SSBS – Tokyo Mew Mew Episode 40: Two Becoming Friends? Pudding in Imminent Danger!

Plot: Taruto and Pai secretly care for Kisshu. While his wound has healed up, he is still very weak and in a lot of pain.

Meanwhile, Aoyama meets with Ichigo and shares the fact that he’s having weird recurring dreams where a voice is continuously telling him to wake up. Ichigo manages to cheer him up by sharing some of her strange, goofy dreams to him.

On her day off, Pudding decides to go see one of the biggest displays of live performers in Japan, the New Year’s Street Performance Live Show. However, she’s not really there to enjoy the show – she’s hoping to steal the stage, perform her own act, be adored by audiences and adorned with a shower of money. Suddenly, strange tremors and indents in the stadium prompt her to go into the basement and transform to investigate.

She finds a large hole that leads to a massive underground cavern. Taruto arrives, surprised one of the girls has found them out already, and explains that this is a test. They plan on making a giant hole in order to cause the stadium above to collapse into the ground. If it works, they plan on making all of Tokyo sink into a similar hole.

Taruto attacks Pudding with an insectoid Chimera Animal. While she’s able to stop one with her Pudding Ring Inferno, Taruto merely calls another one. Before she’s able to stop that one with a Pudding Ring Inferno, Taruto uses his plant manipulation skills to wrap her up in roots. Just as the Chimera Animal is about to attack, a cave-in occurs. It stops the Chimera Animal, but it also buries Taruto and Pudding.

While Shirogane alerts the other girls to the Chimera Animal attack, Taruto unburies Pudding and reveals to her that she’s trapped. He can technically leave whenever he wants via teleportation, but she’s stuck. Pudding puts on a happy face and thanks him for saving her, even giving him a candy as a gift.

As the girls arrive at the stadium and combat the crazed Chimera Animal above ground, Taruto tries his best to scare Pudding by telling her she’ll either stay in this cave forever or be crushed by rubble when the Chimera Animal causes enough fissures.

Despite his efforts, Pudding is unfazed and continues to smile and laugh.

While the Mews struggle a bit with the Chimera Animal, they come out victorious. But their victory is short-lived when they’re made aware of the giant cavern underneath the dome, threatening to cause a major collapse in the stadium.

Shirogane and Akasaka decide to evacuate the people inside the dome. Since thousands of people moving within the dome at once may cause the stadium to collapse, they instruct the girls to support the building until everyone’s out.

Back with Taruto and Pudding, Taruto tries to egg Pudding on some more only to come to the realization that she’s becoming weak due to lack of oxygen. He manages to snap her out of it and demands her to tell him that she’s scared, but she claims she’s not because she has her friend, Taru-Taru beside her.

Taruto denies the implication that they’re friends, but as the dome starts to cave in around them, he finds himself struggling with the idea of leaving her there to die. He ultimately decides to save Pudding and the stadium by using his plant manipulation to create massive roots that eventually grow into trees around the dome, supporting it and preventing it from collapsing.

Taruto teleports them outside, and Pudding gleefully thanks him for saving her life and the dome. He says it was just because he wants to see her cry before she dies, but flies away smiling at the candy she gave him.

Breakdown:

– Oooh nice badass scar, Kisshu.

– Awww, Taruto bringing fruit to Kisshu as a sign of affection, and it was Pai’s idea. Awww.

– I feel like it’s been years since we’ve seen Pudding’s uninterrupted lone transformation sequence.

– Taruto and Pudding have some hilarious banter.

– My heart burst into rainbows when Pudding said it’s be nice if they turned into fossils that were smiling and holding hands together.

– Oh my god! The girls actually saved Ichigo in the nick of time for a change. I thought for sure that’d be a Blue Knight moment.

– How are the people in the dome not evacuated already? Did no one tell them of the giant monster outside? Did they not feel the several severe tremors shaking the entire stadium for the past 20 minutes?

– That cavern’s pretty big, and, since Taruto isn’t weakening, I guess he doesn’t breathe and thus isn’t taking up any of the oxygen. Pudding is a small girl and not much time has gone by, so I doubt she’d be struggling to breathe already.

– Wow, they are so lazy to reuse the same exact ‘barrier’ animation for the girls AGAIN. This is like the fourth time.

– N’awwwwwwwwwwwwww, she calls him Taru-Taru! N’awwwwwwwwww!!

– As great as it is that Taruto saved Pudding (N’awwwwwwwwwww!!) he didn’t really have to save the stadium to do it. When he teleports, it’s sometimes through a portal instead of just teleporting himself. Also, they can and do teleport other beings and objects with them sometimes. Surely, he could’ve just teleported Pudding out of the cavern.

– Oh wait, and then he just teleports her anyway!….I don’t get it. Taruto just barely had a change of heart about Pudding alone, why did he decide to save the dome too besides plot convenience?

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All in all, while this episode may be mostly filler that also doubles as a budget episode, I can’t deny that I love it. It’s fairly quick development, but it greatly humanizes (if that word’s fitting for an alien) Taruto, and Pudding is just an absolute adorable delight. Her scenes and banter with Taruto are always priceless and they’re so cute together.

In addition, the plan this week was both simple and effective. Dig a hole, destroy a city. You can’t get much simpler than that. It almost did work, too. If Taruto didn’t turn heel and save the dome, the stadium would’ve collapsed, and they would’ve gone through with the plan to collapse Tokyo, and that may have actually worked as well.

Next episode, remember Lettuce has a crush on Shirogane? Yeah, the show barely does either. But it’s an underwater episode and Lettuce turns into a mermaid again, so yay!

….Previous Episode

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SSBS – Tokyo Mew Mew Episode 33: A Fiance Appears – Pudding’s Fated Marriage!?

Plot: Taruto has created a cactus monster in the middle of the park. The Mews try to take it down, but find themselves struggling. Pudding’s about to be hit by a barrage of spikes when a strange man in martial arts attire saves her and defeats the monster with a flurry of kicks.

Taruto leaves, and the man, Yuebin, reveals that he knows Mew Pudding is actually Pudding. He is a student at her father’s dojo and wishes to be named master and successor to their family’s signature fighting style, KouEnji Kenpou. In order to do that, Pudding’s father ordered him to go to Japan to challenge the only other contender for this title to a duel – Pudding.

Pudding accepts the challenge, and the duel starts. They each balance two spinning plates on two poles and take fighting stances. They fight for a bit, but Yuebin gains the upperhand and wins the duel. He reveals another condition of the duel – should he win, he’ll be chosen to be Pudding’s future husband.

Pudding is outraged by this turn of events and refuses this condition. She commands he leave at once, and he seemingly honors the request.

Later that night, Pudding goes home with some groceries for dinner when she notices a delicious smell emanating from her house. It’s Yuebin, and he’s made beef stroganoff for Pudding’s brothers and sisters. He continues to butt into her life, doing chores such as picking up Heicha from daycare and even working at the café.

Pudding continues to be irritated by his presence, however. Not only does she not want to be forced into a marriage with him, but everyone else is enamored with him and Pudding continuously gets overshadowed.

The other Mews start to become concerned about Pudding since she seems to be getting increasingly unhappy. They ask if anything can be done about her situation, and she states she won’t know until they both meet with and talk to her father.

That night, she arrives at her house to find Yuebin is being overrun by her brothers and sisters. She commands them all to go to bed, and he explains that he was trying to dust the shelves when he was tackled by them. Pudding sees her precious photo album on the floor, damaged by the ruckus. It is a photo album specifically for the only photos and keepsakes she has left of her and her mother.

She tearfully demands Yuebin to leave the house before running away.

The next morning, the Mews find her locked up on the Mew Mew Café balcony. She won’t come down no matter what they do.

Meanwhile, Taruto and Kisshu team up for a new plan. They have detected Mew Aqua around a popular sports arena. Their plan is to have Kisshu deal with the girls at the arena while Taruto strikes the unprotected Café.

The Mews suit up for battle, but Pudding stays behind. She claims she has to figure out her future for herself. The other girls are forced to leave Pudding behind.

Just as Yuebin is about to leave as well, Taruto appears. He wraps up Pudding in his clackers, traps Yuebin in a net and takes Pudding as a hostage.

Meanwhile, at the arena, a big boxing match is underway. Kisshu crashes the party and turns one of the ring girls into a kangaroo themed boxing Chimera Animal, Chimera Punch. The girls arrive, and Kisshu leaves to find the Mew Aqua. Ichigo tells the other girls to go after Kisshu while she takes care of the Chimera Animal.

She’s unable to do much against Chimera Punch, and Taruto suddenly interrupts their fight. He directs Chimera Punch to use Pudding as a punching bag instead. Ichigo tries to save Pudding, but Chimera Punch sends out her joey, Punchie, after her. Pudding is able to evade the attacks, even while tied up, but Taruto tightens her binds and makes her fully unable to move.

Just as Chimera Punch is about to land a good strike on Pudding, Yuebin uses a body switching technique to save Pudding and take the brunt of the assault himself. Pudding, now free of her binds, uses her custom Pudding-style KouEnji Kenpu martial arts.

Ichigo finishes off both Chimera Punch and Punchie, but Kisshu makes off with the minuscule Mew Aqua he found at the stadium.

Later, Yuebin bids farewell to Pudding and the others. He contacted his master, and he decided he need to go back to China for much more training so he can be strong enough to properly protect his wife-to-be. Pudding bids him farewell, having gained a newfound respect for him.

Breakdown:

– Hooray! Starting out with action today! Whoo!

– Ladies and gentlemen, the doofiest Chimera Animal ever!

– Out of all of the Chimera Animals they could’ve had this guy attack, why a cactus monster?…Ow.

– Nice to know the Mews are actually somewhat pointless. If a fairly good martial artist can take down a Chimera Animal without breaking a sweat (Oops, I forgot to mention – Tuxedo Mask moment!) not even needing to have it be finished off by Ichigo, surely any police force would be able to defeat them without issue.

– Okay, I am fully confused now. This dude knows who Pudding is and recognizes her in her Mew garb yet he not only has nothing to say about this, but no one’s concerned that they’ve been ousted. Are they even pretending to have secret identities anymore? How can they justify the plotline about Ichigo being concerned about Aoyama finding out she’s a Mew with this in place?

Most magical girl shows have a similar issue since they hardly ever wear masks and barely look even a little different when in magical girl clothes, but this is in-your-face extreme ‘everyone knows!’ stuff.

– Wait a minute. So they’re surprised he knew Pudding’s real identity (seriously?) and he claims he knew instantly because of the way she moved. Given that they’ve never met, I guess that’s as good of an excuse as any….but still….it’s a major problem, guys.

– I thought Pudding’s father was away on a solo journey to be the best martial artist ever, yet here he is supposedly off somewhere spending way more time with other people’s kids than his own in a dojo in China.

– I love the girls’ reactions to Pudding and Yuebin starting to duel in the café.

– The duel itself is also kinda funny.

– What a skeevy thing to do to wait until the duel’s over to admit that part of the duel agreement was, should he win, he’d become betrothed to Pudding.

– Proud of Pudding for pointing out that it’s completely unfair and archaic for her father to force her into an arranged marriage, especially through such deceptive means.

– Oh hi Shirogane and Akasaka! I almost forgot you existed for damn near ten episodes.

– N’aw the TarutoxPudding shipping. Taruto’s so jelly of Mr. Hot Martial Artist man.

– It’s funny how the aliens think Mew Aqua is found where the girls are and Shirogane and Akasaka believe Mew Aqua is wherever the aliens show up.

– Yeah, why show the other Mews transforming at all? Wouldn’t want the props to think they’re people.

– Oh good, they show one-second long blips of their transformations as they enter the arena…after they’ve already transformed….

– Uh, the body switch is all ninja-y and cool and all, but Yuebin has the speed to have just nabbed Pudding and gotten them both out of the way instead of him having to take the attack.

– I actually have no problem with Pudding not even transforming for this battle because it lets her show off her regular martial arts skills…..but I’m salty that Ichigo gets the final attack….

– Well, we can finally cut to the other girls doing stuff on their own by fighting Kisshu. Let’s see how they—he gets the Mew Aqua and escapes without them lifting a finger at him………Love. Ly.

– So, in the end, this plot isn’t really all that resolved, is it? Yuebin leaves because the show doesn’t have a place for him outside of this episode, he’s still betrothed to Pudding, and Pudding suddenly doesn’t fight that fact anymore. Does she now want to be married to Yuebin or is she just more confident in her abilities to choose what she wants for her future for this to not be an issue?

Also, why do they never bring up Pudding’s photo album again? Is she not still mad about that? It’s an incredibly important heirloom to Pudding that held many memories of her and her mother, and it’s wrecked. Maybe not irreparably, but still.

– Kinda funny that Yuebin’s drive is now to be strong enough to protect Pudding when she beat up Chimera Punch by herself and is a superhero.

– How did I go this whole review without pointing out that, considering the age difference, this whole betrothal is very squicky?

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I really enjoyed this episode. It was a realistic and impacting conflict for Pudding, we got confirmation of where her father was (even though it’s irritating that he’s in a dojo in China. Can he not do that in Tokyo and be with his family? Take the weight of caring for several small children off of the shoulders of a young child?) we got a very emotional moment with Pudding, and the entire plot, while having squickiness implied, was enjoyable to watch.

They didn’t make Yuebin out to be a jerk, which I think helped this episode a whole lot. If they had him be this sexist jackoff who treated Pudding like a precious flower who needs to be cared for, this episode would be unbearable.

It’s slightly annoying that he keeps turning around and making Pudding look superfluous. He defeats the Chimera Cactus, picks up Heicha from daycare, takes over her job, etc. I was especially hurt when Heicha stated she preferred to be carried by Yuebin over Pudding. He has no ill intentions, and, truth be told, it would do Pudding a world of good to have someone so helpful around, but it’s still slightly irritating, and you can tell that it’s getting to Pudding.

It’s not so much that he’s claiming he’s betrothed to her now, it’s that he seems to be able to do everything she can and do it better. I’m not sure how sacrificing himself for her makes her see this situation any differently, but status quo and all that.

As good as the main plot was, it felt horribly disjointed whenever we cut to Mew stuff. Today’s subject was so heavy that it deserved to be one of those episodes where we didn’t really get Mew stuff so we could flesh everything else out. We started the episode with Mew stuff, I think that’s good for today.

It could be argued that they wanted to put more of the TarutoxPudding dynamic in there, but you could’ve just added a few more lines to the encounter at the beginning and it would’ve done just as much as the second half of the episode.

Whenever we cut to Mew stuff in this episode, it just felt very out of place, like we were cutting to another episode. While there is fighting in both, the theme this week didn’t even match the overall plot. They had a martial arts theme going and then we jump to a boxing ring. Chinese culture is a minor theme too, so let’s have the Chimera Animal be a kangaroo? And yes, it’s a boxing kangaroo. How clever.

The Mew part wasn’t bad, it was just generic and screwed up the structure of the story a little. Didn’t damage the episode too much as I thoroughly enjoyed it. (I’m aware that just a couple episodes ago I complained that there wasn’t enough action in a more plot-driven episode. My opinions on this vary depending on the subject matter. If it just seems like dull filler instead of potentially being something very interesting, I’m more annoyed when there’s no fun action to fill the blanks.)

Next time, Lettuce takes up doll-making.

…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 8 (7 for the Original) Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: As Ichigo’s on a shopping trip, she meets a younger girl who is a hyperactive street performer named Pudding. After Pudding puts on a show for her, she tries to get a tip out of Ichigo but accidentally makes her ears and tail pop out. Realizing they’re real, Pudding does everything that she can to get Ichigo to teach her to grow her own cat ears and tail. Ichigo won’t help her and ends up blowing up at her about the subject since she finds her cat ears and tail to be a curse not a blessing.

After a realization, Ichigo decides to go back to the park where Pudding performs to apologize but finds that she’s being attacked by Kisshu in order to obtain her spirit. Ichigo and the others transform to help, but when Kisshu’s newest Chimera Animal seems to be too much for them, it’s up to Pudding to help.

———————————————-

The opening scene is replaced with a scene of Dren talking to Deep Blue about how he’s got a big new plan, but Deep Blue’s unsure of how Kisshu will do since he seems to be increasingly distracted by Zoey. Dren reassures Deep Blue that it won’t be a problem. After the theme song they show the actual first scene of the episode, so this scene must’ve been lifted from later on.

Ichigo just says that Shirogane and the others always ask for too much when it’s her turn to go shopping. Zoey says Elliot always chooses her day to grocery shop to run half-price specials on veggie drinks at the café. I only want to ask…Why the hell are they selling veggie drinks at a café? Especially one that seems to put a lot of focus on cake and candies and stuff. Eat healthy, everyone. Have a veggie drink! It’ll go great with your quadruple fudge chocolate lava cake with cookie dough ice cream drizzled with white chocolate!

Kiki oddly says that she’s doing Kabuki ball bouncing……there’s no such thing as Kabuki ball dancing. What she’s doing in the scene is rolling a ball on top of a spinning parasol. This is part of a traditional Japanese show art called Daikagura. Basically it involves doing a lot of tricks with common household objects like balls, knives, umbrellas, bowls and more.

Kabuki is a type of traditional Japanese theater art that typically involves very slow interpretive dancing with the main trademark being elaborate masks and makeup. It’s just so weird that 4Kids would make her say this. It’s like they wanted to point out that what she was doing is Japanese, and I salute that, but they were too stupid and lazy to find out what it was.

Kiki: “How’d you like it?”

Zoey: “Great!”

Kiki: “Then how about a tip?”

Zoey: “Sure! Don’t do drugs and stay in school! See ya later!”

……I…am stunned on several levels….First, that was rude as hell. She just worked really hard to give you a great show and you respond with snarky sarcasm… Second, I am just so weirded out to hear the word “drugs” in a 4Kids production. I know she was saying “Don’t do drugs” but still that’s pretty high on my list of words I never thought I’d hear in a 4Kids show.

They remove the little bubble that says “Candy” and a big question mark by Pudding’s head.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

They don’t remove all of the graffiti from the alley, just the graffiti with words. English words…Even if I don’t know what Flork means….I wish I did because I want that word in my vocabulary.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Ichigo says to do ten laps around the park while Zoey says to merely do it once.

Ah here’s where they took the opening scene. It’s kept mostly the same, Deep Blue and Kisshu are talking about finding a compatible match for their new experimental Chimera Animal. The only real difference is that Deep Blue doesn’t scold Kisshu nor does he bring up his attraction to Ichigo.

Most of the next scene is also kept mostly the same, but Lettuce said Shirogane told her to look for Ichigo because she was probably ditching work. In the dub, Bridget says Elliot sent her to look for Zoey because there was a line around the block for the half-price health drinks—PBBBBBBTTTTTTT AHAHAAHHAHAHAHA!! Look, eat healthy and everything, that’s wonderful, but I can in no way believe that people would be lining up AROUND THE BLOCK for half-price vegetable mush at a café.

The words “Bad” and “Ka” are removed from the walls.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Oddly enough, though, 4Kids doesn’t remove the letters NWG from the wall when Zoey runs by.

While Ichigo’s being a bitch in both versions, she’s more of a bitch in the dub. The original basically implies that Ichigo doesn’t like the fact that she has cat ears and a tail while Pudding is wishing for them to do silly tricks and make money. She says a normal elementary school kid wouldn’t want that (Well, that’s just wrong. Plenty of kids want to have animal traits. Hell, even adults. That’s why catgirls/boys and the like are so popular.) and says Pudding’s not a normal elementary school girl.

In the dub, she calls Kiki the weirdest kid she’s met and basically berates the crap out of her for being annoying with no implication that Zoey’s truly bothered because she dislikes her own ears and doesn’t like the fact that Kiki’s wishing for such a ‘curse’.

Why does the dub keep bringing up those veggie shakes? Was 4Kids on a health food bender back then?

Why are Mint/Corina and Shirogane/Elliot berating Ichigo/Zoey for popping out her eats and tail in public? It’s been fully established that she can’t control when this happens – they pop out in times of great duress or when she’s emotionally charged.

Mint tells Ichigo that there must be a reason why Pudding was so intent on getting cat ears, which causes Ichigo to reflect on what she said to her. Corina seems to know Kiki in the dub and outright tells Zoey that Kiki performs to make money because she lives in a shelter.

….By the way, no she doesn’t. She lives at home with her brothers and sisters, and she’s the only one taking care of them since her mom’s dead and her dad’s off somewhere training. She needs the money to support them. I guess saying that she lives at a shelter seems better because an 11 year old being the main head of a house is….bad?

This whole backstory reminds me of Brock from Pokemon. Supposedly dead mother, in the dub anyway (even though she reappears with no explanation later) father being MIA training for his dream and the only person left to take care of a slue of brothers and sisters is the eldest child because child services just don’t exist in anime apparently. I suppose Brock is old enough for him to be main head of the household while Kiki isn’t. Brock IS supposed to be like 15 or 16 so maybe it’s more understandable, but I still don’t entirely get it.

And like Brock’s story eventually got messed up because of 4Kids’ interference, we will eventually see for ourselves that Pudding does not live in a shelter – she lives in a regular house.

The flashback is just static black and white images, the dub has them in full color video.

I love how, in the dub, we get this revelation that Kiki’s homeless and living in a shelter and immediately after it’s followed by the happy-peppy bumper music. “She doesn’t even have a home…” LAAAALALA-LALA!

Text is removed from signs after the commercial.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

We’re not told that the woman that has her soul stolen is a musician in the original, and the woman is just screaming in the original whereas, in the dub, she’s repeating the word “samba” over and over.

Ichigo’s bummed because she yelled at Pudding the other day, then goes off track as she’s talking to her friends saying she’s not upset about Aoyama. She says they haven’t gotten to spend much time together lately, but she thinks he likes her back. However, if they get together, the other girls in school will hate her so she starts freaking out.

In the dub, she’s not upset about Kiki anymore, she’s thinking about Mark. She says she feels like there’s two sides of her, and Mark might like one side but not another – like a ham and cheese sandwich. You know he’s a fan of ham, but he might not like cheese. Well, then he should do what a normal person would do and just rip you apart, take your cheese off, and then eat you. It’s not that big of a deal.

A shot of the school’s clock, Ichigo running out of school and complaining that she had remedial classes when she wanted to meet with Pudding is removed.

4Kids again forgets the actual line from the scene that they’re flashing back to. Originally, Zoey said “Well, I’ve had enough! No more of these games! Got it!?” In the flashback she says “I’ve had enough! Leave me alone!” Is it really that hard to check these things? Also, again the flashback is a static black and white image in the original, full color video in the dub.

Kisshu tells Pudding that he’s an angel, but she doesn’t believe him at all saying angels don’t have evil faces like that. He says he came down from the skies to grant her her wish, but he supposes that makes him a fallen angel.

In the dub, Dren says he’ll grant her wish for cat ears, and she says she hopes he doesn’t mean ears like his. Dren says he enjoyed watching her act and wants to take her spirit to make a predasite. Also, he’s making his usual villain-esque speech when he says this “Oh I’ll just cut to the chase, I’m going to steal your spirit for my predasite army.” Pbbt, is 4Kids getting bored of its own cliché dialogue? That’s just amazing.

I can’t get screenshots of this, but the screen flickers as Kisshu’s about to take Pudding’s spirit. This may be a glitch in the footage, I dunno, but it’s not present in the 4Kids version.

Oh great a scene misplacement and more Mew Mew Power in my face. Ichigo says her motto after she makes her appearance known to Kisshu. That’s usually how it works in magical girl anime. There’s no point in saying your motto if the villain doesn’t even notice that you’re there. In the dub she says it right after she transforms.

Pudding’s happy to see Ichigo again. Kiki’s surprised that Zoey’s cat ears are back….Why? It’s not like she lost them permanently.

I don’t even know if this is a joke. Dren: “Nice to see you again my little pretty cat.”….He says ‘pretty cat’ inflected like ‘pussy cat’. Or is he referencing Looney Tunes trying to make a play off of “Puddy tat”? In no way does this work. If they had inflected to just make it seem like he was calling her a pretty cat, it would’ve been fine. Maybe they wanted to call her ‘pussy cat’ but they didn’t want to because they thought she’d be swearing. In the original, Kisshu just calls her ‘honey’ which never ceases to entertain me. He says it in such a cute way.

Dren: “Now now, play nice you Mew you.”…..4Kids what are you trying to do? I think you’re trying to be funny, but really coming off as weird and awkward. Did you give up on this episode half-way through or something?

Oh and what a big shock. Lettuce arrives at the scene with Mint and they’re both already transformed. Because no one and I mean no one wants me to do the comparison for Lettuce’s transformation sequence.

The way Kiki says “Kick some butt” is so weird. She’s been yelling and shouting about everything all episode, but the one thing you’d expect her to yell out she says practically monotone. Guess the voice actors were giving up in the middle too. Pudding just yells “Onee-chan!” in the original.

Why is everyone calling Kiki ‘kid’ now in the dub? Seems disrespectful.

Pudding asks if she’s in heaven now since she jumped in the way of the attack. Kiki answers Zoey’s question about where the rock came from by saying she thinks she did it despite the fact that her eyes are closed and thus doesn’t even know there’s a rock in front of her.

Corina: “He’s giving the little beggar a power pendant!”…………………What the hell is wrong with everyone today? Why is everyone so rude and mean-spirited in the dub? Hell, even oh-so-perfect Mark was being an ass earlier when he kept bringing up all the mean things Zoey said to Kiki while trying to ‘cheer her up’.

If you’re not going to be funny, dub, the least you could be is kind and light-hearted. Every time I do these comparisons I feel like punching someone in the face, and considering how many other comparisons I do that only make me feel that way on occasion I’d say you have serious problems, Mew Mew Power.

They remove a shot of Pudding looking at the transformer.

Pudding says “Mew Mew Pudding, Metamorphosis!”. Kiki says “Now I’m a Mew Mew!”

Pudding’s transformation comparison, because screw Lettuce. They remove:

Pudding in front of the DNA strands.

Pudding holding her pendant above her head and putting it to her head.

Pudding’s nail polish appearing on her fingers.

Her little arm bands forming on her arms.

Her pose.

And the background for her pose; they replace it with a bright light….does 4Kids believe the images behind the Mews is copyrighted or something? Because they refuse to show it for any of them.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Extras:

Attack Name/Weapon Name change: Pudding’s Pudding Rings plus her Pudding Ring Inferno are changed to Golden Tambourine Attack and Tambourine Trench. Also, Pudding doesn’t make monkey sounds as she does her attack like Kiki does.

Okay, what the hell Zoey? Kiki launches her attack, and, before it even hits the monster, Zoey launches her Strawberry Bell attack right the hell out of nowhere. Kiki’s attack never registers, and the whole scene just seems like Zoey butted in to get the glory.

In the original, well, Pudding’s attack is kinda weird. It shoots through the ground at the opponent then the opponent gets trapped in a big thing of orange Jello. This seems even more out of place to me because none of the other Mews, despite having food themed names and attack names, have the actual foods come into play. Pudding then calls upon Ichigo to finish her off instead of her butting in like a glory hogging jerk.

Now, before we go any further with anything…..Does this mean Kiki will never land an attack in the future? Does 4Kids think her attack is too weird or something? I mean, yeah it’s one of the weirder powers I’ve seen in anime, but come on. Encasing monsters in jello is not any weirder than playing card games on motorcycles or keeping super powered monsters locked in balls that you can fit on your belt.

Ichigo thinks to herself that since Pudding’s working at the café now, her workload should finally lessen. But when Pudding starts making trouble, she retracts that statement. In the dub, Kiki’s boasting over all of this.

As Pudding’s running around breathing fire, we circle transition out to a pink screen which suddenly disappears and shows Pudding on screen asking for a tip. This is removed from the dub.

In regards to the original, this episode was a pretty good intro to Pudding. It was more interesting than Lettuce’s and Mint’s, and Pudding’s way less annoying than Mint. They were also subtle about her backstory leaving room for her character development episode in the future, unlike some versions.

Dub-wise, this episode makes me angry. It’s mean-spirited on a constant basis, makes Kiki seem way more annoying than she actually is since they make her way more pushy and boastful, they shoehorn in her (altered) backstory without elaborating because they’re stupid, they scene shift more than they have been, they completely remove any effect of Kiki’s attack and make Zoey look like a pushy showboat trying to steal the glory. In addition, Lettuce/Bridget gets to do nothing but carry groceries and babysit Pudding/Kiki on the sidelines AND we don’t get her transformation sequence in either version for me to do the damn comparison.

This episode just seems to encompass everything I hate about the dub.

That reminds me, this whole series is still one giant flashback dub-wise since they start with episode 12 in the dub. So wondering if Mark will accept her as a Mew is pointless because we already know he instantly will with his edited and flipped smile.

If you liked Kiki or Renee you have to wait for nine episodes to until half the series is over (since 4Kids lost the rights before getting to dub season two) to see them. In addition, I completely forgot these were flashback episodes since 4Kids is incredibly inconsistent with their narration. I just randomly remembered while looking at the episode numbers.

…..Next episode is filler. The obligatory hot springs episode. Oddly enough, there’s no fanservice. Kinda makes the obligatory hot springs episode moot.

…Previous Episode

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