Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 087:  "The Crystal Iwark"
American Episode 233:  "The Crystal Onix"
Pokemon Dare Da?  Crystal Iwark (Japanese), Rhyhorn (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course:  Caterpie
Japanese Air Date:  March 11th, 1999
American Air Date:  February 5th, 2000
Important Characters:  Masami (Marissa), Isao (Mateo)
Important Places:  Ponkan Island (Sunburst Island)

A message in a bottle asking about something called a “Crystal Iwark” prompts Satoshi and his friends to make Ponkan Island their next stop. They soon meet Masami, the letter’s young author, and learn that her older brother Isao is looking for an Iwark said to be made entirely out of crystal to help him get out of the creative rut he’s been in with his glass-making lately. This Crystal Iwark is said to be hidden somewhere on the island but nobody knows where it is and so our heroes decide to help look for it. Kenji’s Maril, a rare Pokémon with an incredible sense of hearing, uses its unique abilities to lead everyone to a shore where a second island can be seen across the sea. But how can they get across? Suddenly, the waters part to the side, revealing a hidden path to the other island! Satoshi and his friends deal with a quick distraction by the Rocket-Dan before entering the cave and coming face-to-face with the Crystal Iwark. Isao weakens the Pokémon in battle in order to get it – first with his Parshen, then with his Lizardo – but eventually decides that just seeing the majestic Pokémon has been enough to give him the inspiration needed to pull himself out of his rut. Our heroes leave Iwark behind and return to town where the glass-maker begins to work with a renewed fervor. Now that Masami’s prayers have been answered our heroes leave Ponkan Island for their next adventure.

---

Thoughts
A few things tend to come up whenever Pokémon fans talk about the Orange Islands arc. Kenji replacing Takeshi and the fact that Satoshi defeated the region's Champion are the big ones, and the island hopping and the unique Trial-like Gym Battles get a lot of attention as well. But something else that gets brought up all the time is the archipelago's unique Pokémon, and you can't talk about unique Orange Island Pokémon without talking about the Crystal Iwark.

So what is the "Crystal Iwark," anyway? We don't really have much to go off of. It's an Iwark made entirely out of rock crystal who's also strong against Water but weak against Fire...and that's pretty much all we get! Yet Pokémon fans seem to have latched onto it regardless. I guess part of the appeal is the visual -- the light blue coloration just looks really good on the original Iwark design -- that makes it familiar yet juuuuust different enough to make it stand out. But also, people want what they can't have, and a special Iwark you can't get in any of the video games (to this day!) is just too intriguing to ignore. Over the years fans have gone on to hack the Pokémon into the main series games, make unofficial merchandise, and imagine other Pokémon with the crystal motif, all based on this single decades-old filler episode. I can't think of many other episodes that have inspired the same.

The only real problem I have with the Crystal Iwark, as a concept, is that somehow people aren't storming Ponkan Island to try to get this presumably one-of-a-kind Pokémon. The Crystal Iwark's existence isn't exactly a secret; the residents of Ponkan Island bring it up in casual conversation all the time, with absolutely zero regard for who might be within earshot. So why isn't the island overrun with Pokémon Hunters and the like? Or, at the very least, the Rocket-Dan? You would think that, after being defeated by this ultra rare Pokémon, Musashi, Kojirou, and Nyarth would just hang out for a day or two -- long enough for Satoshi and his friends to leave the island, probably -- and then call up their Boss to tell them what the hell just happened. "Hey, we found this Iwark made entirely out of crystal, and we know exactly where it is. When are you sending a team our way?"

Something else about this episode that sticks out to me is that it's the first appearance of Maril in the TV series! These days I tend to think of the Aqua Mouse Pokémon as a fairly unremarkable Water-Type, but when I rewatched the Pokémon's introduction in this episode, with the extended close-ups of its body and the use of the "Togepy is born" background music, I was reminded that oh yeah, "Pikablu" used to be an exciting new mystery once upon a time! What attacks can it use? What Type is it? Can it evolve? Is it related to Pikachu in any way? There was just so much about the Pokémon we didn't know back in the day and so it becoming a regular(-ish) character in the TV series was a pretty exciting development!


While on the topic of Gen 2 Pokémon, I'm kind of surprised the show never ended up giving Satoshi one of those new-fangled Johto creatures while he was in the Orange Islands. Both Kasumi and Kenji get to walk around with promotions for the upcoming Gold & Silver video games for quite a while (Kasumi's had hers for almost half the series at this point) while Satoshi's stuck with a team of nothing but Gen I Pokémon until the day he sets foot in the Johto Region. Isn't that odd? He won't get any Gen 3 Pokémon in Johto either, or Gen 4 Pokémon in Hoenn, or Gen 5 Pokémon in Sinnoh, and so on and so on. The writers seem to have decided that it'll be Satoshi's companions who get to advertise the next series of games but never Satoshi himself, and this episode here, at least in my mind, helps solidify that.

If there's one word to describe the English version of this episode it'd be "inconsistent." Look at the dialogue; we'll go whole minutes without any significant deviations from the Japanese script and then all of a sudden bam -- five dialogue edits, one right after the other. Voice-acting wise, Mateo sounds perfectly fine but Marissa is a screechy mess and that one rival shopkeep is given a Joey Wheeler voice for literally no reason whatsoever. Music replacements were also kind of up and down, with the second half of the episode faring much better than the first. It's both better and worse than the episode that came before it, a criticism I'll end up having for a lot of the dubbed episodes of this arc.

Maril doesn't get to keep its Japanese voice, which is odd because I think its Japanese cry could have worked for the English dub. I mean, if we can have the Crystal "Onix" going around saying "Iwaaaaark!" all the time then surely we can have "Marill" going around saying "Mari ruru," right? I know 4Kids made their choice back when they dubbed Pikachu's Vacation the year before and are just sticking to their guns here but I really do wish they could have pulled a Victreebel again and restored its original voice.

Dialogue Edit
The name of the island "The Crystal Iwark" takes place in is called Ponkan Island (ポンカン島). "Ponkan" comes from "ponkan orange," a citrus fruit that's kind of a mix between a mandarin and a pomelo. The English dub changes the island's name to Sunburst Island, after the tangerine of the same name.

Our heroes arrive on Sunburst Island:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ケンジ　「このポンカン島は、ガラス工芸品で有名なんだ」	Kenji:  "Ponkan Island is famous for its glasswork."	Tracey:  "Sunburst Island's famous for having all kinds of crystal and glass shops."
サトシ　「へー」	Satoshi:  "Wow."	Ash:  "Wow."
ケンジ　「島の人たちほとんどがガラス工芸の職員さんたちで観光客もたくさん来 るんだ」	Kenji:  "Most of the people on this island are glassworkers, and lots of tourists come here as well."	Tracey:  "Lots of artists live here, and they make the glass right on the island. People travel from all over the world to buy it."

As you can see from the side-by-side dialogue here, Sunburst Island is "world famous" while Ponkan Island is less so.

Inside the shop, Mateo talks about his grandfather:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
イサオ　「でも、じいちゃんが死んで僕が店を受け継いだんだけどなかなか店に出せるものが作れなくて」	Isao:  "After our grandfather died I inherited the shop but I just haven't been able to make anything worth selling."	Mateo:  "I tried my best to follow in his footsteps, but I just can't make anything good enough to sell in the store."

"I tried my best to follow in his footsteps...and also, we're just standing in front of a grave, in our Sunday best, for no reason whatsoever. What's that? Who said anything about anyone dying? Not us, that's for sure!"

This seems like your typical 4Kids death cover-up, but this one is weird because later in the episode they'll go on to have Mateo say "For the rest of his life grandpa turned out one great sculpture after another." You don't typically say "for the rest of his life" about someone's who still alive, right? Dub-only fans can figure out he's dead either way so why dance around a reference to his death here?

Mateo sets up the plot of this week's episode:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
イサオ　「それもクリスタルのイワークさせ見つかれば何とかなるかもしれないん だ」	Isao:  "And if I can just find the Crystal Iwark then something's bound to happen."	Mateo:  "I know I could create sculptures like my grandfather if I could just capture the Crystal Onix."
サトシ　「え？」	Satoshi:  "Huh?"	Ash:  "Huh?"
イサオ　「じいちゃんがまだ修行していた若いころクリスタルのイワークに出会っ たって聞いたんだ」	Isao:  "I heard that he actually met the Crystal Iwark back when he was still a young trainee."	Mateo:  "Grandpa used to tell me that when he was a young artist he saw the Crystal Onix, and that's what inspired him."
サトシ　「クリスタルのイワークと？」	Satoshi:  "He actually met it?"	Ash:  "You mean he saw it for real?"
イサオ　「ん。体全体が水晶でできている」	Isao:  "That's right. Its body was made entirely out of rock crystal."	Mateo:  "Yeah. It was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen."

Isao mentions that his goal is to find the crystal Pokémon, not catch it. He'll kind of contradict that later in the episode (more on that in the second half) so maybe 4Kids changed this line to make the first half of the episode a bit more consistent with the second half? Isao also mentions his grandfather still undergoing training when he came across the Crystal Iwark, something Mateo doesn't bother to mention.

After Mateo shows everyone the statue of the Crystal Onix his grandfather made:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
イサオ　「じいちゃんが作ったクリスタルのイワークの像だよ」	Isao:  "This is a Crystal Iwark sculpture my grandfather made."	Mateo:  "That's my grandpa's sculpture of the Crystal Onix he saw."
サトシたち　「へー」	(Satoshi and the others react)	(Ash and the others react)
イサオ　「クリスタルのイワークはガラスの神様のお使い、ガラスのシンボルと言 われてるんだ」	Isao:  "The Crystal Iwark is said to be a the messenger of the God of Glass and the symbol of glass itself."	Mateo:  "Grandpa used to say that whenever he needed some inspiration all he had to do was think of that Crystal Onix."

I'm guessing Isao's second line got changed because of the word "god."

Tracey's Venonat tries to find the Crystal Onix:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「あ～これはただの岩だよな」	Satoshi:  "Eh, these are just regular old rocks."	Ash:  "I guess it kinda...looks like an Onix. (chuckles) It was a nice try, Venonat."
カスミ　「形は似てるんだけどね～」	Kasumi:  "They do have the same shape, though."

This one's kind of interesting! In the Japanese version, Satoshi and Kasumi each get a line of dialogue here but in the English dub Ash delivers both lines while Misty just stands there silently.

This might seem like a random and pointless change until you look closely at the animation and notice that Ash's mouth is the only one that's actually moving! When Kasumi says her line in the Japanese version it's actually Satoshi's mouth that her voice is coming out of, not hers!

4Kids noticed this animation error and adjusted the dialogue so that we no longer have Misty's voice coming out of Ash's mouth.

Tracey addresses his Venonat:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ケンジ　「コンパン、これは違うんだ」	Kenji:  "Kongpang, this isn't what we're looking for."	Tracey:  "Venonat, how could you let me down?"

Ouch Tracey, that seems a bit harsh!

After Tracey recalls his disappointment of a Venonat:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「どうするの？」	Kasumi:  "What are we gonna do now?"	Misty:  "What do we do now?"
ケンジ　「別のポケモンを使おう」	Kenji:  "Let's use a different Pokémon."	Tracey:  "I think I'll try a different Pokémon."
サトシ　「まだ他にもポケモン持ってるのか？」	Satoshi:  "You have other Pokémon with you?"	Ash:  "Do you have a Pokémon that can find the Crystal Onix?"
ケンジ　「あ。とっておきのね」	Kenji:  "Yup. It's the ace up my sleeve."	Tracey:  "I do. I have just the one."

Satoshi's line is interesting to me -- he actually assumed his friend Kenji only had one Pokémon on him this whole time! I guess this means Kenji never bothered to introduce his Maril to his new traveling companions? That, despite the fact he's been on (at least) two whole other islands since he met Satoshi and Kasumi, running around with a Gym Leader and saving other Pokémon from a Rocket duo, that he never once turned to his friends and was like "hey, there's someone I'd like you to meet." Isn't that absolutely ridiculous? I mean, not a Kojirou's Muskippa level of ridiculous, but still...!

Tracey shows off the Pokémon he's been keeping trapped in a ball all this time:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　 「みずねずみポケモンか」	Satoshi:  "The Aqua Mouse Pokémon, huh?"	Ash:  "You think Marill can help us?"
ケンジ　「このマリルはかなり遠くのポケモンの声を聞き分けらるだ」	Kenji:  "This Maril can tell the differences in Pokémon voices that're way off in the distance."	Tracey:  "Sure. Lots of times Marill hears a Pokémon before I even see him."
カスミ　「さすがポケモンウォッチャー！持ってるポケモンが違うわね」	Kasumi:  "I'd expect nothing less from a Pokémon Watcher! You have all sorts of Pokémon with you, huh?"	Misty:  "You two must make a good team. You watch and Marill listens."

Kasumi makes a great observation here -- you'd expect a Pokémon Watcher to carry around a wide variety of Pokémon to help him or her out in various situations -- but for some reason 4Kids removed that to have her talk about their teamwork instead.

Eyecatch
The eyecatch Pokémon this week is the Crystal Iwark! Well, in Japan at least.


I get that the dub is trying to shake things up by showing the Pokémon that will be the star of the next episode and all but I do wish that they would have at least used the art of the pink Rhyhorn from the next episode's Japanese eyecatch instead of the same stock art that's used everywhere else.

Dialogue Edit
Marill guides our heroes to the part of the island where the Crystal Onix is located:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「あの島か？」	Satoshi:  "That island over there?"	Ash:  "Over there?"
イサオ　「違うんじゃないかな？じいちゃんはこの島で出会ったって言ってたか ら」	Isao:  "Are you sure about that? My grandpa said he met the Crystal Iwark on this island."	Mateo:  "..."

If you think long pause we hear after Ash says his line feels off, then guess what...! That's would be because the English dub forgot (or decided not) to translate Isao's line here!

The path to the Crystal Onix's island opens up:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ケンジ　「満ち潮の時には離れ小島になるけれども、引き潮の時には道ができるん だ」	Kenji:  "When it's high tide it becomes an isolated islet but when it's low tide a path opens up."	Tracey:  "It looks like some kind of sand bar that connects the two islands."
イサオ　「今日は大潮だから特別に潮の満ち引きの差が激しい。それか！」	Isao:  "Today's a spring tide so the difference in the ebb and flow is even more pronounced. That must be it!"	Mateo:  "Or maybe when the tide is really low you can see that it's...one big island."

Isao mentions that today is a spring tide, indicating that our favorite glassmaker here keeps track of what the ocean's doing on any given day. Guess Mateo isn't as meteorologically inclined?

After the Team Rocket motto:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「ロケット団！」	Satoshi:  "Rocket-Dan!"	Ash:  "Team Rocket!"
カスミ　「あんたたちいい加減にしなさいよね！」	Kasumi:  "Would you just give it a rest already!"	Misty:  "Why don't you just pretend you're a tree and leaf!"
コジロウ　「そうはいけない！」	Kojirou:  "I'm afraid we can't do that."	James:  "Ooh, funny. Who told you that one, Professor Oak?"

Why would Misty come up with a "make like a tree and leaf" joke here? Like, if they were in a forest and fell into a pitfall trap covered up by a bunch of leaves and twigs then yeah, that would make sense to me. But our heroes fell into a pitfall in the middle of a sandy beach. Why are "trees" or "leaves" any part of this? And why is James playing along?

The banter continues:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ムサシ　「お前たちのあとをつけて話は全部聞かせてもらったのよ～」	Musashi:  "We followed you and overheard everything."	Jessie:  "We know what you kids are looking for."
ニャース　「どうやらクリスタルのイワークはあの小島にいるようだニャ」	Nyarth:  "It seems the Crystal Iwark is over on that small island there Nya."	Meowth:  "We figured you'd show up looking for that Crystal Onix sooner or later."
ムサシ　「あたしたちが頂かせてもらうのよ」	Musashi:  "We'll just hop on over and help ourselves."	Jessie:  "So we set a trap or two just for you."
コジロウ　「道案内ご苦労さん」	Kojirou:  "Thanks for showing us the way!"	James:  "Now we'll grab that Crystal Onix."
ニャース　「バイニャら！」	Nyarth:  "Bye Nya~!"	Meowth:  "Bye bye losers!"

The Rockets' explanation about how they set the traps creates plot holes no matter what version you're watching. In English the Rocket trio ran ahead and set up a bunch of traps for our heroes in advance, which OK, makes sense until you remember they have absolutely no way of knowing where the Crystal Onix is supposed to be in the first place. But things aren't much better in the Japanese version; the trio followed after our heroes and got all their information after they did, but yet somehow were also able to set traps on a part of the island they've never been on before? Huh?

To be honest neither version really makes any sense to me.

Our heroes dig their way out:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
マサミ　「貝殻がいっぱい落ちてる！」	Masami:  "There are lots of pretty shells on the ground!"	Marissa:  "Look at all the pretty shells."
カスミ　「普段は海の中だもんね」	Kasumi:  "That's because they're normally in the ocean."	Misty:  "We'll pick some up on the way back...if we come back."

I don't know about you, but I think the proper response to a young girl exclaiming "Yay, pretty shells!" isn't to be like "oh, we're probably all going to die out here by the way."

Sound Edit
All the scenes inside the crystal cave have a key difference to them between the Japanese version and the English version; an echo effect.


The Japanese version has no special effect applied to the characters' voices whatsoever. All the dialogue inside the cave sounds as clear and unfiltered as the dialogue elsewhere on the island.

When it comes to the English dub, however, 4Kids apparently thought it would sound too unnatural for everyone to sound like they're in a recording booth while they're inside this massive cave and so they added an echo effect to the characters' dialogue. Interestingly, 4Kids only adds the effect to those elements that they themselves created; all the human characters and the Pokémon whose voices got dubbed over by 4Kids' voice talent get the effect applied to them, while the Pokémon whose voices were kept as-is from the Japanese version -- Iwark, Pikachu, Togepy, Utsubot, Arbok, Hitodeman --  do not. The sound effects, which are brought over from the Japanese version, are also left as-is.

I can't say I blame 4Kids here; it's a pretty innocuous change that makes a lot of sense. I do wish they had been able to apply the effect to all the voices and not just the ones recorded there in New York but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume there were some technical issues or something preventing them from doing so.

Dialogue Edit
The Crystal Onix makes its big debut:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「クリスタルのイワーク！」	Satoshi:  "It's the Crystal Iwark!"	Mateo:  "It's the Crystal Onix!"
カスミ　「これが。。」	Kasumi:  "You mean..."	Misty:  "No kidding!"

The same mouth flap error that happened in the first half of the episode strikes again! Originally we hear Satoshi's voice coming out of Isao's mouth, for some reason, and so the dub fixes this by giving Satoshi's line to Mateo instead.

Our heroes continue to gawk:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ケンジ　「体全体が水晶でできてる」	Kenji:  "Its whole body is made out of crystal."	Tracey:  "Its whole body is made out of crystal."
サトシ　「スゲー！」	Satoshi:  "So cool!"	Ash:  "Yeah."
ピカチュウ　「ピカチュウ～」	Pikachu:  "Pikachu~"	(Pikachu doesn't say anything)
ケンジ　「観察させてもらいます！」	Kenji:  "Let me get a closer look!"	Tracey:  "Hmph, wait til Professor Oak hears about this!"

Aside from the usual rewrite of Kenji's catchphrase (this is the eighth time this has happened since his debut episode, by the way), we also get a rare instance of Pikachu's voice getting muted from the English dub, for some reason.

Mateo prepares to confront the rare Pokémon in front of him:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
マサミ　「お兄ちゃん！」	Masami:  "Big brother!"	Marissa:  "It's scary!"
イサオ　「ゲットするぞ！この日のために育ててきたポケモンがいるんだ！」	Isao:  "I'm going to get it. I've got a Pokémon I've been raising just for this moment."	Mateo:  "I came prepared with just the Pokémon to battle that Onix, so don't be scared, Marissa."
カスミ　「この日のため？」	Kasumi:  "Just for this moment?"	Misty:  "What are you using?"

Earlier in the episode 4Kids rewrote a line about Isao wanting to find the Crystal Iwark to make him say that he wants to capture it, but then here they do the exact opposite! Originally Isao states very clearly that he wants to get the rare Pokémon while 4Kids changes that to have Mateo say he just wants to battle it.

Team Rocket arrives in the cave:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ロケット団　(ハーハー息切れする)	Rocket-Dan:  (panting)	Team Rocket:  (panting)
コジロウ　「その…そのクリスタルのイワーク…」	Kojirou:  "We'll...we'll help ourselves..."	Meowth:  "Hey, down here. I'm down here."
(カ メラがパンダウンする)	(camera pans down)	(camera pans down to Meowth)
ニャース　「…ロケット団がいただくニャ」	Nyarth:  "...to that Crystal Iwark Nya."	Meowth:  "That Crystal Onix belongs to Team Rocket!"

Other changes like this, where one character's line of dialogue is given to someone else, were obviously made to cover up animation mistakes from the original. But this time 4Kids' change isn't so noble; they simply wanted to shoehorn in a fourth wall breaking joke instead!

The fourth wall breaking continues:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
カスミ　「よくあの罠から抜けられたわね」	Kasumi:  "You three really got yourselves out of those traps, huh?"	Misty:  "I don't get it. How did you three escape?"
トゲピー　「チョゲチョゲプイ～！」	Togepy:  "Toge Toge piiiii~!"	Togepi:  "Toge Toge piiiii~!"
コジロウ　「あ艱難辛苦を乗り越えて！」	Kojirou:  "We'll overcome any obstacle!"	James:  "That is a secret you will never know."
ムサシ　「勝利をつかむのはロケット団！」	Musashi:  "Victory is within the Rocket-Dan's grasp!"	Jessie:  "The writers can't figure it out either."

The trio daydreams:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ニャース　「ニャんたってクリスタルのイワークを手に入れたら…」	Nyarth:  "If we can get that Crystal Iwark Nya..."	Meowth:  "Just think of all the beautiful junk we can make with that crystal!"
ムサシ　「超高級の首輪」	Musashi:  "A super gorgeous choker"	Jessie:  "The world's longest crystal necklace."
コジロウ　「クリスタルのイワーク風呂」	Kojirou:  "Or a Crystal Iwark bath."	James:  "A crystal tub. Eee!"
ニャース　「クリスタルな小判を付けてクリスタルニャース！」	Nyarth:  "I'll put a crystal coin on my head and become Crystal Nyarth!"	Meowth:  "I'll get a crystal charm and become the cat's Meowth."
ムサシ　「ハハハハお金持ち～」	Musashi:  "Hahahaha we'll be filthy rich~"	Jessie:  (laughs)
コジロウ　「ん。今一リアリティがないな」	Kojirou:  "Hmm...none of that sounds very realistic though..."	James:  "Hmm. What makes me think we're going to blow it?"

Out of all the rewrites here the final Kojirou change is the biggest one to me. Kojirou has this ridiculous dream of making a bath out of the Crystal Iwark and then is automatically like "actually, nope, scratch that, that's stupid." It's a rare bit of self reflection on his part and I absolutely love him for that.

Team Rocket blasts off:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ロケット団　「ロケット団のロの字はやな感じ ～！」	Rocket-Dan:  "The "ro" in "Roketto-Dan" is...ya na kanji~!"	Team Rocket:  "It looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

It's very similar to the little "song" they made up in the airship episode not too long ago that 4Kids didn't bother to adapt back then, either, so the dub deciding not to do anything with it in this episode at least shows a desire to be consistent!

Charmeleon vs. Onix:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
イサオ　「よし！炎を打った！」	Isao:  "Great work! Now shoot off a fire attack!"	Mateo:  "All right! Ember attack now!"

I've seen people online claim that Isao commands his Pokémon to use Fire Spin -- hono'o no uzu in Japanese -- but no matter how many times I listen to this part of the episode all I hear is hono'o o utta -- "shoot off a fire attack."

Either way, we know that Isao did not command his Pokémon to use Hinoko, which is what "Ember" attack is known by in the Japanese version.

Sound Edit
So the English dub's inability to just leave things the hell alone rears its ugly head again in the sequence where Isao and the Crystal Iwark see eye to eye.

So what does 4Kids do this time? Well it's not as bad as the Metronome sequence in the previous episode but it's still noticeable. They add sound effects of a fire burning to the first and last shots of the scene, and then add this whooshing noise to the middle animation of Isao and the Crystal Iwark looking at each other in the eyes.

That probably doesn't sound like a lot, and at the end of the day it really isn't. But like...why bother in the first place? What would the harm have been to just keep the sequence as-is?

Dialogue Edit
It's time to say goodbye:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
マサミ　「さようなら！」	Masami:  "Good bye!"	Marissa:  "Good bye!"
イサオ　「気を付けて！」	Isao:  "Take care!"	Mateo:  "And thank you!"
マサミ　「…」	(doesn't say anything)	Marissa:  "See you later!"

The English dub ends this episode on a sad note by making a little girl believe she'll ever see these people again! How cruel!

Ash looks at his crystal Pikachu:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
サトシ　「今にも動き出しそうだな」	Satoshi:  "It looks like it's going to jump to life any minute."	Ash:  "Wow! It almost looks like it's alive."
カスミ　「本当。わたしもトゲピーの造ってもらえばよかった」	Kasumi:  "It really does. I wish I'd gotten him to make me a Togepy one too."	Misty:  "You can really tell Mateo got all the inspiration he needed."

Another perfectly translatable line of Kasumi dialogue gets rewritten for seemingly no reason at all!

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This page was last updated on April 1st, 2021