#thank you Aubretia!!

[meimi-haneoka]

Oh my!!!! Just read your post and the summary of the chapter and lmao, I am perfectly willing to wait for the volume to come out. First of all, congratulations to all of us YunaAki fandom that we actually got our favourite hobo to confess his feelings. Lmao, stuff his mouth with chocomint ice cream, Akiho! It feels a bit embarrassingly cute to finally have them being canon (officially that is!). Second, are we getting hints of a potential future arc that ties up with TRC/xxxHolic, especially since xxxHolic Rei is supposedly going to be revived? That description of Momo's scene makes me think that a book that is capable of rewriting the world would without a doubt be involved in TRC/xxxHolic shenanigans. I don't want to keep my hopes up too high given that CLAMP are ageing and have been working tirelessly for so long but maybe secondary author written light novels with illustrations from Mokona-sensei may be the way to go in the future, at least as far as CCS continuation goes? Given that Light Novels are at their all time popularity high right now and they have done it for CLAMP Academy before, fingers crossed! Although I believe we might take a few years before we get anything concrete on that side. Sigh! At least we have CCS CC anime Season 2 to look forward to now. Third, OMG!!!!! Tomoyo!!! I am now 100 percent certain that Sakura is going to be wearing a "King of Kwa" Qun Kwa, fully designed, hand embroidered and stitched by Tomoyo. There will definitely be two weddings - one at Japan (which will be whatever the couple chooses but I would love it to be a traditional Shinto one at the Tsukimine shrine) and a traditional Cantonese-Chinese one at Hong Kong (ain't no way the Heir of the Clan and his Japanese bride getting away without a "proper" and traditional Chinese wedding). Given that it takes at least a year for even an traditionally experienced embroiderer to create a King of Kwa, maybe Tomoyo mentioning this as they are entering 9th grade means that SS will really get married right out of high school. Like even her brain says whoops, I better begin the wedding planning and bridal dress designing already. Yes! Give us I-am-a-wealthy-Victoria-Peak boy Syaoran and his enormously large family being in sync over Sakura wearing a real gold and silver embroidered on finest silk from Guangdong with it weighing around 10-15 kg and that being the bare minimum because it brings the most fortune and fertility with its Nine Dragons and Nine Phoenixes. Buhahaha. And Sakura just going along with it because she does not really get to dip her feet into her husband's culture much and she is enjoying all the big family time because everyone, legit everyone in the family, is enamoured with her and how cute and absolutely precious she is. Ahahahaha. Sheesh, I am blushing so much. I had headcanons for so many years but these are all of them coming true!!! *shakes my head and arms vigorously in my fangirling heaven*

OMG Aubretiaaaaaaa!! YES!! We finally made it!! WEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEEEENNNDDDD 😂😂 Ok excuse my silly little moment but yes, can you believe that I would've NEVER imagined they would make him say THAT in canon? I've always thought that they would go "the subtle way", for several reasons (and it also makes sense, character-wise) and leave it at the true name reveal, but nope, they had to SHOCK ME even in the final, definitive special chapter!! 😂 It isn't a shock that Kaito is feeling romantic love for Akiho, not at all: the shock comes from seeing it spelled out "clearly" on paper! 😂 I even imagined that this could happen a couple of years later along the way, but it's perfectly fine like this. We talked about this before, right? The attraction he feels comes from a chemistry between souls, and there isn't anything shady going on. So everything else will still come at the right time (and it's not like CLAMP will portray any of it, so each one of us can imagine it however we like). I'm gonna write another post later about the chocomint ice cream because I realized I forgot to point some things out in my commentary! 😁

About the Holic tie-in, in this specific chapter it doesn't look like there's any hint (the "appropriate price" Momo paid is a concept that exists in CCS too), but it can still totally happen, even in Holic itself. Like a cameo from Kaito and Akiho (since it would be kinda weird to feature Sakura herself, and she would steal the spotlight wherever she goes). I don't know, I won't hope too much for it, but things in Clear Card definitely were left open enough for them to reconnect to it in the future!

And yes, I also am totally convinced that SyaoSaku will have a double wedding! 😁 Tomoyo can still totally create a western-style dress for the celebration in Japan, since usually after the traditional Shinto ceremony, there's the party and that's where the bride changes outfit and can wear the western-style dress! But yeah, I also cannot see them going without a ceremony in Hong Kong too, and I really appreciated the description of the King of Qwa traditional wedding dress, especially cause I looked for it and...YES, I CAN TOTALLY SEE HOW THIS "BEAST" REQUIRES AT LEAST A YEAR OF EMBROIDERY!! If Tomoyo is going to undertake this challenge, SHE REALLY NEEDS TO START NOW 😂 I mean, look at this....pink blossom, it's perfect!

It is so beautiful!! I can totally see Sakura wearing this! And YES, I agree, I think SyaoSaku will marry right out of high school 🥰 This special chapter really gave us "fuel" for so many future headcanons, right?? I really can't thank CLAMP enough for this!

[fizziigoth]

So, my ex's family had a lovely villa in Portugal that I visited a few times. In 2016, I went over 2 times - I had been abroad once prior to that. On the second visit to the villa, on my last day there, I was outside sketching some flowers on the roadside. Their elderly neighbour came out with her dog to see what I was doing - she didn't speak a lick of English. I was petting and fussing her dog, and she was complimenting my (then blue) hair by pointing to my hair, miming water/making ocean sounds, saying "Azul!!" while putting her hand on her chest, and following it with a thumbs up. I was grinning my head off.

After a while of our mimed conversation, she motioned for me to follow her to look at the flowers in her garden (pointing at my drawing, then to her house), so I did. Her garden was lovely rocky terrain with hardy flowers creeping onto every surface. There were several larger rocky ledges that acted like sparse stairs down the steep. Even though I had almost a foot of height on her and could easily navigate them, every single time we came across one, she'd slowly sit down on the ledge and carefully stand up, brush her hands off on her faded pink apron, then turn around to offer me her hand/make sure I got down safely. I took her hand every single time. At one point, I saw the biggest pinecone I had ever seen in my life - easily the size of my face - and clearly my amazement was plastered over my face as the little old lady scooped it up, brushed it off, opened my satchel and put it inside for me to keep.

After about an hour, my ex's mum came to find me and we went back inside after they shared a brief conversation in broken Portuguese. I drew lots of pictures of the lady's garden for her, made a makeshift envelope with the words "thank you!" written across it, and posted them through her letterbox that night before heading to the airport.

About 6 months later, in 2017, we went back over. On day 2 of us being there, someone knocked on the gate and my ex's mum answered. She came back inside about 10 minutes later and excitedly told me *I* had a visitor. I was super confused, but I went outside - and there was the elderly neighbour, with her dog, alongside another younger man (her nephew) with *his* dog. As soon as I come out, the neighbour loudly exclaimed "Blue!! Blue hair. Blue hair like dog. I bring more dog for blue hair!!!"

The next time I visited, she was out of town, and I wish I had known that was my last time going over. I hope she is sat in her garden now, enjoying a lemonwater, while her little dog rolls around in the aubretia flowers. I hope she knows that, in the 6 years since I last saw her, I've drawn her garden a million times since.

[modelworker]

anemone, aubrietia, hoary stock, rose, and zinnia

anemone: favorite flower? chrysanthemumsaubretia: favorite drink? peanut butter milkshakehoary stock: what are you proudest of? I’m really proud of all the work I’ve been doing this semester and I can’t wait to see the finished productsrose: what’s your favorite sound? I love a really nice rim shot on a snare drum (I’ll show you sometime!)zinnia: give a random fact about yourself. I used to want to be a science fiction/fantasy author

thanks Britt ❤️

send me flower asks from here

[redphienix]

bouquet n sweet :?

bouquet: what's your favorite kind of flower?

Hmm. Give a moment to google through flowers since I don’t have an innate favorite.

Now take this with a grain of salt, as honestly, there are a heck of a lot of pretty flowers- but from my cursory glance I’ll say “Aubreita deltoidea. (Also known as Aubretia)“

Look at em! I love that shade of purple :)

sweet: do you like candy and chocolate?

MOST DEFINITELY. I love candies, sour, sweet, tart (a favorite), pretty much anything. And chocolate I love IN BAR FORM but find rather... just kind of gross in ice cream form. Chocolate bars are a huge plus though, or chocolate chip cookies, but not chocolate cookies, and not chocolate cake.

Thanks for the ask :D!

[zoomology]

If you haven’t already, check out ‘part one’ of this blog post here:

In our first post, we let you know what we’ve been up to and why we’ve been gallivanting about Spain. We introduce the family, Sphingidae, of which today’s organism is a part of. We also talk about our first Sphingid, the hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).

In this post, we want to share with you another beautiful Sphingid, the broad-bordered bee hawk-moth (Hemaris fuciformis).

The Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Hemaris fuciformis)

The broad-bordered bee hawk-moth is found in north Africa, Europe (except northern Scandinavia) and Central and Eastern Asia. As for the UK, you are most likely to see them from May to August, but they are nationally scarce and are restricted to small areas.

It gets its common name from the fact that it resembles a bumble bee. The hawk-moth, however, is much larger and more agile than their bee-counterpart. The hawk-moth also feeds whilst flying, whilst a bumble bee lands on the flower.

We noticed whilst observing the hummingbird hawk-moth and the broad-bordered bee hawk-moth feeding, that the hummingbird hawk-moth never rests any of its legs on the flower whereas the bee hawk-moth always rests its front two legs. Here is a comparison:

Hummingbird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Hemaris fuciformis)

Their caterpillars feed on honeysuckle (Lonicera) and bedstraw (Galium). In honeysuckle leaves, the young caterpillars create small circular holes. This distinctive feeding pattern is often a good way to find the species.

The adults like to feed on the nectar of honeysuckle in particular, but also bugle (Ajuga), ragged-robin (Lychnis), Rhododendron, louseworts and Aubretia. We found ours on Buddleja. This moth is a day-flying moth, being active in the late-morning and early-afternoon sunshine.

We had never seen one in the UK before, so to encounter it in Spain was quite an exciting experience. Two Sphingids on the same plant – we were certainly happy campers.

Coming up next are our final two posts from our France/Spain trip: Wall Lizards and Stag Beetles. Until then, thank you for reading!

References and Further Reading

Hawk-moths (Sphingidae)

Motyle Europy Website – Sphingidae of Europe –https://www.lepidoptera.eu/Thumbnails2.php?country=XX&family=Sphingidae&mode=up (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

The RSPB Website – Hummingbirds and Hawkmoths – https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/read-and-learn/watching-birds/identify/hummingbirdhawkmoth/ (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Wikipedia Website – List of moths of Great Britain (Sphingidae) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_moths_of_Great_Britain_(Sphingidae) (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Wikipedia Website – Sphingidae – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Hemaris fuciformis)

Butterfly Conservation Website – Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth – http://butterfly-conservation.org/51-1098/broad-bordered-bee-hawk-moth.html (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Motyle Europy Website – Hemaris fuciformis (Linnaeus, 1758) – https://www.lepidoptera.eu/show.php?ID=179&country=EN (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

UK Moths Website – Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth Hemaris fuciformis – http://ukmoths.org.uk/species/hemaris-fuciformis/adult/ (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Wikipedia Website – Hemaris fuciformis –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemaris_fuciformis (Retrieved 6 August, 2017)

Sphingids of #Spain: The Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth #Moths #Sphingidae #Hemarisfuciformis If you haven't already, check out 'part one' of this blog post here: In our first post, we let you know what we've been up to and why we've been gallivanting about Spain.

[meimi-haneoka]

Thanks for answering Cinzia! No, you are right 😂. I should not be using older art style as any standard of indication of timeline. That was an interesting exposition. I had never read the CCS manga (or doujinshis) as a kid, but the number of *ahem* works which feature junior high aged SS I came across over the past few months is pretty concerning. On a second note, I was also wondering about Akiho's ancestry. As you once suggested, Akiho's clan might be the Reed clan, the clan on Clow Reed's father's side. From what I understand, the Reeds would be (again I am not trying to be politically offensive but still trying to be direct to the point) white-skinned. Clow, from what I understand, was very much biracial. Then if Akiho indeed is from the Reed clan, how was it possible for her resemble Sakura that much, enough for pass off as her twin? Even if we are to assume that Lilie was the Reed (with perhaps white Germanic ancestry) and her husband (who perhaps can be assumed to the one who had Shinomoto name and was thus Japanese in all probability) married into the clan and they had Akiho who was biracial (with presumably German and Japanese ancestry), it is still very unusual. Until and unless of course, one assumes that Sakura herself is not of a fully Japanese ancestry, especially given that her father literally appeared when Clow died (gave up his body?) and Fujitaka (and Eriol) were created from some kind of magical cellular fission (?). So, Sakura (and Touya) are of part-white heritage, that too from the Reed clan, explaining the resemblance. I am just thinking too much, am I not? I should just let it be, at this point. 😰 Also, what ethnicity does Kaito belong to? I originally thought he was some kind of East Asian looking Russian but his real name is of French origin? What even is going on there?

P.S. Dear God, this went into a very different direction from what I originally wanted to write.

Ohohohho this is a topic that has crossed my mind more than once, especially during the "happy sisters" chapters after Kaito activated the forbidden magic!! 😂😂😂

Long story short, the final solution to the dilemma I came up with is: suspension of disbelief! 😂😂😂😂 Yeah, I think this is one of the most prominent cases where you're supposed to look at them literally for what they are "on paper" and not what kind of ethnicity they should represent in the story.

I'll elaborate further; first of all yes, I've always had the theory that "the clan of the most ancient magicians in Europe" might have been the Reed clan, which also Clow came from. I thought it was just the perfect fit for Akiho: it's based in England, and we know the Reeds were an English clan; this clan got rivalry with the Li's in Hong Kong and again it would make sense if they were the Reeds, because those two families have ONE illustrious relative in common: Clow Reed, the most powerful magician of his time! In fact, it's stated in the Clear Card story that the "Squids" do have lots of resentment towards Clow. The reasons are unknown, but if they were the Reeds, we can easily guess them: he ditched that side of the family and decided to get closer to the Chinese side, living in Hong Kong for a time and leaving some of his magical tools with the Li's. And also, it would've made PERFECT sense for Kaito to turn to the Kinomoto family to leave Akiho with them: if Akiho was a Reed, and we know for certain that Sakura in some way does have a little bit of Reed blood in her (she is explicitly indicated as having "Clow's blood" in the story, and that's so important that they made the characters point that out in the anime too, where TECHNICALLY she shouldn't have any blood relations with Clow, since Fujitaka was never confirmed as Eriol's 'other half' of Clow's reincarnation), that would've ALREADY made Akiho a distant relative of Sakura in some way. So it would've felt way less forced and much more reasonable. Everything fit so well that I was almost sure we would've had this confirmation before the end of the story; sadly, we never did.

There's a VERY terrible translation mistake in volume 6 of the English version by Kodansha USA, where they made the Squids say this:

Please be informed that in the JP original the Squids never said "For the blood of Clow Reed...to be bested by the Li Family....is an unbearable disgrace", because that basically made them refer to themselves as "blood of Clow Reed", hence indirectly confirming they are the Reed clan. That's absolute bullsh*t and what they actually said is "THEY are of Clow Reed's lineage. We can't allow to fall behind them" and that connects with what Kaito said in chapter 68: the Squids checked every movement from the Li family because of their resentment towards Clow (and the Li's were connected to him). I know my theory sounded legit, reasonable and could've made everything more interesting and well connected, but a theory remains a theory if canon doesn't confirm it. And translation mistakes should never be so bad that they end up portraying things in a way that makes you believe what it was actually NEVER confirmed in the story.

Up to this day, we don't have a "name" we can call this clan with: they're simply addressed as "that clan" or "the most ancient magicians in Europe" in THE WHOLE the story (trust me, I've monitored that detail very well, because of my theory). They're NOT the Shinomoto clan, as many people like to report in order to simplify things. I honestly not even believe that Akiho's father's last name was Shinomoto, as Akiho seems c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y foreign to Japanese culture throughout the story. He didn't marry into the clan from "outside", because Lilie specifically says that he's a "distant relative", so he's very much part of this European clan himself. And if we have to go by how awful they are in the story, I'm pretty sure these people would've done anything to keep their blood line as "pure" as possible, without "interventions" from outside, if you know what I mean. Additional to that, Akiho doesn't even remotely mention a possible "tie" she might have with Japan: I know her clan never really answered her questions about her parents, but I'm pretty sure that if she was half Japanese they would've told her and she would've sort of mentioned it along the story. She's portrayed by CLAMP as someone completely foreign to Japan. And with a last name like that, if she was really half Japanese, if would've come up at some point (Sakura doesn't even ask about it, "how come you have a Japanese last and first name if you don't have any connection with Japan?"). I mean, Akiho did "confess" at the end that her true name is Cosmos, and I think that is the only true part of her name that we were allowed to know about her. Just like the rest of her clan, and Kaito, her last name is none of our business, basically 😂 I mean, even Eriol adopted a Japanese last name to fit better, even though he shouldn't really have any tie with Japan (if he's a reincarnation of Clow and got Clow's blood just like Fujitaka, then he should have Caucasian and Chinese traits in himself). As you pointed out, that should be the same with Fujitaka.

As for Kaito, I definitely thought that he could be Chinese at some point: one of my craziest theories was that he was actually a "lost Li", because the shape of his eyes is exactly the same of Yelan. Yeah, check it out if you don't believe me! 😂

The moon power, the fact that he's often portrayed with chinese-style clothes.... Alas, this theory went down the drain too. Or, at least, we were never given concrete hints about it. And then the fact that in his backstory he's potrayed in a cold land with a typical Russian hat made me think that he could've been of Russian's origins too, but that one seems to be even less plausible at this point. His true name is French, so it is legit to infer that at least in part he must have some French genes in him, although it's anyone's guess where exactly he comes from. I do identify him as coming from France, at this point, and that would be reasonable because it would still be in the "area" of the Magic Association, if they operate in the entire Europe (man, CLAMP must think that there's lots of evil people in Europe, wtf 🤣). It wouldn't have been difficult for them to go fetch little Kaito in France, coming from the UK, is what I'm trying to say. But as we never got any other confirmation than his true name (and CLAMP must have chosen a French word instead of an English one for a reason), it's really anyone's guess.

So all of this makes me just conclude that we shouldn't really wonder too much about things like "how is it possible that Akiho and Sakura resemble eachother so much that they could pass as twin sisters, if they're supposedly from two different ethnicities?", because I'm pretty sure that CLAMP didn't go that far in planning all of these details to the situation. 😆 You should just rememember that it's a fictional story (with magic, at that), so we should apply a bit of "suspension of disbelief! 😅

[meimi-haneoka]

Was just thinking about your architecture and real life post and it led me to wonder if the original CCS anime also had more locations which are real life inspired. Like one that I can imagine that could have been inspired by real life location because it is so aesthetic is Tomoeda Elementary School. Because let's be honest, that was a really fancy school. Also, the church from the Christmas gift for the cards episode. Like that really gave me a feel that could be a real life place.

Thank you so much for checking my post out, Aubretia!! And sorry for the delay of my reply, I was pretty focused on drawing, these past few days 😅 This time around I only wanted to focus on Clear Card with my Trivia post, so I didn't do much research about locations of the OG anime and manga, but I am pretty sure there must be other real life locations that have been used in our beloved series back then!

In fact, I do have an additional trivia that I can share for the OG story, since I had saved it when I found it because it conveniently appeared on my TL while I was doing my research for Clear Card...

The building CLAMP have used in the manga for Sakura's Tomoeda Elementary School is a real existing building! (In the manga, because in the anime the building is different!). It's the Toshimaoka Girls' Junior and Senior high school, located in Ikebukuro, Tokyo! It is considered one of the best private girls' schools in Japan and was founded in 1892 in Ushigome Ward by three women, initially as a girls' sewing school, focusing on home economics and traditional Japanese ethics and morals of that time, while also teaching how to read, write and the abacus. After WW2, the school was relocated to its current position in Ikebukuro and named with its current designation.

Now that I think about it, it is rumored that the amusement park featured in the Sealed Card movie was based on a real life amusement park too: Arakawa Amusement Park in Tokyo!

This is pretty much a shared assumption of the japanese fandom, particularly for the colorful ferris wheel!

[meimi-haneoka]

To be honest, the double wedding is going to be such a logistical nightmare to coordinate. It will take a minimum of an year and a half to two to fully plan and carry this out and I am not even counting in the wedding design planning, magical guests accommodating, multiple bridal dresses designing by Tomoyo, fixing up auspicious dates, the traditional jewellery design consultations at Hong Kong, the two betrothals - yuino and Gua Da Li - their associated logistics including the bride price, diaper money, the betrothal gifts, and tens of other stuff including the Li Clan and its dynamics. Not to mention, there is household registration in Japan and Hong Kong, changing of family names, creating new family seals, renovating/redecorating and moving into the summer house, figuring out new visa statuses, balancing out high school/entrance exams/college and employment, not to mention Syaoran would possibly stress himself out over the bride price (my headcanon is that he earned that entire amount himself and was possibly thinking of buying Sakura and himself a new apartment as a part of her bride price before Gramps handed Sakura that summer house as a yuino or an early wedding gift) and now he does not know what else to use the money for so that it could constitute a "proper" and "respectable" bride price and would probably be stressing himself out. On Sakura's end, she would probably be stressed out more regarding the entrance exams as well as being worried for Syaoran than anything but ultimately everything turns out to be alright. Hopefully. But it is going to be stressful. Sigh. The only planning that would probably be stress free and with minimum interference by everyone but the couple would be the honeymoon. Lmao.

OMG AUBRETIA this gave anxiety even to ME!!! 😂😂😂

But thank you for listing all of this because I had no idea of all these traditions (and customs) and I'm pretty sure CLAMP don't as well 😂 This sure looks like a whole shit-ton of stuff to do... and I'm positively, absolutely sure that Syaoran would go as far as possible to take care of it because, after all, the majority of it comes from his side... he would try to take the burden all on himself before Sakura gently scolds him again 😂

Imagine now that they're going for 15 years old, Yelan one day at the phone goes "Son, if you want to marry the mistress of the Cards, remember to let us know at least 2 years in advance" *click* 😂😂😂😂

[meimi-haneoka]

Hey there. Hope things have been well for you. Things have been hectic here and I just realised today that CCS Memory Key has not been released in my country. 😭 I wanted to play it so bad. I keep seeing these really cute updates of tsundere Syaoran and his burgeoning feelings for Sakura. 😭 I am like 98 per cent certain by now that Syaoran has his *ehm* own personal preferences regarding Sakura and her clothing thanks to this game. He definitely has a weakness for Sakura in pink+maid+kitty. ROFL. He could not take his eyes off Sakura in that pink maid dress in episode 56 and also, that pink kitty maid was the first costume that he saw her in the anime. *That* definitely left an impression. *Snickers* 😂 Also, he got two tickets for a music masquerade from Tomoyo and was asking Sakura out in the most tsundere way possible. This despite Meiling existing in the game and being Clow Card arc. 😂 He is down so bad. So very bad.

Sorry for replying to this so late, Aubretia!! I'm sorry to hear Memory Key hasn't been released in your country!! 😟 The game is quite fun and the art is *really* nice, but let me tell you after one month of play....you're not missing *that much*. First of all, a few days ago the game went completely down for an entire day because the devs didn't pay/forgot to pay for the renewal of the domain, making all the servers unaccessible during a public holiday. It was extremely unprofessional and lots of people rushed to ask for refunds, in fear of having been scammed. Futhermore, I hear a lot of complaints about the gatcha system, the game design in general and the translation too (this one I can see too, and it's painfully clear they're doing the several languages translations with AI). If that wasn't enough, the SyaoSaku content isn't so present as you might think. It's actually very focused on Sakura's feelings for Yukito because the canon story stops at episode 30 for now, so you get a lot of side stories with Yukito asking Sakura out or Sakura gushing about Yukito. To be honest, I skip all those side stories. In general, I take all the original content of this game as an "AU", because it doesn't give off a vibe of "this could be canon without problems" like Happiness Memories strongly gave me.

[meimi-haneoka]

Aiyooohhhh!!!! The things I found in your twitter!!! 1. Lmao at Kero and Yue's "no mom loves you more" conversation in HappiMemo game. I do think Sakura is closer to Kero but I seriously believe that she loves them and the Cards quite well and equally. 2. Syaoran saving Sakura from the mushrooms. My god, Sakura no. Don't become Maomao. 3. Lmao at that idea that Sakura's costumes grew less daring once Syaoran turned up. But if we take in the fairy costume she wore in Episode 12 or the belly button revealing one in episode 43, I don't think that idea is a certainty. However, I can visualise Syaoran being protective over what Sakura wears as a costume. Although it would be less like "you cannot wear that thing out there." and more like "thank you daidouji for taking my opinions into consideration." "Of course, Li-kun. Don't mention it. Now, wear this costume and go and pose with Sakura out there." 4. Lmao at "we told him to come back with the cards. He's so young. He got confused. He came back with the girl with the cards." Buhahahaha.

Sorry for the delay, Aubretia!! As you might have noticed, I've been focused on a new set of fanart + fanfic (I really needed it to distract me from unpleasant stuff and it worked pretty well ✨) plus now I'm also sick with a cold 😵so forgive me for my short reply, my brain is quite foggy 😵‍💫

You have definitely unearthed stuff from ages ago, it brought back some memories when I've read them!! 😂 lots of that stuff was also discussed with friends over the discord server I was part of at the time, and I have to say that between the airing of the anime, the serialization of the manga and the release of the games, we had soooooooo much fun with CCS and Clear Card back then 🥲 I have to thank them for allowing me to have a safe space where to have fun and avoiding places full of toxicity. I can't wait to start all the hype again when Season 2 will come!! (and yes, I agree, Sakura definitely loves her magic creatures equally 😁)

[meimi-haneoka]

Hello! Hope you feel better soon. Thank you so much for answering my ask even though you are unwell. To be honest, I was expecting to be traumatised or dissatisfied rather than disappointed. I guess TRC and xxxHolic clearly did traumatise me. I do agree with your answers on the other asks. I really wondered about the synchronisation and I felt it is possible that perhaps CLAMP had changed parts of the story as they went along. Still, hope you feel better soon.

Dear Aubretia, as you can see I'm still under the weather but fighting to get better!! Aaaah ok, I see 😂 nah I was sure we weren't going to get any trauma in the ending because this is still Cardcaptor Sakura after all...bar raised and all, CLAMP still have to respect a 世界観, a "world view", this is very important and it's a silent "promise" between the authors and the readers to never betray that. CLAMP are professionals and so they know which works are ok to have "bittersweet" or "traumatizing" endings, and which aren't.

For the synchro, yeah I guess in order to know that we'll have to wait for interviews and such from CLAMP... What we know till now from what they have said around is that as with many other stories, Ohkawa started thinking Clear Card from the end, so that is certainly something that didn't change (no matter if the ending has been postponed twice, that might refer to how deeply the events depicted in it were portrayed, not to how it ended), but for sure in 7 years of serialization there might have been ideas pertaining to the "central" part of the story that were modified or rectified for the most various reasons. Ohkawa also said in a Space that there was something she absolutely wanted to depict in Sakura, towards the Clear Card finale, and she would've never given her "OK" to restart the Sakura story if it wasn't for that. There are many beautiful messages, concepts and even some foreshadowings for other works in the finale, so I hope that one day she'll say clearly which one of those it was.

[meimi-haneoka]

Happy birthday!!! Ooo! Those tarts (they are tarts, right? Or are they pudding?) look delicious.

Thank you so much Aubretia!! 🥰

Yes, they're fruit tarts and are my favorite! ✨

[meimi-haneoka]

Thanks for the answer Cinzia! Yes, as I said, I was thinking too much and ultimately have to seek refuge in "suspension of disbelief". I have two more questions. I am not sure if you can answer them because I did search around a lot but couldn't find them. The first being the English translation for Valentine's Day Tales for a Drama CD from the original anime. I would love to listen or read its translation and it would be great if you could point it out to me. The second being an unknown omake from the original manga. I cannot find it or much details about it, let alone its name, but one of the panels has Syaoran, in their summer uniform, dragging Sakura away from Yukito, although I am not sure whom exactly he is being jealous over. I tried searching for that panel so that I can give you a hint but I am unable to find it again. Although I am hoping that you have some clues regarding it despite my really scant description. Even if you can't remember it, it will be completely alright if you can just redirect me towards someplace where I can read omakes from the original manga. I have read "Honey Milk Tales" but that's about it. Frankly, I never realised how many extra material the OG series had. They are so cute and seriously could have been adapted. Again, apologies for this demanding ask. It's completely alright if you cannot. No pressure.

Hello again, Aubretia!!

I know very well what you're asking me, the fact is that I don't think I can really help you in both cases 😟

For the Sweet Valentine's stories Drama CD, unfortunately I'm not aware of any English translation...I even tried to briefly search for it, but nothing comes up, maybe it would need a deeper search. 😐 I've listened constantly to that Drama CD in my late teens while I was trying to learn Japanese, I didn't have that exact CD but I had another collection that included the "episodes" from that Drama CD!

As for the second one, oh I know what you're talking about! That's a comic from a booklet that came with the so-called "Kodansha CD Comic", a sort of Drama CD from August 1997! It was released almost one year before the beginning of the anime series in celebration of it, and it already featured the seiyuu we all love! If I recall correctly, the story revolves around the Song Card (it's a re-telling of its capture), Tomoyo and a recording Sakura wants to do for Yukito! The scene you're talking about comes from when Syaoran catches Sakura giving that tape to Yukito, he's of course jealous but it's not clear exactly towards whom 😉it seems it's about Yukito anyway. Unfortunately, I could only find a copy of this obscure booklet in vietnamese on a vietnamese blog, could it be of any use for you??

The two Honey Milk omake (one with Touya and one with Syaoran) and this little comic from the "CD comic" are the only existing omake for the OG CCS series! Clear Card had many more, in comparison!

[meimi-haneoka]

Thank you Cinzia! I seriously need to check my notifications more. I didn't even realise that you had answered my ask. Loved your timeline and fanfics. I completely get what you are saying about writing fanfic. It kind of just flows out when you are that invested in a pairing. Also, that CCS in Public domain ask.... if I am not wrong, Japan seems to have a different approach to it. I mean I have seen doujinshis and light novels being sold legally featuring (and being advertised with) CCS characters. I am not sure but it seems that is legal in Japan? Not sure of all this but I assure you that I have come across some R18 doujinshis featuring Junior High aged SyaoSaku. The horror...... Also, I didn't realise that Akiho and Sakura had lived together as sisters for 5 months post Alice in Clockland. I mean, they all don't look much different (I kind of presumed that it had been just a bunch of weeks, like autumn is over and winter has begun). Frankly, they should be nearer to the heights in the final chapter of OG CCS manga if the second year is about to begin (since Sakura and Syaoran were reunited in the beginning of the second year of JHS in the OG manga). Oh well, I will just chalk it down to art style change.

Thank you so much for reading my drabbles and finally check my timeline, Aubretia!! 😁I'm glad in the end it worked for you! ✨

About the doujinshi matter, hehe, it's not that simple. From what I know, doujinshi are considered 二次創作, "derivative works", and as such technically they aren't legal, if they don't have the authorization of the author. Often fanartists who produce doujinshi also produce what we call "fan merch", like printing their art on acrylic keychains, stickers, acrylic stands and such. Those fall into the category too. However, in the industry there is an unspoken agreement that such works are "tolerated" by copyright holders as long as the price they're sold at can be proven as a mere "reimbursement of the cost" to produce such merch (like the printing cost for the doujinshi/anthologies and the manufacturing cost for other items). Basically, the fanartists don't have to earn money from this (or I guess the don't have to earn too much). Usually artists print a definite amount of copies to sell at conventions and a definite amount to sell online, so it doesn't "become too much" and attracts "too much attention" from the copyright holders. These are tolerated only because it turns into further promotion for the IP, so of course the fanartists need to know their place and not overdo it. So it's not legal, but it is common practice to "close an eye" on it (and yes, this means that there's literally anything, as you pointed out, out there).

For Akiho and Sakura living together, yeah it's more or less from 4 to 5 months! I calculated this from the fact that when the play started, they had barely changed into their winter uniform at school, and usually that happens on a set date in Japan, on October 1st. Now, in the chapter of the play (63) you can see lots of people attending the school festival, and many of them wear short sleeves, while other wear mid or long sleeves. This definitely made me think that there were still quite nice temperatures so it probably wasn't in late October but rather at the beginning of it (I even thought it might have been September and they changed uniforms early). When Kaito activated the forbidden magic, things continued exactly from where they were left off before he brought Sakura and Akiho to Clockland, so when we come back in chapter 70 it's still everything on the same day of the play. And then, when we see how things are going for them in chapter 71, we see everyone wearing the "super winter uniform", as I jokingly call it, along with coats, scarves, gloves, it's even snowing at some point! And they also say that "soon" Sakura is going to become a second year student at Tomoeda Middle school, so I had already pinpointed the month when all of this was happening as end of February. When the last chapter dropped, turns out I was right, because just 4 days after the "last battle" Akiho says she would've left Tomoeda one month later, and when we see her and Kaito on their departure day, cherry blossoms are starting to bloom, so that means that they are at the end of March. So, in short, Sakura and Akiho spent as sisters an indefinite part of October, all of November, December, January and all of February together before they realized what the heck was happening. Yeah, it's all a matter of looking around you and observing "the silent hints" (isn't all of Clear Card like that, after all?) and you can get a lot of the context. 😉👍

And oh, I absolutely don't suggest to take any of the OG manga panels as a reference for the heights and such because back then CLAMP's style was very different. They tended to make their characters so tall (and their legs so long!) especially when they had to indicate that kids had grown up. Their chins were more pointy, the shoulders wider (I always laugh when I look back to Syaoran with those wide shoulders)...yeah it was something completely different. Now Mokona sensei respects body proportions a lot more and I also have to say that the poses of her characters are more natural and not "stiff" as they were before. I also love how more expressive they've become. I do agree though that if she could make them a tiny bit taller it would be better. This is something that I've constantly "complained" about during the serialization.

Besides, I always understood that Sakura and Syaoran were in their first year at Tomoeda Middle school, at the end of the OG manga? Cause Sakura says "my brother is going to poke fun at me oversleeping even though I've become a middle schooler!" so it suggests that the change had just happened? Well, Clear Card is its sequel and it starts exactly like the last pages of volume 12, with an "extended version" of the finale, so I think that the kids being in 1st year of middle school is what CLAMP had always intended since 2000.

[meimi-haneoka]

Hey there! Hope you are doing well! I could finally finish reading the last chapter although I managed to spoil myself a bit thanks to reading your post. I am so happy with the ending actually. The parallels between Lillie-Akidad and Akiho-Yuna travelling the world together and Lillie's friendship with Nadeshiko and Akiho's friendship with Sakura (definitely, they are going to meet again at some point) completely floored me. Also, I am so happy with Akiho's decision to travel. This is not the "Oh no, we have to flee and constantly keep moving to avoid the Clan & Association" scenario that I had feared, rather this is Akiho at her best - resilient, determined and forward looking. I love it. You go girl. Also, did we ever get to know what price Yukito paid for his magic? Or did I just miss it somewhere? The decision that I definitely was not happy with Clear Cards disappearing. I was like "NOOO! BOOO!" (And only Flight surviving, I mean, what was that even, Flight is cute and all, but so are the others, especially the Repair Tomoyo card). I hope they change this in the anime adaptation and give us a whole anime original season of Sakura trying to rebalance her magic and the cards deck, and maybe then coming across the new Clear style designs of Sakura cards. I mean, she can actually merge cards consciously now, so why not? Bring Meiling back to Tomoeda plus Eriol too (you know, who can actually train Sakura) and give us a Fujitaka plot line as he is deciphering the magic books (I love this inclusion) and involve Syaoran as his actually magic knowlegeable assistant or something and give them bonding time. Bam, you have a whole new season. Plus Akiho can keep making cameos like Meiling does now. Also, did you notice the really Clow like talk that Fujitaka did with Sakura? I seriously hope that they finally include the Fujitaka as the other half of Clow's reincarnation thing in the new season, so that they can include this scene. Also, I hope Syaoran checked up on Yelan and they finally had a talk about that spell she did on him. Also, Time magician Syaoran hype. The PTSD from TRC and xxxHolic gives me chills but I am hyped for this. Also, you talked about a special chapter? Can we have some more details about that? I am so sorry for the exuberance but I genuinely felt happy with this chapter when I was expecting to be disappointed.

Hello Aubretia!! So glad to see you here and to see you've read the final chapter too!! I'm also relieved to see you felt happy with this chapter, why were you expecting to be disappointed? 😅 Finales are quite difficult and it's basically impossible to make everyone happy. I know, you know, CLAMP knows. So I'm sure that they're managing well this wave of mixed feelings for the finale.

I know, the parallel between Lilie and Akidad / Akiho and Kaito is absolutely endearing and I actually HOPE for a specific thing, in this mysterious special chapter we're waiting for, in March! But I won't say it here to not jinx it, hahaha! 😂 I am also so happy to see that Akiho's friendship with Sakura continues, stronger than ever, I can really feel the "sisterly vibe" intact and I'm honestly relieved about that. Not only that but I think what gave me the most joy was to see all four of them together in the last pages, Akiho with Sakura and Kaito with Syaoran. It's like they're telling us that these two couples will have a deep bond in the future and will keep supporting eachother, despite being so different (SyaoSaku's background is surely different than that of YunaAki).

Yes, for how much I would've preferred they stayed in Tomoeda, seeing Akiho like that gave me the final push to convince me that travelling was also an acceptable option.

Eeehh I've heard lots of people complaining about the Clear Cards disappearing, but they were always meant to 🥹it was very, very apparent. From the way they depicted them, from the way they lacked any kind of love or interaction with Sakura (save for Flight), from the way they were produced basically by mistake, the extreme ease to capture them....it was like CLAMP was screaming in each page "don't get attached to them because they'll be gone by the end of the series!" The Clear Cards' role, beside being used in the activation of the forbidden spell, was basically just to give to Sakura an "outlet" to vent her uncontrolled power in a safe way. Along the way, their purpose was reallocated as giving hints to Sakura in Clockland, in order to wake her up. I know that it's hard to accept particularly for those who depicted Sakura's loved ones...but again, their cold stare was something I've always felt quite off, for a Sakura deck.

The anime certainly will show us so many things we want to see, but I wonder how the plot will further change and where.... Meiling is confirmed to come back in the anime sequel, but we don't know anything else!

About Fujitaka's scene in the anime, I'm afraid that making him Clow's half reincarnation won't happen, because that was a conscious, well-thought choice in the 90s...the directors together with Ohkawa agreed that it would be too complex for the audience, and removed it altogether. Hahaha, time magician Syaoran!! I confess that the very first reaction to Kaito teaching him that was "THE HELL YOU'RE GONNA DO THAT", for the same Tsubasa PTSD but also the entire thing that happened to Kaito in this arc! 😂I was only relived when he hurried to add "I'm sure you won't make a wrong use of it" 😂

Unfortunately we don't know *anything* about the special chapter that's going to be released in march, not even how many pages it'll be..... but we can only cross our fingers for a generous amount of pages!!