GX Sub/Dub Comparisons

Episode-by-episode comparisons of the sub and dub versions of Yugioh GX.

[getyourchangeon]

Important Links

Episode Comparisons (chronological order)

Extra Credit Homework (tag for other discussion)

Questions

Q: Why are you doing this?

A: Because I’m interested in episode-by-episode comparisons that discuss the narrative differences between sub/dub and I haven't found it for GX in a form easily accessible in the year 2k25. I’m gonna be the change I want to see in the world.

Q: Who are you, to be doing this?

A: My main blog is @seventhdoctor. I watched GX as a kid, dub jumping to following the sub because it was further along, and came back to the fandom a few years ago after a decade-plus gap. I have access to the GX sub (via GymLeaderLance99 fansubs) and the dub (via the official Yugioh site or the official Yugioh Youtube channel, depending on what works on a given day, and help with the dub script from a transcript forum). Do I know Japanese? Only what I’ve gleaned from anime over [redacted] years of life.

Q: Won’t you miss some things, then?

A: That’s the beauty(?) of Tumblr, people can add to posts. If you want to add something I missed or disagree about something I’ve written, there’s always reblogs and comments. I never said I was the most qualified to do this, and in fact welcome people’s thoughts on language/character nuances beyond what I’ve personally thought about.

Q: Why are you using the fansubs and not the Crunchyroll subs?

A: Personal preference. If you really want me to elaborate further, drop me an ask but the difference between them is much smaller than the difference between either sub and the dub.

Q: Are you covering all changes?

A: I’m primarily focusing on how dub changes affect plot and characterization compared to the sub, both the broad strokes and the small nuances. I reserve the right to skip 1) changes in duel mechanics dialogue and 2) visual edit notes unless they’re relevant to the plot/themes (e.g., I’ll mention if I notice they cut out a scene in a graveyard but I’m gonna skip over censoring Burstinatrix). Or maybe unless the edits are funny a la giant bottles of hot sauce, IDK. Simply put, I’m generally not interested in those things so I'm not putting in the additional effort to document them if I don't feel like it. If you are, feel free to add to a post or start your own blog.

I also generally won’t be going over name changes (for either characters or cards), since those are well documented, unless they're to discuss overall character changes.

Q: Are you going to cover all 155 episodes that have been dubbed?

A: I sure hope so. The episodes whose changes I’m most familiar with are season 3, actually, and I have a lot of thoughts for them so I’d really like to get around to them someday.

Q: This isn’t going to be dub bashing, is it?

A: I don’t intend for it to be. My main experiences with GX are through the sub but I’ve got friends who enjoy the dub and I know there’s at least a couple changes that I think are fun. However, I will be critical when I think the dub loses a point the sub was trying to make (e.g., the themes around responsibility in S3) or when I feel they’ve done a character dirty (grilled cheese).

In a way, this whole blog is also my really weird method of liveblogging the dub as a primary sub watcher.

Q: Have you considered that the dubbers didn't exactly have a series bible/had to deal with network broadcast standards/etc. and were doing the best they could?

A: Maybe they were, but that doesn’t change the fact that the dub changes result in different impressions of characters and the overall narrative. I’m not a 4KIDS employee and can’t speak for their intentions, but I can talk about their products.

Q: Why does this matter? Can't you just consider the dub and sub different products?

A: Sure, but someone who talks about Jaden Yuki isn't going to act like Judai Yuki is a character they know nothing about and vice versa. A dub watcher's understanding of Sartorious will be different than a sub watcher's understanding of Saiou. If we talk about dub vs. sub Yubel I'll be here all day. These are all characters whose portrayals differ between sub/dub in sometimes drastic ways, whether or not that's commonly acknowledged.

And as someone who enjoys character analysis, talking about sub-only details to a dub watcher or vice versa can result in a lot of "wait that's not what happened" or "wait when was that ever mentioned???" These kinds of things aren't always documented, so it's my goal to document them as a contribution to conversation around GX.

Q: Okay, but the dub is funnier than the sub and it's what I grew up with so I like it more.

A: Cool! I'm not here to change your mind about what's beloved to you. I'm here to talk about how my understanding of the series as someone who primarily watched the sub might differ from yours.

And in case this comes up: if I criticize 4KIDS for something that does not mean I'm criticizing people who enjoyed the products of their work. If I make a judgment about 4KIDS as a corporation, that judgment does not transfer to dub fans. And especially whatever I think of 4KIDS, that does not change the fact that other people enjoyed their work and they have a right to enjoy it.

Q: Are there going to be spoilers on your posts?

A: I will sometimes discuss spoilers when talking about how comparisons affect viewers' understanding of characterization and future plot points. However, spoilers beyond the currently discussed season will be confined to their own section of the post. So for example, episode 1's post will not mark any season 1 spoilers but spoilers for season 2 and beyond will be marked using some handy dandy graphics:

This is done partially because I know for a fact that there are people who haven't finished the series reading this blog, and partially because I don't think you should have to have experienced the entire series to read an analysis post for episode 1.

Q: In one of your posts, you didn't mention that the dub made a reference to [insert pop culture thing here] with a specific joke/character.

A: Thanks! I probably didn't know what they were referencing. Feel free to mention that on the relevant post.

Q: You didn't talk about X and Y lines being different in the sub versus dub.

A: Sometimes I skip lines that are different word-for-word, but come out to the same end by my understanding of the lines. Sometime I apply this more broadly than other times, like for peanut gallery reactions. My rule of thumb is "Does this change affect my understanding of the situation?" Or sometimes I just miss things. Either way, feel free to add a comment and talk about the lines yourself!

Q: Is there going to be a consistent posting schedule?

A: Probably not. These posts take multiple hours per episode and I'm not always in a good position for my process. As of blog launch, however, I have the first four episodes written up and a fifth in the works. As of episode 26, weekly posts are now on hiatus until summer 2026.

Q: Will you do comparisons for any other series?

A: Probably not. This is an endeavor that will take me several years already and I'm not as insane about other series as I am about GX.

Q: Are there any rules for commenting/adding material in reblogs?

A: Yes.

Don't bash 4KIDS for the act of dubbing at all, or dub watchers for watching the dub. Don't talk about sub watchers as elitist or whatever. The reasons for this rule on a blog comparing the sub and dub should be obvious.

Don't bash characters, period. "Hayato's dubbing as Chumley is bad because it gets rid of his characterization and turns it all into fat jokes" is fair and a point I'll have to make often. "Hayato/Chumley was a stupid character and the show would have been better without him" will get you blocked.

I use the fansubs and I know the fansubber is on Tumblr, but I don't know him personally and please don't bug him on my behalf. It's more than possible he'll want to weigh in on an issue if it comes his attention (or if he sees this blog and likes it enough to follow, in which case - I hope I'm doing everything justice LOL) but this blog is run completely independent by myself and I do not want to create any sense of obligation.

CLEARLY MARK any spoilers beyond the current season. My aim for writing these posts is that any season 1 episode discussion should be readable by someone who's seen all of season 1. Spoiler talk is allowed as my goal is to look at how overarching narratives change between versions, but spoilers beyond the currently discussed season MUST be marked so as to be avoidable.

No fighting about ships because dear god do I not want to invite ship wars in my comments.

If you repeatedly engage in any of the above I may block you. If you pick fights about analysis because you don't like a character in question, I may block you. If you want clarification on any of these, drop me an ask.

Q: I want to reference something you wrote in a new Tumblr post/Youtube video/other medium.

A: That's great, I started this endeavor hoping it would contribute something to GX discussion. If you could link back to the relevant post you're citing or this blog in general, that would be much appreciated.

This goes for TV Tropes too, I see whoever edited in my essay points uncited.

[getyourchangeon]

Small notes:

Posting will resume sometime in July. I'll put up an exact date when I know.

Anon asks have been disabled. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[getyourchangeon]

just found this blog and i'm obsessed, i've been rewatching GX lately after having only seen the dub as a kid long long ago, and i've been watching the sub, but occassionally switching to the dub when i was like "do i just not remember xyz correctly or was it changed...???" and it has made me so curious about dub/sub changes. especially bc i always liked ryou/zane even as a dub watcher, but i DEFINITELY felt watching the sub that he was very different in it?? so when i saw one of your posts in the ryou marufuji tag i was like "THAT IS SO EPIC OMG" and i just wanted to let you know that i am about to binge all your posts on this blog like a madman while beaming ear to ear. ALSO CONGRATS ON THE DOCTORATE

Hooboy (positive). The memories really get you, the reverse of this (going "wait a second" about the dub) is in fact how I started asking questions that led to the creation of this blog. And the Marufuji/Truesdale brothers are a very good example of that! I think that one flashback in episode 7 shows how the dub and sub can tell different stories based on the same footage (or at least 90% of it), and both can be compelling if handled right.

If you don't mind me taking this chance to editorialize a bit, Twitch has an official Yugioh channel that usually runs the dub but recently started streaming the sub for DM, GX, and (two seasons of) Arc-V. (There's also a channel just for streaming Yugioh subbed in English, and more in other languages!) Since I learned about this last week I've been running it on and off in the background when doing less intensive work. And the Twitch chat was pretty interesting to peek in on while the GX sub was going, because a fair number of people previously only knew the dub and had similar experiences to you. I saw some "Wait, this was different in the dub" or "Oh this plot point makes more sense in the sub" or but also a lot of love for the dub, and it was really a reminder that different fans can have such different experiences with the same anime.

There was also a lot of excitement over season 4, which of course dub-only viewers wouldn't have seen, and when season 4 did start streaming it became a lot of people's first experience with GX's famously undubbed season. And without going into spoilers, an interesting thing I noticed was how some people would theorize (jokingly or not) about how 4KIDS would adapt or censor certain plot elements if they had dubbed season 4. I think that speaks to a real curiosity and exploration of the differences between sub and dub, and of the reasons those differences exist. The curiosity that drives this blog comes from the same place.

(No I didn't advertise this blog in the Twitch chat. I feel like there must have been a rule against that, and it would have been extremely tacky besides.)

Also thank you very much for the congratulations! <3 I've got a lot of work to do still, but I'm very happy that graduation is in sight. Do we think Duel Academia/Duel Academy is hiring? In this economy I'm willing to take my chances with the active volcano and world-threatening plots if it means job security.

[getyourchangeon]

Hiatus Announcement: Summer Break in Spring

As the prophecy foretold, now that we've gotten to the transition point of season 1 this blog will be going on hiatus for a few months as I've been focusing on school and have run out of episode backlog. By the time this post goes up, I'll have submitted my dissertation paper and will be very stressed preparing for my defense. Check back in a few weeks to see if I've joined Crowler in the land of doctorates or if I've become a dropout boy.

We'll resume with the second half of season 1 once I've graduated, possibly taken a vacation, and re-built my post buffer. Probably sometime in summer.

In the meantime, I've posted a retrospective for the first half of season 1 alongside episode 26. Please enjoy.

My askbox remains open but I may be slow about responding. (Or I might need the distraction from the existential dread. Who knows!)

[getyourchangeon]

(macro source)

[getyourchangeon]

Hiatus Announcement: Summer Break in Spring

As the prophecy foretold, now that we've gotten to the transition point of season 1 this blog will be going on hiatus for a few months as I've been focusing on school and have run out of episode backlog. By the time this post goes up, I'll have submitted my dissertation paper and will be very stressed preparing for my defense. Check back in a few weeks to see if I've joined Crowler in the land of doctorates or if I've become a dropout boy.

We'll resume with the second half of season 1 once I've graduated, possibly taken a vacation, and re-built my post buffer. Probably sometime in summer.

In the meantime, I've posted a retrospective for the first half of season 1 alongside episode 26. Please enjoy.

My askbox remains open but I may be slow about responding. (Or I might need the distraction from the existential dread. Who knows!)

[getyourchangeon]

Season 1 Midpoint Retrospective

It'll be at least a couple months before I start posting reviews for the second half of season 1, so in the meantime here's a midseason collection of my thoughts so far.

I’m going to start by acknowledging that my reviews are not comprehensive. I’m focusing on characterization and plot/lore, with less focus on stylistic elements like language or music. There’s a lot to be said about the fine points of translation/localization that I can’t speak to because I am not a professional - or even amateur - translator/localizer. I’m writing these reviews as a layperson who likes discussing GX but has no special insight into the making of anime at any part of the process. Nor am I an objective reviewer: I’m coming into this as someone who started with the dub in 2005 but has primarily referred to the sub for over twenty years now. I also have plenty of thoughts about education and equity as someone invested in these things IRL, which influences the angle at which I analyze the Yugioh school anime.

Hopefully you’re aware of all this by now if you’re following this blog, but I think it bears repeating as I discuss my thoughts in the following post.

That said! I'm glad I started at the beginning for these reviews as opposed to a later season, because there's some significant differences to foundational characterization (Chronos/Crowler, Hayato/Chumley, the Marufuji/Truesdale brothers, even subtler parts of Judai/Jaden's and Manjoume/Chazz’s characters) that are going to echo pretty far down the series and it's good to establish the baseline before talking about later episodes.

Which gets us to the overarching question for this review series: how do the differences between sub and dub affect how viewers who only watched one or the other understand a character or plot?

Differences in Characterization

In some cases, the gap isn’t huge so far. There are some notable differences between Judai and Jaden - Jaden is a better friend and a more traditional heroic protagonist, whereas Judai follows his heart through duels which can come off as more self-centered. This will become more relevant later in the series and this particular gap will widen, but for now at least it’s not a difference that would create a huge divide in understanding between sub/dub watchers.

There isn’t that much to say for Asuka/Alexis and Misawa/Bastion, largely because they haven’t had a lot of major development so far. There was…definitely some weirdness around how they were written during the punishment tag duel in episodes 10-11, and we’ll see if that comes back I guess.

On the other hand, there is a significant gap between how watchers of each might understand Shou and Kaiser compared to Syrus and Zane. This includes how you see the brothers individually - the dub exaggerating Syrus’s patheticness and Zane’s callousness - as well as their collective relationship (worse in the dub, as shown in episode 10-11). And we'll be seeing the consequences of writing out the Marufujis' "respect your opponent" philosophy for seasons to come.

And after the brothers (skipping over the koala in the room for now), to get into the gaps between Chronos and Crowler or Manjoume and Chazz…we have to talk about elitism. As always. 

Differences in Themes

Elitism is pervasive in the sub. It’s present before we even get to the dorm system, with the plucky #110 with a deck of superheroes and an unlucky commute versus the haughty professor with his historied automata. And once we get into the actual school setting, you literally can’t go two episodes without running into at least one moment influenced by elitism and the dorm system. Believe me, I counted: the closest you get is 13-14, the monkey and Jinzo episodes, but even then the monkey episode starts and ends with Manjoume/Chazz leaving the school as part of his whole arc. 

The dub doesn’t eliminate the elitism entirely, but it definitely picks and chooses. Slifer insults? Jokes about roaches in the Red dorm? Yeah we got those. Manjoume/Chazz is being kicked out of the elite class for failing to uphold their standards for success? That’s just a bully getting what he deserves. A whole episode about how the literal middle class (Ra Yellow) is bullied by the elite? Mm…nah, let’s make it about their height. Some of the elitism still gets through, but it’s not shown to be such a systemic problem as it is in the sub and I think that has a very real impact on how you understand the characters.

I’ve previously argued that the dorm rank system and resulting elitism figures into many characters’ concepts in the sub. It underlies Chronos and Manjoume’s entire arcs, and informs several others like Shou or Misawa. The dub removes that context, which could be fine depending on what they add in to fill the gaps…if they do that.

I think they do try to fill it in with Crowler by doubling down on characterizing him as petty and egotistical, making him more openly villainous. It works in isolation even if it’s not as deep character-wise, but given GX is a multi-season anime we’re probably going to start seeing the consequences of that change soon. Episode 26 shows the first sign of Chronos starting to rethink his attitude, which helps lead into his big moment in five episodes where he steps in to protect his students against Camula. Because the dub skips over that moment of reconsideration, Crowler’s in a bit worse of a position to start making grand speeches about how he loves his students.

Chazz, on the other hand, just feels a bit lacking in comparison to Manjoume in my opinion. He’s still fun, but because 4KIDS left out the elitism that frames so much of his arc without adding anything else in (besides trash talk, I guess) Chazz feels more style than substance to me. The dub does try to give him something by having his brothers disown him, but again given they have to deal with Manjoume throwing money around in future episodes I don’t think that’s going to stick.

And I guess what this comes out to is, 4KIDS really seems to struggle with having to deal with series continuity. This isn’t exactly unique to GX (the 4KIDS One Piece dub was notorious for this), and it’s important to note that I am not saying they didn’t care or that they were too lazy to look ahead. In fact, I think the touches they added to the Dimitri episodes (18-19) suggest they did care to some extent. There are plenty of potential explanations for their continuity issues that have more to do with production constraints and differing priorities than lack of care. Because of the amount of research and guesswork investigating that topic would require, however, I choose to focus more on the end results than the reasons they happened.

That said.

This bit is extremely speculative (since I am, once again, not even remotely part of the creative team for either version of GX) but early GX feels exploratory to me, poking around at character concepts and plots to figure out what Yugioh is with a new cast of characters. Instead of a single ultimate rival like Kaiba (or Atem), Judai’s got a bunch of them in GX: Misawa is the analytical rival, Kaiser is the powerful rival (and the elder brother), and Manjoume is the haughty rival. Obviously this is an oversimplified breakdown, but the point is that early GX involves a lot of poking around ideas and character concepts to see what sticks. And some things don’t stick! Episode 2 establishes that the arena we see so many duels in is supposed to be for Blue students only. This is never brought up again, and the writers pretend that never happened.

And I think you can see that in the dub as well as the sub. Remember when Chumley was trying out “Duh” as a catchphrase? Remember when there were corny school jokes? While - once again - I’m not a 4KIDS employee and can’t claim to know what was going on during production, as a viewer it feels like the dub is trying out its own ideas and seeing what lands. That isn’t really a defense, just speculation as to why certain things happened knowing I’ll never know the truth unless I sit down with a former 4KIDS employee.

…And, oh yeah. Speaking of Chumley.

The Chumley Section (And It’s Not Just Him)

Yeah, I saved Hayato/Chumley for last because he’s such a victim of the dub I had to quarantine my review about it for several episodes to avoid clogging up the main episode discussion and I need to do the same for this retrospective. People praise how funny the dub is and I get it, but I also think they're highlighting the standouts and forgetting the multiple Chumley fat jokes per episode. Which, like - I'd like to forget those too.

Seriously. If I seem like I harp on the fat jokes it’s because I came in expecting a grilled cheese joke every few episodes and I’d groan a lot about it but I’d have known it was coming. Instead I feel like I’ve been hit on the head with a hammer over 1) how consistent the dub is about Chumley fat jokes and 2) how dedicated 4KIDS was to writing out any of Chumley's character traits besides "fat kid."

I did a formal count of fat jokes in the past 26 episodes for this section, because if I’m going to be a hater about this I’m going to make it properly evidenced hate. I found a total of 49 fat jokes alone over 21 episodes containing Hayato/Chumley* for a mean average of 2.3 fat jokes per episode containing Chumley (median 2, mode 6). If you add in toilet jokes, jokes about his lack of intelligence, and other miscellaneous potshots it’s closer to 3 per episode and there isn’t a single episode that doesn’t mock him at least once. Chumley literally cannot have more than five seconds of screentime without meriting at least one potshot that episode.

And it’s part of a larger pattern. This is obviously a symptom of larger cultural biases, but the dub has a lot of humor that boils down to mocking people for their appearances. I've skimmed over a lot of these jokes because of my personal distaste for them but it keeps happening. Chumley is a walking fat joke. Damon is repeatedly mocked for his smell. The duel giant episode rewrites elitism with short/fat jokes. Dorothy being an older lady in makeup apparently disqualifies her from being counted as a woman. Let's not even get into how the dub mocks Crowler's appearance. Chumley gets it most consistently, but it really just keeps happening.

“Gee, Lace, it's not that deep. It was 2005, can't you take a joke?”

Jokes still have a point! When Harrington makes tennis puns, that communicates he's got tennis on the brain. When Chumley only talks about grilled cheese, that communicates he only cares about food. When the punchline is “haha this person doesn't look normal” it communicates that not looking normal - whatever you define normal as - is worthy of mockery. And if you do that over and over, it starts to feel like you’re making a point of it. 4KIDS isn't allowed to show characters using guns because kids might get ahold of their parents’ guns and try to imitate the cool tricks they see on TV, but it's perfectly fine to make fun of a fat kid every episode and let kids imitate that I guess?

And to be fair to 4KIDS, this isn’t just bad 4KIDS humor. It’s not even unique to bad Western humor. I got really into Persona 4 a little while after my 2000s-era GX days, and as much as I loved some parts of the game - boy did a lot of the humor reek of these same issues, and the weird sexist comedy segments were in the original Japanese script as well as the localization. I mashed through them the same way an average dub GX viewer probably skips over the Chumley fat jokes, but nearly twenty years later if you handed me one of the fancy P4 Brand New Content games I’d be asking myself if it was really worth putting myself through the camping trip or beauty pageants again. This humor doesn’t age well, and honestly it made me cringe back in the 2000s too!

This is verging into general sociocultural discussion, and I entered into this review series knowing that discussing dub GX would invite that. If I had unlimited time/money to get another graduate degree I could probably write an entire academic thesis on dub GX contextualized within 4KIDS production values and constraints, 2000s American pop culture, and TV broadcast standards. However, nobody is funding me for this Tumblr review blog so I’m going to acknowledge those topics would be fascinating to research and also I am not researching them.

* If you care about methodology, I counted jokes relating to food (grilled cheese a given), weight, appearance, or running as fat jokes as well as any uses of “licious” because…well, it’s a fat joke turned into a catchphrase. I discounted episode 3 because Hayato has exactly two lines in five seconds of screen time there and I’m not giving 4KIDS credit for failing to make “Syrus isn’t here” into a fat joke.

So What, Don’t Watch The Dub?

As I've said from the beginning, this review series isn't meant to say "dub bad" or "don't ever watch the dub." I did not commit to 200+ hours of episode and 3+ years of episode analysis to say "hurrdurr dub bad." (I make an exception for the fat jokes.) Everyone should watch what they want according to what they want out of their anime. Some people watch dubs because of accessibility issues, some out of pure preference. Some people watch Yugioh for laughs, some people watch Yugioh because they saw someone talk about deeper themes and symbolism. That’s all fine.

And it’s important to note that change doesn’t have to be bad! The sports poster tennis captain and Dimitri's Dan Green Yami Yugi impression come to mind as things the dub did quite well in my opinion. Occasionally the dubs smooths out a minor plot issue from the original sub script, like Crowler pushing to change the punishment tag duel’s stakes from suspension to expulsion rather than expulsion to...still expulsion. The dub explanation for Chazz’s demotion to Red fits so neatly into previous continuity that I and a friend actually thought it was the original sub explanation only to discover the truth during episode review.

But the fact that the sub and dub tell different stories means that if I talk about how Hayato shows the audience how you don't need to match the traditional depictions of success to find your path in adulthood then only a subset of people who have seen GX will understand what I mean. Someone who’s only ever seen the dub is going to look at me and go "what, the grilled cheese guy?”

If you want to discuss the show with other people, it helps to be aware that some people have essentially watched a different version of the show compared to you and that their understanding of certain characters or plot developments might not be the same as yours. I’ve seen both ends of this gap in understanding. I’ve talked to dub viewers about how the dub cuts certain plot elements that help contextualize why certain characters act the way they do, and I’ve talked to sub viewers about how certain perspectives on a given character make more sense if you’ve seen the dub.

Conclusion

I have a friend who’s been interested in watching Yugioh with me, especially GX since it’s my favorite. The problem was that she would prefer to do it with an English language track. Ideally that wouldn’t have been an issue, but for GX - especially later seasons, but already evident with season 1 - if I showed her the dub it would come out to a different story than the one I know and the one she wants to know. So we just didn’t watch GX until certain things aligned and we ended up starting the sub together. I still point out some of the dub standout jokes and changes where I think she’ll get a kick out of them. (She’s convincing me to watch Jujutsu Kaisen meanwhile, at least once I escape grad school hell.)

I have other friends who watched the entire dub before learning anything about the sub differences, and it’s been really interesting to hear their perspectives. Little details like “Jaden stayed in Slifer because Syrus was there” compared to “Judai stayed in Osiris because he likes the red dorm better” affects how you interpret their friendship and the fact that Shou/Syrus is interested in advancing dorms where Judai/Jaden isn’t. “Chazz is a bully who got what he deserved” compared to “Manjoume got the elitist rug pulled out from under him” affects how you interpret his character development mini-arc. Dorm elitism seems more fanon worldbuilding to dub viewers, and Chazz being disowned by his family seems the same to sub viewers. I’m trying to keep the scope of this post to season 1 only, but I’ve had multiple people comment that reading these reviews helped recontextualize little points about later seasons too.

And that’s what I really want people to take away from this series! Ultimately, this blog is meant to help document the differences and think through how they bear on viewers' understandings of the show on either side of the sub/dub split. I’ve been saying this since the first episode review, and I hope having gone through some of these differences in practice helps illustrate why I think it’s interesting enough to dedicate time and effort into.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 026: Versus Manjoume Thunder (Part 2) - Armed Dragon LV7/S1E26: The School Duel (Part 2)

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 26. This episode concludes Manjoume/Chazz’s major development arc, so let's hear it! 1! 10! 100! 1000! Chazz it up!

Episode Review

After the Hero Spirits play, Chazz has extra trash talk in place of turn end (atop more trash talk, so it really just feels like omitting turn end declaration). When Judai/Jaden pulls out Winged Kuriboh, Manjoume insults his tactics while Chazz insults the fluffball. Ojama Yellow Manjoume asks about bringing him out so he can ask Winged Kuriboh about his brothers in the sub; in the dub he disses Winged Kuriboh. When Judai/Jaden calls out to Manjoume/Chazz, Manjoume yells at Ojama Yellow about how he's too weak to participate in the duel while Chazz denies anything to do with duel spirits: “Nothing to see here! No duel spirits at all!”

...Which is, arguably, kind of interesting because Chazz has NOT interacted with previous duel spirit plots but now he knows the term to refer to them by. If you want to get serious about dub lore (which I am), you could connect this to how episode 14 establishes they’re a part of Banner’s curriculum and so Chazz really would have reason to know about duel spirits by name. I think that's kind of funny in how it adds to the "I am so in denial" vibe.

More minor line changes: the dub cuts a peanut gallery line from Asuka after Winged Kuriboh is destroyed. After Judai's Special Hurricane play, Hayato commenting on LV monsters gets changed to a joke at his expense. Judai correcting himself from "Manjoume" to "Thunder" is changed to a nonsequitur joke, which I think loses out on some minor acknowledgement of Manjoume's development.

The dub cuts a shot of the principal during Manjoume/Chazz's recovery and instead adds a line of Chazz trash talk, then cuts some Misawa commentary on Manjoume's impatience leading into Manjoume's thoughts about his brothers. Then the brothers' quoted lines from last episode reinforce the differences between the locker room conversations last episode: Manjoume is already the weak link to his brothers, while Chazz is meant to uphold his position at the top.

Shouji: You're the slacker among us brothers! Chousaku: We can't afford to have you lose this match! Manjoume: Brothers...

Jagger: World domination is ours for the taking! Slade: You need to become Duel Monster's best! Chazz: I'm trying!

Jaden has more quips leading into his realization that Chazz is thinking about his brothers and his resolve to show Chazz that dueling is fun, though the meaning is the same in either version. Manjoume correcting Judai with another "Thunder" is changed to a quip, basically by consequence since the dub doesn't have a proper equivalent of that.

Judai talks about how he has to finish this before Manjoume brings out LV7 again, while Jaden makes a quip to lead into the Hero Kids. When summoning LV7 again, Chazz has a quip insulting the principal following a peanut gallery comment. Manjoume alludes to the pressure he's under, while Chazz trash talks Jaden. Manjoume's TV surrender ultimatum is the same across versions, but then Judai talks about the turnaround he's about to make where Jaden goes for the point in telling Chazz how dueling is supposed to be fun.

In the conversation following, the dub cuts a bit of Judai's speech. I don’t think there’s a lot of meaning lost here, although I do like Judai’s original comment about how he isn’t dueling the real Manjoume.

Judai: Either way, next turn will be my last draw. Still, I do wish it could've been me and the real Manjoume - the real Thunder - going at it here. Manjoume: Are you saying I'm not being serious? Judai: Yep - it seemed like you weren't really looking at me so much as taking on someone else. Next time, how about we get more fun out of dueling? Manjoume: Get more fun out of dueling? (Cut part starts here) Judai: I mean, dueling's all kinds of fun to do, right? [Pan shots of his friends and the stadium] Manjoume: Dueling is...fun...to do? Judai: Right! Dueling gets you pumped - especially when the friends you've got faith in come through for you! My turn! Draw!

Jaden: And if I can have fun right now losing, shouldn't you be able to winning? It's seriously not that hard, despite what your brothers may want you to believe. Chazz: What?! What do you know about my brothers? Jaden: Well... For starters, Chazz, I know they're the ones you're dueling for, and the ones puttin' all this pressure on you, too. ...Aw, come on, Chazz. Remember when ya dueled for the excitement of it? Chazz: I only duel to win! Jaden: (Drawing) Well, we'll see where that gets ya!

During his next turn, Judai boasts about having clinched victory to lead into the Miracle Kids play while Jaden makes a quip about the Hero Kids to do the same. When the TV crew cuts the broadcast, the dub's weather report has more of a blatant "hahaha everything's fine!!!" air to it. The duel concludes the same.

The post-duel conversation between Manjoume/Chazz in his brothers starts out mostly the same...

Chousaku: Jun, what the hell have you been doing?! Do you have any idea what you've done?! Shouji: You disgraced the Manjoume name! Jun: I'm sorry, brothers…

...with one major difference: Chazz's brothers disown him outright for failing in the dub.

Slade: You loser! You dog! You've disgraced yourself. You've disgraced the Princeton name! Jagger: You are no brother of ours anymore! Chazz: Just give me another chance…

Jun defends his decision not to use his brothers' cards because "I wanted to win with my deck," while Chazz says "I thought I could win this by myself." Judai argues the merit of Manjoume’s strength:

Judai: Quit it, you two! Cut it out! Manjoume battled with everything he had! Chousaku: Are you strangers butting into our sibling affairs? Judai: If you're siblings, isn't that more reason to ditch that attitude? Me and Manjoume - Thunder - went into this duel going as all-out as we could! Shouji: We're not at all interested in the process - the issue is the result! Chronos: My, I see... Results are importante, no? But I find them a bit grating to me, no?

The dub cuts a couple lines here and Jaden’s argument that Chazz did the best he could under the circumstances is a bit weaker, though it mostly comes out to the same thing. This line arguably gets at the sentiment from an above sub line about how Judai would have liked to duel the real Manjoume without the burden of his brothers’ pressure.

Oh, and the dub again makes Crowler a petty Jaden-hater instead of paying attention to the point of Chronos’s line there, i.e., that the brothers have shown him a line he won't cross. Character development, what’s that?

Jaden: Let him go! Yeah, sure, he lost, but how could he not with you two jerks breathing down his neck? Jagger: Two jerks? Do you have any idea who we are?! We could have you crushed, kid. Crowler: Oh, my!  They could have Jaden crushed?! Maybe these two aren't so bad after all…

And just in case you thought the disowning was an exaggeration, the dub repeats it. Crowler also catches onto the change of heart this time.

Chousaku: We brothers take results very seriously. Results are everything! Winning is everything! Besides, how much money do you think we funneled into this duel?! Shouji: And this punk went on to disgrace us! Judai: Maybe, but he beat the two of you. Thunder didn't just duel - it took all he had to fight off the stupid pressure you put on him! Even with his pain, Thunder was a bigger man than you two! Chronos: Yes, indeed! Precisely! Like shaved ice! Oh, my... I wasn't asked, was I?

Slade: Why defend Chazz anyhow? He's a nobody now. Disowned by us... And by the whole world! I mean...the cameras caught enough of it! He got schooled! He got mopped up! Jagger: That's right. And then worst of all, he got beat! Jaden: Wrong! There's one fight he did win! The fight against you two! Sure, Chazz may not have won the duel, but hey, at least he fought it on his own terms! It's like he said. He used his cards, not what your money could buy! Crowler: Right on, Jaden! I mean...you no-good Slifer slacker. Ugh.

Chazz is more defeated than Manjoume, who’s got enough spirit in him to try and maintain his dignity. The sub crowd boos the brothers off before cheering Manjoume...

Judai: There's more to dueling than winning or losing. It's about getting something bigger out of it! Jun: Zip it, Judai! Judai: Manjoume... Jun: Don't make me...feel even...more pathetic about this... Chousaku: Jun! Jun: Brothers, you have to go. Crowd: That's right! Go on, go home! Manjoume Thunder! You did great! That's our Thunder! Manjoume Thunder! Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!

And in the dub, they reassure Chazz they love him for a slightly more uplifting ending.

Jaden: Tight duel, Chazz. And I know it's cheesy, but I think the truth of it is, we both won here. Chazz: You're just saying that. I mean, come on. Nobody else believes that. Crowd: We do, Chazz! Same here! Yeah! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Yeah!

As Manjoume/Chazz watches his brothers fly off in their helicopters, the music is soft and sentimental in the sub and more dissonant in the dub (a sort of riff that I believe is associated with Chazz - minding that I'm not great with music). Manjoume thinks about his brothers, Chazz about the school.

In the final scene, Manjoume says he's staying at DA because he has unfinished business there while in the dub Chazz says that "I don't belong with [North]. ...Duel Academy was always my home." In the process the dub writes out an exchange where Manjoume mentions the previous King's name (Edogawa) and returns the King title to him, which I thought was cute.

Ichinose starts to ask for the Armed Dragon cards back before getting interrupted by the tournament prize, while Foster just starts to say goodbye. Sidenote: Crowler calls DA "our esteemed university," continuing the DA-as-college motif established in early dub episodes. It's been a while, huh.

Judai and Shou wonder about Miss Duel Academia, while Jaden and Syrus remind the audience they're straight guys. No really. 

Jaden: Whoa...sounds hot! Syrus: Jay, be my wingman, ‘kay?

Ichinose's last words are for Manjoume telling him to get stronger while Foster yells to Dorothy. Chazz is...weirdly misogynistic about Dorothy: "That’s a chick?"

Ah yes. Our favorite feminist, Chazz Princeton.

On the submarine, Ichinose cries over forgetting to take the prized Armed Dragon cards back while Foster is still crying over Dorothy. Afterward, the administration discusses the terms of Manjoume/Chazz's return and the reason for his demotion to Red differs between versions. In the sub, it's because he was simultaneously both expelled and enrolled to miss three months of class, meaning his attendance disqualified him from any dorm above Red; in the dub, it's because he's technically a new student/transferring in and has to start in Red as a matter of policy.

Then comes some dub jokes about the unsanitary conditions of the Red dorms. The episode closes out with a final Manjoume Thunder chant for the road in the sub, and a Slifer dorm chant in the dub with a Chazz comment about how "my new family's already dysfunctional."

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Empty!

Final Thoughts

Much like the previous episode, I think the dub gets most of the way communicating the same ideas as the original with some differences in nuance and then falls flat on its usual sticking points. Chumley gets disrespected, Crowler is a petty Jaden-hater, that stuff is all in pattern. The weird sexism in the Miss Duel Academy bit is kinda new but also not; 4KIDS loves mocking people’s appearances for jokes, and questioning a woman’s gender for the crime of being middle-aged unfortunately falls into the pattern too. I’ll save my full thoughts for the mid-season retrospective post that’s going to go up shortly after this review, but broadly it’s a real reminder that some of 4KIDS’ favored brand of humor has not aged well at all.

That said. The most intriguing thing to me this episode is the point about Chazz’s brothers disowning him. I like it thematically, with the idea that the endpoint would be Chazz having no choice but to become self-reliant without the prestige of his family name and resources in a way his episode 1 self could never have been. I pointed out last episode that Chazz doesn't feel like experiencing the bottom is a part of his character like Manjoume, and this would be a way to achieve the same idea. That’s not a bad step for further character development!

Thing is, though…he doesn’t do that. Future episodes will see Manjoume/Chazz throw his family’s money around and I know from famous dub quotes that this is not the last we’ve heard from Chazz about how rich he is. So either he manages to become independently wealthy, the disowning gets walked back, or…the dub just forgets about this plot point. All of which are kind of disappointing in comparison, because you could have something interesting there!

There also might be something to the differences in Manjoume/Chazz’s motivations for staying at DA as well. Chazz’s line about how Duel Academy is his home stuck out to me, because maybe that’s true for Chazz but I’d argue that’s not true for Manjoume.

As discussed last episode, DA’s school environment wasn’t all that good for Manjoume and I argue it figures into his bathroom breakdown. It’s no wonder that Manjoume, who left the school after getting the elitism rug pulled out from under him, reinvented himself as a charismatic duelist on his own merits in the harsh but pure meritocracy of North’s 50-man gauntlet and donned a color outside DA’s red/yellow/blue uniforms. Manjoume thrived more at North than he ever did at Duel Academia up until this episode - which is probably why he cites unfinished business as his reason to stay at DA, proving to himself that he could succeed where he washed out before.

But Chazz doesn’t have the baggage of the school’s elitism to contend with, because the dub threw out most of that baggage. I’m not sure that makes Duel Academy feel any more like home given he still had his major character development at North, but somehow the dub writing out the school’s elitism issue works for this moment in a weird way. Chazz calling the school his new family in the ending is presumably meant to be a reference to how he was disowned by his blood family, and…I feel like I can see the direction 4KIDS was going here and I do think it has potential, I just don’t know if it really pans out long-term for previously mentioned reasons.

The last point for this episode’s review is a credit to the dub. The reason for Manjoume/Chazz’s demotion to Red as a matter of transfer policy is kind of weird in the sub, which gives an excuse about attendance contradicting the plot point about his expulsion. His demotion makes a lot more sense in the dub, because the show just recently established how transfer students are handled and Chazz’s demotion feels very much in line with that. I’d actually forgotten this wasn’t the explanation in the sub as well; it’s just that neat of a continuity moment.

And this concludes the first half of season 1! I’ll be posting some retrospective thoughts shortly.

[getyourchangeon]

Do you think Duel Academy would be better at educating students if the dorm system was abolished? So, everyone gets the same accommodations and equal treatment, or as equal as possible since top students would most likely be treated better.

I know this would greatly change the show since many episodes talk about dorm elitism so I'm not asking if it'd make the show better. And I'm guessing since Kaiba founded the Academy that the dorm system was intentional, so he probably won't be happy about getting rid of it

This was a worringly well timed ask for IRL reasons I won't get into aside from that I have an hour to kill and many thoughts. Note that I'm most familiar with US education/culture and not Japanese, although for the purposes of this ask I don't know that it's a huge difference.

Let's start with the base question. If the dorm system were suddenly abolished, would DA become a better school?

Short answer: Probably not.

Long answer: Not without major accompanying changes in school culture and targeted efforts to change existing sociocultural biases. The dorm system is a crystallization of existing cultural issues, and while it's used as a weapon where convenient it's also not the root problem.

First of all, students and teachers alike would still remember what ranks everyone was yesterday and treat them accordingly. But this time, there is no option for advancement; everyone will be remembered as the rank they were at a certain point in time. Not a lot of change unless you make bigger social pushes, and arguably worse.

The next freshman class and succeeding ones won't have that baggage…but they'll probably still have wealthier and poorer students, with more or fewer rare and valuable cards. There isn't really any detail about island economy - the cost of buying cards is never discussed aside from episode 4 - but it must exist or else Tome/Dorothy's shop wouldn't be a shop. That's to say nothing of the disparity in resources people enter the school with.

Then there's the response from prospective students and their families. What's the incentive to pay for the middle school if you're not guaranteed a better position for having attended? Is it enough to have your child advance to DA without the exam but with the risk of being ranked lower than some upstart kid from the middle of nowhere? (These are real arguments about private schools IRL: is their cost worth whatever amount of advantage you get for obtaining the future you want for your kid?)

And then there's the second part of that premise, about same accommodations and equal treatment. What does that mean?

Same accommodations as in no disparity in housing? That's an improvement for some students' quality of life, but it still doesn't touch the core issues. I've said multiple times that Hayato is the closest we have to an average trodden-down Red, so let's look at his example. Would letting Hayato live in a castle really change anything about his struggles with school? Not really!

Same accommodations as in help for academic issues where needed? Again looking at Hayato, if there's any help offered to a student we sure don't see it onscreen, and adding any would require policy change and relevant training/hiring. GX never touches on disabilities; I think you could make a couple cases for potential special needs metaphors but as I have never dealt with special education I think I will refrain on speaking further on this issue to avoid putting my foot in my mouth about it.

And when you have a student like Hayato, who struggles not just because of class discrimination but also because your curriculum values a specific metric that he doesn't, in the process missing where his true talents are...what do you do about that?

You could change the curriculum. Introduce multiple tracks of study, like college. But you need the teachers and funding to support that shift, which again requires significant school change. And even if you did, would every track get equal funding, especially if there's more money in one track than another? What's stopping the teachers OR students from getting into a STEM vs. humanities mindset with, say, pro track vs. game development?

This isn't even to say anything of Kaiser, who succeeded at everything the school values...and still crashed, because the school didn't teach him what he needed to navigate failure especially in the adult world. Addressing that too would require even more change of a different kind.

Then there's the North Academy model, which advertises itself as a strict meritocracy. I think it works well this way for Manjoume's narrative, but overall I can't really judge this because Manjoume's kind of a special case; we don't know if the average North student is allowed to do the 50-man gauntlet with their own deck or not, let alone other aspects of North's school system. So, shrug?

Ultimately the bottom lines here are:

If you take away one means of class discrimination, people will find another because the core problem is that there will be those who seek a way to hold themselves higher above others. (I argue in the episode 22 review that this is Chronos's core flaw, and even then while he's a major part of the problem he isn't the root.)

School change is often hard because it involves deeper social and/or cultural change, which involves changing people's deepseated beliefs and biases. Which is Really Goddamn Hard.

I'm running out of steam (and no longer typing this on a train with time to kill) so I'll get to the last point about Kaiba. And by that I mean copy/paste what I wrote three months ago on my main blog (full post involves GX finale spoilers) with a friend in defense(?) of Kaiba regarding the DA system:

My thoughts are: I don't think Kaiba is aware of half of what goes on at that school TBH. I don't think he intentionally created the elitist system, but I can definitely see him accidentally creating it. My evidence is: - Kagemaru talks about building the academy himself for his specific purposes, and likely he's at least partially responsible for hiring (I don't think Kaiba was the one who said DA should have an alchemy teacher, anyway). Samejima also mentions that DA was founded to solve certain mysteries, presumably supernatural in nature, which I don't think Kaiba would have been hot on. Grudgingly accepting at best. - In the episode where Manjoume's brothers bet the school's ownership on the duel with Jun, Kaiba is like "whatever yeah any student at my school could beat you even with your handicap" without a single look at the student's circumstances. If you told him it was a Red student (and he presumably knew it was the guys' brother), I don't think that would have changed his mind - or in other words, I think he has more confidence in even the lowest-ranked DA students than the average member of DA itself does. I think he runs it extremely hands-off. Maybe Kagemaru came to him with the proposal and he signed off on a chance to raise the next generation. I can see him creating the dorm system believing it would incentivize students to improve and then not realizing what kind of culture it would foster. IDK I just don't see Kaiba intentionally making students' lives worse because they test low. Assuming the average teenager has the fortitude to land in the lowest dorm and take that as a challenge rather than a death sentence - now that sounds like Kaiba to me. (And we all know he assigned ranks to the gods to be petty.)

I could write more but I'm really sleep deprived this week due to schoolwork and dear god I've risen to this bait enough already. I hope this answers the question at least somewhat.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 025: Versus Manjoume Thunder (Part 1) - The Armed Dragon Threat/S1E25: The School Duel (Part 1)

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 25. If you thought episode 24 put Manjoume/Chazz through the wringer...well, here we go!

Episode Review

The opening scene at North is more or less the same, debuting "Chazz it up" as a dub equivalent to the Manjoume Thunder chant.  Of course the flash of lightning when Chazz speaks isn't as relevant to Chazzing it up as it is to the Thunder chant, but dramatic lightning is still dramatic lightning.

Judai's little Hero pep rally about the same. The banter between him and Shou is slightly different dub versus sub, but it's not that significant.

When receiving North, the principals' conversation is a bit different. Ichinose and Samejima exchange pleasantries and allude to Mrs. Tome's role in the match, while Foster and Shepard posture about the interschool match. Judai flusters Ichinose by calling him old, while Jaden does it with a gag about his poor vocabulary. In Jaden's defense, I have NEVER seen anyone use "phenom" the way Foster does but I guess it's enough of a thing that some 4KIDS writer did.

Manjoume's re-introduction starts the same, with slightly different back-and-forth around Judai/Jaden failing to comprehend he's the North rep that comes to the same thing. There's slightly more emphasis on Chazz taking a shot at the school ("Since I stopped getting the respect I deserved here"), but it's balanced out by Manjoume in a later scene so I think it really evens out.

Aside from the bit with the North principal and people recognizing the Manjoume group through their logo in the sub (erased in the dub because no kanji allowed), the rest of the reception is largely the same. And then we get to the brothers in the locker room and then this is where things get interesting. In the sub, the brothers make it clear that Jun is standing at the edge of a cliff here. He’s liable to fail in their eyes, the weak link they’re gilding with gold because he would otherwise ruin their vision. (Gold is terrible for reinforcement, but honestly that fits the metaphor.)

Jun: What is this all about, big brothers? Chousaku: It's obvious, isn't it? This TV broadcast is one of our plans to make our brotherly promise become a reality. Jun: Plans? Shouji: That's right. Chousaku/Shouji: Our dream is to build a worldwide Manjoume Empire! Chousaku: To that end, we're here today to promote you - to turn you into the card game world's star. Jun... See, we heard from an Instructor Chronos, and apparently you were expelled from here three months ago, weren't you? Jun: W-well... Shouji: Listen, Jun! You were always the slacker among us brothers!  Chousaku: We're doing this TV broadcast with our Manjoume Group as a sponsor, so we can't afford to have you lose! Shouji: This holds a mountain of cards with great value for mine and our elder brother's money! You are to use these towards making your strongest deck! Understand, Jun? Don't do anything that would go on to disgrace the Manjoume Group... Jun? Chousaku/Shouji: Jun!

The dub has a very similar conversation, but I think there’s a slight yet important difference in how the brothers talk to Chazz: as one of them he’s already at the top, but he has to prove that to the world to maintain his position among them. He isn’t a failure yet, but he will be if he doesn’t live up to their expectations.

Chazz: You set it up, didn't you? This broadcast. Slade: Well, of course we did. We need the whole world to see you're on your way to becoming Duel Monsters' best. It's all part of the plan. Chazz: Yeah, yeah... Jagger: Look. World domination is ours for the taking if we all do our part, Chazz. Slade: And we have. Now it's your turn, bro - to conquer the world of Duel Monsters. To be the best. Jagger: And to not give up! Did you really think you could get away from your duties, get away from us, by dropping out of Duel Academy? Chazz: I...I... Jagger: Don't deny it! You have always been the slacker of this family! Slade: It doesn't matter. The point is, Chazz, you can still turn it around. You can still show that we're supreme. Jagger: That's right. And the dueling cards in this briefcase are going to help you do just that. They're the most expensive out there, so you have no excuse to lose. Don't let us down, Chazz. Don't let the Princeton name down. It's all on you. Now go...and win!

Manjoume’s arc is all about elitism, and while Chazz’s arc has been less consistent I think the concepts of elitism are reflected in both versions here - just from different positions. Manjoume has already lost favor with his brothers as well as DA, and the brothers are trying to make up for his deficit by throwing money at the situation and expecting him to win on the money’s merit ("we can't afford to have you lose"). Chazz is still granted the position of elite, but the pressure is on him to prove he deserves that position ("You can still show that we’re supreme"). In both cases, he’s either at the top or at the bottom and the pressure is on to live up to their expectations by winning.

That said! Manjoume experiencing life at the bottom is extremely important to his narrative in both the short and long term, so Chazz lacking that same narrative does change how he comes off. I'll talk more about that in the final thoughts section.

Other points of interest here: Jagger calls Chazz "the slacker of this family.” "Slacker" is a term used in both versions, but in the dub the usage here draws a line between Chazz and Jaden that the sub doesn't. (At least, I assume the sub would have used "dropout" if it were trying to draw that parallel - it did in episode 24!)

I also think Jagger’s line "Did you really think you could get away from your duties, get away from us, by dropping out of Duel Academy?" is an interesting one, like it's painting the brothers specifically as toxic. You could argue that to be true for the dub, but I’ve spent over twenty episodes showing that it's the school that's been bad for Manjoume as well as his brothers.

Speaking of which! After this conversation comes Manjoume's bathroom breakdown.

Manjoume: It's no use! It's no use! It's no use... Damn it... "Win - just win!" I can't be the slacker among my brothers and I! Win, just win... And keep winning! I have to win! Tomorrow, the day after... And the next, and the next, and the next! I have to win, win, and win my way through! No one will even get the weight of what I have on my shoulders - they'd just tell me to win... It's always about winning... "Win... Win... Just win!"

Chazz: Man up, Chazz! Man up! Come on! Show them that Chazz Princeton is no slacker - that you're worthy of the Princeton name. That you...you can win! And that you can keep winning! Over and over... That you're the best! You've got to do your part, Chazz. You've got to show them that you're supreme. It's your duty! It's the plan! Now go and win. Go and win! Go and win!

I think on a surface level these read the same - the pressure to win - but then if you read into what Manjoume/Chazz is feeling there's something in the sub monologue about how he perceives the world that the dub lacks.

Manjoume: No one will even get the weight of what I have on my shoulders - they'd just tell me to win... It's always about winning...

Chazz: You've got to do your part, Chazz. You've got to show them that you're supreme. It's your duty! It's the plan!

I'd like to suggest the sub line here points towards the DA school culture as part of the pressure he feels here. The curriculum's emphasis on winning duels is one that got brought up with Hayato all the way back in episode 5, and of course this is why Chronos dropped Manjoume back in episodes 10-12. That’s right, I’m arguing the thematic importance of Hayato Maeda again.

Last episode we saw Manjoume refuse to become a dropout boy like Judai, but this episode we see that Hayato - the archetypical Red student, beaten down by the elitist system that Judai simply doesn’t care about - is what Manjoume is afraid to become. This is complicated by the fact that episode 26 puts a lot of the onus on his brothers in either version, but I still think this is a line that can be drawn. 

Chazz’s breakdown is more about being a cog in the Princeton family wheel and an emphasis on their "plan." Which isn't at all irrelevant to his character, sub or dub; it simply highlights something different about his situation.

Before the match Shou downplays Manjoume as someone Judai's already beat, and Judai responds by acknowledging Manjoume's fortitude in becoming North's champion and returning to DA. In the dub Syrus hypes Chazz up as Jaden's rival, and Jaden alludes to overhearing Chazz in the bathroom and talking about how hard he has it - he's more overtly sympathetic, where Judai is a bit more indirect about the same.

Leading into the match, the dub cuts a shot of Chronos getting stage fright on national TV and then there’s a lot of minor line changes in keeping with the “petty Crowler” agenda. Chronos' standard announcement dialogue is changed to bragging/namedropping. Chronos calling Judai Dropout Boy out of habit before correcting himself is changed to calling him Jaden Yucky before "correcting" himself. Manjoume insults Chronos's hair, Chazz insults Crowler's skills leading into a bunch of Crowler PhD jokes. When Chronos falls off the stage, Judai asks if he's okay while Jaden has a quip.

Then comes Manjoume/Chazz’s self-introduction. Where Chazz mentioned being disrespected at the reception, Manjoume brings it up now:

Manjoume: Listen up! Do you all remember me? I ask all those in this academy who felt relieved that I was gone! I ask all those who went on about my expulsion as if I earned it! If you don't know me, let me fill you in - open your ears up and listen carefully! I've come back from the depths of hell just like a phoenix, and my name is... One! Ten! North: One hundred! One thousand! Manjoume: Manjoume Thunder! North: Yeah! Thunder!

Chazz’s introduction is a bit less bombastic of a speech compared to Manjoume’s and lacks some of the phoenix analogy's comeback element, but it’s still effective.

Chazz: It's Chazz Princeton's turn now. But then, I don't really need an introduction. After all, everybody here knows who I am. Or...do you?! See, Chazz Princeton has changed! Sure, I used to be a classmate of yours. But when I left here, I left my old self, as well! Now you're looking at the new and improved Chazz! The North Academy Chazz! And I'm here to... North: Chazz it up! Chazz: That's right! Say it again! North: Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up!

Shou comments on Manjoume's popularity in awe, while Syrus does it with a "no way anyone would actually like this guy" vibe.

Manjoume and Judai's exchange before the duel more explicitly reminds you of the pressure Manjoume is under - "After all, I can't afford to lose this duel" with some dialogue from the brothers towards Jun - while the dub just leaves it to the shot of the brothers to remind you of the same.

Around here, the dub starts replacing the crowd's "Thunder! Thunder! Manjoume Thunder" with "Chazz it up" plus various other calls like "Take him down!" or "Show no mercy!" I’m guessing this is because the dub doesn't like to be too repetitive. Chazz and Jaden have jazzed-up duel procedure dialogue (turn end, draw, attack declaration) that I don't feel like going into detail about.

The sub plays up the rarity of LV cards compared to the dub. The principals' banter is about the same, with Shepard trying to make "Jaden it up" a thing. When Armed Dragon LV5's ability activates, Jaden has a quick but cute little comment to Burstinatrix ("I’m sorry, Burst") where Judai is still talking effects.

In the sub Chronos makes a comment about the cameras leading Judai to make a joke, while in the dub Crowler has an "I'm okay......" moment and Jaden makes the TV joke independently. Chousaku compliments Jun's dueling, while Slade comments that "He's finally acting like a Princeton." Shouji jokes about having extra airtime to fill if Jun wins too fast, while Jagger jokes about milking Jaden's suffering for more commercial revenue for the same punchline but with 75% more capitalism.

In the peanut gallery, Shou/Hayato commentary gets cut for Chazz trash talk. Of course we can't let Chumley give intelligent duel analysis.

Upon LV7's summon, Judai comments on its final form while Judai has a quip. Shepard tries to Jaden it up again. In the dub North actually boos him, whereas in the sub they just cheer Manjoume louder. Manjoume's trash talk is a bit different between versions, but Judai's responding excitement is the same. Then comes a Manjoume monologue:

Manjoume: How insufferable are you? It's impossible for me to live every day just messing around thoughtlessly like you do. Just look at those tense stares! That heavy glaring as all the dreams and hopes of the Manjoume family rest on my shoulders! I have to meet my brothers' expectations - to prove my worth to them - so no matter what happens here, Judai Yuki, I have to defeat you! Judai: I won't make it easy for you, Manjoume! Manjoume: That's "Manjoume, sir!" (Manjoume Thunder!)

As established previously, Manjoume has to prove his worth from a lower position in his brothers’ eyes where Chazz has to prove he can be a good cog in the machine.

Chazz: You're pitiful, Jaden. Jumping up and down like some fool, never taking anything serious. That's why you'll never be a champion. You see, it takes discipline to win. You need to have a sense of duty. You need to have some kind of plan! And I have a plan, and I have a sense of duty, and that's why I'm going to beat you, Jaden! That's why I'll beat anyone in my way! I can conquer anyone! You got that? I'm going to conquer the whole world! Jaden: Okay, well, if you don't mind, can I take my turn first? Chazz: Make it quick!

I don't think the dub's attempt at levity really works as well as the original dialogue in that last bit. The point is that Manjoume/Chazz is fraying under the pressure here, and his demand for respectful address is a sign of that.

Before direct attacking with LV7, Chazz has some extra trash talk and a "You go bye-bye" while omitting Manjoume's appeal to his brothers ("Watch me, brothers - watch my strength!"). Roll cliffhanger.

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

As continuation of the Final Thoughts section: past season 1, Manjoume's narrative of himself as someone who rose up from the bottom is referred to again in season 2 against his Obelisk junior and in season 3 in his duel against Amon. I haven't done full comparisons of these episodes yet, but a look over the scripts tells me that this idea is either removed or watered down in both.

Final Thoughts

Episodes 24-26 are quite important for Manjoume/Chazz’s character arc, so I’ve been trying to pay close attention to what differences there are between his major character moments. Last episode we saw that although the dub had some ground to make up in terms of communicating what lessons Chazz had to learn, it did make an effort and got at least halfway. I think the same applies for this episode, and I would argue that the dub actually goes most of the way in communicating the same arc as the sub this episode with two points of nuance.

First, the pressures bearing down on Manjoume and Chazz are slightly change between versions, with Manjoume feeling isolation and pressure related to DA’s school culture as well as from his brothers whereas Chazz mainly feels pressure from his brothers. This follows from elitist themes in the sub that were rewritten or reduced in the dub, though ultimately this is a pretty subtle difference that doesn't dramatically change anything long-term.

Somewhat more impactful is a difference between Manjoume and Chazz's position entering into this duel and how that translates to their overall narratives. Manjoume has fallen from grace, and successfully reinventing himself at North hasn't changed his fall within the social framework he came from ("I've come back from the depths of hell just like a phoenix" doesn't matter when you should never have fallen to hell in the first place). But the image developing from these episodes is: Manjoume Thunder falls, and then gets up to claw his way back up again. He turns his lowliness into strength, which is why his iconic aces are the zero-attack Ojamas.

Chazz also reinvented himself, but he hasn't really fallen the way Manjoume has. He's taken a fall, but is that part of his narrative or just a temporary setback? Even with his brothers, the pressure is about demonstrating he belongs where he is at the top rather than proving himself from the bottom. The ultimate point is the same: win just to stay afloat, because you’re nothing if you lose. But the path there matters, and this affects his narrative in both the short and long term. (See the Spoiler Zone for rough notes on future seasons.) I'm going to reserve full judgment on how that pans out until the zero-attack duel, which further builds on these ideas. (If any primary-dub watchers have thoughts, I invite comments and discussion too!)

Much like the duel giant episode, I think that while the dub version of this episode coheres it loses some depth compared to the sub. Still, this is honestly a lot closer than I thought this mini-arc would be given the dub’s handling of elitist themes in previous episodes.

This episode of course also introduces "Chazz it up," wordplay on the phrase "jazz it up," as the dub equivalent of the "1! 10! 100! 1000! Manjoume Thunder" chant. I’ve seen reactions at both end of the love/hate spectrum, and everyone's entitled to their opinion about it. Personally I think it’s pretty good given the language constraints, but I really love the counting windup of the Thunder chant so I wish they’d found a way to incorporate something similar into the dub equivalent. Building anticipation aside, it would probably have helped 4KIDS scriptwise - you can already see the writers trying to skirt around the chant timing, and Manjoume Thunder is not going away anytime soon.

Aside from that, this episode has some of the usual dub changes where Crowler is concerned, emphasizing his petty ego even when Chronos is making an effort to be a fair announcer. With one of Chronos's big character development episodes only six(!) episodes away, I don’t think this is the greatest place to be but we’ll see how the dub handles that when we get there.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 024: A Comeback! Manjoume Thunder/S1E24: The New Chazz

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 24. This episode brings us back to Manjoume/Chazz’s character arc, and an interesting bit of navigation when it comes to the dub in particular.

Episode Review

in the opening scene on the capsized boat, dream Jaden is a bit more mocking than dream Judai.

Judai: Whoa, that's great! You're just rarin' to go! Manjoume: You little-- ...This was the last of my water. Judai: Hey, Manjoume, just come back already! You and I ought to duel! 

Jaden: Really? That's all you want? I'd want not to be stranded! Chazz: Stranded? I'm not stranded! I'm perfectly fine! A little thirsty maybe. Jaden: You know what I'm thirsty for? Another duel where I beat you! I'm downright parched for it!

Neat bit of trivia: in the sub this episode and the next two-parter feature a unique title screen. The dub doesn’t do title screens to begin with, so naturally it gets cut.

In the submarine, Ichinose notes Manjoume's cards are waterlogged to the point of uselessness before dropping them into the puddle. Foster notes no such thing so he just wrecks Chazz's deck personally through doing the same.

After giving Manjoume/Chazz Ojama Yellow, the principal baits Manjoume with the idea of becoming "better" (more powerful by Manjoume’s interpretation, but also an obvious signal to coming character development), while in the dub the bait is a rematch with Jaden. Dream Judai boasting is turned into teasingly calling Chazz a coward. Dream Jaden is mean, damn.

Manjoume scoffs at the idea of working for improvement, i.e., he’s already superior so he shouldn’t have to lower himself to the effort.

Manjoume: Of course I do! What man wouldn't want power?! Ichinose: Are you prepared to put in the work?  Manjoume: Wait, work?! Who do you think I am?! I'm Jun Manjoume - "Manjoume, sir" to you! Ichinose: You hate to work... But you want to be better... You are quite the astonishing one. But that is fine. You seem to have an ability that others lack. Let me take you somewhere you'll like...

Hey, remember back in episode 2 when we were talking about what the dorm system says about Manjoume/Chazz?

This episode is primarily about Obelisk and its elitism, represented foremost by Manjoume/Chazz. I think the dub implying Obelisk is a mix of genuinely smart kids and kids coasting purely on money can bring up the question: which is Chazz? The sub says Obelisks need both, and focuses on Manjoume as an intellectual elite (with more focus on his money coming later). But the dub leaves it more ambiguous, and…also doesn’t really land either way as far as this episode goes.

Well, as of this episode the dub’s landed solidly on “coasting purely on money”!

Chazz: That's it! No one calls Chazz Princeton a coward! Foster: Talk is cheap, young duelist. Chazz: That may be, but I'm rich! And I'll spend whatever it takes to be the best out there! Foster: That's just your problem. No amount of money can buy you that. You must earn it if you can. And that is precisely what we're going to find out.

Before ejecting Manjoume/Chazz from the submarine, Ichinose says Manjoume is special while Foster instead says Chazz will learn money can't buy everything. Manjoume recognizes the scenario as a test and resolves to prove himself…

Manjoume: That damn kelp freak... That was some reckless treatment. Where exactly am I? That building... Hmph. Is that damn geezer out to test me? Fine, then. Don't underestimate Jun Manjoume. 

Chazz instead makes digs about the campus and talks about how rich he is, including a line where the sub is silent as he approaches the gates.

Chazz: Crazy kook! My attorney will be in touch with you. Oh, well, at least I'm back in civilization. Well, kind of. This place is low-rent. No problem, one call and I'm out of here. The only question is, should I have them send the plane or the chopper? ...Not a bad spread. Of course, my pad is bigger.

Do you get it??? Chazz is a spoiled rich kid!!! Remember how he's rich? You will now!

The conversation about the entrance requirements is about the same between versions until Manjoume/Chazz walks off. Ichinose gives a hint on how better cards are in harder-to-reach locations, while Foster just says something ominous.

 Manjoume's monologue during the North entrance card collection gauntlet is aimed at Judai: "I won't ever find myself dropping out [unlike you]." Chazz instead gripes to himself about the North exam being annoying: “I can't believe I have to fetch cards just to get North Academy to open their stinking doors for me. Talk about a school that's hard to get into.”

Once Manjoume/Chazz returns to the entrance, the dub cuts an additional sequence showing more of Manjoume’s trials and the hardships he had to endure to collect the deck.

The principal’s final test in the sub is to encourage Manjoume to go ahead talking about how Manjoume is younger and has a brighter future in front of him. In the dub this is practically turned into a guilt-trip threat: if he can’t get in, he’s going to die of the cold. This changes the stakes of Manjoume/Chazz’s moment of kindness: the sub asks if he’s willing to let someone’s hope die, and the dub asks if he’s willing to let a man straight-up freeze to death. From there, this scene might influence how “good” a person the audience can assume Manjoume/Chazz really is from this test of character. The rest of the scene is about the same, aside from adding a Dream Jaden line spelling out the moral when Chazz finds his new 40th card.

Once we get into the North campus, the intro to North's interior is mostly the same, aside from more insults on Chazz's part. North's King is now the Czar (noting that the sub uses the English loanword “King” rather than the Japanese term, so there’s a foreign element to both titles) and the 50-Man Duel to the Death is now the 50-Man Duel Gauntlet, which I frankly think is a better name if less North-style edgy. 

Soon after, Manjoume debuts the “1! 10! 100! 1000! Manjoume Thunder” chant. If you know anything about Manjoume/Chazz sub vs dub it’s probably this, but let’s get into the details here (as told by a relative layperson in Japanese) because this chant is one of the most iconic things about Manjoume in the sub and…extremely difficult to translate into the English language.

The Manjoume Thunder chant is the combination of a few bits of Japanese wordplay. The first character of the Manjoume surname, 万, represents the number 10,000. Manjoume also has a tendency to insist people refer to him with the respectful Japanese honorific “-san” (translated in the subs as “sir”), leading him to say a specific line whenever someone calls him Manjoume: “Manjoume-san da” (translated as “That’s Manjoume, sir”). The English word “thunder” is transliterated into Japanese as “sanda” which of course sounds like “-san da.”

Put together Manjoume uses the “1! 10! 100! 1000!” count to lead into his name, which he demands you say with respect, and this also becomes his nickname/catchphrase. A somewhat literal localization of this using his dub name (not even remotely crafted for snappiness, don’t @ me) might be something like “Not a knight, not a baron, not a duke - that’s Your Royal Highness Chazz Princeton!” 

...except "that’s Your Royal Highness Chazz Princeton" is also supposed to be really cool wordplay on top of all that. As cool as the Thunder chant is, you'd need some seriously clever translators/localizers to adapt all these elements literally into a snappy chant. I believe it's possible (mostly because I've seen some real mastercraft in translating the rap battles in Ya Boy Kongming!) but I certainly couldn't do it, and I can't fault the dub for not doing so either.

Anyway the dub replaces this birth of an iconic catchphrase with a different one-off line and a play on words (“And soon…your czar…will fall! And then the Princeton will rise!”) which strains a bit against the punctuated animation it has to match. The dub also cuts a reaction shot of the North guys in response to the chant. 4KIDS instead debuts a different catchphrase at the end of the first duel. That’s right, it’s time to Chazz it u—

Nope, not until next episode. The Thunder chant only occurs once this episode and it’s already been replaced with something else. The dub does, however, give Chazz "You go bye-bye" as a finishing catchphrase.

And then to speak again of observations from episode 2: once again the dub skips over Manjoume talking about how calculated his plays are during the 1v4 duel iceberg climbing flashback, with his trials giving him time and opportunity to think through comprehensive strategy with constrained resources.

Manjoume: I can see how you all duel. I spent my survival as I looked for my cards thinking... Thinking of all the scenarios that can come out of a limited hand, and of all the strategies that would get me through them. Ojama Yellow: That's so cool! Bro, you're talking about me, right? Manjoume: Quit talking nonsense! Dueling's all about power! Weak cards can't defeat stronger ones, can they? What I learned was that runts can be useful in their own runty way! 

The dub instead goes more generic with a lesson about making the best with what you have - which is similar in idea, but also focuses more on life lessons than duel strategy in particular. His exchange with Ojama Yellow is also different, changing from talking about the niche power of weak monsters to insulting Ojama Yellow personally. RIP Giant Rat, caught in the crossfire either way.

Chazz: Perhaps. After all, [Giant Rat] is a weaker card. One that the old Chazz would never have had in his deck. But I learned something since I arrived here. I learned that life deals you all kinds of cards. And sometimes, you have to make the best out of what you got. Ojama Yellow: Ah, that's so nice of you, boss! You're talking about me, huh? Chazz: Actually, I wasn't. You're still just as annoying and revolting and non-existent as ever! Got it? You're a disgusting, little yellow gremlin! And I don't like you, so quit bugging me!

If you want to get finicky about it, you could argue that the ice climbing flashback puts more highlight on Chazz’s overall intended character development at the cost of showing how it affects him as a duelist…which is meant to be reflective of his character development anyway. The rest of the 1v4 duel isn't much to talk about, other than the dub reinforcing "you go bye-bye" in place of Manjoume’s countdown to explosion on his Ring of Destruction combo.

Then comes the duel against the King/Czar, and in the sub the King points out he has a strategic advantage because he’s seen Manjoume's deck dozens of times by now. The dub has more generic trash talk in place of this, and cuts a couple lines from Dream Judai commenting on the King. This repeats at the start of the duel: King's first few turns have more trash talk in the dub (with some more prince vs czar wordplay), omitting mentions of his informational advantage.

The dub finally mentions this advantage the third time it comes up, but it's specifically about the strength of Chazz's monsters rather than what strategies he uses. Manjoume gambling on an unseen combo (Hell Tempest/Inferno Tempest) is changed for a more general "But I know how to use the cards I've got." In a way it feels like this is getting framed as Chazz’s version of the Truesdales’ “knowing how to play a card,” but this doesn't seem to crop up in the next two episodes at least.

In his final play with the mass special summoning, Manjoume insults Ojama Yellow for his status ("Beat it, zero-attack!") while Chazz is again more personal about it ("I meant everyone, except you").

After the duel, Ichinose calls Manjoume the new King but Foster does NOT call Chazz the Czar, implying that North only called the Czar the Czar for his heavy Russian accent. The principal has more digs at the Czar as per usual dub humor. 

More importantly, in the dub North had its entire production (submarine, trials, and all) to recruit Chazz specifically because he has "a gift" that Foster sensed when Chazz handled Ojama Yellow…which happened only after they picked him up. Go figure. This makes more sense in the sub, where North seems to just operate like that in general (the submarine being their traditional transportation) and Manjoume came to their attention thanks to Ojama Yellow: "The card I handed you had sensed that you were drifting about and saved you."

Leading into the next two episodes, the principal doesn’t know much about Manjoume’s relation to the Central DA rep in the sub and actually barely remembers his name. Of course in the dub the principal has known all along, and once again baits Chazz with the rematch. In both cases of course, Manjoume/Chazz is absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to duel Judai/Jaden again…

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Manjoume’s ice-climbing monologue about strategizing around his limited resources is kind of echoed three seasons later during his S4 internship episode where sorting through a massive card archive helps him reflect on potential combos in his own deck - which I thought was a neat point of possible continuity in retrospect while rewatching this episode. However, season 4 context very much did not exist in 2005 and was never dubbed anyway so it’s not exactly a loss on the dub’s part.

Final Thoughts

This is the start of the Big Manjoume/Chazz Character Development Arc in any version. The question for these reviews is: what does each version of GX tell us his character arc is supposed to be? We’re not at the end yet, but we can look at how he starts and what this episode tells us about how he’s developing. And for that, we look at where we saw him last: crashing in episode 12 and leaving the school in episode 13.

Episode 12 outlines Manjoume’s problem in the sub: he’s caught up in his status as an Obelisk elite, but he also feels both pressure from his elder siblings to live up to the standards of that status while also getting the elite rug pulled out from under him as he loses favor with Chronos (the top of the elitist structure and the one most strongly reinforcing it). He clings to that status at the start (“Wait, work?! Who do you think I am?!”) and reinvents himself after being forced to work with scraps instead of the resources his status previously afforded him (something we’ll see more focus on next episode, and again later this season when he duels his brother). Despite all that, he maintains his sense of pride as shown by his new signature chant.

And as previously discussed in episode 12, and even the start of the punishment tag duel before that…a lot of that is missing from the dub. Chazz isn’t an elitist so much as a bully, whether because they didn’t realize the elitist angle was important or whether because they consciously wrote away from those themes. I won’t claim to know which it is, and for the purpose of these reviews I think the more important point is how they choose to make up the missing ground.

So how do you quickly establish that someone believes they’re above others in a way that being forced to play with a ragtag deck of cards can change? Money, dear boy. The dub has a visible steer towards spoiled rich kid Chazz in this episode when they never mentioned his money before. This isn’t to say it was a bad move; given the past 23 episodes, this was probably as good as the dub could have done to cover the same arc while missing the original context. (You can't say the sub never had any narrative steers either.) But it does leave a slightly different impression of who Chazz is compared to Manjoume, and what he's done to earn his character development.

What does Manjoume learn this episode? What does Chazz learn? In the sub, the emphasis is on Manjoume learning to crack his knuckles and put in the hard work to achieve his goals, emphasized by his determination not to become a dropout boy like Judai and the various trials he overcomes (iceberg climbing, shark fights, and all) to do so with limited resources. Chazz spends most of the same lines griping about the same trials and then pulls out “I learned to make the best of what I got” during the iceberg climbing flashback. He doesn’t talk about the effort he puts in (either physically or strategically) and his development feels a bit more like telling than showing in the dub, but it does try to come around to at least half of the same conclusion. 

More minor points of discussion: the North principal’s motives with regards to Manjoume/Chazz are different between versions, with more focus on his connection to Ojama Yellow in the sub and more focus on his rivalry with Jaden in the dub. (The dub is also meaner about Ojama Yellow, LOL.) And of course you can’t talk about this episode without mentioning the rise of Manjoume Thunder, but I think that’s better left for the next two episodes when we debut the chant’s most iconic dub equivalent.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 023: Burnout! The Moke Moke Duel/S1E23: The Little Belowski

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 23. This episode features my personal favorite one-off duelist in the series, and…well, there’s a lot to say for this one.

Moke Moke!

Episode Review

The sub starts with Shou recapping the school rep qualifier match and providing exposition. The dub cuts this and skips to the actual opening scene with Chronos/Crowler at the chicken coop. Once again the dub is a little more upfront with the episode premise compared to the sub, mentioning "Duel Academy's most dangerous specimen" and Belowski's name where the sub has him allude to what's coming with a Pandora's box reference. Otherwise, aside from a flurry of fowl puns in the dub the scene is about the same.

After that, Judai's feelings as everyone offers Judai their cards are different between versions. In the sub he doesn't care about the school's reputation and just wants to have fun; the interschool match is just the means by which he gets a fun new duel.

Judai: Aww, shut up! Don't butt in! Misawa: We aren't butting in for nothing - your upcoming duel is a battle with the academy's prestige at stake! To that end, we hoped to battle with you-- Asuka: That's right! It is for the academy, after all! Judai: Screw that! Who says I'm dueling for the academy?! This is my duel! I'm just doing it to have fun!

Jaden feels more responsibility in the dub, and stresses over representing the school well:

Jaden: What I need is some time to think! Bastion: There's no need to be rude, Jaden. We're only trying to help. After all, you've been selected as the academy's representative at the school duel. Alexis: This is huge! And if you don't win, it's going to be a huge disappointment. Jaden: Aw, come on! Like there's not enough pressure on me already?! I know the school's counting on me! But all I can duel is my best!

When Judai/Jaden runs off, his friends reiterate the cards they want him to use in the sub. The dub changes it up by adding some "You can't be alone all by yourself!" jokes...

...and a Chumley fat joke, of course.

Judai runs to the roof mentioning that it's his "special spot," whereas Jaden has a quip about his friends. The former is a running gag for this episode among others (we saw this in episode 9, for example). For Motegi/Belowski's intro Motegi is introduced as more meandering whereas Belowski gets to the point and then meanders:

Judai: Wh-why are you in my special spot when no one else knows about it? Motegi: 'Cause the weather's great! Judai: The weather? Motegi: Up here, the sun's nice and warm, the clouds are floating... You don't feel like doing anything...

Jaden: No offense, but I was hoping to find some peace and quiet. What're you doing up here? Belowski: I'm up here to duel you, Jaden! Jaden: Who are you? Belowski: Just a dude with a deck. Call me Belowski. You ever notice how clouds look like duel monsters if you look really close?

Belowski’s name and characterization are a reference to The Big Lebowski, a 1998 cult film that (checks Wikipedia) is rated R, the plot of which is entirely unrelated to this episode beyond the protagonist doing weed (comparing the Moke Moke effect to a drug trip), and as of time of writing is currently ranked #44 on the Wikipedia page "List of films that most frequently use the word fuck." This was not a reference intended for the kids, although the episode stands without understanding that.

Then we get to the major difference in how Motegi/Belowski is introduced. Motegi is here to purposefully pique Judai's interest as a mysterious duelist who sees spirits, the first we’ve seen since Hayato (not that 4KIDS is interesting in acknowledging it for Chumley).

Motegi: I know it's random, but let's duel! Judai: Wh-what's that about? And he just said he didn't want to do anything... Motegi: This is a different story. I mean, you'd want to have a duel against a guy who knew about duel spirits, wouldn't you? Well? Judai: I get it... So this guy's a duelist with some special power too, huh?

While Belowski is more casual about spirits and instead spouts incomprehensible hippie talk.

Belowski: Anyhow, let's duel! Jaden: Again with the dueling. He must think I'm easy pickings 'cause I'm in Red. Belowski: Red, blue, yellow, who cares?! Those are just symbols the man uses to try to propagate social division! See...it's all a conspiracy of the political-industrial complex to permeate the so-called free market. Jaden: Sure! Whatevs! Let's just throw down!

Hang on let’s back up.

Belowski: Red, blue, yellow, who cares?! Those are just symbols the man uses to try to propagate social division! 

…I know the joke is that he’s talking incomprehensible hippie rhetoric but like, the ranked dorm system as part of a larger social inequality at the school is in fact what’s going on in the sub version of GX at least. I’ve been discussing this for over twenty episodes. Belowski reached across the language barrier and spoke truths from another reality.

Then Judai's friends enter, and for the second time the dub rewrites the little detail that Judai's secret spots aren't as secret as he thinks they are:

Shou: Hey! Big Bro, you were up here! Judai: C'mon... How'd you know about this spot? Shou: Well, you're always here when you skip class, Big Bro!

The dub foregoes this and instead has ask Syrus who the new guy is. Chronos follows up on the secret spot talk, noting that he also knows where Judai comes to skip class, and then gloats about Motegi's powers. Crowler instead gloats and then has a joke about his protective suit.

When the duel starts and Motegi/Belowski summons Moke Moke, the peanut gallery comments on how "mellow" he is in the sub and his cuteness in the dub, both leading into the idea of sleepytime. The dub once again removes the mention of Flame Wingman as Judai's favorite monster (RIP).

The next few turns don't have any significant changes beyond Belowski's general Belowski-isms up until the Angered Moke Moke/Moke Moke Smackdown play, where Motegi is more soft-spoken leading into his attack and Belowski is more direct (not all that different from Maiden in Love a few episodes ago, actually):

Motegi: Um, do you mind if... I kinda want to have Moke Moke attack Flame Wingman... 

Belowski: Now where was I? Oh, yeah. I was about to have my Mokey Mokey attack your Flame Wingman.

And then Belowski tosses out more "chill" lines both during the attack and during his follow-up plays. When Judai demands to know what Motegi/Belowski did to the others, Motegi doesn't explain while Belowski says he "freed their minds."

The dub cuts a line/shot from Chronos, mostly wordplay in the sub mixing his laugh with the "moke moke" mantra and his speaking quirk (roughly "Mokeke no ke, na no nae!").

Then we get into backstory. Three years ago, Motegi was formerly DA's top student until his dueling style suddenly changed, and his opponents started losing ambition and dropping out. Chronos calls this his "Burnout Dueling." Belowski instead was left at DA as a baby and was raised as a student there. In both, Motegi is said to be a strong duelist.

Interestingly, Crowler almost seems aware of duel spirits in his explanation: "No! I mean how Mokey Mokey comes alive when he duels with him. ...Powers and all! Powers that lull everyone around him into a lazy daze, like your friends! And soon...like you!"

Chronos, by comparison, is aware that Motegi has powers but Motegi is the one to mention his connection to Moke Moke: "I don't get why it happens, but ever since I met my Moke Moke, everyone gets like that when I duel..." As shown below, Chronos isn't aware of the spirit side of things.

The explanation of Motegi/Belowski's containment is mostly the same, but the dub puts more emphasis on how the school is imprisoning him gilded cage style: "Jail's such an ugly word. We prefer mandatory restraint habitat."

And then of course we get into Motegi/Belowski's different motives for starting this duel. Motegi is doing this out of his own beliefs, thinking Judai’s Winged Kuriboh would be happier not having to duel.

Judai: Then, why'd you go and bring him outside? You don't even want to duel, do you? Motegi: Yeah. But once I heard about you from Instructor Chronos, I got some kind of a hunch. I was wondering if you might be able to use duel spirits like I can... Chronos: Spirits? Motegi: See, I want to set your cute spirit free from dueling! Not having a care in the world like this is what makes a spirit happy, y'know. Judai: Sorry, but it doesn't sound like it is. My partner's saying that it's having fun getting to duel here and now!

Belowski is instead…Crowler’s…personal child assassin???

Jaden: Sure it was [a paradise]. And just like an island, he was completely stranded there, huh? Belowski: Nah, man, it's all good! I just chill, and then every time there's a student Dr. C wants me to take care of, I get to come out. You know. Duel, whatever. It's a pretty sweet gig. Crowler: That's right! Belowski: Plus...I get plenty of time to hang with my monster crew and spin our wheels and stuff. And, dude? We have some deep talks, too. We're totally unraveling the universe. You should join us! Jaden: Hmm? No, thanks. We're good here. Dueling is our thing. So how about we get back to it?

This episode is full of severely messed up implications in both versions but, wow. Belowski is a stoned Winter Soldier. All right then.

(courtesy of @eleanorose123)

The rest of the duel goes about the same, including the line where Judai/Jaden says he's too busy having fun to succumb to the Moke Moke effect. The post-duel conversation is a bit different, with the dub adding a new explanation as to why Jaden didn't fall asleep.

Judai: Gotcha! That was a really fun duel! You got pretty heated-up yourself, too! Motegi: It's not as easy as it looks to stay relaxed, y'know. Judai: Tell me about it! It's 'cause dueling's so much fun! Motegi: Yep. I guess it's nice to get wrapped up in a match like you sometimes... But for now, I'm spent from trying too hard... Night...

Jaden: That's game! And what a game! I actually thought you had me a few times! Belowski: Yeah, but I don't get it. Why didn't you trance out? Jaden: Why would I? When I sleep, I dream of dueling! Belowski: Ohhhhh... I think I get it. You love dueling so much, The more Mokey Mokey tried to zonk you out, the more revved up you got! ...Good to know... For next time. But now? I need a nice, long nap. Later!

The episode closes out with a few additional jokes in the dub, calling back to the beginning of the episode.

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Read below for more, but the point that Judai focuses on fun and not responsibility is going to be extremely relevant in future seasons, at least the sub version. (I can’t make claims about the dub version until I’ve seen the relevant episodes.) For example - and this is by no means exhaustive - it’s part of the main contrast between him and Edo (Aster) as hero users/lovers; it’s relevant to Judai’s interactions with the Society of Light; Professor Satou (Stein) calls him out it in season 3, leading into responsibility as a theme in the sub version of season 3; and then in season 4 Judai overcorrects and has to relearn how to have fun when he’s been burdened with responsibility. Obviously this was not known to 4KIDS in 2005, but it is still worth mentioning for retrospective.

Also on the point of Judai’s secret spots, people keep seeking him out at said spots as far as season 4 (episode 167) so even if it’s not that important in the long run I’m a little sad that the dub eliminates the joke.

Final Thoughts

This is…an extremely weird episode in terms of dub changes.

First off, as previously mentioned the decision to reference an R-rated movie to make stoner jokes about the duelist of the week in a dub where the alcohol gets censored into hot sauce…sure is a choice. This isn’t the first time adult jokes and references are made in kids’ media and won’t be the last, but I just want to get that out there as a point about the dub’s localization choices because this won’t be the last time for GX either. 

Second, the dub changes Belowski’s backstory (and age) compared to the sub. Motegi is a mysterious student who was normal up until he developed powers and has since been locked up in a blissful haze. Belowski is an Academy-raised assassin who now serves as Crowler’s personal dueling Winter Soldier. Absolutely wild. Motegi is one of my favorite characters in GX on the pure basis that I think his case is super messed-up (DA just casually indefinitely imprisoning a kid for supernatural powers and all) and now the dub’s managed to find a way to make it even more messed up. Amazing. Will this ever be followed up on? Unfortunately not, except on on my conspiracy board. 

Relatedly, Crowler seeming to know something about Belowski and his connection with Moke Moke has slight implications toward public knowledge about duel spirits. We saw a little bit about that previously with the Jinzo episode too, where learning forbidden summoning rituals is apparently part of the curriculum.

Last, there’s a couple of different minor details about Judai that are changed or cut to make Jaden feel like a different character. Judai not caring about the responsibility of representing the school is a major one, because it feeds into his characterization as someone who only cares for fun and not larger consequences. Discussing the relevance in more detail edges into spoilers for future seasons, so check the Spoiler Zone for that. Judai’s secret spots being well-known to his friends (and Chronos) is less important, but I thought it was a cute point of continuity that the dub eliminates.

[getyourchangeon]

I'm that last anon and I straight up did not remember actually sending that last ask. I remember typing it but tumblr gave me an error message so I assumed it never actually got to you??? Anyway I still appreciate your insightful response. I know school has been giving you a hard time lately but I'm still cheering for you in your studies. You can do it!

Ah, Tumblr Tumblr-ing I see.

Thank you for the support, it's appreciated! Although I still plan to take a hiatus once I get to the halfway point of S1 (my episode buffer is thinning as my pace slows), working on these episode comparisons has honestly helped get me through the many hours of train ride I've needed to endure for my dissertation work. The writing work isn't entirely different either since in both cases I'm picking out quotes to analyze themes and discuss implications. Alas, nobody's going to give me a degree for writing about GX (unless I go for another school/field of study entirely; add some research into 4KIDS as a corporation and 2000s culture into the existing analyses and you probably could get a thesis out of this).

[getyourchangeon]

You suffer more than jesus for dealing with all the chumley fat jokes

This ask comes at a time when I'm dealing with school crunch and also thinking about a certain monologue about winning in future episodes, soooo!

I haven't made it a secret that I'm studying education IRL, and aside from the exact discipline my dissertation work is targeted at kids like Hayato. He's interested in a certain topic (dueling), and trying to figure out what role he wants it to play in his life. He likes dueling and Duel Monsters, but the way it's taught at the school just doesn't mesh with him because it's focused on a future he doesn't see for himself (pro dueling, with an emphasis on winning). So he starts to believe he doesn't have a future in dueling, and his arc is all about figuring out how he can.

Hayato's never a major character but I think he resonates with certain life experiences that aren't uncommon for kids. And narratively, given what he represents (deemed a failure because he can't live up to the school's narrow definition of success) you can draw parallels from his example to several other characters' arcs.

And the dub just...takes out all those ideas and replaces them with fat jokes.

Anyway, not only is it frustrating to me as someone who sees a lot of meaning in characters like Hayato, I also think it's just a stale and lazy excuse for humor. As I've said, although the fat jokes are a minor part of most episodes they're a minor part of most episodes and I don't understand why the the writers thought this was such peak comedy that they'd add in fat jokes when nobody was even talking about Hayato/Chumley to start with.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 022: The Fusion Lock! Judai Versus Misawa (Part 2)/S1E22: The Duel Off (Part 2)

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 22. This concludes the Judai/Jaden vs. Misawa/Bastion two-parter, as well as the reporter subplot. And once again, I have a lot to say about the idea of elitism in early GX.

Episode Review

In the opening with Kunisaki/Gerard, the dub gives Gerard more exposition reminding the audience what he’s up to. He's also a little more gleeful about the idea of destroying DA's reputation:

Kunisaki: If it was all a lie, it'll be a real fiasco.

Gerard: I smell a front page scandal...plus a major payday for the reporter who breaks the story! Thanks for the scoop, Duel Academy! And good luck surviving all the bad publicity!

Back in the ongoing match, the dub adds Bastion trash talk over the sub's silent panning field review. Kaiser says the current situation is expected of Misawa as Ra Yellow's top student, while Zane says they've been underestimating Bastion. Alexis is more defensive of Jaden compared to Asuka for Judai. Chronos/Crowler's peanut gallery commentary is mostly the same between versions, but the dub line mentions the school duel to remind you of the stakes.

Misawa asks what Judai thinks of his seventh deck, while Bastion comments on Jaden's lack of options. Judai/Jaden's response is the same: this is a challenge, and it'll be that much greater when I surpass it. Bastion's response (roughly "keep dreaming") is more condescending than Misawa ("that's just like you, but nope")  leading into draw declaration in both versions. Bastion's first attack declaration is slightly jazzed up, but the rest of his turn is the same.

After that comes the first major difference in this episode, and what I believe is the most significant change: the dub cuts a scene in which the teachers discuss the rank system and the purpose of education.

Chronos: What goosebumps! One is sure to see why I recommended him, no? Daitokuji: And he's a Ra Yellow student at that [meow]. Chronos: Do re... Samejima: We nurture our students so they may duel this well, even outside of Obelisk Blue. A delightful feat, wouldn't you say? Chronos: Mi fa so... Why could it be that Misawa is not an Obelisk Blu student? Ever since Judai Yuki came along, order in our Duel Academia has been disheveled, no?! It just clatters and clatters...

Misawa boasts about his calculations, and in response Judai says a duelist's heart is more important.

Misawa: What do you think of my victory calculations? You do see their lack of flaws, I assume? Judai: Calculations? Those things don't even matter! …The biggest thing in a duel is heart - and as long as my heart doesn't own up to defeat, I'll keep battling!

Bastion's line is more generic trash talk, and Jaden talks about how he prefers to duel in the moment - more about his style than his spirit.

Bastion: So…if you still plan on beating me, feel free to go ahead and do your worst. Jaden: You bet I will! 'Cause my duel's just starting! …Yep. You see… We're different! You make all your moves at home! I do mine on the field!

In the peanut gallery, Hayato's line about Judai's stubbornness is changed to a really good point about Jaden's strategy! Wow!

Just kidding, it's another fat joke. We got all our Chumley sincerity out last episode, we can't do that again!

Judai says that even without fusion his deck's power lies in its combos, while Jaden says it's in his monsters specifically.

Misawa's response is about how he still has Judai cornered despite the possibility he overestimated Judai's reliance on fusion, while Bastion talks about how dueling is a "numbers game" that he's won. 

For his next turn Misawa warns Judai not to underestimate his calculations, while Bastion trash talks: "your deck's a problem that's already been solved." At its conclusion after the Hero Signal play, Bastion is impressed with Jaden and they have a respectful exchange compared to the dub's framing of a backhanded compliment.

The dub then cuts an exchange where Judai reassures his friends in the peanut gallery, and a shot of Kunisaki/Gerard leading into his next line. Kunisaki is still a little bit in denial that he's enjoying himself, while Gerard is more open about it.

After Judai's turn Misawa and Judai compliment each other, while in the dub Jaden just accepts Bastion's compliment - kind of funny putting the lines side-by-side. The dub adds narration to Gerard's flashback to spell out what it's conveying, whereas the sub leaves it silent. The dub later cuts another Kunisaki flashback and some peanut gallery shots, including a line of Chronos gloating. Misawa challenges Judai, while Bastion trash talks.

Everything proceeds the same until the finishing Cyclone Boomerang play, where Hayato catches on to Judai's plan while Chumley doesn't. The rest of the duel also concludes the same.

After the duel, Kunisaki is a little more rueful about changing his mind where Gerard thanks Jaden. Chronos expresses dismay about the general situation, while Crowler complains about Jaden specifically.

Chronos: My... That should not have happened...

Crowler: Does this slacker ever lose?!

Judai/Jaden and Misawa/Bastion's conversation is the same until Misawa steals the "that was a fun duel" half of Judai’s catchphrase (which is honestly a cute moment). The dub doesn’t really have an equivalent here, so instead it looks like Jaden gets confused when Bastion offers him a handshake. 

Kunisaki/Gerard's monologue about his backstory is a bit different between versions: In the sub he was burnt out after losing to the best, and he intends to try his hand at dueling again alongside his investigations.

Kunisaki: A long time ago, I actually did try to be a duelist, so I wandered all over the world. But I got crushed by the world's vets, I trashed my dreams, and now I'm a so-called journalist, just casually getting dirty if I'd make money. And yet watching those two, duel...in a duel that could get them that fired up... As a guy who trashed his dreams and ran away, I realized I don't get to take that away. And I'm itching to give it another shot, too. I'll go out there for real justice this time. ...I won't make an article out of this. But I'll look into the truth my way. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

The dub specifically says he was a bad duelist, which isn’t really said in the sub, and leaves out his potential new aspirations:

Gerard: You see, I came here looking for a story, but what I found was something very, very different. I found the duelist inside me, the duelist I thought was long gone. Look, I'm a reporter. A sleazy one, I'll admit it. I make a living off digging up dirt. But I didn't always. I took on monsters and spells before I took tabloid pictures. It's true...i was... A duelist... Like Jaden and Bastion. But I wasn't any good. I got beat all the time. The memories were awful. But after seeing today's match? It made me remember what dueling's really about. I had a great lead that I was gonna sell... One that would've probably ruined Duel Academy. But I don't want to ruin this place. Not now. Now, I only wanna help. To find them. All the missing students. Including your brother, Alexis.

Gerard also intends to more actively help Alexis compared to the sub, though regardless we never hear from him again.

In the episode closer, Chronos bemoans Judai representing the school.

Chronos: Peperoncino...Judai Yuki, our delegate... What a nightmare...

Crowler's line is similar, but is tweaked to make it directly about his ego again rather than the school.

Crowler: I can't believe it, that Slifer slacker's representing us, representing me!

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Empty!

Final Thoughts

So far the second half of two-parters have generally less to discuss than the first part, because a lot of major changes are in the setup to a duel and the (typically shorter) denouement but not the duel itself. There's a lot of minor changes to dialogue, which you could argue has slight implications about how much Misawa/Judai and Bastion/Jaden respect each other as rivals, but I don't think that's really the most drastic or significant change in this episode.

What do I think the most important change in this episode is? The cut teacher scene of course. That's right, it's time to talk about ~elitism~ again! For convenience, I'll repeat the conversation here:

Chronos: What goosebumps! One is sure to see why I recommended him, no? Daitokuji: And he's a Ra Yellow student at that [meow]. Chronos: Do re... Samejima: We nurture our students so they may duel this well, even outside of Obelisk Blue. A delightful feat, wouldn't you say? Chronos: Mi fa so... Why could it be that Misawa is not an Obelisk Blu student? Ever since Judai Yuki came along, order in our Duel Academia has been disheveled, no?! It just clatters and clatters...

The teachers' discussion of the rank system shows that:

Chronos resents Jaden largely because he upends the social hierarchy. But also...

While the other teachers don't believe in the dorm system's reflection on a student's potential as tightly as Chronos does, they also don't believe the dorm system is wrong.

#2 might be a frustrating point for the average viewer given we've spent so much of the past 22 episodes on the flaws of the dorm hierarchy and the classist social structure it's fostered (in the sub at least, but this is a sub-only scene). There's a lot to be said that I can't fit into the space of this section for this episode, but for now let's say that there is a vision of the dorm system that's somewhat more egalitarian (minding that the physical dorm conditions means they can never be completely equal in practice).

Chronos does not believe in an egalitarian system, because as we see here he relies on the system being inequal to enforce his own elite status and beliefs (something that he's likely always had in the sub, given a later episode explicitly establishes he's a part of the historical Medici family). You can't be elite if those beneath you are social equals. This is why he shows consternation over the fact that Misawa is a mere Ra Yellow; Misawa's example, like Judai's, counters his belief that the only worthy people are in Blue and that only the Blues are worthy.

Chronos is a large part of the problem, but he's not the entire problem - that's the social order that exists at the school. Chronos enforces that order not because he's the root cause of the school's social issues, but because said issues are to his advantage. If you took Chronos out of the school, those issues would still be there in the Ayanokoujis and the Koharas of the student body and in the other teachers' prejudices as well (though that gets into later seasons which I can't discuss here).

But as previously and extensively documented, the dub changes that narrative and says the problem isn't the school, it's individual people. If you took away Crowler (and Chazz, but he's already gone) then everything would be more or less fine. Arguably this episode's dub ending reinforces that angle in this episode with Crowler's closing line, elevating his obsession with his own status to the forefront and making his ego the root cause of his grudge against Jaden rather than the reason he buys into the larger system that Judai/Jaden bucks.

TL;DR: There's a reason I included a screencap from this scene in my (full spoilers) elitism essay. While it's a minor scene in the episode, if you dig into things it says a lot about the relationships between Chronos, Judai, the dorm hierarchy, and actual DA reality. The dub cutting this scene removes another chance to explore those ideas, and again it's a minor scene in this episode but it's part of a larger trend that I've discussed in past episodes. I don't really have a conclusion here since this is part of that pattern, other than that this is something to remember when we look at how each version of the show handles Chronos/Crowler's characters in the future.

[getyourchangeon]

"Also as a fanfic writer myself, I'd be delighted if this blog helped other writers!" What sort of fanfics do you write?

This might come as a huuuuge shock given what I write about on this blog, but I primarily write GX and specifically a lot of introspection and/or character study - mostly around Judai and Yubel, but also other characters when the occasion calls for it. Of course this blog is an exercise in analyzing many other characters beyond those two, which is why I've gained even greater appreciation for Hayato while working on it.

You can check out my AO3 here if you so please! For any readers who haven't finished the series, please mind that there will be spoilers. Most of my fic writing is currently on hiatus until I've finished grad school (fingers crossed), but I definitely have more I want to do!

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 021: The Fusion Lock! Judai Versus Misawa (Part 1)/S1E21: The Duel Off (Part 1)

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 21. This is an interesting one to compare, because it's relatively close between versions this time!

Episode Review

In the episode opening, Dorothy is a bit ruder in the opening and Gerard is slightly more expository about his motives than Kunisaki. Other than that, the scenes aren’t significantly different.

During the staff meeting about the DA rep, Banner is more supportive of Zane's recommendation of Jaden while Daitokuji merely comments about it. Kaiser says Judai will give them an "entertaining" duel, while Zane says Jaden "will make Duel Academy proud" - both positive, but Kaiser expresses more intrigue than confidence in Judai/Jaden. Chronos dislikes the idea because Judai is a Dropout Boy, and Crowler because Jaden makes him look bad. Again, rank vs beef. Chronos proposes the candidates in the sub, while the dub has the principal do it; Crowler's lines are about Bastion's qualifications instead.

In the next scene, Shou and Hayato's comments about Judai's candidacy are about the same between versions - which is unusual!

Shou: That's amazing, Big Bro! Being the academy's delegate? Hayato: And 'til now, they've never picked out a delegate from Osiris Red!

Syrus: All right, Jaden! You might actually be in the school duel! Chumley: No Slifer's ever been there! You'd make Duel Academy history!

I can't stress how weird it is to see Hayato's line in particular adapted so closely. An average Hayato line has equal chance to be adapted straight, cut or replaced to give another character speaking time, or turned into a joke at his expense. Hayato lines about the dorm system tend to fall into the last category (see also: the tea conversation in episode 2, his reaction to Judai's promotion in episode 4, the forest conversation in episode 5, the sleepover conversation in episode 12). As minor as the line seems, the fact that it isn't a fat joke or something is pretty significant in the context of these reviews.

Judai talks about how he and Misawa will get to face off sooner than expected, and Misawa talks about how he's been working hard on his seventh deck. In the dub, Jaden gives a "may the best man win" and Bastion is a bit cockier, mentioning his new deck targeted for Jaden.

Jaden: You said you would [make a new deck]! So it's finished?

False! Bastion did not mention his seventh deck in episode 12. I specifically noted that in the relevant episode review. This is another example of the dub writing out a detail and retconning it when it becomes more relevant. This is a relatively minor example (less of a stretch to cover than "oh yeah we definitely showed you Chumley hears spirits, we did not overwrite that with fat jokes"), but I think it was one of the more avoidable incidents given how obviously the ending of episode 12 was meant to lead into a duel against the seventh deck.

The scene finishes with Judai mentioning he needs to tweak his deck, while Jaden instead just looks forward to the duel. This is relevant mainly because Jaden's prep is a point in the dub later.

The scene with Kunisaki/Gerard running into dorm discrimination is mostly kept, aside from a focus on alliterative Slifer slights in the dub. Shou comments on Kunisaki’s age, Syrus on how Gerard seems to be a new student. Judai assumes he's a student who's been repeatedly held back, while Jaden assumes he took several years to get into the school. Hayato (the actual repeat student) wonders about how he doesn’t know this guy, and Chumley...gets another fat joke. Yep.

To the dub's credit (for some definition of credit), this is the one single fat joke this episode and that’s pretty good for an episode containing Chumley. But the dub writers made DAMN sure to get one in there, so awkwardly shoehorned into the scene I got whiplash hearing it.

The scene in the Red dorm cafeteria is about the same, with a little more exaggeration about Jaden's eating habits where Shou is talking about how Judai is the only one who really enjoys the food there.

In the deckbuilding scene, Judai talks about trusting his deck while Jaden looks forward to Bastion's challenge. Kunisaki's internal monologue calls him immature, while Gerard is impatient to find his scoop. Upon seeing Skyscraper Kunisaki is silent with tense music over a montage showing his backstory, while the dub adds a line spelling it out and heavier/more dissonant music to set the mood. This leads into an actual, unadulterated Chumley Moment of Sincerity!

Kunisaki: Getting held back so much took the fun out of [dueling], y'know? Hayato: Yeah, I get how that feels. I mean, I gave up 'cause I felt like I was hopeless. ...But I've been seeing Judai duel, and it's made me feel like giving it another shot!

Gerard: I don't like [dueling] 'cause I'm not good at it. Chumley: Same here. I mean, it's not that I don't like dueling. It's just I'm not really all that good at it. But that's changing! ...Yeah, see, once I started hanging out with these guys, I saw how they dueled, and it totally changed my life!

Look at that. A genuine heartfelt speech from Chumley Huffington, without anything that turns him into the butt of another joke. Again, this is extremely unusual for how Chumley is handled! But it’s beautiful.

When Shou suggests watching the duel, Kunisaki thinks to himself that he doesn’t have time while Gerard muses about how he hates dueling. In both cases, he starts prying into the missing students. Judai lies about not knowing much about the abandoned dorm, while Jaden references their past adventure.

At the abandoned dorm Asuka comments on Kunisaki's dorm and calls him out for loitering, while Alexis comments on how she’s never seen him and warns him off the abandoned dorm. The rest of the scene is about the same between versions.

In the Ra dorm, Misawa comments on how much he's anticipating the duel while Bastion talks about the difficulty of countering Jaden. Again, the rest of the scene is about the same between versions.

The morning of the match, Judai and Shou's discussion of what fish they get in the cafeteria and Judai's lack of nerves is changed to a joke about Jaden eating forks and from there Jaden's lack of training for the duel. This is a bit weird given we explicitly saw him deckbuilding a few scenes ago, but all right.

At the start of the match, Crowler underplaying his introduction of Jaden is exaggerated from from a weak "Yuki Judai..." to "some kid." The music and SFX also emphasizes the contrast between Bastion's and Jaden's receptions by the crowd as well as Crowler.

Judai anticipates seeing Misawa's fabled seventh deck, while Jaden just wishes Bastion luck. Syrus cheering Jaden on has an additional quip about his lack of prep, and Zane comments on the intelligence/instinct matchup where Kaiser says more generally that the match will be entertaining.

After Misawa's first turn of the duel, Shou's peanut gallery commentary gets cut and the line given to Jaden instead. Bastion's reaction to Burstrinatrix's summon has a bit more math flavor (roughly "half the equation to create [Jaden’s] favorite monster"). The dub adds a bit of banter leading into Burstinatrix's attack.

After Misawa/Bastion's next turn, he makes an Ichiban/#1 joke (a bit of sub-exclusive continuity) which is changed by necessity to a general "as expected from Jaden" comment in the dub. Both lead into a reference to his upcoming strategy. Afterward, some Kaiser/Asuka peanut gallery commentary about the study/intuition contrast gets cut.

When Oxygeddon explodes and deals damage to both players, Jaden has more preamble into his next move. The principal references Zane's recommendation in the dub when praising Jaden to Banner, where he compliments the Red class to Daitokuji in the sub. Daitokuji calls Judai the Red dorm's "star of hope" while Banner makes a joke about Slifers ditching class. Crowler's freakout meanwhile is mostly the same between versions, except with an additional line in the dub about how good the duel makes Jaden look.

Misawa boasts that Judai only has a 1% chance of winning, while Bastion claims he's already beaten Judai and "now I just need to show my work." Water Dragon's summoning goes the same, and...then we have a Chumley toilet joke, instead of a fat joke. Okay then.

Chronos focuses on Misawa as an elite, while Crowler focuses on his beef with Jaden:

Chronos: I would certainly expect no less of one skilled enough to enter Obelisk Blu! Just go right on and trounce that Dropout Boy...

Crowler: I knew it was a good idea for me to nominate Bastion for this match! He's looking magnificent, I'm looking brilliant, and best of all, Jaden looks like a complete fool!

When summoning Tempester, Judai notes that Misawa used three monsters for Water Dragon so he'll summon a triple fusion himself. The dub has a similar line, but it's more about the strength of their monsters rather than the materials. Jaden makes a chemistry joke as preamble to summoning Tempester, and the rest of the duel is the same up to the cliffhanger.

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Empty!

Final Thoughts

This is one of the shortest reviews yet, largely because…a lot less was changed compared to a normal episode. For comparison, the base review section for this episode is about half as long as it was for the Rei/Blair episode just before this. It was actually bizarre going over the lines and realizing a good chunk of scenes had one or two changes worth even minor notes and the rest would be the same general lines/sentiment. For goodness’ sake, they let Chumley have his genuine heart-to-heart moment without fat jokes or added rudeness! The dub didn’t even let him have that in his focus episode. I have my ideas on why this is, but it’s speculation to a level I try to keep off of the main episode reviews. 

That said, this episode isn’t without changes. While comparing the sub/dub versions of the duel giant episode felt like an exercise in themes and the Maiden in Love episode felt like an exercise in larger cultural gender stereotypes, comparing the respective versions of this episode feels like a case study on 4KIDS writing priorities: when most things are more or less the same, what do the changes that are there tell us about the localization’s focus?

Some of the changes are exaggerations of details from the sub, like Jaden eating forks instead of loving the Red dorm food or his poor reception during the match. A lot of them relate to existing patterns: Crowler is still a petty Jaden-hater rather than an elitist. The dub accidentally wrote out a piece of plot-relevant information (Bastion’s planned anti-Jaden deck) and retconned it. The script still makes multiple potshots at Chumley even if they also allow him an unprecedented full moment of unqualified sincerity.

Again, I can only speculate why these things happen. But the fact that they still happen at all in an unusually close-adapted episode might say something about the writers’ ideas for what an episode should look like.

[getyourchangeon]

Episode 020: The "Maiden in Love's Strong" Deck!/S1E20: The Maiden in Love

In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 20. Are You A Better Duelist Than A Fifth/Second Grader?

Episode Review

The dub opens with the nostalgic sound of the dub GX guitar ri—and we're out the gate with an IMMEDIATE Chumley fat joke. And then a second one within twenty seconds. Cool. Lovely.

All right, let’s talk about the actual episode. Shou commenting on the lowliness of being transferred to Red is turned into a sidekick joke, and Judai's morale cheer for the new transfer student is changed to something more sports-style:

Judai: Go! Go! Reeeeei! C'mon! Don't feel bad 'cause your score sucked! You'll have fun being with us!

Jaden: Blair, welcome to S-L-I-F...something! Slifer! We're the best dorm on campus! See, here, we're not a bunch of stuffy, egg-headed, straight-A-getting brainiacs.

This is kind of interesting to me, because we won't talk about dorm elitism but we will frame the dorms as nerds versus cool guys? All right then. Judai and friends welcoming Rei is changed to an awkward joke to lead into the cramped rooming situation.

Daitokuji mentions that Rei is likely to move up to Ra after the next opportunity while Banner says it's imminent - only a matter of a few days. Two scenes are cut wholesale, showing the cramped rooming situation leading into Judai inviting Rei to bathe in the hot springs and the trio discussing Rei in said baths.

Instead the dub cuts straight to the principal's announcement of the North exhibition duel...starting with the THIRD Chumley fat joke in 2.5 minutes, including 1 minute of theme song. Samejima talks about the North match as something for reputation, while Shepard talks about it again as more akin to sports teams - talking about Kaiser "boosting the prestige of our campus" compared to how Zane "whupped 'em good." Shou whispering to Rei about his brother is mostly the same, except the dub continues with the "Syrus says he got the looks" gag.

The dub adds an additional line from Blair as the camera lingers on Zane: "He's amazing..." On the way out, the trio discusses draw bread in the sub and Zane in the dub. When following Blair, Jaden remarks on the "He's amazing" comment calling it weird even though...it's not that weird? Zane’s the top student, so it doesn’t seem that strange to me personally to express admiration for that.

Upon sneaking into Obelisk, Judai is worried for Rei because she might get mistaken for a spy, and of course gets accused of being one when he's found in Kaiser's room. Jaden instead worries that Blair will get kicked out for trespassing. When he's caught instead, Judai covers for Rei:

Judai: No... L-Look... The window was open, so I just thought I'd close it...

While Jaden does the opposite and attempts to throw Blair under the bus:

Jaden: Oh, boy. Now, look, it's not like that. See, there was this guy - well, girl.

...Bro.

The Obelisk guys drag Judai to the staff room for expulsion on suspicion of spying, while the dub implies they're going to beat him up for trespassing. The rest of the scene proceeds about. Afterwards, Rei wonders why Judai covered for her;Jaden instead says he's going to tell the other guys, and Blair wants to stop him.

During the lighthouse meetup, Alexis is much more sarcastic than Asuka, who asks if this is about her brother. Kaiser wants advice, having figured out the Rei situation, while Zane presents it as more of a mystery.

The scene with Shou and Hayato in the Red dorm speculating whether Judai's trying to convince Rei to bathe together again is naturally changed. There's another joke at Chumley's expense but at least it's not a fat joke, I guess.

The conversation on the rocks is different by consequence, but Jaden's attitude is also different at first before circling around to the original point. Judai is fine to let Rei have her secrets for the moment, figuring a good duel will get to the heart of the matter. This is consistent with previous episodes, where we’ve seen that Judai connects to people best through duels whether his opponent is a monkey or a faceless giant.

Rei: Why'd you keep quiet about me? Judai: You mean this afternoon? 'Cause if a girl's dressing up as a guy to make it all the way here, she probably has her reasons. Rei: Don't spill it! Don't tell anyone what you saw this afternoon! Judai: When you ask someone for a favor, you should explain why first… Rei: I can’t! Judai: Then, let's duel! Rei: What? How's that going to help? Judai: No one can lie in a duel. Rei: So if I win, you'll keep quiet about me without asking why? Judai: Yep - after all, I won't need to.

The dub has usually written that aspect of Judai’s character out, but here they keep it for once - though Jaden kind of just lies about not blowing Blair's cover.

Blair: Listen, Jaden, the fact that I'm a girl has to stay a secret! Jaden: But what for, Blair? Look, I don't wanna blow your cover, but if I'm gonna keep a secret I think I should at least know why it is one. Blair: You don't need to know why! Nobody does! You got that?! Jaden: Fine, but if you're not gonna tell me, you at least have to duel me! Blair: What? Jaden: Get your game on! Blair: A duel? How will that solve anything? Jaden: 'Cause in a duel, the truth always comes out. Blair: Fine, but if I win, you keep quiet without me having to explain myself. Jaden: Hey. This duel'll tell me all I need to know.

Shou and Hayato comment on the Rei reveal and Judai's tendency to solve things through duels and Kaiser and Asuka come in to talk about the truth of it, while in the dub Syrus and Chumley don't catch onto anything that's going on until Zane comes in to tell them Blair's a girl. Alexis mentions the Obelisk security cams revealing the whole thing, which isn't the case for the sub. Also, that implies there are security cameras in people's bedrooms...? I guess you could interpret it as cameras outside the dorms, but since the majority of the earlier scene took place inside Kaiser/Zane’s bedroom I definitely had a moment thinking about that line.

When the duel starts, Blair starts off summoning Maiden in Love with an additional flair: "Get ready to fall in love!" Shou/Syrus starts simping over Maiden in Love in both versions, but Hayato tells him off while Chumley joins him. Blair again spices up the flavor when Maiden in Love is destroyed leading into explaining her monster effect.

Judai/Jaden yelling at Featherman/Avian to get it together is the same in both versions, but the reactions aren't: Shou comments on Judai's behavior where Syrus talks about "competition" for the Maiden's affection, and a shot of Hayato thinking about how Judai's seeing something neither of them can is cut. Blair taunts Jaden a bit as she continues to explain the effects, including a teasing comment ("You'll find out [how much worse it can get]!") added in the dub.

Upon equipping Cupid's Kiss, Maiden asks Featherman/Avian to accept her "heartfelt love" in the sub and to give him a hug in the dub. Weird bit of change when romance is the point, though it doesn’t change much all told. Around here Avian's Eric Stuart starts to show and he sounds a lot like Bastion, which isn't important but is funny to me personally.

This is also the point where they start to characterize the Maiden differently between versions. She’s maudlin yet demure in the sub:

Maiden: You'll do what I ask you to, won't you? Featherman: Of course! Maiden: (tearful) Then, will you attack Judai?

Whereas in the sub she uses her cuteness as a mask for a more aggressive nature:

Maiden: (sly) Now, how about doing me a little favor, Mr. Avian? Avian: Anything! Maiden: Good! See him? (decisively) Take him down!

As Judai/Jaden continues to yell at Featherman/Avian, Shou and Hayato comment again on what Judai is seeing.

Hayato: I knew it. He can see something...

The dub cuts that to instead have Chumley join Shou in simping over the Maiden...with a fat joke, of course. 

Chumley: I never felt this way without a grilled cheese around.

When Sparkman joins the party the same difference continues: Maiden is maudlin in the sub, sly in the sub. And then the dub gives Blair the ability to hear spirits:

Sparkman: Simply say the word, my darling! Blair: And she will, now that he's pegged with a Maiden Counter.

I’m relatively certain this is probably, technically a mistake on the dub’s part. The point of Shou and Hayato’s peanut gallery in the sub is that Judai alone can see what’s going on with the duel spirit soap opera, though Hayato can guess what’s going on when Judai yells at a static hologram because he’s vaguely aware of spirits too. By making the dialogue more fluid and having Blair follow up on the monsters’ dialogue, the dub is potentially implying she can hear them as well. I hope fanfic writers are taking note.

In the peanut gallery, Shou and Hayato continue talking about Judai's strange behavior and Kaiser/Asuka comment on the power of a beautiful woman. In the dub Syrus and Chumley continue simping instead, and Alexis is sarcastic while Zane breaks out the ol' "When Sy and I were growing up, he used to claim he was going steady with Dark Magician Girl."

…Which, you know, would have worked better if they hadn’t cut the lines about Shou simping over Dark Magician Girl literally last episode (so Jaden could do it instead!). It’s fine I guess, we’ve still got the festival episode to go.

The dub continues accidentally implying that Blair can hear spirits as she activates Happy Marriage:

Blair: Now Maiden gains as many attack points as Avian has! That is, if Avian says, "I do," of course. Avian: It would be my honor. Blair: Hooray!

With Featherman/Avian and Sparkman behind her, Maiden continues to be more openly commanding in the dub compared to pleading in the sub - minding that she's very obviously wielding manipulative power in both, it's just expressed in different ways.

Maiden (sub): Then, can I ask you [Sparkman] to battle for me? ...Please, my dear Sparkman! You too, Mr. Featherman...

Maiden (dub): All right, then. That's better. ...I wish that you'd beat up that mean boy over there! ...Well, don't just stand there, hubby [Avian]!

Rei boasts about love giving her strength, while Blair trash talks Jaden before saying the same ("I'm dueling with love") leading into a bit where Zane doesn't understand Blair has a crush on him specifically. This isn't true in the sub, where Kaiser knows but is awkwardly unsure of how to handle the situation. So where Asuka talks about how hard Rei worked to get into the school and how strong she must be because of her feelings...

Asuka: It's easy for her to put monsters in a duel in a daze, don't you think? I mean, she did chase her first love all the way down to some faraway island in the south. ...She even made it through our hard transfer entrance exam, at that...  (emphasis mine)

Alexis spells it out for Zane and frames Blair as manipulative as well.

Alexis: Don't tell me you haven't put the pieces together yet! Think about it, Zane! She puts on a disguise, tricks her way into our school (emphasis mine), breaks into your room? ...[She's in love] Big-time, and she's in love with you, Zane.

In spirit soap opera land, the dub has some good lines for the male heroes' return to reality while implying the existence of a never-before-seen Hero (that we will continue to never see).

Featherman: What have we been doing?! Sparkman: How were we so hooked on love?! Both: This is something a Hero shouldn't do! Burst Lady: Would the two of you mind coming back already?! Both: Yes ma'am!

Avian: What was I thinking?! I didn't want to get married! Sparkman: Oh, boy. Sparkwoman's never going to forgive me! Both: Guy pact. This didn't happen, okay? Burstinatrix: How about you two guys get over here right now or I'll tell the entire deck!

Judai talks about how bonds between heroes are stronger than a false love, while Jaden talks about payback. The duel finishes the same way in both versions. Afterward Judai varies up his end-of-duel line (“Gotcha! That was a really cool duel” versus “Gotcha! That was a really fun duel”) here, but the dub doesn't - partially because while “That’s game” is the dub’s typical replacement for Judai’s Gotcha catchphrase, the “That was a really fun duel” line usually gets replaced with other nonstandardized dialogue. (Thanks to @blazing-jay for pointing this out!)

After the duel, Jaden points out again that he learned what he needed to through the duel - again mainly interesting because this is usually a point about Judai that the dub usually writes out. In Blair's confession to Zane, the dub adds detail on the history between them (and also elevating Zane to national champion status...when he's not a pro duelist yet?):

Blair: I've been in love with you ever since I met you. Zane: Mm, at nationals. Blair: Yeah, that's right! We met right after you won the championship match! It was then I made a pledge: that I would do anything to be with you! ...I remember, you said that if I trained really really hard, I could get into Duel Academy like you, so I did! And now that I'm here, we can get married!

Rei is slightly different in that she doesn't expect to marry, but she was determined to express her love to Kaiser. Judai talks about how intense Rei was, while Jaden teases Zane about marriage. Alexis's talk with Blair again focuses more on the manipulation angle in the dub, though ultimately they both make a point about honest emotional connection:

Asuka: Your heartfelt love's great, but you just said it yourself. Unlike those Heroes in your duel, winking or blowing kisses won't work on real guys. You'll only get somewhere in dueling and love if your feelings connect, don't you think?

Alexis: Love doesn't work like that. You can't sneak your way into somebody's heart. Just look what happened to your Maiden. She used tricks to get love, and she ended up alone and in tears. You can't use spells or disguises to find your soul mate, Blair. You have to be honest and up-front with them.

Kaiser/Zane's talk with her is about the same in both versions. Judai pleads Rei's case given her demonstrated skill and then jokes about Rei's "other" secret (to lead into the age reveal), while Jaden jokes about Zane not wanting competition (also leading into the age reveal). And of course, in the dub Blair is a second grader, age eight (and a half), while Rei is in fifth grade. Why does that seem familiar…?

Oh, right.

The dub also cuts out the shot declaring her a fifth grader, for both the obvious age change reason and probably also to avoid dealing with the kanji. Blair makes a joke about her age where Rei imitates Judai's Gotcha catchphrase. The episode closer is the same, aside from another dub joke about Syrus and Chumley's simping and Jaden making one last quip.

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Giving Blair the Rebecca treatment is going to come back to bite in about a season and a half when she comes back at the end of season 2…just like with the original Rebecca, from her original appearance to Doma. Truly history repeats itself.

I also have weird feelings about how the dub frames Blair as dishonest given we see later especially that Rei is manipulative (the season 4 tag duel coming to mind), but it's in service of a goal she's very frank about (getting to duel with Judai). More on that below.

Final Thoughts

I have a couple different thoughts about this episode.

To start with the minor one: I was looking forward to this one. I have friends who like to quote the dub version of the Maiden in Love duel, and for good reason! Weird implications about the Maiden aside, the spirit soap opera is genuinely funny. I can only imagine Sparkman and Sparkwoman as characters in a Duel Monsters version of The Incredibles.

Unfortunately this episode has the best and worst of dub humor. To get to “Get over here or I'll tell the entire deck” you have to deal with opening three Chumley fat jokes in the first ninety seconds of episode and some other awkwardly shoehorned jokes that didn’t land for me. As I’ve said before, I see a lot of praise for the dub’s humor but I think “you have to sit through repeated fat jokes to get to the good stuff” is a hell of a caveat.

Other than that! I’m honestly disappointed that they eliminated the peanut gallery points about how Judai sees a spirit soap opera where everyone else sees normal Solid Vision holograms. It establishes some interesting lore around how duels work for those able to see and/or hear spirits, and reminds the audience that Hayato is one of those people. Of course, the dub takes that last part away to flatten him into the same gag as Syrus (with another fat joke, of course!) and as a tradeoff, implies Blair can hear the spirit drama that Jaden sees while leaving it ambiguous whether the rest of the spectators can. Whether or not it’s intentional on 4KIDS’ part, that’s the lore implied here! Seriously, fanfic writers there's potential here.

That said, I think the most significant change this episode is how the sub and dub each characterize Rei through both her actions and through her dueling (especially the Maiden in Love, who obviously represents Rei's character). The sub frames Rei as somebody who runs on the power of love, her emotions the source of her strength even if she needs to approach it more honestly. The dub frames Blair as more manipulative and dishonest…and also eight years old, which - I don’t know if that makes it better or worse. 

(Source, contains spoilers beyond season 1)

I don’t really know how to feel about this, and I can only speculate wildly about possible reasons behind the difference in characterization. Attempts to make the dialogue funnier and less girly? Cultural expectations about strong female characters? One of the dub writers had a bad grade school encounter? That’s a whole barrel of worms on its own and I’m not equipped to explore it in the context of this review series, but I want to note the question is there.