Plot: Mai has lost her passion for dueling after losing to Jonouchi, so she concocts a plan to have Ryuzaki beat Jonouchi for her. The catch? Yugi isn’t allowed to give him any advice. Being entirely on his own in the tournament for the first time, can Jonouchi beat Ryuzaki or will his dinosaurs make him extinct? …..Dammit, 4Kids, stop infiltrating my mind!
————————————
They edit out Anzu’s inner monologue in the dub, which makes it awkward when you suddenly see her before Mai introduces the condition of the duel.
The punch sound is edited out of the dub, and Tristan says he was shoved when it’s obvious he was punched in the face….Don’t worry. We’ll have even funnier punch/shove moments than this.
In the original, Mai tells Ryuzaki that he’ll get his reward after he wins. Jonouchi doesn’t know what she means by that, so he cheekily asks what the reward is, very subtly implying that he thinks it’s something romantic or naughty. In the dub, this is omitted, obviously. They also edit the part where Jonouchi implies he wouldn’t mind being Mai’s slave. Jonouchi’s kinda a perv….
One of the aspects of this season that bugged me was the status of the Flame Swordsman, which changes a couple of times over the course of the first season.
First off, Flame Swordsman is a fusion monster, not a regular monster. However, apparently a regular version of the card was made later on. Jonouchi flip flops back and forth between using a regular version and fusion version yet he regularly summons both instead of performing a fusion.
Secondly, it has no effect; it’s a plain monster, even in this version as shown by the color of the card.
Third, since when is fire strong against dinosaurs and why? Eventually, the card stays as a regular monster card, but, for this episode, 4Kids changes it to its purple fusion appearance when it’s regular yellow in the original. Since I believe the fusion version is the ‘right’ version, at least at this point in time, I’ll give 4Kids some props.
In the original, Jonouchi doesn’t announce that the card he’s placing in the trap field is a Time Wizard. Mai and Ryuzaki guess that it is, but what idiot would declare what FACE DOWN card he just played? Even if it can’t be sprung as a trap, that’s just stupid.
Overall, I liked this episode. It’s nice to see Jonouchi dueling on his own two feet, and Ryuzaki’s a pretty interesting opponent.
Next episode, Jonouchi’s duel with Ryuzaki concludes. Can he face down the fearsome Red-Eyes Black Dragon?
If you enjoy my work and would like to show your support, please consider donating at my Ko-Fi page. Thank you! ♥
The Anime Madhouse 