Dialogue Changes

• Duo, examining the contraption Heero is strapped to: "Damn, how do you get these things off?!"--The first part of this was changed to "Man." No surprises there ^_^

• Duo, when Heero doesn't open his parachute: "Damn, I'm gonna have nightmares over this one!"--The first part was, once again, changed to "Man."

• Heero, after discovering he's still alive ^_^;;:--"Dammit!" This became "Blast it!"

• Commander Bonapart, talking about OZ:--"They wanna kill so badly they're sparking things up themselves." In this case, "kill" became "fight."

Edits

• Blood dripping from Heero's arm to the floor when he's strapped down: Now, there's one thing I found a bit odd about this edit. As Heero's arm bled, you could hear a lovely dripping sound in the background as the blood dripped to the floor. For some reason, the blood is edited away, but the dripping sound is left in the background! I'm sure some people who were watching might have been a bit confused...they probably thought something was wrong with their pipes ^_^ So, I guess it's not OK to show blood, but it's OK to hear blood (In some cases in later episodes, it's not even OK to say blood, but I'll talk about those instances when I get to them...). By the way, right after this edit, there is one of those freaky Gundam Wing moments that was weird to me even in the original version. I'm talking about how Heero seems to know exactly where he is. He knows the exact building, the section of the building, even what floor he's on! How could he possibly know that? He just woke up from being unconscious, yet he knows exactly where he is! I tell ya, that boy scares me sometimes ^_^

Cuts

• 7 sec.: Heero holding his bloody hand out to Duo, closeup of bloodstain on contraption. Ah, the first cut of the series...aren't we glad? This is a cut that I think made the cut version seem a bit confusing. I mean, one second Duo is wondering how to get Heero unstrapped, then suddenly, Heero has a knife and is cutting himself out of the straps. What was cut is this: Apparently, Heero managed to struggle the arm that had been shot out of the straps. With that arm free, he holds his hand (which is covered in blood now, along with the rest of his arm) out to Duo and tells him to give him a knife so he can cut the straps himself. This is followed by a line from Duo which would have been changed: "Damn, you got some guts!" along with a closeup a little pool of blood where Heero's arm had been. I guess they decided it would be easier to cut this little scene rather than cover up all the blood, although it does make people wonder where Heero got the knife from. Well, it's nothing major, so I guess it's tolerable that it was cut. Oh, and I just have to make a side note to FUNimation (the people dubbing Dragon Ball Z): Yes, it is possible to cut scenes and still keep the music the same! You have no excuse, so give us the original music back! *cough* That is all ^_^

In General

• "How'd they get away with that?": I have a lot to say about things I saw in this episode. I find it very interesting to compare what was cut vs. things I thought were going to be cut but weren't. I found that the things which weren't cut were more likely to be considered offensive to people than what actually was cut (Heero's blood). The first thing is when Treize shoots a bird while talking to Zechs. I was surprised this was left in, since there's no apparent reason he shot it other than to make a point about what he was saying to Zechs. Maybe they decided it wouldn't be offensive because you don't actually see the bird being shot; all you see is Treize taking aim and firing, then shortly after, feathers fluttering to the ground. But still, I thought this would be cut because some people might view it as animal cruelty. Next up is at the end of the episode when Heero is setting his own broken leg. There isn't really any footage they would need to cut, since the screen cuts to Duo cringing when he actually gets that sucker back in place, but I thought for sure they wouldn't leave in that oh-so-lovely "crunch-crack" sound effect that indicates that he finally did it. Geez, I've seen this scene dozens of times and I still get chills up my spine when I hear that noise! Anyway, the next couple things I'm wondering about are a couple words that were used in this episode which were intriguing, one because it doesn't make sense concerning other words which are changed, and the other because I thought I would never hear it on a show rated Y7. Here's a little sample from Duo: "Maybe, just maybe you could come up with a better way of committing suicide." Uhhh, what did you say, Duo? Suicide? Let me get this straight: It's not OK to say "kill", but it's OK to say "suicide"? (By the way, there was another slip and "kill" was used in this episode, when Duo says "Are you tryna kill yourself?"). I thought "suicide" was a worse word than kill, or at least on the same level. You hear "kill" in children's programming a hell of a lot more often than you hear "suicide." Ah, the mysteries continue...but hey, that was nowhere near as shocking as a word which is said later in the episode...I think this next one was as puzzling as Dende's "Don't piss off the God of Love" line in Dragonball Z. Now, Quatre will do the honors: "Crap! There goes an OZ aircraft!" o_o *Pika pika* o_O ? Woah...I was shocked to hear that one! Since when is "crap" considered appropriate for a show with a Y7 rating? I've certainly never heard it used in a children's show before (edit: though after this point, I heard it in a couple of shows, but it's still pretty rare and probably considered inappropriate by most soccer moms. It's usually cut out from other anime, for example, in Yuu Yuu Hakusho, though even in that series it slipped into the cut version a couple of times). Heh heh, oh well, I think it's cool...but at the same time confusing . Now, looking at the things I've just discussed, it seems odd to me that out of all of these, seeing Heero's arm bleed was considered the thing that most needed to be cut. I'm pretty sure almost anyone would find any one of the things listed above more potentially offensive than blood. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a crazed anime otaku ^_^ (You could probably tell that already ^o^ Oh ho ho ho ho). Well, as I said before, I've yet to figure out what this BEI company's editing policies are, so I'll just have to continue watching and see what happens in future episodes.

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