Digimon Frontier S01E21

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Gear’s Notes: Oh crap, they found one decent episode title and now they’re going to run it into the ground.

Immediately following Arbormon’s demise, Duskmon demands that the kids show them their power. BurningGreymon charges in, but is taken out in a single throw by Duskmon. Lobomon tries to develop a strategy to take him down, but the others are quickly taken down. When they’re soundly defeated, BurningGreymon manages to get to his feet and attack with his Wildfire Tsunami. Unable to see him anymore, BurningGreymon is absolutely convinced he’s beaten Duskmon, but Lobomon tells him he’s being ridiculous, and gets everyone to retreat. The attack, as it turns out, was completely ineffective, and Duskmon is unharmed.

Takuya and Koji continuously argue after that. Takuya claims that they shouldn’t have run away, but stood their ground. He says that any time they fight as a team, they win. Koji maintains that Duskmon is unlike anyone they’ve ever fought before, and is more powerful than Grumblemon or Petaldramon ever were. In an attempt to cool the raging tempers, Bokomon convinces the group to settle down for a while and eat. As the group sets up camp, JP explains to Zoe that Takuya and Koji’s clashing personalities are what keep the group going; the diversity between each member of the group makes them stronger, not weaker. He also tells her not to worry about them.

Takuya comes up with a “brilliant” strategy: everyone attack at once. The others are quick to point out that they’ve already done that once, and had their collective buttocks handed to them on hospital food trays. Takuya then lays out his plan; a flimsy positioning concept that allows them to attack from all angles with everyone in their Beast Spirit forms, as opposed to before when they were mixed. Tommy is convinced the plan will work (he is an impressionable young kid), but JP and Zoe aren’t so easily convinced. Koji outright refuses, saying they need to keep moving, since they’re not ready to take on Duskmon yet. This leads to the two of them leaving the group to talk privately. Koji confronts Takuya, accusing him of taking everything too lightly. He tells him that their mission in the Digital World is not a video game, and he can’t just do whatever he wants. Takuya maintains that the group is stronger than Koji gives them credit for being, and his stubbornness prevents Koji from getting through to him. Koji tells him that if his plan puts anyone else in the group in danger, then maybe he’d be better off just going back to the real world.

The words strike Takuya hard, but he doesn’t have time to think about them; Duskmon finds the group and prepares to battle. Everyone evolves to their Beast Spirit forms except Takuya, who evolves into Agunimon, then rushes in to start the plan. While they’re still reluctant to go along with Takuya’s battle plan, he initiates it anyway, necessitating everyone follow along whether they like it or not. Multiple attacks from Agunimon fail to even make Duskmon blink (any of his eyes), leaving Takuya in a state of shock temporarily. He then gets behind Duskmon and tries to hold him in place (only successful because Duskmon makes no attempt to move). MetalKabuterimon, Zephyrmon, Korikakumon, and KendoGarurumon all get in position, each firing a projectile attack at Duskmon, causing a massive explosion of energy. However, Duskmon absorbs it without any effort at all. Duskmon raises his sword to strike down Agunimon, but KendoGarurumon sacrifices himself for Takuya, taking the hit and reverting back into Koji. Takuya begins to scream “Koji!” which seems to strike a nerve with Duskmon. He staggers back, demanding to know why the name “Koji” was making him feel strange. He begins to freak out for a few seconds before unleashing a blast of darkness in all directions, enveloping everyone in the area.

Takuya wakes up in human form. He has appeared in a place called the “Dark Terminal” where a Trailmon is waiting for him, offering him a chance to return to the real world. Takuya, thinking of what Koji said to him earlier, the sacrifice KendoGarurumon made, and his failure as a leader, accepts; he boards the Trailmon to return to the real world.

Duskmon seems a bit more chatty in the English than he does in the Japanese. It’s not really bad, as his dialogue fits, and he doesn’t talk that much, but it’s just worth noting… although that constant laughing I think he could do without.

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There were some minor dialogue changes throughout the first scene or so to reflect the fact that Duskmon was talking and laughing a good bit. “That should quiet him down!” “Laugh at this!” “Laughing-boy here should be no problem!” and other such lines.

Duskmon’s Geist Abend becomes Deadly Gaze in the dub. Assuming my German isn’t too rusty by now, Geist Abend means “Ghost Night” or something similar.

Takuya is portrayed as a little more cocky in the dub than in the original. Also, the others more studiously ignore him in the original. In the dub, they act angry towards him, calling him annoying and whatnot.

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A talking scene was duplicated in the dub. After calling Takuya annoying and ignoring him, the kids went back to the original script and started talking about Duskmon’s strength.

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There was also a change earlier on. In the Japanese version, Vritramon asks Bolgmon to cover him, which leads to Bolgmon attacking with Ultimate Thunder. In the dub, no such request is made, and MetalKabuterimon attacks with Bolo Thunder on his own. This changes a later scene.

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In the original, Kouji asks Takuya if he sensed anything about Duskmon while fighting him, which leads to Takuya’s flashback of the fight. In the dub, Koji accuses him of not being a team player, and the flashback represents him “charging in” all by himself without thinking.

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There’s some slight dialogue change in the fire scene between Izumi and Junpei. It seems JP is a little more philosophical with his speech, and manages to work in an analogy regarding the fire which wasn’t present in Junpei’s speech. While this is a nice touch, it is a tad off, because it breaks JP’s usual characterization. He’s never shown any signs of being that wise, so it’s quite a significant jump from his usual annoying personality. Junpei’s not much better, but he wasn’t quite so “Grand Master Junpei, Sage of Wisdom” in his speech, so it wasn’t quite so unnatural of a jump. Still, it wasn’t all that bad.

In the original, Duskmon’s many eyeballs make this really weird rolling sound when they move…it’s kinda creepy.

The usual Bokomon/Neemon nonsense.

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Dub Takuya has this odd and irritating tendency to over-pronounce the word “I” each time he says it. “Then, when I give the signal…” and such. It comes out of nowhere, and it seems to have started and ended all within five minutes.

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I’m a tad surprised. The scene with Takuya and Kouji talking privately was not changed, and was practically word-for-word to the original script. Way to go, Seth! That was a pretty important scene, and I was afraid they’d jack it up.

As usual, the Spirit Evolution sequences are lengthened.

Sadly, Zephyrmon is starting to sound more and more like Zoe now as opposed to the more in-control mature voice she had in her debut episode.

They added the howling shot of KendoGarurumon to the end of Koji’s evolution sequence again. I wonder how often they’re going to do that before Beowulfmon shows up.

During Takuya’s evolution into Agunimon, the dub’s sound effects were off a little bit on their timing, if mine ears doth not deceive.

What the dub keeps calling Pyro Tornado and Pyro Darts which they should be calling Pyro Punch and is called Burning Salamander in the original, is now called Here comes the worst you’ve ever seen! in the dub.

7 second cut: Several shots of Agnimon actually punching Duskmon in the face were either replaced with repeated shots or cut altogether. The dub also used a later shot of Bokomon and Neemon freaking out to cover up some of the fight as well, then proceeded to use the shot where it was supposed to be, too.

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