Japanese Episode 22

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Japanese Episode 22

Japanese Episode 22: "Keeshii! Chounoryoku Taiketsu!"

("Keshii! Supernatural Showdown!")

Satoshi-tachi have finally arrived in Yamabuki City, and when they get there they are greeted by the Rocket-Dan. They kidnap Pikachu, but the rodent pokemon is saved by a mysterious young girl with psychic powers. The girl then teleports Satoshi-tachi to the city's pokemon gym, and Satoshi wastes no time in challenging the gym leader Natsume. Natsume's psychic-type pokemon are much too powerful for Satoshi's Pikachu, so Natsume gains an easy victory. The little girl from before, who sits in Natsume's lap during the whole battle, decides that the consequence for Satoshi's loss is to "play" with her! So she uses her powers to shrink Satoshi-tachi so that they're just millimeters tall, and then transports them all into a doll house! Satoshi-tachi are about to be crushed by the little girl when a mysterious bearded man appears and teleports them away. Once they get to safety, the man tells Satoshi that there's a slim chance that Satoshi can beat Nastume's psychic pokemon with a ghost-type pokemon, so Satoshi-tachi depart for Shion Town's Pokemon Tower.

Thoughts
Yup, time for another gym leader battle, and the battle with Natsume has the honor of being the most drawn-out gym leader battle in the Sekiei League episodes. Of the three episodes that make up the Natsume battle, this one is my favorite--it introduces something from the game into the anime (the warp tiles), and presents Natsume as this mysterious character. The episode shows promise for the gym battle, but two episodes later the whole thing loses its charm to me.

Natsume is the only gym leader, other than Takeshi and Kasumi, who is given any sort of character development, so I'm enjoying it as I can get it. And you know what!? I actually like her dubbed voice! Sabrina's (whose name is a terrible because it reminds me of that bad Melissa Joan Hart series) voice is actually good, which is something I usually don't say about Lisa Oritz's characters. It sounds different from the other voice she uses (you know...the one she uses for EVERY female character in this and every other series!?) and it retains the creepiness of the Japanese version. Anyway, this is a pretty boring episode edit-wise--just the standard Japanese writing cover-ups.

Keshii keeps its Japanese voice--sort of. It's Japanese voice is heard in the dub, but they also have some guy say "Abra~~~" over the voice. If they had completely redone the pokemon's voice (a pokemon who's only on-screen for about one minute of this one episode, by the way), they would have had to redo Pikachu's voice for that scene too, so 4Kids just kept it as-is and just laid the "Abra~~~" over it.

Paint Edit
In the shot that pans down Yamabuiki City (right before Satoshi-tachi go through the city's entrance), the city's name (YAMABUKI CITY) is written, in English letters, on the arch above the entrance. It's changed to SAFFRON CITY for the dub.

Dialogue Edit
The whole dialogue about the "prize room" and whatnot is pretty much made up for the dub. In the Japanese version, Musashi-tachi lure Satoshi-tachi into the room with the teleport tile by promising them a party.

Paint Edit
When the Rocket-Dan get changed on-screen from their costumes into their uniforms, there's a sign on the screen that flashes "Shibaraku o...chi kudasai" (the "..." is where a kanji symbol was that I was unable to figure out). 4Kids painted over the sign with PLEASE STAND BY, which is basically what the sign said in Japanese. At least they translated the sign rather than simply erase it like they've done so many times before.

Dialogue Edit
The whole time the little girl is playing with Ash and the gang, she laughs. A lot. She's laughing throughout the entire scene, and it's REALLY annoying. Originally, she laughs a lot less, and it's a lot softer. It doesn't take over the scene the way it does in the dub.

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The screencap for this episode was taken from the Ultimate Pokemon Anime Site.