Episode 55: "Sakura in Wonderland"
Introduction to the Experiment
Episode 54
Episode 55: Sakura in Wonderland (both versions)
Baseline Version: Japanese Card Captor Sakura
The two versions start VERY differently.
Japanese version: Sakura is reading Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Eriol catches a leaf and approaches Sakura as she's resting her eyes. He offers the leaf as a bookmark. He asks what she's reading. She tell hims and explains that in the book she gets big and small. She then has a flashback about the Little Card capture and using the Big Card. Sakura then remembers that Alice in Wonderland is from England and Eriol lived in England! So what's England like? Eriol tells her what England is like and how it actually looks a lot like what's described in the book. Sakura says she wants to go someday; Eriol offers to take her to "Alice's kingdom". Meanwhile, Tomoyo and Li are watching this interaction happen and Tomoyo points how cute they are together and oh, isn't Eriol inviting Sakura to go to England - perhaps to see his family and if that is the case...! Li is not pleased and stomps over to announce that homeroom is about to start.
English version: There is actually a scene before the "Sakura is reading Alice in Wonderland" bit. Sakura is having another dream about Clow Reed and the cherry tree at the shrine. She wakes up, acknowledging that she had the dream again and goes to school. We then get the scene with Sakura reading. Eli catches the leaf and clearly curses it (I can't tell if the quality of the video is just bad or the editing is just that sloppy here. It's like MSPaint-level bad) before offering it to her. Eli asks what she's reading; she shows him the (clearly Japanese) cover of her book and explains that she's at the part where Alice shrinks. She then remarks to herself that she remembers being that small. Sakura then remarks that she can't wait to see how it ends and that Wonderland sounds fun. Eli remarks that maybe she'll get to there someday. Sakura is perplexed.
Back to both versions. In class, it is the end of "Reading Week" (yes, in both versions) and the children are supposed to write book reports on the books they have selected to read. The Japanese version has this long sequence where the teacher checks in the characters we care about (except Tomoyo and Sakura) about the books they've selected. The English version just focuses on Sakura and Madison's book selection. It's not important so let's move on.
After class, the children decide to read in the library. The Japanese version has a bit where Yamazaki lies but it's not important so let's move on. Anyway, Sakura, Tomoyo, Li, and Eriol are reading at the same table. Li is reading while using a dictionary. The versions differ slightly here:
Japanese version: Sakura remarks that looks tough. Li explains to Sakura that the characters used in Hong Kong and Japan are used differently.
English version: Sakura remarks that Li's book is in Japanese. Li explains that his training taught to constantly challenge himself so Wei suggested that he read up on some "ancient languages" (I'm not making this up - the actual line is "ancient languages").
Back to both versions. Eriol is not using a dictionary (and in the English version, it is explicitly stated that Eli is reading the same book as Li). Doesn't he need one? Nope, he's just fine, thank you. It is discussed that Eriol studied Japanese back home in England and Sakura asks if it was difficult. Eriol says that it is easy to pick when so many people around you speak Japanese. Oh, so did Eriol have a lot of Japanese friends? No, it's... complicated/a long story (Japanese/English).
In any case, Li has clearly had enough of Eriol's super special awesomeness and storms off. Eriol decides he needs to be elsewhere as well. In the Japanese version, Sakura asks Tomoyo if Li is mad about something and she just responds that a boy's heart is complex while in the English version, Sakura remarks to Madison that she doesn't get Eli sometimes and she responds that Li doesn't seem to either and that must be why he took off.
Anyway, Sakura touches the leaf in her book. It is clearly cursed and she gets sucked into her book in front of Tomoyo. The other children hear the commotion but Tomoyo dodges their question. Li comes over and Tomoyo explains what happens. Li senses magic coming from the book while Eriol looks on.
Sakura wakes up in a strange place in a strange outfit. No one is with her. Eventually, she realizes that she's in the book she was reading. She hears Eriol's voice telling her that she's correct. Eriol is up in a tree, playing the role of the Cheshire Cat. Sakura asks if this is a dream. Nope, not a dream. Then why is Eriol acting so weird? Well, does she really know Eriol? The Japanese version has Eriol explicitly state that it is very hard to keep his mouth shut about how slow Sakura and Li are (and if I may make an editorial comment here: this part caused me to clap because, oh man, are Sakura and Li dumb to not realize that Eriol is behind the mischief around them). The English version omits this exchange, focusing on the "how well do you know Eli anyway?" idea for longer.
In any case, Sakura asks why Eriol's so serious all of the time (if he has this odd side of personality, as the Cheshire Eriol is claiming). It's because there are people around her who know who he is and it would be bad if they figured out who he is now. At this, he fades away, inviting Sakura to enjoy Wonderland.
As Sakura wonders how to get out of the book, Sakura hears Yukito, playing the role of the White Rabbit. He is rushing (as the White Rabbit does) to see the queen. Sakura follows after him. After a while, Yukito changes into Yueh. Yueh realizes that flying would actually be a lot faster so he picks Sakura up and off they go into the sky. Sakura is terrified as they fly. Eventually, Yueh reaches his destination and literally drops Sakura as they are hundreds of feet in the air.
Meanwhile, Li is trying some sort of sword magic thing to get her out of the book while Tomoyo looks on. It doesn't work and nearly attracts the attention of their classmates. Luckily, their classmates have no peripheral vision and don't notice anything amiss.
Sakura is now at the tea party with Toya, who is playing the Mad Hatter. He offers her tea and it's really good. Sakura then realizes that Alice drank shrinking potion in the book so she better be careful about that. Too late - that is actually what she was drinking. So she shrinks and the wind blows her into the river.
She wakes up and placed gently on a daisy by a giant Li. When she is settled, she sees that there are two Lis, playing the roles of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Sakura asks if the two Lis know the way out. They ask if she truly wants to know; she does. They agree to tell her if she answers their questions correctly. The versions differ here:
Japanese version: The Lis ask her to identify the true statement. The one on the left says, "I like someone." The one on the right says, "I don't like anyone." Sakura has a flashback about Li getting all flustered about Yukito so she answers that the first statement is correct. She's right. The one on the right says, "The one I like is taller than me." The one on the left says, "The one I like is shorter than me." Flashing back to seeing Li walk by Yukito, Sakura answers that the first statement is correct. It's not. Sakura is shocked - Yukito is taller than Li! So it's not Yukito that he likes?
English version: The Lis ask her to identify which is the real Li. The one on the left says, "I've been trained in martial arts." The one on the right says, "No, I've been trained in martial arts." Sakura first guesses, "You!" She's wrong. "Both?" Still wrong. Sakura is perplexed - they both said they took martial arts so she doesn't get it.
In any case, the two Lis are gone. Sakura wonders how to find the exit and remarks that she can't when she's so small. Then she has an idea - change the Big Card to make her big again. She does so but it makes her too big. She notices a giant leaf floating in the sky.
So she changes the Little Card to shrink again. She ends up on a chessboard. She asks where she is and Tomoyo, playing Humpty Dumpty, tells her that she's on a chessboard. Sakura asks who Tomoyo is playing with.
It's Kero, who is not happy about being addressed as Kero and for having the game interrupted. Kero changes into Keroberos and he's playing the role of the Queen (the English versions clarifies that it's the Queen of Hearts). Keroberos chases Sakura around the chessboard.
As Sakura runs around, Eriol's face appears. Sakura asks for his help and points out that, in the book, the Cheshire Cat knew many things. Eriol explains that she has to leave the same way she came in. Finally, she realizes that she touched the leaf to get in so she has to touch the leaf in the sky to get out.
She gets out, much to Li and Tomoyo's relief. She's tired from changing two Cards but otherwise fine. Sakura is grateful for the leaf in her book. In the English version, at the last second, Sakura remarks that, hey, touching the leaf got her stuck in the book in the first place!
Ugh, guys. This episode is pretty bad too, which was a shame because I had seen clips of this episode before so I was looking forward to it.
I glanced at the descriptions of the remaining episodes on Crunchyroll and, oh man, I think I'm in for a LONG string of filler episodes until I get to the end. I cannot emphasize enough how short the original manga is - the entire series is 12 short volumes. How did they get 70 episodes and 2 movies out of 12 volumes?!
Since they have the same title, I don't need to decide which one I like better. Yay!
Okay, this is going to be a weird evaluation. On one hand, the Japanese episode is so slow. Literally half the episode is before Sakura enters the book. Nothing happens except some minimal character development. I was actually hoping that the English version would start cutting stuff because oh my God don't make me watch these stupid scenes again.
And they did cut some stuff. In fact, the English version just went, "Screw this beginning, let's make up our own beginning!" I was actually okay with this change (although I did have a moment of - uh, am I playing the right episode? Did they renumber them?) and it worked for me as a viewer. And you may notice that after Sakura enters the book, the episode is pretty much untouched (except Eli and Li's stuff - I'll get to that). I did find it ironic that, yet again, the Japanese version had multiple flashbacks while the English version focused on new content.
However, the English version is still pretty botched. I can tell that they're trying but they clearly didn't think things through or think the viewers are morons. Where to start?
1. I get it, English team. An episode about the kids reading always makes you freak out because the books are clearly Japanese. You had three options here:
A. Photoshop the Japanese out and put in English text.
B. Cut any long shots of the books so the viewer doesn't notice the Japanese text.
C. Completely ignore it by not having any of the characters mention languages and we will suspend our disbelief about the Japanese text.
All three options have been done before. All three options are viable options. The English team chose Option D: We give up and we can't decide so we're going to make it up as we go along.
So we get this really bizarre scene with Li and Eli reading Japanese books even though Sakura's book is clearly Japanese as well. There is zero attempt to photoshop Sakura's book and if they had the time to photoshop the leaf, they should have edited the text on Sakura's book cover.
But it gets worse. They then have Li state that he's studying an "ancient language". Japanese... an ancient language. WHAT?! Just, what?! I would have been fine - okay, not really because it's still dumb but more fine, I guess - if Li just wanted to challenge himself and wanted to read in another language but why explicitly state that Japanese is ancient?! Japan still exists and is spoken by, I don't know, the people who originally made this show for starters.
And then it gets worse. So apparently Eli knows Japanese too. Okay, Eriol knowing Japanese makes a lot of sense in the original version because the show is set in Japan. While the English version doesn't explicitly state where it's set (my head canon says it's in the Toronto area but they never state what country they're in), it's not Japan so it makes no sense for Eli to know Japanese. Unless the English version is changing the ending, it is just nonsensical for Eli to know Japanese.
Keep in mind that they kept the "ooo, it's mysterious why Eli knows Japanese" bit from the original. It's obvious in both versions that Eriol/Eli is little bit more involved with the Clow Cards than he lets on so Eriol knowing Japanese is important. Eli knowing Japanese because of "a long story" is head-scratching because they're not in Japan. There is zero reason for Eli to know Japanese in this context.
Fine, I get it - they couldn't get around the dictionary scene and Eli knowing English while Li struggles with it is not jaw-dropping (since Eli is from England). So, why couldn't Li be using a Chinese-English dictionary to read an English book and Eli is reading a book in Chinese without help? From the perspective of someone who knows the ending of the manga, Eli knowing Chinese would actually make way more sense in the long run. Or why not avoid the language thing altogether like they did last time - why couldn't Li be challenging himself to read a book way above his age level (like, I don't know, Sakura could point out that her brother is reading that book in his English class right now, ohmigod isn't that book hard for you, Li?) while Eli is breezing through a book that Sakura's dad said he read in college? And then they could have changed the exchange to focus on how super smart Eli is (throwing in some mysterious "how come this kid is this smart at his age?" stuff) and Li can get all pissy because Eli is better than him again.
Or, you know what would solve all of their problems? Have the kids be learning Japanese. There. All problems solved - they're reading books in Japanese because that's their assignment for Japanese class, not English class.
Which segues nicely into the changes in Wonderland. Most of the Wonderland stuff is untouched except Eli and Li's scenes.
3. I will admit that I felt cutting Eriol's discussion on how hard it is to not tell Sakura and Li how dumb they are was unnecessary. Eli is even more obvious than Eriol is so this would have really worked here. The editing choices are odd here too - Sakura's ugly shocked face is used for a moment that doesn't really warrant it. However, it redeemed itself a little bit with the "cat out of the bag" joke - I missed you, stupid puns (and it's a nice callback to Ruby and Spinner Sun's discussion about her "letting the cat out of the bag").
4. I have mixed feelings about the change to Li's questions, mostly bad feelings but some good. The English version has shied away from the "Li is totes crushing on Sakura ohmigoduguys" thing. Fine, so they can't use those questions. So why did Li get 1 stupid question? The test makes zero sense because I'm not sure how Sakura could have won. In the Japanese version, the audience knows why Sakura's second answer is wrong but it's logical why Sakura guessed wrong. In the English version, it's just unwinnable. Why couldn't they come up with a similar set of questions about what Li has been struggling with (the whole "is he actually helping Sakura or is he in the way?" thing)? Was their deadline on this episode that tight?
On the other hand, I took a look at the original Tweedledum and Tweedledee scene from Alice and The Looking Glass (they're not in Alice in Wonderland - neither is Humpty Dumpty for that matter. He's in the The Looking Glass too) - I had looked because I was curious if they ask Alice a similar set of questions too (They don't, fyi). That scene is so Lewis Carroll-y bizarre that the English version of the Li scene is actually more in the spirit of that scene than the Japanese version is. So maybe I'll give the English team some credit and admit that maybe because they couldn't use the original questions, they just went all-out Lewis Carroll with that scene and just made the test ridiculous instead.
Besides these episode-ruining changes, the rest of the English version is fine. I like the liberal cuts of the boring scenes with the teacher and the kids. I love the English cast's delivery (especially Kerberos' actor - the Japanese actor for Kerberos basically ruins the chess game scene, in my opinion) during the Wonderland part. I even liked the added scene with the dream sequence, that was kind of neat. It's just that the bad changes are just so bad that the good changes can't overcome them.
Only one plot hole and I'll admit it's a petty one: Seriously - none of the other children notice what Li and Tomoyo are doing in the library? They're not that far away and they're mostly quietly reading so it's not like they wouldn't hear them or see them!
So, both versions are pretty bad but they are bad in different ways. Because I honestly can't choose which one I actually liked, I judge these episodes to be...
Equal!
Episode 56
Episode 54
Episode 55: Sakura in Wonderland (both versions)
Baseline Version: Japanese Card Captor Sakura
The two versions start VERY differently.
Japanese version: Sakura is reading Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Eriol catches a leaf and approaches Sakura as she's resting her eyes. He offers the leaf as a bookmark. He asks what she's reading. She tell hims and explains that in the book she gets big and small. She then has a flashback about the Little Card capture and using the Big Card. Sakura then remembers that Alice in Wonderland is from England and Eriol lived in England! So what's England like? Eriol tells her what England is like and how it actually looks a lot like what's described in the book. Sakura says she wants to go someday; Eriol offers to take her to "Alice's kingdom". Meanwhile, Tomoyo and Li are watching this interaction happen and Tomoyo points how cute they are together and oh, isn't Eriol inviting Sakura to go to England - perhaps to see his family and if that is the case...! Li is not pleased and stomps over to announce that homeroom is about to start.
English version: There is actually a scene before the "Sakura is reading Alice in Wonderland" bit. Sakura is having another dream about Clow Reed and the cherry tree at the shrine. She wakes up, acknowledging that she had the dream again and goes to school. We then get the scene with Sakura reading. Eli catches the leaf and clearly curses it (I can't tell if the quality of the video is just bad or the editing is just that sloppy here. It's like MSPaint-level bad) before offering it to her. Eli asks what she's reading; she shows him the (clearly Japanese) cover of her book and explains that she's at the part where Alice shrinks. She then remarks to herself that she remembers being that small. Sakura then remarks that she can't wait to see how it ends and that Wonderland sounds fun. Eli remarks that maybe she'll get to there someday. Sakura is perplexed.
Back to both versions. In class, it is the end of "Reading Week" (yes, in both versions) and the children are supposed to write book reports on the books they have selected to read. The Japanese version has this long sequence where the teacher checks in the characters we care about (except Tomoyo and Sakura) about the books they've selected. The English version just focuses on Sakura and Madison's book selection. It's not important so let's move on.
After class, the children decide to read in the library. The Japanese version has a bit where Yamazaki lies but it's not important so let's move on. Anyway, Sakura, Tomoyo, Li, and Eriol are reading at the same table. Li is reading while using a dictionary. The versions differ slightly here:
Japanese version: Sakura remarks that looks tough. Li explains to Sakura that the characters used in Hong Kong and Japan are used differently.
English version: Sakura remarks that Li's book is in Japanese. Li explains that his training taught to constantly challenge himself so Wei suggested that he read up on some "ancient languages" (I'm not making this up - the actual line is "ancient languages").
Back to both versions. Eriol is not using a dictionary (and in the English version, it is explicitly stated that Eli is reading the same book as Li). Doesn't he need one? Nope, he's just fine, thank you. It is discussed that Eriol studied Japanese back home in England and Sakura asks if it was difficult. Eriol says that it is easy to pick when so many people around you speak Japanese. Oh, so did Eriol have a lot of Japanese friends? No, it's... complicated/a long story (Japanese/English).
In any case, Li has clearly had enough of Eriol's super special awesomeness and storms off. Eriol decides he needs to be elsewhere as well. In the Japanese version, Sakura asks Tomoyo if Li is mad about something and she just responds that a boy's heart is complex while in the English version, Sakura remarks to Madison that she doesn't get Eli sometimes and she responds that Li doesn't seem to either and that must be why he took off.
Anyway, Sakura touches the leaf in her book. It is clearly cursed and she gets sucked into her book in front of Tomoyo. The other children hear the commotion but Tomoyo dodges their question. Li comes over and Tomoyo explains what happens. Li senses magic coming from the book while Eriol looks on.
Sakura wakes up in a strange place in a strange outfit. No one is with her. Eventually, she realizes that she's in the book she was reading. She hears Eriol's voice telling her that she's correct. Eriol is up in a tree, playing the role of the Cheshire Cat. Sakura asks if this is a dream. Nope, not a dream. Then why is Eriol acting so weird? Well, does she really know Eriol? The Japanese version has Eriol explicitly state that it is very hard to keep his mouth shut about how slow Sakura and Li are (and if I may make an editorial comment here: this part caused me to clap because, oh man, are Sakura and Li dumb to not realize that Eriol is behind the mischief around them). The English version omits this exchange, focusing on the "how well do you know Eli anyway?" idea for longer.
In any case, Sakura asks why Eriol's so serious all of the time (if he has this odd side of personality, as the Cheshire Eriol is claiming). It's because there are people around her who know who he is and it would be bad if they figured out who he is now. At this, he fades away, inviting Sakura to enjoy Wonderland.
As Sakura wonders how to get out of the book, Sakura hears Yukito, playing the role of the White Rabbit. He is rushing (as the White Rabbit does) to see the queen. Sakura follows after him. After a while, Yukito changes into Yueh. Yueh realizes that flying would actually be a lot faster so he picks Sakura up and off they go into the sky. Sakura is terrified as they fly. Eventually, Yueh reaches his destination and literally drops Sakura as they are hundreds of feet in the air.
Meanwhile, Li is trying some sort of sword magic thing to get her out of the book while Tomoyo looks on. It doesn't work and nearly attracts the attention of their classmates. Luckily, their classmates have no peripheral vision and don't notice anything amiss.
Sakura is now at the tea party with Toya, who is playing the Mad Hatter. He offers her tea and it's really good. Sakura then realizes that Alice drank shrinking potion in the book so she better be careful about that. Too late - that is actually what she was drinking. So she shrinks and the wind blows her into the river.
She wakes up and placed gently on a daisy by a giant Li. When she is settled, she sees that there are two Lis, playing the roles of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Sakura asks if the two Lis know the way out. They ask if she truly wants to know; she does. They agree to tell her if she answers their questions correctly. The versions differ here:
Japanese version: The Lis ask her to identify the true statement. The one on the left says, "I like someone." The one on the right says, "I don't like anyone." Sakura has a flashback about Li getting all flustered about Yukito so she answers that the first statement is correct. She's right. The one on the right says, "The one I like is taller than me." The one on the left says, "The one I like is shorter than me." Flashing back to seeing Li walk by Yukito, Sakura answers that the first statement is correct. It's not. Sakura is shocked - Yukito is taller than Li! So it's not Yukito that he likes?
English version: The Lis ask her to identify which is the real Li. The one on the left says, "I've been trained in martial arts." The one on the right says, "No, I've been trained in martial arts." Sakura first guesses, "You!" She's wrong. "Both?" Still wrong. Sakura is perplexed - they both said they took martial arts so she doesn't get it.
In any case, the two Lis are gone. Sakura wonders how to find the exit and remarks that she can't when she's so small. Then she has an idea - change the Big Card to make her big again. She does so but it makes her too big. She notices a giant leaf floating in the sky.
So she changes the Little Card to shrink again. She ends up on a chessboard. She asks where she is and Tomoyo, playing Humpty Dumpty, tells her that she's on a chessboard. Sakura asks who Tomoyo is playing with.
It's Kero, who is not happy about being addressed as Kero and for having the game interrupted. Kero changes into Keroberos and he's playing the role of the Queen (the English versions clarifies that it's the Queen of Hearts). Keroberos chases Sakura around the chessboard.
As Sakura runs around, Eriol's face appears. Sakura asks for his help and points out that, in the book, the Cheshire Cat knew many things. Eriol explains that she has to leave the same way she came in. Finally, she realizes that she touched the leaf to get in so she has to touch the leaf in the sky to get out.
She gets out, much to Li and Tomoyo's relief. She's tired from changing two Cards but otherwise fine. Sakura is grateful for the leaf in her book. In the English version, at the last second, Sakura remarks that, hey, touching the leaf got her stuck in the book in the first place!
Ugh, guys. This episode is pretty bad too, which was a shame because I had seen clips of this episode before so I was looking forward to it.
I glanced at the descriptions of the remaining episodes on Crunchyroll and, oh man, I think I'm in for a LONG string of filler episodes until I get to the end. I cannot emphasize enough how short the original manga is - the entire series is 12 short volumes. How did they get 70 episodes and 2 movies out of 12 volumes?!
Since they have the same title, I don't need to decide which one I like better. Yay!
Okay, this is going to be a weird evaluation. On one hand, the Japanese episode is so slow. Literally half the episode is before Sakura enters the book. Nothing happens except some minimal character development. I was actually hoping that the English version would start cutting stuff because oh my God don't make me watch these stupid scenes again.
And they did cut some stuff. In fact, the English version just went, "Screw this beginning, let's make up our own beginning!" I was actually okay with this change (although I did have a moment of - uh, am I playing the right episode? Did they renumber them?) and it worked for me as a viewer. And you may notice that after Sakura enters the book, the episode is pretty much untouched (except Eli and Li's stuff - I'll get to that). I did find it ironic that, yet again, the Japanese version had multiple flashbacks while the English version focused on new content.
However, the English version is still pretty botched. I can tell that they're trying but they clearly didn't think things through or think the viewers are morons. Where to start?
1. I get it, English team. An episode about the kids reading always makes you freak out because the books are clearly Japanese. You had three options here:
A. Photoshop the Japanese out and put in English text.
B. Cut any long shots of the books so the viewer doesn't notice the Japanese text.
C. Completely ignore it by not having any of the characters mention languages and we will suspend our disbelief about the Japanese text.
All three options have been done before. All three options are viable options. The English team chose Option D: We give up and we can't decide so we're going to make it up as we go along.
So we get this really bizarre scene with Li and Eli reading Japanese books even though Sakura's book is clearly Japanese as well. There is zero attempt to photoshop Sakura's book and if they had the time to photoshop the leaf, they should have edited the text on Sakura's book cover.
But it gets worse. They then have Li state that he's studying an "ancient language". Japanese... an ancient language. WHAT?! Just, what?! I would have been fine - okay, not really because it's still dumb but more fine, I guess - if Li just wanted to challenge himself and wanted to read in another language but why explicitly state that Japanese is ancient?! Japan still exists and is spoken by, I don't know, the people who originally made this show for starters.
And then it gets worse. So apparently Eli knows Japanese too. Okay, Eriol knowing Japanese makes a lot of sense in the original version because the show is set in Japan. While the English version doesn't explicitly state where it's set (my head canon says it's in the Toronto area but they never state what country they're in), it's not Japan so it makes no sense for Eli to know Japanese. Unless the English version is changing the ending, it is just nonsensical for Eli to know Japanese.
Keep in mind that they kept the "ooo, it's mysterious why Eli knows Japanese" bit from the original. It's obvious in both versions that Eriol/Eli is little bit more involved with the Clow Cards than he lets on so Eriol knowing Japanese is important. Eli knowing Japanese because of "a long story" is head-scratching because they're not in Japan. There is zero reason for Eli to know Japanese in this context.
Fine, I get it - they couldn't get around the dictionary scene and Eli knowing English while Li struggles with it is not jaw-dropping (since Eli is from England). So, why couldn't Li be using a Chinese-English dictionary to read an English book and Eli is reading a book in Chinese without help? From the perspective of someone who knows the ending of the manga, Eli knowing Chinese would actually make way more sense in the long run. Or why not avoid the language thing altogether like they did last time - why couldn't Li be challenging himself to read a book way above his age level (like, I don't know, Sakura could point out that her brother is reading that book in his English class right now, ohmigod isn't that book hard for you, Li?) while Eli is breezing through a book that Sakura's dad said he read in college? And then they could have changed the exchange to focus on how super smart Eli is (throwing in some mysterious "how come this kid is this smart at his age?" stuff) and Li can get all pissy because Eli is better than him again.
Or, you know what would solve all of their problems? Have the kids be learning Japanese. There. All problems solved - they're reading books in Japanese because that's their assignment for Japanese class, not English class.
Which segues nicely into the changes in Wonderland. Most of the Wonderland stuff is untouched except Eli and Li's scenes.
3. I will admit that I felt cutting Eriol's discussion on how hard it is to not tell Sakura and Li how dumb they are was unnecessary. Eli is even more obvious than Eriol is so this would have really worked here. The editing choices are odd here too - Sakura's ugly shocked face is used for a moment that doesn't really warrant it. However, it redeemed itself a little bit with the "cat out of the bag" joke - I missed you, stupid puns (and it's a nice callback to Ruby and Spinner Sun's discussion about her "letting the cat out of the bag").
4. I have mixed feelings about the change to Li's questions, mostly bad feelings but some good. The English version has shied away from the "Li is totes crushing on Sakura ohmigoduguys" thing. Fine, so they can't use those questions. So why did Li get 1 stupid question? The test makes zero sense because I'm not sure how Sakura could have won. In the Japanese version, the audience knows why Sakura's second answer is wrong but it's logical why Sakura guessed wrong. In the English version, it's just unwinnable. Why couldn't they come up with a similar set of questions about what Li has been struggling with (the whole "is he actually helping Sakura or is he in the way?" thing)? Was their deadline on this episode that tight?
On the other hand, I took a look at the original Tweedledum and Tweedledee scene from Alice and The Looking Glass (they're not in Alice in Wonderland - neither is Humpty Dumpty for that matter. He's in the The Looking Glass too) - I had looked because I was curious if they ask Alice a similar set of questions too (They don't, fyi). That scene is so Lewis Carroll-y bizarre that the English version of the Li scene is actually more in the spirit of that scene than the Japanese version is. So maybe I'll give the English team some credit and admit that maybe because they couldn't use the original questions, they just went all-out Lewis Carroll with that scene and just made the test ridiculous instead.
Besides these episode-ruining changes, the rest of the English version is fine. I like the liberal cuts of the boring scenes with the teacher and the kids. I love the English cast's delivery (especially Kerberos' actor - the Japanese actor for Kerberos basically ruins the chess game scene, in my opinion) during the Wonderland part. I even liked the added scene with the dream sequence, that was kind of neat. It's just that the bad changes are just so bad that the good changes can't overcome them.
Only one plot hole and I'll admit it's a petty one: Seriously - none of the other children notice what Li and Tomoyo are doing in the library? They're not that far away and they're mostly quietly reading so it's not like they wouldn't hear them or see them!
So, both versions are pretty bad but they are bad in different ways. Because I honestly can't choose which one I actually liked, I judge these episodes to be...
Equal!
Episode 56