Episode 10: "Sakura and the Sport's Day of Flowers" or "An Unexpected Reunion"
Introduction to the Experiment
Episode 9
Episode 10: Sakura and the Sport's Day of Flowers (Card Captor Sakura) or An Unexpected Reunion (Cardcaptors)
It's sports day at Tomoeda Elementary and Sakura just loves sports day! Anyway, Toya and Julian have come to cheer Sakura on. Sakura's dad is still at the university but he'll be coming shortly. So, Sakura does some cheerleading and then participates in an obstacle course against Li. Yukito cheers in a vague way so he could be cheering both Sakura and Li on or just one of them while Julian clearly cheers on just Sakura. Li loses to Sakura in the obstacle course because he trips just before the finish line. After that, because Tomoyo's mom hasn't shown up yet, Sakura invites her to eat lunch with her family and Yukito. She also invites Li as well who accepts. Then they eat and... man, this episode is dull. Nothing really happens until Tomoyo's mom shows up. Anyway, apparently Tomoyo's mom, Sonomi, was Sakura's mom's cousin and she hates Sakura's dad's, Fujitaka, guts because he married her when she was still in high school and then she never saw her again and now she's dead and it's all Sakura's dad's fault. In the English version, Madison's mom, Samantha, was Sakura's mom's childhood friend. Sakura's dad was Sakura's mom's friend too so Madison's mom and Sakura's dad were rivals in friendship but also in running because he beat her in semi-finals their senior year so he was the only one who got to go to nationals. Either way, they decide to race each other in the parents' race to decide this. Meanwhile, flower petals are slowly burying everyone and Sakura figures out that it's a Clow Card. Li figures it out too but he's stuck inside with Yamazaki who will not let him go outside because they're on medical duty. Anyway, Sakura and Tomoyo call Kero who tells them to look for the source of the flowers. Sakura does and it's a dancing girl with curls. It's the Flower Card and after it dances with Sakura, she seals it. And what does the Flower Card do? Makes flowers. Seriously. That's it. Anyway, Tomoyo's mom loses the race and she's all upset. As Tomoyo's mom one-sidedly bickers with Sakura's dad, Sakura decides to produce the nadeshiko flower (Sakura's mother's name was Nadeshiko, natch) which cools Tomoyo's mom's anger into sadness because once Sakura's parents got married, Sakura's mom was so happy but then she died so young. The English version of this scene varies a little bit but the gist is pretty much the same so I'm not to going to detail it for you. Afterward, Sakura and Tomoyo discuss how Tomoyo's mom truly loved Sakura's mom and how much they love each other. All is well.
Want to watch it for yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 10 (All)
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 1/2
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 2/2
Edit: Here is another set of videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 3/3
This episode is pretty much a yawn fest. The only highlight is the backstory about Nadeshiko, Fujitaka, and Sonomi, which is only mildly interesting. I don't really care about those characters. This episode is also full of unnecessary padding to fill up time. It is useful to point out that, in the manga, this capture was Li's introduction, not the Silence Card (which doesn't exist in the manga). So, of course, since the Japanese producers did it out of order, they had to find ways to put Li into the episode (since writing him out completely would raise eyebrows since it's a school event) without him interfering with the original course of the capture. Which is why Li shows up, contributes very little, and quickly disappears in each of his scenes in this episode. That's why he is stuck inside doing nurse duty for no good reason when Sakura captures the Flower Card.
Good news: Now that we're at episode 10, we only have 60 more episodes (and 2 movies) to go! YAY!
It's no contest: the English title is much better than the Japanese title. The whole Sakura's dad and Tomoyo's mom meet was the only interesting thing in this episode so they should get the title.
What was up with the English voice actors in this episode? It's episode 10 so they have no excuse as to why practically everyone sounds like they're reading off cards. Some of it was caused by lip flaps problems (there are a few cases where the lip flaps makes a character... pause in a... odd way during a line of dialogue but the voice director should have worked with the actors to fix those problems) but not all of it. Samantha has the minor excuse of it being her first episode but her acting was simply terrible. I haven't heard a stiff performance like that in a long time. Almost everyone, if not in fact everyone, had at least one line that sounded like it came from a bad dub from the 1980s. Even Sakura's voice actress, who usually rises to the occasion, had difficulty choking out "vegetable wraps", as if she couldn't believe she had to say that. Chanting magic spells to fight Tarot Card rip offs, totally cool. Having to say a localized version of some Japanese dish they're eating, totally not happening. Seriously, though, they can do better than this.
Speaking of voice acting weirdness, um, nice to know that Rhys Huber's voice finally broke. I know I shouldn't make an issue of it, it's not his fault that voice breaking is a slow, unplanned, and painful process for all concerned but I can't stop myself from making fun of Li's voice because he sounds goofy in this episode because of his actor's puberty problems. Li gets very deep at times, it's pretty amusing. However, he is not immune to the bad acting curse that infected this episode.
Half of me wonders if even the English voice actors couldn't stand this episode. I mean, it's pretty boring and filler-ish. Maybe they just couldn't muster up the energy to actually act this one out.
Moving away from voice actors, holy crap, the cuts to remove the gay are in full force. Any hint of gayness from anyone is gone! Well, unless you want to read between the lines of "Samantha and Mr. Avalon were rivals for Natasha's love friendship!" but pretty much any scene where Tomoyo gushes over Sakura's cuteness is cut and any moment where Li has a raging boycrush on Yukito is gone. Moments in particular:
1. Madison doesn't get to comment to the nameless boys about how Sakura is very cute.
2. Li doesn't get to make his stuttering speech about how finding food tasty is a sign of good health and running off. This cut actually causes some problems for the English viewer because one minute, Li is having lunch with them and the next, he's gone for no reason.
3. Madison doesn't get to say "I love you" to Sakura in that "No, I mean I love you" way.
After I quit giggling because I can totally tell when they've cut a gay moment, it makes me kind of sad. Goodness gracious, it is really that bad if Madison is a lesbian? It's not like Sakura and her end up together. I'm sure there were plenty of little girls watching the show who grew up to be lesbians. It would have been nice for them to have a role model.
Moving away from that, let's talk about the change in the adults' back story. I always had a problem with the whole "Fujitaka was Nadeshiko's teacher and she was sixteen and this is supposed to be okay because Sonomi is obviously a psycho lesbian who wanted Nadeshiko to herself" idea (not as much of a problem as I do with the whole Mr. Terada and Rika thing because at least Nadeshiko was a. a pubescent and b. of Japanese legal marrying age). Never mind the question how did Fujitaka become a university archaeology professor if he was a high school teacher when he met Nadeshiko? I guess he could have gotten another degree and changed jobs but that's neither here nor there. All I know is that even if I could mildly tolerate that romance, American parents wouldn't so I knew some change would have to be made.
So, I did like the whole idea that they were all friends during high school (implying that Mr. Avalon is the same age as Natasha and Samantha) and they were friends/rivals. I liked the explanation of why Samantha never came around again was because she felt like a third wheel instead of the Japanese version where it seems like Nadeshiko was either disowned or never communicated with her family ever again, not even to tell them that she had a daughter she named Sakura. I liked how Samantha was simply a close friend and not a cousin because it bothered me that it never seemed to occur to Sakura and Tomoyo that they're actually related (at least the English version brings up how it's amazing that their mothers were friends and now they are too! Thank you, common sense!). Making them friends actually tones down a creepy aspect of Sonomi's character since it's implied that she was in love with Nadeshiko as well. Samantha may be read as gay but at least they're not actually related this time. So, I appreciated the changes made. If changes had to be made, these were good ones to go with...
Until they brought up the whole "they competed for a spot to go to nationals for racing". Okay, now they've lost me. Never mind that it's highly unlikely that they would be competing for the same spot since men and women rarely, if not never, compete in the same events so therefore they could have both gone to nationals, it's just too much. The whole childhood rivalry story is plenty and isn't that much different from the original source of the hatred. Why make it even more convoluted with this weird racing competition story? It also makes them seem pretty shallow since Samantha apparently still cares about this with equal fervor as she does about Mr. Avalon taking her best friend away from her.
I appreciate what they tried to do with this plot quamire but they just went a little too far.
I also like that they cut the one-liner about how Sakura never gets to hear about Tomoyo's dad. I'm never sure how we're supposed to react to that statement. Is Tomoyo's dad a bad person? Why isn't he part of her life? In the English version, I didn't have to worry about that.
Just one major plot hole this time:
So, why aren't Toya and Yukito at school? It seems like this sports day is just for Tomoeda Elementary (since we don't see, say, any junior high school students or high school students) and if it's sports day, it must be a school day which means Toya and Yukito should be in class. If it is a school district wide sports day, then why aren't Toya and Yukito participating in the high school student events? I could believe that maybe Toya got permission to ditch school for his little sister but how the hell did Yukito get time off? He's not related to these people!
In conclusion, with bad voice acting and cuts and changes that went just a little too far, I judge these episodes to be...
Different, with the Japanese Card Captor Sakura being the superior.
Episode 11
Episode 9
Episode 10: Sakura and the Sport's Day of Flowers (Card Captor Sakura) or An Unexpected Reunion (Cardcaptors)
It's sports day at Tomoeda Elementary and Sakura just loves sports day! Anyway, Toya and Julian have come to cheer Sakura on. Sakura's dad is still at the university but he'll be coming shortly. So, Sakura does some cheerleading and then participates in an obstacle course against Li. Yukito cheers in a vague way so he could be cheering both Sakura and Li on or just one of them while Julian clearly cheers on just Sakura. Li loses to Sakura in the obstacle course because he trips just before the finish line. After that, because Tomoyo's mom hasn't shown up yet, Sakura invites her to eat lunch with her family and Yukito. She also invites Li as well who accepts. Then they eat and... man, this episode is dull. Nothing really happens until Tomoyo's mom shows up. Anyway, apparently Tomoyo's mom, Sonomi, was Sakura's mom's cousin and she hates Sakura's dad's, Fujitaka, guts because he married her when she was still in high school and then she never saw her again and now she's dead and it's all Sakura's dad's fault. In the English version, Madison's mom, Samantha, was Sakura's mom's childhood friend. Sakura's dad was Sakura's mom's friend too so Madison's mom and Sakura's dad were rivals in friendship but also in running because he beat her in semi-finals their senior year so he was the only one who got to go to nationals. Either way, they decide to race each other in the parents' race to decide this. Meanwhile, flower petals are slowly burying everyone and Sakura figures out that it's a Clow Card. Li figures it out too but he's stuck inside with Yamazaki who will not let him go outside because they're on medical duty. Anyway, Sakura and Tomoyo call Kero who tells them to look for the source of the flowers. Sakura does and it's a dancing girl with curls. It's the Flower Card and after it dances with Sakura, she seals it. And what does the Flower Card do? Makes flowers. Seriously. That's it. Anyway, Tomoyo's mom loses the race and she's all upset. As Tomoyo's mom one-sidedly bickers with Sakura's dad, Sakura decides to produce the nadeshiko flower (Sakura's mother's name was Nadeshiko, natch) which cools Tomoyo's mom's anger into sadness because once Sakura's parents got married, Sakura's mom was so happy but then she died so young. The English version of this scene varies a little bit but the gist is pretty much the same so I'm not to going to detail it for you. Afterward, Sakura and Tomoyo discuss how Tomoyo's mom truly loved Sakura's mom and how much they love each other. All is well.
Want to watch it for yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 10 (All)
Click to viewCardcaptors Episode 10: Part 1/2
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 2/2
Edit: Here is another set of videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 10: Part 3/3
This episode is pretty much a yawn fest. The only highlight is the backstory about Nadeshiko, Fujitaka, and Sonomi, which is only mildly interesting. I don't really care about those characters. This episode is also full of unnecessary padding to fill up time. It is useful to point out that, in the manga, this capture was Li's introduction, not the Silence Card (which doesn't exist in the manga). So, of course, since the Japanese producers did it out of order, they had to find ways to put Li into the episode (since writing him out completely would raise eyebrows since it's a school event) without him interfering with the original course of the capture. Which is why Li shows up, contributes very little, and quickly disappears in each of his scenes in this episode. That's why he is stuck inside doing nurse duty for no good reason when Sakura captures the Flower Card.
Good news: Now that we're at episode 10, we only have 60 more episodes (and 2 movies) to go! YAY!
It's no contest: the English title is much better than the Japanese title. The whole Sakura's dad and Tomoyo's mom meet was the only interesting thing in this episode so they should get the title.
What was up with the English voice actors in this episode? It's episode 10 so they have no excuse as to why practically everyone sounds like they're reading off cards. Some of it was caused by lip flaps problems (there are a few cases where the lip flaps makes a character... pause in a... odd way during a line of dialogue but the voice director should have worked with the actors to fix those problems) but not all of it. Samantha has the minor excuse of it being her first episode but her acting was simply terrible. I haven't heard a stiff performance like that in a long time. Almost everyone, if not in fact everyone, had at least one line that sounded like it came from a bad dub from the 1980s. Even Sakura's voice actress, who usually rises to the occasion, had difficulty choking out "vegetable wraps", as if she couldn't believe she had to say that. Chanting magic spells to fight Tarot Card rip offs, totally cool. Having to say a localized version of some Japanese dish they're eating, totally not happening. Seriously, though, they can do better than this.
Speaking of voice acting weirdness, um, nice to know that Rhys Huber's voice finally broke. I know I shouldn't make an issue of it, it's not his fault that voice breaking is a slow, unplanned, and painful process for all concerned but I can't stop myself from making fun of Li's voice because he sounds goofy in this episode because of his actor's puberty problems. Li gets very deep at times, it's pretty amusing. However, he is not immune to the bad acting curse that infected this episode.
Half of me wonders if even the English voice actors couldn't stand this episode. I mean, it's pretty boring and filler-ish. Maybe they just couldn't muster up the energy to actually act this one out.
Moving away from voice actors, holy crap, the cuts to remove the gay are in full force. Any hint of gayness from anyone is gone! Well, unless you want to read between the lines of "Samantha and Mr. Avalon were rivals for Natasha's love friendship!" but pretty much any scene where Tomoyo gushes over Sakura's cuteness is cut and any moment where Li has a raging boycrush on Yukito is gone. Moments in particular:
1. Madison doesn't get to comment to the nameless boys about how Sakura is very cute.
2. Li doesn't get to make his stuttering speech about how finding food tasty is a sign of good health and running off. This cut actually causes some problems for the English viewer because one minute, Li is having lunch with them and the next, he's gone for no reason.
3. Madison doesn't get to say "I love you" to Sakura in that "No, I mean I love you" way.
After I quit giggling because I can totally tell when they've cut a gay moment, it makes me kind of sad. Goodness gracious, it is really that bad if Madison is a lesbian? It's not like Sakura and her end up together. I'm sure there were plenty of little girls watching the show who grew up to be lesbians. It would have been nice for them to have a role model.
Moving away from that, let's talk about the change in the adults' back story. I always had a problem with the whole "Fujitaka was Nadeshiko's teacher and she was sixteen and this is supposed to be okay because Sonomi is obviously a psycho lesbian who wanted Nadeshiko to herself" idea (not as much of a problem as I do with the whole Mr. Terada and Rika thing because at least Nadeshiko was a. a pubescent and b. of Japanese legal marrying age). Never mind the question how did Fujitaka become a university archaeology professor if he was a high school teacher when he met Nadeshiko? I guess he could have gotten another degree and changed jobs but that's neither here nor there. All I know is that even if I could mildly tolerate that romance, American parents wouldn't so I knew some change would have to be made.
So, I did like the whole idea that they were all friends during high school (implying that Mr. Avalon is the same age as Natasha and Samantha) and they were friends/rivals. I liked the explanation of why Samantha never came around again was because she felt like a third wheel instead of the Japanese version where it seems like Nadeshiko was either disowned or never communicated with her family ever again, not even to tell them that she had a daughter she named Sakura. I liked how Samantha was simply a close friend and not a cousin because it bothered me that it never seemed to occur to Sakura and Tomoyo that they're actually related (at least the English version brings up how it's amazing that their mothers were friends and now they are too! Thank you, common sense!). Making them friends actually tones down a creepy aspect of Sonomi's character since it's implied that she was in love with Nadeshiko as well. Samantha may be read as gay but at least they're not actually related this time. So, I appreciated the changes made. If changes had to be made, these were good ones to go with...
Until they brought up the whole "they competed for a spot to go to nationals for racing". Okay, now they've lost me. Never mind that it's highly unlikely that they would be competing for the same spot since men and women rarely, if not never, compete in the same events so therefore they could have both gone to nationals, it's just too much. The whole childhood rivalry story is plenty and isn't that much different from the original source of the hatred. Why make it even more convoluted with this weird racing competition story? It also makes them seem pretty shallow since Samantha apparently still cares about this with equal fervor as she does about Mr. Avalon taking her best friend away from her.
I appreciate what they tried to do with this plot quamire but they just went a little too far.
I also like that they cut the one-liner about how Sakura never gets to hear about Tomoyo's dad. I'm never sure how we're supposed to react to that statement. Is Tomoyo's dad a bad person? Why isn't he part of her life? In the English version, I didn't have to worry about that.
Just one major plot hole this time:
So, why aren't Toya and Yukito at school? It seems like this sports day is just for Tomoeda Elementary (since we don't see, say, any junior high school students or high school students) and if it's sports day, it must be a school day which means Toya and Yukito should be in class. If it is a school district wide sports day, then why aren't Toya and Yukito participating in the high school student events? I could believe that maybe Toya got permission to ditch school for his little sister but how the hell did Yukito get time off? He's not related to these people!
In conclusion, with bad voice acting and cuts and changes that went just a little too far, I judge these episodes to be...
Different, with the Japanese Card Captor Sakura being the superior.
Episode 11