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Japanese TV Special 002: "Pocket Monsters Crystal - Raikou, the Legend of Thunder" Pokémon Chronicles Episode 01: "The Legend of Thunder - Part One" Japanese Air Date: December 30th, 2001 American Air Date: June 3rd, 2006 Important Characters: Kenta (Jimmy), Marina (Marina), Jun'ichi (Vincent), Buson (Atilla), Bashou (Hun), Shiranui-Hakase (Professor Sebastian), Wataru (Lance), Shinji (No English name), Muu-chan (Lil' Miss), Pink-chan (Lil' Pink), Wani-Wani (Wani-Wani) In the land of Jouto, a young trainer named Kenta battles a trainer named Shinji with his first pokemon, Bakuphoon. Meanwhile, two members of the Rocket-Dan, Bashou and Buson, are called to the laboratory of Shiranui-Hakase in order to witness a demonstration. The professor shows them his Crystal Field Generation System, a weapon of sorts that is able to absorb electrical energy and use it to both ensnare and attack whoever the Rocket-Dan desires. After the demonstration is completed successfully, the Rocket-Dan announces that it is ready to use their new weapon to capture "him." Later, Kenta takes his pokemon to the nearby Pokemon Center to heal their wounds after their battle. There, he runs across Marina, one of his childhood friends who is on a pokemon journey of her own. In addition, Kenta is able to talk to another one of his friends, Jun'ichi, via videophone. After Kenta catches up with his friends, Marina challenges Kenta to a pokemon battle. As the battle commences, a huge thunderstorm begins to brew and soon makes it impossible for the two young trainers to continue their battle. Marina's Muuma, who becomes frightened by the lightning, runs off into the forest, prompting Marina and Kenta to follow. When they catch up with the ghost pokemon, they are shocked to see Bashou and Buson using the Crystal Field Generation System to take all the electrical pokemon in the area! Before long, the crystal weapon attracts the Rocket-Dan's true target: the legendary pokemon, Raikou! Raikou attempts to save all the kidnapped pokemon, but the Rocket duo laughs as Shiranui-Hakase's crystal system is used to trap the legendary pokemon. At this point, Kenta steps in to stop the evil organization, so Bashou and Buson call on their pokemon - a Haganeil and an A'rmd. Can Kenta defeat the Rocket-Dan and rescue Raikou? Thoughts
The much
talked-about Pokémon
Chronicles series begins with this episode, and what an episode
it is. 4Kids manages to make everyone forget everything good
they've done with the Pokémon franchise in the past
seven years by completely botching this special up in every way
imaginable. There are so
many screw-ups, mistranslations, and needless edits that you'd think
4Kids was intentionally trying to piss us all off. Um...I guess the
first thing I'll talk about are the big things that everyone knows
about. Kenta, who was referred to as Yoshi in "Tie One On," has been renamed Jimmy
for these episodes. In addition, Marina, who was referred to
as Dani in that very same episode, has now gone back to being called by
her
Japanese name. Now there are people who will
argue, with some amount of legitimacy, that the names "Dani" and
"Yoshi" could have been in reference to some other characters.
The argument is that Jackson was saying hi to some other trainers or
family
members or something like that and that Jimmy and Marina are really
meant to be the "real" dub names for Kenta and Marina. If that was the case, however, then that
means that 4Kids screwed up when
they dubbed "Tie One On" since the Japanese version was indeed making
reference to these characters. So whether 4Kids messed up then or
are messing up now, they're still messing up. What people can't
argue is that Jun'ichi, who was named Jackson in "Tie One
On," is now called Vincent in this episode. There may be room to
argue about the other two, but changing Jackson to Vincent is really
unacceptable. It's only been about a year and a half since "Tie
One On," and Jun'ichi WAS a competitor in the Jouto League after
all. There's no excuse. Now there are
people
out there, breathing the same air as you and me, who defend 4Kids by
arguing that the names in "Tie One On" were the characters' last
names, and that the names used in "The Legend of Thunder" are their
first names. This would produce "Jimmy Yoshi," "Marina Dani," and
"Vincent
Jackson." Thing is, Jun'ichi would have absolutely no reason to
go into the Jouto League using only his surname, nor would he have
any reason to refer to his friends by their
surname. Besides
that, "Yoshi" and "Dani" aren't really family names at all. On the Rocket
side of things, Bashou and Buson have been renamed Hun (Bashou) and
Atilla (Buson). You know, like Atilla the Hun. The
mind-boggling thing is that Hun, for no rational reason, is changed
into a female in the dub. That's right; this episode gives us the
first time 4Kids has ever changed the gender of a character for their Pokémon dub. The
character was obviously cast based on his appearance, because if the
producers had bothered to even watch the Japanese version, they'd be
able to hear that Bashou has the deepest voice in the special.
There really is no reason to change his gender; he's not a homosexual
(like Zoicite or Fisheye in Sailor
Moon / Sailor Moon Super S),
and we've
certainly seen girly-looking men in the anime before. Some will
say that 4Kids didn't like the idea of having a
Rocket duo consisting of only one gender, but that theory falls apart
when you remember that Annie and Oakley, who the dub tells us are from
Team Rocket, were both the same gender in the fifth movie. Then there are
those who refuse to believe that Bashou had his gender changed at all
due to a line said by Kudo in Part Two, but I'll address that when we
get to it. If all this name
changing isn't
enough, the script is absolute crap, and the episode is full of random
cuts made for no reason. Marina's character got absolutely
slaughtered, and 4Kids seems to have something against giving us any
backstory to these characters. Raikou keeps its
Japanese voice, just like the Raikou robot did in "Watt's With
Wattson." And, just like in "Watt's With Wattson," the
pokemon's
name is mispronounced. Guess Nintendo of America should have
opted to spell the character's name as "Raikoh," huh? Also, Bakuphoon
and Spear keep their Japanese voices. Added
Footage--36 seconds Music
Edit Video Edit
I guess they
wanted to make the beginning look more cinematic, for some reason? Dialogue
Edit Dialogue Edit Dubbed Shinji: "We like to put
our best foot forward!" Oh,
I get it. Hitmonlee uses its feet to fight. Ha ha ha.
That's comedy gold right there. Jimmy: "Aw yeah! Hi paw!" Lame. Cut--15
seconds Dubbed
Shinji: "We're going to learn from this defeat and next
time
we'll be stronger!" What
follows, in the Japanese version, is Shinji introducing himself as
Shinji from Kaso City before he exchanges PokeGear numbers with
Kenta.
All
of this is cut from the dub. Cut--1
minute, 31 seconds In
the
dub, we get a title screen for the special (which the Japanese version
didn't do) and then cut right to the shot of Team Rocket's helicopter. Dialogue
Edit Professor Sebastian: "Welcome,
Hun. And who is your new partner?" No,
Atilla isn't Hun's "new" partner, and he sure as hell isn't referred
to as a "wrangler" in the Japanese version. Originally, the duo
was just introducing themselves to Shiranui-Hakase. The
dub will persist in giving Atilla all these wrangling lines throughout
the special. You know, just for the hell of it. Paint
Edit Click on each image
to view a larger version. Side
Note Dialogue Edit More bad dialogue: Vincent: "Hey! Look what
the Gengar dragged in!"
...Gengar!?
What the...Gengar!? I don't know what the hell 4Kids was going for here. Wouldn't it have made a LOT more sense to say "Look what the Persian dragged in," or "Look what the Meowth dragged in?" I mean...GENGAR!? How the hell does that make sense!? Later, Marina:
"G.T.G., sweetie-pie." Saying
Internet shortcuts out loud is bad enough, but then 4Kids has to go and
have Marina
call Vincent "sweetie-pie," something the Japanese Marina would NEVER
do. Cut--12
seconds
This
is all cut for the
dub. Dialogue Edit Marina: "So, did you miss
me? Come on! You can admit it. Even if it was just a
little bit." Later, a huge chunk of the conversation is rewritten. For simplicity's sake, I'll just go ahead and post a transcript of the scene below. The Japanese translation, on the left, is taken from the Excalibur Fansubs version. The English version is on the right:
Eyecatches The
first batch are Kenta and Marina. Click on each image to view a larger version. Dialogue
Edit
Also,
dub Marina never mentions the fact that her Croconaw evolved from the
Totodile she received from Professor Elm. In the Japanese
version, she does. Dialogue
Edit Atilla:
"Alright! It's round-up time! Y'know, this reminds me of
big time ropin' and ranchin' at my uncle's place in the black
hills! Heh, here we go! Yipee Yai Yay!" None
of that is even close to accurate. Originally, Buson was saying
that since so many electric-type pokemon have gathered in the area,
that they might as well gather them up. Atilla:
"Hey, this is like that contest game! Hoo ha ha ha ha ha
ha! Only here you win a prize every time!" Shut
up, Atilla. Originally,
he just says that he'll take as many pokemon as he can carry. Scene
Switch Hun:
"It's perfect. The more it fights, the stronger we get." There's
a shot of Raikou falling to the ground, followed by a shot of Jimmy
looking on in horror. In the Japanese version, those scenes were
reversed; originally we saw Kenta's look of horror and THEN we saw
Raikou fall to the ground. And
to think that there are 21 more episodes just like this. Video
Edit This
isn't done in the Japanese
version. Eyecatches Click on each image to view a larger version. Japanese Special 02 Continues...
This page was last updated
on October 7th, 2010
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