Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 31 (30 for the Dub) Jaba the Caller of Storms | Sub/Dub Comparison
Plot: The group heads to the Silk Road in the 13th century to find the Space-Time Monster, Jaba – who both creates water and acts as a diving rod for sources of water. He is hanging around a young Marco Polo as he spins wild tales about his adventures and uses Jaba’s powers for his own advantage.
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Title Change: Jaba, the Caller of Storms is changed to Dipper. Honestly, I don’t quite get the original’s title because, as far as I know, Jaba doesn’t control storms. He just generates water and can find natural water sources.
Name Change: Jaba is changed to Dipper.
In the original, they’re specifically following the Silk Road. In the dub, they’re exploring Afghanistan. Also, they mention that they’re in the 13th century, but the dub doesn’t include this detail.
Sora originally didn’t have a line after they crashed, and Tokio just said “It’s so hot!” In the dub, Sarah asks if everyone’s okay, and Tony says it’s hard to tell yet. This seems minor, but in the original it’s pretty clear that some time has passed since they crashed – hence why Genshi is so thirsty that he’s just plopped down on the ground. In the dub, it’s clear this is immediately after the crash, which doesn’t make much sense because, what, did the sandstorm immediately come to a screeching halt when they crashed?
Does Ridon not have an emergency beacon or anything. Does the engine need to be operable for anything battery-powered on it to work? That seems terribly dangerous.
The captain says the penalty for tainting their well is death. In the dub, he asks the group if they think it rains there every day, which is the setup for a joke because Jaba pours water all over his head immediately after.
Name Plate removed.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
Name Change?: The captain is not named in the original. In the dub, he’s Abdul.
In the original, Genshi and Tokio just ask what Jaba is doing. Marco then explains that Jaba is finding a new well to replace the one they soiled. In the dub, Flint figures out that Dipper is finding a new watering hole, and Marco, for some reason, says he trained him that way. Pretty sure Dipper just has that power by default, but okay.
Dub!Marco: “So whatdya say we forget about the infidels?” Infidels? Does Saban think that word is synonymous with “criminal”?
In the dub, Marco says something I can’t understand. He says “Here at…” what I think is…Quashamaruth? I really can’t understand. “the peasants don’t argue with me.” In the original, he just says “In this town…”
Marco befriends Genshi just because he thinks he’s pretty cool. In the dub, Flint just requests food.
In the original, the head of the house that Marco is staying at isn’t named. In the dub, they call him Ali Pasha, which apparently is too common of a name/title for me to figure out who exactly this is in reference too. A pasha is a high-ranking Ottoman political official, and Ali is the given name of the person who has that title.
Wiki says that that name is commonly used in reference to Ali Pasha of Tepelena, but the timeline for him is off by hundreds of years.
Also, Ottoman…as in Turkish. As in…Turkey….As in way the hell away from the Afghanistan they said they were in. The Silk Road did go through Turkey, but the dub explicitly stated they were in Afghanistan.
For some reason, they transition the shot of Genshi jumping for joy and the exterior shot of the house with a cheesy flipping transition. Nothing was removed, they just felt like dating this episode I suppose.
Uhmmm…Hmmm. Either this is my copy of the dub episode being messed up or they for some reason cut off the rest of the scene with Ali Pasha. After he welcomes them, it immediately cuts to them in Marco’s room.
Just in case this was an edit, Ali Pasha quietly expresses his disdain toward Marco Polo after they take their leave for his room, calling him an impudent brat and he would kick him out if he didn’t have Jaba.
In the original, Marco boasts that that he’s a cool and brave adventurer who traveled from Venice to the east. In the dub, he says he left Venice in 1271, and it took over a year to get to Afghanistan. It’s hard to get exact dates on Marco Polo’s visit to Afghanistan, but the only source I could find that provides a year says 1271. Since Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle set off for their new expedition at the end of 1271, and Afghanistan is pretty far from Venice, I’m inclined to believe that estimate is wrong and that Saban is somehow more accurate in placing this a year or two later.
Sora asks Putera is this is the same Marco Polo who introduced China and Japan to Europe. In the dub, she says this all seems accurate to what she’s learned about Marco Polo. This would appear to be 1273. That’s all well and good, but he is obviously not accurate to the real Marco Polo because he was born in 1254. If this is 1273, that would make him 19 years old. He looks like a tweenager, and Tony even said earlier that he looks their age, which is supposedly between 12 and 15, but I would wager 12.
Marco’s first story (Read: Lie) is extended in the dub. Originally, he just says he fought a monster. In the dub, he says he went to Constantinople, which is covered in dragons. He had found a chest of jewels in a cave, but it was being guarded by a dragon. He slayed it to get his treasure.
The second lie is also extended. Originally, Marco just says he flew on a magic carpet. In the dub, he says he fought off 40 thieves in Persia to get their magic carpet.
The third lie is mostly the same, but the dub adds in the detail that he paid off some of the princess’ kidnappers with some of the jewels from the cave mentioned earlier, but he still had to fight them off with his magic.
Marco says he also saved Jaba from being sold in a market in Venice. In the dub, he says the method with which he trained Dipper to find water is too complicated to delve into.
They keep the first part of Marco’s next set of lies about the monster, but originally he shifted gears after that. He said he fought a sorcerer who could shoot fire. And when he was surrounded by enemies, he used magic to part the sea. And he rode a tornado to the moon. In the dub, they remove the parts about the sorcerer, him being surrounded by enemies, and parting a sea. Instead, they say the monster could shoot fire, and he ripped it in half like a grapefruit. The part about going to the moon was only changed by adding that he brought the monster with him and left him there. Not sure why you’d need to bring a bisected monster carcass to the moon, but okay.
So, obviously, this episode is making off like Marco Polo was a braggart and a constant liar…..which *sigh* Look, cards on the table, I’ve had a lot of headaches lately, and I’ve been having one for hours, so I really don’t feel like going too hard on the research like I normally do with these comparisons. Forgive me if these details are inaccurate.
From what I’ve been able to gleam, Marco was seen by some as a braggart. He also confused some foreign animals he saw on his journeys for mythical beasts and described them as such. Many people, particularly his fellow Venetians, couldn’t believe most of his tales of adventure and called him a liar, even if he asserted to literally his dying breath that he was telling the truth.
The most controversial of his claims was that he made it to China, which, as far as I’ve seen in discussions, is still taken as quite questionable, but I’ve also seen a lot of good arguments and evidence to suggest he did.
Historians tend to have the view that at least most of what he accounted in his writings were true – and numerous aspects of the story have even been officially verified or supported by other sources.
However, he did have a penchant for exaggerating, flights of fancy, and flowery writing. Despite that, notably, his reports on his adventures rarely ever explored him as a person or his personal thoughts on what he was experiencing and witnessing. He’d just write objective details, observations, and descriptions about whatever interested him.
Cheating a bit, skipping ahead, this version of Marco does wind up humbled in the end and learns to not lie, becoming a true adventurer whose actual stories start at the end of the episode.
In conclusion in that regard, you can take or leave his depiction as a flat-out liar and weaver of tall tales. It does make him look bad, but it has some basis in truth. Even if it bothers you, he gets better by the end, so it’s not a big deal.
However, going so far as to say he was, at least at one point, egotistical and manipulative enough to hold an entire town under his thumb because he controlled their water supply, like a tyrant, is not only completely wrong but also insulting to the real Marco Polo.
In the dub, they repeat and reverse the shot of TP Lady, Dyna, and Mite looking at Marco Polo on the video screen after the shot of Nioja in brooch form. Also, TP Lady seems to say what Marco said earlier in regards to their location but I still can’t understand what it is. She sounds like she’s saying “Quasiamaru.”
They add a scene of their ship traveling through the time stream in the dub after that to extend the scene even further.
Marco originally only says “Father…” as he’s praying. In the dub, he prays that he eventually finds his father and uncle and asks God to take care of them wherever they are. He also prays to be honest and good the way he should be. Is this implying that Marco is doing all of this lying and manipulation because he can’t help himself, or is he just lying to himself right now? You have free will, Marco. You have to stop yourself from lying and being bad.
Dyna originally asks TP Lady what kind of plan this is because he’s confused. TP Lady responds that they’re buttering Marco up so he’ll join their side. In the dub, Dino praises Petra for her good dance moves, and Petra threatens him because she thinks he’ll blow their cover.
Dyna and Mite ask TP Lady what’s wrong. In the dub, they praise her good dance move, and Dyna said it even came with percussion (her back crunched.)
Dyna and Mite mock TP Lady for throwing her back out while dancing by pointing out that she’s way too old to be moving her hips like that. I know TP Lady doesn’t have a given age, but she can’t be older than her mid to late 20s. In the dub, they mock the pose she’s making.
Because Dyna and Mite talk through the rest of the sequence, they omit TP Lady threatening the two of them if they keep mocking her.
Nioja has names for the various techniques he uses to fix TP Lady’s back. Nioja Bend, Nioja Breaker, and Nioja Crunch. In the dub, he gives instructions for Petra guiding her through the process like telling her to breathe and stay loose.
They remove the shot of imaginary Sora, Tokio, Putera, and Love-Love threatening people, probably because of the daggers.
The reason TP Lady punches Dyna and Mite is because they call her “Backache Lady.” In the dub, Petra punches them for no reason. They just said “Give the little lady a big hand!”
They add another cheesy transition. This time it’s a spinning zoom-in-zoom-out transition between the shot of Marco’s face and showing the group in prison. How DID they manage to get them all in prison, though? And how was Marco useful in pulling that off?
They remove the sequence of TP Lady, Dyna, and Mite dancing while explaining the P Mark. Instead, they show a more serious and dramatic version of it that we’ve already seen several times in the past, just with different dialogue.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
They add a shot of Sora saying a line in between Jaba getting stamped and TP Lady whipping him. She just asked what could they do to stop her.
Also, they use an extended shot of TP Lady using her whip in the dub for some reason.
Name Plate removed.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
Name Change: Warujaba is changed to Dipper-Kon.
I’m pretty sure this next hiccup is just my copy and not the editing. However, again, I’ll note it just in case. After Genshi’s stomach rumbles, Sora and Tokio fall over comically. Genshi then sits down and says he’s too hungry to do anything because he hasn’t had breakfast yet. Kyoichiro arrives in a heroic fashion, standing atop the house. He jumps down to save the day. The dub (or my copy of it anyway) cuts in during the middle of Kyoichiro’s fall.
Kyoichiro just says in a daze “Failure.” In the dub, he asks in a daze if anyone got that bus’ number, which is strange because he was hit with a blast of fire not slammed with something large.
After TP Lady boasts that she always knew Marco didn’t have magic, Mite points out that she was the one most scared when it was brought up, which prompted TP Lady to hit him. In the dub, Petra mocks his clear lack of magic, but then Mite points out that he could be saving them for later, which, for some reason, prompts Petra to hit him.
Genshi only says he’s hungry. In the dub, Flint says Merlock was right about one thing – he needs to remember to eat breakfast. He was never shown saying that, so I don’t know what that’s about. Maybe it was in the part that got cut out either through the editing or the recording. Also, they reverse and replay that shot of Flint to make it last longer in the dub.
TP Lady says she’ll P Stamp them later, but for now they can watch Genshi get beaten black and blue. In the dub, she goes on about having the stadium all to themselves and she got them a feast. Then she asks the kids if they have a nice view.
Dyna and Mite only say “Aye Aye!” in response to TP Lady telling them to film everything. In the dub, they say, instead of sending the footage to the Dark Lord, they should send it to America’s Funniest Cookouts. Ah, an America’s Funniest Home Videos reference. That won’t age.
Genshi says he’s hungry and now he’s also thirsty. In the dub, he only says he’s hungry and then goes on to babble about a cheeseburger with pickles and onions.
Tokio tells Marco to just get the townspeople to help him since he has everyone under his thumb. Marco replies that no one will listen to him if he doesn’t have Jaba. In the dub, Tony gives him the cold shoulder telling him he should ask his new buddies (Petra and the others) for help if he wants it.
The dub change is just weird. Tony’s acting as if they were good friends and Marco betrayed them for Petra and the others. Marco barely knew them, spent only a few hours with them, and all he really knew about them were that they were strange people who seemingly also made up stories of adventure considering Flint explained he was a time-traveling detective who gets to see a lot of monsters. It’s not that far-fetched for him to be tricked by Petra and the others considering he had no idea who they were.
Once he realized they were legitimately bad, he immediately regretted his decision.
Tokio says getting the key would surely be easier than fighting a monster, prompting Marco to fully admit that he was telling lies. In the dub, Tony accuses Marco of being too scared to do it, and Marco admits that he’s scared – he’s been scared his whole life. Then he asks them if they’re scared too.
Continuing, Tokio says he knew Marco was a liar. Tony says he does get scared, but he’s not scared all day every day.
So, yeah, they’re also making off like Marco Polo was a scaredy cat. No idea what to say in response to that since there’s nothing to argue for or against it as far as I read, so take this however you please.
The dub doesn’t include the detail of Marco running away after the wolf attack and Jaba following him because he was worried. You’re just left to wonder why Marco is alone all of a sudden.
Marco originally just marvels at Jaba’s power to make water. In the dub, he immediately starts talking about turning the desert into a paradise with this power.
Originally, Marco said that Jaba was always with him. In the dub, he admits they didn’t turn the desert into a paradise. He kept Dipper to himself and started bossing people around since he controlled the water supply.
This is one of the longest edits I’ve seen in this series. Originally, Nioja and Warujaba kick Genshi back and forth between them as a soccer game. They decide to switch it up to baseball. Nioja spins Genshi incredibly fast and slams him into the wall. Ototan looks on in despair as his son gets beaten. All of this is removed likely for violence.
It’s weird because they also have Petra say “Ha…..HAHA What a throw!” when we didn’t see any throw in the dub. This is not a hiccup in my copy, by the way.
Originally, Marco just yanked on the hook out of nervousness. In the dub, Sarah tells him to pull.
Mite originally asks TP Lady what’s wrong, and she just responds with “My nose!” In the dub, Mite says she looks like a flounder (??) and Petra tells them to hurry up because they got the key from her.
It’s really weird how they won’t show Genshi being kicked around and thrown into a wall, but they’ll show TP Lady being raised up several feet by her nose…by a fishing hook.
Another establishing shot of the lab swapped for another.
Tokio tells Genshi to hang in there. Tony tells Flint “Things aren’t nearly as bad as you look.”
TP Lady says “How dare you do that to my beautiful nose.” In the dub, she says he was hoping they could play nice for a change, but now she sees that’s not an option.
Dub!Marco: “Don’t punish them because I was so selfish!” You being selfish, oddly, has nothing to do with this. The only reason Petra got Dipper was because you were easily fooled.
Uhhh…since when does Cocolon have the ability to cause water from a pitcher to spray on someone? I thought he only sensed/controlled (??) the weather and had good navigational skills.
Kyoichiro says Genshi is high maintenance. In the dub, he just tells him to have a banquet.
TP Lady grumbles about how the same pattern happened again. In the dub, she asks Nioja if he’s just gonna stand there and watch.
Saban inserts a repeat shot of Marco and Jaba spinning around between when Nioja agrees to fight and when he powers up.
Dipper is definitely distinct enough from Mosbee, but their super forms are basically identical barring the colors. (It’s revealed that they’re brothers…….Aren’t they all siblings if Toki G made all of them?)
Nioja says “A lack of military power…” Super Ninja says “Actually, humiliation is looking pretty good!”
All of the three Super Transformed Monsters have their name plates removed, but I’ll only note Super Jaba since we’ve already seen the others.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
It’s very weird that Super Jaba still has fire powers. Super Mosbee and Warubee both still kept their ice powers, but Jaba shifts from a water-centric creature to fire-based in both of its transformations while Cocolon gets water powers.
TP Lady says “Remember this!” as they fly away. In the dub, she says “Ninjas – who needs them?!”
Marco asks what country they’re from. Sora responds saying that, in this era, it would be referred to as Zipangu. Marco repeats the name to himself. Genshi says it’s a really fun place. This could have easily been translated, but Saban likes to 4Kids this series and ignore that they live in Japan. In the dub, Marco asks if they’ll ever see each other again. Sarah says it’s a possibility before wishing him luck on his adventures. Marco thanks her for the gesture, and Flint tells him some people he knows are heading his way.
How exactly did the group lead Marco’s father and uncle back to him if they set that up? Incredible coincidence otherwise.
They add a repeat shot of Marco talking after that in the dub to have him ask who Flint is talking about.
Marco bids Jaba one last goodbye. In the dub, he wonders what Pterry means when he calls for the memory erase beam.
The original never bothered naming Marco’s father and uncle. In the dub, they call them by name – Niccolo and Maffeo respectively.
In between Sora saying this is the true start of the adventures of Marco Polo and Genshi wishing him luck, the dub adds in another repeat shot of Marco talking to have him say he really wants to go reach China.
After Genshi wishes him luck, they immediately cut to Nioja’s brooch form lying in the desert. In the dub, they cut in a shot of the group traveling through the time stream before the shot of the desert.
The Masked Man originally surprised Nioja as he was complaining. In the dub, Super Ninja knows the Dark Lord is there the entire time. He also doesn’t complain about Petra like Nioja complains about TP Lady – he just explains that their mission was a failure.
The Masked Man seems nicer than the Dark Lord here. In the original, he says Nioja can rest with him for a while. In the dub, he kinda mocks that Super Ninja failed and makes jokes about saving him a sport at the old ninjas home.
In the original, Dyna and Mite ask TP Lady what’s wrong since she looks down. TP Lady laments that she lost Nioja and has no idea what she’s going to tell the Masked Man. In the dub, Dino and Mite go on about not noticing how bad her nose is. Petra laments that it’s been another week, and she’s still no closer to ruling the world.
The mysterious voice says to leave it to them. In the dub, he says maybe Petra should start a second career as a belly dancer.
Dyna says the voice was coming from TP Lady. In the dub, he somehow knows it precisely came from the Petra Stamp even though it was in her pocket at the time.
Name Plate removed:
Subbed:
Dubbed:
Name Change: Deathdas is changed to……*sigh*…..the Uglinator. Seriously, Saban? For real? God. You wanna know how bad this name is? The Flint the Time Detective Wiki tends to only use the English dubbed names for the characters throughout every page…..except Deathdas. They use his Japanese name there and only mention his dub name twice on his own character page.
Deathdas tends to add “-das” to the end of his sentences. This isn’t carried over into the dub.
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This was a fine episode. I like Marco’s friendship with Jaba. They’re very cute together, and it’s one of the few Space-Time Monster/historical figure friendships I can actually feel as a true friendship.
Jaba himself is also adorable. I like his design more than Mosbee’s, and his power is fairly neat. He also has a cute voice. He might wind up being one of my top favorites. I still don’t understand why his super form has fire powers, though. His bad form, sure, but why his super form?
I feel like the town just stopped existing after about the first third of the episode, though. I hope those people can get on without Jaba finding them water sources.
Comparison-wise, there weren’t any harsh crimes here, barring the obvious of the Uglinator. That is one of the worst dub names I’ve ever heard. They actually included some details that added a bit more to the story, but I don’t know why they never once said “Silk Road.” There was quite possibly the longest cut of the entire series with the violence, but it didn’t add anything so I’m not sure how much that mars the episode.
Next time, Deathdas terrorizes modern Japan and mind-controls Kyoichiro into attacking Genshi.
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