Watch Durkoala explore the Magical Girl Genre! Part 1: Card Captor Sakura

[Durkoala]

From here on out you're going to be getting more family history and more bits sprinkled about on the nature of magic and magical beings.

It actually has me a little concerned that you won't like it, there will be some episodes where capturing the card is an afterthought or there is no card at all. But the characters will be getting background and such. So I feel like either you'll really appreciate the episodes or you'll get frustrated when things go off down their own little rabbit hole for a while.

Yessss... If I'm honest, I didn't know that there would be magic things other than the Cards playing a part. While I would have been OK with that, this is certainly good news.

It's a common thing in shonen (ok, this is shojo according to wikipedia, but never mind) for the inital challenge or enemy to be dropped by the wayside when things start rolling. It usually annoys me a little, but it won't stop me from watching it. The look into the greater world should be worth it.

Allow me to point out this episode had a boy throw lighting out of a sword almost as big as himself to shoot down a lighting wolf from the sky. Super Metal!

I measure badassery not by what they've got, but how they use it. Ultra-competent lightning mage is a long, long way below Dennis 'GTFO Tony Stark' Brent.

It's sadly never revealed why exactly Shaoran only arrives at this point of the story. There will be some hints here and there, but the best us fans can do about that is to theorycraft.

Bugger.

Please, Shaoran just showed he can swing a sword as big as himself one-handed while shooting lighting and leaping through buildings to hunt a lighting wolf. You really think he would be afraid of a pair of teenagers?

So Yuki really is a bag of sorcerous worms from beyond the end of the universe?

I never really saw Shaoran as a villain, since at the end of the day he's helping Sakura capture the Thunder, when he could've stabbed/electrocuted/{other magic tricks of his yet to be unveiled} her when she was looking the other way.

I've put my idea on that forth already: Shaoran shows no signs of being able to seal the Cards himself and doesn't use the Clow magic, so he needs Sakura to do the heavy lifting. Remember, as soon as he finds out that Sakura has Cards he tries to take them off her before finding that she isn't doing a good job. It's a lot like the early Oots, where Xykon needs a hero to open the mcguffin because he can't do it himself.

Me, I rooted for Shaoran from the start. He traveled all the way from Hong-Kong to take on the super-legendary Clow Cards with his own combat style and he isn't afraid to directly tell Sakura that she's still got a long way to go. Kinda because I also used to be somebody who openly spoke my mind to others.

I don't know why I'm debating this as a)he's obviously your favourite character so far and b) you've watched this before and know a lot more on this than I do.

But either way we'll be seeing a lot, lot more of Shaoran. He may be a late arrival, but he's gonna be showing up on pretty much every episode from now, some times less, other times more. I don't think that's really a spoiler since a)He's going to the same school as Sakura plus b)has a magic radar and is explicitly hunting for the cards as well.

While it is obvious, and the MG reccomendations thread said he had enough screentime to be mistaken for a leading character, I'd like less of these sort-of spoilers in the future. After all, being the rival doesn't mean that you will get a lot of time in the spotlight. Ranma 1/2's Ryouga is a good example of that.

So...Much...Pun...Potential...Must...Resist...]

The coming card's called the NEXT, isn't it?

[cobaltstarfire]

Yessss... If I'm honest, I didn't know that there would be magic things other than the Cards playing a part. While I would have been OK with that, this is certainly good news.

Man, I want to say things, but I can't say things. Or rather I'm not sure how to put it such that it's not too spoilery?

Oh well, you'll get the pieces soon enough, and then we may or may not have something to discuss depending on how your expectations are met.

Spoiler: speaking of xxxholic/tsubasa reservoir These still may or may not be spoilers to you Durkoala so don't look

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Can one of you guys here explain to me what the deal is with these comics? I know they're intertwined, and I finished Tsubasa Reservoir (although apparently theres another series of it...)...but I didn't really understand at all. I know it was something about making it so that Copy!Syaoran and Copy!Sakura could continue to exist even if it meant totally breaking the rules of magic....? But...it really became an incoherent mess for me towards the end there, and I never got to finish xxxholic. Please PM me if you have any inkling of an understanding of what all went down...

[deuterio12]

I measure badassery not by what they've got, but how they use it. Ultra-competent lightning mage is a long, long way below Dennis 'GTFO Tony Stark' Brent.

Allow me to point out that while 99,999% of Tomoeda's population remains oblivious to the magic cards running rampart in their city and the girl chasing them in frilly dresses, Shaoran somehow tracked them down all the way from China. He also learned to speak fluent japanese and found himself a way to enroll on the same school as the main protagonist.

And yes, that means that I also believe Tomoyo is pretty badass on her own way since she's one of the other few characters that seems to notice there's a girl flying in a pink stick with giant wings. Now if she just spent less time sewing new costumes and hanging back recording everything and instead doing something more productive...

So Yuki really is a bag of sorcerous worms from beyond the end of the universe?

No/yes/Kinda/mustresistrevealingthetruthbeforetime.

I don't know why I'm debating this as a)he's obviously your favourite character so far and b) you've watched this before and know a lot more on this than I do.

Hehehe, guilty, I'm indeed quite biased.

Anyway for now I'll be satisfied with you comparing Shaoran to Xykon. The next episodes will quickly speak for themselves anyway.

While it is obvious, and the MG reccomendations thread said he had enough screentime to be mistaken for a leading character, I'd like less of these sort-of spoilers in the future. After all, being the rival doesn't mean that you will get a lot of time in the spotlight. Ranma 1/2's Ryouga is a good example of that.

I would say that Ryouga is one of the worst examples of that:
1)Half of his character is having an horrible sense of direction, meaning he's constantly getting lost and thus away from the main plot. He doesn't even goes to school.
2)Ranma collects rivals almost as well as Sakura collects cards.

And now I'm comparing Ranma 1/2 to CCS. Feel free to ignore this.

The coming card's called the NEXT, isn't it?

It's not that cheap of a pun, and no, The Next doesn't exist in this story.

[Durkoala]

Allow me to point out that while 99,999% of Tomoeda's population remains oblivious to the magic cards running rampart in their city and the girl chasing them in frilly dresses, Shaoran somehow tracked them down all the way from China. He also learned to speak fluent japanese and found himself a way to enroll on the same school as the main protagonist.

And yes, that means that I also believe Tomoyo is pretty badass on her own way since she's one of the other few characters that seems to notice there's a girl flying in a pink stick with giant wings. Now if she just spent less time sewing new costumes and hanging back recording everything and instead doing something more productive...

Well, he's got a compass that shows Cards, and may have been chosen to do this because he speaks Japanese. We (well, I) don't know what he can do with his magic, so he may just have Magic Translate and memory manipulation to get him past all officials.

Anyway for now I'll be satisfied with you comparing Shaoran to Xykon. The next episodes will quickly speak for themselves anyway.

My first (and on reflection, more accurate) choice was actually Lord Voldemort, but Harry potter isn't very popular around here, so I changed it to a more contempary villain.

I would say that Ryouga is one of the worst examples of that:
1)Half of his character is having an horrible sense of direction, meaning he's constantly getting lost and thus away from the main plot. He doesn't even goes to school.
2)Ranma collects rivals almost as well as Sakura collects cards.

1) Given that he got trapped in Shampoo's house for several days, that's not a good excuse.
2) True, but Ryouga's treated as his main rival.


Anyway, here's my next attempt at trying to do two episodes a week, late again.
I'm trying to get these out for Saturday, but it hasn't really worked so far.

EPISODE 9: Sakura and the Mysterious Broach

Spoiler

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Title Card! Sakura and the mysterious broach. Well, I wonder if the broach will be related to Shaoran, a Card, or one of the many other things that have been hinted at.

It’s the morning after last episode, at school, and Tomoyo has noticed that Sakura is not adorably cheerful today. Her guess that it’s because of Shaoran prompts a flashback to him belittling Sakura last episode. She admits that his ‘advice’ probably won them the Card, and she’s very upset at what this means.

Sakura’s gloominess is obvious to her friends. Wavy Rika gives her a flower to cheer her up. It sort of works: Sakura is touched and thinks about how Rika is such a generous, mature and grounded person, but the smile disappears as she looks at the flower and you can almost hear her think ‘... unlike me’. Oh, Sakura. I’d hug you if I could.
Shaoran enters the classroom, giving the world the evil eye. He was probably frowning one day when the wind changed. Somebody call Yukito and tell him that he is no longer burdened by the title of Spoiler Of All Good Things. I’ve bestowed it on Shaoran from now on. There’s a very tense piece of silence, before Sakura nervously thanks him.

Li (they’re all calling him that, and my spellcheck likes it. Don’t judge me. Also my spellcheck doesn’t like the word spellcheck, which is weird) is dismissive and slightly confused. He gets angry when Sakura complements his clothes, as there is no way she should know what they look like as they are the official Li clan clothes, and definitely not normal Hong Kong wear. He comments that at least Sakura has enough magic power to see the future in her dreams.

Some really tall guy called Yamazaki interrupts to tell Shaoran that it’s his turn to do the classroom chores. What starts off as a reasonable list of things that need doing turns into a hazing. Sakura, bless her, has to ask if singing and dancing are actually on the chores list (they aren’t ). Yamazaki leads Shaoran off to clean the blackboard, but we cut away just before he has to sing. Bums. Still, his reaction was hilarious.

And we’re back to the Tokyo Tower dream. This time a girls voice is calling Sakura’s name, and the shot of her leaping is slightly modified to give the possibility that she’s falling. Then she’s woken up by somebody I thought was Toya, but is actually the teacher we’ve seen before, because the producers never got around to hiring a Director of Distinguishable Faces.
Talking of faces, we get a shot of Rika’s. She’s blushing while looking at the teacher. I think we’ve found her crush.

Shaoran is randomly glaring at Sakura and Tomoyo in the corridor. Tomoyo has the sense to remark that it’s a bit creepy that he keeps doing that, and Sakura is just relived when he leaves. Tomoyo asks if Sakura wants to accompany her and Rika to a cute shop they found. If this is the Panda shop, the writers should remember that they’ve already introduced it to us. Tomoyo also mentions that she wants to spend as much time with Sakura as possible, which is so blatantly a romantic phrase that Sakura picks up how awkward this is. Yamazaki interrupts with a mop to tell them that they need to remember to clean up.
The shop doesn’t look like Twin Bells, so continuity is preserved. While Sakura runs off to look at things (antique things, I think. This really isn’t Twin bells.), Tomoyo apologises to Rika for using her as an excuse to cheer up Sakura. Awww, the things she does for ambiguous love.

Sakura picks up a heart with wings from a display of things*. This looks like it’s the mysterious broach. Oh, wait. Tomoyo and Rika also picked broaches, and Rika’s thin pin-shaped broach just had an unnecessary and, dare I say, ominous sparkle. Also, how can these girls have enough pocket money to buy jewellery? I can’t get myself a new pair of glasses with my weekly pay. :Smallmad:

At Sakura’s house, the girls have tea and try on their new accessories. Sakura has a heart with wings, Tomoyo has a Cross with a blue heart, and Rika has a long, thin bayonet-pin thing with three small wings like a sword’s guard and a red gem. Rika goes very quiet when she puts hers on, then raises her head to reveal those flat eyes that mean you’re being controlled. Uh oh.

Then the broach transforms into a sheathed rapier and Rika attacks! Sakura dodges and pulls down Tomoyo. Ad break!

The Possessed Rika chases Sakura down the hall. She stabs the sword into the wall while trying to hit sakura. Without that I’d have trouble taking this as a real threat: the sword has no sharp edges and the tip has a ridge that will stop it from stabbing more than an inch into something.

Kerbie comes out of hiding because he can feel a Card. I wasn’t sure if the broach was something completely different as it wasn’t acting like any other Card, but I was wrong. After being told that Sakura is in danger and that’s more important than the fact that he didn’t get any crème caramel, he hurries after the chase, which has moved to the street outside, and Identifies the Card as the SWORD Card. Well, the medal for worst Card concept has been passed on.
It gives you the power to be a master swordsman (and apparently a really crappy sword), but the Card has taken over Rika’s mind entirely. Its power is dependent on will: if you don’t want to kill, you can stun humans. If you are unshakable, you can cleave stone.

Sakura can’t attack Rika, so she resorts to the Jump card to stay back, but is at a loss of what to do next. Of course, Shaoran enters the fray. It’s a bit too contrived for a Card involving swordfighting to turn up for the sword-wielding newcomer to fight. It feels like the writers just wanted to show off how cool the new guy was and I am not amused.
I will note that his harsh comment that she’s weak makes sense. This is exactly her job and she’s not a novice at catching Cards anymore; her duty is to stop these cards from harming people, not freezing up because it’s personal.
It’s a bit of realism in what has so far been a wacky series about a girl cleaning up her mess, Illusion notwithstanding. Of course, Shaoran also has been trained for this much more than Sakura so he knows how to deal with pressure.

Sakura wrestles Shaoran back to stop him from attacking Rika with a real sword. It’s a nice reversal of how he tried to get seize the Cards. You’re in Sakura’s territiory now, Li, and you are going to play by Sakura’s rules. She then Jumps them out of the way to crash in a bush next to Tomoyo.

Inspired Kerbie’s comment that Rika needs to let go of the Sword, and maybe by the fact that she needs to stop Rika from losing an arm or something vital to Shaoran, Sakura runs to confront the Card. Shaoran tries to intervene, but is stopped by Kerbie biting him again.

Sakura calls on the Illusion to call forth the person that Rika cares most about. We know who that’s going to be. The Illusion is still one of the creepiest Cards btw. It reminds me of a few of the Angels from NGE. Shiver.

With Rika distracted by her hot teacher, Sakura charges in... and apparently knows karate, because she chops Rika’s hand, making her drop the sword. The sword tries to flee, by rising slowly into the sky, but Sakura seals it while supporting Rika. The image of the sword on the card is wrapped in chains, which would have been a good-ish ability for it to have, instead of what we got.

Kerberos and Shaoran have an argument over Sakura managing to catch the Card on her own. When this devolves into finger-biting, Sakura hears footsteps and tells Kerbie to hide in her room. He punches Shaoran in the face so hard the boy falls over, then leaves. Have I mentioned that I like Kerbie? I like him even more now.

And the footsteps belong to the former Spoiler Of All Good Things, who has returned to try and claim his title back. Sakura is really embarrassed to be found on the garden path clutching an unconscious friend, with a boy in silly clothes dazed behind her and Tomoyo hanging around.
WHAT THE HELL? Shaoran’s blushing when Yuki has a look at him. What’s going on here? He runs off around the corner, so we conveniently don’t find out what’s going on.

Next day, in the school library, Sakura gives her pin to Rika. She can’t explain why she’s doing this, because she can’t tell Rika about the Cards, but Rika doesn’t press her because she can see Sakura really doesn’t want to talk about it. At the same time, Toya and Yuki are talking outside. Toya’s not happy about Shaoran being near the house, and Yuki tells him he has a sister-complex. I’m too tired to remember what that means.
Anyway it turns out that the boys are waiting for Sakura. While that happens, Toya is randomly attacked by Shaoran throwing those paper seals at him. For some reason they catch fire; I don’t know if that’s what Shaoran intended or if Toya’s power was too great for the seals.
Sakura arrives while they’re having a staring match. She’s brought some chocolates for Yuki as thanks for helping look after Rika. Sharon rummages through his pockets for his own gift for Yuki. Blushing furiously, he flees after he gives it to Yuki.

Tomoyo turns up and mentions that this makes up for missing the filming last Card, and that Shaoran is now a rival in romance as well as Card collecting. Sakura finally gets his odd behaviour and panics over this latest development.

...Balls, I may have worked out Yukito’s secret. This is a bit of a problem as most of the spoilers about him are from the third arc, and I’m just through a third of the first one. I don’t want to really go through the story knowing about one of the longest-hidden story elements, but I don’t want to keep it hidden, as the point of doing this was to express what I thought of each episode. Any feedback on this is welcome.

I’m not sure if this was a filler episode or not. We got some fleshing out of Shaoran, Sakura dealing with the repercussions of the last episode and finding her confidence again, some more hints about Yuki (maybe a few too many). On the other hand, the Card was boring, badly designed and contrived. It did nothing until it was picked up by a person, who just happened to be Sakura’s friend and who just happened to put it on near Sakura. Its powers were anime swordsmanship, and easily defeatable by just about any spell Sakura or Shaoran have, if Sakura wasn’t suffering from low confidence at the time. It was also a really terribly designed sword that could only stab things very badly if it didn’t have magic, and I can’t take it seriously at all.

Aside from being a terrible weapon, this was a pretty interesting Card. I’ve mentioned before that I like non-human Cards, and one that appeared as a weapon was a good concept. I would have liked to see more interesting powers from it, as it just gave general anime sword skills. I understand that this episode was about Sakura finding her balance after Shaoran’s comments last episode, but the Sword was very underwhelming.

Shaoran got abused quite a bit today: Sakura told him to stay in the back while she dealt with the problem, Kerberos made sure he did that, Yamazaki made him perform a dance routine off camera and he may have developed a crush on Yuki, which I bet the dub cut out.
He’s still a good antagonist, but he’s having to adapt to the wacky and happy environment of wherever this is set and Sakura’s starting to push back against him. I may have sounded a bit harsh, but he was behind most of this episode’s plot and had some good scenes so I’m marking him as a good character so far. He’s still a villain or anti-hero to me, though.


Most of the character scenes were good: we got to see the interactions between all the established charaters and how they respond to Shaoran. Sakura showed her sweetness and light attitude very well with both Rika and Shaoran, and I liked the way he couldn’t believe that she was actually thanking him for insulting her.

Anway, I want to know what’s up with those seals catching fire when they hit Toya. That normally means they’ve been overwhelmed, but if that’s true Toya must be extremely powerful. He did pull a whirlpool apart with his hands at one point, so that’s not out of the question (When I said he was a sorcerer then, I was joking. It’s funny how things turn out), but Shaoran has been presented as a powerful force so far.

[deuterio12]

Yay, double episode promise!

Note: Rika doesn't resist the domination to stabbing one of her closest friends, but stops cold at the image of her teacher crush.

Also, Sakura's Karate skillz will forever be forgotten.

Spoiler: some fanart from this episode

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...Balls, I may have worked out Yukito’s secret. This is a bit of a problem as most of the spoilers about him are from the third arc, and I’m just through a third of the first one. I don’t want to really go through the story knowing about one of the longest-hidden story elements, but I don’t want to keep it hidden, as the point of doing this was to express what I thought of each episode. Any feedback on this is welcome.

Personally, I say go ahead and voice your suspicions. If you get it right so early, then you'll deserve the praise, and if you get it wrong I'll just chuckle and tell you that more key details will be revealed.

I’m not sure if this was a filler episode or not. We got some fleshing out of Shaoran, Sakura dealing with the repercussions of the last episode and finding her confidence again, some more hints about Yuki (maybe a few too many). On the other hand, the Card was boring, badly designed and contrived. It did nothing until it was picked up by a person, who just happened to be Sakura’s friend and who just happened to put it on near Sakura. Its powers were anime swordsmanship, and easily defeatable by just about any spell Sakura or Shaoran have, if Sakura wasn’t suffering from low confidence at the time. It was also a really terribly designed sword that could only stab things very badly if it didn’t have magic, and I can’t take it seriously at all.

Aside from being a terrible weapon, this was a pretty interesting Card. I’ve mentioned before that I like non-human Cards, and one that appeared as a weapon was a good concept. I would have liked to see more interesting powers from it, as it just gave general anime sword skills. I understand that this episode was about Sakura finding her balance after Shaoran’s comments last episode, but the Sword was very underwhelming.

The "girliest sword in anime", as I like to call it, is one of the original cards and it is not the last we've seen of it. Probably because the authors just love that kind of thing (their previous work, Magic Knight Rayearth, may as well be called "Magic girls with swords: the manga/anime").

I personally enjoy The Sword, ironically precisely because it looks ridiculous. Always had a soft spot for impratical-looking weapons.

Shaoran got abused quite a bit today: Sakura told him to stay in the back while she dealt with the problem, Kerberos made sure he did that, Yamazaki made him perform a dance routine off camera and he may have developed a crush on Yuki, which I bet the dub cut out.

Yeah, you're right to notice that Syaoran's is being used as the comedic relief of choice.

He’s still a good antagonist, but he’s having to adapt to the wacky and happy environment of wherever this is set and Sakura’s starting to push back against him. I may have sounded a bit harsh, but he was behind most of this episode’s plot and had some good scenes so I’m marking him as a good character so far. He’s still a villain or anti-hero to me, though.

"Card Captor Sakura: the anime where everybody is so happy and friendly that the boy who saves the main character from getting hacked to pieces gets labelled as a villain because he frowns and glares too much".

(just agreeing to disagree here btw, still plenty of Shaoran to be revealed)

Most of the character scenes were good: we got to see the interactions between all the established charaters and how they respond to Shaoran. Sakura showed her sweetness and light attitude very well with both Rika and Shaoran, and I liked the way he couldn’t believe that she was actually thanking him for insulting her.

Yeah, the show is pretty heavy in character relationships. You can now better see the different bondings.

In the manga the teacher is not only aware that Rika has a crush on him, she actually offers her a ring on the same chapter that The Sword gets captured!

Spoiler: Relevant page, definitely considered too much for the anime version

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She's 10/11 years old, what the hell are you doing?!

Anway, I want to know what’s up with those seals catching fire when they hit Toya. That normally means they’ve been overwhelmed, but if that’s true Toya must be extremely powerful. He did pull a whirlpool apart with his hands at one point, so that’s not out of the question (When I said he was a sorcerer then, I was joking. It’s funny how things turn out), but Shaoran has been presented as a powerful force so far.

Setting Toya's jacket on fire was just as Shaoran planned to get back at him after the last episode. They're one-shot unlike the Clow Cards, and lighting isn't the only offensive magic the chinese boy can use with his paper amulets (which are usually called jufus in chinese mythology, although they're not called that in any of the translations).

Things catching fire because they're overwhelmed is something that never happens in this series as far as I'm aware.

But you're still right that Toya did pull a whirlpool apart with his bare hands, hehehe.

Spoiler: Here's the same scene on the manga, you can see the jacket burnt bits

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[cobaltstarfire]

If it helps, the swords power (other than bestowing mastery of swordsmanship) is that it can cut anything as thoroughly or not as the user desires (that may have been lost somewhat in the translation you're watching I dunno). And it doesn't seem to need to make direct contact to cut the target in the times we're shown it being used.

I think sword is a bit bland as far as cards go. But I generally prefer the monstrous cards the most.

I'm be curious to hear what you think Yuki's secret is.


That guy, the one who got Li to clean the boards ect, is hands down my favorite side character. Something about the silly tails/lies he spins and the various responses we get to them always gives me a smile.

[deuterio12]

If it helps, the swords power (other than bestowing mastery of swordsmanship) is that it can cut anything as thoroughly or not as the user desires (that may have been lost somewhat in the translation you're watching I dunno).

Cut anything except Syaoran's own sword, that can tank it like a boss.

Also can't make holes in time-space to sunder reality itself, but I guess that would be a bit too OP.

Anyway I think your next comment on that paragraph is a bit spoilerish of The Sword's powers, but I guess that detail will be revealed soon enough in the series. Heck, Durkoala himself pointed out that The Sword grants "anime swordsmanship"*, and that thing Sakura'll do with it is kinda a staple from shonen fencers.

*Clearly, the series will now turn into a competition between Sakura and Syaoran to become the ultimate blademasters.

[Durkoala]

Yay, double episode promise!

Note: Rika doesn't resist the domination to stabbing one of her closest friends, but stops cold at the image of her teacher crush.

She failed her first saving throw, but passed the second.
Stupid comic, making me know things like this.

The "girliest sword in anime", as I like to call it, is one of the original cards and it is not the last we've seen of it. Probably because the authors just love that kind of thing (their previous work, Magic Knight Rayearth, may as well be called "Magic girls with swords: the manga/anime").

I personally enjoy The Sword, ironically precisely because it looks ridiculous. Always had a soft spot for impratical-looking weapons.

Spoiler: Swords 'n' stuff

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These are impractical-looking weapons. You can also at least stab or cut somebody with them if they let you. The Sword had about an inch of cutting edge. I have an easier time beleiving that the Keyblade is a legitmate weapon.

Yeah, you're right to notice that Syaoran's is being used as the comedic relief of choice.

I like it. It makes him not so perfect and sort of humbles him.

In the manga the teacher is not only aware that Rika has a crush on him, she actually offers her a ring on the same chapter that The Sword gets captured!

Spoiler: Relevant page, definitely considered too much for the anime version

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<picture>
She's 10/11 years old, what the hell are you doing?!

I agree completely and I'm really glad that was changed. I need a nodding in agreement smiley.

Setting Toya's jacket on fire was just as Shaoran planned to get back at him after the last episode. They're one-shot unlike the Clow Cards, and lighting isn't the only offensive magic the chinese boy can use with his paper amulets (which are usually called jufus in chinese mythology, although they're not called that in any of the translations).

Things catching fire because they're overwhelmed is something that never happens in this series as far as I'm aware.

But you're still right that Toya did pull a whirlpool apart with his bare hands, hehehe.

Right. I was thinking of the general idea of crosses catching fire in the presence of evil, and I did see an anime where one of those seals was wiped blank by a really powerful antihero, so I wasn't sure if something like that was happening.

If it helps, the swords power (other than bestowing mastery of swordsmanship) is that it can cut anything as thoroughly or not as the user desires (that may have been lost somewhat in the translation you're watching I dunno). And it doesn't seem to need to make direct contact to cut the target in the times we're shown it being used.

I know, but it looks too much like a real sword for me to ignore its design. A giant key is more believable because if you make a weapon that looks like that, you can tell it's going to be full of magic because that's the only way it will work. The Sword could have just been made by somebody with no idea how a real sword works.

I think sword is a bit bland as far as cards go. But I generally prefer the monstrous cards the most.

Yes. In an anime that looks like a stereotypical anime and hasn't shown any swordfighting, the magic power to grant stereotypical anime swordfighting isn't very impressive.

That guy, the one who got Li to clean the boards ect, is hands down my favorite side character. Something about the silly tales/lies he spins and the various responses we get to them always gives me a smile.

Great. I was worried he wouldn't turn up again at all.

I'm be curious to hear what you think Yuki's secret is.

Personally, I say go ahead and voice your suspicions. If you get it right so early, then you'll deserve the praise, and if you get it wrong I'll just chuckle and tell you that more key details will be revealed.

Part of the problem is that it's based on the hints I've been given, and I don't want to point fingers or blame anybody here for tipping me off. I can understand the attraction of giving crytic hints, and have been guilty of it myself in the past, so I don't really blame you for this. Just don't give out any more hints if I'm wrong. I don't know if I'd rather have silence or confirmation if it turns out that I'm right, though.

[deuterio12]

Spoiler: Swords 'n' stuff

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These are impractical-looking weapons. You can also at least stab or cut somebody with them if they let you. The Sword had about an inch of cutting edge. I have an easier time beleiving that the Keyblade is a legitmate weapon.

It's now how big your cutting edge is that matters, it's how you use it.

I like it. It makes him not so perfect and sort of humbles him.

I completely agree there. Which is one of the reasons why I claimed Syaoran isn't your average anime rival, that is usually mr/miss perfect at everything, at least for half the series. He may know magic and kung-fu, but is still a 10/11-year old boy who is quite naive about several things himself.

Spoiler: End of the series

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He gets better. Syaoran's probably the character in this anime who gets more character development.

Part of the problem is that it's based on the hints I've been given, and I don't want to point fingers or blame anybody here for tipping me off. I can understand the attraction of giving crytic hints, and have been guilty of it myself in the past, so I don't really blame you for this. Just don't give out any more hints if I'm wrong. I don't know if I'd rather have silence or confirmation if it turns out that I'm right, though.

Ok, I promise not to give any more hints about Yukito if you reveal your current suspicions for him, whetever you're right or wrong, and I'll respect your choice of whetever you want us to confirm if you're right or not.

It would be quite nice to see your thought process on the matter, even if it's based on the hints given so far.

[Durkoala]

A little bit late, but it's still Tuesday!


EPISODE 10: Sakura and the School Sports Day of Flowers

Spoiler

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Episode 10

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I find the opening (not the pretitle stuff, even if I call that the opening sometimes ) very different to most anime openings. It’s rather minimal: there aren’t very many high-speed transitions, very few detailed backgrounds and only a handful of characters. Shaoran isn’t in it, and he looks like he’s going to be a major character, but Sakura’s dad is and he’s had less presence than some of Sakura’s friends. Anyway, on with the episode.

There’s a short sequence showing us that it’s the school sports day and Sakura loves taking part. The title card is ‘Sakura and the School Sport’s Day of Flowers’. I hope the school sport is a nice chap, and enjoys his day of flowers.

Rika congratulates Sakura on winning her race. Toya and Yuki are watching, and Toya looks ridiculous. He’s got a really stiff pose, his shoulders are about four times wide than his head, and he’s wearing a midriff jacket. Director of fashion... actually, it’s the nineties so never mind. The director of Character proportions was apparently having a smoke break, though.
Sakura ignores her brother and talks to Yuki, who wastes no time in complimenting her. Toya makes a comment that running fast is her only good trait, and receives the usual stomp. He’s also carrying Yuki’s giant lunch.

Fujikata will apparently be coming over when he finishes his lecture. The Sakura-dex reminds us that he’s a professor of archaeology at college, and says that he also does excavations. We still haven’t found out how he got hold of the book, have we? There’s also a parents-only 100m race, so I’m guessing he’ll make it, because it’ll be funny to watch him try.

Tomoyo calls the cheerleading squad to gather, so Sakura has to go. Yuki says he’ll take lots of pictures of her, but I’m too deep in nostalgia over his disposable camera to comment. Sakura tries to get her brother to promise to take a picture of Yukito for her, too. I’m sure that camera will be needed later for something.

Tomoyo and Sakura have a brief chat. Tomoyo displays the most blatant evidence of an actual crush so far, radiating hearts while talking about Sakura’s cheerleading costume. The Sakura-dex reminds us that Mrs Daimonji runs a toy company and isn’t around much. In fact, if she makes an appearance, this will be the first time Sakura would meet her. Sakura also mentions that She’s never heard about Tomoyo’s dad.

As Sakura gets ready to run an obstacle course (fourth grade only), she sees all her schoolfriends cheering her. Awww. And Shaoran’s also in the race. Boooo!
Yuki shouts ‘You can do it!’ from the sidelines and both of them think he’s talking to them. He probably did that on purpose.

It’s a close race, but Shaoran trips at the last dash because Yuki cheered at him, which was probably according to plan. Yuki really is creepy.
Sakura invites both Tomoyo and Shaoran to share lunch with them because Tomoyo’s mother isn’t here and because Sakura is nice like that. Shaoran almost refuses, until he learns that Yuki is part of the group.

Yuki’s shonen protagonist eating prompts Sakura and Shaoran to give flustered compliments. Shaoran runs off again, thanking Yuki for the meal even though he hasn’t eaten anything. Fujikata arrives shortly afterward, with jelly. Now I’m hungry.

The men leave to throw away the rubbish, and Tomoyo’s mother appears. Something about this timing strikes me as suspicious, so I’m saying she has magic and probably knows at least Yuki, maybe Toya. It doesn’t help that she looks a lot like a villain: Close-cut asymmetric red hair, and I think her eyes are fairly narrow. She’s got a red suit on, and has brought the bodyguards. She also seems surprised that the girl with her daughter is Sakura, so my suspicion is mounting. Her name’s Sonomi.

She mentions that Sakura looks familiar and asks her surname. Sakura’s interrupted by the return of the bin party, and Somoni does the most over-the-top reaction in this series yet. It looks like Dad Kinomoto was her old teacher. And her calls her Sonomi-kun! Was she a crossdresser?

Right. It sounds like Sonomi and Nadeshiko, Sakura’s mother, were a lot like Tomoyo and Sakura. Nadeshiko married Fujikata young, when he was their teacher (what is it with this show’s old-young attraction? At least there’s some diversity in the ‘couples’). Sonomi took this badly because she saw Fujikata as unworthy and Nadeshiko’s death hasn’t helped at all. Sonomi is almost the complete opposite of her daughter: loud, dramatic and emotional.

When the parents’ race is called, Fujikata goes off to run. Sonomi told him to, apparently. We’ve finally found something that Yuki doesn’t know about, so he asks Toya to tell us about the Sonomi and Fujikata. Sonomi and Nadeshiko were cousins (well, I hope that they were less like their daughters now: incest is not my cup of tea. Come to think of it, that means that Tomoyo and Sakura are related as well. Ewww.) and Nadeshiko at least came from a wealthy family, but Fujikata was just a poor teacher. Sonomi was one of the family most against their marriage. Toya also brings attention to the fact that there’s been a lot of Sakura petals falling. That’s probably the Card, if there is one in this episode.

To Sakura and Tomoyo’s shock, Sonomi is entering the race as well, probably so she can beat Fujikata. She’s changed into proper athletics gear while Fuji has just taken off his suit jacket. Also, Rika’s Teacher crush is using the pistol and I can’t get over the fact that he looks like Toya.

When the race starts, only the front line of parents run because there wasn’t enough budget left for more runners. Sonomi takes a very large early lead, but Fujikata just blasts past her.

The petals are now raining down, and Sakura decides it must be a Card behind it. So does Shaoran, but he has trouble escaping from Yamazaki. After trying to tell him that things could get bad and trying to distract him, he tries to make a break for it but gets caught by Yamazaki’s rugby tackle. I’m not normally one for this sort of thing, but is there a gif of this somewhere? It’s hilarious.

The petals are so deep, the parents are waist deep (and still running). Sakura decides to use her powers, on the grounds that nobody’s looking anyway. Look, you couldn’t get away with that in Harry Potter, you couldn’t get away with it in Artemis Fowl, I don’t think you could get away with it even in Animorphs, so you shouldn’t be able to get away with it here.
Hovering over the school, Tomoyo and Sakura have no idea what to do, so they phone Kerbie. While playing what looks like Street Fighter: Faunus edition, he advises them to look for the source of the petals. This is a glowing pink ball the size of a car on top of the school roof! How did nobody see this?!

Meanwhile, Sonomi’s trying to swim through the petals, Fujikata’s treating it like a refreshing stroll and Yuki and Toya relieve Chiharu and Naoko from holding the finish line.

The Card is a ballerina with giant curled pigtails, who is twirling in the roof. Sakura is hesitant at first but reminds herself that it’s a Clow Card, which sounds a bit racist, to be honest. The Card notices her and hurries over without a care in the world to sweep Sakura up and dance with her. I don’t want this one sealed, it’s too innocent and happy.
Tomoyo is dumbfounded while Kerbie explains that the Card just enjoys fun things while Sakura and the Card twirl away. Sakura manages to pull up the will to seal the Card. Goodbye ballerina, I miss you already.
It’s the FLOWER Card, which isn’t a very good idea, as we already have a plant Card. Why couldn’t you use the Silent to move it to an empty field? It was so beautiful. Then again, Kerbie explains that it’s drawn to happy gatherings and festivals, so it would end up causing trouble again.

Apparently you can make jam out of Sakura petals, according to Yuki. Hmm.

Around the corner, Sonomi is shouting at Fujikata about how he always outdoes her and it makes her feel like she’s let Nadshiko down. Sakura and Tomoyo are watching in the bushes. At Tomoyo’s prompting, Sakura uses the new Card to conjure a nadeshiko flower (not being the best with flowers or Japanese, I thought they were primroses at first) for them each. This causes Sonomi to stop shouting and start crying about how Sakura’s mother would always break up their fighting. Fujikata basically says that Nadeshiko was a lot like Sakura is: constantly cheerful, but a bit spacey. It works alright, until she remembers that she hates him and yanks his cheeks. Anime...

Tomoyo and Sakura walk along, hand in hand. Tomoyo says that her mother made her grow her hair long so she looked like Nadeshiko. Sakura remarks that her dad had a lot of history with a lot of people, and wonders if he’ll mention it one day. They then turn to how much their mothers loved each other before Toya calls them over for the closing ceremonies. As Sakura runs ahead, Tomoyo watches her.

And that’s it. Well, that was pretty good on the most part: funny, touching and mostly non-magic.
I am wondering if there’s being an effort to preserve the overall level of quality, though. This would have been a fantastic episode if the Card and magic had been less stupidly used, or even cut entirely. I can just about buy that Sakura took off very quickly, that the petals were thicker than they looked and that everybody else was distracted by the petals everywhere. That nobody, especially Shaoran, noticed the glowing ballerina throwing about fifteen hundred cubic metres of petals off the school roof is just silly.

I also would have liked to see more of the Card, and seen Sakura tackle the moral quandary of sealing an entity that does no great harm and wants everybody to enjoy themselves. Instead, she fought it just because it was a Card.
As you may have guessed, I really like the Card. It was so happy, pretty and innocent that I wanted to see more of it in its unsealed form. Its powers are only likely to be used for Sakura’s whims or for some ridiculously contrived weakness. Good bye, free Flower, I do not think we shall see your like again.

Anyway, I really liked the backstory about the families. It’s a tangled patch of flowers that I will be happy to either see develop or just be used as the ground for other things. There’s probably going to be magic involved at some point (we still don’t know why Sakura and Toya have powerful magic of their own), but I was happy that it was just normal family drama.

One thing that I’m really not sure about is the relationship between Nadeshiko/Sonomi and Sakura/Tomoyo. I really don’t like incest in stories (and definitely not IRL, if any of you have any ideas), and the ambiguous relationship between the older generation and the borderline confirmed attraction directed at Sakura is a bit squicky for me.

On a lighter disappointment, it’s a shame that Sonomi wasn’t a villain. Shes got the looks for it and a powerful position. I would really have liked her to be Toya and Yuki’s Archnemesis, intermittently battling over magic items and creatures. Of course, it may be a bit hard to tell which is the bad side there.

Sonomi was a lot of fun to watch. Her actions were frequently funny, but her motivations were very understandable. She was completely unlike my expectations, and her life of wealth and success does nothing to stop her from diving into whatever she wants to do. I really want to see her in more episodes, and I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed.

[deuterio12]

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I find the opening (not the pretitle stuff, even if I call that the opening sometimes ) very different to most anime openings. It’s rather minimal: there aren’t very many high-speed transitions, very few detailed backgrounds and only a handful of characters. Shaoran isn’t in it, and he looks like he’s going to be a major character, but Sakura’s dad is and he’s had less presence than some of Sakura’s friends. Anyway, on with the episode.

Speaking of which, some fans made a 3D version of the first CCS opening.

And you're completely right that Shaoran doesn't show up on it as all!

She mentions that Sakura looks familiar and asks her surname. Sakura’s interrupted by the return of the bin party, and Somoni does the most over-the-top reaction in this series yet. It looks like Dad Kinomoto was her old teacher. And her calls her Sonomi-kun! Was she a crossdresser?

Although the "-kun" suffix is usually for males, it can be also applied to women with specially strong, loud personalities. Similarly it's ok to use the "-san" suffix for specially gentle, quieter minded men.

Right. It sounds like Sonomi and Nadeshiko, Sakura’s mother, were a lot like Tomoyo and Sakura. Nadeshiko married Fujikata young, when he was their teacher (what is it with this show’s old-young attraction? At least there’s some diversity in the ‘couples’).

"Diversity" is the right word. The authors, CLAMP, are infamous for believing that things such as gender, age, blood ties and whatnot should not be a barrier to true love, and CCS is probably their work where they delve deeper into that (close second being Chobits, where half-sentient androids that look almost like the real deal are common in society, and the series focus on the relationships between them and humans).

When the parents’ race is called, Fujikata goes off to run. Sonomi told him to, apparently. We’ve finally found something that Yuki doesn’t know about, so he asks Toya to tell us about the Sonomi and Fujikata. Sonomi and Nadeshiko were cousins (well, I hope that they were less like their daughters now: incest is not my cup of tea. Come to think of it, that means that Tomoyo and Sakura are related as well. Ewww.) and Nadeshiko at least came from a wealthy family, but Fujikata was just a poor teacher. Sonomi was one of the family most against their marriage.

Well, we never get to know who Tomoyo's father is, not a single hint besides this episode's "nobody knows about him" so for all we know Tomoyo's actually adopted, since Sonomi seems to hate poor people, and a rich parent surely wouldn't remain unnoticed. Like you pointed out, mother and daughter have little in common. It's how I personally imagine it.

The petals are so deep, the parents are waist deep (and still running). Sakura decides to use her powers, on the grounds that nobody’s looking anyway. Look, you couldn’t get away with that in Harry Potter, you couldn’t get away with it in Artemis Fowl, I don’t think you could get away with it even in Animorphs, so you shouldn’t be able to get away with it here.

It was even worst in the manga, where on earlier chapters Sakura would use the Jump in to get around easier in school.

Hovering over the school, Tomoyo and Sakura have no idea what to do, so they phone Kerbie. While playing what looks like Street Fighter: Faunus edition, he advises them to look for the source of the petals. This is a glowing pink ball the size of a car on top of the school roof! How did nobody see this?!

Well, duh, everybody's too focused looking at their love crushes/beloved kids/hated rivals!

The Card is a ballerina with giant curled pigtails, who is twirling in the roof. Sakura is hesitant at first but reminds herself that it’s a Clow Card, which sounds a bit racist, to be honest.

Haha, so now you're considering the card a sentient being!

Apparently you can make jam out of Sakura petals, according to Yuki. Hmm.

Trivia, most flowers are indeed edible and you can cook them like any other vegetable. It's just something we usually don't do much nowadays.

And that’s it. Well, that was pretty good on the most part: funny, touching and mostly non-magic.
I am wondering if there’s being an effort to preserve the overall level of quality, though. This would have been a fantastic episode if the Card and magic had been less stupidly used, or even cut entirely. I can just about buy that Sakura took off very quickly, that the petals were thicker than they looked and that everybody else was distracted by the petals everywhere. That nobody, especially Shaoran, noticed the glowing ballerina throwing about fifteen hundred cubic metres of petals off the school roof is just silly.

I blame that on the manga.

You see, the anime shuffled the order the last cards are captured. There Sakura captures the Flower before Shaoran arrives to Tomoeda. They were too lazy to rewrite the general script of this part so they just had Shaoran unable to detect magic happening right at his side, since he wasn't supposed to be there.

Sakura would then use The Flower on possessed Rika to...Not much effect actually, before Shaoran jumps in for the save.

Spoiler: Wild Sword Berseker Rika appeared! Go Flower!

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I also would have liked to see more of the Card, and seen Sakura tackle the moral quandary of sealing an entity that does no great harm and wants everybody to enjoy themselves. Instead, she fought it just because it was a Card.

Well, what would've you done? Risked the masquerade even more?

As you may have guessed, I really like the Card. It was so happy, pretty and innocent that I wanted to see more of it in its unsealed form. Its powers are only likely to be used for Sakura’s whims or for some ridiculously contrived weakness. Good bye, free Flower, I do not think we shall see your like again.

We will see her again. It's one of the original cards after all.

One thing that I’m really not sure about is the relationship between Nadeshiko/Sonomi and Sakura/Tomoyo. I really don’t like incest in stories (and definitely not IRL, if any of you have any ideas), and the ambiguous relationship between the older generation and the borderline confirmed attraction directed at Sakura is a bit squicky for me.

What's squicky to me about that is that this is a show aimed at little kids as the viewers, although I guess little kids won't connect all the dots the first time they see this.

Needless to say that the english dub cut every single tie between those pairings, making Sakura and Tomoyo not related by blood, just good friends.

On a lighter disappointment, it’s a shame that Sonomi wasn’t a villain. Shes got the looks for it and a powerful position. I would really have liked her to be Toya and Yuki’s Archnemesis, intermittently battling over magic items and creatures. Of course, it may be a bit hard to tell which is the bad side there.

President of a toy company is a powerful position now?

Well, she's rich enough to have her personal army of bodyguards after all.

Next episode:

"Soon I shall have Sakura join the dark side."-laughed Yuki in his dark catacomb, petting a white cat.

"I shall put a stop to your vile plans, Yuki the King of Worms!"-stormed in Sonomi, summoning her magic staff.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that..."-teleported in Toya, his fists covered in flames.

Sonomi was a lot of fun to watch. Her actions were frequently funny, but her motivations were very understandable. She was completely unlike my expectations, and her life of wealth and success does nothing to stop her from diving into whatever she wants to do. I really want to see her in more episodes, and I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed.

You won't be about that, that I can promise you.

[cobaltstarfire]

It seems like the translation you're watching is slightly off.

Sonomi and Nadeshiko were the cousins, Fujitaka is unrelated to them other than having been their teacher.

Sakura and Tomoyo are second cousins. You'll learn a bit more in the future.

There's something like 10 years? Between Fujitaka and Nadeshiko. It's a little inappropriate since it's teacher and student, and would probably sit a little better with most people if it had been a college instead of a highschool situation. Of course the age of consent in Japan is if I recall correctly 16 or 17 (possibly dependent on prefecture I can't remember)

I don't personally feel there's a moral problem with sealing the cards. But I simply can't back it up without you getting more fluff on them first, (and some of it may only be in the manga...I know a few important aspects are anyway). I guess we'll wait till you get tired of watching or reach the end.

[Durkoala]

Speaking of which, some fans made a 3D version of the first CCS opening.

And you're completely right that Shaoran doesn't show up on it as all!

That is very well done, but the proportions are slighty off. It looks a bit creepy. I see they added Shaoran, too.

Although the "-kun" suffix is usually for males, it can be also applied to women with specially strong, loud personalities. Similarly it's ok to use the "-san" suffix for specially gentle, quieter minded men.

Ah, thanks. I thought "-san" was gender neutral and respectful. Shows what I know.

"Diversity" is the right word. The authors, CLAMP, are infamous for believing that things such as gender, age, blood ties and whatnot should not be a barrier to true love, and CCS is probably their work where they delve deeper into that (close second being Chobits, where half-sentient androids that look almost like the real deal are common in society, and the series focus on the relationships between them and humans).

Gender is good, age is Ok barring some ridiculousness, but I'm not in favour of incest.

Haha, so now you're considering the card a sentient being!

If there's a Light Yagami imitator in the Card Roster, there's nothing to stop them from being sentient.

Well, what would've you done? Risked the masquerade even more?

Used the Silent to teleport the Card somewhere for one last dance. If you caused this problem with bad adaption, use some of your filler Cards to fix it.

We will see her again. It's one of the original cards after all.

While I do want to see what the use the Flower's powers are, I meant that I don't think we won't get to see that its beautiful dance again, or see many other Cards that are so full of joy.

President of a toy company is a powerful position now?

Well, she's rich enough to have her personal army of bodyguards after all.

It's more powerful than sitting at a desk doing spreadsheets. And if you're as direct and energetic as Sonomi, that much money is a huge amount of power.

Next episode:

"Soon I shall have Sakura join the dark side."-laughed Yuki in his dark catacomb, petting a white cat.

"I shall put a stop to your vile plans, Yuki the King of Worms!"-stormed in Sonomi, summoning her magic staff.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that..."-teleported in Toya, his fists covered in flames.

Brilliant! Don't do this too much or I might start having to write it up.

It seems like the translation you're watching is slightly off.

Sonomi and Nadeshiko were the cousins, Fujitaka is unrelated to them other than having been their teacher.

Sakura and Tomoyo are second cousins. You'll learn a bit more in the future.

There's something like 10 years? Between Fujitaka and Nadeshiko. It's a little inappropriate since it's teacher and student, and would probably sit a little better with most people if it had been a college instead of a highschool situation. Of course the age of consent in Japan is if I recall correctly 16 or 17 (possibly dependent on prefecture I can't remember)

No, I got the relationship.

It is the fact that it's a student/teacher that I have a problem with. And the fact that she got married at sixteen. Rushing into it a bit much?

I don't personally feel there's a moral problem with sealing the cards. But I simply can't back it up without you getting more fluff on them first, (and some of it may only be in the manga...I know a few important aspects are anyway). I guess we'll wait till you get tired of watching or reach the end.

Even if the flower isn't sentient, it wasn't doing a huge amount of damage and wasn't intending to do so. I'm just sad that Sakura's reasoning for fighting something so peaceful and happy is because 'it's a Clow Card' rather than because it's disrupting the festival or something. Well, I hope that the reason the cards have to be sealed is revealed soon.

I'll post my thoughts on Yuki later; I've got things to do now.

[cobaltstarfire]

It is the fact that it's a student/teacher that I have a problem with. And the fact that she got married at sixteen. Rushing into it a bit much?

Well yeah they definitely rushed into it, I've known a couple of people who did so I guess it doesn't strike me as much more than human nature.

I think the oddest thing to me that I learned in this episode is that Sakura apparently has little to no exposure or even knowledge to her relatives outside of her immediate family, and once married Nadeshiko didn't communicate as openly with them?

It's never elaborated on very much, but I wonder if some of Nadeshiko's family resented her running off with Fujitaka or something similar to Sonomi.

(sorry if I'm spelling any names wrong, I have trouble remembering more than the ones more commonlu associated with Sakura)

[deuterio12]

Used the Silent to teleport the Card somewhere for one last dance. If you caused this problem with bad adaption, use some of your filler Cards to fix it.

That sounds too much logic.

While I do want to see what the use the Flower's powers are, I meant that I don't think we won't get to see that its beautiful dance again, or see many other Cards that are so full of joy.

Hmmm, I think you may still be pleasantly surprised on that department. Still plenty of cards to be captured, and they have a wide array of personalities.

I'll post my thoughts on Yuki later; I've got things to do now.

Nice, can't wait for that!

I think the oddest thing to me that I learned in this episode is that Sakura apparently has little to no exposure or even knowledge to her relatives outside of her immediate family, and once married Nadeshiko didn't communicate as openly with them?

It's never elaborated on very much, but I wonder if some of Nadeshiko's family resented her running off with Fujitaka or something similar to Sonomi.

They will elaborate on that in the anime, in case you forgot

Spoiler

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In episode 16 we have Masaki Amamiya revealed as the great-grandfather of Sakura and offering her one of Nadeshiko's dresses after playing around with her.

Then much later on episode 54 we learn that Masaki kinda blamed Fujitaka for Nadeshiko's death and that's why he cut all relations with him, Sakura, and Toya. Since he seems to be the head of the rich family, nobody else dared to contact Fujitaka or his children.

In my opinion they're some of the most emotional moments of the anime, the old man regreting the years of grudges on his side that kept them apart and trying to make up for his lost time with his great-grandchildren.

[Durkoala]

Right. It's time.

Spoiler: My secret theory on Yukito

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Yuki is the great sorcerer Clow Reed. He knows a lot about the cards' doings, frequently guiding Sakura to them and covertly showing her their weaknesses (Water and Illusion come to mind). His parents aren't mentioned and his grandparents, who he says he lives with, haven't been seen or heard.

My guesses that he's some kind of Sorcerer related to Clow have brought forth comments of 'very close, but not quite'. He's not related to Clow, he is Clow.

I was a bit thrown by the fact that I can't think of many wizards who chose to appear as a teenage boy despite being far older (Kerberos was asleep for thirty years and may have been sealed for longer), but Shaoran's reactions convinced me. At first, he's shocked by Yuki's appearence and flees because he's just met the best sorceror in recent history while assaulting what appears to be his protégé. When nothing bad happens because of that, he starts his current behaviour. I'm not sure if he's actually got feelings for Yuki/Clow, or if it's a bad case of being star-struck. The fact that Tomoyo comments on his crush leans me towards the latter, because misattributed emotions are a cornerstone of comedy.

I have no ideas on what his plans are. At a guess, the bad protection on the Cards was deliberate, as I can't see the same person being responsible for that ****-up (a terrible guardian and nobody looking after the book containing the things that will spread chaos over the world) and running the subtle schemes we've seen so far. Of course, 30+ years is a long time to change your character in. He's apparently been working on Sakura's affections for a while, and maybe being working on Toya as well. I can't tell if this is evidence for the cards' release being planned or not, as he may be able to see into the future.
He's also been feeding Shaoran's crush/fanboyism, but I have no idea what kind of significance that has.

I can't think of a way to make an answer not a spoiler, so can you please discuss this in marked spoilers until I decide if I want to know or not? If I decide that I do want to know, I'd like a simple yes or no answer to the main theory as I'd like to see how the speculation on feelings and plans plays out in the long run.

Let's see how many responses this gets.

[deuterio12]

P-p-p-poker face.

Spoiler: Durkoaola's theory on Yuki

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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH no. It is true that Clow is indeed around in the present time and will be later on directly messing with Sakura, but he isn't Yukito.

Yuki being Clow is kinda the "cheap" answer, on the other hand Yukito's true nature is basically impossible to tell the truth, so I'll cut Durkoala some slack.

I will eagerly await his WTF face when Yue appears, even if we have to wait half a year for it to happen.

He still got it right that Clow totally planned for the cards to be released, so that's something.

[cobaltstarfire]

Spoiler

Show

In episode 16 we have Masaki Amamiya revealed as the great-grandfather of Sakura and offering her one of Nadeshiko's dresses after playing around with her.

Then much later on episode 54 we learn that Masaki kinda blamed Fujitaka for Nadeshiko's death and that's why he cut all relations with him, Sakura, and Toya. Since he seems to be the head of the rich family, nobody else dared to contact Fujitaka or his children.

In my opinion they're some of the most emotional moments of the anime, the old man regreting the years of grudges on his side that kept them apart and trying to make up for his lost time with his great-grandchildren.

I actually just re-watched that other episode above spoilers is talking about today I didn't remember it at all...

Turns out crunchy roll only has CCS available to members, so we're marathoning it over the course of the 2 week trial period. So I'm almost done rewatching it.

Let us know your decision Durkoala, I have no real comment on your theory one way or another.

[Prime32]

Ah, thanks. I thought "-san" was gender neutral and respectful. Shows what I know.

That's because it is. "-chan" is the feminine honorific. Though neither are really gender-specific so much as gender-associated; you could say "John-chan" for instance and it'd be roughly equivalent to "Johnny". I think deuterio12 is thinking of the difference between watashi and boku.

[Durkoala]

Sorry, guys, I forgot that I was going to try and put up an episode today. I'll post either tommorow or later today.

Episode, rather late.

EPISODE 11: Sakura, Tomoyo-chan and a mansion.

Spoiler

Show

Today we open in a bus, with Sakura sitting at the back. She’s dressed up in a pink dress and a matching hat, with a bag her lap. A flashback reveals that she’s going to Tomoyo’s house because her friend has a problem that she’s keeping concealed. Back in reality for once, Sakura’s wonderings are interrupted by Kerbie bursting out of the bag because he can’t breathe. Sakura tells him not to reveal himself, confusing the rest of the passengers.

Title card! Sakura, Tomoyo-chan and a mansion. That title doesn’t give much away, but we seem to be making sure that we’re geared for a magical incident.

Sakura and Kerberos wander can’t find Tomoyo’s house, despite the fact that she said it was next to the bus stop. I’m going to take a tame guess that it’s inside the railings she’s walking next to.

I’m right. Kerbie spots it by flying up high, and when Sakura still can’t find it he airlifts her as well. Both their reactions are hilarious. Proper OTT anime expressions (Kerbie has a facefault, but Sakura does the poorly animated arm flapping, whatever that’s called.) in the air. :Smallbiggrin:

Sakura’s hat disappears while she’s at the gate intercom. Despite being called a mansion, this place looks more like it should be called a villa: The architecture is light and roomy and there’s a lot of plants. It looks like it should be a place for sunbathing.

Tomoyo’s bedroom is also part lounge and is the size of about three rooms in Sakura’s house. Unsurprisingly, it also has a screened section where she practices being Japan’s answer to Edna Mode. Oh, my mistake: it’s a cinema for her to watch Sakura’s Card catching. I am not thinking about Code Geass very, very hard.

Tomoyo doesn’t help the creepy factor by trying to make Sakura wear a new dress. When Sakura protests, she starts talking about how much she loves filming Sakura wearing the clothes she makes for her.

Hello, Mrs. Daimonji! Please come in and stop your daughter from being so creepy! She’s rushed home because she’s heard Sakura was here. Please don’t be implying a love triangle.
She ushers the girls out of the room for some tea and cake in the garden. As soon as the door closes Kerboe throws a tantrum that he can’t get any cake, but then he feels something bad nearby .

There’s random bit with Toya washing a car. Yuki comes calling for some reason, and Fujikata asks if he’d like to join them for dinner because the weather’s good. Yuki looks around for Sakura, and seems a bit worried that she’s at Tomoyo’s house. Fujikata says that Sonomi would never let anything harm Sakura. I don’t know how good he is at judging people, but it is somewhat reassuring. Also, the two meals outside makes me think that the Card will be able to affect the weather or something.

The ad break had a picture of Tomoyo instead of Sakura this time.

Sonomi talks to Sakura bout her interests. Apparently Nadeshiko wasn’t an athletic person at all. After last episode, it’s pretty obvious that Sakura got that from her father.
We have a series of flashbacks to Nadeshiko crashing into things and tripping over a lot. The last memory is how she met her future husband: she fell out of a tree while puting some chicks back in their nest and landed on him. It’s actually a really sweet meeting, except for the fact THAT HE’S HER TEACHER. Nadeshiko isn’t happy with this memory and goes into a screaming rage that he met her, before remembering that she has guests. Sakura asks if she knew Fujikata as well. I know that you’re not the sharpest suit in the closet, girl, but this is a new low.

Fortunately, Sonomi is able to admit that she hates him because he’s such a great person. She also practically confirms that she was in love with her cousin.

A business call breaks up the tea party. As the girls leave, Tomoyo’s mother shouts that Sakura has to promise to do this again. Ooohhkaaay.

As soon as Tomoyo and Sakura enter the room, Kerbie assaults them, demanding some cake. You know what, I take back my theory, Clow is obviously Yogscast Duncan. Nobody else could hire such a terrible guardian. Weren’t you sensing a presence before?
His voice of despair (with Will O’ the wisps floating around him) is pretty funny though.

When he offhandedly mentions that he can feel a Clow Card in the room, Tomoyo directs them to her problem: a box that doesn’t open. She has the Key, so she thinks it’s the work of a Card. I can’t decide if that’s being paranoid or reasonable. Oh, well, it’s Tomoyo. Both Kerbie and Sakura can sense the Card, but it’s faint. This makes Kerbie’s ignoring of it a bit better.

Ok, Tomoyo was definitely being reasonable. Trying to open the box with the key makes something throw the key across the room. The Non-card contents of the box are apparently something precious to both Tomoyo and he r mother. I will bet that it’s going to be something related to Nadeshiko.

Card catching time! Sakura hasn’t changed into a new dress and Kerbie can’t think of the identity of the Card. Sakura pokes it and the box produces a forcefield. After getting her to do it again, Kerbie declares that this is the SHIELD Card. It protects treasured things, so the contents of the box must be something very dear. Tomoyo smiles at this.

Kerbie advises her to use the Sword to cut the Shield. While this logic is a bit sketchy, Shield will turn back to its true form if it is broken or cut. I’d be a bit worried about damaging the box or its contents, but I suppose the Sword’s powers will prevent that.
It works. The Sword now has a proper blade, but it does still have that stupid bit on the tip that stops it from cutting anything. Shield’s proper form is some kind of beetle jewellery the size of a big plate (Edit: it actually looks more like a wing. I suppose it's a brother to Sword, which also had a wing theme?). It looks strange and very nice, but is sealed easily.

Inside the box is a remarkably well-preserved bunch of flowers. Sonomi enters the room and is delighted to see the box is open. Tomoyo tells her that a spring was stuck in the keyhole. I am a Harry potter fan, and I constantly have to put up with people saying that it’s a series populated with stupid people. This is apparently a fairly popular anime, and some of the excuses here are really, really stupid.

The flowers are the bouquet from Nadeshiko’s wedding. They’re sakura petals (which is a tad morbid, if they are symbolic of death. That knowledge comes from Tvtropes, so I'm a little suspicious) because Nadeshiko wanted to call her daughter Sakura.

Sonomi declares that she will cook tonight and drags Sakura off. Kerbie comes out of hiding as Tomoyo puts away the flowers and pulls out a bag. She tells him it’s a rubber that Sakura gave her when they first met at school. We’re back to creepy Tomoyo again, I see. How do you still have that? Was it one of those Love at First Sight things?

She locks the things back in the box and leaves the room. There’s a shot of the box with some stray petals around it. As we fade out, a last petal drifts on top of it.

And that’s it. I don’t know about this episode. It was well done and emotional, but also had a lot of stuff that was just creepy: Fujikata flirting with one of his students, the fact that Sonomi clearly hasn’t let go of losing her love to a man, that her love was her cousin and the implications that Sonomi may be attracted to Sakura (Do not want ). Of course, there’s the fact that Tomoyo has a cinema for watching Sakura, in addition to filming her whenever she can, dressing her up, knowing where she lives and hoarding gifts from her. She could only be more of a stalker if we killed her and then spent six million dollars making her walk again.

In fairness, Sonomi does acknowledge that Sakura is Fujikata’s daughter, and is probably just remembering the good old days with Nadeshiko and wanting to look after her niece. I hope.

All that aside, this was a good, light episode. There were plenty of funny bits, such as Sonomi’s thoughts of Nadeshiko being constantly turned towards Fujikata, Sakura arguing with Kerberos on the bus and the maid being confused that Tomoyo wants three cups of tea, followed by Sonomi essentially taking Kerbie’s cup before he can drink it. The best bit, though, was definitely Kerbie picking up Sakura to make her see the house and her reaction to it.

I liked how Sonomi still has the same hair as she did nineteen years ago. It shows that she hasn’t got past the fact that Nadeshiko chose somebody else over her. She’s also the first recurring adult to have a character and flaws (unless Toya counts as an adult), even if she is rather immature at times.
Also, she has one thing in common with Tomoyo (not counting attraction to a cousin): the same eye colour.

Speaking of other characters, Yuki’s reaction to Sakura being at Tomoyo’s is very intriguing. Why would whatever Yuki is be worried about his favourite pawn going to a friend’s house? And does Fujikata’s reassurance come from ignorance of the things happening to his daughter (and maybe his son), or knowledge of things that even Yuki does not? Not necessarily big things, just knowing Sonomi well would be enough. I’m guessing that Sonomi’s and Nadeshiko’s family has some supernatural power in their blood as I’m there’s a reason that a hypothetical Cardcaptor Tomoyo would be ‘interesting’. On the other hand, this episode confirmed that Tomoyo doesn’t have magic like Sakura (or Toya) and that Fujikata hasn’t talked about any relatives, so the power could come from him.

The card was good: decent powers with no tricks, a nice disposition and a pretty good design. It’s nonhumanoid, but brightly coloured so it looks benevolent. It looked like something that would be placed as protection on a tomb or treasure trove. It should have been the guardian of the other Cards, instead of the lazy buffoon we’ve got at the moment.
I wish it had had a larger part in the episode, as I would have liked to see more of it.

Is every episode going to have a Card in it? While I am looking forward to where the family drama will take us, I miss the times where Sakura had to find the weaknesses of each Card and subdue them. While not the case for this episode, there probably will be episodes that don’t need a card at all but will put one in because that’s what the show is about.

[deuterio12]

Sakura’s hat disappears while she’s at the gate intercom. Despite being called a mansion, this place looks more like it should be called a villa: The architecture is light and roomy and there’s a lot of plants. It looks like it should be a place for sunbathing.

"Should" indeed, since Tomoyo clearly doesn't get much sun on her skin. Guess there's not much time to hang in the open areas of your own home when you're busy making dozens of custom dresses, taking care of your recording equipment and whatnot. Also Tomoyo clearly must spend at least one hour every day just with her hair.

Tomoyo’s bedroom is also part lounge and is the size of about three rooms in Sakura’s house. Unsurprisingly, it also has a screened section where she practices being Japan’s answer to Edna Mode. Oh, my mistake: it’s a cinema for her to watch Sakura’s Card catching. I am not thinking about Code Geass very, very hard.

Fun fact, CLAMP did some of the character designs for Code Geass, in particular spinzaku and the Britannia king!

As soon as Tomoyo and Sakura enter the room, Kerbie assaults them, demanding some cake. You know what, I take back my theory, Clow is obviously Yogscast Duncan. Nobody else could hire such a terrible guardian. Weren’t you sensing a presence before?

Damnit, you just uncovered Clow's current identity as a youtube celebrity! Now I feel ok revealing that the two next seasons will be about Sakura and pals having to open youtube channels and compete to get more views! Yes, CLAMP predicted youtube's popularity a couple decades ago.

Also I've developed the personal theory that Kero being so crazy about cake is a feature, not a bug. It means Sakura will never have to worry about getting fat because of eating too much sweets! Kero will just gobble them up first.

It works. The Sword now has a proper blade, but it does still have that stupid bit on the tip that stops it from cutting anything. Shield’s proper form is some kind of beetle jewellery the size of a big plate (Edit: it actually looks more like a wing. I suppose it's a brother to Sword, which also had a wing theme?).

Correct, they're kinda the opposite to each other.

Inside the box is a remarkably well-preserved bunch of flowers. Sonomi enters the room and is delighted to see the box is open. Tomoyo tells her that a spring was stuck in the keyhole. I am a Harry potter fan, and I constantly have to put up with people saying that it’s a series populated with stupid people. This is apparently a fairly popular anime, and some of the excuses here are really, really stupid.

"Two Things Are Infinite: the Universe and Human Stupidity"

Sonomi really wanted the box open. Why it didn't open before is secondary for her. It matters that it is open now.

The flowers are the bouquet from Nadeshiko’s wedding. They’re sakura petals (which is a tad morbid, if they are symbolic of death. That knowledge comes from Tvtropes, so I'm a little suspicious) because Nadeshiko wanted to call her daughter Sakura.

Sakura is a really, really popular name in Japan. They symbolize a lot of things, and they don't really stand as much for death, but more for the cycle of life.

Purple cherry blossoms bloom flowers of melancholy,
and scatter the petals of memory.
Fallen flowers, after a long time, return to the earth
and once again bloom flowers.

Sonomi declares that she will cook tonight and drags Sakura off. Kerbie comes out of hiding as Tomoyo puts away the flowers and pulls out a bag. She tells him it’s a rubber that Sakura gave her when they first met at school. We’re back to creepy Tomoyo again, I see. How do you still have that? Was it one of those Love at First Sight things?

Again, CLAMP telling us that love can bloom anywhere anytime.

And that’s it. I don’t know about this episode. It was well done and emotional, but also had a lot of stuff that was just creepy: Fujikata flirting with one of his students, the fact that Sonomi clearly hasn’t let go of losing her love to a man, that her love was her cousin and the implications that Sonomi may be attracted to Sakura (Do not want ). Of course, there’s the fact that Tomoyo has a cinema for watching Sakura, in addition to filming her whenever she can, dressing her up, knowing where she lives and hoarding gifts from her. She could only be more of a stalker if we killed her and then spent six million dollars making her walk again.


In fairness, Sonomi does acknowledge that Sakura is Fujikata’s daughter, and is probably just remembering the good old days with Nadeshiko and wanting to look after her niece. I hope.

Note that Tomoyo doesn't have a job. Her mother is the one who buys her the cameras and all the material needed for sewing Sakura's clothes, plus letting her take vans around and whatnot.

So the way I see it, the way Sonomi behaves is basically supporting Tomoyo's attraction towards Sakura. (Also Sakura wouldn't count as Sonomi's niece since that would only apply if Sonomi and Nadeshiko were sisters, but they're only cousins)

I liked how Sonomi still has the same hair as she did nineteen years ago. It shows that she hasn’t got past the fact that Nadeshiko chose somebody else over her. She’s also the first recurring adult to have a character and flaws (unless Toya counts as an adult), even if she is rather immature at times.
Also, she has one thing in common with Tomoyo (not counting attraction to a cousin): the same eye colour.

Hmm, good points. I guess that Sakura's father is portrayed as kinda mr.perfect.

The card was good: decent powers with no tricks, a nice disposition and a pretty good design. It’s nonhumanoid, but brightly coloured so it looks benevolent. It looked like something that would be placed as protection on a tomb or treasure trove. It should have been the guardian of the other Cards, instead of the lazy buffoon we’ve got at the moment.

Alas, Shield's lack of hands and being mute and thus unable to let out exposition knocked him down a few critical points when Clow was selecting the guardian for his magic tarot. .

Is every episode going to have a Card in it? While I am looking forward to where the family drama will take us, I miss the times where Sakura had to find the weaknesses of each Card and subdue them. While not the case for this episode, there probably will be episodes that don’t need a card at all but will put one in because that’s what the show is about.

There's at least one episode in the future where no new card is captured out of my memory (not counting the episodes after all the cards have already been captured of course).

Now being a bit spoilerish, next episode the show gets back to Sakura struggling with a powerful magic challenge.

[cobaltstarfire]

You know I never interpreted Sonomi's love as being romantic, so much as familial. I can't even begin to tell you how protective some of my family is of me for example. Some of them would do anything for me, and it has nothing to do with romantic love, I'm just their littlest cousin, and my mom is also very popular with the family.

I think the eraser sort of shows that Sakura and Tomoyo haven't known each other for especially long. They don't consider each other to be cousins, and don't really know each other in a familial way.


I could go on to say more, but it'd half come off as rationalizing, and half is spoilery so we shall continue this talk on later episodes.

[Reddish Mage]

Ah, thanks. I thought "-san" was gender neutral and respectful. Shows what I know. :small confused:

I've discussed this with Japanese speakers and Japanese friends and they told me -kun was only for high school students. The exceptions I myself have seen in anime are mostly directed at young people not in high school. As an outsider I'm told everybody is -san, that's all I'd be expected to know (of course beginners are taught to be overly polite , which is well-chronicled in anime's tendencies to make fun of foreigners).

As I understand it there are some general rules for anime (it may be more rare in real life that actual Japanese people break from common honorific uses):

-sama very respectful, reserved for people of high status or those the character wishes to show great respect

-san pretty standard but not used for children.

-kun high school student, especially boys. May be used for characters around the same age

-chan a diminutive used for children, and as a mildly cutesy or flirtatious way to refer to teenage girls, it may be used between childhood friends, or to refer to especially friendly and familiar adults everyone knows and likes.

-no suffix is only done between family or others who are exceptionally close, or by exceptionally rude people.

[Durkoala]

Damnit, you just uncovered Clow's current identity as a youtube celebrity! Now I feel ok revealing that the two next seasons will be about Sakura and pals having to open youtube channels and compete to get more views! Yes, CLAMP predicted youtube's popularity a couple decades ago.

While I stand by my silly theory, it would be interesting to see a Magical girl in the modern era with social media and stuff. Would she try and conceal her identity and have to have a few friends trawling for leads and posting red herrings? Would she just go public and deal with the price of fame: critisism, hate and a big target for any villains? I'm sure that there's many other ideas I can't think of right now.

"Two Things Are Infinite: the Universe and Human Stupidity"

Sonomi really wanted the box open. Why it didn't open before is secondary for her. It matters that it is open now.

Prove that the universe is infinite.
Given that it's Sonomi, that makes sense.

Sakura is a really, really popular name in Japan. They symbolize a lot of things, and they don't really stand as much for death, but more for the cycle of life.

Purple cherry blossoms bloom flowers of melancholy,
and scatter the petals of memory.
Fallen flowers, after a long time, return to the earth
and once again bloom flowers.

That's a lot less morbid. Where's the poem from? It's quite nice.

Again, CLAMP telling us that love can bloom anywhere anytime.

Yes... I'm not a big fan of Love At First Sight, myself.

So the way I see it, the way Sonomi behaves is basically supporting Tomoyo's attraction towards Sakura. (Also Sakura wouldn't count as Sonomi's niece since that would only apply if Sonomi and Nadeshiko were sisters, but they're only cousins)

Niece once removed, then?

Hmm, good points. I guess that Sakura's father is portrayed as kinda mr.perfect.

So's Yuki, but I'm certain that's a facade and that we will see what lies beneath that serene smile someday.

Alas, Shield's lack of hands and being mute and thus unable to let out exposition knocked him down a few critical points when Clow was selecting the guardian for his magic tarot. .

There's at least one episode in the future where no new card is captured out of my memory (not counting the episodes after all the cards have already been captured of course).

Now being a bit spoilerish, next episode the show gets back to Sakura struggling with a powerful magic challenge.

To be honest, I was expecting that there would be cards to catch for the entire run of the show, so that's a bigger spoiler than the hint at the next episode. It's not a big spoiler, but can you please not do that again?

You know I never interpreted Sonomi's love as being romantic, so much as familial. I can't even begin to tell you how protective some of my family is of me for example. Some of them would do anything for me, and it has nothing to do with romantic love, I'm just their littlest cousin, and my mom is also very popular with the family.

I think the eraser sort of shows that Sakura and Tomoyo haven't known each other for especially long. They don't consider each other to be cousins, and don't really know each other in a familial way.


I could go on to say more, but it'd half come off as rationalizing, and half is spoilery so we shall continue this talk on later episodes.

Oh look, a voice of reason. I've been barking up this tree so much, I thought it was the whole forest. While I can see your point of view, something Sonomi said makes it sound like she thinks of Fujikata as a rival, but I can't remember what it was right now. I think it was when she says that he was a horrible person because he has no flaws for somebody else who loves Nadeshiko to attack. Unless she meant that he was too poor for Nadeshiko (and if that's his only bad quality, she must really hate the poor), I can only think of that in a romantic rivalry.

Japanese lesson

Well, thank you for enlightening me. Japanese is complicated.
So, Does this mean that Toya is being rude or familial with Sakura? (probably the former)
Unrelated to CCS, Does -sama see much use in real life? My meagre learnings made me think it roughly translated as 'lord', so that's a very large divide between the speaker and the adressee if it is.

[Prime32]

Sakura is a really, really popular name in Japan. They symbolize a lot of things, and they don't really stand as much for death, but more for the cycle of life.

Japanese culture is big on the concept of beauty in transience. Maybe the simplest way to put it would be "Life is short, but that's what makes it worth living".

Unrelated to CCS, Does -sama see much use in real life? My meagre learnings made me think it roughly translated as 'lord', so that's a very large divide between the speaker and the adressee if it is.

I'll just link this.

[cobaltstarfire]

Oh look, a voice of reason. I've been barking up this tree so much, I thought it was the whole forest. While I can see your point of view, something Sonomi said makes it sound like she thinks of Fujikata as a rival, but I can't remember what it was right now. I think it was when she says that he was a horrible person because he has no flaws for somebody else who loves Nadeshiko to attack. Unless she meant that he was too poor for Nadeshiko (and if that's his only bad quality, she must really hate the poor), I can only think of that in a romantic rivalry.

You can still be jealous for someones attention without having a strong romantic love for them.

I think it can be hard to really pick appart too because Sonomi (and Tomoyo) are both extremely over the top by nature. In different ways yes but they really are quite crazy.

The other consideration is that her family is large, powerful, and probably tightly knit. Sometimes a "cousin" isn't really even genetically related anymore, it only takes about a distance of 3-5 to be removed enough that a random passerby on the street may be more genetically similar than your "family" member. Of course sometimes a cousin is close or made to be close, but to preserve purity they must be made into a match!

I think really you can interpret it either way, but I'm also a believer in many different kinds of love.

Also also, Toya is probably being both familial and rude. He is a big brother after all, it's his job to be an ass XD. But we know he's protective of his little sister too.

[Durkoala]

Next episode is going to be late. I should get it posted by thursday at the latest.
My apologies for the inconvienience.

[deuterio12]

That's a lot less morbid. Where's the poem from? It's quite nice.

It's part of a boss dialogue from the Touhou game series, Phantasmagoria of Flower View. Which could basically be described as "vertical shooter game where the main characters are magical girls and fight either other magical girls or monsters that look like little girls in a sealed fantasy land, and then sometimes you're the monster little girl". Despite the genre, it has really lots of great dialogue, sometimes poetic indeed, with flowers being a recurring main/secondary theme (two of the main games are named after them, Perfect Cherry Blossom being the other, where you get to collect sakura petals to power up).

To be honest, I was expecting that there would be cards to catch for the entire run of the show, so that's a bigger spoiler than the hint at the next episode. It's not a big spoiler, but can you please not do that again?

Ouch, sorry about that.

Next episode is going to be late. I should get it posted by thursday at the latest.
My apologies for the inconvienience.

What are you apologizing for? It's not like we're paying you or have a sealed contract binding our actions, and you're giving us another two-episode week, yay!

[Durkoala]

I've (finally) decided that I don't want to know if my theory was right or not. You know, and you have your spoiler boxes if you want to talk about it.

Anyway, with that imporatant business out of the way, have an episode.

EPISODE 12: Sakura's neverending day.

Spoiler: Posted when it was still Thursday :P

Show

Title Card! Sakura’s Neverending day! Looks like we’ll be dealing with a time loop?

An establishing shot (I’ve got to keep my media studies knowledge going somehow) of the school tells us it is ten to twelve and then we see that the school hall is packed with pupils listening to a talk on archaeology. The Sakura-dex informs us that today parents come in to talk about their jobs, which they do each trimester, whatever that is. Sakura’s dad is currently speaking about pyramids.

At quarter past twelve, this assembly seems to be breaking up. For some reason Shaoran is standing on his chair to clap, with his usual frown. He must have liked the speaker. Also, I just realised that the two shots of the clock are probably going to be important later.

Shaoran turns out to really like pyramids and is eagerly questioning Fujikata about if they were cursed. When he’s invited drop by the Kinomoto house, he’s the happiest I’ve seen him so far, but quickly deflates when Yamazaki tells him that he’s talking to Sakura’s dad. I really like how the writers make him a believable ten-year-old when he isn’t harassing Sakura or chasing cards.

At twenty past one Sakura and her father have a chat. Nothing happens, except for the end of breaktime, but I’m trying to keep an eye on the clocks.

Ten O’clock, Sakura’s Room. Kerbie is playing video games and wondering why Sakura is staying up late. She’s giving Toya a snack to help him with his exam tomorrow, but freezes up when it turns out that Yuki is with him. When she recovers behind a cut, she goes to bed and complains about it. Kerbie turns out to only have one last round on the game he started today and he starts bickering with Sakura about whether he spends too much time on games. The time is now 10.10.

At midnight, the school bells start ringing, waking Sakura and Kerbie. In the next room, Yuki and Toya say that it normally tolls at five in the morning. Kerbie ask if it’s broken, then they go back to bed. As an aside, I liked the lead-up to the clock striking midnight where camera cuts back and forth between the school clock and Sakura’s alarm clock.

In the morning, Sakura rushes off to school because she’s got a recorder test. Kerbie picks up his controller, but finds that the screen only shows a big, pixelly NO DATA sign, which means his data is lost. I wonder why that could be?

Sakura messes up the recorder test due to nerves. I know how you feel, Sakura, I know how you feel. For some reason, Shaoran is going through the motions under the table. I suppose he hasn’t practiced?

At break, Sakura is still upset about fluffing that note. Tomoyo mentions that she played the rest of the song fine. Sakura cheers up and is complimenting Tomoyo on her performance, when Shaoran walks past. He’s practicing his recorder and apparently didn’t do well in the test. Sakura and Tomoyo then talk about his lack of family here. So did he come here by himself?

A stray ball heads towards him, but being a kung-fu wizard he kicks it back so hard it gets past the goalie. Keep in mind that he isn’t on the playground proper, let alone the pitch. The entire playground gives him a round of applause and he acts shy but happy, like he doesn’t really know what to do. I l know the feeling, Shaoran.

At the house, Dad gives a toast to Sakura and Toya passing their tests. When Sakura gets upset at her mistake he tells her ‘there’s no need to be embarrassed by mistakes. If you feel that strongly about it, go over the bits you had trouble with.’ I can see this coming in handy.

OK, it looks like Kerbie’s lost data was just because he forgot to save. He makes sure he fixes that while Sakura practices her recorder. After they’ve gone to bed, the bells start to ring at midnight and there’s a brief shot of an hourglass turning over. So we aren’t repeating the parent day, but the recorder day instead?
The clock face spins backwards. It would be a lot more impressive if the hand wasn’t obviously off-centre.

Next morning, Kerbie’s data has disappeared again. Sakura is shocked to find that the recorder test is today, and not yesterday. She puts the pieces together pretty quickly considering her track record: everything is happening again. Also, Shaoran has huge eyebrows, why didn’t I notice earlier?

Tomoyo thinks that Sakura’s got Deja vu. Sakura follows the football game in the yard, but instead of Shaoran walking along the steps with his recorder he approaches them and says that he remembers the recorder test yesterday. He outright says that the day is repeating, and he’s tracked down the Card responsible. It’s in the clocktower. I’d have liked to see Sakura work it out on her own, thank you, Li. It looks like having magic is what allows people to perceive the time loop. Does this mean that Yuki and Toya are also having the same day? If Yuki is who I think he is, can he break out? How far do the effects of the card reach: is there a confused sorcerer in Brazil wondering why he’s got the same mail again?
The ball heads straight for Shaoran again so he kicks it back in exactly the same way.

At half eleven that night, Cardcaptors Inc are sneaking into the school. Sakura is wearing the costume that we saw last episode. Tomoyo says that it’s inspired by a fairy, and I can see that. It’s a short yellow dress with four green wings. It must still be summer, because wearing that in autumn is impossible.

Sakura takes to the air and circles the tower. She senses the Card’s energy and moves in, but the Card slows time so she and Kerbie talk slow and deep, stops them and then reverses time, which even puts the music in reverse as they fly backwards to the ground. That was amazing, I don’t know what to say... the effect was simply, just tinting the screen green, but it was a tentacle attack but the tentacles had no substance. They just changed the screen colour until everything was tinted and Sakura was in their power.

Kerbie wastes no ...time in explaining that this is the unimaginatively named TIME Card. From what we’ve seen of it so far (a pair of hands and an hourglass) it looks like it’s a humanoid card too. Tomoyo has no idea what happened, which Kerbire says was because only magic people can feel time being changed, like I thought. Sakura and Kerberos circle the tower and discuss the Card: it’s fused itself with the clock (I suppose that its power is transmitted by the bells?) and it can only rewind a whole day at midnight, which is OK as midnight is frequently said to be a time of witching. They try to attack it again, but this time it speeds time up so the last fifteen minutes to midnight pass in seconds and it restarts the day again.

We then skip immediately to the next try. Kerbie tells us that this is only their third loop (and second try), and while he and Sakura bemoan the things that they’ve had to do time after time, Shaoran arrives. Sakura asks if he’s alright: it turns out that this “time” the ball hit him in the face, but still ended up in the goal. I wish we could have seen that.
He wants Sakura to destroy the Tower, but she refuses. Listen to Sakura, kids: don’t destroy buildings as a first resort. Plan B is to sneak in without using magic so it can’t detect their approach. Cardcaptors Inc go up the inside of the building and Shaoran uses a grappling hook to climb to the top of the tower. Why didn’t you share?

The Card is an old man in a hooded robe with an hourglass. Well, at least it’s not another female-shaped card, but there isn’t really anything original about it. He blocks Sakura and sends her a few minutes back. Shaoran smashes in the window and tells her to use the Sheild. Firstly, how does he know that she has it, and secondly, why didn’t he mention that the Shield could do this earlier? You are the worst mentor ever.

The Card actually emotes when it realises that Sakura has blocked its powers. It then runs away, but before it flies off the tower, Shaoran electrocutes it with some of his seals. Sakura seals it, but the card flies to Shaoran instead. The Card is owned by the person who returns it to its original shape? That can’t be right, otherwise Shaoran should own the Thunder as well, and there wouldn’t be any point to writing your name on Cards to own them. This doesn’t seem to be a filler episode, so why is the Director of Continuity not doing his job? What is going on here?

Shaoran does look pretty villainous now, though, I’ll give him that. That is a powerful card, and he already has his own powers to abuse. It’s about time he got round to some baddieing.

Next morning, Sakura is talking to Tomoyo about how glad she is that time is moving on. Tomoyo asks why she’s carrying her recorder when they have a kanji-writing class. Sakura exclaims that she’s been reading the wrong schedule!

And that’s it. Mostly, this was a good episode. I haven’t seen many time loop stories outside of fanfiction, where it is usually used to level a character up to godlike power. I’m not sure why there was so much focus on the clock in the first part, before the Card started acting up; or why there was that bit with Kerbie forgetting his save. There were quite a few things early in the episode that didn’t become anything, which was confusing.

The Card was decent: It had good powers and seemed to be one of the most intelligent yet: It tried different tactics to deal with the threat, and each one was fairly effective until Shaoran turned out to have put up traps beforehand. As far as design goes, it was Ok. This is the first humanoid Card to resemble a man instead of a woman, which was a little surprise. It wasn’t an original design, but I like the cowled and robed wizard look, so it was Ok.

I’m not happy about that last bit, as it makes no sense. By the logic that putting the Card into its true form wins you its support, Shaoran should have received the Thunder Card before, and the Jump should have gone to itself. It’s going against what we were told before, and this episode has too important a development to be written off as filler written by people who didn’t care.

Of course, the big thing is Shaoran finally gaining an advantage. He’s been slowly slipping down the threat scale since his arrival, but this has boosted him back up. For most of the episode, he was the comic relief that he’s been becoming since he met Yamazaki, but then he outplanned Sakura and the Card and ended up holding one of the strongest Cards to date. It remains to be seen if he can use it, but it’s still a blow against Sakura’s ego.
It’ll be interesting to see where this leads, now that Shaoran has cancelled his application for Team Rocket. As Yuki is apparently not getting substantially involved until a later arc and there’s no sign of any other antagonists, it looks like Li Shaoran may be on the way to becoming the main villain.

[Qwertystop]

A guess based on your description (haven't actually watched it) - there's a distinction between who the card goes to initially (physicsl posession of the card) and who actually owns it. The card flying to Shaoran doesn't actually mean he owns it (until he writes his name on it), but you can't write your name on something you don't have. Maybe who it goes to is just random between everyone magic, or something.

If I'm right, there'll probably be a scuffle over a just-sealed-but-not-claimed card.