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| Episode Comparisons | Orange Islands
Episode
Stats:
Japanese Episode 113: "Goodbye Laplace!"
American Episode 308: "Viva Las Lapras"
Pokémon Dare Da? Laplace (Japanese), Electrode (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course: Yadon
Japanese Air Date: September 16th, 1999
American Air Date: September 30th, 2000
Important Characters: Debo (Captain Crook), Gari (N/A)
Thoughts
There are only a few weeks left until the release of the Pocket Monsters Gold & Silver video games, and so now that the final boss of this part of the series has been defeated it's time to start packing up and get ready to head to Johto. First up on the list; get rid of Satoshi's Laplace.
If you really think about it Laplace's days were numbered pretty much the second it joined the show. By that point it was clear the TV series didn't want to do what the video games will end up doing and have its Water-Types just kind of hovering around in the air, magically floating around in cities and forests and whatnot. They probably also wanted to avoid having another situation like Kasumi's Tosakinto, who barely ever got any screentime, or her Tattu, who was promptly dropped off at her sister's gym after an extremely uneventful run, and so they opted to have Laplace reunite with its family -- something they more or less telegraphed would happen in its first appearance anyway -- and call it a day. I suppose Satoshi's Laplace could have been sent to Dr. Ookido's lab, sure, but having it reunite with its family after its adventures in the Orange Islands is also a really nice way to tie up its story.
And speaking of getting rid of characters from the Orange Islands, isn't it a little awkward how screenplay writer Hideki Sonoda has Kenji just kind of peace out for half the episode despite the Pokémon Watcher's time on the show being as limited as it is? What was that about? Was the show that eager to get rid of the kid, that sick of the character that they wrote him out the second they saw the opportunity? Why didn't Mr. Sonoda have him stick around so he could use his Water-Type -- a Pokémon from the upcoming Gold & Silver games, remember! -- to help take down the episode's villains?
Those villains, by the way, represent what I believe are this show's first gang of Pokémon poachers, and I think it's kind of interesting to see how different this group is compared to the others we'll see throughout the rest of this franchise. The ones who'll come later -- Vicious (Movie 4), Ryou (the poacher from that early Advanced Generation episode), Pokémon Hunter J (Diamond & Pearl), etc. -- will be portrayed as being a bunch of no-nonsense villains, and yet the two "pirates" in this episode don't really fit in with those guys. They use real live cannonballs, sure, but they also have really goofy character designs, make silly faces throughout the entire episode, and just generally have an air about them that's essentially "we're basically just the Rocket trio." I don't really mind either way, I just think it's interesting how different the concept of "Pokémon poachers" started out vs. how it'll eventually end up.
The English dub of this episode is a lot more faithful to the original than the last one, though with this being 4Kids and all there are still a ton of unnecessary changes made purely for the sake of change. For example, the company subconsciously ends up using this episode as a warm up for their eventual run on One Piece as they break out every pirate related reference they can think of for this 22 minute episode of Pokémon. It's kind of funny, because the Japanese version mentions the poachers' pirate motif exactly one time before moving on while the English dub goes all in on the concept, throwing in a "matey" here or a "Jolly Roger" there every five minutes. It's kind of fascinating, in a weird sort of way! There are a lot of other bizarre rewrites as well, but I'll be getting to those shortly.
The Laplace all keep their Japanese voices.
Dialogue Edit
The first dialogue edit comes after the episode's title screen, when Ash and his friends spot the school of Lapras:
Kenji's reason for thinking Satoshi's Laplace might know this group of Laplace is a little more evidence based than Tracey's random shot in the dark here.
The next section of the episode is an extended flashback to "The Lost Lapras" (I guess the animators still needed a bit of a break after the Lugia movie) and so we also get a lot of repeated footage/dialogue from that particular episode. 4Kids reuses the same audio clips they used back then (they didn't re-record everyone's dialogue or anything wild like that) and so the same dialogue changes from that episode pop up here as well:
First, Lapras' age:
Originally Laplace is a child, not a "baby."
Next, the bit about how often Lapras pass by Tangelo Island:
"Sometimes" gets replaced with the much more specific "every year."
On a nearby island, our heroes learn about the group of pirates:
The Pokémon anime has a reputation among certain fans for being this stupid little show made for dumb babies, and while there are certainly elements from the original to support that criticism the 4Kids dub sure doesn't help things sometimes. Because aside from its usual voice acting choices (4Kids' Officer Jenny has always talked like a character out of the Dora The Explorer), the English dub also gives us garbage localization choices like "Captain Crook," a name that sounds like something a little kid on the playground would come up with as opposed to something an officer of the law would use with a straight face.
No such reference to the antagonist of Peter Pan is made in the original.
Ash makes a guess at who's behind the poaching:
But Officer Jenny, Ash never said they were a trio? How do you know this...?
Ash tells Officer Jenny all about the trio:
This is a pretty common change in the English dub, in which the details of a dialogue exchange (in this case, the insults Satoshi makes about the trio) are completely different from the Japanese version and yet the overall vibe of the dialogue itself (Satoshi insulting the Rocket trio) is still intact. Still, it's worth highlighting this example here because the Japanese version will make a callback to this exchange later in the episode while the English version does not, giving this fairly innocuous change a bit of a ripple effect on a later part of the episode.
Sound Effects Edit
The volume of Musashi and Kojirou's bones "breaking" is significantly lowered for the English dub. The sound effect's still there, it's just nowhere near as loud as it is in the original.
Later, the sound of Nyarth's bones breaking is muted altogether.
I guess this is probably one of those "the network miiiiiiight give us a note about this, so let's change it just to be on the safe side" edits more than anything else. It's interesting how the first occurrence merely had its volume lowered while the second one got muted out altogether -- what's with the inconsistency here -- but otherwise this is a fairly expected edit.
Dialogue Edit
Pretty much all of the Rocket trio's dialogue is "punched up" during the scene inside the Pokémon Center.
First up, James talks about poached eggs:
A declaration that the trio's the real victims here gets replaced with a poached egg pun.
Jessie and James continue to show off their ability to do an Asian squat:
Aside from the overall "punching up" the English dub likes to do (God forbid the Rocket trio be allowed to talk like normal human beings for more than two sentences at a time) there's also a fourth wall break added to the dub that wasn't there originally.
After the Rocket trio tell everyone about its encounter with the poacher gang:
Meowth's line being a rewrite's a pretty standard BS&P change, but it's also interesting how 4Kids added a "I'm sorry you're hurt" to the beginning of Ash's line in an attempt to soften the rest of what he's saying.
The Rocket trio makes a quick recovery:
Meowth's line confounded me -- "say hello to the Jolly Roger for us!" -- and so I did a quick search to see if Jolly Roger could possibly have any other meaning, but apparently it doesn't! There doesn't seem to have been any pirate named "Jolly Roger," for example, and nothing else about the lore behind the flag makes Meowth's line here make any sense, and so all I can figure is that he's literally just telling a police officer to say hello to a flag for him! How very odd!
The two pirates spot their prey:
Let's put aside the absolute jumpscare of hearing Maddie Blaustein give one of the worst performances of her career for a moment and focus on the rewrite part of this, where the English dub keeps Tentacruel's role in the events of this episode a secret a bit longer than the Japanese version.
Ash figures out how he'll get the Lapras to trust him:
Satoshi gets in a pretty good little joke at the end here, but the English dub removes it to have Ash (falsely) claim that smiling is a universally understood form of communication.
Eyecatch
Satoshi's Lapras gets replaced with an Electrode who looks like it's about to explode to death.
The Japanese version will use Laplace as an eyecatch Pokémon a few more times in the years that follow but the English version won't use it again until the XY series, fourteen years from now!
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio follow behind:
Musashi's giving us a callback to the scene back at the Pokémon Center, where Satoshi talks crap behind the trio's back, while the English dub decides to go a different route.
The trio continues to scheme:
The phrase I'm translating as "pennies from heaven" is tana kara botamochi (棚からぼた餅), a Japanese idiom that literally translates to "botamochi falling from a shelf" but that's used colloquially to describe any situation in which someone is visited by unexpected fortune. The story goes that once upon a time there was this guy who happened to be sleeping under a shelf one night when all of a sudden a piece of botamochi -- a type of dessert that's a lot sweeter than regular mochi -- fell off the shelf and went straight into his mouth. Sugar was an expensive commodity back in the day and so this kind of unexpected treat, literally falling from above, was seen as being a sign of good fortune. Other commonly used translations for this idiom include "a gift from heaven" and "it's a windfall."
(I generally don't like using words like "pennies" in Pokémon related translations -- especially since I've been known to complain about it whenever 4Kids does it -- but this was honestly the best way I could think of to connect Kojirou's line to Nyarth's line in my translation.)
Ash works to distract the Tentacruel:
Satoshi just wants to distract the Dokukurage while Ash Ketchum is apparently out for blood.
Pikachu shocks everyone in the area:
Ash gets Kasumi's "electricity and water don't mix" comment while simultaneously losing the part where he states that at least they were able to cause the distraction they were looking to make in the first place.
Also, I have to point out that even Pikachu's line got redone here.
The pirates have had enough:
There was an episode of the old Dragon Ball Z English dub -- the one that aired back before even the Cartoon Network days -- where Brian Drummond Vegeta tells Dodoria that "Taking you down will be easier than catching fish in a barrel!" Now, "catching fish in a barrel" is not a real phrase in the English language -- it's actually "shooting fish in a barrel" -- and in the years since people have memed it because of how utterly bizarre and unnatural sounding that line was (though it should also be pointed out that people noticed it at the time as well). What I think probably happened is that FUNimation really wanted to use the term "shooting fish in a barrel," for whatever reason (it's not it's anything like what's said in the original, by the way), but then also got scared the censors would freak out at them using a word as violently charged as "shoot," and so they panicked and changed it to "catch" instead.
Something similar may have happened in this episode of Pokémon. The phrase the skinnier pirate should be using is "right to Davy Jones' locker," but 4Kids has him say "Davy Jones' locker room" instead. Was this a "catching fish in a barrel" type attempt at softening what the dubbers considered to be a "risqué" phrase? Or was there someone on the 4Kids staff who honestly thought the phrase really is "locker room"? It's hard to know for sure one way or the other.
The rest of the battle is actually surprisingly good, script-wise. The next change worth bringing up is after everyone's been defeated and the light blue Lapras approaches Ash's Lapras:
The closed captions for the Japanese version of this episode refer to the larger Laplace as "LaplaMama" (ラ プママ) but none of the dialogue in the show itself ever establishes this connection between this Laplace and Satoshi's. The show refers to the other Laplace as nakama (仲間), or "friends," but words like haha (母) or "mama" (ママ) do not appear in this episode's dialogue at all. A few years from now the Johto episode where this Laplace makes a comeback explicitly refers to her as the mother, but this Orange Islands episode right here does not.
I imagine 4Kids saw the references in the Japanese script of this being Lapras' mom to figure out their relation to each other, and that that's where Ash's "You sure do have a nice mom" came from. So 4Kids actually didn't pull this out of thin air, for once! But, the fact that the dub never even hinted at this relationship at literally any other point in this episode makes Ash's line here seem to come completely out of nowhere.
The Rocket trio gets tied up:
There's a lot of dialogue "punch ups" here, but also Officer Jenny suggests she knows who Jessie, James, and Meowth are and that they all have criminal records, something Junsar does not.
Paint Edit
It's been almost two weeks' worth of episodes without any digital ink and paint and so 4Kids decided to have the "text" (plus whatever that is on the left that's casting a shadow) on Officer Jenny's ship erased.
Of course, I also have to point out that the very first shot we get of this ship just a few seconds before these two has its "text" left completely intact.
I'm so glad time and money was spent on this absolutely essential edit, aren't you?
Dialogue Edit
Ash says goodbye to his Lapras:
This cute moment where Satoshi realizes that his Laplace considers him to be one of its friends, just as much as it does members of its own species, gets replaced with Ash commenting about being slobbered on.
Music Edit
The 4Kids dub of Pokémon has this problem where they can't seem to have a farewell montage in the show without mucking it up somehow, and the "farewell Lapras" montage in this episode is no exception. This time it's "just" a bit of music replacement, but even that simple act is enough to really wreck the mood.
Originally the song played during all this is from the Movie One soundtrack, Track 22 "Miraculous Tears" (奇 跡の涙). It's a really beautiful song that tells us that while Laplace leaving is indeed a sad moment, we should also take the time to look back and think about all the great times we've had together. You know, "don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened" and all that.
The English dub, on the other hand, replaces this with an instrumental version of whatever it is they played during the farewell montage in "Pikachu's Goodbye," and it's as jarring here as it was in that episode. To me it sounds like the music that plays whenever you call up a call center and get put on hold, and it simply does not work for the montage to which it's being attached.
It should also be noted that the dub does play part of "Miraculous Tears" in the shots immediately preceding the montage, as well as in the shots immediately following it. It's just the shots during the actual montage itself that get their music replaced.
It's frustrating because music-wise the rest of this episode's fairly OK-ish, but this one change here really spoils the whole thing.
Dialogue Edit
Misty comments on Lapras' departure:
Again, the Japanese version never clarifies that this larger Laplace is the mother of Satoshi's (soon to be ex) Pokémon, but the dub decides to be very unambiguous about this.
The kids say goodbye:
I don't know how to explain this, really, but to me the dialogue 4Kids came up with here sounds like the most American dialogue they could have possibly come up with for this scene. That's not really a bad thing or a good thing, per se, it's just something I noticed.
The narrator gets the last word:
I just love how bored the English dub narrator sounds here. "So long Lapras, I guess. Smooth sailing or whatever, meh who cares."
This page was last updated on July 31st, 2025
Japanese Episode 113: "Goodbye Laplace!"
American Episode 308: "Viva Las Lapras"
Pokémon Dare Da? Laplace (Japanese), Electrode (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course: Yadon
Japanese Air Date: September 16th, 1999
American Air Date: September 30th, 2000
Important Characters: Debo (Captain Crook), Gari (N/A)
Satoshi's riding along on the ocean, busy admiring his
Winners Cup trophy, when he and his friends suddenly spot a pod of
Laplace swimming off in the distance. It soon becomes clear that this
is the same group that Satoshi's own Laplace had been separated from
and so they approach it to say hello, only to get chased away…!?
Satoshi learns the reason those Laplace might have been so cold toward
them is because there's been a group of Pokémon poachers who've
been wreaking havoc in the area lately, making the Laplace become
scared of humans. Satoshi decides the best way to ingratiate his
Laplace with the other Laplace is to take care of the poachers and so
he sets out to search for them. The group eventually comes across the
would-be thieves circling in on the group of Laplace and so it hatches
a plan; Kenji will go off to get reinforcements, Satoshi will lure the
poachers' group of Dokukurage away from the Laplace, and Kasumi will
board their pirate ship to take care of the poachers themselves. Each
group manages to accomplish its goals and stops the poachers from being
able to attack the Laplace anymore, allowing Junsar to arrive on the
scene to take them away. Now that peace has been restored to the area
Satoshi encourages his Laplace to leave him and join the rest of its
friends. Satoshi's Pokémon obeys, leaving the young Trainer and
his friends to bid farewell to their Orange Islands companion.
Thoughts
There are only a few weeks left until the release of the Pocket Monsters Gold & Silver video games, and so now that the final boss of this part of the series has been defeated it's time to start packing up and get ready to head to Johto. First up on the list; get rid of Satoshi's Laplace.
If you really think about it Laplace's days were numbered pretty much the second it joined the show. By that point it was clear the TV series didn't want to do what the video games will end up doing and have its Water-Types just kind of hovering around in the air, magically floating around in cities and forests and whatnot. They probably also wanted to avoid having another situation like Kasumi's Tosakinto, who barely ever got any screentime, or her Tattu, who was promptly dropped off at her sister's gym after an extremely uneventful run, and so they opted to have Laplace reunite with its family -- something they more or less telegraphed would happen in its first appearance anyway -- and call it a day. I suppose Satoshi's Laplace could have been sent to Dr. Ookido's lab, sure, but having it reunite with its family after its adventures in the Orange Islands is also a really nice way to tie up its story.
And speaking of getting rid of characters from the Orange Islands, isn't it a little awkward how screenplay writer Hideki Sonoda has Kenji just kind of peace out for half the episode despite the Pokémon Watcher's time on the show being as limited as it is? What was that about? Was the show that eager to get rid of the kid, that sick of the character that they wrote him out the second they saw the opportunity? Why didn't Mr. Sonoda have him stick around so he could use his Water-Type -- a Pokémon from the upcoming Gold & Silver games, remember! -- to help take down the episode's villains?
Those villains, by the way, represent what I believe are this show's first gang of Pokémon poachers, and I think it's kind of interesting to see how different this group is compared to the others we'll see throughout the rest of this franchise. The ones who'll come later -- Vicious (Movie 4), Ryou (the poacher from that early Advanced Generation episode), Pokémon Hunter J (Diamond & Pearl), etc. -- will be portrayed as being a bunch of no-nonsense villains, and yet the two "pirates" in this episode don't really fit in with those guys. They use real live cannonballs, sure, but they also have really goofy character designs, make silly faces throughout the entire episode, and just generally have an air about them that's essentially "we're basically just the Rocket trio." I don't really mind either way, I just think it's interesting how different the concept of "Pokémon poachers" started out vs. how it'll eventually end up.
The English dub of this episode is a lot more faithful to the original than the last one, though with this being 4Kids and all there are still a ton of unnecessary changes made purely for the sake of change. For example, the company subconsciously ends up using this episode as a warm up for their eventual run on One Piece as they break out every pirate related reference they can think of for this 22 minute episode of Pokémon. It's kind of funny, because the Japanese version mentions the poachers' pirate motif exactly one time before moving on while the English dub goes all in on the concept, throwing in a "matey" here or a "Jolly Roger" there every five minutes. It's kind of fascinating, in a weird sort of way! There are a lot of other bizarre rewrites as well, but I'll be getting to those shortly.
The Laplace all keep their Japanese voices.
Dialogue Edit
The first dialogue edit comes after the episode's title screen, when Ash and his friends spot the school of Lapras:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ケンジ 「ラプラスの群れをこんなに近くで見るのは初めてだよ」 |
Kenji: "I've never seen a
school
of Laplace this close before." |
Tracey: "This is amazing. I've
never seen so many Lapras together." |
| カスミ 「ひょっとしたらこのラプラスの仲間なんじゃない？」 |
Kasumi: "You think they're
friends of your Laplace, Satoshi?" |
Misty: "I wonder if any of
these Lapras know your Lapras, Ash." |
| サトシ 「仲間？」 |
Satoshi: "Friends?" |
Ash: "Maybe." |
| ケンジ 「ああ。このラプラスが仲間とはぐれたのがボンタン島だから海流や時期
を考えるとぴったりだ」 |
Kenji: "They must be. Your
Laplace got
separated from its friends back on Botan Island, and if you calculate
the
flow of the ocean currents from there and what time of year it is right
now it just has to be them." |
Tracey: "Hey, you know, this
could be the school Lapras was separated from before we found it." |
Kenji's reason for thinking Satoshi's Laplace might know this group of Laplace is a little more evidence based than Tracey's random shot in the dark here.
The next section of the episode is an extended flashback to "The Lost Lapras" (I guess the animators still needed a bit of a break after the Lugia movie) and so we also get a lot of repeated footage/dialogue from that particular episode. 4Kids reuses the same audio clips they used back then (they didn't re-record everyone's dialogue or anything wild like that) and so the same dialogue changes from that episode pop up here as well:
First, Lapras' age:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ジョーイ 「あのラプラスとっても臆病になってるようなの」 |
Joy: "That Laplace has
become easily frightened." |
Nurse Joy: "That Lapras is afraid to have any kind of contact with people at all." |
| カスミ 「無理もないわね。だってあんなヒドい目にあったんだもん」 |
Kasumi: "It makes sense, after
all the terrible things it just went through." |
Misty: "No wonder, after the way those guys on the beach were treating it." |
| ケンジ 「それに何といってもまだ子供だからな…」 |
Kenji: "On top of that, it's
obvious that Laplace is still just a child." |
Tracey: "That's too bad, especially 'cause it's just an infant." |
| サトシ 「え！？あいつ子供なの！？」 |
Satoshi: "Eh!? That's
a child!?" |
Ash: "Huh? That's a baby Lapras?" |
Originally Laplace is a child, not a "baby."
Next, the bit about how often Lapras pass by Tangelo Island:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ケンジ 「この島の沖合には、時々ラプラスの群れがやってくるんだ。あいつはた
ぶんその一匹さ。その間の嵐ではぐれたんだよ」 |
Kenji: "Sometimes schools of
Laplace come to the shore of this island. This Laplace is maybe one of
them. It must have gotten separated from the group during that last big
storm we had." |
Tracey: "Big schools of Lapras
pass by the island this time every year. This one must've gotten
separated from its group, maybe during that last big storm we had." |
"Sometimes" gets replaced with the much more specific "every year."
On a nearby island, our heroes learn about the group of pirates:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「ジュンサーさん！密漁団って何ですか？」 | Satoshi: "Ms. Junsar! What do
you mean poacher gang?" |
Ash: "Officer Jenny! Did you
say... 'pirates'?" |
| ジュンサー 「この辺りはポケモン保護区なの。でも勝手にポケモンを捕まえてい る海賊みたいなやつらがいるのよ」 | Junsar: "This area's a
Pokémon reserve, and yet there are these pirate wannabes out
there going around catching whatever Pokémon they want." |
Officer Jenny: "This island is
supposed to be a Pokémon no-capture zone, but we've had reports
that pirates have been poaching wild Pokémon just off shore." |
| サトシ 「ひどいことするなあ」 | Satoshi: "They sound really
bad." |
Ash: "Pirates like Captain
Hook?" |
| ジュンサー 「しかも爆弾まで使ってるらしいの」 | Junsar: "And apparently
they're even using real cannonballs out there." |
Officer Jenny: "Yes. But we
call the lead pirate Captain Crook." |
The Pokémon anime has a reputation among certain fans for being this stupid little show made for dumb babies, and while there are certainly elements from the original to support that criticism the 4Kids dub sure doesn't help things sometimes. Because aside from its usual voice acting choices (4Kids' Officer Jenny has always talked like a character out of the Dora The Explorer), the English dub also gives us garbage localization choices like "Captain Crook," a name that sounds like something a little kid on the playground would come up with as opposed to something an officer of the law would use with a straight face.
No such reference to the antagonist of Peter Pan is made in the original.
Ash makes a guess at who's behind the poaching:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「そんなろくでもないことするのはロケット団だんに決まってるさ！」 |
Satoshi: "It's obvious the
ones doing all these terrible things is none other than the Rocket-Dan." |
Ash: "This is exactly the kind
of dirty rotten scheme Team Rocket's always coming up with." |
| ピカチュウ 「ピカチュー」 |
Pikachu: "Pikachu." | Pikachu: "Pikachu." |
| ジュンサー 「詳しい話を聞かせてちょうだい」 |
Junsar: "Please, tell me more." |
Officer Jenny: "So, tell me
what you know about this Team Rocket trio." |
But Officer Jenny, Ash never said they were a trio? How do you know this...?
Ash tells Officer Jenny all about the trio:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「とんでもないやつらなんですよ。せこくて ずるくて
マヌケで三拍子そろった…」 |
Satoshi: "They're this group
of really terrible people. They're a real triple threat: petty,
scheming, and stupid..." |
Ash: "Well officer, all I know
is they're three of the sneakiest, snakiest, lying-est losers you'll
ever meet." |
| ムサシ 「悪かったわね！」 |
Musashi: "Well excuse us!" |
Jessie: "Who are you calling
losers?" |
| ジュンサー 「んっ？」 |
Junsar: "Hm?" |
(no
dialogue) |
| コジロウ 「三拍子そろってて」 |
Kojirou: "For being triple
threats." |
James: "But he's got the rest
right." |
This is a pretty common change in the English dub, in which the details of a dialogue exchange (in this case, the insults Satoshi makes about the trio) are completely different from the Japanese version and yet the overall vibe of the dialogue itself (Satoshi insulting the Rocket trio) is still intact. Still, it's worth highlighting this example here because the Japanese version will make a callback to this exchange later in the episode while the English version does not, giving this fairly innocuous change a bit of a ripple effect on a later part of the episode.
Sound Effects Edit
The volume of Musashi and Kojirou's bones "breaking" is significantly lowered for the English dub. The sound effect's still there, it's just nowhere near as loud as it is in the original.
Later, the sound of Nyarth's bones breaking is muted altogether.
I guess this is probably one of those "the network miiiiiiight give us a note about this, so let's change it just to be on the safe side" edits more than anything else. It's interesting how the first occurrence merely had its volume lowered while the second one got muted out altogether -- what's with the inconsistency here -- but otherwise this is a fairly expected edit.
Dialogue Edit
Pretty much all of the Rocket trio's dialogue is "punched up" during the scene inside the Pokémon Center.
First up, James talks about poached eggs:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「やっぱりお前たちか！」 |
Satoshi: "So it was you guys
after all!" |
Ash: "I knew you were the real
poachers." |
| ムサシ 「ぬれぎぬよ！あたしたちじゃなーいもん」 |
Musashi: "Don't look at us! We
didn't do it!" |
Jessie: "You're wrong, kid. We
haven't poached a thing." |
| コジロウ 「オレたちも被害者なんだ」 |
Kojirou: "We're victims in all
this too!" |
James: "I don't even like
poached eggs." |
A declaration that the trio's the real victims here gets replaced with a poached egg pun.
Jessie and James continue to show off their ability to do an Asian squat:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「今までさんざん悪いことしてきてるくせに」 |
Kasumi: "Plus you've done so
many bad things up until now!" |
Misty: "If you really are
telling us the truth that'd be a first." |
| ムサシ 「まあ そりゃ そうなんですけど。とにかく今回は違うの！」 |
Musashi: "Well, you're not
wrong. But, this time is
different!" |
Jessie: "There's a first time for everything. And this time, we're the victims." |
| コジロウ 「オレたちの潜水艦もその密漁団の爆弾にやられたのさ」 |
Kojirou: "Yeah! Our submarine
was done in by one of that poacher gang's cannonballs!" |
James: "Those briny braggarts
bombed our boat! Those seafaring scalawags smashed up our submarine." |
| ニャース 「巻き添え食ったんだニャー」 |
Nyarth: "We were in the wrong
place at the wrong time Nya." |
Meowth: "It's flashback time." |
Aside from the overall "punching up" the English dub likes to do (God forbid the Rocket trio be allowed to talk like normal human beings for more than two sentences at a time) there's also a fourth wall break added to the dub that wasn't there originally.
After the Rocket trio tell everyone about its encounter with the poacher gang:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「ふんっ。今まで悪さばっかしてるから罰が当たったんだよ」 |
Satoshi: "Hmph. That's just
divine punishment for all the bad things you've done up 'til now." |
Ash: "Huh. Well, I'm sorry
you're hurt but you can't say you didn't deserve it." |
| コジロウ 「アハハハハッ そうかもなあ」 |
Kojirou: "Ahahahaha you might
be right." |
James: "You're right. We had
it coming." |
| ムサシ 「むっ」 |
Musashi: "Mm?" |
Jessie: "Hm?" |
| ニャース 「神様はよく見てるニャー」 |
Nyarth: "I guess God really is
paying attention to us Nya." |
Meowth: "Guess we are pretty
crummy, ain't we?" |
| ムサシ 「え？」 | Musashi: "Eh?" |
Jessie: "Urgh!" |
Meowth's line being a rewrite's a pretty standard BS&P change, but it's also interesting how 4Kids added a "I'm sorry you're hurt" to the beginning of Ash's line in an attempt to soften the rest of what he's saying.
The Rocket trio makes a quick recovery:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| コジロウ 「密漁団を捕まえてくださいねー！」 |
Kojirou: "Make sure you catch
that poacher gang!" |
James: "Good luck catching
those Pokémon pirates!" |
| ニャース 「敵を討ってくれニャー！」 |
Nyarth: "And pay them back for
what they did to us Nya!" |
Meowth: "Yeah. Say hello to
the Jolly Roger for us!" |
| ジュンサー 「ちょっと待ちなさーい！」 |
Junsar: "Hold it right there!" |
Officer Jenny: "Hey, come back
here!" |
| (The police officer chases after
the Rocket trio) |
||
| サトシ 「なんなんだ？ あいつら」 |
Satoshi: "What's wrong with
those three?" |
Ash: "I hope they just keep
going." |
| ピカチュウ 「ピカピカ」 |
Pikachu: "Pika Pika." | Pikachu: "Pika Pika." |
Meowth's line confounded me -- "say hello to the Jolly Roger for us!" -- and so I did a quick search to see if Jolly Roger could possibly have any other meaning, but apparently it doesn't! There doesn't seem to have been any pirate named "Jolly Roger," for example, and nothing else about the lore behind the flag makes Meowth's line here make any sense, and so all I can figure is that he's literally just telling a police officer to say hello to a flag for him! How very odd!
The two pirates spot their prey:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ガリ 「ラプラスの群れを発見！前方２キロ。大漁の予感でーす」 |
Gari: "School of Laplace
spotted! Two kilometers ahead. I've got a feeling this'll be a big one!" |
Pirate: "Lapras off the
starboard bow! Looks like a school! This should be a nice catch, Cap'n." |
| デボ 「そうか。今度こそ捕まえるぞ。ドククラゲの準備はいいな？手加減するん
じゃねーぞ！」 |
Debo: "I see. We'll get them
this time. The Dokukurage are ready to go, yes? Then let 'er rip!" |
Captain Crook: "Alright. Get
the Poké Balls ready to fire. We'll launch our secret weapons
and do us a little Pokémon poaching." |
| ガリ 「アイアイサー」 |
Gari: "Aye, aye, sir!" |
Pirate: "Aye, aye, sir!" |
Let's put aside the absolute jumpscare of hearing Maddie Blaustein give one of the worst performances of her career for a moment and focus on the rewrite part of this, where the English dub keeps Tentacruel's role in the events of this episode a secret a bit longer than the Japanese version.
Ash figures out how he'll get the Lapras to trust him:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「なにニタニタしてんの？」 |
Kasumi: "What're you grinning
like that for?" |
Misty: "Is there something
wrong with your face?" |
| サトシ 「笑顔だよ、笑顔。このオレの笑顔を見たらどんなポケモンだって信用し
てくれるって」 |
Satoshi: "It's my smile. One
look at these pearly whites and there isn't a Pokémon around who
won't
trust me." |
Ash: "No, this is my happy
human face, and as soon as those Lapras see me smiling like this they
instinctively know we're their friends." |
| カスミ 「とにかく 行くしかないわね！」 |
Kasumi: "So anyway, I guess we
should just head toward them for the time being." |
Misty: "Maybe we can just tell
'em we're friendly." |
| ケンジ 「うん。ラプラスには人の言葉が分かるって話もあるしな」 |
Kenji: "Yeah. I've heard
Laplace are also supposed to be able to understand human speech." |
Tracey: "Yeah. Lapras are
supposed to be really good at understanding human speech." |
| サトシ 「お前ら人の話を聞けよ」 | Satoshi: "You could start by
listening to this human's
speech." |
Ash: "A smile is understood in
any language." |
| カスミ 「急ぎましょう ラプラス」 | Kasumi: "Let's hurry, Laplace!" |
Misty: "Come on, Lapras, let's
hurry!" |
Satoshi gets in a pretty good little joke at the end here, but the English dub removes it to have Ash (falsely) claim that smiling is a universally understood form of communication.
Eyecatch
Satoshi's Lapras gets replaced with an Electrode who looks like it's about to explode to death.
 |
 |
The Japanese version will use Laplace as an eyecatch Pokémon a few more times in the years that follow but the English version won't use it again until the XY series, fourteen years from now!
Dialogue Edit
The Rocket trio follow behind:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ムサシ 「ジャリボーイめ～。あたしたちのこと、せこくてずるくてマヌケだなん
て言いたい放題言ってくれちゃってむかつく！」 |
Musashi: "Ooh, that twerp!
Where does he get off calling us petty, and scheming, and stupid like
that?" |
Jessie: "Keep pedaling! We've
got to catch up with the twerps so we'll be sure to have a ring-side
seat when those pirates swipe the docks with them." |
| ニャース 「当たってるだけにつらいニャ」 |
Nyarth: "The truth hurts,
doesn't it Nya?" |
Meowth: "I think you mean
'swab the decks.'" |
| ムサシ
「えっ？はっ？」 |
Musashi: "Huh? What?" |
(no
dialogue) |
| (The Pokémon gets hit with
his teammates's hair) |
||
Musashi's giving us a callback to the scene back at the Pokémon Center, where Satoshi talks crap behind the trio's back, while the English dub decides to go a different route.
The trio continues to scheme:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| コジロウ 「これこそまさに棚からぼた餅作戦」 |
Kojirou: "Those Dokukurage
really are like pennies from heaven." |
James: "Jessie, that's an
absolutely fabulous idea." |
| ニャース 「やっぱりせこいニャー」 |
Nyarth: "Oh, so we're settling
for
pennies now? Guess we really are petty Nya." |
Meowth: "Too bad she didn't
have it." |
| ムサシ 「えっ！」 |
Musashi: "What!?" |
Jessie: "What!?" |
|
(The Pokémon gets hit with
his teammates's hair a second time)
|
||
The phrase I'm translating as "pennies from heaven" is tana kara botamochi (棚からぼた餅), a Japanese idiom that literally translates to "botamochi falling from a shelf" but that's used colloquially to describe any situation in which someone is visited by unexpected fortune. The story goes that once upon a time there was this guy who happened to be sleeping under a shelf one night when all of a sudden a piece of botamochi -- a type of dessert that's a lot sweeter than regular mochi -- fell off the shelf and went straight into his mouth. Sugar was an expensive commodity back in the day and so this kind of unexpected treat, literally falling from above, was seen as being a sign of good fortune. Other commonly used translations for this idiom include "a gift from heaven" and "it's a windfall."
(I generally don't like using words like "pennies" in Pokémon related translations -- especially since I've been known to complain about it whenever 4Kids does it -- but this was honestly the best way I could think of to connect Kojirou's line to Nyarth's line in my translation.)
Ash works to distract the Tentacruel:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「ピカチュウ、あのドククラゲのボスの注意をこっちに向けさせるん
だ！」 |
Satoshi: "Pikachu, lure the
Dokukurage boss' attention this way!" |
Ash: "Pikachu, you better use
your Thundershock and stop those Tentacruel before they start an
attack." |
| ピカチュウ 「ピカーッ！」 |
Pikachu: "Pikaa!" |
Pikachu: "Pikaa!" |
Satoshi just wants to distract the Dokukurage while Ash Ketchum is apparently out for blood.
Pikachu shocks everyone in the area:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「ここは海なんだから 電気はダメよ」 |
Kasumi: "We're in the ocean,
remember? You can't use electricity out here." |
Misty: "I'd rather take my
chances with the Tentacruel." |
| ピカチュウ 「ピカチュウ」 |
Pikachu: "Pikachu." |
Pikachu: "Pika Pika." |
| サトシ 「でも一応作戦は成功だ」 |
Satoshi: "But look on the
bright side, at least our plan worked." |
Ash: "I forgot electricity and
water don't mix." |
Ash gets Kasumi's "electricity and water don't mix" comment while simultaneously losing the part where he states that at least they were able to cause the distraction they were looking to make in the first place.
Also, I have to point out that even Pikachu's line got redone here.
The pirates have had enough:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| デボ 「なにー？ 余計なことしやがって…あいつらを攻撃しろーい！」 |
Debo: "What's that? Now you've
done it! All stations, fire at will!" |
Captain Crook: "You pipsqueaks
ain't gonna ruin my poachin'. Light the cannons and fire when ready!" |
| ガリ 「アイアイサー！本物の爆弾をプレゼントするです」 |
Gari: "Aye, aye sir! We'll
give 'em real cannonballs as presents this time!" |
Pirate: "Aye, aye. We'll send
'em all right to Davy Jones' locker room." |
There was an episode of the old Dragon Ball Z English dub -- the one that aired back before even the Cartoon Network days -- where Brian Drummond Vegeta tells Dodoria that "Taking you down will be easier than catching fish in a barrel!" Now, "catching fish in a barrel" is not a real phrase in the English language -- it's actually "shooting fish in a barrel" -- and in the years since people have memed it because of how utterly bizarre and unnatural sounding that line was (though it should also be pointed out that people noticed it at the time as well). What I think probably happened is that FUNimation really wanted to use the term "shooting fish in a barrel," for whatever reason (it's not it's anything like what's said in the original, by the way), but then also got scared the censors would freak out at them using a word as violently charged as "shoot," and so they panicked and changed it to "catch" instead.
Something similar may have happened in this episode of Pokémon. The phrase the skinnier pirate should be using is "right to Davy Jones' locker," but 4Kids has him say "Davy Jones' locker room" instead. Was this a "catching fish in a barrel" type attempt at softening what the dubbers considered to be a "risqué" phrase? Or was there someone on the 4Kids staff who honestly thought the phrase really is "locker room"? It's hard to know for sure one way or the other.
The rest of the battle is actually surprisingly good, script-wise. The next change worth bringing up is after everyone's been defeated and the light blue Lapras approaches Ash's Lapras:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「よかったな ラプラス」 |
Satoshi: "So happy for you,
Laplace." |
Ash: "You sure do have a nice
mom." |
The closed captions for the Japanese version of this episode refer to the larger Laplace as "LaplaMama" (ラ プママ) but none of the dialogue in the show itself ever establishes this connection between this Laplace and Satoshi's. The show refers to the other Laplace as nakama (仲間), or "friends," but words like haha (母) or "mama" (ママ) do not appear in this episode's dialogue at all. A few years from now the Johto episode where this Laplace makes a comeback explicitly refers to her as the mother, but this Orange Islands episode right here does not.
I imagine 4Kids saw the references in the Japanese script of this being Lapras' mom to figure out their relation to each other, and that that's where Ash's "You sure do have a nice mom" came from. So 4Kids actually didn't pull this out of thin air, for once! But, the fact that the dub never even hinted at this relationship at literally any other point in this episode makes Ash's line here seem to come completely out of nowhere.
The Rocket trio gets tied up:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ムサシ 「だから！あたしたちは無実だって何回も言ってるでしょ！」 |
Musashi: "How many times do we
have to tell you!? We're innocent!" |
Jessie: "Untie us! How can you
lump us in with these scummy, scurvy scavengers?" |
| ニャース 「無実ニャー！ぬれぎぬニャー！」 |
Nyarth: "In-nya-cent! We've
been falsely accused Nya!" |
Meowth: "And to think, I
rooted for ya." |
| カスミ 「…ったーくなーに言ってんだか～」 |
Kasumi: "What's that? Did you
say something?" |
Misty: "That was very nice of
you, Meowth." |
| トゲピー 「チョッゲ プリ～」 |
Togepy: "Chogge purii~!" |
Togepi: "Chogge purii~!" |
| コジロウ 「あ～ お前たちを応援してただけだってばさ～」 |
Kojirou: "We're trying to tell
you we were only cheering you on!" |
James: "I can testify to the
fact that we were both rooting for you twerps." |
| ニャース 「ホントなのニャー」 |
Nyarth: "It's true Nya!" |
Meowth: "I'll testify too!" |
| ケンジ 「ウソつくなって」 |
Kenji: "Yeah right!" |
Tracey: "Save it for the
judge!" |
| ジュンサー 「事情は署で聞きます」 |
Junsar: "Well, we'll hear all
about it down at the station." |
Officer Jenny: "There are
outstanding charges against you all." |
| カスミ 「ゆっくりしてきなさいよ～」 |
Kasumi: "Enjoy your stay~!" |
Misty: "She's not talking about your credit card." |
There's a lot of dialogue "punch ups" here, but also Officer Jenny suggests she knows who Jessie, James, and Meowth are and that they all have criminal records, something Junsar does not.
Paint Edit
It's been almost two weeks' worth of episodes without any digital ink and paint and so 4Kids decided to have the "text" (plus whatever that is on the left that's casting a shadow) on Officer Jenny's ship erased.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Of course, I also have to point out that the very first shot we get of this ship just a few seconds before these two has its "text" left completely intact.
I'm so glad time and money was spent on this absolutely essential edit, aren't you?
Dialogue Edit
Ash says goodbye to his Lapras:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「ラプラス、仲間たちと仲よく暮らすんだぞ」 |
Satoshi: "Laplace, make sure
you live happily with your friends." |
Ash: "Be happy, Lapras. At
least you won't have me on your back anymore." |
| ラプラス 「プ～」 |
Laplace: "Pu~" |
Lapras: "Pu~" |
| サトシ 「何だって？」 |
Satoshi: "What's that?" |
Ash: "What was that?" |
| ラプラス 「プ～」 |
Laplace: "Pu~!" |
Lapras: "Pu~!" |
| サトシ 「うっ うわっ うわーっ！」 |
Satoshi: "Uu Uwa Uwaa!" |
Ash: "Whoa!" |
| ピカチュウ 「ピカーッ」 |
Pikachu: "Pikaa!" |
Pikachu: "Pikaa!" |
| (The young boy falls into the water) |
||
| サトシ 「あっ こらー！」 |
Satoshi: "Ah! Hey you!" |
Ash: "Lapras!" |
| ラプラス 「プ～」 |
Laplace: "Pu~" |
Lapras: "Pu~" |
| サトシ
「おーい ラプラス。うわっ 分かった 分かった。オレとお前も仲間だよ」 |
Satoshi: "Hey, Laplace. OK,
you're right, you're right. You and I are friends too." |
Ash: "I know you're only
kiddin' around. All right. All right. Come on. Cut it out. Quit it,
will ya? Don't you think I'm wet enough already?" |
This cute moment where Satoshi realizes that his Laplace considers him to be one of its friends, just as much as it does members of its own species, gets replaced with Ash commenting about being slobbered on.
Music Edit
The 4Kids dub of Pokémon has this problem where they can't seem to have a farewell montage in the show without mucking it up somehow, and the "farewell Lapras" montage in this episode is no exception. This time it's "just" a bit of music replacement, but even that simple act is enough to really wreck the mood.
Originally the song played during all this is from the Movie One soundtrack, Track 22 "Miraculous Tears" (奇 跡の涙). It's a really beautiful song that tells us that while Laplace leaving is indeed a sad moment, we should also take the time to look back and think about all the great times we've had together. You know, "don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened" and all that.
The English dub, on the other hand, replaces this with an instrumental version of whatever it is they played during the farewell montage in "Pikachu's Goodbye," and it's as jarring here as it was in that episode. To me it sounds like the music that plays whenever you call up a call center and get put on hold, and it simply does not work for the montage to which it's being attached.
It should also be noted that the dub does play part of "Miraculous Tears" in the shots immediately preceding the montage, as well as in the shots immediately following it. It's just the shots during the actual montage itself that get their music replaced.
It's frustrating because music-wise the rest of this episode's fairly OK-ish, but this one change here really spoils the whole thing.
Dialogue Edit
Misty comments on Lapras' departure:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| カスミ 「あのラプラスたちが人間を嫌いにならなくてよかった」 |
Kasumi: "I'm so glad those
Laplace have come to not hate humans anymore." |
Misty: "I hate to see Lapras
go but it belongs with its mom and all its friends." |
Again, the Japanese version never clarifies that this larger Laplace is the mother of Satoshi's (soon to be ex) Pokémon, but the dub decides to be very unambiguous about this.
The kids say goodbye:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| サトシ 「さよならー！ ラプラスー！」 |
Satoshi: "Goodbye Laplace!" |
Ash: "I'm never gonna forget
you, Lapras!" |
| ケンジ 「またどっかで会ったら乗せてくれよ！」 |
Kenji: "If we ever meet again
I hope you can give us a ride!" |
Tracey: "Thanks for the ride
through the Orange Islands, Lapras!" |
| カスミ 「元気でねー！」 |
Kasumi: "Take care!" |
Misty: "We love you!" |
| トゲピー 「チョッゲ チョッゲ プリ～」 |
Togepy: "Chogge chogge purii~" |
Togepi: "Chogge chogge purii~" |
I don't know how to explain this, really, but to me the dialogue 4Kids came up with here sounds like the most American dialogue they could have possibly come up with for this scene. That's not really a bad thing or a good thing, per se, it's just something I noticed.
The narrator gets the last word:
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| ナレーション 「サトシはラプラスと共に見てきたいろんな旅の風景を思い出して
いた。さあサトシ！オレンジ諸島の旅もあとわずかだ」 |
Narrator:
"At that moment, Satoshi was remembering all the sights he saw on his
journey with Laplace. Alright, Satoshi! Your journey through the Orange
Islands is almost over!" |
Narrator: "As their voyages in
the Orange Islands draw to a close, Ash and his friends bid farewell to
a great Pokémon, and a great friend. So long, Lapras. Smooth
sailing." |
I just love how bored the English dub narrator sounds here. "So long Lapras, I guess. Smooth sailing or whatever, meh who cares."
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