Digimon Frontier Ep7: The Floating City! ToyAgumon’s Toy Country/Island of Misfit Boys | Sub/Dub Comparison
Plot: After separating from Izumi and Junpei following the last battle, Takuya, Koji and Tomoki find themselves stranded on a floating island. The island is piloted by a bunch of ToyAgumon who have been corrupted by someone named Cherubimon. They have intentions of infiltrating the human world to get revenge on the children who will no longer play with them.
Meanwhile, Takuya and Koji butt heads over how they behave around Tomoki – Takuya seemingly being too lenient and babying him while Koji is being too harsh on the younger boy.
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Title Change: “The Floating City! ToyAgumon’s Toy Country” is changed to “Island of the Misfit Boys.”
Koji says that he could have sworn they landed in the valley. In the dub, he says to keep an eye out for Zoe and the others because he has a feeling it will be hard to find them in this place.
In a dialogue-free original moment, Koji thinks to himself after Tommy runs off to chase the toy robot “I don’t know which one of them is worse.” I only bring this up because Takuya hasn’t done or said a thing this episode that would make Koji say that.
Koji says Tomoki is being childish, and Tomoki responds by saying he IS a child. In the dub, this exchange goes the opposite direction. Koji calls Tommy a baby, and Tommy yells that he’s not a baby, the toys are just cool.
Takuya tells Tomoki they really need to go. In the dub, he yells “Put down that stupid toy!” which is not only dickish, but he’s also not holding a toy right now…
Koji tells Takuya to not spoil Tomoki. In the dub, he says “Why? Because of him? Little baby has to grow up sometime.” Dubs just continue to love being more rude and assholish than the original Japanese.
After that, Takuya tells Koji to go easy on Tomoki and stop scaring him because he’s only in third grade. Koji defends himself saying that Tomoki made the decision to come to this world, so he needs to toughen up. Takuya calls Koji too cold, while Koji calls Takuya too soft. In the dub, Takuya tells Koji that he knows he doesn’t have any friends, but he’s part of a team now and he should offer some support. Koji then levels up his assholery by saying “Great idea. Let’s support the useless kid right up until we die because of his stupidity.” Takuya says he understands now why no one likes him, and Koji asks what he would know about it.
In the original, Monzaemon yells out “Another challenger!” before he throws Takuya. In the dub, he says nothing until he declares himself the winner, which, if you ask me, makes the scene a lot funnier.
Monzaemon originally stays on pro wrestling while Dub!Monzaemon switches to Tag.
Also, in the original Monzaemon had a habit of adding -mon to all of his sentences. The dub doesn’t reflect this.
They repeat a shot of the kids on the Viking ship ride to show them talking again (to have Koji demand to stop the ride, and Takuya saying he can’t.) and then another repeat shot of the ship swinging. I have no idea why they did that.
This fight Koji and Takuya are having reminds me a lot of the conflict between Yamato and Taichi in Adventure 01, except it’s more annoying. Taichi respected Takeru’s ability to do things on his own and treated him more like an equal while Yamato didn’t respect Takeru’s abilities and was hellbent on trying to take care of him.
These situations are different given that Yamato was Takeru’s older brother and he felt especially responsible for him since their parents were divorced. He had to realize that Takeru had competence and maturity and didn’t need his brother hovering over him every second and not letting him even try to do anything. In this situation, Takuya is caring of Tomoki and is more respectful of him than Koji is, but he is just kinda caving to Tomoki whenever he cries or pouts, and he’s also babying him a bit by offering a piggyback ride because he’s kinda motion sick.
Koji is just being a dick compared to Yamato, though. Koji completely disregards anything Tomoki can do and insults him constantly (more in the dub, but still) and doesn’t make any effort to actually connect with Tomoki and talk with him. He just calls him a useless baby and is mean to him.
Tomoki and Takeru are pretty different. Both are small children who cry and play with toys etc. but Takeru was more adventurous and wanting to do stuff on his own while Tomoki is more childish and whiny. Both needed to grow up, but in slightly different manners.
There’s no mention of Takuya being the ‘leader’ in the original as the dub has Koji claim. I get that he is, by default, the leader because of his goggles, but hearing him being called that by Koji is weird. For how independent and bullheaded Koji is, it seems strange that he would just flippantly call Takuya the leader.
Tomoki says he’s fine to walk. In the dub, he says he doesn’t have a choice, but he does. Takuya just offered to give him a piggyback ride. The only reason he ‘doesn’t have a choice’ is because Koji’s being a dick about it. Like, really, if a Digimon did attack, does he not think at that point that Takuya would Spirit Evolve (or they all would?) or that he wouldn’t put Tomoki down?
Takuya suggests just resting in the nearby building. In the dub, he thinks people might be in there to help them.
Oh my god, those lip flaps on Takuya during the first shot in the candy store. His mouth jumps all over the place.
Koji originally explains that, of the ten legendary warriors, one was an enemy. How do they know if the other four aren’t enemies as well? In the dub, he tells Takuya that him giving up and spending time eating cotton candy are perfect examples of why he’s not a suitable leader. Dub!Koji does mention that stuff after this exchange, but the stuff about Takuya being a bad leader was not included.
Tomoki apologizes for being the reason Takuya and Koji fight so much. In the dub, he says he didn’t realize Koji hated him so much.
Izumi just grumbles in frustration after Junpei talks about fish. In the dub, she says “Rrr, boys!” Yes, it’s such a boy thing to want to catch fish to eat.
They add a repeat shot of Izumi and Junpei on the river to extend the scene slightly at the end.
They repeat the shot of WaruMonzaemon doing his Heartbreak Attack before it hits Koji.
They repeat a shot of WaruMonzaemon running away with Tommy.
Originally, while Takuya does yell Tomoki’s name, it’s clear he’s not trying to get his attention because he’s way too high up and likely behind a window. In the dub, both Takuya and Koji are yelling to get his attention. They have to repeat the shot of Tommy in the window to drive the point home that he can’t hear them.
Originally, Koji doesn’t say anything after Takuya thanks the robot man for helping them find Tomoki. In the dub, Koji snottily says “You just can’t stop playing with toys, can you?” Again, I try to avoid mentioning dialogue where there originally was none, but Koji’s line here is not only dickish, it’s a stupid thing to say. “Hey, thanks Robot guy for helping find our friend!” “God, you’re such a baby! You keep playing with toys! Nyeh!”
Pandamon’s a rather normal, albeit reserved, Digimon. In the dub, he talks more like a classic superhero. Somewhat classic 60s Batman if I had specify, considering he calls his ‘lair’ the ‘Pandacave’.
They repeat a shot of the island before the further shot of the…island.
Name Change: The ToyAgumon are changed to ShadowToyAgumon. These ToyAgumon are the black variant. They don’t have a different name, just a (Black) added to their species name.
They add a repeat shot of the ToyAgumon in the cockpit from earlier before the shot of them pedaling.
Pandamon originally had squeaky noises when he walked, which was adorable and hilarious, but this is not included in the dub, sadly.
Pandamon originally mostly repeated information we already knew after the shot of the ToyAgumon pedaling. In the dub, he said he hoped they wouldn’t come in contact with any of the ShadowToyAgumon on their way through the castle.
Koji just repeated the information he just heard in the original. In the dub, Koji very snottily asks how they’re supposed to get back to castle. Takuya then tells Koji to chill out.
The original Index Screen for ToyAgumon (Black) states that it’s just the black version of a toy character kids made by playing on the internet. In the dub, it says hackers made ToyAgumon this way.
So you’re telling me that these two boys who have spent 90% of the episode doing nothing but bickering and fighting just silently made a coordinated battle plan at the same time? Okie dokie. At least in the dub they had Koji yell “Follow my lead!”
Are you kidding me? One punch and they’re defeated? They were just blown to bits and slashed a minute ago, and they just reassembled. But, oh no, not a punch by something that is my exact copy! They even fall down. They took a little jab to the jaw and that was it.
They sneak in another line to make Koji an asshole during a quiet original moment. ToyAgumon tells them to look at the view, and Dub!Koji snaps “They’re just trees.”
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All in all, this episode was……disappointing.
It had a very strong foundation. Tomoki may have made strides in his development, but he still hasn’t quite solidified his place in the group yet. Likewise, Takuya also hasn’t really cemented himself as a competent leader, and Koji is still as approachable as a porcupine made of broken glass who speaks only in snotty comments. Having a conflict between the three of them that focuses on these weaknesses while also heralding back to a memorable plotline of Adventure 01 is a great idea, but the execution was flimsy, especially the resolution.
The conflict between Takuya and Koji mostly just…vanished? He did make some headway by telling Koji to imagine Tomoki was his little brother, but that only went so far. They were still fighting and making fun of each other during the battle, and then all of a sudden they’re working perfectly in tandem and defeated the ToyAgumon way too easily. For a bunch of Digimon who can take damage easily when in their combined ‘Lego’ form and just reform afterwards, the fact that a gentle bop to the face defeated them all is almost insulting.
I’m not sure how much Tomoki’s ending here bothers me. On one hand, I really wish he had joined in on the fight to prove to Koji that he was capable of pulling his own weight while still being as playful and innocent as he usually is. On the other hand, him ‘saving’ himself by just befriending and playing with WaruMonzaemon, which is actually a pretty clever way of handling these Digimon, was an okay resolution.
I just don’t know if Koji respected that much. He seemed like he did, but who really knows? It was even more unclear if Takuya was meant to learn much of anything here. I mean, from Koji’s point of view, Takuya’s issue was babying Tomoki too much, and the solution to Tomoki’s problem was to nearly pee his pants (not kidding) and play video games with a giant teddy bear.
So….it’s good to be childish? I guess? There’s nothing wrong with letting a child be a child, but, like I said, Koji did have a point. If the prior seasons are any indication, he’s gonna have a rough time if he thinks he can go through this entire journey without toughening up a bit.
It’s just kinda muddled, ya know?
(Also, I understand that the whole brother thing was foreshadowing the fact that Koji does, indeed, have a brother that he’s unaware of, whom we’ll meet later. Doesn’t really make the story better, though)
Oh well, at least we briefly got Pandamon, who is awesome in both versions.
Comparison-wise, I guess it’s fine, but the repeat shots are getting kinda annoying. Mostly because I keep feeling like I’m going nuts trying to remember if there was a repeat shot originally. They’re very brief shots, so it’s easy to overlook, and I keep having to double check.
Next time, we return to Izumi and Junpei who are helping a Tsunemon and a bunch of other Digimon do….stuff? There’s like a flooding river….stuff happens.
…..Previous Episode
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