Digimon Frontier S01E29
Escape! The Phantasmagoric Sephirotmon! (JP)
Phantasmagoric Sakkakumon (EN)
Dub Writer: Michael Sorich
Original Airdates:
October 27, 2002 (JP)
February 18, 2003 (EN)
As the others resolve to search for Koji, Sakkakumon decends, and goads them into attacking. After evolving into Aldamon, Beetlemon, Kazemon, and Kumamon, the group attacks, only to find that Sakkakumon can reflect their attacks back at them. He explains that when they were fighting inside him, he copied all their attack data. The group tries again, this time with MetalKabuterimon, Zephyrmon, and Korikakumon, but they meet with the same failure. MetalKabuterimon suggests they retreat, and Aldamon agrees, seeing everyone’s spirits falling. They barely manage to escape at first, but they soon find Sakkakumon hot in pursuit. He chases them into a cave and douses the lights, leaving it pitch black. He then plays psychological games with the group to turn them against each other. Aldamon gets the group to focus after a brief quarrel, and they use their Digimon senses to detect where Sakkakumon is in the dark. They soon figure out that if they combine two or more attacks, Sakkakumon’s programming won’t allow him to recognize the attack, and he can’t counter it, leaving him completely defenseless. Aldamon spies that the center orb (the one with the crest of light on it) is constantly protected by Sakkakumon, meaning it must be his weak point. While the others paralyze him with a combination attack, Aldamon strikes, defeating Sakkakumon for good, and taking the Beast Spirit of Steel.
In the original, the kids use Patamon to insult Bokomon’s intelligence. In the dub, they insult his genes.
Takuya: What? What’s going on?!
Takuya: He’s twitching like he’s going to attack!
It’s common knowledge that expert fighters start twitching before they attack.
Sefirotmon calls out Mjolnir Thunder, officially localized as Proton Slam. In the dub, he shouts Thunder Fist which is Thor’s Hammer in the original. However, they somehow both manage to be wrong, since the move he uses is actually Lightning Topper/Lightning Blitz. Because nothing can ever be easy.
Bokomon: We’d need Seraphimon’s power for that! [to fusion evolve the others]
Neemon: That would take a miracle, wouldn’t it?
Bokomon: Regrettably, Seraphimon’s power has been all used up!
Neemon: I should have brought batteries!
Lengthened evolution sequences for Kazemon, Beetlemon, and Kumamon.
Hoo boy, here we go again.
Blitzmon calls out Mjolnir Thunder when he uses Thor‘s Hammer. The dub corrects it by having him use Thunder Fist, but the return attack from Sakkakumon still looks like Lightning Blitz (though Sakkakumon doesn’t really have any fists to use, so maybe that’s why).
Sephirotmon/Sakkakumon attack change: Sephirotmon’s Mjolnir Thunder Blitz becomes Sakkakumon’s Thunder Fist Reflection. Sephirotmon’s Brezza Petalo Extreme becomes Sakkakumon’s Hurricane Wave Reflection. Sephirotmon’s Bhrahma Sutra becomes Sakkakumon’s Atomic Inferno Reflection.
Seeing the pattern yet?
Neemon: Somehow, he’s quite smart.
Neemon: I wish I had a sandwich!
In the original, for a change, Bolgmon wanted to run so they could survive. In the dub, this was changed to MetalKabuterimon suggesting they pull back so they could regroup and come up with a new plan.
Blitzmon calls out Mjolnir Thunder when he uses Thor Hammer. Again.
It’s so strange how neither the original nor the dub can get these attack names straight.
Cherubimon: Sephirotmon was destroyed…
Cherubimon: My last warrior…destroyed.
Wait, what about Duskmon?
Final Verdict
Summary
This was a pretty short comparison because most of the content was still intact. The biggest issue, as you can see above, is the inconsistencies with attack names, but that seems to be a problem in both versions, not just the dub.