Plot: Kaiba makes his appearance at Duelist Kingdom, and he’s targeting Pegasus for kidnapping Mokuba. Jonouchi itches for a duel with the ego-maniac. Kaiba agrees in order to test out his newest creation – the holographic duel disk system. The duel disks are basically portable dueling arenas, yet with more advanced features to the holograms to make them seem more real. Jonouchi gets his butt kicked because he kept making mistakes. Kaiba tells Yugi and the others a story about Pegasus supposedly cheating in a tournament against Bandit Keith before leaving once again for the castle.
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In the original, as Kaiba’s flying to Duelist Kingdom, there’s a quick shot of the briefcase beside him from front view. A few seconds later, he looks at it (You can see him glance to the seat in the dub) and mentions the duel disk system inside. In the dub, there’s no mention of the duel disk until he and Joey duel later.
When Yugi’s thinking to himself as everyone else is sleeping, 4Kids imposes a picture of Yami over the moon. In the original, there was a picture of Yugi’s grandpa.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
4Kids made a boo-boo. As Honda and Jonouchi wake up, Honda says something. In the dub, Tristan’s lips are moving, but no sound is coming out, and Joey’s making noise.
Yes, yes, everyone giggle at Bakura thinking you need to check the pulse of someone who just essentially fell down. Silly 4Kids and their lack of basic knowledge of anything. It’s weird, actually. Before the commercial, Bakura just says “That was uncalled for.” Then they change it after replaying the clip after the break. I guess 4Kids forgot to look silly.
I love how only 16 episodes in the dueling arena is already being phased out for the duel disk. The duel arena was stated as being the latest in dueling technology in the first episode, and that couldn’t have been more than a month or two from this episode. Now Kaiba’s already condensed such advanced tech that takes up the space of a gymnasium in something the size of a Frisbee. I also love how that’s replaced before it even really gets used by a better model of itself.
Another mention of Jounouchi’s eighth place tournament win is edited out.
In the original, Jounouchi’s rambles to Kaiba before their duel is mostly bragging about how much better he’s gotten. Winning eighth place in that tournament, beating Mai and Ryuzaki, etc. In the dub, he’s just making fun of Kaiba at every turn. Jonouchi looks a little silly in the original, to be honest. Yes, he has gotten immensely better, yes he’s placed in the top ten of a regional Duel Monsters tournament, but Kaiba’s the world champion and nearly beat Yugi (Would’ve if not for Deus Exodia Machina.)
How do the cards on this duel disk stay on the duel disk? It’s not like the cards clip in or anything, the disk spins incredibly fast, and you’re chucking that thing all around. Seems like they would just fly off.
In the original, as Kaiba’s summoning his Minotaur/Battle Ox, he explains that the data from the card is being transferred into the duel disk and is being turned into a sophisticated hologram using a hyper 3D engine. In the dub, Tristan basically says “Ooh colors and lights” and Téa says, not kidding, that it “Looks like something out of an enchanted dream.”
Dub!Kaiba mentions his holograms breathe, snarl, and the duel disk even simulates odor. The original version doesn’t say this at all.
This duel disk chucks out defeated cards….I guess that means that there’s no graveyard on that disk and your cards will get filthy and ruined by this thing. It also seems like a pain in the ass (or moreso, arm) to constantly be throwing that thing on each and every turn. Great designing, Kaiba! No wonder you revamped that thing so quickly.
I find it very disappointing that Jonouchi/Joey’s still making such amateur moves like summoning a monster and attacking when the enemy monster is stronger…It wouldn’t bother me as much if he didn’t do it numerous times. You’re certainly not acting like someone who has won eighth place in a regional tournament, Jonouchi.
Wait, why is Minotaur strong against fire? He’s not an effect monster, this isn’t really Duelist Kingdom rules, there are no field power bonuses. Wha…?
Doesn’t Jonouchi know how to defend? For God’s sake, he throws out like seven monsters in attack mode when none of them are strong enough to go against Kaiba’s monster. He really looks like a complete moron in this episode. Even his friends are just sitting there with sad looks on their faces not even cheering him on. It’s pathetic, really. I never believed Jonouchi could beat Kaiba, but this episode makes it seem like he up and forgot literally everything he learned about dueling.
Why is Kaiba talking about magic in the dub? He’s made it very clear, numerous times, that he doesn’t believe in magic, especially in the dub.
The text on the game mat is removed.
Subbed:
Dubbed:
I love when Keith says “Oh my god! Oh my god!” in the original. I’m also amazed at how two people who are supposed to be American, dueling in an American tournament in New York are still speaking Japanese to each other….I get that it would’ve been a pain to do that entire thing in English and then subtitle it for Japanese audiences, but I still find it funny.
Name Change…ish? Bandit Keith’s real name is Keith Howard. This is never mentioned in the dub, so you’re left to assume his name is actually Bandit Keith. I mean, why would anyone question it? It’s far from the most ‘out there’ name in Yu-Gi-Oh with gems such as Weevil Underwood, Rex Raptor, and Mako Tsunami.
I’m….not entirely sure how a monster with 2400 attack points can be beaten by a monster with 1850 attack points when no traps or spells are in play and neither creature is an effect monster.
After Yugi’s Flashback, Yugi quickly changes into Yami, and he tells Kaiba that he will be the one to beat Pegasus. Kaiba tells him “Back at ya.” and leaves. In the dub, they edit out Yugi’s transformation and just repeat a scene of regular Yugi talking from a few seconds earlier. You can still kinda tell that Yugi’s transformed as Kaiba leaves in the dub. I don’t know why this was changed. 4Kids seems to really love Yami. Then again, this transformation was pointless, but I guess they wanted Yugi to sound more intimidating when he said this line.
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This episode was 99% filler. Jonouchi was being an arrogant twat – an oddly completely stupid arrogant twat at that. Kaiba was just bragging left and right. And everyone else was sitting on the sidelines trying not to die of cringe from Jonouchi’s pathetic attempt at dueling.
All this episode served to do was act as a tutorial on the duel disk system that doesn’t even really matter at all. The duel disk is used a total of twice in the series before it’s revamped into the more permanent and completely different duel disk – once here and one more in the duel with Kaiba and Yugi. Kaiba tries to use it against Pegasus, but he refuses.
It also just reinforced what we already knew about Pegasus. He can see opponents’ cards!? No way! We’ve only seen that several times already, but thanks for that tip.
Next episode, Jonouchi gets a chance to prove himself after being trounced by Kaiba when he’s kidnapped by the national champion, Bandit Keith and is forced to duel one of his lackies, the undead duelist, Ghost Kotsuzuka.
…..Previously
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