#So is this CCS Syaoran? (Unlikely)

[completeoveranalysis]

[3]

Oh this is a DELIGHT.

Lava Lamp re-enacting the beginning of xxxHolic beat for beat. Yuuko's even in the same outfit!

Clamp had a lot of fun with this.

Lava Lamp Guy and his [redacted] mirroring each others steps years apart, except Lava Lamp knew what he was doing and Watanuki did not. 

(Or at least, did not the second time around. The time we’ve seen.)

... Then again if time travel is involved WHO KNOWS. Maybe it's the exact same day. We just don't know!

SEE? SEE THIS IS WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE CARDCAPTOR SAKURA THING.

BUT ALSO

W H A T

W  H  A  T

Oh my god here we go. 

FIRST CONFIRMED FAMILY NAME: LI

THIS IS LI SYAORAN SON OF LI SYAORAN

(PANICS IN CARDCAPTOR SAKURA)

[harukirai]

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😂

[tsubasaclones]

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

[meimi-haneoka]

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!

[cornus27florida]

First of all, maybe this incoming fact gonna be confusing but please wait as I try to explain everything properly + nicely

I haven't read the series before

Actually Syaoran (Xiaolang-Chinese version) Li and Sakura Kinomoto are characters that becomes together on various (ani-manga) works made by CLAMP. CLAMP is the group of mangaka that has similar artstyle to the point they could draw a particular series as a whole... The most popular work they're made is "Cardcaptor Sakura (CCS)" - which recently have sequel named "Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc"... In between the time of CCS & CCS: CCA, there's a work made by CLAMP which using aged up Syaoran and Sakura as the main couple for their shounen series "Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (TRC)". So in short, 3 groups of depiction of SAME pairing ahahahah : Classic SyaoSaku, CCS: Clear Card, and then TRC. The age of each is different (I forgot the exact number but imho not matter much) and have different story to make depiction of the pairing varies greatly - mostly from how Syaoran as the ML (Male Lead, and also Deuteragonist = like Frederick's role in the story of CPC) acts. That's very subjective which group depiction to like, but it's general consensus to agree that classis syaosaku is the best as refreshing - while the other two groups kinda too emo

recommend reading the manga or watching the anime first?

Oh boy, this the hardest question to answer personally as it's very subjective... Most people loves anime because it's give color and moving visual... while some people loves manga more because it's classic and gives some insights that anime staff usually cut off which make the fandom dubbed manga as the canon (official) while the anime is mere adaptations

Personally? I have eyestrain to make me impossible to watch multiple anime episodes in one go (unlike most people can) SO I always prefer reading manga because I can binge it...

BUT Syaoran and Sakura is a sweet pairing that has very special place in my heart, to the point that I like 2 versions of them altogether. Anime ofc always in color, so the fashion designs of them always nicely shown with the color as very close related to anime development - CCS is classic colored, TRC has melancholic coloring that memorable for sadness, and CCS: CCA is the recent version which so soft + sad

For beginner of a fandom that has no problem with their eyes as unlike me, I recommend the anime version first to get amazed with the colors. Anime also often time introducing characters first especially in the case we forgor or not make sure, so for the beginner it's very nice experience!!!

Then (or if have eye problem like me) after watch the anime, you could compare everything with the manga as original source. There's many differences between anime and manga, like there's costume designs that only appear in the anime - or certain parts of the story depicted differently in anime vs manga. CLAMP's most powerful quirk in their works is how they designing an outfit - everything always in minute detail that makes one thinks... Does this the very nice outfit?

so in regard of the battle outfits of them.... errrrrrr???

All of the story of CLAMP where Syaoran and Sakura as the main couple depict them to need to have magical fights so they are in need for battle outfits. Although all of the battle outfits really nice, colorful and could be meaningful espc as relating to their story part, also very cute and powerful

Honestly I don't have favorite battle outfit of them yet, but like Frederick's - Syaoran's usual battle outfit is green. That's why I have no problem to imagine him in any of battle outfits

For Sakura as the protagonist, FL (Female Lead, like Gwen) - she had lots more of outfit designs than Syaoran's - but the reason varies and not because she loves sewing like Gwen... but because her cousin is a rich and multi-talented girl which adores her so much as she somehow could always prepare perfect outfit for the incoming magical battle [or in TRC, cuz she's a princess that going around with her Syaoran on many different worlds and universe]. Example! When in need to fight in the rainy situation, somehow her cousin already made a battle outfit that waterproof. Syaoran himself rarely change his battle outfit unlike Sakura, but he still has variations

Classic SyaoSaku (CCS)

From the original series of CCS! They're elementary school age pair ahahah, but that's what make their relationship journey to be much sweeter? No kisses (kiss is great and romantic, but why literal children should depicted kissing each other to shows their love to each other when another option is possible?) but lotta of hugs and many act of love that not related to skinships... Like giving each other a handmade teddy bear, protect each other on magical battle

If CPC is magical girl genre that allowing their love interest who gender is a male, so like GwenDerick - totally the similar outfit design could happen. All of GwenDerick outfits in the CPC are slay, even with Frederick mostly stuck in his casual Green Plaid Jacket ahaha while Gwen wardrope power +++

^ technically not a battle outfit but green matching dress? <3

CCS: clear card (the sequel!) - They are in middle school now

^ battle outfits that are all green ahahahhaha <3 it so much Important difference in CCS: CCA, to the original version which is CCS - Their coloring espc at hair is much softer than the classic which make the color of the battle outfit overall changing to be looks softer and fits recent anime update

TRC (magical world/multi-verse travelling, HS age!)

The most edgy and emo pairing depiction of them lmao, and the one that highly detailed with accesories and stuffs so imho not really good to be replicated - but nice to see!!!

BONUS : GREEN BATTLE OUTFITS OF THEM

Hello! Sorry for bothering you but I wonder if you ever read/watch Card Captor Sakura, where the main endgame couple - Syaoran (Xiaolang) Li and Sakura Kinomoto - ends together is for me like Gwen x Frederick romantic relationship in both of look and love story. Gwen with her hibby of sewing could get a nice outfit (including magical girl dress if she like) and Frederick - Syaoran's outfit espc the battle outfit is 🟢green like the all of the color theme of Frederick. In nutshell, if you ever wonder what's Gwen and Frederick looks if they wear Sakura and Syaoran battle outfit? Thank you!!! Sorry for trouble

Sorry, but I haven't read the series before. I took a look at their battle outfit designs and they're pretty cute I could totally see them wearing it. I don't know if I'll have time to read it since finals are coming up(I'm in high school btw). When I make time, would you recommend reading the manga or watching the anime first?

Note: I might say that I'm going to read/watch it but there is a 50% chance I'm actually going to

[annebrontesrequiem]

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!

[ilwinsgarden]

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 :)

[kurogabae]

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.

[cardcaptorcoconut]

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!)

[lemedy]

Me so very much at Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card right now.

Cutting for Tsubasa Chronicles and possible Clear Card spoilers, and also for me plotting and wording and very likely being 1000% wrong on everything.

So.

Me a few days ago: Wait, so like….didn’t CCS Sakura give her staff to Clone Sakura in TRC? Like, there was a lot of fuckery that was happening at the end, but that was something that happened, right?

So I went home and looked it up and lo and behold, yes. That’s pretty much what happens:

See, this is Clone Sakura from TRC. I’m re-reading TRC at the moment from the beginning, and I cannot 100% remember all of the shit that goes down with her, but a quick basic summary is: she’s the Sakura we start out, except whoops she’s a clone, and then whoops Clone Syaoran killed her.

And there’s this weird thing where they’re both reborn into yet another alternate universe and actually grow up and marry, and like….Sakura gives birth to Original Syaoran and oh my fucking god with this series, oh my god.

SO SHE WENT THROUGH THINGS, I’M SAYING.

Anyway, so both Sakura and Syaoran are trying to get back to the Original Non-Clone Sakura and Syaoran, and then Sakura starts talking about this dream she had, and HI THERE, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, thank god you were born into a much happier and less fucked up story:

(btw grown up Sakura is really kind of beautiful)

Long story short, somehow CCS Sakura approaches Clone Sakura in a dream. I can’t quite tell if she’s the same age as in Clear Card or if she’s a little older – I think she looks slightly older, but I could be wrong on that – and gives her staff to Clone Sakura and mentions that she doesn’t actually need it, because she still has the Cards.

(Also she seems to somehow know something about the whole clone deal which is frankly impressive given CCS Sakura often seems to know fuck all about fuck all since the story loves to keep her in the shadow about everything, but that’s a rant for another day)

(Also CCS Sakura using her “everything will definitely be all right!” spell/phrase on Clone Sakura who has really had a fucking Bad Time get to me a little, I admit it).

IT’S KIND OF INTERESTING, because ALL THINGS IN CLAMP ARE CONNECTED, so that’s like…canon. It’s canon that at some point, Sakura Kinomoto entered the dream of an alternate version of herself and gave up her staff.

And a few pages later and Sakura tells Syaoran that she gave the staff to Yuko as payment for their wish (presumably to get back to the main crew). So also canon: Yuko has the staff.

So. Shit that happened in TRC that directly references the CCS universe and should have an impact on the CCS story: Sakura Kinomoto somehow became aware of another her and went to her aid. She gave up her staff. Yuuko, from xxxHolic, has Sakura’s Star Staff.

So Sakura at some point, will not have her staff, although she still has the cards. However, we now know she will get a new staff, and new cards….although something has happened to the old cards.

(And let’s not forget about Yuna having the same mage-ranking as Fai and that book in Akiho’s library using Fai D Flowrite Magic Font).

And what does this actually mean for Clear Card?

I have no fucking idea.  No fucking clue.

It could be nothing. It’s probably nothing. Clear Card could and likely will just do its own thing, and sometimes there will be little shout-outs to other stories and that’s that. Akiho will probably not be some kind of Fei Wong-created Sakura clone, Yuna will probably not be related to Fai and Yuko. It’s unlikely Clear Card will suddenly take the risk of confusing the little ones watching it by directly connect to other, darker stories.

(Sakura to Tomoyo: HEY I HAD A REALLY WEIRD DREAM WHERE I WAS A CLONE AND SYAORAN MURDERED ME BUT THEN WE MARRIED AND HAD SYAORAN AS A KID. IT WAS WEIRD SHIT, TOMOYO).

But still….CLAMP is CLAMP, the laws of Hitsuzen still apply, and even if the show never really goes there?

Yeah. I think it’s all connected.

Now give me the CCS versions of Kurogane and Fai as a cameo, you cowards.

[horitsuba]

You know, with all this talk about Kaito, I still really believe he isn't evil, and I don't think he wants to hurt Sakura/Co on his end. I still believe his intentions are for the greater good, even when he is a shady character, but then, CCS have many chara's that have secrets. Kaito may do things his own way, but I believe it will work out for the best for everyone in the end. I think the real threat is this 'books time' that's been hinted. Just how I see it.

Yeah, I’m sure he has good motives, but that doesn’t mean he’s doing good. What he’s trying to do is controlling time, maybe to stop Akiho’s time and prevent her of something bad happening to her. But still, at least in other CLAMP’s works, messing with space/time is forbidden. Even if he has good intentions, he’s doing something he shouldn’t do, you know? And when someone does something that they’re not supposed to do, there are heavy consequences.

I’m gonna take TRC as an example. Syaoran wanted to save Sakura’s life and so he ended up stoping her time. This had awful consequences around all the dimensions, and many innocent people’s destiny changed bc of Syaoran’s wish.

That’s why I don’t trust Kaito. Unlike TRC!Syaoran, he is a very powerful magician and has been part of an important clan, so he does know about the consequences that controlling time will have around everyone, but even so, he keeps seeking his goal, no matter what. He wants this badly, he knows people will get hurt, but he keeps doing it. He just wants Akiho to be safe and he doesn’t care about anything else, he doesn’t care if Sakura gets hurt, he doesn’t care about Sakura’s loved ones, he doesn’t care about anyone but Akiho…

[recentanimenews]

Cardcaptor Sakura – 08 – Love and Thunder

Sakura has a strange dream of Tokyo Tower that’s identical to one she had in the first episode, except that the person in it isn’t her, but some boy in Chinese clothes she’s never met before. Both Kero-chan and Yukito independently surmise it might be a “foretelling” dream.

Sure enough, she meets the boy when he suddenly transfers to her class. His name is Li Syaoran, and he has absolute daggers for poor Sakura from word go, which bore into the back of her head all during class.

Since my intro to CCS was Clear Card, I’m used to Syaoran as Sakura’s mild-mannered boyfriend, so it’s a bit shocking and upsetting to see just how big a goddamn jerk he is to Sakura when they first meet. During recess he asks her to hand over the Clow Cards she has.

When she rightfully refuses, he gets physical, but thankfully Touya is nearby to help his little sister. Touya and Syaoran are about to throw down with some martial arts when Yukito adorkably breaks up the fight with what else but a big sack of food! 

That night, Kero-chan assures Sakura that because she opened the book and awakened him, she’s already proven she’s worthy of being a Cardcaptor, and shouldn’t pay the kid’s negging any mind. When a new Clow Card shows up in the form of persistent thunder and lightning, Sakura and Tomoyo leap right back into action.

Since she has a battle costume for any theme and eventuality, this week Tomoyo provides Sakura with an outfit entirely made of rubber and other insulators to prevent conduction. As for why she included cat ears? Because they’re cute, NEXT QUESTION.

Using a combo of Fly and Jump, Sakura has the altitude and agility to keep up with Thunder, but has no idea how to return it to it’s “true form.” To make matters worse, Syaoran shows up, criticizes Sakura for her ignorance, then casts some magic that turns Thunder into a beast.

While that’s a necessary step, the task of actually sealing Thunder falls to Sakura, who possesses Shadow—which unlike Windy is able to restrain Thunder—as well as the staff required to seal the card. Even so, Syaoran isn’t impressed and basically dismisses Sakura as an out-of-her-element tourist before splitting.

Obviously, Syaoran is wrong. Not only is Sakura capable of capturing Clow Cards, but has every right to do so, even if she’s not related to Clow Reed like the Li Clan. That doesn’t stop Syaoran’s words from hurting Sakura’s feelings, which is clear to both Kero and Tomoyo. IMO Syaoran owes Sakura an apology for being such an meanie right out of the gate.

It’s not her fault her dad had all the cards, and that she found them while he was off in Hong Kong. The two could work better far together as a team rather than rivals at cross purposes, but to do so Syaoran would have to cede Cardcaptor status to Sakura. Something tells me he’s too proud and arrogant for that, but the teamwork will just happen organically regardless!

By: magicalchurlsukui

[skylights422]

Hi! For the character thing, what about Tomoyo from CCS? =)

Of course! Always happy to talk about CCS! And thanks for the ask! ^_^

How I feel about this character: I LOVE HER! She’s so much fun, she’s so wise and supportive, she’s such a good friend and is so excited and enthused to be helping her buddies. She’s super stylish and I love her rants about Sakura’s fashion and her strong sense of empathy and ability to know how to help someone is really admirable. She’s just awesome all around!

All the People I ship romantically with this character: I don’t…actively ship her with anyone? It could have been sweet if Sakura returned her feelings or if she had some other romantic plotline  but I loved seeing her be friends with everyone so much I didn’t really feel anything was Lacking???

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Tomoyo&Sakura! But also her and Kero and her and Syaoran, the mutually platonic friendships she has are so sweet and she and Kero are TOTAL BROS and I LOVE IT! Platonic OTPs are my main form of OTPs so I almost always have a lot lol

My unpopular opinion about this character: I guess unlike a lot of people am not really Dying For Her To Get A Girlfriend? I certainly wouldn’t mind if she did, if she found another girl she loved who loved her back I’m sure it would be adorable and I’d quickly become invested, but on principle I’m also fine with her being single and being okay with that because I think that’s important too.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened in canon: I would have liked to see her and Syaoran bond as friends more! They had some scenes and I loved them, but even more friendship development would have been awesome! Actually just more scenes with her bonding in mutually platonic ways would have been great (I love love LOVED her friendship with Sakura so much but there was always that Unrequited Love side of things and I liked seeing her have friendships that were just friendship without any romance involved)

[meimi-haneoka]

Who do you think is interacting with the "real" Sakura (I can't believe I have to write this phrase in CCS!) right now? The other Mirror card (I know it lost its power, but still)? Rewind (I'm slowly thinking it's not that unlikely)? Another clone (lmaooooo)? Someone else we haven't seen?

Hahahahhaha I know anon, it's crazy right? 😂 I've been laughing since the day this chapter came out. Can't believe Ohkawa would go and shove more fake Syaoran and Sakura our way. But since these are Cards, we can't complain too much 😂 it makes sense with the lore!

I do think it might be the Clear Mirror card. What happened to this Mirror Card is exactly the same thing Syaoran did with the Sakura Cards: only the magical power has been sucked away, leaving behind the empty "container" (the transparent card). It is likely that, in order to use it, whoever took it put it in another "container", exactly like Syaoran did (you can see the Sakura Card physically with him). So again, if Kaito is behind all of this, Syaoran might have given him an idea about what to do with the Clear Cards (which I bet would've been way more difficult to steal "physically" from Sakura cause she would've fought back), that day they had a fight during Parent's Day. If this is the case........lol, Syaoran. Disaster of a boy. All in good intentions, of course.

If Momo is behind the theft (or the voluntary surrender?) of the card, then I imagine she can do pretty much whatever she wants, with the power she's equipped with.

[spring-emerald]

Syaoran (you can pick whether it's CCS or TRC) for the character ask thingy. :3

I’ll just pick CCS, since it’s less complicated. XD

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would banghogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuffbest quality: His headstrong personality and determination and how different he is when around Sakura.worst quality: His stubbornness and (in the beginning) his prideship them with: Sakura of course!brotp them with: I really want him to get along with Touya (but that seems highly unlikely) so I’ll just say Eriol. Nothing beats a bonding with your ancestor. needs to stay away from: MAGIC. XD Just kidding. Kid has to stop looking for trouble though. hahaha…misc. thoughts: I still have yet to read the CCS sequel. Probably should. 

Thanks dear @noehhmii!! 

[meimi-haneoka]

Thoughts on Chapter 34 of CCS Clear Card

Aaaaand here we are again, at that time of the month, ready to talk and scream (?) about another of Clear Card’s chapters! Sakura and Syaoran have sorted out their problems, no more lies and secrets between them, Sakura even had the chance to witness in front of her eyes how her wishes can instantly turn into “incidents”, and her resolute face at the end of Chapter 33 hinted that she’s not gonna succumb to her fate!

What possibly could go wrong?

CLAMP:

UNDER THE CUT!!

The calm before the storm

First of all, I have to admit it. Those talking with me on the Clow Kingdom discord server might have already heard this, but this chapter left me totally disoriented. I don’t know whether it’s due to CLAMP not planning the storyboard properly (unlikely) or because it was supposed to feel like this, as the focus is all on the cliffhanger on the final pages (after all, this is future volume 7′s last chapter), but the feeling I got is that the flow of events is a bit rushed. We have many POV in this chapter, first we’re with the kids, then Kero and Suppi, then Nakuru and Yukito, then the kids again. 32 pages might not have been enough to develop everything properly, but we had to arrive to that cliffhanger.

And some things look definitely off. Like, Tomoyo is finally made aware of the fact that Sakura is the one creating the cards. And her reaction is “Oooh.” . She’s totally....unfazed? o_o Even seeing the Clear Card that represents her, she just comments with “まあ”?! Ok, Tomoyo might not be a drama queen ok no scratch that, she totally is, but I expected a bit more of surprise from her. Instead, she gushed over the Rewind card’s cuteness and started her usual ranting about recording this and that. It’s getting a bit repetitive and stereotypical, CLAMP? Tomoyo is so much more than that. She may not be my favorite ever but I do like her and her perceptiveness. I went so far that I even imagined she already knew Syaoran was the one behind the Sakura Card’s disappearance. So much for that. I hope CLAMP will find the time to bring out a shiny moment for Tomoyo, as I understand that the pages are what they are, and they have to develop the plot for the new characters, so they inevitably have to sacrifice the screen time of other characters.

We have a brief moment of Suppi explaining everything to Kero, and here I go “eh?” again at the story: Sakura says “Kero-chan is at home, this morning a guest came over” .... Ok? Did Sakura see that it was Suppi??? DIDN’T SHE INSTANTLY GO “WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR ELUSIVE MASTER?” on him??? Ok maybe not with those terms, but....isn’t she surprised, didn’t she ask him why he was there? Again, a totally confusing part. We’ll see if that’ll get explained later on. We have a cute moment between the two small guardians, and again we have a character who acts nonchalantly about the situation, justifying it with “It’s Sakura. She’s gonna do something about it.”

DUDE

I wouldn’t want to break your world made of unicorns and tasty gourmet dishes, but this is exactly the reason why Sakura is in the situation she is, right now!!  It’s a problem she’s got in herself and she can’t do much about it, at the moment. This is what she is. A 12/13 year old girl with a scary amount of power in herself, that is growing by the minute (and we’ll see how, in this chapter). A power she can’t control. Sakura being Sakura is the source of the problem in itself.

I know, it’s supposed to show that he’s totally trusting his mistress, like he effectively says to Suppi. But he’s the 2nd character out of 3 who is acting in a  way too relaxed manner, in this chapter.

The third one is Yukito. It’s Nakuru to remark this fact, adding that it’s better that way. Sure, if everyone started feeling gloomy it would be a big mess. But even being too relaxed, in a situation like this, might lead them to overlook important things. BTW, it seems Eriol arranged paperwork to enroll Nakuru in college! That’s totally an Eriol move! XD Keeping Nakuru and Yukito together without disrupting Yukito’s normal life, great idea.

Sakura’s anxiety

But it’s when the kids arrive to the classroom, that the “fun” starts. The girls are talking about the swimming class they will have today, and Sakura is her usual cheerful self.

Then, Akiho arrives.

Sakura turns around normally, but when she sees her, anxiety start churning inside of her.

Sakura, who never ever felt anything about Akiho, not even after Kaito rewound time, feels something is wrong with her friend. The moment we’ve been waiting for 26 chapters. But there’s more, she can’t shake the feeling even during the swimming class (OFFICIAL SCHOOL SWIMSUITS, BTW!! they’re even more conservative than before and it’s alright XDD).

Of course, eh, her frown doesn’t escape observative-boyfriend-Syaoran's stare. She asks him if he can feel something from Akiho, and he says no, AND HE’S NOT LYING DAMMIT, he really can’t feel anything, but how can he explain ALL THE REST to her, with the spell placed upon him? Of course, this is Syaoran we’re talking about, so he tries to say something anyway, and finds himself not emitting a single sound. See, there’s so much to talk about in so few pages, like how we’re again presented with the fact that Akiho is similar to Sakura in the good reflexes too, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER Sakura’s smile to Akiho is so forced and lukewarm that you CAN really feel something is terribly wrong. Or, how we cannot talk about the first YAMACHIHA FLIRTING SCENE EVER?? I was so happy, in a moment of such tension those two managed to give us a breather before going back to the utter mess that is about to unfold. I love those two and their relationship <3

BUT LOOK WHO’S BEING A TOTAL CREEPER WATCHING KIDS IN SWIMSUITS? Our legendary asshole Yuna D. Kaito, of course!! XD Now, I have to be sincere. This is another of those “???” scenes because, ok, they try to explain that he’s there to cause some trouble now that Sakura knows the origin of the cards, but I still didn’t get why he’s doing that. What’s the connection between the two things? He smiles warmly while taking out his staff and he’s the usual smartass we love to hate!

Shit definitely goes down again

Then, panic unfolds. We have the final proof that in this chapter, Sakura could feel things before happening TWICE: one is as soon as Akiho arrives to school, having an uneasy feeling that she never had while looking at Akiho, and now, seconds before Kaito stopped time with his magic. Actually, scratch that: they might be 3 TIMES, as she pulls out her key and Reflect Card even before the real attack comes to her. This is all fun and games, until you actually stop to realize...that Sakura’s power might have increased once again, leading her to new heights of worrisome strong magical powers. 

A whirlpool raising from the pool attacks Sakura, to which she effortlessly responds using “Reflect” and here I’m once again confused because the scene just doesn’t flow right, there’s at least a panel missing to show that the one attacking her is “the pool” and those “arrows” don’t come out of nowhere, like the rest of this attack anyway, as it felt totally random (this might be the part pertaining to Kaito, anyway).

And, as if anyone called her: hello there, “vessel-mode” Akiho! (Ah, actually “vessel” is not a thing anymore, as the term has been completely erased in the tankobon release of volume 6, the latest out. The term “vessel” has been replaced with 中, “inside”. I’ll do a post about it, later on.) Just like last time, the usual assholes are talking through her again, using her as an intercom (though, I’m not sure if these are the Squids or the Association), commenting on Sakura’s powers and then attacking her, still using Akiho, stating that they have to bind her to this book. Yes, the verb used is really “to bind, to file” and it’s relative to books etc. 

Soooooo, now what I want to know is:

IS THIS THE CLIMAX STARTING TO MOVE FOR REAL, this time around?

Is something irreparable about to happen? Will Sakura be trapped in that book?

But most importantly, will Kaito rewind time once again and make the fandom riot like they never had before??? I really want to see if CLAMP are going to put their fan’s patience on the line like that ^^””” Still, it probably feels too soon to wrap this up, considering Kaito said there aren’t enough cards not many chapters ago. She did 3 in one day, yes, but if Kaito was about to cause something before the assholes interfered, it’s probably because he wanted her to give birth to another card. And now we have to see if this will happen or not.

If you’re wondering when next chapter is going to be released, please read my post on the matter.  UPDATE: a confirmation of a break for the July issue came from Nakayoshi’s Twitter account, you can read more HERE .

Thanks to @horitsuba for the scans featured here and thank you for sticking around to the end of this rant!! Mwah mwah! XDD