency to tend to and work to do!? I thought you guys were going to go out in the middle of the street to put your thumbs in your noses while repeating ‘Lunches and poems are for losers’ and setting fire to pictures of Zoey’s friends. Welp, color me embarrassed.

No, don’t! Please, I beg of you! I’m sorry for all the mean comments and sarcasm I’ve made this episode. Please don’t bring this plague upon me again! Mercy! MERCY!

Zoey: “Mew mew style, mew mew grace, mew mew power in your face!”

That’s it! I’m committing all the arson. The world will burn alongside my rageful heart! I WILL NOT LISTEN TO THREE MORE INSTANCES OF MEW MEW POWER IN MY FACE WITHOUT COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF DESTRUCTION AT MY FEET! DO YOU HEAR M–

*panting* Ah…..so…..someone took all my gasoline, and my blowtorch and my lighters and my matches and my flint and my magnifying glass…..and all the dry sticks in the area. I….just…I just want the world to hurt as I hurt. Is that so much to ask?

Also, two notes about this.

1) Ichigo doesn’t do her motto here, so screw you, 4Kids.

2) Why are you wasting time doing your motto when your friends lives are in danger? That’s way ruder than anything Wesley and Elliot allegedly did to them.

Kisshu says that, in the end, the Mew Aqua they were after was merely a drop. In the dub, Dren says there’s something different about that drop.

They cut out the other Mew Mews showing up out of nowhere, which I don’t mind in the least because all they do is stand behind Kisshu and do nothing. Did they have a screentime quota they needed to fill?

Shirogane told Blonde friend that her lunch made him feel loved. Elliot said it was so good she should open a café. It’s not the worst change, but considering how closed off Shirogane is, getting him to say something like that, to someone he barely knows no less, is a pretty big deal.

A closeup of the girls on top of the café is shifted to the end of the episode where they use it, in reverse, to merely just have Renee say she’s going to barf at the lovey display from Blonde and Brunette.

This replaces a shot of the top of the café.

————————

This episode was poo. The dub was an elephant poo sundae being forced down my throat via a hollowed out cactus. I’m so glad this is done. I procrastinated so much on this episode. I’m really sorry if I amped up the anger a bit much in this episode, but sometimes these comparisons seriously grate on the nerves, especially during episodes that are both filler and focusing on characters that annoy me.

But it’s done now, so let’s look on the bright side.

Three episodes left, guys! Whoo!

Next episode is Zakuro at some jewelry show and stuff happens! YAY!

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 22 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Ichigo has neglected her summer homework, and school starts back up tomorrow. As she rushes to get it all done in time, she finds herself faced with a ton of distractions, no one willing to help her out, and Taruto with a new Chimera Animal.

———————————–

The shot of Ichigo and Aoyama on their date is just of them walking together. In the dub, they’re on the roller coaster, and the dialogue is also changed to reflect this.

They remove the wiping transitions for simple cuts.

While still in the ‘summer is awesome’ montage, we see Ichigo and the others in their yukata at a festival catching goldfish, followed up by a shot of Ichigo looking ‘spooky’. After that, we see chibi-Ichigo flying through the air as she gushes over what a great summer it was. This is all removed because Japanese culture and…..no reason for the last one I suppose.

After the title card, we see Ichigo running in circles in her room lamenting that summer is over. This is removed.

As Ichigo cries about the end of summer, we see Japanese text in rock form fall on her head. If I’m not mistaken, that’s supposed to read as ‘August 31^st‘ (8^th month, 31^st day.) which I suppose is indicative of the end of her vacation. In the dub………………………………………………………*sigh* Ya know, I took a rather long break from these comparisons……I come back and I see…..

Tater tots.

Yup, since 4Kids can’t be arsed to just friggin’ write ‘August 31^st‘ in rock text above her head, they draw a bunch of rock-ish tater tots to fall on her head instead. Her dialogue is also altered to set up this fantastic joke by listing off crappy things she hates about school, one of which being tater tots.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Obviously none of the Japanese text on Ichigo’s books is kept.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, the small text on the books behind her school books is completely wiped clean. Give 4Kids some credit for changing it instead of just painting it away.

Because 4Kids places their theme song in the middle of this scene instead of at the beginning of the episode like the original, we get a shot of Ichigo’s house before we see her running in circles again.

Ichigo just basically says she’s screwed as she cartoonishly floats to the ground. Zoey points out the fact that this is happening by saying “I’m a leaf falling off the tree of procrastination.” In addition to being a dumb joke, ‘procrastination’ is yet another word 4Kids shouldn’t be expecting their target audience to know if they don’t even believe they have the reading level of a stick of deodorant.

Okay, 4Kids, remember that stuff I’ve been telling you about in regards to the ‘missing the forest for the trees’ thing? Well, surprisingly, you kept in this scene with Ichigo dressing up in traditional clothes, in a traditional Japanese style house and sipping tea…..yet, you erased the Kanji on the wall.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Ichigo just glances to her pile of homework because she remembers it on her own. In the dub, Zoey tells herself to feel her energies focusing, and then we hear some bored sounding guy’s voiceover talking about kinetic energy, which makes her glance to her homework.

Ichigo just keeps muttering “What to do” over and over as she imagines sinking into murky water. In the dub, Zoey again points out the visual gag by saying she’s sinking in a pool of her own laziness and the fish of shame will nibble at her rotting…well, she doesn’t complete her sentence, but it’s safe to assume she would’ve said ‘corpse’.

Ichigo calls her friend Moe for help, which is reflected when we see the name on her phone. Zoey calls…..’The Megster.’ 4Kids….stop. Stop. Just stop. You’re making a fool of yourself whenever you try to act like you know anything of what kids actually say and do. Go take some Metamucil and watch your stories, but stop. Please.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, Ichigo merely asked for help with her homework not to copy it.

Unreadable text on the back of Ichigo’s phone is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Zoey: “So, listen, I’m a bobo.” A….bobo? What?…..I know I didn’t mishear that……A bobo…..Wait. You mean a DODO? You guys can at least proofread or catch this in recording/editing for god’s sake.

Again, Ichigo asks for help with her homework while Zoey asks to copy it.

Ichigo also asks if it would inconvenience Miwa to go to her house immediately. While Zoey says the same thing, she also asks if there’s a boy at Mimi’s house.

HOLY CRAP! THEY LEFT IN, DIALOGUE-WISE NO LESS, THAT SHE’S IN OKINAWA! They could’ve said ‘California’ or ‘Hawaii’ and easily got away with it in that shot, but nope. They kept it in. I would be more proud of them if not for the fact that I’m pretty sure they left it this way purely because they made it clear that she traveled, which sometimes makes it acceptable. But still they could’ve merely said ‘Japan’ as a whole instead of leaving in the exact area.

Aw, 4Kids lost their brownie points from earlier by removing the text entirely from the books as we pan by.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

That means I have to make the joke I was going to make earlier. Ahem. Well, no wonder she’s having such trouble with her homework!

Also, for some reason beyond my understanding, they change the panning direction. In the original, the shot is moving from right to left (back of the books to the front) In the dub, it’s from left to right (front to back). Confusion levels rising.

While Ichigo says, as she floats to the floor yet again, that it’s her fault that she’s in trouble, Zoey says, as she points out the visual gag yet again, that she’s flapping in the breeze of doom and failure.

Scene swaps, yay! The scene originally continues with Ichigo contacting Moe again for help, with her finally caving in at the end. In the dub, they cut straight from Zoey floating to the floor with a scene of the aliens eating shaved ice, so let’s tackle that first.

There’s a banner behind Kisshu in this shot with the kanji for koori (shaved ice in this context). This is changed to saying “Home sweet home.” Right, ‘evil’ aliens would totally have a ‘Home sweet home’ banner in their house.

Subbed:

Dubbed (sorry for the quality; it’s a moving shot and the dub tends to have this ‘fade’ problem):

Kisshu then asks Taruto about the shaved ices they’re eating. Dren asks what Tarb was thinking by not installing an air conditioner in the new base he built. Also, as a slight note, Taruto talks about how he created a field to help keep them hidden while Tarb talks about all the trees he cut down for the lumber for their new house.

There’s two reasons as to why this is noteworthy. 1) They despise the destruction of their planet in the exact same means as chopping down trees. The original aliens may be hypocritical and ‘evil’ but I can’t see them condoning land clearing like that. 2) Taruto is the plant guy. Why would he specifically feel perfectly fine with knocking down tons of trees for lumber?

We get a lame presentation (and yes it’s an actual presentation) about the environmental reasons for the summer heat. Global warming, greenhouse effect, humans suck, where’s Captain Planet when you need him etc. etc. This is kept the same, but there’s another slight difference in Kisshu/Dren’s reaction. Originally, he just says that humans need to refrain from messing with things such as the ozone layer. Dren says they need to destroy the humans before they destroy the planet they’re trying to steal from them. I just feel like the last part of that line was tacked on to again make the aliens less sympathetic.

Taruto points out that the humans do have some good things as well, and he directs our attention to the jangling wind chimes. The boys all enjoy the sound while Pai just remarks that it’s boring. Tarb says that he wants to start the annihilation of the humans by starting with the Mew Mews. A shot of Taruto looking at the chimes is removed and Dren suddenly butts in to mention the cool breeze.

The rest of the scene plays out roughly the same with the only difference being Taruto pointing out that they’re using the heat as an excuse to skimp out on work while Tarb says he’ll tell Deep Blue that they’re slacking off.

The thing with Kisshu being confused about rock, paper, scissors is also the same, but Pai doesn’t mention anything about a ‘Daily Human Report’ that Dren should be reading……And, really, doesn’t that sound like something an alien in a Looney Tunes cartoon would have to read? Hey, guys, don’t miss that intense article on Rock, Paper, Scissors in the Daily Human Report. Next week, I hear they’re doing a piece on the cultural significance of Hopscotch.

They remove a shot of Kisshu in slow motion realizing that Pai and Taruto have thrown paper and rock. I have no clue why. In both versions, it’s clear that he cheated (He waited several seconds before putting his hand down. I know this shot was in slow motion, but it’s completely unreasonable to believe Taruto and Pai didn’t see that Kisshu paused before putting his hand out.) Was that a time cut or something?

The rest of the scene past Kisshu and Pai leaving the porch is removed. Pai looks back at Kisshu and thinks, for a guy who said he knew nothing of how Rock, Paper, Scissors worked, he played astoundingly well. I actually don’t mind this cut because it’s stupid to say that someone plays a game of pure luck well. That’s like saying someone’s good at slots. The only way you can really be ‘good’ is if you’re lucky or cheating.

Now back to the stuff from before with Ichigo, she’s sitting there trying to do her homework while berating herself for being stupid enough to put off doing her homework until last minute. Zoey’s prattling off a bunch of stuff about geometry. This continues throughout much of the scene.

The rest plays out basically the same, but the ending is completely changed. Originally, after Ichigo’s speech about friendship, Moe pops into frame yet again to say she’s not happy, but eventually she agrees to help Ichigo, and Ichigo rejoices before we cut to the scene with the aliens. In the dub, They repeat her blubbering animation after Megan yells at her, freeze-frame on Zoey as she’s making her speech and have the phone play a recording indicating that she’s been disconnected. Zoey then falls over on the desk and sighs before continuing with a scene that is supposed to occur later.

This means, dun dun dun, scene swap. And scene deletion as a bonus. This part where Ichigo falls over and laments isn’t until a scene with Taruto has passed and we get our first commercial break in the original. Also, it skips over a small scene with Ichigo’s mom asking her if she’s finished her homework since she’s just chatting on the phone and laughing.

They changed the name on Ichigo’s phone to—for the love of God…. THE MIMSTER?! Seriously?! She uses the same terrible nickname device for both of her friends…..Either Zoey’s being made out to be an incredibly lame teenager or 4Kids is trying to make me vomit.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Another paint edit changes her default screen to reading ‘Tom’. Are you sure he’s not the TOMSTER? Also, while no name is given to this person in the original, they clearly have a female voice. Since the shot of the phone is just the same over and over, I’ll just give you guys the screenshots of the dubbed versions for these cell phone changes.

Dubbed:

The girl merely asks if Ichigo wants to go swimming, and Ichigo politely declines. In the dub, Tom is given a ‘surfer dude’ voice and asks Zoey if she wants to go to a laser show because it will be “A-W-E-some” I don’t know why he stopped spelling that halfway through, I’m just glad he stopped talking. Also, Zoey very rudely basically tells him to shut up and hangs up on him.

By the way, 4Kids really is being lazy because you can clearly see hiragana on some of the buttons on Zoey’s phone.

A guy calls this time, asking the same thing about the pool, and Ichigo declines again. The phone is painted again to say ‘Sasha’ (The SASHSTER!) and she’s given an equally annoying valley girl voice as she tells Zoey about a two for one sale at Q and U whatever that is. Zoey also again rudely declines.

Dubbed:

The phone is changed to ‘Mark’ now. I would say he’s the ‘Markster’ but I kinda want the screen to read ‘The Marker’. That way I could finally link Mew Mew Power to Dead Space.

Yes, I have been wanting to do that.

The…Mark…. 😦 :

Ichigo’s line about talking to her mom instead of directing what she said to Aoyama is kept the same, but why would you want your boyfriend to think you were being a rude brat to your mom?

Half of the conversation between Aoyama and Ichigo is removed. He talks to her about seeing a movie, and asks to meet in front of the train station. While the train station line was at the end, it’s still basically the same. However, when Ichigo realizes the situation, she starts freaking out.

She starts stuttering, and Aoyama asks if she has other plans, because he can go by himself if she does. She runs around in circles stammering some more before asking Aoyama if he’s done his homework yet. He asks if she hasn’t finished it yet, but she lies and says she has before accepting his invite and ending the call. All of this is removed for no reason I can think of. Also, the removal of the rest of this scene really makes it seem like Zoey hung up on Mark right after he mentioned the train station. Rude.

In addition, the movie’s not given a title in the original. In the dub it’s ‘Better Never than Late’ which is supposedly a comedy, but sounds like it’s depressing to me.

Ichigo just asks herself what she’s going to do about her homework as she imagines sinking into a swamp. Zoey decides to play ‘point out the visual gag’ again and says she’s ‘swamped’.

Back to the scene with Taruto, they trim a bit of the establishing shot and that’s about it.

After that scene, in the original, we cut to the scene of Ichigo procrastinating that we already covered in the dub, so let’s hop straight to their date.

Text is painted off of the road in front of the train station.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

The text reads as ‘Basutei’ which means ‘Bus stop.’

Also, though you really can’t read it, there’s Japanese text above the train station that is also painted away.

And they painted off the also unreadable text on the posters in the background as Ichigo runs by.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Ichigo and Aoyama depart politely. Zoey interrupts Mark in the middle of saying goodbye to quickly run off while saying “Okay bye!” Because being rude makes all characters better.

No person is given blame for busting the water pipe, whereas Kiki is blamed in the dub.

Also;

Elliot: “Unless you know how to fix an aerator.”

4Kids, I’m no plumber, but even I see the issue in that sentence. Aerators have nothing to do with busted water pipes. They are those little fixtures that screw onto faucet heads to aerate water and prevent splashing. Keywords being ‘screw onto’ which means, yes, she probably could fix an aerator in mere minutes, actually. With her bare hands. In fact, even if the aerator was broken, smashed to bits even, that probably wouldn’t even cause a drip let alone a huge flooding leak because the actual faucet would not be broken; just a fixture that attaches to the faucet.

And why do you need all those pipes and wrenches, ones so huge even, for fixing an aerator? And why do you need pipes anyway if the main issue is the faucets? Just replace the faucets.

Hey 4Kids, I can fix this line for you.

“Unless you’re a licensed plumber.”

“Unless you have experience in replacing pipes.”

“Unless you replace lines that made sense with lines that don’t. Because originally Ichigo asked where the aliens are and Shirogane merely asks what she’s talking about.”

The selections of the Mews in regards to Ichigo’s homework are as follows;

She can’t rely on Pudding because she’s merely in junior high and probably can’t do high school work. In the dub, she can’t rely on Kiki because it takes her an hour to make minute rice. (Guess she forgot that Kiki does all the cooking for her siblings, so she must be at least somewhat competent as a cook.)

She can probably rely on Lettuce since she’s supposedly good at plenty of things. In the dub, she can rely on Bridget because she has a t-shirt that says ‘Me + Math = Love.’

She can likely rely on Mint because she has private tutors. Zoey just says ‘no comment’ when she gets to her.

Zakuro’s is basically left alone.

When she asks Mint for help, Mint agrees so long as she pays 800 yen for each subject. Ichigo declines and states that she’s not an idiot but….it’s not really that much, is it? 800 yen is almost $7.00. She likely has…what? 5-6 subjects to tackle? That’s 4000 or 4800 yen or roughly $34.00-41.00? That’s really not that bad considering her situation and the task at hand.

In the dub, she starts listing off a bunch of different stuff that she can do for her as payment, each of which starting with ‘for the rest of your life’. She lists off things like calling her Queen Corina, making her tea everyday etc. Zoey sarcastically declines by saying right after she does that she’ll sprout wings and fly to the moon, which, considering the world they live in and the fact that the person to which she’s talking sprouts wings on a regular basis, doesn’t seem as unlikely as it usually would.

When she asks Lettuce for help, she declines and says that she believes people should do their homework on their own. She then apologizes over and over. In the dub, she basically says the same thing but she says she doesn’t believe in doing homework for other people or cheating….which Zoey actually isn’t asking as opposed to those times she asked her friends for help. She’s really just asking for help.

When she asks Akasaka for help, he says he’d love to but he’s been asked to participate in a Chef’s Food Tournament. In the dub, he’s been asked to judge a cooking contest by the ‘Divorced Women’s Club.’

When she asks Shirogane to help, he puts up two fingers, indicating he’ll help her. She gets excited but he clarifies that the two fingers are indicating 2000 yen for each subject. Okay, now that’s a bit too steep, especially for someone who is probably richer than Mint. He says since he’s doing work that it’s only right that he gets paid, plus homework is something you should do on your own.

In the dub, she doesn’t know what to make of him putting up two fingers and he says he’ll charge $2.00 per question. She asks why ‘Elly’ (ugh) would do that, and he says he’s just teaching her a life lesson.

As Ichigo imagines herself trying to keep her head above water, she just repeats “No” over and over. In the dub, Zoey does the same thing she’s been doing with every visual gag and says she’s drowning.

Unreadable text on the sign behind the crowd is removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

In that same panning shot, the words ‘Café M’ are removed from another sign.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

It’s a good thing, too. They shouldn’t try to steal Cafe Mew Mew’s gang name.

During the transformations in the original, only the very endings of the girls’ transformations are kept, except, of course, for Ichigo who only has it slightly edited to fit the music. In the dub, we get the same mashup we usually get, this time with ‘Supernatural’ as the accompanying theme.

Ichigo and the others wonder why Taruto created such a tame Chimera Animal and claim he’s just trying to be annoying. He actually agrees and says he didn’t come to fight, plus it’s too hot out, so he’ll just go home. Mint then points out how odd it is that he’d do something so unnecessary and admit it straight out.

In the dub, Zoey complains that Tarb is getting in the way of her doing her homework, and Tarb says it’s not his fault that she put it off until the last minute….which he honestly couldn’t have known. Then Corina points out that Zoey was just lectured by a little twerp.

The Chimera Animal doesn’t have a name in the original. In the dub it’s the Psycho Cicada.

Those scenes with the girls being hit by those blades looks so awkward. The art looks crisper yet the animation is blatantly cardboard cutout-y.

Ichigo points out the main point of origin of the noise, which Pudding clarifies is the wings. Zoey says “Oh great” and Kiki asks if she was being sarcastic.

As they’re being attacked by the sonic waves, Zakuro points out that they won’t last much longer. Renee says the sound is “Worse than boy bands.” Hahaha, Oh 4Kids, you truly know how to connect with the children.

Ichigo says she can’t put up with the attack anymore because she has to do homework, so she starts attacking. Zoey seems like she’s sacrificing herself to the thing because if he doesn’t finish her off, her teachers will so it doesn’t matter. Then she starts attacking anyway.

Most of the dialogue at the end is basically the same, but the dub makes off like the girls are assholes. They’re practically mocking Ichigo the entire time, making sarcastic comments and acting snotty about the fact that Ichigo will never finish her homework with all the Chimera Animals roaming around now, and Renee comes off like she’ll hurt Zoey if she refuses to help.

Ichigo again begs for help while Zoey flat out asks for someone to do her homework for her.

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Well, that episode was…..boring. Hell, even the enemies were just screwing around for the sake of screwing around. There was no real tension because who honestly cares if she gets her work done or not? It is her fault she never started until the day before school starts back up, and I’ve seen this scenario happen way too much in shows just like these to not know that even if she doesn’t do it in time there will be no mention of it ever again.

It’s just filler for the sake of filler. It’s not like it was building up to some big joke or anything either. All it amounted to was Ichigo overcoming a powerful noise just to get back to her homework.

And I know the obvious message of this episode is procrastination is bad, but she was legitimately trying to get her work done. Ichigo was anyway. Zoey not as much. People kept bugging her and no one would actually help when she asked. The one part that I can say was her fault was agreeing to a date with Aoyama in the midst of it all and maybe getting carried away while talking on the phone. If there’s any other message here it’s ‘If you make a mistake, your friends will leave you high and dry and laugh at your expense.’

Next episode, Ichigo’s annoying friends fall for Akasaka and Shirogane.

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 21 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Mint is plagued by nightmares that make her increasingly annoyed with Ichigo’s attitude about their job. They get into more intense fights than usual until Mint snaps and leaves the team. Zakuro resorts to extreme measures to get her to come to an understanding while Kisshu and the other aliens try out Mew Aqua for themselves.

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We get a couple of shots inserted at the very beginning. To show the audience that this is indeed a dream sequence, 4Kids adds in a shot of Corina’s house as well as her sleeping in bed before we cut to the dream.

The parakeet in Mint’s dream doesn’t actually talk. It just chirps and Mint can somehow determine what it’s saying.

Parakeet: “You must fly.”

Corina: “No. I’m only a girl. It’s not possible.”

Yeah, if she was a boy or at least drinking Red Bull, she’d be able to!

Also, why is it impossible? She gains her powers from a bird and has wings when she transforms. First Lettuce is all ‘I can’t swim despite having porpoise powers!’ now this? Okay, that’s quite bit different, but still.

Mint just yells “No, nooooooo!” as she flies up. Corina keeps yelling that she’s falling even though the shot clearly showed her floating up and the way the clouds were dispersing indicates that she was indeed flying not falling.

After Mint’s dream, she sits up in bed and just stares quietly for a bit before lightly bopping herself on the head. This is cut.

Ichigo is rushing around talking to a bunch of customers whereas Zoey is bragging about how much work she just did. Also, they remove half of the scene.

Ichigo is unimpressed by Pudding failing to balance on the ball. Zoey says they just waxed the floors, which caused Kiki to fall.

Ichigo is amazed by Lettuce’s ‘skill’ in balancing a bunch of food and plates she was about to drop. Pudding then tells Lettuce to keep up her posture perfectly to ensure that nothing falls. Zoey tells Bridget they have enough performers in the café, and Kiki tells Bridget to stop muscling in on her act.

They remove a shot of the wall that was used as a cutaway while Lettuce dropped the plates. In the dub, she also doesn’t drop the plates.

Zakuro says there was a tip for ‘Show Time’ of ten yen then revises it to five. Renee says there was a ten percent tip for entertainment and it was given to Bridget, which is weird because that literally happened a second ago.

They replace an outer shot of the café with a shot of their ‘closed’ sign.

Mint brings up the fact that Ichigo was late that day as retaliation for her complaining about not doing work. Ichigo says she may be human but she has the spirit of a cat, which I guess means she was lazy or slept in or something. This is changed to Corina saying she has “An aversion to customer service.” A small shot of Ichigo looking away to make her excuse is also removed.

The next scene is….basically the same, but there are shots of the café that are removed while Mint’s talking in an extended monologue. Also, Mint says that she’s actually more responsible than Ichigo because she’s always early while Ichigo’s always late due to the fact that the café acts as a cover for their superheroing, thus it’s not the work at the café that matters it’s being there early in case trouble starts.

Ichigo, for some reason, mocks Mint by asking if guys make her weak all over. Zoey mocks her by mimicking her saying ‘I’m so fabulous!’

The Mew Aqua (IE Magical substance of deus ex machina that everyone wants) is called….Blue Aqua….

Blue….

Aqua….

Blue….*sigh*

Do they not know what Aqua mea—It’s blue! Okay, yes, the textbook definition is a green-ish blue color, but it’s still blue. They’re basically calling the stuff ‘Blue Blue’ What was wrong with Mew Aqua? I know 4Kids changes everything because ‘We can, now shut up and give us money’ but I just don’t get it. Did the translator mishear when Shirogane said ‘Mew’ or what? It’s not like the actual substance is blue either; it’s clear/white, so this makes even less sense.

Zoey: “Blue Aqua? Isn’t that redundant?”

Elliot: “Perhaps. But it’s the best we could do on short notice.”

You know, sometimes I have these moments when I’m doing these comparisons when I no longer hear the characters speaking. I feel like the 4Kids’ staff had a small conversation, transcribed it and made the characters’ VAs say the lines to put in the show for no reason than to screw with some people because that is just enraging to me. Here’s what’s actually going on here.

Writer: “Okay, the name of this stuff in the original version is ‘Mew Aqua’”

4Kids’ Exec: “Change it.”

W: “Why?”

E: “Just do it. For funsies.”

W: “How long do we have?”

E: “15 seconds.”

W: “Uh.”

E: “Time’s up. Whatcha got?”

W: “……Uh….Blue Aqua?”

E: “Blue Aqua? Isn’t that redundant?”

W: “Perhaps. But it’s the best we could do on short notice.”

Seems silly at first, but is perfectly believable given the circumstances isn’t it? Either that or they purposely changed the name to make that ‘joke,’ and I’m honestly not sure which is worse.

Mew Aqua is just crystalline water with such a high purity that it somehow has healing properties and other abilities. Blue Aqua is just a “mysterious magic substance with all sorts of magical properties.”

And upon hearing this, Corina says this.

“Magical properties? Seems pretty out there if you ask me.”

You are a group of girls given magic powers by somehow temporarily fusing your DNA with that of animals, your weapons are musical instruments for whatever reasons, and you’re destined to fight aliens who make monsters by fusing animals with aliens and the souls of humans with that of aliens. Your friend sprouts cat ears and a tail on a regular basis. Your other friend turned into a mermaid a couple weeks ago. Why is this so ‘out there’?

Shirogane just says that Lettuce was somehow influenced by Mew Aqua that time at the beach. Elliot says the same thing but adds that they’ll all eventually be able to have a higher level of transforming soon with Blue Aqua. Pfft. I wish. The other girls never get crap for powers or abilities, and Ichigo can transform into a cat just by getting all flustered.

The larger crystalline form of Mew Aqua doesn’t get a name in the original. In the dub, Elliot calls it Blue Aqua Crystal. I would’ve called it Blue Aqua Sapphire myself. Really driver home the redundancy.

Shirogane states that the Mew Aqua has the power to alter the earth’s form. Elliot again states the stuff about increasing their power to fight the cyniclons.

We get a close up of Mint clenching her hands before the scene changes. In the dub, we just repeat the shot of Mint’s worried face, but this time we get a quick zoom in because it’s all intense.

A further shot of Ichigo at the pond is removed.

Ichigo doesn’t make a lame joke about duck-sitting (Get it? Sitting duck? Hahaha……no seriously, that’s the joke she says. Even the laughter is in there.) like Zoey does.

Ichigo doesn’t ask Aoyama to keep the Mew Aqua thing a secret like Zoey does to Mark. Wouldn’t he wonder why it would need to be a secret anyway?

Aoyama’s speech is shortened…and it’s obviously dumbed up/preachified.

Mark doesn’t explain that what he has in his hands are arm bands for volunteers that pick up litter. He says he’s helping the environment by using what’s in his hand, but with the art you can’t tell what it is so you’re left wondering why this thing helps Mark with trash collecting. To be honest, it doesn’t even look like arm bands.

We originally cut from Ichigo and Aoyama to the café. In the dub, they place a scene with Dren and the other aliens talking before we cut back to the café.

The first conversation’s roughly the same. When we get to Kisshu, he explains they he found some Mew Aqua at the beach, and it’s something that the aliens already know of. Not only that, but they state that it’s responsible for the evolution of nature and humanity – because science. In the dub, Dren just talks about how he’s gazing dreamily at his bottle of ‘Blue Aqua’.

How’d he know the name? He didn’t. He claims he named it himself. Apparently the characters on this show have the creativity of my dog’s slobber. And not only that, but Sardon makes the same ‘Isn’t that redundant?’ joke from before. A joke so nice they did it twice. Support’s going pretty hard for the ‘They gave it a dumb name for the sake of an even dumber joke’ thing. Although, can I be honest? I really think that they misheard “Mew” as “Blue” and all of this “Isn’t that redundant?” stuff is trying to make fun of the original without realizing their own mistake….

In the original, Pai is reacting because he knows of Mew Aqua and wants to know why Deep Blue wasn’t informed.

Kisshu tells the others that they should try out the Mew Aqua to impress Deep Blue. Dren says he wants to keep it a secret from Deep Blue, which is something Pai/Sardon would not do but whatever.

Mint brings up the stuff she talked about earlier in regards to being at the café in case something happened. Ichigo says nothing happened so it doesn’t matter. Corina is enraged that Zoey would go off on a date with her boyfriend and blame it on ‘some daffy duckling.’ I’m convinced they’ve stopped trying with these jokes. Then Zoey tells her not to have ‘a hissy.’

God, 4Kids, what’s with the soap opera music when Renee tells Corina to drop it? Also, Zakuro merely tells her to calm down there.

The next scene in the original is the scene with the aliens, so we cut straight back to the café after the dub’s commercial break instead.

By the way, considering the Japanese commercial is right after the scene with the aliens….wouldn’t it have been better, suspense-wise, to leave it as-is? Wasn’t 4Kids all about making tension before the commercial?

Ichigo says that a package being delivered directly to the cafe is weird and tells Lettuce to check it out. Zoey says it’s probably the milk delivery and to tell the delivery guy that the half and half was lumpy.

Ichigo doesn’t say that whatever’s in the box is probably expensive and ‘snooty’ like Zoey does. Also, Pudding’s super excited because she believes candy is in the box, not something expensive.

Ichigo just says that she doesn’t know what they can do about Mint as things may have just gone too far this time. Zoey says that she’s believed for a while that Mint is on-edge and afraid of something.

After we cut to Pudding crying about Mint’s supposed resignation, she cuts the tension by saying if Mint leaves she’ll have no one else to play with. Ichigo falls over comically and then Lettuce points out that Pudding’s just a child, and both Pudding and Ichigo fall over comically. All of this is removed.

Because the scene is removed, the rest of it stays entirely serious in the dub.

Text is again removed from Akasaka’s computer.

Wesley: “If the aliens witnessed the transformation then surely they must–”

Elliot: “Don’t worry. They’re up to something.”

Yes, Wesley, don’t worry that the aliens might be planning something. I know they’re planning something.

Minor nitpick: Shirogane’s not the one who suggests eating lunch. In fact, the point is made that he’s too engrossed in his work with Mew Aqua and what the aliens might be planning to take a break at all.

Major Nitpick: Akasaka just says he’ll make some sandwiches for them. Wesley says he’ll make Elliot a turkey….mewwich……A mewwich…..mew…..wich….Must retain sanity…only….five more….episodes….

Shirogane laments that he doesn’t have enough info to do anything productive. Elliot laments that he’s getting turkey again. This is said like it’s a joke, but there’s no setup. It’s not like they work in a turkey restaurant. I don’t even understand why they’d seemingly have an abundance of turkey in a café that seems to serve nothing but desserts and tea (And health shakes for some reason) anyway.

Zakuro knocks. Renee doesn’t. In fact, Elliot basically senses her presence somehow.

Zakuro talks about how Mint has seen and experienced a lot, and she believes that she may be overworked. In the dub, she talks about how they’re all a team, and they just aren’t as strong when they’re not all together.

Shirogane asks if Zakuro is really a high school girl. Zakuro smiles and says it’s best not to question a girl’s age. Elliot says Renee’s a real team player after all, and she asks him to keep that fact between them.

A shot of the ‘closed’ sign is removed probably because they already used the shot somewhere it wasn’t meant to be.

When Ichigo says they should all go to Mint’s house, Lettuce’s expression gets all goofy and happy as she says Ichigo’s name. This is removed.

Elliot: “Those hoodlums are out to steal the Blue Aqua!” Hoodlums?! You’re getting your oldness on the show again, 4Kids.

In the original, they basically skip Pudding, Lettuce and Ichigo’s transformations entirely. They say their transformation prompts and then we transition to Ichigo transformed, under the assumption the others did too.

In the dub, they do a mashup of Zoey, Bridget and Kiki’s transformations with small cut in scenes at the end to allow them to play the whole ‘Supernatural’ song clip. Oddly, they even throw in a clip of Zoey doing her Strawberry Bell attack at the end, which is weird, because they’re not fighting yet.

The shot of Mint sleeping that was inserted in the very first scene is taken from this point….and they repeat it. I guess she’s REALLY comfortable in that position.

A shot of Mint’s window is removed. Also, Mint goes out on her balcony because she hears something. Corina goes out just because.

The back and forth between Mint and Zakuro is basically the same, but mentions of people dying and saying it doesn’t matter then if Mint dies now are obviously removed. The sentiment is basically kept though. I will say that Corina’s acting more selfish than Mint is.

Kisshu just notices something odd about the Mew Aqua but they don’t say what it is. In the dub, Sardon says it’s a more crystallized version…..but it’s a bubble so I dunno.

Ichigo says creating earthquakes underground will make subway workers mad. Zoey says she always knew they were vermin and now they’re working underground like rats.

*gasp* They didn’t do the motto again!

Maybe that motto is actually so awful that even 4Kids doesn’t want to do it anymore.

Wow, 4Kids & Studio Pierrot. Nice job on Zakuro’s face/some of her face redrawn when they got rid of the cross design of her whip.

I’ll go buy some Cheetos, she’ll probably get the munchies soon.

This whole thing with Zakuro attacking Mint was proving to her that there is a reason to fight. She cares about the lives of those precious to her, thus her fight is not useless. The dub continues on with Corina being scared of something and her admitting it.

Zakuro says, as I stated, that she’s finally found a reason to fight. She compares Mint to Ichigo in stating that, while they may think differently, they both always look ahead. Renee says it doesn’t matter that she’s scared. They all are. But that’s not a good enough reason to leave. She used the attack as a means to show her how it would be to fight an enemy on her own instead of with her team……So….you made her conquer her fears….by trying to kill her. Good job?

Nice record scratch 4Kids. Send me a postcard from Romantic Comedy Trailer Land.

Mint just thinks to herself “I am” over and over while Corina thinks to herself that she won’t be afraid.

Scene shifts, hooray. I am actually being kinda serious, because, believe it or not, I like what 4Kids did here.

In the original, we see Ichigo preparing her attack, and, for a split second, we see a split screen of Pudding and Lettuce just barely getting in a second of their attacks, and then Ichigo finishes her attack. In the dub, we start off with Bridget’s full attack, then Kiki’s, we see the effects on the monster and then Zoey starts her attack. I like this because the series has a nasty habit of excluding or downplaying the other girls barring Ichigo so it’s actually nice when 4Kids decides to give them more spotlight, no matter what the actual reason behind it is.

Pai is unimpressed with Mew Aqua’s powers, but Kisshu says that what they found wasn’t actually the real deal. It was another crystalline material that only gave a glimpse to what Mew Aqua can do…..What this material is and why it has properties similar to Mew Aqua is never explained, but whatever. Sardon says their hunt for Blue Aqua is off to a bad start, but Dren says it’s no problem because he still has his stash from earlier.

In the original, they’re talking about the silk of their pajamas, not wallpaper. Also, Ichigo asks if Mint’s been sleeping in the huge bedroom they’re in the whole time, but she quietly states to herself that Zakuro destroyed her actual room. Also, they’ve been to her house several times. They should know what her actual room looks like. In the dub, Zoey suggests that they make s’mores, and Corina quietly says to herself that she doesn’t know what those are….Seriously? I thought you were a true American. From America…..In America. Zoey then asks who she’s talking to, which I guess is supposed to be her breaking the fourth wall considering Corina’s kinda angled toward the audience but not really. Thus another dub joke that fails.

There’s a slow motion shot of Ichigo flying towards Mint to hug her for being back to normal that’s removed from the dub. Hugs are bad. M’kay?

Another of Zakuro’s cross necklaces is censored.

Zakuro tells Miki that he put on good show, implying that she made a plan with Miki to put him in ‘danger’ to help Mint snap out of it. It also implies that Zakuro can talk to dogs. In the dub, Renee verbally rolls her eyes at the girls having a pillow fight and for some reason gives a thumbs up to Micky when she says “Sleepovers are so 13.” …..So 13? I think 4Kids is making up their own slang now. Also, this obviously means the implications of this scene are entirely gone from the dub.

The ending monologue by Ichigo is about how the pillow fight made them forget their worries and how they seemed to fly off with the feathers. The dub is explaining that Corina and Zoey are friends again, she’s back with the team, teamwork, friends yay.

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This episode is….confusing. It’s obviously not the one where it’s implied that Mint can talk to birds, which I could’ve sworn it was. But beyond that….I don’t really get it. What was the dream about? In either version?

Flying? Okay. She never flew. Are you being metaphoric? Because, bitch, you a bird.

She’s overworked? Since when? She’s lazy as hell.

Is it the emotional toll of their responsibilities? I guess I can get that.

She thinks the fight is useless? Why? Since when? If not for the sake of saving the planet, completing their mission would also mean they’d never have to do Mew stuff again.

Dub-wise, though, why would she be just getting scared now? Because of the Blue Aqua factor? Why would she think that leaving her team would quell her fear? Oh yeah, you face that alien invasion without a team. I’m sure you’d be fine. Maybe I’m missing something, maybe I can’t wrap my head around the real message here. I dunno.

Other than that, the episode was pretty blah. I’m not that interested in Mint-centric episodes anyway, but this was particularly bland outside of the implication that Zakuro can now talk to dogs….something I don’t think is ever brought up again, in the anime anyway.

Next episode, it’s the end of summer and….I guess that means filler.

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 20 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Pudding falls ill, and the group discovers that she is the sole caretaker of her four little brothers and sister since her mother died a few years ago, and her father is constantly traveling on a mission to be a master martial artist. The girls take it upon themselves to take care of the kids while she recovers, but the aliens find this to be a prime time to attack.

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They replace the opening shot of the café for a different shot of the café. Your guess is as good as mine.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

The two customers arriving at the door only say that they have a party of two. Ichigo asks if they can wait for a bit because there are no tables available. In the dub, the two customers say that they’re booking a birthday party with a group of 20 people arriving right now…….

I want to mention, not kidding, that I subconsciously wrote ‘bitchday’ while trying to type ‘birthday’ because that’s the first thing that sprung up in my head….I mean, planning a birthday party with a group of 20 is already difficult enough for restaurants to handle, but this is a damn CAFE.

I’d be surprised if they actually had a way to set up accommodations for a party of 20. It really seems like all they have are those quaint little white round tables. Who has a birthday party at a café anyway? I know they have cake, but typically setting up a birthday somewhere involves eating an actual meal in addition to the cake, and they don’t seem to carry much in terms of regular food.

More importantly, what kind of asshole wanders into a café intending on getting a table for 20 for a party? That’s one of those times when you call ahead to ensure that you can not only be served but also to ensure that the place is actually suitable for such a thing. These girls in the dub are complete morons.

Originally, Akasaka apologizes to Pudding for making her do the dishes since that’s usually his job. Pudding says it’s no problem because she always does this kind of thing at home. In the dub, Wesley reminds her that the plates she’s throwing around are very expensive, she says she knows and that’s why she’s being ‘extra careful’ with them.

They switch the shots of Ichigo and Lettuce reacting to Pudding falling and Akasaka’s reaction. Why? Because they can.

Mint says it’s odd that a person as healthy and energetic as Pudding ended up getting sick. In the dub, Corina says they need to find someone to fill in for Kiki at the café, and Zoey says that Corina could actually start working for a change….and they add a rimshot….again. Is 4Kids really that hard up for making entertaining dialogue that they have to keep adding in awful jokes with rimshots to help the audience know when to laugh? Is a laugh track coming next?

When Lettuce is done ‘helping’ Pudding, they flash small labels on the various items she put on Pudding. This is gone from the dub, but oddly it seems like they left in the ‘boing boing boing’ sound effects for when they flashed. I won’t bother getting a screenshot because, since they flash, you just have to imagine the shot being a static image of when the flash ends, but she gets an ice pack, a whiplash neck brace, bandaids on her face, a cold pack for her forehead, and a leek shoved into her mouth.

Going to her torso, we get a huge paint edit. In the original, she gets a pickled plum on her belly button, moxa burning on her wrist (for moxibustion therapy), an IV drip on her other wrist and a belly warmer.

In the dub, all of this is removed except, oddly enough, the most foreign and unknown thing on her body, the moxa and the belly warmer. However, they moved the moxa to her belly button in place of the plum. Can someone please tell me how an IV drip and a plum are somehow more weird or offensive than a damn burning piece of dried mugwort? By the way, the moxa is changed in dialogue to incense.

Finally, down to her feet, we see Lettuce has put health sandals on her. This shot is just edited out.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Extra:

Oh and in the very next shot, they show the IV bag. So you can show the IV but not the place where it goes on the arm? Lovely.

Lettuce says she thought those items would help. Bridget says she got the ideas from her mom who is very much into homeopathic remedies.

Corina: “Look, she’s alive!” I hate you more with every line.

Mint says it’d be better for Pudding to get some more sleep instead of getting up. Corina says, immediately after Kiki regains consciousness, mind you;

Corina: “You think you’ll be able to work your shifts tomorrow?” Hatred. Pure. Hatred.

Why would 4Kids put the theme song immediately after Kiki passes out and falls on the floor? That’s a pretty scary moment to cut away from in a kids’ show. Especially when the theme song is so poppy, upbeat and girly.

*Kiki passes out and falls on the floor* “Oh no! Kiki!” D: ♪ LAAAALALALALA, LAAAALALALALAAAAA ♪

Pudding’s just muttering “I have to…pick them up…” referring to her siblings, though I guess just her sister. Kiki’s muttering “lil sprouts” over and over.

Shirogane and Akasaka explain that Pudding’s mutterings are probably about picking up her little siblings from daycare/school. The girls say they didn’t even know she had siblings, and Akasaka and Shirogane send them off to pick up the kids instead. In the dub, Elliot and Wesley say ‘lil sprouts’ seem to be referring to some business. The girls wonder if it could be a health food store, but Bridget says that’s not possible because she would’ve heard of it what with the sudden revelation that her mom’s a total hippie. They then send the girls on a mission to find out what the ‘sprouts’ thing is about.

Sign change!

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, this is a kindergarten in the original. In the dub, it’s a daycare.

Originally, the girls wonder why Pudding has to be the one to pick up her little brothers and sister….funny, I could’ve sworn they already knew somewhat of Pudding’s situation, but whatever. In the dub, the girls wonder why Kiki would be talking about the daycare. Zoey wonders if it’s a second job at night, Corina points out that it’s a DAYcare center, yada yada.

Zoey: *Looking in the daycare at Kiki’s sister* “What….is that?”

Corina: “It’s….a girl!”

Zoey: “Maybe it’s an evil predasite!”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………

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…..

Originally, they just talk about how much the girl looks like Pudding.

They add a flip-screen transition after the first shot of the teacher.

Speaking of the teacher, hi Veronica Taylor! Using your Delia voice today I see.

Can I ask a question? If this is a daycare in the dub, what explanation is given as to why Kiki’s brothers aren’t cared for there?

Pudding’s father is traveling around training to be the best martial artist and doesn’t come home very often. Her mother died a few years ago, and now she’s left to care for her siblings.

In the dub, Kiki’s parents are supposedly both still alive, but they’re not ‘on the scene’ whatever that means. According to the Wiki, it’s still canon in the dub that Mrs. Benjamin dies, but I guess that they skirt the idea. They also give no explanation whatsoever as to where Kiki’s father is.

I can understand dancing around the death thing, but why the traveling thing? That is basically the exact same explanation that Brock’s dad had from Pokemon and they kept that, though maybe they didn’t want to mention it here because Pudding’s dad doesn’t suddenly show up and decide to stay like Brock’s dad does. In fact, the dub almost makes it worse. You’re just left to insinuate that he’s some deadbeat who left his sickly wife and six young kids…..which….yeah….he pretty much is.

Mrs. Rosbe, who goes unnamed in the original, but let’s just call her Sensei, also replaces the information about Pudding’s mother passing to stating that she just learned recently that Kiki has four brothers as well.

We cut to Pudding’s face that soon gets silhouetted and we see a scene of her father traveling around while Sensei tells that part of the story. In the dub, the shot of Pudding’s face is shortened, the shot itself is blurred for some reason and the part about her father is removed.

Between the shots of Pudding taking care of her siblings and the flashback to the kindergarten, 4Kids adds another short shot of Mrs. Rosbe talking.

It’s weird in the dub too. While Mrs. Rosbe seems to know Kiki, she seems to be meeting Heidi just then.

Name Change: Heicha, the lone other sister in the group, is changed to Heidi.

In the flashback, Sensei talks about how great of a job Pudding is doing taking care of her brothers and sister considering she has schoolwork and everything else. Pudding smiles and says she’s gotten used to it. In the dub, Mrs. Rosbe tells Kiki that she was disappointed to not see Mrs. Fong at the daycare that day, but Kiki says she couldn’t make it. Mrs. Rosbe states that she must be very busy and that Kiki’s great for helping out so much.

Corina: “I’m just glad she’s not a lonely independent orphan like we all thought.” You have good meaning behind those words, but it still pisses me off. Her being essentially an orphan with ‘off scene’ parents and needing to juggle taking care of five toddlers while also going to work and school and doing Mew stuff is almost as bad. I honestly don’t see how, in either version, child services hasn’t done anything.

In the original, she just says they’ll take Pudding’s sister home.

Ichigo says “Good evening,” and Heicha says the same in a shy voice. Zoey asks if she’s building a house and Heidi says it’s a castle.

Heicha and Heidi’s lines about strangers are basically the same, but Mint’s inner monologue about that kind of lesson being typical of Pudding is covered by more Heidi dialogue continuing the insult with “Creepy fake smiles” and “Horrible nasty breath.”

Ichigo asks Heicha how she plans to get home if she doesn’t go with them, and Heicha says Pudding will definitely come for her. In the dub, Zoey argues with Heidi about the bad breath comment since she’s too far away to tell how bad their breath is, but Heidi just says she can tell from so far away because it’s just that bad.

Heicha repeats Pudding’s line about saying that that girls can go home now. Heidi, being a brat, says “Yeah, go home!”

In the dub, Kiki keeps calling Heidi ‘Monkey’, which isn’t present in the original. It’s probably poking at Kiki’s animal, but still.

Pudding’s brothers at least welcome her home before they whine about being hungry. In the dub, that’s the first thing they say when she comes through the door.

Ichigo doesn’t mention anything about DVD rentals like Zoey does.

Another mention of ‘Itadakimasu’ is removed in lieu of ‘1, 2, 3 GO!’ which, while not being bratty, is still kinda rude.

They remove the shot of the group saying thanks for the food, probably because they all have their hands together like they’re praying. Oddly, though, they keep in the split second shot of a closeup of Pudding doing it.

Ichigo has a mug that says ‘Ichi’ ‘go!’ though I’m fairly certain those two are meant to be together to say ‘Ichigo’ with a picture of a strawberry on it. In the dub, this is painted away to say ‘Zoey!’ which is really surprising. With how much they simply paint away, no matter if it makes the item pointless like signs or papers, you’d think a completely superfluous mug would just be whitewashed and not painted over. To push this even further, in the same shot even, they completely paint away the letters ‘cle’ (clean?) from the toothpaste tube in said mug. I love doing these comparisons with 4Kids shows. It allows me to see what it’s like to live in a world of perpetual confusion.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Lettuce says this is the first sleepover she’s ever had. Bridget doesn’t mention this and says she brought books for storytime.

Mint asks where her bed is while Corina asks Kiki to ask “one of the delinquents” to take her bags. Still hatred.

Pudding and the girls share a few smiles, and Pudding thanks the girls in Chinese while bowing her head and putting her hands together in respect. This is removed.

I don’t believe Pudding’s brothers get dub names, so for the record they’re Chincha, Hanacha, Lucha and Honcha. And everyone please applaud Pudding for living the life she does. Ten years old taking care of five toddlers on her own while balancing school, a job and superhero work. That is just amazing. And people think Brock was cool. Pfft.

The list on the wall is obviously painted. And if Pudding/Kiki is gone for most of the day usually, on weekdays anyway considering school and work, who is enforcing all of this?

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Corina: “Listen up, delinquents! Your sister is sleeping and we’re in charge!” Still more hatred. Mint doesn’t even have a line here. It’s silent until Ichigo tells the kids POLITELY that Pudding is sick, needs sleep, and they’ll be taking care of them for the day. Speaking of which, the scene I just mentioned with those lines is removed because the girls and the kids agree to work together and show their agreement and respect by bowing again.

Ichigo tells the kids to wash their faces. Zoey tells them to brush their teeth….To be fair, though, Zoey makes more sense because her little chibi shot shows her holding a toothbrush as she says this line.

The kids always agree to what the girls are telling them to do. In the dub, they keep saying “Okay, see you later!” to their tasks.

Mint says it seems impossible to do everything that needs to be done for the kids everyday. Corina says “I’m not sorry. I took a direct blow to the shins.” And status update on hatred. Still there.

They add a flip-screen transition after Kiki juggles, again, for no reason.

Originally, Heicha merely tells Pudding that her face is all red. Pudding tells her that she’s okay. Heidi is going on about a monster in her closet who wants to paint her face blue, and Kiki says the story’s not true and that Corina was only trying to frighten her. Yeah, plenty of hate. Still, a monster that paints your face blue? What?

They mirror the street shots like usual.

They also paint the text off the signs as they drive by. You at least have to admire 4Kids for their thoroughness with that stuff.

Pudding sees Mrs. Rosbe’s face shift into that of her mother’s because her words remind her of her mother, and then we cut to the hospital. In the dub, the shift and the shot of her mother are removed.

They leave the flashback, surprisingly, basically completely alone….but….the dub….has this line which pisses me off immensely for some reason….

Mrs. Fong/Benjamin: “After all, a smile is just a frown turned upside down.”

“A frown turned upside down….”

“………frown upside down…..”

I just….can’t put my finger on why….

I can’t even decide what they’re doing with Mrs. Fong/Benjamin’s ‘death’. They leave the flashback alone which really insinuates that she died, but they refuse to say that she passed away.

Pudding just thanks Mrs. Rosbe for taking care of Heicha. Kiki thanks her for agreeing to take Heidi home later and also says “You rock!”…

Mrs. Rosbe is given text on her license plate, and of the course the shots in and around the car are all flipped.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Look, 4Kids…..I give you a lot of crap, but thank you for showing children that it’s not okay to drive around with blank license plates. You’re truly doing a service to all child drivers everywhere.

By the way, pay close attention to Mrs. Rosbe’s license plate. Guess what it’s supposed to say.

Give up?

It’s IBROZB.

Think about it for a second. Here, I’ll help. I…B….ROZB….

I BE ROSBE.

…….I……BE……ROSBE………..

She’s a teacher.

Taruto doesn’t say he can’t fight without the Chimera Animals or the other aliens, he just says Pudding’s pissing him off. Why would he say that anyway? All it does is play into Kiki’s taunting and make him look like an idiot.

Taruto says he knew Pudding wasn’t feeling well today but adds that it’s no fun to fight her like this. In the dub, Tarb asks if Kiki’s chicken and then retracts his statement saying he doesn’t want to offend his predasite. Why is Mrs. Rosbe’s chimera a chicken anyway?…..

They remove a shot of the chimera animal getting its equipment because it’s very obviously a bent over panty shot….a panty shot for a chicken person…..Have fun with that, furries?

But they don’t remove the shot of her laying an egg?

…..doesn’t that require her panties to be….off? Why am I thinking about this!?

This Chimera Animal says various attacks and weird phrases like ‘Hardboiled egg’ ‘Salt’s better than other condiments’ ‘Saturday bargain sale, 3 for 50 yen!’ etc. This isn’t present in the dub….and I don’t blame them. It’s funny, but only because it makes no sense.

Well, this is weird. Originally, Lettuce blasts away the Chimera Animal and frees Pudding with her Ribbon Lettuce Rush. We don’t see her making the attack, we just hear her and then see the attack hit.

In the dub, the girls have to be shown first after a punny declaration by Zoey because she has to be first on the scene always, and then Corina tells Bridget to use her attack. We also see her perform it. In addition, for some reason, they mirror the shot of the girls on the roof. They’re no where near a street or cars so I have no clue why they did that.

I should really be happy with this change because it forces them to remove the motto, meaning another episode with no Mew Mew power in my face! WHOOOOOOOOOOO!!

They say Bridget’s attack name wrong, but I checked the wiki to make sure of the right one, and, apparently, 4Kids gave her four different attack names for the same freakin’ attack and animation….I truly believe 4Kids just couldn’t be arsed to remember the first one they came up with so they just started pulling whatever they could think of out of their asses.

A short bit of Taruto turning to face the Mews is removed.

Taruto telling the girls that he doesn’t care if they team up is removed because of the scene shifting.

I would be upset with this being another non-Ichigo centric episode where the honor of final shot still goes to Ichigo, but considering Pudding’s main attack is meant to immobilize the enemy and not really damage them, I can’t be too upset here.

It bothers me how Zoey says her attacks….Ichigo yells them because…well, she’s ATTACKING. Zoey’s practically breathy when she just says her attack names. She might as well be ordering takeout.

In the original, Sensei merely offers to take Heicha to kindergarten to give Pudding more time to relax. Pudding declines because then she wouldn’t be able to see Sensei anymore…..well, that’s not true. She’d see her when she came to pick Heicha up, so I dunno. In the dub, Mrs. Rosbe offers to help take care of Kiki and the kids and Kiki agrees immediately.

….Look, I find it incredibly nice that Mrs. Rosbe is offering to do that but…..wouldn’t she have to live there to really be a significant help? Even Ichigo, Lettuce and Mint had to sleepover to ensure the kids were cared for. And there’s no way Kiki would give in that easily. She’d likely agree eventually to some assistance, but this is a bit much for an immediate ‘Okay, and oh by the way’ I also don’t know how often Kiki’s dad is home, but how would he feel about this?

Instead of taking Heicha to school, Pudding asks if Sensei will pretend to be her mother instead, which is both very cute and heartbreaking but also a little awkward. She agrees and Pudding cries into her lap for her mother……Geez. Why do I remember being annoyed by this episode? It’s so sad.

Anyway, in the dub, Kiki tells Mrs. Rosbe that she reminds her of her mother and says she’ll show her a picture of her mother sometime. So….still insinuating that she’s dead without saying it. I guess I’ll take it. It’s better than sending her to the Shadow Realm. She then asks Mrs. Rosbe if they’ll be okay. She says yes and Kiki cries into her lap, which I honestly thought they’d remove both for its emotion and the fact that her head’s in her lap. Don’t roll your eyes, they’d do it.

Pudding looks to the sky and thinks to her mother as her face and the face of Sensei appear in the sky and she says she’s doing okay. This is removed.

By the way, where does Zakuro keep disappearing to? I know she has other stuff to do, but it’s so weird that there are frequent episodes where she’s gone with absolutely no explanation.

This episode was really sad, and it was a great exploration of Pudding’s story, but the comparison was just a chore. I applaud 4Kids for not doing anything dumb with her mother’s death even if they never do outright say she died. And if she is dead, what was with that ‘on the scene’ line? That usually implies that they’re just gone like they left. The kids weren’t as bad as I feared in the dub, though they are pretty annoying. It was also really a nice show of how great friends the girls are turning out to be.

Next episode, Ichigo and Mint are fighting….what a surprise.

…Previous Episode

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Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power Episode 19 Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: The girls and guys of Mew head to the beach for some vacation time. We learn that Lettuce, ironically, doesn’t know how to swim. When she meets a girl named Iruka who is being bullied for being afraid of the water, she takes it upon herself to learn how to swim alongside her.

————————-

The first scene was originally a flashback/fantasy of Shirogane talking to Ichigo about the trip to the beach and her imagining the Blue Knight speaking to her in a similar fashion. This is replaced by a repeat of the final scene in the last episode.

They edit out a shot of Lettuce before the title screen.

A shot of the cabin is replaced by a shot of a palm tree.

They remove numerous shots of Zakuro taking off her towel as well as a shot of the guys gushing over her.

Here’s your visuals, pervs:

Here’s a weird edit: They leave in the shot of the guys gushing over Zakuro with hearts in their eyes but they remove half of the guys from the shot because……They defied the laws of physics?

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They also replace a shot of Mint gushing over Zakuro for what was supposed to be an earlier shot of the guys gushing over Zakuro with heart eyes. Dunno why. They’ve been really supportive of MintxZakuro this whole time.

Ah, here you are, you awful paint edit, you. Not the last of these if I do remember correctly. Lettuce’s bathing suit is digitally altered as she’s sitting to cover some of her thighs and more of her butt. However, they do it in such an awkward manner that it makes her look like she’s wearing a damn diaper. The fact that her bathing suit is white certainly doesn’t help this.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

So you can show all the girls in bikinis that you want, but diaper them up when they’re sitting because that’s just too risque.

As Ichigo explains the finless porpoise (or the black finless porpoise in the dub), a text box with the Japanese name ‘Sunameri’ is on screen. In the dub, it’s erased. This happens with each subsequent explanation with the other animals as well. Also, we’re 19 episodes in and they’re just now educating us on the various animals that their powers derive from?

Subbed:

Sunameri –

Iriomote Wildcat –

Parakeet (Mistranslated in the subs – Mint’s animal is actually a blue lorikeet.)

Dubbed:

Sunameri –

Iriomote Wildcat –

Blue Lorikeet

Also–

Zoey: “That’s weird. You’re infused with a fish!”

You know, for a person who is about to go on an encyclopedia-esque ramble about the specifications of sunameri, you got the most basic and simple fact that most people would probably know about the thing incorrect. Sunameri, black finless porpoises, are mammals not fish.

And for the sake of nitpicking, sunameri are also not dolphins. They’re porpoises and strongly resemble dolphins both in appearance and behavior, but they aren’t dolphins. And if we wanna get unnecessarily annoyingly nitpicky, yes, adult finless porpoises are typically not black in color, making their name seem odd, but the babies are mostly black with a little gray.

They cut out a short scene of Lettuce talking, explaining that she simply doesn’t swim and that it has nothing to do with the Mew powers.

Both Ichigo and Zoey say that they may be infused with iriomote wildcats, but they have no desire to play with mice. Yes, the whole chasing butterflies, landing on your feet no matter what and your insane desire for fish don’t count towards cat behavior, huh?

Mint agrees and says that, while she’s infused with a parakeet, she has no desire for karaoke. In the dub, she says she rocks karaoke.

Pudding says she was eating meat long before she became a lion, and when her animal card pops up, chibi-Ichigo has to explain that Pudding is once again confusing her animal with a lion when she’s really a golden lion tamarin, a monkey. When the girls look at Zakuro, she sprouts wolf ears and says What? Do you want me to eat you?” since her animal is a grey wolf. All of this is removed (as well as a shot of a palm tree) again, and I really have no idea why this was removed. Was 4Kids getting sick of having to paint so much or did they just get tired of all this education?

Pudding and Kiki basically say the same thing, that Shirogane/Elliot’s a great surfer, but Kiki’s line is this;

“Dude, he’s totally rippin’ some nard (?) barrel!”………….That’s it 4Kids, I’m taking the record player!

Corina: ‘And here I thought they were total geeks’ Well, one of us was right in our assumptions because I thought you were a bitch.

They edit out a shot of a sea slug before we see Tarb.

Tarb: “I’m tellin’ ya, the stuff you find down here is totally whack!” One more line like that and you’re not going to the sock hop either, 4Kids!

They edit in a shot of the jellyfish before the commercial in the dub and a shot of a palm tree after the commercial ends.

Name Change: The kid that’s being picked on is named Iruka. In the dub, she’s Cassandra.

Because I guess they couldn’t find a suitable English name to make this work (Ariel might’ve but eh copyrights) a line is forced to be lost. The kids picking on Iruka make fun of her saying it’s ironic that a girl named Iruka (meaning Dolphin) can’t swim. In the dub, they just say she’s afraid of some monster in the water.

Ichigo and the others merely tell the boys that it’s not nice to pick on a lone girl like Iruka. In the dub, Corina tells the ‘losers’ to get lost, and Zoey threatens to show them what it’s like to be picked on. Because that’s a mature lesson for the kids right? Being bullied? Call them losers and threaten to bully them back.

The boy calls Ichigo “oni-baba” or ‘old hag’. In the dub, he calls her ugly.

They remove a shot of….uh…I don’t know how to really describe this, but after Ichigo gets super angry at being called an old hag, she becomes pure white and cartoony and spins around, but this is removed.

Ichigo laments on the kids’ behavior and says “Kids these days”, which prompts Mint to say that saying such a phrase really does make her old, and then she goes all cartoony again. Since the line was changed, Corina just says to let it go and Zoey doesn’t go cartoony.

Iruka has the “word” ‘PiPo’ on her shirt. This is erased from the dub.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

A shot of the girls is removed after Mint says that Lettuce and Iruka can learn together.

They remove a short scene where the girls ask how she’s going to try to teach Iruka to swim on her own when she doesn’t know how.

Zakuro says it’s hard as a swimmer to know what a non-swimmer feels like. In the dub, she says the plan might work, especially if Bridget learns her true identity. I don’t even know what she means by that.

Slightly nitpicky, but Iruka says she still loves the sea and, in fact, does know how to swim. Cassandra says she wasn’t always afraid of the water and doesn’t mention the fact that she can swim.

Iruka says she was reaching for an ark shell. Cassandra says she was reaching for a periwinkle.

So wait, her story has nothing to do with monsters and everything to do with a near-drowning experience? Then why were those kids making fun of her for being afraid of ‘monsters’ in the water in the dub?

Iruka talks about the various things she loves about the sea and how she’d love to be able to swim so she can be free in the water again. In the dub, Cassandra basically acts like she wants to learn how to swim in order to have those kids stop bullying her. Yeah, kid, it’s not like bullies don’t just move on to other topics of ridicule when they find a suitable target.

Lettuce wants to jump into the water to hopefully give Iruka the courage to swim again. In the dub, she says something about having to face your fears and mentions that she read something like that on a fortune cookie once.

Mint doesn’t ask how Lettuce’s glasses are still on like Corina does to Bridget….And, nice, your friend nearly dies and you’re more concerned about how her eyewear wasn’t lost in the sea.

Lettuce thanks everyone for saving her, Bridget laments over how stupid it was of her to jump into the water.

Cassandra: “I’m a failure at seven.” Who talks like this at seven?

The girls seem to be in Hawaii in the dub as Wesley says “And as they say on the island ‘Ahaaina’ which means ‘gathering for a meal.'” In the original, Japan being an island and all, they’re just on a Japanese beach. And this is the first indication that they’re on an island in the dub period. I figured the dub placed them in California and they went to the beach considering that going to said beach wasn’t taken as that big of a deal. That was word for word what he suggested; going to the beach. The beach is a far cry from ‘Wanna go to Hawaii with me?’ Even if they live in a state close to Hawaii, that’s still a long trip and a plane or ship ride away.

The line in the original was just ‘itadakimasu’, which is a common Japanese phase said before eating that is usually translated as ‘Thanks for the food/meal’. They did match this line, just in a different foreign language so…good job?

Iruka says it’s time to move on. Bridget says it’s a beautiful day.

The original lifeguard doesn’t say anything before we see his face. He yells to the swimmers to get out of the water because it’s dangerous. In the dub, they make a joke out of this. The lifeguard tells himself to stay calm, and then we see his face as he yells to the beachgoers to “Run for (their) lives, for the love of Pete!”

Corina: “Cyniclons!”

Kiki: “Who would’ve thought!?”

Quite literally everyone watching ‘would’ve thought’.

Ichigo asks why Pai and Taruto are there. Taruto says it’s none of their business, and Pai says they’ll leave the sea the way it is. Zoey surmises that the two are talking to the girls. Tarb asks if the girls missed them, and Sardon chuckles and says “Good one, my ironic young friend.” Good what? Asking enemies if they missed you is like the most overused villain quip ever uttered. That’s not even really irony, either. Are you studying humans through Alanis Morrisette?

Taruto says their new Chimera Animals look like they’re from outer space. Ichigo points out that they’re typical sea life just made larger. Pudding’s in the background marveling over the animals while Zakuro points out that it’s going to rain soon. Taruto then gets mad that everyone’s ignoring their creatures and not being scared.

In the dub, Tarb just says how great the new predasites are, Zoey acts unimpressed by them, and we cut the scene with Pudding and Zakuro talking to jump straight to Tarb getting mad saying that it took him a long time to find good creatures.

This episode basically solidifies that the girls really don’t give a crap about who sees them transform. Then again, I suppose when your superhero identity is literally just putting ‘Mew’ in front of your name, it’s pointless either way.

In the original, we only see Lettuce and Ichigo transform, and they actually both get full transformations. We don’t even get clips of the other girls transforming. In the dub, it’s a complete mashup.

THEY EDITED OUT THE MOTTO AGAIN! YAY!

The starfish monster yells “Starfish, Charge” when he does his attack. He’s silent in the dub.

The jellyfish monster yells “Electric shock attack” when he shocks the girls. He’s silent in the dub.

When Pudding and Mint are shocked, they do that cartoony thing where you flash back and forth from them to their skeletons. In the dub, the skeletons are removed. I can’t even begin to tell you how many kids cartoons I’ve seen this gag on, not to mention that 4Kids has no problem showing skeletons, but hey, since when do they make sense?

Mint only points out that there seems to be no weakness to these creatures. Corina wants to run off and head to the mall.

Name Change: The boys who were bullying Iruka are named Komura, Takeshi and Yousuke. In the dub, Komura’s changed to Tommy, and the other boys are left unnamed.

The starfish says as he tries to smash Lettuce to “stay down.” In the dub, he’s silent again.

They cut out a shot of Iruka and Komura spinning around in the water with Lettuce following.

A flashback immediately following the flashback of Iruka telling Lettuce that she’ll swim again someday is removed.

They won’t show Lettuce’s transformation because of three seconds of mostly covered nudity, but they’ll keep that shot of the camera zooming right in on her boobs no problem. Feh.

Pai wonders if the light is sunameri power. Sardon says there must be something in the water causing her transformation.

Mint points out that creatures who live in the dark depths of the sea have strong reactions to bright light like the one Lettuce is creating. The dub says the same thing basically but they have to dumb it up;

Corina: “That bright light’s having some strange effect on those fishy freaks over there.”

All the Mews have their attacks shortened yet Ichigo’s is full……It’s the same in both versions, that just pisses me off…It’s even worse considering we don’t even see the other girls’ attacks even registering. It’s like they threw the clips in under contract or something.

It also bugs me that, while at least the favoritism’s on another foot, Lettuce is the only one who ever has a transformation because of the Mew Aqua. It would’ve been nice to see the other girls get cooler powers and better transformations with the Mew Aqua instead of basically stagnating and getting jack squat the entire series.

This episode is interesting, albeit a little cliché, but there are several aspects that bug me.

Next episode, Pudding has fallen ill, but she has to take care of her siblings, her job and her duties as a Mew Mew. The other girls try to help her out as much as possible by trying to alleviate her workload. We also get a clearer depiction of her backstory meaning this will likely be a rough one.

….Previous Episode

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