#So is this CCS Syaoran? (Unlikely) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

harukirai · 1 year

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Queer history of Final Fantasy

I am replaying all the old final fantasies(mostly psp psone releases), first time with english localization and not the original jp.

Now i get it.

It all make sense now.

I couldn't understand the wave of "why shove the gays in our face" backlash of 16(even though, the non homophobic felt it was lacking since they didn't want to 'push it in yall face'). Like apperantly moat of the implication or straight up fruity moments in the old game was completely removed, or changed to the point of it being a 'silly thing'.

So lets clarify -

*Cecil(iv), your homeboy- an Non-binary (language is the best indication, but yeah i think it was a decision made for both female and male players to be able to relate to them, but yeah funny outcome non the less)

*Bartz(v)- outright bisexual, they didnt even hide it- next person on this list gonna make it make sense.

*faris(v)- an ftm transgender( at least in the original version, i know in some new iterations they scrapped the whole concept, but left it in in others?)- mainly speak about himself with (ore/boku- which is conventionally usally by male speakers), after finding out soem of the cast either use a female pronounce on him, but bartz constantly either avoid it or use male pronounce(or the nonbinary version which is usually reffered to kidz) but yeah, bartz was crushing on faris where he thought he was a cis male and unlike the other guy didnt shy away.

Lets jump a bit to 8-

Irvine(viii)- even though considered very handsome to the point he could get with any girl hed want, was even flirted with by selphie i think i need to remember, but he usually brush it off.

If anything he is either asexual, or gay(its very subtle, but its what called queer coding, and well see that allot from now on cause japan caught up to westerns norm on media)

Quina Quen (ix)- literally, a nonbinary- but i think they kept it in eng as well cause they are not human, but like black mages they have no sex, but unlike black mages they are 'genderless' and dont care for human norms.

Kuja(ix)- either gay/intersex/both.

Look at him.

Seriously that character confused a whole generation sexuality.

Like sephiroth, but unlike sephiroth he also have effeminate mannerisms, and until it was revealed by text it wasnt so obvious.sephiroth in jp have a confusing language because he himself is possed by jenova, so evem though i love this headcanon, sephiroth isnt trans actually.

Auron(x)- ahh yes, your favourite broody guy and probably where im gonna get tons of hate.

Auron is very subtle, but once you notice it its hard to deny.

I think Auron is gay, unlike jecht or braska- he did not have kids, denied arranged marriage, and followed jecht to dream zanarken just to save jecht only son- it was pretty obvious that auron loved jecht. He also loved braska but not as much, and it shows- that for auron it was more than friendship. You can see it with his attitude towards yuna vs tidus- with yuna he is nicer, politer. Liem you act when you babysit your friends /cousins child.

But to tidus, he is a full father figure.In their journey together they grow, and i think if he wasnt the boy of the man he loved he wouldn't treat tidus as his own. With all the scoldinngs in mind.

Paine(X-2)- qlmost forgot her, but yeah she's pretty gay for riku

I dont remember much though because if the mission structure of the game.

Larsa(xii) - ohh i see you boy, i see u. He is sus as hell. He is a kid so its pretty innocent(and relatable to us queer kidz)

Its pretty obvios that he is crushing on basch, innocently though. I know some ppl who shipped him with penelo, but canonically by spinoffs at least she and vann are an item.

Also they made sure it was obvious cause japan have this thing that a young character is crushing on a teacher,mentor , older characters in general(aka cc sakura- her friend crushing on a teacher, syaoran & sakura crushing on yukito, also happens in tons of pop culture media at that time, so im not surprised, but im happy this time its one sided, THANK GOD)

But yeah if you reached the ending its pretty obvious.

Fang & vanille(xiii)- the first lesbians couple! Terra(VI) was supposed to be the first but they were afraid it will make her less marketable so they scrapped her gf. They made them clear, but at the same time they tried to make sure pple wont be fetishizing them(they tried, at least).

I want to explain their story more but i think ill mess it up since i tend to mix up 13's lacie, falcie and all that jazz.

So ill just say that basically there are 2 world in 13, pulse and cacoon. Pulse is basically earth and cacoon is the moon. There is a god for each world called a falcie.

Few of them but ine for each major ones. Our main gand from cacoon, branded by a falcie to be slaves(lacie) vanille and fang are from pulse, and slaves of pulse lacie, so basically they are with the task of creating Ragnarok which is like the end of time and but limw they dont know cause the gods in this game is like 'yeah imma give you a mission but wont tell you beside weird non undersandable feaver dream and you need to figure out and fast or youll become this universe version of zombie, and if you do complete it you become a ceystal living forever but like, sleeping beauty style. So lose lose situation.

The focus of them both is different from the gang, caus the falcie of cacoon is evil so he gove them focus destroying cocoon while if fang& vannile mannaged to ruin that falcie and bring ragnarok theyll become a crystal, and they used it to save coccon from falling and crushing killing all the people in it, basically became a pillar in eternal sleep when they hheld each other.

But they are saved in later game only to... Lightning return which we wont talk about cause i hate timers.

I love the story of xiii, big part of it is vanille & fang, i havent played in english yet, but i will say, their story is one of the more meaningful on this list, very well developed and i will do it disservice if id try to explain it in few sentences - so do yourself a favour and play or watch the playthrough.

Ignis& gladio(xv)- here is when localization ruimed it. I know cause i palyed on jp dub with eng sub and heard the differences live- first of all gladio and ignis are completely different in jp, as individuals and as a pair- they were supposed to be the first dion& terrence moment, but it got scrapped and they went the vannile& fang route, only that bec they are men, the localization team missed the mark.

Gladio got pissed at noctis in the train because of ignis.

In jp its clear their bond is beyond friends, and not mention the fact that their AI is always stuck together, and that gladio isnt a womenizer in jp at all, and there is no fiancee/girlfriend.

In jp he said suggested there is someone he wants to be with but bec of the state of the world and them both being constantly in the battlefront he couldnt ask.

(and ignis clear his throat when everyone is like oh great, very subtle but it was leading to that)

Every stop of the train or erea post blindness gladio was with ignis not leaving him .

Also tabata san also said that they are more than friends. So there's that too.

But its no secret 15 localization is tereible, the massacared prompto, he is so cringy in english, in jp yeah he is funny but like he says more stuff then random pop colture references, he breaks the 4th wall occasionally but not on the same level of the localization. Also, jp noctis is a little shit because he can and will, in localization he is more relatable while ignos and gladio are kimda mean. In jp its the other way around and up until chap 13 (when he is alone) noctis is a bratt. He has some moments when he is nicer, but when struggle shows he is a bratt about it- and its done purposely since he is a spoiled pronce who never done anything alone in his life.

Thats why in chap 13 he has a change of heart, because he was alone and learned to appriciate his friends when he was stuck alone in the dark with no weapons and i think it was a good call storytelling wise, but yeah the english localzation ruined it and made the whole chapter pointless .

Those are the implied/canon gays of final fantasy up to 15(we got a kiss so its obvious).

The series has always been kinda Fruity and i know some of yall will be like, 'but there's no proof'. Well, japanese speakers(who arent homophobic at least) will agree with me that we tend in media that is not specified like BL or GL to make things subtle. So what in the west is called 'queer coding' is very common in japanese media and it comes in way more shape and forms.usually implied with a desper conncetion relationship or linguistics.its funny cause in the 80's and very early 90's gay pple wasnt hidden in jp pop culture (no kisses or anything but it was straight out told to the viewer/player)

And only later 90's there was a trend of removing us completely from the media, but around that time a specific genre was created so it wasn't out completely.(like yaoi/yuri as erotic mangas existed aince the 80's but usually only love stories or main gay characters were mixed in with the straight media, kimda like what netflix does today, but around 96, 97 the shounen ai and shoujo ai genres rose in popularity(mainly cause of clamp) and things got seperated. In games- because it became a bigger deal in the west square took caution with how clear they gonna make stiff not to piss of the christians after the backlash of Pokemon (idk how it was really but through japanese media and news it seemed at the times that the american patents were pissed so game companies started sensoring their games from all things might piss off christians/monotheistics ).

*also i dont live in japan but i am mixed so i grew in a jp speaking house and family from there always sent games on holidays and birthdays+nhk was always running in the backround to check on the motherland😂

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tsubasaclones · 10 months

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I don’t care what Clamp says I don’t think Syaoran and Sakura would be okay seeing a predatory relationship develop right in front of their eyes (neither would most characters in the original CCS manga tbh. Except for Kaho, Eriol, Rika, Terada, and unfortunately maybe Touya since he was groomed yet still gets along well with Kaho). I don’t know I just don’t think they would and I hate how Clamp is normalizing this. In the original anime they knew well enough to make Rika/Terada a one sided crush unlike in the manga, and NOW all these years later they make a similar ship canon and the center of the new story? If they could tell it wouldn’t sit well with audiences 20+ years ago, why are they doing this now? I know japanese fans are mostly okay with this kind of age gaps but I don’t think many fans from other countries are? And don’t even get me started on how it feels like we’ll see them again it makes me sick

i mean with rika she told sakura some things like saying the person she was seeing had a job but like, is a 10 year old going to like be able to comprehend what this implies. i don't think so. so like even though sakura technically knew i don't think she UNDERSTOOD

with fujitaka sakura has basically been conditioned to think "oh that's my dad he's such a nice person there's no way he could be a bad person" and like nadeshiko died when sakura was so young so she wasn't really surrounded by it constantly like touya was (which is probably part of why he got groomed too)

with touya i know in the anime at least sakura technically knows what happened cause of the tree episode but again. child who cannot fully comprehend this. and also touya 100% does not realize how bad what happened to him was because he grew up with his parents relationship being normalized

what gets me is like clamp surely understands the past age gap relationships they put in are not all 100% accepted what with the fact that rika gets conveniently transferred to another school. and they kinda try to sweep those under the rug (while, of course, still praising the characters that are predators). AND YET AT THE SAME TIME they start doing the same shit again but more in your face. it's wild

#also doesn't terada still blush at rika in the anime? they take out the ring scene but the implications are still very much there #i just aughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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meimi-haneoka · 1 year

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Thank you so much for the long reply! Honestly, I watched CCS as a preteen and this is my first rewatch since then. Subtle portrayals of wealth or class, particularly in Syaoran's case, really didn't register my brain at that age, particularly since I come from a similar colonial city with British influenced legacy. It was only when I revisited the Movie 1 recently did I notice those subtle signs. Watching it, I went "Wait, that's the Peak Tram. Wait a sec, he lives on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Wait, that is a mansion in the infamously cramped Hong Kong. Boy is definitely wealthy." I think it was also because unlike in the case of the Daidouji/Amamiya family where displays of wealth are pretty overt, the Lis are relatively subdued. Or maybe it's because we are seeing the show from Sakura's POV that we are more exposed to the former than the latter. *Shrugs* On a second ask, what do think will be Akiho and Kaito's ending in this arc? I sincerely hope that those two settle down in Tomoeda away from that horrible Squid Clan and Association and live peacefully amongst their loving and accepting friends. I am also worried about Kaito's life span or force and Akiho's core which was damaged by being overwritten, so I wonder whether the HOPE card will come into play and save it via a miracle or something.

And here I am replying to you too, thank you so much for sending this ask!!! It came right before my tumblr post so I decided to keep it for when I'd have already written that and expressed my thoughts on the most recent events...

I have to say that, just like you, the wealth of the Li's didn't exactly register in my brain when I watched CCS the first time around as a teen (also because I was ignorant about the places that were depicted in movie 1), but as I held tight onto my love for CCS along the years, I came eventually in contact with people that explained to me that actually the place where the Li mansion is located really exists (along with others depicted in the movie) and it's also a very high-end residential area! I'm also inclined to believe that we're more aware of the wealth of the Daidouji family because we see things from Sakura's perspective and also because that touches Sakura herself (well, after the reconciliation with her father, some of the wealth of the Amamiya's was offered to Sakura too 👀).

Passing to your second ask (I shamelessly get all giddy whenever I have to answer to an ask about Kaito and Akiho), oh I absolutely wish the same as you. I really hope they can settle down in Tomoeda where they have a "trusted network" of friends that can support them, because I bet whatever you want that they won't escape this Clear Card Arc completely unscathed. There'll be some unresolved mess or something that won't let them live completely carefree, so they'll need all the help they can get. I think Akiho in particular will go back to live with Kaito, but she will always be considered "one of the family" by the Kinomoto's, and I don't think there'd be a better arrangement for her. Kaito also needs to be welcomed into "the group" and interact with people more to dismantle piece by piece his self-loathing. But most importantly, those two need to finally live a life together without masks, being honest with eachother, and growing up together while supporting one another (because yes, Kaito is quite immature and does have a lot to learn too). In this way, with time, they'll be eventually ready to enter a full-fledged relationship (because yes I really do hope a complete happy ending for them. I honestly can't think about what they were capable to do for eachother without screaming in my head 'soulmates').

Alas, CLAMP might have in mind to decide to make Akiho and Kaito (with Momo!!! Momo cannot be left out of the picture) continue traveling around the world. If they'll still have problems with the Squids/Association, they might need to do so in order to escape from their grasp.....who knows. I'd feel a lot less at ease in that case, though.

And yes, your worries are my worries too and I hope they'll get addressed in the next chapter: going back to the previous world is fun and all but there are some big problems to solve if we really want this to be a happy ending....In that regard, I'm talking about it with people lately and it's growing more and more popular the theory that Sakura will produce a Card to solve one or more of those problems, with the appearance of Kaito and Akiho (they're the only ones missing from the new cards, after all!). It'd be really good if the "manga version" of the Hope Card was assigned to them 🥹I would cry!

#reply #ccsakura #clear card arc #card captor sakura

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annebrontesrequiem · 4 years

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CLAMP Timeline BS: How xxxHolic and CCS are Connected

Major spoilers for xxxHolic, TRC, and minor-ish spoilers for Cardcaptor Sakura and Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

Also it long

Backstory

Cardcaptor Sakura run: 1996-2000

xxxHolic run: 2003-2011

Clear Card run: 2016-present

What I have read: The entirety of xxxHolic

What I have watched: The entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura, the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, xxxHolic season 1

Crackpot Theory Time

So I got the idea for this after seeing some post somewhere (I’ll try to look for the post later) something along the lines of “maybe Sakura in Clear Card will be so powerful she’ll be able to influence the TRC universe/help the members of the CLAMP universe.” Then I started thinking about how, though there have been many posts on the TRC/xxxHolic timeline, I haven’t seen an xxxHolic/CCS timeline. I’m sure it exists somewhere, but since I’ve got my own theories I’m not writing one myself.

This is less of a timeline and more of a “how are they connected”, basically I’m going to be going back through the anime and the manga and saying whether I think CCS and xxxHolic take place in the same universe, and whether or not they’re taking place at the same time.

Let’s start with the most stuff (and apologies the manga scans are ones I made myself so if they’re kinda wonky that’s why)

Also one day I’ll update this when I actually read TRC (lol)s.

Also some of these are a bit crazy.

Plot Points

Since xxxHolic came second it’s unsurprising that the majority of the things I’m going to be discussing comes from this series. So I’m going to start by framing this around xxxHolic, dipping inThis is going to be a bit all over the place but since I’m focusing on a specific chapter it shouldn’t be too confusing.

1. In Chapter 2 of xxxHolic we see the most references to Cardcaptor Sakura. Namely Watanuki and Yuuko have an argument about the plastic replica of the Clow Key that Yuuko owns.

2. Now the version that Yuuko has is the first iteration of the key. That means that when Yuuko acquired it (whenever she did) it was most likely during the first part of Cardcaptor Sakura (although yes I understand in meta it’s because it’s the most iconic iteration). Then again the key has been around for a long time, as it’s the original iteration. It’s possible that Yuuko got a copy of it from Clow, or some point before Sakura got hold of it. Although that’d most likely have to be before Kero fell asleep for 30 years, and before the cards got into the Kinomoto house.

3. Another thing to note is that Yuuko only has a prop version. Although you might use this to say CCS is a show in this version, it’s pretty obvious that this is just for a gag. Considering the fact Watanuki doesn’t recognize it, there’s little chance that CCS is a beloved kid’s show in the xxxHolic universe.

4. This is further proven by Yuuko’s words: “…The one who owns the original now is the creep’s [Clow’s] blood relation, a cute young girl.” This is probably the best indicator that CCS is taking place at the same time of xxxHolic. Although it’s possible that CCS takes place in an alternate world/universe, that also seems unlikely. Although Yuuko never seems tied to the shop in the way Watanuki is in the latter half, there’s also (in xxxHolic) no proof that she’s jumping around worlds. Besides, it seems unlikely she’d bring it up to Watanuki in the present-tense if that were the case. Thus we can pretty safely say that Sakura is both alive and still a little kid in the xxxHolic world.

5. Now the most confusing part in regards to the CCS/xxxHolic timeline is Watanuki’s existence himself. In Chapter 11 Watanuki and Yuuko go to see a fortune teller. During said interaction the fortune teller explicitly states: “Your parents have safely passed into the afterlife” after noting that they died in an accident. Now this could cause some issues, as we know not only that Watanuki’s parents are Sakura and Syaoran (from what I know it’s specifically their clone versions but again I haven’t read TRC so I could be wrong). This could point to two things, either A. This is just a lie or something that CLAMP retconned later, or B. Sakura and Syaoran are dead. Assuming that this isn’t just a retcon or a sort of lie (since Sakura and Syaoran clone’s weren’t actually dead at this point, I’m pretty sure in TRC they don’t even know about Tsubasa Li yet) we could explain this via Eriol. Eriol is confirmed to be the reincarnation of Clow Reed. As of such if we assume that there was another Sakura and Syaoran running around in this world (plz god no), then the accident which caused their death doesn’t actually mean that CCS happened way earlier. It just means that they might’ve reincarnated.

Random Exposition

I’m just going to be talking about technology and geography here

1. Firstly I had to go back and check and unfortunately the name of Watanuki’s school doesn’t match with the name of Sakura’s school (or rather her brother’s old school). Cross Private School has nothing to do with Tomoeda. Although that could actually further point to them existing in the same timeline, since if they lived in the same place it’d be weird if they never ran into one another.

2. Tomoeda is said to be close to Tokyo. In fact in the second season we see Sakura and the gang taking the train to Tokyo. Watanuki obviously lives in a city, or a very dense suburb, and in Chapter 5 he mentions that Ginza would take hours to walk to. Having lived in a very dense city myself once (Paris I miss you baby) I know that walking from one side of the other could theoretically take hours. Though I’m not sure how large Tokyo is and I have no real sense of distance, I’d guess that Watanuki lives either in some made up part of Tokyo, or in the suburbs directly connected to the city. As famous landmarks are never mentioned, it could be either or. He could even be from a neighboring city theoretically, although then it’d prolly take much longer to walk to Ginza.

3. Lastly I want to talk about technology. In Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card we can clearly see that this is meant to take place in modern times, as Sakura has upgraded to an iphone, in keeping with the time. This definitely disproves CCS coming before xxxHolic, as nothing in xxxHolic suggests it takes place in the future. I also think that there’s no way xxxHolic comes before CCS for any real period of time, after all in Volume 1 there are many chapters dedicated to the woman who cannot stop using the internet. This too points to me that xxxHolic and CCS are running in conjunction to one another, or are at least only a few years off.

Conclusion

So this is all very crackpot and weird, but I do think it’s interesting to ponder. As that forum post said Clear Card definitely seems to be upping the scale of Cardcaptor Sakura, the magic is greater, the stakes seem higher, and characters such as Yuna D. Kaito point towards a storyline that seems more tonally in tandem with the greater CLAMP extended universe, as really ratcheted up by xxxHolic and TRC.

You could make the argument that CCS and xxxHolic are from different universes, though considering what I’ve written and read I don’t think you can argue that they’re utterly disconnected. Overall I’m still missing a huge piece of the puzzle, that being TRC as well as the rest of the Clear Card chapters. One day I’ll prolly remake this post, but until then I hope you enjoyed!

#going off the deep end #I am still confused #xxxholic #cardcaptor sakura #CLAMP #xxxholic spoilers #mine

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ilwinsgarden · 4 years

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5 Shows

I was tagged by @unwillingadventurer Thank you! :))

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Tag 10 (or however many) people.

1. Doctor Who 2. Cardcaptor Sakura 3. Návštěvnící (old (and short) czech sci-fi series) (actually you could watch it here, thanks to @valerieandherweekofwonderz, and I’d recommend everyone to do so :) ) 4. Taková normální rodinka (very old (black and white) czech series) 5. Sailor Moon (original 90′s anime not the reboot)

(good grief, that was such a hard work to think out five shows lol. Not that I didn’t watch series, just lots of them are just not enough favourites to be mentioned in a meme if you know what I mean? The first two were the only one I didn’t need to think about for long, well the czech ones either but I was hesitating if to include them when basically no one will know what I’m talking about)

Who is your favourite character in 2? Just one? Oh well here comes the usual problem with memes, I usually have to many favourite characters (or too little favourite shows lol). Hmm... Really, I can’t name just one character, but well, obviously Sakura and Syaoran, I love Tomoyo a lot too, but also Yukito and Kaho and Eriol.

Who is your least favourite character in 1? Ah! I can answer this one easily - second Romana, Charley Pollard, not much keen of Clara or Amy or Simm!Master. (that’s not just one character either is it... well... )

What is your favourite episode of 4? I can’t pick just one! (and honestly even if I would what would it mean to you right? lol. Anyway, this series is about a bit wacky family (3 generations) and it’s fun and serisouly all episodes (I think there’s 12 or 13 of them) are my favourite :D (wrong answer I know, sorry :D ))

What is your favourite season of 5? Sailor Moon R, if I remember it well, it’s the one with Moon crystal in her transformation brooch (and Dark Moon (were they called Dark Moon?) as the villains (though actually the season started with different villains. Ok, never mind :D).

Who is your favourite couple in 3? Haha, not quite couples here, sorry! :D

Who is your favourite couple in 2? Sakura and Syaoran obviously :)

What is your favourite episode of 1? Here we go again... *sigh* I’d definitely name some classic who so that’s rather story than just an episode and just randomly from my favourites I’d say... Keys of Marinus, The Romans, The Time Meddler... (and that’s just First Doctor era... ok, enough :) )

What is your favourite episode of 5? Hmmm... I haven’t watched anything of Sailor Moon for very long time so I’m afraid I can’t think of anything in particular. But most likely it would be something from the mentioned favourite season I guess...?

What is your favourite season of 2? I saw different sorting so episodes of CCS are listed either in two or three seasons (don’t include Clear Card here), but I can’t say which I like better, I love the whole thing equally.

How long have you watched 1? Well if that’s question about how long did it take to watch the series than - obviously - not finished and with that I mean classic who stories as well (and NuWho just go on and on so...). If it’s a question how long am I in fandom or so, then... I think I started to watch Doctor who (with Ninth Doctor) in 2011, stopped at the begining of Eleventh Doctor, started to watch classic who (with Third Doctor), later started to listen to Big finish (first stories were with Fifth Doctor, it was at the time when I got to Caves of Androzani story and didn’t want to Fifth Doctor’s era to end ^^) and also watched Eleventh Doctor and some of Twelth Doctor’s run, but didn’t see all with Twelve. And finally as you probably know I got back to watching NuWho with Thirteen who is absolutely great :).

How did you become interested in 3? Well, we just watched it at home :). I became to really love it only much later though. (like I first saw the series when I was about 11 or 12 I guess? But wasn’t that much of a fan at the time)

Who is your favourite actor in 4? Ooh, that’s so hard to choose, they’re all great! (not much informative answer either, but how many of you would know better if I said Dana Medřická, Marie Rosůlková or František Řehoř? :) )

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? Right now? Probably 2. Cardcaptor Sakura because it’s been very calming and cheering and stuff since I first watch it at the beginning of the year, though Doctor Who is close by.

Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3? Obviously Doctor Who, because it has much more episodes even if someone would think only about after 2005 seasons, while Návštěvníci has 15 episodes :D

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you like to be? Not sure if I could live in such crazy (and quite a bit crowded actually) family, even though it’s such fun to watch it on TV :D. But maybe to be a neighbor to them :)

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? Lol I think it actually could :D

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? Like romantic sort of couple is meant I guess? Hmm... Evelyn Smyth (from Big Finish) and Graham O’Brien? (don’t know why that came to my mind)

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? Well, hard to say, the word “better” is always kinda personal, but I think I have to say Návštěvníci, though mostly because of the genius ending :)).

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4? Taková normální rodinka doesn’t have much of a music in it (though the two music themes I recall right now are great :) ), so I’d say Cardcaptor Sakura, it’s part of its cheering and calming charm :).

tagging @llywela13 @cookiepianos @stitching-in-time @upslapmeal @north-wyrm and whoever would see it and would like to do it :)

#memes

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subdee · 5 years

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Favorite Characters Meme, #6-8

This got long again and I’m mad I had to retype it after tumblr ate my draft – twice! – so it's just #5-8 here and #9-extra will be in another post.

The list

#1-5

6. Sakura Kinomoto - Card Captor Sakura

You know if you’d asked my favorite character while I was watching CCS the first time, I probably would’ve said Syaoran... Certainly the very slowly evolving relationship between them is a major draw for watching Card Captor Sakura. He’s set up as the rival at first, like a shounen rival you know? A bit mean, needs to prove himself, more accomplished/longer training period than the protagonist, etc. And also as the kind of mean boy who picks on the girl but then falls for her. But in fact he’s a nice and kind boy who is thoughtful and comes from a nice and kind (all female) family, etc. So it’s a very wholesome relationship actually, and CCS is just a very wholesome series in general, unlike pretty much every other series by CLAMP.

(Although yeah there’s the weird age gap stuff… not just in this but in other CLAMP works… but this is in the same historical context as Yun Kouga’s Earthian, you know? Wanting to break taboos. Treating all taboos as equal, including both canon gay couples and canon age gap couples; not making a distinction between ‘good taboo to break’ and ‘bad taboo to break’. You gotta put this in its historical context is what I’m saying. And I have more thoughts on this too but back to the main point.)

SO ANYWAY, I would’ve said Syaoran back then but when I think about the show now, I don’t think about Syaoran but Sakura. I think about how she’s nice and sweet and good to her friends like a shoujo heroine should be, but also highly athletic and capable - someone who can think on her feet and perform feats of strength and agility. But it feels real, you know? She feels like a real person, not a fake character archetype created to appeal to the masses (though she is that too). And I think specifically about the great animation and how cool Sakura looks during all of those Clow Card captures, and also how cool all of the transformation sequences for the Clow Key look in all those different cute outfits Sakura wears (another, cheaper show would have reused the animation and kept her in her school uniform most of the time).

Also, it’s great that this is a show where all the major male characters (father, brother, OTHER reincarnation of Clow Li, TWO separate magical guardians, boyfriend) protect and support Sakura. They look out for her but also support her *as* the protagonist, *as* the best and most capable person to capture all the Clow cards. As a girl it’s really refreshing to see this kind of story, you know? And of course, her best friend/cousin Tomoyo and a female teacher support her too. It’s a low-stakes series because there are no real villains, actually everyone wants Sakura to succeed. But sometimes that’s exactly the kind of fantasy you want to be watching.

7. Shi Seiran - Saiunkoku Monotagari

Reading the wiki description, Seiran should be higher on the list, but it’s been a while since I’ve watched/read Saiunkoku XD.

So Saiunkoku Monotagari is another feminist series, where all the men in (protagonist) Shuurei’s life protect and support her in her desire to become a court official in fantasy imperial China. And a lot of these men are a bit twisted… there’s not just the usual court drama and plotting here, but the country recently had a destructive succession war that destroyed the fortunes of a lot of noble families and left a lot of ordinary people hungry and preyed on by bandits. As a result a LOT of the cast have various kinds of childhood trauma and variously twisted personalities… but of all these twisted personalities I just like Seiran’s the most :P

This is getting into spoiler territory, so if you don’t want to know then look away. But Seiran is actually Seien, the prodigal Prince… the most talented of all the (former) Emperor’s children, considered the most likely to inherit the throne. But his mother got a bit too ambitious, for her own sake more than his (this is well-written too) and made her move too early, getting herself killed and Seiran exiled in the process. Which means there are mother issues here, as well as a strong desire to NOT have responsibilities and NOT live up to expectations.

So Seiran works as a retainer for the Kou household and protects Shuurei on the down-low. And he is happy doing just that. Secretly he can do pretty much anything – martial arts, math, military strategy, plotting, astrology – but he doesn’t want to do any of those things. In fact he refuses to do any of those things. He pretends to be chill and easy-going but he’s actually high-strung and ruthless. And even though Shuurei doesn’t really know this about him because he always pretends to be just a gentle, simple servant around her, pretty much all the other main characters DO know this about Seiran and his secret ‘bad personality’ is a running joke of the series.

And BTW I also like his love interest – the ex-bandit Ensei – because they are complete opposites. Ensei is very straightforward; Seiran is anything but. So yeah this is the Killua Zoldyck personality type basically. White haired anime characters be like this.

8. Justine Hosnani - The Alexandria Quartet

(This is a photo of Eve Cohen, supposedly the inspiration for the character Justine. I don’t know anything about Eve but it’s clear from reading the Alexandria Quartet that Justine was probably a real person.)

The Alexandria Quartet is set in Alexandria, Egypt between the two major world wars and Lawrence Durrell worked for the British diplomatic corps in Egypt (as a spy???) during this time. So from the beginning you get the sense that most of the cast are based on real people. And out of this cast, the most interesting person – or at least the person the narrator and many others are most interested in – is Justine.

What makes the Alexandria Quartet interesting is that most of the narrator’s friends are writers/artists and the narrator is constantly quoting from their works. And this happens the most with Justine, with the narrator constantly quoting from a book called Moeurs written by her first husband, who took her from the streets of Alexandria (where she grew up very poor) and around Europe to various doctors who attempted to ‘cure’ her.

Here’s a typical excerpt from Moeurs:

I was struck, despite the clumsiness and incorrectness of the writing, by the fluency with which she could dissociate between ideas of different categories. I began to see her in an altered light; as somebody who might well destroy herself in an excess of wrong-headed courage and forfeit the happiness which she, in common with all the rest of us, desired and lived only to achieve. These thoughts had the effect of qualifying my love for her, and I found myself filled sometimes with disgust for her. But what made me afraid was that after quite a short time I found to my horror that I could not live without her. I tried. I took short journeys away from her. But without her I found life full of consuming boredom which was quite in supportable. I had fallen in love. The very thought filled me with an inexplicable despair and disgust. It was as if I unconsciously realized that in her I had met my evil genius.

This goes on for pages, guys.

But what makes Justine is a great character is that although she is very mysterious – both to herself and to others - she refuses to be only an object of fascination for others. You expect that when you finally do see things from her perspective it will be a let down – like how could the reality possibly live up to the hype? Two books’ worth of hype? But she’s exactly as interesting as all the men (and one woman – love u Clea you deserved better) in the narrator’s circle make her out to be. And also the narrator is constantly quoting her, and everything she says is so quotable? Even though a lot of it is contradictory.

The series is about a few things, partially the dangers of psychoanalysis (at the dawn of the profession) and how it can amplify narcissism. And partially about colonialism, especially in the way other characters try to dismiss Justine as an Alexandrian (a colonized place) but she refuses to let herself be treated as someone with less intelligence or less interiority than them (the colonizers). And it’s also about subjectivity, because after the first book (“Justine”) is published all the author’s artist friends write letters to protest that he doesn’t have the full story, so actually the next two books in the Quartet re-examine the same events but with added details the narrator was not aware of at the time. He publishes the letters alongside the original text… we get into some spy stuff too…

Anyway, great novel series. And Justine is a great character. I also like Pursewarden, Scoby and Clea, probably the most “likeable” characters of this cast of self-obsessed creative types.

#favorite chatacters meme #thanks for tagging me <3 #CCS #cardcaptor sakura #Saunkoku Monotagari #The Alexandria Quartet #personal #literary #tag meme

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haro-hawayu · 5 years

Text

CCS: Clear Card Ch. 34

お待たせしました～

Also... is it just me or did the page break/line-thingy disappeared?? D:

Chapter Reactions:

I’m totally looking forward to Tomoyo’s reactions of missing out on Little!Syaoran.

Tomoyo-chan never disappoints when it comes to her reactions, truest Sakura fan!

These SyaoSaku moments are just making me squeeeee XD

And now, Tomoyo’s in on this too~~that Sakura’s creating the cards~

Tomoyo’s regret... ^^;;; she’s really holding it in haha. This is so unlike the anime where we get more of a dark maybe yandere-status Tomoyo, lol.

Suppi~~although I’m sure he’ll just snack with Kero, or play games with him~

Of course, hahahaha. Suppi’s exasperation though.

Kero channeling Sakura’s “zettai daijoubu daiyo” mentality!

Suppi! You’re totally into this too! Lol.

Eriol, ever resourceful even though you’re so far away :3

We have the beast guardians bonding over games, and these two bonding over food, haha.

I wonder if Sakura will create yet another card during their P.E. class... hmmm~~

OHHHH! Sakura senses something from Akiho!!

I wonder what this means?? Something changed with Sakura? Or Akiho??

Maybe this anxiety/worry will cause her to create another card that will cause trouble--until she fixes it.

Man, this magic is really something that Syaoran can’t even like say anything to help... :/

And again we are being reminded of their similarity!

OMGsh, I was just gonna say how Chiharu’s hair looks different but cute, and Yamazaki said it toooooo!!!

Yuna’s outfit looks so different!

Gosh, look at him saying that with a smile on his face!

Syaoran :(

WHOA AKIHO!

Oh no, Sakura!!!

Wow, what a cliffhanger... and I know this isn’t even the worst one we’re getting ~___~

~~~~

THEORIES: Akiho, the Book, some Sakura~

Akiho & the Book: So I’m pretty much going to just talk about Akiho because we’re getting some major revelations coming along!

Okay so back in Ch. 29, I talked about how since it’s been confirmed via Kaito & Momo conversations that Akiho = magical artifact = vessel THEN the next question is what’s the link between Akiho and this “Book”? And this is assuming it’s the same “Book” that Momo has been a guardian to for years (one that was used in the past but things didn’t look too good). I don’t think it’s been confirmed that the Book = Alice in Clockland/Timeland (I think it is?? but it hasn’t been confirmed in words, we just see it sooo~). Anyways, I think this chapter is hinting a much stronger connection between Akiho & the Book than I previously thought. Perhaps Akiho herself IS the Book... manifested? personified? being from the Book itself?

I guess my line of thought was how Akiho is manifesting/unconsciously using magic at the end, and we see like pages of a book behind her and whatnot (reminds me of Black Clover’s Magic Emperor Julius Novachrono’s time magic/Grimoire). It could also mean that Akiho’s possibly suppressed/covered-up magic relates to the Book (like maybe she can utilize the Book’s magic... whatever it is). From Sakura’s conversation with Syaoran, she seems to feel something from Akiho (that Syaoran doesn’t), and back in Ch. 28, there was some conversation about a “cover for the vessel” so I’m thinking a LITERAL cover like a BOOK cover here (again, I thought of BC’s Julius and his coverless Grimoire and just thought maybe a book cover??).

I’m still confused about the whole “Voice” that we hear though. Prior to the anime series, I imagined the Voice to be a female, but in the anime series, we hear a male’s voice. And is this the same “Voice” that is speaking through Akiho at the end of this chapter?? Previously, we’ve heard that “Voice” say “you can no longer return” and the question was who is “you” and the other was where is it that the person being spoke to unable to return to/from? I theorized around Ch. 25 that it might be a Dream world because we had a lot of of dream-related stuff going on (Akiho dreaming about Alice/Sakura, etc). Now we see that Sakura’s possibly being captured and sucked into another dimension... so maybe the words are indeed being directed to Sakura, and that the context is that wherever she ends up, she can’t return to her own world anymore. Since she’s had dreams, since the beginning of this arc, of this world with all these clock gears and whatnot, perhaps she literally does end up in such a world that is either (or both) a Dream or whatever this Bookverse is??

Sakura: Okay, so this is kinda freaking me out because we’re getting so many reminders of how Sakura and Akiho are so similar over the chapters too... so if we follow the same vein of Akiho = Book, is the Book (for whatever reason/purpose) sentient to the point of fashioning Akiho (if she’s like a human manifestation of the Book’s memories/soul/magic/whatever??) after Sakura?? Is something trying to replace Akiho with Sakura, which would then explain all those Akiho dreams of Alice’s adventures = Sakura’s real adventures, and why Sakura is getting whisked off to somewhere where the plan is that she can no longer return to her own world/dimension?? Another question is the implications of Sakura sensing something from Akiho... is it because of Kaito’s presence, or perhaps something is changing with Akiho, or Sakura herself? Since Sakura is now aware that she is the one creating these cards, perhaps that’s like a form of level-up for her... or similarly to when she was changing the Clow Cards to Sakura Cards, she’s only becoming more powerful (and also heading towards the direction that Kaito wants her to, to create that card he needs).

~~~~

Anyways, I’ve read this chapter a lot later than intended... but at least I made it before the next chapter is out and we get more answers... or more cliffhangers and questions, lol.

Note: For those who’ve been following my posts, please let me know if I made mistakes on anything that’s already been confirmed or not! It’s hard for me to keep track of what’s already been confirmed vs everything else in my ocean of theories and thoughts :3 thank you for taking your time to read my ramblings~~

#ccs #cardcaptor sakura #clear card arc #clear card hen #clamp #manga #haro thoughts

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kurogabae · 6 years

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Wait, is there a pronounciation guide for tsubasa names? Cuz like i have my own ways of pronouncing it while reading but ive no idea if im right lol

Japanese pronunciation is pretty simple, especially compared to English (which is my native tongue and haha a hot mess). We’ll go through the family.

One rule is that each syllable in Japanese is pronounced with the same amount of emphasis to it, unlike a lot of the Germanic and Romantic languages (there might be exceptions but this is very beginner stuff). Each vowel also always sounds the same - “a” = “ah” (like ah-ha) “e” = “eh” (like meh) “i” = “ee” (like in eel) “o” = “oh” (like in oval) and “u” = “oo” (like in coo).

Sakura - the CCS English dub of the 90s and many Americans that I know pronounce this “SAH-core-uh” and they are wrong - you would say her name “sah-koo-rah”.

Syaoran is a little different because his name is based in Chinese. He also has a similar problem to Fai where there are many spellings. The correct way, though is “shao-rah-n”. The “ao” make a sound similar to “ow” but not exactly. I would describe it as rounder?

Fai/Fye/Fay/whatever. The katakana used to spell his name, which is meant to be foreign spells it Fai. This is one of the few times vowel sounds will “change”. If you have “a” + “i” you get a sound like “eye” as in eyeball. So you would say “feye”.

Kurogane has the longest name with the most syllables and it’s be “officially” butchered. “KER-oh-guh-ney” is not the correct way to say it. “koo-roh-gah-neh” is.

Mokona usually only suffers from people putting incorrect emphasis since her name is pretty simple. “moh-koh-nah” all nice and easy.

If I’m wrong about any of the rules for Japanese pronunciation please tell me, I am by no means a fluent speaker, I just took the time to do my best to learn how to say the words I saw.

#TRC #Anonymous #ask Ryssa

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cardcaptorcoconut · 6 years

Text

Sakura Fest 2018

Sorry it took so long to write this up! I’m finally on a proper “weekend” break for the first time in nearly 2 months (thank god for comp days!) so this is my first chance to really sit down and write up the rundown of Sakura Fes 2018. It’s been a few weeks since the event happened, but I typed up a bunch of notes that night to make sure I remembered as much as possible. :)

This post is really long and text heavy, so apologies in advance! Also, please keep in mind for those of you who have not caught up to the halfway point in the anime that there are heavy spoilers for the first half of the season.

For the Japanese rundown of with some additional photos during the event, there is a link here with some.

[EDIT] There were mispellings for Saori Hayami’s name. I’ve fixed it now.

This year’s Sakura Fes was held at Maihama Amphitheater, right next door to Tokyo Disneyland. It’s so close by you can hear and see the park rides. This was a much larger venue than last year’s event at Rune Kodaira Hall (total capacity in the large hall there is 1,229 people vs Maihama Amphitheater’s 2,170) and much more centralized in Tokyo. As with last year, there were two performances - the afternoon one and the evening one.

Tickets for the event really blew me away this time around. I didn’t win the lottery tickets early on, but waited for the general ones to go on sale. The morning they did, tickets for BOTH events FULLY sold out within only 10 minutes! I tried to get tickets for the afternoon event, but they disappeared just as I was buying them. Luckily, I snatched up ones for the evening event this time (and am SUPER glad that I did!).

#1) Before the Event

Even though I was going to the later one, a good friend of mine in Tokyo had lucked out and gotten herself a lottery ticket for the early show, so I met up with her before it started. I loitered around outside with her until it was time for her session to start.

There were TONS of people waiting around for the goods for the evening show to go on sale, and apparently a lot of stuff had sold out quickly for the early show.

I waited where I thought we were supposed to line up for a bit, but then someone with a megaphone instructed that everyone for the evening session’s goods line needed to form a different line elsewhere - it was almost like a stampede getting to where we needed to go! I managed to get sort of close to the front of the line somehow, but even so by the time I got into to buy goods, some stuff was already sold out!

Here are a few photos of the venue, goods, lobby, & how everything looked on the day:

List of goods on sale:

The line for entry wrapped around the building:

Kero-chan flower arrangement from Good Smile Company!:

Easter Display:

Fanmail boxes for Aya Hisakawa, Junko Iwao, and Sakura Tange:

After wandering around and taking as many pics as I could, I made my way inside (my seat was in the very, very back of G Block in the theater).

#2) Event Intro & Cast Introductions

The stage itself looked like this from where I was sitting. Take note of the location of the magic circle on stage:

Once everyone had settled in for the event itself, the lights dimmed and the stadium made an announcement about the rules (no photography, filming, etc, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos or videos for this reason aside from the ones above).

Then suddenly, from where Sakura’s Clear Card magic circle was shining on the stage, the floor sunk down and opened up leaving a huge hole where it was. It rose back up seconds later with the life-sized Kero and Suppie mascots dressed up on it. Suppie had on a pair of bunny rabbit ears on his head (Kero did not). Behind them, they had a whiteboard about Easter (much like they do in the Kero-chan Explains It All segments at the end of every episode).

As always, Kero (voiced live by Aya Hisakawa) greeted everyone with "Konanachiwa!!” After getting the audience to do it back, they dove into an explanation about Easter. Unlike Halloween, Easter is not a commonly celebrated holiday in Japan even in the secular sense (Easter Bunny, egg hunts, etc), and the majority of Japanese people don’t know what it’s about. Kero started by explaining that Easter is a Christian holiday and is about resurrection and coming back to life. He started going deep into the religious origins of the holiday, but Suppie held up a sign saying “Don’t give such complicated explanations!!”

Kero gave up and said that if the religious meaning of the holiday is too complicated for everyone to understand, then there is a secular meaning too. He said that the Clear Card Arc is the resurrection of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, which is why they chose to hold the event as “Sakura and her Friends’ Happy Easter” this year. He also explained that bunnies and eggs are a motif of the holiday and that’s why Suppie was wearing rabbit ears. Kero said that it was time for the event to begin and they both waved as the big monitor above cued up.

The platform they were on descended below again as Maaya Sakamoto’s “Clear” and the opening visuals for Clear Card Arc started playing. As the opening credits progressed, the platform rose back up and all of the CCS cast members participating in the event were on it this time:

Sakura Tange (Sakura Kinomoto)

Junko Iwao (Tomoyo Daidouji)

Aya Hisakawa (Kero)

Motoko Kumai (Syaoran Li)

Megumi Ogata (Yukito Tsukishiro / Yue)

Minori Suzuki (Akiho Shinomoto)

Natsuki Hanae (Yuna D. Kaito)

Everyone waved at the audience and as the theme ended and the platform stabilized, they walked back to the main stage area, but didn’t take their seats just yet. The emcee came out at this point and went through a brief introduction of each cast member. They were in this order from left to right on the stage: Ogata-san, Kumai-san, Hisakawa-san, Tange-san, Iwao-san, Suzuki-san, Hanae-san. [Note: I can’t remember if Kumai-san and Hisakawa-san were sitting in this format, but if not they were switched seats - everyone else was for sure sitting like this.]

The emcee brought up that this year’s theme is Easter again and did another explanation of it for the audience. She said again that it’s originally a Christian holiday, but that in Japanese it’s known as 復活祭 (”Resurrection Festival”) and they wanted to use it because CCS came back too.

At that point, everyone went to sit down in the chairs provided and the emcee gave each staff a chance to introduce themselves. During Tange-san’s turn, she said when they were downstairs before the platform rose up earlier, the Kero-chan mascot was dancing to Clear and was a pro at it. Apparently it was really cute and she really wished she could’ve recorded it (which reminded me of the Cherryblossom viewing chapter with The Record). Hanae-san’s intro was the funniest to me - he said he had a yakiniku bento for lunch and was super energized for the evening show, lol!

This was where it became apparent that the evening show was the “fun one” of the two: After the yakiniku bento comment, Hanae-san said よろしく (”I’m in your care”) to the audience in Kaito’s voice and made a point to sound “sexy.” Everyone laughed but around the same time Suzuki-san was readjusting herself on her seat cushion and sort of absentmindedly said 気持ちいい (”That feels nice”). As soon as she said that everyone in the audience started laughing super hard because it was so unexpected. She immediately got flustered and apologized and said “No, no no! I meant the chair is really comfortable and soft!! That’s all...!!” and laughed with everyone.

#3) Question Time

“How did you feel about Sakura and Syaoran’s reunion?”

As everyone was seated, the emcee opened up for question time. It started off with the question asking how Tange-san and Kumai-san felt acting out the very first SyaoSaku scene of the new series - the cherryblossom reunion. The question showed up on the monitor and then they played a clip of the scene (and said that the clip was only played at the evening show - slightly different from earlier).

Tange-san said she was shy about it from the very beginning when she had to record it. Kumai-san mentioned that during the recording session, she was nothing but happy with how it was written and how they performed it. However, having the scene itself played in front of SO MANY people that day was embarrassing.

The cast on a whole then examined Sakura and Syaoran’s dialogue in that scene. The main part they looked at was when Sakura said she had so many things to tell Syaoran, and he reciprocated that he did too. They the looked at the following exchange in particular:

Sakura: 教えてね！全部！(”Tell me everything!” - The word 教える can be translated as either “Tell” or “Teach” meaning-wise) Syaoran: ああ。(”Yeah.”)

Ogata-san out of NO WHERE, turns to Kumai-san and goes “So I’ve gotta ask, but... What do you mean by 'Yeah' in response to 'I will teach you everything'? What is this 'EVERYTHING' you’re gunna teach her?” The cast and audience lost it again laughing.

Kumai-san got shy and couldn’t answer fully, but goes "Well uh... yeah... you'll have to ask that to CLAMP..." and the cast reminded us again that because we we’re at the evening event they were being goofy and making suggestive jokes like this that they couldn’t at the more “family oriented” afternoon event.

“Tomoyo records lots of personal moments.”

The next scene they examined was where Tomoyo appeared in the SxS scene above recording their reunion, and then in their date episode just before they entered the aquarium (the “This is my best shot!” scene).

The question this time was directed at Iwao-san, asking if she thought that Tomoyo’s recording sessions were growing in scale and becoming more extensive. She replied that “Yes, they are. It’s because (she sees) the love growing (between Sakura and Syaoran) and wants to capture it along with their happiest moments.”

I think it was Ogata-san who jumped back in saying something along the lines of “I wonder just HOW MUCH (of their love) you’ll get to record, heh heh heh...” and everyone lost it again. I was kind of surprised at how much they were implying, haha!

“Have Kero and Touya finally acknowledged Syaoran?”

The next question was whether or not Kero and Touya finally recognize Syaoran as someone who is an ally and cares about Sakura. They played clips of the scene where Kero and Tomoyo were skyping during the date episode, and during the “ruined date” scene where Syaoran retrieved the soggy bento and Touya looked at him and sighed.

Hisakawa-san said that before, Kero would always say things like “You wanna go, brat!?” and try to pick fights with him, but now whenever he says “brat” there’s some love and affection in it. They went on to say that Touya has also started to recognize him a bit and that neither he nor Kero do as much as they used to in protecting Sakura anymore. I read this as meaning it’s not that they don’t want to, but they realize that they have extra help in Syaoran now.

They said that Yukito, Yue, and Touya don’t do as much anymore, but Tange-san said that no matter what everyone helps "Sakura” and that makes her happy. But the reason they don’t do as much now is because “Sakura” has grown up and is more adult.

Something interesting got brought up here with regards to the voice recording sessions - the scenes are recorded in A and B parts separately. Meaning that some of the cast who are in scenes together will record their lines, but don’t know what happened with the other casts’ parts in previous or simultaneously occurring scenes.

Ogata-san said that sometimes when recording their B part, they say to each other “Jeez, what on earth did they do in the A part!?”. It then got brought up that they are close to the end of recording for the anime and they sort of gave the impression they know how things will be finishing up. It was not clear and they avoided mentioning if this “wrap up” was just for the “season” or if there would be any more series to follow.

“Have Syaoran’s techniques stopped working?”

The next clip was from Episode 12 where they caught the Hail card. It was when Syaoran’s fire technique didn’t work and he had to use his other “secret” power to stop the card.

They asked Kumai-san what exactly it was that happened there, but she replied that it’s too much of a spoiler and that they’re not really sure themselves. It seemed like maybe the cast DOES know and just can’t say it because of non-disclosure.

When she was asked, she simply said “I’m not sure if it’s okay for me to say... but I think we have like 3-4 episodes left to record?” Tange-san jumped in signaling "Nooo!” with her arms and corrected Kumai-san saying that they had “several” episodes more to go at that point.

“Is Yue an “Agokui” Type?”

[顎クイ “Agokui”: Suddenly lifting someone’s face by their chin in an aggressive, yet sometimes romantic fashion]

Ogata-san talked about how she has played many "cool type / handsome guy” characters in the past. They then played the scene where Yue says to Sakura “Tell me anything that happens, even if it’s something small” and touches her chin.

She said that during this scene and others, she was just acting it out naturally and how she thought would be a normal back-and-forth between them. However, some of the lines that would just come out without thinking were deemed as not appropriate by the directors. She said that the way she acted the lines came out naturally because as a woman acting out a male role, she was just saying what seemed appropriate and not thinking of what “male feelings” might be like in this situation.

For example, at the end of one of the Facetime/Skype sessions with Sakura, she would say おやすみ (”Goodnight”) as Yue. After about 2 or so times of this, the directors pulled her aside and commented that “It’s a little suggestive saying ‘goodnight’ like that to a middle schooler...”

As such, she had to tweak how she replied in that scene. She went on to say that she talked about it with Tomokazu Seki (Touya) as well on how they needed to act in certain scenes.

Apparently even at the Sakura Fes event, the staff was instructed not to ad-lib dialog anymore. Hisakawa-san had done it at last year’s event and they were warned not to do it as much this year, but overall ad-libbing was too much fun and it’s something the audience audience enjoyed, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Who are the new characters?”

The next topic up was the new characters: Akiho and Kaito. The scenes they played were Akiho’s self-introduction at the school and her competing against Syaoran in badminton. They also showed the scene where Sakura and Tomoyo come over to her house and meet Kaito for the first time.

Suzuki-san and Hanae-san talked about how it felt to record their lines. Suzuki-san in particular said that during the badminton scene, Kumai-san helped her match up the timing by playing air badminton with her in the recording booth.

They also talked about how Hanae-san constantly keeps reassuring everyone Kaito’s not a suspicious guy. He said everyone suspects him and that the cast had asked everyone at the afternoon event what their opinions were. Everyone reacted that they think he’s definitely shady.

Suzuki-san said that even SHE thought that and when she was acting out Akiho’s lines, the directors told her she had too much doubt in her voice. The instructed her to reassess and act her lines out in a more Akiho-like way - that she loves him and thinks he’s a really good person, even if Suzuki-san herself doesn’t think that.

Hanae-san chimed back in and emphatically goes “But I am a good person!!!” and tried to convince everyone again.

“The new Key, new Magic Spell, and new Wand...!?”

The last scene they put up on the monitors was Sakura releasing the new key into the sealing staff and using her new spell. Cue a shameless plug for the new Takara Tomy Clear Card wand toy that has voice recordings from Tange-san.

The cast collectively was like “YES, TAKARA TOMY EVERYONE. OF COURSE” and I got the impression they were a bit sarcastic like they had to advertise it as part of their job, but were a little like “Yeah, we know this isn’t what you’re here for, lol.”

They brought out the wand and had Tange-san use it. She asked the audience to say the “Release!” chant along with her and said if we did that maybe some magic would happen. When we all said “Release!” together, the stage platform opened up again. She asked us to help her seal the stage back up and everyone repeated the sealing chant together. Upon shouting “Secure!”, the stage went back to normal.

After this, the emcee made the annoucement for the “Sakura Hoeeee” Mori Arts Center Gallery Exhibition in Roppongi Hills later this year in October. They asked everyone to please look forward to the event.

Apparently, this is where the live stream ended for the afternoon event, though there was no live stream for the evening event.

#4) Live Cast Voice Acting Performance

Now it was time for a live voice performance from the cast. The emcee explained that the story would be how Sakura and her friends spend Easter Sunday (that very day). What surprised me the most for this was that for the sake of the performance, all of the characters seemed to know each other and of each other’s existence. This meant that Kero was interacting in scenes with Akiho and Kaito.

Sakura spoke first and was humming along while doing something in the kitchen. Tomoyo chimed in asking what she was up to. Sakura replied that she and Akiho were making eggs/omelettes because that’s what’s done on Easter.

Akiho said she wasn’t good at cooking, but wanted to try her best. On hearing this, Tomoyo said that she wanted to record them cooking and Sakura gave a loud “Hoeee..."

Sakura asked Akiho to go and get the eggs out of the fridge, but when Akiho opened it they were no where to be found. Everyone panicked a little bit, but then Kero appeared. He said “Well did you know that on Easter people like to hide eggs! So all we need to do is go find them.”

Kaito said “Let’s go look" and Yukito agreed with him. The whole group then traveled all over the world looking for the eggs! They ended up in a strange place... EASTER ISLAND!

Syaoran remarked saying “What is this place?” when they saw the monoliths on the island, so Kaito jumped in explaining that these were the Moai of Easter Island. Kero then explained that the Moai were mysterious carved figures shrouded in mystery.

But the group couldn’t find any eggs on the island, so they moved on. The next place they appeared was somewhere they initially thought must be “far away” from Japan. They thought that it must be overseas, but then found it out it was the “Land of Dreams” - AKA Disneyland right next door! They decided to split up and look for the eggs.

Sakura and Syaoran were paired off and while looking around and each found a matching egg. Their eggs’ image was shown on the monitor and were green with pink designs. Together they made a pair.

Syaoran once again saw some helpless foreign tourists and whipped out his English skills again. (Kumai-san has really mastered the “Do you need any help?” line lmao). He also said “The cat is in Disney Sea” in English. Sakura went CRAZY about the English and was like “Syaoran-kun, what did you say!?” so Syaoran ad-libbed and said “Ahh… well if I do a direct translation… I said 'There’s a cat in the Land of Dreams” (which was a reference to Geratoni - a plush stuffed cat of Tokyo Disney’s Duffy & Friends collection.)

Sakura was impressed and begged him to teach her English again. They had basically the same exchange as the date episode and he said “I'll try, but I don’t know if I can teach you anything useful...” to which she responded that she already remembered the word for “cat” so it was okay. As always, Tomoyo suddenly popped out of nowhere recording them and they got embarrassed.

The scene switched to Kero and... Yue! Yue was in full form and searching for eggs too! He said he could search better in this form and was doing it to assist his mistress. Kero remarked that “Well it's true that in Disneyland, people will just think you’re cosplaying someone, so I guess it’s fine. But wait! I should be in my true form too! I will change now into my--”

Yue cuts him off saying “Don’t you dare! If you do, you'll draw too much attention and you'll get petted and hugged and kicked by all of the children here!!” Kero was like “Ahh... oh man... you’re right... Maaan, but I would look so cool if I did!!”

The scene changed again, this time to Akiho and Kaito. They were searching for eggs on their own and she thanked him for helping her. Kaito said that he was “just happy that you seem to be having a good time with everyone.” All of the sudden they both stopped and said “What on earth is that??”

Akiho and Kaito had discovered the BIG GIANT EGG...

While the cast had been performing, a larger than life egg shaped... thing(!!) had risen up out of the rising platform floor again.

Everyone approached the egg and were like “Whoa! You could make a HUGE omelette with this!” However, the egg was so big that they couldn’t take it back home. So Kero said "Well one thing that is done on Easter is egg decorating! We should all decorate it...”

Then they temporarily stopped the voice acting session and the whole cast moved up to the egg. It turns out that it was a giant egg shaped whiteboard. Right next to it on the platform was a cart with lots of markers, cherryblossom petal shaped stickers, and decorative balled up tissue paper. The emcee explained the cast were going to be given 3 minutes to decorate the egg and the started playing a little tune while we watched them bustle about. But in the end they had so much fun that they went a bit over time!

One of them dropped their mic during the decorating session, but I couldn’t see who it was. Everyone jumped though, haha.

Hisakawa-san and Tange-san drew two Suppie faces: One was regular Suppie, and one was “evil Suppie.” They said that without knowing it, they had both drawn Kero at the afternoon session, so during the break between the two they decided to do Suppie for the evening session.

The cast drew a Momo, a random crab using cherryblossom petals for claws, happy faces, a cherryblossom tree, and a panda. But the best part was that they also wrote a few inappropriate things!

Hanae-san wrote 真実の愛 (“True love”) and Suzuki-san wrote right beneath it 夜だから (“Because it’s night time”). And - echoing what she’d said earlier about how saying “goodnight” was inappropriate - Ogata-san wrote おやすみ (“Goodnight”) in really big letters.

Regarding the panda, Hanae-san said he drew it because he was wearing a panda pin. Everyone had asked him at lunch why he was wearing that and the reason was really cute. He said he was confused about what Easter was and thought that it was a holiday where any animals would be appropriate, so he wore a panda instead of a rabbit.

After that, they all returned to the main stage to resume the voice acting performance. A staff member wheeled the egg off and put it on the side of the stage.

Sakura and her friends were all happy as they finished decorating the egg. I think Syaoran said “Where do you even display an egg this big?” but no one knew the answer.

Then Kero said part of the Easter tradition was that God would choose whichever designed egg was the best and grant the person who designed it a wish. That wish would come true. Everyone reacted saying “Oh wow, really???” (I was sitting there thinking thinking “wtf that doesn’t sound right...”), but then Yukito spoke up saying “I’ve never heard that.” Kaito joined in saying the same thing.

Kero laughed nervously and said “Ahaha... I’ve been found out...” indicating he had made it all up. Tomoyo said he was just like Yamazaki lying to them like that. But in the end, they all had a nice time decorating the egg and doing the Easter egg hunt.

(I don’t fully remember how this came about, but) there was a part where Yukito said to Sakura that she was very adorable and she reacted by saying “Hanya--n!!” (I was hoping Syaoran would react somehow, but he didn’t so I guess he is very secure with their relationship now ♡). They then said they should take a photo with the egg to commemorate the day.

There was a pause again in the session and the emcee announced that the cast would be taking a photo with the audience from the stage. Since it was a huge amphitheater, they were taking 3 or so shots - left, center, and right side of the seating area. They said that anyone who was shy and didn’t want to be in the photo could cover up their face.

Center stage was first, then the left side, then the right side. After that, they finished up the voice acting portion of the night:

The scene changed back to the Kinomoto residence. Everyone had gone home for the evening and it was just Sakura and Kero.

Sakura said there had been a lot of tough things that happened earlier, but that it had been a fun day. She said “Oh, I even forgot we were supposed to make eggs today!”

Kero replied saying “What? You couldn’t find the eggs? But, I’d taken them out of the fridge earlier and I put them back...”

Sakura raised her voice and said “WHAT!?” and Kero replied “Yeah, they’re right here...” revealing that they’d been hidden in the fridge the whole time.

Sakura then ad-libbed in Kansai-ben and said ケロちゃん！！！なんでやねん！？！(“Kero-chan, what the hell!?”)

The cast finished up at that point and thanked everyone for watching. Then they said “You gave us an Easter photo together with you, so we will give you a present also!”

Suddenly, tons of paper stickers/notes from the cast began falling from the ceiling! I think they were egg shaped, but it was hard to tell because I was in the very back. They fell into the audience and a few lucky people got them. Some people rushed out of their seats to get the ones that had fallen into the aisles.

Some of the “gifts” fell onto the stage too, so Ogata-san and Tange-san helped pick them up and give them out to people in the audience. Ogata-san was really awesome and shouted out “Are there any little Sakura-chans in here!?” and called for any kids present to come up and get the stickers. One very happy little girl came running up and received one directly from Ogata-san. After that, she asked if there was anyone present who had been at both the afternoon and evening performances (I think there might have been a couple people).

After handing the remaining gifts out, all of the seiyuu thanked the audience again and left the stage together.

#5) Live Musical Performances

Maaya Sakamoto

Next, they introduced a special video message from Maaya Sakamoto on screen, who unfortunately couldn’t be at the event because it overlapped with her own international tour dates. In the message, she said she was so happy to sing “Clear” as the theme song.

The show runners gave her the theme of “clear things” for her to use for direction when writing her song. She explained that the word “clear” has multiple meanings: “transparent” or "definite and precise” or "to succeed with a goal”, so she wanted to write a song with all of these meanings rolled into one.

She let us know that she was so happy to be part of CCS again and although she wasn’t there, her colleague Saori Hayami was and would be joining us as the representative today.

Saori Hayami

The emcee came out with Hayami-san and said that as the second half of the season would be starting the next week, it was time to pass the baton over to the new OP and ED singers.

Hayami-san explained that everyone has little things that shine in their hearts and are like “Jewelry of the Heart.” After her explanation, she gave a live performance of the “Jewelry” ED.

To be honest (and I hate to say this), but I didn’t think that Hayami-san was very energetic in her performance. She seemed a little lacking in enthusiasm and just walked one circle around the stage, but as always the song itself was very nice.

While she performed, they played clips of the anime on the screen and showed the Jewelry ED clips as well. At the very, very end, they FINALLY revealed what Sakura had seen on her smartphone at the end of the ED (where she’s showing Tomoyo and Kero and they all smile): It was the “photo” they just took earlier that day on April 1st -- the official artwork for Sakura Fes this year.

The text message she had gotten read “Thank you for taking a photo with us!”

When the performance ended, the emcee came back out and thanked her. She reiterated that they were “passing the baton from next week.”

Kiyono Yasuno

Kiyono Yasuno and Minori Suzuki came out on stage. Suzuki-san had changed her clothes from earlier to red outfit and yellow shoes. The emcee introduced each of them and they talked about CCS and what they liked about it.

Yasuno-san said she’s watched CCS for a really long time. The very first time was when she was really young and her grandpa watched it with her. To her, it was like a dream being chosen to sing the new OP and that this was her first single.

The emcee asked who they thought was “cool / good-looking” from the series. Hayami-san said that she thought Yukito and Eriol were attractive. Yasuno-san had watched the CCS syndication in elementary school too and was the same age as Sakura through it. Because of that, she thought Syaoran was the coolest guy. Suzuki-san also thought the same.

Hayami-san then “passed the baton” and they left the stage to let Yasuno-san perform Rocket Beat.

It was my first time (and all of the audience’s too) to hear Rocket Beat and right away I thought it was an awesome song. It really seemed fitting for CCS. In addition, Yasuno-san was super energetic and gave a very spirited performance. She was actively all over the stage. As before, her performance was also synced up with scenes from recent anime episodes.

When she finished, Suzuki-san came back on stage and the figuratively “passed the baton” again.

Minori Suzuki

Suzuki-san is in charge of the new ED “Rewind” and also gave a really awesome performance. The song was super cute and (as everyone knows by now) clock themed.

She did motions of the clock while performing, syncing up with the “Tick Tock, Tick Tock” lyrics. More clips from the series played, but nothing new to that point.

#6) Closing Out the Event

When Suzuki-san finished her song, the whole cast came back out on stage. The staff then wheeled out a birthday cake again in front of Tange-san - just like last year. Once again, the audience sang Happy Birthday to Sakura and Tange-san blew out the candles.

They talked about what birthday this would be for Sakura, and Tange-san confirmed that this would be Sakura’s 13th birthday. She then said “These past 20 years – Ahhh! I mean... it’s been 20 years but Sakura’s not 20! She’s definitely 13!” and laughed.

They showed an image of the cake on screen and it was the one that was currently being sold by Animate. They then said it was time to close out the event and the audience started groaning, so the emcee had to apologize for how “short” the event was.

Everyone said their goodbyes, starting with Yasuno-san. She said it was a dream come true to sing the theme song for an anime she had loved so much as a child and that exactly one year ago on April 1st she had started her singing career. She promoted her first single (a mini album came out just before this).

Hayami-san said her Thank You’s next for everyone enjoying Jewelry.

Hanae-san was third, saying “I will do my best, and from here on it’s going to be Akiho Akiho Akiho taking center stage!”

In response, Suzuki-san said “I will do my best and so will Kaito-san! I’ve loved this anime so much! Last year at this time, I was wondering ‘who is going to play Akiho’ and never thought that it would be me!!” She said she feels so lucky to be both a seiyuu and the singer of the second ED for the series.

Ogata-san was next, but was caught off guard and sort of spaced out. But she said thank you to everyone for all their support. She said that at last year’s Sakura Fes, they found out really soon after it ended there would be another one this year. So she shouted out to all of us “that means THERE SHOULD BE ANOTHER ONE NEXT YEAR RIGHT (EVENT SPONSORS)??”. She said that even in this industry, it’s super rare for the whole cast to come back for a show’s reboot and that really demonstrates how beloved CCS is.

She passed the mic to Kumai-san - who was also spaced out and wasn’t paying attention again. But she also said thank you to everyone.

Next was Iwao-san who said thank you and did a mini-voice over of Tomoyo saying 超絶によかったですわ！(“It was absolutely fantastic!”).

Hisakawa-san was next, and like Ogata-san, she said that last year she got a call about a week or so after Sakura Fes ended asking her to save the date for this one. She said “I mean, after today, I’m sure that just a few days will pass and then I'm sure I'll get another call… Hahaha! You guys want another one right!?” and everyone cheered.

Finally, it was Tange-san’s turn and she said they almost made it through the whole thing without a "Kero-chan Check.” At last year’s event, they always seemed to come out of nowhere and no one ever knew when to expect it. She begged Hisakawa-san to do one and Hisakawa-san laughed. She got a bit shy and was like “For real???” but in the end shouted “KERO-CHAN CHEEECK!” as Kero. Tange-san then thanked everyone for their support and for loving Cardcaptor Sakura. She hopes everyone will continue to love it in the future and bowed.

The cast came out into the circle stage to say one final goodbye and then they waved and departed the stage from both sides of the main stage. The emcee left last after deep bow. The Jewelry ED came on the big screen and played through to the end.

After the song finished, the Kero and Suppie mascots once again rose out of the platform floor. BOTH of them were wearing rabbit ears this time. Kero-chan started to talk about how awesome it was that he grew another pair of ears too.

Suppie had a new card this time that read “Just say what you have to say!” so Kero started talking at super-sonic speed thanking the cast and staff in batches:

The singers

The companies that made it possible

The seiyuu

And said thanks to all of us for watching him be awesome every week

He said to tune in next week for the start of the second half of the season, and also to keep watching him be so awesome in the Kero-chan’s Corner segments. Suppie violently shook the sign!! lol!

Then gave one last “thank you” to the audience and brought the event to a close, saying “We definitely kicked up even more of a fuss than ‘some place’ that’s right next door” (again, Tokyo Disney lol).

The platform lowered, bringing them back down underneath the stage, and just as they disappeared there was another final “Kero-chan cheeeeck!” shouted. The lights went off and then came back on with the ending announcements.

As I was leaving, I made a friend who was a big fan of Suzuki-san from when she was in Macross and had only just recently started watching CCS because of her. This fan had only seen Clear Card Arc so far, so I said to definitely watch the rest of the series!

I hope if there’s another Sakura Fes next year, I’ll have the chance to go again. :)

以上、さくらフェス2018の報告でした！(That’s all folks!)

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura clear card arc #card captor sakura clear card arc #clear card arc #sakura festa 2018 #sakura fest 2018 #sakura fes 2018 #sakura festival 2018 #sakura tange #junko iwao #aya hisakawa #motoko kumai #megumi ogata #minori suzuki #natsuki hanae #maaya sakamoto #saori hayami #kiyono yasuno

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