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Cardcaptor Sakura - The Clow (Vol. 1)

Cardcaptor Sakura - The Clow (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Few extras, but who needs 'em with 4 eps per DVD?
Review: I found the dub "Cardcaptors" on Kids' WB and started watching it just out of curiosity - imagine my surprise to find that this cute show was also thought-provoking, mature beyond its appearance, and just GREAT! Even so, right away I could tell we weren't getting the whole story - they introduced Sakura & Li right away and talked about the Cards, but didn't even bother to give us the back story?! I kept waiting for it, but it never came...

...and then I found the series on DVD - the original, UNCUT version! Finally, I could find out what I'd been missing! "But I have to watch it in Japanese?!?!" I rebelled. Last month I finally broke down and got Vol. 1 to try out (same purchase, I started collecting the bilingual "Escaflowne" discs - HIGHLY recommended); it took some getting used to, but now I'm loving it! Nothing is cut, I'm getting the whole story, the show is even better, and I may even be learning some Japanese. ;-D I even now *prefer* the Japanese voices of Yukito & Toya, who I originally got to know as Julian & Tori, even though I don't understand them without the subtitles. LOL

I wouldn't say the dub "totally ruined" the show, but yeah, it is a BIG difference - take "Sakura's Heart-Racing First Date" (originally Ep. 3, called "Allies" in the US): because the dub eps are being shown totally out of order so they can *try* to focus on Li, they totally rewrote this episode! Not so bad in and of itself, but in the process they completely cut every scene having to do with Sakura's totally cute and realistic (as in, "every ten-year-old has one") crush on Yukito (Julian), her brother Toya's (Tori) best friend! After I'd seen the sub version 2 or 3 times, WB reran that ep on Saturday morning, and it was down right painful to watch, knowing what they'd changed.

I still watch the show Saturday mornings on WB, but now there's always a nagging thought in my mind - "I wonder what I'm missing? What will be different when I see this on DVD? How will it be better?" - I still enjoy the dub, but the anticipation for the sub may drive me nuts. ;-)

Oh yeah, and this is coming from a 22-year-old, so the show is definitely enjoyable across many ages. It's so refreshing to see a strong, intelligent, not-so-whiny female lead, even a 10-year-old.

Don't be like I was and let the language barrier hold you back - get the sub! You will not regret it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not just for kids, obviously
Review: If you wanted to write a thesis on the way anime has been creatively butchered for English-speaking audiences, you would have a hard time finding an unhappier example than the violence done to "Cardcaptor Sakura." Such an overview would probably also provide broad hints about the culture divergences between the USA and Japan -- or what people percieve to be the same. The American edition of the series is an absolute mess: whole episodes were dropped from the continuity, re-edited, or re-written with total disregard for cohesion or characterization.

What a pleasure it is, then, to see "CCS" uncut and undamaged by censorial sticky-fingers. The entire series is being issued as it was originally meant to be seen -- in Japanese, with subtitles, and with no meddlesome comstockery -- on DVD at last. And if the only exposure you've had to it is the WB TV version, seeing this will be a little like finding the missing reel of "The Magnificent Ambersons." It's a night-and-day difference.

"CCS" is aimed at a preteen audience; its heroine, Sakura Kinomoto, is ten years old, a competent but dreamy young girl who idolizes her older brother's best friend and is the target of a somewhat discomfiting crush by a (female) classmate, Tomoya. In the very first episode, she accidentally unleashes a set of "Clow Cards" -- something like a quasi-sentient Tarot deck -- upon the world, and is charged with the responsibility of finding them and rounding them up. Hence the name. The delegator of this duty is Kero (short for Keroberosu), a little lion-like creature who can pass for one of the stuffed animals in her collection when no one's looking too hard.

The cards are an insidious bunch, popping up at the oddest moments and creating trouble when no one expects it. As Sakura snags each one and disables it, she adds its power to her own, and in doing so grows more and more capable of defeating future cards. From this premise the story spins out a whole slew of subplots and interrelated stories about the responsibility of power, without ramming the message down anyone's gullet.

Sakura herself tries to take all of this at face value. Of course this is outlandish stuff; of course no one's going to believe her. Well, except for her friend Tomoya, who seems only too happy to have the crush on her friend confirmed -- she was right, there WAS something special about her! In fact, one of the show's funniest recurring themes is how Tomoya not only believes in all of this Clow Card stuff, but winds up becoming Sakura's self-appointed costumer, documentarian, and publicity agent. (This leads to one of the funniest gags in the whole series, involving a van that contains a wardrobe that is the envy of Kiss and more shoes than Imelda Marcos ever dreamed of.)

The show is a masterpiece of tone and design. Like the comic before it, there's never a moment that isn't gorgeous to look at. Even the male characters are pretty (as befitting a story from a team of female creators), and the animation is done with care and effort. This wasn't slapped together; you can sense real joy in a lot of the work done here. It also manages to be thrilling without going over the line into senseless violence. Every problem presented to Sakura in the form of the cards has a logical solution.

The story's derived from a manga by CLAMP, a mafia of female Japanese illustrators and writers who have achieved superstardom in their own country. Their other words -- "X"," Tokyo Babylon," "Clover," "Rayearth" and so on -- have also been translated into English. But "CCS" is easily one of their biggest hits, appealing to both young children and more mature audiences as well. I get letters from adults who discover the uncut "CCS", find themselves watching it with their kids and end up enjoying it immensely. Many of them seem to think that anime is all like "DragonBall Z." Shows like this are proof it isn't -- not by a long shot.

"CCS" contains many elements that parents would blanch at in theory: homosexuality, for one, which is absoutely verboten in any show aimed specifically at children in the States. But the way it's handled is, in its own way, convincing and three-dimensional. The story takes a child's-eye view of those things, and comes away not with judgments and condemnations but thoughtful observations. Nothing is depicted explicitly, of course; it's about things which are seen as simply being a shade warmer than good friendship and a pre-adolescent crush.

I am reminded, interestingly, of stories like Ludwig Bemelmans's "Madeline" -- full of adventure and charm, and more than a little art. "CCS" could very well be the "Madeline" for the 21st century.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jennifer
Review: I think this movie is the best movie I ever saw. I like this movie a lot and Its like Sailor moon.And I like sailor Moon a lot.I think its cool that a ten year girl could trap all of these monster with this wand. It is a little scary sometimes,but at the end everything turns out okay.And this strang little thing helps her on her Quest to capture all of the cards.She also has friends.This movie is great.I think girls would like a lot better than boys.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing Video!
Review: I've just relized that they changed alot of things in CC. They changed the dialouge into a dorkier way, when Sakura releases her key or card it always ryhmes and sounds stupid, in the end of season 2, Li just said that he goes back to Hong Kong and Li doesn't even give the teddy bear to Sakura! The love is cut out and etc. Perfer getting CCS.

This story is about an energetic, 10 year old girl named Sakura Kinomoto who is great in baton class and is great in cheerleading. Sakura comes home and heard a noice in her Dad's libary downstairs in the basement. She found a book full with mysterious and wonderous cards. She picked up the first card called the Windy and said it in a clear voice as the cards scatter! Ceroberos or Kero told she has to capture them back with a Key called the key of Clow. Despite her getting into this, Sakura Kinomoto is now the Cardcaptor!

These are one of the best animes that I've seen. If Nelvana just kept everything just like Cardcaptor Sakura, made a way better opening song, and gave better actors, I would of probably liked it and buy both Cardcaptors and Cardcaptor Sakura.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally! The actual title to the anime .
Review: This dvd is only in Japanese language with English subtitled and uncut as seen on Japanese TV. Orignal opening music "Catch you, catch me" and many great music in Japanese for this anime. For those of you who have not seen it, it is about a girl named Sakura who was curious about book titled "THE CLOW" (it was glowing) in her basement. She opened it, took out a card, say the word "windy", and blew all of the cards out that was in the book. She also woke up the guardian beast named Kerberos that was suppose to guard the cards. I can't spoil the rest of the story. I highly recommend this edition. Kudos to Pioneer for a job well done in releasing this original title. For those of you don't like to watch it in subtitle, you can find the dub version in English titled "Cardcaptor". It is cut and edited for U.S. audience as seen on WB TV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great story of growth, love, friendship and sympathy
Review: All my family (especially 7-year-old girl) is fan of Cardcaptor Sakura and we have all original Japanese comic series and DVD series.

Of course I love both comic and video versions, I prefer video better, since the plot is well reorganized and scenes are vividly beautiful.

For example, forseeing dreams of final contest appears many times. Even before Sakura meets Cerberus, she met him in the forseeing dream.

Plots are slightly different between comics and video versions. In Video version, it has new character, Mei Ling, Lee's "fiancée" from Hong Kong, who adds extra entertainment to the plots.

CLAMP is a Japanese manga artist group (consists of four lady artists) well known by their work, "Magic Knight Rayearth."

One thing it differs from Sailor Moon is that Sakura always tries to solve the situations by herself. Sakura's never-give-up and do-my-best spirits always affect those friends who support her.

This is the story of growth of a girl, and the main theme is love and sympathy. Some episodes made me deeply think about love and friendship deeply.

(This review is based on original Japanese versions)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sugary cute series full of fun!
Review: (I'm actually 13 but I couldn't get the other form working)

Cardcaptor Sakura is a pretty good series based on the manga by CLAMP. It's very sugary sweet but deals with matters like friendship and courage, so people of all ages can love it. I think it's off the air now, but Nelvana dubbed CCS and turned it into a horribly edited diaster called "Cardcaptors". Do not judge CCS on that trash! CCS is much better! I have no idea why Nelvana wanted to turn Cardcaptor Sakura, of all series, into a show targeted to boys! CCS is about as shoujo-y (girls) you can get! *ahem* But that's for a different time and place...

Cardcaptor Sakura is well worth buying and is one of the few anime that will have you grinning the whole way through. :) Pioneer did a very good job with the DVDs.

Now for the down side, the only reasons why I rated it four stars. The characters are cute, but a little too cute for me at times. Especially Sakura; she's like a perfect little drone. o.O Tomoyo is so perfect too; it's scary. (But I guess if they acted like REAL ten year olds, we'd have a show full of spoiled brats.) Also, the plot gets just a tiny bit stale for a while. Sakura always has to catch the cards and she always wins. However, characters like Touya, Syaoran, Meiling, Yamazaki(his lies are hilarious XD) and Kero, and the funny situations keep it fresh. The only characters who I think are really stupid are Rika, Naoko, and Chiharu. Blehh.... they are so uninteresting and just babble about Sakura all the time.

The art and character designs are absolutely gorgeous. Sakura has the best costumes in any anime I've ever seen. (Let's thank CLAMP for that ;) ) The artwork is better in the manga, though, but the anime's is pretty nice too. Overall, I think the manga is better than the anime by far, mostly because you don't see Sakura capture *EVERY* *STINKIN'* *CARD*!! The characters in the manga were gorgeous (although I prefer Mokona Apapa's style).

This series is one not to miss, but the manga is better. Even then, it's my least favorite CLAMP manga I've read so far. (That says alot about how much I like the group, hehe) Oh, and for the record... MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH WILL ONE DAY RULE ALL! BUWAHAHA! .... Ohh... sorry. ^^;;; So get CCS and you will not regret it! :D

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Cutest Series I have ever seen!
Review: Except for Hime-chan's Ribbon, which isn't licensed in America. ^^;

Card Captor Sakura is a very, very, very cute anime, that actually is rather intellegent as well. The original version, that is. CLAMP spins a tale of adventure and friendship that is uncomparable.

As for the US version...

I have seen ten minutes of the cut dub on the Kid's WB while eating breakfast, and I lost my appetite. Seriously. There is one decent voice actor in the bunch;

(Brian Drummond always rocks! Although I like the new Vegeta better. ^^)

Rather pointless name changes run rampant. Probably the two main examples would be Li Shaoran, (Which I have also seen spelled Syaoran) which I believe was changed to Lee Showran, or some similar mockery. And Rika, who was changed to Rita. Come on.

They started at episode eight and bounced around from there. Enough said.

They mangled Touya's, Yukito's and Li-kun's naaaames!

::get booted by Amazon security::

Sankyuu for reading! Hope this convinces you to watch both versions, and compare the two at the very least! ^_~

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Any Anime Fan Ought to try at least One Volume
Review: Before anything else, a word on the content of the disc: "Cardcaptor Sakura" is a subject of much passion among anime fans, because of the existance of "Cardcaptors". I will refrain from trying to assess and pass judgement on that series here (there are others who do, both in these reviews and on websites, neither of which are hard to find if you want opinions); suffice to say that although CardCaptors is derived from Cardcaptor Sakura, it is not the same program. This disc ("The Clow") is presented completely uncut and unedited, with only the Japanese language track and optional English subtitles. (Hint: the subtitles are hidden under the Extras menu, and are turned off by default.)

Now, the review proper. I like Mr. Solomon's characterization of the series as "sweet but never sacchrine", for this is really the heart of the matter. Many anime fans who consider themselves "mature" (or for that matter, if they are male) may be turned off by the focus on elaborate costumes, the relentlessly pink cover, and the fact that most of the cast in this series consists of ten-year-old girls.

But, speaking as both a male and someone who watches "mature" anime (Cowboy BeBop, Evangelion, Haibane Renmei come to mind), I implore people who might think these things to stop and reconsider. Despite an outward appearance that may be called "childish", "Sakura" in fact contains a strong and interesting story with strong and interesting characters. Sakura herself manages to be an engaging heroine, while still seeming realstic in her tussles with her own day-to-day affairs.

Now, granted, in the world of "Sakura", no plot line (especially on this first disc) ever goes completely beyond the ability of the characters to ensure a happy ending. But at the same time, the anime (the scripts for which were supervised by Ookawa Nanase, the writer of the original manga series) never fails to create tension and suspense even as you're assuring yourself that this show would not let anything truly terrible happen to its inhabitants.

There's even reason for those who have faithfully read the "Cardcaptor Sakura" manga to check out this anime--although the basic plot is the same, the actual execution is quite different in both forms. Cards Sakura catches in the manga appear in different orders and are conquered in different ways, and the anime also involves a number of Cards that don't appear in the manga at all.

The animation is crisp and bright, and the voice actors do an excellent job all around. But above all, it's next to impossible to watch this series and not feel good. The energy and upbeat personality of the series comes through everywhere, and is thoroughly infectious. Not the simple or even shallow show it may seem at first, Sakura can be enjoyed by anyone of any age, and all fans of anime (and of fun cartoons and good storytelling, for that matter) owe it to themselves to give this series a chance.

~

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: OVERVIEW OF CCS AND CC
Review: This is about Sakura Kinomoto, a girl who released a book of cards and have to capture all of the 52 cards back before they spread disaster! Tomoyo, (Sakura's best friend) gives her outfits that are beautiful, detailed and can stand out with her capturing the cards! (This anime is I think is one of the best I've seen yet)

CCS and CC: Cardcaptors made cut scenes one after another and leave all the cute parts out, even the important parts that fits in the story. It only showed once of Sakura blushing around Julian. (Why put it on there when you never showed how it all happaned in the 1st place?) CC had this horrible music that makes you want to turn it off, the theme song that went "The secrets of the Clow, were all a mystery, but when this mighty book was opened, the powers were sent free..." Getting boring already huh? There names are all changed into american like, buts its O.K. I guess.
CCS is in Japanese but it has subtitles for you to read. New adventures and more excitment brought in, despite the thought that Sakura is kind of like you guys, on a regular bases in life, hanging out with friends, going to school, party! Lol. Opening theme is so kawaii! "Catch You Catch Me" is relaxing and catchy song. If you buy a CC and CCS tape and compare them, you will see the things that have been changed or instead wasting your money on the CC tape, go to a website that shows a comparison of CC and CCS. Did you know that CC has 11 tapes and CCS has 22! Thats 11/22!

Example sites is www.ccsvscc.com or www.kawaiisakurashrine.com or go search on the toolbar for more info.


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