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

[deuterio12]

Spoiler: A day in the life of a boss

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Well the first thing I do is...
Go to school (like a boss)
Get all HOT-BLOODED about Egyptian archaeology (like a boss)
Glare at the main character (like a boss)
Get evaluted in your music perfomance (like a boss)
Kick a ball out of nowhere (like a boss)
Score a goal (like a boss)
Be comedic relief (like a boss)
Detect disturbances in the the time flow of the universe (like a boss)
Repeat the same day over and over (like a boss)
Find the source (like a boss)
Get a ball to the face (like a boss)
Still score a goal (like a boss)
Dress up in ritual robes (like a boss)
Climb a tower (like a boss)
Without magic in a magic girl show (like a boss)
Crash through a window (like a boss)
Nobody gets glass shard cuts (like a boss)
Mentor the main character (like a boss)
Activate your trap paper (like a boss)
Get the Clow Card (like a boss)
Now I'm proper villain material (like a final boss...Or not)

Syaoran never catches any of the cards on the manga.

But in the anime, Syaoran shows that two can play the collection game.

He wants Sakura to destroy the Tower, but she refuses. Listen to Sakura, kids: don’t destroy buildings as a first resort.

To be fair, Sakura had already failed once, so this was indeed plan B.

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?

Flanking attack? If they all tried to go through the same window, things would've been a bit thigh.

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.

1) They probably talked about it. I could perfectly see Kero boasting about Sakura catching two more cards behind Syaoran's back.
2) He probably thought that Kero would've explained what the Shield can and cannot do to Sakura.
3) He's a ten year old kid, and not exactly in friendly terms with Sakura, how good of a mentor do you expect Syaoran to be?

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?

I don't know if it's a translation problem, but the card goes to whoever it sees as inflicting the last hit to make it vulnerable. Syaoran didn't get the Thunder because he only forced it back in original form, but still able to fight back, and Sakura then used The Shadow to immobilize it. Syaoran gets the Time because his lighting alone was enough to stop the time lord wizard on his tracks.

Also there's a difference between who grabs the card, and to who the card actually belongs. Writing the name seals the ownership, but you need the card in hand to write it. It's a subtle difference, yes, but it'll become relevant.

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.

Hey, he did give Sakura a chance. All she needed to do was to follow his plan to crush the tower and it would've been her capture. Syaoran probably didn't feel much like another time loop where the ball may hit him in the groin or something even worst.

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.

Hmm, the whole thing with the video game was simply that Kero was actually saving, but since time was reset the save was erased. Kero could remember having played the game the previous day because he's magic, but he fails to realize that the save's no longer there because he's in a time loop and thus he went back to before playing it. He dismisses it as simply forgetting to save.

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.

I already said my points on that, just gonna add that the Jump tecnically defeated itself upon being startled/scared and losing balance by Sakura, so it still counted as her delivering the finishing blow.

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.

Even if Syaoran never joins Team Rocket, Sakura and Tomoyo totally have crossed paths with Ash and Pikachu.

Spoiler: no spoilers for this series

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S:Prepare for magic!
T:Make it flashy!
S:To protect the world from devastation!
T:To unite all cards within one collection!
S:To denounce the goods of friendship and love!
T:To make more dresses than the stars above!
S:Sakura!
T:Tomoyo!
S:I now summon my staff at the speed of light!
T:Be captured now, or prepare to fight!
Kero: Where's my cake? I mean, That's right!

EDIT: I also love how Sakura looks like she's getting drunk in orange juice in this episode:

Spoiler

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Sakura: I'm the main character, how did this happen?
Toya: ... I think you've already drank enough, sister.

[Qwertystop]

I don't know if it's a translation problem, but the card goes to whoever it sees as inflicting the last hit to make it vulnerable. Syaoran didn't get the Thunder because he only forced it back in original form, but still able to fight back, and Sakura then used The Shadow to immobilize it. Syaoran gets the Time because his lighting alone was enough to stop the time lord wizard on his tracks.

Called it!

[Durkoala]

Called it!

Yes, you did!

Syaoran never catches any of the cards on the manga.

But in the anime, Syaoran shows that two can play the collection game.

So he can't seal them himself? Also, is that spoiler an actual spoiler, or just a song about Shaoran being a boss? You know, the actual song is about The Boss being a lonely and pathetic person. :P

Flanking attack? If they all tried to go through the same window, things would've been a bit thigh.

On reflection, he was probably setting up his lightning traps.

3) He's a ten year old kid, and not exactly in friendly terms with Sakura, how good of a mentor do you expect Syaoran to be?

You're the one who said he was a military mentor, so .

I don't know if it's a translation problem, but the card goes to whoever it sees as inflicting the last hit to make it vulnerable. Syaoran didn't get the Thunder because he only forced it back in original form, but still able to fight back, and Sakura then used The Shadow to immobilize it. Syaoran gets the Time because his lighting alone was enough to stop the time lord wizard on his tracks.

Also there's a difference between who grabs the card, and to who the card actually belongs. Writing the name seals the ownership, but you need the card in hand to write it. It's a subtle difference, yes, but it'll become relevant.

That makes a bit more sense, but it still seems a little arbitary.

Hmm, the whole thing with the video game was simply that Kero was actually saving, but since time was reset the save was erased. Kero could remember having played the game the previous day because he's magic, but he fails to realize that the save's no longer there because he's in a time loop and thus he went back to before playing it. He dismisses it as simply forgetting to save.

No, I mean the first time, before the time loop begins. I just don't get why he forgets the save, instead of it being a clue that there's a time loop happening.

Even if Syaoran never joins Team Rocket, Sakura and Tomoyo totally have crossed paths with Ash and Pikachu.

Spoiler: no spoilers for this series

Show

S:Prepare for magic!
T:Make it flashy!
S:To protect the world from devastation!
T:To unite all cards within one collection!
S:To denounce the goods of friendship and love!
T:To make more dresses than the stars above!
S:Sakura!
T:Tomoyo!
S:I now summon my staff at the speed of light!
T:Be captured now, or prepare to fight!
Kero: Where's my cake? I mean, That's right!

I haven't watched pokémon in so long, but that is definitely a reference. If it wasn't for Pikachu in the background, this could almost have been a remake of CCS.

I should be able to get the next episode up in an hour or so, so come back then.

[cobaltstarfire]

No, I mean the first time, before the time loop begins. I just don't get why he forgets the save, instead of it being a clue that there's a time loop happening.

He did save the first time before the loop began, he just assumed that he had forgotten when he loaded it up and found no data the first time, because that's way more likely than being stuck in a time loop.

[deuterio12]

So he can't seal them himself?

Alas, no. Only the pink sealing wanda can do that.

Also, is that spoiler an actual spoiler, or just a song about Shaoran being a boss?

Just a song.

You know, the actual song is about The Boss being a lonely and pathetic person. :P

Perhaps the original song, but the evolved meme stands for something else:

Like A Boss is a catchphrase often used in image macros or GIFs that feature a person completing an action with authority and finesse. Similar to Haters Gonna Hate, the characters in the macros have an air of superiority and do not care how others perceive them.

Which I believe fits Syaoran quite nicely on this episode.

On reflection, he was probably setting up his lightning traps.

Makes sense.

You're the one who said he was a military mentor, so .

I said that's what he's trying to do, not that he's particulary good at it, or the series would be over much faster.

That makes a bit more sense, but it still seems a little arbitary.

Perhaps, but it intensifies the competition between Sakura and Syaoran to see who can get the finishing blow on a card.

No, I mean the first time, before the time loop begins. I just don't get why he forgets the save, instead of it being a clue that there's a time loop happening.

Kero lost the save before the first time loop? Then it doesn't make much sense indeed.

I haven't watched pokémon in so long, but that is definitely a reference. If it wasn't for Pikachu in the background, this could almost have been a remake of CCS.

Ah, a remake of CCS... There was actually some talk about that in a japanese magazine last year, including some prototype art.

Spoiler: MAJOR spoilers, do not open unless you've already watched the series, but it's an image so it's ok to quote

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Sailor Moon did get a remake this year, so there is always hope.

I should be able to get the next episode up in an hour or so, so come back then.

Great to hear that!

[cobaltstarfire]

Sailor Moon did get a remake this year, so there is always hope.

I dunno, Sailor Moon Crystal has been well... a little bit disappointing. The production value for it is all over the place, often bad and while they're trying to stick closer to the manga, it's not working out too well. Don't get me wrong I'm still enjoying it, but it really deserves better than what it's getting.

Now if they remake CSS and have a really high production value and fix some of the little bugs in the plot it would be glorious. I was thinking about that the whole time I was rewatching it, how nice would it be to see a HD version.

[Durkoala]

Kero lost the save before the first time loop? Then it doesn't make much sense indeed.

He forgot to save the progress he made on the Parents' day, before the time loop started. He made sure to save on the next day, which got wiped by the Time resetting everthing. It just seems like a bad use of time for the episode. Funny, but poor time management.

Ah, a remake of CCS... There was actually some talk about that in a japanese magazine last year, including some prototype art.

Sailor Moon did get a remake this year, so there is always hope.

All the concept art has to be the spoiler stuff, doesn't it?

I'm still thinking if I want the next LW to be Sailor Moon or something else. What are your thoughts?

Anyway, we're still on a Let's watch at the moment, so I humbly present:

EPISODE 13: Sakura and the elephant's test of strength.

Spoiler

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We open at night, in the playground where the Thunder appeared. Something is stomping around, but there is nothing visible moving. Some impact marks appear in a path, kicking dust clouds up from cracks in the ground. It looks like we’re fighting a subterranean Card today.

Title Card! Sakura and The Elephant’s Test of Strength. Ok, that’s a strange title.

At the Kinomoto household, the men are setting the scene: Sakura’s going on a field trip to the zoo and Fujikata’s giving her a special lunch. Toya looks a bit different, a bit younger in the close-up. There must have been somebody on work experience who wasn’t told that once people turn fifteen they look like adults when this episode was made.

Toya sees that the TV is reporting a mysterious crime crime at Penguin Park, which is the name of the playground. Well, there’s a giant penguin slide there, but naming a whole park after it is a bit much...
Before we hear why the crime is mysterious, Sakura enters the room. Fujikata brings her lunch and what is wrong with Toya?! His shoulders are three times the width of his hips and legs! It looks like the Director of character proportions was on holiday again.
... Oh. Toya tells Sakura to be careful as she goes by the park and the TV shows us that the penguin slide, at least four metres tall, two wide and likely made of concrete, has been turned upside down. Oh. Sakura reacts appropriately.

Sakura meets Yuki on the way to school. He mentions that it must have been somebody really strong to have turned the penguin over. Interesting choice of words there, Yuki. “Somebody”, not “Something.”
Sakura tries to sense a Card, but finds nothing. You can have some points for maintaining continuity, though, Sakura. Also, if it turns out that this was done by a disgruntled builder’s union or something, I am going to laugh so hard.

At the school gates, Sakura does a twirl of victory at how well her day is going. There’s a squawk from nearby. Three pounds and the Silent Card that it’s Kerbie in her backpack.
The angel statue from the Shadow episode is in the background. I wonder how hard it was to put that back?

I keep getting confused between Naoko and Rika because rika’s hair looks like Naoko Akgai’s from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anyway, The class has been spilt into groups to observe different animals. Sakura’s group has her usual circle of friends, and, surprisingly, no sign of Shaoran. After delegating the camera duties to Tomoyo, the conversation turns to the Penguin slide. Sakura runs off to the elephants when it’s suggested that the culprit is a ghost. The ghost of a Sumo wrestler. Tomoyo, never change.

We then cut to a boy’s group. It contains Yamazaki, the Spoiler of all good things, and three other boys that have no significance. They’re observing sloths. Yamazaki starts telling Shaoran that Sloths look lazy, but in the right mood they can run faster that 100 Km/h. The three extras have distinctive hairstyles, so maybe they are going to be actual characters later.

The girls are talking about elephant when there is the sound of something hitting the ground very hard. Well, it looks like the thing is here. The wind picks up and the animals start to get agitated, screaming and snarling at something. There’s a long-distance shot showing wild birds around the zoo flying away before the break appears.

There’s a Shaoran Card in the break this time.

Guess what? Kerbie was in Sakura’s backpack! I think I’m owed £5879, 2 pence and 451.62 Silent Cards. Why do I only see about five people posting on a semi-regular rate if there’s so many of you?

In other news, Rika is trailing her crush, the teacher and gets him to eat lunch with her. I won’t comment yet. Shaoran is going ecstatic over the sloth moving a paw. The crashing noise strikes again, gaining Kerbie and Shaoran’s attention. It’s a Clow Card, so I suppose that Sakura just isn’t very good at sensing them yet since she only learned to last episode. When a penguin runs past Cardcaptors Co, they realise that the Card is breaking animal cages.

OK, the Card is invisible, not underground. Cardcaptors Co still haven’t realised this and don’t know how to stop it as it breaks the elephant enclosure. It seems to be hopping around as it leaves a single crater with each movement.

HOLY TURDS! It just picked up an elephant and threw it into the sky! What is this?! Sakura summons the Windy to catch it, and then gets angry that the elephants could have been badly hurt. Sakura, it would have splashed. Fortunately, Kerbie’s brain is working correctly and he identifies the Card, but only whispers it to Sakura. That’s lazy writing, writers, you can do better than this. Sakura’s reaction implies that it targets elephants. Is it Mousra?

Nope, it’s the POWER Card. It’s basically an escapee from Dragonball: a Card with a lot of strength and a thirst for challenges. Sakura challenges it to a duel and it drops the elephant and charges at her! This is entirely the wrong thing to be concerned with, but that elephant has no mammaries: they should be under its armpits, unlike a cow or a sheep’s udders. It’s got a calf, so they should be visible. EDIT: Because the avatar might give the wrong impression, I would like to categorically state that I am not a furry.

Badly timed attention to biology aside, The Card is chasing Sakura around until she can think of something to challenge it with. As it’s smashing concrete, Sukara doesn’t fancy her chances but eventually decides on a Tug-of-war. It stops trying to turn her into paté, and reveals its true form: a small pink girl. This should be sort-of comforting, but I remember how this went with Majin Buu...

Of course, the Card is beating Sakura easily. Kerbie tells her to use the Cards she has to fight it, but she can’t let go of the rope to use the key. Just when all seems lost, the elephant steps in to help. Well, the title makes sense now. Sakura refers to it as Mr elephant, but I’m saying that she’s being an ignorant child as we got a good look at the gentleman’s area and there was nothing to suggest that it was a gentleman’s area. IT’S A FEMALE ELEPHANT AND SAKURA IS WRONG BECAUSE THAT MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE.

The Power matches the new challenge, but it is having to put a bit of effort into it now. It’s still not going all out, though.
Oh crap, Shaoran can use the Time. Thankfully, he just does some Bernard’s Watch shenanigans and pulls the rope out of the Card’s hands before returning to the trees. When they all fall over, the Card concedes, presumably because the Sakura and the elephant kept hold of the rope. Sakura seals it gently.

A while later Sakura and Tomoyo are either leaving school or going to it. Sakura is upset about a photo that Tomoyo is hold, saying that she can’t show it to anybody. Yukito, being a troll, cycles up to them at this moment. A gust of wind just happens to blow the photo out of Tomoyo’s hands and he catches it. It shows Sakura lifting up the penguin slide. Tomoyo claims it’s a composite photo and Yuki says that you could only lift something like that with magic. You aren’t fooling anybody, you know. Especially you, Clow Reed.

And that’s it. All in all, this was a pretty good episode. We seem to have gone back to the style of the earlier episodes, not that that’s a bad thing. This was mostly just another session of Card catching, light and fluffy despite the dangerous powers being thrown around. It seems like a short relaxation after the family drama a few episodes ago, but Shaoran’s use of Time was a reminder that there is a continuity.

The Card was pretty good, even if it was another humanoid. Kerbie did point out that it didn’t look like a powerful Card, but it still was the least appropriate design yet. I don’t know how a liitle pink girl is a sign of supernatural strength unless it is a reference to Majin Buu. Was the Buu saga even finished by the time this was designed? I suppose that there were some martial artist elements to its design, so that could be a hint at its competitive attitude. I liked its personality: it was a Dragonball/Ranma martial artist, obsessed as always with testing its strength agains opponents. On the other hand, it looked like Kid Buu and had hair similar to Yachiru Kusaji from Bleach, so I was half expecting it to go on a murderous rampage.
It was one of the most emotive Cards yet: Its mood changed with the events of the episode and it ‘spoke’, if you can call a chuckle speaking.

Shaoran being able to use Cards makes him even more formidable. I don’t know how he measures up against Sakura in power, but he’s much more skilled and he now has the ability to stop time. I would not want to fight that, ever. I am a bit confused about how Sakura, Kerbie and Power didn’t notice the Time’s effects when they did last episode, though.

Nothing much really happened this episode. It was a nice break, but I hope we get back to the plot soon.

[deuterio12]

Note: Syaoran didn't just save Sakura from experiencing a gruesome death. He saved her in a way that made sure she got the card and nobody else would know about it. And he does it all in a completely chill way.

All the concept art has to be the spoiler stuff, doesn't it?

More like they're grouped together in a a big photo, and the central image is ["SPOILER"] with ["SPOILER"] in ["SPOILER"].

I'm still thinking if I want the next LW to be Sailor Moon or something else. What are your thoughts?

An excellent follow up. Sailor Moon did come earlier, and also stablished many classic aspects for magic girls.

But I still heavily recommend you watch CCS to the end.

At the school gates, Sakura does a twirl of victory at how well her day is going. There’s a squawk from nearby. Three pounds and the Silent Card that it’s Kerbie in her backpack.

That's a sucker's bet.

We then cut to a boy’s group. It contains Yamazaki, the Spoiler of all good things, and three other boys that have no significance. They’re observing sloths. Yamazaki starts telling Shaoran that Sloths look lazy, but in the right mood they can run faster that 100 Km/h. The three extras have distinctive hairstyles, so maybe they are going to be actual characters later.

Syaoran's gonna recruit them as his flunkies. Nope, just extras to remind us that Sakura's class has more than two boys.

Guess what? Kerbie was in Sakura’s backpack! I think I’m owed £5879, 2 pence and 451.62 Silent Cards. Why do I only see about five people posting on a semi-regular rate if there’s so many of you?

I'm afraid our contract stipulates you must now get someone to record you dressed in a silly girly custom with a pink wand to collect your cards.

Nope, it’s the POWER Card. It’s basically an escapee from Dragonball: a Card with a lot of strength and a thirst for challenges.

Great, now you've made me spill my drink by laughting too hard.

Badly timed attention to biology aside, The Card is chasing Sakura around until she can think of something to challenge it with. As it’s smashing concrete, Sukara doesn’t fancy her chances but eventually decides on a Tug-of-war. It stops trying to turn her into paté, and reveals its true form: a small pink girl. This should be sort-of comforting, but I remember how this went with Majin Buu...

Who's Sukara? Sakura's long lost twin evil sister? Her dark clone?

Of course, the Card is beating Sakura easily. Kerbie tells her to use the Cards she has to fight it, but she can’t let go of the rope to use the key. Just when all seems lost, the elephant steps in to help. Well, the title makes sense now. Sakura refers to it as Mr elephant, but I’m saying that she’s being an ignorant child as we got a good look at the gentleman’s area and there was nothing to suggest that it was a gentleman’s area. IT’S A FEMALE ELEPHANT AND SAKURA IS WRONG BECAUSE THAT MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE.

Indeed, it isn't Sakura's first time at confusing other being's genders, and she's somewhat busy trying to not be squashed to a pulp to worry about such details.

Oh crap, Shaoran can use the Time. Thankfully, he just does some Bernard’s Watch shenanigans and pulls the rope out of the Card’s hands before returning to the trees. When they all fall over, the Card concedes, presumably because the Sakura and the elephant kept hold of the rope. Sakura seals it gently.

Spoiler: Power still doesn't look like she's enjoying it

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It's almost like she knows Sakura didn't actually win that, but has no proof of otherwise and thus has to ler herself be captured in shame.

Also notice that Syaoran didn't just stop time. He yanked the rope right out of Power's hand like it was nothing. And then jumped several meters to a tree. The Li family clearly teaches some pretty hardcore kung-fu.

A while later Sakura and Tomoyo are either leaving school or going to it. Sakura is upset about a photo that Tomoyo is hold, saying that she can’t show it to anybody. Yukito, being a troll, cycles up to them at this moment. A gust of wind just happens to blow the photo out of Tomoyo’s hands and he catches it. It shows Sakura lifting up the penguin slide.

Do notice that the photo was taken in broad daylight.

I have the personal theory that Syaoran stalks Sakura off-camera whenever she's in public just to make sure to cover her loose ends like this, making sure there's nobody else taking photos nearby by chance. Being able to stop Time would surely help with that. Also explains how he can pull stuff like jumping out of nowhere to save her in the sword episode and stuff.

And that’s it. All in all, this was a pretty good episode. We seem to have gone back to the style of the earlier episodes, not that that’s a bad thing. This was mostly just another session of Card catching, light and fluffy despite the dangerous powers being thrown around. It seems like a short relaxation after the family drama a few episodes ago, but Shaoran’s use of Time was a reminder that there is a continuity.

What, no comments on how Syaoran has gone from insulting Sakura for her failures in earlier episodes to setting up a scenario where he hands her the victory in the perfect way to reinforce her self-confidence and ego that had just taken a blow last episode?

It also confirms that Syaoran can indeed use the Clow Cards he gets his hands on.

The Card was pretty good, even if it was another humanoid. Kerbie did point out that it didn’t look like a powerful Card, but it still was the least appropriate design yet. I don’t know how a liitle pink girl is a sign of supernatural strength unless it is a reference to Majin Buu. Was the Buu saga even finished by the time this was designed?

Now that you mention it, the Buu saga's second and last volume was published in manga form in 1995. And the CCS anime starts being aired at 1996. Awfully close!

Anyway I think it's more of an irony element. The little cute pink girl? She can juggle elephants.

Plus anime/manga has a long standing tradition that the strongest warriors of them are the ones who look the more harmless (cough Ranma cough).

I suppose that there were some martial artist elements to its design, so that could be a hint at its competitive attitude. I liked its personality: it was a Dragonball/Ranma martial artist, obsessed as always with testing its strength agains opponents. On the other hand, it looked like Kid Buu and had hair similar to Yachiru Kusaji from Bleach, so I was half expecting it to go on a murderous rampage.

As you pointed out, the Power did try to squash an elephant to paste, and Sakura would've suffered a similar destiny if she wasn't fast on her magic feet.

It was one of the most emotive Cards yet: Its mood changed with the events of the episode and it ‘spoke’, if you can call a chuckle speaking.

Silly Durkoala. Couldn't you see how the Power was speaking WITH HER FISTS?

Shaoran being able to use Cards makes him even more formidable. I don’t know how he measures up against Sakura in power, but he’s much more skilled and he now has the ability to stop time. I would not want to fight that, ever. I am a bit confused about how Sakura, Kerbie and Power didn’t notice the Time’s effects when they did last episode, though.

Syaoran just stopped time for a few moments, not a big disturbance. Sakura and Kero only noticed it last episode when they had already repeated the same day over and over.

Nothing much really happened this episode. It was a nice break, but I hope we get back to the plot soon.

Again your hopes shall be answered. Sort of. I'm not very sure how to qualify the next episode.

I dunno, Sailor Moon Crystal has been well... a little bit disappointing. The production value for it is all over the place, often bad and while they're trying to stick closer to the manga, it's not working out too well. Don't get me wrong I'm still enjoying it, but it really deserves better than what it's getting.

Now if they remake CSS and have a really high production value and fix some of the little bugs in the plot it would be glorious. I was thinking about that the whole time I was rewatching it, how nice would it be to see a HD version.

I swear that if one day I get rich, one of my "top ten" things to do with my money will be getting CLAMP and whoever's the best anime studio in the market at that time to make a CCS remake come true.

[Durkoala]

An excellent follow up. Sailor Moon did come earlier, and also stablished many classic aspects for magic girls.

But I still heavily recommend you watch CCS to the end.

The two big problems are that it's very long and it's another one to watch subbed. Once I finish the first arc of this, the plan is to give one slot to another MG show, and I'd like one that won't go too far past CCS's remaining episodes.

I'm afraid our contract stipulates you must now get someone to record you dressed in a silly girly custom with a pink wand to collect your cards.

If I've got 451.62 Lurkers, I'm sure some of them will be willing.

Great, now you've made me spill my drink by laughting too hard.

I'm sorry.
Good to know I can do some funny stuff.

Who's Sukara? Sakura's long lost twin evil sister? Her dark clone?

Oh, give me a little slack, Sir 'Laughting', 'stablished' and 'ler'. Anyway, she's Sakura's long-lost twin sister's dark clone from a paralell universe where people take notice of my references. She doesn't want to go back because it's a dreary, overly british place, so she's a sellsorceress in the scuffles between Yukito i, the Worm King and Sonomi.

Spoiler: Power still doesn't look like she's enjoying it

Show

[IMG]
It's almost like she knows Sakura didn't actually win that, but has no proof of otherwise and thus has to ler herself be captured in shame.

I saw it as knowing what would happen now she had lost, but being honour-bound to accept the price. Even if it isn't sentient, it acts like it follows a code of honour.

What, no comments on how Syaoran has gone from insulting Sakura for her failures in earlier episodes to setting up a scenario where he hands her the victory in the perfect way to reinforce her self-confidence and ego that had just taken a blow last episode?

He doesn't have time to collect Cards, he can't miss seeing the sloth move. It was also a really girly card and he didn't want to take the risk of having to wear a pink dress when he would use it.

Silly Durkoala. Couldn't you see how the Power was speaking WITH HER FISTS?

I feel like I should know this reference. Where's it from?

Syaoran just stopped time for a few moments, not a big disturbance. Sakura and Kero only noticed it last episode when they had already repeated the same day over and over.

I'm pretty sure they noticed when it threw them back through five minutes and Tomoyo didn't. That wasn't a big disturbance either, but they noticed it.

Again your hopes shall be answered. Sort of. I'm not very sure how to qualify the next episode.

Spoilers...
I'll get to it in a day or two.

[cobaltstarfire]

Syaoran being absolutely riveted by the sloth is my favorite thing about this whole episode.

It's actually something I really appreciate about CCS in general, that most of the children still act like children to varying degrees.


I do hope that you come back to CSS once you're done exploring the genre. The end of the season is a decent place to end for now though. The story won't be finished but it will have reached a resting point.


I haven't watched/read any magic girl shows other than CSS, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Sailor Moon, so depending on what you pick next (and if I can track it down) maybe we can both go into the next one blind.

[Durkoala]

EPISODE 14:Sakura-chan, Toya and Cinderella!

Spoiler: Not starring Shaoran Li as Buttons, sadly.

Show

We open with an aerial shot of what looks like the school playground with a lot of tents on it. Of course, Sakura and Tomoyo are here. Tomoyo has her hair up in a ponytail which looks really good on her, and Sakura has taken off her usual beads. I thought you were supposed to be dressing up for things like this, Sakura?

According to a ticket that Sakura has, it’s the Seijou school fair, on a Sunday. It’s also either the seventh of December or the Twelfth of July. If Sakura released the Cards in May, then this has been running for about four months and it’s been about a month since we met Shaoran.

We have a short flashback of Yuki giving Sakura the ticket. Toya normally gives Sakura one each year, but not this time. Yuki suggests that he doesn’t want her to see him in the play. The flashback ends, and Sakura notices that Tomoyo has been filming her daydreaming. Also, Tomoyo is wearing gloves. Girl has style. I’m looking forward to how this plays out. The fact that Yuki gave Sakura a ticket suggests that he’s sending her after a Card, but he apparently has Toya already there. I’m hoping to get a glimpse at his thought process.

And now, A Title Card. Sakura-chan, Toya and Cinderella! Well, we know what the play is.

Backstage, of a stage, we see that Toya is on mending duties. He attracts a group of fangirls, but coolly avoids conversation. In the background, a redhead is watching him. There’s a cut to her face, which is strangely vacant. Either there’s going to be (another) romance subplot or we’ve found the Card already.

Sakura and Tomyo wander the hallways. For some reason, most of the senior girls look more like teenage girls than grown women, which is a bit uncharacteristic. Sakura finds Yuki, who’s wearing a Kimono and has developed legs twice the length of his torso. His class is running a recreated old candy shop, which is why he’s wearing the kimono, but doesn’t explain his legs. Sakura and Tomoyo partake in Candy water, but Sakura can’t drink because she feels like she’s being watched. It turns out to be Shaoran in a jealous rage. He’s had a lot of Candy water, so it looks like we’re at ‘Drunk, but not really’ jokes. Then again, he’s drunk so much, it may plausibly be a sugar high. His overly dramatic confrontation of Sakura for muscling in on his crush(?) is cut short by Yuki bringing a drink and offering to show them around the school. I don’t like Yuki even more now. Is he even human?

Toya’s fangirls are watching him try to carry a chest up the stairs. The Redhed is with them. He name’s Yoko and She’s apparently a lot like Toya. The other fangirls are apparently shipping them, but she claims she isn’t interested. She is, and they know it. After she leaves them, the other girls wonder about the fact that Toya and Yuki never accept dates, but disappointingly don’t speculate on why.

Yuki signs up to try and beat a basketball team on his own. Great, another scene where he catches the affections of Sakura and Shaoran even further.

Of course, he wins easily. The prize is a soft rabbit which he gives to Sakura. Even though he immediately goes back for two more for Shaoran and Tomoyo, he’s still encouraging rivalry between his admirers. He also tells them to watch the play; he’s playing a tin of canned mackerel. I don’t remember any version of Cinderella that had that in it, but since I did see one with a Beatles-singing crocodile/octopus thing, I can’t complain. He starts laughing when asked what Toya will be. I’m wondering if this is just a way to troll his friend.

While everybody’s getting ready for the play, a sinister green circle of smoke rises in the empty playground. Why do so many Cards target the school? We’ve had the Shadow, the Time, the Flower, sort of the Thunder and now this thing.

When the play is announced, Shaoran’s confusion is so great that he asks his rival why there’s a part for canned mackerel in Cinderella. I’d like to be, under the sea...

We open with Cinderella scrubbing the floor. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE WELCOME TOYA KINOMOTO! The actual fairytale voiceover is done by Yukito, btw. Sakura doesn’t recognise her brother until he does a bishie sparkle, which makes her fall out of her chair and prompts a series of screams from the older girls in the audience.

Toya is a terrible actor. Even his co-stars tell him, on stage, to put more enthusiasm into it. His monologue about wanting to go to the ball is as wooden as a... dead tree, idk.
Of course, Yukito is the fairy godmother. He has more emotion, but his ‘costume’ is terrible: a sash over his school uniform, a can of fish stuck to his head and a paper fish on a stick. Don’t you have some wizard robes or something lying around, hint hint?

Yuki admits he’s a sorcerer! He gets his powers from the tin of mackerel on his head, which has gained power over the years it’s been thrown away. I don’t know why Shaoran and Sakura both fall off their seats: objects gaining powers over time is documented in Japanese folklore.

The green cloud thing is all around the gym/theatre now. Everybody’s a critic. It runs in through the windows in a way that’s kind of creepy: it resembles folded paper more than any kind of fluid, but it still flows around things.

Enter the Prince! PLEASE WELCOME, YOKO OHNO IDONTKNOWHERLASTNAME! Her speech about choosing a bride is very well done, if slightly on the hammy side. This moment of talent is shattered by the arrival of our Cinderella, barely on his feet and looking like he’s pretending to be a flying ace. He has no appreciation for subtle characterisation, and instead sweeps in to take the prince’s hands. Has this idiot got any idea how the story is supposed to go!?
Yoko is looking rather flustered at the close contact, Toya has to remind her to say her lines.

While the dance between Cinderella and the Prince begins, the green thing enters a stock cupboard and sweeps under the crawlspace. Sakura and Shaoran feel some kind of presence, but don’t know where it’s coming from.

Kinomoto improves slightly in the flight from the ballroom. His lines are still rather flat, but he now has some emotion showing. If not for his earlier performance, I could believe that this is an emotionally-constipated character with a slightly mediocre actor.

The green cloud sweeps onto the stage and crumbles the pillars supporting the stairs. Toya catches Yoko by the arm, but the set is on the verge of falling entirely and the green is swirling at her. Yuki seems to be caught by surprise at this development, which is unexpected, but I would’nt be surprised if he was acting. The cloud then snaps a rope and brings down the curtain.

Sakura and Shaoran run out of the hall and call Kerbie. He’s watching something sad, but he explains the situation quickly: it’s the MIST Card and it rots everything it touches. I feel like something was lost in translation here: I was expecting it to be the (un) Luck card, because it’s green, an unlucky colour in theatre. How does mist have corrosive powers?

Anyway, to defeat it, it needs to be wrapped up in one spot. Sakura has the idea to use the Shadow to do this. It’s a little disappointing that I preferred Shadow’s filler powers to how Sakura uses it otherwise: Shadow puppets are much cooler than a lot of black goo. Still, I like the way it condenses into a sphere of darkness for Sakura to seal the Mist.

The mist is apparently a humanoid Card, even though we haven’t seen this form at all. I feel the presence of filler here.

The crisis isn’t over yet! The stairs that Toya and Yoko are on collapse and they both fall. Sakura has used up her good ideas for the day, so Shaoran invokes his wind powers to cushion their fall. He’s also got a casting animation, which I didn’t really expect.

Toya and Yoko stay still holding hands, which is broken by their friends running up to them. I don’t know if he actually has feelings for her or not as there’s plenty of reasons why he’s been acting the way he has. He looks up at where Sakura and Shaoran were standing, but they’ve already left.

Out in the playground again, Tomoyo is lamenting that she didn’t get to film Sakura in action. Sakura tries to thank Shaoran, but he brushes her off.

Toya and Yoko are on the school roof, looking out at the sunset. They’re standing apart: Yoko is at the railing and Toya is standing back, a little to the right. Yoko confesses, but Toya says he already has somebody else. Please don’t let it be Yuki, the man has enough hearts pinned to him already.
Yoko accepts this, but asks one favour from Toya: a dance.

After a dance with Yoko, Toya leaves the floor, saying he promised only her a dance. He confronts Yuki about telling his sister that he was in the play. Yuki just laughs and asks Sakura to dance. Tomoyo is overjoyed and starts filming; Shaoran is upset, angry and jealous and Toya warches without any expression (maybe a little wistfulness). We fade out on Sakura’s ecstatic face.

And that’s it. I said last time that it was time to get back to the plot, but this episode was very enjoyable despite not having much happen. It felt very much like filler: plenty of hinted-at developments that came out of nowhere but didn’t happen, a card whose true form wasn’t seen and had powers that didn’t make any sense, Shaoran being a bit friendlier than normal and the plot being rather nonsensical and over the top.

I still enjoyed it. The play was a lot of fun to watch and just as much fun to comment on. I was actually hoping to see the end of it so I could do a false ‘And that’s it...’ talking about it. Toya’s wooden dialogue was contrasted with the ham of the other characters, the crossdressing was hilarious (no offence to any transvestites reading this) and the reactions of Sakura and Shaoran were amazing. I also liked the subplot of Yoko, and it’s a shame that she probably won’t be returning.

The Card was pretty bland– just a green cloud that swept through the school for some reason. There was no idea about its personality or its reason for being there. Its powers made no sense, and it would have been better if it had been a LUCK Card, manipulating probability to cause disaster. I’m pretty sure it will never be seen again. It’s not as bad as the Jump because it was fairly scary, both in appearance and powers.

The only real thing to come out of this, plotwise, is the idea that Toya has a boyfriend/girlfriend. Conservation of detail suggests that it’s Yuki, but if this is true, it’s going a bit too far. I don’t care how bishie he is, having three major characters attracted to him is ridiculous, especially as he’s the best candidate for a final boss so far.

[cobaltstarfire]

Mist rotting things actually makes perfect sense to me, most things that degrade with time will do so faster in a wet environment. That's one of the reasons why humidity and temperature is very carefully managed in museums.

Things are also much happier to rot or mold when they're excessively damp.

Mist does what fog and mist will do, only at a magical super accelerated rate, or that's how I see it anyway.

[Zolem]

Corrosive/acidic mist is actually quite a common thing in Japan. Hell, acidic fog is basically their understanding of the English word mist if you go by how freaking often this shows up.

[deuterio12]

While everybody’s getting ready for the play, a sinister green circle of smoke rises in the empty playground. Why do so many Cards target the school? We’ve had the Shadow, the Time, the Flower, sort of the Thunder and now this
thing.

Genre convention. Of course the monster of the week more often than not attacks a place the main characters are normally around.

Yuki admits he’s a sorcerer! He gets his powers from the tin of mackerel on his head, which has gained power over the years it’s been thrown away. I don’t know why Shaoran and Sakura both fall off their seats: objects gaining powers over time is documented in Japanese folklore.

Syaoran's chinese, remember?

As for Sakura, she's lucky if she remembers the anatomical difference between boys and girls, so she remembering japanese folklore would probably be a stretch. This is, if she knew any fantasy folklore she wouldn't go around accept magic contracts out of the bat, as you pointed out in the first episode.

Sakura and Shaoran run out of the hall and call Kerbie. He’s watching something sad, but he explains the situation quickly: it’s the MIST Card and it rots everything it touches. I feel like something was lost in translation here: I was expecting it to be the (un) Luck card, because it’s green, an unlucky colour in theatre. How does mist have corrosive powers?

I assume it's a mist of acidic water, kinda an ecology lesson since it seems to be this episode's theme with the fairy godmother receiving her power from trash and stuff.

But cobaltstarfire would make some sense too, except that accelerating things seems to be the Time's domain.

Anyway, to defeat it, it needs to be wrapped up in one spot. Sakura has the idea to use the Shadow to do this. It’s a little disappointing that I preferred Shadow’s filler powers to how Sakura uses it otherwise: Shadow puppets are much cooler than a lot of black goo. Still, I like the way it condenses into a sphere of darkness for Sakura to seal the Mist.

Sakura invoking dark shadow puppets would kinda make her look like the villain(ess) if you ask me.

Spoiler: Evil Sakura from Deviantart

Show

And that's how the series ends.

The crisis isn’t over yet! The stairs that Toya and Yoko are on collapse and they both fall. Sakura has used up her good ideas for the day, so Shaoran invokes his wind powers to cushion their fall. He’s also got a casting animation, which I didn’t really expect.

Notice that Syaoran has gone from setting Toya on fire to saving his ass.

Out in the playground again, Tomoyo is lamenting that she didn’t get to film Sakura in action. Sakura tries to thank Shaoran, but he brushes her off.

"It's not like I was trying to save your brother, I just felt like conjuring a wind cushion under him, baka girl"

And that’s it. I said last time that it was time to get back to the plot, but this episode was very enjoyable despite not having much happen. It felt very much like filler: plenty of hinted-at developments that came out of nowhere but didn’t happen, a card whose true form wasn’t seen and had powers that didn’t make any sense, Shaoran being a bit friendlier than normal and the plot being rather nonsensical and over the top.

You kinda admit that Syaoran is becoming friendlier. For me, that alone makes this episode more than filler (character development is plot after all).

I still enjoyed it. The play was a lot of fun to watch and just as much fun to comment on. I was actually hoping to see the end of it so I could do a false ‘And that’s it...’ talking about it. Toya’s wooden dialogue was contrasted with the ham of the other characters, the crossdressing was hilarious (no offence to any transvestites reading this) and the reactions of Sakura and Shaoran were amazing. I also liked the subplot of Yoko, and it’s a shame that she probably won’t be returning.

Card Captor Sakura's a player, using and discarding girls just like that.

The Card was pretty bland– just a green cloud that swept through the school for some reason. There was no idea about its personality or its reason for being there. Its powers made no sense, and it would have been better if it had been a LUCK Card, manipulating probability to cause disaster. I’m pretty sure it will never be seen again. It’s not as bad as the Jump because it was fairly scary, both in appearance and powers.

The Mist shall be unleashed to corrode the word again in the future, and next time nothing will stop it.

The only real thing to come out of this, plotwise, is the idea that Toya has a boyfriend/girlfriend. Conservation of detail suggests that it’s Yuki, but if this is true, it’s going a bit too far. I don’t care how bishie he is, having three major characters attracted to him is ridiculous, especially as he’s the best candidate for a final boss so far.

Must...Resist...Giving...Hints...

Corrosive/acidic mist is actually quite a common thing in Japan. Hell, acidic fog is basically their understanding of the English word mist if you go by how freaking often this shows up.

Oh, that would explain it nicely as well, thanks!

[Zolem]

Boy, for something as good as original CCS you'd think we'd get a larger audiance. This, along with Sailor Moon, is what really set off and codified the modern magical girl series. In fact, the formula only really gets tweaked again when you hit Madoka Magica (brutal deconstruction and then reconstruction), and the Pretty Cure series (stereotypical mundane scenes, massively revamped supernatural scenes).

[ThePhantom]

Ah, the time card, that was my first time with a repeating time period. Good times.

[MLai]

@ OP's squick of Sakura-Tomoyo:

This is a Japanese cultural idiosyncracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_S_(genre)

Traditionally, Japan doesn't see young girls' love as "true same-sex relationship", but more like young girls "playing at love" in a safe environment (i.e. with a partner who won't actually be able to despoil them etc). This is socially acceptable, but the young girls are expected to outgrow this immature phase and be married with men once they're adults.

In fact it's probably even safer when the young girls in question are related once-removed, because keeping it all in the family is the safest environment to play at a tea party game of romance.

Hence Tomoyo's antics aren't actually squicky to Japanese viewers, and she displays growing maturity when she ships Sakura with a guy such as Yuki and shows that she's not self-destructively obsessive about being her "only love". Her mother, in contrast, is shown as being immature or not "an ideal woman/wife" because she's still stuck in her immature phase of being obsessed over a fellow woman. Though even in their mothers' case, it can still be construed as a non-sexual romantic friendship just like Sakura-Tomoyo. It's a more formalized and serious form of "BFF".

Lastly, this isn't strictly Japanese. Lots of non-Western cultures, and lots of non-modern Western cultures, impose less boundaries between close friends of the same sex. Heterosexual men walk around holding hands. In other words, a lot less uptight.

@ Teacher-student romance:

Remember CLAMP's intended audience: young girls. Just like young boys fantasize about their hot teachers, so do young girls... so this is just a manga appealing to wish fulfillment.

[deuterio12]

Hence Tomoyo's antics aren't actually squicky to Japanese viewers, and she displays growing maturity when she ships Sakura with a guy such as Yuki and shows that she's not self-destructively obsessive about being her "only love". Her mother, in contrast, is shown as being immature or not "an ideal woman/wife" because she's still stuck in her immature phase of being obsessed over a fellow woman. Though even in their mothers' case, it can still be construed as a non-sexual romantic friendship just like Sakura-Tomoyo. It's a more formalized and serious form of "BFF".

Thing is, Tomoyo is sewing dozens of dresses, making Sakura wear them, record it all on video (several times from questionable angles), and then even has a secret room at her house to see it all in private.

And then even when Sakura gets some time with Yuki, Tomoyo is usually hiding somewhere nearby stalking them with her camera.

That's kinda the definition of voyeur. Tomoyo isn't just "playing romance", she's putting a massive deal of serious effort on obsessing over Sakura.

[MLai]

Thing is, Tomoyo is sewing dozens of dresses, making Sakura wear them, record it all on video (several times from questionable angles), and then even has a secret room at her house to see it all in private.
And then even when Sakura gets some time with Yuki, Tomoyo is usually hiding somewhere nearby stalking them with her camera.
That's kinda the definition of voyeur. Tomoyo isn't just "playing romance", she's putting a massive deal of serious effort on obsessing over Sakura.

IRL this would only indicate obsession, because no real person has that kind of time or energy unless insane. But Tomoyo is a cartoon, so all these exaggerated deeds are for comedic effect. But when things do get real (Sakura goes on a date with someone else), Tomoyo acts non-sociopathically (she doesn't fly into a jealous rage, instead she hops after them with a camera for more comedic effect).

Tomoyo doesn't do anything that doting parents wouldn't do on their toddler. Nor do she hide what she does from Sakura or anyone else. Everyone knows she totes a camera around and openly records her friend Sakura all the time.

[cobaltstarfire]

IRL this would only indicate obsession, because no real person has that kind of time or energy unless insane. But Tomoyo is a cartoon, so all these exaggerated deeds are for comedic effect. But when things do get real (Sakura goes on a date with someone else), Tomoyo acts non-sociopathically (she doesn't fly into a jealous rage, instead she hops after them with a camera for more comedic effect).

Tomoyo doesn't do anything that doting parents wouldn't do on their toddler. Nor do she hide what she does from Sakura or anyone else. Everyone knows she totes a camera around and openly records her friend Sakura all the time.

This this this this this and this.

I have nothing to add, Mlai is putting things much more eloquently.

[Durkoala]

@ OP's squick of Sakura-Tomoyo:

@ Teacher-student romance:

Why does everybody think I'm squicked by Sakura and Tomoyo? As a general rule, I like whatever their relationship is. The creepy bit is that Tomoyo frequently gets Sakura to do things for own photos and Sakura doesn't seem to know about Tomoyo's feelings so it comes off as Tomoyo being a bit of a stalker while also being Sakura's closest friend, which is an unsettling combination.

While that makes sense, I can't think of any depictions of a student-teacher romance with a male student.

Mist rotting things actually makes perfect sense to me, most things that degrade with time will do so faster in a wet environment. That's one of the reasons why humidity and temperature is very carefully managed in museums.

Things are also much happier to rot or mold when they're excessively damp.

Mist does what fog and mist will do, only at a magical super accelerated rate, or that's how I see it anyway.

Corrosive/acidic mist is actually quite a common thing in Japan. Hell, acidic fog is basically their understanding of the English word mist if you go by how freaking often this shows up.

That makes some sense, I was just expecting that the green monster thing in the theatre to be connected to (bad) Luck.

That's odd. Why does 'Mist' have that connotation?

Sakura invoking dark shadow puppets would kinda make her look like the villain(ess) if you ask me.

Spoiler: Evil Sakura from Deviantart

Show

And that's how the series ends.

The world needs more heroes with shadow powers. And more with spider themes, but that's not relevent.

Thank you for all your fanart offerings. I'd look for some myself, but as there are either some new characters or new forms yet to come, that's probably not a good idea.

Notice that Syaoran has gone from setting Toya on fire to saving his ass.

There's a lot of leeway between "chuck stuff at him" and "let him potentially die".

The Mist shall be unleashed to corrode the word again in the future, and next time nothing will stop it.

Oh no. It might be my worst Card yet, it just appeared in a far more entertaining episode than the panda episode.

Must...Resist...Giving...Hints...

Thou shalt not spoil the show for Durkoala.

[Durkoala]

New episode.

EPISODE 15:Sakura and Kerbie's Kero's big fight.

Spoiler: Daikaiju Sakura-no-don!

Show

You know, Sakura’s legs are very long in the opening. Not as ridiculously stretched as Yuki’s were last episode, but they look a bit longer than they should. I wonder why I haven’t noticed that before?

We open in medias res, catching a card! Sakura’s dressed up as a witch/wizard, with the pointy hat and a cape both in blue, and fingerless black gloves. They’re fighting a tornado thing that’s spitting rain everywhere. I’m guessing that it’s the Storm Card.

Sakura is forced back by the winds, but Shaoran runs in and presses onwards, despite Sakura and Kerbie telling him it’s too dangerous. Since when have they been a team? Shaoran is picked up and thrown high above the twister. Undeterred, he shoots lightning down the eye of the storm. Badly damaged, the twister is reduced to a wafting wisp of wind. At Kerberos’ direction, Sakura seals it. It looks like she knows that this will send it to Shaoran, and she’s right. Once again, the Card flies to him, waiting in a tree. Now he has this new trophy, he returns to mocking Sakura for being too weak and leaves them. Even Tomoyo looks downbeat as she tries to cheer up Sakura. Sakura just says that she can’t help it and tries to leave as well, but she trips into a puddle. Oh, Sakura.

Title Card! Sakura and Kero’s big fight. C’mon, call him Kerbie!

With the wizard dress dripping in the cupboard, Sakura asks Kerbie if she is capable of collecting the Cards. When he doesn’t listen, she shouts at him and breaks his line of thought. He shouts back that she’s made him forget his idea to defeat Shaoran. She isn’t happy that he called her a moron. After this, communication breaks down and she turns the lights off and goes to bed. She’s wearing a weird old nightdress, too.

It’s morning. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, Fujikata is making breakfast and Sakura has woken up. She isn’t angry anymore, but Kerbie is nowhere to be seen. She follows his voice to her bottom desk drawer. He’s set up his own bedroom in there. Aside from the fact that the drawer is a right mess, this reminds me of Raymond Brigg’s Man which is not a good thing.

Sakura gets angry that he’s thrown out all the things she kept in the drawer and put the under her desk. She shakes out the bedroom and Kerbie on to the floor and starts to re-order her rubbish items. Kerbie is furious and calls her a monster. Well, here we go...

Toya tries his usual monster taunt after the earthquake has stopped, but is shocked at Sakura’s mood. She’s too angry to even attack him; she stomps past.

At school, Sakura is telling this to Tomoyo. She complains about having to clean up the mess and that he threw out Tomoyo’s letters, which Tomoyo finds touching.

Back home, Kerbie is scribbling all over Sakura’s art books. He gives up and flies through the house to find something else to do. On the doormat he finds a parcel, which he opens after a brief hesistation. Inside are a lot of bottles. We’re going to see him get drunk, aren’t we?
No we’re not, they’re chocolate bottles and he starts eating them. This is going to be bad.

My mistake, he is drunk. Alcoholic chocolates, of course. You fooled me by appearing on a children’s programme.

Sakura comes home and finds the mess. She isn’t happy, but she takes it better than I thought she would. The camera shows us the open window with the chocolate footprints leading out of it. Chocolate footprints! How drunk was he? And there’s an intoxicated Magical beast walking the streets right now, we can’t forget that.

Dodging her father’s inquiry about his chocolates, Sakura goes to her bedroom and wonders angrily where Kerbie’s got to now.

He’s floating in front of crocodile mascot for a shop or something and telling it about his life. Are we sure he’s drunk?
Following its direction (a pointing finger that was sculpted on it), he goes to sleep on an old sofa.

The scene fades to the same place, in the day, which is a very nice transition. A girl comes out with the rubbish. She finds Kerberos and picks him up by the tail. As he’s still snoring, she probably won’t be fooled by the toy act.

Kerbie wakes up in a doll’s pram. As he tries to work out where he is, the girl enters the room. Because she thinks he’s a cat, she tries to feed him milk, which he silently refuses. When he accidently denies being a cat, she thinks that he just has a funny meow. She looks about five, but this is really stupid behaviour. He has wings, girl! Well, so do some cats, but they don’t look like that.

Because of his one word, chau (no), she dubs him Chau-chan. Before Kerbie can be tormented any further, the girl’s mother calls her. Her name’s Akane. I wonder if the mother will die in a few years and the girl will be betrothed to a son of her father’s friend, a wandering martial artist. Also, Kerbie doesn’t take the opportunity to run. Kerberos, guardian beast of the seal, I would like to remind you that Sakura is supposed to be the stupid one.

Back at the Kinomoto residence, Sakura looks out of her window. She mentions that she kept it open so Kerbie could come back in if he wanted to, but there’s no sign of him. When she passes Toya in the hall, he pats her on the head. Does he know specifically what’s going on, or can he just see that she’s sad?

Akane starts washing Kerbie and putting on a ribbon. Please, not an episode of being trapped in the house of a child who doesn’t know that the character is sapient. While she fixes up the ribbon she points out a picture of her father, and tells him that her father is dead. While that’s sad, I don’t really care.
Ok, she’s watching a drama with a girl finding out her father isn’t dead like she thought. Akane’s crying. I do care a little, until Kerbie does a dance to cheer her up. I don’t know if this is funny, tedious or terrible.

Walking home from school, Sakura is telling Tomoyo that Kerberos ran away. Tomoyo cheers her up by telling Sakura that she’s sure Kerbie regrets the argument as well and they resolve to find him.

After some fruitless searching, Sakura returns home to find that Toya has cooked dinner and moved her slot to Sunday. He also tell her that if she walks around with her head down, she’ll trip over, which is his way of telling her he’s making things easier because she’s sad. Unfortunately, he says he’s doing this because Yuki was worried about her. You do know she has a crush on him and that he’s manipulating her for his own purposes, Toya?

At that moment, a fax comes through from Kerbie. Wow, a fax. They were slightly before my time, but I assume that they worked through phone numbers, because Kerbie knows the Kinomoto phone? Also, Akane is in the next room. Why can’t she hear her “cat” sending faxes?

With the Fax number, Tomoyo is able to track down the rough address of Kerbie’s fax on her nineties laptop. Was this possible (because I don’t think it was)?

Kerbie’s fretting over what he wants. He doesn’t want to leave Akane alone again, but he can’t abandon Sakura. He’s so deep in thought, he starts to fly and Akane notices. While he starts chanting Chau, chau, chau, everything in the room starts floating, including Akane. She rejoices in this and flies out of the window and over the city. Kerberos realises that this is being caused by a Clow Card, and there’s a brief image of what looks like a beach ball with wings beside Akane.

A gust of wind sweeps Akane away and Kerbie hurries after her. As the beach ball fades in and out, it’s clearly pushing Akane upwards. Kerbie calls it the FLOAT Card, and tells it to give Akane back. It doesn’t listen, and the way it’s spinning Akane around is pretty unnerving, especially as she’s a long way up.

The card is too fast for Kerbie to catch up with and he is too tired to fly. Instead of hitting the ground, he is caught by a pair of hands. Sakura to the rescue! Flying over here is a bit impulsive, but in the words of Lien ‘So not complaining.’

Sakura seals the Card while it’s holding a little girl in the air. She is in the right position to catch Akane, but the wind blows again moving them away from each other. Kerberos dives after Akane, but he doesn’t have the strength to slow her down enough. Sakura summons the Wood to grow a giant tree to catch Akane, probably because she doesn’t want to copy Shaoran. In spite of the fact that trees aren’t actually good landing pads, Akane and Kerbie are fine.

Later, Akane’s mother is getting in a removals truck. Akane asks if she can have a minute to give chau-chan back to Sakura. She does, and Sakura asks her to visit if she ever comes back. Akane says she will, but now that her mum has a job that will let her stay with her daughter, things will be better. Isn’t that convenient?

Back at home, Sakura shows Kerbie that she’s made a bedroom in her bottom drawer for him. He’s overjoyed, but breaks the bed while bouncing on it. Sakura starts scolding him about this, he snaps back at her for being a bad builder and then we’re back to square one. Just keep the brandy chocolates away from him this time, OK?

Mega monster Sakura-no-don! I mean, and that’s it. This one was a bit haphazard: it started off well with promises of tackling the problem of Shaoran, then turned to dealing with infighting; then things went downhill with Kerbie being caught up in the trapped as a pet/doll plot; Tomoyo finding Kerbie easily and Kerbie’s want to comfort the girl brought things back to being decent, and the second Card was a pleasant surprise.

The big problem with this is that Shaoran’s new attitude hasn’t been addressed. He’s taken two powerful cards from Sakura, he’s got a lot of power of his own and he’s been the biggest antagonist so far. This episode was kicked off be him demonstrating his superior skills, but this was quickly forgotten.

The Cards were pretty good: the Storm was fairly bland, but made up for it by being really tough and the Float was another non-human that showed that having the power to make things levitate can be pretty dangerous. I am starting to wonder why no other Sorcerers have appeared to fight these things as they have been lose for about six months and almost always cause a huge amount of chaos.

Overall, this felt like another filler episode, and these are beginning to wear a bit: we’re up to episode fifteen, we should have a goal beyond fighting the basic enemies. So far we’ve only had Shaoran start pressing Sakura more and nothing has been done in response.

[MLai]

The Cards were pretty good: the Storm was fairly bland, but made up for it by being really tough and the Float was another non-human that showed that having the power to make things levitate can be pretty dangerous. I am starting to wonder why no other Sorcerers have appeared to fight these things as they have been lose for about six months and almost always cause a huge amount of chaos.

(1) Your quip about POWER brings this up: Cards are like medieval fairies. They have an alien mindset and do not adhere to a human morality compass, often acting as a force of nature in accordance with their specialty. However they always honor bets and promises, and expect humans to as well, regardless of the triviality of the prize.

(2) You wonder why no other sorcerors intrude on Sakura's happy hunting grounds, when you've already conjectured that Yuki is Clow Reed and watching over her? If he is the most powerful wizard on Earth in disguise, then ofc no other magic-user except an oblivious distant relation would be able to get in.

(3) On the name "Sakura": It's strange, but it's exceedingly common in anime/manga girls... But nonexistent as a real female name. I've watched lots of Japanese movies/shows, and I've never ever seen any actress or staff named Sakura in the credits. Or seen the name appear anywhere as a real person's name.

[Zolem]

The next nearest sorceress (seen in XXXHolic) has her own agenda that the cards don't factor into. The cards may be powerful, but they are neither all-powerful or particularly safe to pursue. Especially when you get to the smarter cards. Or the more vicious cards. Or worst of all, the smart vicious cards.

Plenty of other magic users probably know about them, but since they don't factor in their plans/are dangerous to collect they stay out of it.

Also, don't forget that every card isn't active the minute it flew off. Unsubtle ones like Storm are probably caught within a short time after being activated.

Edit: Also just realized, for episode 17 you're going to want to get some brown pants. Fair warning.

[deuterio12]

Thank you for all your fanart offerings. I'd look for some myself, but as there are either some new characters or new forms yet to come, that's probably not a good idea.

Glad you're liking them, and yes, trying to search them online would most probably spoiler stuff, even if you just looked for Sakura stuff.

My 3rd favorite character's yet to show up, I eagerly await to see how you'll react to them.

Sakura is forced back by the winds, but Shaoran runs in and presses onwards, despite Sakura and Kerbie telling him it’s too dangerous. Since when have they been a team?

Perhaps since Syaoran has saved Sakura from being cleaved in half/stuck in a time loop forever and rescuing her brother just last episode?

Back home, Kerbie is scribbling all over Sakura’s art books. He gives up and flies through the house to find something else to do. On the doormat he finds a parcel, which he opens after a brief hesistation. Inside are a lot of bottles. We’re going to see him get drunk, aren’t we?
No we’re not, they’re chocolate bottles and he starts eating them. This is going to be bad.

My mistake, he is drunk. Alcoholic chocolates, of course. You fooled me by appearing on a children’s programme.

CLAMP's trolling at their finest.

Kerbie wakes up in a doll’s pram. As he tries to work out where he is, the girl enters the room. Because she thinks he’s a cat, she tries to feed him milk, which he silently refuses. When he accidently denies being a cat, she thinks that he just has a funny meow. She looks about five, but this is really stupid behaviour. He has wings, girl! Well, so do some cats, but they don’t look like that.

Well, what else do you think Kero would be if you found him when you're a five year old? "Guardian of the sealed book of Clow" probably wouldn't be the first thing that crosses my mind.

Also, Kerbie doesn’t take the opportunity to run. Kerberos, guardian beast of the seal, I would like to remind you that Sakura is supposed to be the stupid one.

Let's be honest here, Kero isn't genius material either, having let all the cards fly free and usually prefers spending time playing on Sakura's SNES rather than doing his job.

Back at the Kinomoto residence, Sakura looks out of her window. She mentions that she kept it open so Kerbie could come back in if he wanted to, but there’s no sign of him. When she passes Toya in the hall, he pats her on the head. Does he know specifically what’s going on, or can he just see that she’s sad?

It doesn't take magic powers to see that Sakura was in a pretty bad mood and needed something to cheer her up.

With the Fax number, Tomoyo is able to track down the rough address of Kerbie’s fax on her nineties laptop. Was this possible (because I don’t think it was)?

For a commoner peasant, yeah kinda impossible. But for 10-year old rich genius Tomoyo with the latest word in Japan's technology at her hands? More probable than you may think.

The big problem with this is that Shaoran’s new attitude hasn’t been addressed. He’s taken two powerful cards from Sakura, he’s got a lot of power of his own and he’s been the biggest antagonist so far. This episode was kicked off be him demonstrating his superior skills, but this was quickly forgotten.

It's not very fair to claim that Syaoran's taking cards from Sakura when he's done most of the hard work for capturing them. If anything, Syaoran's the one who gave a card to Sakura a couple episodes earlier.

Also that's kinda one of the main points of magic girls shows. They're young girls. They care more about the emotions of those close to them than proving who's the strongest (in the early chapters of the manga Sakura even claims she would gladly give up her magic powers in return for Yukito directly returning her feelings, until Kero points out that her friends would likely get killed hurt if she wasn't there to capture the wild cards).

The Cards were pretty good: the Storm was fairly bland, but made up for it by being really tough and the Float was another non-human that showed that having the power to make things levitate can be pretty dangerous. I am starting to wonder why no other Sorcerers have appeared to fight these things as they have been lose for about six months and almost always cause a huge amount of chaos.

Says who? As you pointed out, Yuki's been pretty suspicious, and Toya can see ghosts and break magic whirlpools with his bare hands. All other sorcerors that show up in Tomoeda are brutally murdered by Yuki the King of Worms and Toya hides the remains in his work places, that's why he's always changing jobs. Syaoran only survived by playing innocent/shy in front of him.

It will be explained. Eventually. Kinda.

Overall, this felt like another filler episode, and these are beginning to wear a bit: we’re up to episode fifteen, we should have a goal beyond fighting the basic enemies. So far we’ve only had Shaoran start pressing Sakura more and nothing has been done in response.

Again, you can't think of this in fighting anime terms. Sakura and Syaoran have a common goal of capturing the cards before somebody gets killed. Sakura's more worried about making sure nobody gets hurt (and fawning over Yuki) than directly competing with Syaoran to see who's got the biggest magic meter.

IRL this would only indicate obsession, because no real person has that kind of time or energy unless insane. But Tomoyo is a cartoon, so all these exaggerated deeds are for comedic effect. But when things do get real (Sakura goes on a date with someone else), Tomoyo acts non-sociopathically (she doesn't fly into a jealous rage, instead she hops after them with a camera for more comedic effect).

See, that's the part that's kinda creepy. If Tomoyo had a jealous rage now and then, then I would agree it's 100% comedy. But instead Tomoyo is this doll-like girl that never cries or screams nor gets angry, always smiling, always subtly manipulating Sakura into trying out a new dress even when the card captor clearly doesn't seem very thrilled by her latest design.

Tomoyo doesn't do anything that doting parents wouldn't do on their toddler. Nor do she hide what she does from Sakura or anyone else. Everyone knows she totes a camera around and openly records her friend Sakura all the time.

There's certain things that's it ok for a drooling proud parent to do for their child, but Tomoyo isn't Sakura's mother.

[Durkoala]

(2) You wonder why no other sorcerors intrude on Sakura's happy hunting grounds, when you've already conjectured that Yuki is Clow Reed and watching over her? If he is the most powerful wizard on Earth in disguise, then ofc no other magic-user except an oblivious distant relation would be able to get in.

This is very, very heavily implying that I'm right about Yukito's secret, and that is heavily hinting at a spoiler. Please can you take care not to do this any more?

(1) Your quip about POWER brings this up: Cards are like medieval fairies. They have an alien mindset and do not adhere to a human morality compass, often acting as a force of nature in accordance with their specialty. However they always honor bets and promises, and expect humans to as well, regardless of the triviality of the prize.

(3) On the name "Sakura": It's strange, but it's exceedingly common in anime/manga girls... But nonexistent as a real female name. I've watched lots of Japanese movies/shows, and I've never ever seen any actress or staff named Sakura in the credits. Or seen the name appear anywhere as a real person's name.

I've been thinking something similar about the Cards myself, really. I'm not sure if I would equate them to faires, as fairies are usually portrayed as having thoughts outside of whatever their obsession is, which hasn't been the case with the Cards seen so far. I fully agree that the Cards do act more like forces of nature than intelligent beings, with the exception of Power and possibly Water and Time.

The fact about Sakura as a name is weird. There's actually a page on Tvtropes about the name and associated traits, which shows how common it is, but I had no idea that it wasn't a commonly used name in real life Japan.

The next nearest sorceress (seen in XXXHolic) has her own agenda that the cards don't factor into. The cards may be powerful, but they are neither all-powerful or particularly safe to pursue. Especially when you get to the smarter cards. Or the more vicious cards. Or worst of all, the smart vicious cards.

Plenty of other magic users probably know about them, but since they don't factor in their plans/are dangerous to collect they stay out of it.

Also, don't forget that every card isn't active the minute it flew off. Unsubtle ones like Storm are probably caught within a short time after being activated.

Edit: Also just realized, for episode 17 you're going to want to get some brown pants. Fair warning.

I think I've been given a false sense of security by the Cards faced so far. If the really dangerous Cards haven't come to light yet and the Cards in general are have a DO NOT TOUCH reputation for sorcerers, that would explain the lack of other magic users swooping in for the free powers. Because being able to summon scorpions and spit fire is nice, but the opportunity to get the power to grow trees almost for free is not to be sniffed at.

Your advice on the coming episode is appreciated. I've got a week to find a suitable pair of trousers.

[cobaltstarfire]

This is very, very heavily implying that I'm right about Yukito's secret, and that is heavily hinting at a spoiler. Please can you take care not to do this any more?

He's not implying one thing or another, he's just running with your supposition and carrying it out to its end. If you think Yuki is the most powerful sorcerer in history, than you probably shouldn't also wonder why other magicians aren't butting in on his business.

There's really not really anything spoilery about what he said.

[Durkoala]

Glad you're liking them, and yes, trying to search them online would most probably spoiler stuff, even if you just looked for Sakura stuff.

My 3rd favorite character's yet to show up, I eagerly await to see how you'll react to them.

There's more characters coming? Well, I'll see how that changes when she/he arrives.

Perhaps since Syaoran has saved Sakura from being cleaved in half/stuck in a time loop forever and rescuing her brother just last episode?

Well, it turns out that they aren't a team a few minutes later, so it's a moot point.

Well, what else do you think Kero would be if you found him when you're a five year old? "Guardian of the sealed book of Clow" probably wouldn't be the first thing that crosses my mind.

... a cat, or maybe some kind of griffin. I can't remember if I'd found my love of mythology at five.

I know that this is a bit late, but Shaoran's description of Kerbie's true form as 'a beast of Fire and Earth' hints that he really is a certain hellhound, which is great.

Let's be honest here, Kero isn't genius material either, having let all the cards fly free and usually prefers spending time playing on Sakura's SNES rather than doing his job.

It doesn't take magic powers to see that Sakura was in a pretty bad mood and needed something to cheer her up.

True on both points, but I would have expected him to at least try to run away. Well, at least we didn't have a really stupid excuse to stop him from leaving.

It's not very fair to claim that Syaoran's taking cards from Sakura when he's done most of the hard work for capturing them. If anything, Syaoran's the one who gave a card to Sakura a couple episodes earlier.

Also that's kinda one of the main points of magic girls shows. They're young girls. They care more about the emotions of those close to them than proving who's the strongest (in the early chapters of the manga Sakura even claims she would gladly give up her magic powers in return for Yukito directly returning her feelings, until Kero points out that her friends would likely get killed hurt if she wasn't there to capture the wild cards).

Ok, back in the box, fanboy.

It's not so much that Sakura should feel threatened by Shaoran's superior powers, as Tomoyo (who's smart) and Kerberos (who's male ) should see that this boy who has been openly antagonistic to them is picking up some very powerful Cards. I don't think he's going to give them back if they ask nicely, so stopping him from increasing his power (and increasing your own) is a good strategy.

Says who? As you pointed out, Yuki's been pretty suspicious, and Toya can see ghosts and break magic whirlpools with his bare hands. All other sorcerors that show up in Tomoeda are brutally murdered by Yuki the King of Worms and Toya hides the remains in his work places, that's why he's always changing jobs. Syaoran only survived by playing innocent/shy in front of him.

It will be explained. Eventually. Kinda.

So far, the only sorcerer who has turned up to actually collect cards is Shaoran. Yuki's been mysteriously hanging around innocently and Toya has done so little he could almost not be magic at all.
Am I thinking about this in Harry Potter terms, where there's a hidden population of wizards hiding around their 'No Muggles' areas? Is the sorcerer population more in the realms of ten/twenty per city instead?

He's not implying one thing or another, he's just running with your supposition and carrying it out to its end. If you think Yuki is the most powerful sorcerer in history, than you probably shouldn't also wonder why other magicians aren't butting in on his business.

There's really not really anything spoilery about what he said.

Maybe I'm being a little paranoid and seeing things that aren't there. It just made too much sense and was based on a theory I was worried about posting because I thought it might be too accurate. If the explanation is based on an unproven theory, the theory is likely to be correct. Anyway, my apologies to MLai for being a bit sharp with him.


Sorry if any of this is a little blunt, I'm a bit tired right now.

[MLai]

See, that's the part that's kinda creepy. If Tomoyo had a jealous rage now and then, then I would agree it's 100% comedy. But instead Tomoyo is this doll-like girl that never cries or screams nor gets angry, always smiling, always subtly manipulating Sakura into trying out a new dress even when the card captor clearly doesn't seem very thrilled by her latest design.

I agree that it would have been nice to see more "humanizing" of Tomoyo, who thus far never appears stressed, angry, or sad. She's just a bit too perfect compared to the other characters around her who has her volume of screentime. I suspect that is what is causing her "uncanny valley" effect to some viewers.

Maybe I'm being a little paranoid and seeing things that aren't there. It just made too much sense and was based on a theory I was worried about posting because I thought it might be too accurate. If the explanation is based on an unproven theory, the theory is likely to be correct.

I don't like spoilers either, so I would like to think I'm pretty good on that front. As said, it was purely the logical extension of your own suppositions. I actually know very little about CLAMP-verse and how its magician hierarchy works. The only CLAMP anime I've ever really watched was CCS, the only CLAMP manga I've ever read 10 paltry volumes of was X1999.

[deuterio12]

There's more characters coming? Well, I'll see how that changes when she/he arrives.

Not very far until the next arrival appears, hehehe...

I know that this is a bit late, but Shaoran's description of Kerbie's true form as 'a beast of Fire and Earth' hints that he really is a certain hellhound, which is great.

I now feel safe confirming that Kero's true form is pretty badass. Then he reveals he's the true villain, sealed inside the book by Clow, his power splintered into the cards, eats Sakura and goes into a rampage. The rest of the series is Syaoran stopping him from destroying the world.

Ok, back in the box, fanboy.

It's not so much that Sakura should feel threatened by Shaoran's superior powers, as Tomoyo (who's smart) and Kerberos (who's male ) should see that this boy who has been openly antagonistic to them is picking up some very powerful Cards. I don't think he's going to give them back if they ask nicely, so stopping him from increasing his power (and increasing your own) is a good strategy.

To be honest, none of them actually tried to ask Syaoran to hand out the cards he captured, did they?
I see Syaoran at this stage as much more of a blunt-speaker than an antagonist. This episode for example. He defeated the Storm by jumping inside and shooting lighting. Sakura could've done the same. She already has the Thunder card and she's shown she's no helpless girl. But instead Sakura cowers near a tree and Syaoran has to charge in himself.

And back in the dragonball loli episode, Syaoran saw that Sakura was royally screwing up, but that time she was also being courageous, facing The Power head on, not letting go of that rope even as she's being dragged down. So Syaoran rigs the game to make Sakura win. This way he's seeking to teach her an effort-reward system. "Be brave and give your best and you'll manage to capture the cards". Or he's afraid of the possibility of needing to wear a silly dress if the card went to him like you said. But Syaoran already runs around town in silly ritual robes and lets Yamazaki toy around with him, so I'm pretty sure that if a card demanded wearing a silly dress to be captured, Syaoran would do so without hesitation.

This episode Sakura was back to her more cowardly self, so Syaoran rightly chastises her.

We'll have more to discuss about this after you see episode 17.

So far, the only sorcerer who has turned up to actually collect cards is Shaoran. Yuki's been mysteriously hanging around innocently and Toya has done so little he could almost not be magic at all.
Am I thinking about this in Harry Potter terms, where there's a hidden population of wizards hiding around their 'No Muggles' areas? Is the sorcerer population more in the realms of ten/twenty per city instead?

Not really. There's more CCS verse magic users, but they're pretty few and usually minding their own business or keep it in the family.(quite probably less than a hundred in the whole world from what we see from various CLAMP works). Syaoran's clan being one of the biggest, and they live in the middle of Hong Kong of all places. The other magic users also usually live in urban areas in normal buildings, enjoying modern conforts. No secret magic underground society in this reality.