Digimon Adventure S02E14

Searching for a Digi-Egg in an area outside of Ken’s control, the hungry DigiDestined happen upon a restaurant run by a Digitamamon. The place seems familiar to TK, though he can’t quite place it. They enjoy the food greatly, but the owner won’t take their money because shut up.

Mimi arrives with a friend named Michael, who offers to cover the tab for them, despite Digitamamon blowing up at them earlier. TK finally remembers the battle between him and WereGarurumon years ago, and Digitamamon expresses regret over his service to Myotismon and the Dark Masters. Yolei reluctantly trusts him.

The group is attacked by a Gorillamon wearing a Dark Spiral. It attacks, but Digitamamon armors up and takes the hit, flying into the distance. Michael’s Betamon Digivolves to Seadramon, and together with Togemon, they manage to remove the Dark Spiral. But when Digitamamon returns, he attacks the kids, claiming it was all a ruse to earn their trust.

Mimi isn’t convinced and tries to talk down Digitamamon, only to be attacked for her trouble. Yolei rambles about judging boys by their looks and then segues into being sincere, activating the Digi-Egg of Sincerity somehow. Hawmon Armor Digivolves to Shurimon and destroys the Dark Spiral inside Digitamamon’s shell, freeing him from Ken’s influence.

GEEZ Kari’s recap of the previous episode is frenetic as hell. I barely kept up and I actually watched the episode.

Mimi’s throwing a party in New York. It’s interesting because her guests speak English with a very thick Japanese accent in the original.

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The song playing in the background of the dub party sounds like Matt’s song about spinning in place. Nice of her to give his band some exposure in the States.

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Oh look, censored Japanese text, the body of the e-mail says the exact opposite of what the original says, and there’s a bad joke thrown in about autocorrect. I should buy a lottery ticket…

Koushiro: A gate opened in America! I wonder if Mimi-san noticed…
Izzy: Whoa, a Digi-Port has opened in America! <beat> Hey, wait! Mimi lives there!

Izzy’s mind slowly crumbles episode by episode. Whoa, a gate opened in Japan! <two bus stops and one random pigeon attack later> Hey wait, I live in Japan!

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Yolei mentions that they’re so close to finding that new Digi-Egg, meaning she’s beginning to crack as badly as everyone else is.

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silence
Digitamamon: Would you like to sit in the Digivolving or Non-Digivolving section?

I don’t deserve this.

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Miyako: I didn’t think we could eat this well in the Digital World!
Iori: Same here!
Yolei: I’m going to recommend this restaurant to all my friends who dine in the DigiWorld!
Cody: Me too!

They’re all already there. Everyone who dines in the Digital World that you know of is in a nearby booth. Cod…

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Everyone is ruder in the dub.

Oh, and bad decisions from the first series come back to bite them in the butt.

In the episode Friends! WereGarurumon, Digitamamon only accepts American dollars, a practice that is continued even now in Zero-Two. Miyako asks how much that is in yen, and Digitamamon gets mad about it, because they only take American money.

In the dub of this episode, for whatever reason, they switch his preference to DigiDollars, which is a made up currency Joe somehow happened to have back in WereGarurumon’s Diner, presumably so the dubbers could hide the fact that the kids were Japanese (which all fell apart anyway). And… it’s really confusing. I don’t know why any of this is happening and I think I just had a seizure. Excuse me.

Er, anyway. Digitamamon explains in the dub that they switched to DigiDollars as currency “since the Dark Masters left.” Which is not an explanation. For anything. At all. And they didn’t leave, they were blown up. Yolei then says that she has the money in dollars (apparently American dollars?) rather than Yen because shut up and pretend all of this makes sense.

Digitamamon: I don’t want any human world deadbeats in here! No wonder the French detest tourists!

No, they just hate it when Appmon tourists from Japan try to pay in American dollars when they only accept Deutsch Mark bills and Antarctican coins.

Surprisingly, “Michael” isn’t a name the dub made up. I guess it makes sense because he is supposed to be Mimi’s American friend, but after changing Miyako to Yolei or Ichijouji to Itchy Joe Cheese, I half expected his name in the original to be Ronald or Samuel.

His voice in the dub is kinda reminiscent of a stereotypical British knight, which makes absolutely no sense, so at least the dub is consistent in that.

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Narrator: Betamon! An amphibian Digimon with a warm personality… but he will shock you with one million volts if you anger him!
Palmon: Betamon is really cool! He lives in the water and uses is Beta Slugger attack to wipe out his enemies!

Why do all these analysis have to talk about what they do when they’re angry, or how they wipe out their enemies? What if we want to know more personal things, like his favorite TV shows or what currency he prefers to use when paying for food in confusing multinational diners?

Michael makes his entrance by offering to pay the tab for them. But how the hell does he just have $83 on him to pay for a dropped tab no one knew about? He’s like 13, right? When I was 13, I was saving up my milk money quarters to buy a Digivice you know what? That’s not important. Never mind.

In both versions, Michael says he saw a Gorimon/Gorillamon in New York, but in the dub, he initially wrote it off as yet another King Kong incident, since apparently that’s something that just happens in that universe.

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Michael: I wonder if that means we all had an encounter with a Digimon at the exact same time.

…no, because you saw Gorillamon when Myotismon came to Earth to seek out the Eighth Child. By that point, the seven DigiDestined from the first series were already in possession of their Digivices and… yeah, this makes no sense still.

Seriously, I didn’t remember how confusing this episode was in the dub. Nothing is consistent.

We know you have a lot of choices when you travel, so we thank you for choosing “Airline.”

That’s not a slam at the dub, either, it’s like that in both versions.

Miyako: I wasn’t directly involved in what happened the summer of 1999…
Yolei: I wish I could say that that summer was as terrifying for me as it was for you guys…

That’s a weird wish.

Also, if you couldn’t tell, the dub is avoiding any mention of an actual year, probably so they can keep the timeline as confusing as humanly possible.

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Takeru: My brother and Jou-san were forced to work here, and Vamdemon’s agent, Digitamamon, attacked them!
TK: He made Matt and Joe work in the kitchen here. He got really mad when Matt asked if he could get half price on his meals!

Gennai help us, they’re all succumbing to something that’s eating their brains from the inside out.

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The switch from the Crest of Purity to the Crest of Sincerity changes dialogue throughout the episode. Where Miyako mentions she’s never heard of the Dark Masters and that neither Takeru or Hikari has told her about them yet, Yolei claims Digitamamon must still be a bad guy for being so mean about the weird currency issues.

Apparently the idea behind the Crest of Sincerity is “brutally honest and rude,” so I see how she ends up with the egg at the end. /spoilers

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Yolei: It’s okay, Digitamamon! I’m sure you’re not a total loser anymore!

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Michael: Mimi-san, your trust in people gives them courage. I want to learn that!
Mimi: Sure, learn on!
[Digitamamon forgives their bill despite griping about it for what I can only assume has been hours at this point based on the intensity of my headache]
Michael: You know Mimi, I admire you because no matter who you meet, you bring out the best in everyone. You’re really special!
Mimi: Plus I saved you some DigiDollars!

UGH

That aside, I do find it weird that Michael in the original calls her Mimi-san despite meeting and knowing her in America.

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Narrator: Gorimon! HIs special attack is Power Attack.
Michael: Gorillamon is the Digimon I saw back in New York! Watch out for his Energy Cannon attack, it’ll drive you bananas!

The Digimon Analyzer sequence is three seconds longer in the dub.

This is the longest episode ever, I swear.

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Narrator: Seadramon! A large snakelike Adult Digimon that lives underwater. His special attack is Ice Arrow.
Mimi: Wow, Michael! Seadramon’s your Digimon! I still get chills when I remember his Ice Blast and Ice Winder attacks!

Gorillamon manages to shout “Energy Cannon!” while underwater which is impressive. He says nothing in the original.

Here’s a weird reversal – the original gets it wrong and the dub gets it right. Togemon shouts “Prickly Bang Bang!” (which American audiences know best as “So you want a little Needle Spray, do ya?!”) before launching it what was supposed to be called Mach Jab. In the dub, she shouts Lightspeed Jabbing, which is the correct attack.

Michael: That a kid like us is trying to take over the Digital World, it’s just wrong!
Michael: I don’t get it, why would a young kid want to take over the Digital World when he could be playing polo or practicing the violin?

Well if those weirdly flirtatious-towards-elementary-school-age-kids reporters are to be believed, he’s already mastered both.

The reveal of Digitamamon being evil is shifted to before Yolei’s internal dialogue in the dub. So in the original, she reluctantly decides she should thank him, but then he reveals he’s evil. In the dub, he reveals he’s evil, and Yolei has an “I knew it!” moment.

And of course, egg puns. Every time anything about eggs is around, they gotta make yolks about it.

…I’ll see myself out.

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Narrator: Digitamamon! Perfect Level. Attacks are useless against its hard skeletal egg shell. His special attacks are Enigma and Nightmare Syndrome.
Digitamamon: Nothing can penetrate my shell, and when I poach my enemies with my Nightmare Syndromer attack, their minds get cracked!

Last season, his attack was Nightmare Syndrome. I don’t know why they felt the need to add an extra R to the name. “Syndromer” isn’t even a word.

Cut: 1 second. Digitamamon tackles Holsemon. It’s partially covered with a flash impact screen, but largely just cut.

Mimi gets tackled this time, but it’s short enough to be covered by just the flash impact screen, so no time is lost.

Miyako: Shut up shut up shut up!
Digitamamon: Huh?
Yolei: I don’t want to hear another word from your mouth!
Digitamamon: Huh?! I don’t have a mouth you helmet-wearing digidoofus!

XD

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Miyako: That’s why I like a really cool guy like Michael-san!
Everyone: O_o
Yolei: They could be a really cool guy like TK, or a total jerk like Davis!
Davis: *confused gurgling*

To be fair, Davis had it coming.

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Miyako shouts that all these bad things she’s saying about herself are “the real me” and that she recognizes she needs to improve, activating the Digimental of Purity.

Yolei says most of the same things at first, but then says, “From now on I promise to be as sincere with people as I possibly can!” which has nothing to do with anything she’d said to that point.

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Iori: Maybe it responded to the innocent cry of Miyako-san’s heart!
Cody: It must have responded to Yolei when she started to talk so sincerely about her feelings!

You mean like she’d been doing this entire episode by being blunt, rude, and hurtful?

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Daisuke: The innocent cry of her heart?
Davis: I guess she sincerely thinks I’m a jerk!

To be fair, everyone does.

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Narrator: Shurimon! An Armor-level Digimon evolved from Hawkmon. His special attack is Kusanagi!
Shurimon: I am Shurimon. As Hawkmon, I use the Digi-Egg of Sincerity to Armor Digivolve. My Double Stars attack is double trouble!

As usual, the Analyzer portion in the dub sounds like an apathetic kid introducing himself on the first day of class.

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Shurimon’s title is Bursting Purity in the original and The Samurai of Sincerity in the dub.

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Much like how every single attack Flamedramon has is Fire Rocket in the dub, both Kusanagi and Autumn Wind are called Double Stars in the dub.

When Shurimon jumps in the original, it gets a cartoonish “BOING!” noise. In the dub, it sounds like mechanized hydraulics or something (that might be something I made up, I don’t know anything about mechanized hydraulics or whatever).

In both versions Takeru and Hikari show up out of nowhere, but in the original, it’s at least addressed by their confusion over Shurimon. In the dub it’s not mentioned at all and replaced with generic fight banter.

A four-second cut of a slow pan into the… apparent mini universe inside Digitamamon’s shell is cut in the dub for no reason I can figure out.

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Miyako: You did it, Shurimon!
Yolei: That egg is over, easy!

Stop.

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Miyako: I’ll be more honest from now on.
Digitamamon: It’s alright, you’re more than honest enough.
Miyako: Really?
Yolei: From now on, I promise not to judge a book by its cover!
Digitamamon: And I promise not to put all my eggs in one basket!
Yolei: Yeah…that’s great. -_-;

STAHP.

Though Yolei’s reaction was funny.

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Honestly, that is not how I expected her to react to seeing Chumon again…

Michael: [in English] See you again, Miyako-san.
Michael: Would you like to go out on a date with me sometime?

Wat.