Card(s) of the Day: Time: A card that has the ability to control time flow as well as reverse an entire day’s worth of time at midnight. Time’s weakness seems to be Shield as its time manipulation is useless against those who use Shield.
Plot: Sakura makes a mistake during her recorder test and wishes she could retake it after she practices more. She gets her wish as the Time card reverses time back one day. While she gets another shot at her recorder test, Time continuously reverses time back one day every night at midnight, but only Syaoran, Kero and Sakura retain the memories of the days replayed. Can Sakura and Syaoran capture Time, or will they be stuck in a time loop forever?
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Title Change: Sakura’s Never-Ending Day is changed to Time and Again.
A closeup shot of the board is removed despite the fact that we can clearly see it behind him in the next shot. Continuity!
The dub seems to be shoving the concept of time down our throats before we’re even five minutes into the show. I swear her dad has said “time” emphasized at least three times now.
A shot of the class is removed. We also don’t hear Sakura’s narration of saying that this is the first time that she’s ever heard details about what her dad does, and that, to her, archaeology seems difficult but interesting. Her dad is talking over any remaining shots.
Sakura’s dad’s topic stays roughly the same, but originally he says King Kufu’s pyramid in the Giza strip is the biggest Pyramid that remains standing today with some people speculating that it took over 40 years to build. In the dub, he’s talking about how one brick of limestone he has is all that remains of a section of King Kufu’s pyramid.
They remove him saying that supposedly 2,700,000 bricks were used to build the pyramid.
A moderately long sequence is cut. Once the bell rings, we cut back to the auditorium where the class is clapping for Fujitaka. While Syaoran’s standing on his chair clapping his head off behind Sakura, Sakura muses that she wishes all of her classes seemed that short. The bell for lunch never seems to come while the bell to end recess always comes too soon.
I guess Syaoran really is psyched about archaeology because he asks Fujitaka all sorts of questions about his lecture. He originally asks about pharaohs making curses on their tombs and people who ransack the tombs getting cursed and dying. Fujitaka says that’s a tough question and responds that not all pyramids were meant to be the tombs of the specific pharaoh who made them. Some pharaohs made as much as five pyramids in their lifetime. (While Atem was off playing card games. Pfft)
In the dub, Lee asks how, in time, the pyramids will all be gone. Aiden agrees that will happen eventually, but seeing as how they’re so massive and have stayed around for thousands of years, they probably still have some staying power left in them.
At the realization that Syaoran likes archaeology, Fujitaka invites Syaoran to his house because he has even more artifacts there. The dub has Aiden invite Lee to the university because they have a great Egyptology section. You can basically deduce why this was removed. Was it kosher even back then to invite kids to your house when you’re an adult? I know he has a kid Syaoran’s age, but still.
Poor editing strikes Nelvana again. After Syaoran finds out that Fujitaka is Sakura’s dad, he glares at her as she waves to her dad. She slows down her wave and slowly tilts her head down with a sweatdrop asking what Syaoran’s problem is now. In the dub, they try their damnedest to remove that scene with the sweatdrop but leave in like a half a second of it before the transition. Nelvana, it helps to go through the scene frame by frame when you remove stuff to ensure that there’s no trace left. Just sayin’. It looks shoddy.
The scene that follows is removed. Sakura runs to her dad as he’s leaving, he asks if his lecture was alright and she says yes. Fujitaka is pleased and asks Sakura what she wants for dinner tonight. Sakura asks why he’s asking her if it’s Toya’s turn to cook. Fujitaka explains that Toya has an exam tomorrow so he’s cooking to give him some extra time to study. As Sakura’s about to answer, the bell rings and Sakura laments that recess is over. Fujitaka says recess always feels too short and he sends her off. I guess this was either removed because too much Fujitaka or merely because the scene was fairly pointless.
Kero originally asks why Sakura’s up so late and says good little kids should be in bed by now before cheering at winning his game. In the dub, Kero’s just talking about his game before cheering that he wins. Also, they left in the footage of the game which is odd because there’s Japanese all over it.
Originally Sakura was presenting Toya and Yukito with nikuman. In the dub, Julien says they’re pastry puffs. You know, you can just leave out what they are instead of making claims like that. Food is food.
Also, before Toya opens the door Sakura practices what she’ll say and do when she gives the nikuman to Yukito. This is removed.
Sakura says she’s feeling uneasy because she’s sleeping while Yukito’s in the next room. In the dub, she says she has to get some sleep because she has a big music test tomorrow and she’s worried she didn’t practice enough…I had music class when I was in grade school, but I don’t ever remember having music tests. Did anyone else? Am I having a serious memory blank?
Dub Kero: “What’s with the ding dong thing?” They’re called bells, Kero…..
They edit out hearing Yukito and Toya talking about the bells through the wall. I guess because even Yukito’s voice is offensive somehow.
The good news is Sakura really does have a music test in the original; a recorder test. Ah, the recorder…I don’t remember being formally tested on that, though. Had a lot of fun playing it. Hot cross buns!
Shots of Sakura’s cartoony crying face and a depressed face are removed.
The dub doesn’t mention that Sakura has problems hitting the high D. If you made a joke in your head about that line, go to the corner.
You can’t hear what Tomoyo’s mouthing to Sakura in the original. Also, Sakura turns around to look at Madison before she calls her name in the dub. Psychic Sakura!
A shot of Tomoyo anticipating the next measure is edited out.
The original has Syaoran pretending the play the recorder beside his desk. The dub adds in the music. Because that makes sense right? Lee totally wouldn’t be causing a disturbance in music class by playing the recorder while someone else is trying to play in front of the whole class for this final exam. Good job, Nelvana.
This next scene was sorta changed and a spot was removed. Sakura says she made a weird noise in her test, but Tomoyo says she did very well on the other parts, which I guess means she still passed. Sakura then compliments Tomoyo on the job she did on her exam and says she couldn’t even tell it was the same song. In the dub she tells Madison that she really blew the test that morning and, if she could, she’d go back and do it all over again.
Originally, Sakura wonders why Syaoran’s practicing the recorder when the final is done. Tomoyo says it might be because he didn’t do very well on his test, but it’s dangerous to walk and play at the same time. In the dub, Sakura sees Lee playing and says “So he can walk and play the recorder at the same time. Big whup.” Madison scolds her, but she responds by saying he still doesn’t think she should be a Cardcaptor. Right, he doesn’t think she should be a Cardcaptor (A little bit justifiably, by the way) so make fun of him for innocently playing the recorder while walking by. Way to be the bigger person, Sakura.
A short scene is removed where Sakura asks if Syaoran moved to Japan from Hong Kong by himself with Tomoyo responding that she doesn’t know because she’s unfamiliar with his family.
They remove Sakura also calling Syaoran’s kick amazing and them looking back to him with smiles.
A scene of Sakura, Toya and her dad making toasts for finishing exams as well as Sakura drinking her drink is removed. No idea why. Not like it’s alcohol.
They remove a shot of Sakura agreeing to practice more. Also, the dub insinuates that Tori did perfectly on the exams or something and still makes it seem like Sakura failed whereas in the original Toya says he did so-so on his exams and Sakura is still frustrated over making one mistake.
Dub Sakura: “Well, Tori and my dad think I didn’t practice enough. So I’M going to show THEM next time.” In the original, Sakura says her dad suggested that she go over the parts that she couldn’t manage to do on her test to get them right anyway if missing the notes frustrated her – probably to prove to herself that she can do it and would’ve been able to do it earlier if she applied herself. Then Kero and Sakura praise her dad for such good advice.
In the dub she makes off like they were mocking her for missing the notes and not practicing enough so she’s going to rub it in their faces later. And need I remind you, Sakura, that you said earlier you wished you had practiced more and admitted that you thought you didn’t practice enough that previous night.
Dub Kero: (Right after that line I just wrote) “Expect the unexpected!”……What the hell does that have to do with this conversation?! Expect that she’ll unexpectedly rub it in her dad and brother’s faces that she can play that part now? Expect that you’ll put that catchphrase in places miles away from where it belongs? Or are you saying it’s unexpected that she’ll be able to play the song? Because that’s a little insulting.
After Kero finds out that his save file’s been deleted again and Sakura leaves the room, he shakes his head back and forth crying saying “Why, why, why!?” This is removed.
Again, they make off like Sakura completely flunked the music test instead of just making one mistake. Is it just more believable that Sakura would want to redo a test she failed instead of wanting to avoid making an embarrassing mistake in front of her class?
Tomoyo asks if Sakura’s nervous, Madison asks if Sakura’s been having weird dreams.
Despite the fact that dub!Sakura denied having a weird dream where she failed, Madison says her dream was wrong because she did perfectly. In the original, Tomoyo just says she expects nothing less of Sakura than to do so well on her finals.
Hm….I don’t quite get the redo of Syaoran’s kick. When Syaoran kicked the ball coming at his face the first time, he was at the top of the steps a good ten feet higher than the soccer field. The second time, he’s on the same level with the soccer field and he’s standing further ahead than he was before. If this really is supposed to be exactly the same as the previous day barring what Sakura, Kero and Syaoran do, why did the ball change direction to seek out Syaoran again?
After Syaoran makes the kick again, Sakura does say in the original that things seem slightly different, but she never builds upon what she means by that. Does that mean that everything that happened the previous day must happen to them no matter what they do to avoid it? Because that doesn’t make full sense seeing as how she made a mistake on her music test the first time and didn’t the second time.
Tomoyo says when she was designing Sakura’s outfit for the day, she was imagining a night fairy flying freely through the skies. In the dub, Madison says nothing of a fairy and says it’s for undetected night flight…..undetected night flight, huh? This thing?
This bright yellow fairy outfit is supposed to be stealthy? Whatever you say, Madison.
Minor nitpick, but Kero asks how she knew the card was in the clock tower in the original whereas dub!Kero acts like he believes full-on that Sakura sensed it was in there.
Another minor nitpick, but in the original Sakura and Kero’s voices lower dramatically when time slows down like it would when slowing down an audio track. In the dub, they just speak really slowly. I’ll admit, while the original is more realistic, the dub is preferred to me because that original scene is friggin’ creepy.
I believe the commercial break for the dub was supposed to come immediately after we see Kero and Sakura frozen in time. However we see a split second of the following shot of the hourglass before it cuts out.
After Kero explains that, while Time can control time, it only has the ability to rewind a whole day on midnight. They see that it’s 11:45pm and Sakura gets a sweatdrop on her face and says they’ll have to repeat the whole day again. Sakura cries that she’ll have to do the recorder test again, Kero cries that he’ll lose his save data again, and they rush off to catch the card. This whole conversation as well as the sweatdrops and crying are removed. They just point out that they have 15 minutes to catch the card and fly off.
Original Kero says the card is speeding up time merely around the clock tower to be able to activate its full-day time reversal, which is super cheating if you ask me. You can’t put a limitation on a card and then give the card the ability to easily work around it.
“You have this great power over time, but the only restriction is you can only reverse a whole day at midnight.”
“Okay, I’ll just fastforward to exactly midnight.”
“Ah, wait, you can’t do that.”
“Ahp ahp ahp. You said that was the ONLY restriction.”
“Yes, but…”
“TIME MAGIC!”
Dub!Kero and Sakura’s voices remain unchanged again when Time does a full-day rewind.
Kero asks why they have to keep leaving so late. If they know where the card is and what it is, why not leave earlier? Sakura responds that she had to celebrate with her dad and brother and practice again beforehand…..Wait, I’m STILL not getting what this rewind entails.
So you mean the first time the rewind happened even after she knew there was a Clow card at work she still had to go home, celebrate and practice before leaving? But that makes no sense because after she practiced on the first day before the first rewind, she went to bed. If she, Kero and supposedly Syaoran are bound to do the same things they did that day, why are they free to break from that to chase after Time? That makes no sense. Is there any time travel related story that doesn’t have gaping plot holes?
Also, that thing about leaving earlier is omitted from the dub. Sakura and Kero just keep whining about having to do the same stuff three times over.
If this day has been replayed three times, why is Syaoran just NOW showing up to help? I thought he was all gung-ho about catching the cards before Sakura yet here he is ignoring the card until he gets fed up with her not catching it. Was there something he ‘needed’ to do over and over keeping him from the fight, or did they not know how to fit him into the fight yet?
While there have been hints here and there about the differences in attitude between Lee and Syaoran, he’s really starting to get cocky and degrading in the dub.
Lee: “Time’s flying! I mean fleeing!”……..Ugh.
Dub!Sakura: (After Lee uses his Lightning) “You backed me up!” Well, duh! He came here to help you capture Time not sabotage you. In the original, Sakura’s just surprised Syaoran had a trap ready.
Dub!Kero: “Sometimes the card doesn’t always go to the one who seals it, Sakura.”
Dub!Sakura: “But why not?!”
Dub!Kero: “Hey if I had all the answers, you’d think I’d look like this?”
Yeah…except you DO have the answer, you dimwit – at least in the original. Kero says the card doesn’t go to the one who seals it, it goes to the person who returned the card to its original form. Syaoran turned it back into its original form with his lightning, so despite the fact that Sakura sealed it, Syaoran gets to keep it. Why couldn’t this rule be explained in the dub?
Originally Sakura had a kanji writing test. In the dub, it’s a spelling test.
They remove a shot of Sakura cartoonishly crying because she studied the wrong thing/
Leave it to Kero-Chan!/Kero’s Corner: Wow, Nelvana’s being derpy today. During Kero’s Corner, they don’t remove the edited logo until about a second after Kero popped up on screen so it covers him for like 15 frames.
Dub!Kero: “The theory behind this design (Sakura’s fairy outfit) was to dress up like Tinkerbell to get past Time’s ancient form.”…………………………………….I have…..no words…..How?……What’s the actual theory? Because that makes no sense. Someone explain this to me. Please.
In the original, Kero just says the fairy costume goes well with the fact that they just switched to Summer uniforms at school.
Original Kero doesn’t mention anything about the wings boosting her magic ability (How would Madison have the ability to do that anyway?) or that they’re high-tech and aerodynamic. They’re not high-tech. There’s no tech involved period. They’re not even aerodynamic from my standpoint. In fact they look like they’d bog her down in flight.
Dub!Kero: (About Sakura’s school bag) “You’d be amazed at the amount of stuff you could fit in there. About the only thing you can’t fit in there is time.” Well, seeing as how Time is a card, she’d probably be able to easily fit it in there. I get what he was saying, but given the circumstances that’s a silly comment. Originally, Kero just mentions that the bag’s very simple but functional and has a hook on the side.
Overall this is a bit of a dumb episode. Time seems like a cool card, but the episode as a whole makes little sense to me, and the dub is downright irritating at points, especially considering editing errors that make me wonder if Nelvana’s editing staff wasn’t off that day and they had the janitor stand in. The premise is also a big cliché, though it may have been less of a cliché back then.
Next episode, Power’s debut! A trip to the zoo leads Sakura and the gang to finding the Power card and it’s causing all sorts of chaos.
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