Digimon Adventure 01 Episode 15: Etemon! Grand Entrance of Evil | Sub/Dub Comparison
Plot: The group finally arrives on the continent of Server to search for the crests they need. Agumon leads them to what he thinks (and smells) to be a Koromon village only to find it populated with Pagumon. They welcome the kids and hold a party in their honor, but these little tricksters are up to no good. They, as well as their evolved forms, Gozimon, are working for the new big bad in town – Etemon – and he wants the Chosen Children dead.
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Title Change: Etemon! Grand Entrance of Evil is changed to The Dark Network of Etemon.
Title Card:
Jo asks if Taichi said something about a comestible feast. Taichi corrects him saying he said “Continent” not “comestible.”
In the dub, Joe responds to Matt saying he was just resting his eyes with saying his eyes were snoring awful loudly.
In her sleep, Mimi responds to Palmon’s talk of a continent by saying she’d rather have a regular cake than a taiyaki. The subbers note that the word for continent is “Tairiku” and Mimi misheard that as “Taiyaki” which are those fish-shaped beanpaste cakes.
Jo yells to Mimi that they discussed where to land and agreed upon it, but she was too busy sleeping to have a say. In the dub, he tells her to put one foot in front of the other as she tries to get off Whamon and says it’s as easy as falling off a log.
Mimi tells them to not make such important decisions without her before Whamon gently bumps her off to help her depart. Mimi lands on Koushiro and says “I hate this.” In the dub, she says she’s fallen off of plenty of logs (Really? I can’t imagine that’s a frequent occurrence in your life, Mimi.) and it’s not as easy as it looks. When she lands on Izzy, she says she broke a nail.
As Sora mentions how big the continent is in the dub:
Gomamon: “It’s simple physics. The universe is expanding!” Uh, Gomamon, why did you read a line very obviously meant for Izzy?
Mimi asks where the bath is. Dub!Mimi asks where the shampoo is.
The narrator specifically says Pagumon like to bully the weak and make fools out of others. In the dub, Tentomon just says there is more to them than meets the eye. Oh my god. They’re Transformers!
Honestly, the dub change kinda works because part of the story is the Pagumon pretending they’re good guys to trick the Chosen Children. It’s hardly a trick on the audience if we already know they’re bullies and tricksters. The audience won’t be tricked for long anyway, but still.
Sora can just tell that’s Mimi’s hat. In the dub, she can tell because the price tag is still on it.
When they spot Mimi’s bag in the dub:
Izzy: “Logically, that can mean only one thing – she’s missing.” Thank you for your insight, Izzy.
Kinda shocked they left in Taichi and Koushiro walking in on Mimi in the tub.
Slight change, but Mimi specifically says she feels like Lady Otohime when she reached the Coral Palace. In the dub, she says she feels like a princess in a beautiful palace.
Jo corrects her and says she’s mixing up characters. She actually means Urashima (from the fairy tale of Urashima Taro.) In the dub, Joe says he used to have a chihuahua named Princess…..Thanks for that, Joe.
When Sora asks if the food could be fake, Taichi asks what the odds are of that happening twice. In the dub, Sora asks if this whole thing is a trick. Tai says of course it’s not because he knows a good Digimon from a bad one.
Dub!Tokomon: “I want my digimommy!” You know you don’t have one, Tokomon. Shouldn’t you be yelling for TK?
They removed any instances of the Pagumon poking Tokomon.
Why do they hate Tokomon for evolving? I know Chosen Children’s Digimon evolve faster than other Digimon, but it still doesn’t seem like a good reason to kidnap and torture him with sticks.
The dub’s version of Gazimon’s Index Screen description doesn’t include the information about Paralyze Breath like the original does.
The Pagumen tell Tokomon to be quiet. In the dub, they tell him he’s not so special now.
The original doesn’t include that joke about one of the Gazimon needing a haircut….get it?…A hare-cut? Hahah.
Surprisingly, they don’t change the kanji on the side of Etemon’s trailer. It means “Laughing gate of the Heavens” and is read as “Etemon.”
The dub makes Etemon sound Elvis-y while he didn’t seemingly have such an inflection in the original.
How is Tentomon narrating the Index Screen for Etemon? He’s not even nearby.
Also, the narrator originally explains that Etemon has proclaimed himself as the strongest Digimon and states his attacks are Dark Spirits and Love Serenade. In the dub, Tentomon says Etemon controls all things electrical within his Dark Network.
Gazimon says the map hasn’t updated, which is why Etemon hits the computer. In the dub, he says in response to Etemon saying his plan was flawless that someone should have told the kids, which makes Etemon hit the computer in frustration.
When Etemon hits the computer, the map updates the location of the Chosen Children. Etemon realizes Gazimon was right and decides to change his plan. In the dub, the map also does this, but Etemon doesn’t acknowledge it.
Gazimon asks if he’s going to pick up his subordinates first before he confronts the kids. Etemon says he’ll be more than enough for them on his own. In the dub, Gazimon praises Etemon on his greatest plan yet, and Etemon says it isn’t easy being a superstar but someone’s got to do it.
Both versions of this next scene are annoying, but they’re annoying in different ways. Mimi whines saying she was hoping she’d finally get a break, and she wishes Tokomon would stop making them go to all this trouble. Gomamon asks her who she thinks has given them trouble the rest of the time. Mimi asks if it’s Jo, but he immediately points out that Gomamon was referring to her.
In the dub, Mimi asks if they can hurry this up because she has a mud pack and a facial soon. Gomamon then sarcastically says it’s so rude of Tokomon to interrupt her beauty treatments. Mimi agrees, but Jo explains that he’s being sarcastic.
This is the type of stuff my brain refers to when I think of how much I dislike Mimi a large portion of the time. I get that that’s the joke, that she’s so self-absorbed that she cares more about resting or her beauty treatments than the safety and well-being of Tokomon, but that doesn’t change the fact that she cares more about resting or beauty treatments than the safety and well-being of Tokomon.
I no longer hate Mimi like I used to when I was younger, and I know she gets development, but there are so many moments that make it difficult to like her in the meantime.
Agumon doesn’t make a joke about the Koromon needing bigger apartments with more bedrooms like he does in the dub – probably because it’s really insensitive to see a bunch of innocent creatures kidnapped and locked in cages and make a joke about it.
Attack Name Change: Paralyze Breath is changed to Electric Stun Blast.
Original!Mimi doesn’t go “Ew! Ew! Ew!” at the Botamon that lands on her lap like Dub!Mimi does.
Dub!Gabumon for some reason calls Botamon an “Egg form.” It’s a Baby form.
Taichi originally says “Those tricksters!” when the Pagumon leave. In the dub, he says “Never trust anything without feet!” That’s very rude to a whole lot of creatures and people, Tai – like the Koromon who were kidnapped by them or the Botamon right in front of you.
I didn’t really think about it until they were reunited, but it must have been hell for Takeru to lose Tokomon so soon after watching him die.
Huh….this is weird. The dub has Joe say “Huh, a Digi Rock Star.” which is weird to say when Etemon has barely said a word. However, the closed captioning on Hulu say “Huh, a DigiElvis.” Was this line changed after the fact? Because there’s no way whoever was captioning this mistook “Rock Star” for “Elvis.”
While we’re on the subject of that line, though, Jo originally just asks who the voice belongs to.
Attack Name Change: Love Serenade is changed to Concert Crush……Ya know, that dub name is not the best considering many people have gotten crushed to death in concerts….
Gozimon says the Chosen Children were transported somewhere else. In the dub, he says they’re missing, but they’re not because they know from the network their exact location.
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This was a fine episode and a decent introduction to Etemon, even though, honestly, I don’t much care for Etemon. He’s a bit too kooky of a villain for me. Being kooky can work wonders with a villain if you know how to make them effectively scary so the contrast shakes it up, but Etemon is more goofball than scary villain. And let’s not even talk about how his goofiness is made so much worse in the dub with that Elvis impression they have him doing. It doesn’t even make sense considering they shouldn’t have knowledge of pop culture in the Digital World.
Yeah, his Dark Network is a legitimate threat because it makes the Champion-level Digimon useless, but that’s about it. We were gearing up for them to become Ultimates soon anyway.
At least we finally have a crest with Tai’s Crest of Courage, so things will really start getting cool soon.
Comparison-wise, there aren’t any grave changes, even though Etemon constantly doing an Elvis impression wears thin very quickly. There were some poorly placed jokes and odd lines, but that’s about it.
Next time, the debut of the first Dark Evolution with SkullGreymon.
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