CLAMP's Famous Works > Cardcaptor Sakura
A Great Article About the Worst Travesty in Anime
Adarian:
Sorry if this was already posted before here, but here's a good article written recently that pretty much sums up what you guys have been saying about CCS's terrible dub and how Nelvana completely ruined a golden opportunity to make the best work of arguably the world's best manga team, CLAMP, famous in America.
As summed up by the article, Nelvana''s intentions were clear:
--- Quote ---So why would someone take a perfectly good anime with decent character depth and some very adorable relationships and turn it into a childish card hunt? The answer is money. Nelvana (the company responsible for “Cardcaptors”) wanted something to compete with Pokemon. I’m sure they envisioned Cardcaptors happy meals and lunch boxes.
After all, with a set of 52 cards that turned into creatures, they could tap into the “Gotta catch’em all!” mentality of Pokemon. And hey! Nelvana could trade pokeballs for divination boards and make Syaoran (Li) the next Ash. A few things stood in their way, but by deleting scenes and splicing episodes together, they erased most of what they didn’t like.
--- End quote ---
Although, I regret that Cardcaptors obviously was a terrible failure on US television because it means that CCS will probably never become big in America, I think it's justice that it did fail when you think about the intentions that Nelvana had with it. The virtuous morals, memorable scenes of emotion, the warm relationships that really made the whole series magical, and most of all, the characters of extraordinary depth were all completely and explicitly abandoned in one of the worst travesties in dubbing history. I mean it's a bad sign when the original Japanese language version's DVD's sales blow the dubbed version's out of the water in America, one of the most inflexible countries in the world when it comes to foreign languages. Anyway, gomen for the rant, but I just hate the way the best anime series and also foreign films are given terrible dubs (Escaflowne, CCS, Taegukgi) and consequently end up getting cancelled while American dubbing companies spend alot to dub series that will just end up giving anime a bad name in America like Dragonball Z for example. But I also have noticed the overall quality of the dubbing on the newer anime series is going up, so maybe America is finally learning how to dub the right way now.
moezychan:
I couldn't view the link, why I don't know, but I read your post, and it is a very well written and thought out post. I gave you a cookie for it.
Moon:
When I read the post, I agree with the quote and everything you said along with it. So I also gave you a cookie too. :sweatdrop:
Cardcaptor Takato:
While money played a big factor in the dubbing of CC, I also think the time CC was released played a factor, too. CC was released during a time where cartoons, especially Saturday morning action cartoons, were still seen as something that's watched mostly by boys. Nelvana believed that CCS would get better ratings if they aimed the series at boys more than girls, so they had to cut out all the "girly" parts of the show to focus more on the action. But I believe with shows like Winx Club, Mew Mew Power, and Doremi airing on Saturday mornings now, America is finally starting to catch on to the fact that girls like action cartoons, too. If CC were dubbed today, the show probably would have gotten a slightly better dub with more of the shoujo stuff left in, but we probably would have ended up with 4Kids dubbing CC and then we would have never gotten an official subbed release, which to me is what's most important.
Anyway, I think CC was something like a sacrifice to get where we are today with the view that girls like action cartoons, too. Because CC was so screwed up, more people started becoming interested in CCS than before. Even with the availablity of fansubs, CCS wasn't really as popular as it is today before CC came along when you stop and think about it. I mean, before CC was dubbed, I didn't even know what CCS was. But because CC was screwed up, I think it made people more curious about the Japanese version and I think it created an awareness to the general public that there's more interest in girls' action cartoons than what they think. So in a way, Nelvana's plan to make CCS more popular among boys did sort of work, but probably not in the way they imagined it would. After all, I'm a guy and I like CCS, but I found out about it through CC. Which makes me wonder just how many guys out there like CCS in comparision to the girls....
moezychan:
--- Quote from: Cardcaptor Takato on October 23 2005, 12:24 am ---Because CC was so screwed up, more people started becoming interested in CCS than before. Even with the availablity of fansubs, CCS wasn't really as popular as it is today before CC came along when you stop and think about it. I mean, before CC was dubbed, I didn't even know what CCS was.
--- End quote ---
I agree with this statement because I never would have ended up watching anime if they didn't dub it the way it is. I honestly liked the dub, and it didn't bother me that scenes were cut until the next to the last episode when they cut out Syaoran's love confession. I read transcripts on the internet up to this part and finding out that he would tell her, gave me the idea that it would be the same as the American version. I had no problem otherwise. And besides, it's the fact that they dubbed it in the way they did that got me interested in anime.
Very good analysis Cardcaptor Takato. You also get a cookie for a very well indepth post.
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