I thought I was done with talking about Digimon Adventure 2. But then I finally popped the dub into my BD/DVD player. Next thing you know I proceeded to cry in tears at what I ended up watching. Is this dub awful? Is this dub the best? Hell, none of that matters because this dub is just entertaining. And it has at a rap ending.
I did not know this had a rap ending.
Way back when this aired on Fox Kids, it played the “Digimon, Digital Monsters” OP, and then went on the episode, and instead of the ED, it just aired ads of a few shows coming on the block. So yeah, there could be no other reaction to learning in 2013 that Digimon had a rap song aside from this:
WAIT THERE WAS A DIGIMON RAP WHAT THE HELL'S GOIN ON AROUND HERE #mindblown #digimon2
— Justin Stroman (@Kami_nomi) August 21, 2013
BTW, here’s the rap if you wanted to hear it.
No, don’t get angry guys! Don’t do it!
Anyways, I talked about Digimon 2 a bit some time ago, but while the main story is the same, it’s changed almost significantly by the dub. Admittedly, I didn’t have the highest of hopes. I watched the dub of S1 and a few of the episodes there and was unimpressed, especially since I had been watching the sub. Similarly, I have been watching the sub of Digimon Adventure 2, so already I had my elite, “Man this dub is so going to suck compared to the sub” and I know some people don’t think highly of Adventure 2, especially compared to it’s next iteration (Tamers), so I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. But then I watched the dub, and now there’s only one thing I can say: I am mildly entertained.
Does this dub suck? Maybe it might to some people. But in hearing some dubs today, this is better than a lot of them that’s out there, and that’s kind of a testament to the voice actors for this anime and the script. Now, I don’t remember all the specific scenes and don’t feel like doing a sub/dub comparison (I did have plans to do that, but that might be too much work/Crunchyroll for some reason removed it), but (obviously) aside from some name changes in the characters, Digimon, and special moves (Digimental Up! vs Digi-Armor…Energize!), it does feel like some scenes might have been moved, even some to the next episode for some weird reason, and of course, anywhere they can sneak in American culture, they do it here. Hey, do people in Japan drink Plum Juice? Who knows, but we Americans do, so let’s change that Chu-Chu juice into that. Let’s also add extra lines and make sure the events that take place aren’t so serious. For example, let’s make sure Davis manages to mangle T.K’s name for a good part of the show (I’ve watched 7 episodes). This instead means you’ll most likely be smiling instead of taking any of the events all that seriously. It’s going to depend on you if you’ll enjoy that. Also, the music is a nice change of pace, which kind of makes everything a bit more goofy than it should be.
Also, this dub. I mean, most of the characters so far are fine. Ken really sounds like a cool Digimon Emperor (that’s right, not Kaiser), and I definitely like Lara Jill as Kari. But that Armadillomon…what is with companies back then having to go to the extreme with voices in dubs? We got Joey from Yu-Gi-Oh and his Brooklyn accent, Bakura and him sounding British for…some reason, and we get a Southern accent for Armadillomon.
Um. Uh. I guess this was supposed to be for educational purposes? To…broaden children’s horizons?
Meh, who gives a crap? Let’s have some free snacks!
I don’t know…and quite frankly, it’s not too a big deal, since I’m still laughing and having that smile on my face. That’s probably a good thing, and I thank New Video Group for bringing that smile back for me!
