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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Available_Reason7795 on 2024-07-07 01:37:30+00:00.
What is CLAMP and Cardcaptor Sakura?
CLAMP is one of the most beloved manga creators of all time from the 90s to present day. It was created by an all female group that consists of Nanase Ohkawa as the leader and writer, Tsubaki Nekoi, Satstsuki Igarashi, and Mokona. CLAMP was so influential to the manga and anime world both in Japan and the USdue to its artstyle and its themes for the female audience. CLAMP works includes Magic Knight Rayeath, X, Chobits, and the anime that is discussed in this topic of the day: Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura was one of CLAMP's most iconic and best well-known works and one of the most popular and beloved magical girl anime alongside Sailor Moon. It stars the titlular character named Sakura Kinomoto as she releases a set of magical cards known as Clow Cards that were created by and were named after the powerful sorcerer Clow Reed and each card has a special ability and take an alternate form when it's activated. The being that guards the cards is named Cerberus (Kero for short) helps Sakura on her journey to find the missing cards. Along the way her best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji creates her battle costumes and films her adventures and battles. Sharon Li, a descendant of Clow Reed comes along from Hong Kong to act as a rival that wanted to recapture the cards for himself then she develops in the story turn friend turned love interest in the ending of the story. Cardcaptor Sakura was universally praised for its visual aesthetics, wonderful story, and likeable characters. Its journey to the US though would be a different story and it would become one of the biggest executive meddling of an anime ever.
Cardcaptor Sakura's journey to the West
Following its success in Japan, in 2000, Cardcaptor Sakura was about to make its way to the west where it was going to be the next magical girl anime that they have ever seen. It was licensed by Canadian children entertainment company named Nelvana in Toronto and it needs no introduction to the many people who grew up in the 80s, 90s and 2000s knew them because they made shows like Franklin, Little Bear, Max and Ruby, The Magic School Bus, Rupert, and many others. But while Nelvana did licensed the show, it was actually recorded in Ocean Productions in Vancover who did dubbed such hits like the Gundam franchise, Ranma 1/2, Black Lagoon, and Death Note. Nelvana did some changes to the anime like changing the name to Cardcaptors, the background music in the dub and removed some of the queer elements of the show, and gave a dub soundtrack and a new theme song. Despite the changes, it was a hit in Canada, the UK, and Australia and was well recieved in those regions. In the US however, the dub was received with less praise than it was aired in Canada. how come the dub that was praised in Canada be hated in the US? the answer might have to do with a certain Saturday morning cartoon block and its changes were more extreme than the one that Canada did.
The executive meddling of the American version
Kids WB first aired the show on June 17, 2000 and it ended on December 14, 2001 and while the dub was still done by the same studio, Kids WB made more changes that would made fans pin the blame on Nelvana instead of them. One of the major changes that Kids WB did was that they cut the episode order from 70 to 39-40 episodes for commercials run time. They also aired the episodes out of order with the eighth episode being the first episode aired. But the most baffling and unforgiveable change that Kids WB did was that they tried to turn the show from a magical girl anime from a shonen anime for boysby making Sharon Li the main character because they think that a girl protagonist wouldn't be marketable enough. While Nelvana dub did air all 70 episodes, aired them in order, and kept the shoujo elements of Cardcaptor Sakura, Kids WB turned the same dub into a Pokemon equalivent shonen anime for boys. As bad as the Tokyo Mew Mew Power (4kids) and the old Sailor Moon dubs (Dic/Cloverway) dubs were, at least they didn’t try to turn a magical girl anime into a shonen anime and make it to have a male protagonist. Fans and critics were not happy about the extra changes that Kids WB did and asked Nelvana to release the Japanese version uncut and Nelvana did answer their calls and teamed up with Pioneer to give the fans the version that CLAMP wanted the audience to see.
So there you have it, what we have here is a magical girl anime that had a dub that was edited by Canada and was screwed over in the US and was edited more than what Canada did. Nelvana got unfairly hated for the censorship of Cardcaptor Sakura, all because Kids WB had a insulting view on the girl audience at the time. People should forgive Nelvana ore and be mad at Kids WB for the trouble that they did to Cardcaptor Sakura, the fans, the critics, and most importantly, Nelvana.