hey... when i said in my Glasslip ramble that i don't like being negative... i prefer to be critical.... yeah that was a preamble to this.
This was difficult
...
I wanted to stop so many times...
This is easily one of the worst dubs i've sat through.
and i'm including the heavily edited shows from my childhood.
The old dub with it's screwy order and cut to ribbons edit was so much better then this... even with it's late 90s music... it was better acted, better directed and more importantly it made more sense.
This dub is TERRIBLE.
shame on you animax... which is the place i see people credit this dub to the most.
but there must be reasons why it's bad... so i'm going to list them... and then i'll talk about the show itself.
1) The Dub changes a lot of plot crucial stuff.
Now i already ranted on this back when i was still just starting but more happened... so quick sum up.
According to episode one Tomoyo has a father... she doesn't have one in the original anime or manga... thats kinda the point... they do retcon this a few episodes later with the line "tomoyo never mentions her father" and i guess the transltors are just hoping you don't remember that incident in episode one.
Apparently you can just use magic by asking nicely...
this is changed a few times in the series.... they do eventually change it to almost a direct translation of the original incantation which made me happy......
until the incantation changes in season two... this time they use "my star" versus "the star" which i just felt sounded wrong but was happy to let slide... it was eventually changed to be "the star" but honestly i'm not so petty.
2) the only characters who keep the same voice actors are Sakura, Li, Yukito, Kero, Meiling Sakura's father (maybe) and Eriol.
The first season is worse for this then the end chunk but some characters change voice actors from episode to episode.... this is extremely distracting since you will hear someone talk and it'll be that moment of "wait... isn't that?"
I swear there are only 5 female voice actors and 4-5 male voice actors in the entire cast.... again super distracting when you hear Sakura's father also play the teacher and sometimes Clow and sometimes another older male...
When i first tried to figure out who NISA was using for the dub (at the time i didn't realise it wasn't them dubbing it) i found it odd that i couldn't for the life of me find a cast list.... and the only actress i did find was the one who played Rue in Princess Tutu... and that gave m high hopes cause she kicked ass in Princess Tutu.
but now i get it... theres no cast list cause the cast changes CONSTANTLY
3) The translation is extremely poor
I don't know why the translation is so stilted but there is constant repeating things over and over in order to fill out lip flaps... thats fine or it would be if they weren't cuttin out chracter crucial dialogue in the same stroke... it's like this dub is half uncut and half cencored... it doesn't know what it wants to be.
4) one of the directors doesn't know how to pronounce Yue.
Now.... while i know a few languages... chinese isn't one of them... so i looked it up and every sorce i saw said that Yue should be pronounced either "Yu-eh" or "yu-yeh"
however it should not be pronounced like "you" or "yew"
espcially considering that in english hearing "You" makes us stop and think "are they saying you as in the other person or yue as in the character.
and the worst part is... in the forshadowing episodes before Light and Dark they pronounce it correctly.... someone obviously had the reigns for that one episode and it stuck...
but considering the line is "yue will be the final judge" but it's sounds like "YOU will be the final judge" the whole thing falls apart.
5) Censorship.
This is going to sound lame... cause it is... but i have litterally written Essays about the themes of this show. To sum up this show is about Love in all it's forms.
There are openly gay characters, characters questioning their sexuality, characters who have unrequited love, characters who love each other despite a rather large age gap....
the list goes on
these are all very important to the overarching theme of the entire series.
The most important showing of this is with the fact that Li and sakura both have crushes on Yukito.
This dub didn't record any of the lines regarding the fact that Li is confused by the fact that he likes a guy even though it is one of the most crucial plot points of the show. he has to look inward and determine what am i really attracted to and who is actually the one i like... it's the entire bases for his character arc in season 2.... but no we can't have the main love interest potentially be gay for some reason... i was really annoyed that these lines were pulled out since it messes with the authors intent (which i have learned recently is a quick way to piss me right off)
as a side note, tomoyo never overtly mentions in any way her feelings for sakura.... sonomi never is accused of liking her cousin too much... same with chiharu and yamazaki....
they do keep one of the gay couples... probably because they couldn't get away with it without actually taking out part of the show...
6) Expectations were too high.
Just before this i got the Toradora dub.... which is easily the best dub i have ever listened to... the casting is perfection and the translation is spot on.... i was expecting the same quality from this....
BOY was that a mistake.
I will say the acting for the most part is fine..... but everything else just seems to have been so shoddily put together.
i'm going to say it's inexperience... although looking they have done a mishmash of old titles so maybe thats not the case.
still wow was i disappointed.
doesn't help that the main reason i bought this was for the new dub... i have a boxset of cardcaptors sakura already... the picture wasn;t the best and i know they left some stuff out but geneon did a lovely job of the packaging.
is there anything good about this?
Yes... the bluray disks are lovely clear and the japanese with subtitles version is not only perfectly done but also contains some stuff that my old Geneon box sets didn't have (variation of first intro and end of the season farewell)
it's nice having 8 episodes a disk instead of the 4-5 of the geneon set.
it was good to hear a new dub (even one as terrible as this) since most companies have been putting out sub only fare (which is fine but i actually dont mind dubs for the most part)
oh there has to be something else.... uh....
um... it's a good reminder that this show jsut works better in japanese.... since it makes sense why she would have a hard time reading the english on the card.
uh...
um....
pretty box? i dunno... i don't begrudge buying this... i still love NISA's work and i seriously hope they continue to dub things... i just want THEM to do it... not animax.
*looks at the top*
I said i'd talk about the show... okay...
Sakura is a girl who comes across a magic book and accidently lets the magic out... this could potentially bring about a great tragedy so she is tasked with finding all the cards that hold the magic and making sure everything is good.... but the show is actually about different types of love and how thins like age and experience can change perception of it but never saying a for of love isn't valid.
also season 2 (i know it's really the 3rd season but i dont care it's the biggest change from one arc to the other) is a million times better then season 1 since it focuses a bit less on the cards and more on the characters... but thats just my opinion.
Also fun fact, the first volume of the second half of the manga (aka cardcaptors sakura masters of the clow) was the second volume of manga i ever owned (got it at 13).... (the first manga i got was a french volume of sailor moon i got from my grandmother when i was 7 or 8.... i wasn't joking in the Blue Spring Ride ramble that i am capable of reading the french version just fine)
So yeah if you don't own the geneon box set then this is a great alternative... i suggest the bluray cause the picture quality is superb...
but do not expect anything from the dub....
watch the dub if you don't trust me. (first 6 episodes are on crunchyroll for free)
i hope whatever else NISA puts out as dubbed it closer to Toradora! quality then this. (another show you can check out on crunchy though again only the first 6 episodes are free)
it felt really good to get this out of my system.... i'm sorry for anyone who took the time to read my deranged rambling over a show from my childhood that i am just a tiny bit too passionate about.
ok back to watching tegami bachi... even though the siren's call of Natsume yuujinchou is strong...
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