Card(s) of the Day:
Sword: A…well, sword, the Sword card is unique in that its cutting power depends on the feelings and thoughts of the user. If you have little will to fight your opponent, the Sword card will merely stun the enemy. If you put your all into the battle, the Sword can cut through basically anything.
Plot: Sakura, Tomoyo and their friend Rika buy some brooches from a shop while trying to cheer up Sakura about Li. However, things get complicated when they discover that Rika’s brooch is actually the Sword card in disguise. Can Sakura save her friend from the power of Sword?
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Title Change: Sakura and the Mysterious Brooch is changed to Double-Edged Sword.
A shot of Tomoyo looking at Sakura from down the hall is cut.
In the original, we see a shot of Sakura in the light of the window. She’s approached by Rika who gives her a tiny flower because she seems sad. Sakura accepts it and thanks her then thinks that Rika is very nice and mature. This whole scene is edited out.
In the original, Sakura tells Li that the clothes he was wearing last night were cool and asks if all people from Hong Kong wear clothes like that because she saw a boy wearing robes just like his in her dreams. He’s surprised by this and tells her the robes are family heirlooms that she couldn’t possibly know about. When she reiterates that it was a dream, he tells her that at least she has enough magical power to have premonitions in her sleep.
In the dub, the dream is never mentioned. Lee tells her that she’s no Cardcaptor, and she replies that, if that were true, then the book wouldn’t have chosen her. She babbles for a bit before mentioning that she doesn’t have robes like he does, and he gets super defensive saying that the robes are special ceremonial robes and she doesn’t even have the right to speak about them. Then he basically says that she should tread on thin ice around him.
Name Change: The class president, Yamazaki, is changed to Zachery.
Name Change: Rika is changed to Rita for whatever reason.
In the original, Yamazaki tells Li that, despite the fact that he’s new, it’s his turn to do the daily chores, which are cleaning the blackboard and singing and dancing during recess. Sakura whispers to Tomoyo that singing and dancing aren’t part of daily chores, but she smiles and shrugs. Li asks Yamazaki if they really do that in Japanese schools, and he says yes as he grabs him to go clean the board. We end the scene on Yamazaki telling Li that he’ll have to sing afterwards.
In the dub, Zachery introduces himself to Lee as the class president and is assigning him to clean the blackboard. A shot of the blackboard is edited out because JAPANESE, and Sakura tells Tomoyo that Zachery’s little white lies saved the day as he grabs Lee to clean the blackboard. We end the scene on Zachery telling Lee that he’ll have to clean up gum later.
A shot of the classroom door and kids exiting from it is edited out.
Dub kid in class: “Good night, Mr. Turretta!” Good night? It’s still daylight out.
In the original, Sakura thinks to herself that she’s having the same dream about the cards again before noticing that Rika is staring at the teacher with a smile on her face. In the dub, Mr. Turretta tells the kids in class that there’s a test tomorrow and specifically tells Rita that she needs to pass it.
In the original, Tomoyo asks Sakura if she has some free time after school. Sakura asks why, and Tomoyo says it’s because Rika knows of a cool shop in town that she wants to visit. Sakura then thanks Tomoyo because she knows that she’s inviting her out to help cheer her up.
Tomoyo’s inviting her out because she wants to be with Sakura as long as possible. Then we get a shot of the both of them in a flowery frame. Sakura basically scratches her head in flattery as Tomoyo smiles. Yamazaki shows up again with a mop saying that they can go wherever they want after school as long as they remember their cleanup duties after class and Sakura agrees.
In the dub, Tomoyo says they should go to her house after school and Sakura agrees. She suggests having a study session together since Rita really needs to study for that test. Then there’s some talk about rollerblading and the scene just ends.
A shot of Rika telling the girls that they’ve arrives at the shop she was talking about is edited out.
Numerous shots of all of the items in the shop such as dolls, fine china, curio cabinets and more are edited out.
They cut out a scene where Sakura’s looking at various items in the shop and Tomoyo apologizing to Rika for forcing her out there with them, but since Sakura was acting so gloomy she really wanted her to come. Rika tells her that it’s okay because she was worried about her too.
In the original, Sakura has to think for a bit to get the brooch that she wants. Tomoyo asks her if she’ll buy it, she thinks for a bit and says yes, but then starts crying in a cartoon-y way saying that it’ll use up her allowance and she won’t be able to buy treats for a while if she buys it. In the dub, we cut straight from her picking up the brooch to the next shot.
In the original, Kero’s yelling at his game because I guess he died or lost or something. In the dub, he’s cheering for some reason.
A shot of the teapot and cups is edited out.
In the original, Tomoyo asks Sakura if she needs help with the tea. Sakura declines and tells her that they can sit down. Rika apologizes for being at her house so close to dinner time, but Sakura says it’s okay since her father and brother will be out past dinner. Sakura goes to the fridge to get some dessert and they eat it. They compliment Sakura’s dad on being such a good cook before looking at their brooches.
In the dub, Tomoyo tells Sakura that Rita’s really scared about the test (odd, she’s smiling and shows no signs of duress, but okay.) Sakura says that she knows and tells Rita that they should start studying by telling her to spell (it’s a spelling test) ‘parallel.’ She does, and the scene of Sakura going to the fridge and getting dessert is edited out.
Sakura tells her to spell ‘brooch.’ She says that word’s a tough one and maybe they should look at the new brooches that they bought to give them inspiration. A shot of Sakura’s goofy face that was originally after the girls complimented her dad is edited out.
In the original, they’re all clamoring over their brooches. Sakura tells Rika that hers looks great on her because she’s so mature and pretty and stuff like that really suits her. In the dub, Madison tries to spell brooch b-r-o-w…..Sakura’s speaking scene is edited away leaving only her smile before her expression falls, which is odd because she is talking in this scene, and no mention of Rita being pretty or mature is included.
Though no scenes are edited away or anything, after Rika initially attacks the girls there’s a commercial break in the original. In the dub, I guess it wasn’t the right time for one because we get an AWESOME zoom-in cross-fade transition. Editing, man.
In the original, as Sakura and Kero are running away from Rika, Kero explains to Sakura that the power of the Sword card relies on the will of the user. If you think “don’t cut” the sword will simply stun the enemy, but if you put your might into the sword, it can cut through practically anything. In the dub, Kero basically says the Sword card is dangerous and to just get it.
So I had a bet running with myself about how this next scene would go. In the original, Sakura uses the Illusion card to show Rika the person that she cares about most. She’s surprised when she says it’s their teacher.
My running bet would be either they’d do like the boggarts from Harry Potter and it’d be what she fears most instead of what she cares about (despite that being the function in the Illusion episode) or they’d somehow change the shape or put a picture on top of the spirit to make it look like Yamazaki. It was the former. The big reveal, even though there were numerous hints, is that Rika has a crush on her teacher.
In the dub, she’s scared to death of him. Rika goes from a mature and pretty girl with a crush on a teacher to a stupid girl who’s failing spelling (and maybe school entirely?) and is the target of scholastic abuse by her teacher. Hoo. Rah.
By the way, I am aware of the very uncomfortable fact that this relationship is actually somehow canon in the manga. They don’t ever do anything physical, to my knowledge, but yeah, she and Mr. Terada are secretly engaged in the manga at the end, despite her only being, at most, 14, while he’s like 30 (The writers of the Wiki go to ridiculous lengths to figure out this guy’s age). Apparently, this is okay in Japan. According to Rika’s Wiki page, it’s perfectly fine for a young student to be courted by her much older teacher and wind up together when their age is more appropriate. I have no clue if that’s true, and this is one of those things I don’t want to research for squicky reasons. It doesn’t seem like it really is cool in Japan if the original series made it a one-sided crush and Clear Card basically omitted it entirely as well as mostly wrote off Terada.
In the original, we fade to black after Kero leaves and before we see Yukito because I guess it was supposed to be a big reveal that the person walking by was Yukito. In the dub, the black fade out is gone.
A front shot of Sakura’s goofy face as she’s awkward about the situation is gone.
In the original, Yukito grabs Syaoran’s hand to help him up after he got knocked down by Kero and asks him if he’s alright (Which seems odd to me seeing as how there’s an unconscious girl in this scene, but whatever). Dreamy music plays as Syaoran blushes and stares at him before he runs away like last time. In the dub, the hand hold, helping him up and the dreamy music are edited out. Julian just says that Lee has a cool outfit, which makes him blush and run away.
I kinda don’t get the dub. If the hints of the crush (which is really an attraction to a power I won’t spoil) are gone, what is the logic behind Lee’s inability to be around Julian?
A shot of Yukito, Sakura, Rika and Tomoyo is edited out after Syaoran runs off. Also, the following shot of the library sign is replaced with a shot of the school.
In the original, after Sakura gives Rika her brooch, we get a fairly long shot of Sakura with spiral eyes rambling in her head about how she can’t explain to her that she can’t give her back her brooch because she turned it into a Clow card. Rika accepts the brooch and Sakura thinks about how kind, mature and wonderful Rika is again before the teacher enters the library. Sakura greets the teacher and walks out of the room before we end the scene with Rika’s smiling.
In the dub, we cut straight away from her giving her the brooch to the next scene because spiral eyes and wanting to edit out as much of the teacher as possible, I guess.
Tori: “That kid gangs up on my sister then shows up at our house?!”…..”Gangs up” on her insinuates that there was more than one person involved…hence gang…Every time Lee’s confronted Sakura, it’s been alone.
A shot of Yukito checking Toya’s watch is edited away. Maybe Nelvana hates telling time now…
In the original, Sakura gives Yukito chocolate as thanks for bringing Rika in the house after she fainted. Syaoran looks on in horror before fumbling through his pockets for something. He presents a box of chocolates to Yukito before running away again.
I have to say, Syaoran’s so damn adorable during this scene. He’s all embarrassed and whatnot like a shaking bunny.
In the dub, Lee insinuates that he’s getting upset because he’s the one who brought Rita into the house, which is false. Also, if he was, wouldn’t Julian be all like “What? I didn’t do that.” We immediately cut to Lee running away after that.
Tomoyo whispers to Sakura that she believes that Syaoran has a crush on Yukito too, and that now she has a rival both in capturing Clow cards and romance. She then freaks out as Yukito’s and Syaoran’s pictures are overlayed behind her.
In the dub, Tomoyo whispers to Sakura that she put up the video of her capturing Thunder on her website last night, which makes her freak out, then she says she was kidding as she films her reaction to put up on the website. Nice friend you got there.
Leave it to Kero/Kero’s Corner: Today’s Leave it to Kero segment is actually pretty funny. Kero’s tasked with doing an overview of Syaoran’s ceremonial robes, but since he hates him, he speeds through the explanation giving little to no detail and even says to skip the rest at a point.
Then he gushes over what a nice guy he is to honor Syaoran with a Leave it to Kero segment even though he’s such a despicable guy.
The dub’s version is played out rather normally. He does say that Lee has some nerve to call him a stuffed animal, but goes about the rest of the segment in normal speed and he even seems to play Lee up during the segment.
Also, forgive me as I know I’ll go back and forth between calling Syaoran, Li and Syaoran. I have no clue why. Maybe because the dub calls him Lee.
Dub Kero: “Though personally I think Sakura’s battle costumes are a little more happenin’” HAPPENIN’?! Look, I know this show is somewhat dated and there IS quite a bit of lame dialogue in the dub, but happenin’? This show was dubbed in the 90’s not the 70’s…
Next episode, Flower’s debut. Sakura and Tomoyo learn that their moms used to be the best of friends once upon a time, but they also find out that Tomoyo’s mom despises Sakura’s dad. When Sakura’s dad and Tomoyo’s mom meet after years of not seeing each other, how will react? Oh yeah and there’s flowers in there.
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The Anime Madhouse 