Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 055: "SHATTA CHANSU wa Pikachuu" 

("Shutter Chance Pikachu")

American Episode 051:  "Pokemon Paparazzi"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Ishitsubute
Japanese Air Date:  July 23rd, 1998
American Air Date:  April 17, 1999
Important Characters:  Tohru (Todd)

Satoshi-tachi are having a picnic when Satoshi sees the gleam of a long-barrelled object.  Thinking that the gleam is that of a barrel of a sniper's gun, Satoshi alerts everyone, ruining breakfast in the process.  As everyone angrily asks Satoshi what his problem is, the young trainer uses his Zenigame to expose the source of the commotion.  The gleam belonged to the camera of a young photographer named Tohru, and he was simply trying to take a picture of Pikachu.  Tohru treats the pokemon trainers to breakfast as he tries taking Pikachu's picture, but he's unhappy taking pictures of a pokemon who's posing.  After Satoshi-tachi thank Tohru for the food and depart, they find themselves being followed by the young photographer.  Satoshi shields the camera-shy Pikachu from Tohru's camera lens as the young photographer continues in his attempts.  It is revealed that the reason Tohru is so determined to get Pikachu's picture is because he was asked by an elderly couple to take a picture of the electric pokemon as a last request.  However, the elderly couple turns out to be Musashi and Kojirou, who misunderstand a magazine article about the photographer--Tohru is renowned as being the best at capturing pokemon on film, but Musashi and Kojirou thought that he just caught them.  After a perilous accident which sends Satoshi on the path down a waterfall, Tohru saves the young trainer despite having the sacrafice his camera to do so.  After defeating the Rocket-Dan, Satoshi and Tohru become good friends as everyone joins together to have one big group picture taken.

---

Thoughts
I can imagine a room full of Japanese businessmen having some type of board meeting or something, trying to figure out their latest marketing strategies.  "Hey," somebody says, "we have this game coming out soon called Pokemon Snap.  Let's find a way to plug that on the show!"  "Good idea!" says another businessman, and thus Tohru is born.

OK, so I'm sure that's not the way it happened, but it sure feels that way.

With this episode, we're introduced to the only person to have traveled with Satoshi-tachi who never owned a single pokemon.  Overall, I think it's a pretty good episode.  I think this is the only time the Rocket-Dan have ever recruited outside help to capture Pikachu (as they usually have too much pride to do such a thing) and they actually act like real villains in this episode.  And, while it was brief, this is the third episode in a row to have Kojirou crossdress.  It makes me wonder if the anime producers were trying to turn this into some kind of running joke (like the Kasumi-pulling-Takeshi-by-the-ear and the Oh-no-Kojirou-Utsubot's-trying-to-eat-you-again jokes), but got tired of it after a while.

So dub-wise, we have something unique happening (which I'll get to below), but otherwise it's the usual text cover-ups.  I think it's interesting to note that this is the second episode to involve guns, yet, like in the last episode, everything involving the gun was left uncensored.  Kinda makes you wonder about 4Kids' logic in erasing a few Japanese symbols but then having no problem with a scene depicting a ten-year-old boy's pre-teen friends being shot by a sniper. 

Side Note
In regards to the "Shutter Chance" part of the Japanese episode title--the phrase is said, in English, before taking a really good picture.  It's like saying "Here's a chance for a really great photo!"

Need proof?  Check out one of the Sailor Stars episodes.  The "random-monster-of-the-day," Sailor Picture, says it a lot in the episode.

Side Note
This is the first time 4Kids called onigiri "rice balls."  That's right, not donuts, not éclairs, nothing lame like that, but "rice balls."  Wow.  They'll go back and call it other names in the future (I think the most outlandish one was "ice cream sandwiches"), but for now I'll enjoy it while I can.

Dialogue Edit
I don't get to do many of these with this show, huh?  I mean, with no uncut dub to compare lines to, I really don't get to check to see if any lines were changed between the TV dub and the uncut dub.  But this episode (and the two that follow it) are special.

4Kids originally dubbed the episode with Tohru's name being "Snap," just like the character in the Pokemon Snap game, and this first version of the episode was shown in Canada and the U.K. and just about every other country that broadcasts the English dub of Pocket Monsters.  However, when it aired in the U.S., Snap's name was changed to "Todd" for the Kids' WB! airing. 

I've heard a story that the reason for the name change is that 4Kids didn't want to get into legal trouble with Kellogg's for using the name "Snap" (since "Snap" is one of the characters associated with Rice Crispies).  But at this time, I don't think it's really been confirmed.  It really wouldn't make sense anyway, since they left his name "Snap" for the Pokemon Snap game and for the home video versions of the episode.  In fact, when they show the episodes on Cartoon Network, they show the versions where his name is Snap, so he's only called "Todd" when the episodes are airing on Kids' WB!. 

I don't have a copy of the "Snap" version of the episode (I'll try to catch it when it comes on Cartoon Network again), but when it does I'll keep track of which lines were redubbed.  By my count, there were nine lines total where his name (Todd) was said, so I'm guessing just nine of the lines were redubbed.  I'll check to make sure, though.

Dialogue Edit
Good God, we're still only at Tohru's/Snap's/Todd's introduction...

The part where Ash thinks Snap/Todd said "masker" instead of "master" (which prompts Snap/Todd to randomly take off a Blastoise mask) was a pun in the Japanese version that really doesn't translate too well.  Originally, Satoshi thought that Tohru said Kamex (as in the pokemon) when he really said kamera (camera).  THAT'S why you see Tohru with a Kamex mask on.

Paint Edit
The magazine with Tohru's picture of Ptera has "Pokemon no ---" on the cover (the --- is kanji that I can't read...I think it means "Pokemon Photos").   This was erased in the dub, since apparently no magazine in their right mind would bother having the title of the publication anywhere on the front.  We see the magazine cover twice more in this episode (both times belonging to Nyasu), and those times the text is erased as well.

Also, inside the magazine itself under the photo of Ptera is written "Kore ga Putera da..." (This is Ptera...).  This was also erased by 4Kids.

Paint Edit
The article inside Nyasu's magazine has Japanese writing, "Kore ka KAMERA Shounen Tooru-kun (10) Putera" ("This is the Camera Boy Tohru-kun (10) Ptera"--I'm assuming   that the "10" would be his age).  Originally, all this text wasn't visible at first, so the Japanese version zoomed out on the magazine until all the text could be shown.  In the dub, 4Kids just erased the text in the zoomed-up shot and then froze it there, not allowing the scene to zoom out and expose more text.  Pretty tricky, huh?

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