Hoshi no Kaabii episode 2 comparison.

I purposely left out a lot of stuff in my first episode comparisons, such as a comparison of the voices for other characters and other oddities that I noticed in case I run out of stuff to say for future episode blogs, but I think I don't need to worry, since there are lots to talk about even when just comparing the original with the dub.

As I said before, the stories don't have a strong overarching narrative, but it has continuity. Episode 2 starts with Kirby not having a place to stay now that he's stuck in Pupupuland (Dream Land) after Escargoon blows up his spaceship. The kids try to find a place for Kirby to live. They tried asking the residents of Pupupu Village (Cappy Town) to take him in. Dedede overhears this and tries to sabotage things because he wants Kirby gone. He and Escargoon enlist the help of a local bird, Tokkori to help mess things up for Kirby. Hilarity ensues as Tokkori causes Kirby to be kicked out of every job he tries to apply for.

Fumu (Tiff) and Bun (Tuff) eventually just decide to build a treehouse for Kirby instead. Dedede resorts to ordering another monster to stop Kirby, while Holy Nightmare thinks they have just the monster to do the job now that they know they're up against Kirby.

So one of the things I forgot to mention is that the show uses a combination of 2D and 3D animation. It blends pretty seamlessly because of the bright colors and simple art style. It's really charming. However, Dedede's tank sticks out due to the camouflage decal looking very low resolution. So it's one of those artistic changes made by 4Kids that worked. It is definitely censorship, but I didn't like the look of the tank in the original anyway.

What is disappointing about this episode is that 2 scenes were cut due to "questionable content"... in a Kirby anime. When the kids were trying to find a place for Kirby to stay, they tried having Kirby stay at the police station and the bar. Both of these scenes were cut. The police station scene involves Kirby firing an Uzi that was dropped into his hands by Tokkori. It's actually pretty hilarious seeing Kirby with a gun. I've seen the gif and the scene in isolation long ago, but I had forgotten about it. The other scene with the bar has Kirby mixing drinks. So alcohol is also a no-no. Kirby did look cute mixing drinks though.

Another change is... strange. In the gas station scene, Kirby was tricked by Tokkori into pressing a button thereby blowing up the gas station. In the English dub, Tokkori places a green sticker over the button, while the Japanese original is a sticker of Kirby with a red X over it -- think the Ghostbusters logo but with Kirby. I'm not sure why they changed it. It makes no real difference, and just felt so pointless.

The other change was they cut out a few seconds at the end. In the original, Dedede cries about his monster being defeated, then slaps Escargoon a few times. In the English dub, they cut the part where Dedede slaps Escargoon. It was a comical scene, so I don't know why they would cut it. They kept the scene where Dedede fires his tank point-blank in front of Tokkori, so I doubt it was due to "violence".

Definitely some disappointing cuts, but I can understand why with some of them. It's stupid, but this is America.

Then there's the issue with Kirby "speaking". According to the interviews Daddy Sakurai set down 2 rules for the anime. 1: Kirby can not speak. 2: No humans allowed. For rule number 2, you'll find out how they sidestepped this with the Holy Nightmare salesman. For rule number 1, I don't think it was a strict rule. Kirby clearly said the names of Fumu, Bun, and Lolo and Lala to show that he does understand the characters and has some form of intelligence. However, I noticed Kirby also called out the stone Kirby ability when he transformed in this episode. This was actually cut from the dub. Not sure why. Technically 4Kids is adhering to Sakurai's rule more than the original Japanese creators. Very strange instead.

One more oddity that I picked up is that both episodes 1 and 2 refers to Escargoon as Doctor Escargoon. You can actually hear him say doctor out loud in English while watching the Japanese original. No idea what that's about since we never see Escargoon doing any doctor stuff. Maybe he has a Ph.D.? I wonder if that's why the Kirby 3D dub had the Nightmare salesman call him Lord Escargoon from out of nowhere.

This episode is also the first episode to confirm the existence of Rick, Koo, and Kine from Kirby's Dreamland 2. The series is definitely a mishmash of all the Kirby games up till that point. The house that Kirby gets at the end of the episode was first seen in Kirby Super Star.

With the voices, I definitely like the English dub for Tokkori. You can tell there's a hint of selfishness to Tokkori as a character. Something I couldn't pick up from the Japanese voice acting. Tokkori as you'll see is more like an annoying selfish neighbor than a real antagonist. He only does what's good for him and no one else. He'll definitely be a recurring side character.

You also get to hear Koo and Rick speak briefly. Koo's Japanese voice is just cute, while he sounds more like a wise old owl in the English dub. Rick is... Australian. Even has an Australian aboriginal sound effect when he appears in the English dub. He just sounds... cute in the Japanese version.

Fun episode with a few savage lines thrown in. No seriously, the characters can be absolutely savage with their humor in this show. This is one of the reasons why it's so much fun to watch.