Cardcaptors (Dub) Review

“Cardcaptors” Review

Note: This is a review on the Nelvana dub of Cardcaptor Sakura

                In the year 1999, a Japanese anime program premiered on Kids WB in the United States that would take a young, but thriving cartoon block to new heights. The show was called Pokémon and it brought in fans young and old leading to a cultural phenomenon. A year later Kids WB added another anime that was similar to Pokémon, but different in style, Cardcaptor Sakura. However the show would be so different that it was in fact edited in a way that would fit with their other action driven cartoons. One of the biggest was changing the title to Cardcaptors after buying broadcast rights from Nelvana, the Canadian company that dubbed the show. This editing caused uproar among purist fans of the original version, heavily panning the English version as a complete disregard to its source material. While Pokémon continued with much success here in America, Cardcaptors faded out of minds of many including TV networks, though manga volumes continued to be translation for a few more years. Now 15 years after its last official airing in American, I have re-watched many episodes of the Nelvana version and original to see the differences. Was the English version in fact the worst dubbed in history? 

                Based on the manga series by the Japanese group CLAMP, it follows the normal and fantastical escapades of 10 year old Sakura Kinomoto (Avalon in the dub). After arriving back home from a strange day at school, Sakura hears noises coming from the basement. Investigating the ominous situation, she is lead to book that holds a set of magical cards called Clow Cards that were imprisoned by a sorcerer years ago. However curiosity gets the best of the fourth grader as the cards escape once she unlocks the book the cards escape out of confinement into the world. Also released is the guardian of the cards Cerberus (or Kero) who in his fake form resembles a plush toy. Since Sakura released the cards, Kero assigns her the title of Cardcaptor and acts as a guide and mentor (while eating plenty of sweets). Along the way she meets Li Syaoran, who is connected to the cards by being sorcerer Clow Reed’s descendant. At first he seems to be a rival, but eventually becomes a partner in Sakura’s quest to stop the cards from wrecking havoc across the world. In turn she tries to keep a Cardcaptor job a secret from everyone except her best friend Madison while balancing the daily routine of a 10 year old school girl.

 

Main and Supporting characters

                So after all of that it sounds like an interesting action cartoon doesn’t it. One that would fit right in with Kids WB’s lineup. Well there was just one problem. The main character is a girl. In Japan the show was a magical girl series that included plenty of drama and romance that the action seemed pretty secondary in comparison. In the American distributors’ eyes, this “girly” stuff on top of a female protagonist would turn off the male demographic they believed dominated the Saturday morning landscape and the action packed schedule of Kids WB. Here’s where some of the confusion starts when talking about Cardcaptors. What happened was Nelvana did in fact dub all 70 episodes that the original series made into English. Kids WB however decided to edit it a step further, making the 8^th episode when Sakura meets Li the first to be broadcast. The reason being was to make Li Syaoran seem like more of a major character and Sakura just be somewhat of the co-star. To make matters worse other episodes would be aired out of order and some would be omitted all together. The reason was the omitted episodes didn’t have much action or any focus on Li. This mix up caused many continuity errors and fans definitely weren’t pleased with the “Pokémon” direction Kids WB took the show, sacrificing character development and arcs in the process, even episodes that deal with Sakura’s deceased mother. It should be noted that outside of America, other English countries would receive every dubbed episodes in order.

Nelvana during the dubbing process also edited down many of the romantic scenes in the show that mainly involved hints of homosexuality. Such as Madison gushing over her best friend Sakura or Sakura’s brother Tori being involved in a homosexual relationship with his best friend Yukito who both Sakura and Li crush over. You see back in the olden days of 2000 the western world wasn’t as accepting of LGBT culture as we are now, and even in the seemingly progressive 2017, it still remains controversial. So to avoid noise from parent and religious watchdog groups many of these scenes were cut. However they are still subtle hints if you notice, such as Madison’s obsession with videotaping and dressing Sakura in elaborate costumes for her card captures and the small blushes the characters have when around one another. It may not be overt as the original version, but

Sakura meets Kero in "One Faithful Day"

  

I do like the aspect of less is more. They even made the edits work in the plot such as making Li’s nervousness around Yukito because of his sensing of magical presence (instead of liking him), and Yukito actually turns out to be the other guardian of the clow card, Yue. There are also reviews that point out the censoring of Japanese culture and tried to make it appear like the characters lived in America. Although the dub renames the city of Tomoeda to Reddington it never seems like an American town. Many of the characters engage in Japanese traditions and way of life from visiting the Buddhism shrine or wearing Asian attire (minus the schoolgirl uniforms). Plenty of scenes were also kept in that included Japanese handwriting and phrases. 

Now does that mean the dubbing is perfect? I will state easily that it isn’t, but far from the worst contrary to popular belief. The voice acting although at times stiff captures the characters decently. Canadian actress Carly Mckillip (who was 12 at the time of voicing Sakura) may give our main protagonist an older and snarkier personality that her Japanese counterpart, but with that she still carries the charm, warmth and bravery that made her a beloved character on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Her mantra of “Return to your power confined” still makes me smile after all these years. Matt Hill who voices Ed in my personal favorite Ed, Edd, and Eddy lends a “surfer dude” style to Kero. If there was one voice that I liked better in the dub it would be Matt Hill’s version. I thought it suited his plush toy look just fine. One character who was criticized much was Madison as many stated that she sounded like a valley girl. Which is true, but unlike typical “valley girl” tropes she comes across as sweet and selfless towards others like the original character Tomoyo did, even in ways better than Sakura, and acts as a loyal and trustworthy ally even without powers. All in all the actors and actresses who play these characters don’t deviate too far from their original personalities only adding a little spice to fit the dubbed plotline. 

Li, Meling, Sakura and Madison during the Fight card episode.

So what happened to this satisfactory English version? Two different agendas occurred. Kids WB wanted to capitalize off of the Pokémon craze while Nelvana just appeared to want a good translation for western audiences at the time. Unfortunately, Cardcaptors didn’t have much success after a small boost in ratings at first. Toys weren’t selling like hotcakes nor were home media releases (resulting in pricey out of print DVDs). The reruns and constant schedule changes led the anime on autopilot until it eventually finished with weirdly enough the final episode. Only 39 out of 70 episodes were aired in the year and a half the show played on American television and I wouldn’t see another episode again until last year thanks to the internet. I remember this being the first cartoon that I was disappointed in its conclusion. The reason was because Kids WB had the “final” season play at 3:00pm while I was at school (wish I knew about recording on VHS back then) and moved it off Saturday’s lineup. So I missed them. The studio experiment of turning a girl’s show into a gender neutral cartoon backfired so they made the show expendable. Sadly, in retrospect this mishandling of the show might have been the beginning of the end for Kids WB, as over the next 6 years Kids WB would go on a steady decline in quality shows resulting in 4kids Entertainment buying them out in 2008. This brought an end to the once great block and began the disappearance of Saturday Morning Cartoons which is very noticeable today.

Shows like Batman to Men in Black ended just fine for me, but there was something different about Cardcaptors being over. Almost like nothing could replace it like the aforementioned programs. I can still fondly remember wanting to hurry home from school on Fridays or waking up on Saturdays to catch this “girl” show before the My Little Pony Bronies made it mainstream for males to enjoy feminine shows. Sakura Avalon’s adventures excited me as much as Ash Ketchum’s and Terry McGinnis’s (Batman Beyond) did. She was a just normal girl with flaws who was put in extraordinary situations and had to deal with them despite her reluctance and weariness. So even if the dub may seem awkward at times it’s still a decent show to watch and show young children and help introduce them to anime like it did to me. Before Cardcaptors and other shows, anime was barely marketed here in America. Now it’s exploded since the late 90s from web to the conventions that continue to interconnect fans from across the country and globe. Maybe that was the purpose all-along. 7/10.

Madison (Tomoyo) and Sakura remain close friends in the English adaption.