Customer Reviews

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Clow Vol. 1

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I must say that nothing beats the real thing when it comes to anime. If you've been watching horrifically edited and altered version of Card Captor Sakura that's broadcasted in the U.S. (even the title's edited to Cardcaptors), or if you're just looking for that next anime title to fill you're growing collection, the UN-altered, UN-edited, UN-Americanized version is something that you shouldn't pass up.

With this DVD American audiences and anime fans finally get to see the real program that so many in Japan fell in love with. All the humor and lightheartedness that the edited-Cardcaptors took out is back, including the small end segment "Leave It To Kero-chan!" And of course, Sakura's usual task of helping Kero-chan retrieve all of the missing Clow Cards is there for your enjoyment. The only real problem with this DVD is that it includes the, well I'll be kind, crappy Cardcaptors intro and song. But not to worry, it's safely stowed away in the EXTRAS section of the DVD, so if you want to watch the original intro, you'll see it everytime you start a new episode.

Why do I say that people watching Cardcaptors in the U.S. should get this DVD instead of the dubbed version (that's right! Only the subtitled version with the Japanese track is on this DVD! *smile*)? Because with the dubbed version you don't see the original work, the one that was so popular in Japan. What you see instead is a heavily edited and Americanized version that basically tries to take every element of Japanese society out of it. While this reigns true for nearly every dubbed anime title out there, Cardcaptors is by far one of the most prominent examples of this.

And why should you die-hard anime fans get it? Well, it's just a really good series that, while yes it is designed for kids, can appeal to nearly everyone if they just sit down and watch it.

By just watching the first four episodes contained on this DVD one can see just why this series was so successful in Japan and how enjoyable it actually is. And if you're already a fan of Cardcaptors? Hey, nothing beats the REAL thing.

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.

~

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.

I LUV this volume, even though Shoaron isnt in here, it will show you how it all started and Sakura even dating with her own crush!

Ep.1 Sakura and the Mysterious Magical Book
When Sakura comes home from school, she figures out that her brother and her Dad wont be home for a while. When she heard a weird sound in her basement, she looked down there and no one was there untill she found a book. She called out the "Windy" card and scatered all the 51 cards! Keroberoes tells her she needs to capture them all back to save the world from Chaos.
CARD USED: WINDY
CAPTURED: FLY

Ep.2 Sakura's Wonderful Friend
I really like this one about her best friend Tomoyo. Shes a great friend and you wished you had her as your friend!
When Sakura relizes that desks are piled up on each other for some strange reason and Kero calls it as being a Clow Card. One thing for sure, she cant do it alone until Tomoyo is with her! But can Sakura tell her about Cardcaptoring? All the clothes and styles that Sakuras and even Kero recieves. Everybodys shadows start to become stolen when it has to have a weakness. Light!
CARD USED: WINDY + FLY
CAPTURED: SHADOW

Ep.3 Sakuras Heart Racing First Date
O.M.G! It shows Yukito with Sakura going out on a date! Its so Kawaii! They go to the aquarium out on their date. Yukito even waited at the park earlier so he wont be late for their date! But, before they went on the date, some strange whirlpool was at the aquarium when Sakura went on the field trip with her classmates. Sakura needs to figure how she needs to stop it.
CARD USED: NONE (USED AN AQUARIUM FREEZER)
CAPTURED: WATERY

Ep.4 Sakuras Tiring Day
The title gives you an idea. Its because Sakura has to do the chores today when Touya and her Dad is out. Sorry Kero, you will have to help Sakura with it to. Some parts just make me laugh out loud. Sakura found two Clow Cards! But when the phone rang, she didnt have time to sign her name! Thats when things started to become a disaster.
CARD USED: WATERY
CAPTURED: RAIN + WOOD

IM TELLING YOU ITS NOT WASTE OF MONEY!! MAKE SURE YOU GET THE MOVIES AND OTHER VOLUMES!

Now here comes the REAL Card Captor Sakura. (Card Captors on WB is NOT the same series. And what I mean by that is lots of content was cut in the U.S. version. They also started on on Japanese episode 8, which was not a good idea. Good job Nelvana! Thanks for butchering it and making it "kid-friendly"!) These are the ORIGINAL Japanese episodes. Also regular opening and ending, with the nice little "Leave it to Kero" sketch, in which Kero describes the costume Sakura is wearing in that episode prior to it. The DVD contains few extras, but the four episodes in it make up for the extra shortcomings. If you want to know what the extras, buy the DVD! Find out for yourself. But once you buy it, anime fans and especially CCS fans shouldn't be disappointed. Briefly, for the uneducated, here's how the series starts out. Here we have a normal 10-year-old schoolgirl (aren't they all) who stumbles upon the Clow Book in her father's basement "library". She's innocently opens the book and takes out one of the cards, which was the Windy. She accidently activated it's powers and blew all the cards away, not realizing the damage she has done. Here, she meets Kerberos or "Kero-chan", who looks like a talking stuff animal. He's the supposed guardian beast of the seal. When he realizes the cards are gone, he then concludes that Sakura must recapture the cards and end the coming destruction. Well, is that good enough? Good. The animation is excellent and is done by am all-female group in CLAMP. The animation is done by Madhouse. But most importantly, they have the original personalities. (I can't believe Nelvana and WB changed some of the personalities, especially Tomoyo! (Madison). You'll see what I'm talking about. So anyway, happy viewing!

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)

If you are familiar with the American version of this series... forget everything you know! This is the real story. The episdoes on this video take place BEFORE the episode "One" of the English version. You will find out in detail the events which led up to Sakura's fateful meeting with Kero-chan, her first battles, her real feelins for her brother's best friend. No cuts, no edits, nothing censored (including Lee's true feelings for Sakura's Brother's best friend ^_^).

Unlike the American version, this series aimed at young girls (shoujo). Not to say that boy's can't enjoy it too... (I know lost of "Old" (18-25yrs) guys who adore the series. The humor and writing will appeal to adults and kids alike. However, it is a must have for it's target market with it's strong themes of friendship, love, and strength.

Wonderful artwork, voice acting, scripting, plus the over all plot which warms your heart, (not to mention the spunky flying teddy bear /w an attitude) Card Captor Sakura is THE BEST Anime's to cross over to the states in along time ^_^.

Cardcaptor Sakura is a great show and manga. I own Mixx vol.1 of the manga and watch the dub on tv. The dub is very disappointing. There's all this episode skipping just so Li can be the main character. And in all the commercials his name is mentioned first. I will definitely be buying this movie(if my allowance can ever recover from my sister's present and pre-ordering Pokemon silver!). This story has a great plot and is fun for kids and teens alike. It is about a girl named Sakura who opens a book of magical cards with incredible powers(These are nothing like Tarot cards. This show is very kid friendly.)All the cards escape from the book, the Clow. A cute animal comes out of the cover. His name is Kero and he tells Sakura that she has to find the Clow Cards and save the world. So Sakura is appointed Cardcaptor and with Li, Meilin, and Madison(Tomoyo in the manga and Jap. version)to find the cards. I totally recommend this movie to any one who likes Magic Knight Rayearth and Sailor Moon.

Hmm...where do I start? For those of you who don't know, Cardcaptor Sakura is the TV series based on the CLAMP manga series of the same name. The skeleton of the story is that of a 10-year old girl who finds a mysterious book of card called the Clow (pronounced like "Clover," not like "Cow" as they do in the god-awful American "Cardcaptors" version). These cards are much like real people in the sense that they have personalities and desires. After escaping, a small little creature called Keroberos (not Cerberus, as some people think) tells her that she must become the one-and-only Cardcaptor Sakura to capture them before they mess up the world beyond repair. After capturing them, they become Sakura Cards.
Along the way, Sakura accepts help from her slightly insane friend, Tomoyo (NOT MADISON!). That's right. Insane.
She also has an innocent crush on her brother's "friend," Yukito (not Julian Star.) Well, let's just say that Yukito doesn't decide to reciprocate romantically
Sound like another ditzy shoujo anime? Yes, we'd all like to think that. Below Cardcaptor Sakura's fluffy, girly exterior is an incredibly deep and understated series. Seriously, CLAMP has redifined the word "subtlety." Although the serious complexities are not shown particularly much during the first 4 episodes, this is a very good DVD and you should definitely get it, unless you saw some ... "Cardcaptors" commercial and think that it is an action cartoon.
Well, that is it. What a breathtakingly incredible series this is, so you should really get it (trust me, things really pick up by even the next DVD). Cardcaptor Sakura: Buy me! Buy me!

PS: Whatever you do, do not confuse Cardcaptor Sakura with Cardcaptors. The latter really is a pathetic dub in which all of the relationships are twisted into different things. Sakura is the ONLY Cardcaptor (sorry, I am quite jaded when it comes to dubbed anything).

When the CCS dub came out and I turned on the T.V. to watch it, I thought I would end up in the emergency room choking on cereal. With Card Captor Sakura being my first true Anime and my favorite, and that is quite a statement from any Anime Otaku (Otaku meaning obsessed fan) I must come to its rescue. They destroyed the almost everything in the dub version except for the animation, which they thankfully could not touch except for editing. I won't go into details, you can learn for yourself.

Card Captor Sakura is a beautiful story while it may seem childish or girlish or just corny-it is far from it. With a beautiful storyline and wonderful characters it opens to a story full of friendship, adventure, mystery, humor, and even a dabbling of romance. It actually can get quite serious and I personally cried a few times. It is well worth watching and worth your money. I'm buying it myself. I already own all the manga (Japanese comics). Just repeat:

Buy Sub! No Dub!

Buy Sub! No Dub!

Enjoy! ^o^