Japanese Episode
100






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Dogasu's Backpack | Episode Comparisons | Orange Islands

Japanese Episode 100

Episode Stats:


Japanese Episode 100:  "The Nidoran's Love Story"
American Episode 244:  "Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon?"
Pokémon Dare Da?  Nidoran (Japan), Venonat (English)
Dr. Ookido's Pokémon Course:  Kabuto
Japanese Air Date:  June 10th, 1999
American Air Date:  April 22nd, 2000
Important Characters:  Ralph (Ralph), Emily (Emily), John (Tony), Mary (Maria)
Important Places:  Yanbera Town (no name in the English dub)

Satoshi and his friends are passing through a small town on their way through Mandarin Island when they’re approached by a young girl Emily looking for her missing Nidoran named Mary. Our heroes decide to help her search for the Pokémon and in the process meet Ralph, Emily’s neighbor who's also looking for a Nidoran of his own named John. Satoshi and his friends later learn the two Nidoran are really like each other but aren’t able to actually be together because their Trainers have an intense rivalry that keeps the two of them apart. Kasumi doesn't want to just sit by while two Pokémon in love continue to suffer so she writes letters to both Emily and Ralph, pretending to be the other, in order to trick them into meeting up to reconcile their differences. Kasumi’s plot, unfortunately, actually ends up making the two rivals even more upset than they were before! A sudden attack by the Rocket trio forces Ralph and Emily to put their differences aside and battle the would-be thieves to save their Nidoran. The Trainers’ efforts to command their Pokémon to victory causes them to realize all their fighting up until now's been pointless and that they really should put an end to this silly rivalry. Later, a post-battle nose bump between John and Mary triggers their evolution into Nidorino and Nidorina, proving that love truly does conquer all. Now that Ralph and Emily's Pokémon are together our heroes resume their journey through Mandarin Island.


Thoughts
When I sat down to watch
"The Nidoran's Love Story," my first thought was...well OK, my first thought was "Oh yeah, this is the episode with that epic Rocket crossdressing scene," but then after that it was "Waitaminute...how have they not done a Nidoran episode yet?" Like, I know there are ("officially") 150 Pokémon at this point and that we're only 100 episodes in, and so if you figure one Pokémon featured per episode (in principle) that means we're only about 2/3 our way through the list. So sure, it makes sense we'd still getting around to showing off some Pokémon for the first time. But I dunno, it still seems really odd to me that it took the show this long to get around to doing an episode about the franchise's only (at the time) male/female Pokémon pair. This seems like one of those stories that practically writes itself and yet the show held off on doing this for over a year and a half. That's kind of amazing when you think about it.

Anyway, the main theme of this episode is "love," and to be honest a lot of the dialogue here hasn't aged particularly well. Screenplay writer Yukiyoshi Ohashi gives Kasumi a lot of "I know all about love because I'm a girl tee hee ~ ♡" type lines, and while I do recognize that this is a Japanese kids' cartoon from the 1990s, and that a lot of the other shows being made back then had equally terrible dialogue, it's still a pretty cringey affair. I will defend the dialogue in the Japanese original a good 99% of the time, but stuff like this? Nah, they should've known better.

I'm sure I've talked about this before in other comparisons, but episodes like this where our heroes more or less just stand around in the background while the characters-of-the-day get to have all the fun really aren't all that interesting to me. Sure, Satoshi and especially Kasumi actually try to contribute to the plot somewhat, like help search for a lost Pokémon or write letters, but at the end of the day none of the actions they take really affect the story in any meaningful way. Even the big Rocket trio battle at the end of the episode is more or less handled entirely by Emily and Ralph, with Pikachu and Hitodeman only really popping up at the very end. You could remove Satoshi and his friends from the episode entirely and almost nothing would change, and for a show where they're supposed to be the main characters that's just a little bit strange.

The script for the English dub is, for the second episode in a row, absolutely atrocious. 4Kids rewrote around 70% of the episode's dialogue, maybe even 80%? Now to be fair, some of the changes they made are actually perfectly reasonable. There are a few Japanese references that wouldn't make sense if left as-is, and I don't think a lot of the aforementioned sexist dialogue would fly on Kids' WB! either. So those changes I do get. But! The overwhelming majority of the rewrites in this episode don't fall into either of those categories, and just seem to be change for the sake of change. You'll notice a lot of my comments below are going to be along the lines of "4Kids completely rewrote this conversation, and I have absolutely no idea why" because that's honestly all I'm able to come up with as far as commentary goes.

The two Nidoran keep their Japanese voices.

Dialogue Edit
The narrator opens the episode for us:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ナレーション 「オレンジ諸島最大の島マンダリン島に上陸したサトシたちは次な るジムを目指し今日も旅を続けていた」
Narrator:  "Satoshi and his friends have landed on Mandarin Island, the largest island in the Orange Archipelago, and today they continue their journey toward the next gym."
Narrator:  "With Ash fresh off a big victory over Pokémon Master Prima, we find our heroes passing through a quaint little village as they head to the next Orange League gym."

Even if you ignore how unfaithful the English dub dialogue is to the original
for a moment (Kanna's never even brought up, and even if she had been the narrator sure as hell would never refer to her as a "Pokémon Master")... Ash lost his battle against Prima in the previous episode, remember? In fact, him losing was actually kind of the whole point of the episode...?

We are not off to a great start.

Paint Edit
4Kids dusts off their digital ink and paint program for the first time in a while to remove the English word "Monster" from this one vendor's sign.

Japanese
English

Click on each image to view a larger version.

I think it's a bit funny they'd break out the digital paint for this. If they were going to digitally remove anything from this episode I'd assume it'd be the cross we see on top of the town's church but nope, making sure any part of the phrase "Pocket Monster" is removed from the English dub is more important!

Dialogue Edit
Our heroes' first lines of dialogue:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ケンジ 「ここがヤンベラの町だよ」
Kenji:  "We're in the town of Yanbera now."
Tracey:  "This sure is a quiet little place."
サトシ 「へ~小さいけどきれいな町だな」
Satoshi:  "Wow. It's small but it's also really pretty."
Ash:  "Yeah. Kinda looks like it's from a history book."
ピカチュウ 「ピカ!」
Pikachu:  "Pika!"
Pikachu:  "Pika!"

It's so weird how sometimes the English dub will act like Ash is some dumb kid who hates school and has never picked up a book in his life, and then other times they'll randomly throw him lines like this that make him sound like he was actually a bit of a bookworm when he was younger...?

The two continue to talk:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「ねえ そろそろ水筒がからっぽなんだけど」
Kasumi:  "Hey by the way, our canteen's just about out of water."
Misty:  "You're right. Just like in merry old England!"
サトシ 「あっ そうだっけ!どっかに水飲み場のある公園でもあれば…」
Satoshi:  "Oh yeah! I wonder if there's a park with a water fountain or something like that somewhere..."
Ash:  "Yeah. I wonder if they had Pokémon Centers back in olden times."

As you can see in the transcript above, the real world "England" doesn't get brought up in the original.

And also, there was nothing wrong with the original dialogue...? Kasumi's and Satoshi's back-and-forth about needing to restock their supplies is exactly the kind of conversation you'd expect from travelers whenever they enter a new town and yet 4Kids just removes it altogether.

Side Note
"The Nidoran's Love Story" very obviously takes a lot of its story beats from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. But, the Japanese version also takes inspiration from love stories other than Romeo and Juliet, because why limit yourself to just one? That's actually a question I have for 4Kids, because what they ended up doing with this episode was leave all the Romeo and Juliet references alone, add in a bunch more, and then also remove the homages this episode had to other non-Shakespearean love stories.

The names of Ralph and Emily's Nidoran are a great example of this. In the original the Pokémon's nicknames aren't Tony and Maria, as in the main characters from the Romeo and Juliet inspired West Side Story. Nope, they're actually John (ジョン) and Mary (メリー), and the two seem to be named after the 1969 Dustin Hoffman / Mia Farrow film John and Mary. Now I don't know why this particular reference was put in the episode (perhaps this movie was fresh in Yukiyoshi Ohashi's mind when he wrote the episode?) but it is what it is.



But 4Kids was like nope, we don't anything that's not a Romeo and Juliet reference, probably, so we're gonna change John and Mary's (already anglicized) names into Tony and Maria instead!

There are other references to Romeo and Juliet added as well, such as the aforementioned line about England, the episode's title (though it seems 4Kids doesn't seem to know what the word "wherefore" means), Emily referring to Tony as "Romeo" at one point, and the ending narration that are all references added in by 4Kids.

Dialogue Edit

Emily tells our heroes about "Maria":


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
エミリ 「メリーったらあたしがちょっと目を離した隙にいなくなっちゃって」
Emily:  "My Mary disappeared the moment I took my eyes off her."
Mary:  "Oh, Maria's been running away a lot lately and I just hope I can find her."

Emily's "been running away a lot lately" is a new piece of information added by the dub.

The exact same dialogue rewrite occurs when Ralph describes his own Nidoran a bit later on in the episode.

After the episode's title screen (this is going to be a long comparison, I'm afraid) we see Ash and his friends looking for Maria:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
サトシ 「おーい!メスのニドラ~ン!どこにいるんだーメスのニドラ~ン!」
Satoshi:  "Hey! Female Nidora~n! Where are you Female Nidora~n?"
Ash:  "Here Nidoran. Where are you, Nidoran? Here...girl!"
カスミ 「サトシ!ちゃんと名前 呼びなさいよ」
Kasumi:  "Satoshi! She has a name, y'know!"
Misty:  "Why don't you try calling its name, Sherlock?"
サトシ 「あっ メリーちゃんだっけ?」
Satoshi:  "Oh yeah, it was Mary-chan, right?"
Ash:  "Oh yeah, that might work."

This funny little moment where Satoshi thinks calling Mary by "Female Nidoran" is the appropriate thing to do in this situation gets removed from the dub.

After Kenji says his first kansatsu sasete moraimasu catchphrase of the episode (which 4Kids changes to "Boy, they sure are friendly. I'm gonna make some sketches"), our heroes learn about Ralph and Emily from this gossip queen:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
マスター 「ラルフとエミリは大のポケモン好きなんだよ」
Sandwich Shop Owner:  "Ralph and Emily really love Pokémon a lot."
Sandwich Shop Owner:  "Ralph and Emily have known each other since they were little babies. Nice kids."

The "known each other since they were little babies" is a 4Kids invention.

The sandwich shop owner continues:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
マスター 「小さいときから何かと張り合っていつもケンカしてるんだよ」
Sandwich Shop Owner:  "They've been competing and fighting with each other ever since they were little."
Sandwich Shop Owner:  "They've been competing ever since they were old enough to walk. And catch Pokémon, of course."

Again, "since they were old enough to walk" is a 4Kids invention. The Japanese book The Memorial Book of Orange Islands shows a character reference sheet from this episode that states that Ralph and Emily are five years old during this sandwich shop owner's flashback and so we know for sure this whole "ever since they were old enough to walk" thing isn't right.



Later, our heroes spy on the two Nidoran in love. This is a rather long series of backs and forths so I'll break it down into smaller sections to make it easier to digest. First up:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
サトシ 「何やってんだ?」
Satoshi:  "What are they doing?"
Ash:  "What are they doing?"
カスミ 「もう!見て分かんないの?愛の語らいをしてるのよ」
Kasumi:  "Seriously? Can't you tell? They're talking about love of course."
Misty:  "Just listen to them, Ash. They're both talking sweet talk."
サトシ 「なんで分かんだよ?」
Satoshi:  "And what makes you so sure?"
Ash:  "How do you know that?"
カスミ 「そりゃ分かるわよ!だって…女の子だもん!」
Kasumi:  "I just am! Because...well, because I'm a girl!"
Misty:  "Well, I can just tell. Because...I'm a romantic!"
サトシ 「げっ げげっ」
Satoshi:  "Wah wah wah wah" Ash:  "Wah wah wah wah"

As I mentioned in the "Thoughts" section above, the episode contains some mildly sexist dialogue that wasn't really OK, even back then. Kasumi's onna no ko da mon! (
女の子だもん!), or "because I'm a girl!" is actually reminiscent of the opening to the classic volleyball cartoon Attack No. 1, but without that frame of reference Kasumi's line just reads like any other misogynistic line from the 90s.




4Kids probably agreed and so they changed the line to have her call herself a "romantic" instead.

Immediately after:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「これはねと~っても大切な恋の問題なの」
Kasumi:  "This is a su~per important time for them not to be coy."
Misty:  "I have a natural understanding of matters of the heart."
サトシ 「コイ!コイキング…」
Satoshi:  "Coy? Did you say Koiking...?"
Ash:  "Yeah? How come?"

The joke in the original is that Satoshi hears Kasumi talk about koi (恋), or "love," and thinks she's talking about the similar sounding Pokémon Koiking (コイキング). 4Kids opts to skip over this joke.

Finally:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「どうせサトシには分かんないでしょ」
Kasumi:  "Well I wouldn't expect you to understand."
Misty:  "You're not mature enough to understand."
サトシ 「なんでだよ?」
Satoshi:  "And why's that?"
Ash:  "I am too!"
カスミ 「だってお子様だもん!」
Kasumi:  "Because...well, because you're just a little kid!"
Misty:  "Well, some day, you'll grow up."
サトシ 「くっ!ピカチュウ、カスミだって子どもだよなあ?」
Satoshi:  "Wha--! Pikachu~ She's a kid too, right?"
Ash:  "Egh! I already am grown up!"
ピカチュウ 「ピ?」
Pikachu:  "Pi?"
Pikachu:  "Pi?"

Kasumi calls Satoshi a kodomo (well, oko-sama, so close enough) about a decade before any of us knew who Iris was!

Emily scolds "Tony" for standing outside her house:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
エミリ 「メリーちゃんを誘惑しないで!」
Emily:  "Stop trying to court my Mary-chan!"
Emily:  "This oughta cool you off, Romeo!"

Here's that "Romeo" call-out I mentioned earlier. As you can see from the transcript no such reference is made in the original.

Misty decides to help out:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
サトシ 「何意気込んでんだよ?」
Satoshi:  "What are you getting so worked up about?"
Ash:  "But it's none of your business."
カスミ 「恋はとっても大切な大人の問題なの!特に女の子にとって一番大事なこ となんだから!」
Kasumi:  "Because matters of the heart are very important for adults! And it's especially important for young girls like me."
Misty:  "Oh yeah? Well I just decided I'm gonna make it my business! Don't you know that love is the most important thing in the whole world?"
サトシ 「”女の子”って…やっぱ子どもじゃん」
Satoshi:  "'Young girls'...? So in other words, a little kid?" Ash:  "Not more important that catching Pokémon."
カスミ 「むっ。あんたは黙ってなさ~い!」
Kasumi:  "Ugh! You shut up~!" Misty:  "Ugh. You are such a big baby!"
サトシ  「ピカチュウ~ カスミのほうが子どもだよなあ?」
Satoshi:  "Pikachu~ she's the one acting like a little kid, right?"
Ash:  "I am not a big baby, am I, Pikachu?"
ピカチュウ 「ピカピカ」
Pikachu:  "Pika Pika" Pikachu:  "Pika Pika"

Rewriting the outdated "because I'm a girl tee hee" stuff is understandable, but I don't really get why 4Kids also removed Satoshi's funny little observation about how Kasumi is also a kid in favor of having Ash talk about "catching Pokémon" instead.

The Rocket trio come up with plans for the Nidoran:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ニャース 「これはおめでたいニャ~ 紅白のおまんじゅういたいなもんだニャ~」
Nyarth:  "Now this is a good sign Nya~! They're like red and white steamed buns Nya~!"
Meowth:  "Like a birthday present! Two nice, neatly wrapped Nidoran."
コジロウ 「紅白のおまんじゅうか?そりゃめでたい!」
Kojirou:  "Red and white steamed buns? That really is a good sign!"
James:  "Or like two stocking stuffers from Santa Claus himself!"
ニャース 「盆と正月が一緒に来たようなもんだニャ~」
Nyarth:  "It's like a summer present and a New Year's present all wrapped in one Nya~" Meowth:  "Or like a pair of first prizes in the Pokémon poach-offs!"
ムサシ 「めでたいのはあんたたちよ」
Musashi:  "Except you're the only ones celebrating."
Jessie:  "And I got the booby prize."

These kouhaku manjuu (紅白まんじゅう), or "red and white steamed buns," are a traditional Japanese treat usually given to people during births, graduations, or other occasions where you might want to celebrate someone's life. This includes giving them as presents in the summertime (お盆) or New Year's (お正月).


There's no way to really translate any of this for American audiences so the whole thing got rewritten.

But also...Meowth, a Pokémon himself, excitedly talking about something called "Pokémon poach-offs" is some absolutely grim stuff.

Eyecatch
We lose another exclusive piece of artwork in favor of a piece of stock image of a Pokémon who doesn't even appear in this episode.

Japanese
English

I imagine one of the reasons eyecatches like these are changed is because the amount of work required to isolate the image of the two Nidoran from the green background so that it can then be pasted onto 4Kids' garish red and blue template is more effort than the company's willing to put in, but it's still a disappointing loss regardless.

Dialogue Edit
Not really a "dialogue" edit, per se, but right after the commercial break Kasumi can be heard humming the beginning of her voice actor Mayumi Iizuka's upcoming (non-Pokémon) song Love Letter.
You can see a quick comparison of the two here.



Love Letter would later go on to be used as the ending theme to the Japanese version of the Playstation 1 video game The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.

In the English dub Misty seems to be humming along to the filler background music 4Kids added to the scene instead.

Misty tells Ash about the letters she's writing:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
サトシ 「でもどんな手紙で?」
Satoshi:  "What kind of letter?"
Ash:  "Do you think it'll work?"
カスミ 「”キミが好きだ!”」
Kasumi:  " 'I like you!' "
Misty:  "Of course it'll work!"
サトシ 「うわっ」
Satoshi:  "Uwa!" Ash:  "Waa-!"
カスミ 「”今まで悪かった!ごめんなさい!本当は好きだったんだー!”…って ね」
Kasumi:  "I'm so sorry for everything I've done! I've actually always liked you!'...y'know, something  like that!" Misty:  "Ralph and Emily are both gonna get a letter. A love letter from each other!"
サトシ 「そ…そんなこと書いて大丈夫なのか?」
Satoshi:  "Is...is it really OK to send something like that?"
Ash:  "But...couldn't you get arrested for mail fraud?"
ピカチュウ 「ピ~カ」
Pikachu:  "Pi~ka" Pikachu:  "Pi~ka"

In the original Kasumi's passionately acting out how she imagines Ralph or Emily will interpret the letter they receive while in the English dub Misty just angrily blows up at Ash out of nowhere.

The love talk continues:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「ケンカするほど仲がいいって言うじゃない。それにあの2人絶対お互い 意識し合ってるはずよ」
Kasumi:  "Well you know what they say, the more you fight the closer you are. And those two are definitely on each other's radars."
Misty:  "Those two are gonna wind up thanking me for this. They're not mature enough to admit it but they really like each other."
ケンジ 「それは言えてる。サトシとカスミもそうだもんね」
Kenji:  "You can say that again. It's just like you and Satoshi."
Tracey:  "You know what? It's exactly the same thing with you and Ash."
(long pause)
カスミ 「あたしたちは違う!」 Kasumi:  "We're totally different!"
Misty:  "You must be crazy!"
サトシ 「オレたちは違う!」
Satoshi:  "We're totally different!" Ash:  "You must be crazy!"

The first line is the main event here. Do Ralph and Emily realize they like each other, or are they completely oblivious about their feelings? It depends on which version of the show you're watching, apparently!

Next up, the Rocket trio have a little scene outside.


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
コジロウ 「あ…やっぱりいろいろとつらい経験を?」
Kojirou:  "Ah...so you must have had some painful experiences?"
James:  "Sounds like you've had some heartaches yourself!"
ムサシ 「よくぞ聞いてくれました。今よみがえる好きだったあの人この人どんな 人。過ぎてしまえば思い出だけど。流した涙の数はポケモンの数でも足りないわ~!」
Musashi:  "Why thank you for asking. This person, that person, that one over there...the people I loved are all coming back to me. As time passes on they become little more than memories. I've cried more tears over them than there are number of Pokémon.
Jessie:  "Well, I've had my share. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of finding love. But all I ever got was heartache. I can't find anyone to love me just because I'm mean and nasty and evil!"
ムサシ  「うぅ…ひゃくごじゅういちのユメ
Musashi:  "♪ One hundred and fifty-one dreams~ ♪" Jessie:  (cries)
コジロウ 「そうかそうか…」
Kojirou:  "Ah, I see..."
James:  "All in love's unfair."

The translation's...close-ish, until we get Jessie talking about being nasty and evil. Originally she talks about shedding 150 tears over her lost love before she starts singing a relevant line from Hyaku Gojuu-Ichi, the show's very first ending theme (and song that everyone watching this show will recognize right away). This singing is replaced by crying in the English dub.

Meowth talks to the two Nidoran but they're not having it:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ニャース 「ダメだニャ~。自分たちはポケモンだからご主人に黙って行くわけに はいかニャイって言ってるニャ~」
Nyarth:  "It's nyot gonna happen. They said since they're Pokémon they can't just say nyothing and leave their owners Nya~"
Meowth:  "They ain't gonna do it, Jess. They both said that even though they're in love they could never disobey their masters and run away from 'em."
ムサシ 「ん~もう!燃えるような恋をしてるときになにいい子ちゃんぶってんの かなあ」
Musashi:  "Oh come on! What're they thinking acting like good little boys and girls for when they're so fired up with love!"
Jessie:  "I can't believe those pip-squeaks are going to give up the chance to be stolen!"
コジロウ 「燃えてるのムサシだけじゃないのか?」
Kojirou:  "I think you're the only one who's fired up here."
James:  "She sure has a unique way of looking at things."

Rewriting untranslatable puns is one thing, but why did they also have to rewrite jokes in the Japanese version that work perfectly fine as-is?

But they're not done yet!


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ムサシ 「恋の専門家としてはプランBを提案するわ」
Musashi:  "As an expert in love I would like to submit Plan B."
Jessie:  "We'll just have to go with Nidoran plan number two."
コジロウ 「プランB?」
Kojirou:  "Plan B?"
James:  "Number two?"
ニャース 「何ニャ?それ」
Nyarth:  "What's that Nya?"
Meowth:  "What was that?"
ムサシ 「無理やり強奪」 Musashi:  "We just grab 'em and run."
Jessie:  "Nidoran-napping!"
コジロウ 「いつもとおんなじかよ」
Kojirou:  "Isn't that what we always do?"
James:  "I was afraid of that."
ムサシ 「まあ見てなさいって」
Musashi:  "Just you wait and see~"
Jessie:  "I made that up myself."

The dialogue in the Japanese version is just so, so good, and it's made even greater by Megumi Hayashibara's amazing delivery. I mean she's always stellar, of course, but her delivery of "we just grab 'em and run" is just next level. The English version is fine, I guess, but it absolutely pales in comparison.

Misty tells her friends about what else she sent:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「送ったのは手紙だけじゃないのよ。女の子なら誰でも喜ぶ花束と男の子 なら誰でもうれしい模型飛行機!もうどこを取っても完璧な作戦だわ」
Kasumi:  "Letters aren't the only thing I mailed off. I also sent a bouquet than any girl would want and a model airplane that any boy would want! No matter how you look at it this is a perfect plan."
Misty:  "I didn't leave a thing to chance. I sent her a beautiful bouquet of flowers and I sent him a remote-control model airplane! And as far as those two know they sent the gifts to each other!"
ケンジ 「あっ来たぞ!」
Kenji:  "Ah, here they come!"
Tracey:  "He's here!"
ピカチュウ 「ピカ?」
Pikachu:  "Pika?"
Pikachu:  "Pika?"

Some more of the awkward sexism from the Japanese version gets removed, and Ralph's model airplane gets upgraded to a remote-control model airplane for the dub as well.

Ralph and Emily don't like their presents:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
エミリ 「あたしがこの花のせいでハチに刺されたの知ってるでしょ?」
Emily:  "You know I once got stung by bees because of these flowers, right?"
Emily:  "Well thanks a lot for sending me these flowers, Ralph. You know I'm allergic!"
ラルフ 「うぅ お前こそ!ボクがこれ作るの失敗したの知ってんだろ?」
Ralph:  "And what about you? You know I've never been able to finish making one of these!"
Ralph:  "I guess you think it's real funny that I throw up in airplanes."
ケンジ 「なんか…結構お互いのこと知ってるな」
Kenji:  "Those two...they sure do know a lot about each other huh?"
Tracey:  "At least...they're talking to each other."
カスミ・サトシ 「うん」
Kasumi and Satoshi:  "Yup."
Misty and Ash:  "Mm-hm"

If 4Kids had just changed Emily's line then I would assume this rewrite took place to "fix" the original's mention of a real world animal. But the fact that 4Kids changed basically every other line as well tells me that no, they just wanted to rewrite the entire conversation because they felt like it.

Our heroes view the aftermath of their fight:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「待って待って!これはちょっとした手違いなのよ」
Kasumi:  "Wait, wait! This is all just one big misunderstanding!"
Misty:  "I guess I was wrong about them liking each other."
ケンジ 「そうそう。ケンカはよくないよ」
Kenji:  "She's right. And fighting isn't the answer you two."
Tracey:  "The only thing they like is fighting."
サトシ 「うまくいくんじゃなかったの?」
Satoshi:  "So I guess your plan didn't go so well...?"
Ash:  "Your love letters didn't work."
カスミ 「あ~おかしいわね。あたし恋に関しては見習い中だから」
Kasumi:  "Wha~? This is so weird. I guess I've still got a lot to learn about love."
Misty:  "Well, come to think of it I only said I'd get them together, and I did."
サトシ  「ああ…いきなり弱気かよ」
Satoshi:  "Oh so now she's feeling unsure!?"
Ash:  "Ah~! I give up."

The first two lines in the Japanese version have Kasumi and Kenji talking directly to Ralph and Emily while in the English dub they're only talking amongst themselves. The rest also gets completely rewritten, for some reason!

Jessie and James cosplay as Team Rainbow Rocket:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
コジロウ 「あたしたち二人が結ばれたこの良き日に」
Kojirou:  "On this good day, when the two of us were brought together..."
James:  "On this, our sunny wedding day..."
ムサシ 「なんとすてきな引き出物が」
Musashi:  "We need a wonderful wedding gift..."
Jessie:  "There's a funny trick we'd like to play."
コジロウ 「新たな門出に」
Kojirou:  "For our new life together..."
James:  "Our matrimony..."
ムサシ 「このニドランは」
Musashi:  "And these two Nidoran..."
Jessie and James:  "...is a total phony!"
ムサシ・コジ ロウ 「お祝いとして頂きま~す!」
Musashi and Kojirou:  "Will do just the trick!"
Jessie and James:  "Now we'll take these Pokémon away!"

Again, completely rewritten for seemingly no reason whatsoever! Kojirou's "on this good day" is apparently an homage to the Wedding Peach animated series, a show a lot of the Pocket Monsters staff worked on back in the day. If only that part had been removed then I might have been able to understand, and yet oddly enough that reference is pretty much the only part of the original dialogue 4Kids left intact!

After the Rocket trio make their getaway our heroes follow the trail of cans they leave behind.


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ムサシ 「どうしてここが?」
Musashi:  "How'd you find us?"
Jessie:  "How'd you find us?"
ケンジ 「空き缶を落としていくなんて地球に優しくないぞ」
Kenji:  "You should know dumping cans on the road isn't good for the environment."
Tracey:  "You wouldn't have been so easy to follow if you'd have cleaned up your act."
ニャース 「ニャニャンと…」
Nyarth:  "What the Nya!?"
Meowth:  "We must've dropped the cans!"
コジロウ 「だからあれはやめようって言ったのに」
Kojirou:  "I told you we didn't need those!"
James:  "I guess I should've tied them a little tighter, huh?"
ムサシ  「だって空き缶カラカラはハネムーンに必要なんだもん」
Musashi:  "But it's not a honeymoon if you don't have little tin cans clanging around behind you."
Jessie:  "I guess I should've dropped you off the balloon instead, huh?"

The English dub: Having the Rocket trio make thinly veiled death threats to each other since 1998!

Ralph and Emily begin to battle the Rockets:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ラルフ 「ジョン!」
Ralph:  "John!"
Ralph:  "Tony!"
エミリ 「メリー!」
Emily:  "Mary!"
Emily:  "Maria!"
ラルフ 「戦うんだ!」 Ralph:  "Let's go!"
Ralph:  "Tackle attack!"
エミリ 「戦うのよ!」 Emily:  "Let's go!"
Emily:  "Tackle attack!"

There's no Tackle attack mention in the Japanese version of this particular exchange.

After this we get a glorious two whole minutes where the English dub actually matches up with the original Japanese script for a change! The next rewrite doesn't occur until the Rocket trio is sent blasting off:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ムサシ 「イヤな感じ~!」
Musashi:  "This feels bad~"
Jessie:  "We lost again!"
コジロウ 「イヤなひらがな~」
Kojirou:  "This feels bad in lowercase~"
James:  "This time it was a..."
ニャース 「イヤなカタカニャ~」
Nyarth:  "This feels bad in all caps Nya~"
Meowth:  "Double header!"
ロケット団 「みんなかけるかな~?」
Rocket-Dan:  "♪ Can you write all the letters of the alphabet? ♪"
Team Rocket:  "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Every line in this exchange in the Japanese version is a play on words. Originally Musashi says the standard Rocket trio blast off phrase Iya na kanji. The word kanji (感じ) there means "feels" (as in "this feels bad") but it's also a homophone with the word kanji (漢字), one of the three writing systems used in the Japanese language. The other two are hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ). The Rocket trio decides to have fun with this by replacing the kanji in iya na kanji with hiragana (Kojirou) and katakana (Nyarth).

The trio's final line, min'na kakeru ka na~? is also a slightly reworked lyric from the song Pokémon Kakeru Ka Na?, or "Can You Draw All the Pokémon?" The words "draw" (描ける) and "write" (書ける) are also homophones with each other, making it easy to swap out one word for the other.

American audiences wouldn't get any of this and so 4Kids, understandably, rewrote the whole thing.

Misty scolds Ralph and Emily:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
カスミ 「どう?自分たちの間違いに気が付いた?2匹を一緒にさせてあげなさい よ。ポケモンの幸せを一番に考えるのがポケモントレーナーってもんでしょ?」
Kasumi:  "Well? Have you realized where you went wrong? You need to let those two be together. Putting your Pokémon's happiness above all else is what it means to be a Pokémon Trainer."
Misty:  "You know...you two aren't much better than Team Rocket. The both of you have such beautiful Nidoran. And now you can see how much they want to be together. Trainers ought to make their Pokémon happy."
サトシ 「そうだな」
Satoshi:  "She's right."
Ash:  "Misty's right."
ピカチュウ 「ピカチュウ」
Pikachu:  "Pikachu."
Pikachu:  "Pikachu."

The reason I bring this up is because of Misty's random-ass Team Rocket comparison at the beginning, something that's not in the original at all.

After we're treated to Kenji's kansatsu sasete moraimasu catchphrase a second time (the dub changes this to "Wow! This is almost like a fairy tale!") we get the conversation about love that we see quoted online all the time:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ケンジ 「キスして進化か?まさに経験値だな」
Kenji:  "Evolving from a kiss? I guess that is kind of like getting experience points."
Tracey:  "I wonder how they evolved. From the battle or the kiss?"
カスミ 「はっ やっだ~ケンジったら」
Kasumi:  "Stop~! You're making me blush!"
Misty:  "Tracey! You're a goof!"
サトシ 「キスして経験値?どういうこと?」
Satoshi:  "Experience points from a kiss? What're you guys talking about?"
Ash:  "You think people change when they...get kissed?"
カスミ 「子どもは知らなくていいの」
Kasumi:  "Don't worry, it's nothing for a kid to worry about."
Misty:  "Guess we'll have to find out ourselves~."
サトシ  「は?」
Satoshi:  "Huh?"
Ash:  "Uhhhh...."

This is an absolutely fantastic example of a time when 4Kids was being really extra when it comes to pairing Ash and Misty together. No, this ten-year-old girl doesn't imply she wants to kiss this ten-year-old boy in the original; that's aaaaaall 4Kids.

The final lines of the episode:


Japanese (original)
Japanese (translated)
English Dub
ナレーション 「サトシたちの活躍により離れ離れだった恋するニドランたちは幸 せになることができた。めでたしめでたし」
Narrator:  "Thanks to Satoshi and his friends, the two lovebird Nidoran who were kept apart are now able to be together. And they'll live happily ever after."
Narrator:  "And so, with our heroes' help a near tragedy has a happy ending. It seems the Nidoran and their Trainers will live happily ever after. And all's well that ends well."
ムサシ 「うわあ」
Musashi:  (cries)
Jessie:  "Did he say all's well that ends well?"
コジロウ 「わ~」
Kojirou:  "Wah~"
James:  "I think so."
ロケット団 「めでたくな~い!」
Rocket-Dan:  "This isn't happily ever after for us~!"
Meowth:  "That has a familiar...ring."
ウツボット 「キエ~」
Utsubot:  (screams)
Victreebel:  (screams)

The "all's well that ends well" Shakespeare reference is added by the dub. Oh, and everything else gets rewritten too.

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