Let's begin dismantling the bomb.

In the episode opening, the dub adds an extra toilet humor joke about Syrus's food adventures while he’s searching for the bathroom half-asleep. Kagemaru's and Daitokuji's conversation is a bit exaggerated on both ends (Kagemaru is more forceful, Banner praises Jaden more highly) and explicitly namedrops Jaden where the sub was ominously vague, but the meaning is ultimately the same. The dub cuts a close-up of Pharaoh towards the end, so honestly just pack it up because the sub version of this episode is clearly mandatory.

The next day, Banner's alchemy lecture is vaguer (mixing unknown compounds without mentioning the goal of making gold) and he also connects it to Duel Monsters fusion in the dub. When Judai wakes up Shou comments on his nap, while Syrus comments on the lecture. Banner's description of his field trip is exaggerated to sound more tedious and boring.

Daitokuji: I've planned a picnic for this Sunday to visit the island's dormant ruins [meow]! I'd like anyone interested to participate [meow].

Banner: We're taking a 10-mile hike! All the way to the excavated ruins, where we'll be taking geologic core samples!

Cut to the morning of, and Syrus mentions that Banner threatened everyone with detention to get them to come where Shou just mentions he forced them without specifying. Chumley complains about beauty sleep (friends polled said this wasn’t a fat joke, but I still don’t love it) while Hayato talks about how the ruins are usually off-limits due to their proximity to the active volcano.

Judai asks Asuka her reasons for coming, Jaden jokes about not sleeping. Both Asuka/Alexis mention potential connections to duels of darkness/shadow games, but Alexis treats the connection as more of a sure bet.

When Shou/Syrus brings up what he heard the other night, Syrus frames it more personally as targeted at Jaden - which makes sense, because Banner mentioned Jaden by name during that call while Daitokuji merely implied it. In both cases Judai/Jaden waves it off.

The hiking montages is silent in the sub, while (DING goes the fat joke counter) the dub adds a stream of Chumley whining. When they arrive, the joke between Judai/Jaden and Asuka/Alexis about how the ruins look ruined is the same between versions.

Daitokuji describes the ruins as a duel site as well as a grave; Banner instead unleashes what's clearly meant to be historical/architectural jargon, which was really interesting to note after looking at how the dub similarly handles a certain character from a later season.

Daitokuji: Further in, we'll find the more-amazing ruins said to be of the ancient duel arenas and the ruins of the graves [meow]! Shou: I wonder how the Professor's so energetic...

Banner: It's beautiful! You can still make out the faded remains of the oculus! Ooh! And the fastigium! No doubt inspired by Amenemhet of Saqqarah! Syrus: He sure seems excited to see some rocks.

The dub takes another potshot at Chumley because of course it does, then continues the Banner jargon joke as they set up for lunch. Famously Daitokuji's special bento from Tome-san becomes pizza, and the students' riceballs become "whatever it is I'm holding?!"

And. Okay. Look. I think this is funny and so do a lot of other people, but let’s break this moment down here. Why is this funny? Because the “whatever it is” Judai/Jaden is holding is in fact rice balls, which 4KIDS is famous for renaming as jelly donuts - or pastries, in the case of a previous GX episode - as a form of cultural censorship. We can't talk about these weird foreign foods, they’re not American enough. They'll confuse the poor American kids who have never heard of rice or balls. 

Bringing attention to the mystery food that is clearly neither donut nor pastry highlights the absurdity of that censorship…but by refusing to call it what it is, even something as understandable as “rice balls,” it’s still upholding that same censorship. I’ll leave the rest of this discussion for the end of the review but TL;DR interpreting this as poking fun at 4KIDS' own cultural censorship and as continued perpetuation of said censorship can both be true.

The lunch comedy is about the same leading into Pharaoh activating the buried relic. The dub adds a joke during the three-suns transition, and a second as everyone runs for cover. They also add an explanation that Jaden runs off to lead the storm away, which is kind of wild but the sub doesn't offer a better stated reason.

Jaden catches on instantly that he isn't in Kansas anymore (in exactly those words), whereas Judai needs a moment. He still thinks it's a dream though, leading into the "Winged Kuriboh pinch me--OW" bit

Once Sara/Yasmin enters the scene, the dub adds some minor jokes at the expensive of making Jaden a bit slower to catch onto the situation despite his early start. Yasmin skips the detail about the intruders being treated as graverobbers, instead focusing on trespassing - not unlike episode 3, where trespassing is used in place of voyeurism. The dub adds more dialogue during the establishing shots of the three suns and pillar formation.

While hiding out, Judai worries about his friends while Jaden wonders if Yasmin was lying to him until Daitokuji (sub)/Alexis (dub) screams for help. The dub adds more jokes to Judai getting surrounded.

The gravekeeper chief is the first to broach the topic of other worlds, while Jaden tosses it in as a joke about returning to their dimension. The dub again writes out graverobbing in favor of trespassing, and omits the allusion to someone who succeeded the trial before Judai (i.e., Fubuki/Atticus). They also censor the chief's threat about taking his liver and turning him into a mummy, and in the dub he simply threatens to bury Jaden alive. They also add a bit more banter between Jaden and the chief in place of Judai’s dialogue about borrowing Hayato’s duel disk.

As the duel starts, a small moment illustrating the formality difference between Judai and the Chief is exaggerated into a joke while skipping over another Fubuki/Atticus allusion.

Judai: Duel! Chief: May the ceremony begin. The first move is mine. I draw my card. Judai: Dude...this is totally just normal Duel Monsters... Chief: Did I not mention that there have been people who have wandered into this world before?

Jaden: All right! Get your game on! Chief: Get my game on? What do you speak of? Jaden: Sheesh. It's a figure of speech! Y'know, like slang? Chief: It's like slang?! How dare you speak to me with the rotten tongue of a filthy serpent!

The dub version of the duel contains some mechanical errors (calling a flip summon a normal summon), and some usual dialogue changes. Chumley gets slandered twice more. Taunts in place of duel procedure. Banner throws in a joke referencing the lunch comedy.

When Judai summons Flame Wingman he frames it very slightly differently, a comeback from the risk of his last turn (sub) or the product of Bubbleman's draw advantage (dub). In the peanut gallery, Asuka talks about how Judai has the advantage while Alexis talks about how he has no margin for error in this duel with their lives at stake, and part of her speaking time is given to Jaden and the chief rehashing stakes.

Necrovalley's explanation is cut slightly down to make room for trash talk. After the peanut gallery reacts, the dub cuts some duel summary and trash talk, skipping ahead to remind us of the stakes again before the episode ends. Roll To Be Continued.

And that's game! Gotcha!

Spoiler Zone

Empty!

Final Thoughts

Chumley slander counter: 1 fat joke, 4 miscellaneous potshots.

My first impression from an initial watch was that this was a relatively straightforward episode, aside from the usual Chumley slander. But upon writing it up I came to realize that censorship is a bit of a theme this episode. It happens three times in the dub version of this episode: first with the rice balls at lunch, second with graverobbing changed to trespassing, and third with the chief’s threats of disembowelment.

I’m not really going to argue that last one because it was probably a required change for American TV standards (which has its own implications, but not the part I'm most interested in discussing here). I’m not sure the same was true for the graverobbing, and honestly I think it’s of minor note that they rewrote both voyeurism (from episode 3) and graverobbing into trespassing in terms of what’s considered acceptable crimes for kids' television.

But the real moment of note to me is the rice balls, and the highlighting of their censorship by sidestepping the need to give them a name with “whatever it is I’m holding?!” To me, it’s not that different from if 4KIDS decided to keep kanji onscreen but called them “moon runes” (which was a real joke of the era). This thing is weird and unknowable, rather than something that would have been regular life for people of certain cultures.

4KIDS was very much an American corporation. The 2000 US Census reported 1.15 million people self-identifying at least partial Japanese ancestry in America - yes, I checked - and 11.9 million Asian Americans, including me at age [REDACTED]. I brought rice balls - or something like them - to lunch as a kid, and I did have conversations with people about what it was. If you told me my delicious lunch was a donut I’d have thought you were stupid; if I told you the name and you told other kids it was a donut, I’d have been insulted.

After losing Ed to Amon, 146 shows us the trauma and guilt really setting into Judai, and how he feels that finding Johan is giving him a reason to keep moving; Ryou sees the fire in him has died and tries to get him to snap out of it, but he sees how Judai's been left with trauma about using his Fusion card given the havoc he wreaked as Supreme King and tells Judai that he won't be able to save anyone like that. He takes some time to recompose himself after his heart trouble ended his duel with Judai early, while Judai walks off to do some soul-searching and finds his way back to the areas we stopped in earlier in the arc (which the dub feels the need to have Jaden audibly tell us). Guardian Baou then challenges him hoping to succeed the Supreme King, ultimately being defeated in 147 as Judai manages a cool combo using Hero Mask, Edgeman, and Feather Shot, and after Misawa tells us about how the twelve universes are being forced into one--and that Judai's use of his Supreme King side will be crucial to stop it, prompting Shou to wonder if Judai will perfect himself by combining with that side--Ryou is greeted by Johan, who of course it turns out has Yubel possessing him. But knowing his time is short, Ryou challenges Johan to a duel, and I always love how it culminates in this bit of a swan song for him in 148 as his use of Power Bond gives his Cyber End a record ATK value. His sendoff is sweet, and while you could argue Ryou could have voiced a word or two of love for Shou as Zane does in the dub, it makes sense he focused on his journey and the hope he and the others have that Judai can make a miracle happen and rescue them--and the love between them is still there, through Shou's piercing "Brother!!" shout which always gives me chills (thanks, Masami Suzuki). Overall, a good trio of episodes, and the animation from Kyoung Soo Lee's team in 146 and Tea Sun In's in 148 (including cuts from Gil bo Noh) are always a treat.

In terms of animation fixes, each episode actually had a fair few, though mostly quality-of-watching things like split-screen stuff. There were a few big ones, though: a couple of card errors, the return of a specific strapping issue, and some Duel Disk-related stuff. Details past the end of the post below for the interested, as always!

Housekeeping-wise, I've re-uploaded episodes 134 and 145; 134 was updated to fix an additional piece to the fourth Glow Moss fix I did where I missed that Neos was also missing on Judai's Disk as he summoned the former through Common Soul (the correction), while 145 had its preview updated with the correct fiery scene as we see Judai's war flashbacks keeping him from using Fusion (I assumed it wasn't used or was changed to be blueish as that's the version that appears in 146 proper after he visualizes the Supreme King and panics before playing Clayman, but the original preview fades into it as pulled from after the eyecatch during Judai's soul-searching lol). The links in their respective release posts will be updated, and I'll post the updated hardsub/DVDRip/MKV (134) and hardsub (145) over on NAC with 146-148.

(Also, bumping my one slight housekeeping request, if anyone knows any anime song cover artists that do Italian covers; since I'll be coming up on finalizing my Season 4 work sometime in 2026 [hopefully], I still want to incorporate the Italian dub into my releases given that it starts to be adapted straight from the Japanese version as of episode 156, and I'd really like to commission Italian covers of Teardrop and The Sun [even if just for one episode], as well as Precious Time, Glory Days and Endless Dream for S4 proper. [Worst-case I'll check Fiverr maybe, but thought I'd ask for some leads on some good ones first lol 🙏🏽])

With all that out of the way, enjoy! These being done means it's back to TFSP for a bit, as I work through the rest of the ZEXAL cast's in-duel lines before starting the OW text for the ARC-V Tier 2 characters; I should have another progress post previewing the ZEXAL OW text once those in-duel lines are done. Once that's done, I'll work on finalizing GX 149-150 as Dark Johan takes on Amon. Stay tuned!

Fixes and Edits! (146)

After stopping Judai from going through the giant gate, Ryou notes that Johan is likely being held captive by someone; Judai gasps as Ryou then slides in on a split-screen to say that he doesn't sense that kind of will to fight radiating from him--and that it in fact looks like he's trying to escape through that gate, but his split slides onto the screen a frame before Judai's side of it starts to move for it. Fixed this in Sony Vegas by making Judai's side start moving as Ryou's split starts to slide on screen in that earlier frame.

A bit later, after Ryou uses his Armored Cyber End's Judgment Cannon to destroy Judai's set Hero Barrier, the two slide onto a split-screen as Ryou notes how, after using Spark Gun with Sparkman to destroy Armored Cybern on his last turn, he could have used it to fend off his Cyber End's attack; Ryou then prepares to fire another Judgment Cannon, and he moves to end the split-screen and do so a frame before Judai's split starts to move with him. Fixed this in Vegas so that the two start moving simultaneously on the same frame.

A bit after that, when Ryou's Armored Cyber End destroys Judai's set Emergency Call, Ryou and Judai slide in for another split-screen as Ryou puts all the hypotheticals together for Judai, but a few things happen: 1) the first frame of Ryou's split sliding in has it missing Judai's split, which takes an extra frame to start sliding in; 2) during the later shot of Sparkman in Ryou's explanation, as a split-screen forms to split Sparkman out into a shot of Spark Gun, there's a quick frame where each half of the split starts to move as though they're splitting apart but they're not actually split apart, as they are in the following frame; and 3) as the last shot of Spark Gun has a split-screen form that splits apart into a shot of Ryou, the first frame of the split-out has the right half missing a border. Fixed all in Vegas, first masking in Judai's split partially into the first frame as Ryou's split is sliding on screen, then just holding a frame of Sparkman still over the frame with the jittery move, and finally adding a border to the right Spark Gun split.

Later, as Baou and Judai start their duel and the LP counters appear, Baou starts a split-screen to taunt Judai about falling prey to his Devil Slime Mold, which Judai then joins to acknowledge before pushing the split-screen off to turn on his Disk, but two quick things happen: 1) the shot of them in the distance has Judai missing the orange highlighting to his hair, and 2) the first frame of Judai's split sliding into the full split-screen with Baou has it already a decent way into the frame, while the slide-in only lasts three frames to Baou's five. Fixed these by first using Photoshop to paint in the orange highlighting for Judai's hair (similar to an error fixed back in episode 42), and then as I worked that into the footage in Vegas I also made Judai's split's slide-in a bit smoother, lasting for five frames like Baou's for consistency.

A bit later, after another taunt by Baou about it seeming to be true that Judai can't use Fusion, Judai slides in for a split-screen as he gasps, surprised that Baou knew, but Baou moves for his split's slide-in a frame before he starts to slide on screen. Fixed in Vegas by starting Judai's split's slide-in a frame earlier, masking a bit of it into the frame in which Baou starts to move for it.

A bit after that, once Baou's Gravity Gain forces Burstlady to call off her attack, Judai groans as Baou slides into a split-screen to taunt him about his deck being weak without Fusion, but Baou's split starts to slide onscreen a frame before Judai moves for it, and it only slides in for three frames but Judai's side keeps moving an additional three frames after it stops. Fixed this in Vegas by timing Baou's split moving and Judai moving for it simultaneously, making each last the full six frames. Also, during the still parts of Baou's lips flapping, the shading under his bottom lip is a lighter purple like the highlight by his eye, when up until this it's been shown to be a darker purple--which he regains as he moves during the split-screen but loses again once he stops moving and keeps talking; I fixed this, as well, by recoloring the shading on each frame of his lip-flaps in Photoshop, recycling each as needed while he talks in Vegas.

Right after #6, Burstlady returns to Judai's field, but her right shoulder strap is missing, in an oft-reoccurring strapping issue for her. Fixed in Photoshop by drawing it in, then using Vegas to work the edit into the footage, repositioning it as she moves down to the ground.

Later, in the preview for 147, we see Judai turning to look at his hand, but the top of his backpack is miscolored; fixed this in Vegas, masking in the corrected footage from 147.

Also in the preview, we see Dark Johan with AGB Amethyst Cat out, but there's a black rectangle on his Disk where her card should be; I fixed this first in 147 proper and then masked in the fix here, using AfterEffects to slap in a proxy and use its motion tracking to work it into the footage, fading it out as it fades into the close-up of Dark Johan.

Fixes and Edits! (147)

After Dark Johan asks about Judai and Ryou quips about his way of greeting someone after they crossed dimensions to find him, Johan chuckles and turns to face Ryou, who slides in on a split-screen to ask him where he's been and what he's been doing, but Johan moves for the split-screen a frame before Ryou's split starts to slide on screen. Fixed in Vegas by timing Ryou's split's slide-in to start on the frame that Johan starts to move for it.

A bit later, after Chronos gets some distance from the duel starting as prompted by Ryou and Dark Johan, the latter two are on a split-screen before it splits apart to show them shouting "Duel!", but their splits get a little uneven by the last frame of the split-out, causing Ryou's split to take a frame longer to fully slide offscreen. Fixed this in Vegas by adjusting Ryou's split in that last frame to be more even with Johan's, then holding a still frame of the shot of them in the distance over the error frame with Ryou's delayed split-out.

After the eyecatch, after Judai and co catch up to Chronos to watch the duel, he notices that it's "Johan" that Ryou is facing--but as he sees him, there's a black rectangle where his AGB Amethyst Cat should be on his Disk. As noted under 146, I fixed this using AfterEffects to slap in a proxy and use its motion tracking to work it into the footage, fading it out as the shot fades into the close-up of Dark Johan.

After his Cyber Dragon's attack on Amethyst Cat led to Dark Johan's LP not decreasing, Ryou asks why; Dark Johan then slides in on a split-screen to explain Advanced Dark's damage-reduction effect, but the first frame of his slide-in has him just pop into place a fair way into the shot already, without Ryou moving for it, and his split's slide-in only lasts about 4-5 frames. Fixed in Vegas, first timing Johan's split slide-in and Ryou moving for it to be simultaneous, while making Johan's split slide-in for a smoother six frames like most other split-screen slide-ins.

A bit later, as he uses Fusion to summon Cyber Twin Dragon, we zoom out on him as he declares that he is, but Cyber Laser Dragon is missing in Monster Zone 4 on his Disk. Fixed in AfterEffects, slapping on a proxy and using its motion tracking (with a fair few adjustments) to re-zoom the proxy out before then panning it downward as the shot pans up to the Cyber Dragons fusing.

Fixes and Edits! (148)

After Ryou tells everyone that his heart might stop soon, Dark Johan is taken aback as he asks, "What?", but there's a quick movement frame as he does so (lasting three total frames) where a bang on the left side of his head loses its shading. Fixed in Photoshop by coloring the shading back in, and then working the edit into the footage in Vegas by re-panning it with the shot.

Later, Ryou uses Cyber Vary's effect to banish it and his Cybernetic Hidden Technology to draw two cards, but as the split-screen we see them being banished on splits apart to show him doing so, we see that the buttons along the "wing" of his Disk (the part which holds the right end of the Disk zones when off) are miscolored like his active Monster Zones. Fixed this in Photoshop by recoloring them back to their normal gray, then in Vegas by redoing the slide-out for the CHT split so that it slides offscreen on top of my edit, then panning the edit downward (and adding a linear blur) as the shot pans up to him looking at the cards.

A few seconds after #2, as Ryou uses Overload Fusion and gets joined by the dragons he's banishing, we see as the shot zooms out that his Disk wasn't fully drawn in, as everything past Monster Zone 3 along the Disk itself and part of the "wing" bit just above it is missing (with half of Monster Zone 4 drawn in). As covered here, fixed in Photoshop by splicing in that part of his Disk from a shot with it in a similar position and edited it into place, then used AfterEffects and its motion tracking (with several tweaks [mileage can vary when it comes to tracking scale]) to re-zoom the edit out, lighting it up as the light from the banishing bleeds onto his Disk.

After the eyecatch, as Ryou uses Power Bond and we see his big moments using them via flashback, the clip used from his use of it during his Graduation Duel with Judai uses the original footage of him activating it at the end of episode 51 and not the corrected footage in 52's recap of it, which had fixed his lip-flaps to be timed more accurately with his line. Fixed by reprising the episode-52 footage and redoing the flashback border around it. (Gifs to better show the difference; imagine him saying "Majikku kaado hatsudou! Powaa Bondo!" lol.)

A bit later, once he brings out his Cyber End and Dark Johan gasps, he slides in on a split-screen to explain that Power Bond doubles its ATK, they split apart to show Cyber End's ATK rising to 8000, but the first frame of the split-out shows Dark Johan's split without a border. Fixed in Vegas by quickly applying one.