Digimon Data Squad S01E12

Thomas explains that Digimon can be negatively influenced by human emotions, specifically those correlating with the seven deadly sins. Before they can finish their discussion, however, the Digimon Alert goes off, and the team is immediately dispatched. But because they use quadrant and code names for locations instead of actual addresses, no one even realizes until they get there that the target is in Marcus’ house.

The group bursts in to find Marcus’ mother Sarah nursing a massive egg. Before they can return the egg to DATS, it hatches into Puwamon, who immediately bonds with Kristy. While figuring out what to do, they are attacked by Falcomon, who demands they return Puwamon to his care. He nearly kills Sarah and Kristy, but is taken aback when Puwamon rushes forward to defend them. Gaomon and Agumon arrive, forcing Falcomon into retreat. Soon after, Puwamon warp Digivolves to Biyomon.

Meanwhile, in the Digital World, a Gotsumon reports in to Merukimon, a leader of the Digital World and one of the Olympos XII. Merukimon is outraged that Falcomon has disobeyed his orders and traveled to the human world, so he leaves to retrieve him, much to Gotsumon’s shock.

Marcus finds out that because of Biyomon’s rapid evolution, it is believed that Kristy has a DNA Charge, meaning that if she tests positive, she’ll have to join DATS. Marcus is furious, but Thomas points out he only has two options: let Kristy join DATS, or force her to say goodbye to Biyomon, who she has bonded with. Marcus chooses the latter, challenging Biyomon to a fight. The two battle with Marcus easily having the upper hand. Before he can use his own DNA Charge to Digivolve Agumon, he is attacked by Falcomon, who is seeking to take Biyomon home. Biyomon refuses yet again, and Falcomon chooses to attack Kristy. Determined to protect her, Biyomon and Marcus join forces, Biyomon flying Marcus up to where he can punch Falcomon and activate his DNA Charge. Just as GeoGreymon’s Mega Burst is about to vaporize Falcomon, a bolt of lightning strikes from the sky, blocking the attack. Merukimon appears to the shock of all involved, and despite Kudamon’s order to retreat, Marcus races forward, preparing to take on Merukimon as he does any other enemy.

Thomas opens with a list of emotions that cause humans to give in to evil temptations – specifically the seven deadly sins, and their connections to the Digimon attacks thus far. But some are slightly different in the English dub.

Original	Dub	Digimon
Wrath	Anger	None
Lust	Desire	None
Gluttony	Gluttony	Cockatorimon
Sloth	Laziness	Kunemon
Envy	Envy	Drimogemon
Greed	Greed	Vilemon
Pride	Pride	Togemon

Lust was probably changed to Desire because think of the children WHERE WILL THEY GO?!, while I guess they thought kids wouldn’t know what wrath and sloth mean?

Also, I’m kinda guessing on Togemon, since I don’t think he really fits anywhere. Personally, I’d rather put Citramon there, because he was obviously proud of his full, juicy color.

I presume Bakemon would go under Wrath, since Chika’s anger was linked with his misbehavior. Cockatorimon’s inclusion is also a bit odd since it wasn’t linked with any human, but rather seemed to be doing its own thing.

Thematically, I think this could have been handled better. Even with the above list, we still have Elecmon/Black Garurumon, Numemon, (Demi)Meramon, Keramon/Kurisarimon, and BomberNanimon/Citramon unaccounted for. If they had done one for each of the sins, I think it would have been significantly more impactful.

An extra shot of Megumi speaking is added in the dub.

No matter where she’s driving, who’s she’s with, or why she’s going there, Yoshino always screeches to a stop in both versions. DATS must have a huge budget for tires.

[Masaru/Marcus busts in the door screaming]
Chika: Welcome home…
Kristy: What’s your deal?

XD

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Masaru: Mom, where did you get that egg?
Sayuri: Oh, this?
Marcus: Mom, where’d you get that egg?
Sarah: Which egg? Oh, this?

No, clearly Marcus meant that purplish one in the wall behind the door.

Sayuri: I thought Agu-chan would be delighted if I used it to make fried eggs!
Sarah: I thought it was weird, but then I thought I could use it to make Agumon some fried eggs!

Marcus’ mom has some real guts in both versions. If an egg floated out of the sky while I was hanging laundry to dry (and seriously, that nice of a house doesn’t have washer/dryer connections?), my first thought wouldn’t be an omelette.

Then again, I don’t live with a four-and-a-half-foot orange dinosaur that tries to eat me out of house and home, so who am I to criticize her priorities?

Satsuma: What? A Digi-Egg?
Sampson: What?! Seriously?!

The dub lines comes off funnier, almost implying that Sampson was reacting to Sarah’s plan to make fried eggs, not to the egg itself. XD

In both versions. Yoshino talks while we can hear her sucking on the straw. Why are her only exceptional talents completely irrelevant to Digi-law enforcement?

Though I’ve pointed it out before, this is the first time the English dub states that DNA stands for Digimon Natural Ability.

Yoshino: Tohma, don’t drop it!
Tohma: I-it wasn’t me… I think it moved…
Yoshino: That’s not possible!
Yoshi: Why’d you roll it onto the floor like that?!
Thomas: It wasn’t me, Yoshi, it just moved on its own!
Yoshi: But that’s impossible!

Yoshino: when you need someone who thinks eggs can’t move.

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Narrator: Puwamon. A Baby-level Digimon with soft plumage. It is very curious and becomes easily attached to people.
Thomas: That’s Puwamon. He’s an In-Training level Digimon that’s covered in soft feathers. It’s very curious and easily bonds with people.

You may have noticed Thomas got it wrong. Puwamon is a Baby I Digimon in Japan, which would make it a Fresh-level or Baby-level Digimon in English. In-Training is the next step up, called Baby II in Japan.

This series has focused so hard on how badass Marcus is because he can fight Digimon and is generally fearless. But…

Even he can’t send a Rookie-level Digimon flying with one hand! Damn, Kristy’s a badass!

The Kanji on the milk was wiped.

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Or was it sake again? Digimon loves its sake. XD

Yes, I am joking. That is milk. American milk, no less.

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I think the painter for the dub still had a hand cramp from the Citramon episode, because they weren’t even trying this time.

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HOLY CRAP Agumon’s skeleton is terrifying.

And why does he have a crack in his skull?!

Chika decides to name Puwamon Puu-chan. In the dub, she just goes on about how cute Puwamon is. But the lip flap makes Melissa Fahn break up her sentences weirdly.

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Don’t get me wrong: Steve Blum is a fantastic voice actor with a lot of range. But he was not the right choice to play Falcomon.

In the original. Sayuri makes Tohma some tea, and he tells her she shouldn’t go to such trouble for him. In the dub, she brings over the completed cup of tea, and Thomas says “No, thank you.” Jerk.

It’s fine though. Sarah leaves it anyway, as she’s seen walking back empty-handed. Or maybe she poured it on that massive machine Thomas has crammed in their dining room.

The dub adds a few extra seconds of Thomas talking where he didn’t in the original. It’s very slick, since the scene doesn’t move, so they just recycled his lip flap from a few seconds prior, while splicing it in with the rest of the unmoved scene. I honestly wouldn’t have noticed it if I weren’t going line-by-line and noticed Thomas got an extra jab in at Marcus that wasn’t in the original.

Then again, that’s what I’m here for, so… I’m gonna pat myself on the back for doing the bare minimum of what’s expected of me.

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Narrator: Falcomon. A Child-level Digimon with sturdy wings that let him glide through the heavens. His special attacks are Scratch Smash and Shuririnken. He acts like a ninja.
Miki: Falcomon. A Rookie-level Digimon with the ruthlessness of a ninja. It can slash with its razor-sharp talons and use its special attacks Scratch Smash, and Ninja Blade.

Six second cut: Masaru being attacked by Shuririnken and falling to the ground on the balcony.

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Then it’s followed by another 2-second cut of Masaru pinned.

Meanwhile, a window was shattered and shuriken are flying, but Thomas, Gaomon, and Agumon apparently hear nothing.

Masaru escaping the shuriken is cut (1 second).

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Marcus’ “You’re late, that’s what happened…” sounds kinda bloodthirsty and makes the scene a bit more humorous.

And I realized I might seem a bit inconsistent when it comes to humor in Digimon. In Zero-Two, I tend to lambast efforts to make it funnier, but praise it here. It’s because of how it’s done. I don’t mind some humor being added if it’s handled well. Overt attempts at humor in Digimon tend to fail because they’re trying to be funny, but failing. But stuff like letting the actors deliver the lines in amusing ways adds humor that’s legitimately funny without detracting from the scene or overall plot. That’s the difference, and it’s an important distinction to note.

OH MY GENNAI I forgot how bad dub Biyomon’s voice is. Seriously, it’s awful. Bad choice. Bad bad bad bad bad.

I know the goal was to portray this Biyomon as male, but they could have done a much better job than this.

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Narrator: Piyomon. A Child-level Digimon whose wings are shaped like arms. His special attack is Magical Fire. He shoots out an illusory green flame!
Thomas: Biyomon, a Rookie-level Digimon that does battle with a blast of its Spiral Twister, an ethereal burst of blue flame that can scare its opponents.

…technically “ethereal” makes more sense than “illusory.”

…and no one’s going to mention that it technically warp Digivolved? No one at all? Okay.

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Narrator: Gotsumon. A Child-level Digimon whose body is as hard as jewels. His special attack is Angry Rock. He can shoot rocks from his head.
Miki: Gotsumon. A Rookie-level Digimon whose rocky body is as hard as diamond. It can crush its opponents with its Rock Fist attack.

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There are two other localizations in this scene, but one will be expanded upon later, and the other is only mentioned in passing. I’ll wait until the name is revealed in full before tell you about it.

Cut: 1 second.

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Though they kept the broken needle lying on the floor after Masaru knocks out the creepy-ass doctor.

And seriously, they were creepy. What kind of doctor says things like “It’ll all be over soon…”?

Masaru/Marcus is dead set against his sister joining DATS. But need I remind you how badass she is?

Seriously, train her, put her on the team, and retire Yoshino to desk duty. Masaru gets to keep an eye on her, the team is that much stronger, and we get another callback to the first season of Adventure with Biyomon. Everyone wins!

…except the dub voice actor is pretty terrible, so maybe it’s not a total victory…

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The fight between Marcus and Biyomon showcases some of the best music in the series. This track in particular (and special thanks to SeannyBravo for ripping the cleanest version available) is one of my favorite in terms of battle music for the series.

It sets a good tone, isn’t full of bad lyrics (it has none, actually), and doesn’t completely overtake the scenes it’s in.

The blood on Marcus’ lip was censored away. He still spits, but there’s no blood there, either.

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Kind of a shame Falcomon knocked the Digivice from Masaru’s hand. It would have been cool to see the evolution sequence from outside the stock footage.

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Holy crap, Marcus needs to join the Olympic ladder-climbing team. Or something.

Cut: 1.5 seconds – Masaru taking the hard-to-spell-and-I-don’t-want-to-scroll-back-up-and-find-it-again shuriken attack from Falcomon.

And here comes Yoshino again. Screeching the car. On wet grass somehow.

This is pretty minor, but the English-speaking team has moved to saying “Realize now!” instead of just “Realize!” when calling on their Digimon. I assume this is to match the lip flap.

Yoshino: Lalamon, realize!
Lalamon: La..La…Mon!
Yoshi: Lalamon, realize now!
Lalamon: Lalamon!

You’re not a damn Pokémon, Lalamon. Knock it off.

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Masaru: You moron! Go on, keep wasting your time!
Marcus: HEY STOP WASTING TIME AND GET THAT GUY!

LMAO I’m dead. Yoshino, Sunflowmon, you’re useless. #KristyForDATS2020

At least adding in the music in the dub makes the scene feel slightly less pathetic than it was in the original.

The subs I’m watching make a point of noting that Piyomon shouted “Masaru” without any honorific (the -san, -sama, -kun, etc. you usually see at the end of someone’s name when mentioned in Japanese, a form of respect and identification of social hierarchy) which is disrespectful to do with someone you’re not close with. Obviously this has no correlating event in the dub, but even in the original it doesn’t seem to amount to anything.

Cut: ½ second – Masaru and Agumon posing.

No idea.

Edit: Dario Speedwagon, Digimon Uncensored’s resident obscenity expert, has identified the cut as being a result of Masaru’s pose: the bras d’honneur. It’s essentially a European middle finger… in addition to the middle finger. There’s a Wikipedia link in the comments.

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Narrator: Mercurimon. An Ultimate-Level Digimon who boasts of being the fastest in the Digital World. His special attack is Thousand Fist. He can unleash a super-barrage instantaneously.
Miki: We’ve identified it! Merukimon! Mega-level! He can strike in the blink of an eye with his Thousand Fists attack or devastating supercharge!

I didn’t bold the supercharge bit because I have no idea what Miki is talking about. There’s no such attack in either language.

The rename to Merukimon was likely because of Digimon Frontier. The Human Spirit of Steel was Mercuremon, while this Digimon is Mercurimon, which are pronounced differently. Mercuremon was localized as Mercurymon (which is logical) back in Frontier. Now that we actually have a Mercurymon (even if it’s spelled differently), they had to change it to Merukimon because it was already used. Whoops.

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I’ll mention that a lot of fans give the series flack for calling the Ultimate level “Mega” while calling Perfect level “Ultimate.” But it’s not really the dubber’s fault. Back in the early virtual pet days, the “Perfect/Ultimate” level was the highest Digimon level there was. The original v-pet had three “Perfect” Digimon: MetalGreymon (virus), Mamemon, and Monzaemon (localized as Teddymon at the time). So back then, Perfect was the Ultimate level. But then they added Ultimate, which got called Mega, then they added Ultra, so really I blame Toei for this mess.

We’re getting to the point that the “Next time on Digimon Data Squad” segment is using inappropriate music for the tone they’re setting. They won’t change it until much later in the series, but with the show transitioning from its monster-of-the-day format to the overarching story that will shape the entire season, the music being used is really out of place.