Digimon Adventure S02E24

While Ken is trying to rebuild his relationship with his parents, he awakens one night to see a mysterious woman in red in his room, insulting him before vanishing. Meanwhile, the DigiDestined have made a habit of travelling to the Digital World regularly to repair and rebuilt the damage done in the war between them and the former Digimon Emperor. On their second trip of the episode, however, Veemon loses the ability to become ExVeemon. The group thinks there’s something wrong with Veemon at first, but when Patamon can’t become Angemon, TK begins to suspect the Control Spire has something to do with it.

Meanwhile, Cody and Digmon are trying to clean up the underground aqueduct system when they’re attacked by a tiny but powerful Digimon called Thundermon. Cody can’t fathom why it would attack without a Dark Ring or Dark Spiral on it, but as the danger increases, Armadillomon suddenly digivolves into Ankylomon. But given the tiny size of the enemy, Ankylomon has trouble locking it down. Cody is thrown into the air, but saved by the appearance of a mysterious green insectoid Digimon who proceeds to vaporize Thundermon. The Digimon is revealed to be Wormmon’s Champion form, with Ken making a brief appearance. Cody grapples with Ken’s morality, while Wormmon laments letting “her” get away. But Ken assures him that they will have another shot at it.

The dub Ichijoujis are… such incredibly moist eaters. Lots of smacking and… moist sounds.

The dialogue in the opening scene is largely the same, except for a few references to soccer being shoehorned into the dub.

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Mr. Ichijouji: This beef stew is delicious! Can I have some more?
Mrs. Ichijouji: It’s chicken parmesan!
Mr. Ichijouji: Oh. Never mind.

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The scene where the mysterious lady in red appears in Ken’s room is tonally different between the two versions. In the dub, Ken is unsure of what he’s seeing, and his voice is lower. Subsequently, the lady’s responses are shorter and quieter. In the dub, Ken aggressively shouts at her, and her responses are much louder, ruder, and she directly refers to him as “Emperor.”

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Mysterious deep voice: In other words, it means the end of your freedom of mind. Poor you… I pity you.
Mysterious deep voice: Ken, you had a true chance for greatness to rule in infamy forever… and you wasted it. How unfortunate.

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(XVmon stomps around, shaking the ground.)
Kids: silence.
(ExVeemon stomps around, shaking the ground.)
Kari: Yolei, I’m so tired of lifting this paintbrush that my whole body is shaking! …oh, *giggle* never mind.

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silence
Cody: We’re quite a drill team, Digmon!
Davis: Hey, looking good, guys!

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While her face is offscreen, Kari says, “We painted everything in sight, and some things that weren’t!” in a jovial voice. But less than a second later we see her face and it’s… not jovial.

Kari calls the area they’re working on “Primary Village.” The original does not say anything about the Village of Beginnings, however.

Hikari: There are still so many broken houses…
Tailmon: Yeah…
Takeru: Not just here. In other places, too…
Daisuke: That thing [the Dark Tower] hurts the eyes. We should take it down.
Kari: You know, even with fresh paint and some new roofs, Primary Village still seems kinda sad.
Gatomon: You’re right.
Yolei: Maybe a cute carpenter will come by!
Cody: If one shows up, the only place he’s going is to work!
Yolei: I volunteer to be his helper!
TK: Boy that jerk really left the Digital World in a big mess, didn’t he?
Davis: Hey listen, it’s not my fault! I’m doing the best I can!
TK: I was talking about Ken, not you, Davis.

It goes on and on and on from there, but I think you get the point. The original team is very mission focused. The entire dub team has untreated ADHD.

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In the original, the kids and Digimon are chanting for a confection called ohagi. No such chants were in the dub.

In the original during Iori’s Kendo practice, he shouts “MEN!” with every strike. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but it almost sounds like he’s so pissed at Ken he’s taking it out on all men.

Grandpa: Would you like some Chu-Chu?
Grandpa: Check these out, they’re liquid yogurt packs!

Insert jelly donut gif here. It’s not yogurt, it’s jelly.

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Hikari and Tailmon are flipping through a book that contains illustrations of castles. Kari and Gatomon, however, are reading some kind of cat-centric book of fairy tales.

Kari: And Catpunzel would let down her Persian hair so he could climb up.

And Upamon is up next in the talent show. His act? Eating with chopsticks, but no hands!

silence
Cody (thinking): Grandpa’s right, being flexible is important.

Because the kids won’t get the metaphor if it’s not explained to them in a ham-fisted manner.

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In the original when speaking about Daisuke’s habit of breaking windows by playing soccer indoors, he’s taken aback by Hikari’s annoyance. In the dub, TK says this is the fourth time he’s done it, and Davis is taken aback. “I thought it was at least six!”

The presence of this small army of Punimon is probably where the dub got the idea of this being primary village. But all their talk of nursery schools is specific to the dub alone.

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As much as I love the fact that newer seasons have prettier, more involved evolution sequences, it means we get fewer gags where Digimon can’t evolve and it’s given to us as a surprise.

Of course in this case, it means we have to sit through the entire sequence twice.

In the original, V-Mon gives it one more shot at evolving. It doesn’t use the stock footage, but part of Brave Heart still plays in the background. In the dub, he just shouts in frustration “Why can’t I Digivolve?! Tell me why!” with the standard background music.

In both versions, Daisuke comes to the bizarre conclusion that V-Mon can’t Digivolve because it’s been way too long since he trained and is out of shape. Even though he was XV-Mon yesterday. And did a ton of hard labor. On screen.

I mean, I complain that the dub dumbed Davis down, but I have to admit he was already pretty dumb to begin with.

Daisuke: Cheer up! Wanna try Armor Evolution?
Miyako: Ah, it’s fine! You don’t have to evolve. Iori, we’ll do it, right?
Iori: Yes!
Davis: You just need to relax, and do something to take your mind off of this!
Yolei: We’ve decided that both of you need a break from all this hard work. So guess what? They’re going back to work while the four of us rest!
Cody: Great!

MAN they’re dicks. Not that Davis doesn’t deserve it most of the time, but jeez, think of Veemon at least.

In both versions, Tailmon/Gatomon tries to Digivolve but can’t. Why she even tried I don’t know, since none of the kids can reach Ultimate anymore. Granted, that’s not knowledge we’re supposed to have yet, but it’s still inconsistent of them to try.

Break time! Have some ChuChu Jelly or a yogurt pack. It’s whatever.

One of the Punimon takes a very loud poo offscreen. Loud enough to get Daisuke’s attention. In the dub, Davis just moans about being left behind and the joke is left out entirely.

Both Daisuke and Davis are teaching the Punimon how to play soccer. Specifically teaching them how to bounce the soccer ball back and forth on their feet.

Just think about that for a moment.

Here’s what a Punimon looks like in case you forgot.

Take aaaaallllllllll the time you need.

In both versions, Takeru suggests to Hikari that the Dark Tower is stopping them from evolving normally. But when talking to Miyako, Takeru doesn’t bring this up. TK does, however, during his conversation with Yolei.

Narrator: Thunderballmon! A Digimon whose body is constantly releasing electricity. He’s small, but attacks with the power of ten million volts.
Digmon: It’s Thundermon! He’s a highly-charged Digimon who’s electrifying! But what’s shocking about this pint-sized powerhouse is that he packs a ten-million volt wallop!

In both versions, Cody expresses confusion over why Thunderballmon is attacking when there’s no Dark Ring or Dark Spiral present. This isn’t a Cody issue, either – there’s a big plot point in this series about how Digimon shouldn’t attack them for no reason – and it’s completely at odds with the first series where wild Digimon like Monochromon or Shellmon would attack the kids without necessarily being aligned with one of the season’s big bads. It’s a weird recurring inconsistency that plagues both languages that is never addressed.

The text in the evolution sequence is changed from Armadimon to Armadillomon. However, the color of the… whatever he’s standing on is different, even though I took the snapshot in the same place. Did the dub redo the entire evolution sequence? Why is the budget so high this season?

Narrator: Ankylomon! A Digimon whose entire body is covered by an armor-like skin. His charging attack is incomparable! With his special attack Megaton Press, he flies high into the air and crushes the enemy. With his Tail Hammer, he uses the spiked ball on his tail to crush enemies.
Ankylomon: I’m Ankylomon, a Champion Digimon! My whole body is surrounded by super-strength steel! I flatten my enemies with my Megaton Press attack and the iron [indistinct] that shoot from my Tail Hammer will definitely put a dent in any enemy’s plans!

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The mysterious green Digimon’s Spiking Finish becomes Spiking Strike in the dub.

The plot inconsistency really ramps up here. When the mysterious green Digimon destroys Thunderballmon/Thundermon, the kids react with shock and horror at the act, like it was something so awful as to be beyond imagining.

The entire concept comes completely out of nowhere, and I remember being really confused as a kid by it. Before starting these comparisons, I had thought that maybe it was a long-running dub invention, but it’s present in the original too, and to this day, I see no reason for this change. It’s possible, however, that a later episode will explain in more detail. We’ll have to see.