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| Episode Comparisons | Orange Islands
Episode
Stats:
Japanese Episode 106: "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil"
American Episode 301: "The Pokémon Water War"
Pokémon Dare Da? Kameil (Japanese), Tangela (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course: Pocket Monsters The Movie "Revelation Lugia" Special Feature: Dr. Ookido
Japanese Air Date: July 29th, 1999
American Air Date: August 26th, 2000
Important Characters: Russell (Captain Aidan)
Important Places: Unshuu Island (???)
Thoughts
Whenever I think back on the Orange Islands the same handful of episodes tend to always pop into my head. Those include, but are not limited to, episodes like "Tropical Pokemon and the GS Ball" and "Lord Nyarth's Island!?" and "Kanna of the Four Heavenly Kings! The Icy Battle!!" and "Lizardon! I Choose You!" There are a lot of really good, iconic, standout episodes in this little 30-some episode arc, actually! Unfortunately the episode we're going to take a look at for this write-up, "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil," doesn't really make that list.
I mean look, there actually are some good things to say about this episode. It was nice to see Zenigame break out its sunglasses again, and also how the show remembered that Kenji wouldn't have had any reason to know anything about the gang of delinquents it used to run around with back in Kanto. And getting to see both Kasumi and Kenji take a more active role in the episode's plot is always welcome. This episode even manages to pack in a little bit of humor, albeit unintentional. In the second half of the episode, for example, Kasumi volunteers to go back to town to take care of the fire at the apartment complex while everyone else continues to chase after the Rocket trio...except they're all out in the middle of nowhere when they decide all this and so Kasumi has to basically run back to the city, on foot, while Satoshi and Kenji continue searching the area from the comfort of Russell's jeep. It's so absurd and dumb, and yet it somehow circles all the way back around to being absolutely amazing.
But there are also problems, and I think a lot of it has to do with the expectations set forth by its title. When you see "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil" you probably expect this to be an exciting adventure about the titular Pokémon competing against each other to put out a massive infernos or something, right? But really, it ends up being mostly about turtles running on a racetrack and then the Rocket trio arguing amongst itself for like half the episode. There's also almost no "firefighting" in this thing, with only about five minutes of this episode's twenty minute runtime dedicated to the task. The "Zenigame vs. Kameil" part of the title, meanwhile, doesn't really happen much either. The "rivalry" Satoshi's Zenigame has with Team Kameil is one of the more underdeveloped ones we've seen in a while, with so much of this episode being the Kameil doing cool things and then Satoshi's Zenigame just kind of scowling at them, over and over again, until all of a sudden there's only like five minutes left in the episode and so the two of them make up so the show can come to an end.
A lot of this episode's weaknesses could have been forgiven if Satoshi's Zenigame had actually done anything, or gotten to battle, or grown in any way. But that simply doesn't happen. It doesn't do anything to help save the Kameil from the Rocket trio, really, and while it does help save that boy from the burning building at the end of the episode that role could have easily been filled by literally any of the other highly trained Kameil in the episode who, by the way, were also on the scene at that very moment. Zenigame doesn't grow, it doesn't learn any new moves, it doesn't seem to remember it can use Hydro Pump now, it doesn't evolve...it doesn't do anything, really! Some of my least favorite episodes of Pocket Monsters are the ones where you can remove Satoshi and his friends from the story and literally nothing would have happened any differently, and unfortunately "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil" very much falls into this category.
This episode marks the first episode of 4Kids' third season, and with that come a few changes. The opening theme's been chopped from 60 seconds to a mere 18 seconds (gotta squeeze in as much ad revenue as possible!), and the end credits include a few new names that weren't there before; Julie Vallely and David Beach have been added to the Adaptations credit, for example. But none of this translates to any real change in how the show will continue to be localized. The show's scripts are still riddled with baffling and unnecessary rewrites, the background music is still getting replaced, Japanese text is still being edited out with nothing being put in its place, violence edits are still a thing...it's a lot of the same old, same old. The only positive change I can point to is how in this episode, 4Kids does something it almost never does and actually plays multiple pieces of Hirokazu "Chip" Tanaka's background music from the Japanese version of Pikachu's Summer Vacation. The music from that short is something that's been popping up in the Japanese version of the TV series ever since late Kanto and yet the 4Kids dub, with very few exceptions, seemed to have this weird allergy to using it throughout most of Season Two. Will Season Three mark an increase in Hirokazu Tanaka music being used in the English dub? I don't actually know myself (I don't think I've seen all of Season Three in English, as of this writing) but I'm excited to find out!
Dialogue Edit
The very first line of the episode also contains our very first rewrite of the season:
The narrator in the Japanese version identifies the name of the island on which this episode takes place while the English version does not. The 4Kids dub also adds in a line about this episode's adventure being a "detour" for our heroes, something the Japanese version doesn't even imply.
Misty looks out toward the city:
Kasumi mentions it feels like they haven't been in a big city in a while even though they were just in one like four episodes ago. I guess 4Kids noticed this too and so maybe that's why they decided to change Kasumi's line here...? *shrugs*
The kids decide where to go next:
Tracey's rewrite here makes absolutely no sense to me. His line comes directly after Misty's "Sounds like you're not the only hungry one here" above, so why is he randomly bringing up some art museum in the dub? Why not use Kenji's original hamburger shop line, a line that was clearly written with the English version in mind?
Satoshi's rewrite, at least, is more understandable. In the Japanese original, Satoshi says poteto mo setto da ze! (ポテトもセットだぜ), a line that roughly translates to "I'll get fries and make it a combo." What that translation isn't able to do, unfortunately, is show how the Japanese original, poteto mo setto da ze, sounds extremely similar to Satoshi's catchphrase Pokémon getto da ze! (ポケモンゲットだぜ！), the English equivalent of which is "Gotta Catch 'Em All." I suppose 4Kids could have found a way to fit this catchphrase into their dialogue -- I dunno, have Ash say something like "gotta eat 'em all!" or something -- but they decided to go with regular, homage-free line instead.
Shortly after a fire breaks out at a nearby warehouse. The script for this is pretty faithful, for the most part. There are some tiny little rewrites here and there but nothing really notable until after Team Wartortle arrives on the scene. Here's what Ash's Pokédex has to say about the Pokémon:
The Japanese version is basically a paraphrase of the Pokémon's Bestiary entry from the Japanese version (of course) of the Pocket Monsters Red video game. The 4Kids version is...I dunno, some random thing they just made up out of nowhere...?
Side Note
In this episode we're introduced to a new character named Russell (ラッセル). Japanese fans speculate he may be a reference to the 1991 American film Backdraft, a movie about firefighters in Chicago trying to put an end to a serial arsonist's reign of terror that stars Kurt Russell as the main firefighter. Well, 4Kids takes the name Russell and decides that's too Japanese or whatever, and so they change it to "Captain Aidan" instead!
The English dub changing one anime-only Western name to a different Western name is always super dumb, but it's even more ridiculous this time around because it's not like the name "Russell" was already taken or anything like that. The man you see in the screenshot above is literally the only person in this whole entire show named Russell, and yet 4Kids changes it to a different name anyway.
The English dub often has the children generally refer to "Aidan" by his full title, "Captain Aidan," when the Japanese version only ever has anyone refer to him as "Russell-san."
Dialogue Edit
After the fire at the warehouse gets put out we move to a scene at the fire station where Captain Aidan trains his turtle Pokémon. We soon see this shot of the Wartortle doing laps:
In the original, the Kameil simply say the "Kame" part of their names over and over as they run around the track. In the English dub, meanwhile, the Wartortle sing all three syllables of their names to the tune of the "I Don't Know, But I've Been Told" military cadence, even though I'm preeeeeeeeeeeetty sure none of these turtles here are members of the United States armed services.
Shortly after we get Kenji's catchphrase kansatsu sasete moraimasu again for the first time in a while (with the English dub rendering it as "I gotta make some sketches of this"), Ash notices his Squirtle seems a bit down. Misty has a theory:
The "rescuing" Kasumi's talking about in the last line here is referring to when the Kameil pushed Zenigame out of the way back at the warehouse. This part of Kasumi's theory about why Satoshi's Pokémon's feeling the way it does gets left out of the English dub.
Paint Edit
The first digital paint edit of Season Three comes to us in the form of...the exact same paint edit 4Kids did back in the Season One episode "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad." All of these occur during the flashback to Squirtle's time in the Squirtle Squad:
Click on each image to view a larger version
Dialogue
Ash's narration during the above paint edits gets a few changes in it as well:
If I had to guess, I'd say the 4Kids dub changed Satoshi's explanation here because they wanted his dialogue to be more of a play-by-play of the visuals being shown than a general synopsis of their debut episode like it is in the original. There's a shot of the Squirtle apparently stealing fruits and vegetables from an outdoor market, you say? Better have Ash mention how they didn't like humans then! What's this now, the Squirtle are now being shown putting out a fire in some forest? Alrighty then, let's have Ash mention how they put out a fire.
I can see what the dub is going for here. I don't really like it and think it sounds say too hand-holdy, but I can at least understand what they're trying to do here.
The Rocket trio set their sights on the Water-Types:
Of all the random rewrites present here (seriously, why was any of this changed?) the one I'm most intrigued by Meowth's "the boss will have to pay cash on delivery" part. Because why would he say this? Does Meowth think they're going to show up at their boss' doorstep with all these Wartortle, and then if Giovanni doesn't immediately fork over the cash for these Pokémon then...they'll refuse to hand them over? They'll say "no deal" and then walk away, not caring that by doing this they'd be essentially ending their career at the organization? That seems extremely out of character for them, no?
In the very next scene Team Wartortle has a race against Ash's Squirtle. After the race Tracey has this to say:
Kenji states these turtles are the fastest he, personally, has ever heard of while Tracey apparently has Pokémon land speed records randomly scrawled onto his sketchpad, I suppose.
Eyecatch
Russell's Kameil gets swapped out for a random Tangela.
I guess 4Kids' strategy for Season Three is going to be to just keep using random Pokémon that have absolutely nothing to do with the ones who actually appear in the episode.
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio introduces itself:
The English dub consistently avoids having Jessie use the first line of the motto to mock her enemies the way her Japanese counterpart does, and I have no idea why. It's such a great little bit the dub could have had so much fun with and yet both 4Kids and TPCi simply write around it every single time.
Music Edit
During the scene where the Rocket trio have their little daydream about beating the summer heat (this episode premiered during the summer in Japan, after all) the song Pokémon Ondo can be heard in the background.
The English dub actually kept this song way back in the Season One episode "The Flame Pokémon-athon!," original Japanese lyrics and all, but I guess that was just a one time thing because it gets removed from the English version of this particular episode.
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio are at the cabin figuring out what to do with the Pokémon they just kidnapped:
This exchange is such a weird little seesaw of both good and bad.
Good: Meowth (temporarily) regains his cat speak in the dub, something we haven't heard from him since I think Season One, maybe? It's definitely been a while.
Bad: Meowth still seems to continue to have this bizarre and out-of-character disdain for his boss, saying he should "put his money where his (mouth) is," as if Giovanni is famous for breaking promises or something.
Good: The middle two lines here are fairly alright, localization wise. They're not 100% faithful but they're close enough.
Bad: Jessie randomly insulting James at the end for literally no reason.
Jessie counts out the Pokémon:
I would like to point out that the closed captions on the Viz DVD I have with this episode on it doesn't even bother captioning Jessie's line here. The line before and the line after are faithfully transcribed, but this one line here is just skipped over entirely. Maybe the people in charge of the transcribing this episode couldn't figure out what in the world she was saying?
Also, I get that "Eevee" is meant to be "Eeny," and that "Mankey" is meant to be "meeny," but how in the world does "Hitmonlee" sound anything like the "miny, moe" part at the end? Wouldn't something like "Eevee, Mankey, Mime, Slowbro" have worked better? Or -- and I know this is outrageous of me to even suggest -- 4Kids could have just translated the Japanese line as-is?
The Rockets keep arguing:
None of what's in the Japanese version would have caused any issues if left as-is so I'm not sure why the English dub changed any of the details here.
Meowth talks to Squirtle:
This isn't a "Dialogue Edit," per se, I'm just surprised Kids' WB!'s Broadcast Standards and Practices allowed Meowth to say "little Squirtie-pie" on a show with a TV-Y rating.
Cut -- 2 seconds
After Musashi kicks Nyarth out of the way, the cat Pokémon leaps forward and slashes Musashi and Kojirou across their faces. The two second sequence of him actually scratching their faces gets removed from the English dub and replaced with the full impact stars you see below, taken from another episode. As always, Japanese version's on the left while the English dub's on the right:
The very next shot of Jessie and James show them with these scratch marks intact, so I guess the BS&P's objection was less with the actual injuries themselves and more with the act of causing them.
With this, I guess Season Three is going to have slightly stricter editing policies compared to the first two. Meowth scratching his teammates' faces was never a problem in Seasons One and Two, but here in Season Three all of a sudden you just can't show that, for some reason. In the grand scheme of things it's no big deal -- BS&P edits don't even make it into the Top Ten in my list of things that affect the quality of the English dub of Pokémon -- but it's still interesting to see how things the show used to be able to get away with are all of a sudden taboo.
Dialogue Edit
Another fire breaks out:
The "three minutes" part of this is an invention of the English dub.
Back at the cabin, the Wartortle fight back:
This cute little bit from the Rocket trio gets replaced by the trio screaming for the English version.
The firefighting sequence is next, and for the most part the script is actually really quite faithful! The only thing worth mentioning is this exchange after the fire's been put out:
Originally Satoshi's talking to his Pokémon here, not the mother of the boy his Pokémon just helped save.
After the fire, our heroes bid farewell to Captain Aidan:
As you can see, Misty believes they might run into Captain Aidan again when in the Japanese version Kasumi doesn't really commit themselves one way or the other. The trio (well, Ash and Misty anyway) will actually end up meeting Captain Aidan again in Johto before the season's over and so Misty's rewrite here actually serves as a bit of extra foreshadowing that wasn't there in the original!
Finally, we get to the ending narration:
The ending narration in the Japanese version is very specific to this very episode while the English dub goes for a bit more of a generic overview.
This page was last updated on October 9th, 2024
Japanese Episode 106: "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil"
American Episode 301: "The Pokémon Water War"
Pokémon Dare Da? Kameil (Japanese), Tangela (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course: Pocket Monsters The Movie "Revelation Lugia" Special Feature: Dr. Ookido
Japanese Air Date: July 29th, 1999
American Air Date: August 26th, 2000
Important Characters: Russell (Captain Aidan)
Important Places: Unshuu Island (???)
Our heroes'
adventure through the Orange Islands brings Satoshi and his friends to
Unshuu Island. Shortly after landing, they hear someone yell out
"fire!" and soon find a warehouse engulfed in flames! Luckily, a man
named Russell and his squad of firefighting Kameil quickly arrive on
the scene and use their well coordinated Water Gun attacks to put out
the blazing inferno. Later, Russell gets to talking to Satoshi and
invites him and his Zenigame to come train with his firefighting squad
for the day. A rivalry soon forms between Satoshi's Water-Type and the
leader of "Team Kameil.” The Water-Types compete in a relay race and
target practice, but everything ends up having to be put on hold when
the entire firefighting team is lured out of the training grounds and
into one of the Rocket-Dan's pitfall traps! The trio of thieves makes a
run for it, forcing Satoshi and the others to give chase. Meanwhile,
another fire breaks out in an apartment complex downtown! Kasumi runs
ahead to try to keep the fire under control while Satoshi and the
others finally catch up to the Rocket trio and free the turtle
Pokémon. The squad of Kameil soon meet back up with Kasumi and
works together with Satoshi's Zenigame to put out the fire and save a
little boy trapped inside. Later, Zenigame and Kameil indicate they
respect each other and part ways as friends right as Satoshi and his
friends set off toward the nearest port for their next adventure.
Thoughts
Whenever I think back on the Orange Islands the same handful of episodes tend to always pop into my head. Those include, but are not limited to, episodes like "Tropical Pokemon and the GS Ball" and "Lord Nyarth's Island!?" and "Kanna of the Four Heavenly Kings! The Icy Battle!!" and "Lizardon! I Choose You!" There are a lot of really good, iconic, standout episodes in this little 30-some episode arc, actually! Unfortunately the episode we're going to take a look at for this write-up, "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil," doesn't really make that list.
I mean look, there actually are some good things to say about this episode. It was nice to see Zenigame break out its sunglasses again, and also how the show remembered that Kenji wouldn't have had any reason to know anything about the gang of delinquents it used to run around with back in Kanto. And getting to see both Kasumi and Kenji take a more active role in the episode's plot is always welcome. This episode even manages to pack in a little bit of humor, albeit unintentional. In the second half of the episode, for example, Kasumi volunteers to go back to town to take care of the fire at the apartment complex while everyone else continues to chase after the Rocket trio...except they're all out in the middle of nowhere when they decide all this and so Kasumi has to basically run back to the city, on foot, while Satoshi and Kenji continue searching the area from the comfort of Russell's jeep. It's so absurd and dumb, and yet it somehow circles all the way back around to being absolutely amazing.
But there are also problems, and I think a lot of it has to do with the expectations set forth by its title. When you see "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil" you probably expect this to be an exciting adventure about the titular Pokémon competing against each other to put out a massive infernos or something, right? But really, it ends up being mostly about turtles running on a racetrack and then the Rocket trio arguing amongst itself for like half the episode. There's also almost no "firefighting" in this thing, with only about five minutes of this episode's twenty minute runtime dedicated to the task. The "Zenigame vs. Kameil" part of the title, meanwhile, doesn't really happen much either. The "rivalry" Satoshi's Zenigame has with Team Kameil is one of the more underdeveloped ones we've seen in a while, with so much of this episode being the Kameil doing cool things and then Satoshi's Zenigame just kind of scowling at them, over and over again, until all of a sudden there's only like five minutes left in the episode and so the two of them make up so the show can come to an end.
A lot of this episode's weaknesses could have been forgiven if Satoshi's Zenigame had actually done anything, or gotten to battle, or grown in any way. But that simply doesn't happen. It doesn't do anything to help save the Kameil from the Rocket trio, really, and while it does help save that boy from the burning building at the end of the episode that role could have easily been filled by literally any of the other highly trained Kameil in the episode who, by the way, were also on the scene at that very moment. Zenigame doesn't grow, it doesn't learn any new moves, it doesn't seem to remember it can use Hydro Pump now, it doesn't evolve...it doesn't do anything, really! Some of my least favorite episodes of Pocket Monsters are the ones where you can remove Satoshi and his friends from the story and literally nothing would have happened any differently, and unfortunately "The Firefighting Showdown! Zenigame vs. Kameil" very much falls into this category.
This episode marks the first episode of 4Kids' third season, and with that come a few changes. The opening theme's been chopped from 60 seconds to a mere 18 seconds (gotta squeeze in as much ad revenue as possible!), and the end credits include a few new names that weren't there before; Julie Vallely and David Beach have been added to the Adaptations credit, for example. But none of this translates to any real change in how the show will continue to be localized. The show's scripts are still riddled with baffling and unnecessary rewrites, the background music is still getting replaced, Japanese text is still being edited out with nothing being put in its place, violence edits are still a thing...it's a lot of the same old, same old. The only positive change I can point to is how in this episode, 4Kids does something it almost never does and actually plays multiple pieces of Hirokazu "Chip" Tanaka's background music from the Japanese version of Pikachu's Summer Vacation. The music from that short is something that's been popping up in the Japanese version of the TV series ever since late Kanto and yet the 4Kids dub, with very few exceptions, seemed to have this weird allergy to using it throughout most of Season Two. Will Season Three mark an increase in Hirokazu Tanaka music being used in the English dub? I don't actually know myself (I don't think I've seen all of Season Three in English, as of this writing) but I'm excited to find out!
Dialogue Edit
The very first line of the episode also contains our very first rewrite of the season:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ナレーション 「オレンジ諸島の旅を続けるサトシたちはウンシュウ島に上陸し
た」 |
Narrator: "Satoshi
and his friends are continuing their journey
through the Orange Islands and have now landed on Unshuu
Island." |
Narrator: "Today, our heroes
have decided to take a detour and so some big city exploring." |
The narrator in the Japanese version identifies the name of the island on which this episode takes place while the English version does not. The 4Kids dub also adds in a line about this episode's adventure being a "detour" for our heroes, something the Japanese version doesn't even imply.
Misty looks out toward the city:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「な～んか久々の街って感じね」 |
Kasumi: "Wow, it feels like we
haven't been in a big city like this in a while." |
Misty: "Looks like there's
some nice places to see." |
| サトシ 「腹減ったな～なあ、メシにしようぜ」 |
Satoshi: "I'm hungry...hey,
let's go grab something to eat!" |
Ash: "I sure hope so. And some
nice places to eat, too." |
| トゲピー 「チョッゲ」 |
Togepy: "Chogge" |
Togepi: "Chogge" |
| カスミ 「あら～トゲピーもおなか減ったの？」 |
Kasumi: "Oh my, looks like
Togepy's hungry too." |
Misty: "Sounds like you're not
the only hungry one here." |
Kasumi mentions it feels like they haven't been in a big city in a while even though they were just in one like four episodes ago. I guess 4Kids noticed this too and so maybe that's why they decided to change Kasumi's line here...? *shrugs*
The kids decide where to go next:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ケンジ 「あっ、この先にハンバーガーショップがあるよ」 |
Kenji: "Ah, there's a
hamburger shop just up ahead." |
Tracey: "Hey, maybe we should
go and look at the art museum." |
| サトシ 「よーし！じゃあオレチーズバーガー！当然ポテトもセットだぜ！」 |
Satoshi: "Cool! I want a
cheeseburger! And of course I'll make it a combo...gotta eat 'em all!" |
Ash: "The first thing I wanna
see is a double cheeseburger and a side of fries!" |
Tracey's rewrite here makes absolutely no sense to me. His line comes directly after Misty's "Sounds like you're not the only hungry one here" above, so why is he randomly bringing up some art museum in the dub? Why not use Kenji's original hamburger shop line, a line that was clearly written with the English version in mind?
Satoshi's rewrite, at least, is more understandable. In the Japanese original, Satoshi says poteto mo setto da ze! (ポテトもセットだぜ), a line that roughly translates to "I'll get fries and make it a combo." What that translation isn't able to do, unfortunately, is show how the Japanese original, poteto mo setto da ze, sounds extremely similar to Satoshi's catchphrase Pokémon getto da ze! (ポケモンゲットだぜ！), the English equivalent of which is "Gotta Catch 'Em All." I suppose 4Kids could have found a way to fit this catchphrase into their dialogue -- I dunno, have Ash say something like "gotta eat 'em all!" or something -- but they decided to go with regular, homage-free line instead.
Shortly after a fire breaks out at a nearby warehouse. The script for this is pretty faithful, for the most part. There are some tiny little rewrites here and there but nothing really notable until after Team Wartortle arrives on the scene. Here's what Ash's Pokédex has to say about the Pokémon:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ポケモン図鑑 「カメール、かめポケモン。ゼニガメの進化形。ペットとして人気
が高く毛で覆われた尻尾は長生きのシンボルだと言われている」 |
Pokémon Bestiary:
"Kameil, the Turtle Pokémon. The evolved form of Zenigame. It is
popular as a pet and its furry tail is said to be a symbol of its long
life." |
Pokédex: "Wartortle,
the Turtle Pokémon. The evolved form of Squirtle. A highly
sought-after Pokémon because its long, fur-covered tail is said
to bring good luck." |
The Japanese version is basically a paraphrase of the Pokémon's Bestiary entry from the Japanese version (of course) of the Pocket Monsters Red video game. The 4Kids version is...I dunno, some random thing they just made up out of nowhere...?
Side Note
In this episode we're introduced to a new character named Russell (ラッセル). Japanese fans speculate he may be a reference to the 1991 American film Backdraft, a movie about firefighters in Chicago trying to put an end to a serial arsonist's reign of terror that stars Kurt Russell as the main firefighter. Well, 4Kids takes the name Russell and decides that's too Japanese or whatever, and so they change it to "Captain Aidan" instead!
The English dub changing one anime-only Western name to a different Western name is always super dumb, but it's even more ridiculous this time around because it's not like the name "Russell" was already taken or anything like that. The man you see in the screenshot above is literally the only person in this whole entire show named Russell, and yet 4Kids changes it to a different name anyway.
The English dub often has the children generally refer to "Aidan" by his full title, "Captain Aidan," when the Japanese version only ever has anyone refer to him as "Russell-san."
Dialogue Edit
After the fire at the warehouse gets put out we move to a scene at the fire station where Captain Aidan trains his turtle Pokémon. We soon see this shot of the Wartortle doing laps:
In the original, the Kameil simply say the "Kame" part of their names over and over as they run around the track. In the English dub, meanwhile, the Wartortle sing all three syllables of their names to the tune of the "I Don't Know, But I've Been Told" military cadence, even though I'm preeeeeeeeeeeetty sure none of these turtles here are members of the United States armed services.
Shortly after we get Kenji's catchphrase kansatsu sasete moraimasu again for the first time in a while (with the English dub rendering it as "I gotta make some sketches of this"), Ash notices his Squirtle seems a bit down. Misty has a theory:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「もしかして悔しいんじゃない？」 |
Kasumi:
"Maybe it's feeling
frustrated?" |
Misty: "Maybe Squirtle's
feeling disappointed." |
| サトシ 「悔しい？」 |
Satoshi: "How come?" |
Ash: "About what?" |
| カスミ 「チームカメールに助けられたうえに火事まで消されちゃったんだもん」 |
Kasumi: "It had to be rescued
by Team Kameil, and then on top of that had to watch as they put the
fire out." |
Misty: "Squirtle had to watch
Team Wartortle put out that fire 'cause it couldn't do it alone." |
The "rescuing" Kasumi's talking about in the last line here is referring to when the Kameil pushed Zenigame out of the way back at the warehouse. This part of Kasumi's theory about why Satoshi's Pokémon's feeling the way it does gets left out of the English dub.
Paint Edit
The first digital paint edit of Season Three comes to us in the form of...the exact same paint edit 4Kids did back in the Season One episode "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad." All of these occur during the flashback to Squirtle's time in the Squirtle Squad:
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| The "Ze" (ゼ) for
"Zenigame" (ゼニガメ) gets removed from the flag. |
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| The orange yen (￥)
symbol
on the side of the bank gets removed. |
|
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| The "Ze" (ゼ) gets
removed again, this time from the standard being held up by that one
turtle in the back. |
|
Click on each image to view a larger version
Dialogue
Ash's narration during the above paint edits gets a few changes in it as well:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「人間に捨てられたゼニガメたちの不良グループ…それがゼニガメ団だ。
でも彼らはオレたちに出会い心を入れ替えて町の消防団になったんだ」 |
Satoshi: "A delinquent group
of
Zenigame who'd been abandoned by humans...that's who the Zenigame-Dan is.
But after
meeting us they had a change of heart, and now they work as their
town's
fire
department." |
Ash: "The Squirtle Squad was
this gang of street-tough Squirtle that got abandoned by their masters.
They didn't like humans much. Then we got to understand each other, and
they ended up fighting this big fire and being heroes." |
If I had to guess, I'd say the 4Kids dub changed Satoshi's explanation here because they wanted his dialogue to be more of a play-by-play of the visuals being shown than a general synopsis of their debut episode like it is in the original. There's a shot of the Squirtle apparently stealing fruits and vegetables from an outdoor market, you say? Better have Ash mention how they didn't like humans then! What's this now, the Squirtle are now being shown putting out a fire in some forest? Alrighty then, let's have Ash mention how they put out a fire.
I can see what the dub is going for here. I don't really like it and think it sounds say too hand-holdy, but I can at least understand what they're trying to do here.
The Rocket trio set their sights on the Water-Types:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ニャース 「ピカチュウ発見だニャ！」 |
Nyarth: "I spotted Pikachu
Nya!" |
Meowth: "Attention, Pikachu
swipers." |
| ムサシ 「でもって今ならカメールのおまけ付きよ～」 |
Musashi: "And if we act now we
can get some of those Kameil as a nice little extra." |
Jessie: "Steal now, and get a
Wartortle absolutely free." |
| コジロウ 「そりゃ豪華なおまけだなあ」 |
Kojirou: "Nice isn't the
word...they'd be wonderful
extras." |
James: "And a Squirtle
super-special." |
| ニャース 「優秀なカメールをたくさん捕まえればボスも大喜びニャ！」 |
Nyarth: "And the boss'll be
super happy if we catch a bunch of highly trained Kameil Nya!" |
Meowth: "But the boss will
have to pay cash on delivery for this little Pokémon package." |
| ムサシ 「んじゃ！早速行動開始すんのよ～」 |
Musashi: "That settles it!
Let's hurry up and get to it!" |
Jessie: "Come on, this deal is
too good to pass up." |
| コジロウ 「おう！」 |
Kojirou: "Right!" |
James & Meowth: "Let's go!" |
| ニャース 「おうニャ！」 |
Nyarth: "Right Nya!" |
Of all the random rewrites present here (seriously, why was any of this changed?) the one I'm most intrigued by Meowth's "the boss will have to pay cash on delivery" part. Because why would he say this? Does Meowth think they're going to show up at their boss' doorstep with all these Wartortle, and then if Giovanni doesn't immediately fork over the cash for these Pokémon then...they'll refuse to hand them over? They'll say "no deal" and then walk away, not caring that by doing this they'd be essentially ending their career at the organization? That seems extremely out of character for them, no?
In the very next scene Team Wartortle has a race against Ash's Squirtle. After the race Tracey has this to say:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ケンジ 「は…速い！こんなすごい記録は今までのボクのデータにはないぞ！」 |
Kenji: "Wow! That was really
fast! I don't have any records this fast in any of my data." |
Tracey: "I don't believe it!
The two of them set a new turtle Pokémon land speed record." |
Kenji states these turtles are the fastest he, personally, has ever heard of while Tracey apparently has Pokémon land speed records randomly scrawled onto his sketchpad, I suppose.
Eyecatch
Russell's Kameil gets swapped out for a random Tangela.
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I guess 4Kids' strategy for Season Three is going to be to just keep using random Pokémon that have absolutely nothing to do with the ones who actually appear in the episode.
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio introduces itself:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「何だ？このバカデカい落とし穴は！」 |
Satoshi: "What the...? What's
this huge hole doing here?" |
Ash: "Oh, look at this!
Where'd this giant crater come from?" |
| ロケット団 「ぶよ～ん！」 |
Rocket-Dan: "Surprise~!" |
Team Rocket: "We'll give you
one guess!" |
| ムサシ 「"何だ？このバカデカい落とし穴は"と聞かれたら…」 |
Musashi: "If we're asked 'What
the...? What's this huge hole doing here?'" |
Jessie: "Prepare for trouble
'cause we played our role." |
| コジロウ 「我らが掘ったと答えるのが世の情け」 |
Kojirou: "It's up to the world
whether we answer that it's because we dug it up." |
James: "Make it double, 'cause
we dug this hole." |
The English dub consistently avoids having Jessie use the first line of the motto to mock her enemies the way her Japanese counterpart does, and I have no idea why. It's such a great little bit the dub could have had so much fun with and yet both 4Kids and TPCi simply write around it every single time.
Music Edit
During the scene where the Rocket trio have their little daydream about beating the summer heat (this episode premiered during the summer in Japan, after all) the song Pokémon Ondo can be heard in the background.
The English dub actually kept this song way back in the Season One episode "The Flame Pokémon-athon!," original Japanese lyrics and all, but I guess that was just a one time thing because it gets removed from the English version of this particular episode.
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio are at the cabin figuring out what to do with the Pokémon they just kidnapped:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ニャース 「これでボスへの借金もチャラになるニャ―」 |
Nyarth: "Once we hand these
over our debts with the boss should be wiped clean away Nya." |
Meowth: "At last, the boss has
to put his money where his Meowth is." |
| ムサシ 「チャラどころかおつりで臨時ボーナスまで出ちゃうかもよ？ねえ」 |
Musashi: "Not just wiped away,
he might even give us a special bonus with whatever's left over. Don't
you think?" |
Jessie: "When we bring back
all these Pokémon we should get a nice, big bonus from him,
right?" |
| コジロウ 「だったらオレたちが先に2~3匹もらっちゃったりなんかしてもいい
んじゃないかい？」 |
Kojirou: "So then it
wouldn't hurt if we were to help ourselves to two or three of these
little guys, right?" |
James: "I don't see why we
have to give the boss every single Pokémon we've caught." |
| ムサシ 「そうね！当然の権利ってやつよね～？」 |
Musashi: "I was thinking the
same thing! We have a
right to first dibs, after all." |
Jessie: "You're right, James.
Sometimes you're not quite as dumb as you look." |
This exchange is such a weird little seesaw of both good and bad.
Good: Meowth (temporarily) regains his cat speak in the dub, something we haven't heard from him since I think Season One, maybe? It's definitely been a while.
Bad: Meowth still seems to continue to have this bizarre and out-of-character disdain for his boss, saying he should "put his money where his (mouth) is," as if Giovanni is famous for breaking promises or something.
Good: The middle two lines here are fairly alright, localization wise. They're not 100% faithful but they're close enough.
Bad: Jessie randomly insulting James at the end for literally no reason.
Jessie counts out the Pokémon:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ムサシ 「どいて！どれにしようかな～」 |
Musashi: "Outta my way. Eeny,
meeny, miny, moe..." |
Jessie: "Eevee, Mankey,
Hitmonlee." |
I would like to point out that the closed captions on the Viz DVD I have with this episode on it doesn't even bother captioning Jessie's line here. The line before and the line after are faithfully transcribed, but this one line here is just skipped over entirely. Maybe the people in charge of the transcribing this episode couldn't figure out what in the world she was saying?
Also, I get that "Eevee" is meant to be "Eeny," and that "Mankey" is meant to be "meeny," but how in the world does "Hitmonlee" sound anything like the "miny, moe" part at the end? Wouldn't something like "Eevee, Mankey, Mime, Slowbro" have worked better? Or -- and I know this is outrageous of me to even suggest -- 4Kids could have just translated the Japanese line as-is?
The Rockets keep arguing:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ムサシ 「決めた！あたしこいつ！」 |
Musashi: "I've got it! I'll
take this one!" |
Jessie: "This one. I'll take
this one." |
| コジロウ 「あーダメダメ！この毛並みがいいのはオレが先に目を付けといたやつ
なの！」 |
Kojirou: "What? The one with
the nice fur? No way! I saw it first!" |
James: "Wait. Just a second. I
was the one who came up with this idea so I should be the one who gets
to take one." |
| ムサシ 「むっ…何言ってんの！この作戦立てたのはあたしでしょ！」 |
Musashi: "Hm? Who cares!?
Don't forget, I'm the one who came up with this plan!" |
Jessie: "I should take one. I
was the one who thought of digging that hole." |
| コジロウ 「けど！せっせとネットを編んだのはオレだぜ？」 |
Kojirou: "But who's the one
who hand knitted the net we used? Me, that's who!" |
James: "I should take one,
because I got down there and dug it." |
None of what's in the Japanese version would have caused any issues if left as-is so I'm not sure why the English dub changed any of the details here.
Meowth talks to Squirtle:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ニャース 「さあたくさん食べるニャー。これからはニャ―がご主人様ニャー」 |
Nyarth: "Come on, eat up Nya.
From now on I'll be your master." |
Meowth: "Come on, eat up,
little Squirtie-pie. Your new master Meowth will feed ya real good." |
This isn't a "Dialogue Edit," per se, I'm just surprised Kids' WB!'s Broadcast Standards and Practices allowed Meowth to say "little Squirtie-pie" on a show with a TV-Y rating.
Cut -- 2 seconds
After Musashi kicks Nyarth out of the way, the cat Pokémon leaps forward and slashes Musashi and Kojirou across their faces. The two second sequence of him actually scratching their faces gets removed from the English dub and replaced with the full impact stars you see below, taken from another episode. As always, Japanese version's on the left while the English dub's on the right:
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|
The very next shot of Jessie and James show them with these scratch marks intact, so I guess the BS&P's objection was less with the actual injuries themselves and more with the act of causing them.
With this, I guess Season Three is going to have slightly stricter editing policies compared to the first two. Meowth scratching his teammates' faces was never a problem in Seasons One and Two, but here in Season Three all of a sudden you just can't show that, for some reason. In the grand scheme of things it's no big deal -- BS&P edits don't even make it into the Top Ten in my list of things that affect the quality of the English dub of Pokémon -- but it's still interesting to see how things the show used to be able to get away with are all of a sudden taboo.
Dialogue Edit
Another fire breaks out:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ジュンサー 「ジュンサーです。今街なかのマンションで火事が発生しました！」 |
Junsar: "This is Junsar. A
fire's broken out at an apartment complex in the city." |
Officer Jenny: "It's Officer
Jenny. There's a fire in the apartment complex downtown and it's out of
control." |
| ラッセル 「なに！チームカメックスは…？チームカメックスは到着していないの
か？」 |
Russell: "What? What about
Team Kamex? Have they not arrived yet?" |
Captain Aidan: "Where's Team
Blastoise? They should have been there three minutes after they got the
alarm!" |
| ジュンサー 「それが…トラックの事故で現場に近づけないんです」 |
Junsar: "About that...there
was an accident with a truck blocking them from getting near the scene." |
Officer Jenny: "I know, but an
overturned truck's blocking them and they can't get to the fire." |
The "three minutes" part of this is an invention of the English dub.
Back at the cabin, the Wartortle fight back:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ロケット団 「溺れる！溺れる～！」 |
Rocket-Dan: "We're going down,
we're going down~" |
Team Rocket: (random goofy
noises) |
| (The Turtle Pokémon trample over
the trio) |
||
| ロケット団 「潰れる～！」 |
Rocket-Dan: "We're down! We're
down!" |
Team Rocket: (random goofy
noises) |
This cute little bit from the Rocket trio gets replaced by the trio screaming for the English version.
The firefighting sequence is next, and for the most part the script is actually really quite faithful! The only thing worth mentioning is this exchange after the fire's been put out:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| 母親 「本当にありがとうございました」 |
Mom: "I can't thank you
enough." |
Mom: "How can I ever thank you
for what you've done?" |
| ラッセル 「いやあ、無事で何よりです」 |
Russell: "Don't mention it.
I'm just glad he's safe." |
Captain Aidan: "We're just
glad the boy's OK, ma'am." |
| サトシ 「よかったなゼニガメ！」 |
Satoshi: "What a relief, right
Zenigame?" |
Ash: "Don't thank us, thank
them." |
| ゼニガメ 「ゼニ～」 |
Zenigame: "Zeni~!" |
Squirtle: "Squirtle." |
Originally Satoshi's talking to his Pokémon here, not the mother of the boy his Pokémon just helped save.
After the fire, our heroes bid farewell to Captain Aidan:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「さようなら～」 |
Satoshi: "Goodbye!" |
Ash: "Thanks a lot, Captain." |
| カスミ 「元気でねー！」 |
Kasumi: "Take care!" |
Misty: "We'll see you again." |
As you can see, Misty believes they might run into Captain Aidan again when in the Japanese version Kasumi doesn't really commit themselves one way or the other. The trio (well, Ash and Misty anyway) will actually end up meeting Captain Aidan again in Johto before the season's over and so Misty's rewrite here actually serves as a bit of extra foreshadowing that wasn't there in the original!
Finally, we get to the ending narration:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ナレーション 「すばらしい消防隊、チームカメール。サトシたちは彼らに別れを
告げ次の街へと旅だったのである」 |
Narration: "Team Kameil, the
outstanding firefighting squad. Satoshi and his friends bid farewell to
them as they head to the next city." |
Narrator: "And as our heroes
head for a new adventure two Pokémon say goodbye with a warm,
new friendship and the glow of happy memories." |
The ending narration in the Japanese version is very specific to this very episode while the English dub goes for a bit more of a generic overview.
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