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| Episode Comparisons | Pokémon Horizons
Episode Stats:
Japanese Episode 002: "The Pendant of Origins - Part Two"
English Episode 2602: "The Pendant That Starts It All: Part Two"
Dr. Friede's Pokémon Seminar: Nyahoja
Japanese Air Date: April 14th, 2023
American Air Date: March 7th, 2024
Important Characters: Captain Pikachu (Captain Pikachu)
Important Places: Brave Asagi (Brave Olivine)
Thoughts
This episode aired as part of an hour-long special when the series premiered in Japan and I can absolutely understand why. After a very deliberate and slow-paced first episode we go into the second part starting at full speed, and the show never really takes its foot off the gas pedal the whole time. The overwhelming majority of this episode is basically one extended chase sequence, and the cliffhanger ending of having Liko's starter stolen away from her is just the perfect way to cap off an exciting hour of television. The episode makes you want to tune in next week to see what's gonna happen and that's exactly what makes this two-parter so successful.
Something I really like about this particular episode is how skillfully the show handles its cast introductions. Showing off everyone's roles and personalities by throwing them all into a dire situation right from the get-go is a fantastically efficient way of introducing us to the Rising Volteccers, with Friede, Orio, and Mollie being the stand-outs of the episode. The quick cutaways to each crew member doing their jobs gives this action packed episode that much more of a frantic feel while also highlighting the great sense of teamwork we'll be seeing from this team from here on out. Some characters don't get a chance to shine just yet (Murdock the cook isn't super useful in a high speed chase scenario, and Landau isn't super useful in general) but that's fine; this is still only Episode 2, after all.
We do get a brand new Pokémon debut in the form of Terapagos. When the episode came out we knew about the Scarlet & Violet DLC and so seeing something that looks sorta-kinda like the bejeweled tortoise Pokémon from that second wave of DLC was really exciting. It got everyone even more hyped up for the new series which, again, is exactly what you want to do with a series premiere like this.
The episode also introduces us to Conisch's action and battle themes, and they are, as expected, absolutely top notch. One of my personal complaints about Yuki Hayashi's score for Pocket Monsters (2019) was that it was good music, in and of itself, but that it took a really long while for it to actually start to feel like good Pokémon music. It got there eventually, I'd say, but there was a pretty long while where it kind of just felt like leftovers from one of his My Hero Academia scores played over Pokémon visuals. The music for Pocket Monsters (2023) doesn't suffer from any of those same problems. It blends into the series right away while still retaining its own identity, an impressive feat for a show that, again, is still only two episodes in. It's a really fantastic soundtrack, which is even more of a reason to be upset with TPCi's complete disregard for it.
Speaking of the English dub this episode gives us a better look at the show's supporting cast and how TPCi's going to handle them. Mollie and Orla and Landlow all sound perfectly fine, and Liko sounds great a good 95% of the time. The only member of the regular crew I'm not the biggest fan of right now is Murdock. The voice itself is fine, I guess, but it also sounds like his voice actor's doing a Samuel L Jackson impersonation. Maybe I've watched too many of the MCU projects that've come out this year, but Mr. Jackson's voice is seriously all I can think of whenever I hear Murdock speak. It's something about the intonation, or the cadence, or the swagger he gives the character...I can't put my finger on it but I know there's something off about it. It actually kind of makes me worried how Murdock's cooking episode will turn out later in the season because I don't think this current acting choice is the right fit for this character. The potential for a fantastic Murdock performance is absolutely there, I just think it needs a few tweaks / alternate line readings to make it work.
Captain Pikachu keeps its Japanese voice.
Side Note
The Japanese version doesn't play its opening theme at the beginning of the episode (that won't start until the third episode) and so it puts its opening credits during the flashback to the previous episode instead.
The English dub decides it doesn't wanna wait that long and decides to debut its opening sequence with this episode instead. And so the opening credits are, accordingly, removed from the flashback and put over the opening theme instead.
Music Edit
On the music front, we've still got a 100% replacement background music score. I don't have high hopes for the rest of the series getting any better, unfortunately.
The opening theme to the English dub is a brand new song created just for the English dub called Becoming Me. It's a roughly 30 second little ditty that takes select clips from the first Japanese opening, Dokimeki Diary, and then rearranges them to fit the new melody of the English theme.
Probably the most amusing part of the new dub opening is how TPCi Mike Wazowskis pretty much everyone in the cast by thoughtlessly slapping the show's logo front and center, obscuring the overwhelming majority of the show's cast in the process.
I don't see myself humming along to Becoming Me anytime soon but it's not terrible. I just wish they'd done an English cover of Dokimeki Diary instead.
Dialogue Edit
The script for this episode is absolutely phenomenal. The only piece of dialogue in the English dub that's even a little bit different from the Japanese version is this line from Friede in the first half. It happens right after Liko meets all the cute Pokémon onboard.
The difference here is that Friede in the Japanese version is counting something (maybe dots on a radar?) and guesses that whatever he's seeing on his screen means the Explorers are on their tail. In the English version we don't really get that.
And that's literally it. I did a line-by-line comparison of every single piece of dialogue in this episode but couldn't find anything else that would count as a rewrite. I promise you I'm not being lazy or careless here; the script genuinely is that good.
Pretty much the rest of this comparison is going to be image based so this is gonna end up being a short one.
Paint Edit
The text that says "Captain Pikachu" (キャプテンピカチュウ) during the character's introduction screen gets removed from the dub.
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Eyecatch
The show's commercial break eyecatches are actually left in for the dub! Is this the first time a non-"Who's That Pokémon?" Japanese eyecatch has been retained for the dub?
On top of that, TPCi leaves the artwork completely alone; all they did was replace the Pocket Monsters logo with the Pokémon Horizons logo.
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Video Edit
Just like in the last episode, the text "To Be Continued" gets removed from the dub.
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Music Edit
The Japanese version uses what is usually the show's opening theme, Dokimeki Diary, as the episode's ending theme for this episode.
The English dub uses its regular ending theme instead.
Side Note / Cut -- 45 seconds
Starting from this episode, the show has a post-episode segment called Dr. Friede's Pokémon Seminar (フリード博士のポケモンゼミ).
Similar to this franchise's other Post-Show Segments, this extra material at the end of each episode of Pocket Monsters (2023) features the professor of the series (in this case, Friede) telling us about a Pokémon before asking viewers a question. The show goes to commercial, and then when it comes back Friede reveals the answer. The segment ends with a unique piece of artwork showing off this week's Pokémon. In this episode's case we get this charming image of Pikachu and Nyahoja sleeping on top a Kabigon.
The English dub, predictably, removes this segment from every single episode.
This page was last updated on March 8th, 2024
| Previous Episode |
Episode Stats:
Japanese Episode 002: "The Pendant of Origins - Part Two"
English Episode 2602: "The Pendant That Starts It All: Part Two"
Dr. Friede's Pokémon Seminar: Nyahoja
Japanese Air Date: April 14th, 2023
American Air Date: March 7th, 2024
Important Characters: Captain Pikachu (Captain Pikachu)
Important Places: Brave Asagi (Brave Olivine)
A mysterious turtle-like Pokémon briefly appears in front of Liko before both the orb and Pokémon abruptly vanish, sending Liko plummeting toward the ground below! Luckily, Friede's Lizardon swoops down and catches the young girl in its arms before climbing back up into the skies and away from the academy. They leave Amethio behind and fly over to Friede’s flying airship, the Brave Asagi. She meets the ship’s crew and notices the Pokémon onboard all seem to be happy, letting her know that this group maybe isn’t so bad after all…? Suddenly the ship's radar picks up both a horrible thunderstorm as well as the Explorers, Amethio and his henchmen, closing in! As everyone rushes around the ship, trying to figure out what to do next, Amethio sneaks his way into the cabin where Liko's hiding and forces her to come with him! Once they make it out onto the deck, however, Friede steps forward to stop them. Friede calls out his other Pokémon, “Captain” Pikachu, while Amethio uses his Soublades again. Their battle is soon interrupted when Liko's Nyahoja steps up and launches a powerful Leafage attack that defeats Friede’s opponent but also causes a crack to open in the dome-like shield surrounding the battlefield. The stormy winds pull Nyahoja into the air and so Amethio quickly calls on his Amorga to grab Liko's Pokémon. The strong winds are making it too dangerous for the Explorers to continue their attack and so they retreat, taking Liko's Nyahoja with them.
Thoughts
This episode aired as part of an hour-long special when the series premiered in Japan and I can absolutely understand why. After a very deliberate and slow-paced first episode we go into the second part starting at full speed, and the show never really takes its foot off the gas pedal the whole time. The overwhelming majority of this episode is basically one extended chase sequence, and the cliffhanger ending of having Liko's starter stolen away from her is just the perfect way to cap off an exciting hour of television. The episode makes you want to tune in next week to see what's gonna happen and that's exactly what makes this two-parter so successful.
Something I really like about this particular episode is how skillfully the show handles its cast introductions. Showing off everyone's roles and personalities by throwing them all into a dire situation right from the get-go is a fantastically efficient way of introducing us to the Rising Volteccers, with Friede, Orio, and Mollie being the stand-outs of the episode. The quick cutaways to each crew member doing their jobs gives this action packed episode that much more of a frantic feel while also highlighting the great sense of teamwork we'll be seeing from this team from here on out. Some characters don't get a chance to shine just yet (Murdock the cook isn't super useful in a high speed chase scenario, and Landau isn't super useful in general) but that's fine; this is still only Episode 2, after all.
We do get a brand new Pokémon debut in the form of Terapagos. When the episode came out we knew about the Scarlet & Violet DLC and so seeing something that looks sorta-kinda like the bejeweled tortoise Pokémon from that second wave of DLC was really exciting. It got everyone even more hyped up for the new series which, again, is exactly what you want to do with a series premiere like this.
The episode also introduces us to Conisch's action and battle themes, and they are, as expected, absolutely top notch. One of my personal complaints about Yuki Hayashi's score for Pocket Monsters (2019) was that it was good music, in and of itself, but that it took a really long while for it to actually start to feel like good Pokémon music. It got there eventually, I'd say, but there was a pretty long while where it kind of just felt like leftovers from one of his My Hero Academia scores played over Pokémon visuals. The music for Pocket Monsters (2023) doesn't suffer from any of those same problems. It blends into the series right away while still retaining its own identity, an impressive feat for a show that, again, is still only two episodes in. It's a really fantastic soundtrack, which is even more of a reason to be upset with TPCi's complete disregard for it.
Speaking of the English dub this episode gives us a better look at the show's supporting cast and how TPCi's going to handle them. Mollie and Orla and Landlow all sound perfectly fine, and Liko sounds great a good 95% of the time. The only member of the regular crew I'm not the biggest fan of right now is Murdock. The voice itself is fine, I guess, but it also sounds like his voice actor's doing a Samuel L Jackson impersonation. Maybe I've watched too many of the MCU projects that've come out this year, but Mr. Jackson's voice is seriously all I can think of whenever I hear Murdock speak. It's something about the intonation, or the cadence, or the swagger he gives the character...I can't put my finger on it but I know there's something off about it. It actually kind of makes me worried how Murdock's cooking episode will turn out later in the season because I don't think this current acting choice is the right fit for this character. The potential for a fantastic Murdock performance is absolutely there, I just think it needs a few tweaks / alternate line readings to make it work.
Captain Pikachu keeps its Japanese voice.
Side Note
The Japanese version doesn't play its opening theme at the beginning of the episode (that won't start until the third episode) and so it puts its opening credits during the flashback to the previous episode instead.
The English dub decides it doesn't wanna wait that long and decides to debut its opening sequence with this episode instead. And so the opening credits are, accordingly, removed from the flashback and put over the opening theme instead.
Music Edit
On the music front, we've still got a 100% replacement background music score. I don't have high hopes for the rest of the series getting any better, unfortunately.
The opening theme to the English dub is a brand new song created just for the English dub called Becoming Me. It's a roughly 30 second little ditty that takes select clips from the first Japanese opening, Dokimeki Diary, and then rearranges them to fit the new melody of the English theme.
Probably the most amusing part of the new dub opening is how TPCi Mike Wazowskis pretty much everyone in the cast by thoughtlessly slapping the show's logo front and center, obscuring the overwhelming majority of the show's cast in the process.
 |
 |
I don't see myself humming along to Becoming Me anytime soon but it's not terrible. I just wish they'd done an English cover of Dokimeki Diary instead.
Dialogue Edit
The script for this episode is absolutely phenomenal. The only piece of dialogue in the English dub that's even a little bit different from the Japanese version is this line from Friede in the first half. It happens right after Liko meets all the cute Pokémon onboard.
| Japanese
(original) |
Japanese
(translated) |
English
Dub |
| リコ 「あの、すみません」 |
Liko: "Um, excuse me..." |
Liko: "Um, excuse me." |
| (phone alarm sounds) |
||
| フリード 「ちょっとごめん。1、2、3…まさかさっきの…」 | Friede: "Sorry, just a minute.
One, two, three...are these the guys from before?" |
Friede: "Hold that thought
kid. Looks like we've got incoming guests. I think it's them." |
The difference here is that Friede in the Japanese version is counting something (maybe dots on a radar?) and guesses that whatever he's seeing on his screen means the Explorers are on their tail. In the English version we don't really get that.
And that's literally it. I did a line-by-line comparison of every single piece of dialogue in this episode but couldn't find anything else that would count as a rewrite. I promise you I'm not being lazy or careless here; the script genuinely is that good.
Pretty much the rest of this comparison is going to be image based so this is gonna end up being a short one.
Paint Edit
The text that says "Captain Pikachu" (キャプテンピカチュウ) during the character's introduction screen gets removed from the dub.
 |
 |
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Eyecatch
The show's commercial break eyecatches are actually left in for the dub! Is this the first time a non-"Who's That Pokémon?" Japanese eyecatch has been retained for the dub?
 |
 |
 |
 |
On top of that, TPCi leaves the artwork completely alone; all they did was replace the Pocket Monsters logo with the Pokémon Horizons logo.
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Video Edit
Just like in the last episode, the text "To Be Continued" gets removed from the dub.
 |
 |
Click on each image to view a larger version.
Music Edit
The Japanese version uses what is usually the show's opening theme, Dokimeki Diary, as the episode's ending theme for this episode.
The English dub uses its regular ending theme instead.
Side Note / Cut -- 45 seconds
Starting from this episode, the show has a post-episode segment called Dr. Friede's Pokémon Seminar (フリード博士のポケモンゼミ).
Similar to this franchise's other Post-Show Segments, this extra material at the end of each episode of Pocket Monsters (2023) features the professor of the series (in this case, Friede) telling us about a Pokémon before asking viewers a question. The show goes to commercial, and then when it comes back Friede reveals the answer. The segment ends with a unique piece of artwork showing off this week's Pokémon. In this episode's case we get this charming image of Pikachu and Nyahoja sleeping on top a Kabigon.
The English dub, predictably, removes this segment from every single episode.
| Previous Episode |
This page was last updated on March 8th, 2024
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