© CLAMP・Shigatsu Tsuitachi CO.,LTD. / 講談社
Japanese RAWs
English translations: none yet.
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Card Captor Sakura is available for purchase at CD Japan and Amazon Japan with worldwide shipping.
After a brief break, Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc is back and after a bit of a longer break, I’m back too! Whether you’ve been waiting for it or not, I’m back with my reviews. I’m not going to go back and write the reviews for the chapters I’ve missed, though. I’m taking it back from this chapter on.
CLAMP were full on summer mood for this chapter. The cover illustration looks great — I love me some sunflowers, specially when they are drawn by CLAMP. The double coloured title page looks ADORABLE. Let’s take a moment and appreciate how gracious Sakura and Syaoran’s movements look in that illustration. Their bodies are moving in a very organic way. Kudos to Mokona and CLAMP. They nailed it.
Taking from the last chapter, Sakura is sucked into the pages of the “book” that emerged from Akiho (this in itself is a strange sentence). The “book” takes Sakura directly into Akiho’s memories. But she is not just watching them, she is Akiho herself in those memories. We’ve seen CLAMP using this before, having a book as a means to show a character’s past. We’ve seen it in Tsubasa. But in Tsubasa, Syaoran was just watching the memories. This time, Sakura is directly assuming Akiho’s role, she’s even feeling the same feelings felt by Akiho. This is probably to enhance the message that Sakura and Akiho are deeply connected to each other.
The memories seem very similar to those that we had seen a few chapters ago. Again in the memory Akiho’s parents are mentioned as though they are very powerful and important. I think they are gonna be significant to the plot. But who could they be, from the CLAMP universe, from Europe?
Then we are presented to a new set of memories that shows Akiho’s magic Clan and the Magician Association performing a spell on her that would engrave on her body every magic that her body gets in contact to, writing it over just like a blank book. This plot is similar to Tsubasa in which Fei Wang did something akin to Princess Sakura, except her body would be in contact with all the different dimensions. Speaking of Princess Sakura, doesn’t her iconic white dress look very similar to the one Akiho and Sakura are wearing in the memories? I am not trying to imply anything here… for the time being I’m just going to point out all those similarities and hope my dear CLAMP don’t recycle a lot of plot.
Let’s talk about the clan’s magic circle. It looks new to me, but it looks a little like Kaito’s? It seems to be a variation of it. Is it because the spell is being performed by both Akiho’s magic Clan and the Magician Association, so their magic circles are combined? It’s not clear to me…
They’ve used a “forbidden book” to perform the magic on Akiho, and said “forbidden book” has on its cover the dragon-like creature that appears in the dream sequences seen by Sakura. We’d probably never find this out but it would be nice to know more about that book, for instance where it came from, who wrote it etc.
Apparently there is a limit to how much magic Akiho’s body can contain and, if that limit is reached, her soul will be destroyed, but the Clan and the Magian Association don’t seem to be worried about that. In fact they would benefit if that were to happen. Is that why the figure Sakura keeps seeing in her dreams look soulless? Is that Akiho after she consumed enough power that it broke her soul? I am not taking into account the vision that showed Syaoran under those robes, but he looked soulless as well…
Kaito realises Sakura still hasn’t created the card he is waiting for her to create and decides to stop the time from the “book” inside Akiho, in order to contain it from moving forward. That will severely damage his remaining lifespan but he doesn’t care. He is very much determined to stop that “book”‘s time from moving forward as much as possible, regardless of how risky that may be to him. In that sense, Momo being the wise being telling him wise words about Kaito forgetting what really matters (aka his life). I’m not sure Kaito will be able to contain the “book” again from moving forward, next time it does… Not only he contained the “book” but he also turned back time a few seconds. He is so doomed…
Time moves again and Sakura straight up hugs Akiho in an involuntary act. Her mind doesn’t (yet), but her body remembers…
I’m a little wary about the dark tone CCS is taking. The world is definitely two different places when you’re 10 and when you’re 12. I wanna have faith in CLAMP and trust their direction. They are certainly raising the bar for CCS.
The updated list of cards secured so far:
- GALE
- SIEGE
- AQUA
- ACTION
- REFLECT
- RECORD
- FLIGHT
- LUCID
- SPIRAL
- SNOOZE
- LABYRINTH
- APPEAR
- BLAZE
- MIRROR
- BLADE
- REPAIR
- REWIND
Anime-only cards:
- GRAVITATION
- HAIL
- REVERSAL
- MIRAGE
- SWING
- STRUGGLE
This was likely the last chapter of volume 7. Next chapter will be out next month and it should be the beginning of volume 8.
4 thoughts on “Card Captor Sakura – Clear Card arc – Chapter 35”
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Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs 
Yaaaaay I’m so glad this corner is back!!!!
A few comments after some days to digest this chapter:
Let’s talk about the clan’s magic circle. It looks new to me, but it looks a little like Kaito’s? It seems to be a variation of it. Is it because the spell is being performed by both Akiho’s magic Clan and the Magician Association, so their magic circles are combined? It’s not clear to me…
The magic circles are actually 2, one above her and one under her, and the one above has got many structure points in common with Clow’s circle (I’ll show in in DM). I am assuming the one above is the clan’s one, while the bottom one is from the Association. Unfortunately, the bottom one is barely visible, so I’m not able to say much about it. Needless to say, my personal theory of the “Reed clan” intensified a little bit.
Not only he contained the “book” but he also turned back time a few seconds. He is so doomed…
Classic CLAMP character going towards death with open arms because reasons.
I wanna have faith in CLAMP and trust their direction. They are certainly raising the bar for CCS.
We don’t really have any other choice than to trust them XD I welcome this “bar raising” for CCS, not only things changed for them going from 10 to 12, but also for us, 20 years later people are much more open and almost willing to see something “stronger”. Admitting there’s evil in CCS is a BIG thing, and often casual fans don’t understand that. CCS is their baby and I trust CLAMP to know what to do.
Cant’ wait to see if next month the plot will advance again or if there will be some slice of life part, since we’ve been kept on a darker edge for 2 chapters now.
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Yaaaaay I’m so glad this corner is back!!!!
<33333
I thought about the two circles being one above the other (I should have written that haha) but it didn't look that way from what I've seen? I need to look closer then. Also, still waiting for that DM =P
Reed clan, huh? WHY NOT?
Classic CLAMP character going towards death with open arms because reasons.
I LMAO-ed? *insert New York GIF cracking up*
not only things changed for them going from 10 to 12, but also for us, 20 years later people are much more open and almost willing to see something “stronger”. Admitting there’s evil in CCS is a BIG thing, and often casual fans don’t understand that. CCS is their baby and I trust CLAMP to know what to do.
Agreed!
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I missed reading your thoughts on the new chapters, Alex! Thanks for taking the time to write this up.
Now that we know the Association and Akiho’s family are going after Kaito, his odds are looking worse and worse. I wonder why he brought Akiho’s robes and the entire family library with him? Did some members of her clan initially support him kidnapping her so that he could take her magic-shopping across the world without the Association interfering?
Akiho really does seem to be on the cusp of falling apart. She’ll be done for if she tries absorbing Sakura’s powers, which means the “Kaito wants to split Sakura’s magic in half with Akiho” theory doesn’t make sense anymore. He wants her to make a card involving time somehow, but he can’t directly ask her to do it. Is this because it’s genuinely impossible for Sakura to consciously create new cards, or because it’s something even she would refuse to do?
CLAMP swept Sakura’s reaction to Suppi and Nakuru’s return under the rug, huh. 😐 It was sweet seeing Suppi worry about her, too, but it’s telling that Sakura didn’t say anything to them about her heart aching. She’s relying less on her guardians and more on Syaoran for advice. (I’m not sure if this is Ohkawa having Sakura quietly realize that Kero hasn’t been helping her, or if it’s just a plot contrivance to minimize fhe guardians and highlight Syaoran more, ahaha.)
I’m interested in seeing whether or not Sakura’s new drive to help Akiho somehow gives her the motivation to try and control her own magic. She hasn’t had a lot of time to process all of the information that’s been thrown at her over the past few days, not even counting the fact that she can only sense that something has gone wrong with Akiho and her family.
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I missed reading your thoughts on the new chapters, Alex! Thanks for taking the time to write this up.
omg Pan you make me feel emotional ;_; thank you also for taking your time and share your thoughts and so sorry for the delay in replying. I had a very busy week at work (the last before vacations~)
I wonder why he brought Akiho’s robes and the entire family library with him? Did some members of her clan initially support him kidnapping her so that he could take her magic-shopping across the world without the Association interfering?
Yes, that is a good and valid point. I think in some ways they wanted him to do all that because it would then pave the way for what they ultimately want, which is Akiho to experience different kinds of magic. I think the Clan and the Association think they are still in control of things…
He wants her to make a card involving time somehow, but he can’t directly ask her to do it. Is this because it’s genuinely impossible for Sakura to consciously create new cards, or because it’s something even she would refuse to do?
Another valid point. There must be something about her method of creating them that prevents him from interfering, as much as he’d like. I wonder if that’s the same interference Yuuko tried to avoid so much in Tsubasa, or something else completely. Now that she is aware that she is the one creating them, will this change how the future cards are created?
She’s relying less on her guardians and more on Syaoran for advice.
Pretty much! I am bothered by that a little… we have Kero, Yue, Suppi, Nakuru, Touya, Eriol… are they all going to be relevant and perform their due role to the plot? Will everyone have their fair share of responsibility over Sakura?
I’m interested in seeing whether or not Sakura’s new drive to help Akiho somehow gives her the motivation to try and control her own magic.
Yeah, exactly. Now she knows and will do something about it. She has to.
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