In August of 1999, Canadian-based Nelvana Limited announced the acquisition of the North American TV and video distribution and merchandise licensing rights to Card Captor Sakura. Under the licensing agreement, Nelvana was set to serve as the North American television and home video distributor and the merchandise licensing agent for the series.

In the press release found on the Canadian Newswire, Michael Hirsh, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Nelvana Limited said, "Cardcaptor has all the elements of a highly-visible and successful merchandising brand. Nelvana believes the series promises to generate substantial ancillary revenue from related game products. Like Pokemon, Cardcaptor is filled with an unlimited cast of collectible card, toy and magazine characters that appeal to children and pre-teens. We are optimistic the series has strong potential to build our merchandising revenues and profits."

Despite the urge for Nelvana to turn Cardcaptor into the next Pokemon, the first step was to get the show on the airwaves. Nelvana began production of the English dub and started planning to get the show into a syndicated arena. For months the rumors swirled as people speculated as to where Cardcaptors would land.

With that issue brewing, the inevitable fan reactions to the upcoming dub release began to surface. What would have to be done to Card Captor Sakura to make Cardcaptors work on North American television? The first notable item of debate was the decision to rename characters to something that the younger generations could pronounce better. Several different names had been tossed around and one of the major decisions was to use "Nikki" (or any of the many alternate spellings) as a replacement for Sakura. Fans of the original Japanese series immediately reacted to the name changes and began to petition, email and voice their opinions on the matter. After months of fan debate and distaste for the proposed changes, Nelvana finally came out with a final ruling on the issue. Sakura would remain, but several of the other names would be changed. A partial victory was won by the fans and their beloved Sakura would keep her Japanese name. To give a rundown on the name changes, Nelvana listed the changes in the official Cardcaptors website. Here's the list:

Sakura Avalon was originally Sakura Kinomoto
Li Showron was originally Shaolan Li
Keroberos (Kero)is unchanged
Madison Taylor was orginally Tomoyo Daidoji
Tori Avalon was originally Kinomoto Toya
Julian Star was originally Yukito Tsukishiro
Meilin Rae was originally Meilin Li
Aiden Avalon was originally Fujitaka Kinomoto
Natasha Avalon was originally Nadesiko Kinomoto
Layla Mackenzie was originally Kaho Mizuki
Rita was originally Rika
Nikki was originally Naoko
Chelsea was originally Chiharu
Zachary was originally Takashi

(Editor's Sidenote: You'll notice that Nikki was still used. I wonder what Naoko's name would have been had Sakura become Nikki.) Name changes for anime on broadcast television seem to be inevitable with the recent explosion of anime coming to television. Good or bad, the show goes on. Amidst the name debate, in April 2000, the official word on a network was given and Cardcaptors was set to appear in October on Kids' WB!.

Then in May 2000, Sakura and crew started to appear during commercial breaks on Kids' WB!. Warner Bros. began their publicity run for a June premiere of Cardcaptors, directly contradicting the October release information on Nelvana's website. The confusion was finally cleared up on June 17th as Kids' WB! aired the first episode of the dubbed Cardcaptors during its Saturday morning cartoon block.

Did the anime community get what they wanted? Some say yes, some say no. For those that can't stomach the dubbed version, there is still hope. Pioneer Entertainment will be releasing the series, uncut in it's original form and subtitled. The first DVD and VHS of the subbed Card Captor Sakura is scheduled to hit the shelves in mid-September. Whether you like the original story or if you're a new Sakura convert, one of the hottest things from Japanese television is finally here. Sakura has quite a journey ahead of her. Fun, adventure, and we all can be part of it. So, sit down on a Saturday morning or grab that DVD and join in on the fight to save the world from the powers of the Clow Cards. Card Captor Sakura is summoning you...

RELEASE!