Episode 3: "Sakura's Heart-Racing First Date" or "Allies"
Introduction to the Experiment
Episode 2
Episode 3: Sakura's Heart-Racing First Date (Card Captor Sakura) or Allies (Cardcaptors)
Oh my God. These episodes have nearly completely different plot lines so I have to write two summaries.
Japanese version: Sakura goes on a class field trip to the aquarium, where she sees a penguin show. During the show, something grabs the penguin trainer by the leg and she starts to drown. When a penguin gets close to it, it also begins to drown. Finally, Toya comes and saves the penguin (the trainer has already pulled herself up enough that she won't drown). Sakura tells Kero about this and how she thinks it might be Clow Card. Then Toya and Yukito come home and she gets all gooey-eyed and serves them pancakes. After all that, Kero tells her that he thinks it's the Watery Card. Unfortunately for Sakura, Watery Card is not only an elemental card, which are stupidly powerful, but it's an attack card, which means it has a temper. The only elemental card Sakura currently has is Windy but Windy is gentle so that won't work. Combining the cards won't work either so Sakura really has a problem on her hands. So, she spends the next day fretting about this and after receiving cell phones (which are so mid-90s, I could cry) from Tomoyo, she literally runs in Yukito, who offers to take her out for a meal to repay for the pancakes. It turns out that Yukito really loves the tearoom at the aquarium so they go there. Tomoyo and Kero follow them because, well, it's what they do. Finally, after Yukito and Sakura order some SNOW CONES from Toya, the huge aquarium in the center of the room explodes and everyone nearly drowns. Luckily, Yukito hacks at a door to let all the water out. After Yukito remarks that that certainly ruined their snow cones, Sakura gets an idea! So, later that night, Sakura finds a tank containing the Watery Card and has it chase her. Then she sics the Windy Card on it so it goes into a freezer, where it freezes and she seals it in that form.
English version: It starts the same. Aquarium, drowning, Tory's there, etc. When Sakura gets home, she talks about what happened but doesn't connect the dots right then and there. Then Tory comes home... alone and eats Sakura's pancakes (she doesn't make any for him). When Sakura goes up to Kero, he tells her he thinks it's a Clow Card. But, for some bizarre reason known only to Kero and the English dubbers, he wants to test her. She may use her "allies" (ie the cards. I swear, the term "ally" is used about a dozen times) to capture the card but only two of the three. So Sakura frets about which two to use and Madison gives her the aforementioned cell phones and... she heads straight home, without running into Julian. Then Sakura realizes that she actually has to go to the aquarium to find any answers. So she does and "bumps" into Julian there with Madison and Kero following her. So Julian orders ICE CREAM for himself and Sakura from Tory and the aquarium explodes and Julian does his hacking thing. After all that, Julian says they need to take a "rain check" on the ice cream because there's nothing better for cooling you off. Cool...? Sakura gets an idea! Sakura returns with Madison and Kero later that night and has the Watery Card chase her (as she's using the Fly Card) and then has the Windy Card lead it in the freezer, where it freezes and she seals it. Kero is pleased that Sakura has "passed the test".
Want to watch it yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 3 (All of it)
I apologize right now for the quality of the Cardcaptors videos. I tried finding another version but I couldn't find any. Sorry.
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 3/3
Edit: I spoke too soon. Here is another set of videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 3/3
Oh God. I barely know where to begin. I really was beginning to think that the badness of the dub was overrated, just typical subber snobbery. But, no, my friends. I hope this episode isn't a sign of things to come.
The episode isn't very good, even in the Japanese version. The Watery Card capture was much better and much more plausible in the manga (she found it in the school pool, it nearly drowned her, and she caught it at school. Yukito still gave her the snow cone clue). The whole Sakura goes on the date with Yukito was pretty lame and wasted so much time. However, that doesn't mean that CC had to think of a whole other plotline just to get rid of it. Especially when that plotline makes no sense whatsoever!
Because the episodes are so vastly different, I can't even compare the titles because they might as well be describing different episodes. However, I think they're both cheesy and lame.
Okay, the "This Time on Cardcaptors..." has changed. On the upside, they're making it more vague so you don't exactly know how it all works out. On the downside, they've added the actual dialogue of the episode to it. It doesn't work very well. And the "Card of the Day" segment not only has a card we haven't seen yet but includes a character we haven't seen yet. It's the Sand Card and guess what? Syaoran is in this one. And it appears he's even using a card! Which means that's not just one but three spoilers! Edit: As I've said before, the alternative version does not have these segments.
But that's a minor quibble right now. The actual episode is an orgy of cuts and filler. Okay, when I was watching the Japanese episode, I had a feeling they would trim some of the Sakura and Yukito scenes. I had no idea that they would just cut that plotline entirely. Julian was practically banished from this episode. Now that I think about it, he was cut from the previous episode too. Do the dubbers hate Julian? And then when they had to have him, they have this hokey "Wait, what you doing here?" moment which was just laughable. And then Sakura's acting like she's annoyed to be around him. Hello? She has a crush on the man?
So, after they cut all of the Julian bits, they're left with about ten to thirteen minutes to kill. So what do they do? Have Kero turn in Mister Testmaster and suddenly decide that Sakura needs to undergo a test. A test of what? A test of how long it takes for her to throttle him because this test is lame and makes no sense? I mean, why bother? The explanation that was in the original was logical and added dramatic tension: Sakura had no options to fight the Watery Card. It didn't matter how she fought, she wouldn't be able to win. That's drama! Adding some sort of limitation on her powers is not drama, it's Kero being a huge ass for no reason. Oh my God, and they even don't actually have the screen shots to support this conversation so they repeat a shot of Kero indicating with a hand so he can add another couple of sentences.
People who do "Abridged" series do that trick! It's really obvious and looks so cheap! I couldn't believe they actually did that! WHY?
Unfortunately, they still don't have enough to cover up the huge Julian-sized hole they created so they have this bit where Kero and Sakura tell each other about how she collected her "allies". Out of order, I might add. They claim that Sakura caught the cards in the order of Windy, Shadow, and Fly. But she caught them in the order of Windy, Fly, and Shadow. I mean, she caught the Shadow Card last week while using Fly. But not content with merely talking about the captures, they show the captures. Every last minute of them. Nothing new is brought to the table, no Kero discussing the pros and cons of using each card to fight the Watery Card. Nope, just rehashing old footage to pad it out. I mean, they could have still used this and made it fit the original story. Like, Sakura could bring up, say, Fly, treat us to an overly long flashback while Kero explains why Fly just won't cut it with the Watery Card. But, no, Kero has to TEST Sakura!
And to really hit home that Kero is just a huge jerk, when Sakura claims she simply doesn't know which cards to choose, he refuses to give her any hints because she must do this on her own. Because it's her TEST! So, it serves him right when Sakura doesn't tell him what she's planning near the end of the episode. Don't dish out what you can't take, English Kero!
When Julian is allowed to show up, the way Sakura catches the hint is so weird. Why does "cool" give her the idea but not the phrase "ice cream" which actually has the word "ice" in it and is a food you put in a freezer. That's kind of a roundabout way of doing it, isn't it?
As a result of all the weird editing and cuts, the pace is so frantic and disjointed. Why does Sakura know there's a freezer? Why is Tory working at the tearoom now instead of feeding the penguins? We never know.
Why cut the date plotline anyway? They've established that Sakura likes Julian so what gives? Did they really think we would think Julian has the hots for little Sakura because he's taking out for food? Seriously, it's so obvious that Yukito's taking her out because he's genuinely a nice guy; it's Sakura who blows it up into a date. Besides, it is pretty funny that he takes her to the only place in town where Toya happens to be. Interesting.
Some good things: The background music for the English track has improved immensely. It gets pretty rocking at some points. Did they get a new music guy or something?
In the English dub, Sakura isn't totally freaking out about just the penguin when the trainer and the penguin start to drown. Seriously, in the Japanese, that's all Sakura cares about. She's kind of obsessed with the penguins' well-being as opposed to others.
And, in a strange way, Sakura is shown as less shallow. Because she isn't going on about her "date" with Yukito, she seems focused on capturing the Watery Card which, you know, is hurting people. In the Japanese version, once Sakura has her date, she totally blows off the mission even though she had just been moping about how it'll get worse if she didn't do something soon.
In conclusion, the weird editing and padding of the English version made it collapse under its own weirdness, therefore these episodes are judged to be...
Different with the Japanese version Card Captor Sakura being the superior.
Episode 4
Episode 2
Episode 3: Sakura's Heart-Racing First Date (Card Captor Sakura) or Allies (Cardcaptors)
Oh my God. These episodes have nearly completely different plot lines so I have to write two summaries.
Japanese version: Sakura goes on a class field trip to the aquarium, where she sees a penguin show. During the show, something grabs the penguin trainer by the leg and she starts to drown. When a penguin gets close to it, it also begins to drown. Finally, Toya comes and saves the penguin (the trainer has already pulled herself up enough that she won't drown). Sakura tells Kero about this and how she thinks it might be Clow Card. Then Toya and Yukito come home and she gets all gooey-eyed and serves them pancakes. After all that, Kero tells her that he thinks it's the Watery Card. Unfortunately for Sakura, Watery Card is not only an elemental card, which are stupidly powerful, but it's an attack card, which means it has a temper. The only elemental card Sakura currently has is Windy but Windy is gentle so that won't work. Combining the cards won't work either so Sakura really has a problem on her hands. So, she spends the next day fretting about this and after receiving cell phones (which are so mid-90s, I could cry) from Tomoyo, she literally runs in Yukito, who offers to take her out for a meal to repay for the pancakes. It turns out that Yukito really loves the tearoom at the aquarium so they go there. Tomoyo and Kero follow them because, well, it's what they do. Finally, after Yukito and Sakura order some SNOW CONES from Toya, the huge aquarium in the center of the room explodes and everyone nearly drowns. Luckily, Yukito hacks at a door to let all the water out. After Yukito remarks that that certainly ruined their snow cones, Sakura gets an idea! So, later that night, Sakura finds a tank containing the Watery Card and has it chase her. Then she sics the Windy Card on it so it goes into a freezer, where it freezes and she seals it in that form.
English version: It starts the same. Aquarium, drowning, Tory's there, etc. When Sakura gets home, she talks about what happened but doesn't connect the dots right then and there. Then Tory comes home... alone and eats Sakura's pancakes (she doesn't make any for him). When Sakura goes up to Kero, he tells her he thinks it's a Clow Card. But, for some bizarre reason known only to Kero and the English dubbers, he wants to test her. She may use her "allies" (ie the cards. I swear, the term "ally" is used about a dozen times) to capture the card but only two of the three. So Sakura frets about which two to use and Madison gives her the aforementioned cell phones and... she heads straight home, without running into Julian. Then Sakura realizes that she actually has to go to the aquarium to find any answers. So she does and "bumps" into Julian there with Madison and Kero following her. So Julian orders ICE CREAM for himself and Sakura from Tory and the aquarium explodes and Julian does his hacking thing. After all that, Julian says they need to take a "rain check" on the ice cream because there's nothing better for cooling you off. Cool...? Sakura gets an idea! Sakura returns with Madison and Kero later that night and has the Watery Card chase her (as she's using the Fly Card) and then has the Windy Card lead it in the freezer, where it freezes and she seals it. Kero is pleased that Sakura has "passed the test".
Want to watch it yourself?
Card Captor Sakura Episode 3 (All of it)
Click to viewI apologize right now for the quality of the Cardcaptors videos. I tried finding another version but I couldn't find any. Sorry.
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 3/3
Edit: I spoke too soon. Here is another set of videos.
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 1/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 2/3
Cardcaptors Episode 3: Part 3/3
Oh God. I barely know where to begin. I really was beginning to think that the badness of the dub was overrated, just typical subber snobbery. But, no, my friends. I hope this episode isn't a sign of things to come.
The episode isn't very good, even in the Japanese version. The Watery Card capture was much better and much more plausible in the manga (she found it in the school pool, it nearly drowned her, and she caught it at school. Yukito still gave her the snow cone clue). The whole Sakura goes on the date with Yukito was pretty lame and wasted so much time. However, that doesn't mean that CC had to think of a whole other plotline just to get rid of it. Especially when that plotline makes no sense whatsoever!
Because the episodes are so vastly different, I can't even compare the titles because they might as well be describing different episodes. However, I think they're both cheesy and lame.
Okay, the "This Time on Cardcaptors..." has changed. On the upside, they're making it more vague so you don't exactly know how it all works out. On the downside, they've added the actual dialogue of the episode to it. It doesn't work very well. And the "Card of the Day" segment not only has a card we haven't seen yet but includes a character we haven't seen yet. It's the Sand Card and guess what? Syaoran is in this one. And it appears he's even using a card! Which means that's not just one but three spoilers! Edit: As I've said before, the alternative version does not have these segments.
But that's a minor quibble right now. The actual episode is an orgy of cuts and filler. Okay, when I was watching the Japanese episode, I had a feeling they would trim some of the Sakura and Yukito scenes. I had no idea that they would just cut that plotline entirely. Julian was practically banished from this episode. Now that I think about it, he was cut from the previous episode too. Do the dubbers hate Julian? And then when they had to have him, they have this hokey "Wait, what you doing here?" moment which was just laughable. And then Sakura's acting like she's annoyed to be around him. Hello? She has a crush on the man?
So, after they cut all of the Julian bits, they're left with about ten to thirteen minutes to kill. So what do they do? Have Kero turn in Mister Testmaster and suddenly decide that Sakura needs to undergo a test. A test of what? A test of how long it takes for her to throttle him because this test is lame and makes no sense? I mean, why bother? The explanation that was in the original was logical and added dramatic tension: Sakura had no options to fight the Watery Card. It didn't matter how she fought, she wouldn't be able to win. That's drama! Adding some sort of limitation on her powers is not drama, it's Kero being a huge ass for no reason. Oh my God, and they even don't actually have the screen shots to support this conversation so they repeat a shot of Kero indicating with a hand so he can add another couple of sentences.
People who do "Abridged" series do that trick! It's really obvious and looks so cheap! I couldn't believe they actually did that! WHY?
Unfortunately, they still don't have enough to cover up the huge Julian-sized hole they created so they have this bit where Kero and Sakura tell each other about how she collected her "allies". Out of order, I might add. They claim that Sakura caught the cards in the order of Windy, Shadow, and Fly. But she caught them in the order of Windy, Fly, and Shadow. I mean, she caught the Shadow Card last week while using Fly. But not content with merely talking about the captures, they show the captures. Every last minute of them. Nothing new is brought to the table, no Kero discussing the pros and cons of using each card to fight the Watery Card. Nope, just rehashing old footage to pad it out. I mean, they could have still used this and made it fit the original story. Like, Sakura could bring up, say, Fly, treat us to an overly long flashback while Kero explains why Fly just won't cut it with the Watery Card. But, no, Kero has to TEST Sakura!
And to really hit home that Kero is just a huge jerk, when Sakura claims she simply doesn't know which cards to choose, he refuses to give her any hints because she must do this on her own. Because it's her TEST! So, it serves him right when Sakura doesn't tell him what she's planning near the end of the episode. Don't dish out what you can't take, English Kero!
When Julian is allowed to show up, the way Sakura catches the hint is so weird. Why does "cool" give her the idea but not the phrase "ice cream" which actually has the word "ice" in it and is a food you put in a freezer. That's kind of a roundabout way of doing it, isn't it?
As a result of all the weird editing and cuts, the pace is so frantic and disjointed. Why does Sakura know there's a freezer? Why is Tory working at the tearoom now instead of feeding the penguins? We never know.
Why cut the date plotline anyway? They've established that Sakura likes Julian so what gives? Did they really think we would think Julian has the hots for little Sakura because he's taking out for food? Seriously, it's so obvious that Yukito's taking her out because he's genuinely a nice guy; it's Sakura who blows it up into a date. Besides, it is pretty funny that he takes her to the only place in town where Toya happens to be. Interesting.
Some good things: The background music for the English track has improved immensely. It gets pretty rocking at some points. Did they get a new music guy or something?
In the English dub, Sakura isn't totally freaking out about just the penguin when the trainer and the penguin start to drown. Seriously, in the Japanese, that's all Sakura cares about. She's kind of obsessed with the penguins' well-being as opposed to others.
And, in a strange way, Sakura is shown as less shallow. Because she isn't going on about her "date" with Yukito, she seems focused on capturing the Watery Card which, you know, is hurting people. In the Japanese version, once Sakura has her date, she totally blows off the mission even though she had just been moping about how it'll get worse if she didn't do something soon.
In conclusion, the weird editing and padding of the English version made it collapse under its own weirdness, therefore these episodes are judged to be...
Different with the Japanese version Card Captor Sakura being the superior.
Episode 4