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Episode 21 – Sakura, the Mirror and the Key of Memories
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I apologize if this is coming a little late! Only now I managed to find some time to write the review.
This was another episode that followed the manga very closely. The first part with Touya and Fujitaka’s conversation is very much like the manga, except that the manga it looked a lot better drawn. In fact, this entire episode felt like a let down, animation-wise.
So instead of a clock, Sakura receives a key from her great-grandfather? Hummm. Why the change, I wonder? Is the key going to change into a wand?
They finally addressed the seemingly plothole regarding Eriol’s former house still standing even after being demolished for the amusement part. I don’t know if I got it right, if the translations of my subbed version were correct, but it means something as simple as Kaito must have rebuilt it from the ground? It was the easiest solution, but I am still glad that it’s been addressed and now we can rest assure that there are no more plotholes in that aspect, as far as lame retcon solutions go xD
It’s interesting how Ohkawa brought Syaoran’s mother in for the investigation about Kaito and the Secret Magician Society. It’s nice how Ohkawa is always trying to make Yelan present.
I just gotta say that I thought the whole conversation between Cerberus, Yue and Eriol to be very badly animated. It was such an important conversation and I didn’t think the anime conveyed the right level of “importance”. It was much too simple. The confrontation between Eriol and Kaito looked slightly better, but still underwhelming. I was much more excited reading it in the manga.
Script-wise, this followed very closely Chapters 22 and 23, but animation-wise, it was disappointing to me. There were so many big revelations made on this episode but it seemed like those weren’t well-conveyed in the manga, like they weren’t given the importance that they deserve, and I don’t think that is because I knew about them all beforehand, no. I think it was poorly directed.
Ah, yes, the last scene was cute of course, but I think it was a bad choice to use “CLEAR” as the background music, lol.
So it seems like we will lock it with 20 cards for this first “season”. It doesn’t look like she will secure any cards on the next and final episode, but who knows!
Isn’t it amazing how they managed to synchronize the anime with the manga serialization? CLAMP did it again.
The first half of the season was definitely better. Oh well =/
8 thoughts on “Review: Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc TV Anime – Episode 21”
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Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs 
the timing with the manga and anime is first class! absolutely so!
although i liked seeing that all important talk from eriols point of view i feel like it stripped some of the tension between them due to it being hard to actually see in detail yue and keros expressions. i must say i preferred the set up for this scene though, since i found eriols “princess leia” style appearence slightly bizarre in the manga ^^;
“The confrontation between Eriol and Kaito looked slightly better, but still underwhelming. I was much more excited reading it in the manga.”
i loved the kaito vs eriol show down! i thought it might be more action/dramatic between them so i found it a wonderfully interesting choice to have the anime fight more calm yet obviously very intense. the part where eriol had to use his other hand on the staff to up his power usage i thought was really nice touch. and this is eriol at full power. they both inflicted equal damage to each others magic items. eriol/clow remind me of a swan. they have a very calm elegant surface but underneath they’re probably a mess. its similar to sakura where she’s all smiles and happy surface but underneath she’s a whole bunch of intense feeling mashed and mixed together. yeah i found the manga fight version more exciting and dramatic but im assuming thats cause eriol is at half the strength he is in the anime. so he has to put more effort into the fight. whereas at full strength he probably has to be careful just how much strength he uses.
big surprise that they kept the other big revelation of fujitaka actually knowing about sakura having magic!! was not expecting this at all for the anime!
wow that car ride was awkward! i can only imagine what was going through syaorans mind during that time.
that flight scene was gorgeous!! ohhhh and they danced through the sunset sky ❤ ❤ ❤ another of my headcanons has been animated with that one scene! ive always hoped that would happen!!
so now eriol communication has been cut off i wonder if yelan will come to the rescue??? i would be soooo happy if that actually happened! she's helping behind the scenes after all! 😀
has it been announced that series 2 is happening? or is it a movie?
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Well, I am happy for you that everything worked ou the way you expected, or most of it anyway! I found most scenes to be quite underwhelming =/
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Oh, and the second season or movie haven’t been announced. Nothing else has been announced yet.
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The big reveal with this episode for me… was that we might be on a different timeline from the original series and movie, most likely because of Kaito rewinding time. Cerberus’s reaction to Eriol telling them that an amusement park was there before seemed to be of genuine surprise, and Yue went into silent pondering mode, as though trying to remember. So does that mean that The Nothing still sleeps beneath the house? Would Kaito be able to tap into the Nothing’s power? Eriol didn’t quite answer Cerberus’s question about why the house is still there, instead skipping to the house being a good location for magic.
Toya’s such a good big brother. You’d think he’d be slightly salty that the Grandpa is fawning over Sakura, giving her a house that she can’t legally own yet when he himself could assume ownership. lol
Key is instantly suspicious! Was Nadeshiko a powerful magician with a staff? I can’t quite tell if the top of the key is a crown (a callback to Sakura’s Queen of Hearts motif in the opening) or part of a gear (a nod to the clock motifs throughout this series). Perhaps the MCF will succeed in taking the Key of Dreams from Sakura, and if the Sakura Cards are still clear, then Sakura will be forced to use this for whatever purpose to come.
The talk between Cerberus & Yue and Eriol, and the interference from Kaito was visually very nice looking, but I agree that the pacing was slower than what could have been a really cool action scene. Maybe they’re saving up their budget for next week’s episode. A real missed opportunity to ramp up the tension in ways the manga cannot, but then that was probably not their intention, given the comedic scene with Cerberus after. I admit, I truly laughed out loud, but it may have been a bit of mood whiplash for what should have been something quite serious.
Come on, Syaoran, don’t go making Sakura worry! I’m sure that car ride was only put in there to make the mirror-monologue from Sakura less… random. Still, they could have gone about it without making Syaoran so standoffish and cold. They could have started with Syaoran cheerfully chatting with Sakura, but then when he turned away, Sakura would see his expression reflected in the window. THAT would have been much more powerful and emotional, IMHO. What was it that Syaoran wanted to tell Sakura in the car before they stopped, I wonder? Was he about to tell her everything? Or was he gonna be all, “Don’t get philosophical, Sakura, or you’re going to make the world explode.” This has become Haruhi Suzumiya, I just realized! lol
Beautiful sunset shot in the sky, loved it! I agree the use of the Clear opening was a bit odd, it more suited the beginning of the scene, but still it seemed to clash with Syaoran’s inner monologue at the end. Other than that, no complaints, of course I fangirled hard over the scene!
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Eriol didn’t quite answer Cerberus’s question about why the house is still there, instead skipping to the house being a good location for magic.
I know, right? They kind of explained, but they didn’t at the same time….
I’m sure that car ride was only put in there to make the mirror-monologue from Sakura less… random.
It was quite random in the manga where there were no mirrors around xD
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I’ve repeated this ad nauseam on the Discord server, but that key is so ugly, I don’t want Sakura to use it as a staff, ahaha.
I’m not entirely sure how a “Nadeshiko was an accomplished magician” plot would work without retconning parts of the original series. We’ve always known she could communicate with spirits and see a little bit into the future, but having a full-blown staff would be kind of…well, what would she have even done with it? We have a timeline of her life from 16 to 27, and we’ve seen many scenes from her childhood, and they don’t leave a lot of room for scenes like Nadeshiko receiving a magical education, fighting monsters, or doing whatever it was she would have been doing with her powers. (Unless we get a shocking twist in which Masaki and the other members of the Amamiya family are all secretly sorcerers? Or Nadeshiko’s grandmother was a sorceror? It would feel very abrupt and tacked-on to me, especially since “Nadeshiko’s grandma” was a character nobody knew or cared about until late into the series.)
I agree with Winterbat that while it was a relief that they finally acknowledged the continuity issue with the house, the explanation wasn’t very satisfying. The whole Eriol scene felt like it was lifted from the comic without much thought—that is, there didn’t seem to be any deep consideration of the major differences between the comic and the show. Kaito had to put in a lot more work to get that house than he did in the comic, where it was never demolished—why? Eriol seemed to struggle against Kaito, even though he’s supposed to be at full power here—why? Yue calls Sakura a blood relative of Clow’s, despite the fact that she never had any stated relationship with him in the original show—why??? (It’s weird because Ohkawa and Asaka supposedly starting planning for the show first, so you’d think they would be more careful!)
I’m sorry for the downer post, I hope your trip is still going well! Let’s see if today’s episode really is the “finale.” 😉
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That second “sorceror” should have been “sorcerer,” sorry!
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“Yue calls Sakura a blood relative of Clow’s, despite the fact that she never had any stated relationship with him in the original show—why??? ”
that line just jumped out at me when i first saw the episode. i just ignored it assuming it was a translation error! but apparently not! are they going for a kaito altering history plot?
it is a shame that they didnt actually do this “fujitaka being clows secret descendant” plot for the original anime series since it would have fitted nicely with fujitaka finding the clow book and keeping it in his library. but oh well ^^
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