Japanese Episode
007






Main
Old Updates Archive
Links

          Lists

List of Pokémon
Pokémon World Atlas
List of Techniques
List of Items
List of TV Episodes

         Guides

Episode Comparisons
Movies & Specials Guide
CD Guide
DVD Guide

Voice Actors Guide
Lyrics Archive
Manga Guide
Video Games


  Miscellaneous

Humor

Pokémon Bashing
Features
Rants


E-Mail Me

 
Dogasu's Backpack | Episode Comparisons | Kanto Region

Japanese Episode 007
Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 007:
  "The Water Flowers of Hanada City"

American Episode 107:
  "The Water Flowers Of Cerulean City"

Pokémon Dare Da?  Pawou
Japanese Air Date:  May 13th, 1997
American Air Date:  September 16th, 1998
Important Places:  Hanada City (Cerulean City), Kuchiba City (Vermilion City)
Important Characters:  Sakura (Daisy), Ayame (Violet), Botan (Lily)

Satoshi and his friends arrive in Hanada City, but for some reason, Kasumi doesn't want to stick around.  As Satoshi ignores his traveling partner, the Rocket-Dan break into an electronics store and steal a huge vacuum and a giant hose.  After being questioned by Junsa about the robbery, Satoshi and Takeshi split up for a while.  Eventually, Satoshi finds the city's gym, but instead of a battle arena, he's greeted by a trio of sisters - Sakura, Ayame, and Botan - performing an acrobatics show!  Satoshi approaches the three girls and confirms that they're the Gym Leaders.  However, since all of their pokemon are exhausted from their battles with previous trainers, they don't have any battle worthy pokemon left.  So Sakura, the oldest of the three sisters, tells Satoshi that she'll just give him the gym badge.  Suddenly, Kasumi appears and protests, revealing that she is one of the Gym Leaders!  She tells Satoshi that he won't walk out of the gym without a fight, so the two begin a proper Gym Battle.  Before the two trainers can conclude their match, however, the Rocket-Dan appear with the machine made from the items stolen earlier!  As they use the vacuum to suck up the gym's water, Satoshi has his Pikachu shock them with an electric attack, destroying the machine and sending the trio blasting off again.  Later, Sakura decides to give the badge to Satoshi for rescuing their gym despite Kasumi's protests.  After the young trainer receives the Blue Badge, our heroes being their journey to the next city.


Thoughts
This episode, our second gym leader battle in three episodes (the anime producers do this again with the Natsume/Erika battles later on), adds some interesting twists to the gym that weren't in the game.  Kasumi's sisters are a welcome addition from the game, and the decision to have the gym double up as a water stadium was a great one, in my opinion.

The big problem I have with the dub is the destruction of Sakura, Ayame, and Botan.  Not content with a trio of competent, un-annoying trainers, 4Kids had to go and make them "more appealing" by turning the three of them into airheads.  The sisters in the English version are extremely unlikable, and I can't imagine anyone who's familiar with the Japanese version being happy about the way 4Kids handled these characters. 

There were a few puns in the Japanese version that I couldn't figure out (one has to do with a Japanese version of pat-a-cake), and they all got changed for the dub.  I only wish I knew what they meant so I could post that information here.

Hitodeman (who sounds an awful lot like Ultraman) and Starmie keep their Japanese voices.

Paint Edit
The sign from the last episode has some digital paint on it. 

Japanese English

What's interesting this time around is that it seems that 4Kids didn't just edit in the altered footage from the previous episode; they went in and edited it again.  You can tell because in the second shot, they simply froze the frames of Satoshi with his back toward the camera to avoid having to paint the sign that's revealed behind him when he starts to run off.  They also neglect to edit the last shot of the sign, giving us a rare glimpse of the terror that is "written Japanese."

Paint Edit
Later, in the city, the establishing shot of the electronics store has the Japanese text painted away and replaced by the English equivalent.

Japanese English

Click on each image for a larger version.

The katakana on the sign behind Satoshi is replaced.  The Japanese text says room.

Japanese English

Click on each image for a larger version.

(By the way, what does that sign behind Takeshi say?  E-Love?)

Finally, every shot of the outside of the gym has the words HANADA GYM replaced with CERULEAN GYM to keep continuity with the dialogue in the English version.

Japanese
English
Japanese
English
Japanese
English


Previous Episode

This page was last updated on September 20th, 2010

 

 

 

  © 2024 Dogasu's Backpack. All international rights reserved. Portions of the materials contained in this Website are copyrighted by other legal entities and are used with permission or are excerpted under legal authority for brief review. This Website is fan-created and has no intent to violate the originator's copyright. The copyright holder for this Website assumes no liability for fan-created submissions.

Found an error or omission? Please help me keep this page current and error-free by e-mailing me with a description of the issue.