Kirby Anime Sub and Dub Episode 9 comparison.

So I think I finally settled on a title for these blogs. Also, I'm shocked that I haven't updated in 3 days. I didn't want to jam too much Kirby stuff into my blogs, but I thought I only took a break for a day. But man, we have a lot to unpack in this episode.

This is the Lololo and Lalala episode. These characters were originally from a game call The Adventures of Lolo by Hal, the makers of Kirby. After 3 games on the NES, the series just sorta disappeared. They did get a cameo (parody) as bosses in the first Kirby's Dreamland. They're called Fololo and Falala in the dub. Not sure why. The original games call them Lolo and Lala with one less lo and la in each, so it's not like the names require extra copyright. In the show, Lololo and Lalala live with Fumu's (Tiff) family at the castle, but we never quite understand their relations to them. This episode answers all the questions!

The episode starts with Dedede trying to get Lololo and Lalala to run separate errands for him, but the 2 refuses to split up because they always do things together. This infuriates Dedede and he threatens he would kick them out if they refuse. This bums out Lololo and Lalala, it also made them wonder who they were and where did they came from. They go to ask Fumu's parents and both Memu (Lady Like) and Pamu (Sir Ebrum) starts acting weird and avoids the question. After they send the kids away, we find out why. It turns out Lololo and Lalala used to be a single monster called Lola (Fofa). It happened when Fumu was still a baby. When Pamu and Memu were out enjoying the night with their baby, Dedede just throws Lololo and Lalala from his castle tower and onto Pamu and Memu. Dedede says it's a useless monster and they can keep them. So they were taken in by the family. Of course, Pamu and Memu want to keep this secret from the kids because they think Lololo and Lalala would be sad if they found the truth. Except Kirby was there and overheard the entire conversation and starts saying the name Lola. Hilarious, Kirby ends up getting his mouth taped shut, literally, by Pamu and Memu to avoid him from revealing the secret. It's not like he can really speak.

Meanwhile, Dedede gets the idea to order another monster and Nightmare sends them a monster called KittariHattari (Slice and Dice). This is a brand new monster not from the games. However, it uses 2 rod weapons. One is a sun rod, and the other a moon rod. This is a reference to the Kirby boss Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright. So this monster has the ability to slice things in 2, splitting them into male and female, and the ability to mix body parts. You could get Dedede and Escargoon's head glued onto each other's bodies. Dedede decides to use his new monster to terrorize the village, chopping everybody up and mixing their heads and bodies around for fun. Rick and Tokkori (with heads mixed up) goes to call for Kirby to get their bodies back. Kirby runs out to battle even though his mouth has been taped up.

Kirby gets sliced in 2 in the fight, but is rescued by Lololo and Lalala. It ends up being a big chase with Lololo and Lalala protecting the 2 Kirbies. They also noticed the 2 Kirbies look like them. One of them even has a ribbon like Lalala. Eventually, they get cornered by KittariHattari, and just when he's about the attack, the monster recognizes Lololo and Lalala. KittariHattari can speak. It recognized Lololo and Lalala as Lola. It turns out Lola came from Holy Nightmare. They think Lola is a useless monster. All it can do is float, so they decided to scam Dedede by saying it's a 2 for 1 sale. When Dedede gets them, he also didn't want them, and threw them off to Pamu and Memu. Lololo and Lalala are happy to finally learn the truth about themselves. With a little help from Fumu and Bun, they managed to knock down the monster and steal the sun rod, since that has the ability to merge and fix people that be have cut up. They fix up Kirby first so he can fight. Kirby turns into Cutter Kirby and slices KittariHattari in half. Just as they were about to use the sun rod to merge Lololo and Lalala back together, KittariHattari remains blows up and the sun rod shatters with it, so Lololo and Lalala will never be able to be one again. It's kinda bittersweet, but Lololo and Lalala is happy either way.

This is a heck of an episode. The plot summary is so long because there's a lot to cover. It's also one of my favorite episodes since it covers the origins of Lololo and Lalala. There's also a lot of hilarious sight gags with the whole body switching thing.

There's nothing censored in the episode, but I did notice that in the Japanese original, when Dedede orders to monster to attack Escargoon as an experiment, the original gives a 2 second pause before the Escargoon runs away for dramatic effect, while it's instantaneous in the dub. There's the typical dialog changes, but it's not like it deviates from the original too much. Just some jokes here and there that had to be changed. One change I liked is the Lola says he doesn't want to be sent to hurt anybody despite being a monster. He's just yelling to let him go in the original. I feel like that one change really adds a little more character to them. There is another change that I noticed, but it's not so much as a change, but just the reality of localization. As I said, a lot of characters have been given accents and such in the dub. Rick and Tokkori sound very distinct in the dub, however, they sound really similar in Japanese. A little too similar at times. If you close your eyes, you might not be able to tell who's who when they speak. The dub, they're easily distinguishable.