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 Cardcaptors - Tests of Courage (Vol. 1) (Geneon Signature Series)
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| Cardcaptors has a lot going for it, including likable characters, well-crafted dialogue, and a cartload of similarities to the phenomenally popular Pokémon. But as the three-episode video Tests of Courage demonstrates, the series (seen on the Kids' WB network) also is saddled with shortcomings, mostly in the form of flimsy concepts. Case in point: episode 1, "Sakura's Rival." Here we're introduced to lead character Sakura's sole competitor in the Clow Card-capturing arena, the stern and unsociable Li. After a rocky first encounter, Li proves he's worthy of Sakura's trust by helping her secure the weather-corrupting Shadow Card (one of many cards bearing mystical powers that Sakura unwittingly released from the magic Clow book). The segment sets the tone for the pair's subsequent semicooperative, semiadversarial adventures, but it doesn't fully explain the Shadow Card's scheme, nor the role of Kero, the supposed guardian of the cards who bears a roundabout resemblance to Pokémon's Pikachu. Episodes 2 and 3 are slightly more successful in shedding light on what the wayward Clow Cards are up to, but batches of not fully fleshed-out details, like where Li got his card-impairing lasin board and what he intends to do with the cards he collects, are apt to irk kids over 7 who like their cartoon adventures unraveled logically. That said, Sakura's spunk and good judgment make her a better-than-average role model for girls, and her cool haircut is apt to earn her popularity points, too. --Tammy La Gorce Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
This Cardcaptors movie is GREAT!!!
It has all kinds of cool stuff on it! There are three shows on it. The first one is when Sakura first meets Li. And then she finds out that the Thunder card is on the lose. She soon captures the thunder card with the Shadow card. And on the 2nd show the Time card is making the same day go over and over again. And pretty soon Sakura catchs it but the Time card goes to Li. And on the last one Sakura and all her friends go to a camp trip and on the trip they go in the cave. And when they do everyone is missing. Sakura soon finds out it's the Erase card that was causing it and she catches it.
Do watch it!!!!
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Author: Guest
Cardcaptors is the worst dub of an anime that was ever made. It's even more terrible of a dub than Sailor Moon's. The Japanese version was originally called Cardcaptor Sakura, a magical girl anime based on the popular manga written by the all-female manga artist team, Clamp. The series was originally targeted at young girls, but Nelvana believed that the series would get higher ratings if they aimed it at boys more. So, Nelvana attempted to cut out all the relationships and character development of the show in order to mutate the series into another action-oriented Pokemon clone. The end result is an emotionless mismash of action scenes that don't really flow well together at all. For this review, I will focus on comparing Cardcaptors to Cardcaptor Sakura. I won't be listing all of the cuts Nelvana made because there's way too many to list here, but I will list the major cuts to give you an idea of what the original Japanese version is like. Hopefully, this will encourage you to seek out the Japanese version if you haven't already and experience the series the way it was meant to be seen.
The first major change is in the name of the series. Nelvana changed the title from Cardcaptor Sakura to Cardcaptors, and while this doesn't seem to be like a big deal at first glance, it actually is important because the name Cardcaptor Sakura implies that the series is about Sakura, which of course it is. Sakura has always been the star of the show and always be. However, by changing the name to Cardcaptors, they're trying to imply that Sakura is no longer the star, but that the series is more focused on Sharoan, making this name change the first victim of Nelvana's sexist attitude that the show will suck if it doesn't appeal to boys. The next big change is in the music. The Japanese version featured a beautiful orchestrated musical score that really reflected the mood of the series, being mostly light-hearted and happy, but at the same time being able to be quite serious in tone as well, much like the episodes themselves. Nelvana replaced all of this with some generic cartoony style music that all sounds exactly alike. All the songs were changed too and they all sound exteremly cartoony and cheesy and are all played on a synthesizer, rather than with real instruments and real professional singers, unlike the Japanese version.
Almost all of the names were changed to English names because Nelvana believed that American kids are too stupid to remember the Japanese names. The few characters who did retain their Japanese names had them mispronounced horribly. For example, in the Japanese version, our heroine is called Sakura Kinomoto (and Sakura is supposed to be pronounced "Sah-ku-rah"), but the dub changes her name to Sakura Avalon and mispronounces Sakura as "Seh-koorah". Clow was originally supposed to rhyme with glow or go, but Nelvana changed it so that it rhymed with cow or now instead. And Kero's name is supposed ot be pronounced "Keh-ro" but ends up being mispronounced as "Kee-roh." Originally, Nelvana had actually intended to dub all the episodes, but Kid's WB insisted that Nelvana skip the first seven episodes and start the series at episode eight, with the introduction of Shaoran Li/Li Showron. The first seven episodes may not have had as much action as episode eight, but they were important because they helped set up the storyline and introduced us to the main characters. The dub just decides to throw us right smack in the middle of the action with no explanations at all as to what's going on.
Many other episodes were also skipped and combined because Kid's WB didn't think they were action-packed enough. The Japanese version had a total of 70 episodes but only about 39 of them were ever actually aired in the U.S. After Cardcaptors completed its initial U.S. broadcast, Nelvana then went back and dubbed all the episodes they skipped, re-inserting them into their proper order and broadcasted them in all other English-speaking countries outside the U.S., such as Canada and the UK. Interestingly enough, the episodes which weren't aired in the U.S. actually had signifincantly less cuts than the episodes that were, although they were still far from being perfect. And the episodes that were also aired in the U.S. were identical to their American broadcasts, save for the combined episodes, which were uncombined when aired in other English countries. Many changes were made to the plot and characters' personalities. All of the romance was edited out in order to focus more on the action scenes, the Final Judgement episodes and the ending were completly screwed up, and many other important plot details were severaly altered in Cardcaptors.
Almost every character in the series was made to be ten times more snobbier in the dub than they were in the original, but the characters who suffered the most from personality changes were Tomoyo Daidouji/Madison Taylor and Shaoran/Li. Tomoyo was originally a very sweet girl who cared deeply for her friend and did everything she could to help her capture the Clow Cards, even though she had no magical powers of her own. She also filmed all of Sakura's adventures on video tape and designed all of her battle costumes for her, because "special times require special clothing." Madison, on the other hand, is a very snobby technology-obessesed valleygirl, obessesed with recording cool action scenes to upload on her website, orders all of Sakura's costumes from the "latest fashion magazines", and cares more about recording some cool footage than the actual safety of her friend. Shaoran originally only bullied Sakura for the first couple of episodes until the two were forced to work together to capture the cards. Shaoran eventually started to treat her more kindly after realizing that the girl had potential; by the end of the second season, he started to become closer friends with her, and he even fell in love with her towards the end of the series.
However, in Cardcaptors, Li taunts Sakura for being pathetic almost the entire time. He doesn't start to become closer friends with her until the third season, and their entire relationship is completely cut out in the dub. Almost every episode has at least three minutes of footage cut out, basically including anything Nelvana thought was too cute, funny, romantic, anything remotely Japanese culture-related, or anything they believed to be inapproiate for children's American television. Many of the characters in the Japanese version were actually engaged in controversial relationships, including homosexuality, incest, and even pedophilia. The relationships are only talked about and never portrayed in a sexual manner; they don't even hold hands or kiss, but the relationships were there and Nelvana wanted to cut them all out, even the "innocent" ones in order to transform the show into another brainless Pokemon rip-off.
Topped with generally bad actors and crappy dialog, Cardcaptors is easily the worst dub of all time. The only thing Nelvana did right was allow Geneon to release an official subbed version. The dub is just so sloppily handled that it makes it more confusing than it actually should be because they cut out all the important details. And obiviously Nelvana's belief that the show would do better if it was aimed at boys more was false because the Cardcaptors DVDs have been discontinued while the Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs are still selling strong and Cardcaptors is no longer being broadcasted on American TV. If you've never seen Cardcaptor Sakura before, I strongly urge you to watch the Japanese version, especially if you've only seen the dub. The Japanese version is so much more cuter, funnier, more intelligent, and just down right good than Cardcaptors. Yes, it's presented in Japanese which means yes, you do have to read the English subtitles, but it's not at all hard to do. The subtitles are positioned on a good enough place on the screen where you can read them and still see all the action that's going on screen. Cardcaptor Sakura is so enjoyable that you'll find yourself so wrapped in its story and characters that you'll completly forget that what you're watching is in Japanese. So, forget about Cardcraptors. Go check out Cardcaptor Sakura to see the real deal because you'll surely won't regret it.
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Author: Guest
As you well know If you've ever watched Cardcaptors while it was on KIDS-WB then there's a sure chance that you loved it and thought it was coolest thing on WB at that time. However if not, you'll be sure to be complaining like some rich-man's spoiled brat like the purist you are because of the that its an edited version of CLAMPS queer Cardcaptor Sakura and you'll be bashing it like the day is long. Sure they show episodes out of order, they edited it, they took out scenes inappropriate (as well as non-inappropriate for airing time) for children even see. But for some reason Cardcaptors will forever be the better side of what Cardcaptor Sakura has to offer. Basically it has Sakura Avalon, Madison Taylor, Li Syaoran, Melin Rae, and other children of the series portrayed as best friends: Li and Sakura as rivals at first. Sakura's brother Tori isn't a homosexual nor is his friend and her crush Juilian Star, they're friends. And Li is simply afraid of him and does not a attraction towards him like Sakura.
In Cardcaptor Sakura Tomoyo Daidouji acts with Lesbian tendencies and secretly is in love with Sakura Kinomoto however will not reveal this to her "friend." Kinomoto Touya is a homosexual who has his eyes on Tsukishiro Yukito who seems to return the affection, Syaoran Li also as crush on Yukito. Sasaki Rika [Rita] is in love her Teacher Terada Yoshiyuki [Mr. Terata] who doesn't to anything to deter this girl's feelings, he just gasps and clears his throat pretending to never notice. Mihara Chiharu (Chelsea) and Yamazaki Takashi (Zachary) are cousin's (whether distant or close is never explained) who are romantically involved with each other. Hiiragizawa Eriol (Eli) and Lalyla Mackenzie (Mizuki Kaho) are supposedly romantically involved as well despite the reincarnated version of Clow Reed's young age. Those are only major differences between the two versions aside from the other stuff: That they changed the relationships between the characters and their names among other things in the US versions (thankfully). But If your the kind of person who isn't bothered by this type of content in cartoons that look as though are meant to be for a younger set of children spanning from the youngest to the 10/11 year olds, then let them watch it. It doesn't mean what the characters portray is right.
However, the story in either versions remain the same. Sakura Avalon discovers a clow book in the basement of her house and accidentally releases 52 or more spirits trapped in the form of cards and is chosen by the would-be guardian Kero to return them to their original state thus becoming their master after undergoing a test performed by the second guardian Yue who is actually Sakura's friend Julian. Li Syaoran believes that she doesn't deserve to be master of the clow cards and scorns her and her "Stuffed animal" Kero constantly but becomes her friend later on in the series (a romantic interest in the Japanese Version). But naturally like the stereotypical character she is, Sakura tries her best to be friends with Li while proving to him that she can be a cardcaptor.
The voice acting supplied by Nelvana who use young boys and girls for the characters, Li and Sakura is far better than the Japanese sub for CCS who's actors for the children sound as though they've inahled helium, which beccomes most annoying overtime. The music is a hell of a more bearable in the US version than it is in the Japanese version, however when it comes songs with Lyrics in them the Japanese version CCS does a better job. There's a lot more action Cardcaptors than CCS and much like FOX-KIDS' version of Esacflowne it focuses more on the main male character Li Syaoran to my great delight but doesn't shut out the main focus of the show, Sakura. So if you've ever watched Cardcaptors you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did when it was KIDSWB. If your not a purist that is. [a---- 4 out of 5]
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Author: Guest
Listen, can't somebody accept that there ARE scences cut in CC, CC is totally unique to CCS, it barely resembles. I got the [first] volume on VHS for $1.00 at some cheap store or whatever. I don't remember exactly everything about CC but more about CCS. Just one thing: How come you torture girls in America and boys? Stop sterotyping people!!!! Sure the odds of a boy sitting down to watch a romance is pretty slim it could still happen and a girl could sit down and watch Pokemon without the obsession of the AAMR realtionship. Sure the review is alot to late to write but whatever and Carly McKillip, you should be gentle to your character, don't you think, well your voice isn't the big chunk of it, its those cut scences and junk. Ok I've done.
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Author: Guest
This is about Sakura Avalon, a girl who released a book of clow cards and now has to capture them all. This shows episodes of her capturing the Thunder, Time, and Erase card. The new exchange student named Li Showron showed up and sensed that Sakura had the cards.
In the beginning they dont get along that much but in the second season they start to get along and Li has a crush on Sakura.
Look, I see that almost everyone likes CARDCAPTOR SAKURA and it was originally made that way, but everyone be quiet about Cardcaptors is stupid and stuff. You guys all think that there isnt cut scenes and has a cool dialouge, but its in JAPANESE. And you have to keep reading the subtitle on the bottom and not watch the action. Anyways, Cardcaptors should be the same as Cardcaptor Sakura.
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