June 27, 2006
Fullmetal Alchemist – Volume 10
Galaxy Angel – Complete Collection
Haré+Guu – Volume 4
Hikaru no Go – Volume 3
Inu Yasha – Volume 43
Kannaduki no Miko – Volume 2
Kodocha – Volume 7
Love Hina – Complete Collection
Mobile Fighter G Gundam – DVD Collection 2
One Piece – Volume 3

Manga

June 27, 2006
Love Roma – Volume 3
Pastel – Volume 3
The Wallflower – Volume 8

June 30, 2006
Anne Freaks – Volume 2
Chrono Crusade – Volume 8
Land of the Blindfolded – Volume 8
Tenjho Tenge – Volume 8

Name: Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Episodes: N/A
Released: August 21, 1999
Based On: Cardcaptor Sakura anime series
Director: Morio Asaka
Produced By: Bandai Visual, Kodansha, Madhouse
US Distribution By: Pioneer/Geneon

Major Japanese Cast

Sakura Kinomoto: Sakura Tange
Kerberos: Aya Hisakawa
Madoushi: Megumi Hayashibara
Tomoyo Daidouji: Junko Iwao
Syaoran Li: Motoko Kumai
Meiling Li: Yukana Nogami
Yelan Li: Kikuko Inoue
Yukito Tsukishiro: Megumi Ogata
Toya Kinomoto: Tomokazu Seki
Clow Reed: Kazuo Hayashi

Major English Cast

Sakura Avalon: Carly McKillip
Kerberos: Matt Hill
Madoushi: Nicole Oliver
Madison Taylor: Maggie Blue O’Hara
Li Showron: Rhys Huber
Meilin Rae: Nicole Oliver
Yelan Li: Stevie Vallance
Julian Star: Samuel Vincent
Tori Avalon: Tony Sampson
Clow Reed: Dale Wilson

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 4/10 (x 1 = 4 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 135/180 (75%)

Review

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie continues the adventures of Sakura Kinomoto (or Sakura Avalon, depending whether you watch the English version) while she’s still collecting Clow Cards. The movie aired after the 2nd season and the completion of Sakura’s mission to collect the Clow Cards but is set between the 1st and 2nd season (I believe that, if you watch the first episode of the 2nd season – episode 36 – you even see the Arrow card that Sakura collects in the movie).

This time Sakura and friends find themselves in Hong Kong after Sakura wins a lottery drawing. Of course, Hong Kong happens to be where the Li clan lives, and it doesn’t take long for the group to run into Syaoran and Meiling. We also get to see Syaoran’s mother and Syaoran’s four sisters, whom I believe he referenced late in the first season.

Of course, Sakura didn’t really “win” the lottery. One of Clow’s magical rival, who has kept herself alive using a book, lures her to Hong Kong believing that she’s Clow, unaware of how much time has actually passed. In the process, the rival, named Madoushi, captures Li, Meiling, Toya, and Yukito and Sakura must use her powers to try to rescue them.

I think this movie was a pretty good movie on it’s own, but I was kind of disappointed in it when one puts it in context with the rest of the franchise. The only Clow Card captured was the Arrow card at the very beginning of the movie, and then just happened to be used at the end. It doesn’t seem like that her ordeal rested on the need to use that card specifically and just seemed to me that it was thrown in just so they could say she collected another card during the movie. Another thing that rather disappointed me was that Sakura didn’t really use many Clow Cards in battling Madoushi except for Arrow as stated above. I found myself, at numerous times, being like “use X card!” only for Sakura to stand there like she can’t do anything.

Now that I have that out of the way, as I said this was an enjoyable movie. It was a nice change of pace from the series where Sakura is just roaming around her town looking for Clow Cards. As expected, the animation is crisper than in the series, and while the music in the movie appeared to be new, some of the music, at least to me, seemed to include some chords from the music in the series. I’ll also note, the music in the English version is completely redone from the Japanese version, but I’m scoring the music score based on the music used in the Japanese version.

One more note. I watched, or attempted to watch, the English dub. While the voices for most of the adults that I heard seemed to be ok, the voices for Meilin, Syaoran, Tomayo (or Madison), and Sakura were, well, I’m not sure when the last time I heard 4th graders with the voices of high schoolers. I don’t think I’d mind kero with a guy’s voice, but its just the partciular voice he has which just….doesn’t sound right. It’s not the worst dub I’ve ever heard, but it’s definitely not one that I’d watch dubbed on purpose from now on.

First Watched: June, 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Indifferent

Name: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre:: Fantasy, Adventure
Episodes: 35
Released: April 7, 1998 – December 29, 1998
Based On: Cardcaptor Sakura manga by CLAMP
Director: Various
Produced By: NHK Enterprise 21
US Distribution By: Pioneer/Geneon

Major Japanese Cast

Sakura Kinomoto: Sakura Tange
Kerberos: Aya Hisakawa
Tomoyo Daidouji: Junko Iwao
Syaoran Li: Motoko Kumai
Meiling Li: Yukana Nogami
Yukito Tsukishiro: Megumi Ogata
Toya Kinomoto: Tomokazu Seki
Fujitaka Kinomoto: Hideyuki Tanaka
Kaho Mizuki: Emi Shinohara
Naoko Yanagisawa: Emi Motoi
Rika Sasaki: Tomoko Kawakami
Chiharu Mihara: Miwa Matsumoto
Takashi Yamazaki: Issei Miyazaki
Sonomi Daidouji: Miki Itou

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 167/190 (87.9%)

Review

This review is only for season 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura, which was the first half of the series (episodes 1 – 35). This review also doesn’t review the Cardcaptors re-edit done for US release.

After my previous positive experiences watching CLAMP anime (see Chobits and Angelic Layer), this was added on my list to watch. I hesitated at first since I feared that it may be targeted for too young of an audience for me to enjoy, but I found that this wasn’t the case (either it wasn’t targeted for that young an audience, or I can still enjoy it if it is).

This series is also a lot like Angelic Layer in the sense that, if you tried giving a brief explanation of the series to someone, it may not sound as interesting as it really is. I mean, if you just say “this series is about a girl who has to collect magical cards in every episode,” it may sound really boring to some.

There are some repetitive elements that sometimes get annoying after a while – such as watching nearly the same animation for Sakura releasing her magical staff in every episode and the like – but for a series this long, I suppose that is to be expected.

I think the animation is well done for a 1998 series. I also enjoy both the credit and the episodic music in this series. Also, the internal story in each episode are diverse and interesting enough to make the series enjoyable, despite the fact that, as I stated above, from the long view most episodes are essentially “Clow Card does something bad. Sakura freaks out. Kero/Syaoran tells Sakura it’s a Clow Card. Sakura does her thing. The town is saved.”

One of the things I have to rather giggle about, though, are the strong same-sex attractions that are obviously going on (Tomoyo towards Sakura and Syaoran towards Yukito) as well the age difference in some of these attractions (Sakura and Syaoran towards Yukito and Rika towards Mr. Terada). In a sense I can see why Nelvana tried to cut these things out, because if there was a children’s show on TV which even hinted at those relationships at even a quarter of the strength that Cardcaptor Sakura does, the religious right would be practically rioting if the show wasn’t pulled off the air.

I’m really looking forward to watching the second half of the series to see where it goes. I have a general idea, but nothing beats actually watching it. My wallet is not looking forward to the $180 to $200 i’d need to fork out to buy the entire series, however.

First Watched: April – June 2006
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

June 20, 2006
Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman – Collector’s Edition – Volume 13
Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman – Collector’s Edition – Volume 14
Strawberry Marshmellow – Volume 1

Manga

June 20, 2006
Hana-Kimi – Volume 12
Hot Gimmick – Volume 11
Monster – Volume 3
Vagabond – Volume 21

June 26, 2006
RahXephon – Volume 4