Cardcaptors 2: Unexpected Find, An (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Character Notes-Clow Cards Notes-The Story Easter Egg-Kero's Corner
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	60:12 (Case: 70)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Morio Asaka
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$24.95	Music	Jack Lenz Dave Dore

    The series is off and running now, so we don't get any long and boring introductions. This volume contains three episodes, each being the story of the capture of a card (or cards). The episodes are:

• An Unexpected Find - Sakura finds two Clow cards while cleaning the house; she's distracted, and the cards manage to escape, making her task of recapturing them more difficult
• Trouble at Twin Bells - Twin Bells is a new toy shop, selling stuffed toys that Sakura and her friends like a lot. But something strange is happening with the toys...
• Seeing is Believing - Sakura's friend Nikki sees something really odd in the woods - all the girls investigate

    These episodes are good healthy fun, not as sickly sweet as you might fear, but generally cheerful. I don't imagine parents objecting to their children seeing these. Yet, once again, this disc is rated PG for "supernatural theme" - don't let that put you off buying it for children.

    The different Clow cards have different personalities - the Wood card is gentle, the Rain card is mischievous, the Jump card is belligerent...

    Sakura gets to wear some impressive battle costumes (as crafted for her by her friend Madison) - one of them makes her look like a bunny rabbit, but the other two are a bit more respecting of her dignity. I do like the way that Kero gets to wear a small echo of her costume sometimes.

    Kero's Corner, at the end of each episode, comments on something that happened in each episode, and on Sakura's costumes. Not a lot of hammering home of morals in this volume, though - possibly because Sakura is well-behaved. She's shown cleaning the house, and helping tidy up a toy shop. It can't hurt to show children stories that have children acting politely, responsibly, and helpfully.

    We start to meet more of Sakura's friends - Chelsea, who collects stuffed animals, and Nikki. As we get to know them, they are easy to tell apart by hairstyle (fortunate, because they are all in the same school uniform). We also get a peek into Sakura's past, at her late mother.

    Like Volume 1, the episodes are set up to play one after the other. We get the opening credits before the first one, and the closing credits after the last one. Anime fans don't approve of this, but I think it's appropriate for children - we don't want them getting bored in the middle. It is nice to see that some of the extras are different from the previous volume.

Video

    These are episodes of TV animation, so it is unsurprising that they are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and consequently are not 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is sharp and clear. Being animation, there's no sensible assessment of shadow detail. There's no low level noise. There's no edge enhancement, but all the animated objects have black edges anyway.

    Colour is excellent. Vivid colours (including the battle costumes) predominate. This is pleasant to look at. 

    There is some aliasing (unsurprising for animation with black outlines), but it is never particularly distracting. There are a few tiny film artefacts, and one hair at 28:37. There a moment or two of MPEG shimmer on a background. Generally speaking, this is a clean and clear transfer.

    Subtitles are not provided - as discussed in the review of the first volume, this is because the subtitles don't match the editing of this version.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered. Thus, there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is exactly one soundtrack - English in Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround-encoded. Can you guess what I listened to?

    Dialogue is easy to understand. Audio sync is just as difficult to assess as for any other animation.

    The score is credited to Jack Lenz (for Downright Adagio), but the theme song is by Dave Dore. The music is pleasant to listen to - better than average for a children's series.

    The soundtrack is not surround-encoded, so there's no signal to the surrounds or subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is animated, with music. The music is a touch too loud for my tastes - the regular soundtrack is quieter.

Character Profiles

    I'm pleased to see that we get different profiles from the first volume. I look forward to seeing what profiles we get on the next volume.

• Nikki - a classmate of Sakura
• Natasha - Sakura's mother
• Chelsea - a classmate of Sakura

Clow Card Profiles

    A short description of each of the Clow Cards captured in this volume:

• Wood
• Rain
• Jump
• Illusion

The Story Outline

    This is the same as on the previous volume - not surprising, given that it is the background story to the series.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    This is complicated. Please refer to my review of the first volume for the explanation of the relationship between the version we get, and the two versions available in Region 1. Suffice it to say here that this disc is not directly comparable to either of the R1 versions.

    An entertaining series, presented nicely on DVD, even if we do get only three episodes per disc.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is fine.

    The extras are reasonable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall