Contents
Introduction
Episode 51
Episode 52
Episode 53
Episode 54
Episode 55
Episode 56
Episode 57
Episode 58
Episode 59
Episode 60
Episode 61
Episode 62
Episode 63
Episode 64
Episode 65
Episode 66
Episode 67
Episode 68
Episode 69
Episode 70
Opening and Ending
Conclusion
Introduction
When I watched Cardcaptor Sakura for the first time, I watched it using a combination of fansubbed VHS tapes and the official Pioneer DVD singles, mostly because I had the VHS tapes at my fingertips, and thought it’d be a fun way to experience the show. Unfortunately, my source for VHS tapes dried up after the end of Season 2, and at the time the only unofficial source I had for the episodes past 46 were the Hong Kong Bootleg DVDs released by Anime Cartoon, which had timing so poor that they could not be considered watchable. Ever since then, I had always hoped to get my hands on a set of all the missing fansubbed episodes, as AniDB assured me that they did in fact exist out there somewhere. Years of cold-messaging people later, I finally managed to get my hands on a set, and did a “rewatch project” where my friend and I pulled up a fansubbed episode and watched it with the official subs timed to the fansub’s video, allowing us to effortlessly cross-check lines against the official release while we watched. For each episode, I made it my mission to find at least one noteworthy mistake or oddity per episode to compile into a list. This is that final list.
Each line included here has been checked against five sources: The original DVD release by Pioneer with Rika Takahashi’s translation, the updated Blu-ray release’s translation by NIS America (which was based on the Pioneer DVD translation), the old Animax Asia dub (which is now distributed on platforms like Crunchyroll), Rabi’s translation for their VHS Fansubs as hosted on their personal website back in the early 2000s, and the Hong Kong DVD subtitles from my own personal copies of the discs. The Hong Kong DVD translation will only be included if it deviates significantly from the fansub I have, as for the most part the bootleggers had the exact same fansubbed files that I have. Note that this is not a comprehensive collection of errors. This is solely whatever mistakes I found during a watchthrough of each digital fansubbed episode while referencing the official DVD translation that I felt were most interesting. A lot of things along the lines of “that was the opposite of what she said” were skipped in hopes of finding things that were easy to describe without much additional context required.
47-50 in my set are just VHS recordings of Rabi’s VHS Fansub, and as such have not been included.
This post of course contains spoilers for the entire third season of the show.
Episode 51
Credits: Translated and Subbed by DancinHomer; #Anime-Heaven on EFNet
“You made it yourself. Did you get it from someone?”
手作りだね 誰かからもらったの？
Pioneer: “It’s handmade. Did someone give it to you?”
NISA: “It’s handmade. Did someone give it to you?”
Animax: “It’s handmade. Did someone give it to you?”
Rabi: “It’s hand-made! Did someone give it to you?”
The two sentences contradict each other. The translator was unable to come up with the word “handmade”.
Episode 52
Credits: Translated by “Argentus”; Subbed by FriedGoose for #Asuka’sAnime (irc.dal.net); Special Thanks to lei-magnus
Note: Partway through the episode, a watermark with the text “ProwL” appears in the bottom right. One can assume that this was the name of the individual who provided the RAW for this episode.
“Somehow… I can’t seem to eat enough these days… As of late… I have been strangely tired… And… Sleepy…”
何か いくら食べても お腹いっぱいにならないな 最近 記憶が途切れたりするし どっか 変なのかな それに… すごく 眠い…
Pioneer: “I don’t know why, but no matter how much I eat, I’m not getting full… My memory sometimes escapes me, too… I wonder if something is wrong with me. Besides… I’m very sleepy…“
NISA: “I don’t know why, but no matter how much I eat, I never feel full… My memory seems to be missing pieces these days… I wonder if something is wrong with me. And not just that… I’m really sleepy…“
Animax: “It’s weird. No matter how much I eat, I’m still hungry. And I’ve been having all those blackouts as well. Something’s going on here. I’m tired. I’m so exhausted.”
Rabi: “Somehow no matter how much I eat, I am still hungry… And I’ve been losing my memory lately… I wonder if something is wrong with me lately… I’m really sleepy…“
The middle part on the digital fansub’s translation is just entirely incorrect.
“Yuki… Well, you know, you are well-liked and popular… even if you don’t know you’re popular… If you don’t need me… then…”
ゆき お前俺が知らねえと 思ってるかもしんねえけど… いやお前も知らねえかもしんねえけど 俺はお前がいなくなるのは嫌だ
Pioneer: “Yuki, you think I don’t know… No, maybe you don’t know yourself… But I don’t want you to disappear.”
NISA: “Yuki, you think I don’t know… No, maybe you don’t know yourself… But I…don’t want you to disappear.”
Animax: “Yuki… I guess you probably think that I don’t know about it. No… you don’t even know about it, do you? The thing is, I don’t want you to leave me, okay?”
Rabi: “Yuki, you may think that I didn’t know… No, you may not even know it yourself… I… don’t want you to leave me.”
I have absolutely no clue what the translator was going for in this entire sequence, but it completely ruins it.
“Just… be… gone…”
奈･久･留
Pioneer: “Na-ku-ru.”
NISA: “Na-ku-ru.”
Animax: “Na-ku-ru.”
Rabi: “Na-ku-ru.”
Nakuru is… her name. She’s saying her first name to correct Touya after he called her by her last name.
Bonus:
Episode 53
Credits: Original translations and timing by Chunjae; Additional timing and english corrections by FalconSan; Subbed and encoded by FalconSan; Free Subtitle by #Asuka’sAnime irc.DAL.net
“The magic has run away relentlessly.”
魔法が暴走したんや
Pioneer: “The magic went out of control!”
NISA: “The magic is out of control!”
Animax: “The magic’s out of control!”
Rabi: “Magic has gone wild!”
The magic has not “run away”… yet. It runs away ten seconds after Kero says this.
Bonus
FalconSan’s translation did not include a translation for the next episode preview, so for three episodes he blessed us with his own wonderful interpretation of the next episode preview.
Episode 54
Credits: Original Translations by Chunjae; Timing and Subbing by FalconSan; Additional Editing by FalconSan; Special thanks to Spyderes and Kamaki; Free Subtitle by #Asuka’sAnime irc.DAL.net
“Onii-chan’s sankoubi is here.”
お兄ちゃんの参観日だって
Pioneer: “This one says she’s visiting Big Brother at school.”
NISA: “This one says she’s visiting Toya at school.”
Animax: “This one says she’s visiting Touya!”
Rabi: “‘Touya’s participation day.’”
Anime Cartoon: “Brother ‘s birthday is here.”
Sankanbi means “parent’s visiting day”. The translator appears to have misheard this, and left it as nonsense in their script.
This episode also introduces Anime Cartoon into the mix. In this case, I believe that this is either an edit of Chunjae’s original translation, or an edit of FalconSan’s edited version. The problem is that it definitely is not Touya’s birthday, as she already found that on the calendar earlier in the episode.
Bonus
Episode 55
Credits: Original translations and timing by Chunjae; Lovingly Edited and Re-Timed by FalconSan; Free Subtitle by #Asuka’sAnime irc.DAL.net
“Small body, but the space suits are tens of kilometers in length.”
あんな小さな体なのに 宇宙服は 何十キロにもなるんだ
Pioneer: “They have such small bodies, but their spacesuits can weigh tens of kilograms.”
NISA: “They have tiny bodies, but their space suits can weigh tens of kilograms.”
Animax: “Just imagine trying to open the spaceship door, or press a button with no arms and a suit full of water.”
Rabi: “And for that small body, they weighed several tens of kilograms.”
Yamazaki is lying about the struggles that “goldfish aliens” have to go through to travel to Earth. Unfortunately, the translator took the wrong guess on “kilo”, and so instead of the suits weighing a lot they’re now very very long. Yamazaki’s lies seem to have a habit of tripping up the translators of this show, but this one I don’t think they have an excuse for.
Bonus
Episode 56
Credits: Original translations by Miko; Original timing by DTA; Re-timed and subbed by FalconSan
“About bazaars, the word bazaar originated with the Nigerians.”
昔 バザーっていう人が ナイアガラの滝で始めたのが 最初で
Pioneer: “You know, a bazaar is… something that long ago, a person named Bazaar started at the Niagara Falls…”
NISA: “You know, bazaars started long ago. The first one was run by a man named Bazaar at Niagara Falls.”
Animax: “Bazaars were invented long ago at Niagara Falls.”
Rabi: “In the old days, there were people called ‘bazaar’ who came from the Niagra Falls.”
Wrong place, Nigeria ナイジェリア naijeria and Niagara ナイアガラ naiagara are pretty different. Yamazaki strikes again.
“My head is no bigger than yours!”
自分だって 同じくせに… しかし 下手に反論すると― 正体を気づかれてしまう かもしれない ここは我慢して…
Pioneer: “You look basically the same as I do… But, if I argue back here, he might figure out what I really am. I’ll just have to bear with him for a while…”
NISA: “You’re basically the same… But if I argue the point, you might figure out what I really am. I’ll just have to bear with you…”
Animax: “Has he ever looked in the mirror? But if I argue with him, he might be able to work out who I am. I better bite my tongue.”
Rabi: “And he looks just like this too… But if I don’t handle this carefully, he might recognize my true form. Be patient!”
Anime Cartoon: “My head is no bigger than yours! If I am careless, he would have figured out. I can only tolerate!”
The biggest problem with this line is that this single subtitle is the only one that appears during the entire sequence. You can definitely tell that Suppi has more to say than just that, but the subtitles fail to reflect it. I am unsure if Anime Cartoon filled in the lines with a translation of the Chinese subtitles, or if there’s another fansub that they stole from.
Bonus
During the ending credits, FalconSan provides special thanks to lei-magnus “for finding these great scripts”, FriedGoose (the subtitler of 52) for “[teaching] him to do all this”, the original creators, animators, and seiyuu of the series, and “you, the fans! I love you, for I am you!” He also mentions that this was his first fansub, implying that 53-55 actually came after 56.
Episode 57
Credits: Translated by Miko; Timed and Subtitled by KnightPK
Notes: This episode is the first one in the batch to use a TV broadcast as a video source. The subtitles are also very poorly timed, with most lines starting way late and ending early. The subtitle styling changes after the eyecatch from bold Arial to regular Arial.
“Lots and lots of teddy bears! let’s have fun! Look at this! We’ll have to get on for everybody as a present! Alright!”
クマさんが いっぱい いっぱい いっぱい クマさんが いっぱい うれしいな ねえ 見て 来た人 みんなに マスコットクマさん プレゼントだって やったあ
Pioneer: “Lots of bears!/Lots, and lots! Lots of bears! It makes me so happy! Hey, look at this! They’re giving away miniature bears to everyone who goes to the exhibit! Hurray!”
NISA: “Lots of bears!/Lots, and lots! Lots of bears! Many bears make me happy! Hey, look at this! They’re giving away souvenir bears to everyone who goes to the exhibit! Hurray!”
Animax: “We’re gonna see the teddy bears! Tons and tons of teddy bears! We’re gonna see the teddies! How cool is that? Hey, take a look! Everyone who goes to the exhibit will get a teddy bear! All right!
Rabi: “Lots of bears! Lots of them! Lots of them! Lots of bears! I’m so happy! Look! Everyone who goes will get a present of their bear mascot! Yay!
Anime Cartoon: “Yes, yes, lots of bears, yes, yes, yes Look at this, you could get a teddy bear gift in the show too. Everybody could be able to get one.”
This subtitle is just dreadful on all accounts. The line starts when Sakura says “Hey, look!” Anime Cartoon appears to have stolen a new edit of Miko’s original translation with a few translation checks applied.
“We spent so much time chasing down an orange bear. It seemed like a good such a idea at the time”
オレンジの雲を 追いかけて あんなに急いで 思い切りなんかに つまづいて 派手に転んだ
Pioneer: “Chasing orange clouds Hurrying up so much I really tripped against something And had a nasty fall”
NISA: “Running after the orange clouds Rushing so much that I don’t know what to say But then she really tripped over something and had a very nasty fall”
Rabi: “Chasing after an orange cloud, going in such a hurry, she tripped and fell grandly as hard as she could.”
Anime Cartoon: “We spent so much time, chasing down an orange bear. It seemed like such a good idea, at the time.”
The first part is a simple mishearing (kumo vs. kuma). The second part… yeah I have no idea. This is from the insert song, Ki ni Naru Aitsu, which is why the subtitles are now in Comic Sans. Animax has not been included, as they did not dub over the song. The whole song was filled with issues like this, but these two lines were the worst offenders.
“Actually, yesterday, Yukito-san came to our house for dinner and… Yukito-san came to our house for dinner and…”
実は 昨日ね― 雪兎さんが うちに/晩ご飯を食べに来てね
Pioneer: “Actually, yesterday… Yukito came to our house yesterday to eat dinner, and…”
NISA: “So, yesterday… Yukito came over to have dinner with us…”
Animax: “So actually… Yukito came over for dinner again yesterday.”
Rabi: “Actually, last night… Yukito came over to have dinner with us.”
Anime Cartoon: “Last night, Yukito-san came over my house to have dinner.”
Copy-Paste error on the first line. The first half is only timed to the audio for “Actually, yesterday”, so it appears for way too short. I am unsure if Anime Cartoon’s missing word was their fault or the original subtitler’s fault.
Episode 58:
Credits: Translated, Subbed, and Timed by DancinHomer; Edited by Yue; #AnimeHeaven on irc.aniverse.com
“You really care for Kero-chan, don’t you? Even now …”
月… クロウさんのこと 本当に好きなんですね 今も ずっと
Pioneer: “Yue… you really do love Mr. Clow, don’t you… You still do…”
NISA: “Yue… you really do love Mr. Clow, don’t you… You still do…”
Animax: “Hey listen… Even at this time, you still care for Clow Reed, don’t you?”
Rabi: “You really like Clow, don’t you? Even now.”
Anime Cartoon: “Yuki-san You really care for Kero ,don’t you ? Even now…”
The translator did not subtitle Sakura saying Yue’s name, then mixed up “Clow-san” and “Kero-chan”, resulting in the entire scene coming off completely different. They had two chances to get this right in the episode and wrote the wrong name both times.
Episode 59:
Credits: Translated, Subbed, and Timed by DancinHomer; Edited by Yue; #AnimeHeaven on irc.aniverse.com
“If you would just calm down and take the time to look back at yourself,”
落ち着いて 自分を見失うことさえなければ あなたは もっと強くなれますよ
Pioneer: “As long as you stay calm, and don’t lose yourself in the moment… you will become much stronger than you are now.”
NISA: “As long as you stay calm, and don’t lose yourself in the moment… you will become much stronger than you are now.”
Animax: “You’ll become much stronger if you just calm down, and concentrate on what you’re doing.”
Rabi: “If you could only settle the things which you had lost sight of, you would become much stronger.”
Anime Cartoon: “You just have to calm down and think about yourself! Then you can do it”
There really should be a second line to complete the thought, but there just isn’t. Anime Cartoon has a completely different translation of the episode.
Bonus
In case you weren’t aware who this episode was released by.
Episode 60:
Credits: Editing by DualSoul and Malechi; Timed by ^Soujiro^; #Asian-Anime @ EFNet
“Are you ok? Kinomoto you’re so oyayaan. What’s oyayaan? Oyayaan is oyayaan. It’s just what it sounds like.” “Because I’m so oyayaan, I should pay more attention to what’s going on around me.”
大丈夫なの？ 木之本さん ぼややんだから ぼ… “ぼややん”って何？ ぼややんは ぼややんよ 言葉どおりの感じよ / 私は ぼややんだから もっと周りをよく見なさいって
Pioneer: “Are you all right? I mean, you’re so spacey, Miss Kinomoto. W-What do you mean by spacey? Spacey is spacey. It’s just like how it sounds.” “It said that I was too spacey, so I should look around more than I do now.”
NISA: “Are you alright? I mean, you’re always dazed, Sakura. Wh-What do you mean by dazed? Dazed is dazed. It’s just like how it sounds.” “It said that I’m in a daze too much, so I should look around more than I do now.”
Animax: “Can you handle it? I mean, you’re pretty ditzy after all. What’s that supposed to mean? Oh, you know what ditzy means. It means you’re kinda flaky.” “She said that I’m flaky and should pay more attention to what’s happening.”
Rabi: “Are you okay? You’re not attentive sometimes. What do you mean ‘not attentive’? Not attentive means not attentive! That’s exactly what it means!” “She said I’m not attentive, so I need to pay more attention to things around me.”
Anime Cartoon: “Are you ok? You look like a dummy. What dummy? Dummy looks is a dummy. No need to say it, you already know.” “She said that I look like a dummy. So she wants me to act a little tougher.”
Mishearing of boyayan (boya + yan). The first three parts are all in a row, then the fourth is during the conclusion of the episode. Anime Cartoon’s translation is completely different this episode, and is significantly worse.
Bonus
Every single other translation has something along the lines of “The only other people you call by their first names are your sisters and me.” I don’t know what could have even happened to result in this line. This was a common occurance for most of Anime Cartoon’s script of this episode, but since I’m trying to focus on the original digitally fansubbed files I have, I’m leaving it at this. This line was just too funny not to include.
Episode 61:
Credits: Text script edited by: Meiling; Text script typed up by: Maria; Subtitled script timed/edited by: Shana-chan
Note: TV source
“This year who should I give christmas presents are to?”
今年のクリスマスプレゼント どんなのにしようかな？
Pioneer: “What should I give as a Christmas gift this year?”
NISA: “What should I give for Christmas presents this year?”
Animax: “What kinds of Christmas presents should I get this year?”
Rabi: “I wonder what I should buy for this year’s Christmas presents.”
This line sets the standard for the rest of the translation quality - the understanding of English is very poor, and the understanding of the source language is not much better.
“Dad really wants a money bag. So he can use it.”
父さん 新しい財布 買うって言ってたぞ 壊れちまったんだとさ
Pioneer: “Dad was saying how he was going to get a new wallet. Apparently his current one broke.”
NISA: “Dad was saying that he was going to get a new wallet. Apparently his current one fell apart.”
Animax: “Well he told me that he needed a new wallet. He said his was broken.
Rabi: “Didn’t Father say he wanted a new wallet? It’s ripping apart.”
The word “money bag” comes up three times in this scene, and the translator commits to it every time. Also, when Sakura asks how much this “money bag” would cost, she’s told that “Its more then you can afford.”
“You dont know how to play the piano. So how did you get that song? Eriol-kun will you play the piano
I want to give that song to somebody! I thought what should I get for the cards? But Eriol-kun was the one who helped me. Pathetic Whats pathetic? I spent a lot of work making that! You cant even play the piano You used your heart instead. Thank you”
さくらは 楽器あんまし得意やないのに― よう弾けたなあ ピアノエヘヘ エリオル君 ピアノ教えて！ さっきの聖歌 弾きたいの！ でも 何とかなったのは片手だけ 半分はエリオル君に 手伝ってもらっちゃった なんや！ “なんや”とは何よ！ 大変だったんだから かなりの上達やないか 心にしみいる ええ演奏やで ありがとう
Pioneer: “Sakura, you’re not good with musical instruments. How did you manage to play the piano? Eriol, teach me how to play the piano. I want to be able to play that hymn! But I only managed to learn one hand. The other half I had Eriol help me out. I see. What do you mean by that!? It was really tough! There’s much improvement here… It’s a good performance that speaks from the heart! Thanks.”
NISA: “Sakura, you’re not good with instruments, so how’d you manage to play the piano? Eriol, teach me how to play the piano!I want to be able to play that hymn! But I only managed to learn one hand. I had Eriol help me with the other half. Oh, I figured. What do you mean by that!? It was really tough! There’s much improvement here. It’s a good performance that speaks from the heart! Thanks.”
Animax: “Music isn’t really your thing, is it? So how did you play the piano so well? Eriol, I want you to teach me how to play that Christmas song! Anyways, I only played one hand, while Eriol was playing the other hand for me. Of course! What do you mean “of course”? It was a difficult piece! Well I’m proud of you anyways. You came up with a special gift from the heart. Why thank you.”
Rabi: “You’re not real good in any instruments, but you played that piano quite well. Eriol, can you teach me? I wanna know how to play that song just now! But I only managed to play with one hand. Eriol played the other hand for me. What? What do you mean by that? It was hard. Well I guess that was pretty good, since you played it with your heart. Thanks.”
I’m not quite sure why the translator chose to discredit Sakura so much to the point of not allowing her to learn to play any of the piano. This episode’s translation was a trainwreck anyways, so really it was just a fitting end to the episode.
Episode 62:
Credits: ABCB Anime Fansubs; Translated, Timed, and Subtitled by Keiichi
“In China, they celebrate with a big dragon, but it’s so big that they have to prepare it for 1 year and 1 day!”
“昔 中国のえらーいお坊さんの 元旦さんっていう人が― １月１日に生まれたからなんだよ”
Pioneer: “They call New Year’s Day “Gantan” because an old wise Chinese monk… named Gantan, was born on January 1.”
NISA: “We call New Year’s Day ‘Gantan’ because of a wise Chinese monk named Gantan. He was born long ago on January 1st, and so people began calling it his day.”
Animax: “The reason why people always say Happy New Year to each other is because a very long time ago there used to be a priest whose name was “Happy”.”
Rabi: “About the New Year… A long time ago there were people in China known as the New Year’s tribe, who were born only on the 1st of January.”
Anime Cartoon: “It is said that on this very day, at China there was something called a very big dragon. There was 1 year and 1 day, so they waited…”
Yamazaki (or Yamasaki in this episode’s translation, as names are very difficult) has returned to torture the translators of this show. My initial thought from reading this line was the Dragon Dance, a big dragon used for celebrations that actually does exist and isn’t a lie. I tried to figure out how long it took to construct one of these dragons, but was unable to figure out anything specific. As a note, Anime Cartoon’s translation has a lot of similarities to Keiichi’s translation (they both use Yamasaki), but is different enough that my initial guess was that one is an edit of another, although I couldn’t figure out which one came first.
“I’m number 70.”
私 75番
Pioneer: “I got #75!”
NISA: “I got number 75!”
Animax: “I got number 75!”
Rabi: “I’m number 75.”
Anime Cartoon: “I got 75.”
Turns out that names aren’t the only difficutl thing in this episode, as numbers seem to be difficult as well. I find it odd that Anime Cartoon got this right and Keiichi didn’t, as two lines before this they wrote the complete nonsense line of “Now, were done talking hurry and choose.”, so now I’m completely lost on if this is an entirely separate translation or a different version of the same base translation.
Bonus
Episode 63:
Credits: Timing by MinakoAya and LinaSana; Translation Revised by LinaSana; Originally translated by ecgurl88@yahoo.com; Typed up by Meiling and edited by Maria
Note: Very poor TV source. This is the only episode in the entire set to have a translated next episode preview.
“Whatever I am about to say you have to listen very carefully. Last time you said the same thing. Don’t care if I’m daydreaming. Also, don’t worry if I sleep. Stop worrying.”
俺は お前がいなくなるのは 絶対に嫌だ 前も言ってたね いくら僕がボーッとしてても 急に行方不明になったりしないよ だから 大丈夫
Pioneer: “I… I don’t ever want you to disappear. You said that before, too. No matter how dazed I can get, I won’t suddenly disappear or anything. So it’s all right.”
NISA: “I… I don’t ever want you to disappear. You said that before, too. No matter how dazed I get, I won’t suddenly disappear or anything. So it’s alright.”
Animax: “Listen. I don’t want you to disappear. You hear me, buddy? You said that before. I don’t think it’s physically possible to disappear just from exhaustion. So no problem!”
Rabi: “I don’t ever want you to leave me! I remember you said it before. Sometimes I look spaced out, but I won’t just disappear all of a sudden. I’m okay.”
This sequence is a callback to episode 52, and in that episode the translator of that episode completely screwed up the scene. The translator for this episode then proceeded to also completely screw up the scene. It is unclear whether Ecgurl88 was influenced by “Argentus”s translation, or if it was a coincidence.
Episode 64:
Credits: Subtitled by KnightAR for #AnimeSPOT @ DALNet
“I just remembered… About snowy mountains… Aren’t they spooky?”
そういえば 雪山の夜といえば… 怪談だよね！
Pioneer: “When you’re on a snow-capped mountain at night… It’s time for scary stories!!”
NISA: “Since we’re on a snowy mountain at night… It’s time for scary stories!”
Animax: “When it’s nighttime in the mountains… It’s ghost story time!”
Rabi: “About an evening in the snowy mountains… There’re gotta be strange tales!”
The translator makes Sakura out as being very scared of mountains.
“Hurry! Everyone, get inside the restaurant! Hurry!”
急げ！ 早くレストハウスに入るんだ！ 早く！
Pioneer: “Hurry! Quickly enter the rest house! Hurry!”
NISA: “Hurry! Everyone into the ski lodge! Hurry!”
Animax: “Okay! I want everyone in the ski lodge! Hurry!”
Rabi: “Hurry up! Hurry into the Rest House! Hurry!”
Mixed up “rest house” レストハウス resutohausu and “restaurant” レストラン resutorann.
Episode 65:
Credits: Subtitled by KnightAR for #AnimeSPOT @ DALNet
Note: Episode was very poorly timed.
"”Meitan te Saigo no Jiken” (End of the Quest)”
「名探偵 最後の事件」
Pioneer: ““Great Detective’s Last Case”…”
NISA: ““Great Detective’s Last Case”…”
Animax: “The Final Case of a PI…”
Rabi: “The Final Case of the Famous Detective.”
They tried to spell out the book name, failed, and got the name of the book entirely wrong. I still haven’t figured out where the word Quest even could have originated from.
“I’ll have to make arrangements.”
そろそろ月が限界だろう
Pioneer: “Yue is about to hit his limit right about now…”
NISA: “Yue is about to hit his limit right now…”
Animax: “Yue’s time is just about up.”
Rabi: “It’s almost time for Yue to reach his limit.”
I don’t quite know what exactly Eriol’s arranging, but poor Yue got cut from this line that was supposed to be about him.
“So Happy! Will be Everyone Tomorrow”
明日 学校で みんなに言おっと！
Pioneer: “I’m going to tell everyone at school tomorrow!”
NISA: “I’m going to tell everyone at school tomorrow!”
Animax: “I can’t wait to tell my classmates tomorrow!”
Rabi: “I’ll get everyone from school tomorrow!”
This is timed as four separate lines that are supposed to appear in order to spell out “Tomorrow everyone will be so happy!”, presumably as a primitive form of Alpha Timing, where different parts of the same line appear at different times to add emphasis. Unfortunately, they actually appear in reverse order, and they disappear halfway through the line due to the aforementioned poor episode timing. The base translation is also just flat out incorrect.
“Sakura and they are going to power-up.”
さくらちゃんたちのほうが パワーアップしちゃうし
Pioneer: “Sakura’s group will be powering up more than us!”
NISA: “Sakura’s group will be more powerful than us!”
Animax: “…and Sakura and the others will get even stronger!”
Rabi: “Sakura’s group is getting a power-up!
This line is included solely because of the snippet “Sakura and they”.
Episode 66:
Credits: N/A
Note: Very poor TV source. No credits are included in the episode
“Are you going through the ‘Milky Way’?”
なになに？ “星の道”入るの？
Pioneer: “What? Are you going to enter the “Path of the Stars”?”
NISA: “Oh? Are you checking out the Path of the Stars?”
Animax: “So Sakura, are you going into Star Land?”
Rabi: “What is it? Are you going inside the Starry Road?”
I decided that I wasn’t a fan of “Milky Way” for “hoshi no michi” while watching the episode.
“Fourth graders coming through!!!”
４名様 ごっ案内！
Pioneer: “4 people coming in!”
NISA: “Four people coming in!”
Animax: “Four customers, this way!”
Rabi: “Here you go, a trip for the four of you!!”
Anime Cartoon: “5th graders coming through!!!”
The main cast are not fourth graders at this point in the series. They are at the beginning, but then the school year ends and they start fifth grade. The version that Anime Cartoon stole tried to fix this problem, but still didn’t get to the correct result. This new version is still obviously an error because the fourth person is Yukito, who is very much not an elementary schooler.
Episode 67:
Credits: Edited by DualSoul; Timed by ^Soujiro^; #Asian-Anime@EFNet; Raws thanks to sisko, Sent by Kelvin
“I just woke up. Would you like me to get the newspaper?”
日直だし 目 覚めちゃったから… 新聞 ここ置いとくね
Pioneer: I have daily chores today, and I just woke up, so… I’ll leave the newspaper right here.
NISA: I’m doing the daily report today, and I just woke up, so… I’ll leave the newspaper right here.
Animax: I woke up early because I’m on duty. I’ll leave your newspaper here.
Rabi: I’m on duty… And I happened to be awake already. I’ll leave the newspaper here, okay?
If you look closely at the bottom right of the screen, you can see that she is already holding the newspaper. The other half of the line got lost along the way as well.
“Yuki, while eating lunch, when you had finished yours and were still hungry, what did I do? You gave me all of yours. It’s the same thing. Don’t worry about it anymore, ok?”
ゆき もし ゆきが 弁当持っててな それを食おうとした時 腹減って 死にそうになった 俺がやってきたら その弁当 どうする？ 桃矢に 全部渡す 俺も そうしただけだ これ以上 そのこと気にすると 怒るぞ
Pioneer: “Yuki… if you had a lunch… and when you were about to eat it, I arrived there, almost starving to death… what would you do with that lunch? I’d give it all to you, Toya. That’s just what I did. If you worry about that any more, I’ll be mad at you.”
NISA: “Yuki… if you had a lunch… and when you were about to eat it, I arrived there, almost starving to death… what would you do with that lunch? I’d give it all to you, Toya. That’s just what I did. Stop worrying about that, or I’ll be mad at you.”
Animax: “Yuki… say you’d made yourself some lunch, and just when you were about to eat it, I came along, and was dying from starvation. What would you do with it? I’d give it all to you. Well that’s what I did for you. And if you’ll bring it up again, I’ll have to kill you.”
Rabi: “Yuki, what if you brought your lunch and were about to eat it, and then you noticed I was hungry to death. What will you do with your lunch? I’ll give it all to you. I was just doing the same thing.”
Poor Touya’s analogy got completely mangled in the translation to the point of conveying almost nothing to do with what he originally said.
Bonus
I’m very happy for you Kelvin.
Episode 68:
Credits: Edited by Malechi; Timed by ^Soujiro^; #Asian-Anime@EFNet
“I don’t want them to forget about you…”
私 ケロちゃんや ユエさんのこと― クロウさんに負けないくらい 大好きです
Pioneer: “I really like Kero and Yue… my feelings for them won’t lose against yours, Mr. Clow!”
NISA: “I really like Kero and Yue. My feelings for them are as strong as yours, Mr. Clow!”
Animax: “I love Kero and Yue as much as you do! But it doesn’t matter because I’m not you…”
Rabi: “I love them! Kero, Yue, and the cards too…”
Asian-Anime’s line seems to have very little to do with what Sakura is saying here, although if I’m being honest I don’t really like any of these lines a ton.
“When you’re down and lost, you can poke your way out.”
いつしか めくるめく日日 重ね続けた Let down
Pioneer: “Before I knew it, days went by And kept piling up LET DOWN”
NISA: “Before I knew it, the days passed by me and kept piling up… Let Down!”
Rabi: “Before we realized, the never-ending days kept piling at us. Let down!”
Pretty average fare for the insert songs in this show, around half of the lyrics were misheard. This was just the most interesting mistake they made with it. Once again, Animax just included the original Japanese song.
Episode 69:
Credits: Edited by youli; Timed by ^Soujiro^; #Asian-Anime@EFnet
“Sakura Kero-chan!”
ケロちゃん！
Pioneer: “Kero!”
NISA: “Kero!”
Animax: “Kero!”
Rabi: “Kero!”
A simple copy-paste error, but this could be seen as a sign that the quality of this episode was going to be lower than the other Asian-Anime episodes.
“It’s not Sakura’s fault! She’s still young!”
さくらのせいやない！ 今までは ちょっと油断しとっただけや
Pioneer: “It’s not Sakura’s fault! Until now, I’ve just been caught off guard!”
NISA: “It’s not Sakura’s fault! I was just caught off guard up till now!”
Animax: “It’s not her fault! I’ve been just taken by surprise, that’s all!”
Rabi: “It’s not Sakura’s fault! We’ve just been a little careless up until now!”
Not quite sure how the translator came to the conclusion they did.
“It seems they’re a bit stronger than us… To protect their mistress…”
力は私たちのほうが 上なんだけどね 主を思う心でしょう
Pioneer: “I believe we are stronger power-wise. It must be the power of the heart that believes in their owner.”
NISA: “Interesting… Even though our power should be greater… It must be from their belief in their master.”
Animax: “That’s odd, I thought you were powerful than those losers were. That was desperation to see their master.”
Rabi: “Their powers are above us. Their hearts are concern about their mistress.”
I’m pretty sure that the official translation is correct here and the unofficial takes are wrong, although I’m not confident. Even if it isn’t, Asian-Anime loses a part of the second half of the line anyways.
“At this rate, everyone will fall asleep…”
このままじゃ みんな 眠ったままになっちゃう
Pioneer: “At this rate, everyone will stay asleep!”
NISA: “At this rate, everyone will stay asleep!”
Animax: “Unless I do something, everyone’s going to keep sleeping forever!”
Rabi: “At this rate, everyone will be asleep like this forever…”
No, I think everyone already has fallen asleep, and they’ve been asleep for basically the entire episode.
“NOO! NO, I WON’T LET YOU. If I can’t do it I’ll never see neither of you again…nooo….”
ダメ！ ダメだよ！ もし変えられなかったら― もう二度とケロちゃんにも ユエさんにも会えなくなっちゃう！
Pioneer: “You can’t!! You can’t! If I can’t change them, I will never be able to see kero and Yue again!!”
NISA: “No! No! If I can’t change them, I’ll never get to see Kero or Yue again!”
Animax: “No way! That’s just not fair! If I can’t transform the cards, I’ll never be able to see Kero or Yue again!”
Rabi: “No!! I won’t let you! If I can’t change the cards, then I won’t be able to see Kero and Yue ever again!”
I’ll never see neither of them again. The translator for this episode also seemed to appreciate the value of the Caps Lock key on their keyboard.
Episode 70:
Credits: Card Captor Sakura Fansub Project; Translated by Miko; Timed and subbed by Julie Goldstein
Notes: TV source. Contains 5 additional minutes of live action footage featuring Iwao Junko, the voice actress for Tomoyo.
“The cards live off of the magic of their master. Without Clow Reed to support them, they would have become regular cards. You have saved them with your magic. And so…”
主が変わったあとも― クロウカードが 活動し続けるためには― 新しい主の力で 生まれ変わらなければなりません クロウの残した魔力で しばらくは使えますが― やがて ただのカードに なってしまいます けれど あなたの初期の魔力では 理由もなくカードを 次々と変えていくのは危険でした だから…
Pioneer: “For Clow Cards to continue their activity after change of ownership… they must be reborn under the new master’s powers. You can use the Cards for a while using the magical powers left behind by Clow… but after a while, they will turn back into ordinary cards. However, with your inital level of magical powers… it was dangerous for you to change the Cards without any particular reason. That is why…”
NISA: “In order for the Clow Cards to survive after a change of ownership… they must be reborn from the new master’s powers. You can use the cards for a while using the magical power left behind by Clow… but after a while, they would turn back into ordinary cards. However, with your initial level of magical power… it was dangerous for you to change the cards without any particular reason. That is why…”
Animax: “Well, you became their new master, right? In order for the cards to continue working, they all had to be transformed by the new master’s own powers. Although they can be used for a short time with my magic, they become nothing more than simple cards. But early on, your powers weren’t strong enough to change all the cards at once. That would have been far too dangerous a task for you, so…”
Rabi: “With the cards under the new mistress, in order for them to remain active, they have to be reborn under the power of the new mistress. Clow’s power left in them will run out, and soon they will become ordinary cards. But with your magic in the early stage, it is dangerous to just change the cards one after another with no reason. So…”
The theme of this episode seemed to be these really long run-on subtitles that in the end never really conveyed the final meaning they were supposed to. This one is so long that you can see the captial W actually get cut off on the left side of the screen.
“Eriol decided that this was the best way. We didn’t know what the new card mistress was like and this would work no matter what. Right, Sakura-chan?”
エリオルが 正体明かして それで本当に うまくいったと思う？ 誰が起こしているか 分かんないからこそ頑張ったんだし カード全部 変えられたんでしょ？ ねえ？ さくらちゃん
Pioneer: “Do you think that it really would have gone well… if Eriol had revealed who he was? She did her best because she didn’t know who was causing the incidents… and that was why she was able to change all the cards! Right, Sakura?”
NISA: “Do you think that it really would have gone well if Eriol had revealed who he was? She did her best because she didn’t know who was causing the incidents… and that’s why she managed to change all the cards! Right, Sakura?”
Animax: “Do you think, that if Eriol had revealed his true self, things would have gone so well? Sakura tried as hard as she could to transform all the cards because she didn’t know what was happening! Isn’t that right, Sakura?”
Rabi: “If Eriol has shown himself, do you really think things would have gone as well? Not knowing who was causing these things to happen, she did her best, and changed all her cards. Isn’t that right, Sakura?”
Exhibit B of above, not a clue where “this would work no matter what” came from.
Bonus
“aa!” (ああっ！). Immediately after this, the eyecatch from the top of this page appears, informing the viewer that if you do not like the subber’s humor, then you should not watch their subs.
“Why is Ms. Mizuki/Mizuki-sensei…?”
Thank you Julie, I don’t know where I would be without your insight into this scene.
I might not have the usual five other translations to cross-check against, but I don’t think that this is an accurate translation of what she said.
Opening and Ending
With the exception of #Asian-Anime, who stole Rabi’s translations of the opening and ending, all other groups working on the show who included song translations pasted in the same song translations, with no more than a couple minor edits between each one. I am unsure who translated the opening theme, and the ending theme in 63 is credited to Umi-chan, but that’s all I know. This is unfortunate, as the provided song translations were pretty poor.
“But with creation, people don’t die. They are hidden.”
でも想像もしないもの 隠れてるはず
Pioneer: “But something that I can’t imagine must be hidden inside”
NISA: “There will always be things hidden inside that cannot be imagined”
Rabi: “But there must be something hidden, which I can’t even imagine.”
My understanding of what happened here is that the translator, unable to read the kanji, misparsed souzou(Imagination) as souzou(Creation by God), then followed it up by misparsing “shinai mono” as “shi nai mono” (thing don’t die), which I was told isn’t even valid Japanese.
きっと きっと 驚くくらい
“Surely, surely, it will be enough to make that sound.”
Pioneer: “I’m sure, doubtless, so much that you’d be surprised”
NISA: “So much, so much You’ll be amazed without a doubt”
Rabi: “surely, surely, enough to surprise me.”
I never did manage to figure out what they were mishearing this as, even after asking around. My best guess ended up being that they misheard “odoroku” as “oto????” with oto being sound.
“Set out to the rising city of candy.”
雨上がりの街へと出かけよう
Pioneer: “Let’s head out to the town after the rain”
NISA: “Let’s go out on the town while it’s wet after the rain”
Rabi: “I think I’ll go into town after the rain lets up”
I’m guessing that this song was also translated either by ear or without the ability to read kanji, as the translator somehow misparsed ame (rain) as ame (hard candy).
Ah パステルの陽射しに 幸せもアクビしてる ゆっくりと歩きましょ
“Ah, the pastel of the sunlight On a bad day brings happiness”
Pioneer: “Ah, to the pastel rays of the sun Even happiness is yawning Let’s walk slowly”
NISA: “Ah, even happiness is drowsy from the pastel-colored sunlight Let us just wander around”
Rabi: “Ah, even happiness is yawning at the pastel sunlight. Let’s walk slowly together.”
With the exception of episode 63, which included the additional line “I slowly walk around, mischeviously”, every episode with song translations had the second half of the first line timed to the second line, with the second line’s translation being skipped entirely.
Conclusion:
The digital fansubs for this show are not good. I never expected them to be good, and I would have been surprised if they were. However, they’re still a fascinating time capsule into a very different time. Most of these episodes were produced by teams of one to two people with a script they found somewhere online, trying to do a service for the community well before digital fansubbing had caught on, and I have nothing but respect for anyone who worked on this show during this time. I hope that you, the reader, enjoyed seeing all of these translation inaccuracies and oddities as much as I enjoyed finding them out for myself, and I implore you to look at the translations yourself if you are interested in seeing any other oddities that were excluded from this, or to even try to find the lines that the old fansubs managed to pull off better than the official releases did. If you made it this far, thank you for reading this.
Also, if you have any files related to this show that I do not, or know anything that I do not, please reach out to me. I know there are alternate copies of a bunch of these episodes, and I would love to see them to compare.
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