Japanese to English Episode Comparisons
Eps 61-69
Firstly, as was the case back in
Episode 7, Hanada Gym has once again been painted to read
Cerulean Gym. The Pokémon Water Ballet
sign was translated, and the translation was pretty good
too! Finally, 4Kids does more than erase the sign, and
actually paints in something useful. While watching the Japanese version, I had to laugh
as Jessie and James SANG their motto. It was sung in
poor tone as well, proving that Musashi and Kojirou cannot
sing! ^^; Oops, 4Kids was a tad sloppy near
the end with inserting their digitally painted scenes, as
the Cerulean Gym outside paint near the end came to an end,
we saw a single frame of Pikachu from just before the 2nd
last paint in this episode. I'll tell you about that paint
in the next box. As the group are leaving
Cerulean City, there was some more Japanese writing on
the big sign above them. I'd love to tell you what it
said, but my tape is simply too grainy. And, finally the last speck of
digital painting in this episode, as the group pass by the
coffee and tea place with a little Ditto on it. It
originally said "Metamon Coffee and Tea" but, the word
Metamon was removed for the dub. Oh well, it's fairly
obvious why this was done.
There was no editing or painting in
this episode, I don't even think there were any Japanese
signs in town that were big and visible. In fact, it's cool
they didn't paint over the words on the ice cream box which
said "soft cream" which sounds kinda... foreign. Oh well,
Ice cream is soft, so I'm glad they kept the Lucky Soft
Cream!! ^_^
Once again, not a single paint or
cut in the episode. The English dub of this episode came off
very nicely, and that's good considering it's a fairly
important episode to the series and the first one of the
series which ties into the movie.
Yeah, I wondered about that title
too. I think 4Kids typoed on that one, but since Ash's mom
has within the dub nicknamed her Mr. Mime, Mimie, it
seems to work out (hey, maybe that bit of dialogue about
"Mimie" was added just because 4Kids noticed the goof in the
episode title, and being too lazy to go back and fix it,
just dubbed some dialogue into the show to cover their
mistake, it's possible! BTW, once again, no cuts or
paints!! Woo! 3 in a row without ANY alterations.
Well, except of course, the occasional music changes which
are present in each and every episode. In fact, with time,
4Kids improves the music situation more and more. Later on,
with season 3, most if not all the music is kept.
Yep, it's the 2nd title in a row 4Kids most likely
botched. I do believe it's spelled corral, okay
4Kids?? Anyway, while discussing music. This is the
first episode the Japanese version introduced music from
Pikachu's Summer Vacation. It continues to be used straight
through and even into current episodes. It's good, and cute
sounding stuff. 4Kids however has been careful to avoid it.
From eps 65-80 all of it was removed, all of a sudden for
eps 81-84 it was okay again, but then disappeared for the
rest of 2nd season. Thankfully, it's back in full force for
3rd season and seems to be staying. Yahoo! 4th episode without any actual alteration, which
is why I was able to dedicate another episode to
complaining about the other insignificant problems in the
dub. ^_^
Whoa! Yet another episode without a
single alteration! This is the 5th one in a row! Plus, the
small Japanese 'Nishimori' on Prof. Westwood's statue was
kept!! Nishimori the 5th was his original name. I guess
4Kids dismissed this case of Japanese usage, because it was
tiny and hard to read.
Yep, it's another great episode
without any alterations!! That makes 6 episodes all at once
without being changed. Ah, but the fun ends here, the next
episode contains some paint!!O_o
Gasp! Paint! and lots of it! Some
of it really bizzare. BTW, be aware that the computer screen
which alerted them to Team Rocket in the garden was not
altered. The screen was just as blank in the original!! I
guess Pokémon characters like to look at blank signs,
but the dub characters love to stare at blank signs, as
they're everywhere in dub land!!! Okay, First off, we're greeted with
an excellently painted 'Xanadu' sign. You'd never know it
was dub accept the suckiness of the name is a dead giveaway
that it was called something else, in fact "Murasa Garden"
was it's name. This one is just strange. You see
the sign describing the flower Bulbasaur sniffed to get a
high, and it's called Pokénip, right? Well, who knows
what it's called, the Japanese sign was BLANK! Yep, the
original sign although sharing in common the unreadable
handwriting at the bottom with the dub, there was originally
blankness where 4Kids placed "Pokénip" Heh, it seems
4Kids was so guilty for all the previous blank signs, they
decided to add stuff to originally blank signs!
^_^ ARGH! There it is again! "Stun
Stem" was painted onto another similar looking sign. The
same case as last time, the Japanese version had nothing
there originally. ^^; At the end of the episode, the
Murasa Garden sign that Florinda is standing in front of,
was painted to read Xanadu, and you can see the lines of
missed paint around Florinda. Just to desperately fool the dub
people into thinking it was indeed called Xanadu on the
Japanese version, a distant, barely readable 'Murasa Garden'
shown from a bird's eye view for the end of the episode,
also got painted.
There were no alterations in this
one (yippee!) but, there are some very important points
directly related to this episode I must mention.
Firstly, the movie. The original
version of this episode called the movie "Pokemon: The
Movie", oh, how original.. 4Kids felt the same way, and
decided to get more creative. They called the movie "Pokemon
In Love" now, unfortunately, this creativity lead to some
very unfortunate digital painting in episodes to come.. -_-
I'll get to that in those episode summaries as they come up.
Secondly, the dance music. The
Pokémon Dance Mix that all the Pokémon were
dancing to. Yuck! Well, I used to like this song okay.. but
it's been over used and abused by the dub. They replaced
"Lucky Lucky" from the Japanese version with this stupid
"Poké-mon mon mon......" stuff.. -_- If you haven't
heard the song "Lucky Lucky" I dare you to do a search
for it on Napster..
First up, some Digital painting..
The postcard Ash's mom got in the mail inviting them all to
the premiere of the movie originally had printed at the
bottom "Pokemon Movie" But, of course, the dub renamed the
film to "Pokemon in Love" so this is unacceptable. Of
course, "Pokemon Movie" WAS in English
letters, so there was no reason in my opinion why this had
to be removed, it didn't have to be the title.. if dubbies
thought the title was "Pokemon in Love" then this would not
shake that notion... there's no indication it's actually the
title. The next casualty of the name
change, when TR are sitting in front of the movie sign, that
is with Psyduck and Wigglytuff, there was originally
"Pokemon Movie" written across the top of it, and some very
nice paint job by 4Kids, it looks just a textured and the
words are gone.. I thought with all that patterning on the
sign, it would look somewhat sloppy... When they arrive in Hollywood,
outside the theatre, once again "Pokemon Movie" appears, I
think even in two different spots around the theatre
entrance. 4Kids is being idiotic and making sure we
NEVER see this.. -_-
Outside the old lady's little
house, some Japanese banners have been painted
blank. Oh, and I must express my bitterness at the whole
"Muskrat Meatballs" thing. Those are actually dango..
Japanese sweet dumplings.
Hey, no alterations at all! Way to
go 4Kids..