Belch's Brief Reviews--Aug 4, 2001

[DR. BELCH]

CRDCPTRS--"Past Present and Future"
More or less a cheater cartoon, with flashbacks to a lot of previous episodes. Keroberos and Yue disagree on whether Sakura is ready for her next evolution. Yue insists she's too young, makes mistakes frequently, and relies too much on her friends; Kero believes that age is irrelevant, that she learns from her errors, and knowing how to select allies is her greatest strength.
Is it my imagination or does Li's voice sound redubbed in the flashbacks to sound younger and higher (and a bit on the feminine side)?
The ending shows Kero and Sakura in her room, with fast cuts to a butterfly-like figure outside moving at top speed--presumably whatever new danger she has to face.
Also, Julian's voracious appetite (four servings at dinner) is referenced to, although it's also stated that Yue doesn't eat. Presumably Julian needs to take in nutrients to fortify himself during his "blackout" states in which the guardian takes over.
Loved the bit where Sakura wishes there was a Clow card for doing schoolwork. Don't we all.

I missed part of the second Cardcaptors, so I had some trouble following the action...but it seems Eriol has made his debut. Rocky compares him to Mxylzptlk, but he seems a bit more malicious than that, almost like Ken in his Digimon Emporer days; at one point he attempts to drown the heros in columns of water. It's a test of Sakura's mettle, and she performs admirably, but if she had faltered would he have let up? I'm not quite sure what his angle here is, but if he's more powerful than both the guardians and his intent is malicious, Sakura might not survive his "games".
Sakura learns her staff isn't working because it now gets its power from her own star rather than Clow Reed's magic...which means she has to use new magic words (that she either makes up on the spot or magically seems to know by some divine intervention, like Sailor Moon does in her every incarnation) and that the cards also have to evolve. So every time she uses one, it changes and becomes stronger. Unfortunately it also takes a lot out of her to do this; her new power seems almost an act of autocannibalism. She collapses shortly after using her new talents. Which leads me to wonder if she'll be able to survive her own evolution, or whether she'll be a walking skeleton by the end of the next few episodes. Maybe she should take a hint from Julian and carbo-load before taking on Eriol again.
Oh, and what's up with the dame who hugged up on Tori and asks Julian if he recognizes her before she runs off giggling? She has some connection with Eriol, that much I get--were she and Yue lovers in a past life or something?

RH:GRT: Trapped Below the Sea/Houston, We Have A Problem
A submarine crashes into the hull of an ocean liner and necessitates a rescue and evacuation; also, something about a nine dot/four line brainteaser (I've seen variations that can do it in three and, if the line is allowed to curve, just one). Then, a space jockey dispatcher with a cute monkey sidekick learns to be careful what he asks for when he decides he wants a little more field action after a satellite gets knocked out of orbit and threatens to crash down in North America, causing damage to an 800-mile radus.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

The requisite LLJojo Cardcaptor whining and notes:

The first episode didn't exist in the original. This was a wholly American creation by splicing footage from various episodes new and old. In theory, it would have been a nice bridge between seasons 1 and 2. However...

Things got really bad in the second episode. No flashbacks but the American version was THREE episodes of CCS spliced together. The new plot was barely coherent, Li's red-faced jealousy towards Eriole's advances (Now called Eli) were chopped out, Li's blushing around Sakura are gone, Eli sits beside Li instead of Sakura now, Madison's comments on the new Eli-Li-Sakura love triangle are gone, and I have no idea what the WB are doing with the new girl, who I didn't catch the dub name of. Three action scenes robbed from various Cardcaptor Sakura episodes (47, 48, and 50, respectively).

How the WB will explain the Li-Sakura-Eriol focus in the future remains to be seen. It probably doesn't matter to them. As long as they can stick three or four action scenes in an episode, they're happy.

And yes, this is all the WB's fault, not Nelvana's. Canada, UK, and Australia all have much less edited CC dub episodes by Nelvana, a better OP song, and they are aired in order.

Thumbs down, way down. I watch this show because the dub sometimes entertains, but I haven't seen mumbo-jumbo editing the likes of these since the 80s with Macron 1. Easily one of the worst anime edit jobs ever...and it doesn't even try to make sense in this new version.

Oh, and there must be a card that can help her do homework. Do the Mirror card and let her do the work. Or use the Big card and dress up like a monster and stomp on the school. Or use one of her elemental cards and get the city snowed in.

Sakura is actually like a God, if it weren't for the fact that the new cards sap her energy.

[Lachesis]

Mind if I join you?

Ugh. Eli Moon. They just gotta mess with everybody, don't they? I couldn't believe how fast they the pace was. The entire first episode was condensed to five minutes!

Yue gets his power from the moon. ::grumble:: I wonder how they're going to explain away THAT one.

::bangs head repeatedly against keyboard::

The new spell translations were decent. No quibbles on the voices for Eriol, Spinel, or Ruby. Wait, that's Eli, Spinner, and. . .well, I guess it's still Ruby. I never could remember her other name. She did feel curiously dropped in, but that WAS her intro scene. It was probably just cut short or had the dialogue changed.

>>Larry

Clow used the Bubble Card for his laundry, so I'm sure Sakura can come up with something for the homework.

I think still "Escaflowne" was a worse edit job just because they DID try to preserve the continuity and wound up airing half-and-half episodes.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Lachesis
Mind if I join you?

Ugh. Eli Moon. They just gotta mess with everybody, don't they? I couldn't believe how fast they the pace was. The entire first episode was condensed to five minutes!

Yue gets his power from the moon. ::grumble:: I wonder how they're going to explain away THAT one.

::bangs head repeatedly against keyboard::

The new spell translations were decent. No quibbles on the voices for Eriol, Spinel, or Ruby. Wait, that's Eli, Spinner, and. . .well, I guess it's still Ruby. I never could remember her other name. She did feel curiously dropped in, but that WAS her intro scene. It was probably just cut short or had the dialogue changed.

>>Larry

Clow used the Bubble Card for his laundry, so I'm sure Sakura can come up with something for the homework.

I think still "Escaflowne" was a worse edit job just because they DID try to preserve the continuity and wound up airing half-and-half episodes.

Hop on the party. I've always been easy on TV dubs because I DO understand that there are regulations networks must follows for their agenda. I know about censorship rules. Those only require very mild editing. I know they want to keep their target demo watching. But how patronizing can a network get? They don't have confidence in a kid's ability to watch something without some kind of action breaking out every 2 minutes? I know not everything in the original show will be kept, and that's okay if it still has some appeal as a show unto itself...

But some things I just can't fathom. This heavy splicing isn't understandable, it's ridiculous. It's not like much of the content in CCS was inappropriate to begin with. I can understand clipping the pacing of a few scenes to "speed up" an episode, but jamming several episodes into 20 minutes is mind-boggling. These heavily edited episodes are vague on details, contradictory, and confusing--unintentionally. Last week, when Sakura woke up in her room, in her "dream within a dream,"--that was GOOD confusing. It played with Sakura as a character, and it involved the audience. This episode was BAD confusing. It threw random, non-connecting details at the viewer, and basically shoved everything aside for the action scenes.

I thought Escaflowne was pretty bad, too, probably on par with the worse episodes of Cardcaptors. Too fast, too many flashbacks, reordered scenes...

And have they helped ratings? No. Escaflowne was cancelled, and Cardcaptors ratings have dipped since last year's less-edited episodes.

I will never understand networks and I will welcome the day when older executives with their outdated notions of Sat AM move on and let the more youth-savvy generation take cracks at the bat.

About Ruby...I seem to recall a bit more dialogue...but I felt that the introductions of Eriole and Ruby were both shortchanged--like the WB was saying, "Here are the new characters, you stupid kids. Now let's get to the action, which is the only thing you stupid kids care about."

[RockItShipper]

My impression is that Eriol is very powerful, but his 'attacks' are more on the silly side. A giant stuffed animal sent to run amuk, sucking Sakura into Alice in Wonderland where her family/friends are the other characters... Eriol might be the eratz Cardcaptor, enjoy toying with Li ("cute relative"? ) and Sakura, but I see more of a Mxy-playfulness. Ken's later revealed as having thought the Digital World was just a game- one that he could play any which way to ease his frustrations- but he sure played it tough. He'd see sending out a cute digimon- regardless of power ability- as a weakness his enemies could exploit. Because you're bound to be more creeped out running into a WarGreymon than a Lillymon.

[James Harvey]

So WB airs different ones then Canada? I guess this explains why I didn't reconize some of the CARDCAPTORS episode that aired on TELETOON.

[DR. BELCH]

I thought the Clow cards couldn't be used for personal gain--or maybe that's more at those witch sisters on Charmed. I mean, the temptation to use the Freeze Card to ice over the streets for a free snow day or the Mirror Card to sub for you at the dentist's office or the DMV would be too much. Or if one could whip up a Disease Card, who wouldn't like to give their enemy hemmorrhoids or an itchy rash in their unmentionable areas?
Clow had a bubble card for laundry? I wonder if most of his cards, besides the powerful and dangerous elementals, were simple domestic ones--like the Sweet Card, if one's lover has a sweet tooth and the prices at the candy shop are too high. Or if it's flowers she likes, I'm pretty sure there was a card for that too.
It was revealed that Ken's maliciousness and drive to succeed was caused by a "dark spore" implanted in his neck; Eli' excuse is he just seems to be a big naughty child (maybe a Clow Reed decendant on the other side of the sheets?). The water prank of his seemed pretty dangerous, although maybe he doesn't understand how seriously he can hurt people. It's even worse if Sakura nearly incapacitates herself every time she uses her magic--was there an ep in the original where she's hospitalized for exaustion at some point? Because it's likely KWB wouldn't air such a thing since it might scare the "stupid kids"....

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
The water prank of his seemed pretty dangerous, although maybe he doesn't understand how seriously he can hurt people. It's even worse if Sakura nearly incapacitates herself every time she uses her magic--was there an ep in the original where she's hospitalized for exaustion at some point? Because it's likely KWB wouldn't air such a thing since it might scare the "stupid kids"....

They don't care about scaring the "stupid kids." Stupid kids don't get scared. They just want violence and non-stop light shows...

Actually, I believe Eriole's motives are more intentional than lack of understanding on his part.

[Lachesis]

>>Doc

I think personal gain was okay as long as it was with good intentions, or something similarly vague and ambiguous.

As for Sakura's exhaustion. . .I think I'd run in danger of spoiling stuff, so you'll have to wait and see.

>>Larry

Are the ratings for "Cardcaptors" dipping? I thought this whole "Final Judgement" business was putting things in an upswing.

I totally agree on your editing stand. It's just been getting ridiculous lately. ::Sigh:: And the worst part is, their intentions are mostly good. . .

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Lachesis
>>Doc

I think personal gain was okay as long as it was with good intentions, or something similarly vague and ambiguous.

As for Sakura's exhaustion. . .I think I'd run in danger of spoiling stuff, so you'll have to wait and see.

>>Larry

Are the ratings for "Cardcaptors" dipping? I thought this whole "Final Judgement" business was putting things in an upswing.

I totally agree on your editing stand. It's just been getting ridiculous lately. ::Sigh:: And the worst part is, their intentions are mostly good. . .

I haven't seen any ratings updates on the last two weeks. I personally thought the "Final Judgement" was reasonably well-handled and hyped.

Going by a ratings update I got from three weeks ago, as well as the ones posted on the Toonzone news page, coupled with some of the ratings releases from the more heavily edited final Cardcaptors episodes of season 1 last year, I would say that yeah, they've dipped. In fact, Pokemon's slight dip affected other KWB shows. (Even though KWB routinely smokes Fox Kids in the numbers this year)

Which goes to show that the screwy editing doesn't have much affect on the ratings. Therefore, don't do it!