#Shinomoto Akiho

[meimi-haneoka]

I've been growing cosmos flowers from scratch, this year ✨🥰

These are the Sulphureus cultivar, and it seems they're the ones depicted in the color page of chapter 61 of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card ✨ (yellow and orange types are almost always Sulphureus ones)

These flowers aren't common at all here, so it's been interesting to learn all about their care and watch them grow. I have other kinds in other colors that are about to bloom, too ✨

Ah, of course the Akiho plushie is handmade by me 😄💖

[tsubasaclones]

[lightaflametoburnmethrough]

The rollcake scene from ep 17 aired today, May 6th.

The anime follows the manga pretty closely with some nice little additions. Like this exchange:

Where we actually get to see Kaito accept the gift with his own hands.

Before that, look at his expression. How even when he’s caught by surprise, his eyes are always so soft and unguarded when they’re looking at Akiho.

And that gentleness carries over into how he handles her gift as well.

He’s likely thinking ‘Akiho-san made this (for me), I must be careful with it’ on top of how he’s already being careful to not even let his fingers touch hers. Because he respects her and that would be unprofessional. That would cross the line he knows not to cross <- this is a crucial point to keep in mind.

Then the way Akiho goes from nervous to overjoyed once he takes the box because this is the first thing she’s ever made for anyone.

And not just anyone but a special someone. Her special someone.

So of course, she’d be anxious over whether he would accept it. Of course, she’d be so thrilled when he did.

They didn’t even start eating yet but she’s already so happy that she was able to take one step closer in conveying her feelings to him and that he didn’t reject her.

Then the part where the scene diverges for a moment from canon. Unlike in the manga, where Akiho quickly runs away out of shyness, here she doesn’t have an excuse to hide behind.

Instead, she starts criticizing herself again. Apologizing for “saying something weird” when she did nothing of the sort.

As pointed out in the previous episode (and in chapter 60), it’s obvious that Kaito doesn’t like it when Akiho puts herself down.

Even though she really stunned him speechless this time with her request for him to laugh more, he’s already thinking of what to say to refute these negative thoughts about herself.

But unlike how he usually tries to reassure her (gently and subtly), this time he’s significantly more forward with his approach.

He puts a halt to her downward spiral by placing his hand over hers, crossing the line he has been so careful not to all this time.

He outright says to her there’s no need for her to apologize, that she didn’t do anything wrong.

And for the first time, he dares to be honest with his feelings for her, crossing that line again.

It’s just one line. But with that one line, Kaito lays himself bare before Akiho. He’s not playing the part of her servant, polite and considerate but always at an arm’s length.

He’s being himself for once, his true personal self.

And his true self wants Akiho to know how happy she’s made him.

Just with her simple gesture and her words to see him smile more, he knows how much she appreciates him. How much she cares about him.

Which is the biggest deal for Kaito because nobody has ever cared about him before. He had always been treated as a thing to be ordered around and used by others.

So to hear something so kind from the person he loves most…it makes him want to respond to that.

It seems anime!Kaito wants to reciprocate in what little way he will allow himself to (he’s staring so deeply and intently into her eyes, letting them say what he can’t) before the inevitable where he would have to separate himself from Akiho in order to save her.

There’s not enough time left for him to enjoy being with her, to show her how grateful he is for her presence in his life. He knows there are only a few chances to do that and this moment is one of them. It has to be now because if not now, then it’s never.

Even though he puts her to sleep shortly after to bar her off from inquiring further. Even though he thinks she will won’t remember him after he rewrites everyone’s memories and erases himself so telling her these feelings might’ve been pointless…he still wanted to let Akiho know at least once before she forgets.

That she made him feel loved and taught him how to love someone in return.

And that’s the greatest gift anyone can receive.

[muthaz-rapapa]

~ SEPTEMBER 18TH ~ 誕生日おめでとう, 秋穂！ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AKIHO! 🐇🌾👑

[odorareicons]

[girl-of-ink]

Watching ccs clear card & tbh, considering syaosaku only got together in the prologue like 4 episodes ago, i really wasn't expecting Sakura to immediately crush on the new girl this hard lmao

[koushirouizumi]

{'What is "Happiness"...??'} (TO "YOU"?)

"Chi perso-com..." ("Yeah") "Chi is NOT HUMAN." ("Yeah")

"Can't do SOME THINGS..."

{"YEAH."}

[captainstrawberrywings]

Graffart has had another collab and this time it Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Edition

[kikyocaps]

[kuro93]

Card Captor Sakura Clear Card ~ 2023 Schedule Book ~ Official Art by CLAMP ~ Part 4 ♥

HD Version here 1 | 2 | 3

Scanned by KuRo93

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[who-do-i-know-this-man-s3]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[meimi-haneoka]

[tsubasaclones]

clamp u gave me this timeline nonsense now you have to deal with the consequences of your actions (they will always be siblings to me and you can never take it away)

[lightaflametoburnmethrough]

It's October 31st which means the anniversary of chapter 48 where

✨🌕 AKIHO 💞CONFESSES💞 TO KAITO BENEATH THE FULL MOON 🌕✨

...yea 😄 so I'm here to celebrate all 6 beautiful pages of it with ridiculous commentary 😂

Starting with Akiho waking up from her dream.

Poor baby, she's so shaken up 🥺 What’s the first thing she does?

Go to the bathroom? Or head to the kitchen to get a glass of water and then drop back into bed to try and fall asleep again?

Noooooooo~

Because she’s a ✨Bungaku Shoujo✨ (Literature Girl~) with a fancy ass bed that has a giant canopy over it. And her room even has French doors (?? I know nothing about doors, don’t come at me) that lead out into the backyard so DUH, of course she’s gonna get up to walk into the friggin’ garden like the main heroine in a romance novel!

To do what?

Why, to search for her destiny!

To look for 💖LOOOOOOOOOVE 💖

For 🎶HER ONLY ONE~ ONLY ONEEEEEE~🎶 🎤😫✨

And there he is, as destiny ordered~ 🤭

Leaves gently blowing around while Kaito stands there in his flowy robe (#pajamasareromantic) against that impossibly stunning backdrop, aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh~ 😍

…ok, real talk for a minute. How the hell did the moon go from THAT size ↗️ to THAAAAAT ↖️ size??? 😳!!!!!

Like, now I can’t help but imagine this silly little scenario happening between Kaito and the 🌕 before Akiho arrived.

The 🌕 is all concerned, asking him “bro, you okay? you’ve been standing there for hours, what’s botherin’ you?”

But Kaito just stares up at the sky the entire time, annoyingly “…………” and the 🌕 is probably so pissed off 💢 by his silence that when Akiho appears and Kaito ✨HANDSOMELY✨ turns around to greet her, the big rock gets so ecstatic (“OMG, A CUTE GIRL, YAY!” 🤩) that it zooooms in on them to hear their conversation better.

Because the 🌕 has seen it all, y’know, so it knows this vibe.

It knows that tonight, ❤️ F E E L I N G S ❤️ will be in the air.

Nevermind that there’s probably massive flooding occuring somewhere in the world because it suddenly got so close to the earth and the high tides are going crazy, the 🌕 WANTS to hear someone say “I love you” tonight, goddamnit, and it’s betting on the girl!

Anyways, Kaito casually asks “Is something the matter?”

whaddaya mean “is something the matter?”, you doofus 😒

A girl is out of bed in the middle of night and strolling through the grass. Something’s got to be the matter! 🙄

But ohhh, Akiho is so cute 🥺 She sees Kaito and his gorgeous smile, illuminated by moonlight, and her heart goes ドキドキ！���

She forgets all about her dream at the sight of him and that’s such a heartwarming thought cuz even though she’s shy and nervous around the guy she loves, just being near him is enough to make her forget her troubles 🥰

And because he’s out here in the dead of night as well, she wants to know if it’s the same for him. Why isn’t he in bed? Why can’t he sleep?

But Kaito is cryptic as always with his “maybe”s and “I suppose so”s.

He smiles like it’s no big deal, answers in a way that says “I’m fine (so don’t ask me anymore, I won’t tell a thing)” and hopes that’ll be the end of any further inquiry into any interest in him.

Except Akiho isn’t the type to back down, at least when it comes to him.

She doesn’t need the wind to tell her “he never went to bed, he didn’t sleep a wink”. She doesn’t need magic to see past his mask. His hiding tricks don’t work on her eyes like the way he fools everybody else.

So she tells it to him straight.

“Kaito-san, your face looks awfully pale” with those oh so worried eyes 🥺 because she wants him to know how much she cares for his well-being.

But he immediately looks away, as expected, because Kaito doesn’t think he’s worth caring about. He deflects her concern by blaming it on the moonlight 🌕-chan goes “アーン⁉︎” (ʘ言ʘ 💢)

Which only serves to make Akiho more worried because “Why are you bullshitting me? 🥺”

And 🌕-chan: “Why are you bullshitting her?!” (ʘ言ʘ 💢)

But even that is not enough to deter Akiho.

Alright, he doesn’t want to talk about it, eh?

Fine then, she’s not going to force him to. That’s not her aim here.

All she wants is for Kaito to be okay. She knows something is bothering him but if he doesn’t feel comfortable to share his problems with her, if she can’t solve it on her own at the moment, then she’ll just do the next best thing.

She’ll help distract him from it, make him feel better like he always does for her.

“Can we walk a little? Can you talk with me a little…” she requests of him.

She takes a deep breath for what she’s about say next (“Sailor Moon お月様, please give me courage!”)…

And confesses to him:

Because the moon is very beautiful! (Because I love you!)

It’s interesting because these are the only words throughout the whole scene that has double quotations marks ( 『 』 ) around it.

So it’s not only a reference to the poetic meaning behind the phrase but also an indication that the words being said are special in nature and should be viewed as such.

In the same manner as how Akiho and Kaito shared their true names in the final chapter, Akiho’s “the moon is very beautiful” is presented this way so that the readers can visually see how important these words are.

“Here are my feelings. I’m giving them to you. Will you accept them? Will you accept my love?”

Akiho has exposed her heart to the person most important to her.

Her blushing face tells everything about how much she truly means what she said.

But what is Kaito’s reaction?

on another note, 🌕-chan went into hiding cuz Akiho called it “very pretty” and made it shy 🙈💗

He’s definitely surprised…and it’s possible he can totally see how red Akiho’s face is despite the dark.

Which would imply that he does understand what she just expressed to him.

But at this point in the narrative, it was still uncertain. If he didn’t know, then he didn’t.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case since he said the same phrase back to Akiho later in the epilogue…which again suggests that he did know. The entire time, he did know what “the moon is beautiful” meant…he just pretended not to.

It’s rather frustrating but at the same time, understandable given his circumstances. After all, more than feelings, more than reciprocation, Akiho’s life was what Kaito considered the most important thing to him. It made sense why he would prioritize that above anything else.

But even so, Kaito has never mistreated any of Akiho’s feelings.

He may have misinterpreted what happiness meant for her and he did make mistakes but never, not once, has he ever deceived her with his kindness or cruelly trampled over of her heart.

He simply couldn’t accept her feelings in that moment. Not completely, anyways, because it wasn’t the right time and he (they) wasn’t in the right place.

Yet it’s so obvious he wanted to treasure her like she was the most precious person in the world because to him, she is THE most important one. That’s why he can never refuse her wish. That’s why his initial response was “if it pleases you, Akiho-san, (then I’d be happy as well).”

Eventually, he would acknowledge his own feelings. Eventually, he would be able to say to her “the moon is very beautiful” (“I love you”) once the worst was behind them and they were safe and together again.

But for now, the fact that Kaito chose not to immediately answer showed how greatly he cared for Akiho and wanted to care for her up until the very end.

Because you’re so dear, oh so dear to me, I can never deny what makes you happy.

Because as long as it’s Akiho, Kaito will never reject her.

He can never reject the feelings of the person he loves most.

[muthaz-rapapa]

🐰❔

Extras:

[hakonohanayome]

Cardcaptor Sakura: Happiness Memories