Digimon Data Squad S01E22

Back at DATS, the team wonders where the Digital Gate came from that saved them from SaberLeomon’s massive Army. Their question is answered quickly with the arrival of Director Hashima, who introduces the team to Akihiro Kurata, a scientist who was a member of the original Data Squad, and a colleague of Marcus’ father. Kurata requests to be allowed to study Keenan, but Marcus objects, and is backed up by Commander Sampson, sending Keenan to live with Marcus’ family for a time.

The next morning, SaberLeomon decides to invade the human world himself in the wake of Gotsumon’s failure. He starts blowing up tanks in the industrial district, and the combined power of the team’s three Ultimate-level Digimon isn’t enough. But a strange purple Digimon appears, fires a beam into SaberLeomon, and flies off without a word. The beam negatively affected SaberLeomon greatly, allowing Marcus and RizeGreymon to take him down. But for some reason, its Digi-Egg vaporizes after the fight.

Kurata shows up and lauds the Data Squad for winning the fight, but asks about the purple Digimon who saved them. None of them can identify it, and it doesn’t show up in the DATS database.

While Tomha/Thomas muses over who could have opened the Digital Gate (DigiGate in English, of course), Masaru and Agumon say that they didn’t do it. In the dub, Marcus says “Who cares?” and Agumon backs him up saying they’d won either way.

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The scientist refers to himself as a Digimon Otaku in Japanese. This is translated to Digimon “Nerd” in English. It works just fine, though I feel like they could have easily gotten away with keeping otaku, given how known it is in English.

I think the foley artist wrung out a mop to get the sound of the snot landing on Agumon. Delightfully disgusting.

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I like Kurata’s voice in English, voiced by one Brian Palermo. He sounds humble but just slightly smarmy, and that smarminess really comes out later in the season. It was a great casting choice.

Speaking of, both versions only refer to him as Kurata in this episode, but his full name “Akihiro Kurata” is kept in the dub.

In the original, Governor Hashiba apparently had no idea who Masaru even was, saying that it was Kurata who told him that Masaru was the son of Suguru Daimon. In the dub, Director Hashima starts with, “Oh, and you must be our new recruit Marcus Damon…” as if meeting him for the first time. You know, even though two episodes ago Marcus helped abduct Keenan after a verbal fight against Hashima, and argued with him over comms in the last episode.

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Hashima: Kurata told me you’d joined.

As the Director of DATS, I feel like knowing all five members should be a priority.

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Kurata: You’re looking more and more like your father.
Kurata: I’m gonna have to restrain myself from pinching your cheeks!

I hope he means your face, Marcus.

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Kudamon: According to regulations, any Digimon that appear in the human world must be returned to a Digi-Egg first.
Kurata: You may be right, but that was an emergency situation.
Kudamon: Thank you for your help, Kurata, we may not have succeeded without you. But I’m assuming that you’re here because you want something.
Kurata: That’s just like you, Kudamon. You just get right to the point as always.

Kudamon, (and I’m speaking to the JP version) it was an entire army of Digimon invading from the skies and on land. Returning all of them to Digi-Eggs would be an impossible order, even if you and Satsuma had gotten off your asses and done something to help.

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Kurata originally says he wants custody of Keenan, while in the dub, he just wants to study him. The responses from the other characters are the same in either case.

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Weirdly, when Keenan and Falcomon are fighting, Marcus shouts, “Nice!” which makes no sense given the context or his facial expression. In the original, he just says, “That guy…”

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Sampson overriding Hashima makes less sense in the dub than the original. Since Hashima is the “Director of DATS,” having Sampson make the call on Keenan living with Marcus shouldn’t be something he can do. In the original, Hashiba is a generic government official, so having Satsuma argue that Keenan is their jurisdiction makes a lot more sense.

Speaking of things not making sense, why did they hide Falcomon in a box when they could have just used Ikuto’s Digivice?

Keenan being thrown in the tub naked was cut from the American version.

Masaru: This guy is called Ikuto. The other one is called Bird.
Ikuto and Falcomon: It’s Falcomon!
Marcus: Here’s Keenan and Falcomon… his pet.
Keenan and Falcomon: His WHAT?!

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Sayuri: Nice to meet you.
Sarah: Call me Mom.
Marcus: MOM?!

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Sayuri: If we don’t hurry, there’ll be nothing left to eat.
Sarah: Don’t worry Kristy, I made a secret second dinner for us!

I don’t know where she gets the money for all this food. Is DATS giving her benefits for her lost husband?

So apparently Marcus has them playing a game that’s essentially Jenga (a game where you remove bottom pieces from a stack until someone causes it to collapse) with Shogi pieces.

Shogi is, at closest approximation, very similar to chess. I guess it makes sense that Masaru would turn it into Jenga. Shogi just wouldn’t be his kind of game.

Chika/Kristy gets a digital towel added to her bath scene.

In the original, Chika is pissed that the boys used up all the hot water. In the dub, she’s pissed because one of them (probably Agumon) ate her rubber ducky.

The two shots in the bathroom were reversed in order for seemingly no reason.

When Ikuto laments that he needs to pee in the morning, Keenan asks himself why he stayed up so late.

While SaberLeomon is slicing and dicing the industrial district, some Kanji got the chop.

Okay, you can hear screeching noises while Yoshino is driving in both versions. Is she speeding along with the e-brake on or something?

Just a teeny bit of Kanji removed. Nothing to see here, folks.

Literally.

Lilamon smashing into a smokestack and leaving a not-Lilamon-shaped indention in it was cut from the dub.

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The dub added a slash impact screen that covered SaberLeomon’s claw coming for the camera, but not the actual impact. Because censors.

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Masaru, how the hell did you get up there?

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In both versions, Falcomon says he can sense Digimon, kinda like Lalamon can. Except Lalamon can’t because she’s USELESS.

Another Trident Revolver attack was cut from the dub for getting too close to the camera.

SaberLeomon’s Nail Crusher become Howling Crusher in the dub. Infinity Arrow is retained.

The shot of MachGaogamon’s head being crushed goes on for a couple seconds longer in the original than it does in the dub.

A second instance is cut, changing some of Thomas’ dialogue.

Tohma: MachGaogamon!
Thomas: Oh no, what’s Keenan doing there?!

SaberLeomon: Ikuto? I see… I’ve heard of you.
SaberLeomon: *growl*

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Masaru: Idiot! Worry more about breakfast!
Marcus: Hey, you did great, kid. Just leave the rest to me.

Masaru’s line is a reference to an earlier scene where he talks about his mother’s breakfast and how amazing it is, implying that the breakfast is a big factor in where Ikuto belongs (his heart’s in the right place, but his brain is somewhere cold and dark). Marcus is just being generally supportive, since in the dub, the breakfast bit wasn’t as prominent.

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In a weird inversion, SaberLeomon is more talkative in the original. In the dub, a few of his posturing lines are replaced with threatening growls.

When the mysterious purple Digimon appears, it locks onto SaberLeomon’s forehead. In the dub, the crosshairs are painted over, but the beeping noise is retained.

Trident Revolver’s firing was cut again, and partially censored by a flash.

In the original, Kurata directly addresses “Tohma-hakase.” -hakase is an honorific sometimes used to refer to professors or, in the case of Tohma, doctors. It hints at future story, as Kurata looks at Tohma differently than he does the rest of the team.

In the dub, he just says, “Wouldn’t you agree that it’s a problem that needs taking care of… Thomas?” The line still works, but it lacks some of the foreshadowing, since Kurata’s respect of Thomas’ intelligence is a plot point later.