Japanese Episode 56

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Japanese Episode 56

Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 56: "Moero! Guren JIMU!" ("Burn! Guren Gym!")
American Episode 54: "Riddle Me This"
Pokemon Dare Da? Elebuu (Japan), Magmar (US)
Japanese Air Date: August 13th, 1998
American Air Date: ???

Satoshi-tachi sail towards Guren Island on a huge ship. Shigeru is also on this boat, but he's not going to get a gym badge. Shigeru tells Satoshi-tachi that Guren Island is now a resort town, and there isn't a gym leader. Satoshi is determined to get that badge anyway. So they land on the island, only to find that Shigeru was tellin the truth. Meanwhile, Purin, who's been following Satoshi-tachi, gets off the boat.

While walking around town, a man with long hair gives Satoshi-tachi a riddle. Kasumi guesses the correct answer, and the man tells about how tourists have ruined the island for Pokemon Trainers. Satoshi asks if the gym is still around, but it's in ruins now. The man gives Satoshi a business card for his inn and then disappears.

In town, Musashi and Kojirou are running a cookie shop, planning to rob the Pokemon Lab...

It's getting late, so Satoshi-tachi look for a hotel. But all of them are filled! Tired and desperate, they decide to camp out when Satoshi is lured by the smell of food from one of the hotels. Shigeru's in that hotel! He boasts again, but soon a Purin comes and puts everyone but Satoshi-tachi to sleep (Satoshi-tachi escape just in time).

After running some distance, Takeshi suggests that Satoshi check out the business card the man with the long hair gave him. But it has another riddle! Kasumi guesses the correct answer, and finds the inn.

That night, the Rocket Dan attack the Pokemon Lab. Satoshi-tachi get a call about it at the inn, and rush off to stop them. Satoshi arrives and sends out Pijyon. Pikachu rides on top and electrocutes the giant Nyasu balloon. All the pokemon are saved!

As a reward, the man with long hair tells Satoshi that there IS a gym on Guren Island, but tells them in the form of another riddle. In the hot springs, Satoshi-tachi ponder the meaning. Togepi, while playing, accidently triggers a switch which opens a secret passage underground. Satoshi-tachi get dressed and go down the stairs, where it gets hotter the lower they go. It's a volcano gym! The man with the long hair reveals himself as Katsura, the Guren City Gym Leader. He challenges Satoshi to a 3-on-3 battle.

Katsura sends out Kyuukon, so Satoshi sends out Zenigame. Kyuukon uses its "Blazing Whirlpool" (Fire Spin) on Zenigame and beats it. Next Satoshi sends Lizardon against Katsura's Saidon. Lizardon doesn't do anything but sleep, so Satoshi is forced to replace it with Pikachu. It dodges Saidon's attacks, and hits its horn with a Thundrebolt (Takeshi explains that Pikachu used its horn like a lightning rod). Katsura announces that it has a super pokemon that can't be beat, and Bubaa comes out of the lava. It starts attacking Pikachu, but it's too quick. It's attacks don't work, either, because of an air lense. Bubaa uses its most powerful attack, "Hono'o Keisai Dai" on Pikachu. Will it be burnt!? Tsuzuku!

*This episode is the start of American Season 3. This was the first full season of Pokemon on Kids' WB!. Season 2 was a mere twelve episodes, but Season 3 was a whopping 50 episodes! This was actually the third episode aired in Season 3, the first two being episodes previously skipped because of all the signs 4Kids painted over.

Towns=more work for 4Kids! And for Dogasu! Yup, lots of paint editing in town:

The pan shot of the city during Ash's line: "Maybe Gary was right" had losts of signs erased. Starting at the left side of the screen, the blue sign hanging over an awning has the kanji for "san," or the number three, and six little dots (three on top, three on the bottom). All was erased. I guess little kids can't even see dots...

On that same building, a blue sign hanging a little lower has its hiragana erased, and a sign going horizontally over the door has its kanji erased.

An orange sign going down on another building with tiny hiragana was erased. And the kanji on a yellow sign on the adjacent building is also erased.

During Brock's line "No sign of a Pokemon Gym...," a blue sign with kanji was erased.

*Katsura's basic riddle is the kind-of sort-of similar. It's as follows:

Katsura: "Atama wa Hya Hya Karada wa Hoka Hoka."

Which means:

Katsura: "The head goes Hya Hya, the body goes Hoka Hoka"

I have no idea what that means. It also doesn't help that "atama" and "karada" have multiple meanings. And I'm pretty sure Hya Hya and Hoka Hoka are sound effects...they're written in katakana. And Kasumi's response is different from the dub. In Japanese, she says "rotenburo" (open-aired bath). So 4Kids used the English equivalent, spa.

In the dub, it was a pretty accurate translation:

Blaine: "What do tourists think is hot and cool?"
Misty: "Hot springs are really hot, and tourists think they're cool!"

*The eye riddle is pretty much the same in Japanese, except that Kasumi's response is "mabuta yo" (eyelid) instead of "in front of your eyes."

Katsura's card says "Penshon Nazo Nazo" ("Small Hotel Riddle Riddle") in katakana. It says "Big Riddle Inn" in the dub. In Japanese, the letters were partly covered by Katsura's thumb on the left-hand side of the card, but in the dub it's on the right-hand side (just being thorough!).

When Satoshi talks about going to the Pokemon Lab, there are signs in the background which say "Resutoran" (Restaurant) and signs with kanji. All were erased.

In the shot with the Pokemon Center, there are several food signs erased by 4Kids. The green one on the right said "udon" (Japanese noodles) and the red and blue ones on the left said "takoyaki" (octopus). In the dub, Ash says "Aww, they're just a bunch of souvenir stands." No, they're food stands.

Also, when Musashi and Kojirou have their backs turned towards us, you can see part of a "takoyaki" sign in hiragana, but it was erased by 4Kids. Why would the Rocket Dan be selling cookies at a souvenir stand, anyway? Methinks 4Kids needs to think before writing. Anyway, the kanji on the back of Musashi's coat is erased. Or rather, the 1/4 of a kanji symbol you could see. Not even Japanese viewers could see it! 4Kids just likes to show off their paint editing, I think.

*Ash: "Oh, I'm so hungry I could eat a Horsea."

Yes, I often get so hungry that I could eat one of the smallest pokemon around! 4Kids are absolutely brilliant. At 0.4 meter and only 8 kg, Tattsu wouldn't make a good meal at all. I mean, I could see how they were trying to be cute with the whole "I could eat a horse" line, but it doesnt' work here. If I were Misty, I'd guard Horsea's Pokeball with my life...

*Purin's song is OFF in this episode! I'm sorry, Rachel Lillis, but you were going waaaaay too fast for the music. Didn't you have the music on a headset or something to listen to while you sang? It seemed very sloppily put together...

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