Space-Time Detective Genshi-Kun/Flint the Time Detective Episode 4 Sub/Dub Comparison – Princess Kaguya is Waiting?

Plot: Genshi, Sora and Tokio pursue the shy Space-Time Monster, Talun, who has the ability to enter into any storybook that it wants.


They replace the first shot of the research facility with a different, panned, shot of it….at dusk for some reason.



They also quickly reverse and speed up the shot of Genshi jumping to make it seem like he’s bouncing.

They replace a shot of Toki G close up with one of him from afar.



Title Change: Princess Kaguya is Waiting? is changed to Talen.

Name Change?: Talun is changed to Talen and is also pronounced differently. In the original, it’s pronounced like ‘Tail-uhn’ It’s a poke at the fact that it’s based off of the legend of the nine-tailed fox. Spelled mostly the same, the dub’s name can be pronounced the same, but the dub chooses to pronounce it like ‘Talon’ like a bird’s talon, which doesn’t make a lot of sense considering its design, but whatever.

They add in a closeup shot of Flint talking right after we see him running around in circles so they can pointlessly have him say “Let’s do the pizza dance everyone!”

Sora says that they seem to be enjoying themselves, and Tokio says Genshi is only quiet on two occasions – when it’s bath time and when he’s hungry. In the dub, Sarah says Flint’s always talking about food. Tony replies that Flint’s metabolism must have been affected when he was de-fossilized. I thought it was just because he was a stereotypical caveman character.

Sora teaches Genshi what friendship is. Sarah teaches Flint about modesty. Because that’s a necessary conversation at this moment for some reason even though it’s completely unrelated to everything that’s going on.

Sora explains friendship quite horribly in merely saying that she, Love-Love and the others are all friends with Genshi. Hey guys, let me explain how fire works to you. This is fire.

You understand?

Sarah at least explains somewhat properly what modesty is by telling Flint that he may indeed be the best dancer, but stating outright that he is such, as he just did, is unbecoming.

In the original, Genshi just dances around yelling ‘friends!’ over and over. In the dub, he doesn’t understand what Sarah tried to teach him and yells over and over that he’s the best dancer.

Originally, Tokio asks if Genshi really understands what friends are, and Sora happily exclaims that he does. Of course, Tokio, how could you insinuate that he didn’t understand that college-level lecture Sora gave on the topic? In the dub, Tony says he doesn’t think Flint gets the modesty thing, and Sarah happily explains that ignorance is bliss.

Rei doesn’t hear Professor Yamato’s comment insinuating that she’s beautiful. In the dub, she hears him, says the comment is inappropriate and, in a moment of ego, says her natural beauty is besides the point and to get ready for the mission.

They keep pronouncing Heian as Hai-yan.

They can’t even pronounce Suzaku correctly. They say ‘Suzeiku.’

Tokio’s line about the cow basically being a steak and thus something to eat is basically the same, but they add in that hamburgers also come from cows. I wouldn’t mention this if not for the fact that Sarah’s next line change is incredibly stupid as a response of this. She originally yells that it’s not a justification to bite a cow just because steaks come from cows. In the dub, she yells out, no, hamburgers come on a plate….

1) He said hamburgers come FROM cows, not ON cows.

2) Does she think hamburgers just magically appear on plates?

3) She seems to fully understand and accept that steaks come from cows but not that hamburgers also come from cows?

Talun’s name plate is painted away.



The kanji on the girl’s book is removed.



Genshi originally says that TP Lady is under arrest. In the dub, he just tells her to step aside.

In response to Genshi saying he’s too hungry to fight, TP Lady asks “What’s with this kid?” In the dub, she asks “Ah, how about a knuckle sandwich, pumpkin?” I wouldn’t be too bothered by this, but her facial expression in this shot does not, in any way, match what she’s saying in the dub.

Right before Genshi bites TP Lady, they edit in a back and forth shot of Petra’s leg and the hallucination of the radish. Dunno why. Think we can remember information we learned all of five seconds prior.

The original tale that TP Lady and Genshi fall into is the Taketori Tale or the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter or the Tale of Princess Kaguya. In the dub, Princess Kaguya’s name is changed to Princess Bamboo and the tale is just called the Tale of Bamboo.

Despite removing the title tag every other time, they accidentally leave it on in the far shot of the book as the kids and TP Lady’s goons are talking about what happened.

They insert a closeup of the book after Mite points at it.

Tokio, slow on the uptake I guess, points out that he recognizes the goons as TP Lady’s goons. In the dub, he yells that he doesn’t believe them, which is dumb because Putera is also backing up their story, is an ally and has no reason to lie.


Talun, disguised as Kaguya, originally says he doesn’t want to live in a world where he doesn’t know anyone – It’s too lonely. In the dub, he says he didn’t want to go into the storybook, but had no choice since TP Lady and her goons were after him. Another time I wouldn’t really mention it if not for the fact that this screws up the scene. It’s supposed to be a surprise that the princess is really Talun when Genshi suddenly sniffs her and points it out. In the dub, since he’s outright saying all that stuff, it’s no surprise when Flint points it out.

They repeat and reverse the shot of Princess!Talun talking to Genshi after he reveals who she is to lengthen the shot I suppose.

Genshi dances and says ‘Friends!’ over and over like he was earlier. In the dub, Flint makes up some song and talks about how he’ll save Talun, he’s the best dancer and to give him food. The original was cuter and had a better impact, in my opinion.

Flint sounds a little creepy when he tells Talun that he’ll take him home with him.

TP Lady points out that there’s a lot of security. In the dub, she says “Maybe I should’ve been a fashion designer.”

Here’s a pretty significant problem with this episode. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a pretty well known story in Japan. Most viewers, even small children, would be able to understand the little bits and pieces of the story that we’re getting as the episode goes on. However, this Tale of Bamboo that seems to both be made up and using the real Kaguya story is hardly known at all, especially to small children, in the States. I can imagine so many English speaking kids sitting there wondering why these guards would be worried about Princess Bamboo returning to the moon. I’m not saying remove the references, but this is what translator notes are for.

The guy voicing that one guard in blue sounds ridiculous. It’s like he’s purposely trying to sound like those bad voice actors from old samurai movies.

Talun’s gender, in regards to pronouns (he→she) has been changed to female in the dub. I guess because he turned into a princess in the story and maybe because he’s pink?

If I haven’t mentioned it before, the sound effects in this show are weird. It’s like they don’t have the right ones (or any) when they need them a good chunk of the time.

Petra, Dino and Mite call themselves the ‘Time Dogs’? Huh?

Small change, but TP Lady originally says Genshi was just saying nice things to Talun in order to capture him. In the dub, Petra tells Talen that Flint and the others aren’t good friends since they’re not making a decent effort to save her.

Again, they replay and reverse a shot, this time of TP Lady about to stamp Talun, in order to lengthen the dialogue. They also add in another reused shot of Talun with the stamp on his head before Petra explains what the stamp does.

In the original, the stamp is called a TP Stamp. In the dub, it’s a Petra Stamp.

Sarah tries to say “Now what!?” when Flint climbs the tree. The sound mixing makes this bit fade out after ‘Now’ so it becomes confusing when Tony says “No telling with Flint.”

Also, Flint, I know you’re not the brightest bulb in the box, but what you’re creating with the tree is a catapult not a sling shot. And, even if it were, it’s not called a ‘sling’. Without the ‘shot’ slings are just pieces of fabric that hang from something with the mere purpose of holding it up, not propelling it through the air.

Tokio and Sora don’t have any dialogue during the shot where Genshi’s trying to bend the tree. In the dub, they splice in the same previous shot of Sarah and Tony to cheer him on.

They splice in a shot of Flint about the strike with his hammer right after the shot of Petra, Dino and Mite watching him fly through the air.

This show is so weird to compare in that I have to note more scenes being spliced IN than taken OUT.

So they’re keeping the running lesson of the importance of friendship in the dub…..which just makes it all the more confusing as to the dialogue change earlier about being modest instead of learning what friends are.

They, completely pointlessly, splice in a recycled static shot of Rocky right before they use Fighting Spirit. It’s awkward.

Bad Transformations are called Petraformations in the dub. I kinda like the dub’s name better, mostly because it’s actually a tiny bit creative.

Also, I cannot make out what the bad transformation is called in the dub. But according to the Wiki it’s ‘Talen-kon.’ In the original, it’s Warulun.

They paint away the text that says ‘Bad transformation – Warulun’



In the original, Warulun’s attack with his tails does not have a name. In the dub, it’s Petra Spikes.

Flint: “I’m glad I had to rescue you, because now we’ll be good friends, right?” That line is so weird. Flint is getting so many weird lines today. “I’m glad I had to rescue you”? Who says that? Saying you’re glad you had to rescue someone kinda implies that you’re glad they were in danger to begin with. Also, ‘I HAD to rescue you’ implies you were forced into it. In the original, Genshi just tells Talun that he’s his precious friend.

Rocky: “Great landing, son! Like a rock!” What is with the dialogue today? Originally, Ototan just said ‘Perfect!’ He landed like a rock? He used his hammer to grab onto the top of the tree, spun around on the top a few times then jumped down on his feet. If he landed like a rock, he’d have plummeted down, crashed and maybe broken into bits. If they were making some weird pun here, it didn’t work.

In the transition between the scene with Genshi and the others and the scene with Toki G, they insert the same reversed eyecatch animation shtick they keep doing, this time for Talun, of course. They also add an establishing shot of the Land of Time and a further shot of Toki G after the animation.

They add in the same further shot after the shot where we see Genshi turning Talun back to his egg form then continue on as normal. Looking at these edits side by side really makes the dub look sloppy as hell. What is the point of all these inserts? There has to be enough time to fill the English dub if there are so few cuts.

Genshi ends the episode on, what I suppose is his catchphrase now of “Ishi ishi uhho!” In the dub, Flint asks for cow pizza, and Sarah tells Flint he’s so silly and they sitcom end-of-episode laugh.


This episode was…..not good. In addition to all the confusing scene inserts, this episode is mostly boring and entirely wasted potential. They have a Space-Time Monster that can enter storybooks, they only enter one and they do absolutely nothing with it.

They have some of the storybook characters say some dialogue that seems suited to the story, and that’s it. They don’t have to follow along with the plot, they don’t have to take roles, they don’t do anything. They have a wild card of fantasy plots and they fail to even try. Talun turns into Princess Kaguya, Genshi finds him insanely easily and just as easily coerces him to leave with him. The guards make a pathetic attempt at stopping them from leaving and the ‘story’ ends.

Even the lesson of friendship seems crammed into this episode. Genshi should know full well by now what a friend is and what friendship is, but here he is in episode four just now learning it.

Not to mention that this lesson seems poorly set up in the dub with the aforementioned line change about modesty. It seems like they’re setting up a lesson for that and then just say ‘screw it.’

Even Talun’s bad transformation is bleh. It’s an ugly, in a bad way, design, and all he does is swat his tails at Genshi, which he can easily dodge.

It’s a boring, uninspired episode with a Space-Time Monster that, in my opinion, is wasted.

Next time, we meet the time-space monster Mosbee, who can create ice at will, in 19th century Russia.

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