Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 25 (24 for the Dub) Leafy’s Magical Forest | Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: In 6^th century England, the kids search for Leafy – a Space-Time Monster with the power to control plant life. Along the way, they meet the child version of the legendary King Arthur who, surprisingly, has a severe issue with self-confidence.

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In the original, the game they’re playing is called Dragon Fantasy VI, which looks to be a spoof of Final Fantasy. In the dub, it just says “Dragon Game.” Hey, guys, are you pumped for Dragon Game? Coming out on the Game Console? I heard they’re filming the adaptation Dragon Movie soon. It’s gonna be awesome!

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Tokio said he was about to beat the dragon and complete stage two. In the dub, he says all he had to do was reach level five and defeat the dragon to become a knight of the round table.

Genshi asks what a hero is. In the dub, Flint mistakes “knight” for “night.”…..You’re telling me, Flint, the kid who has a disturbing addiction to food and brings it up constantly focused more on “knight” than the mention of a table? Character development or the writers missing an obvious joke? You decide.

Genshi just says he wants to be a hero too. In the dub, he says he wants to be a knight of the “brown” table.

I don’t understand the shot orientation of this next sequence. They get a call from Rei while they’re in this playroom and display the video call as if it’s in the same room. However, the wall they’re looking at was clearly entirely blank a minute ago, so it can’t be in the room. And the next part of the scene, they’re walking into the normal video call area where the call is continuing. This is the same way in both the original and the dub. It’s strange.

A shot of Jillian is inserted before the shot of Leafy.

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Title Change: Leafy’s Magical Forest is changed to Leafy.

For some reason, they cut out a shot of the flowers and cover up the edit with a transition.

As I mentioned in the previous review, today’s episode is about King Arthur – someone who most likely never existed. Historians have been debating for centuries whether the character of legend was based off of a real person. The best assumption debating for his existence references to an Arthur who lead a Welsh resistance prior to the sixth century. The issue here is that the earliest references to him are believed to have been from a work of poetry or otherwise an exaggerated and fantasized version of a real event or even, to a certain extent, political and religious propaganda. There are some other indications of at least someone named Arthur being involved in battles in the 500s, but no indication that he was a king or any other particularly important or impressive figure.

Obviously, the most notable story of Arthur is the mythical tale written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in History of the Kings of Britain. The story has withstood the test of time, being one of the most well-known ancient tales from around the world and earning many re-tellings, additions, reimaginings and adaptations. In fact, it was the second most popular book in the Middle Ages with the first being the Bible. However, even this tale has been criticized for pushing a political agenda.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story, you can read it here, but the main idea is that Arthur was a result of a rape, then he was kidnapped as a baby and raised by a wizard named Merlin. The wizard designated a round table in which 150 knights would attend, headed by Arthur’s father, Uther. But after Uther’s death, the knights would be lost as to who would lead them and head the round table.

Merlin declared that whomever pulled a mystical sword, named Excalibur, from a stone would take Uther’s place. Over the years, many tried to free the sword, but they all failed. Until, however, Arthur came along and yanked it out, not even realizing the prophecy he fulfilled. He then became a powerful, legendary and brave king who was the subject of many incredible stories and romances known as Arthurian legends.

Reportedly, Geoffrey got his inspiration from a book about ancient Welsh history, but no title was given, and no history book containing details of any heroic Arthur have ever been found.

Personally, I’m open to the idea that some heroic figure named Arthur existed and his story was blown massively out of proportion almost immediately. However, I can’t buy that he was a king or even anyone of very significant position otherwise there would be more sources available about his exploits.

It’s great that this tale has been so inspiring and interesting to people – It’s certainly captivating no matter what version you’re reading or watching – but at the end of the day, it’s just fiction. Even if it’s revealed that the character was definitely based on a person they can verify, that person won’t be anywhere near the King Arthur figure people have painted in their minds, and maybe it’s better that way.

But none of this really matters because, before we ever see Arthur in this episode, we know what version of events they’re going for. One of the first things they see when they come out of the portal is a sword in a stone….

So either the writers truly believe the legends are real or they’re dropping any pretense that this is any form of actual educational-ish program based on real history. I’m going to bet the latter.

Either that or they’re just bad at finding legitimate historical events and people to talk about and explore, which, given we’re only on episode 25 with several episodes not even focusing on a historical event or person, that’s pretty sad.

They repeat a shot of Sora talking to extend the scene before the first commercial a little bit.

Tokio just points out, again, that it’s insane Genshi was able to pull the sword from the stone. In the dub, he feels so bad for the people of the village that he wonders if they should just reveal that Flint can pull the sword out and become king to help them. Sora adds that they would have been in deep trouble if the old man (….Is that meant to be Merlin?) had seen Genshi pull out the sword. Sarah says they might reconsider Flint as king once they see how much he eats.

Also…..I don’t know why this is, but the shot is flipped.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

*shrug*

Originally, the old man knows Arthur and calls out to him by name when he runs off. In the dub, he doesn’t know him.

How is it possible Arthur knows about the sword in the stone but he’s unaware of the legend of the sword in the stone?

Originally, TP Lady says the castle is a symbol of her love for the Masked Man. In the dub, she says she was worried he’d think it was a bit too froo froo, and they could put up a dartboard or some wood paneling in the den for “that boy look.”

So, yeah, they confirm that King Arthur actually existed and was some legendary hero, not that he was a (possibly mostly) fictional character. Ya know, there’s a difference between not being very educational and teaching kids that fictional stories are real history. I guess there’s no real harm in it for this circumstance, but it’s still really irresponsible to do that to kids.

There’s a short plotline in Kodocha where a little girl believes she can hatch a real chick from a store bought egg. Sana decides to covertly switch her egg with a real chick to make the kid happy, but Akito points out that, while she thinks she’s doing something nice, she’s setting the kid up for a possibly huge embarrassing moment in the future. At some point in her life, that kid is going to learn that you can’t hatch a chick from a store bought egg. Before that happens, she may share her belief with others who know better. Then they’ll make fun of her for such a silly belief, she’ll feel really embarrassed and dumb, she might be upset that Sana lied to and tricked her, and it will negate Sana’s seemingly nice act.

Acting as if the story of King Arthur is historical fact in a supposedly edutainment series is basically the same thing. You’re reinforcing false beliefs in little kids that may make them feel foolish in the future.

This kinda confuses me too, because if they were willing to explore more fictional stories, why the actual hell did they talk about the REAL story of the MASS MURDERER Vlad the Impaler? And they have a Space-Time Monster who can send them into fictional stories, so if they wanted to do a King Arthur story, they could have done it that way. But nope. Just claim Arthurian legends are fact. Whatever.

To make matters worse, they kinda ruined Arthur’s story. Since Genshi yanked the sword from the stone and just placed it back in, literally anyone could have walked over, pulled it out and acted as the chosen one. I know Genshi has super caveman strength, but that’s a magical sword that had a spell placed on it. He still shouldn’t have been unable to free it…..unless they ARE saying Genshi is the chosen one, in which case I don’t know what to think.

Arthur explains that the area beyond the waterfall was a popular spot for children to play in until “that witch” came to town. In the dub, he explains that Leafy is a kind and brave soul that he wanted to be friends with.

What exactly did Leafy do to those kids? Did it legitimately make plants grow OUT of them? Because that’s pretty horrifying…….But if it was just flowers appearing ON them, then it’s weird they’d just run off in horror like that.

Arthur originally says he understands Leafy’s name is….well….Leafy. In the dub, since Leafy can talk and introduce himself, Arthur says he understands that Leafy has the power to grow plants and flowers.

Speaking of Leafy’s power, how exactly is the power to grow plants and flowers helpful in maintaining the time stream, considering that was its main intention was?

This is minor, but in the original, Tokio kinda implies that he’s not understanding who the witch in Arthur’s story is, and Sora responds in an annoyed tone with irritation in her expression that, obviously, it’s TP Lady. In the dub, Tony clearly knows who this witch is, saying “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” I guess the expression on Sarah’s face still works here because she’s annoyed by Petra Fina, but still.

Putera yells out for help, and Tokio says he doesn’t want to die. In the dub, Pterry says he can’t swim, and Tony says it doesn’t matter because they’ll get smashed on the rocks anyway. Jeez, Saban. What the hell?

Ammon says manual labor doesn’t suit Kyoichiro. In the dub, she tells him he did a great job and she didn’t take him for the swashbuckling type.

Sora tells Arthur that he’ll get stronger from this point forth. In the dub, she says Flint does stuff like that all time, in regards to saving them from the waterfall. Sarah, it’s really not helpful to tell someone who feels inferior to another that they do the super impressive heroic stuff all the time.

That WORKS? Wow, Arthur, you sure are easy to convince. “I’m not strong. :(“ “Well, you’ll be strong and save Leafy and save the village and be a hero.” “You’re right! Let’s go!” I’m not even really paraphrasing there, I swear.

The action selection box is translated.

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Dubbed:

The two following dialogue boxes are also translated.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Tokio’s not saying anything as we see the animation of his character finding the waterfall. In the dub…it’s really weird. They have Tony say that he left his character by a waterfall, went to make a sandwich, came back and there was a passageway opened…..Even though the animation clearly shows him using “search” on the waterfall. So what, did a ghost possess Tony’s game while he was gone?

Tony: “Man, I’m good at that game!” Yeah, you found a secret passageway in that game by doing literally nothing. Such skills.

How did they get Ridon back? They just went down a huge waterfall, and they have no means of calling it to them.

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Waruryu is changed to Leafy-Kon.

What kind of sense does it make for a plant Space-Time Monster to turn into a dragon besides adding a dragon to the King Arthur/Fantasy medieval motif? Especially since it has fire breath and fire and plants don’t mix.

Genshi says TP Lady will pay for this. Flint says Leafy-Kon’s breath is worse that his attitude.

Waruryu’s body is harder than diamonds?….Why? Again, it’s a plant-based monster. What kind of logic, if any, goes into these monsters’ powers half the time?

Also, if his body is that hard, shouldn’t he be unable to move?

So….did Yamato send a monster egg without being told they needed one?

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Super Raldo is changed to Raldo Master.

Super Raldo FREEZES THINGS? What kind of sense does THAT make? He’s a frickin’ turtle who sucks things up into his shell prison.

Also, isn’t that stealing Mosbee’s shtick?

I thought for a bit that maybe they were trying to still keep to a semi-realistic Arthur story. That maybe the sword was just a sword and it was just stuck in a rock somehow. And that everything else was just exaggerated.

Excalibur is magical now, glowing and blocking dragon fire and everything, so I guess that throws that theory in the trash.

I love how Leafy and Arthur knew each other for all of literally 30 seconds, and they flashback to their moments together like they were longtime pals.

The dialogue from the clips shown in the dub is not the same as the clips from earlier. I dunno if they just didn’t bother to check or if they did that on purpose to create the illusion that they spent more time together than we saw.

TP Lady says, as her flower castle crumbles, that the life of a flower is brief, but next time the flower of a woman will bloom. Then I think Dyna yells “A flowery runway!” while Mite adds “Here’s where we take our “leave.” which I think is meant to be a leaf pun. In the dub, Flint says all the evil is crumbling, causing Mite to ask “Did he say “crumbling”?” as the flower castle falls. Petra yells in frustration, and Dino says next time they should make the castle out of brick. Then Petra asks if he thinks they’re the three little pigs before going through the portal.

Is the dub saying Petra Fina is the one responsible for the toppled pillars at Stonehenge?

Oh right, yeah, they did bring up Stonehenge quite briefly at the start of the episode, so there’s your ‘actual’ history tidbit of the episode….one that’s still ruined because they never actually talked about it, I barely noticed it was there, and now they’re saying Petra Fina knocked over some of the pillars. I mean, if we’re being fair, we don’t exactly why the pillars were knocked down. We know some of them were knocked over by fierce wind storms and erosion, but other than that we can only theorize.

The two strongest theories behind some of the pillars being felled is that they were toppled on purpose for some reason by the ancient people who built Stonehenge and that nearby construction and human activity knocked them over by accident.

For the record, the original just said TP Lady ruined the flower field.

Why does this matter? No idea. I know that Arthur said this spot was popular for the flowers, but there are no flowers whatsoever in modern day Stonehenge. Maybe some, but hardly a flower field. It’s mostly just a grass field as far as the eye can see.

Speaking of topography, guess what else isn’t at Stonehenge? A river and/or waterfall. The River Avon is closest to Stonehenge, but you still can’t even see it from there. It’s a good mile or two from it. And, as far as I know, there are no large waterfalls in it.

Admittedly, that’s really nitpicky, but it was such a significant portion of the story that I felt I should mention it.

Putera says this is the true power of Leafy. In the dub, he says Leafy’s powers would be useful for sprucing up Goodman’s lab.

This is another perfect example of the weird confusing nature of how this show really works. Arthur only became a hero because of the example Genshi and the others gave in regards to bravery and friendship. He also learned to overcome his fears and fight for himself and others by saving Leafy….but then they erase his memory anyway, so shouldn’t he be back to being timid and meek? Or are they saying character development sticks even if you don’t remember actually developing?

Arthur talks about working together with the kingdom to help improve everything. Tokio says he might be able to be a hero too, but his friends shut him down and tell him Arthur’s the real hero, which is pretty rude. In the dub, Arthur says he has a lot to learn about being a king, but he thinks he’s found something within himself that will help him to heal the land. The others tell Arthur that he’ll be a great king as long as he remembers to be nice to the people, and Flint tells him to let them eat cake, which….why does Flint know that reference? He doesn’t know some of the most basic things ever, but he remembers a quote from Marie-Antoinette and also remembers it’s connected to royalty? Is it just because it mentions cake?

As if the dub didn’t abandon the message of working together already, they make it worse in the next sequence. We see Toki G watching the events and explaining that the legend of King Arthur was retained, and he did indeed work together with the kingdom and Knights of the Round Table to restore it back to its former glory. In the dub, Old Timer only praises Flint for a job well done in saving Leafy and getting Arthur back on track.

Yamato says he loves Rei, while Goodman says she smells as nice as the morning jasmine.

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I like the idea of going through a King Arthur story, because it is such a classic tale that just tends to be fun and inspiring, but not only does this story not belong in a show that is trying to explore actual historical events or people, at least to a basic extent, but this interpretation was just poorly executed in general.

First of all, it’s very unclear whether Arthur even was actually the chosen one here. Like I said, since Genshi freed the sword and only gently placed it back in the hole, probably anyone could have pulled it out after that. I realize I just made a lot of accidental innuendos, but let’s move on.

Why was Genshi even able to free the sword? I realize that Genshi is ridiculously strong, on a superhuman level, but Excalibur is a magic sword. I don’t really believe that Genshi, this cave child, is capable of being so physically strong that he can forcibly weasel around whatever spell is on the sword and just free it anyway despite not being the chosen one. I could believe he’d be able to smash the rock, but I’d still feel like a part of the rock would stay on there to uphold the legend. Is the show implying that Genshi was just THAT strong or he really was the chosen one and just let Arthur take his place?

Was that old man at the beginning Merlin? It really seemed like that was the idea, but he’s never referred to as Merlin, and, besides having a weird staff and wearing a hooded robe, he doesn’t seem to be a wizard.

Having Raldo show back up and become his Super form was cool, but his powers are confusing to me, he wound up being similarly as cowardly as Arthur after being attacked once and then kinda took the thunder away from Arthur in the final battle.

Not to mention that it’s a teeny bit frustrating that Raldo’s backstory with TP Lady really doesn’t seem to matter in the end. Raldo doesn’t mention her, and TP Lady doesn’t recognize him as an old friend. Even though her memory of their friendship was erased back then, she still watched it unfold from the outside and has those memories. You’d think it might mean something to her, but no. They’re basically strangers now, I suppose.

The actual story itself wasn’t even interesting. You have Arthur who has no other backstory besides that he was a wimp who got bullied and was then saved by a creature who summons flowers. The group all nearly dies going over a waterfall, but then they’re saved by Kyoichiro, whom they never see again, and Genshi. They confront TP Lady and Leafy, who, for no other reason besides fantasy aesthetic, turns into a fire-breathing dragon whose body is hard as diamonds. Then Arthur gathers the bravery to wield Excalibur to save his friend by watching Genshi be heroic, but even Excalibur isn’t enough and he still needs Super Raldo to come in at the end for an assist in the final blow?

The structure is also strange. The beginning of the episode really teases that this will be a story about Tokio learning what it means to be a hero and maybe becoming one himself in the end somehow, but instead Tokio’s basically a non-factor. The focus is almost entirely on Genshi being a hero and Arthur learning what it is to be a hero through him. Then they all insult Tokio in the end (in the original anyway) by saying he could never be a hero.

They didn’t even hit the historical figure and the Space-Time Monster friendship aspect right. I wasn’t exaggerating – they were literally friends for like 30 seconds before TP Lady attacked. Sure, Leafy saved him from bullies, but that’s about it. They didn’t bond beyond that.

It’s a massive mess, especially for a tale so simple as King Arthur’s origins. I don’t want even talk about the completely lazy way they stapled Stonehenge onto this to act as if it was legitimately historical if we didn’t buy the Arthur stuff.

Next time, we meet the Space-Time Monster, Bouzan, in Heian era Japan, and learn about the warrior, Benkei.

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 24 (23 for the Dub) TP Lady’s Bad Transformation? | Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Still lost in the flow of time by Unita’s powers, TP Lady has no choice but to call for help from the Time Bureau. While TP Lady, Dyna and Mite spend some time imprisoned, they’re soon broken out by the Masked Man who gives them a Time Card with instructions to capture the Space-Time Monster, Raldo. When they arrive at their destination, they find that they’re actually at TP Lady’s childhood home, a palace in an unknown region. Turns out, TP Lady is actually a princess who was once very sweet and loving, but was under the thumb of her controlling mother, the queen. She was best friends with Raldo, but had to keep it a secret from her mother.

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In the original, our first shots are of Dyna, Mite then TP Lady. Saban reverses this order. I have no idea why.

Mite says they’ve been stranded for a week. In the dub, Dino says they’ve been lost for a month.

Title Change: TP Lady’s Bad Transformation? is changed to Raldo.

The dub omits Rei asking TP Lady her age and birthplace.

In the original, Yamato asks what kind of upbringing TP Lady must have had. Rei then comes in and asks what he’s even doing there. Genshi says he gave him a ride there, and Yamato says he felt a responsibility as his guardian to escort Genshi to this interrogation. In the dub, Goodman sarcastically mocks how uncooperative Petra is being, and Jillian comes in saying she’s the one interrogating Petra….which…Okay? He didn’t ask a question. Flint then, as usual, thinks she’s talking about food. Goodman then excuses his remark, saying he was just talking to himself.

In the original, Dyna grabs Yamato on accident while trying to grab Mite’s hand so they don’t get separated in the smoke. In the dub, he grabs Goodman on purpose.

The text on the card the Masked Man gives to TP Lady is removed and replaced with the actually very accurate English translation.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Saban adds in a cut to Dino and Mite as they run in between when Petra reads the card and picks it up. This is to add in a line exchange where Mite asks Dino why he grabbed Goodman, and Dino says it seemed like a good idea.

Dyna and Mite tell each other to not let go, thinking they’re holding each other’s hands when they’re really holding Yamato’s hand. In the dub, Dino and Mite say “No more donuts!” “What about milkshakes?!”

Why are Dino and Mite shocked at seeing Goodman in the dub when they know they took him with them?

In the original, Mite just asks TP Lady what they should do with Yamato. In the dub, he admits that they took him “accidentally on purpose” before Dino asks (as his original counterpart does) if they should just throw him outside.

I don’t understand why Saban jumped through so many hoops to change this from taking him on accident to taking him on purpose just to have them still immediately ask if they should throw him out of the Catamaran. I know these two are a little dense, and I could see this happening as a regular writing snaffoo if not for the fact that the original version didn’t have them doing this.

It’s cool to finally see Kyoichiro’s Time Ride, even if it is just a plain white scooter thing.

Saban adds in a closeup cut to Petra as they go to their destination just to have her think “I have a good feeling about this mission.”

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, the original pauses on Raldo when he first comes out so we can read the name plate. The dub repeats his little gesture instead.

Raldo is an adorable Space-Time Monster. I love its crystal shell.

Wow, I think when Lil’ Petra says “You always protect me. Thank you.” might just be one of the most wooden deliveries I’ve heard in ages. Truly remarkable.

Lil’ TP Lady says Yamato doesn’t seem like a bad person. In the dub, Goodman explains that he’s a scientist, and Lil’ Petra says, since he’s a scientist, he can’t be that bad. Raldo suggests he could be mad, but Lil’ Petra says, if he is mad, they’ll put him back in Raldo’s shell.

So Raldo’s power is to shrink things and trap them in his shell? Okay, cool. He did that to a snake that was about to attack TP Lady? Okay, cool……What uh….what happened to the snake after that? The snake isn’t in his shell now…..Did you….did you kill it, Raldo?

Goodman: “I think you might be underestimating your mother, Fifi.” Fifi? She never said her name to you. The original doesn’t give her a name yet either.

Yamato tells the girl that TP Lady, Dyna and Mite are the ones who kidnapped him. In the dub, he tells them “(I) may be a scientist but don’t think I won’t wrestle ya!”

In the original, TP Lady says she doesn’t remember seeing a dumb face like the kid’s, but once she realizes the kid is her she says her face is sweet and full of intelligence and grace. It’s kinda funny. In the dub, though, they don’t even bother trying to make a joke here. Petra calls her a brat and then says the little brat is her. Also, Saban, for some reason, adds in another cut to a closeup shot of Petra’s eyes while she’s staring herself as a kid.

Goodman refers to Lil’ Petra as ‘Princess’ too despite no one else calling her that.

Goodman: “You were a princess? I don’t believe it!” Why are you acting like this is new information? You somehow knew Lil’ Petra was a princess earlier, you learned a minute ago that Petra is this little girl, but NOW it clicks that Petra was a princess? You’re not very bright for a scientist.

Also, he is just mirroring his original line there, but since they changed some lines to indicate Goodman knew “Fifi” was a princess, it doesn’t make sense.

Their butler/assistant/whatever tells Lil’ TP Lady that her fiance, a prince from a neighboring land, will be arriving shortly. Her mother then tells her it’s important for a princess to entertain her fiance. She tells her to throw away Raldo and get ready for her fiance’s arrival. In the dub, the butler guy points out that Fifi is holding a reptile creature. Her mother tells her such creatures are unbecoming of a princess. She tells her to throw it away and go inside because a prince wishes to meet her.

I find it funny that TP Lady and her crew kinda remind me of Team Rocket, and they also have a member who was secretly rich, was betrothed, but ran away from home to have their freedom from their overly controlling parent(s). Both stories even have a beloved pet they had to leave behind.

HOLY CRAP! Their butler just grabs Raldo from her and throws him in the river! I get that he’s kinda a turtle, but screw you, man.

Saban adds in a repeat shot of Petra’s mother talking from further away to have her command the butler to throw away Raldo. The butler then accidentally says “Your travesty” before correcting himself to “Your majesty.”

Name Change: I dunno if Butler guy has a name in the original – I never hear one. In the dub, he’s referred to as Mortimer.

Mortimer calls Raldo “Rounder.” It was obviously on purpose to show how little they care about Raldo, but worth noting anyway.

Ammon tells Kyoichiro to find TP Lady before Genshi does. In the dub, she tells Merlock that they have to help find Goodman.

They reverse and repeat Kyoichiro talking to extend his lines.

Also, I don’t know how old Kyoichiro/Merlock is meant to be. He seems to be roughly the same age as Sora, so I don’t tend to mind much when he’s fawning over her. However, the fact that he calls Lil’ TP Lady “attractive” and “A pretty young lady” and then clearly gets motivated to save Raldo to impress her is uncomfortable to say the least. TP Lady here seems to be quite a bit younger than the other kids.

Hahah, I love how Raldo in the dub just says “Eeeeviillll” when he gets stamped.

They insert another shot of Lil’ Petra talking just to have her say “Isn’t there something we can do?”

They also insert another shot of Genshi talking just to have him say “I’ll get you, Petra!”

They change the shot of TP Lady whipping Raldo to a different shot of her using her whip. I guess they just like how that shot looks because this has happened a few times by now.

Name plate removed:

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Dubbed:

Name Change: Waru-Raldo is changed to Raldo-kon. I’ve decided I’m sticking with the K spelling since it looks better than ‘Con’ and I really can’t get a confirmation on which spelling is correct.

Flint: “He looks mean!” So does literally every bad transformed Time Shifter. He literally just said “Eeeviiill” before he transformed.

In the original, he just said “TP Lady.”

They add in a shot of Ototan using Fighting Spirit after he already did it, just without saying it.

Name plate removed:

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Dubbed:

Name Change: Super Elekin is changed to Elekin Master.

Lil’ TP Lady yells out for Raldo. In the dub, she calls him a monster.

When she runs away, Lil’ TP Lady yells an apology to her mother. In the dub, she yells to Raldo that she’s coming for him.

Genshi tells Waru-Raldo to go back to being good. Flint points out that his attacks aren’t doing anything.

When Kyoichiro falls from the tree, he lands in a split, and the joke is obviously that he’s crushing his balls. In the dub, they kept this, which surprised me, but they changed it a little to have Merlock say “But these lightning bolts kinda tickle!”….Is Saban implying that those lightning bolts are real to avoid acting as if this is a nutshot moment?

They insert another instance of Ototan using Fighting Spirit, and then they remove the repeat shot of Flint smacking Waru-Raldo.

The dub makes Raldo-Kon’s eyes glow twice for some reason when they only glowed once after TP Lady whipped him again.

Lil’ TP Lady keeps telling Waru-Raldo to stop, but when he doesn’t she loses her temper and yells at him to stop before slapping him across the face. In the dub, she keeps trying to convince Raldo-Kon that he’s not evil. Then she suddenly loses her temper, says “Alright, Raldo, you asked for it!” and then slaps him. The dub just kinda has tantrum come out of nowhere. It also kinda comes out of nowhere in the original, but there’s a little buildup to it. It’s just weird for the scene to go “Oh Raldo, you’re not evil! Please believe me! This is so horrible………ALRIGHT, RALDO, YOU ASKED FOR IT! I’M GOING TO ABUSE YOU INTO BELIEVING YOU’RE NOT EVIL!”

Lil’ TP Lady called TP Lady an old hag, which is why she’s so offended. In the dub, she just tells her to stay out of this, and Petra is appalled that she said that to her.

The original version actually has an animation hiccup in the background during the flashback. When you see Raldo running, the background juts really abruptly for some reason, like the animation cycle ran out and the loop started somewhere odd. In the dub, this doesn’t happen. So either they fixed the footage before sending it to Saban or Saban fixed it.

Genshi says he’s glad the professor is back. Flint says “You look better bigger!”

UH EW. The guy TP Lady’s mother was going to set her up with looked to be at least 40. EW. EW. EW.

Lil’ TP Lady seems more aggressive now as a default….Did taking Raldo from her and erasing her memories have a hand in making her evil?

Queen: “Is that your final answer?”

Lil’ TP Lady: “Final answer!” Who Wants to be a Millionaire was getting popular around this time. Dunno why I thought of that.

Why exactly are so many seemingly adult men proposing to this child?

None of the marriage candidates get names in the original, but they’re named in the dub. They don’t matter and are difficult to spell so I won’t bother listing them all.

Also, it’s very clear that TP Lady/Petra Fina doesn’t live on earth. At what point in time did we have literal cat people? Because her guards are cat people. However, the queen and butler in the dub are listing off real places like Barcelona and Greece as areas where the marriage candidates originate from.

The original doesn’t mention Attila the Hun. The dub has Goodman compare Petra to Attila as an example of people drastically changing, claiming Attila was a perfect child. I don’t think there’s any legitimate information as to Attila the Hun’s temperament as a child. He was born into a stable and secure family with a lineage in one of the most powerful rulers in the Hunic empire and was brought up with values of leadership and nobility, but that’s about all I could find.

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This episode was kinda disappointing, to be honest. I didn’t dislike it, but for a backstory episode it really didn’t answer a whole lot. We learn that TP Lady was originally a princess with an overbearing mother who was trying to dictate her life, especially her marriage. We also learn she was much nicer as a child, but had a temper, but I guess eventually grew more angry and violent as a rebellion against her mother. We don’t see her father, if he exists, we never learn her real name in the original, and TP Lady doesn’t undergo any character development at all.

In fact, for most of the second half, TP Lady really doesn’t have much of a role, especially in regards to seeing her past. She gets angry hearing her mother being controlling, but that’s about it. Otherwise, she does the same things she always does in every episode and actually kinda stays to the background.

I guess if you want to dig deeper into this, we could theorize that the reason she’s so hung up on the Masked Man is because she fell in love with him because she wanted to not because her mother dictated it, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

Speaking of the Masked Man, why did he send her there? It’s an awful big coincidence that he gives her a special note with a personalized card that sends her to her own past where a Space-Time Monster just happens to be. I guess it’s not impossible, but that seems really weird.

As far as I know, we’re not going to get much more explanation on TP Lady’s backstory in future episodes. If her Wiki is any indication, we’ll also never learn her real name. We’ll find out how she met Dyna and Mite, but other than that, not much. Even the anime kinda lampshades that we’ll never find out what really lead her to a life of evil because the last line, that is reinforcing what Kyoichiro said a scene prior, is about how women’s hearts are puzzling, and they can’t understand what could lead a kind girl like that into becoming a criminal.

It was also disappointing that they revealed Super Elekin here and it didn’t get to do a whole lot. Not that his super form is all that great anyway. He’s basically just Warukin with his normal face and normal arms.

Raldo, however, was super adorable. And his bad transformation was pretty cool too. His power is kinda weird, but useful, I guess. He’s mostly a storage system, really. He can neutralize threats by shrinking them and pulling them into his shell, but can’t they hurt him from the inside?

His bad transformation doesn’t have any power of this sort. He does have a powerful shell, and anyone in his shell when he’s regular Raldo still stays in his shell when he transforms, even though there’s no way to see or hear whoever is inside, but his other powers are unrelated.

Overall, a fine episode, but I just wish they had done more with the concept. I don’t know if they planned to do more in the future and they got canceled, but it’s just a backstory to a character in a mostly episodic comedy show – there’s no need to procrastinate with it.

Next time, we go on an adventure with….King Arthur? Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there…

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 23 (22 for the Dub) Unita of the Land of Time | Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: The group learns of a mysterious Space-Time Monster named Unita who is able to freely roam in the flow of time and space. As they try to rescue him from TP Lady, Genshi and Ototan find themselves in the Land of Time where Toki-G finally explains the entire situation to his best Space-Time Detective.

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Title Change: Unita of the Land of Time is changed to Enter the Unicon.

Contrary to what the title implies, Unita’s name is not changed to Unicon. That’s the name of his bad transformation.

They insert a couple of shots of Rei and Yamato talking before the screen of Unita.

Name plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Yamato doesn’t mention having food in every decade like Goodman does.

The usual pre-time travel additional filler is particularly fillery today. They do bring up that they don’t know where or when they’re going, but Jillian notes that they’re going to the Grand Canyon, which is supposedly one of Unita’s favorite places. It’s mostly information we’re going to learn in a minute anyway.

Saban tries to be educational here where the original wasn’t, which is appreciated, but a fact they convey is wrong. Pterry explains that the Grand Canyon is 217 miles long, but it’s actually 277 miles long. The thing is, this note is technically correct if you follow a map from pre-1975. 60 miles were added to the official length of the Grand Canyon when they started incorporated Marble Canyon into its length and included it in the Grand Canyon National Park. This show was made in 1998-99, which is well beyond when this change was made.

However, Pterry is right in saying that it’s one mile deep in some places.

Super Unita’s name plate is removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Why was it necessary for Wing to hide in Ridon? Couldn’t he have just stayed out like Love-Love does?

I do like how Tokio continues to be particularly close with Wing, though. I hope Sora gets her own Space-Time Monster who connects with her.

They insert a shot of Flint talking before Tony and Wing fly off.

Tony is much ruder than Tokio is. Tokio was hoping using Wing’s power would let them show off. In the dub, he’s disappointed that their flight speed isn’t faster and calls it ‘bogus’ when Wing’s right there.

Why did they have Getalong say “Eh” after Sarah pointed out that Tony hurt Wing’s feelings as if he didn’t care?

Putera says they’ll never catch up to Unita on Ridon. In the dub, Pterry points out that he flew behind a cloud bank.

Tokio asks Wing if there’s anything he can do to help them catch up, which prompts Wing to Super Transform. In the dub, Tony just tells Wing to shapeshift.

Name Change: Jetton is changed to Wing Master.

Name Plate Removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

I don’t know who the hell said “Follow him into the canyon, Wing!” in the dub. It sure as hell wasn’t Tony. It’s like they wanted that line in but couldn’t get Brian Donovan in that day so they just had an intern try to mimic his voice. It was weird. I almost want to say it’s Wing because that’s the only voice that’s similar but….is he talking in third-person…..to himself?

For some reason, they insert a bunch of shots of Tony acting frightened while flying on Wing Master before Flint corners Unita.

Originally, Unita refused help because he claimed he belonged to no one. In the dub, he said he doesn’t need help from a mere human.

In the original, they all just yell Unita’s name. In the dub, they tell Unita, who is already trapped in Petra’s chains, to look out for Petra’s chains.

Between when Petra opens her fan and when she starts making her proclamations, they insert a shot of Sarah talking to say “We’ve got to stop her! Can’t you do something, Flint!?” Which sounds really like something you’d say with a very concerned expression. Not this.

They remove TP Lady gloating and dancing with her fan.

The original just has Mite say they used a special chain. In the dub, he says they got the chain from a mail-order catalog.

Originally, Genshi says he’s been paralyzed. Then he apologizes to Unita for failing to save him because he’s now paralyzed (he just got electric shocked). In the dub, he sings the Old MacDonald song and then makes the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” reference before saying he’s had all the power sapped from him.

How was that chain so strong a direct hit from Ototan’s Fighting Spirit didn’t dent it, but Jetton’s missiles broke them, and Unita simply pulling on them broke them as well?

Sora yells that the ship is going to hit them. In the dub, she asks if Unita got away.

Ototan wonders where they are before Genshi suddenly wakes up and wonders where Tokio, Sora and Love-Love are (No concern for Wing? Or Putera?) In the dub, Rocky says “I don’t know where we are, but this is not relativity.” The word “relativity” wakes Flint up and he wonders where Tony, Sarah and Getalong are (Again, not Wing or Pterry.) The reason I bring this up is because Flint doesn’t know the simplest words sometimes, but “relativity” makes him think of Sarah and Tony for no other reason I can think of besides the fact that they’re relatives to each other?

When Genshi wakes up, he’s searching for Sora, Tokio and Love-Love again. In the dub, he’s telling Petra (who’s not there) that she’s under arrest.

We finally learn that the floating pig Toki-G rides on is called Buta. In the dub, it doesn’t seem he’s given a name – at least not yet. I tried looking it up, but got nowhere.

Toki-G is originally a god of time – hence the G in his name. In the dub, he’s just the keeper of the Land of Time.

Toki-G tells Genshi that the pork buns coming out of Buta’s nose (ew) are real. In the dub, he says “They’re not the ideal shape for pigs in a blanket, but they’re close enough to fake it.” So…..are they still pork buns?

So, again, Fighting Spirited Ototan wasn’t able to break the chains, but Genshi can pull them apart with his bare hands?

I can’t get over how much little Unita looks like he belongs in My Little Pony lol

What the hell is up with TP Lady’s eyes when she’s saying they have to get Unita to leave? They’re not blinking or moving at all. It’s like she’s a doll.

Toki-G originally tells Genshi that the Space-Time Monsters were created to be angels who protected the Land of Time. Genshi and Ototan are shocked, but then Genshi whispers to Ototan “What are angels?” which makes everyone fall over. Toki-G collects himself and explains they are beings meant to assist him. In the dub, Old Timer says he’s over a billion years old, which shocks everyone. Rocky says that’s impossible, but Flint responds “Careful. I think he’s off his pig.” which is kinda funny, but I don’t know why they didn’t just have the original dialogue. Also, with all the stuff they’ve seen and the fact that they can time travel, why is it so hard to believe someone could be over a billion years old?

I don’t quite get how all of the Space-Time Monsters are angels meant to assist Toki-G. Most of their powers just make no sense for that task. They’re literally just watching machinery. Why would they ever need to freeze things or make people get along or bring art to life?

Also, why even bother hiring more Space-Time Detectives if Genshi is the only one who really matters due to his pure heart and friendship? What were the circumstances of Kyoichiro getting hired? Does he just usually go after the Space-Time Monsters TP Lady doesn’t know about yet? Or does he have another job?

TP Lady gushes after hearing the story of the Masked Man breaking out all of the Space-Time Monsters from the Land of Time in order to rewrite history to fall under his rule acting as if he’s doing all of this to make a new world for her. In the dub, Petra mocks Flint by saying she, Dino and Mite are helpless criminals who have rough pasts that made them that way and to have mercy on them.

In response, Dyna and Mite look at TP Lady like she’s nuts and they ask if that’s really what’s going on here. In the dub, they say she’s milking this act for all it’s worth.

It’s really ridiculous that Genshi never tries to stop TP Lady from stamping a Space-Time Monster. She usually takes quite a bit of time to do it, clearly builds up to it so you know that’s what’s coming, and Genshi is certainly fast enough to stop her, but he just doesn’t.

TP Lady tells Unita to show her his true dark side. In the dub, she says there’s a new sheriff in town and it’s her.

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Also, goddamn, that bad transformation is sick. Looks like it belongs on a death metal album cover. Unita has probably the best trio of forms so far. Its default form is adorable, its super form is awesome, and its bad form is kickass.

Name Change: Warufa is changed to Unicon.

Kinda shocked they left in TP Lady having her ass set on fire.

Okay, now Genshi’s ass is being set on fire. What is happening?

Genshi tells Unita to stop. In the dub, he tells Rocky they need to take cover.

The baseball references Rocky makes when he bats Flint away are not present in the original.

TP Lady tells Warufa to smash Genshi. In the dub, she seems to tell Dino and Mite to help Unitacon, but they don’t.

…….Wait, what?

Petra: “Unitacon needs help!”…..UniTAcon?…..But the title says “Unicon”….According to the Wiki, it’s “Unita-kon (I honestly don’t know if they’re supposed to use a K or a C for “c/kon” Some entries use C and others use K, but I’d think it’d be consistent. Sadly, there’s no official source for this info, so either the script has a flub in it or they messed up the title card. They never say his bad form’s name vocally ever again in the dub. To make things more confusing, Unita’s Wiki page says the title of the episode it debuts in is called “Enter the Unicorn.” which is not what the title card says.

They originally yell that the Time Ride is out of order (so I guess they’re asking themselves where they’re even going since they can’t leave the Land of Time.) There’s nothing but screaming in the dub.

Originally, Dyna and Mite break the fourth wall and tell the audience to join them for the next episode called “TP Lady’s Bad Transformation.” TP Lady yells “Look forward to it!” In the dub, Dino asks where they’re going if the computer’s broken. Mite says he doesn’t know. Then they both say they hope wherever/whenever they land has bowling. Petra then yells “This is so not fair!”

What the hell have Sora and the others been doing this whole time? Time has clearly passed since it’s sundown now when it wasn’t when Genshi, Ototan and Unita left. Have they just been staring blankly into the horizon from that rock formation for several hours?

Genshi simply doesn’t know how to explain everything Toki-G told them. He just says he met a god and he told them a lot of things, which the others don’t really believe, while Ototan says he’ll fill them in later. In the dub, for some reason, they make off like Flint had his mind erased, and it seems like he did…….????? Why the hell would Old Timer tell Flint all of that stuff just to erase his memories later? He’s a Time Detective. What’s the point?

Merlock: “It’s alright. He’ll be normal after some food.” UHM I’M SORRY. WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING HERE? That anyone who has their mind erased by the memory erasure beam will get their memories back after a hearty meal?

Also, Rocky says “Pizza for everyone!” in the spot where he says he’ll explain later.

Genshi just says Unita’s name. In the dub, he asks if Unita remembers.

While most of Unita’s dialogue is the same here, he starts by saying he remembers that Flint is his beloved friend…..so…is he also keeping the events of the Land of Time a secret or does he really not remember?

I know that Unita values his freedom, but why is he the only Space-Time Monster they’re allowing to roam free?

And what was even the point of Merlock being here? He didn’t do anything besides literally be there.

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All in all this episode was………okay. I hate saying that because this is one of the few episodes that actually furthers the overall plot besides just capturing Space-Time Monsters, but it was really kinda bland. Unita is by far the best thing about it, even if I don’t understand why Warufa has fire powers. However, the rest of the episode is just kinda disappointing. The only new information we really learned is that the Masked Man was the one who attacked the Land of Time and released the Space-Time Monsters, but we don’t learn who he is (is there really any point in disguising him? We don’t know any adult men with long teal hair. So any reveal would ring a little hollow wouldn’t it?), and his motives are typical take-over-the-world stuff.

We got Wing’s super transformation, which was kinda cool. I don’t much care for the design. It comes off more like a weird rocket than a fighter jet. I’m also getting kinda sick of Tony or Sarah being mean to the Space-Time Monsters when they call on them to help.

I do like that we finally get to explore the Land of Time more and learn a tiny bit more about the Space-Time Monsters, but I was expecting something with a bit more oomph for such an important episode. If anything, it just raised more questions, especially regarding Genshi being the messiah of this mission. I get that he’s pure-hearted and kind, but many of the bad transformed Space-Time Monsters change back because of the influence of their friendships formed with historical figures, not really Genshi in particular half the time.

I also liked Genshi getting turned back into a fossil. That was a little funny and unexpected.

It is disappointing that this is another episode with not much to talk about history-wise. We got a two fact blurb about the Grand Canyon in the dub, and one of the facts was incorrect.

Dub-wise, it’s fine until the ending where they make a huge change for seemingly no reason. If they actually do keep up this amnesia excuse, then how does that affect future episodes? If him getting fed returns his memories then…..holy hell in August, the timeline should be screwed a billion times over by now! What would even be the point of erasing his memory if it returns with food? I really, truly don’t understand a single thing about that change. It baffles me.

Next time, we learn of TP Lady’s backstory in an episode titled, you guessed it, “TP Lady’s Bad Transformation.”

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 22 (21 for the Dub) Clash! Genshi vs. Ototan Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: TP Lady hatches a new plan to seduce Ototan and steal all of the Space-Time Monsters.

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Title Change: Clash! Genshi vs. Ototan is changed to Rocky in Love.

They originally don’t explain why Moaiwa is outside. In the dub, Sarah asks Mowah to wait outside because he’s so big he’d get in the way of their cleaning.

Putera tells Dr. Yamato that his lazy attitude towards cleaning is the reason why he can’t get a bride. In the dub, he chastises Dr. Goodman for how dirty the place is.

The original doesn’t have any mention of Dyna and Mite going surfing.

They reverse and replay TP Lady looking through her binoculars.

The sign in the garbage pile that Oto-tan falls into originally said “Garbage Disposal.” In the dub, it’s wiped free of text.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Okay, I get they’re in the future so I won’t question why they have a robot garbage man……but what are these?

Does garbage get turned into weird giant spheres in the future?

So not only are the Space-Time Monsters not a secret, but Ototan also talks with Ms. Aino like it’s not weird he’s a stone axe?

…Okay.

Originally, Ms. Aino says she was at the dump because she likes to go to there to look at the mountains of trash to relieve stress. In the dub, she says she’s taking her class on a trip there and wanted to make sure it was safe. Points to the dub here because the original’s explanation is just stupid.

I get the logic with Tokio and Wing flying higher to see more, but also Ototan’s a small stone axe. You’ll never be able to see him if you go that high.

With all the Space-Time Monsters now roaming freely around town, it truly is safe to say that they don’t care about keeping them secret.

The sign on the coffee shop says “Coffee Shop” in the original. In the dub, it says “Etta’s Coffee House.” Additionally, text is removed from the tiny sign below that one, but the image quality is too poor for me to read it.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Wait a minute, so hardly anyone bats an eye at the Space-Time Monsters traipsing around town, but everyone stares at and is confused by Ototan being a living stone axe? This world makes no sense.

*sigh* I hate that this episode is making me imagine the physical logistics of a human having an intimate relationship with a stone axe…..I mean, I get that he’s a human too, he’s just stuck in the form of a stone axe, but still. Eugh.

Ototan mentions that they’re in Tama City. He doesn’t mention they’re location in the dub.

Ototan asks Ms. Aino how the ride is (he’s currently carrying her on his head….) In the dub, they just talk about where they’re going. I understand this change because uh…..yeah asking your love interest how the ride you’re giving them is….Hmm….

Genshi asks why they’re hiding, and Tokio responds that it would be bad to interrupt them. Sora then asks when Ototan and Ms. Aino got so close. In the dub, Flint asks where they’re going, and Tony says he doesn’t know. Sora then says they should follow them but make sure they stay hidden….I know, small potatoes. But this episode’s kinda uneventful change-wise so far.

They repeat a short shot of Tony talking after they cut to Dr. Goodman.

Tokio originally points out that she’s rubbing his “shoulders” while Yamato takes notes on his romantic technique. In the dub, Tony says he didn’t know Ms. Iknow was so strong, and Goodman says she’s full of surprises.

Huh, I honestly didn’t think they’d ever address this, but they actually bring up Genshi’s mom here…..and it has a very unsatisfying resolution. Ototan just doesn’t remember who she was. He explains that turning into a stone axe gave him a bit of memory loss, which is very confusing. He’s never shown to have any memory loss before now, and he remembers everything with Genshi just fine. Genshi also doesn’t remember ever having a mom, so I assume she’s either missing or dead. All this is kept in the dub.

Apparently, in the dub, Ms. Iknow’s first name is Emma. I don’t know if that has any significance.

In the original, Genshi asks if he can eat ‘marriage,’ which reminds me so much of Goku with Chichi in Dragon Ball. In the dub, he just asks if anyone can tell him what’s happening.

After Dyna and Mite shake the net and punch it in the cat mech, the dub repeats them spinning the group over their head for some reason.

Ototan tells Ms. Aino that they’ve only just met, and proposing marriage is going way too fast. However, he still wants to be friends with her. In the dub, Rocky tells her “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” She tells him that, if he leaves now, it’s over, and he says he’s sorry she feels that way.

Wait….so this is our payoff for Talun getting bummed in the other episode about being a coward? She just…..randomly goes super in an episode that barely involves her?….Okay.

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Super Talun is changed to Talen Master.

Eugh, Super Honey-Honey looks way too weird with its barely-changed face….

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Super Honey-Honey is changed to Jitterbug Master.

Like usual, their attacks have no names in the original. In the dub, Jitterbug has a Jitterbug Power Whirl, and Talen has…..*sigh* “Accessory power”……You see…..she throws off her beads and traps….her enemies………..*deep sigh*

Oh and Honey-Honey’s dancing beam? Jitterbug just says “Jitterbug” when he does it. *shrug* I get that the Jitterbug is a dance, but considering it’s also his dub name it just seems awkward.

Tokio specifies that the food falling on them is takoyaki. In the dub, he just says it’s a fast food attack.

Ototan originally points out that, since he’s a rock, being underwater doesn’t affect him….I guess he means….he doesn’t have to breathe? In the dub, Rocky just says it doesn’t matter how much Flint squirms, he’s not getting away.

In the original, Genshi says “Ototan, it hurts!” In the dub, he talks way too much for someone currently drowning and on his last breath. He explains to Rocky that he’s under the control of Petra’s stamp and he has to break free of it.

They inserted an old shot of Rocky using Fighting Spirit and Flint swinging him. I dunno why. He had already used it before they started running.

They reverse and replay Flint and Rocky’s hug to when he was holding up Rocky to insert a line about them achieving anything together even if Rocky married Ms. Iknow.

Again, reversed and replayed Tony, Sarah and Pterry talking.

There’s no mention of a field trip in the original.

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This episode was fine. Kinda felt like they just threw some things together, though. Like they mention Genshi’s mom, but it goes nowhere. They show Talun and Honey-Honey transforming, but there’s little fanfare to it, especially considering they made a big to-do about Talun running away before and feeling bad about it. Ototan gets mind-controlled, which is a cool concept, but there’s not much tension there because of course he’ll break free of it. Other Space-Time Monsters have broken free for much less than something like their own children.

TP Lady’s plan had legs, but it was poorly executed. Seducing Ototan and infiltrating Genshi and the group to steal the Space-Time Monsters could have worked if she was in it for the long game instead of just romancing him for an hour, assuming literally everyone on the good side would follow them and then throwing a net on them….

There wasn’t even a whole lot for me to note for changes. Much of the dub changes or story notes were extremely benign, and there was no historical figure to talk about this episode.

It has a very slow first half, but the second half has enough in it to keep your attention.

Next time, we meet the Space-Time Monster, Unita and learn about the Space-Time Monsters as they travel to the Land of Time.

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 21 (20 for the Dub) Entering the Olympics with Musclun?! Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: The group heads to ancient Greece to find Musclun – a Space-Time Monster that can give people massive muscles, super strength and super speed. When they arrive, they find that an aspiring Olympic athlete, Damon, is using Musclun’s powers to cheat in order to win races at the Olympics.

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Title Change: Entering the Olympics with Musclun?! is changed to Muscles.

Ms. Aino tells the girls to run three more laps and the boys to run five more. In the dub, she tells everyone to do five more laps.

Ms. Aino says Genshi’s not easy to pick on (She’s teaching PE right now and is trying to punish him by making him work more, but Genshi being Genshi, he enjoys it.) In the dub, she says “Hm, he must’ve eaten his oatmeal.”

Sora tells Tokio he’s just awful (at running). Sarah cheers Tony on.

Uhm….what the hell? Sora tells Tokio that Ms. Aino has a point and says it’s weird that he’s so bad at running when he puts so much effort into soccer and baseball. Tokio responds by saying games are fun, but running is monotonous and boring. In the dub, Sarah basically just agrees that he’s a bad athlete in general and points out that he needs to be in great shape in order to be a Time Detective. She is literally sitting right next to two other kids who are listening intently to this conversation. Are they not trying to hide what they do at all? I’m so confused. Also, Tokio’s lines are changed to saying there’s more to life than running and he finds it boring.

Ms. Aino tells Tokio that running is the basis of all sports, and if he doesn’t learn the basics, he’ll never build a good foundation. In the dub, she says he has to work it, work it, work it and then laments on how lazy the youth of today is.

When Ms. Aino tells them to run 20 more laps, Tokio yells “Why?!” In the dub, he and the other kids yell “Yes, Ms. Iknow!” It’s just weird because Tokio’s facial expression doesn’t match what he’s saying in the dub.

Ms. Aino thinks to herself, “If you want to blame anyone, blame Genshi.” Ms. Iknow thinks, “Hehehe, I love watching them sweat.” Please phrase that in a less creepy manner.

So now Putera is coming to school out in the open and is loudly talking about Space-Time Monster stuff. Okay, I guess they really don’t keep it a secret.

The original has them learning about Musclun after they’ve already arrived in 4^th century Greece. In the dub, they learn about it on the Time Cycle then splice in old animation of them time traveling before they get to ancient Greece. I actually prefer the dub because it seems weird that they’d leave before learning anything of the Space-Time Monster.

Name Change: Musclun is changed to Muscles.

With the spliced in animation we get some extra lines, including Rocky saying ancient Greece has some great food like moussaka, spanakoita and baklava, none of which existed in 4^th century Greece. Also, why exactly does Rocky, the caveman, know so much about Greek food?

The original says they’re in 4^th century Greece, which does line up with when the original Olympic games were held in Olympia (8^th century BC to 4^th century AD.) The dub claims this is 4 BC, which…no. Even if they put “century” in there, it would be the wrong date. 4^th century Greece would indicate AD not BC.

Sora says they’d hold sports competitions instead of battling, which started the first Olympics. This is oddly phrased but technically correct a little kinda. In the dub, Sora says the Olympics started out as religious and athletic festivals that eventually evolved into the Olympic games that we know today, which is surprisingly more accurate and even included a mention of religion. Wow.

They reverse and replay a short bit of Tokio talking to Genshi about the games in order to give him more dialogue.

I find it hard to believe that Genshi has been living in the modern world and been going to school for so long at this point but he doesn’t know what sports are. They literally listed two sports earlier and indicated that Tokio was very active in both.

Tokio is impressed this guy can keep up with Genshi. In the dub, Tony says she thought Sarah ran fast, but these guys are way faster. Flint was running with you guys earlier and showed how fast he was. Sarah never seemed to be noticeably fast.

For some reason, they cut out the shot of the two when they’re shown jumping. I think, maybe, because you can see their underwear?

Also, this makes the dub only have two cutaway images, making the flow of the scene kinda wonky.

Split-second, but, again, they cut out a shot where you can see their underwear after they fall down.

So this guy is Damon – a name so vague it’s a bit of a pain to try and figure out if they even modeled this guy on anyone at all. There is a notable figure in Greek legends that supposedly existed around this time period, but he had nothing to do with the Olympics. He was one of the main figures in the story of Damon and Pythias. When Pythias was accused of conspiring against the tyrant, Dionysius, he was sentenced to death. However, he wanted one last chance to say goodbye to his friends and family.

He obviously wasn’t going to be allowed to leave without Dionysius having some leverage, so Damon offered to take his place in jail until Pythias returned. If he didn’t return within an agreed upon time, Damon would be executed in Pythias’ stead. Dionysius had no faith that Pythias would return, but Damon never gave up on his friend, and Pythias never gave up either. He returned as he said he would and saved Damon’s life. He was willing to accept his punishment, but Dionysius was so moved that he let them go. Some sources even claim he was so moved by their friendship and love that he asked to be their third friend, but they shot him down.

The balls on this guy. “Hey, I know I just nearly killed both of you for absolutely no reason, but can I be your pal?”

And, yes, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was based very heavily on this legend.

So….what is this, really? They just found a Greek figure from around the same time period and decided to make him an Olympic athlete? Why? There are many people that we know participated in the ancient Olympics. Why not use one of them? I feel like they kinda gave up on this show being even partially educational.

They repeat a bit of Sarah talking after Tony talks about Damon’s muscles.

Okay, what? Now they leave in a clear underwear shot of Flint? I’m so confused.

Name plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Damon doesn’t know what training is while in the dub he says he’s trained before but it never works out. The dub makes more sense because you’re telling me an aspiring athlete in ancient Greece doesn’t know what training is?

I’m honestly surprised some of these training shots made it into the dub. There’s one shot where they’re holding weights while standing perched over lit candles so if they relax they’ll either get burned or they’ll get a candle straight up their ass. One kinda shocked me – they’re meant to hold weights with their arms held straight out to the sides, and they have knives tied to their upper arms so if they relax their arms they STAB THEMSELVES.

Kyoichiro says he’s taken in too much sunlight, which is why he’s weakening so quickly. In the dub, he says his outfit will never be the same and he was never meant to sweat.

Why would TP Lady tell Musclun to attack Genshi? It would just make him like ten times more powerful.

TP Lady says “She’ll be fine….I think?” When Musclun uses its powers on Sora. In the dub, she says “We’re in big trouble.”

It’s so weird that Damon’s transformation is painless and quick, but when Sora gets affected by it, it’s massively painful and takes forever.

Okay, so now we’re at the point in the next episode preview from last time that gave me pause. When Sora gets affected by Musclun….for some reason…..she just gets super tall. And while she’s transforming, Kyoichiro uses his magic cloak to dress her, because her clothes are starting to rip off…..and he dresses her……in a playboy bunny-esque maid-ish costume.

Why?

How?

What?

And

Ew.

I can’t watch this without thinking “Someone had a very specific fetish and wanted to act it out in this episode…..with a child….”

It doesn’t even make sense. Musclun’s ability does also make the target taller, just for the sake of aesthetics I presume, but it’s main ability is to give the target massive muscles, super strength and speed. Why does Sora get no new muscles? Why does she become a cast member of Attack on Titan? The absolute only reason I can imagine is that Musclun’s powers don’t fully affect girls because…I have no idea besides sexism. Writing-wise the only reason I can come up with circles back around to the fetish thing. Big muscles aren’t a part of that fantasy, I guess.

The other thing you have to keep in mind with this transformation is that Sora gets MUCH bigger than Damon did. Damon just looked like he was a six-foot-tall muscular adult when he was like five foot-ish without Musclun’s powers. When Sora transforms, Tokio only comes up to her thigh. She looks to be about 15 feet tall or more.

Oh and what’s the first thing that happens to her after she transforms and gets her bunny costume on? Musclun settles itself between her boobs. What’s the second thing? Kyoichiro gushes over how she looks.

What the actual fuck were they thinking with this development? This is extremely disturbing. And even more confusingly, what the actual fuck was Saban thinking when they approved dubbing this episode? They just clipped out two shots because Genshi and some dude were showing their undies, but a 12 year old having a lengthy transformation sequence into a giant wearing a mix between a playboy bunny outfit and a maid costume is A-okay?

I know we’re collectively more aware of these strange-ass fetishes now than we were back then, but even so, she’s very clearly being sexualized right now, and Saban is rolling with it. They even left in the stuff with Musclun on her chest and Kyoichiro being turned on by it.

What the hell? Just, god, what the hell?

Oh well, at least that’s the only grossly offensive thing in this episode.

Ammon asks where he even kept a costume like that………Wait….so it’s not fully magic….It’s a costume he had at the ready? He just magically dressed her in with his dressing-room cloak? That’s so much worse. WHY did he have a giant bunny maid costume?

OH MY GOD. They even have an imaginary shot where Sora turns back to normal and is trying to cover her naked body because, being normal size, the costume would no longer fit and would fall off of her……and SABAN KEPT THIS TOO! I don’t even want to really continue watching this episode. I feel so icky right now.

The dub does have her imply that she’s more thinking about not wanting to go through a transformation again, but the imagery clearly implies that she’s trying to cover herself. Just cut out the half-naked shot, show a static image of her now and have that explanation in dialogue. I am forever baffled by the decisions they keep making.

Speaking of which….blackface.

Yup, Warusclu is using blackface, complete with dreads and big lips.

This entire episode can go to hell. Just as deep into hell as you can get.

Why is it even being given blackface? Why does a muscles-based Space-Time Monster translate to blackface or even a black person? Just because it’s meant to resemble a dumbbell and….dumbbells are….black? At least in this point in time blackface was finally starting to be taken seriously. This is basically the same year the Jynx controversy in Pokemon started, causing them to change Jynx into a purple color forever. I don’t know why this never affected Flint the Time Detective. I know it’s not nearly as popular, but certainly they got many messages about it. Were they just not on the air long enough for them to bother?

*sigh* Anyway….

Name Change: Warusclu is changed to Muscles-con…Yes, it sounds awkward that way. They should have just called him Muscle-con.

Name plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

It makes absolutely no sense that powers a person got from a base stage Space-Time Monster made them able to easily defeat a Bad Transformation version of that same Space-Time Monster.

Pterry: *as Sarah’s beating up Muscles-con* “I guess this is why women were originally kept out of the Olympics!” Why would you say that? Why would they write that line? Yes, let’s turn a depressing note in the long, long, long history of sexism into a joke. Haha, women weren’t allowed to participate in the Olympics because they were 15 foot tall leviathans with super strength and the men were too scared of them or something.

Women weren’t only not allowed to participate in the Olympics, to the extent that athletes and trainers had to appear in the nude to prove they were men, they originally weren’t even able to spectate them. If they were caught spectating, there was a law that said they would be “cast down from Mount Typaeum into the river flowing below.” This was seemingly never carried out, but the law still existed.

Unmarried women were allowed to watch the events, but only because it acted as a means of finding them suitable husbands.

This doesn’t mean women never competed in the ancient Olympics or even that they never won any ancient Olympic games. They did a couple times, but they had to use loopholes. The loopholes came in the sport of horse racing. Basically, this wasn’t really a sport, per se. The credit for winning the events was always given to the people who owned and trained the horses, not the racers (who were usually slaves). However, women were never officially banned from the event because breeding and caring for horses was so costly and women just didn’t have a lot of money back then since they weren’t viewed as having the rights to large sums of money, land, etc.

In came Cyniska, who, being from a wealthy family and literally being a Spartan princess, allowed her the funds and means to breed and train her own horses and enter them into the races, which they won. She then tried again in the next Olympics and once again won.

However, sexism being sexism, even though she technically won the events, she wasn’t allowed into the stadium to watch the event or collect her prize. She was, however, allowed to have a series of bronze statues set in Zeus’ sanctuary with an engraving that read “I declare myself the only woman in all Hellas to have won this crown.” Which, yeah, is pretty cool, but I don’t really see it as the win it’s made out to be. She did train the horses and raised them, but she didn’t race them. She wasn’t even present at the event, so it just kinda makes the victory seem a little hollow. Not to mention that only women who happened to be super rich somehow could abuse this loophole anyway, which they did numerous times after Cyniska’s wins.

Cyniska is a testament to Spartan women, who were encouraged to participate in sports and other intense exercise, unlike other Greek women who were barred from practicing or learning about pretty much any activity involving a lot of physical excursion that wasn’t baby making…..which, while being a step in the right direction, was also a tiny bit sexist because the reason they supported women partaking in sports and exercise was because they believed it would help them produce the strongest male offspring….

But things weren’t all bad for women athletes because they did have their own version of the Olympics called the Heraean Games. Named after the goddess, Hera, queen of the Olympian gods and wife of Zeus, the Heraean Games were held every four years right after the Olympics. The prizes were quite similar to those given out at the Olympics – you get a crown of olive leaves and portraits and/or statues with engravings that would be placed in honor of Hera.

There were still some caveats here. The only events were a variety of races, and married women were still not allowed to compete. They were obviously allowed to watch this time, though.

What I’m trying to say is sexism is shit, and this episode is awful.

“But Twix,” someone, somewhere says in order to fill the role of being a strawman here, “Sora is kicking butt! That’s not sexist at all!” Yeah, she is kicking butt……while yelling and crying. Anything she’s doing to Warusclu isn’t because she’s actively trying to fight. She’s basically panic-fighting. He might as well be a wasp that she’s trying desperately to swat away from her.

Sora is noted as being more athletic than Tokio, at least in regards to regular exercise, I don’t know if she plays any sports, but that’s about it. I don’t even understand what we’re supposed to get from this in terms of a possibly feminist message, if one even exists (if that’s what Pterry was trying to convey with that comment) because she’s not using her own skills and athleticism to win this fight – she’s using Musclun’s power boost.

As Sora is grappling with Warusclu, Kyoichiro takes pictures of her….including one of her ass. Try to convince me this has nothing to do with fetishism….Also, again, Saban left the butt shot in. Screw you, Saban. What the hell are you doing?

Sora wins the fight by throwing Warusclu then cries because she’s sick of fighting and begs Genshi to help her…..

Damon is chasing after Warusclu only deciding to take it as a race after Genshi suggests it. In the dub, he instantly decides to race him.

Genshi points out that their race is the Olympics. He tells Damon that instead of fighting Warusclu, they should do sports. In the dub, Damon asks Flint if he thinks they can catch him, and he says he doesn’t know.

Flint: “Alright, it’s a race! Last one to the Parthenon is a rotten egg!” How the shit does Flint know what the Parthenon is when he thought the Olympics were a food ten minutes ago? In the original, he just called it a building.

Damon says “A race to the Parthenon?! Impossible!” In the dub, he says “Can’t….lose!”

Sora’s voice when she’s enlarged is noticeably deeper than when she’s normal sized. Before, the dub kept her regular voice but added an echo effect when she was larger. At this point in the episode, they stopped using it for some reason.

It’s very weird that they’re having Sora run in slow motion just because she’s giant.

TP Lady asks what Warusclu is doing competing in this race. In the dub, she says it will be easier to defeat them when they’re worn out from this race.

In the original, Tokio points out that TP Lady is cheating, and she says she doesn’t care what’s fair or what she has to do as long as she wins. Damon then says “You can’t do that!” before realizing he was doing the exact same thing by trying to use Musclun’s powers to win at the Olympics. They try to convey this in the dub, but, man, is it clunky. Tony says “Don’t worry, I can save him….” And Petra responds, “Hey I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but some of us lose and some of us win!” Then Damon chimes in with “Winning is everything!” before his inner monologue cuts in with his realization that he’s as bad as her. Why cut out the stuff about cheating? And why change his line to something so awkward? Why would he suddenly yell that winning is everything (in an assured tone, not a questioning one) when his enemy just taunted them saying that same thing?

The hammer robot thing TP Lady has isn’t given an introduction in the original. In the dub, Dyna says “From Japan, it’s Louie and his flying hammers!”

As a result of the lack of focus on cheating in the dub, the end message is kinda messed up. In the original, Damon picking up Musclun so they can cross the finish line together is them winning without cheating. In the dub, Damon picks up Muscles so they can win the race together – which defeats the purpose of learning that winning isn’t everything.

So…..where the hell IS everyone? They’re in ancient Greece right before the Olympics, supposedly, and yet the only person from this era that I’ve seen this entire episode is Damon. There aren’t even any background extras.

I would think that Ms. Aino would get fired for making her students run non-stop for hours while she’s away. I’d also think some of those kids would say “fuck it” and quit. It’s literally sunset right now. They should be going home and reporting Ms. Aino to her superiors.

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*sigh* So before I go off on my obvious “This episode was awful” spiel, I will go over some things I liked.

I liked that Sora got one legitimate instance of helping fight without being objectified or crying.

I liked the message in the original that cheating is not the way to come out on top. No matter how good winning seems, it will never feel genuine unless you do it on your own merits.

I liked the IDEA of going back to ancient Greece and having a storyline around an Olympic athlete who is struggling to achieve such a goal without cheating.

I like that the episode has a bit of a pro-exercise message, even if it didn’t really commit.

That’s about it.

Now for my spiel.

*deep breath*

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This episode was awful. Quite frankly, I feel about as exhausted with it as Tokio and Kyoichiro did from exercising so much. I knew this episode would be bad, but not quite this bad. They barely teach you anything about the Olympics or ancient Greece. They don’t even focus on an actual historical figure from ancient Greece or the Olympics. They pretty much only lifted the name of a person in a Greek legend and went with it. They didn’t talk about the legend associated with that person at all either.

It really feels like this entire episode was used as an excuse to get Sora into that form and outfit. If so, whoever made that decision, please go seek help and then go to hell.

And just throwing blackface in there so flippantly, just…why?

Next time, Ms. Aino/TP Lady seduces Ototan and turns him against Genshi.

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Animating Halloween | Gadget and the Gadgetinis – Trick or Trap Review

Plot: Gadget brings Penny and the Gadgetinis to a Halloween party that is really a cover for a MAD agent recruitment drive.

Breakdown: I don’t really ever get an opportunity to talk about this, but I used to really love Inspector Gadget. For those not in the know, Inspector Gadget was a cartoon from the 80s about a cyborg inspector named, what else, Inspector Gadget, voiced by the legend himself, Don Adams, who solves crimes and fights his nemesis, the mysterious usually faceless Dr. Claw, who always gets away no matter what. Most of the time, he doesn’t solve much of anything. His genius detective/tech nerd niece, Penny, and her similarly intelligent dog, Brain, solve most of the mysteries behind Gadget’s back and give him the credit.

Despite the fact that I loved Inspector Gadget, I wasn’t too familiar with the larger Inspector Gadget universe, and it’s surprisingly large. There are direct-to-video movies, some spin-offs, it recently had a reboot as well. The only Inspector Gadget properties I had familiarized myself with outside of the 80s cartoon was the live-action movie starring Matthew Broderick. I know that movie gets a lot of shit for being so different from the cartoon, and that’s fine, it’s fully understandable…..

I really loved the movie.

You could even say there was a period in my life where I was kinda obsessed with it.

Sure, it’s very different from the cartoon. Sure, it’s kinda stupid. Sure, some aspects are actually kinda messed up and a bit overly dark for a kid’s movie. The live-action movie is the origin story of Inspector Gadget, who is named John Brown in this version. We see how and why he became a cyborg in the first place.

Dude got blown the hell up, and his body was so mutilated that they had to replace virtually all of his body with mechanical parts to ensure he could survive. And they specifically gave him crime-fighting gadgets (all of this without his knowledge and against his will) because he had always wanted to be a cop.

We also see Dr. Claw pretty much not be Dr. Claw. He’s actually a rich man named Sanford Scolex played by Rupert Everett. He became Dr. Claw when his hand was crushed by a falling bowling ball and replaced with a prosthetic hydraulic claw hand.

It’s a weird movie, don’t get me wrong, and I haven’t watched it in years so there are probably many things that are even weirder about it now, but I still really loved it once upon a time.

I didn’t much care for the sequel, which wasn’t really a sequel, despite being called Inspector Gadget 2, because they completely disregarded everything from the first movie, recast everyone (barring the Gadgetmobile, for some reason – Guess people really liked DL Hughley?) and completely change the tone and a lot of other stuff to better emulate the cartoon. Though, if you ask me, it didn’t succeed at all. Literally the only two things I remember from that movie are the song ‘Up, Up, Up’ by Rose Falcon, which is awesome, and the fact that they had Gadget fall in love with an android, which was really, really weird. And I don’t mean they did that as a one-off joke. They ended up together….

Blah blah blah segue, which leads us to Gadget and the Gadgetinis, which was a 2002 French spin-off made by Saban’s French studio and DiC in which Gadget, who is now a Lieutenant hired by WOMP, the World Organization of Mega Powers, fights crime alongside his new sidekicks, the Gadgetinis, whom are basically literally mini-Gadgets, even voiced by Maurice LeMarche, named Fidget and Digit. They were made by Penny, who is now a little older.

This series never aired in the US, which I would say explains why I never watched it, but, from all I’ve been reading about it, this show doesn’t sound that good. The concept is iffy enough, but they made some changes that I don’t find appealing.

The biggest changes are in the absence of the Chief and Brain. They’re technically not fully gone as the Chief shows up a couple of times and Brain is discussed, but they’re nowhere near as integral to the series as they were before. In fact, the reason the Gadgetinis were made was because Brain left the picture.

And when you find out why he left the picture, you’ll realize why I’m a bit more put off by the character’s removal that I otherwise would be.

The main Wiki page for the Inspector Gadget franchise said that, in this series, Brain ran away so Penny needed to make the Gadgetinis to replace him. This sounded really weird to me because I just can’t imagine Brain running away. So I went to the main page for the show to figure out why exactly he ran away.

…….They gave Brain intense PTSD for a joke…..

I am not kidding at all. “After years of Gadget repeatedly mistaking him for M.A.D. Agents and trying to apprehend him, Brain is now phobic and nervous when he hears Gadget’s name and has taken refuge in a shack by a lake.” What the actual fuck? Poor Brain! I kinda wish he had just randomly run away. What an awful thing to do to his character.

Anyway, let’s move on to this Halloween special. We start off with the theme song, which is fine in regards to melody, but they have someone, I’ll guess it’s his boss, yelling out “GADGET!” repeatedly as part of the song, and it’s very intrusive and irritating. It’s a shame, because the original Inspector Gadget theme song is so good. It only has a few lyrics, but it’s so memorable and catchy.

In the first scene, which is constantly covered by the opening credits right there smack in the middle of the screen, Gadget, voiced by Maurice LeMarche, nearly kills his new boss, Colonel Nozzaire (pronounced “Nose hair”) because he thinks he’s trapped in a suit of armor, so he comes at him with a buzz saw. It’s actually kinda funny, but I was really distracted by the sound mixing. The sound of the buzz saw drowned out a lot, which is fine, I guess, because it’s a buzz saw, but only a few lines later I realized the music was way too loud and the sound effects as a whole were also too loud while the dialogue tracks were too soft.

Nozzaire tells Gadget to go to Chicago to take Penny to a Halloween party because MAD agents have been detected there (Claw is using the party as a means to recruit new agents). Then we get an overly long gag where Nozzaire is stuck in his armor and Gadget doesn’t notice because he’s prattling on about Halloween. He also makes a caramel apple with an apple he ejects from his chest and a caramel sprayer in his finger. I don’t think the animators know how caramel works because it sprays as easily as water and drips off most of the apple. Gadget leaves while Nozzaire is trapped in his suit of armor covered in caramel.

The MAD goons start their plan of testing the guests to see if they could make potential MAD agents out of them. I guess their testing method is to spring a variety of booby traps on them and see if they….I honestly don’t know. They all survive, and fail, but I don’t see how they’re supposed to pass. Some of the booby traps are even unfair. In one, they immediately strapped the guy into a chair and just did a bunch of slapstick to him. What the hell was he supposed to do there?

Gadget, as expected, doesn’t suspect a single thing as he attends this party, even though it’s clear that the place is littered with criminals. He also doesn’t suspect anything as he suffers the various booby traps in the building.

The MAD goons who are running this test notice that Gadget survived the “chamber of doom” and are impressed with him, despite the fact that the other guy also survived, he just got his teeth knocked out. Gadget, trying to get into character as per his costume, pretends to be a crime boss, which further impresses the goons who then try to recruit him.

Meanwhile, Penny’s investigation leads her to discovering MAD’s plans, although she calls the traps “phony” which I don’t understand. She did notice the ghost was a hologram, but she also saw guys running from fireballs and giant boulders. Fidget and Digit kinda point this out because they’re in a room with traps that have clearly caused damage to the room, and one of them sarcastically says “Good thing the traps are phony.” which implies they’re real, but why would Penny, who is otherwise very smart, just assume all of the traps were phony? That would be kinda funny, though. MAD using fake traps to test potential agents because they’re just concerned about safety.

When Dr. Claw realizes his goons screwed up and recruited Gadget, he sends every criminal in the building after him. Whoever destroys him first gets to be Claw’s right-hand man. It’s kinda weird that there are absolutely no female criminals in this party…….That doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, I just thought it was weird.

Gadget, however, just assumes everyone’s playing Tag, so he runs away. He’s grabbed by someone, thinking that makes him “it” and, for some reason. Gadget seems to believe that you can tag back in Tag, which wasn’t true in most games of Tag that I played. Allowing tag backs just made the game frustrating and no fun.

But that’s not the point.

Except it is the point because the resolution to the plot is based on Gadget’s misunderstanding of Tag. He thinks he’s not it because he tagged back the first person who ‘tagged’ him yet he seems to also believe anyone else who touches him is it and then he turns around and wraps them up in rope to tag them back?…..At least that’s what I think is going on. Most of it happens off screen. Even if tagbacks were allowed in Tag, tying up your opponents is obviously not.

As it continues, it gets a little more understandable. Penny, Fidget and Digit are shown helping Gadget. While Penny activates booby traps to help stop the criminals, Fidget and Digit keep covertly tagging him to ensure he keeps thinking he’s it. This goes on for quite a while. Him thinking he’s playing Tag is okay for a quick gag, but it’s goes on for nearly five minutes.

Penny finally calls the police, and all of the criminals are carted away while Dr. Claw fires his goons. Later, back at HQ, Gadget finally frees Nozzaire and manages to do it without hurting Nozzaire or causing trouble. However, he reveals that he brought the two ex-MAD goons back with him to……I have no goddamn clue. They show up, turn Nozzaire’s hair into a literal ice cream sundae and then leave. It was one of the most random things I’ve seen in recent memory. Absolutely no buildup, not in reference to anything (except….maybe the caramel? Like, what, that they’re both sweets?) and literally came out of nowhere. I thought Gadget was going to give them a new job or something, but nope.

Overall, this episode was fine. It didn’t really get me interested in seeing the rest of the series at all. The Gadgetinis do seem purely like smaller more competent Gadgets. And like I said, they literally are Gadget, in both design and voices. It’s just that they have smaller bodies, different color schemes and higher pitched voices. They’re not that funny or interesting. They’re okay, but I couldn’t even tell them apart, and they didn’t really add anything to the story.

Not that there’s much of a story here anyway. Inspector Gadget was never huge on story – they very much maintained the same trajectory that this show has – but it somehow feels more hollow, and I don’t think it’s an issue of nostalgia goggles.

Maybe this just wasn’t a good episode to start out on, but this viewing experience plus knowing what I know about Brain just makes me feel like they kinda gutted the original show but in small ways that damage it just enough to create a lackluster show.

A lot of iconic aspects of the show aren’t present in this version, which may have been a conscious effort to be different from the 80s incarnation. For instance, we no longer get exploding messages to inform Gadget of his missions. We no longer get his boss hiding in random places while he waits for Gadget to read his mission note, which is always thrown back in his face and blown up without Gadget realizing it most of the time. We don’t get Penny’s iconic computer book. We don’t even get Dr. Claw saying “I’ll get you next time, Gadget. Next time!”

Maybe they thought all that stuff was better left in the past, and maybe that is my nostalgia goggles calling out to me, but those lost factors took a lot of notable stuff from the original series off the table. We do still get Gadget causing trouble, being a complete idiot and using his various Gadgets in somewhat humorous manners. We still get Penny doing all the work behind the scenes, saving her uncle and letting him get all the credit. Dr. Claw’s still the faceless enemy. The main framework is there, though I still don’t forgive the loss of Brain, and while the show, as far as I’ve seen, isn’t that bad, it’s also not that good in my opinion.

As a Halloween episode, this fails pretty hard. I didn’t get Halloween vibes at all. Literally none of this had to involve Halloween. If you took the costumes off of them, absolutely everything would go the same way. I tried really hard to think of aspects of the episode that would justify it, but the best I can come up with is Gadget thinking all of the criminals at the party were just in costumes and some of the booby traps involved holograms of ghosts and stuff. However, Gadget’s so dim he’d probably think that anyway, and scary holograms can also easily be a thing they’d use outside of Halloween. I just don’t think they integrated Halloween well enough here. I didn’t even understand what Penny was supposed to be. A greaser?

Oh well. Maybe I’ll be able to revisit Inspector Gadget sometime in the future, but for now it’s time to move on.

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective | Episode 20 (19 for the Dub): Elekin’s Super Robot Showdown Sub/Dub Comparison

Plot: Genshi heads to the Edo period to find Elekin, an electricity-based Space-Time Monster, and Hiraga Gennai, a brilliant scientist who is currently experimenting with Elekin’s powers to make a giant mech. TP Lady aims to take the mech and Elekin for herself to get rid of Genshi once and for all.

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Title Change: Elekin’s Super Robot Showdown is changed to Elekin.

Putera is explaining Elekin’s powers in the original. In the dub, Old Timer is narrating about where they’re going and who they’re seeing. Oddly, despite this change, they remove a scene with Toki G watching the kids go through the time stream and cheering on Genshi. This is shifted this to after they emerge from the time stream.

They, for some reason, change the name of our historical figure of the day. They call him Ichiban Hiraga but he’s actually called Hiraga Gennai. I thought maybe they were referencing a nickname or his birth name or something, but no. He was born as Shiraishi Kunitomo, and he did go by various pen names, but as far as I could tell none of them were Ichiban Hiraga.

The only reason I can think of for why this change happened is because Saban dubbed another anime that had a character named after Hiraga Gennai. In Digimon, there’s a character named Gennai, and both series were dubbed at basically the same time. This might also be the reason why Sora is changed to Sarah here, but the character, Sora, in Digimon keeps her name in the dub. Don’t know why Digimon got dibs on the original names or why that would matter, but that’s the only reason I can think of.

Ichiban, by the way, actually means “number one” or “first” which may or may not be a poke at the seeming change they make to his character.

The dub claims he ‘stumbled upon’ electricity, which, uh. No. First, that frames it like he discovered electricity, which couldn’t be less true. He just created an elekiter, which was a device used to generate and store static electricity. Secondly, saying he stumbled upon it kinda gives off the vibe that he hadn’t been studying it or working with it or, ya know, knew what it was. Whether he really invented the elekiter is a bit up for debate. The elekiter was originally a Dutch creation he acquired that utilized a Leyden jar, but it didn’t work. He was able to make it work, however. He presented the working device in exhibitions.

Oddly, Saban actually gets the time period entirely wrong this time. They usually get it even more precise than the original, but here, they’re centuries off. In the original, they’re going to the Edo period in Japan, which started in 1603. However, I’m to assume we’re somewhere in the range of 1749-ish because Hiraga Gennai was born in 1729 and he’s an adult here, so let’s just say he’s around 20. The dub claims they’re going to 12^th century Japan, which is 1100-1200…..

For some reason, after Pterry says they’re going to 12^th century Japan, Old Timer butts in again to say “Oh, much to learn about electricity, yes.” Uhm…why did you say that?

When they finally get around to showing the scene with Toki G, they change the dialogue. Genshi originally says he’s excited about meeting Elekin, and Toki G cheers him on and reminds us that he has to collect all of the Space-Time Monsters. Then he randomly falls. Flint asks what an Elekin is, and, as normal, he asks if it’s something to eat. Did they go out without Flint being briefed? Old Timer explains that Elekin is a Time Shifter and he’s not something to eat. Then he rambles on about how Flint only thinks about his stomach before he randomly falls over.

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Sora and Tokio apologize for the crash and say it was their fault. In the dub, Sarah asks what’s going on, and Tony asks where the giant robot came from.

Also, they make Getalong say “New friends! Meet new friends!” which is kinda weird to say at a time like this, but is especially awkward considering Love-Love/Getalong has a concerned expression right now, so it doesn’t match.

Dub!Elekin talks in third person for some reason.

So, the next exchange is pretty much kept the same, but all of the bits and pieces are out of order. In the original, Gennai explains who he is before stating he knows the kids are from the future and asking them to help repair his robot. In the dub, he asks them to help repair his robot, then explains who he is then suggests they’re from the future. Also, they add in that he “invented” electricity, which, again, isn’t true. We really have to stop saying anyone invented electricity, because electricity is natural so no one invented it. Mentions of working with or manipulating electricity go as far back as 600 BC.

For the record, Hiraga Gennai was so much more than an inventor and builder. He was a writer, painter, pharmacologist, physician, ronin, herbalist, he worked in mining and pottery, and he was quite a notable gay figure at the time, writing a lot about homosexual life, guides on male prostitutes and several works highlighting gay sex.

Not downplaying his work as an inventor and scientist, but I’m just saying it’s worth mentioning……Well, okay, the sex stuff probably isn’t appropriate for this show, but everything else yeah.

Gennai asks what kind of response it is to say they’re too busy to help him repair his Gennai mech when they’re the ones who wrecked it in the first place. They have no response. In the dub, he asks how time travelers are too busy to help when, logically, they have all the time in the world. Then he asks if this is what has become of manners in the future.

In the original, Gennai specifically says he’s going to get them some treats where red beans pour out if you squeeze them. In the dub, he just offers them snacks. I feel like maybe he should be calling them manju because they were created way back in 1341, so they had to have been known as manju long before this point.

Tokio explains that the treats in question were actually steamed buns (manju) In the dub, Hiraga says his cook is off-duty so he made them something with fish eggs….

Genshi just enjoys the manju, and Sora says he was right since red beans do pour from them if you squeeze them. In the dub, Flint asks for ketchup. Sarah explains that it’s caviar, and you don’t put ketchup on caviar, but Flint says he does.

The original explains that Gennai is primarily a pharmacologist. The dub doesn’t mention this.

Putera knows exactly what the elekiter is (although she refers to it as just an electrostatic generator). Pterry says it’s “some rudimentary electronic device.”

Genshi starts cranking the elekiter because he’s curious. In the dub, since Pterry doesn’t know what it does, Flint wonders if it makes food, because of course he does, so he starts cranking the machine.

Sora and Tokio express actual concern for Genshi as he gets electrocuted. Sarah and Tony just yell “Stop clowning around!”

Going in the polar opposite direction 4Kids goes, the original makes a “shocking” pun while Flint just says “Ooh does it ever not make food.”

Sora asks Genshi if he’s okay, and Tokio tells him to be more careful. Sarah just tells Flint to behave himself when he’s a guest in someone’s home. Tony doesn’t have a line.

In the original, TP Lady says “If I fail again…” before trailing off into her fantasy. In the dub, she says “I’ll make him pay attention to me!”

The fantasy sequence is of the Masked Man leaving TP Lady because she keeps failing him. In the dub, it’s so weird, because it’s almost like they’re completely ignoring what’s happening on screen. The Masked Man has his back turned and is walking away from Petra while Petra is on the ground crying and reaching out. The Masked Man (Or I guess he’s supposed to be The Dark Lord?) says “Tell me, Petra Fina, what does the Dark Lord love above all else?” and she responds “Control, manipulation and power!” It just doesn’t match what we’re seeing.

The sequence of TP Lady hitting Dyna in the head over and over is shortened. She originally told him to hurry and catch Elekin. Dyna responded asking why he’s the only one getting hit. They didn’t remove the hitting entirely, just shortened the scene of it. So hitting is fine but don’t do it too long?

This next change is 100% pointless and dumb. In the original, TP Lady dresses up in elegant Japanese clothing, and Dyna and Mite introduce her as the successor to the late general, Lord Tokugawa Ieharu. In the dub, Saban, for some reason, has Dino and Mite introduce her as a nameless princess of Saskatchewan…..Ya know….in Canada. What the hell is this, Saban? What are you doing? Why wouldn’t you just says she’s some vague Japanese princess, if you didn’t want to bring up Tokugawa Ieharu for some reason? Are you just trying to make these three seem even stupider than they actually are? I don’t get it.

TP Lady just asks Ammon and Elekin to kneel before her. In the dub, she requests for them to come closer. Also, they reverse and repeat the shot of her opening her eyes when her face is cloaked in shadow, so it can look like she then closed her eyes for some reason.

I don’t think Ammon knows this is TP Lady, Dyna and Mite in the original, but she definitely seems to know it in the dub.

Kyoichiro is entirely focused on Sora when the kids approach and babbles on about their unexpected meeting of fate when he’s all dreamy and sparkly. In the dub, he’s focused on Flint, acting as if he’s running to him to beg for help with the case.

The animation in this shot is awful. Since everyone’s just far enough away for all of the details to be off, Putera’s eyes bounce all over when he talks, and Kyoichiro loses his nose whenever his mouth moves.

The introduction to the newly changed mech is much less impacting in the dub. In the original, they have loud music cues and a pretty cool techno-ish track to go along with it. In the dub, they lazily put in the quietest of single drum beats with each new shot of the robot, and then the music that follows is simple boring bland background music, like the kind you’d hear in casual conversation, not seeing a massive missile-laden robot….

TP Lady names her modified version of the Gennai, The Great Gennai, which is weird. I’d think she’d name it after herself, but whatever. In the dub, it doesn’t get a new name. Petra just says of course she’d be the one to take complete control with a giant robot.

I’m getting so confused with this. Elekin’s power doesn’t seem to actually be controlling or creating giant robots, like the preview implied. It’s literally just a walking elekiter. You need to crank him and everything. Why does TP Lady need him to power this robot? She has tons of robots and mechanical devices that run on electricity that comes from some unknown future-device source.

If his power really is just creating electricity, and this is a time period where Gennai already made the elekiter….why does Elekin have any impact on what he creates? Even if it is a matter of Elekin being able to generate more electricity than his elekiter, he shouldn’t have instantly made the jump from ‘box that generates static’ to ‘giant mech.’ This is especially weird in the case of the dub, because Ichiban specifically said he wanted this thing to help people…..How does this help people? It’s just a giant mech.

Gennai tells Elekin to stop. In the dub, he tells Petra that she can’t use the mech (or Elekin maybe?) for evil.

They repeat a shot of Elekin after showing the gears turning.

They add a shot of Ichiban talking to have him say “This is grotesque” after Elekin powers up the attack.

This actually seems so backwards. Like “Oh no, TP Lady, the person who usually has high-tech robots and all sorts of gadgets to help her with her plans is now using, GASP……a low-tech wooden mech that she needs to CRANK to power and uses ROPES to control……Dear god….help us all….”

I love how it takes Kyoichiro and Ammon an insanely long time to notice the giant mech attacking the town about 250 feet to their left.

The original doesn’t mention anything about TP Lady putting this moment in her book. I didn’t even know she was writing a book.

Also, I thought for sure Genshi was going to smack the mech with Ototan. Why did he try hopping into the cockpit?

They repeat and reverse the segment of TP Lady mocking and laughing at Genshi after we see the track coming towards Genshi.

Sora and Tokio just yell in concern for Genshi. Sarah and Tony point out how impressive Flint is being before we even see him getting back up to stop the mech.

TP Lady yells “Why is he so strong!?” In the dub, he tells Mite to keep cranking Elekin.

Sora and Tokio ask if the mech has any weak spots. Gennai says that any machine made by the great genius, Gennai, has no weak spots. In the dub, they ask if Ichiban can make anything to fight “the evil power” just once. Ichiban refuses, saying he doesn’t stoop to the hurly burly of politics. He builds machines to help the human race.

If you ask me, both versions are obnoxious. The first version is better, but it still has Gennai coming off like a total egotistical prick. Instead of actually trying to come up with a solution to this problem, he just gloats about how perfect his machine is. And, dude, it can’t be that perfect if it was so badly damaged just by falling over after trying to avoid Ridon. As far as I know, the more humorous side of this character definitely tracks with Gennai in real life, but I haven’t been able to find anything implying that he was a braggart who got blinded by his self-righteousness or ego.

The dubbed version just seems flatout wrong on all accounts. You can’t state that your devices are tools of good for the betterment of humanity and then go on about how you don’t want to create a device that fights evil. That makes no sense. And what the hell does that have to do with politics? Being fair, Gennai was the type of guy who liked to distance himself from politics, but, as I just asked, what does making a device to beat an evil person’s robot have to do with politics?

And while we’re it, again, how does your giant mech help people!?

In the original, Putera asks why Gennai is gloating about that. In the dub, he says “If the universe is destroyed, who will see them?” which comes off like Ichiban only wants to help so his devices will get attention….

In the original, Gennai yells to Genshi that the one weak spot of the mech is Elekin. Since he’s powering the machine, removing him will stop it. In the dub, he just yells out to Petra that, as the mech’s creator, he protests against the use of the machine in such a way and demands they stop……I thought this guy was supposed to be smart.

Genshi tells Gennai that he understands. Flint tells Ichiban “Keep yellin’! I think it’s workin’!” Wha…what’s working? Him yelling at them? What are they doing different?

So Sora falls and just….doesn’t even try to kinda get up. She just accepts her missile-y fate…..What a protagonist.

Sora just says “Narukami” after he saves her. In the dub, Sarah says “Now I really feel silly.” Yeah, well….you should.

Kyoichiro asks if Sora’s alright. Merlock tells Sarah that she shouldn’t feel silly because it was a scary situation that scared him too…..Uh huh…

Kyoichiro says that, with her looking at him like that, he wouldn’t be cool if he refused her request. In the dub, he says that he can tell by the look in her eyes how much Flint means to her and that, in the spirit of friendship, he’ll help her.

Kyoichiro gives a speech to Genshi about how he’ll teach him the real way to fight. Genshi responds with “Kyoichiro, I’m counting on you!” In the dub, he gives a dramatic speech to…no one about how his enemies will tremble at his feet and blah blah. Flint then yells “STOP TALKIN’ AND DO SOMETHING, WILL YA!?” Way to make Flint obnoxious, Saban.

They again reverse and replay TP Lady talking after Flint’s line, for some reason.

Kyoichiro doesn’t have a line as he pole vaults over the missiles. He just goes “Aieeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Then he yells “Genshi, now!” In the dub, he says “A little grace under pressure….NOT WHILE MERLOCK’S AROUND!” Were you, uh, meant to be responding to someone in that second part of your line? Because, otherwise, it sounds like there will be no grace under pressure while you’re around….

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Warukin is changed to Elekin-con.

So….Elekin’s bad transformation is mostly just a bigger version of himself with a different face on screen and plug hands? How boring.

Sora says “Hang in there, Ammon.” Sarah says “She’ll be okay. She’s in shock.” Get it?! Because she was electrocuted! HAHA!

As usual, Love-Love can’t talk, but Saban has Getalong say “All because of that robot!” No, it’s because of Elekin. The robot didn’t shock Bindi – Elekin did….

The original doesn’t mention anything about ballast….Why is Ichiban acting like this is a ship?

Kyoichiro tells Sora to take care of Ammon for him, and Sora agrees. In the dub, Merlock says Ichiban’s crazy because the robot can’t move on its own. Sarah then also chimes in asking if he doesn’t understand that the mech doesn’t have any energy. Yeah, apparently both versions are writing Gennai to be a dumbass now….

They somehow make him even more of a dumbass in the dub because they repeat shots of him pulling ropes and the robot not responding while he yells “Forward!….Backward!…..Any-ward!” before he realizes the mech doesn’t have power….In the original, he only pulls the rope once before realizing.

They remove the shot of the kids reacting to Gennai’s blunder and replace it with an earlier and much less funny non-reaction shot where they just blink in response, complete with a blink sound effect.

They also add in the slightly earlier shot of Sora yelling out as a means to getting Sarah to yell up to Elekin to remember that they’re his friends.

They remove the shot of Gennai, Kyoichiro and Genshi getting electrocuted before we cut to the lab.

The dub has Pterry mention that Flint’s in suspended animation, which….no? He’s not in suspended animation at all…What was that line? Were they trying to make some meta joke that didn’t land?

They remove the shot of Redman getting electrocuted.

Sora tells Redman that the giant robot is on their side (after they attacked it and got electrocuted, thinking it was the enemy) Tokio then tells them to look closely and see that Genshi and Ototan are inside it. In the dub, Sarah tells them not to give up, and Tony tells Sarah that they probably don’t have any juice left after that.

The dub includes a split-second group shot of the Cardians right before they transform…for… some reason.

I can’t not mention this anymore – Ichiban here is voiced by Tom Fahn, who voiced Agumon in Digimon. I just had to mention this because he’s very obviously just doing his Agumon voice with no change whatsoever. It is very distracting.

Gennai tells Elekin that he’s really a good guy and asks him to change back. Ichiban tells Elekin that he believes his powers can be “applied and conducted” whatever the hell he means by the latter, for the good of everyone.

They add in a flashier shot of Petra flailing her whip around because I guess her torment of Elekin has to look better?

Also, TP Lady just asks what Warukin is doing. In the dub, Saban writes this insanely stupid line that I can’t believe made it to the final cut.

Petra: “The secret of electrical power comes with me!” The SECRET of ELECTRICAL POWER?! YOU’RE FROM THE GODDAMN FUTURE. You have a cat-themed spaceship that also turns into a mech. You have a mind-control stamp. YOU CAN TIME TRAVEL. What secrets of electrical power do you think this thing has? Go find a tesla coil or something. You’ll get the same experience. What is wrong with you?

Genshi tells Gennai that they need to run. Flint tells Ichiban to go get the box with the wires in it because Elekin’s gonna need it. Apparently he’s psychic now.

The reason he needed the elekiter was Elekin….fell down….and the elekiter’s power was used to…I dunno, revive him? Whatever.

Kyoichiro says he may have loaned Genshi his strength this time, but he shouldn’t rely on him being there all the time. Merlock says he liked teaming up with Flint and he’ll be sure to appreciate his friendship from now on.

Ya know, I’ll just say it…Kyoichiro didn’t do anything in this episode. He’s being praised for nothing. Yeah, sure, he saved Sora, but Sora was only in danger because she was an idiot. Then later he ‘helps’ Genshi by…..dodging missiles and telling him to attack the mech…?? Then he helps again by pull ropes to help power the mech, which, knowing how powerful and fast Genshi is, he surely could have done himself. It’s clear this episode was meant to be a sort of bonding time for them, or at least a means of showing that Kyoichiro was useful, but we know he’s useful, and they didn’t do a good enough job showing the teamwork side of that equation.

Ammon apologizes for knocking Kyoichiro off the tower. Bindi asks what he did that for, as if he fell off the tower on purpose….

Gennai asks if his words are remembered in the future. The kids assure him that they are and that he’s actually famous in the future. Gennai says Super Redman was pretty impressive. Then he asks Elekin and Redman if they’d like to combine and make a Super Great Gennai mech. This makes Elekin and the Red Redman excited before they excuse themselves to leave.

In the dub, Ichiban wishes there was some way he could visit them in the future. Tony says maybe he’ll invent something that will help him do that. Ichiban then says he might be barking up the wrong tree with the electricity stuff because then he’d have to invent an electric can opener which would mean he’d have to invent the tin can….*sigh*….*rubs temples* Somehow that makes Elekin and the Red Cardian start making random noises that sound like “bike bike bike”…I dunno.

Tokio bids farewell, and Genshi says he really liked the treats with the sweet red beans in them. In the dub, Tony says they make that noise when they want to say “Thanks” and Flint says he really liked the raw fish eggs.

The dub continues to piss me off. In the original, there’s no narration over the memory erasure scene. In the dub, Old Timer says there’s no benefit to Ichiban remembering this, and the electricity stuff should be left to Benjamin Franklin, Count Volta, whom I seriously doubt most kids learned about in school, and “The others.” But the elekiter exists. He’s already a note in the history of electric power. Why are you acting as if it would be a bad thing for him to continue working with electricity?

After Ichiban wonders what he’s doing they again reverse and repeat the shot to return his face back to a drowsy expression for some reason.

Genshi just says Gennai was an interesting person. Flint says he needed a bottle of ketchup.

Tokio says there are a lot of strange characters among scientists, then he asks Wing if he’s right, seemingly nudging at the Wright brothers? How were they weird? In the dub, Tony asks why Goodman would need or want to come along and meet other people like Ichiban when he has the Time Shifters as company. Yes, why would you want to meet an incredibly interesting historical figure when you can just sit around with a bunch of Time Shifters who generally don’t have much in the way of meaningful conversation and just want to play most of the time?

They remove the last two shots of Elekin electrocuting everyone.

——————————————–

This episode is just terrible. They portrayed Gennai as an egotistical idiot. Elekin is a lazily designed Space-Time Monster whose sole power is to electrocute things – and it can only generate electricity in its base form if someone cranks it. Like I said, I really thought that it had the power to turn things into robots or giant mechs, but nope. It just generates electricity.

Its role in the story made no sense. I don’t understand how Elekin’s presence prompted Gennai to make a mech nor how such a thing was even made possible. I also don’t understand what gave him the idea or WHY he’d do such a thing. They never explain any of this. Getting access to more electricity is not a logical explanation for any of this by a long shot. By the way, did they somehow dispose of the mech when they left? Because I’m pretty sure that would raise all sorts of questions if it was left in the past.

The elekiter was basically just glossed over and used as a defibrillator to revive Elekin, who simply fell down. It wasn’t like he died.

Kyoichiro’s role in this episode was mostly pointless, as I discussed, and Ammon was mostly just an annoyance again.

TP Lady’s plan was underwhelming. When I thought Elekin had something to do with creating robots, I thought they might apply Elekin to their spaceship mech and make it a much more powerful robot, but nope. Just a wooden mech powered by a crank and operated by ropes. The fact that Genshi was actually nearly losing against this thing was pathetic. He’s taken on so many bigger and more powerful things. This should have been toothpicks in seconds. Warukin was a much bigger threat, but even that was pathetically felled by literally falling…..

They honestly couldn’t get me invested at all in a giant robot battle. Do you understand how easy it is for robots to amuse me? I adore robots. Tiny ones? Adorable. Human-sized ones? Cool. Giant ones? Awesome! Robot battles? Awesome-er! Giant robot battles!? You have my heart! You have to fail pretty hard at robots for me to not be interested in a giant robot battle.

About the only good thing about this episode was seeing Super Redman again. And they didn’t even beat Warukin. TP Lady defeated them all herself by wrapping her whip on a missile and accidentally exploding it, knocking down the mech, knocking down Warukin and sending them blasting off.

The dub was one the worst I’ve ever seen in this series. Not only did they change the historical figure to a nonexistent person for some reason beyond my scope of understanding (if it really is the Digimon thing, that couldn’t be dumber.) which means it’s drained of any educational value, but they also made him an even bigger idiot than he was before and even implied that he was so stupid that he shouldn’t be working with electricity anymore and should just leave that stuff up to other scientists. They even got the time period wrong.

They added in that bunk about him wanting to make the robot for the better of humanity without even explaining why it would help or what it even does besides be a giant robot. They also cut out pretty much any even slight moment between “Ichiban” and Elekin.

Not to mention that ridiculously stupid line about Petra wanting the secret to electric power.

They repeated and reversed more shots in this episode than any other, I believe, and I can’t find any reason for it.

Even the ending was made very abrupt and almost dark because it cuts immediately as they’re being electrocuted without the zoom out to make it even slightly humorous.

What a wasted opportunity of an episode.

Maybe we’ll have more fun next time. Let’s see what we got.

Next time, we meet the Space-Time Monster Musclun in ancient Greece. Musclun has the power to give people huge muscles…Hm….Takes place at the Olympics. Pretty interesting. Let’s check the Fandom page. *click* Mmmhm….Mmmhm……Mmmmmmm……Oh…goodie, we have to talk about blackface AND grossly inappropriate depictions of young girls….Fun…fun….

…..Previous Episode

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 19 (18 for the Dub) Sub/Dub Comparison | Evil Spirit Moaiwa

Plot: Genshi, Sora and Tokio head to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, in the 16^th century to retrieve the Space-Time Monster, Moaiwa.

——————————–

Title Change: Evil Spirit Moaiwa was changed to Moah.

Name Change: Moaiwa was changed to Moah.

They add an establishing shot of the research facility before showing Flint.

Genshi doesn’t count while Flint does. This change is fine if not welcome because you’re supposed to count to ten when you play Hide and Seek.

The original just says Moaiwa is in the ancient south Pacific whereas the dub says Moah is in 16^th century (when they leave, they say specifically 1560) Easter Island……Does 16^th century count as “ancient”? I don’t feel like it does. Additionally, during the extra bits always added before they head off on the Time Cycle in the dub, Dr. Goodman tells them specifically to go to Anakena Beach, which is where many moai reside. In the original, specifics on location are not given. Finally, Ptery says that the island is called Rapa Nui by the people who reside there (Polynesians). This information is also not given in the original.

While it is really cool that the dub has all this extra educational information, they kinda tarnish it by having Goodman ask them to bring him back “an egg or something.” He often asks for souvenirs, but how random to ask for “an egg or something” from Easter Island…

Pre-Posting Edit: I finally understand what the heck he was talking about there. Easter Island…he wants an egg…….Like an Easter egg……Ugh. Easter Island isn’t even meant to be called that until 1722 when Dutch navigator, Jacob Roggeveen would rename the island to that since he visited the island on Easter Sunday.

The overhead shot of the island was originally immediately after the group emerged from the time stream. In the dub, it’s after Sarah comments on how small the island is.

I can’t believe I have to note this, but, originally, Genshi’s fart (that was so powerful it shot him off his feet) is what caused the awful smell. In the dub, I guess it was Flint’s small burp.

Also, Sora originally asks what the noise was, in response to Genshi’s fart. In the dub, she says the ocean breeze smells nice until she smells Flint’s burp.

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Originally, the shot of Genshi flying off was reserved for after was see Moaiwa full out. Then we got rewind effects on screen, Genshi’s fall being rewound, the shot goes close up to Genshi, watching as he eats his potatoes before falling back down. In the dub, Saban edits it so that Flint flies off when Moah emerges from the ground, then after he is shown full out, they reverse the footage instead of showing the rewind and closeup so it looks like a more natural fall. I actually like this change because the original had me thinking Moaiwa could rewind time for some reason for a second. Doing that effect, rewinding and showing that Genshi ate his potatoes before coming back down just seems like a needless waste of time. Just a few seconds, but still.

Why did they give that obviously very young kid such an old voice in the dub? He sounds like he’s going through puberty when the kid looks no older than five.

Genshi’s more upset that TP Lady ruined their potatoes than he is about threatening to take Moaiwa like Flint is.

They cut out TP Lady jumping off of Moaiwa and onto the Masked Man, probably because they end up laying down on top of each other.

They reversed and repeated the shot of the Masked Man putting his arm around TP Lady to lengthen the scene.

The kids originally say, “Divine Guardian!” “Lord Moaiwa!” In the dub, they say, “Moah fell over!” “He tripped on that stick!” He didn’t trip on Merlock’s cane, by the way. Merlock stuck the cane in the ground and it spooked Moah so much that he fell over.

TP Lady says her heart belongs to the Masked Man. In the dub, she tells Dino and Mite that Merlock knows how to really talk to a girl.

Sora questions what he means by saying she shouldn’t do anything dangerous. In the dub, she questions him calling her a lovely young lady.

Ammon tells Sora and Kyoichiro to get away from each other. In the dub, Bindi asserts that Merlock was talking about her when he said “lovely young lady.”

When TP Lady butts in, she says she agrees with Ammon and says they should be apart because no one deserves to be happy until she finds happiness with the Masked Man. In the dub, she just tells them to be romantic on their own time. This is, admittedly, nitpicky.

Name Plate removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Waruiwa is changed to Moah-con.

It’s so weird how they’re only now purely relying on Love-Love to calm the Space-Time Monster down. I’ve mentioned previously that it’s weird they don’t utilize Love-Love’s power more, and now they’re suddenly doing it out of nowhere.

Kyoichiro originally says how lucky Love-Love is to have Sora say such kind things to it. In the dub, Merlock tells Sora he’ll protect her even if Waruiwa gets everyone else. Admittedly, he does follow it up by saying “Not a good approach…” but yeah….Kyoichiro’s just distracted while Merlock said a pretty insensitive thing.

Ammon just yells Kyoichiro’s name after Sora yells at him. In the dub, she says “Who’s lovely now?”

Ototan says “No more erupting” after he plugs up Waruiwa. In the dub, he says he doesn’t think it worked and he thinks they have a problem.

They repeat Genshi and Waruiwa rushing towards each other a couple times.

TP Lady mostly blames their luck or the universe or what have you for their repeated misfortune while Dyna and Mite agree. In the dub, she blames Dino and Mite.

Dyna and Mite originally say they were right, he really was a soldier of the earth. In the dub, Dino asks if workman’s comp will cover their injuries from the volcano.

The kids originally say they have to protect the field. In the dub, they say they won’t abandon Moah because of everything he’s done for them. Admittedly, I kinda like the dub better. I get that they do have to protect this field because it’s their main or possibly only source of food, but it’s a little more touching that they don’t want to abandon Moah even though he’s the one causing the problem.

Ammon complains that Kyoichiro shouldn’t only be nice to Sora (he only drags her away from the volcano erupting – not Ammon or the children who are one foot away.) In the dub, Bindi yells that he shouldn’t run off on his own because it’s dangerous. The original, while mostly being meant as more whining from Ammon because Kyoichiro’s favoring Sora over her again, is better in this situation because, uh, yeah Kyoichiro. It’s pretty messed up to only run off with Sora when you have a trusted friend, several other friends and children sitting there about to get melted by lava.

When Ammon catches up to them, she berates Kyoichiro for not protecting her too. In the dub, she tells Merlock that Sarah’s just a big headache, which acts as a pun because immediately following this Merlock runs into a tree.

When Kyoichiro protects Sora from Super Mosbee, Ammon just yells his name over and over. In the dub, she tells Merlock that this is proof Sarah is nothing but trouble.

The dub omits mentioning that the tidal wave was caused by the earthquake.

They splice in a reaction shot of Tony before Petra and the others fly off.

When Dyna flies off, he says “Moaiwa, we don’t care any moai-re!” In the dub, they just scream, which is fine because that joke was awful, even though, oddly, it would work better with Moah than Moaiwa.

The reaction shot is taken from a scene immediately following that where Tokio tells Mosbee to freeze the tidal wave. When he looks back, he’s astounded to see Mosbee has de-transformed back to his normal state out of exhaustion. In the dub, everything but the reaction is removed.

Name Change: Super Moaiwa is changed to Moah Master.

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

In the original, it’s implied that Moaiwa created the moai statues. In the dub, Moah specifically summons these statues, calling them the guardians of Rapa Nui, as if they were underground the whole time, and Tony asks who made them and why. I greatly appreciate this change because this is another instance of the series making off like they created history. It completely erases the mystique and wonder of the statues and replaces it with “Oh a magical rock monster made them.”

While we don’t know exactly why the statues were carved, the strongest theory is that they were representations of the ancestors of the villagers, facing towards the village to watch over them (though a select group of seven were pointed towards the ocean presumably to guide travelers to the island.) They were considered sacred symbols of power and believed to encapsulate a person’s spiritual essence.

Interestingly, the statues were carved from tuff, which is solidified volcanic ash, giving Waruiwa’s power a bit more validity.

I want you to take note of the fact that they specifically don’t face the ocean….

The scene I’m discussing right now has Super Moaiwa summon dozens of moai to act as wall to protect the island from the tidal wave….and all of the statues are facing the ocean.

Additionally, while we also don’t know for certain how the statues were toppled (many have been set standing once more) accounts range from earthquakes to tribal clan conflicts to Christian settlers knocking them down as a means of erasing the religious icons from the area while they were trying to convert the islanders to Christianity. There’s no indication they were knocked over from a tidal wave.

Kyoichiro officially recognizes Genshi as his rival. In the dub, he praises him and says he’s a hero.

In the original, Ammon says she wants him to recognize her as his girlfriend. In the dub, Bindi says Merlock is her hero. In both versions, she still kisses him on the lips. Her crush on him is really getting unsettling.

Back in the lab, they double down on the change to history. Tokio says the islanders wound up believing the moai statues were the children of their divine guardian and that they inadvertently discovered the secret of the statues. Professor Yamato states that the islanders adopted the statues as guardians against tidal waves, which is also probably wrong. In the dub, they say they believe Moah really was the guardian of Rapa Nui, but they still don’t know where the statues came from or who made them and why. Dr. Goodman explains that scientists believe the people who used to live there made them, but there’s no way to know because the inhabitants of the island disappeared many years ago. Again, props to Saban for this change. Even though it’s not detailed (I don’t know exactly how much they knew about the moai in 2000, so I’m giving them a break here.) it is far more accurate and reasonable than the original’s explanation.

In the original, Yamato suggests playing jump rope. In the dub, Goodman just tells them to play outside and Moah says “I like to jump.” which sounds random.

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Overall, this episode was one of the most enjoyable based purely on how much action and tension there was. Not only is Moaiwa a unique Space-Time Monster in that it’s so large in its base form and massive in its bad and super forms, but the fact that Waruiwa is such a powerful and huge creature that can cause volcanic eruptions just by slamming into the ground over and over is really cool. A volcanic eruption is certainly one of the most dangerous things to happen on the show to date, if not the most dangerous. Him being able to regenerate and break apart and control his broken body parts was also awesome.

It was also nice to see Super Mosbee again, and it was awesome to see him do something as incredible as freeze an actively erupting volcano. Having both of Moaiwa’s transformations in today’s episode was pretty cool, although I think this would have been a good time to have Love-Love transform….

While it was kinda out-of-the-blue, I also liked how sweet Genshi and Ototan were being to each other this episode. They’re always kind to each other, but they were constantly having cute moments today for some reason.

Additionally, Saban did quite a good job with this episode barring some vocal oddities and a few weird lines.

There were some negative points, though. We never really learn what base level Moaiwa’s power actually is besides jump/till fields with its jumping. I also don’t understand how Moaiwa’s jumping tills fields considering jumping on soil is kinda the opposite of tilling. I don’t know why Moaiwa has such a thing about jumping either. It’s based on a statue, which can’t jump….Also, while its bad transformation does have the awesome power of being able to crumble apart and put itself back together, it can’t really use its volcanic eruption power unless it’s right by a volcano, but that’s very minor, especially since we’ll probably never see Waruiwa again.

Super Moaiwa was pretty cool, even though the design is kinda……weird. Why doesn’t it have a mouth, exactly? Its power is also weird. It just….makes moai statues? How are those helpful? I had to stretch my suspension of disbelief pretty far just to believe they’d stop a tidal wave. I can’t see how they’d be helpful anywhere else.

The villagers were also an odd situation. Why were they all children? Where were the adults? Are they entirely reliant on sweet potatoes for food? They just seem so fiercely protective of their field that I have to imagine it’s a significant part of their food resources at least, even though seafood is right there. Why don’t they find it more of an issue that Genshi ate their massive pile of potatoes? According to a quick Google search, it takes about three months for sweet potatoes to be fully grown. It’s definitely not a quick fix. Also, while this information was discovered long after this episode aired, Polynesians on Rapa Nui did indeed eat sweet potatoes. I feel I should still ding them a bit there because there’s no way they could have known that was accurate back then, but it doesn’t matter.

Then, of course, there’s the issue with changing history. I can forgive Saban entirely for not being too detailed with their explanation about how the moai were created or what their purposes were. Even now while we have more information and can make numerous deductions, we can’t really say entirely for certain, but the original was just stupid. I don’t like when this show rewrites history like that, and in such a lazy manner. It was literally just that this Space-Time Monster randomly had the power to create the moai…..and it did. They didn’t even get that much right because they made a big to-do out of showing them in the entirely wrong orientation. However, Moaiwa was BASED on the moai, wasn’t it?….So….???

Finally, Kyoichiro was just awful in this episode. He’s a Space-Time Detective too, but he didn’t seem to care much at all about anyone but Sora. He does this a lot, but children were about to get melted to death in lava and he didn’t give a crap.

Next time, we meet Space-Time Monster Elekin in Edo era Japan alongside Hiraga Gennai. The plot already sounds confusing, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose.

…..Previous Episode

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 18 (17 for the Dub) Sub/Dub Comparison | The Super Beauty, Ammon

Plot: After getting angry with Kyoichiro for ignoring her, Ammon is captured by TP Lady. She takes Ammon to China in the 3^rd century BC to bring the infamous terracotta army to life in order to serve her and help her take over the world.

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Title Change: The Super Beauty, Ammon is changed to Bindi Master.

Entire Series Edit: I think I’ve seen this enough to call this right now – the opening establishing shot is either always replaced or has an additional establishing shot of the city added in the dub.

Ammon’s name plate is removed again.

Ammon refers to herself as Acchan. Since we don’t really have an English equivalent, she just refers to herself normally.

Once again, daytime establishing shot of the bureau exchanged for an evening one.

The dub has a pretty massive screw up right here. Rei explains that TP Lady is in China during the Qin dynasty, which existed between the years 221 BC and 206 BC. Jillian claims that Petra Fina is in China…..in the 30^th century BC. That’s QUITE the difference there, Saban.

The specific city they’re visiting, Chengdu, existed as far back as 3000 years ago or the 10^th century BC, but the site on which it’s built, the remains of the ancient city of the Baodun culture, date as far back as 4500 years ago or the 25^th century BC. Technically, the official city didn’t exist until the 3^rd century BC, which is when the Qin took it over.

Entire Series Edit: I think I can also say for certain that every time the kids go off on Ridon, Saban changes the clips to include Goodman yelling to them about something – usually about bringing him back a souvenir. This time, he tells them to bring him egg foo young.

Well, here’s a smaller screw up. When they leave, Pterry says they’re heading to the 13^th century, which is closer, but still not right because, as we’ll soon see, the first thing they encounter is the Terracotta Army, referred to in the dub as just clay statues/a ghost army, which dates back as far as the 3^rd century BC. The Terracotta Army was a form of funerary art, symbolically sending soldiers to protect the first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huangdi, in the afterlife.

Putera says it’s odd because this period should have been right when the army was being made, but no one’s around. In the dub, Pterry doesn’t point this out.

Also, Qin Shi Huangdi’s Terracotta Army is incredibly fascinating. It’s always been one of my favorite pieces of history. Unlike what a lot of people think, they’re not carbon copies of each other. The statues were individual pieces produced from molds and stuck together. While the bases of many of the pieces are identical, they were shaped and decorated to make unique features. Each statue is so uniquely designed that it’s theorized that each soldier had a living counterpart used as a model, though that theory isn’t strongly accepted since doing that would be a huge hindrance on the production. Instead, it’s more accepted that the varying appearances were trying to encapsulate the many different types of people from the various regions in China which had been united while under Qin Shi Huangdi’s rule.

They have different hair styles, caps, builds, expressions, poses, beards, etc. In addition, when they were originally created they actually had a lot of beautiful and bright colors on them to differentiate themselves even further. The color faded over the years, however.

Here’s a picture of what a painted Terracotta soldier might have looked like.

(Image was posted to SmartHistory.org, but photo credit is listed as Charlie, CC BY-SA 4.0)

They’re not all soldiers, either. There are chariots, horses, archers, generals, waterfowl, musicians, political officials, dancers, acrobats and more. He basically had a complete society created for his tomb out of clay and bronze.

It took over 40 years for the army to be completed, and, from all we can gather through GPR, all of the pits and the tomb combined cover approximately 38 square miles. We’ve been excavating the pits of the tomb since 1974 and we’re still working to excavate it all. As for the tomb itself, that will likely stay hidden forever. The tomb is buried underneath a forested funerary mound. No one currently has the technology to safely excavate the rest of it without running the risk of damaging or destroying everything else down there. There’s also the very real risk of many unknown and known booby traps, and the high levels of mercury in the area. In addition, the citizens of China simply don’t want to disturb the resting place out of respect for the emperor.

There hasn’t been a lack of trying, though. Plans for excavation have been proposed numerous times since the discovery of the tomb. In addition to curiosity, proponents of excavation claim they want to open the mausoleum and start removing artifacts to actually help preserve them since the site rests on a seismic zone and grave robbers might get to the artifacts before they do, but the proposals are always shot down for the reasons stated before. Even the opening and excavation of the nearby tomb of the emperor’s grandson was rejected because they were concerned that tomb was so close to the emperor’s that opening it might cause damage to the main mausoleum. At best, we can hope we get imaging technology that gives us a peek into the tomb, but in the realm of actually opening the mausoleum and taking a stroll through there, I highly doubt we’ll ever be able to do that any time in the near future.

I’m getting really off-topic, but there’s no historical figure present this episode, so I thought I’d at least discuss the Terracotta Army because I think it’s really cool. Check out the links I provided to learn more. It’s very interesting, and I only covered a small portion of the topic here.

If I had more notes on this, it’d be that, obviously, in the show, the soldiers are all depicted as being exactly the same (quite simply designed as well) and, despite just being made, there is absolutely no color on them. I’m feeling pretty lenient here, though, because I don’t expect a low-budget kid’s anime from the 90s to animate an army where everyone has a unique design while also being statue-esque.

Dyna says “It went well, didn’t it?” And Mite responds “You said it!” In the dub, Dino asks how much longer they have to wave the fans, and Mite adds that his arms are tired.

Ah, so that’s why Ammon was with Vlad the Impaler. Because her powers are like a vampire that sucks the life from living things. Only she also has the ability to transfer the life energy to non-living beings to bring them to life as well. Cool.

They add the sound effect of bowling pins falling down when the soldiers get revived.

While both lines basically mean the same thing, Merlock says “I’m here to claim Bindi, Petra!” whereas Kyoichiro just demands Ammon be returned to him. The reason the dub line bothers me is because it treats Bindi like property instead of a friend.

Name Plate Removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Ankoku is changed to Bindi-kon.

Flint: “Wowwee!” Wowwee, that sure is dated.

So they suggest that Genshi just turn Ankoku into a monster egg………doesn’t that imply that they can just shoot the fossilization beam from the start instead of going through a lengthy battle every time?

Toki-G: “If a Space-Time Monster is dominated by a dark heart, they can’t be turned into a monster egg.” Well…..That’s dumb. I mean, I guess I already explained why having that function would be dumb anyway, but the explanation as to why that can’t work is just silly. I thought the explanation would be that they have to be in their tiny forms in order to be fossilized because Ototan doesn’t have the power to fossilize something that big.

They insert an extremely brief flash of white when Merlock hits the rocks. Because that’ll sure trick kids into thinking he…didn’t…hit the rock?

Okay, the white flash thing is something I think happens a lot more than I’ve noticed because I keep seeing it now during this battle, but it’s so quick that I needed to notice it the first time to tell myself to check the rest of the time. It’s definitely not the first time I’ve seen this flash, but it was so quick that it’s literally blink-and-you-miss-it. This is such pointless censorship, if you can even call it that. It’s not like it cuts anything but a frame out, and I guarantee those frames didn’t show anything more violent than what was shown otherwise.

Sora: “The Terracotta soldiers….”

Tokio: “Combined!”

In the dub, Sarah points out that the combined statue is huge. Tony says “At least it’s not moving.” and because the opposite has to happen in order for that to be funny, the opposite happens, and we’re immediately shown the giant Terracotta soldier moving.

Originally, Mite grabs hold of Ankoku’s tentacle as its sucking the life from Dyna to try to yank it off of him while he yells “Hey, you have the wrong guy!” In the dub, for some reason, they changed it to having Mite hug the tentacle and yell “Oh thank you for not hitting me! Thank you!” Dude, your best friend is DYING.

Name Plate removed.

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Super Ammon is changed to Bindi Master

Oh my god, Saban was being so lazy with Petra and Dino’s next lines. In the original, Dyna says “Ammon transformed and became….” while TP Lady finishes with “Super Ammon!” In the dub, they let Dino have all these lip flaps go silent and only let one word out, “Wow” while they load up all of Petra’s lip flaps with “Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow.” No idea what they were going for here, if anything, but that was awful. Please don’t do that again.

Oddly, though, Mite’s “You said it.” line is kept exactly the same in the dub. *shrugs*

Why exactly doesn’t Ammon remember anything of what happened? No other Space-Time Monster has suffered amnesia after being stamped/bad transformed. And even if she did, wouldn’t she still have her memories from when she was Super Ammon? The stamp was gone by then. This makes no sense. She just lost her memories immediately after transforming back into her normal form.

Also, doesn’t that kinda mean this entire episode was more or less pointless? Outside of Kyoichiro gaining a better appreciation for Ammon, I guess, the episode was also supposed to be character development for Ammon in helping her understand that Kyoichiro does care deeply for her, despite ignoring her earlier. Also, it may have helped her realize she was being a bit of a brat for running away just because Kyoichiro had to work and couldn’t pay attention to her. Wiping her memories just wipes any growth that she may have experienced during this episode.

In the original, Ammon says she’ll fight whomever hurt Kyoichiro, not realizing it was her. In the dub, Bindi’s basically worse than she was before because she says he better not be thinking about canceling dinner on her again or he’ll be sorry. He’s clearly hurt and very weak from an event you don’t even remember, but yes, bitch about your dinner plans….

They intercut shots of Tokio talking so they can skip over Kyoichiro’s explanation of his genetic trait. There’s no point in this. All this edit does is allow Tony to whine more about how he has no chance of being a Time Detective since Merlock’s a vampire (originally, he also included Genshi in his complaints, asking if normal people have a chance at being Time Detectives if the only two he’s seen so far are a caveman and a vampire). Originally, Kyoichiro assuaged Sora’s concerns by saying he doesn’t drink blood or do anything evil like a vampire. He’s just “slightly more immortal than the average person.” whatever that means.

Ammon’s lack of development here is highlighted when she slaps away Sora’s hand when Kyoichiro starts sweet talking her and holding her hand. *sigh*

In an odd edit, Old Timer kinda highlights that they edited out additional information on Kyoichiro. Originally, Toki-G said he’s happy all of them are getting along, and he’ll be counting on Kyoichiro and Genshi a lot from now on. In the dub, Old Timer says they’re taking the vampire news better than he thought, and there will be more time to actually discuss that later. I still don’t get why they didn’t discuss that now….I am wracking my brain trying to figure out why they cut that.

They add a white flash to Genshi getting hit in the head by Ototan, but this time they also noticeably remove Genshi’s reaction face.

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All in all, this episode is…..pbbbttt pointless. And cliché. How many times have you seen the plot where some immature character is being ignored by someone so they run away, get into trouble, and the person who ignored them comes to their rescue and everything’s made okay because of that? It’s a pretty tired old plot. And, again, cliche’s aren’t inherently bad, but they don’t do anything with this one to make it interesting or unique. In fact, they pretty much make it worse by having Ammon forget literally everything that happened so her bratty entitled behavior doesn’t stop or at least lighten up. Like I said, if anything, she got worse.

I never thought Kyoichiro was really neglectful of Ammon, so anything he learned seems superfluous. Their little moment together was sweet enough, I guess, but it wasn’t all that impacting. It was very much going through the motions of both this very plot and the typical plot the show always has of the Space-Time Monster being brought back to their senses by flashing back to good times with their friend. At least we finally know, for the most part, what Kyoichiro is….unless you watch the dub, where they withhold some information for no reason.

I won’t complain about the lack of a new Space-Time Monster this week because we never really explored Ammon’s powers during her debut, and, being honest, they’re really cool. Her bad transformation is alright, and her super transformation is……pretty…..but also really confusing.

How did we go from a snail who can transform into a giant hermit crab to a….very human fairy being? Also, what do snails and hermit crabs have to do with healing or sucking away life energy? What’s funny about Ammon is that it seems like her most powerful or useful version is her base version because Ankoku seems to focus more on sucking life from things and Super Ammon seems to focus more on healing/restoring energy while normal Ammon can do both seemingly just as powerfully as her other forms.

I also won’t complain about the lack of a historical figure this week because I got to research and discuss the super cool Terracotta Army…..What I will complain about, however, is that they destroyed many of the Terracotta soldiers. Dozens were smashed into a pile of rubble and no one cared. I understand that the Terracotta Army we know now also has a bunch of soldiers that were destroyed either due to age or damage from excavation, but still. I really don’t like when kids’ shows think it’s fine to act like they’re even slightly educational and then spit in the face of what they’re educating the kids about.

Also, despite this being the time period when the Terracotta Army was being built, there’s literally no one around. Not the emperor, not the workers, no one. It’s a completely abandoned area. It’s just weird.

The dub really didn’t have many edits this time around, except for the loads and loads of white flash ‘censors’ and some….very confusing edits like the lip flap thing with TP Lady and removing Kyoichiro explaining his clan’s nature. Because apparently Saban can never leave well enough alone.

Next time, we’re introduced to the Easter Island head themed Space-Time Monster, Moaiwa!

….Previous Episode

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Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 17 (16 for the Dub) Sub/Dub Comparison | Fly! Fly! Wing!

Plot: In America 1881, the young Wright Brothers meet the flying Space-Time Monster, Wing, who can give anyone and anything the ability to fly. Orville in particular grows attached to Wing after getting fed up with the way Wilbur treats him. Tokio, also feeling annoyed by how Sora treats him, sides with Orville and Wing, flying off with them in protest of their older siblings.

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Starting today, we have new title card art in the original. Instead of showing Genshi, we now show a bunch of Space-Time Monsters.

Title Change: Fly! Fly! Wing! is simply changed to Wing.

They add an establishing shot of the town before the establishing shot of the lab.

The original just says that Sora is older than Tokio. The dub specifies that Sarah is 327 seconds older than Tony.

Sora points out that Tokio blundered in his homework because she’s told him before to do the equations in the parentheses first but he didn’t do that. In the dub, Sarah says “When will you learn to multiply before you divide?” Uhh….

When we see him typing, he’s writing the numbers on the bottom fraction, which I think means he’s showing his work, but it doesn’t make any sense that this is the way the way the homework…works. And this is coming from someone severely math dumb.

Either way, he hasn’t multiplied or divided yet. He’s just writing out the way he thinks the fraction should be simplified, which isn’t correct, but still. If your criticisms of his work are also incorrect, you’re not helping anyone.

I’m going to see if I can do this equation just to make sure I’m not too math dumb.

The simplified version should be 6+1 ½, which would be 7 ½…..right? Did I do it? Are ya proud of me?

Genshi asks Ototan if it’s really that bad having siblings. Oto-tan says it’s just because they’re so close. In the dub, Flint asks Rocky why he doesn’t have a sister. Rocky says it’s because cave sisters eat their brothers for breakfast….Uh….huh?

Tokio just wishes he were the older brother, presumably so he’d be the one with the edge instead of Sora. In the dub, he says his homework would be a cinch if he were the older one…….How?

They insert a shot of the Masked Man after the closeup shot of Wing in the montage.

I’m shocked beyond belief that they got this next info correct. The Wright Brothers moved around a lot when they were kids, so the fact that anime writers knew to look up exactly where they were in 1881 (Richmond, Indiana) is commendable.

Also, Masked Man just says he and TP Lady can have a sky date if they capture Wing. In the dub, he says they could fly up and have a date on the moon. Yeah…..pretty sure just growing wings wouldn’t allow you to fly up to or survive in space, but you do you.

Orville says to Wing after Wilbur tells him to come down “Listen to him, Wing!” In the dub, he clunkily explains who Wilbur is to Wing and subsequently the audience.

Name Plate Removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Orville yells down to Wilbur that Wing will get lonely if he comes down, so he’s staying in the air. In the dub, Wing, who can talk because it’s the dub, asks Orville what Wilbur’s problem is. Orville says Wilbur is jealous because he wants to fly more than anything, and he’s flying around in the air but Wilbur can’t.

Wilbur originally tells them to quit messing around and come down otherwise he’ll get angry. Orville refuses, mocks him and flies off with Wing. In the dub, Wilbur says, “Those wings aren’t flight-worthy!”…..Uh….they’re flying…..so…..yes they are. Also, he’s flying without flapping his wings most of the time and is able to hover perfectly still in the air without flapping as well, so they seem more than flight-worthy to me….they seem like budgetary restraints on animation.

While it took them until adulthood to develop a serious interest in aeronautics, the Wright brothers did have a love of aeronautics at a young age. When they were children, Orville seven years old and Wilbur eleven, their father bought them a model helicopter made of bamboo, paper and cork that they loved playing with until it broke. While they couldn’t really do much with their interest until later on, they did claim this toy was what first inspired them to get into aviation.

They buckled down and took a serious interest in flight engineering in 1896, when Orville was 25 and Wilbur was 29. This was when there was a huge boom in people experimenting in aeronautics. The death of Otto Lilienthal, a German aviation engineer, was cited by the Wright brothers as being the biggest turning point in their interest in aviation. Lilienthal had been testing a glider, but it crashed, causing him to break his neck. He tragically died the next day.

Orville: “They’re more flight-worthy than anything we’ve made so far! Just watch, brother!”

They haven’t made or attempted to make any actual flying machines at this point in their lives, but they did make a toy helicopter similar to the one they had that broke. It didn’t fly, of course, but it’s still cool that they made one.

The art and animation in this episode is noticeably worse than normal. Every shot just looks really bad. Did they cut their already paltry budget?

They extend Petra’s dialogue by reversing the shot of her pointing her finger at Orville and Wing.

In the original, Sora says Tokio better not be too reckless. In the dub, she says “This oughta be good for a laugh.”

*snort* That dumb vacant expression Wilbur has as the camera just holds on him being still for several seconds is gold. I really must reiterate – this episode looks AWFUL.

Tokio says Orville and Wing have been playing too many pranks, and it was mean to do all that stuff to the town. In the dub, he yells “I don’t know who you are, but Wing’s coming back with me!” Yeah, the best way you can convince the Time Shifter that you’re on their side is by demanding that they have no other choice but to go with you….

Orville originally asserts that he wasn’t playing pranks with Wing, he was performing research. In the dub, he oddly responds to Tony’s demands by saying “Take your hands off of me! I’m an inventor!”

That’d be like me saying “Take your hands off of me! I’m a blogger!” Like, who cares? Why is that a reason to let you go?

They repeat shots of Orville and Tokio talking to extend the scene.

Orville: “That’s right, a famous inventor!” No, you’re not. At least not right now.

In both versions of the flashback, Wing flies by saying “Wing!” but it’s already been established in the dub that he can speak English, so it just sounds like he’s saying his name for no reason.

In regards to Orville and Wilbur having any sort of sibling rivalry……….that’s a bit hard to say. They did have arguments, they didn’t agree on everything, but they seemed to get along much better than most siblings. They grew up together, shared everything, talked a lot, worked together, brainstormed together, played together, shared their toys, worked most of the same jobs in the same businesses, and they never really had much in the ways of issues.

I’m not saying this plotline of them having a sibling rivalry is unlikely, every pair of siblings has their moments of clashing no matter how close they are, but, from all I’ve read, I can’t imagine Wilbur would treat Orville like he was stupid and had no idea what he was doing.

Original!Orville: “Just because my brother’s grades are a little better in school, he always acts like I’m stupid!” This is actually true, barring the end part.

While there’s nothing to imply Orville ever did badly in school, he was quite bright and curious after all, he never seemed interested in pursuing higher education. He dropped out of high school and never had plans to go to college.

Wilbur excelled in school and he had high aspirations for his scholastic future, not only planning on finishing high school and going on to college, but choosing Yale as his college of choice. It was only after he badly injured his face in a hockey game as a teen that he abandoned those plans. He had lost his front teeth and suffered other injuries that left him in a lasting and deep depression. He, like his brother would, dropped out of high school and abandoned his plans for college, choosing to stay home, read and care for his ailing mother.

Again, though, I doubt Wilbur ever treated Orville like he was stupid because of whatever difference in their grades may have been.

The art is killing me. Tokio is just staring over Orville’s head as he talks to him.

By the way, I’m not going to discuss all of the controversy in regards to whether the Wright Brothers were really the first to invent the airplane. By all intents and purposes, and simplified as much as possible, they did. We can “Well, technically” and “But what about” until the cows come home, but in the end I feel confident in saying that they were the first. As much as I love doing research on random topics for these reviews, I really don’t feel like combing through hundreds of pages of articles debating this topic, especially since most of the articles I did read still ended up with conclusions stating the same thing, which is “We may never know for absolute certain who invented the airplane first, but the general consensus and evidence we have still support the Wright Brothers.” If you, personally, have a different view, that’s fine, I won’t fight you on it, this isn’t a hill I want to die on, just know that, in regards to criticizing and legitimizing the history covered in this episode, we are going to take them inventing the airplane as gospel.

Speaking of being technically correct, they ignore the fact that Wilbur and Orville were actually two of seven children. Orville and Wilbur had two older brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin, and one younger sister, Katharine. They also had twin siblings, Otis and Ida, but, sadly, they died when they were infants. They didn’t need to bring them up, and there was really no organic way to do it anyway, I just wanted explain that they’re not the only Wright siblings. I’m particularly disappointed that we won’t be able to discuss Katharine because she was a huge supporter of her brothers throughout their engineering of the airplane and helped them with building and testing. She wasn’t officially an engineer, but she was definitely mechanically inclined, and she was a key player in the woman’s suffrage movement in Ohio. She’s a very interesting person, but I understand why she’s not here. Not only are there the time constraints and difficulty in fitting her into the story to consider, but Katharine would only be about seven at this point, so she’s not really doing much besides being a typical little girl.

Orville originally says Tokio and him are brothers now. Tokio’s the older brother, Orville’s the middle and Wing is the little brother. In the dub, it’s the same, but instead of calling them brothers he calls them all expert flyers.

I love how Orville and Tokio’s big plan to get back at their older siblings and teach them to respect their little brothers was to mock them and then leave. That’s literally it. The entire plan. They went back to ‘protest’ their older siblings, bii-daa’d them, left, dicked around for few hours and then said ‘Well, I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson now.’

Tony: “Boy, I’m afraid our plans have started to backfire.” Boy, I’m afraid your dialogue has started to seem really awkward.

I love how the dub is also including propeller sounds when Tony, Orville and Wing are flying by when they’re clearly flying with regular wings and should be accompanied by wing flap sounds.

They change the animation of TP Lady whipping Wing to one that lasts a little longer and involves her waving it around a little more…..*shrug*

Name Plate Removed:

Subbed:

Dubbed:

Name Change: Waruwing is changed to Wing-kon.

Orville originally just exclaimed that Wing transformed. In the dub…

Orville: “This will have Wilbur shakin’ in his boots!” Orville, read the room.

Being fair, though, it doesn’t take long for original Orville to join him in being a little sociopath.

Waruwing attacks Ridon, sending Genshi, Sora and Wilbur hurdling through the air, and Orville responds by smiling and happily yelling that that will teach Wilbur a lesson.

Hey, guys, you want to hear a not-so-fun fact? Orville was the pilot on the first ever fatal airplane crash. On September 17, 1908, he took part in a flying demonstration on the Wright Military Flyer when the blade of a propeller split and hit a bracing wire, causing the propeller to shatter, the bracing wire to break free and the rudder to swivel to a horizontal position, causing the plane to veer out of control and nosedive into the ground. As a result, 26-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was jettisoned into a wooden upright, causing a severe skull fracture which would prove fatal in mere hours. Orville had a fractured femur, four fractured ribs and a hip fractures that would continue to affect him for the rest of his life, though he did recover enough to work just fine.

What I’m trying to say is, Orville, flying is really dangerous, and your brother can’t learn any lessons if he’s a big red stain on the ground. So maybe not cheer when a living fighter plane crashes into him as he’s perched precariously on the backseat of a flying robot dinosaur bike above the clouds.

Also, if I can’t imagine Wilbur treating Orville like a useless idiot no matter what age they are, I certainly can’t imagine real-life Orville being giddy at his brother being in mortal danger.

Dub!Orville: “I want him to scare my brother so much he turns bright green!”…..Wh…how would that happen?

Waruwing’s little black wing dart things don’t have a name in the original. In the dub, they’re called Petra Darts.

Original!Orville: “Stop it! Brother is going to get hurt!” Oh NOW you care.

Dub!Orville: “Please, Wing! I didn’t mean it! I was just kidding!” No, you weren’t, you liar.

Orville originally calls out to Wing, but in the dub he tells Tony and Flint (I think) to get out of Wing’s way.

Rocky: *getting grabbed by Petra’s ship’s giant hand* “It’s a handasaurus!” Rocky, goddammit.

Hahaha, that shot of Orville falling right before Waruwing catches him. My god. It’s literally just a single oddly drawn unmoving frame of Orville straight on while the background moves. Wow.

TP Lady says her face is all muddy now. Dyna and Mite tell her she’s beautiful even with a muddy face. She should flap her wings and head to the sky like an angel…..I really don’t see how that makes sense other than they’re referencing the fact that they’re flying away right now.

Petra says she’s sick of being thwarted by Flint and his friends, she’s getting crazed with anger, and she won’t let them humiliate her again. Dino and Mite then say she should have worn her seatbelt, but it’s a good thing they did, Petra puts on her seatbelt before they fly off and leave. Sooo…Petra made a big declaration acting like she was about to attack again, then leaves?

Wilbur: “We decided from now on for the both of us to come up with ideas and make the airplane together.”

Aw that’s nice.

*Orville immediately produces a model biplane* Where the actual hell did you get that?! In the few minutes between TP Lady leaving and now how did you somehow build a wooden plane that perfectly exemplifies your combined ideas in a design that surpasses concepts that shouldn’t exist for like 20 more years? That doesn’t even look like the Wright Flyer, it looks like a more advanced biplane.

Tokio says things are better when siblings get along. Sora says with a pointed look “You say that now….” And Tokio gets a nervous/goofy expression on his face. In the dub, Tony’s responding to Wilbur talking about the ‘aeroplane’ and says “Yeah, that’ll be great. You can bet on it. Right, Sora?”

And then Sora says with her expression of suspicion “How about it, bro? Are we friends?” And Tony responds with the weird expression “Yeah.”

If they forgot everything involving the kids and Wing…..doesn’t that technically mean that Orville and Wilbur would just forget that they made up?

Old Timer: “If those two brothers hadn’t learned to get along, we’d still be traveling by horse and buggy.” No, no you wouldn’t. First of all, the automobile will be invented five years from this point. Second of all, I guess let’s just bop this topic one more time, many other people were testing with flying machines when the Wright Brothers had invented the airplane to the point where there were a ton of legal issues and controversy to this day about who actually invented the airplane first. If not them, you can rest assured the airplane would be invented, tested and patented in roughly the same amount of time. Who knows how different the world of aviation would be, but we’d definitely have airplanes.

Also, Sora and Tokio go back to fighting because they love each other so much and nothing was learned.

I wasn’t expecting the two to be best friends or anything, and I was definitely expecting the status quo to be restored by the next episode, but we’re literally exactly where we started. Sarah pestering Tokio about how he’s doing his homework wrong, him getting upset and Ototan explaining that they fight because they’re so close, which is a bit of a toxic mindset. My sister used to insult me and get into fights with me all the time, and I never once felt like it was because she cared about me.

Actually, let’s dissect this further. If a big sibling yells at you for being reckless or getting in trouble or something, then yeah, it’s reasonable to believe that they just love you and don’t want to see you get hurt. As children/teenagers themselves, they might not know how to protect you from these things without losing their temper or treating you like a little kid. But when it comes to acting like you’re stupid, being condescending and just overall being an ass, that’s not caring or love, that’s just, well, being an ass.

This episode was entirely Orville and Tokio getting treated badly by their older siblings and them having to learn a lesson while Wilbur and Sora just kinda went back to what they were doing. Wilbur seemed to have grown, but Sora clearly hasn’t. She didn’t even lend Tokio a kind word about how brave he was to tackle Waruwing so they could get a chance to escape or how heroic he was in catching Genshi when he fell. She just complains that he’s not understanding her explanations of his homework again.

Flint: “Oh yeah? Well, if that’s really true, I wanna get in on the fight!” See how weird that sounds?

You can really tell how much they were banking on this show being a hit because, after the credits, my copy of the episode keeps these little commercials for the CD of the soundtrack for the show, including the single of the ED performed by Manabi Mizuno, who was so proud of her work on the show that it’s not even listed on her IMDB page. Manabi Mizuno did go off to become a fairly successful singer and voice actress for several anime with a career spanning nearly two decades.

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Overall, despite some issues and TERRIBLE art and animation for whatever reason, this was a pretty good episode. Sora and Tokio butting heads has been a recurring enough issue for this plot to be engaging, and having Orville and Wilbur Wright act as their sibling rivalry counterparts was a decent enough choice, even if they really didn’t seem to have issues of that caliber at any point as far as I know.

Wing is a pretty cute Space-Time Monster with an interesting power, and his bad transformation is really cool. It not only has a really interesting design, being a vertical fighter plane with a vulture-like face, but it has two pretty intimidating attacks in a propeller that detaches and launches at his opponents, and two machine guns that shoot razor sharp feather darts.

The aerial battles were some of the best fighting scenes the show has had to offer so far. Being in the air changes the game quite a bit and makes it more exciting considering that, without Ridon, Genshi can’t fly. And he may be durable, but not even he couldn’t survive a fall from like 30,000 feet.

History-wise, there were some questionable things, but they actually got most things right…..or…should I say WRIGHT? Hahahahahahaha…..hah…..*cough*

Most of the stuff I went on about was just either built on conjecture, slight nitpicking or just things I found interesting that I wanted an excuse to share. The worst of it was the very ending where Orville magically produces a perfect biplane replica out of thin air after the battle with TP Lady. How? How? How?

Being fair, considering how they’ve been lately about this stuff, it’s much better than I ever feared. At least they didn’t have Wing build the plane for them and then they forget Wing and take credit for inventing it or something. And the stuff Orville learned from Wing was stuff that is very much akin to things Orville and Wilbur were researching in real life during adulthood. They studied birds and their wing shapes to help them design the wings of their future planes, creating the concept of “wing warping” which would help stabilize the plane in flight and allow for better control.

In the show, Orville learned about flying from watching Wing, who is technically a bird, and observing how everything else flew when Wing gave them the ability to fly with those bird wings. Of course, he couldn’t really learn much from that considering Wing’s powers seem more magic than realistic. I mean, they fly with their wings perfectly still, tiny wings could flip TP Lady’s ship, etc. but this is another moment where I’m just being a bit nitpicky.

If there’s one thing I’m very hung up on about this whole story is….they’ve been trying to build the world’s first airplane….They have a Space-Time Monster who can make anything fly, they’re battling a woman who has a flying cat-shaped spaceship and they’re befriending people who have a flying dinosaur bicycle. Why are they not more amazed by this stuff? Why are they not asking more questions? Why are they not taking notes on how these things work?

Next time, TP Lady takes control of Ammon, putting Kyoichiro in danger.

….Previous Episode

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