Kirby Anime Sub and Dub Episode 14 comparison

I've been putting off talking about this episode mainly because it's boring. It's one of my least favorite episode. It's the second part of the new year episode, but this one is a clip show.

Dedede demands that Nightmare send him some special service for new years. The salesman sends him some pillows. These pillows give people nightmares so they would turn against Kirby. Dedede gives them out to everyone in the village. The folks at Pupupuland starts having nightmares as expected, and is hypnotized into forming a mob to drive out Kirby. The nightmares are just clips from all the previous episodes. But they quickly snap out of it when it's revealed that inside the pillow hides the monster Noddy.

Yeah, not a very interesting episode at all. Half of it is comprised of clips from previous episodes. Kirby doesn't really fight off anything, and the Noddy just run away after they've been exposed.

The English cuts on the other hand is actually very interesting. First of all, new year isn't mentioned at all in English. In the Japanese version, Dedede wants a special new years service. The dub just has Dedede demanding better treatment as their number 1 customer. I guess it really doesn't change anything even though it's removed. What's really interesting is what they cut or didn't cut from the reused clips.

Chief Borun's nightmare was completely cut. It's the scene with Kirby shooting up his police station with an Uzi. That was cut for obvious reasons. However, the mayor's nightmare starts with the dinner in honor of Kirby from episode 1. As we know, the scene with them giving a toast was removed, however, in this episode, the scene was restored. So you see them give a toast while Kirby inhales everything, wine included.

The other big change is the Nightmare salesman. In the Japanese original, he's wearing some kind of traditional Japanese outfit for new year. In the dub, he's just dressed in his usual suit. In fact, the scenes with the salesman are edited in from different episodes. My guess is the cultural stuff would be lost on kids. This is stupid of course. There's nothing wrong with kids being exposed to different cultures.

The next episode will be much more interesting.