Episode 61: "Sakura, the Cards, and Her Gifts" or "A Present for the Cards"
Introduction to the Experiment
Episode 60
Episode 61: Sakura, the Cards, and Her Gifts (Card Captor Sakura) or A Present for the Cards (Cardcaptors)
Baseline Version: Japanese Card Captor Sakura
The episode opens with "Sakura" talking to the Cards. Eventually, it turns out that it is the Mirror Card, who is pretending to be Sakura at home while Sakura and Kero are off doing stuff. The Mirror Card promises to tell "her" something to the other Cards. Sakura and Kero return and the Mirror confirms that all is well. Sakura and Kero talk about how she changed some Cards into Sakura Cards and how she needs to work on getting all of them changed as soon as possible. The Mirror Card tries to tell Sakura something but the three of them hear a noise. Sakura shuts off the lights and pretends to be sleeping, telling the Mirror Card to change back, which it does. The noise was Toya, coming in to tell Sakura to go to sleep already.
After this, the screen focuses on the Clow Book and it's revealed that Eriol is watching them from his house.
The next morning, Sakura is running late while Kero (while brushing his teeth) is talking to her. Kero supposes that Toya already knows what's going on. Sakura brushes this off, saying that if he did know, he'd be teasing her about it. (In the English version, she just says Kero's "secret is safe with [her]".) The next scene is cut in the English version but it's basically another round of Toya being a jerk to Sakura for no good reason at breakfast and this confirms to Sakura that Toya doesn't know what's going on.
Anyway, off to school. A Christmas tree in a neighbor's window reminds Sakura that it's nearly Christmas and she had to buy presents. She mentally lists off people that she needs to buy presents for but then feels like she's missing someone. At this point, Toya asks whether she has gotten a present for their father yet. She has not. The conversation varies a little in the two versions but they both conclude with the two of them agreeing to go in together on a new wallet for their father and to go after school that day to get it. During their commute, Sakura notices that Yukito is not there, causing her to wonder what happened to him.
Once Toya gets to school, he finds Yukito already at his desk, asleep. When he wakes him, Yukito explained that to avoid being late again, he decided to just come early and sleep there. Toya is worried and annoyed by Yukito's nonchalance about his issue and starts to tell him that he knows the truth, only to be interrupted by Nakaru jumping on him.
The next scene is completely cut in the English version. Syaoran is at school already, writing on the chalkboard when Sakura arrives. Syaoran somehow teleports from the chalkboard to the window. After some chitchat, Sakura says that Meiling wrote to her and said that the bottom had some Chinese on the bottom. She writes it on the board (perfectly from memory, I might add. DAAANG.) and asks Syaoran what it means. It means "my dear friend." This makes both Sakura and Syaoran happy. Sakura asks Syaoran if they celebrate Christmas in Hong Kong. Syaoran says that they do. She asks if they give presents and he says that they do. Sakura exclaims that she will give a present to Syaoran too. This causes Syaoran to try, yet again, to confess his feelings but Yamazaki shows up to lie about Christmas trees.
In both version, Eriol is sitting on top of a church steeple, being all mysterious and then he says something mysterious and it's all very mysterious.
Anyway, it's the end of the schoolday and Sakura tells Tomoyo (off-camera) that she's getting a present for her father and can't go home with her. Tomoyo is okay with that because she has some preparations of her own. Mostly it involves her present for Sakura and she gushes about it for awhile. (Madison has to prepare other presents besides just Sakura). Anyway, Tomoyo leaves and Sakura talks about finishing the daily report and asks Syaoran to put the stuff away in the music room. Once he puts the stuff away, he is free to go home. Syaoran, knowing about her plans with her brother, offers to finish the daily report (since it takes longer) and she can put the stuff away in the music room. She agrees. Once she leaves, Syaoran moans about not being able to tell her. The English version is slightly different: Sakura is trying to finish up an assignment and asks Li to leave ahead of her as long as he takes the stuff back to the music room. After that, Sakura will tidy up the classroom. Li offers to wait until she is done. She can return the music equipment and he'll tidy up the classroom instead. She agrees.
After that, Sakura heads to the music room and hears piano music. It's Eriol being awesome at piano again. He explains that he will be playing at Christmas Mass at the church in town (I assume the one in the earlier scene). In the Japanese version, we are treated to a "bless-them-they-tried" scene where Eriol explains to Sakura what a hymn is. He explains that it is a song of gratitude "for little things we face in everyday life" and then he goes on to say that he likes to play at the church to express "gratitude towards the plants, the water, and the wind... to everything around us, not just people".
In any case, Toya leaves school with Yukito in tow, Toya wondering if Yukito is going to be alright on his own. Yukito says that he got plenty of sleep during class, although he admits that he really shouldn't be doing that in the first place. Toya tries, yet again, to tell Yukito what he knows but Nakaru interrupts again.
After that, Syaoran is checking to see if Sakura's outside the school, concluding that she must have left already. Nope, she is just leaving at that moment. Sakura asks what he's doing there. In the Japanese version, he nervously says, "Nothing!" and acknowledges that Toya is not there yet. In the English version, he nervously says that he's just hanging around, just in case Sakura needed his help with anything. In any case, Syaoran goes to leave. Sakura calls him back. In the Japanese version, she asks him about showing gratitude to the plants and stuff while in the English version, she asks for his help since she feels like she's forgetting something or someone important.
In any case, they feel a presence. Syaoran offers to go to take care of it alone but Sakura insists on going with him. He points out that, uh, won't your brother be concerned if you're not here? So, Sakura uses the Mirror Card again. Sakura tells the Mirror Card to go shopping with her brother while the Mirror Card tries to tell her something again. That problem solved, off the two go to fight magic stuff.
They head to... somewhere to find the only railing in front of a cliff in this entire town, waiting for something to happen. On cue, Eriol does his magic staff thing and the railing breaks off and goes up into the air.
We go back to Toya, who is coming up to the Mirror Card. He immediately knows it's not Sakura. In the Japanese version, he seems to know where she is but realizes that if he goes there, he'll just cause problems for her. In the English version, he guesses that Sakura's with "that kid" and doesn't want him to know. He suggests that the Mirror Card goes shopping with him instead.
Sakura and Syaoran are fighting the Railing Monster. They break it and it just grows back. Finally, Sakura figures out to use the Mist Card (because it's Acid Mist). This dissolves the railing, saving the day. At this point, Sakura figures out what she has been forgetting and wonders if "he" is still practicing and leaves, leaving behind a bewildered Syaoran.
Later, Toya and the Mirror Card are in a cafe. Toya promises not to tell Sakura about what he knows. Toya then gives the Mirror Card a present, as thanks as well as an early Christmas present. It's hair ribbons and he says that her hair is actually long. The Mirror Card is extremely grateful.
After that, Sakura comes home to an outraged Kero, who had been wondering where she was, and the Mirror Card. Sakura insists that they listen to the cassette. It starts playing the song that Eriol was playing earlier. The song is a gift to the Cards to show how much she appreciates them. The Mirror Card then shares her message: the Cards wanted to say that they are glad that she is their Master and that they love her and want to help her.
I had been told about this episode before, many, many years ago. As long as I saw the steeple, I knew that this was the infamous episode where Eriol talks about religion. In other news, the new series Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card has recently premiered as of writing. In order to motivate myself to finally finish this experiment, I have told myself that I can't watch the new series until I finish this. Onward and upward!
The titles are pretty much the same. I think the English title is snappier.
Not much is altered between the two versions, just a lot of cuts. There are two major scenes cut:
1. Syaoran trying to confess.
2. Eriol's cringe-y hymn discussion.
There's also Tomoyo's overly long gag about her present for Sakura, which isn't crucial to the plot.
Let's talk about #1: On one hand, it's a nice scene. On the other hand, I know I have 9 more episodes to go and I'm probably going to see a variation of that scene every single time so I'm, like, "Yuh-huh, you're not actually going to confess so why are we here?" I really wish that the English version would just explicitly reintroduce the crush again but on the other hand, these scenes drag so much!
Now #2: Man, oh man, I knew that they would have to change this scene. Just for reference, here is the definition of "hymn" from www.learnersdictionary.com: "a religious song : a song that praises God". While some hymns are about gratitude - "Let All Things Now Living" from the Roman Catholic Gather hymnal springs to mind - not all of them are. And even the hymns that talk about nature are more grateful for the creator of the nature (ie God) than the things themselves. For a Japanese audience, they probably wouldn't know the difference because Shinto is a form of animism (ie all things have spirits and/or are gods) and Christianity is such a minority religion there that they probably think Christianity must work the same way. Of course, to a Canadian/American audience, which is predominantly Christian, this scene would not fly, if only because it would be very odd if North American Sakura Avalon did not know what a hymn was. However, there's nothing really to talk about in this scene. All in all, it's pretty pointless. I guess the idea is to trigger Sakura to consider thanking her Cards but it's not strictly necessary since she figures it out later.
So, while #1 didn't have to go, #2 was a stupid scene and contributed barely anything so, yeah, no issue here.
The only weird thing was the editing for the English version seemed really choppy this time around. I'm not sure if that is due to the quality of the video I watched on YouTube (everyone was really echo-y) or not. The worst cut is between the first appearance of the Railing Monster thing and Tori's scene with the Mirror. It just suddenly goes black in the version I watched.
Also, some of the English line deliveries were weird. Everyone sounded really stiff and formal for some reason. Tori's tone for "Let's go shopping together!" was so overly cheerful that it was jarring, far more than Toya's change in tone. It gave the scene some mood whiplash in the English version.
I actually thought Li's tweaks to his scenes and dialogues were pretty sweet. Although the primary crush scene is cut, I get the sense the crush itself is still there, just more subtle. Li's actor does a nice job of portraying Li as a basically sweet kid in this episode. Unlike the Japanese Li, who merely switches jobs with Sakura, the English Li just wants to wait for her to be done. The flustering about why he was still there was cuter as well.
I will admit that my bigger issue is that why they can't just tell Toya. They know he has powers and they suspect that he already knows anyway. The reason basically boils down to "Because Toya will tease me!" I'm kind of annoyed that the Mirror Card doesn't just tell Sakura that Toya knows: it would save everyone - especially her beloved Master - a lot of headaches.
Because one version had scenes that were unnecessary padding but the other version had execution issues, I judge these episodes to be...
Equal!
Episode 60
Episode 61: Sakura, the Cards, and Her Gifts (Card Captor Sakura) or A Present for the Cards (Cardcaptors)
Baseline Version: Japanese Card Captor Sakura
The episode opens with "Sakura" talking to the Cards. Eventually, it turns out that it is the Mirror Card, who is pretending to be Sakura at home while Sakura and Kero are off doing stuff. The Mirror Card promises to tell "her" something to the other Cards. Sakura and Kero return and the Mirror confirms that all is well. Sakura and Kero talk about how she changed some Cards into Sakura Cards and how she needs to work on getting all of them changed as soon as possible. The Mirror Card tries to tell Sakura something but the three of them hear a noise. Sakura shuts off the lights and pretends to be sleeping, telling the Mirror Card to change back, which it does. The noise was Toya, coming in to tell Sakura to go to sleep already.
After this, the screen focuses on the Clow Book and it's revealed that Eriol is watching them from his house.
The next morning, Sakura is running late while Kero (while brushing his teeth) is talking to her. Kero supposes that Toya already knows what's going on. Sakura brushes this off, saying that if he did know, he'd be teasing her about it. (In the English version, she just says Kero's "secret is safe with [her]".) The next scene is cut in the English version but it's basically another round of Toya being a jerk to Sakura for no good reason at breakfast and this confirms to Sakura that Toya doesn't know what's going on.
Anyway, off to school. A Christmas tree in a neighbor's window reminds Sakura that it's nearly Christmas and she had to buy presents. She mentally lists off people that she needs to buy presents for but then feels like she's missing someone. At this point, Toya asks whether she has gotten a present for their father yet. She has not. The conversation varies a little in the two versions but they both conclude with the two of them agreeing to go in together on a new wallet for their father and to go after school that day to get it. During their commute, Sakura notices that Yukito is not there, causing her to wonder what happened to him.
Once Toya gets to school, he finds Yukito already at his desk, asleep. When he wakes him, Yukito explained that to avoid being late again, he decided to just come early and sleep there. Toya is worried and annoyed by Yukito's nonchalance about his issue and starts to tell him that he knows the truth, only to be interrupted by Nakaru jumping on him.
The next scene is completely cut in the English version. Syaoran is at school already, writing on the chalkboard when Sakura arrives. Syaoran somehow teleports from the chalkboard to the window. After some chitchat, Sakura says that Meiling wrote to her and said that the bottom had some Chinese on the bottom. She writes it on the board (perfectly from memory, I might add. DAAANG.) and asks Syaoran what it means. It means "my dear friend." This makes both Sakura and Syaoran happy. Sakura asks Syaoran if they celebrate Christmas in Hong Kong. Syaoran says that they do. She asks if they give presents and he says that they do. Sakura exclaims that she will give a present to Syaoran too. This causes Syaoran to try, yet again, to confess his feelings but Yamazaki shows up to lie about Christmas trees.
In both version, Eriol is sitting on top of a church steeple, being all mysterious and then he says something mysterious and it's all very mysterious.
Anyway, it's the end of the schoolday and Sakura tells Tomoyo (off-camera) that she's getting a present for her father and can't go home with her. Tomoyo is okay with that because she has some preparations of her own. Mostly it involves her present for Sakura and she gushes about it for awhile. (Madison has to prepare other presents besides just Sakura). Anyway, Tomoyo leaves and Sakura talks about finishing the daily report and asks Syaoran to put the stuff away in the music room. Once he puts the stuff away, he is free to go home. Syaoran, knowing about her plans with her brother, offers to finish the daily report (since it takes longer) and she can put the stuff away in the music room. She agrees. Once she leaves, Syaoran moans about not being able to tell her. The English version is slightly different: Sakura is trying to finish up an assignment and asks Li to leave ahead of her as long as he takes the stuff back to the music room. After that, Sakura will tidy up the classroom. Li offers to wait until she is done. She can return the music equipment and he'll tidy up the classroom instead. She agrees.
After that, Sakura heads to the music room and hears piano music. It's Eriol being awesome at piano again. He explains that he will be playing at Christmas Mass at the church in town (I assume the one in the earlier scene). In the Japanese version, we are treated to a "bless-them-they-tried" scene where Eriol explains to Sakura what a hymn is. He explains that it is a song of gratitude "for little things we face in everyday life" and then he goes on to say that he likes to play at the church to express "gratitude towards the plants, the water, and the wind... to everything around us, not just people".
In any case, Toya leaves school with Yukito in tow, Toya wondering if Yukito is going to be alright on his own. Yukito says that he got plenty of sleep during class, although he admits that he really shouldn't be doing that in the first place. Toya tries, yet again, to tell Yukito what he knows but Nakaru interrupts again.
After that, Syaoran is checking to see if Sakura's outside the school, concluding that she must have left already. Nope, she is just leaving at that moment. Sakura asks what he's doing there. In the Japanese version, he nervously says, "Nothing!" and acknowledges that Toya is not there yet. In the English version, he nervously says that he's just hanging around, just in case Sakura needed his help with anything. In any case, Syaoran goes to leave. Sakura calls him back. In the Japanese version, she asks him about showing gratitude to the plants and stuff while in the English version, she asks for his help since she feels like she's forgetting something or someone important.
In any case, they feel a presence. Syaoran offers to go to take care of it alone but Sakura insists on going with him. He points out that, uh, won't your brother be concerned if you're not here? So, Sakura uses the Mirror Card again. Sakura tells the Mirror Card to go shopping with her brother while the Mirror Card tries to tell her something again. That problem solved, off the two go to fight magic stuff.
They head to... somewhere to find the only railing in front of a cliff in this entire town, waiting for something to happen. On cue, Eriol does his magic staff thing and the railing breaks off and goes up into the air.
We go back to Toya, who is coming up to the Mirror Card. He immediately knows it's not Sakura. In the Japanese version, he seems to know where she is but realizes that if he goes there, he'll just cause problems for her. In the English version, he guesses that Sakura's with "that kid" and doesn't want him to know. He suggests that the Mirror Card goes shopping with him instead.
Sakura and Syaoran are fighting the Railing Monster. They break it and it just grows back. Finally, Sakura figures out to use the Mist Card (because it's Acid Mist). This dissolves the railing, saving the day. At this point, Sakura figures out what she has been forgetting and wonders if "he" is still practicing and leaves, leaving behind a bewildered Syaoran.
Later, Toya and the Mirror Card are in a cafe. Toya promises not to tell Sakura about what he knows. Toya then gives the Mirror Card a present, as thanks as well as an early Christmas present. It's hair ribbons and he says that her hair is actually long. The Mirror Card is extremely grateful.
After that, Sakura comes home to an outraged Kero, who had been wondering where she was, and the Mirror Card. Sakura insists that they listen to the cassette. It starts playing the song that Eriol was playing earlier. The song is a gift to the Cards to show how much she appreciates them. The Mirror Card then shares her message: the Cards wanted to say that they are glad that she is their Master and that they love her and want to help her.
I had been told about this episode before, many, many years ago. As long as I saw the steeple, I knew that this was the infamous episode where Eriol talks about religion. In other news, the new series Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card has recently premiered as of writing. In order to motivate myself to finally finish this experiment, I have told myself that I can't watch the new series until I finish this. Onward and upward!
The titles are pretty much the same. I think the English title is snappier.
Not much is altered between the two versions, just a lot of cuts. There are two major scenes cut:
1. Syaoran trying to confess.
2. Eriol's cringe-y hymn discussion.
There's also Tomoyo's overly long gag about her present for Sakura, which isn't crucial to the plot.
Let's talk about #1: On one hand, it's a nice scene. On the other hand, I know I have 9 more episodes to go and I'm probably going to see a variation of that scene every single time so I'm, like, "Yuh-huh, you're not actually going to confess so why are we here?" I really wish that the English version would just explicitly reintroduce the crush again but on the other hand, these scenes drag so much!
Now #2: Man, oh man, I knew that they would have to change this scene. Just for reference, here is the definition of "hymn" from www.learnersdictionary.com: "a religious song : a song that praises God". While some hymns are about gratitude - "Let All Things Now Living" from the Roman Catholic Gather hymnal springs to mind - not all of them are. And even the hymns that talk about nature are more grateful for the creator of the nature (ie God) than the things themselves. For a Japanese audience, they probably wouldn't know the difference because Shinto is a form of animism (ie all things have spirits and/or are gods) and Christianity is such a minority religion there that they probably think Christianity must work the same way. Of course, to a Canadian/American audience, which is predominantly Christian, this scene would not fly, if only because it would be very odd if North American Sakura Avalon did not know what a hymn was. However, there's nothing really to talk about in this scene. All in all, it's pretty pointless. I guess the idea is to trigger Sakura to consider thanking her Cards but it's not strictly necessary since she figures it out later.
So, while #1 didn't have to go, #2 was a stupid scene and contributed barely anything so, yeah, no issue here.
The only weird thing was the editing for the English version seemed really choppy this time around. I'm not sure if that is due to the quality of the video I watched on YouTube (everyone was really echo-y) or not. The worst cut is between the first appearance of the Railing Monster thing and Tori's scene with the Mirror. It just suddenly goes black in the version I watched.
Also, some of the English line deliveries were weird. Everyone sounded really stiff and formal for some reason. Tori's tone for "Let's go shopping together!" was so overly cheerful that it was jarring, far more than Toya's change in tone. It gave the scene some mood whiplash in the English version.
I actually thought Li's tweaks to his scenes and dialogues were pretty sweet. Although the primary crush scene is cut, I get the sense the crush itself is still there, just more subtle. Li's actor does a nice job of portraying Li as a basically sweet kid in this episode. Unlike the Japanese Li, who merely switches jobs with Sakura, the English Li just wants to wait for her to be done. The flustering about why he was still there was cuter as well.
I will admit that my bigger issue is that why they can't just tell Toya. They know he has powers and they suspect that he already knows anyway. The reason basically boils down to "Because Toya will tease me!" I'm kind of annoyed that the Mirror Card doesn't just tell Sakura that Toya knows: it would save everyone - especially her beloved Master - a lot of headaches.
Because one version had scenes that were unnecessary padding but the other version had execution issues, I judge these episodes to be...
Equal!