Hello guys, gals and non-binary pals! It’s a dog! It’s a bird! It’s both, killing each other with mystical powers! We’re gathered here today to take a closer look at Stardust Crusaders #38, “The Guardian of Hell, Pet Shop - Part 1”… So, what say you we dive right in?

Hit it!

• Let’s begin with this scene of Polnareff running away from the world’s richest beggar, now brighter and sharper:

• Avdol’s hair is darker in this shot:

• Briefly moving to the opening credits, here the line 株式会社バンダイナムコゲームス (“Bandai Namco, Inc.”) has been changed to 株式会社バンダイナムコエンターテインメント (“Bandai Namco Enterntainment, Inc.”), and all the outlines are weirdly dimmer:

• Moving on to the episode proper, here the shading on Iggy’s belly is slightly different:

• The two big dogs have received a couple of retouches, here:

• And, when we see their poor fate a few seconds later, the shot has been uncensored and the lighting is also different:

• Pet Shop’s ice looks a little different here…:

• The aforementioned rich beggar has met with a terrible fate, which we can now see here in its full g(l)ory:

• This incredible shot of Pet Sho…t has a couple of differences as well: its eyes are now brighter, the background is blurrier and there’s a different distortion along the edges, as well as a darker vignette:

• The background has been moved in this scene of Iggy playing dumb…:

• …and on top of that, later on, when his movements get quicker and quicker, he’s also been blurred a little more in the BDs:

• The frames around this transition now have a better contrast…:

• Here, the boy’s mouth has been slightly moved…:

• …and, as you could already see from the previous difference, the speed at which the background, the boy and Iggy have been animated has been tweaked as well:

• Moving on, here there is an extra highlight on Iggy’s right forepaw…:

• …and, later in the same animation, they slightly tweaked his walking animation (but it’s not that easy to spot, alas):

• These gruesome scenes have been (un)fortunately uncensored:

• Moving on from all that gore… Here, this shot of our good boy Iggy has also been tweaked in a few ways! Starting from the first frames, in which there is a more prominent sand effect, a different distortion along the edges, a different lighting around its right paws and a different cast shadow…:

• …then, as you can see here, the half-formed Fool has a more prominent outline…:

• …and, when The Fool manifests completely, its cast shadow has also been tweaked, and its shading is also slightly different:

• Here we have one last uncensored shot of those poor dogs:

• Let’s move on to another shot with a whooole bunch of differences! Here we have a much more dramatic lighting, some better-looking and slightly blurrier effects on the ice, a slightly moved camera…:

• …when Iggy shows up, his slice of the frame is slightly distorted along the edges and the area next to the dividing line is not as shaded…:

• …and, later on still, the wind effect used before Pet Shop leaps up is much more prominent:

• Let’s look at it all in motion, shall we?:

• Moving on… In the shot right after, on top of the usual sharper images that come from the BDs, this part has once again a different distortion along the edges and the big ice spike has been moved backwards…:

• …and later in the same scene, you can see that the sand effect on The Fool is different, Iggy has been slightly retouched and his shadow has been moved (as well as the camera, of course!):

• Once again, let’s look at it all together, because the motion of the ice spikes is also sliightly different:

• Here, once again, the ice effects are looking better, and the camera is slightly moved towards the end of the scene:

• In this other cool shot, on top of the usual vignette and distortion, the stand effects are better:

• …and the camera shakes around more too:

• Here, the fake Iggy’s been uncensored, and the lines in the background are slightly different:

• Here, the camera is a little more dynamic, the water and sand effects are different, there’s a dark vignette along the edges…:

• …and, in the same scene, there were two frames of the TV version that just had… a bunch of sand covering the screen; this has been changed:

• Aaand, once more, let’s watch it move:

• The first frame of this animation is brighter:

• Here, the ice and steam effects are looking better…:

• …the purple lines when the ice breaks up are different…:

• …and here, Horus is looking much better and the sparkling ice particles are also different:

• You know the deal… Let’s watch it all:

• Let’s take a closer look at that weird metal bird, shall we? Here, this close-up shot at its eye is looking more vibrant, and has a new dark vignette…:

• …the background is a little different…:

• …and the latter part of the animation is brighter and sharper, which also gives us a good excuse to check it all in motion:

• Here, the very first frame of this scene was… a little weird in the TV version! As you can see, the ice spikes were completely missing, and the hands looked a little mangled. On top of that, Iggy was also looking different! This has all been fixed in the BDs:

• The rest of the frames are mostly untouched, except for a brighter effect on the spike trails:

• This final animation, on top of having a different distortion along the edges…:

• …has some cooler ice effects! Check it:

And that concludes today’s deep dive into this episode! I hope you had a good time, and we’ll conclude this violent animal fight next time with Stardust Crusaders #39, “The Guardian of Hell, Pet Shop - Part 2”!

Bye!