Cardcaptor Sakura, a.k.a. Cardcaptors
カードキャプターさくら
Looks like we need another round of cute! I hope you’ve enjoyed your Canada Day/Independence Day weekend (I’m not Canadian by any means, sorry for the confusion). Today we’re looking at another magical girl/romance anime series based on the manga by CLAMP (the same all-female Japanese manga artist group known for Tokyo Babylon, which we previously reviewed)… Cardcaptor Sakura (a.k.a. Cardcaptors)! This was my first glimpse of the shojo anime, though we had no access to manga at the time, as there was no social media back then.
The story centers on Sakura Kinomoto (“Sakura Avalon” in the Nelvana dub), an elementary school student (junior high school student in Clear Card) who discovers magical powers after accidentally freeing a set of magical cards into the world; she must retrieve the cards to prevent catastrophe. Each of these cards grants different magical powers, and can only be activated by someone with inherent magical abilities.
When Nelvana announced they had licensed Cardcaptor Sakura in North America in August 1999. Shortly after the announcement and correspondence between the company and a fan, a petition for a subtitled VHS and DVD release began. Nelvana dubbed the series into English with Ocean Studios featuring (the then-11-year-old) Carly McKillip as Sakura, and released it under the name Cardcaptors. This version was heavily edited from the original Japanese version, and Nelvana spent roughly $100,000 on each episode to incorporate new music, scripts, and vocal tracks. The initial version of the dub covered all 70 episodes, although character names were changed, some Japanese text was changed to English, and subjects considered controversial at the time, such as same-sex relationships, were edited out. One of the censored themes was that of homosexual characters, including Tomoyo, who was changed from having a crush to being just a friend, and the gay relationship between Toya and Yukito, who were also portrayed as just friends. The musical score was completely replaced with new music, and some of the sound effects were replaced when they could not be separated into separate tracks, although the original opening and ending themes were dubbed into English.
Character names that have been changed in the Nelvana dub (does not involve the original manga and its sequel)
⚠️ WARNING! Long list.
Sakura Kinomoto → Sakura Avalon (her given name is repronounced as “Sa-KU-ra” instead of “SA-ku-ra”, though “SA-ku-ra” is a very common pronunciation, seen in Capcom’s SFIV, SFV, and SF6)
Syaoran Li → Li Showron (he is introduced as the male lead in the first episode of the dub (episode 8 of the original anime), and is considered a rival Cardcaptor at the start)
Cereberus → Kero/Keroberos (repronounced as “kirō” instead of “kerō”)
Tomoyo Daidoji (also written as “Tomoyo Daidouji” or “Tomoyo Daidōji”) → Madison Taylor (her elegant speech pattern was replaced with Valley Girl speech pattern in the Nelvana dub)
Touya Kinomoto → Tori Avalon (the “monster” whom he teases his little sister frequently gets replaced with “squirt” in the Nelvana dub)
Yukito Tsukishiro → Julian Star (the gay relationship between Touya/Tori and Yukito/Julian was removed in the dub)
Meiling Li → Meilin Rae (her unrequited engagement with Syaoran/Li was omitted in the dub, along with the fact that she and Syaoran were cousins)
Fujitaka Kinomoto → Aiden Avalon
Sonomi Daidoji → Samantha Taylor (the company was renamed from Daidoji Toys Company to Taylor Toys Company, and the lesbian relationship between Sonomi/Samantha and Nadeshiko/Natasha was removed in the dub)
Nadeshiko Kinomoto → Natasha Avalon
Yoshiyuki Terada → Mr. Terada (his given name is omitted; the Terada/Rika relationship was removed in the dub since the teacher/student romance is often frowned upon outside Japan)
Rika Sasaki → Rita (she is depicted as having trouble with her schoolwork, and her blushing around Terada is explained away as being embarrassed at having to stay after school so often, though her original Japanese voice actress, Tomoko Kawakami, died in mid-2011 following ovarian cancer)
Takashi Yamazaki → Zachary Marker
Chiharu Mihara → Chelsea (Takashi/Zachary and Chiharu/Chelsea are cousins in the dub to justify the random acts of strangling as sibling rivalry)
Naoko Yanagisawa → Nikki
Kaho Mizuki → Layla MacKenzie
The second film and the sequel reversed the damages, which included using the original names, rather than the Nelvana dub-era, as Carly McKillip (who was later replaced with Kari Wahlgren in the said second film and Monica Rial in Clear Card) and other then-child voice actors were hitting puberty after they finished airing Cardcaptors on Kids’ WB.
Back in the days when we were children, we tried to impersonate Tomoyo Daidoji/Madison Taylor with a video camera, but we were sadly not allowed to at some point. The video cameras are still being used by professionals today despite the fact that many of us use smartphones.
Here is the website, which I used to go on a lot since I was 10–11 years old on an old Windows 98/ME computer (which is a Wayback link, but Adobe Flash is no longer working since it is completely discontinued, and the site no longer works). However, I had the Windows Desktop theme based on that property and the RollerCoaster Tycoon game (with expansions). Cardcaptor Sakura is available on Crunchyroll. Unlike the Nelvana dub, the anime uses the Animax dub, which is faithful to the Japanese script throughout most of the show, with the damage being reversed unlike the Nelvana dub (the dub that we grew up with, which is unfortunately expired).
Here’s also the soundtrack and the opening of the anime series (Nelvana dub), both of which can be found on YouTube.
That is how we describe Cardcaptor Sakura. Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter!
Originally posted on Medium on October 26, 2021