Digimon Frontier S01E28

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How many times are they going to base their titles on the same concept? Let’s see, we’ve had Darkness Before Duskmon, and From Dawn to Duskmon. Not to mention, this episode is supposed to center on Takuya, not the Koji/Duskmon story. Ah well.

Agunimon appears inside the Steel Sphere, where the landscape is littered with mirrors and other polished surfaces. This doesn’t bode well for Agunimon, as Mercurymon appears and is able to teleport from mirror to mirror, keeping him from being caught. After soundly defeating Agunimon, Mercurymon leaves through a portal, beckoning for Agunimon to follow. When he does, they end up in an area that looks like a cathedral. In a dramatic show, Mercurymon uses Seraphimon’s fractal code to transform himself into ShadowSeraphimon. With one attack, he reduces BurningGreymon back into Takuya, and lifts up the defeated boy by the head with the intention of entombing him alive. When it seemed like he’d lost, Beetlemon, Kazemon, and Kumamon try once more to get inside Sakkakumon, only to fail. That’s when Seraphimon’s egg reacts. It fires the same energy beam from before, giving Takuya the ability to combine the spirits of Agunimon and BurningGreymon into the fusion form of Aldamon. He steals back Seraphimon’s data, and it renders back into his egg outside. Then he follows Mercurymon back into the Steel Sphere, and defeats him once again, taking the Human Spirit of Steel. Aldamon is finally able to leave, and Seraphimon’s egg hatches, revealing a newborn Patamon.

The original starts with Sakkakumon trashing his former associates for getting their collective butts kicked by the kids. Mercuremon then appears, stating that he intends to take on Takuya himself. In the dub, Takuya’s ranting about how he doesn’t know “which way is up, down, sideways, inside out, or any other which way in this darn maze!”

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Takuya sees the multiple eyeball-shaped portals
Silence 
Takuya: Eye-yi-yi! Which way’s the right way?

Oh good, we went from “B” puns to “I” puns. You can alphabet this is only going to get worse.

I’ll see myself out.

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Agnimon: *screaming* 
Agunimon: Nice choice, Takuyaaaaaa!

Once again, Takuya’s got some serious nards to be shouting sarcastically when falling.

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Neemon: I wonder why it hasn’t hatched yet…
Bokomon: Give me that! This is my baby! 
Neemon: Do you think this [egg] would bounce?
Bokomon: Give me that! [mocking] Do you think this would bounce…? You nincompoop!

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Zoe: I was just wondering if we could get in there and help Takuya.

She was staring at where Beowolfmon and Duskmon had flown off. She wasn’t even remotely looking in Sakkakumon’s direction. In the original, Junpei was reassuring her that Kouji was fine.

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In the original, Agnimon demands Mercuremon tell him how he’s able to exist at the same time as Sephirotmon. In the dub, this is changed to a bunch of meaningless taunting.

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The running combat line for Mercurymon in the dub is his intention to write a book about his fight with Agunimon, and he outlines the chapters as he goes. Mercuremon outlines acts in a play.

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Mercuremon: And the curtain rises on the death scene! 
Agunimon: Quit cheating! Fight like a man, fair and square!

Never understood the choice in fiction to have the hero complain about the villain not fighting “fair.” It’s like shouting at lava for being hot.

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Mercuremon: Act One- Straying 
Mercurymon: What’s fair to me…is deadly to thee!

Mercurymon, as usual, is much chattier than Mercuremon is.

When Mercuremon walks, it makes a metallic sound each time his foot hits the ground. This is not the case in the dub, where his footsteps sound like, well, normal footsteps.

Agnimon: Where’s he going now? 
Agunimon: Know-nothing know-it-all!

Go easy on him, Takuya. He can only take so much of your rapier wit.

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Silence 
Agunimon: How many places are there in this stupid place?

Maybe they felt like the actors had to talk constantly or they weren’t getting their money’s worth?

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Agnimon: How could this place be inside Sephirotmon? 
Agunimon: Ah, who am I kidding? Whatever this is, it’s certainly going to be a lot less pretty and a lot more painful!

Agunimon’s voice is more strained than Takuya’s, kind of halfway between a loud rasp and shouting. It makes these lines feel even more out of place.

This sucks. In the original, the organ started up and began to play what Mercuremon called Agnimon’s Requiem. In the dub, the organ just plays all the keys from low to high, then makes no further noise until later, when it’s snuck into the background. The music in the Japanese version was pretty cool, too, and the dub’s is so…blegh. The Japanese music sounds like it’s a requiem, while the dub’s is just dramatic BGM.

Neemon: How can this be?! 
Neemon: My…eyes are stuck!

Then I guess it’s time for an EYECATCH!

The scene where BlackSeraphimon changes the direction of his helmet cross and the scene where he steps forward were switched with each other in the dub.

BlackSeraphimon, the result of Mercuremon utilizing Seraphimon’s Fractal Code, becomes ShadowSeraphimon in the dub.

BlackSeraphimon: Act Three – Chaos. 
Agunimon: People keep saying that, but I’m still around!

You’ve been lucky. Lucky that one of your own teammates hasn’t knocked you half way across town for that mouth of yours.

A scene with the camera panning up the organ pipes was removed from the dub and used near the end of the episode instead.

Bokomon: But it’s Mercuremon who has taken on the shape of an evil angel! 
Bokomon: I would recognize that felonious fiend even if he were disguised as a little girl selling cookies!
Neemon: Mmm…cookies!

Remember when the dub took the serious scenes seriously? No? Me neither.

Extra shots from BurningGreymon’s evolution sequence were fed in to lengthen the Agunimon to BurningGreymon slide evolution clip.

BlackSeraphimon’s Testament becomes ShadowSeraphimon’s Shadow Starburst.

Neemon: Kouji did that, right? 
Neemon: And he’ll have a really nifty costume, too!

The dub gives ShadowSeraphimon an attack that BlackSeraphimon didn’t have: Shadow Shockwave.

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BlackSeraphimon’s Seven Hells (a dark form of Seraphimon’s Seven Heavens) becomes ShadowSeraphimon’s Strike of the Seven Dark Stars (a dark form of Dub Seraphimon’s Strike of the Seven Stars.)

You can’t hear Takuya’s goggles crack while he’s being attacked in the dub. In the original, it’s very audible.

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I’m a little surprised they kept the coffin in. I thought that would be cut, honestly.

Neemon: But you couldn’t get into Sephirotmon before! 
Neemon: Again?! Do you know how bored I was waiting for you to get out?!

Seriously, he was about to play basketball with that egg!

Beetlemon, Kazemon, and Kumamon had their evolution sequences lengthened in the dub.

Takuya: I will not lose!!! 
Takuya: Tell me somethin’…do I scare ya’ now?!

Well, the size of your mouth in that shot is a little freakish…

Takuya’s mouth fires an extra syllable off that Kouji’s doesn’t, so the dub had to change his verbal command a little bit.

Double Spirit Evolution –> Execute Now! Fusion Evolution! 

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Ardhamon, the Fusion Warrior of Flame becomes Aldamon in the dub.

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Ardhamon’s Bhrahma Sutra becomes Aldamon’s Atomic Inferno, and his Bhrahma Shil becomes Aldamon’s Solar Wind Destroyer.

Bokomon babbles a whole bunch of stupid lines about how he never steers the group wrong and stuff right after Takuya evolves.

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Takuya always says the same thing when he scans a Digimon in the original. The dub tries to be creative. And sassier.

Takuya: Purification time! And it couldn’t have happened to a meaner guy!

Usually, when fractal code returns to where it belongs from the D-Tectors, the command “Fractal Code Render” is given by Ophanimon. The dub failed to do that this time, despite having done it in the past.

Aldamon: Hey, everybody! Guess who just kicked Mercurymon’s Puh-too-teey!

You gotta give it to Takuya. He’s such a badbutt.

Don’t Digimon usually hatch in their Fresh forms? I don’t understand why Patamon was born a Rookie. I don’t think it was ever explained, either, so we can theorize all we want, I suppose. Piyomon/Biyomon did the same thing in Savers, now that I think about it.