Episode 6: "Sakura and Memories of Her Mother" or "Seeing Is Believing"
Introduction to the Experiment
Episode 5
Episode 6: Sakura and Memories of Her Mother (Card Captor Sakura) or Seeing Is Believing (Cardcaptors)
Naoko starts the episode off by telling Chiharu and Sakura about how she encountered a ghost behind the school the other day. Chiharu decides that they should all check it out so the three girls plus Rika and Tomoyo go to the same place as Naoko saw the ghost. At first, they see nothing but then there is a flash of light and everyone but Tomoyo sees something scary (Tomoyo sees food). Most importantly, Sakura sees a woman. Prior to this, the viewer is reminded that Sakura's mother is dead and that Sakura doesn't remember much about her. Sakura tells Kero about this experience and he wonders if it's a Clow Card. Sakura then eats dinner with her dad and points out that the currently displayed picture of her mother is one she really likes and depicts her mother at age 16. Later on, when both her brother and father are out, Tomoyo calls and it seems that some more of the girls went to see the "ghost" and hurt themselves (but are alright). So, Sakura gets in a battle costume and goes to capture the Card, if it is indeed a Card and not a ghost. The light appears again and this time, Sakura definitely sees her mother, looking exactly like her picture. Same outfit and everything. Sakura goes toward her mother in rapture while Kero flies toward her to ask what she is seeing but hits a barrier and is knocked out. Sakura follows her mother's "ghost" until she falls off the cliff that they're standing near. As she falls, a ghostly hand with a ring (which I actually didn't catch until watching the dub) grabs her wrist, slowing her descent. Luckily, Yukito just happens to walking under that spot and catches her. Later on, Sakura wakes up in Yukito's house and he explains that she fell off the cliff. She doesn't remember falling but she does remember seeing her mother. Yukito remarks that if it truly was her mother, would she put Sakura in danger like that? Sakura doesn't reply. The dub does not show this exchange, by the way, but he does get to have most of his scene intact. The next scene is Toya (carrying Sakura on his back) and Yukito walking back to the Kinomoto residence. Yukito tells Toya that Sakura said she saw their mother. Toya explains that he was always able to see ghosts. In the Japanese version, Toya goes on to say that he would describe all the horrible-looking ghosts to Sakura. In the English dub, Tory says that he would explain who he was speaking to by saying that they were "see through" people. Either way, he blames himself for causing Sakura's fear of ghosts. Yukito asks if Toya has ever seen their mother. Yes, but never behind the school and not since he started middle school. The next day, Tomoyo comes to visit Sakura (who got to stay home at Toya's insistence), returning Kero as well since she "borrowed" him when Sakura was at Yukito's house. Kero wants to not pursue this matter of the "ghost" any farther: Card or not, it had enough power to throw him backward and knock him out. He doesn't want Sakura getting hurt. Sakura disagrees: if it's a Card, she has to catch it. If it's her mother, then she must know why she is there and not in "the beautiful place in the sky". So, again to the cliff, with a new battle outfit, to see what's going on. The light reappears and this time, everyone sees Sakura's mother just like in the picture. Sakura begins asking her "mother" why she there: Is she lonely? Does she want Sakura with her? As the "ghost" begins to drift away, Sakura follows. Kero tries to stop her but he is thrown back once more. Again, Sakura falls and wonders why her mother is doing this. Then she remembers what Yukito said. She realizes that it can't be her mother because her mother would never do this. So, Sakura uses her Fly Card to get up again and yells at the "ghost" that it's not her mother. The image begins to break up and Kero confirms that it's a Clow Card. Sakura seals it and it's the Illusion Card. The Illusion Card shows what you want to see: the girls wanted to see something scary so they did, Sakura wanted to see her mother so she did, and Tomoyo was hungry so she saw food the first time. Since they all expected to see Sakura's mother that final time, they all saw the same thing. Sakura is sad that she didn't get to see her mother for real but she is happy that her mother is still happy in the place in the sky. The next day, Sakura is running late but manages to say "Happy Birthday" to her mother's picture and deposit a present. As she speaks to the picture, Toya (who is reading a newspaper) sees their mother's ghost (complete with flashing ring on her finger with huge angel wings) hovering over her daughter. Sakura leaves and their mother remarks that she was worried about Sakura but she seems fine now so she floats up and disappears. Toya gets over his shock, smiles, and goes back to his paper.
Want to see for yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 6 (All)
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 3/3
Edit: Here is another version of these videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 3/3
This is a poignant episode. It is kind of bittersweet in that Sakura's mother really did come to her aid but she never knew it.
For the first time ever, the original Japanese title is a better fit. Although "memories" probably isn't the best choice of words since Sakura doesn't really remember much but it's a lot closer to the point of the episode than "Seeing Is Believing" which is a pretty damn generic title.
Instead of rehashing what you already know about the "This Time" and the opening, I'm going to talk about two things. One, remember when I said that Syaoran shows up in episode six? Well, I was wrong. Apparently, his full-length introduction isn't until episode eight (he shows up in the last few seconds of episode seven according to the youtube comments). Two, remember when I mentioned that Kero sounds like a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle? Well, guess what, he should because he's played by Matt Hill who played...
Raphael in the third Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation! I don't know why this excites me as much as it does, I don't even like TMNT all that much, but I just can't stop grinning. My otaku side is also amused by the fact that Matt Hill plays Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, which I only saw bits and pieces of and I never even imagined that Kira Yamato was voiced by annoying (on purpose) English Kero from Cardcaptors.
(Goes to youtube to find examples of the English dub of Gundam SEED where Kira talks. Returns.) OH MY GOD, it is him! Great, when I finally get the money to buy the box set, I won't be able to take Kira seriously now! Okay, I take that back, I probably will since Matt Hill doesn't give Kira Kero's back-of-the-throat-into-the-nasal-passages whine. But, still, he sounds more like Kero when he has Kira yelling and screaming.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the Experiment so I'll move on.
Before I get into the dub, I want to point out a huge plot hole that I noticed even in the manga version of this story. The reason why Sakura sees her mother the way she does is because she just saw the picture of her on the table. But that picture depicts her mother at 16, not just before she died. That should have been a clue to Sakura that the "ghost" was not her mother because she didn't die when she was 16, she died later and so wouldn't it make more sense for her mother to appear the age she was when she died? In fact, at the end, it appears that she looks the correct age so it's not some sort "ghosts can do whatever they want" kind of thing.
I've been noticing something that the dub consistently does with Tory, which I kind of like. The dubbers make Tory a little bit nicer than Toya. Yes, he still teases Sakura but not with the same kind of mindless bullying that Toya engages in. I think the story about the ghosts is the best example of this. Japanese Toya torments little Sakura by describing all the horrible ghosts he's seeing while English Tory merely tried to explain what was going on (unfortunately the art doesn't help him since we see all the horrible ghosts and in the English dub, he's talking about how he would be speaking to his mother and trying to explain to Sakura who he was talking to. Your mom's a bunch of monsters, Tory?). There have been a few other cases where the Japanese line was a lot meaner than the English line. Sometimes, the line is changed altogether from a teasing line to a more neutral line. I don't want to imply that Tory's a saint, he still gets his kicks in but he doesn't come off as much as a bully as Toya does. For the lack of a better word, Tory's a bit more mature when it comes to Sakura. I don't know why the dubbers would do this. Maybe they felt an American audience wouldn't appreciate an older male character picking on a much younger female character with such severity? I mean, I could see Tory being disliked by some younger fans who might be in Sakura's position and might not be sympathetic if Tory ever has to be bailed out of a jam. Maybe they toned it down because "it's a kid's show"? I don't know. Whatever the case, I kind of like this nicer Tory.
Like in all of these episodes, there are minor cuts and modifications made. There's an added line I really liked where Sakura tells Kero that Tory's at his part-time job and then remarks "Though I'm not exactly sure where that is". I'm not sure if they made that joke on purpose but I'm surprised neither show has made a comment about how Toya/Tory always has a new part-time job somewhere in the town. Anyway, I interpreted that as a joke about how Tory could really be anywhere in Tomoeda right then. I'm actually amazed they kept the bathing scene. I was sure that would be cut for "decency" but nope, it's not only there but completely intact. Unfortunately, Matt Hill's "growl" sounded like it came out of cheesy porn scene which completely ruined the scene.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for Julian's scene. On the plus side, he got to be in this episode for more than two seconds. The bad news they cut half his scene: the important half. As I mentioned in the summary, Sakura and Yukito talk about how Sakura saw her mother and if it was Sakura's mother, would she really act the way she's been acting? In the English version, this exchange is cut, leaving only the relatively unimportant bits about how Julian lives with his grandparents and that Madison took Kero. The only reason we know that they discussed anything important is because Julian mentions that Sakura told him that she saw their mother and Sakura flashbacks to Julian's asking the aforementioned "would your mother do this to you?" speech. But how can she flashback to something that never happened on screen? Surely, there was some other scene they could have cut so Julian could make his speech in peace.
There was also a weird line change in the English version. In the Japanese version, Sakura voiceovers that her mother began modeling in junior high. Fine. The English version has her say "junior school". Not "junior high", not "middle school": "junior school". I looked up this phrase on wikipedia, thinking maybe it's a Canadian thing but the only match was the UK term and that's a level for kids between 4 and 11, which makes Mr. Avalon even creepier than Mr. Kinomoto. Maybe they were going for "junior college", which would have made her 19 at the start of her modeling career? Either that or the scripter or Sakura's actress messed up the phrase and no one caught it.
I might as well mention Kero's Corner. I've noticed that the English version makes an effort to connect these parts more cohesively with the rest of the episode since he brings up about how they learned more about Sakura's past. Unfortunately, Kero was all about being a porn star in this episode because the delivery of the line "I just got a thing for shoulder pads" was delivered so creepily that it made me cringe.
For some reason, everyone was delivering their lines very stiffly. Julian had a serious case of "I'm reading my lines as I deliver them" syndrome. Then again, he hasn't a full scene since the pilot so I shouldn't be surprised. I have no idea what was going on with them in this episode. I'm usually pretty impressed with the English deliveries.
So, because of the massively important scene cut along with some minor details I didn't like, these two episodes are judged to be...
Different, with the Japanese Card Captor Sakura being superior.
Episode 7
Episode 5
Episode 6: Sakura and Memories of Her Mother (Card Captor Sakura) or Seeing Is Believing (Cardcaptors)
Naoko starts the episode off by telling Chiharu and Sakura about how she encountered a ghost behind the school the other day. Chiharu decides that they should all check it out so the three girls plus Rika and Tomoyo go to the same place as Naoko saw the ghost. At first, they see nothing but then there is a flash of light and everyone but Tomoyo sees something scary (Tomoyo sees food). Most importantly, Sakura sees a woman. Prior to this, the viewer is reminded that Sakura's mother is dead and that Sakura doesn't remember much about her. Sakura tells Kero about this experience and he wonders if it's a Clow Card. Sakura then eats dinner with her dad and points out that the currently displayed picture of her mother is one she really likes and depicts her mother at age 16. Later on, when both her brother and father are out, Tomoyo calls and it seems that some more of the girls went to see the "ghost" and hurt themselves (but are alright). So, Sakura gets in a battle costume and goes to capture the Card, if it is indeed a Card and not a ghost. The light appears again and this time, Sakura definitely sees her mother, looking exactly like her picture. Same outfit and everything. Sakura goes toward her mother in rapture while Kero flies toward her to ask what she is seeing but hits a barrier and is knocked out. Sakura follows her mother's "ghost" until she falls off the cliff that they're standing near. As she falls, a ghostly hand with a ring (which I actually didn't catch until watching the dub) grabs her wrist, slowing her descent. Luckily, Yukito just happens to walking under that spot and catches her. Later on, Sakura wakes up in Yukito's house and he explains that she fell off the cliff. She doesn't remember falling but she does remember seeing her mother. Yukito remarks that if it truly was her mother, would she put Sakura in danger like that? Sakura doesn't reply. The dub does not show this exchange, by the way, but he does get to have most of his scene intact. The next scene is Toya (carrying Sakura on his back) and Yukito walking back to the Kinomoto residence. Yukito tells Toya that Sakura said she saw their mother. Toya explains that he was always able to see ghosts. In the Japanese version, Toya goes on to say that he would describe all the horrible-looking ghosts to Sakura. In the English dub, Tory says that he would explain who he was speaking to by saying that they were "see through" people. Either way, he blames himself for causing Sakura's fear of ghosts. Yukito asks if Toya has ever seen their mother. Yes, but never behind the school and not since he started middle school. The next day, Tomoyo comes to visit Sakura (who got to stay home at Toya's insistence), returning Kero as well since she "borrowed" him when Sakura was at Yukito's house. Kero wants to not pursue this matter of the "ghost" any farther: Card or not, it had enough power to throw him backward and knock him out. He doesn't want Sakura getting hurt. Sakura disagrees: if it's a Card, she has to catch it. If it's her mother, then she must know why she is there and not in "the beautiful place in the sky". So, again to the cliff, with a new battle outfit, to see what's going on. The light reappears and this time, everyone sees Sakura's mother just like in the picture. Sakura begins asking her "mother" why she there: Is she lonely? Does she want Sakura with her? As the "ghost" begins to drift away, Sakura follows. Kero tries to stop her but he is thrown back once more. Again, Sakura falls and wonders why her mother is doing this. Then she remembers what Yukito said. She realizes that it can't be her mother because her mother would never do this. So, Sakura uses her Fly Card to get up again and yells at the "ghost" that it's not her mother. The image begins to break up and Kero confirms that it's a Clow Card. Sakura seals it and it's the Illusion Card. The Illusion Card shows what you want to see: the girls wanted to see something scary so they did, Sakura wanted to see her mother so she did, and Tomoyo was hungry so she saw food the first time. Since they all expected to see Sakura's mother that final time, they all saw the same thing. Sakura is sad that she didn't get to see her mother for real but she is happy that her mother is still happy in the place in the sky. The next day, Sakura is running late but manages to say "Happy Birthday" to her mother's picture and deposit a present. As she speaks to the picture, Toya (who is reading a newspaper) sees their mother's ghost (complete with flashing ring on her finger with huge angel wings) hovering over her daughter. Sakura leaves and their mother remarks that she was worried about Sakura but she seems fine now so she floats up and disappears. Toya gets over his shock, smiles, and goes back to his paper.
Want to see for yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 6 (All)
Click to viewCardcaptors Episode 6: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 3/3
Edit: Here is another version of these videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 6: Part 3/3
This is a poignant episode. It is kind of bittersweet in that Sakura's mother really did come to her aid but she never knew it.
For the first time ever, the original Japanese title is a better fit. Although "memories" probably isn't the best choice of words since Sakura doesn't really remember much but it's a lot closer to the point of the episode than "Seeing Is Believing" which is a pretty damn generic title.
Instead of rehashing what you already know about the "This Time" and the opening, I'm going to talk about two things. One, remember when I said that Syaoran shows up in episode six? Well, I was wrong. Apparently, his full-length introduction isn't until episode eight (he shows up in the last few seconds of episode seven according to the youtube comments). Two, remember when I mentioned that Kero sounds like a Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle? Well, guess what, he should because he's played by Matt Hill who played...
Raphael in the third Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation! I don't know why this excites me as much as it does, I don't even like TMNT all that much, but I just can't stop grinning. My otaku side is also amused by the fact that Matt Hill plays Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, which I only saw bits and pieces of and I never even imagined that Kira Yamato was voiced by annoying (on purpose) English Kero from Cardcaptors.
(Goes to youtube to find examples of the English dub of Gundam SEED where Kira talks. Returns.) OH MY GOD, it is him! Great, when I finally get the money to buy the box set, I won't be able to take Kira seriously now! Okay, I take that back, I probably will since Matt Hill doesn't give Kira Kero's back-of-the-throat-into-the-nasal-passages whine. But, still, he sounds more like Kero when he has Kira yelling and screaming.
Anyway, this has nothing to do with the Experiment so I'll move on.
Before I get into the dub, I want to point out a huge plot hole that I noticed even in the manga version of this story. The reason why Sakura sees her mother the way she does is because she just saw the picture of her on the table. But that picture depicts her mother at 16, not just before she died. That should have been a clue to Sakura that the "ghost" was not her mother because she didn't die when she was 16, she died later and so wouldn't it make more sense for her mother to appear the age she was when she died? In fact, at the end, it appears that she looks the correct age so it's not some sort "ghosts can do whatever they want" kind of thing.
I've been noticing something that the dub consistently does with Tory, which I kind of like. The dubbers make Tory a little bit nicer than Toya. Yes, he still teases Sakura but not with the same kind of mindless bullying that Toya engages in. I think the story about the ghosts is the best example of this. Japanese Toya torments little Sakura by describing all the horrible ghosts he's seeing while English Tory merely tried to explain what was going on (unfortunately the art doesn't help him since we see all the horrible ghosts and in the English dub, he's talking about how he would be speaking to his mother and trying to explain to Sakura who he was talking to. Your mom's a bunch of monsters, Tory?). There have been a few other cases where the Japanese line was a lot meaner than the English line. Sometimes, the line is changed altogether from a teasing line to a more neutral line. I don't want to imply that Tory's a saint, he still gets his kicks in but he doesn't come off as much as a bully as Toya does. For the lack of a better word, Tory's a bit more mature when it comes to Sakura. I don't know why the dubbers would do this. Maybe they felt an American audience wouldn't appreciate an older male character picking on a much younger female character with such severity? I mean, I could see Tory being disliked by some younger fans who might be in Sakura's position and might not be sympathetic if Tory ever has to be bailed out of a jam. Maybe they toned it down because "it's a kid's show"? I don't know. Whatever the case, I kind of like this nicer Tory.
Like in all of these episodes, there are minor cuts and modifications made. There's an added line I really liked where Sakura tells Kero that Tory's at his part-time job and then remarks "Though I'm not exactly sure where that is". I'm not sure if they made that joke on purpose but I'm surprised neither show has made a comment about how Toya/Tory always has a new part-time job somewhere in the town. Anyway, I interpreted that as a joke about how Tory could really be anywhere in Tomoeda right then. I'm actually amazed they kept the bathing scene. I was sure that would be cut for "decency" but nope, it's not only there but completely intact. Unfortunately, Matt Hill's "growl" sounded like it came out of cheesy porn scene which completely ruined the scene.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for Julian's scene. On the plus side, he got to be in this episode for more than two seconds. The bad news they cut half his scene: the important half. As I mentioned in the summary, Sakura and Yukito talk about how Sakura saw her mother and if it was Sakura's mother, would she really act the way she's been acting? In the English version, this exchange is cut, leaving only the relatively unimportant bits about how Julian lives with his grandparents and that Madison took Kero. The only reason we know that they discussed anything important is because Julian mentions that Sakura told him that she saw their mother and Sakura flashbacks to Julian's asking the aforementioned "would your mother do this to you?" speech. But how can she flashback to something that never happened on screen? Surely, there was some other scene they could have cut so Julian could make his speech in peace.
There was also a weird line change in the English version. In the Japanese version, Sakura voiceovers that her mother began modeling in junior high. Fine. The English version has her say "junior school". Not "junior high", not "middle school": "junior school". I looked up this phrase on wikipedia, thinking maybe it's a Canadian thing but the only match was the UK term and that's a level for kids between 4 and 11, which makes Mr. Avalon even creepier than Mr. Kinomoto. Maybe they were going for "junior college", which would have made her 19 at the start of her modeling career? Either that or the scripter or Sakura's actress messed up the phrase and no one caught it.
I might as well mention Kero's Corner. I've noticed that the English version makes an effort to connect these parts more cohesively with the rest of the episode since he brings up about how they learned more about Sakura's past. Unfortunately, Kero was all about being a porn star in this episode because the delivery of the line "I just got a thing for shoulder pads" was delivered so creepily that it made me cringe.
For some reason, everyone was delivering their lines very stiffly. Julian had a serious case of "I'm reading my lines as I deliver them" syndrome. Then again, he hasn't a full scene since the pilot so I shouldn't be surprised. I have no idea what was going on with them in this episode. I'm usually pretty impressed with the English deliveries.
So, because of the massively important scene cut along with some minor details I didn't like, these two episodes are judged to be...
Different, with the Japanese Card Captor Sakura being superior.
Episode 7