Digimon Adventure 02 Episode 7: Hikari’s Memories | Sub/Dub Comparison
Plot: After retreating from a failed attempt to take out a Dark Tower, Hikari ends up trapped in a domed city with tons of Gardromon with Black Rings. Takeru and Daisuke go to a nearby area to infiltrate the city and rescue her when a familiar face shows up and gives the kids the challenge of facing a controlled Perfect level Digimon – Andromon.
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There are some oddities outside of some changed clips in the recap in the dub. Despite hearing the explosion, they don’t show the Roachmon crashing into the Control Spire like they didn’t in the previous episode’s dub. They just show a static image of the Spire. Also, they jarringly show two clips of Mimi and Yolei looking at each other back to back, making the shot jump.
Title Screen: 
I really like this title more than usual because it’s letterboxed for the sake of making it look like a photo, and it silhouettes the old picture they took long ago.
Title Change: Hikari’s Memories is changed to Guardian Angel.
It happened again. They didn’t show the explosion for the attack on the spire at the beginning nor it falling down.
This is where I need to share this uncomfortable fact – the entire series was edited after 9/11 to remove at least all instances of towers being hit by explosions. For some reason, even though it’s still related to 9/11, they leave in some shots where towers are free-falling or destroyed from the bottom.
Since half the series more or less revolves around destroying towers, this is basically the best they could do. However, it makes some shots look weird. For instance, it looks stupid for the group to be cheering when their attacks look like they were completely ineffective, leaving the tower intact. It can’t be helped, but it’s still weird.
Oddly, I was using a different copy of the episode when I caught that edit. It seems the one they use on Hulu doesn’t have this change and shows the explosion. I guess they may have lifted that edit for future releases now?
Koushiro, Yamato, and Taichi say that they can’t do anything Digital World-related tomorrow since they’re busy, so they leave the towers to the second-gen kids. In the dub, they say they have one more tower to destroy for the day, but since Greymon can’t get it, the new kids decide to go. I don’t exactly know why they’re having this conversation in the computer room if they weren’t done for the day.
They both hold on this shot:
Saving money on animation? Why couldn’t they hold on a shot of Fladramon with his mouth closed? He looks like he broke his jaw.
In the original, Fladramon and Digmon state that they’re hungry, causing them to devolve. In the dub, Flamedramon agrees with Davis that they can’t give up and says they should regroup. Then both he and Digmon de-Digivolve. The original is a little better because it’s showing that Daisuke is more determined to take down towers and fight than to know when it’s time to retreat. The dub does too, but since they have Flamedramon agree with Davis and regroup, it’s like they’re putting more validity into what Davis is trying to do when they’re outnumbered and overpowered with weak, tired and hungry Digimon. At the very least both of them come to their senses at the end.
Both Daisuke and Davis blame Takeru/TK for Hikari/Kari getting left behind, but Davis puts it as “Then it’s all your fault! Why didn’t you let her go first!?” So then he’d be trapped in the Digital World? I know he values Kari’s life over TK’s but that’s still a mean thing to say. Also, going by that logic, Davis is to blame too. He was directly ahead of TK and could’ve easily stopped, stepped aside and let Kari go first. Davis is acting like Kari asked to go ahead of TK, but TK refused, which never happened.
Iori asks Daisuke to please not speak to him like that in response to him telling Iori “Shut up, kid!” In the dub, Davis asks what Cody knows since he’s just a little kid (and you’re so mature at the ripe old age of 12) Cody says he may be a little kid but he knows when someone’s being a jerk. Both lines cause Daisuke/Davis to reflect on how they’re acting and apologize.
I get that it’s natural to throw a self-blame party when something bad happens to someone you care about, especially when it seems very avoidable, but it bothers me a little that I can’t imagine they’d act this way for really anyone else unless it was a seriously threatening situation. They’re treating Kari like she’s still a sickly little 8-year-old who needs protecting when she’s gotten much older, stronger, healthier, is one of the smarter and more sensible people in the entire Digidestined crew, and she is the only one with a Champion level Digimon for a partner that also possesses the ability to Armor Digivolve.
Also, why did none of them think to email Hikari immediately after it happened asking if she was alright if they’re so worried about her? She had to email them.
They really felt it necessary in the dub to have Kari directly reference her spellcheck joke from before by writing ‘And I’m sorry if any words are misspelled.’ in her email? That joke is not that great to begin with, but it doesn’t fit very well with Kari. I’d expect Yolei, Joe or Izzy to be preoccupied with that stuff, not Kari. Also, they didn’t bother to paint over the email she was writing earlier, and we saw her typing in Japanese text. Here, they paint it over with English text.
Subbed: 
Dubbed:
Daisuke says he’s not letting Takeru go by himself. Davis says he won’t let TK be the hero. Changes the meaning from ‘I care about Hikari too and want to ensure that she’s rescued’ to ‘I wanna be the big strong hero who saves Kari so she’ll love me and not TK.’
Daisuke tells Takeru to head home since the sun’s going down. Takeru says it’s alright since his mom is coming home late. Takeru then asks if Daisuke’s family will be worried, and he says they won’t care. This exchange is a little important because it allows Takeru and Daisuke to actually share some things about their lives with each other. In Daisuke’s case, it shows a pretty sad fact about Daisuke’s family or the view that Daisuke has on his home life. He says with a smile that they won’t care if he doesn’t come home….
Instead, we get this – Davis complains about TK choosing a desert area to reach Kari, which is pointless to complain about since the city is surrounded by desert land, thus any area he chose would be desert. They spot the city, and TK says it looks like ‘One of those things you shake and it starts snowing.’…..Saban….it’s called a snowglobe.
Then TK and Davis argue about who ‘gets’ to go rescue Kari, which Davis solves with a coin flip. The original still did include a coin flip to see who stays and who goes home, but Daisuke is the only one really vying for such a thing in the original, which is expected of him. In the dub, both Davis AND TK are fighting about who ‘gets’ to rescue Kari. It pushes this whole scenario further away from worrying about Kari’s well-being to turning Kari into a prize for the ‘hero’ who ‘gets’ to rescue her.
In the dub, the coin is a double-tails coin. In the original, it’s a two-headed coin. I imagine that this wasn’t an error and that they did this on purpose since the closeup of the coin looks a lot more like the tails of a quarter than the heads of any coin since it’s a bird and not a person.
They purposely ruin a rather decent moment between Daisuke and Takeru in agreeing to go rescue her together by having Davis call TK, TM…..
I wasn’t gonna mention this because it was such a minor change, but since they delve into this further – Takeru says that they sell two-headed coins at Kadoetsu while TK says he used to use double-tails coins on Matt all the time. Later, there’s no dialogue from the two as they walk to the city, but in the dub Davis asks if he really used those coins on Matt. TK confirms and says it’s how he got all of his baseball cards and Matt’s old guitar. This little moment makes up for the ruined agreement shot, but I find it hard to believe that Matt would be gullible enough to fall for a double-tails coin, especially as many times as TK seems to have done. I would be apt to believe Matt would trick little TK with one.
Patamon originally says it’s silly of them to have not decided to go together from the start. V-Mon tells Patamon to not say that since Daisuke just wanted to look cool. In the dub, Patamon asks why they argue so much, and Veemon says it’s because of Kari since human girls make human boys act weird.
I don’t really mind this change much since the original’s lines weren’t much better, but I find it weird that Patamon seems to know less about this than Veemon. Patamon has known TK and Kari a lot longer than Veemon has known them. Hell, Patamon’s even technically known Davis longer than Veemon has. Plus, he has much more experience in the human world than Veemon. Why is Veemon being portrayed as knowing more about this stuff than Patamon?
Miyako’s dad asks her to tell either her brother or sister to watch the store later. In the dub, he complains about how much stuff she takes from the store for her and her friends.
Taichi says he has to pick up Hikari from a friend’s house. The dub adds that they’re doing a science project on gravity so they need to see how long Tai can stand on his head.
Yamato freaks a bit because he was supposed to make his dad’s dinner that night then says, rather humorously, “Oh well.” In the dub, Matt says he left Mimi on hold and panics over her phone bill.
Iori merely called his house and said he’d be late. Miyako also said she told her parents, then remembered that her dad asked her to do something, but can’t remember what it was, so she just goes “Oh well.” The Digidestined really don’t give a crap about their parents today. Also, Taichi and Hikari’s parents know about Digimon at this point, don’t they? Do the older kids’ parents not know that they’re back in the Digimon game? Or are they purposely leaving them in the dark to avoid worrying them?
In the dub, Cody says he told his mom that he’d be late because of a rescue club and says his mom thinks it’s great that they’re helping out stray cats.
The song for the Digivolution is ‘wrong’ if that’s possible. The singer is supposed to say ‘Digivolve into Champion’ when….well, obviously. When Patamon Digivolves into Angemon the lyrics incorrectly say ‘Digivolve into Ultimate’.
I really don’t like the way Davis says ‘Angemon’. It sounds like he’s saying ‘Angiemon.’ I don’t know if it’s intentional like how he gets TK’s name wrong, but it bugs me.
I’m confused. I thought that the Dark Towers only prevent evolution not that they force Digimon to devolve. Yet the instant Angemon sets foot within the Tower’d dome city he is forced to devolve. That’s also directly contradictory to the first scene of the episode where the Adult level forms of the older kids’ Digimon were taking out Dark Towers. And since Gatomon is by default an Adult level, this makes even less sense.
The conversation about Angemon and Angewomon is kept basically the same, but Davis asks if there’s an Angebabymon too, to which Patamon and TK laugh. This is an odd change considering the dub has been focusing more on Davis’ jealousy. In the original, he becomes enraged when Patamon says Angemon and Angewomon are perfect for each other, I guess because it insinuates that the two Digimon being perfect for each other somehow means that Hikari and Takeru are as well.
Daisuke demands that V-mon Evolve into ‘Ultraangemon’ whereas Davis asks if Veemon can Digivolve into something like Angedinosaurmon or Angesoccerplayermon.
Poromon is sad because Miyako didn’t get kanpyo maki. In the dub, he’s complaining that Upamon is getting more candy than he is.
Hikari doesn’t talk to Daisuke or Takeru when first spotted. In fact, given her angle, there’s no way she could even know they’re there let alone be close enough to speak with them.
Hikari just points out that Takeru and Daisuke came back. In the dub, they couldn’t help themselves but have Kari tell them that they’re her heroes.
Daisuke brags that Hikari said his name first. Davis says the whole rescue was his idea and that he just decided to have TK tag along.
Pegasusmon says ‘Star Shower’ when he’s doing ‘Mane Wind’.
God, poor Andromon. First a Black Gear now a Dark Ring.
Patamon originally points out that a Perfect level is too much for them, and Daisuke asks what a Perfect level Digimon is. In the dub, Patamon deliriously asks for a cheeseburger and fries while Davis just points out that their attacks aren’t working. I don’t know why they’re not putting any focus on the Perfect level like the original is. The original has actually been building it up a bit, and this is a pretty big deal considering it’s a level of Digimon that at least Davis has never encountered before. In addition, the whole group is really ill-equipped to handle one right now considering their lack of Digivolution abilities outside of Armor Digivolving.
So Andromon recognizes Davis’ goggles, which are Tai’s, before he recognizes TK and Kari? You could argue that it’s because they’ve aged, but he does end up making visual matches between the two and the images in his memory banks.
The dub fails to point out that Halsemon was the one who sent out that beam that hit Andromon. It’s not a big deal, but it makes it weird when you watch it. You just wonder what the heck that red light was.
God, the image quality on the closeups of the photo is just terrible. Andromon has needed a camera upgrade for years.
They add in Andromon making a joke about jigsaw puzzles when the photo is reassembling itself in Andromon’s mind so part of the emotion of the scene where he’s remembering the Digidestined is kinda ruined.
Again, they edited out the tower exploding, because of Andromon’s missiles, and falling over. However, it’s brought back in the Hulu version.
Gardromon originally says nothing after he’s reprogrammed. In the dub they have him say he feels as fresh as a daisy.
In the original, Koushiro is mad because the group accidentally left the gate open and the computer on in the computer room completely unattended. If a teacher had come by and turned off the terminal, they’d all be trapped. Taichi tries to calm him by suggesting that he’s really just mad because he didn’t get to go too.
In the dub, Izzy is mad because they failed to call him and tell him what was going on until everything was already over.
I have to say, both versions have a really good point.
Original-wise, I thought the whole point of Miyako and Iori staying behind was to tie up loose ends in the real world such as keeping an eye on the gate and informing everyone’s families that they were going to be late. What was the point of that if they were going to just go anyway? I know it shows solidarity with their friend, but in the end Holsmon and Digmon did absolutely nothing to help.
Yeah, Holsmon did land a hit but it didn’t do anything but knock Andromon over for a few seconds when he wasn’t even doing anything. It was pretty negligent of them to leave the computer unattended when, as Koushiro stated, anyone could’ve come by and turned the power off, leaving them all stranded. However, I will be fair and say they’ve left the computer unattended plenty of times, sometimes during the day.
In the dub, it’s completely understandable why Izzy is mad about that. If I did as much work as Izzy does for the team and wasn’t notified about something like this until it was basically over, I’d be pretty mad too. I don’t know why the dub has him go off on such a tirade instead of giving him his proper dialogue, but his rant is understandable. Izzy really doesn’t get the props he deserves for his role in the team, which I would consider to be the most important one. Without Izzy, there’s no way they ever would’ve made it nearly as far as they have – past or present.
The dub removes the sounds of Chibimon and Daisuke’s stomachs growling which just makes me wonder how Izzy got interrupted by it.
Yamato’s dad tells him that he didn’t have to make him dinner after getting home so late and that if he had known he would’ve just gotten takeout instead. Yamato angrily starts cooking and says he’ll do it while his dad asks what’s wrong. In the dub, Matt’s dad says June called – she made reservations for their date at a place called Morrealli’s. Matt asks what that is, and his dad says it’s the most expensive restaurant in town.
Okay, now it just seems like they’re purposely not talking about Ultimate level stuff. In the original, Ken says the Black Ring isn’t enough to control Perfect level Digimon. In the dub, he says the Digivices are a nuisance and he has to get them away from the kids…..which is odd because I don’t recall him ever trying to get the Digivices away from the group. Though, in all honesty, that would be a great evil plan. If the Spires aren’t enough to halt their Digivolving then surely taking away their Digivices would.
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This episode was alright barring the always annoying and immature ‘I wanna be Kari’s hero’ crap. It was nice to see Andromon again as well as Angemon, and this episode does spur Daisuke’s desire to have V-mon evolve, though I have never been at all fond of his Adult level. This episode also showed us that the Digimon Kaiser is not quite powerful enough to have a Perfect level Digimon under his complete control, which will later prompt him to make the Dark Spirals.
Next episode, the identity of the Digimon Kaiser is revealed to the Chosen Children!
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