Ok, It's a bit later than I would have liked, but it's still the same day!

In today's episode, we start to see a team come together and Sakura's struggles against the calling of Magical-girlhood meet a formidable obstacle. Oh, and there's also a supernatural monster too.

CARD CAPTOR SAKURA EPISODE 2: Sakura's Wonderful Friend

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Episode two! Will Sakura choose to become the Card Captor? Find out, on the next episode of Card Captor Sakura!

- And we’re straight into the title card! I expected a format of a short teaser, then title, then the rest of the episode, but it seems I was mistaken. Anyway, Sakura is being woken up by Kerberossu, who looks alarmingly like Pedobear. Naturally, she screams. We then have a flashback about the last episode so the newcomers can understand what’s going on.

- Kerberossia (how he pronounced his name this time)has the usual argument about Sakura becoming a Cardcaptor. I’m only bringing this up becuase he shows that he has telekinesis by levitating the Fearow card at Sakura. Also the Card is called ‘The Fly’, so CLAMP needs a better translating department. What will Sakura catch next, The Weevil?

- Sakura is called down to breakfast. Toya’s cooking today, but nothing else is really different. This time, Sakura’s rushing her meal because she has to clean the classroom today. Ok, is this a Japanese thing? It sounds like nothing I can think of except detention, and Sakura doesn’t seem the type to misbehave.

- Oh, she brought some food up for Kerberossia. Him and sweets are going to become a thing, aren’t they? While Sakura puts on her hat, he asks if her father is also a student if he’s leaving the house, demonstrating that Kerbie knows very little about humans. Sakura puts him straight and tells him not to leave the house, before she rushes out. Yeah, that’ll happen.

- Sakura stops by Yuki’s house, which isn’t creepy at all. Yuki spots her and gives her some flowers for the classroom. Watching a really tall (not really, Sakura’s just small) bishie give a girl flowers entirely innocently is very strange.

- OK, I have to say this. When Sakura walks into the classroom, she’s got no hat, but it reappears in the next shot. That’s the first real error I’ve noticed. The second person in the classroom is her weird friend Tomoya. She’s got a video to show Sakura: Sakura flying from last episode. Oh dear. And Sakura’s panic brings Kerberossia out of her bag. Surprise, surprise. Tomoya is completely unphased by the teacup griffin.

- During break (Recess to you Americans ), Tomoya is being introduced to Kerberos. She comments that he doesn’t resemble his name, and they dub him Kero-chan. Finally, somebody with an education! Cutting to the playground, we see one kid’s shadow isn’t following him. Card number three, then.

- Back with our heroes, Tomoya is getting ... enthusiastic about seeing some magic. Kerberossia says it’s fine as they’re alone. Given that the girls are holding hands, it looks like he’s shipping them. Sakura folds and activates the key. Tomoya is impressed by Sakura’s expanding pink rod, but thinks she needs to work on her pose as it’s an important part of being a Magical Girl. I thought that this was supposed to be one of the first Magical Girl anime?

- We cut to leaving school. I was expecting some wacky hijinks about trying to keep Kerbie hidden, but this is fine. The unseen Clow Card strikes, sucking in all the shadows of the students, but none of them seem to notice. And now, it’s time for the ads!

- Sakura arrives next morning to find a big crowd. They’re staring at a truly enormous pile of gym equipment in the middle of the playground. I don’t know what this means about the card’s powers. We’ve seen it steal shadows, but that doesn’t mean it can move physical objects. I’m guessing that it has some kind of shadow-based teleportation or cloning abilities, but we’ll see how that turns out.

- To Sakura’s dismay, her classroom is in a similar state. Pigtails, Bowlcut and another friend (I’ll call her Wavy. Guess why) lament that they (including Sakura?)will have to clean it up. Tomoya turns up and proves that she is better at MG-ing by immediately theorising that this is the work of a Card.

- At home, Kerberossia confirms that it is a Card’s work, but isn’t any more help. He and Sakura have the usual argument, but Sakura refuses to go in to the school at night, Cardcaptor or not. Tomoya invites herself so she can video Sakura. Um, Ok. Now that Sakura is outvoted, Kerberossia declares them ready to proceed and starts discussing poses with Tomoya.

- Every time I resolve to watch the scene unfold and post an abbreviation later, something weird happens! Tomoya has met Sakura outside the school and brought what look like two secret agents! Who is she? Also, Sakura’s wearing a yellow jumper with sort of Egypt-y patterns. Spy women! How?!

- Right. They’re the family bodyguards, and apparently Chauffeurs (Chauffeuresses?) as well. Apparently Tomoya’s family is very rich: they address her as ‘Ojou-sama’, which I think*^ translates roughly as ‘My lady’.*^ Tomoya dismisses them so she can enter the School with Sakura. I think it’s a stupid idea, but I can understand that she’s caught up in girl’s adventure stories and has faith in her friend’s magic. Sigh*^. Tomoya’s also brought a set of costumes for Sakura. I bet this is where the frilly pink outfit comes from. As an aside, I really like how Tomoya and Kerberossia are on the same wavelength here.

- It’s not the pink outfit, but a rather strange short, white, tailed coat over a leotard and tights, covered by a very scalloped red cape and hat. There’s also a bow fastener for the cape and some belt/ribbons at the back. Kerbie is very happy to get a matching bow. Sakura isn’t happy at all.

- Clow card attack! It’s a naked (nothing explicit, though) angel woman, which I was not expecting. Tomoya is pretty calm and Sakura is doing an impression of a deer in the headlights. Make your eyes less swirly and I’ll give you a nine, Sakura.

- Tomoya notices that while the angel (statue, on closer inspection) is apparently hovering, its shadow shows it being lifted by something. Kerberossa identifies it as the shadow card. Clow certainly wasn’t good at naming things, was he?

- Sakura snaps into hunting mode and tells her companions to get back while she deals with the card. Waves of shadows flood out of the school buildings and bear down on her as she prepares the binding. Of course, it fails to work. Come on Sakura, you should know that the normal monsters don’t go down easily until you’re on the trail of the Villain. To escape the shadows, Kerborossa tells her to Fly. Somehow the shadows can’t fly, even though they appear to weightless 3D objects. Instead, other shadows throw desks out of the school windows, which distracts Sakura long enough to be snagged by the main “pool”. She is saved by Tomoya, who turns on all the lights in the area and washes back the shadows. With no danger left, Sakura stops by to thank them, but Kerberossa spots the real Shadow, which is invulnerable to light but can be bound, and tells her to fly after it. It doesn’t look like a black hedgehog, just a bog-standard ringwraith ripoff. I am disappointed in the monster designers.

- Kerbie and Tomoya discuss the offscreen training they gave Sakura. This means that she now has an animated segment of her drawing a card that reminds me of Digimon Tamers. I’m sure it will become stock footage in the future. It works perfectly, and the Windy binds the Shadow.
School, presumably the next day. We see Sakura asking Pigtails (who now has a name: Chiharu) if she’s seen Tomoya. She turns out to be in the media room, watching what she recorded of the fight. When she notices Sakura, she asks to accompany her for future excursions. Sakura is less than happy, but can’t seem to argue with her.

And that’s it. It looks like we’ll be going through a few more Cards before something interesting comes along, but at least we’ll have some variety in clothes. Why can’t more “superheroes” wear different costumes? Sakura will probably keep protesting for a few more episodes, but she’s almost certainly not going to be able to argue with Tomoya.
Tomoya being rich is... well, not a big surprise, but I definitely didn’t see it coming. I’m enjoying Tomoya’s presence: She’s so strange that she gets on with Kerberossa perfectly and I like the way they simultaneously plan how to make Sakura a proper Magical Girl. I don’t know if its differing values, comedic licence or actual feelings, but it looks like Tomoya has a bit of a thing for Sakura. As there hasn’t been any more subtle signs (blushing, etc), I’m saying it’s just being done because it’s funny. In no way does that imply that I’m laughing at it.

The card was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for another pokémon-y thing, or at least some sort of fish, but we get an off-the-shelf man-shaped cloak. It had pretty cool powers, but I have to wonder why it was just committing petty vandalism. The Fly Card could have been just finding a place to roost, but this one was moving objects into untidy piles. I suppose that could be why the cards were said to bring disaster, but I was hoping for reality to either snap from their presence or retaliate nastily. Despite the boring design, I am looking forward to seeing what Sakura can do with it.

There's not much more that can be said about this episode. Tomoya is now part of the team, Sakura now has a new spell and a fashion designer at her disposal, and we've confirmed that Kerberos has enough power and knowledge to be potentially useful, even if I still don't see what Clow was thinking when he chose the griffin to guard the Cards. Aside from that, nothing has really changed.


Also, my speculation on Clow's appearance. (big image)