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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

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Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 27 - The Beginning of the End!

This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison.

Original name ~ Dubbed name

Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon

Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda

Tohma H. Norstein ~ Thomas H. Norstein

Ikuto Noguchi ~ Keenan Crier

Chika Daimon ~ Kristy Damon

Sayuri Daimon ~ Sarah Damon

Misuzu Noguchi ~ Michelle Crier

Kenji Noguchi ~ Kevin Crier

Yuka Noguchi ~ Ruka Crier

Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson

Governor Hashiba ~ Director Hashima

Gizmon ~ Gizumon

BioThunderBirmon ~ BioThunderbirdmon

BioCoatlmon ~ BioQuetzalmon

Qilinmon ~ Chirinmon

[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]

Gaomon’s doing the recap! It’s neat to have it be a Digimon, given the events of last episode, but this still feels unnecessarily Thomas-centric.

Recap Gaomon: “But the deep bond between them and their Digimon partners could not be broken.”

It comes off very strange that Gaomon’s not using first-person language to describe these events that he was part of. I doubt this is deliberate; it’s probably just whoever wrote the recaps not thinking about it. Maybe they didn’t even write it for Gaomon specifically and just got his VA to do it as an afterthought. It does sound almost word-for-word the same as the original flavour-less narrator recap.

Kurata: “I destroyed DATS headquarters and everything it stands for!”

On the one hand this feels a bit clunkily expositiony, making sure we know that Kurata did this, as if it wasn’t obvious enough already. On the other hand, maybe Kurata is the kind of person who’d straight up boast about causing the explosion that he just strode out of.

Masaru: “Kurata! You were responsible for that?”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Kurata, I knew you were the one behind all this!”

What do you mean, “all this”? The only “this” that Kurata has done that it wasn’t already abundantly apparent that he’s behind is the explosion, which is only one thing and doesn’t qualify as “all this”.

Also, this is Marcus acting like he’s known all along that Kurata was behind the explosion that, uh, literally just happened a few moments ago. Again with this thing, also seen in the last line of last episode, in which Marcus is somehow completely mentally on top of and comprehending the explosion that only just happened, instead of being bewildered and confused like Masaru is.

Kurata: “Did you enjoy it? This flashy spectacle show is quite a rare sight!”

~~~~~

Kurata: “Do you like what I’ve done with the place? It all seems much more roomy now that I’ve opened up the roof and all four walls.”

On the one hand, Kurata condescendingly acting like this is some kind of renovation feels appropriately smarmy and infuriating. On the other hand, I don’t know if I like the toning down of his whole showman thing making a spectacle of this, given that’s a pretty big thing about his character.

Kurata: “Now you won’t be allowed to foil my plans again.”

Not sure about the “again” – it’s not really in Kurata’s nature to actually admit that his previous plans with Mercurimon were somewhat foiled at all. (And also, they really weren’t foiled that badly; he still murdered the guy successfully.)

Tohma: “A space-time oscillation bomb!”

~~~~~

Thomas: “A Digital Gate is opening!”

Thomas’s line is very awkwardly expositiony. Yes, we can all see that, thanks. Heck, by the time he says this, the Gate is already very much open, not opening. Tohma’s is also kind of unnecessary but makes a bit more sense for him to say in character – maybe it’s an exclamation of the realisation that Kurata still has those things and can still enter and leave the Digital World at will, unlike them.

Kurata: “See you never again!”

~~~~~

Kurata: “See you next time!”

The whole point of this should be that Kurata believes there won’t be a next time for him to see them, because he just blew up their only way into the Digital World. I guess he could be saying this in a patronising “haha you wish, good luck with that” sort of way, but it doesn’t entirely read like that and kinda does seem like he expects them to oppose him again.

Marcus: “Rrgh! Man! He’s gonna pay! Wait ‘til I get my hands on him…!”

Sarah: “Snacks?”

Sarah’s line was added in the dub and gives a very amusing whiplash effect. Eh, she’s used to her son being like this; anyway, who wants food?

Ikuto: “Kurata has Digimon supporting him.”

~~~~~

Keenan: “That Kurata. He has new fake Digimon.”

How does Keenan know that they’re fake? He only saw their silhouettes – he most certainly didn’t see them evolve from humans – and they looked just like regular Digimon. Definitely not like Gizumon.

I suppose this could be him assuming that simply because they’re working with Kurata, they must be fake in some way, but that still seems a stretch for him to have concluded that with such certainty. Surely it’s possible that he could have somehow swindled regular Digimon into being on his side by lying to them or something. (Not that Kurata would ever want to do that, but.)

Megumi: “He’s right. I’ve never seen those Digimon before.”

Miki: “They were fearfully strong.”

~~~~~

Megumi: “He’s right. Kurata made a new version of Gizumon.”

Miki: “Better, faster, stronger!”

Wait, no, scrap everything I just said. Apparently the dub thinks they actually are talking about Gizumon here. Guys, did you watch the previous episode? The things that attacked these three back then were very clearly not Gizumon. The characters saw enough of their silhouettes to be sure of that.

It's especially bizarre that the dub would do this when Megumi said in the original that she’d never seen these before – so, not Gizmon. (Though the computer ladies haven’t actually encountered a Gizmon directly and shouldn’t necessarily know what they are… which is another thing the dub forgot by having Megumi casually namedrop Gizumon.)

Hello and welcome to your weekly reminder that Falcomon’s voice is the worst, urgh. I really, honestly wouldn’t do these if I didn’t genuinely cringe every time I hear him speak for the first time in an episode.

Masaru: “Kurata is trying to destroy the Digimon! We can’t let him get what he wants!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “We have to, Mom, Kurata is trying to destroy all the Digimon!”

…Okay. Okay, fine, they get let off this time because the original used the word “destroy” too, fine.

Kristy: “And don’t be a doof.”

Wise words from Kristy as her brother heads off to stop a genocide. He is, of course, not going to follow them.

Yoshino: “But… Kurata destroyed the transportation equipment along with DATS’s headquarters. How are we going to make a Digital Dive?”

Masaru: “Damn it…”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “Kurata incinerated everything when he destroyed DATS headquarters. How are we gonna get to the Digital World without the Digital Dive?”

Marcus: “Rrgh. I forgot.”

Bit much that Marcus would have forgot about the explosion, but I suppose it tracks that he could have forgotten – or, more likely, simply not connected – the fact that this means no Digital Dive. Maybe it’s a slight improvement that the dub justifies how Marcus was just acting like they’d be able to get there with no problem when, right now, getting there is the biggest problem.

While pretending to be a cleaner, Masaru gave one brief whistle. Marcus, meanwhile, is doing full-on I’m-totally-not-suspicious innocent whistling. Marcus, your sister just told you not to be a doof.

The BGM for this infiltration scene is completely comedic in the dub, instead of the original’s mission-like music. Maybe that’s why they also made Marcus’s whistling sillier.

Marcus: “Huh? You’re the hope man?”

This does technically make sense given that Sampson referred to Kevin as “our last hope”, but boy is that a dorky way to say it, Marcus.

Misuzu: “Will we… Will we really get to see Ikuto again?”

~~~~~

Michelle: “Wait! In return, you have to promise we’ll see Keenan again.”

There was a cut from the hotel room to the fire escape just before this line, so the original implied that they’d explained things more to the Noguchis in the interim, including mentioning they’ll see Ikuto. Apparently the dub thinks there was no timeskip, so instead things play out such that none of the DATS trio – not even Marcus – thought to mention the Criers’ long-lost son, who is currently working with them, and that he’d be there.

Masaru: “Of course! Don’t worry about it!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Of course you’ll see ‘im. He’s your son, isn’t he?”

I approve of the more explicitly family-focused version of this reassurance, yes good.

Kenji: “I’ve been worried since I caused him so much sorrow.”

~~~~~

Kevin: “I felt so awful since causing all of this madness and chaos.”

Kevin… didn’t cause any kind of madness and chaos at all; that is not at all what he’s supposed to be feeling responsible for. Feeling responsible for his son’s sadness makes sense even though it’s irrational, but not this.

The National Security Council, aka that organisation the dub finally introduced last episode as a late equivalent of the Ministry of Confidentiality, is the organisation that have been keeping the Criers here in the hotel. That more or less makes sense now, because Kurata is now their assistant director and would be able to keep an eye on them, and he was maybe probably already affiliated with the security council in some way before his appointment to that high-ranking position last episode.

…This still doesn’t entirely make sense, because this arrest was sanctioned by Director Hashima, Director of DATS, and so there’s no reason a couple who were arrested by DATS should have ended up with the National Security Council. Hashima’s job change is still the least sensible.

Gaomon: “Knock knock.”

Agumon: “C’mon, this way!”

I feel like the dub missed a trick by not having Agumon follow up with something like, “Who’s there? It’s us!”. Seems like the kind of cute joke that’d fit his dub personality.

The dub didn’t cut out any of Reppamon’s ruthless destruction of the cars. It’s the kind of thing I feel they’d usually try to censor, but there probably wasn’t really a way to cut that while having the scene still work, so implied murder-weasel it is!

Ikuto: “I wonder if Masaru and the others are okay…”

Falcomon: “I’m sure it’s going well.”

[flashback to his parents in episode 20]

Ikuto: “My mother… and father…”

~~~~~

Keenan: “I wonder… if they okay?”

Falcomon: “You wonder if who’s okay?”

[flashback to his parents in episode 20]

Keenan: “Keenan’s real mother… and father…”

I like this change! It was kind of irrelevant that Ikuto was wondering if Masaru and co.’s infiltration went well, and then he abruptly shifted to thinking about his parents. Feels better for him to be wondering about his parents from the start.

But also, what’s with Keenan’s caveman-speak suddenly using third-person for himself? He’s never done so before.

Ikuto: “I have request.”

Misuzu: “What is it?”

~~~~~

Keenan: “Me ask… favour.”

Michelle: “Anything.”

Whoops, Michelle, you just actively promised you’d do anything for him, better send him to the Digital World then like he’s about to ask.

Thomas: “Professor Crier, our situation is still as desperate as when we explained earlier.”

Marcus: “Blah blah blah, in other words we need you to open up that Digital Gate.”

That “blah blah blah” is delivered very much like Marcus is being a dick towards Thomas for apparently talking too much, and I don’t like it. Thomas wasn’t even being at all technical here! Marcus should agree that they ought to stress the importance of their situation so that the Criers will help!

Agumon: “C’mon, pretty please? We’ve just gotta go back and save the Digital World!”

Agumon’s “pretty please” makes this sound like a kid begging for a treat, which is really not the tone you want when you’re asking to save your species from being murdered.

Kevin: “The transport equipment has nothing to do with the Digital Gate. I have no idea if I can get it to open again.”

Uhhh, that lie doesn’t make sense. First he’s claiming the equipment Miki has found isn’t even Digital Gate equipment, it’s actually for something else, and then he’s saying… he’s not sure if he can open the Gate? If he allegedly doesn’t even have the right equipment, he should be certain he can’t do it. A Digital Gate device is hardly going to be something you can quickly botch together from bits of totally unrelated machinery.

Masaru: “No way! You won’t know if it’ll fail or not unless you try first!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Instead of doubting yourself, why not try before saying no?”

Aside from the part where this shouldn’t even be a matter of trying if we believe Kevin’s claim that he doesn’t have the right equipment, Marcus’s tone of voice also manages to sound less encouraging and more just annoyed and impatient that Kevin’s being difficult.

Ikuto: “We’re all asking for your help… Why won’t you listen?!”

~~~~~

Keenan: “Everyone asking for your help! Why you not even try?”

Keenan’s response here doesn’t give any indication, like Ikuto’s did, that he knows his father simply doesn’t want to help and is lying to hide that.

Kenji: “Being separated from us, your family, and all the emotional pain you had to endure, all of it is my responsibility! I didn’t do anything for you all of these years, but from now on, I will protect you!”

~~~~~~

Kevin: “We all still feel the pain of being separated. Don’t you think I know it was my fault? I couldn’t do anything for you ten years ago, but I can definitely do something about it now. I will not make the same mistake twice.”

Kenji’s speech gave the impression he was feeling responsible not just for Ikuto being lost ten years ago but also for all of the emotional suffering he’s been through in the ten years since. Kevin, meanwhile, is clearly making it only about losing him, and nothing in-between. This is still a reasonable stance for him to take, but I kinda liked the way that Kenji was irrationally burdening himself with all of the other things his son had been through that really had nothing to do with him.

Masaru: “You just… don’t want to let go of Ikuto…”

Misuzu: “What’s wrong with that? No parent wants to put their own child in danger!”

[flashback to Sayuri’s fear; Masaru winces]

Masaru: “Maybe that’s true, but…”

~~~~~

Marcus: “But Keenan wants you to do it. Can’t you try for him?”

Michelle: “I think my husband is absolutely right. No-one wants to put their child in a dangerous situation!”

[flashback to Sarah’s fear; Marcus winces]

Marcus: “But the Digimon…!”

Marcus… doesn’t even pick up on the fact that the Criers are scared for their son until Michelle explicitly tells him that. And then when he does remember his own mother being similarly afraid, there’s no acknowledgement in his words of, okay, that’s true, of course our parents would be scared, but… – he just moves straight onto the “but” and (on a surface level) brushes aside their fear entirely.

Ikuto: “But I was raised as a Digimon. And I found out both lives are important to me.”

~~~~~

Keenan: “But I was raised Digimon, and me find out how important it is for Digimon and humons to get along.”

Oh my god, stop it with the correct “I” and incorrect “me” in the same sentence already, nobody would ever get it wrong this inconsistently like this.

It being important for humans and Digimon to get along is a bit of a different sentiment for him to express here than simply the fact that both species are important to him. That’s really what he ought to be stressing right now to get his parents to co-operate: the reason why he wants this, more than anything.

Also, Keenan is still calling them “humons”. I feel like, since the dub insisted on him using that word to begin with, it’d have been a neat sign of his growth if he stopped using it at around about this point and shifted to saying “humans” instead, as a subtle reflection of his greater understanding and more empathetic view of humans by now. But nah, that’d be neat and nuanced, so of course the dub didn’t think of that.

Michelle: “He got so big…”

I really like this line! Nothing like this was directly mentioned in the original, but this really does help illustrate the idea that Michelle and Kevin have been irrationally seeing Keenan as that same helpless little baby he was when they lost him for all this time, and they’re only just adjusting to the idea that he’s grown up this much and has his own experiences and desires separate from theirs.

Misuzu: “But we’ll be separated from Ikuto again. We’ll be letting him fight!”

~~~~~

Michelle: “We have so much lost time to make up, and now he’s leaving again. What if he doesn’t come back this time?!”

I like the added bit about the lost time they have to make up! Of course that’d have been something on Michelle’s mind the whole time, at the very least since she learned that Keenan’s still alive, and now to think that she might never get to make up that time after all must be really terrifying for her.

Kenji: “There are times when a boy must go to do what has to be done.”

~~~~~

Kevin: “Sacrifices sometimes have to be made for the good of the many.”

I kind of approve of the dub removing Kenji’s line there, because that really was an unnecessarily-gendered sentiment. The replacement is an appropriate line, but it is a little odd that Kevin’s so willing to think about the greater good now, when just a little while ago he’d already heard everything about the danger the Digimon were in and yet was willing to lie in order to avoid putting his son at risk for their sake.

Kenji: “Our bond… is right here.”

~~~~~

Kevin: “Yeah, I know, honey. It hurts.”

Kevin’s melodramatic hand-on-heart pose for this line still reads as kinda melodramatic even with the changed line, but I think I like the new line all the same. Acknowledge your family member’s pain and share it with them! …Which was not a sentiment Marcus expressed in the dub of episode 20, unlike Masaru, but still.

(One thing Marcus did stress in episode 20 more than Masaru did was the idea that Kevin ought to accept his Fatherly Responsibility to be there for his son more. Except… that aspect of how Kevin feels here in this episode actually got toned down just a little from Kenji’s in the dub.)

Overall, though, this little conversation between the Crier couple here? All of the changes are improvements! I approve.

Kenji: “We’ll open the Digital Gate for you!”

~~~~~

Kevin: “I’ll try my best to open the Digital Gate.”

He still sounds like he isn’t sure he can do it. Do the dub think that his lie about not being sure if it’d be possible or not wasn’t actually a lie? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Kudamon: “The Digital World, huh…? Are you ready?”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Back to the Digital World… Do you think you’re ready, Sampson?”

Kudamon’s “are you ready?” in the original was basically rhetorical, pretty much there just to psyche Satsuma up for this. Kudamon in the dub… seems to be genuinely unsure if Sampson is ready to go there again. I know it’s been ten years for him, but geez, have a little more faith.

Kudamon: “Satsuma…”

Satsuma: “That was…”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Did you know those two?”

Sampson: “Maybe…”

Okay, but, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know Nanami and Ivan, so the dub shouldn’t be implying that he probably does. To be fair, the original lines seem like it also could be implying that Satsuma knows them… but, though I’m not entirely sure what those lines are really there for, it’s not that. I guess I should be proud of the dub for actually thinking about interpreting potential nuance in original lines to try and get it across… but it’s not at all surprising that one of the few times they thought about this, they got it wrong. Who needs to watch ahead.

The keyboard Kenji used to work the Gate device had Japanese letters on it. Shockingly, the dub didn’t edit these out for once and just kept it the same.

Kevin: “Don’t worry, I’ll get this Digital Gate open no matter what! For my son, Keenan.”

That latter part there reads rather off. It’s the sort of thing you’d say to someone who didn’t know you had a son you’re doing this for, not to a group of people who know that perfectly well, including Keenan himself.

Ivan’s voice is rather goofy-sounding, unlike in the original, where it was deep and relatively serious. Not that I can entirely blame the dub, given that Ivan’s single character trait he shows in this episode is being a terrible excuse for comic relief. But if they’d watched ahead, they’d know that there’s technically more to Ivan’s character than this that is actually somewhat interesting, which the Japanese voice fits with. This goofy one definitely will not.

Nanami’s voice, meanwhile, has kind of a southern belle accent thing going on, as far as my not-American judgement can tell. It makes her come across as a little airheaded, which is extremely the opposite of the real point with her, something that, again, the dubbers would know if they just watched ahead.

Nanami: “Unfortunately, I don’t feel the need to tell you.”

~~~~~

Nanami: “Unfortunately, that’s information that you don’t need to know right now.”

The lack of the fact that Nanami’s not telling them her name because she doesn’t feel like it is a loss of some subtle characterisation for her.

Ikuto: “I, who can think such thoughts, exist here. That’s… what makes me Ikuto. Thank you for giving me life. Dad. Mom.”

~~~~~

Keenan: “Digimon mother give me strength. Give me heart. And… I guess that’s what makes me Keenan. But you two… my parents. Thank you for giving me life. Mother. Father.”

This speech still gets across the sense that Keenan’s come a long way and has grown more wise and articulate with his feelings than he used to be. The focus is a little different, though. He seems to feel here that “what makes him Keenan” is entirely the Digimon parts of him that he got from Yukidarumon. It read in the original that Ikuto felt that what made him him – what made him unique – was that he was a mixture of both and could have these feelings about both species.

Ikuto: “I’ll go.”

~~~~~

Keenan: “Me… home.”

That’s, uh, rather different. It’s a bit much for him to be asserting that he feels like he’s at home here now, in a basement under the ruins of their house, as he’s about to leave them again for who knows how long until the Digimon are safe. Especially considering he was just expressing that it’s the Digimon part of him that made him who he is, and his human parents only contributed by literally making him exist. Not really a point at which he’d feel properly at home amongst them just yet, even if he’s finally accepting that he might one day want to be.

Kenji: “You mean, ‘I’ll be back’. When you leave the house, that’s what you say to your family. That way, we can all say, ‘I’m home’, and ‘Welcome back’, when you return.”

Ikuto: “I’ll… be back!”

Yuka: “Come back shafely!”

~~~~~

Kevin: “That’s right. Home. And from now on, wherever we are will be your home. Goodbye. Come back home to us soon, son.”

Keenan: “Okay. Bye!”

Ruka: “Okay! Bye!”

I suppose the reason for changing that bit is that Kenji teaching Ikuto these phrases was very a Japanese-language thing, and it doesn’t make as much sense in English for Keenan to need to be taught anything.

It still comes across like Ruka’s mostly just mimicking without understanding, just Keenan’s words directly rather than the stock response to Ikuto’s words that she must have picked up elsewhere.

Nanami: “Just like always. You’re quite the bloodthirsty one, Kouki.”

~~~~~

Nanami: “As always, Kouki beat us to all the fun again. He’s so bad.”

Instead of this line characterising Kouki for us, it characterises Nanami, because she would take issue at someone else stealing all the fun. I am rolling my eyes at the teasing “he’s so bad”, though, which I guess is from the southern belle thing? Why.

Marcus: “Is this some sort of party I don’t know about?”

Marcus, why would you care if there was a literal party you didn’t know about.

Ivan: “This time it’s children. Hmph, there’s only one woman. She’s younger than the ones before. She might be my type.”

~~~~~

Ivan: “Hey, there’s another girl. A really cute one named Yoshi. I wonder if she’d go out with me. Probably not.”

I sincerely appreciate the dub removing the part where Ivan makes a point of Yoshi being younger. Less fond of him having already advanced further in creep-level than just “she’s my type”. Also, how did he know Yoshi’s name? I guess Kurata must have told them the names of the people he sent them here to deal with.

Kouki’s voice is the least objectionable of the trio, I guess, but it’s pretty Generic Anime Dude and doesn’t have that roughness to it that helps get across what a huge asshole he is in the Japanese.

Kouki: “Know what I am? I’m the boogeyman.”

Okay, that literally just did the opposite of making you sound scary, Kouki, good job.

Ivan: “We grow up to be big and strong!”

Also making it very difficult to take this trio seriously as a threat.

Kouki: “Hyper Bio Evolution!”

~~~~~

Kouki: “Bio-Hybrid DNA Charge! Bio Hybrid Digivolve to…!”

Their evolution/Digisoul Charge call is changed to something a lot more similar to the regular call. Also with the “Digivolve to” part included, even though in the original they don’t say anything while they’re evolving.

Digimon Analyser BioThunderbirdmon: “Only a great man could blend human DNA with Digimon data, and my guess is, you already know his name.”

That really doesn’t sound like a way Kouki would word this. It reads like he admires Kurata for being able to do this, but that’s not a thing Kouki would do, not even for the guy who’s given him cool powers.

Also, heh, human DNA. Which kind of DNA are we talking about here? It could really be either. Or both.

BioThunderBirmon: “This is our true form.”

~~~~~

BioThunderbirdmon: “He asked us to get rid of you, and that’s exactly what we’re gonna do!”

Again with it coming across like Kouki feels loyalty to Kurata, with him making a point that he’s doing this because Kurata asked. Original-Kouki was just gleefully power-tripping and insisting that this more powerful form is totally the real him. (He’s mostly doing this because he just enjoys beating the crap out of people; the fact that Kurata pointed him towards these targets in particular is largely incidental.)

Marcus: “We’re not afraid!”

Agumon: “Speak for yourself!”

Marcus: “Who’s side are you on?!”

Doesn’t seem like Agumon has been following his boss’s philosophy very well if he’s still up for outright admitting that he’s afraid. And geez, Marcus, Agumon admitting this doesn’t mean he’s not on your side, that’s not the angle to take if you have an issue with him undermining your bravado.

Ikuto: “These guys are on Kurata’s side!”

Yoshino: “What?”

Lalamon: “Then that means these Digimon are…”

~~~~~

Keenan: “Kurata behind all this!”

Yoshi: “How do you know?”

Lalamon: “He doesn’t. But it’s a good guess!”

…I would say that BioThunderbirdmon just told them, or at least hinted extremely strongly, that this is Kurata’s doing. But I guess the Digimon Analysers aren’t quite an in-universe thing, so technically they didn’t hear that.

Ikuto was saying this because he’d seen them helping Kurata last episode, by the way; it was not a guess. But the dub already proved that they don’t remember that part, because they thought the earlier conversation about this was referring to Gizumon, despite that making no sense.

Gaomon: “They don’t look so tough.”

Uncharacteristically trash-talky for Gaomon of all people.

Look, at least the dub’s insistence on using the evolution music for every single evolution means that these really long evolution sequences turn into me getting to jam out to the music for like a full minute. It’s something.

It’s also very telling that the music stops as they’re done evolving and doesn’t continue into the fight. They spent so long evolving that they ran out of music.

MachGaogamon had a line in the fight while grimacing and not precisely moving his mouth, and again the dub is very insistent on keeping consistency with lip-flap, so they made it into an inner monologue line. It is still far more jarring to me to have sudden inner monologue from a not-that-important character than, gasp, suggesting he might have said something out loud with his mouth closed like half the Digimon species out there do anyway.

BioThunderBirmon: “Your attacks don’t even itch us, much less cause any pain!”

~~~~~

BioThunderbirdmon: “You’re only Digimon. We’ve got the power of humans *and* Digimon!”

Instead of a line that got across some more of Kouki’s assholery, trying to make his enemies sound tiny and insignificant, we have a line that’s more like some exposition. I suppose it’s reasonable that these guys could be stronger because they have both human and Digimon power combined – but then again, the partnered Digimon who evolve through DNA Charge still have that human power inside them giving them strength, too.

BioQuetzalmon: “You should surrender while you still can!”

That’s… not a thing Nanami would offer them. She wouldn’t want her opponents to surrender; that’d be no fun.

Agumon: “Aniki… They’re too powerful…”

Masaru: “I can’t believe… they can do this…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “They’re just too strong, Boss…!”

Marcus: “I don’t care how strong they are, they’re still goin’ down!”

Instead of Masaru actually being shocked that his opponents got the upper hand so easily, we have some stubborn never-say-die from Marcus even as Agumon’s clearly incapable of fighting back right now. That is appropriately Marcus (and Masaru); I can’t complain.

Kudamon’s Japanese attack name keeps its Japanese name in the dub. That’s really rare; usually they translate them in some way.

BioThunderBirmon: “You bastard… Do you really wanna die that badly?”

~~~~~

BioThunderbirdmon: “Kurata didn’t mention you. Who are you?”

He’s talking about Sampson. Weird that Kurata didn’t mention him given that Nanami and Ivan showed up in front of Sampson specifically to slow him down earlier this episode. Did he tell Nanami and Ivan but not Kouki? You’d think the other two would be filling Kouki in right now, then.

Satsuma: “We fight only to continue living!”

~~~~~

Sampson: “All you need to know is what I look like walking away.”

Kouki’s slightly illogical changed line was probably for the sake of Sampson’s response. I admit that Satsuma’s line there originally always felt kind of weird to me – well, of course you fight to stay alive, most people do. Maybe it’s a cultural thing that sounds more impressive in Japanese? Regardless, the dub changed it to a much more Western-style badass one-liner which may also be a liiittle bit over the top but regardless probably works better.

Sampson: “DNA Charge!”

That should be Full Charge, given the level he’s evolving to.

Despite not having a full evolution animation, Kudamon also gets the evolution music. I guess it’s for evolutions by any characters on the good guys’ side?

Digimon Analyser Sampson: “You wanna stay far away from *this* disaster.”

…He’s making a pun, because he just described one of Chirinmon’s attacks as being like a hurricane. But out of context, that sounds hilariously unflattering towards his magic horse friend.

This version of Chirinmon’s Digimon Analyser also did not mention anything about him being as strong as a Mega-level despite being one evolution level below that. This is an improvement, letting his strength speak for itself instead of just telling us that he’s obviously strong enough to win through some arbitrary breakage of Digimon rules.

I was worried that the dub wouldn’t get across the somewhat more pompous register Kudamon speaks in when he’s evolved, but no, it’s still there, in his lines and his voice performance. Nice.

Sampson: “Wait!”

This is added in place of a wordless grunt as Chirinmon gets in on the glow-really-brightly-and-charge-at-the-enemy party. I guess in the dub, Sampson wasn’t so on board with his partner’s reckless explosion tactics.

Marcus: “Commander!”

Marcus’s delivery sounds genuinely terrified for him… which really isn’t in Marcus’s character to show in his voice. Feels off.

Yoshino: “I hope he’s okay…”

Masaru: “He must be. After all, he’s *our* Captain.”

Tohma: “You’re right.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “I hope that he’s safe…”

Marcus: “He has to be. Besides, I don’t wanna think about what those three did to ‘im.”

Thomas: “Then don’t.”

Marcus is also being less optimistic here. Instead of pushing his worry aside by clinging to his belief in the Captain’s awesomeness, he’s actually on some level acknowledging something bad happened by admitting he doesn’t want to think about it. (“What those three did to him” sounds like some unspeakable horrible offscreen thing – but Marcus literally saw what they did, they apparently blew him up, which doesn’t quite feel like it fits that way of putting it.)

Thomas’s response is really weird, too. It sounds, delivery-wise, like he’s just frustrated at Marcus being stupid, for… feeling instinctively inclined to worry about their Commander, even though he’s trying to push that aside? Geez. It’s not grim tentative agreement with Marcus’s ultimately optimistic stance, it’s “you’re dumb for even being slightly worried in the first place”, like Thomas genuinely doesn’t care at all.

Overall differences

Nothing too huge is different here, just a lot of smaller bits of nuance are changed or lost, as usual.

The most glaring mistake in the episode is the part where the dub writers apparently literally didn’t even watch the previous episode, because they seem completely unaware that Keenan and the computer ladies had previously encountered the Bio-Hybrids with Kurata. Both parts in this episode that made reference to that in the original are changed to not do so in the dub, including adding in a bit about them having seen Kurata with new Gizumon, which is literally not true. It’s always so frustrating to see these signs of how little the dub writers care about keeping straight the details of the story they’re trying to adapt.

Marcus is slower to pick up on and has less acknowledgement of his and Keenan’s parents’ fear. This is actually somewhat consistent (though who knows if it’s deliberate or not) with the scene in episode 14, in which it also seemed like Marcus didn’t Get It quite as much as Masaru did about how afraid his mother was of the thought of him disappearing in the Digital World like his dad.

The private conversation between the Crier couple actually had some nice improvements! It got across some of the nuance of how they’d have felt seeing Keenan like this after ten years a little better than the original did, amazing. The conversation with Keenan just before he jumps in the Gate is a little odd with him feeling like he’s “home” already, but then they did have to change the bit where his parents teach him the Japanese phrases somehow, because that wouldn’t have worked so well in English.

As for the Bio-Hybrids, Nanami and Ivan’s voices both do not fit their characters; I’ll talk more about this later in their individual episodes when we get to learn their deals. In general, the trio is presented as a lot goofier and harder to take seriously with several of their lines, which, while they aren’t my favourite set of villains in this series or anything, is still frustrating to see. Kouki also has lines implying that he feels a sense of loyalty towards Kurata, which is just straight-up not a thing that should be part of his character.

#digimon #digimon savers #digimon data squad

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