Yugioh GX Season 4 Episode 159_TIL Season 4 Jaden is a part-time sadist. Yubel must've rubbed off on him more than I thought. And also in any other season, if he did this, his tone and/or background music would play this for comedic effect
Episode 014: Versus Psycho Shocker?!/S1E14: A Spirit Summoned
In this post, I'm going to review and compare the subbed and dubbed versions of Yugioh GX episode 14. This one features the dangerous side of duel spirits, featuring a classic from DM!
Episode Review
We start off with a minor difference: the sub starts this episode with some exposition about winter break and a scene of the Osiris crew grilling mochi (thanks to talaofthevalley for help identifying this). The dub instead moves up the scene of Tori running in the forest, adding lines to introduce the plot hook off the bat.
Then comes the winter break exposition, the dub adding lines from Banner and Chumley on top of Jaden’s narration. Of course there's a Chumley fat joke, and Banner claims they're eating "marshmallows" instead of grilled mochi.
The sub intro to this episode cuts between shots of Hayato and Daitokuji eating the grilled mochi and shots of Takadera/Tori running up to the Red dorm. The dub cuts the dorm shots, and just has the guy run up unbroken. When Takadera crashes in he leads with talking about Psycho Shocker in the sub, while the dub sets up for a joke (roughly "You look like you've seen a ghost!" "I have, it was the Jinzo card").
Daitokuji just identifies Takadera as a Blue student, while Banner says Tori is in his "paradueling" class. This is presumably meant to be about the paranormal side of dueling, especially given Banner’s all-around mystical focus, but also if you asked me what the paradueling class at DA was I'd guess a class on tag dueling rather than the occult. Hashtag just etymology problems?
In the sub Takadera and his friends are an occult club, doing independent research into duel spirits as the origin of dueling. Takadera talks about Daitokuji's research on duel spirits in a "you have to believe me" way, citing Daitokuji’s research on duel spirits. In the dub, Banner straight up taught all this in class. Here the club is applying teachings from Banner's class in a forbidden ritual with makeshift equipment, and Tori appealing to him is more about "everything you taught us is true."
Anyway, it's SPECIFICALLY said in the dub that the academy forbids the ritual. Which opens up the questions of:
1) Which admin acknowledged the Duel Monsters occult enough to ban it? I don't think Kaiba would bother, Kagemaru would invite it, and Samejima/Shepard...shrug?
2) Why is Banner allowed to teach this if it's forbidden? I know, DA doesn't exactly seem to have much by way of teacher oversight, but it's still wild to have an official "don't summon demons" rule and a class whose lesson plan includes how to summon demons.
Also the dub calls the Ouija board a "mystic box," which I thought at first was traditional We Can’t Offend The Christians censorship. But it turns out the term "Ouija board" is actually trademarked by Hasbro so that might have been the reason instead. Youtube comments actually taught me something!
Daitokuji/Banner's reaction to the Jinzo tale is a bit different:
Daitokuji: This is not good. Duel spirits and parapsychology don't exactly work well together [meow]...
Banner: Oh, dear me, no! Jinzo's appetite would never be satiated by mere cards. This is just awful.
Little obsessed with how Daitokuji just says an occult approach to duel spirits doesn’t go well, but Banner implies that he's very familiar with Jinzo's nature in particular. WHY DO YOU KNOW THAT BANNER. Your secret identity does not explain this line!
The flashback with the ferry off the island is silent in the sub, and the dub adds narration/dialogue between Tori and Jinzo. Throughout the explanation Judai expresses incredulity about the subject, and Jaden makes suggestions about Tori needing to see a nurse/psych - which is kinda rude when he’s commenting on his teacher’s actual class? Before things go south Judai thinks to himself about the idea of duel spirits, while Jaden tempts fate and goes "Well, we're safe here."
Cue the lights going out, of course. Psycho Shocker is silent throughout the whole encounter, while Jinzo gets multiple lines. Do you sense a pattern here? And of course the dub chase sequence wants to remind you SO BAD that Chumley hates running. Twice!!!
When Pharaoh hisses and indicates the way, the dub mentions explicitly that he seems to be able to sense Jinzo. This would actually be a great follow-up on the whole "monkeys (animals in general?) are more aware of spirits" except the dub cut that LOL. They did add lore about Pharaoh's tracking abilities, so I guess that works?
The dub also adds an extra line about Chumley being afraid of the scary stuff. Maybe they realized the fat jokes were getting really old? (Spoilers: this is not the reason.)
Jinzo again gets an inserted line of dialogue when he appears at the power plant. Shou asks Daitokuji about his research and Daitokuji says this is the first time he's actually seen a spirit, while in the dub they talk about how Jinzo is manifesting physically using the power plant's electricity.
In the sub Psycho Shocker has been completely silent up until now, and when he talks everyone's shocked to hear it. In the dub, of course, Jinzo's had several lines at this point so that whole moment gets cut. Although I try not to make many claims about language due to my lack of expertise with Japanese, it’s clear in this case that Jinzo is objectively more talkative than Psycho Shocker.
When Judai/Jaden offers himself as collateral for a duel this little line is slightly different between versions:
Psycho Shocker: The waves of power radiating from you do seem to be out of the ordinary. You may just be more worthy of being my third tribute.
Jinzo: You do emit more vitality than this human. I'll take you up on your offer.
There may or may not be implications to this line. More in the Spoiler Zone.
Psycho Shocker talks about how he'll tribute Judai, and Jinzo references using the power plant's electricity to sustain himself for the duel. Judai introduces his name and dorm before the duel; Jaden instead throws out a catchphrase.
After the first turn, Judai has different thoughts about Ectoplasmer on the duel and Shou's peanut gallery commentary is turned into a quip. A few lines from Daitokuji about this duel effectively being a game of darkness is cut, along with some duel establishing shots.
Jinzo trash talks in place of Psycho Shocker's draw declaration, and after his next turn, Jinzo gloats in place of Judai talking about the threat of Ectoplasmer. Then he gloats again while explaining the shadow game effect. Again, do you notice a pattern here?
After Judai's turn he refuses to let himself get tributed, whereas Jaden has a quip about Jinzo's lack of body. Then in the sub Psycho Shocker summoning himself to the field elicits comments about "whoa, it finally happened" from both Judai and the peanut gallery. In the dub Judai has a line about "I mean, you can't draw yourself!" and the peanut gallery gets cut, as well as a couple lines exchanged between Psycho Shocker and Judai.
There are a couple quips and trash talk added after that, and one minor change to a Shou/Syrus peanut gallery comment about one of Judai/Jaden's moves. The most interesting change among them is how Jinzo makes sure to spell out that he's a monster remaining on the field, where Psycho Shocker leaves it implied.
When drawing Winged Kuriboh, Judai appreciates his support while Jaden makes a quip about their opponent. That's also reflected in how they describe Winged Kuriboh:
Judai: You bet! This guy's my partner! Unlike you, he doesn't need tributes! If our hearts are linked up, we can meet whenever!
Jaden: He's a friend first and a spirit second! Which is probably why he doesn't need to snack on human souls to chill out here in the land of the living!
When Psycho Shocker/Jinzo possess the occult guy Jinzo again spells out the situation more explicitly: "I am not Tori, I am Jinzo..." The rest of the duel proceeds the same.
After the duel, when everyone starts waking up after the blast the dub adds - guess what - another Chumley fat joke! More relevantly, Judai/Jaden's takeaways after the duel are also slightly different - Judai is about establishing the existence of duel spirits, while Jaden is about their threat:
Judai: That was no dream. There really are duel spirits.
Jaden: Probably be best if they forgot. But I sure won't. Duel spirits aren't just real, they're dangerous.
Judai pretends to wave off what just happened to lighten the mood, while Jaden goes for an intentionally lame pun. And where the sub ends with contemplative silence and supernatural BGM, the dub ends with...YOU GUESSED IT!
Seriously, why?
Spoiler Zone
Much like episode 5 with the childhood flashback, the line about Judai’s power serves as vague foreshadowing regarding the gentle darkness and the Supreme King. The line being changed to refer to Jaden's vitality…may or may not lose that bit of foreshadowing? I don't feel like it’s a huge deal regardless, especially since it's unlikely even the original writers had planned the gentle darkness lore at this point, but I’m mentioning it anyway for the nitpicky lore folks (I say, as someone whose nitpicky lore drive fuels this entire blog).
The Character Assassination of Chumley Huffington
It's not new that Chumley fat jokes are one of the dub's go-to methods for inserting humor, but the ending to this episode really highlights that fact. As I've said before, I think this is just plain terrible - and lazy! - comedy as well as poor treatment of a character that originally plays into major themes in the show...which the dub wrote out.
I truly think this is a major low point of the dub. The fat jokes are a minor part of most episodes, but also they're a minor part of most episodes and the more it happens the less I have fun watching because it's a reminder that 4KIDS could have invented any running gag (the "is a hot dog a sandwich" debate in the VRAINS dub comes to mind) but they decided "look at this kid, he's fat!" was really going to be the well-worn screwdriver in their toolbox. If I tried to keep a tally of fat jokes I'd probably hit triple digits by the time Hayato/Chumley gets his sendoff at the end of the season. I have to document thirty-six more episodes of this and it's not a good time!
Final Thoughts
Not a lot of major changes this episode. The most obvious differences are Jinzo’s chattiness and greater trash talk in comparison to his sub counterpart, but in the big picture those just feel more like general 4KIDS dialogue jazz-ups. I don't really have any fun or interesting follow-ups from this, unlike dub Titan’s carnie history or the mystery of what the Paradox Brothers did between Duelist Kingdom and GX episode 10. Next episode with the tennis captain has pretty distinct and intentional characterization in each version of the episode, whereas Psycho Shocker/Jinzo...shrug?
If there is anything to be said, it feels more about how 4KIDS likes to fill silence - quips, trash talk, stock Chumley potshots, they've got an arsenal here. Honestly I expected more requisite School Jokes and have since been disappointed. I miss the school jokes. Why didn't we get more cornball school jokes instead of Chumley fat jokes?
Anyway. The second most major point is the couple of lore differences in relation to Daitokuji/Banner. Personally I still want to know exactly how Banner knows about Jinzo's appetite in exactly those words, because HELLO??? What's the story there???
But aside from that, this also means there are version differences regarding duel spirits and what’s known about them. The sub characterizes them as relatively niche, even given the monkey research in the previous episode, and Judai's major takeaway at the end is about how duel spirits are real. The dub instead makes it part of the curriculum and therefore more acknowledged, and this episode is more about how dangerous they can be. Once again, we’ll see if that becomes any kind of pattern in the future.
