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Last chapter we had the Sun-based guardians (and Momo) and now we have the Moon-based guardians (without Momo). It’s a beautiful illustration, they both look gorgeous!

This time, I am going to be brief with my commentary, because it’s kinda late right now, I am a bit tired and I think this chapter was more of a “building up” chapter.

We see a bit more of the Two Alices story. The script is being read by Akiho and Sakura together. We pretty much got the confirmation that the cat is supposed to be Kaito, given that it also can control time. But it’s still a mystery who each Alice is supposed to be and this duality is very likely intentional.

Naoko reveals that the inspiration behind the play was Natsume Souseki’s Ten Nights of Dreams, apart from Alice in Wonderland itself. I am not familiar with Ten Nights of Dreams, but according to Naoko, the characters from the last chapter never woke up from the dream. Is this a parallel? Is there someone in Clear Card who’s been dreaming all this time?

The duality keep going with Sakura and Akiho wanting to play the same Alice, but Sakura ended up giving the role to Akiho (because she felt more empath towards the Alice who couldn’t go back to her world). I think this confusion is all very intentional and at this point both Alices could be equally played by either one of them.

There is quite an important character and relationship development between Kaito and Akiho where Akiho explicitly lets Kaito knows that while she cares about her first and foremost, she still wants to be able to care about Kaito (and let him know about this). I see this moment as a turning point for them and it shows just how secure of herself Akiho is. She doesn’t need Kaito to tell her that she must think about herself first. She knows and does it already. But she wants Kaito to think about himself first, too.

After a long time Sakura has another encounter with the cloaked figure in one of her dreams. She quickly realizes that they can’t be Syaoran because their heights don’t match, so she straight up confronts the figure asking if they are Akiho, for the very first time. She wakes up to find herself in the presence of another card: TRUE OR FALSE. Like many of the previous cards, this one also has a familiar face to Sakura. Naoko is featured with a tail and a pair of animal ears. Which animal is she? A fox?

Then another duality where Sakura asks herself what is reality and what is a dream. Where is this going, CLAMP…?

Sakura goes down and meets Touya in the kitchen, who’s making some honey and milk even though nobody is sick in the family. I thought it was a nice nod to the artbook short stories and how some traditions are still lasting within the Kinomoto family.

The two of them have a really good, teasing-free brother and sister moment in which Touya tells Sakura that the “truth” is basically relative and influenced by one’s wish of not losing what is important to them. It really feels like Sakura is “collecting” a lot of key information that will later on be important to shape her decisions. It’s somehow similar to what happened with volume 12 of the original series where she talked with a lot of people before realizing her feelings for Syaoran.

As I said in the beginning, I thought this chapter felt like building up for something that is about to come. Sakura is gathering information and doing a lot of thinking. She needs to experience these things so that she can make a decision when the time comes.

It was the first chapter in a good while that didn’t end with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. Not to say that important things didn’t happen, but it definitely didn’t end with a punch in your stomach like previous chapters have been doing.

The updated list of cards secured so far:

1. GALE
2. SIEGE
3. AQUA
4. ACTION
5. REFLECT
6. RECORD
7. FLIGHT
8. LUCID
9. SPIRAL
10. SNOOZE
11. LABYRINTH
12. APPEAR
13. BLAZE
14. MIRROR
15. BLADE
16. REPAIR
17. REWIND
18. SHADE
19. BREAK
20. TRANSFER
21. PROMISE
22. MIRAGE
23. DREAMING
24. TIME
25. TRUE OR FALSE

Anime-only cards:

1. GRAVITATION
2. HAIL
3. REVERSAL
4. SWING
5. STRUGGLE

31 pages for the forth chapter of volume 12 — 115 pages for volume 12 so far.

Next chapter will be released on December 26!