Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 16: Farewell Meilin

Posted on by Karandi
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We knew we’d be saying goodbye to her given she isn’t in the source material for this anime but I’m going to miss Meilin? How about you?

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The cliffhanger from last week ended up being resolved pretty quickly and mostly unspectacularly (though I have to wonder how that card represents ‘swing’) and then the girls all go home. This leads to two interesting developments. The first I’ll get back to, but the second, and what we spend the bulk of the rest of the episode on, is Meilin nostalgia. Of course she doesn’t leave without getting a moment to shine and so Cardcaptor rolls out the nostalgia with an enemy that looks very familiar and just in case we missed the reference be prepared for a classic Sakura flashback mid-episode. The upshot is that Meilin and Sakura officially cross the line and Meilin leaves for the airport after asking if she can refer to Sakura by her first name. She also takes some time out to call Syaoran and issue a warning about upsetting her friend by doing something stupid like getting hurt.

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However, the other part of the story that seems somewhat more important going forward is the interaction between Akiho and Kaito. Now we knew Kaito was up to something, but I didn’t expect him to reverse time whenever he said something that made Akiho suspicious. This sequence was pretty impressively done and gets me excited for what is coming in a way this anime hasn’t much managed. While the show is always pleasant and the nostalgia is great, this is an actual plot development that makes me want to see what is coming next.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 15: Memories – Definitely A Lethal Blow

Posted on by Karandi
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The girls reminisce about old times before the anime ends on a cliff-hanger. How cute were Syaoran and Sakura in the film?

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What happens when you get the girls together on their day off? Well, if you leave Tomoyo in charge of the entertainment, you get to watch Sakura perform in the play and learn to dance with Syaoran. This was much to the delight of Akiho and Meilin and nearly a deadly blow to Sakura’s self-esteem as she seemed at one point like she was trying to literally crawl into her chair and disappear.

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There isn’t much more to say as there’s a lot of down time with the girls before we finally get to a card related threat. While this looks potentially interesting, things have barely started moving on that front when the episode ends leaving us with a shaking house and Sakura showing us how pretty she looks with butterfly wings (she should seriously have these all the time).

For those enjoying the friendship/slice of life aspects of Clear Card, this will work wonders. For those who love the nostalgia of the moment, you’ll have a great time. In terms of an actual plot and characterisation in this episode, that’s possibly questionable.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 14: He’s So Cool

Posted on by Karandi
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There was probably other stuff going in this anime this week, but I was pretty much focused on Syaoran as they finally gave him an episode to shine in. What did you think?

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Alright, so this week we continue with Meilin’s visit and Sakura continues to see animal ears occasionally pop out of her head. That then spreads to the rest of her friends before they get transported to a really random world where they continue to transform into animals. It all kind of freaks Sakura out. Fortunately for her for once Syaoran is around.

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He’s only had a few decent scenes in this come back series and is regularly sidelined or absent from events, but this week he was really cool and it kind of reminded me of being that girl way back when who thought he was amazing (Tsubasa Chronicles, had to love him). Anyway, fangirling aside, this episode made me actually feel a sense of danger and the magical part of this anime was just shining. For a series that has mostly left me happy enough, this episode was a fairly thrilling one.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 13: A Visit From A Friend

Posted on by Karandi
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A different kind of episode with no card being captured and yet somehow this was still sort of entertaining. What did you think?

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Meilin’s return was kind of fun, though I kind of think the mature and settled Meilin wasn’t as interesting as the more feisty version we used to know. The same could be said of a lot of the characters in Clear Card. Toya as well seems to have lost some of his bite even if he goes through the motions of baiting Sakura.

Still, Meilin’s presence gives Sakura someone to talk to about her current relationship with Syaoran. While it has been pleasant enough, there’s been the underlying issue of Syaoran hiding things from her all season and it was nice to see this being addressed finally even if we’ve yet to make progress.

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The episode also took time to give us another hint as to what is going on with Akiho and to look at Toya and Yukito’s relationship. All of this was pleasant enough but not terribly exciting (again a comment that could work for most of the season).

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 12: School, Card, Capture.

Posted on by Karandi
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It is probably more my mood this week than anything else, but I really found myself watching the time as this episode wound its way along the usual path. Certainly they have now made it pretty obvious what they’ve been hinting at all season in regards to the hooded figure in the dream so even if you hadn’t confirmed your suspicions before, this episode makes sure you will go into the second half knowing where this is heading.

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And it isn’t that anything is bad about what the episode does or how it is presented. There are some pretty exciting moments during the fight at the end. But particularly during the earlier parts of the episode I really kept having to pull my eyes away from the counter because it just felt like things were dragging along.

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Once again though, if the magic of Cardcaptor’s has been working for you, this episode will deliver in the second half with a hail storm engulfing the school and Syaoran teaming up with Sakura to capture the card in a nice throw back to the original, while also giving us another glimpse of Syaoran’s development with his magic. That was kind of cool.

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Karandi James

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 11: And The Penguin Is Upside Down, Again

Posted on by Karandi
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There’s certainly something to be said for sticking with the tried and true but Cardcaptor  Sakura: Clear Card is an anime that is starting to really demonstrate that it isn’t really game to stick out its own neck. That isn’t to say the anime is bad by any means as it is perfectly watchable and for those who like a bit more of the slice of life elements it would be very good. And yet, it felt very much like I was stuck in a groundhog-day style moment as I watched them discover the upside down penguin all over again.

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However, it isn’t all doom and gloom as we get to hear a conversation between Eriol and Syaoran that kind of indicates we’re getting closer to some kind of actual reveal about what is going on this season in terms of a main story line. Because so far, other than enjoying the nostalgia of seeing Sakura in cute outfits capturing cards there’s been a fair absence of actual narrative. So progress on that front is always welcome.

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But for anything else we are just going to have to wait because we spent too much of this episode discussing the origin of badminton and having a teacher explain what equals means by drawing the symbol on the board and then standing directly in front of it to get any further progress. Again, people who like the slice of life moments will be having a great time. Those, like myself, who tolerate them while we wait for the more magical elements to kick in are however starting to get a little impatient.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 10: A Slightly More Relaxed Episode

Posted on by Karandi
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This anime continues to run hot and cold for with episode 10 of Cardcaptor feeling like a real step back after the fantastic capture sequence we had in episode 9. This episode features Sakura alone at home when Akiho comes over and the two play house for awhile before not one, but two cards show up, Akiho is put to sleep (or snooze) and Sakura needs to work with Kuro to capture them.

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And while that could all be exciting, and the capture itself isn’t bad even if it isn’t quite up to the excitement of last week, the cookies, the sitting around complimenting each other and their friends, and the general inane chatter for nearly two thirds of the episode left me slightly less than engaged. While it is definitely cute and those who like the slice of life moments will get a real kick out of it, I didn’t really wake up to the episode until after Akiho fell asleep.

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As much as I am enjoying the nostalgia that comes with this anime, the basic plot this week didn’t do much for me and in honesty I felt like I was marking time for a lot of the episode. It is still gorgeous and does what it needs to do and some people will be caught up in every moment of the two girls interacting, but it just didn’t do much for me.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 9: It’s Like The Same But Different

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

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We’re back to the aquarium in this episode of Cardcaptor Sakura, and in the nature of modern anime being self-aware, even the characters have noted (first Yue at the beginning of the episode and Sakura and Syaoran while on their date) that the similarities between collecting the clear cards and the original Clow Cards are stacking up. I’d be willing to concede that this point might have been made in the source and may not be a symptom of modern shows but it is definitely fitting right in with the trend.

However, we then get absolute evidence of the similarities between the events when Sakura and Syaoran’s date is interrupted at the aquarium in more or less the exact spot Sakura had previously encountered a card.

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These two are too cute.

Anyway, like last time, Sakura decides to sneak into the aquarium, only she won’t be going alone and we get a real dose of inept security and very lucky kids that apparently won’t get caught even when blatantly trespassing (though it is probably too late to call out Cardcaptor on that front).

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Not suspicious at all. 

While a lot of this episode seems to fixate on recreating the past to forge a link between those events and these ones, they don’t drop the ball for the capture. We get a fairly extraordinary chase sequence using a range of cards and Syaoran actually gets to use his magic for real. It’s a pretty impressive end to a fairly delightful episode, even if I wish they weren’t telegraphing how similar these events are because to be honest, I’d prefer they came up with a few more original ideas for this arc.

 

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Tuesday’s Top 5: Appearances of Cherry Blossoms in Anime

Posted on by Karandi
Tuesday's Top 5

We are finally done reflecting on the anime of 2017 and now it is time to get into some new lists. To start us off, I am look at my 5 favourite uses of cherry blossoms in anime. These flowers are just adorable and are incredibly prolific so I am absolutely certain that you all have your own favourite scene from an anime so please feel free to share in the comments below. While I started off the list with some fairly standard pretty flowers, I think the ones that stick are a little out of the ordinary.

As an added note, for those that don’t know, the Cherry Blossom symbolises how fragile and yet beautiful life is (that’s an oversimplification but you get the point). It is a fantastic flower to show transitions in one’s life which is probably why so many anime start with them.

Please Note – Some spoilers below.

Honourable mention this week goes to every high school anime ever that starts with the main character walking under cherry blossoms to get to school.

Number 5: Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
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I’d be lying if I didn’t point out that this was the moment I thought of writing this list. I probably could have picked some scenes out of the original Cardcaptor just as easily, but this scene of Sakura on her way to school was gorgeous. It perfectly captured the feel of the old Cardcaptor while showing us just how visually impressive this new series was going to be.

Number 4: Your Lie In April
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No surprise at all given the symbolic meaning and the season that cherry blossoms feature heavily early on in this show. While it doesn’t have the same magical quality as the scene in Cardcaptor, these scenes are absolutely perfect in setting up the relationship between the two main characters and the inevitable ending in Your Lie in April. It might not be subtle symbolism, but is is affective.

Number 3: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
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What to do when you want to film and it isn’t the season for cherry blossoms? Just hope your director is also a god and you’ll be just fine. While the SOS brigade are shooting their movie, in addition to causing one of the group to shoot a lazer from her eye, creating white pigeons and a talking cat, Haruhi causes the cherry blossoms to bloom out of season. It is a bizarre series of events that are all undone when Kyon gets her to declare that the film is a work of fiction but it was an interesting use of cherry blossoms.

Number 2: Nurarihyon no Mago
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Nurarihyon features one cherry blossom tree very prominently in the Nura Clan’s family compound. It gets used a lot throughout the series’ run time but we’ll see it often as Riko stares at it in his human form when he is thinking and when he is in his yokai form he sits on one of the branches in the tree looking down. Nura’s grandfather is also regularly seen near the tree. Additionally, there’s also a ‘secret’ technique used by the family that includes using saki and a sakura petal and ends with all the enemies incinerated.

Number 1: Bleach
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I came to the conclusion fairly early on that there is really no way to show just how impressive Byakuya’s bankai really is so if you have never watched Bleach you really should just for this attack. The first time we see it is when Ichigo pretty much goads Byakuya into releasing his bankai  and after the usual condescending remarks Byakuya literally lets go of his sword and in its place, after a very impressive entrance, we have thousands of blades scattered that Byakuya controls (and yes, they look just like cherry blossoms). What makes this technique particularly brilliant, other than looking gorgeous, is that it can be used for attack and defense and when he uses his hands he can increase the speed of the blades. Basically, anyone besides the protagonist is going down fast once Byakuya brings out this move.

Time for you to share your favourite appearance of cherry blossoms in an anime.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 5: Flower Viewing and Capturing a Card

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

I had forgotten that Sakura didn’t know about her brother giving Yukito his power and that only really occurred to me when Sakura was probing Toya about how much Yukito was or wasn’t eating. I wonder if she’ll find out this season. I also wonder why everyone in this show insists on keeping secrets. Sakura hides her magic from her family (even though her brother clearly knows), Toya and Yukito keep a lot of things to themselves, Syaoran is endlessly hiding things. About the only person who doesn’t keep a secret is Kuro and that is because he’s incapable of keeping anything to himself for longer than about a minute.

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Anyway, I probably got caught up on that point because the rest of the episode is simple friends eating under cherry blossoms and then a card drags Sakura a way, she captures it without too much fuss, and the friends shift the party to under the tree she found where Syaoran finally catches up with them and then Tomoyo sings a song.

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It isn’t exactly thrilling but neither is it bad and the flower viewing scenes are at least really pretty. Besides, I was distracted in the first few minutes by trying to remember the details of who knows what from the original Cardcaptor Sakura so I didn’t manage to get bored during this. I would like a bit more to happen plot-wise next week though.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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