Digimon Adventure S01E43

Dealing with MetalSeadramon themselves goes extremely poorly, with WarGreymon barely holding his own against the steel-ish serpent. Luckily for him, Whamon is still extremely disoriented from Izzy and Kari’s joint deadening of his vision and hearing respectively, and he bumps into MetalSeadramon and throws him off his attack. MetalSeadramon lasers Whamon a new one, and WarGreymon uses the opening (the battle opening, not the new Whamon opening) to tear MetalSeadramon several new ones. Whamon, on top of once again not receiving a tip, dies.

Distraught at the loss of their ride, the team wanders into a nearby forest. They quickly become acquainted with the forest’s surprising amenities, including moving walkways, random teleportation, and invisible assaults, before Puppetmon comes along and asks T.K. to come over and play. They have a lovely time together before T.K. has to return to the group for supper. There is no supper to be had, so Matt leaves in a huff.

From the end of the previous episode: MetalSeadramon is kicking some Chosen Heineys!

[MetalSeadramon has WarGreymon in his jaws]
MetalSeadram: “You can’t hold out, WarGreymon! This is the end!”
MetalSeadramon: “I’m tired of playing around with you, WarGreymon! SAY GOODBYE!”

[Whamon has smashed into MetalSeadramon to free WarGreymon from his jaws. MetalSeadramon returns the favor by blasting a hole into him]
MetalSeadramon: “This isn’t a joke!”
MetalSeadramon: “Riiiver of POWER!!”

Kind of makes you wonder why he needs to call out his attack if he can just shoot lasers from his snout.

Both Whamon and MetalSeadramon die pretty brutally, and it’s all uncut and out there for you to fully enjoy!

[WarGreymon has brutally murdered MetalSeadramon]
No dialogue and it’s actually kind of awkward.
WarGreymon: “So much for your ‘impenetrable’ Chrome Digizoid armor! Looks to me like it got a little rusty!”

Uh, WarGreymon? We don’t know what “Chrome Digizoid” is; nobody’s explained it to us…

Kabuterimon: “Next time you decide you want to rule the waters, do everybody a favor and take a bubble bath instead!”

I think I will. >:(

---

[Whamon fades away]
Takeru: “Whamon… is dead..?”
T.K.: “Whamon… where did he go?”

He’s going to go live on a nice farm upstate, T.K.. A whale farm.

… I mean one where he can swim and frolic, not like a salmon farm that breeds whales for food…

“Brave Tornado” is “Nova Force” this time, despite obviously being the tornado attack.

---

In the dub, the ocean disappearing from Spiral Mountain is accompanied by draining water noises, but the water sounds kinda goopy. It sounds like water rushing in the original, but the sound effect is much quieter.

Piemon: “The ocean is disappearing.”
Piedmon: “Well, you don’t… see that every day!”

Your water feature is ruined.

Pinocchimon: “Well then, that means it’s my turn.”
Puppetmon: “Tag – I’m It! MetalSeadramon out, Puppetmon IN!”

The footage moved from the previous episode ends here.

[The Chosen Team evaluates the ocean situation]
Koromon: “Spiral Mountain’s ocean is going back!”
Hikari: “Why?”
Gomamon: “It must be because we beat the ocean’s ruler, MetalSeadramon!”
Koushirou: “So the power of darkness has disappeared!”
Taichi: “Our victory got rid of the darkness in this world!”
Jou: “Then let’s keep it up and defeat the Dark Masters!”
Tailmon: “With that, we’ll bring peace to Earth!”
T.K.: “Look! Spiral Mountain’s ocean is almost completely gone!”
Kari: “But why?”
Gomamon: “The digital ocean is being reconfigured because we kicked its Dark Master’s butt!”

He didn’t even have a butt!

Izzy: “Quite interesting, but does this affect us?”

You also have an impermanent butt!

Tai: “Absolutely; it changes everything! If we’re going to get any surfing in, we’d better hurry!”
Joe: “Those wimpy Dark Masters are no threat to SuperJoe!”
Gatomon: “That’s the Digi-tude I like to hear from you humans!”

“And nothing bad happened at all!”

[Oh, right. Mimi is making graves for their fallen friends]
Taichi: “What are you doing?”
Yamato: “Can’t you see? She’s making graves.”
Taichi: “Graves?”
Matt: “In case you haven’t noticed, some of our friends are gone!”
Tai: “Oh… sorry…”

Yeah, that’s why we’re making graves for them – so when they return…

Mimi: “There’s Whamon’s grave. That one’s Piccolomon’s, that one’s Chuumon’s, and this one is for Wizarmon.”
Sora: “They were all defeated for our sake.”
Mimi: “That one is to remember Wizardmon.”

Won’t he be surprised — he didn’t even die in this version!

Mimi: “The one next to it is for Piximon. That one’s Chuumon, and this one here is for Whamon.”

They’re not labeled; it’s fine if their positions are swapped.

Sora: “Mimi, they’re not dead! It’s more like they’ve been downloaded to a different computer.”

Okay, but downloading a file just makes a copy of it, so that means they died twice.

Tailmon: “They all died. Call them ‘sacrifices’; it’s what they’ve been.”
Gatomon: “That’s right; we’re Digital. Our information just gets reconfigured.”

I mean… when we die, our biological matter just gets “reconfigured”, but that still counts as dying. You’re not helping, Gatomon!

Taichi: “We have to work hard for their sakes! We absolutely have to defeat the enemy!”
Tai: “What better reason do we need to get the Dark Masters?! Payback for making our friends leave!”

“… this mortal coil.”

[Mimi declines to continue fighting]
Mimi: “Not me anymore! Why do we have to keep fighting?!”
Mimi: “I have had enough! Every time we fight, we end up losing another friend!”

Oh, that only happened three times. Wizardmon’s still where you left him!

Saved by the censors!

Taichi: “What are you talking about? It’s to avenge their deaths!”
Tai: “This is war, Mimi, and sometimes people we like get hurt, so deal with it!”

That hits a bit differently when you realise that Tai is not the one getting hurt…

Yamato: “Taichi! Think a little of other people’s feelings!”
Taichi: “Eh? What are you saying?”
Yamato: “What you say is the right thing for us to do… but just because it’s right doesn’t mean we can just set peoples’ feelings aside!”
Takeru: “Big brother..!”
Yamato: “We know it’s the right thing to move forward, but there are times to stop and think, aren’t there?”
Taichi: “If we do that, how long will it take for the world–“
Yamato: “Everyone knows that! But..!”
Matt: “We all know you’re right, Tai, but just give us a little space!”
Tai: “Huh?”
Matt: “We miss our friends who’ve fought along side of us! Not everyone has ice running through their veins like you do!”
Tai: “What?”
T.K.: “Calm down!”
Matt: “You’re so busy looking forward that you never take time to look back. We’ve lost some good friends here, Tai, and it’s nice to remember them once in a while!”
Tai: “If we always stop to do that, we’ll never have enough time to save the world!”
Matt: “You still don’t get it I know you hear me, but you’re not listening!”

It’s kind of impressive how the dub managed to get the point of the argument across while also missing the point of the argument. Yamato’s not saying they should stop and reminisce, but he’s right that they need time to rest and process what’s happened. Matt’s argument ends up sounding frivolous, which takes what was originally a balanced disagreement and tips it Tai’s favor.

Matt’s voice actor, Michael Reisz, shows off some of his sweet skills in this scene, though – emotional, pained, but still trying to hold back and be reasonable. He sounds like he’s grieving, and that was really important for this scene. Even the added barb about Tai’s frozen blood is a pretty smart touch. It’s the sort of thing we do hear in arguments in the West, and it’s in-character for Matt.

The “I know you hear me, but you’re not listening” line is kind of silly (Matt, he’s listening; he’s just stupid), but it’s also something we’d hear when someone’s point isn’t getting across and they think the other person is being stubborn. If Reisz had played the line flippantly or angrily, the whole scene would have fallen flat, but he nailed it!

Sora: “Hey, let’s stop. Everyone is upset.”
Sora: “Stop it; you’re making everyone upset! You two are supposed to be friends!”

You got shot with arrows together!

[They walk into the woods, which are well-known to be safer]
Taichi: (thinking) “Was I wrong?”
Yamato: (thinking) “Do we really have no choice but to keep moving on like this, never taking a rest?”
Takeru: (thinking) “What’s going on with big brother?”
Tai: (thinking) “I’m not as cold as Matt thinks, am I?”
Matt: (thinking) “Maybe I was a little too rough on Tai, but he’s gotta respect our feelings!”
T.K.: (thinking) “I’ve never seen Matt so upset before.”

You saw him at his food service job. That’s way worse.

That’s another notable change, though. Taichi is second-guessing his position — now considering his friends’ well-beings, but Tai is mulling over Matt’s insult — thinking of himself.

Jou: (thinking) “We have to find someplace to rest.”
Joe: (thinking) “I just know they’re all thinking about me. That’s why no one’s talking!”

They’re all thinking about how you saved them from a beach shack fire, and then your friend got killed. I’m not saying the one caused the other, but…

A “TING” sound accompanies whatever gets Hikari’s attention that no one else could hear. The dub takes things more literally, and we don’t hear anything when Kari does.

[Pinocchimon is watching them on a television]
Pinocchimon: “They should hurry up and get here… I’m sick of waiting!”
Kiwi-like Digimon: “Well, they are human children.”
Pinocchimon: “Honestly, they’re just so slow!”
Puppetmon: “If these kids take any longer to get here, I will develop wood rot!”
Kiwi-like Digimon: “Have patience; Rome wasn’t built in a day!”
Puppetmon: “Yeah, but I was, and I’m tired of waiting!”

A+ joke.

The Kiwi-like Digimon hanging out with Pinocchimon is Kiwimon – we’ll get his Analyzer screen later. He has a weird, foppish voice in the dub and a weird, lady-doing-a-deeper voice in the original. He does not have a New Zealand accent in either, sadly.

[The ground the Children are walking on starts accelerating forward under them. Pinocchimon is into it]
Pinocchimon: “Look, I’m such a good host, aren’t I? When those kids get here…”
Puppetmon: “This is more fun than the time I was fumigated for termites!”

D- joke.

[Pinocchimon rummages through a toy chest]
Pinocchimon: “What should we play with? Let’s see now…”
Puppetmon: “Now, where did I put those dolls..? I haven’t seen some of these toys since I was a sapling!”

F- science.

[15 sec] From his toy chest, Pinocchimon pulls the most popular toy in America: a gun!

Pinocchimon: “Check this out! A 44 Magnum. It’s really destructive!” *produces a bullet* “And this is a dum-dum bullet.” *loads the gun* “When you get shot with this…” *points the gun at Kiwimon* “… the inside of your stomach bursts!”

If you’re not from America and you’re surprised this was cut from the dub because I didn’t clarify my “most popular toy in America” was a joke: most Americans don’t actually want kids playing with real guns.

Japan doesn’t need to worry so much about impressionable youngsters playing with firearms, because it’s illegal for citizens to own handguns there, and guns that are permitted (rifles and shotguns for hunting or sport) have strict storage and licensing requirements.

The US, however, does not have special restrictions on handgun ownership, and at least around the time this episode aired, handguns accounted for the majority of accidental gunshot injuries among children. All things considered, it’s no surprise that networks were hesitant to show characters screwing around with guns in kids’ programming.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation#Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_and_Sword_Possession_Control_Law
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283013090_Children_and_unintentional_firearm_death
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/105/4/888

[Back at the motorized grass walkway thing, they tried to jump off, but they jumped right onto another one]
Sora: “Hey… Where do you think this is taking us?”
Yamato: “What other place is there? The enemy must be waiting for us ahead!”
Sora: “Obviously, someone’s trying to get us somewhere, and in a big hurry!”
Matt: “I bet you’re right, and why do I get the feeling that ‘someone”s not too friendly?”

They were nice enough to not make you have to walk the whole way. That’s something!

Takeru: “No way!”
Jou: “We can’t just let ourselves fall right into enemy hands!”
Taichi: “Yeah…”
T.K.: “Oh no!”
Joe: “This is the first time I’ve been carsick without a car!”
Tai: “I’ve got a plan. All we need is a car!“

[Still rifling through the toy chest]
Pinocchimon: *takes out an extendy grabby thing” “Not yet?” *grabs Kiwimon’s head with it*
Kiwimon: “Lord Pinocchimon, there’s no sign of the children anywhere.”
Puppetmon: “This was always good for a few laughs…”
Kiwimon: “Master!” *extendo head-grabbo* “Yes, that’s very entertaining, Lord Puppetmon, but there’s no sign of the children.”

[Kiwimon reports that the kids have moved off-screen]
Pinocchimon: “What did you say?!” *sees the screen* “Wh-what..?” *changes views, then channels silently*
Puppetmon: “What?! They were here a second ago! Where are they?” *changes the view to look at a lovely tree* “Not here…” *now a lovely tree branch* “Not here!” *lovely river view* “I need a new cable company!”

Yeah, this all-nature network is nice, but it gets boring really quickly…

Pinocchimon actually changes channels in the original! We don’t see it on his TV, but we hear him switch to a channel playing a song, then to something in which a group of people are saying something I didn’t catch, and finally to someone getting smacked and someone (else?) crying out, which was delightful. No background music accompanied this scene.

The dub doesn’t give us any sounds for the programs he switches through, but it makes up for it by playing frantic music, heightening the drama and tension of his channel-surfing.

[The Chosen Team has evaded the moving walkways by climbing a tree. Sora deduces the moving walkways are the work of a Dark Master]
Jou: “We were walking straight towards the enemy all this time.”
Joe: “We have to do something! I say we either keep going, or we build a nest!”

Taichi: “But we have to confront them some day. It’s the same thing!”
Yamato: “We know that, but you don’t have to say it now!”
Tai: “I say we have to fight whoever-it-is sooner or later, so let’s get to it!”
Matt: “Oh, come on! Again with the fighting?! Why don’t you just go to a neutral corner already?”

Not understanding corner neutrality, I turned to the internet for wisdom:

… and WOW, I have a lot to learn about boxing!

Before the introduction of steel chairs to the sport, a neutral corner was one of the two that wasn’t assigned to a fighter in a boxing match. A boxer who knocked their opponent down had to wait in a neutral corner as the referee counted to 10, at which point the downed opponent would turn into a pumpkin. The non-neutral corners contain either their own coach or the opposition’s coach, so they can’t hang out in those. Coaches need their space.

Matt must be just as confused about boxing as I am, as he doesn’t seem to realize that Tai is supposed to knock his opponent down before occupying the neutral corner.

[Takeru intervenes]
Takeru: “Big Brother! Stop fighting!”
Yamato: “Takeru…”
T.K.: “Come on, Matt, please stop arguing!”
Matt: “You… keep out of this.”

He’s involved, Matt. Who do you think is wielding the steel chair?

Taichi: “If we keep avoiding them, we’ll just get slaughtered one day. Let’s go find where the enemy is located!”
Yamato: “Wait a second!”
Tai: “All right, Matt, let’s try it your way. We’ll stay up here and wait for the enemy to get us!”
Matt: “That’s not what I meant!”

Yeah, that was Joe’s idea with the nest. And the more I think about it, the more I think he may be on to something…

[One by one, children start disappearing!]
Tentomon: “Koushirou is gone, too!”
Tentomon: “Maybe their screen savers are on Sleep!”

Damnit, they were supposed to set the computers to go to Sleep, not just the screen savers! Curse you and your Power settings misinformation, Izzy!

---

[Elsewhere, Jou is dropped off in a mud puddle.]
Jou: “It’s cold…”
Joe: “WAAAOOHH! I hate mud.”

Just pretend it it’s some other brown, semi-solid material, then.

---

[Back at the tree]
Yamato: “They’re all gone!”
Takeru: “Why? How did this happen?”
Yamato: “I don’t know. Our enemy must have done something to them… Takeru.”
Takeru: “What?”
Matt: “I think it’s over!”
T.K.: (surrounded by their friends’ Digimon partners) “But now we’re separated from everyone else!”
Matt: “Don’t worry; we’ll be all right without the others – especially Tai!“
T.K.: “Huh?”
Matt: “T.K..”
T.K.: “Yeah?”

You’ll be extra-all right without Tai!

Yamato: “I’ll protect you no matter what.”
Takeru: “Big brother… We’ve gotten this far with everyone’s power together. So why do you keep giving me special treatment?”
Yamato: “Takeru…
Takeru: “I’ve been fighting alongside everyone, too! Haven’t I? Have I just been dead weight? Does saying you’ll protect me mean I’m unreliable??”
Yamato: “Takeru… That’s not it… I… What I wanted to say is…”
Takeru: “What?”
Yamato: (thinking) “I… I…”
Matt: “Just stay close to me, and I’ll protect you no matter what happens!”
T.K.: “Listen, Matt… The only reason we got this far is because we worked as a team. Each one of us has played a part along the way in keeping us together – including Tai.”

Like when he went home and left you all to fall apart after the Etemon fight!

Matt: “But I… uh.”
T.K.: “And I don’t need you to protect me all the time, either! If you haven’t noticed, I’ve grown up a lot! I’ve fought alongside you guys since the beginning, and I’ve always held my own!”
Matt: “T.K., that’s not what I meant. What I… What I wanted to say was…”
T.K.: “What?”
Matt: 🙁 (thinking) “I’m pushing everyone away…”

Don’t be so dramatic, Matt. You’re only pushing your brother away; everyone else got teleported or some shit.

For more character changes, T.K. is relegated to defending Tai, only defending himself as an aside! Him confronting Yamato about his coddling is an important character arc for both of them. Takeru is hurt that his brother might not respect him as a capable member of the team, and Yamato is faced with the fact that his brother is growing up and doesn’t need his protection.

[Pinocchimon is the teleportist, thanks to his Collector’s Edition Chosen Children Action Figures! He slings a metal shot at the Jou figure, knocking about $300 off its resale value and causing real Jou to fall back into his mud puddle, which he must have gotten comfortable in, because he didn’t bother stepping out of it]
Hikari: “Jou, are you okay?”
Jou: “My stomach suddenly…”
Hikari: “Your stomach hurts?”
Jou: “I was shot in my stomach!”
Hikari: “Heh?!”
Kari: “Hey, Joe, are you all right?”
Joe: (groaning) “My stomach!”
Kari: “What’s wrong? Does it hurt?”
Joe: “No, I’m just doin’ this cuz it’s FUN!”
Kari: “Joe!”

Don’t sass the tiny, sweet girl, you jerk! I hope you were pretending that puddle is the other brown semi-solid and still think that!

I love the acting in that scene, though. Joe’s pained sass sounds believable, and Kari’s admonishing “Joe!” is sharp and well-deserved!

Her voice actor did a good job portraying her confused concern, too, but the scolding “Joe!” was great.

[Pinocchimon continues reducing the market value of his collection]
Pinocchimon: “Let’s do this now…” *grabs Taichi doll* “With this…” *grabs Jou doll* “And this…”
Puppetmon: “I’ve got a new game I wanna play! Now come ‘ere!” *grabs Tai doll* “You, too!” *grabs Joe doll*

---

[Taichi appears with Hikari]
Hikari: “Big brother!”
Kari: (exasperated) “Aw, brother…”

[Jou appears with Mimi]
Pinocchimon: “Here!”
Mimi: “What’s going on?!
Puppetmon: “And for you…”
Joe: *cries out*
Mimi: “Aaah! Stop moving!”

---

[Pinocchimon spins the Taichi figure around to face the Hikari figure]
Pinocchimon: “And then this…”
Puppetmon: “This is like playin’ chess with the Digidestined!”

This is a chess strategy I haven’t seen before, but I’m impressed!

[He moves the Hikari figure next to the Koushirou figure]
Koushirou: “Hikari!”
Hikari: “Koushirou!”
Izzy: “Fascinating…”
Kari: “Maybe for you!”

Look, how often do we get to see these grandmaster-level chess skills?! I didn’t even know you could just swap the pieces wherever!

[Pinocchimon flips the Taichi figure upside-down before dropping it on its head (value -$170)]
Pinocchimon: “Also, when I do this…”
Puppetmon: “We’ve reached the turning point!”

[Pinocchimon tickles the Takeru figure, thinning the protective coating on the paint (value -$450). Takeru is laughing at his poor judgement]
Jou: “Are you okay, Takeru?” *disappears*
Joe: “I don’t know what’s so funny, but this is no laughing ma–” *disappears*

It is if you think about him trying to sell those on Dig-eBay now!

Piyomon: “Where did everyone go?”
Tailmon: “It’s no use waiting here. Let’s go search for them!”
Biyomon: “You know, I’m getting tired of doing nothing!”
Gatomon: “I won’t be some cat stuck in a tree! Let’s go look for them!”

Mimi: “I’ll wait here.”
Koromon: “Koushirou, wait here with Mimi!”
Koushirou: “Got it. Please take care of the others.”
All: “Okay!”
Mimi: “Ugh, this is awful!”
Koromon: “You said it! How could it get any worse?”
Izzy: “I’ll tell you how: the branches are starting to crack!”
[sounds of the branches starting to break. The Digimon all jump down]
Digimon: “Whooaa!”
Patamon: “They should learn to fly!”

The branches were completely fine in the original. In the dub, they probably weakened because of Gatomon’s “cat stuck in a tree” joke.

[Back in Pinocchimon’s room]
Pinocchimon: “I think I’ll play with this one first. He looks easy to pick on!”
Kiwimon: “Shall I bring him here?”
Pinocchimon: “Nah. I’ll do it myself.”
Puppetmon: “I think I found a new toy to play with! He looks very easy to scare.”

You’re taking that shot out of context, Puppetmon.

---

[Yamato is again rebuffed in his attempted coddling of his younger brother, WHEN SUDDENLY]
Pinocchimon: (sing-song) “Let’s pla~y!”
Takeru: “Who’s that?
Pinocchimon: “Let’s pla~y”
Yamato: “Takeru, be careful!
Pinocchimon: “Let’s pla~y!”
Puppetmon: (sing-song) “Hey, T.K.~! Whaddya sa~ay?”
Matt: “T.K., stay close!”
Puppetmon: “Time to pla-ay~!”

[Pinocchimon puts his hands over Takeru’s eyes and startles him]
Pinocchimon: (friendly) “Let’s play!”
Puppetmon: (aggressively) “Time to play!”

There is a ‘scare’ sting when Pinocchimon covers Takeru’s eyes in the original, which is absent in the dub.

[Yamato steps between them to shield Takeru]
Yamato: “Try to lay a finger on Takeru again! You won’t get away with it!”
Pinocchimon: “Hmm, so you’re called Takeru…”
Matt: “Keep your hands off my brother, Puppetmon, or I’ll chop you into firewood!”
Puppetmon: “Come on, be nice!”

(10 sec) Pinocchimon invites Takeru to play an innocent, friendly game of ‘war’, and he tosses him a very real and very loaded gun.

[Takeru asks if Pinocchimon really means “play”]
Pinocchimon: “That’s right. I’ll let you borrow this!” *tosses him a machine gun of some kind*
Takeru: “Heavy–” *he drops it, and it goes off* “It’s real?? I’ll die if I play with this thing!”

[Continuing from the cut scene]
Pinocchimon: “Of course! Dying for real is what makes it interesting! But it’s okay; I won’t let you die that easily! If you die too soon, it’ll be boring, right?”
Puppetmon: “But of course! At least, in the beginning it will be make-believe, anyway! But then it’s ‘bye-bye’, and it will be time to destroy you for real! If I got rid of you now, I’d have no fun!”

See? He’s just trying to make friends!

[Yamato warns Takeru against playtime with literal murder dolls]
Yamato: “Takeru! Don’t listen to what he’s saying!”
Pinocchimon: “This is none of your own business!” *throws a goop ball at Yamato*
Matt: “T.K., he’s just trying to scare you! Don’t listen to him!”
Puppetmon: “Don’t lie to him, or your nose will grow!” *throws goop ball*

Okay, so they changed his name from Pinocchimon to Puppetmon, but they can still make references to Pinocchio…

The gun that Pinocchimon kindly offered for their game is painted over as Takeru is having second thoughts about playtime with the literal murder doll.

[Pinocchimon threatens to kill Yamato if Takeru won’t come along with him]
Takeru: “You can’t!”
Pinocchimon: “Then you’re coming?”
Yamato: “Takeru! Don’t listen to what he says!”
Pinocchimon: “Shut up!” *goops Yamato’s mouth shut* (to Takeru) “What do you say?”
Takeru: “I’ll go. That’s all I have to do?”
Pinocchimon: “That’s all!”
T.K.: “Okay, I’ll come!”
Puppetmon: “That’s a good boy!”
Matt: “T.K., it’s a trap! Run away now while you still can!”
Puppetmon: “Shut up!” *goops Matt’s mouth shut* (to Takeru) “So, is it a deal? We’ll have lots of fun!” *laughs*

---

[14 sec] In the next scene, Pinocchimon and Takeru do that bit from the James Bond films, but instead of Takeru shooting the person behind the scope, he drops the gun and Pinocchimon pretends to shoot him, then tells him to run.

Pinocchimon: “There!” *pretends to shoot* “BANG!”
[Takeru flails]
Pinocchimon: “Hurry up and run! This is boring.”
Puppetmon: (voice-over) “Now you hide, and I’ll seek and destroy!”

A scene from later with Takeru running up the stairs is moved to this point in the dub. Pinocchimon is holding a gun in this shot, and it is painted over for the dub.

Pinocchimon: “Hm, going up, eh?”
Puppetmon: “That’s good, keep running! You make the game interesting!”

In the dub, T.K. runs below the stairwell, then up the stairs. Puppetmon’s house is an Escher painting.

[Two unknown Digimon stand in a room by themselves staring at a wall for some reason]
Digimon (flower): “Someone’s coming.”
Digimon (mushroom): “Who is it?”
Digimon (flower): “Must be Lord Pinocchimon’s new toy.”
Digimon (flower): “Hey, someone’s comin’.”
Digimon (mushroom): “Who could it be?”
Digimon (flower): “Sounds to me like Lord Puppetmon has found a new boy toy!”

Mon, I hope you don’t know what that means…

[Takeru hides in their room]
Takeru: (awkward) “Ummm…” *hides* “Hey, don’t tell him I’m hiding here, okay?”
T.K.: (friendly) “Oh, hi there! Bye!” *hides “By the way, I’m hiding back here, so don’t say anything, ‘kay?”
Digimon (mush): “No problem.”

Pinocchimon checks the room Takeru hid in and asks the two Digimon where he is. His gun is painted over.

[24 sec] Not understanding the rules of Hide and Seek, they immediately give away Takeru’s position, and Pinocchimon rushes over to it. He points his gun at what turns out to be the empty space where Takeru is definitely not.

Surprised by this information, the two Digimon come over, asserting that he definitely was there even though he is definitely not there. Pinocchimon calls out their terrible lie, then shoots them both dead.

Pinocchimon: “Hey, did Takeru come in here?”
Digimon: “Takeru? Oh, if you mean that human boy, then he’s hiding between those shelves.”
Pinocchimon: “Really? Okay!” *runs over* “Come out! He’s not here!”
Digimon (flow): “That can’t be!”
Digimon (mush): “He was definitely there!”
Pinocchimon: “Liars!” *shoots them both dead* “Ugh, they make me mad…”
Puppetmon: “Hey, you guys, you didn’t happen to see a little kid run back here, didja? He’s got a green hat and a backpack.”
Digimon (flower): “No, we didn’t see anything like that, boss!”
Digimon (mushroom): “All we saw was a kid wearing a backpack and a green hat he’s hiding over there!”
Puppetmon: (smiling) “LOSERS!” *at T.K.’s hiding place* “Come out, come out, wherever you are! Especially if you’re behind the door!”
*T.K. runs out from behind the door*
Puppetmon: “Ah-hah!”

The dub picks up when Takeru runs out from behind the door.

Gotta admit I dig the spontaneous “LOSERS!” It adds a little punch to an otherwise awkwardly cut scene!

[Outside the mansion]
Patamon: “A building in a place like this? Maybe Takeru is inside!”
Patamon: “Hey, look! A house in the middle of a forest!”

Is now a good time for this, Patamon?

Patamon: “I wonder if anyone inside has seen T.K.!”

There we go.

---

[Back inside, Takeru accidentally steps on the forest’s moving walkway remote, activating it and bringing all the Chosen Children and Digimon together. Gabumon releases Yamato from his goopy bonds, and Yamato reports that Pinocchimon has taken Takeru]
Taichi: “Where are Pinocchimon and Takeru?”
Tai: “Where’d that creepy little toothpick take T.K.?”

All these wood-specific slurs…

[Yamato doesn’t know where Pinocchimon has taken Takeru. Koushirou posits that the moving walkway leads to Pinocchimon]
Jou: “Yeah, that must be it!”
Koromon: “Let’s find that road!”
Taichi: “All right! Everyone, let’s go!”
Joe: “Then we’ll all be trapped!”
Koromon: “It’s worth it to save T.K.!”
Tai: “I agree! Let’s go get ‘um!”

Narrator: “Kiwimon: an ancient Digimon said to be extinct. Although a bird-type Digimon, his wings have degenerated so he cannot fly. His special attack is Little Pecker.”
Tentomon: “OH NO, it’s KIWIMON, an ancient Digimon that was said to be extinct! Although he’s a bird-type Digimon, his wings have degenerated so he can’t fly!”

Tentomon delivers that strangely accurate analysis very dramatically.

Little Pecker, because “pecker” is slang for “penis”, is changed to “Pummel Peck” in the dub, which is not slang for “penis” yet.

[Agumon fights back]
Agumon: “Baby Flame!”
Agumon: “Have some… Pepper Breath!”

Just a little, thank you…

[Patamon finds Pinnochimon’s Chosen Children dolls and immediately contributes to the destruction of their collector’s value]
Jou: (off-screen) “Wah– Ow!”
Gomamon: “What’s wrong, Jou?”
Jou: “Someone suddenly pushed me!”
Hikari: “Are you all right, Jou?”
(no off-screen cries from Joe)
Gomamon: “Joe, what happened?”
Joe: “Why does this stuff always happen to me?”
Kari: “Weird. I didn’t see anyone push you.”

Without the connection between Patamon pushing the doll and Joe falling, and with Kari’s strangely specific and apathetic denial, we must conclude that KARI PUSHED HIM.

[Patamon watches them on screen]
Patamon: “This is… Then, this is..?” *activates the moving walkway* “I have to tell Takeru about this!”
Patamon: “Joe’s on TV? Let’s see what else is on!” *activates the moving walkway* “Now that’s what I call ‘remote control’!”

(33 sec) Pinocchimon runs up the stairs and finds Takeru, fires four shots at his feet, then runs out of bullets and reloads. In the dub, all frames showing his gun are cut, and they loop the frames of him digging in his pockets for bullets to pretend he’s scratching his leg.

Pinocchimon: “Found you!” *fires four shots at Takeru, which he dodges* “Heheh! I’ll start from the legs!” *click* “Huh?” *click click* “I’m out of bullets. [I’ve got] new bullets, so it’s all good!”
Puppetmon: “There you are! I found you. The game’s over. I-I’m gonna destroy you in a minute, but first I have to scratch my leg. I guess that’s what I get for… havin’ a leg made of poison oak!”

Pictured: Atlantic poison oak (US gov, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2527687)

It took a hell of a lot of the stuff, and it was not worth it!

Pinocchimon’s gun and the holes he made in the floor with it are censored when Takeru calls him out for his game being dull af.

The editors do a rather nice job of matching the art style for the backgrounds. I didn’t see any frames without the bullet holes when I looked, which would mean the editing team digitally painted over them instead of using a shot from before the floorboards were… uh, shot. If you look at the board under Takeru’s left foot, you can see they replicated the light flecks that appear throughout the background — there’s one in the dub edit that isn’t there in the original. If this is correct that they didn’t have a previous frame to copy from, then that’s really nice attention to detail. Either way, I think it’s pretty cool that they cared enough to match the artwork rather than just brushing over it and hoping it would look good enough.

The dub image on the right looks a little bleached out, but I think that’s because of the brightness difference in my videos and not related to the dub team’s editing.

[Takeru has a brainwave]
Takeru: “Aah, that was so boring!”
Pinocchimon: “What did you say?”
Takeru: “I’m tired of doing this over and over! You’re a surprisingly boring kid!”
Pinocchimon: “Eh?? That’s the first time I’ve been told that!”
T.K.: “How boring. I’m not having any fun at all!”
Puppetmon: “What?! I’m the life of the party! I put the ‘fun’ in fungus!”
T.K.: “HA! You just play the same game over and over again… boring!”
Puppetmon: “I’m not boring!”

Yeah, T.K., he’s a fun g– OW! Oh, come on! It was implied!

Takeru: “Eh, really? Aah… It’s because you don’t have any friends, isn’t it?”
Pinocchimon: “Eh… I-I do.”
Takeru: “Then bring these friends of yours together here.”
Pinocchimon: “I’ll introduce you later.”
Takeru: “Not later; introduce us now!”
Pinocchimon: “Now… isn’t good…”
Takeru: “Ehhh? You really don’t have any friends after all!”
Pinocchimon: “I do! I’ll go get one right now! Wait here!”
T.K.: “Well, if that’s true, how come you don’t have any real friends?”
Puppetmon: “I-I’ve got friends…”
T.K.: “Yeah? Then how come I haven’t met these so-called ‘friends’ of yours?”
Puppetmon: “All right! I’ll get them and introduce you right now!”

“I’ve known you for 20 minutes. Not exactly ‘introduce you to friends o’clock'” was also an acceptable answer.

The bullet holes are still in the floor when Patamon finds Takeru.

Gotta say: the dub’s editing team did a really nice job covering up the holes in the floor!

[Elsewhere, Pinocchimon is assembling his ‘friend’]
Pinocchimon: “This is good!”
Puppetmon: “I like to make friends!”

Aww!

---

[Back where the other kids and Digimon are fighting Kiwimon. Yamato attempts to get intel out of Kiwimon, and Taichi insists on beating Kiwimon first]
Yamato: “No! Before we beat him, we have to know where Takeru is! Gabumon!”
Matt: “No! First we find T.K., then we’ll fight your war!”

This section of script is spot-on except for this one part! Matt, you’re under attack by Little Peckers– I mean, Pummel Peckers– Pummel Pecks. I think I get what they were going for (Matt lashing out at Tai), but Yamato isn’t oblivious to why they’re fighting.

Matt’s Digivice beeps when Gabumon tries to Warp digivolve in the dub, and the entire time when he looks at it. It’s silent in the original, because it is non-functional. Also, they don’t beep when they evolve. That’s just for tracking and shit. Anyway, it’s still a step up from that awful screeching they do in the dub!

[Pinocchimon’s friend is finally dressed and ready to go!]
Pinocchimon: “All done! No matter how you look at this thing, it’s a friend!”
*He runs back to the hallway, where Takeru is fleeing with Patamon*
Puppetmon: “There, done! I said I like to make friends, and I’ve made one!”

We got the joke the first time, buddy.

[Outside, Takeru runs past two pieces of suspicious flora and dera]
Floramon: “It’s Lord Pinocchimon’s toy.”
Deramon: “I don’t want to get involved.”
Floramon: “Let’s pretend we didn’t see him.”
Deramon: “Yeah.”
Floramon: “It’s Lord Puppetmon’s new toy!”
Deramon: “Where’s he goin’? We’re gonna play charades!”
Floramon: “Maybe he doesn’t know how to play!”
Deramon: “Yeah, that’s it!”

They are Floramon and Deramon, to disambiguate them from the previous flower and mushroom Digimon.

Floramon’s voice is like a normal woman’s in the original and a nasally falsetto in the dub. Deramon has a kid’s voice in the original, and his dub voice is… uh… he has another weirdly Northeastern American accent. Lot of Jersey Digimon move to this area, I guess.

---

Back at Kiwimon vs. The World, Piyomon evolves to Birdramon and murders the fuck out of Kiwimon and makes the whole team look like a bunch of idiots, because it was incredibly easy. In the dub, the scene starts with the standard “battle time” music, then cuts out for adverts, and “Hey, Digimon” plays when it returns.

[Kiwimon has been defeated, and Birdramon reverts to Piyomon]
Yamato: “Takeru… Where’s Takeru? You beat him! Now we don’t know where Takeru is!!”
Taichi: “Hey! Calm down, Yamato!”
Takeru: “Hey!”
Sora: “Takeru!”
Matt: “Biyomon, what did you do?! Look what your Digimon did! Without Kiwimon, we’ll never find T.K.!”
Tai: “Calm down, Matt!”
T.K.: “Hey!”
Sora: “It’s T.K.!”

“Thank fuck, because I did not want to hear the rest of that…”

[Takeru was able to take care of himself]
Hikari: “That’s great!”
Kari: “You’re the man!”

Don’t.

Jou: “You’ve really grown without us knowing it!”
Joe: “Boy, for a little kid, that was a pretty big escape!”

You have no idea, Joe. The puppet had a fucking gun.

[Takeru brought them Pinocchimon’s now-worthless collection as a trophy]
Sora: “But yours looks cute, Mimi.”
Mimi: “No way! I’m not this ugly! But… I’ll keep it as a souvenir anyway!”
*they laugh*
Piyomon and Palmon: “Show us, show us!”
Sora: “Wow, Mimi, your doll is really pretty!”
Mimi: “What? No way! I would never wear rags like this! … Oh! I could take her to the mall for some new clothes!”
Sora: “Well!”
*they laugh*
Biyomon and Palmon: “All right, you go!”

For some reason, the part where Takeru asks where Yamato went and Jou points to where he is not was moved to after the scene of Pinocchimon finding out that Takeru broke all his toys and the TV on his way out.

Pinocchimon: “So he doesn’t like playing with me, huh? I see. I get it.”
Puppetmon: “So, he didn’t want to play with me, huh? T.K…. you’ll pay for this!”

The worst thing T.K. broke was his heart.

Takeru: “Huh? Where’s my brother?”
Jou: “Yamato was just over there… Huh…?”
T.K.: “Anybody see where Matt went?”
Joe: “He’s right over there.”
*he is not*
All: “Huh?”
Joe: “I don’t get it! He and Gabumon were there a second ago! They vanished! Here we go again!”

Joe, you are so bad at covering for people…

---

Finally, the episode ends on Pinocchimon’s ominous muttering. In the dub, we get a new cliffhanger: one which doesn’t borrow a scene from the next episode!

Narrator: “Will Puppetmon take revenge on T.K.? Is he behind Matt’s disappearance? Find out on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters!”

Oooh, is that why they moved the scene? To make it look like Puppetmon had time to kidnap Matt after we saw him walk away? Pretty clever, dub writers!