Plot: As the group walks through a sewer to continue their journey, they run into the disgusting Numemon who are known as the most hated Digimon in the Digital World because they’re slimy, gross, live in the sewer and fight using their own poop. The group manages to escape from them, but find themselves surrounded again when Numemon spring from randomly placed vending machines in the desert.
As they split up to get away, Mimi and Palmon run into the mayor of Toy Town, a giant Teddy Bear Digimon called Monzaemon. He’s kidnapped the others, threw the Digimon into a toy chest and erased the emotions of the kids, making them into toys for the abandoned toys in Toy Town. With Palmon and Mimi the only two left, Palmon must find it within herself to evolve and save the day.
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Title Card: 
That title card looks fantastic, by the way.
Title Change: Palmon’s Angry Evolution! is changed to Togemon in Toy Town.
While the kids are singing songs in both versions, the scene is different. Obviously the songs got changed. Both the kids and the Digimon seem to be singing songs that already exist in either world and they’re tossing the singing back and forth between the kids and the Digimon by giving a letter that the line of the song has to start with.
When Agumon passes the song to the kids, he gives them E which throws them all off since none of them can think of any lyrics that begin with E. They each stop in succession saying “E?” over and over.
Mimi thinks of one and starts singing, but the other kids don’t know the song. Surprising the others, she’s actually a pretty decent singer in the original. She says the song’s Enka and her dad used to sing it in Karaoke all the time. Koushiro decides to switch the song to something more well-known and they all start singing that song.
In the dub, Mimi’s narrating over the first part where the kids are initially singing. Because if there’s one thing I want dub!Mimi to do, it’s narrate. Tai then says they should sing the song Agumon wrote, which is basically a chant about Digimon and Digivolving. Agumon says they should start solos with Mimi going first.
In horror, all of the kids stop in succession saying “Mimi?” “Mimi singing?” “Mercy!” Then Mimi starts singing ‘Home on the Range’ and she sounds about as appalling as you’d think she would. Also, this is yet another instance where the dub seems to be purposely mean to Mimi for no reason. Joe pokes fun at Mimi, and she says she’s had singing lessons for three years. Izzy says she should get a refund.
God, they are really mean to Mimi. I won’t deny that dub!Mimi is one of the most annoying (yet harmless) anime characters I’ve ever seen, hopefully that perspective changes as I go through this SDC series, but that doesn’t warrant being an ass to her. I guess they didn’t look ahead in the episode schedule seeing as how there’s a later episode where Mimi is supposed to be really praised for her singing and even performs a concert. Whoops! Then they all start singing the Digimon song that Tai and Agumon made together.
Sora says she wants to do laundry I guess because her clothes keep getting filthy as water was dripping on her in the sewer. In the dub, she says she was freaking out because she used to sing when she did laundry at home. The original’s a little weird because, I get that she’s homesick but what kid wishes to do laundry? The dub’s weird too because it make Sora look like a spaz for having a fit at singing because it reminds her of a leisurely activity she used to do at home.
Yamato just says he misses having barbecue in the original. In the dub, he says he’s thinking about Sunday because his mom would make barbecue every Sunday….Uhh, the dub does remember that Matt and TK’s parents are separated, right? TK lives with their mom and Matt lives with their dad. I would say that they get visiting time but considering their reunion later on, if they do get visiting time it doesn’t happen often.
Koushiro says he misses sending emails back and forth to his friends. Izzy says he misses accessing satellites to look at the stars and planets. Also, for some strange reason he tells Mimi and TK who are merely enjoying the ‘what I miss game’ to “Get a grip” immediately before he also partakes in it. So, the one person you don’t tell to “Get a grip” here is the one who’s crying over not being able to do laundry?
I guess I can forgive the dub for avoiding this. In the original, Numemon attack with their own poop…..yeah…. In the dub, they call it “Nume-Sludge” but even as a kid and despite the fact that it’s pink, you can easily tell that what they’re throwing is more than sludge.
Toy Town has its own little song in the original. In the dub it’s the same whimsical music they always use.
Palmon says they should look for Agumon and the others, and Mimi doesn’t respond. In the dub, Mimi brushes off the fact that her friends are acting incredibly peculiar by saying “Oh well, they always were a little odd.”
Dub!Palmon: “It’s coming from that locked chest!” Gee you think the noise is coming from the chest that’s bouncing around like crazy? Naaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Attack Name Change: Monzaemon’s Lovely Attack is changed to Hearts Attack.
Monzaemon originally says that the Digimon will go into the toy chest while the children will have their emotions erased and serve as toys for the toys. In the dub, he says all of them will go into the toy chest, which doesn’t make sense because only the Digimon are in the chest.
Palmon asks where Monzaemon is. Dub!Palmon asks what changed Monzaemon. Also, Palmon doesn’t originally call Agumon ‘Agu.’
Mimi doesn’t call Monzaemon a “Yeti Teddy” in the original, though props for not being the worst joke they could’ve made with a 30 foot tall teddy bear.
I don’t entirely get it. I know Monzaemon’s a Perfect/Ultimate level Digimon, but his shtick is to be full of love and joy and he’s meant to spread happiness to everyone. If that’s so, why does he have EXPLODING HEAT VISION?!
Mimi says it’s crazy that the Numemon are still trying to fight Monzaemon for her when all they can do is throw poop. In the dub, Mimi basically brags about how she’s so attractive that she can get Digimon to fight for her, and then says she doesn’t think the Nume-Sludge is working. Well, there’s no effect to this ‘sludge’ beyond being gross so what’s it supposed to do?
Wow, the animation between Mimi standing and going to Palmon’s side was awful. It’s like they forgot to include inbetween frames between the two stances because she basically teleports between stances.
Palmon commends the Numemon for being so brave. They can’t do much of anything and are slimy and gross, yet they gladly put themselves on the line to help Mimi. In the dub, Palmon basically says she’s had enough and that she ‘may be a lady but (she’s) no pushover.’ It’s also weird that Palmon’s evolution ultimately has little to nothing to do with Mimi. She’s not in immediate danger, she’s not being held captive, she’s not even part of the sudden evolving scene. She gets upset at the Numemon being attacked and evolves. The end.
Her evolution was always cool to me though because the bright green and pink colors always looked awesome. Even though I think it loses them later on.
Another vocal song during the evolution gone in lieu of the same Digimon soundtrack.
Attack Name Change: Chiku Chiku (Prickly) Bang Bang is changed to Needle Spray. One of those times when the original’s name was vastly better. Also, in this episode Togemon calls it Digimon Needle Spray.
Mimi says she can understand Monzaemon’s love of toys and Palmon agrees. In the dub, Mimi boasts about how she and Palmon saved the day even if she did 100% nothing.
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I guess that’s my main problem with this episode. Mimi did nothing and had no development whatsoever. Let’s look back at our other evolution episodes, hmm? Agumon’s was more to show that their Digimon are truly loyal to their partners and that they’ll do anything to protect them. It also showed Taichi that they needed to take the Digital World more seriously.
Gabumon’s evolution episode was heavily about Yamato and his relationship to Takeru and his parents and how that weighs on him. In the end, he learned to be somewhat less controlling with Takeru and got slightly more laid back. Gabumon didn’t have much in terms of development but he did get closer to Yamato.
Piyomon’s evolution episode was also heavily centered around Sora with also some insight into Piyomon. While she is clingy and somewhat childish, Piyomon still steps up to risk her life to save those important to her. Sora also learned to be more appreciative of Piyomon and more hopeful.
Tentomon’s evolution……….was bunk. Koushiro didn’t really change as a character, we didn’t learn much about the Digital World and Tentomon evolved through a computer program not emotions. However, at least that episode showed us some insight into Koushiro. It hinted that Koushiro’s parents harbored a secret from him and that he might use technology to escape from problems in real life.
Palmon’s evolution had little to nothing to do with Mimi. She recognized that the Numemon were fighting a hopeless battle to help her, but that realization didn’t affect anything. Palmon’s recognition of this and seeing the Numemon getting attacked is what spurred her evolution.
Mimi did nothing but have a Numemon fall in love with her and run away. Then again, there’s not really much to Mimi as a character anyway. I’ve seen the dubbed version numerous times as well as season two several times and there’s really nothing that interesting about her. Her main character point is that she’s a self-absorbed ditz who deep down really cares deeply about others. That’s it. I will admit that she can be really nice, but she’s far from interesting. Again, hopefully reanalyzing the series for this SDC will change my mind, but I’m not holding my breath.
Next up is Gomamon’s evolution episode. Jo’s an okay character even if he’s a bit annoying with his incessant whining and complaining. My big fret is that, out of all of the characters, Jo seems to have his dialogue changed the most so the next episode may be a long one to get through. We’ll see.
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The Anime Madhouse 