#i think i found all the sakura card arc

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card Trivia 3 ~ Sakura's journey of growth and self-understanding throughout Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

Hello and welcome back to my "Clear Card Trivia" series, a collection of informative posts where I delve into certain aspects of the story of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card! ✨

The topic I will talk about today has been on my "to-do list" for long time. It's something I felt the need to talk about, and I won't hide the reason why: the desire to fully eviscerate this topic grew particularly after reading around certain criticism of Clear Card Arc. But also after listening to CLAMP's Twitter Spaces, particularly the ones towards the end of the story.

It's something that, setting aside my obvious love for the new characters, will always make me think that Clear Card Arc has been a very welcome addition to the series.

This post will delve into Sakura's growth throughout Clear Card Arc.

Sakura grew up considerably during the story, and had a character development that sadly not many people truly realized.

I'm not talking about an evolution of the character design which, despite changing and evolving throughout the story (as it's expected for a long-running serialization), kept depicting Sakura consistently with quite young looks...no, I'm talking about her mental growth, in relation to her self-knowledge and her relationship with her magic powers.

A journey that might almost feel "frustrating", because it is full of "up and downs", and Sakura sometimes seems to be taking one step forward and two back. Aside from the obvious practical reasons (the plot had to develop several other storylines simultaneously), it very much reflects the realistic growth of a pre-teen, which is never a straight line but is made of improvements and relapses.

Along the journey, I couldn't really avoid mentioning some bits of the development of Sakura's relationship with Syaoran, which will get its own deep and detailed post another day.

There's also an extra about the significance of the Clear Cards in the story, at the end.

I have to be honest, the post is very long, but I tried to insert visual elements to make it easier on the eye. If you're curious to know how the hell I found so much to talk about for this specific topic, follow me under the cut and dive into Sakura's journey throughout Clear Card (it's also a good way to review the story)! ✨

A Disconnected Beginning

Clear Card Arc starts in a very "festive" and happy way: everything is peaceful, a new exciting chapter of Sakura's educational life is starting with the beginning of middle school, Syaoran is back to Tomoeda, this time to stay forever with his beloved girl...everything seems so perfect. And precisely in chapter 1, before everything takes an unexpected turn, we have this scene here, which I consider the "true" beginning of everything:

Sakura says "I haven't been using this lately...well, that's for the better".

At the beginning of Clear Card Arc, Sakura seems to be feeling disconnected from her natural gift.

Despite she had to go on a quest to collect all the Clow Cards, which later she gave a new life to by changing them into Sakura Cards, we have to remember that Sakura was born with magic powers. They weren't bestowed on her by Kero-chan, nor by the contract with the Clow Book: she always had magic in her blood, and it apparently "woke up" on that fateful day she found the Clow Book in the library of her father.

At the beginning of this arc, Sakura seems to think that the purpose, the meaning of this natural gift which is literally part of herself, has been fulfilled by transforming all the Cards, and splitting Eriol's power as he had requested. Her words here seem to be suggesting a general idea of "if I have to use this key (therefore, my magic powers), it means something troublesome is happening, so it's better if I'm not using it because it means everything is okay".

And although we can't really deny that what happened afterwards is far from being able to be considered "peaceful", this scene here always left a bad taste in my mouth because there's almost a negative vibe attached to the idea of her magic, transpiring from Sakura's words. It's almost as if she's politely rejecting it.

Precisely after she places her Star Key in her jewelry box, probably hoping to never have to use it again, she has her first premonitory dream of the events that will shake her life afterwards. Almost as if her powers were trying to tell her "no my dear, this is you and you'd better come to terms with it as soon as possible".

Then, as we all know, the Cards turn blank. Sakura produces a new key while having another dream and a quest to fight and "secure" some strange phenomena happening around her begins, leaving her in a state of increasing confusion.

This is the beginning of the part of the story that I quite literally call "Sakura loses sight of herself".

At this very early stage of the story, she still doesn't know that she started losing control over her increasing magical power, and it is definitely not a coincidence that all of this began when she thought of shutting her main magic tool away in a box, hoping to ignore it forever. For plot reasons, this also happens simultaneously to Syaoran taking the spirits of the Sakura Cards away from her (because in the beginning, you had to be tricked into thinking he was up to something shady and was the real mastermind behind all the incidents).

Syaoran expected for Sakura to lose control over her powers, as his mother predicted a general period of trouble for her that could lead her to unhappiness, albeit without any clear indication of what could happen: Syaoran came to Japan knowing something was bound to happen to his girl and her powers, and that something was going to lead her to grief, but he had no idea about all the rest. So his uncertain and reckless approach, which ended up in some cases worsening the situation, is also somewhat understandable. He was acting like a worried, overprotective boyfriend at his wit's end.

The strange events, which Sakura materializes into a new set of Cards, surely leave her distraught and confused, not to mention the situation with the Sakura Cards and Eriol's missing replies, but I feel that what really destabilizes her core are the constant dreams she gets, sometimes even in the middle of her waking hours, making her faint on the spot wherever she is.

Premonitory dreams are a part of her natural gift that she began to express ever since the OG manga, but she never seemed to really understand them or take them seriously.

This time around, she keeps seeing this cloaked figure and this terrifying dragon, no one speaks a word despite her relentless questions and the cloaked figure seems to be wanting to take her newly made key away (Lilie!!! what were you trying to do!! *facepalm* she probably tried to pull her closer so she could talk to her), so it's just normal that all of that leaves her increasingly stressed and anxious, even though initially you never see her openly and verbally stating that, due to her overall positive nature ("I'll manage it, somehow" is part of her "everything will be alright" invincible spell, and this is indeed what she keeps telling herself in the beginning of the arc, even though in some occasions it turned out to be a double-edged sword, as sometimes it looked more like sweeping her fears under the carpet, to me).

"Something Is Not Right"

Dream after dream, Card after Card, Sakura begins to have these general feelings of discomfort and of "something is not right, here", as she openly states to Syaoran in this scene of volume 4, chapter 14. There's something about this situation that is pricking her sixth sense, and makes her uneasy, but she can't quite put her finger on it yet. All she can do is to keep "fighting" these phenomena happening around her, hoping to find out more along the way. She reiterates the same feeling of uneasiness at the end of chapter 15, after what I consider one of the most concerning side-effects of her poor control over her powers: Sakura seems almost "in trance" while she leads her guardians to the exit of the maze, and acts in a very uncharacteristic, cold way by shoving her bag in front of Yue to make him hold it for her. It's almost as if her magical sixth sense worked too strongly and warped her personality in that moment: an effect that has been mentioned several times in relation to powerful magicians like Clow, Eriol and later Kaito too, so it's not farfetched at all to attribute this one-off occurrence to her loss of control over her strong powers, which ended up affecting her personality too. Luckily, it didn't happen again in the rest of the story and the capture of this Card was completely changed in the anime (a wise decision imho, since the JP fandom is particularly fussy about the integrity of Sakura's character, and she needed to stay "Sakura" in order to do what she did at the end).

At the culmination of a "mini arc" (the visit to great-grandpa Masaki) characterized by uncontrolled visions of Nadeshiko, another frightening dream (one that ended up dragging even Akiho in, due to the synchronization) and Sakura for the first time ever confronting Syaoran about the things he's been hiding from her, we reach the following scene of volume 5, chapter 23.

"I Wish I Had A Mirror"

I always considered this scene extremely important, because for the first time Sakura spells out clearly the inner turmoil that's been gnawing at her soul ever since this ordeal with the new Cards started.

"The truth is...I'm the worst at understanding myself. And that is probably causing lots of concern to everyone." "I wish I had a mirror. A mirror that could reflect the real me. Then, I would probably understand how to not make everyone worry"

Here, Sakura clearly spells out the frustration of knowing, feeling in her bones that there's something wrong with her, something that she's not understanding about herself, and that something is causing problems, but most importantly, is causing her loved ones to worry about her. Let's not forget that not only Syaoran, but also Yukito, Touya, Fujitaka, Tomoyo, Eriol & his family have all been watching her situation in apprehension, each of them making decisions and moving discretely in a direction they felt was right (and admittedly, not all instances were so).

Sakura can somehow feel all of that, she can feel that it's related to something she still hasn't realized about herself. This tends to be forgotten because it happens in a relatively early part of the plot, but notice how this is the same problem Kaito suffers from. A quite stunted ability to understand oneself. Sakura and Kaito definitely have lots in common, when it comes to this specific part of themselves. Keep this in mind, because it'll be relevant later.

And then, the situation worsens.

Sakura's dreams start to terrify her, because they begin to show Syaoran's face under the cloak of the mysterious figure who's scaring her in her dreams. An apparent truth she cannot accept, she won't accept, even though she's still unsure about what exactly these dreams she's having are. Despite her boyfriend has been acting shady for long time, she decides to trust him and wait for him to talk to her about all the stuff he's holding inside, instead of putting him through the wringer. This also means, though, that Sakura will keep all her fears to herself, eventually bottling up.

Furthermore, Kaito starts to rewind time to fix a situation without a way out (in chapter 28, Akiho was on the verge of going berserk completely and unleash the artifact), creating an additional sense of confusion when Sakura can feel that her finger is numb due to strain, but she can't understand why (she had fought Kaito's time magic unconsciously). Whenever Kaito will rewind time, even later on, Sakura's magical sixth sense will try to wake her consciousness up more and more, giving her these vibes of "deja vu" or making her act in an apparently inexplicable way.

In the first part of Clear Card, Sakura sometimes literally looks like a soul wandering about in confusion, dragged by the events.

I wish to point out that this is not a flaw in the characterization, it is a precise design by CLAMP. Sakura IS, in this part of the story, confused and lost, overwhelmed by the events. She has no idea how to approach this matter other than "treating the symptoms" as they come. This happens because she's still, surprisingly, quite reluctant to embrace a fundamental part of herself: her innate magic power, which expresses itself mainly through her intuition. But we'll gradually get there.

Around chapter 30, before the big realization, Sakura's situation reached a point where:

- her Sakura Cards unexpectedly became blank; - almost everyday (sometimes multiple times a day) there's a new incident that she secures into new transparent Cards; - she constantly sees ominous dreams (in scattered order) with a cloaked figure acting in a questionable way and a scary dragon, and at some point she starts seeing her boyfriend under that cloak; - her boyfriend acts shady, Eriol doesn't reply to her messages; - there's a general feeling of "something is not right" with her magic and some stuff starts to not make sense to her (because Kaito rewinds time)

It is at this point that Sakura finally moves one (giant) step forward and connects all the "puzzle pieces" she collected (particularly, how much more "obvious" the creation of a Card became) and understands that she's been the one causing subconsciously each and every single incident that lead to the creation of a new transparent Card.

"I'm Angry At Myself"

And with Syaoran finally coming clean with her (because at that point he had no reason to keep things hidden anymore, as the thing he was trying to delay ultimately happened - and believe me, I'm sure he partly felt relieved to not need to lie anymore, as that took quite a toll on him too), Sakura can at last give an explanation to at least a part of the things that are happening. And she finally realizes that the doubt that was tormenting her was true: she DID, in fact, not understand something very important about herself, she didn't realize that it was her own power going out of control and that all the incidents that happened bore "her magic signature", so to speak. She failed to "tune in" with her magic.

For the first time ever, Sakura expresses anger at herself.

She will direct that anger (to a lesser extent) to Syaoran too, but I'll tackle that in a separate post.

This is a moment of deep reflection and regrets for Sakura: the poor understanding of herself, the poor "communication" between her heart and her magic powers brought to a situation where her most beloved person was putting himself in danger in order to protect her, while trying to not make things escalate. This is a very sensitive, beautiful and important moment, steeped in conflicting and complex feelings (and remember, Sakura is just a pre-teen. It is normal for a pre-teen like her to not understand herself, but there's just one tiny detail: she's not a common pre-teen, due to her natural gift, and she needs to take that into account). Eventually Sakura calms down, and after creating Rewind, her resolute face while hugging tightly Syaoran suggests that from now on she'll face this matter from another, more courageous and determined perspective.

Or at least, these were her good intentions. Because unfortunately, insecurities are hard to eradicate and in the central part of the story it's shocking to realize how far longer Sakura will insist in shutting away her emotions and refusing to listen to her heart (and intuition) fully.

"It's Just My Imagination"

Part of Sakura's anxiety might have been sedated with the revelation that the Clear Cards are produced by the girl herself, but unfortunately the true core of her problems was not solved at all and will only surface more clearly in the next 20 chapters.

Sakura actively starts having "premonitory bad feelings" when she sees Akiho in volume 7 chapter 34, a bad feeling that she does check with Syaoran, but quickly dismisses as "well, it's just my imagination". This will basically be one of the major problems preventing her from reaching the complete control of her magic. Sakura, knowing her magic potential, should've given way more credit to her sixth sense, but her anxiety, her insecurity and her crippled connection to her innate gift still pushes her to dismiss these "signs" as nothing really important or true. Timely as hell, a few hours later something bad will indeed happen to Akiho, where she completely loses consciousness for the first time and the clan/Association actively starts to absorb Sakura's power through the artifact implanted in Akiho. All of this was caused by the high concentration of magic that "triggered" Akiho's artifact (and here I have to sarcastically "applaud" Kaito, just like Syaoran he's another one who does stuff before thinking through, ultimately worsening the problem).

Once trapped in Akiho's artifact, thanks to her power Sakura can see the most horrifying glimpse of Akiho's past, when she was turned into a magic artifact, by living it on her own skin. And even though Kaito is forced to rewind time once again to save the situation, erasing these memories from Sakura's head, her heart (which is tightly connected to her magical sixth sense - I'd daresay her heart is straight up the source of her magic) DOES REMEMBER, pushing Sakura to act in an apparently irrational way, crying and hugging Akiho tight in empathy. Sakura is particularly shaken by this feeling, still in pain even hours later, but once again she doesn't understand where it comes from. However, she does express with Syaoran an intention to talk to him about it once she's able to put it into words, and in the meantime do her best with all the rest. At least, there's an intention to understand better this part of herself, but it's still soon to see actual results.

Aaand CLAMP really seem to be wanting to test Sakura in this arc, because at this point of the plot, they add the electrocution spell. 😅 No one seems to understand who caused it (it's not Sakura, nor Kaito, but now we know it was none other than Yelan!!) and Sakura's anxiety increases once again. The fact only Syaoran gets affected by it inevitably reignites the doubts in her mind, unwittingly reminded of that terrifying dream of Cloaked Syaoran she keeps seeing...but she stubbornly keeps telling herself "no, it's not like that, it's just a dream". It's undeniable that this situation where she cannot understand her foretelling dreams yet, and the way they show her scattered hints because her power is out of control, has surely contributed to Sakura's insecurity when it comes to trust her own intuition.

Her power is so out of control at this point, that even when Kaito shrinks her and throws her in a hole carved into a tree (landing in a "world" created with magic where he hopes she'll create the right Card) her dreams take over again (it's apparent by the "shaaan" sound and how everything turns suddenly pitch black, a common background of her dreams), showing her Akiho in the dress she was wearing when she was turned into an artifact and, inevitably, Sakura's biggest fear, "Cloaked Syaoran". Pay attention because these visions she's getting here thanks to her power match what will happen later on: what the talking flowers tell her here will turn out to be the beginning of the lyrics of the main theme of the "Alice in Clockland" play. This vision of Cloaked Syaoran seemingly "about to do something" to Akiho horrifies Sakura to the point of screaming in terror and creating one of the most unsettling Cards, "Break". It is after this very scary moment that Sakura starts to wonder very specifically for what purpose she is creating all these Cards. The purpose is actually more than one, but she definitely posed herself THE RIGHT question, as this brings her one step closer to the core of the problem and eventually embracing her own magic abilities.

Then, between chapters 43 and 45 we finally start to see some changes in Sakura: surprisingly, she begins to listen more to her sixth sense, first catching Yukito red-handed while activating a newly acquired magic, and then wondering about a strange painful feeling in her chest when her father tells her that lately she and Akiho became even more similar. We were all lead to believe that this was the foreshadowing of Akiho taking her place (cause everything in the plot at this point deceivingly hints at Kaito wanting to switch them), but she actually was getting foreshadowings of the "rewritten world", where Sakura would genuinely feel wrecked to know that someone important to Akiho was missing, precisely when Akiho would've become part of her family as her twin. In fact, in chapter 45, before falling completely asleep, she hears again the ominous "you won't be able to come back" (the Association's threat to Kaito), wondering WHO wouldn't be able to come back - somehow, Sakura knows that it's not directed at her.

"Just Tell me Honestly How You Feel"

And then, we reach another moment that I consider pivotal for Sakura's growth during this Clear Card Arc. The moment when she's on the verge of breaking down and finally lets all her feelings out.

Her anxiety over the dream with the Cloaked Figure reached the highest peak, so much that she finally manifests a Card, Mirage, that challenges her precisely with that appearance. While Sakura battles that Card (which at the moment she still believes it's an actual person), she seems resoluted to get to the bottom of this story, and to pull down that hood to know the truth. You can really feel that she's so done with all this psychological torture. The fact the real Syaoran appears right at that moment and she finds out the person she saw was just a Card is partly a relief for her, but also throws Sakura again in despair because who the hell is that person in the dream, then??

Syaoran, as the good and attentive boyfriend he is, can just feel that Sakura is stressing over something, so he brings her to his home to help her calming down. And to her umpteenth attempt at sweeping her negative emotions under the carpet, beating around the bush commenting over the tea with a fake smile, he cuts immediately her bullshit and just tells her : "You don't need to force yourself. Just tell me how you feel right now". When she hears that she's allowed to speak out her emotions with honesty, Sakura wears on her face one of the most heartbreaking expressions of the entire manga. She's literally about to break down in tears of exhaustion, as you can see it above. ☝️ Listening to her, gradually, Syaoran encourages Sakura to get out all that's been torturing her lately, particularly about the dream with the Cloaked Figure. It is a very difficult moment for her, because she has to relive the dream, and expose in front of him all the fears and doubts that were trying to tamper with her trust in him. Courageously, she goes through with it, even though her denial ("it's just a dream!") is so strong that she ends up creating another Card: "Dreaming". Sakura at first seems relieved to see the Card, in the hope that everything she saw was indeed a mere messed up dream and nothing else (see? she's again self-sabotaging her relationship with her magic) but Syaoran with his frankness is quick to bring her feet on the ground: the kanji on the Card show "yumemi", and the word can also indicate a "foretelling dream".

Although Sakura seems disheartened at first, her next dream with the Cloaked Figure is much more relaxed, so much that even the dragon doesn't particularly scare her anymore: our girl's intuition makes her correctly feel a sense of loneliness in this dream, which she attributes to the hooded figure, not realizing that it was more likely coming from the dragon itself (aka, Kaito). After all, in chapter 72, Lilie will confirm that her presence ended up distracting her from the one "character" she should've paid all of her attention to. Her intuition, despite being misattributed, ended up having a positive effect through the synchronization with Akiho: the girl will wake up with the same feeling of discomfort of her friend, and as if guided by hitsuzen, she will head to the garden where she'll find a sickly Kaito staring at the moon - most likely feeling the loneliness Sakura perceived in her dream. I like to think that in this scene of chapter 48, Sakura subconsciously helped Akiho comforting Kaito, by waking her up with the unresting feeling, precisely when Kaito needed it the most. Still not completely embraced her magical sixth sense yet, but a significant improvement.

The road between chapter 48 and chapter 52 is paved with lots of struggles, as the Mirror Sakura Card gets stolen by Kaito, Sakura runs the risk of being absorbed into Akiho's artifact again, she meets Momo for the first time and she's even given a hint about Kaito's plan (or what Momo thought was his plan, as he had benignly lied to her about that), but almost all of that gets rewound and erased when Kaito intervenes. Moreover, despite not remembering anything consciously, Sakura is left with a sense of unhappiness when she looks at her home, a remnant of her brief journey in the world of Momo's book which straight up threw her into despair, showing her what her life would be if everyone forgot about her. She also finds once again a Card produced out of nowhere, "Time": I'm convinced she produced this Card because her conscience was awake while Momo and Kaito talked in stopped time, and their conversation triggered her sixth sense to produce Time as a result. Needless to say, all of this worsens her state of mind once again, which leads to the other pivotal, and finally resolutive, scene of chapter 52.

Never Avert Your Eyes From Your Heart

We finally get to what I consider THE scene, the one that will definitively shake Sakura from her deadlock, from the anxiety that stunted her connection with her innate gift and her deepest emotions. And the one who helps her overcoming all her fears is, of course, the love of her life - with a honorable mention for none other than his mother Yelan!!

Chapter 52 got a very, very special place in my heart, because it's basically one giant parallel between SyaoSaku and YunaAki. The two pairings experience similar situations, but the response from one side of each pairing is quite different. Let's remind you for a moment of the part earlier in this post when I told you that Kaito and Sakura, for most of Clear Card, surprisingly have one thing in common: they don't seem to understand themselves well enough, and both have a tendency to look away from feelings that cause unrest to their hearts - anxiety for Sakura, love for Kaito.

Syaoran, always attentive and observant towards his girlfriend, notices immediately that Sakura is suffering, as soon as he sees her at school. Despite being unable to touch her to comfort her, he offers all of himself to support and listen to her concerns. Sakura is visibly and pleasantly surprised of how the boy could read behind her mask, that usual contrived smile with which she tries to dissimulate her emotions and not make him worry. A bad habit she's consolidated lately, but that Syaoran is gently determined to dismantle. After opening up with him (and this is where Sakura differs from Kaito - by having an established relationship made of love and trust with Syaoran, Sakura lowers her walls with him), she falls once again into the usual trap of "but maybe it's just my imagination" and I love to see how Syaoran is her anchor to the ground, making her see the concreteness of this situation: he straight up tells her "you produced a Card out of it, it cannot be 'just your imagination'. " And then, like a precious family gift, he passes on to her the priceless words of wisdom of his mother Yelan, an advice that not only Sakura, but also the other "lost soul" of the other paralleling pairing should listen to:

"People with magical power should never ignore the turmoil and stirring in their hearts, the so-called 'intuition'. And it’s not limited to people with magical powers. People should never avert their eyes from the changes in their heart."

This is a turning point for Sakura. These words seem to positively "break" something inside of her, showing her the correct path to follow. CLAMP beautifully portray this process of "embracing and assimilating" the words she's just heard, by making her place her hand over her heart. I love when they do that (they used the same visual when Akiho heard Kaito's true name, and 'wrote it' on the most important page of the book of her life). Sakura is truly grateful for the words Syaoran relayed to her, precisely what she needed to get out of her impasse with her feelings and magic. She knows she can always count on the support of her soulmate even in the darkest moments, and she's thankful for having him in her life.

From this moment onwards, Sakura will experience several instances where her magical premonitory senses give her signals through the "stirring" of her heart. Contrarily to before, she starts to actively take them seriously, listening, without dismissing them as the delirium of an anxious little girl. This allows her to activate the Siege Card in the fraction of a second, successfully shielding herself from Kaito's time magic, making her the first person ever who achieved that. This also leads her to effectively remember that she saw Kaito using magic, even when time was rewound by him, and contact immediately Syaoran to talk about it, planning how to move from that moment onwards. A little relapse on her bad habit is immediately dispelled by Syaoran, and our girl even goes as far as saying "there's something inside Akiho", even though she's not sure exactly why she's feeling that way. But it's an intuition she's having and she decides to not dismiss it anymore, with everyone trusting and supporting her in that direction. By listening more and better to what her heart tells her, Sakura also decides to not confront Akiho about Kaito and his magic, because she's well aware of the feelings Akiho got for Kaito and she doesn't want to potentially disrupt their relationship. So, she decides to wait for her friend to talk about it first.

Thanks to this better understanding of her own intuition, she also says in chapter 57 that she wants to meet the guardian of the book "Alice in Clockland" once more, despite not remembering if and when she's met her before. This also ultimately leads her to accept the role of Alice in the upcoming play scripted by her friend Naoko, because her sixth sense tells her that it's inevitable for her to do so. It's important to emphasize how the other characters support and encourage her to listen to her innate gift, at this point, without trampling over her self-determination like they did before.

It is a moment of big growth and character development for everyone.

The Ultimate Growth: Finding a Meaning and a Purpose

What happens afterwards is history: the fateful "Alice in Clockland" play unfolds, and Kaito completes his plan to push Sakura to create the Card he needs, exchanging his magic artifact (the watch) with Akiho's one (the book), in addition to activating the forbidden magic to rewrite the memories of everyone, to fit Akiho as part of Sakura's family.

Sakura's intuition will be crucial to wake her true self up while in Clockland, succeeding in beating Kaito's magic multiple times, till Syaoran comes in and gives the "final blow", cutting off the spell definitively.

And even when everything seems lost because Kaito successfully activated the fobidden magic, changing their memories and erasing himself from their existence, Sakura's magic and sixth sense keep making her say things she either already said or heard before in the "unrewritten world". Not only that, but even after meeting Lilie in a dream and forgetting her face (due to the strong influence of the forbidden spell), bit and pieces of that conversation keep coming back to her, and she listens dutifully to every single one of these "feelings". Kaito might have overridden part of their memories (only the ones concerning him, Akiho and the events connected to the creation of the Cards), but the experience, feelings and personal growth of each character were left untouched, that's why the chemistry between Sakura and Syaoran is the same as before the play started, but also Sakura's personal relationship with her magic is far better than before (an information that might have seemed random and unimportant is that now Sakura summons Mirror even just to chat, an indication of her completely changed perspective on her magic).

Now that Sakura finally embraced her magical power, all that's left for her is to find a true purpose for it.

A question echoes in my mind, "What am I creating these Cards for?". Sakura poses herself this question halfway through the story, and she finds the answer to it precisely at the end of the journey.

Her powerful magic intuition, combined with her immense empathy, leads her to realize that somebody is missing from their reality, and that person is the one Akiho loves. At this point Sakura is unstoppable: she wants to listen to the voice in her heart that's screaming "Go and help them!! Give the true happiness back to Akiho!", and everyone can only follow her lead as she assertively puts into practice what her heart is telling her to do.

Sakura in this final part of the story shines brighter than ever. She's more assertive and self-confident than ever. All of this is because there's something she strongly wants to do with her innate gift, as Eriol unequivocally says in chapter 75: her power grows exponentially again, but this time it's not out of her control - it is Sakura herself who's voluntarily boosting it, thanks to her strong wish. And that allows her to control it and use it exactly as she wants.

In chapter 79 her growth reaches the highest peak, by handling the resolution of Akiho and Kaito's personal problems in an admirable way (she steps aside for a moment to give Akiho all the agency she needed), but also finding herself in front of an uncomfortable dilemma, which leads her to an unavoidable reality: Sakura quickly understands that she cannot be on everyone's side and there are lines to be drawn at some point. She can't be a pure and oblivious girl forever. She needs to grow up. There are choices to be made, especially when dealing with real evil people.

And Sakura choses to go on with the people she loves, even if that means she has to "stain" her "moral record" a little bit.

Empowered by this strong wish to fix the situation, she literally gives life to a miracle, protecting her dear friend and her beloved from the grasp of their abusers, simultanously giving everyone their true memories back. The effort exerts her greatly, but what she achieved is by far the most important thing she's ever done with her magic power till now: she helped two dear people lost in a life-and-death situation. Her magical growth went along with her personal, mental one.

This is also the reason why the accusations of "the other magicians should've trained her" end up being in vain: Sakura's problem with her powers was mainly on a personal level, not on a technical one. This was a journey she had to mainly walk by herself, finding the right balance and confidence in her abilities, deep down in her heart.

No one could've done that for her.

Merely training the practical aspect of it would've just worsened the situation, because Sakura wouldn't have been truly "in it" with her heart and mind. She needed to go through this process of growth, before reaching this stage of self-awareness in relation to her magic powers. I truly feel this is the reason why CLAMP made certain choices inside this story. Again, as I always say, a good part of Cardcaptor Sakura does revolve around magic, but the main focus and linchpin of this story is and always will be the main character's heart, her growth and the interpersonal relationships with her loved ones.

This makes Clear Card Arc, in my opinion, a worthy sequel and a full-fledged part of the Cardcaptor Sakura series. I think those who decide to skip it or read it with a superficial approach miss a journey of tremendous growth for our beloved protagonist.

So much for those who kept saying "This is not Sakura's story".

How can all that ☝️ NOT be Sakura's story?

I'll let you judge. 😊

Extra: The Significance of the Clear Cards

I want to digress for a moment about a thorny topic: the significance of the Clear Cards in this story.

Sakura isn't always completely passive towards the events happening around her, but wonders several times during the story why all those Cards are manifesting like that. While the first and easiest answer is of course "because her powers are going out of control" (and this is something Momo herself questions Sakura about in chapter 50), it becomes apparent at some point that the more the story goes on, the more the Cards that are created by her are particularly relevant and connected to the events that will happen in the final part of the story.

I know this is a sore spot for many who complain about not understanding the purpose of the Clear cards. It's because people tend to compare this set of Cards with the ones Sakura captured previously. That's not the right way to look at them, because their origin and purpose are different and change throughout the story. Forget about the Sakura Cards, even though so many of these "Clear Cards" (which are never called so, not even once, in the story itself, but just "new cards" or "transparent cards") might look so similar in purpose to the previous ones.

First of all, the Clear Cards are an outlet for Sakura to vent in a healthy way her power in excess. Power that if kept inside, untapped and confined in her body, might have unpredictable harmful effects on her (<- probably the grief Yelan foresaw). God bless the Clear Cards for existing and allowing Sakura to vent out these bouts of uncontrolled power in a relatively safe way.

The Cards that Sakura produces in the beginning are sometimes reminiscing of the Sakura Cards, because her power manifests itself basing on Sakura's experiences, feelings, thoughts and wishes. The Sakura Cards are an important part of her life (before Syaoran took them, she literally acted like their "mom", keeping them alive with her power) so it's only normal that the first base for some of these new Cards would be a magic tool that she already knows. In this sense, it becomes easier to understand why many of the "captures" seem so easy, way too easy compared to what a reader would expect from a sequel: the goal of the capture here isn't to make her power and experience in capturing cards grow. She already had 2 arcs to do all of that. The capture of the Cards in this third arc becomes something new and unexpected: a "damage control" of a regrettable situation with Sakura's powers, while she learns to dominate them and enter into harmony with her supernatural abilities. The growth Sakura needs here is mainly a mental one. Performing her magical power aimlessly without having a true connection with it and a true understanding will only exacerbate the problem. This is the reason why, despite having a "capture" element, Clear Card derails from the previous arcs in the purpose of the capture. It's a pity that an element that should've brought freshness to the plot was in many cases received as an actual flaw.

In the beginning, as Sakura's power is completely out of her control, some Cards might look completely random too - they don't look based on Cards, thoughts or wishes (like Appear, Reflect, Action, etc.). But pay attention, because the more the story goes on, the more the Cards begin to become particularly specific to something that shook Sakura's heart in that moment, or referencing events/feelings that will become pivotal to the events Sakura will experience later. Especially regarding Kaito's plan. Many of the later Cards Sakura produces are a direct reflection of the feelings and wishes that Kaito infused in the activation of the forbidden magic, with the creation of "the story for Akiho", the one he wanted to absolutely have a happy ending for. Cards like Repair, Promise, Choice, Kindness, True and False, Synchronization, Rewind....many of them didn't even get to express their magical abilities in a "conventional way" (everyone expected to see Sakura literally activating them like she does with all the others), but it's just because at that point the Cards Sakura is producing are born following her premonitory intuition: thanks to the hints/speeches that those Cards give her in Clockland, Sakura little by little regains consciousness of her true self (it's a pity that many English readers will never realize all the times Sakura was about to "wake up" in Clockland, because the translation didn't respect the change in fonts of the JP text). Sakura wasn't supposed to "use" them in a conventional way (how do you "use" Kindness? You force people to be "kind"? 🤨 and what about Choice??), she was supposed to listen to them and let them guide her towards the truth. This is also the reason why all of these Cards bear the face of her loved ones. Think of them as tarots. Which is, incidentally, another use of the original Clow/Sakura Cards. I am basically sure of this interpretation because the kanji of some of those Cards I mentioned above are brought up during the climax: particularly when Akiho talks to Kaito in chapter 78, she uses two specific verbs, referring to Kindness (慈愛 - a kind of gentle and tender love) when she describes the love and support her family gives her in this rewritten world, and to Choice (選択) when she questions Kaito about his choice to disappear completely from her life. So to summarize, the last Cards Sakura produced "accidentally" weren't accidental at all, but were actually specifically produced by her power in reference to Kaito's plan, to help her finding the way out to a dire situation. This represents a very important indicator in the plot: at that stage of the story, Sakura started to listen more and more to her intuition and her sixth sense, finally quitting her bad habit of downplaying it ("maybe it's just me") but actually giving it credit and taking it seriously, trusting her instinct to lead her in the right direction. And this was, of course, all thanks to the speech Syaoran gave her back in chapter 52. It is also the case of the Rewind Card, which Sakura will ultimately understand the purpose of on her own, at the very end of the series. That's the moment where everything will become clear and make sense to her: "This Card, too...I created it precisely for this moment". The Clear Cards ultimately became the embodiment of her foretelling powers. Which then led to the birth of the first two consciously created Cards, Blank & Remind, which will become so important in the climax.

If we ever get a new arc in the next years, we'll certainly deal with a more mature Sakura, who's more in sync with her magical powers 🩷.

#card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura #clear card arc #ccsakura #sakura card captor #clamp #sakura kinomoto #syaosaku #clear card trivia #I hope this post will make you look at Clear Card from another perspective #I'm sorry for the length but I really wanted to make a deep dive

[fayesdiary]

Alear, Yunaka, and Veyle for the character ask!

I just sent you the same characters lmao same braincell

First impression

Alear: The actual first impression was seeing the leaks and thinking "lol this has to be fake, there's no way this is real".

Then the first trailer released and you can literally see me go "what the fuck is this" in my blog posts. Mainly of course about their design.

Veyle: Really didn't have an impression on her at first beyond "oh she's a cute younger character". Then I saw some footage of Evil Veyle and went "welp, guess she's the twist villain"

Yunaka: Had around the same impression I had with Hortensia: "she looks more like an idol than an FE character". Her personal skill caught my eye though.

Impression now

Alear: I am COMPLETELY mentally ill about them. Best FE protagonist, there is no joke. Just like Engage itself they seem silly and innocent on the surface but there's a LOT of dark shit you can dig up, but at the same time the heart is clear as day!

Even the hair grew on me quite a lot. I can't believe either they turned out to be plot relevant.

Veyle: BABYGIRL. She has also completely rotted my brain because she has also so much you could talk about her! She's the second protagonist pretty much (she's even in the center of some artwork instead of Alear), she is both adorable, tragic and is really strong even if she doesn't realize it and she needs all of the hugs in the world.

Well, all of the three do, but especially her.

Yunaka: Another one that won't let go. She is SO good. I love how unlike most of the cast she's here on her own terms, she is so silly and funny on the surface but you also really feel for her once you learn more about her. But even if her silliness is mainly a facade, it's also a fundamental part of who she is. She says so herself!

And honestly, I just think she does a wonderful job in expressing self-loathing, struggling with making meaningful connections but also desperately craving them and wanting to be a better person and move on from her gruesome past but having no idea how. Which is a trend with a good chunk of the Engage cast, really.

Favorite moment

Alear: Absolutely when they choose to be revived as a Corrupted. It's the culmination of their whole character arc and I've made a whole post about it.

Veyle: When she plays Zephia for a fool by pretending to be her evil self and throwing Sigurd's ring to Alear, damn the consequences for her.

Keep in mind that she only just now found out what was up with her, is likely in complete shock and guilt but she still manages to improvise to help Alear, fully expecting to be her last action as her own person.

This is why I compared her to Sakura, both are adorably sweet little sister who are secretly REALLY strong-willed and are stronger than they realize. Say what you will about how Fire Emblem writes female characters and we all know there is a lot to say, but they're great at writing sweet little sisters with plenty of guts to spare.

Yunaka: ohh, either her support with Citrinne or the one with Alfred, for completely different reasons.

Idea for a story

Alear: Personally I'd love to see Alear becoming a new professor at the Officers Academy with/instead of Byleth. Even if Fòdlan is the last place they should ever be in for... Several reasons.

For a less crack idea, Past Alear recognizing Nel and Rafal due to a headcanon I'll mention later.

Or even just the whole Fell Family assembling and expanding in Askr, really.

Veyle: I mentioned it already to you and some other people in private, but I want to write a story about Veyle trying to rebuild Gradlon! I just think it has a ton of potential as a post-game story :D

Yunaka: Probably either her life with Alear or her journey after the endgame. While happily ignoring her end card.

Unpopular opinion

Alear: honestly just claiming they're the best FE protagonist is already super unpopular.

Veyle: She's more than just the cute little sister and she has a lot more going for her than people give her credit for.

Yunaka: honestly I never read much about her so I wouldn't be able to tell you🤷

Favorite relationship

Alear: Platonically Veyle, and it's the most important one by FAR. Romantically Yunaka!

Veyle: Platonically Alear again, but I don't have any romantic ships for her at the moment.

Yunaka: Alear and Citrinne romantically, Fogado and Alfred platonically!

Favorite headcanon

Alear: the older siblings Past Alear mentions in their death list are Nel and Rafal from the main Elyos. Because the idea of them recognizing the twins makes me wanna SCREAM

Veyle: Alternate take on her evil self, but rather than being born by random draconic impulses (despite degeneration not being a thing for any of the dragons in Engage), it's a personality born out of her intrusive thoughts.

Because it makes so much sense a small part of her resents humanity and Divine Dragons for the abuse she endured just for being a Fell Dragon. And deep down maybe she wants to believe if she was Sombron's perfect little Fell Princess then maybe he'd finally love her.

It's made abundantly clear that Veyle herself would never and that Zephia's magic did almost all of the work, but I find it way more interesting than simple brainwashing or... Random dragon impulses. Helps give some sense as to why Evil Veyle repeatedly insists she's the real one, even if that's not the case.

Yunaka: Nothing bad happens to her ever in the ending and she returns to Elyos and lives a long, happy life. I have experience with ignoring endings from Echoes already, IntSys can eat my butt.

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #fe17 #fe17 spoilers #alear #veyle #yunaka #my rambles #ask replies #loregoddess #lots of spelling and formatting errors because I'm on mobile and can't be bothered

[nyalisa-landale]

oh! i caught up on clear card arc while i was doing my nails. (reminder: i switched to the simuldub, so i’m three episodes behind crunchyroll.) things are getting interesting! i’m guessing the new OP came in the most recent japanese episode. i can’t wait to see it! ...in three weeks.

seriously, though, we have confirmation that kaito has moon magic, and basically confirmation that akiho is the one in sakura’s dreams. (which, i mean, we all knew from the start; and if she’s got guardians the same way sakura and eriol do, then it’s super obvious that kaito is her moon guardian and momo is her sun guardian. who is way better at the stuffed animal trick than kero lol) so, like i said... things are getting interesting! ...just in time for a fluff episode. i remember basically nothing about meiling, so that should be... fun? well, a card will still probably show up. that’ll be interesting.

i also have the first three volumes of the manga; i read the first two last night while waiting for fs, but i just finished the third one. it’s... a little bit behind the anime? snooze shows up in the last chapter, but sakura won’t catch it until the next one. which i don’t have because it’s in volume 4, which doesn’t come out until, like, june. (so unfair T_T)

but it’s really interesting comparing manga events versus anime events. so far sakura seems to have most of the same cards, but gravitation, at least, is anime-only. (which is a shame, because goddamn does that card seem useful. though, if she has flight, is it really that useful? hmm.) it’s also interesting how spiral comes in a completely different place and gets caught in a completely different way. also, syaoran showed off his new magic trick to help sakura catch hail in the anime, but he does it in the manga (with a different spell, but still) for spiral.

i wonder if the anime is going to include a full 52-card deck like the first two arcs? the manga seems likely to stick to the 19 cards... 

also, how in the hell is akiho connected to these cards?????? at first, when she said she came to japan because there was a book she wanted, i thought she meant the book of clow. (which, the anime can’t keep the pronunciation straight either! tomoyo totally said it the way i’m used to saying it! yay!) but in the dreams, it seems like what she actually wants is the staff of dreams... which isn’t sakura’s old staff, because that key is still with the book. full of transparent cards with no magic. how did that even happen???????? i’m excited and confused at the same time. i really don’t want sakura and akiho to have to fight, and i think that, if anyone can avoid fighting, it’s sakura. it’s never her first instinct. so if there’s some way to settle things without fighting, i’m sure she’ll figure it out. (i wonder what would happen if sakura tried using the clear cards with her star staff. would anything happen? hmm.)

on the other hand, what anime!eriol said about kaito... akiho doesn’t know what’s going on, obviously, we saw that when she was telling him about her dream. but kaito doesn’t seem completely clueless. whether he is or isn’t part of that order of magicians or whatever (i’ll have to rewatch that part; i couldn’t make out all of it - that’s my one complaint about the anime, i think; the action scenes are all really loud but then everyone talks really quietly. i’m constantly adjusting the volume. it’s really annoying.) remains to be seen... I wonder if the other caretakers in akiho’s family are, as well? maybe her whole family is part of it, and it’s expected that she will be in the future. i wonder if the clear cards are supposed to be hers? or maybe she’s supposed to retrieve the book of clow as part of some kind of initiation (that nobody bothered to tell her about). that alice in clockland book has to factor into all of this somehow, too... i mean, it seems pretty obvious with the dreams and all the clockwork, and kaito’s pocketwatch that the anime, at least, makes sure we see a lot of, indicates that he’s definitely involved... 

i know i’m way, way behind on the manga, since i’m not reading scanlations anymore... the site i was using quit doing it, or something, and i just never bothered to find another one. maybe i should? idk.

i really, really want to see what happens... but i guess it’s maybe a little bit telling that part of the reason i want to know so badly is so that i can factor it into the fic i was writing. sakura’s 16 in it so it would take place after all of this, and i want to know if i need to make changes. (because this is me, there is, at best, two or three chapters written, and nothing after that is set in stone. and honestly nothing before that is set in stone, either; most of what i did have written was on The Laptop That Never Was, and the chapter that i’d sent to a friend to beta for me was probably over skype, because i couldn’t find it in my email. ...or maybe it was that i could recover the first chapter because i did email it to her, but not the second chapter because i didn’t send her that one. that sounds more correct.)

#azu watches clear card arc #aaaaaaa goddamn it i just realised i really did need those omnibus volumes #because my fic was mostly manga canon T_T #i think i found all the sakura card arc #but i don't know where my clow card arc books are #welp guess that's what the wiki's for

[captnjacksparrow]

Hey, really liked your analysis of Hinata. I feel almost the same way about her. Even though generally I dislike female characters who are naturally meek, subservient and pointless with no character arc in any type of media, what made me absolutely hate her character was how she treated Neji. If Kishi wanted to show her arc being developed organically, instead of proposing to Naruto that removes her stuttering and gives her new found confidence (because girls only get confident when proposing to guys 🙄), Kishi could have shown her talking to Neji after he literally told his bitter story on the chuunin exam grounds in front of everyone. She is shown like she is sympathetic but didn't do anything about it. She didn't even talk to him after he was hospitalized. She knew exactly why he was the way he was, and yet she fights him as if it was his fault. She, an heir of the clan, could have asked her father to support Neji, she had some clout. But nope. In fact, it was Neji who apologizes to her in a way, he is the one who trains her and help create a new jutsu for her. What did she ever do for him exactly? And Neji didn't have to help her. She was in the best position to help and understand Neji but what did she do? A lot of fans like her character because she is reserved but kind and sympathetic. She is reserved but a coward. She was not kind towards Neji. He died for her when he didn't deserve to, he had dreams and goals that were much bigger than Hinata's entire existence. She couldn't even see her own cousin's pain and she claims to understand Naruto?? Really??

Even Kishi said she was a pitiful character who only watches from a distance. He deliberately made her that way, no goal, no backbone and no lines. And I think she sucks the most after Danzo.

WoooW!!!! Thanks for the ask, Anon.

[[Hinata and Sakura fans!!!! Please stay away and don't interact. I fucking tagged them properly]].

Even though generally I dislike female characters who are naturally meek, subservient and pointless with no character arc in any type of media, what made me absolutely hate her character was how she treated Neji.

We definitely share the same thoughts on this one, Anon.

I am really tired on most of the media for their poor treatment of female characters.

The last time I was amused by a female character was from 'Game of Thrones', I loved Cersei Lannister, who is an absolute biashhh and Sansa Stark, started out as an annoying rose tinted princess but ended up winning everyone's heart. Both are non-combative, soft spoken and somewhat powerless women in a world dominated by men. But they just didn't let the inconveniences stop them and instead they learned how to fuck that world back and take control. Both are similar and yet very different.

After seeing, such well-developed characters..... For me girls in Naruto series, is blehhhhh..... Nothing to get inspired from them. And I knew it by episode 3 itself. I have no idea how can girls, in real life, treat Sakura as some feminist icon, which makes my skin crawl for number of reasons. If you point her mistakes out in any discussions, they will pull the misogynist card to your face. When in reality, I am also a girl and my world views are entirely different from Sakura or Hinata. There is no way a 12 year old girl would want to look at the Duck of another boy.

And the problem is, They form the majority, I mean people who can connect with Sakura or Hinata. So, as long as girls like them exists, we really should suffer from these crap portrayal I guess.

That's why I advise people that If you want to see a good woman character, Narutoverse is not the place.

Having said that, I find Temari, Konan, Tsunade were better (I mean inside the Narutoverse). Though their motivations or reason to achieve a goal revolve around their men, I find their attitude relieving. Unlike Sakura or Hinata, they don't wet themselves on the sight of the men they love.

What irritates me was, Kishimoto could've easily put a character like Temari or TenTen or Tsunade into Team 7. It would've made my viewing experience a lot better. If he doesn't want the strong girls to take over the attention from his boys, then he should've introduced a meek character like Rin Nohara. She is silent and cute but atleast she was willing to die for the Village and never wetted herself over Kakashi, though she loved him. And she treated Obito like her best friend. But he deliberately made Sakura hateful and he never stopped.

Sakura and Hinata were the lowest of the low, compared to any other side characters. And, in the end, they got the main Character's Ducks without actively doing anything. For me this tells me three things

He was using these girls as a shield to close the hetero normative mouths while in reality hiding those boys true feelings under that shield.

He really hated these kind of girls and constantly showing his hatred on them at every given chance and never redeemed them back. 

He knew the target audience’ mindset and he simply caters them by giving them what they need and at the same time writing the important arcs according to his wish.

I think, it’s the combination of all three. 

Just to give you an example.

There is this delusional SS shipper Who justifies Sasuke was acting Tsundere throughout the war arc. I mean, come on!!!! 

I came across this post because, the Original Poster was an idiot who comes into the anti SS tag and reblogged my content and saying I was wrong... So, I don’t mind sharing that person’s content.

So I don’t know where this delusion comes from... It's truly pathetic.

There are millions of idiots who believe in this kind of shit and Kishi is deliberately feeding them with bits and crumbs while making his boys go out and save the world.

These delusional mindset tells us they don’t give a single shit about the story as a whole. They watch it purely for the pretty faces and getting high over them. In this case, Sasuke.

It’s as clear as day that Sasuke didn’t care about anyone other than Naruto when fighting the war. You don’t have to be a shipper but even a non-shipper can point this out. I mean Sasuke wouldn’t have saved Jugo either, if he didn’t come to Sasuke and advice him. Do you think Sasuke would’ve tried to look for Jugo and saved him at all cost???? It’s just that he came to Sasuke and he helps him back. But Sasuke would’ve saved Naruto from the bomb blast even if he was standing a mile away.

So, if these delusions reflects the mindset of the majority of the women audience, then the creator will never try to give anything better but instead give us some low-life characters like Sakura and Hinata. 

So, Anon, your expectation for Hinata’s character could’ve been developed much better is just a wishful thinking. Because, Hinata is a character for these kind of people and not for us. And the author deliberately did it. 

She was in the best position to help and understand Neji but what did she do? A lot of fans like her character because she is reserved but kind and sympathetic. She is reserved but a coward. She was not kind towards Neji. He died for her when he didn't deserve to, he had dreams and goals that were much bigger than Hinata's entire existence. She couldn't even see her own cousin's pain and she claims to understand Naruto?? Really??

For me, this also irked me a lot. 

Hinata could’ve tried to talk to Neji about his problems even when he was a child. But she was simply playing innocent when in reality, she is just a coward. Even after the Chunin Exams, there was no apologies from her side, like you said. Because she is from the Main Branch. That hierarchy never changed. If she had the gall, she could’ve easily broken that hierarchy by saying, ‘I want Neji Nii-San to take over our Clan, He is the best candidate for this and I can gladly help him with all my efforts’.  A single line and just 2 or 3 panels, it all takes.

For me killing Neji is where Kishi asking us silently, 

Do you really want these pair to happen despite having a blood stain of another character??? 

Most people said, ‘Yes!!!’, because they don’t give two shits about Neji. As long as Hinata gets Naruto, the main character’s Duck, that’s all there is to it. It doesn’t matter who dies, who lives. 

That's why Kishi is shitting on them by making her as a non-existent woman in the Boruto Manga.

Even in real life, there are many hopeless foolish little girls who would do anything for the man she loves. I've seen them and I always stay 2 miles away from them. I mean, they even ditch their own friends and spends her entire time with him and when he dumps her later, she will come back to her friends for consolation. I think Sansa Stark is the best example for this. She started out much similar to Sakura and Hinata, believing in Princes and shit, she even naively betrayed her father for the man she had crush on. But the author made her to learn her lesson in a much painful way and later she came out as a Queen who no longer needed any man at the end. I think, this is called Development.

At the end of the day, Romance and Sex is all that matters. The author knew it. So, he is feeding these girls with some low quality cookies and they are very glad to take and eat it.

#ask #anti naruhina #anti hinata #anti sakura #anti sasusaku #anti nh #anti ss #naruto analysis #sasunaru #sasunarusasu #sns #antisasusaku #antiss #antisakura

[miraculouscontent]

(non-Miraculous asks)

Assorted

Anonymous asked:

Lmao I don’t like winter either, except for me it’s because in the winter I don’t get to wear cute clothes and I don’t even have a cute jacket to make up for it, much less a jacket/hat/headcuffs/gloves matching set. Even on the rare occasion I do wear a skirt in the winter I have to wear super thick leggings/thermals, although at least there’s legwarmers. I don’t actually dislike winter itself, actually, just that it’s damn near hard to dress stylishly while also warmly during that season.

...You know what, fair.

I don’t like wearing “cute” clothes, but I’ve played character customization games before and tend to adjust my outfit based on the weather and snow leaves like no options--

Cardcaptor Sakura

Anonymous asked:

I've just figured out why you love Cardcaptor Sakura so much! Because it's...SOFT! Honestly, can relate.

S O F T

Anonymous asked:

May I ask why you didn't like the Clear Card arc(I faintly remember you possibly answering this question before so I'm sorry if you did!). I've only watched the regular Cardcaptor Sakura and pretty much the only scene in the Clear Card arc that I can remember is Syaoran confessing to Sakura, which I adored(and would make me tear up if I had a soul.). The opening is sweet, but I remember hearing that it coasts by on everyone's nostalgia. Is that true? Please don't be Sailor Moon Crystal Part II!

Syaoran confesses in the original as well, and then Sakura confesses back in the “Sealed Card” movie.

First things first, they do this weird thing where they take from both the manga and the show, which causes quite a few continuity errors. I haven’t seen the series in a while but I remember a particular issue with the two bears.

Furthermore, the series recycles a ton of past things from the original seasons.

Sakura being kept in the dark? Check.

“Mystery” villain? Check.

Dreams that Sakura barely remembers anyway until it’s convenient for the plot? Check.

Sakura being “at fault” in someway (the first+second season was her being inexperienced, the third being her not being powerful enough)? Check.

Characters know things and then intentionally keep Sakura out of the loop no matter how much it might hurt her. Also, without spoiling aspects of the series, it’s really annoying that the problem Sakura has this time is the exact opposite of the problem she has before, so it’s like oh, so she can’t win then. Fantastic.

Sakura is extremely powerful and yet is kept in the dark while everyone who knows just sort of coddles her. The series ruined a lot of characters for me (they’re still fine in the original) like Touya, Syaoran, and Kero/Yue, all because they keep being vague to keep the already uninteresting mystery stuff a secret.

It’s too the point where I just stop caring about the plot because characters will keep dancing around it, and the big mystery of these “clear cards” doesn’t actually make sense in certain episodes. Again, without spoiling it, the reason doesn’t line up when you go back to past episodes based on the knowledge that Sakura has.

It’s just a very exhausting series and it left me angry and dissatisfied. I put it on the same level as Yashahime in terms of “continuation of a past series but that I become frustrated watching.”

Anonymous asked:

I just found out on Wikipedia that in the Cardcaptors dub of Cardcaptor Sakura, Tomoyo was not only changed to Madison Taylor, but her elegant, polite, and refined speech was changed to VALLEY GIRL lingo! The reason for this was apparently that viewers wouldn’t know what to make of her ladylike-ness and deference to Sakura, which is also why they removed her crush on Sakura in the dub. So the producers think American kids are idiots?! Wow, I mean...I knew the dub was dumb but not THAT dumb.

lol, I saw a few seconds of the dub and was like, “n o p e.”

(I also got another set of asks from this person that I couldn’t really recover because I’m missing multiple pieces from it, but I’ll say that I 100% agree that Syaoran is bi erasure to some degree and people listing him as a “bi antagonist” is just--ugh, and also that people calling him a “simp” simply because he respects Sakura is incredibly annoying. Reminds me of how people treat Luka, because men who respect and adore their love interest are "weak.” Also agree that the show does the gay male relationships way better since Tomoyo’s and Tomoyo’s mother’s feelings are unrequited.)

(I did get this though:)

Anonymous asked:

Hi, yes, I am the same person who wrote about bi erasure in Cardcaptor Sakura! And, yes, I am right, thank you! I was at first worried that you’d disagree or that I’d come off a little too harsh or so but I’m pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the case and I’m glad you liked the ask! I’m also the same person who talked about Syaoran being called a simp by fans, because how dare you respect girls and not think they have cooties! He’s ten years old, can we not please? The bar for men is in hell!

Nah, you’re absolutely right. I feel like people are so used to the generic male love interest who treats the girl like garbage “bUt haS a hEaRt oF gOlD sEcReTlY” that wholly-respectful love interests get criticized for being “simps.”

other media

Anonymous asked:

I saw that yandere ask and your response and I can't believe you were able to find a way to make yandere simulator wholesome in some way. I would unironically read that fanfic idea

Aww, thank you! I appreciate it!

I’m a huge sucker for happy endings even in the face of very dark concepts.

Anonymous asked:

finally watching svtfoe and i might have only just finished season 1 but i just can not see the appeal of $t@r¢0 like i get that they're the mcs but the whole relationship seems like the type that wouldn't last long term living together

even the l0v3 squ@r3 somehow makes more sense

and that's a low bar to cross

I don’t remember enough of Star VS the Forces of Evil to list specific moments, but I do remember not being invested in Star and Marco as a ship. I was disappointed knowing that they’d inevitably be endgame.

Anonymous asked:

On the TV Tropes Heartwarming page for "My Little Pony: Equestria Girls--Magical Movie Night" it says under General "Twilight Sparkle has been through so much during the Friendship Games and at Camp Everfree, that it's extremely heartwarming to see Human Twilight finally being allowed to be a normal and happy teenage girl playing with her new best friends and not have life constantly finding new ways to torture her." And I was like, "Gosh, do i wish I could say the same thing about Marinette."

True. I’m not crazy about SciTwi but I do want Marinette to get her happy ending.

Anonymous asked:

I watched a video that went over what went wrong with Star vs. that not only showed that shipping was a major factor in the shows demise, but it also showed that the show had a Continuity Coordinator until the episode "Coronation". Guessing Miraculous never even had one to begin with?

Continuity?? In Miraculous?

Nah.

Anonymous asked:

This is coming late but I remember you mentioning Candace before. Did you not like P&F because of how she was treated? Though at least she got her laid-back, supportive, understanding guitar boy. ): Luka and Jeremy would likely get along well. Do you think Candace and Marinette would? Maybe they can help each other out with their stresses. Maybe Marinette can meet Stacy and see what a real best friend is like. ._.

She was part of the reason, yeah. “Doomed to fail” characters just make me feel so bad for them, and then there was that one episode that had the scenario of “what if she managed it” and everything went to hell. It wasn’t “Chat Blanc” bad, but I just didn’t like the implications.

And yeah, I think Candace and Marinette might get along.

Anonymous asked:

How did Princess Tutu end? Because I’ve been meaning to see it for a long while now, as I love Magical Girl and it seems like a “darker” take on the genre done RIGHT, since it’s not about tearing apart this genre made for girls to force the girls to suffer without any empowerment, or punishing girls for having power fantasies with some stereotypical trait applied to all girls tacked on, and it’s also shonen which PROVES that a Magical Girl show aimed at a male audience doesn’t HAVE to be about destroying the feminist basis of the genre in order to stroke their egos(I feel like I’m always repeating this, but it’s the only way I can say it that makes sense to me.). But I think you said somewhere that it has an unhappy ending. As far as I’m concerned, Ahiru went back to being a duck and Fakir swore to always stay by her side anyway, which I think was meant to be happy, although I hate the trend of “Magical Girl has to get rid of her power for love”. But was that the actual ending?

I don’t want to look it up because I’m scared, and I understand if you don’t want to answer this ask because it brings up bad memories and your followers who are currently watching Princess Tutu might not like it, but I really am curious. I still plan on watching it, but I wanna prepare myself for disappointment in case it’s not the brilliant “Dark Magical Girl done right” show that I was hoping for and that everybody else says it is. Then again, everybody says Madoka is good so there’s that.

It’s a sad ending from what I know, so just be warned; what you said I think is how it actually ends.

Anonymous asked:

Out of topic but you're reading "My gently raised beast"? I love that webtoon :D!

Yeah, I’m really liking it so far! I adore how Belinda/Blondina can be such a savage and a little morally gray at times.

Sex/Race Issues

Anonymous asked:

Isn’t it weird how attraction to men is considered feminine regardless of gender?

...I’ve never thought about that. Huh.

Is that related why bi women are usually seen as something “sexy” by men? Because I don’t know a lot about women’s stereotypical reaction to bi men but I imagine it’s not the same.

Anonymous asked:

What are your thoughts on Magical Boy anime(Cute High, Is This a Zombie, Mahou Shoujo Ore!, etc.). I personally do not like it, since the genre has always been about female empowerment and using femininity to fight evil(although there is a good number of gender fluidity in these shows as well, so one could easily say it’s weaponizing girlhood and womanhood, as well as femininity), and telling the not often told story of a female coming-of-age. It was always meant to be something female-dominated to contrast every male-dominated action genre out there ever, which is part of what made it special even if it shouldn’t be. So to see Magical Boys at all is a huge downer, because it shows yet another example of men hijacking a genre or safe space meant for women. Speaking of which, while most Magical Girl shows nowadays are of the grimdark “girls must PERISH for having power and ambitions ‘cuz PATRIARCHY”, most Magical Boy shows are not the type, and are usually lighthearted and fun like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Precure, and Tokyo Mew Mew, which sends the message that girls can’t have wants and dreams or try to be powerful while guys can, because anything girls have for themselves that makes them special and empowered will eventually be taken from them and given to guys, who really need it. Somehow. My last problem with it is that these shows are almost always parodies, which creates an unsettling picture of things that empower girls being laughingstocks. Your thoughts?

I’ve never seen any, though it does feel a little weird like - sort of like you said - we’re not allowed to have our own things, y’know?

Like if the boys at the park didn’t allow the girls to play the sports they were playing, so the girls invented their own sport/game, and then the boys steal the idea and start doing it themselves.

Like--they can do it, doesn’t make it feel any less sad.

Anonymous asked:

Hey, remember how you all said that someday people will look back on shows like Miraculous Ladybug and characters like Adrien and Chat Noir with disgust? Well, maybe people will feel that same way about dumb faux deconstructions like Yuki Yuna or Madoka Magica. I think we're on our way to that too as I see more people questioning and despising their fucked-up shit. For example, in 2018 Madoka Magica won the Sisterhood Award in Japan's Sense of Gender, because it supposedly shows relationships between girls in new and original ways that have never been seen before.

Fortunately, the comments were full of people who were upset at this, saying "I have no idea why Madoka Magica is so popular" or "male otaku-aimed anime featuring girls tends to be shitty with developing their bonds with each other and just delve into a cesspool of les-yay baiting" and how other Magical Girl shows aimed at women deserve that award more. Someone else blogged this and stated that if anything, Madoka Magica teaches the lesson that friendships between girls will always end in suffering, one or both parties dying, or catfighting over a man(and dying because if a boy doesn't love you then why keep living?).

And the comments were full of not people dissing her for her views or for "not understanding", but agreement, with one person pointing out how Heartcatch Precure, which just finished airing before Madoka, had more intricate relationships between the Magical Girls, and how every single one of them had a working mother, arcs dealing with their sisters aunts and grandmothers, and had Magical Girlhood be matrilineal(which other shows like Saint Tail, Devil Hunter Yohko, and Sailor Moon also do), which is more than the bog standard token working mom in Madoka when everyone else has dead female family members, if they're not outright living alone.

Or how Hugtto! Precure had the message "you can pursue any career you like; screw gender roles", with the blue girl sticking it to her brother by playing the guitar although he said it wasn't "ladylike" and showing a boy who unashamedly wears dresses. Or how Cardcaptor Sakura has a canon lesbian character(with unrequited feelings, but at least she isn't outright TORTURED by the narrative for having them, and her bond with the female lead is one of the cornerstones of the plot) who also had a working mom and all-female bodyguards, and a canon gay male couple(with none of the uke/seme bullshit). Or how Sailor Moon develops the friendships between girls in a genuine and stabilized way, doesn't punish them for having power, and doesn't have subliminal sexist stereotypical messages about them.

A user on Quora said it best(mildly paraphrased): "This show doesn't treat teenage girls like useless idiots, even if it allows them, occasionally, to behave like useless idiots." And Naoko Takeuchi explicitly said that she wrote Sailor Moon with the intention of showing strong heroines who bond with each other and that "a girl's best friend is another girl".

Meanwhile you have Gen Urobuchi saying that Magical Girls(read: girls with power) are destined to become detached from the world and that they need to be punished for their hubris like they're Al Qaeda(and yes, he used them as an example.), saying he was inspired by porn games as opposed to Faust, and sending messages to girls that they're all over emotional, weak-willed, naive, and destined to be victims of the world just for having dreams and sexualities and power fantasies (aka "hubris"), and how this is the natural order of things(not a critique like other people love to claim).

UranusxNeptune is proclaimed canon by Word of God, HomuMado and Kyosaya are left ambiguous at best. And yet Madoka gets the award over all these shows because it being male-written and male-aimed alone makes it superior to the female-written and female-aimed shows that have been doing this for longer and better(even though it reinforces lots of the misogynistic concepts prevalent in the real world.). It's insane. Even people who LIKE the show were saying that Madoka Magica does not deserve this award, or any credit for being "feminist" or "revolutionary". And I agree with them, even if I don't like the show. It's infuriating. I hate it, and I'm glad that other people hate it, too.

Ah, so we’re making progress at least!

Just... very, extremely slowly.

Anonymous asked:

Hi, I sent that “white man triggered about representation” ask and the missing part was him saying that the reason women and/or minority groups don’t deserve representation is that they haven’t contributed enough to society at large and made no accomplishments in society because they were too busy being an oppressed grain percentage of the population(for minorities at least).

Yeah...he also said some shit about how if media was “realistic”, then there’d only be five minority members in the secondary cast(not even in the main cast; SECONDARY!) and they’d all have five lines between them. Yes, really. And that “blackwashing”(still laughing at that word) is bad because it both makes white people feel “marginalized” and that black people get a bigger idea of their role in society than they actually have, much less deserve, citing that “Everybody looses(sic).” Kinda like how white people have felt for an eternity?

And when I told him that white people only choose to feel marginalized, and that nobody wants to see white male leads and predominantly white/male casts anymore(he kept coming up with excuses for his stories to be about White men, saying that execs kept telling him to make his characters diverse even though everything he makes is apparently sex Ed for teenage boys or park safety that’s somehow aimed at white men because they can’t relate to a black woman) he claimed I was being offensive and tone-deaf just for using brutal honesty, and only responded to the things

(another missing ask?)

Medieval times, because history doesn’t give a damn about teaching us anything about women and/or people of color if it’s not about oppression, slavery, and subjugation. Which he explicitly stated he agrees with, that we learn about Civil rights all the time in school because/but that there isn’t anything else to the culture of those who aren’t white men. He even had the nerve to ask me how represented I thought he was as a white man in this country(how about “TOO DAMN MUCH!”)?

And asked if the representation in media should be proportionate to the percentage and contribution of certain groups of a given population, which is obviously trying to trick me into agreeing with his shitty logic that white men are the only ones who deserve to be represented in media because they’re the only ones who did anything influential and life-changing in the real world.

But by his logic, we should all be represented equally because men AND women from ALL ethnic groups have made contributions to this society. And if he’s shitting about population, then there are actually more people of color in the world than whites, seeing as the term literally means “anyone who isn’t white” and white is one of only so many groups out there, and there are slightly more women in the world than men? So shouldn’t that mean that women of color should be the most represented(I don’t really think that, of course, I’m just showing his hypocrisy.).

I don’t know why he even likes My Little Pony, a female- dominated show, if he thinks shit like this. Why doesn’t he just go watch those male-dominated shows about White people? After all, there are a lot of those to choose from. Ugh. You’re right, I should have blocked him. I can’t stand people who think like this and don’t know why they do so! It’s like those straight white males from the 50s who are all like “those Mexicans/women/gays are taking away everything from us!” This is basically every straw man argument in the book and I fucking hate it.

I have to do a double-take whenever I see the word “blackwashing.”

I don’t know, I just don’t understand this whole thing about white people getting more representation, and the whole thing about secondary casts is dumb. Like, why does “the majority of the world is white” (for example) equal “well I guess we have to make our main cast white” then???

So I guess shows that feature Mexican characters should be white then if it’s made by an American studio? And if the answer they’d give is “no” because “well in THAT case, it makes sense because white people aren’t as prominent there,” then what about fantasy stories where it’s a world not based on any real life locations? Maybe black people are the majority in that world? Is there a problem then (no but for real; fantasy series that inverses everything and the least represented people are represented the most, and straight people barely exist)?

Not only that, but what about personalities? I guess that means that you can’t make a personality for a character anymore; it has to be based on what the majority of people’s personalities are.

Even if they wanted to run on the logic that “we have to follow the percentages the world has,” wouldn’t that mean that black people technically deserve more rep based on all the past films/shows from like--decades ago where black people were basically nonexistent? Sounds like we’re just evening the scale now.

Anonymous asked:

The other terrible thing about guys saying “we included girls in our shows so now it’s your turn; when are you gonna include us?!” is that it’s so sexist and hypocritical not just because the playing field is already non-equal as I said before and you did as well, but because even the demands are not equal. I just noticed it today, and it infuriates me. Women ask for the bare minimum when it comes to being included in(already ubiquitous) male-dominated shows, like they might ask for a girl to be included here and there, but they almost never ask for the main character or even most of the characters to be female.

Like in the Death Note fandom for instance, I hear loads of people complaining(and rightfully so) about the show’s sexism, and one of the most common complaints I hear is that Near or Mello should’ve been a girl; I’ve never heard even one person say that L or even Light should’ve been a girl as well, or even both(or all four); it has to be one or the other. Granted, this might be because they understand the genre is aimed at boys, but it’s more likely that women are expected to not ask for too much for themselves.

Meanwhile with guys it’s the opposite, when they ask to be included in female-dominated shows(which we already don’t have enough of), it’s always a demand to put them front and center, to make them the main characters, sometimes even to remove all the women and replace them with men.

Take the Precure fandom for example, a lot of male fans say they want a male Cure, but they don’t stop there, they say they want a male Cure to be the lead character. There’s even a petition online to get Toei to produce a Precure installment with a male lead Cure. Some go so far as to say they want an all-male team of Cures. Their reason? To show guys that it’s okay for them to be feminine heroes too.

So you see now why I have a problem with men intruding upon a show meant for girls and demanding they be put front and center? And it’s not just Precure either; men in the Sailor Moon fandom think it’s sexist that they make only women able to be Sailor Senshi, and that they treat masculinity as weak just because they herald femininity as strong(ignoring the existence of Makoto and Haruka), that Project MC^2 should have had a male character in the main cast who was just as competent as the girls, that SIX: The Musical should have a version with all kings(even though it’s about the REAL LIFE wives of Henry VIII reclaiming their stories once and for all, like I’m fine with genderbent covers on YouTube, but these men are literally ignoring the cultural impact of misogyny and how it influences these women’s stories, tearing apart a feminist narrative, to make it center around men.), and, most aggravatingly, that MLPFIM is sexist and needs to have a male pony in the mane cast, if not as the de facto mane character.

It’s infuriating how men can’t handle it when things are simply NOT ABOUT THEM. It’s like someone said in response to the male Precure petition I mentioned above: “Let the women have this one.” When will men get over their whataboutery and realize that some things are just NOT ABOUT THEM?! It’s infuriating. I love when men get into “girly” shows, but I’m also worried now because they’re always stomping all over girl-power, female-centered, and feminist works and demanding that they be made male-dominated and put men front-and-center like everything else.

It’s like if you’re a mother and you only let your son have cupcakes after dinner and never your daughter, so she asks for one of her brothers’ cupcakes, not even the biggest, cutest, tastiest cupcake, just any cupcake, even if it’s the smallest one. And then when the daughter finally gets cupcakes after all this time, the brother basically tries to take them all away from her as if he hasn’t been having all the cupcakes this whole time. It’s not FAIR.

Women ask for the bare minimum of female representation in male-driven works; men ask to be given all the spotlight in female-driven ones as if they don’t have enough already, when women actually DON’T have enough already. Yeah, it might be because women realize those stories are still meant for boys, but then guys should realize that these shows are made for girls, or maybe guys should suck it up and allow a show aimed at them to star a girl(plus shows shouldn’t be gender-segregated in the first place.). It feels like women are used to not asking for too much, while guys think they can get whatever they want.

I feel exhausted just reading that, omg. The entitlement on display.

Watching this anon and the above anon at the same time is just a big showcase of over-represented people feeling under-represented because other people asked for a smidge of attention.

Didn’t basically the same thing happen with BLM and feminist movements in general? Entitled white guys were just like, “tHEY JUST WANT SO MUCH ATTENTION. SO SELFISH. U_U”

I s2g, if these same people were flung into an alternate dimension where they got under-represented and discriminated, they’d just break down crying over hOw iGnoReD tHEy aRe.

Anonymous asked:

So, as you know, I’m working on a Magical Girl story and the main character’s best friend who is part of her team basically has a Knight complex where she thinks she has to be a perfect flawless hero who saves everyone and if she can’t then she’s not a good Magical Girl. And she’s developed severe depression  because of it, thinking she’s worthless if she doesn’t live up to her self-imposed standards of a hero, until her friends help her to realize that her worth doesn’t come from being a hero and that she puts herself under too much pressure to fit that perfect, unrealistic, unattainable mold.

And over time, she heals and realizes that not being perfect and always on the lookout for help is okay and that she can find a balance and make mistakes and do things for herself. It doesn’t make her any less of a hero because of it and she still gets to be brave and awesome and kickass alongside the other girls! Showing that it’s okay to be heroic but not to revolve your whole life around it.

Now, if Puella Magi Madoka Magica had done the same thing with Sayaka Miki, showing that it’s okay to be a hero and want to protect your loved ones(or that boy you like) but to not push yourself too far, then I would be totally down for that! It would’ve been MUCH better than the crap we got. But instead we got a girl putting her life on the line and fighting to protect those she cared about and being brutally tormented for it by the narrative, because girls shouldn’t want to protect anyone. ;(

:(

(Congrats on your story though! That sounds really interesting!)

Anonymous asked:

I’m watching a video about the sexualization of Kim Possible and how Sadie Stanley got hate for being a teenage girl playing a teenage girl because she looked her age and then people couldn’t project their mastubatory fantasies on a live-action child character while pretending they’re not ephebophiles...ick. And in the comments someone said that teenage girls have various body types and shouldn’t be sexualized for it.

Then someone asked them how you would design a busty teenage character without fan service or problematic elements(just because of the tail episode or the fact that the cast is nearly entirely female), but also deny any elements of sexism that are actually there by pulling Death of the Author all the time?! Anytime something problematic comes up in the show they just ignore it or say they’ll pretend it doesn’t exist so that they can keep hyping it up as feminist. And it sucks.

Madoka is aimed at adult men. It is a show that tears apart a female-driven power fantasy and makes the girls suffer for their hopes dreams and ambitions for grown men. It explicitly says that the reason this happens to them is BECAUSE they’re ALL overly-emotional, and that if Kyubey didn’t crush their dreams and make them the emotional expendable power sources of the universe, humanity wouldn’t be able to progress. The writers compared them to terrorists and said they didn’t watch a single Magical Girl show and instead based the anime off of porn games.

And while the original anime admittedly wasn’t very obviously fan service heavy, there’s still plenty questionable shots if you notice carefully, such as the camera zooming in on Sayaka’s crotch at the tail end of her transformation, episode 9 having Kyoko’s crotch take up the entire screen as she slomps down to eat, and focusing on Mami’s breasts as they jiggle. And the ongoing focus on other girls’ tits and ass as they transform, not to mention the swimsuit transformations which even have figurines.

The wiki has an entire ARTICLE on Mami’s “mammaries” and describes them as their own character in replacement to Mami, even having a lineup of all five girls in order from least to most busty. And obviously the flatter girls(I think Homura was the flattest) looked ashamed because you have to want to cater to that fetishizing male gaze. There are even eyeroll-worthy pictures of Sayaka and Madoka groping Mami’s breasts while she makes a blushing and wide-mouthed expression, and one of Mami riding a motorcycle in a bikini while smiling at the viewer, showing off her ass. And there’s one where Mami looks pissed because she’s no longer “stacked up top”.

I don’t give a shit what people say about “the show has no male gaze!”. A bunch of grown ass men made torture porn about teenage girls suffering and crying, it’s male gaze in its definition. And if it weren’t, the fandom wouldn’t pick up on it. The Sailor Moon fandom has a joke about Sailor Jupiter’s “talents” but the difference is that the joke is about making fun of the dub’s decision to censor any mention of breasts(aka censoring the female body/sexuality), while keeping in the “boing” sound(they were talking about playing the lead role in Snow White, hence the word “talents”.), so “talents” became a code word for “busts” similar to how “cousins” became a code word for “girlfriends” Oh, and the Sailor Moon wiki doesn’t have a whole page about her breasts themselves that reads like grown men were fapping while writing it.

Plus, the original scene was made for comedy and was about her OWNING her sexuality, rather than it being taken from her and molding her into a sexual commodity like Puella Magi and it’s fandom does to Mami(and let’s face it, the fandom wouldn’t be able to do so if the show didn’t endorce it first.). And let’s not forget that these are not only teenage girls, but LICHES, the show goes on and on about how being a Magical Girl makes them undead zombies and how horrible that is(what an excellent way to tear down a female power fantasy; women gaining power or fulfilling their dreams will make them monsters who ultimately lose their humanity; what hubris!), and yet does crap like this and everybody seems to forget. So it’s either that or they’re necrophiliacs ON TOP OF being ephebophiles. I dunno...I’m just pissed, I see this shit, and I’m pissed. I wasn’t even gonna send any Madoka salt today but then I saw this and I had to get it out to whoever would listen. So thank you for giving me the chance to vent.

Hey, no problem! Glad you could vent to me! Going through all of these sexism-centric asks is so sad, omg.

Anonymous asked:

You know when you really think about it, TV Tropes actually has a lot of nerve making an “Improbably Female Cast” trope when so many films have casts that are improbably male-dominated even when they have absolutely no reason to be and actually shouldn’t be. So many movies have an unrealistically large amount of male characters in a setting where there should be just as many if not more female characters. Crowd scenes tend to be over 60-80% male for virtually no reason, and unless a character is there for romance, to be ogled by the male gaze, to be a STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER LIKE OMG, to be motherly(if not an actual mother, unless it’s the type of story where she gets killed because you can’t have too many women walking around, that would be IMPROBABLE!!!), or any other stereotypical female role, they’re male by default, even when they could’ve been female.

Even non-human or fantasy creatures will have no female creatures in the species for no good reason. What’s the reason for the fucking Minions to all be male? And I mean the in-universe reason, not the “women are too smart to be funny haha I’m so respectful of women” bullshit that Pierre Coffin keeps spoon feeding MRAs that they think women should take as a goddamn compliment. Why are all the rats in Ratatouille male?! Why are all the dogs in Up male? Why are all the giants in the BFG male(there was even an entire scene dedicated to mocking the idea of giant women ever existing; giants are always male, you see.)?

And the worst part about this shit is that even when a species should be predominantly female, the writers will make them all male anyway, or make an animal male when they should be female! Like seriously, it’s like the male writers in charge of this shit don’t care about “realism” in their stories, unless it serves to include women(more on that later). The hyenas in The Lion King are all stupidly male even though hyenas in the real world are matriarchal and the males among them are pathetic weaklings who don’t do—and can’t do—shit. In The Bee Movie the major bees are all male despite bees being a female-dominated species where the males are literally just drones. In Finding Nemo either Marvin or Nemo should’ve changed to female to mate, but ah, then we’d have to write a female character. And she’s a fish who can’t be sexualized so what are we and the straight men watching this going to do? In Frozen Sven should’ve been female because female reindeer grow their antlers in the winter rather than the summer. In Barnyard the cow should’ve been female for obvious reasons. Where’s the Improbably Male Animal trope?

Where’s the Improvably Male Species trope? There is none because TV Tropes sees men as able to encompass a wide variety of roles, while women are seen as in the wrong the second they step out of line or take center stage. And when they do have women it’s often to have them spout some crap about sexism as a testament to equality, which is ultimately just an excuse to let your films stay male-dominated while pretending to pay homage to feminism.

And also because women must be endlessly hopelessly oppressed of course, and their gender must be their all-consuming identity. Why did Scarlett Overkill from the Minions have to be the first female supervillain in a fictional universe where yellow mad scientist aliens exist? Why did Colette from Ratatouille have to be the only female chef in her kitchen when a rat can cook and nobody questions it? Easy, because it’s a cheap way to keep your female characters in the minority. These male writers are using sexism as a gimmick to keep female characters contained.

These stories are never centered AROUND the female character and her push to be taken seriously in such a male-dominated field, nor do they push for more women to be encouraged to pursue such fields; they’re merely the Cool Girl who can hang with the boys, and the ONLY girl at that, meanwhile the justification for this is that “that’s just how it is” even though it’s a fantasy world where gender norms and sexism could simply not exist and it could just be taken for granted that girls can do things, instead of little girls who watch these movies always have to see that they’re automatically lesser than the boys around them just for being girls.

But when animals that should be female are male? Nobody questions it because “it’s just a movie, don’t take it too seriously!” It’s not about realism; it’s about excluding women and having as little of them as possible, then revolving their character around their gender and oppression so you can get applauded for being feminist(while still being allowed to make male-dominated movies) when you really just did the bare minimum. What if a movie came out with a female-dominated cast, had animals be female when they’re male in real life, and crowd scenes were pretty much 76% women? What if, in said movie, a male character showed up and instantly went on a rant on how whatever female-dominated job he’s in that the story focuses on goes out of its way to exclude men, or how he was discouraged from pursuing the job because he’s a man?

However, the main character is still female, and he’s just her hot, sexy accessory—oops, I mean boyfriend! A man in a sea of women. People would talk. What if most movies were like this? That would be insane, wouldn’t it? Then why isn’t this seen as equally implausible. I mean, just look at the tropes made on the rare occasion that they DO do something right. The discussion section will be full of men saying it’s wrong. Just look at the discussion section for Most Writers Are Male, which claims it’s sexist to recognize that media frequently underrepresents women because “sometimes the guy making the show doesn’t have any female friends to star in it!”, or the one for Missing White Woman Syndrome, which is full of white supremacists saying that nobody sees black girls as less worthy to be searched for than white girls, and that this trope is racist for saying that white girls who go missing don’t deserve to be looked for or found. So of course they’re gonna play it safe and criticize and invalidate women for daring to want to make themselves seen, because it’s too much of a risk to upset the status quo. Or else you’ll be attacked by people’s whataboutery. Damn, I hate it here.

All of this!!

May I also throw in stuff like Pokemon, where Pokemon like the Machop line can be female and don’t even look different?? Also that reveal where they showed that there were plans to make female forms for Pokemon like Psyduck and Charizard and Ariados and then were like ehhhhhhhh--

Anonymous asked:

Hi, so remember when you said in response to that Improbably Female Cast ask that people would be absolutely crucified for saying that a show has “too many pocs”, well, it turns out that TV Tropes does have a trope for that as well: Black Vikings. Like, that’s literally what it’s called, Black. Vikings. You don’t need to be black or a Viking to qualify for the trope, all you need to be is a person of color where you don’t “belong”. Somebody even pointed out that this trope is racist.

:|

I’m--

-_-

Anonymous asked:

I was just watching a video called “The Curse of Minky Momo: Anime’s Unluckiest Magical Girl”(for those who are curious, she basically gets run over by a truck at the end of the story, don’t you just love the 80s?! 🤦🏾‍♀️), and I was liking it until the part where the guy in the video(because of course it was a guy.) was talking about the plot and said “it’s a Magical Girl show, they’re not exactly known for their story.” and I just stopped watching the video after that. A guy condemns female-driven and centered power fantasies and wish-fulfillment, that show traits seen as “for girls” as a GOOD THING, and allows men to take inspiration from them by handling Theo problems in a “feminine” way, hence getting over their toxic masculinity and showing boys that it’s okay for them to support girls and have female role models, that show girls heroes who are girls, fighting together, befriending and empowering each other even if they like the same guy, saving/carrying dudes, and having power-centered things are looked down upon while female ones are praised.

I will fight them because no, it’s the fucking other way around. No one says “it’s a superhero story, it’s supposed to be bad” or “it’s an action flick, it’s not known for its quality content” or “it’s a buddy flick so you can’t exactly expect it to be good if you know what I mean!” People only say this shit about Magical Girl, about Princess movies, about chick flicks, about Barbie, about shojo, about anything female-oriented.

Granted, much of the stuff I said about why Magical Girl is awesome and inspiring to girls is taken from Precure, Cardcaptor Sakura, and of course Sailor Moon, and I haven’t actually watched Minky Momo and am not very familiar with pre-90s shows. So for all I know, perhaps Minky Momo did NOT have a good, structured story. Maybe Magical Girl shows at the time really were badly-written. But that’s different than lumping an ENTIRE freaking genre under the “badly-written shit” umbrella just for the vile sin of being...GASP! By, for, and about girls!

However bad Minky Momo was, it canNOT be bad simply because it’s a Magical Girl show, and suggesting otherwise is sexist. The only Magical Girl show I can think of that I dissed on first sight was LoliRock, and that was mainly because I was already well-versed enough in Magical Girl to see every trend and cliche repeated beat-by-beat. I thought it was bland and added nothing to the genre, that the stick-thin figures and lack of body diversity made them look like Barbie dolls(though I’m kinda right on that one.), that the lead Girl was still white, fair-skinned and blonde with long hair and blue eyes, that the songs were too auto tuned(which they are but they’re still pretty lit.), how cliche it was that they were princesses from a magical land, and that it took too much from Sailor Moon, Precure, and WITCH.

But NEVER because “yuck it’s Magical Girl it’s too girly and not enough men ew”. And I was still able to recognize its merits. My point is, a girl who is well-versed in Magical Girl and aware of its trends and generally loving the genre and taking empowerment from it(especially when she is MEANT to take empowerment from it) pointing at one show in the genre and saying “I don’t like this one, I’ve seen it all before” is ENTIRELY different from an outsider guy who the genre isn’t even meant for saying the entire genre is bad and incapable of good storytelling unless it’s willing to amp up the suffering and angst for him.

And the worst part is? None of the commenters said anything about that blatantly sexist line. No one condemned the guy in the video for basically insinuating that girls’ shows can’t ever be good “because, you know, Girl”. Although I will admit that I was sickened and didn’t read far much, and even if someone did say it, the response was probably “well I mean he’s not right except for Madoka”. So glad I didn’t watch that motherfucker. And for the record, I actually ended up loving LoliRock!

In a perfect world, you would’ve seen the top comment of, “dude, not cool, don’t stereotype all Magical Girl anime as not having good stories”

Heck, even from beyond the sexism thing, I just don’t like generalizing like that?? It feels so... wrong? Not only that, but being like, “meh, it’s a Magical Girl anime so my standards for the story was already low”??? It feels like that, anyway.

Anonymous asked:

Yeah the whole “white femininity overshadows Black femininity” thing is a really common racist notion in society and sadly bleeds into our media as well, even children’s media. Think of how Tiana from The Princess and the Frog is forced to be a “hardworking oppressed black woman” whose story takes place in New Orleans during segregation, while none of the other Disney Princess movies’ stories demand that their character be oppressed for their race(gender, yes, sometimes, but never race) and get Disney literally couldn’t expand their horizons enough to even think of making a Black-led Disney Princess movie that wasn’t shrouded in racism and hardships, as if Black people are defined by their race.

Now that I think about it, as a little girl, I remember liking Tiana but also thinking that she wasn’t a “real” Princess because we never saw her with a pretty castle and she barely got to wear her dress for long. Instead they put her to work. And on top of that is the fact that they purposely discussion. The point here is that Rapunzel’s white femininity is designed to overshadow Tiana’s Black femininity. The fact that the first and only Black Disney Princess is a frog for most of her movie and constantly has her hair tied back(unlike literally any of the others) is succeeded immediately by a blonde white girl who dances, bakes, paints, and twirls around in a purple dress with flowers in her hair, long luminous blonde hair that is rubbed in our faces, is not a coincidence.

An article I read stated that Rapunzel came on the heels of Tiana to reset the status quo, so that Disney could redirect back to what femininity and Princesshood REALLY means. And I agree with them! It’s like Disney created Tiana and went “good, now we finally got creating a Black Disney Princess out of the way, now let’s go back to designing a REAL Princess, by which we mean white, blonde, green-eyed, and our ideal representation of femininity. Phew, that’s better.”. And this isn’t an attack on Rapunzel! I actually really like her and her movie. She, Tiana, and Merida are actually tied for my favorite Disney Princesses. But that doesn’t mean she’s perfect. And while it’s obviously not her fault nor is it something she consciously does, her character design and concept is designed around white femininity, and when she comes directly on the heels of Tiana, it’s also designed around eradicating Black femininity. Could you even imagine how revolutionary it would be if Rapunzel were Black? It would

(missing ask?)

little White girls already get to see and be every single day in this society. But no, you can only have one Black girl represented one way, while white girls can be whatever they like. I know that Merida was tomboyish but it just reinforces this notion further as there are already so many white Disney Princesses. It just feels as if white girls don’t risk losing their white femininity even when portrayed as masculine. As if even the most masculine white girl is more feminine than the most

(missing ask?)

Honestly, reading this clears up so much I’ve always wondered about... idk what you’d call it. Black-targeted media? Black characters in media in general maybe?

I did notice the way they were often written but I didn’t know if that was just that black people had such different experiences that they had a “culture” of sorts that writing falls into automatically, or if they preferred to be written that way (I know I say it like it’s a hivemind and I swear that’s not my intent jfkdgjfg; basically what I’m saying is that I was always confused because it felt like white people could be written in any role even if they didn’t fit it whereas black people fell into a category).

I guess the way I can compare it is how LGB people often fall into the trope in media of “WE HAVE TO TACKLE THE STRUGGLES THEY FACE DATING SOMEONE OF THE SAME SEX” instead of just telling a normal story.

So hearing the whole thing about black princesses makes so much more sense.

#other: non ml talk #((This got lost in my drafts whoops.))

[psalloacappella]

scherzo

Day 2 Prompt:  Cooking // “I didn’t know you had that habit.”

@sasusakublankperiodweek

Ao3 | FFN | ↓

“You miss him — don’t deny it! You’re a softhearted man.”

“I plead the fifth.”

Quiet laughing, shared only in a small clearing at the edge of the world, filthier than they like but close to the salt and earth and sea, nothing in between them but love and a basket of peeled fruit.

The first time she does it, Sasuke is quite sure he’s succumbing to blindness, or at least some degradation of sight. Must have been a trick of the light.

The second time she does it prompts a double-take.

On the third time he looms up behind her as she crouches near the fruit basket, and can’t help the incredulous sigh that escapes him, which startles her; in hindsight, his approach was a poor choice of abrupt entrance into her space, considering she’s been putting a sharp object so close to her lips.

Discarded rinds flutter to the forest floor as well — as butterflies, as kaleidoscopic confetti littering the ground beneath them from her produce peeling.

“Sasuke-kun!” The knife falls to the dirt with a keen metal pitch. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“What are you doing, Sakura?”

“You said your vision was fine,” she says with a pout. “Making dinner, obviously.”

“And . . . have you always done that?”

“Done what?”

A rustle and sigh, not wanting to give form and shape to the action. Plucking up the knife now spattered with dry soil, she gently cleans it against the material of her thigh and settles into her haunches properly, seeming puzzled. Flame of the small makeshift pit of fire popping merrily, a boiling stone pot waiting to be fed previously-peeled vegetables. Between her thumb and forefinger she dangles the knife absentmindedly.

Maybe it’s a silly worry — maybe he’s just hungry. Brow furrowing, he decides to tell the truth in his sometimes brusque way.

“Just be careful with that. And anyway, where’d you pick that up? Seems like something our teammate might do.”

When her eyes flash for a moment, bright in the fading daylight, he considers that so far out from the main road, no one could hear him scream. Ah, stupid response.

She rolls those elegant green eyes in a long, mocking arc, and blows a strand of long pink hair out of her face. Both of them are a bit scruffy, a long way from an inn or even a village, off the grid for a while after encounters with persistent bandits. Possessing renowned abilities and not exactly strangers to the world after being honored post-war, they concluded they may have overdone it in their retaliation.

And, propping up the bodies afterward near a visible post near the road (gently, of course, and with all limbs intact!), they decided to travel light and low the following weeks.

They’ve watched each other transform into slightly more feral versions of one another. It’s not unwelcome, the smudges on her face and the ragged edges of her hair beginning to reach her waist. He wonders what he must look like to her; brutish, perhaps, although by the way they’re so close at night, perhaps not.

She’s not exactly the same girl he left behind.

“Is poisoning the way you wanted to go, darling?”

Sasuke blanches. “Sakura?”

Flipping the knife and catching it again, she aims the point at him. “Do not compare me to Naruto, or there will be a tragic accident here indeed.”

He’s done this before, stumbled into a flippant comment that he doesn’t expect to get her going. Well, he’s learning.

“In fact, don’t compare any woman to Naruto,” she adds, wrinkling her nose. “Not if you prefer living.”

Sasuke tamps down a snort that could be laughter. He doesn’t usually stop her rants — they’re sort of endearing.

“Listen, I know you were wandering around the world with your own . . . aims,” she says, waving the knife around again, “but I did an absurd lineup of missions while you were gone:  reconnaissance, medical dispatch, undercover — yes, I did, I see that smirk of yours, and don’t you know women tend to have much, much higher completion rates than the men on those?”

Yes, Sasuke knows all these things, but getting her heated, sometimes, is a joy and entertainment in itself that he’s at least been smart enough not to admit. Assumes she’ll discover it eventually, the way he quiets down in the face of her temper, the shameless way he’s realized he watches her eyes and lips and an angry rouge simmer up through the skin of cheeks and chest.

“Not to mention I’m usually the only kunoichi on those missions, or at the very least outnumbered; do you know what it’s like to bunk with a whole damn bunch of you? Gods!”

Jabbing the knifepoint in the basket next to her laden with a colorful bouquet of chopped produce, it comes up with a piece of apple, which she points at him in a vaguely threatening manner.

The sight of this particular fruit sends a strange pang throughout, plucking at a string in his heart in the vein of a vibrating and resonating harp.

“And if you’re worried about me hurting myself,” she says with a sharp tongue cluck, “I’ll have you know — but you should already know! — that I’ve performed countless surgeries, sewed up hundreds of bodies, been horribly poisoned, pinned like a cushion, and sure maybe I have picked up a gross habit or two from Naruto, but you know what being around him is like, he rubs off on everyone, and the point is,” and now she takes an angry bite of the apple chunk that’s still speared through with the knife, chewing angrily, and waves the uneaten half at him some more, “I am perfectly capable of using knives, and at total and complete liberty to lick the knife when I’m done! It isn’t the worst thing you can put in your mouth anyway. You’re one to talk:  You put all sorts of inanimate things in your mouth, even when I offer to help you, you were bandaging wounds with your teeth for gods’ sake!”

Just about spent, she seems to burn even brighter in the dusk. Sasuke thinks of fruit on hospital floors, the earth splitting beneath his feet:  She is at once something gentle, something fierce.

When she tosses the knife back into the fruit basket and the spearing of a cleaved, unlucky fruit chunk sounds between them, Sasuke’s too slow to hide his smirk and knows he’s been found out.

“You think this is funny! Oh-ho, you think it’s hilarious when I’m mad, don’t you? When I defend myself?”

Sasuke shakes his head, lackadaisical. Settled in and sated like a large jungle cat. “I didn’t want you cutting yourself. That’s all.”

“Could’ve saved me the rant, then,” she mutters. Her stomach growls louder than she anticipates, and she presses her hands to her face and groans. “So embarrassing! I’m hungry, dirty, fucking vagabond vogue and you just sit there and you look so, ugh, self-satisfied.”

Sighing, she tumbles back into a sitting position and cards a hand through her long hair.

“I shouldn’t have compared you to Naruto,” he offers, still fighting a smirk. “It wasn’t what I meant in the slightest.” He pauses. “I . .  like you this way.”

“Oh, what way?”

“ . . . scrappy?”

“You mean filthy?”

“Strong?”

“Should’ve known that by now.”

“Indeed.”

“Bandits? A lil’ thing called the Fourth Shinobi War? Naruto’s ribs?”

“Ah, now who’s bringing up the idiot?”

“You miss him — don’t deny it! You’re a softhearted man.”

“I plead the fifth.”

Quiet laughing, shared only in a small clearing at the edge of the world, filthier than they like but close to the salt and earth and sea, nothing in between them but love and a basket of peeled fruit.

“Perhaps . . . I did speak out of turn.”

Sakura leans back on hands, tosses her head to the sky to beam at the budding evening stars.

“I do appreciate it, though. You caring, I mean,” she adds. “But I promise I know my way around sharp objects.”

Something slips from his lips in undertone, a quiet remark that draws her mischievous green gaze.

“That too,” she says. She tosses her long, wild hair over her shoulder and meets his eyes head-on.

Staring back and channeling the same crackling heat as the fire a few feet away.

“So,” she says triumphantly, eyes aglitter, “shall we discuss, over dinner, the bad habits involving your mouth, Sasuke-kun?”

#SSBlankPeriod2021 #SSBPDay2 #sasusaku #psalloacappella:SSBP

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 76 Rundown

Code Geass: So we’ve come to this, been kind of avoiding this episode, part of the reason I did the Rebuild marathon last week was to put off this episode for as long as I could. Shirley’s death is fucking bullshit, the whole thing feels like a farce, she dies from trying to help him against someone that wasn’t even trying to kill him just because she triggered Rolo’s Yandere Simulator instincts. It’s a foregone conclusion that Shirley would die at some point, Lelouch is a tragic figure and having him be happy doesn’t really fit his character arc as the martyr that will save the world, like the Zero Requiem would be really fucked up if Shirley was still alive and had to watch Lelouch become Gundam Hitler and then get stabbed. But still the matter of fact nature of her death is so weird, like I feel like a lot of people originally knew this was coming and kind of braced themselves for it but it’s so weird and contrived and sad, Euphy’s death made me cry and this didn’t quite get there but I did get a bit weepy, like fuck this show man, it knows what it’s doing and pulls on the emotional manipulation hard.

Inuyasha: Another filler episode this time around, this one’s pretty funny though with Jaken doing all kinds of Team Rocket-esque hijinks to steal the Tessaiga, it’s some good character building for Jaken and Rin before Rin gets kidnapped leading to the actual canon part of this story and plus there’s a lot of cute fluff with Inuyasha’s group just kinda killing time, like they’re still traveling but they seem to be taking it easy and playing games and shit this time around. Also Kagome definitely saw Inuyasha’s junk in the hot spring so that’s a good reverse on that, we get basically no fanservice for the girls but Inuyasha gets splayed out and spends the climax shirtless so that’s some defying expectations right there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Black Black Club arc concludes with Yusuke and Kuwabara vs the Toguros. Honestly this fight does a really great job of subverting expectations since you think it’s going to be two on two but then Younger Toguro basically uses his brother as an Equip Spell Card and it’s essentially one on two. Kuwabara gets his flash of Yukina’s backstory and his Super Saiyan powerup which is pretty standard for how these arcs end but Toguro doesn’t seem that phased by it which is because he isn’t and this is all a ruse and Toguro fakes his loss so Sakyo can win his bet and get rid of Tarukane. The Black Black Club shenanigans have been in the background of this whole arc and spicing up the fights that are otherwise Yusuke and Kuwabara just plowing through mooks so it’s really neat that it ends this way so it can subvert how things are supposed to go and still give us a cool fight, it reminds me of how arcs tend to end in Hunter x Hunter where the climax is often undercut because of outside forces. I think I like this version better though because HxH tends to go for an anticlimax, this is a standard climax but it doesn’t mean what we think it means at first and that’s really kinda cool. Also Kuwabara tells Yukina to not give up on humans and Hiei saves her without telling her he’s his brother cause he thinks she’s better off this way.

Fate Zero: We take a detour from anything of importance to see how Baby Rin is doing, it’s pretty much completely unrelated to anything going on but it is pretty cute and gives some nice character stuff for her that puts her arc from UBW in a new light so that’s nice. Also Kariya shows his face again and reminds us that he’s really the only one who has any good reason for trying to get the Grail amongst all the child murderers, arrogant kids, arrogant adults and general war criminals in this fight. Everyone’s basically “I am a dick, gimme the grail” or “My family’s a dick, gimme the grail to shut them up” and while Kariya is in the latter camp, he’s also doing it to save Sakura and not just “Welp that’s life.” Given that Sakura’s still with the Matous in UBW and no one besides Kiritsugu and Kotomine and Waver are confirmed alive, we probably know how that went.

Konosuba: So the big showdown with the Mobile Fortress is here, I do kinda like how Konosuba peppers mentions of the big bad throughout the arc so it builds the hype when it finally shows up. Everyone gets serious and actually does shit to take down the Wild Wild West Spider Tank, unfortunately it’s not piloted by a racist old man in a wheelchair but a dead guy that didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. For building it on the cheap he sure made it sturdy at least, but Kazuma basically acts as a Mana Dumpster and gives the important people the energy they need to get rid of the core and blow up the carcass. This is Konosuba and our Protagonist is essentially a glorified battery. Also Kazuma’s insane luck betrayed him and threw the core into the Capital so now he’s a war criminal, oops I guess.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So everyone goes to the moon surprisingly easy and fights out from Usagi’s Fortress of Solitude Recording Mom all about how the moon was cool and shit but then everything changed when the humans attacked and the princess was such a little bitch that she gave up right after her man died and the queen had to do all the magic sealing and shit but that also destroyed the kingdom for some reason. Also the Four Kings are formerly Earth Knights also reincarnated like the Sailor Guardians and used to be less dicks and were even the guardians’ boyfriends which feels REALLY forced and even more gross and weird than Usagi’s reincarnation relationship just being told “Hey you love this guy now, you don’t get a say, past life shenanigans decided” and everyone decides that they can’t fight the people they love that they only just remembered so Usagi has to boomerang some bitches in the face and then there’s a four way Solar System Kamehameha to get the Four Kings to fuck off again. Now Beryl’s working on borrowed time since she had to re-brainwash her pawns so she’s gonna brainwash Tuxedo Mask to do it even though he doesn’t have powers and should be less effective than the kings but it’s really dramatic if Usagi has to fight her boyfriend so let’s go with that.

Durarara!!: Reporter Shuuji Niekawa is digging around Ikebukuro to find out about the crazy amount of tough customers the city has. The first half of the episode is the “fuck around” half where he talks to much of the main cast, and then as everyone knows, when you fuck around, that leads to the “find out” half where he is promptly stabbed and becomes a Saika kin and stalks Anri and Shizuo and wants to stab everyone before getting crushed behind a car door by Shizuo while thinking he can finally get his life back on track. RIP Reporter-chan, you fucked around and found out.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Code Geass #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Zero #Konosuba #Sailor Moon Crystal #Durarara!!

[danieco]

Since you used to be in Naruto fandom I wanna hear your thoughts about this video : https://youtu.be/wNB05gdWRkI especially the point about shonen being written for young boys and how it’s false

Love your blog btw

Thank you so much, love your ask! :D Predictably, this one got away from me a bit, and then a lot. So to focus on the point you asked about:

It doesn’t surprise me at all that reader questionnaires show about half of shonen readers aren’t boys! Like that’s not a perfect methodology but it’s still interesting. I think it would be huge for the industry if creators actually acknowledged that support and wrote like they have more than just boys in their audience. I genuinely think it would raise the quality of stories for there not to be an assumption that half their characters don’t have to be realistic, believable, and interesting just like the male characters are. 

Regardless, I hate, hate, hate the idea that it’s perfectly fine for media made for boys to show oppressive caricatures of girls and women because guess what!! Everyone has to write girls and women like they’re actually people, because they are. It’s wild people think “but this is for boys” is a good reason to write awful female characters. I can’t wait for this assumption that boys and girls want and require totally separate kinds of media to die because a) it’s not true and b) not everyone is a boy or girl anyway!

Anyway you activated my trap card, “Rant About Sakura” so: 

Okay this is where I actually started answering and I start so out of left field I almost made it a separate post, but: 

So like everyone knows serialized storytelling often wasn’t written to form a cohesive whole. The most extreme examples are soap operas--if you nudge a character bit by bit (or have a sudden, shocking twist), eventually the hero is a villain and then maybe a hero again, maybe not, etc. etc. etc. This keeps things open-ended for more storytelling opportunities and hopefully the changes will keep fans interested. So a character needs to have enough consistency with past actions to be recognizable, but their traits, motivations, and even backstory are malleable for whatever the story currently needs. It’s a feature, not a bug. 

I think streaming now and having an entire franchise immediately available instead of weekly over the course of years are very different things, and it can be useful to think about that publication history. One thing I noticed reading Naruto over months instead of years is that there were definitely elements where, if I had last read certain parts like, five years ago instead of two months ago, I probably would have accepted a gentle retconning of events or a character’s sudden change in motivation (or like, reversal in character development), but because I had read that background recently, it didn’t work for me. Trying to make a character’s changes make sense is something that can be really fun in YGO but, maybe because I wasn’t actually in the fandom at the time or talking to anyone about it, I mostly found those inconsistencies annoying in Naruto. 

Another big reason why I probably didn’t like them is the changes didn’t have results I liked--which finally brings me back around to the actual ask, which is that what the creators did to Sakura’s character absolutely were unfair, but not quite the way this video puts it, imo. Tbh I found his insistence that Sakura is a boring, bad character no one can relate to really annoying, because some people, especially female fans, absolutely can. (Predictably, she’s one of my top faves.) Like, why say her calling out for Naruto was her defining moment in that arc? Why not her victory? Who decided all her defining moments were none of her achievements and only the times she needed help? Who decided, male fan on Youtube??? HUH?? Like I appreciate what I think he’s trying to do but... good grief. 

To be fair, I did like the way he acknowledged that healing is important, and it can still be sexist to make all your female characters healers at the same time. Professional fields with lots of women are devalued, just like in real life! 

I disagree that nothing motivates Sakura except her crush on Sasuke--this is explicitly not the case in the manga (I’ve seen some of the show, but I read the whole manga, so that’s what I’m going on.) I think it would be more accurate to say that Sakura’s character does get some cool development, but then instead of building on that, they can’t figure out (or don’t want to bother) doing something cool with her character anymore and partway through Shippuden go “Uuuuuh, well I guess she’s back into Sasuke now, despite that not really coming up for a long time (like years worth of publication time iirc), and her openly saying things to the contrary (including her no longer being interested in him, and what her true motivations now are).” I hated it because it was sacrificing Sakura’s character development for drama and to make Sasuke seem important in as many ways as possible. Barf. (Interestingly, the story sacrifices Lee’s development for the same reason. Go figure.) I could go on and on about how Sakura actually is wonderful in the story and also is totally disrespected by the narrative but I’ve tired myself out with my own outrage, so. 

Again thanks for the ask!! Anytime someone actually wants me to talk more about feminist issues my heart grows three sizes. I’m genuinely thankful and feel free to respond with any follow up you might have

#DanieCo business enquiries

[kiranaga-wonderland]

Syaoran then & now

I grow up with Cardcaptor Sakura show, I watched it the most in my childhood, even I had my own VCDs. Back then, the part I loved the most is when Sakura used her magic. So typical for a little girl. Because of that, I don’t actually remember the real story plot. Maybe it was too complex for a kindergarten kid. The memory I had was blurry. But, besides Sakura Kinomoto, I remember most about LI Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura and my impression of him back then.

What remains from my childhood memory are, Li Syaoran is a rival for Sakura. He hated Sakura. In my eyes of kindergarten kid, he is a villain, he is scary and cold to Sakura. I could tell Li Syaoran is, in my kid-eyes, like Natsume Hyuuga from Alice Academy. I watched Alice Academy as a teenager, so this is a comparison between the memory back in my childhood & my teenager phase about two character that I found similar. Syaoran & Natsume also approximately in the same age.

This thinking intrigued me to re-watch Cardcaptor Sakura and confirm wether my impression about LI Syaoran is correct or not. Of course it’s also because I forget mostly about the storyline.

And then, I conclude that I was sooooo wrong. Li Syaoran and Natsume Hyuuga is two different character at all. This is it:

Even from the beginning, I didn’t feel so much ambition and rivalry atmosphere from Li Syaoran towards Sakura in the term of collection Clow cards. I could tell that Sakura is stronger than him even until the end of the show. But he actually super kind-hearted, a caring one. In CCS original, he is just an ordinary school boy. So innocent, with variation of emotion. He is pretty fair, he don’t mind when Sakura was the one who get the clow card, he still helped her. He could be angry & emotional but in the right amount and place. He still just a kid, he was so clueless about love and stuff and it was hilarious to watch! But after accepting his feeling, he become so gentle and soft. He speak with kind words and soft voices. I agree with the fans, he really suit the image of a prince!

While Natsume Hyuuga is more like to be what I call scary. He hate Mikan from the beginning they met. He possessed hell strong alice that he could kill. He is also kind hearted but he hide those and pretend that he don’t care. Natsume is pretty temperamental, maybe because of the life burden he got. He is not an ordinary school boy, even he didn’t have time for being happy. When it comes to love and stuff, Natsume is the contrast of Syaoran. While Syaoran helplessly blush and stuttered, he didn’t blush at all, didn’t shy at all. I can’t tell if his heart is racing or not. I kind of confuse seeing him at the time like that. Natsume’s words weren’t gentle at all, Sometimes he just said the piercing truth, sometime he was just mean. He teased his partner, Mikan, with mean words, that’s how he show his love. Syaoran never be mean to Sakura, he show caring gestures for that.

Of course, their partner (Sakura Kinomoto & Mikan Sakura) also have different personality which suit these boys perfectly. Think about it, their partner both have “Sakura” in their name...

-

OKAY, now that I’ve finished original Cardcaptor Sakura to the Movie, I’m ready for Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc tonight!!!

#cardcaptor sakura #ccs #li syaoran #li shaoran #syaosaku #natsume hyuuga #mikan sakura #alice academy #my artwork

[haro-hawayu]

CCS: Clear Card Ch. 44

Chapter 44 is currently available on the CLAMP-net’s YouTube Channel. Once again, please check @meimi-haneoka’s post comparing the English and Japanese translations!!

Previous posts for this arc: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5| Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Chapter 45 | Chapter 46 | Chapter 47 | Chapter 48 | Chapter 49

Chapter Reactions~

Our moon guardians grace the cover art this time, and as always, it’s gorgeous.

This scene reminds me of when Eriol turned daytime into nighttime D:

Did the sun guardians get force-transformed into their true forms?? Or did they initiate the transformation?

This very confrontational moment is kinda scary 0_0

Okay, so Nakuru calls them out---and they switch back. Soooo that means they initiated this transformation cuz they sensed threat?? From Yukito??

I found it really endearing and cute that even Suppi transformed. Like he’s up for protecting Sakura too!!

Yukito being the one to do explanations here~~is HE the one who created this nightscape??

Kaho-sensei!!!! I’m loving her outfit :3 

Hmmm I wonder what it is that Yukito is wishing for??

He also confirms he has neither Yue’s magic or memories too. So is it the power/magic to protect his loved ones that he’s wishing for??

Whoaaaa what a revelation we’re getting now with Yukito!!!

Sometimes I still wonder how together/separate Yukito and Yue are. This will get long so I’ll save that for later.

Yukito’s barrier/field thingy reminds me of X/1999... lol. Which also makes me associate it with bad memories and unhappy endings D:

Oh man... Nakuru’s words with that face reminds me of Yuuko!!! 0__0

What price did Yukito pay for this??

I also find it very cute that Yukito wrote Yue a letter :3

Okay so like he paid the price, not only for this new magical power boost (from Tsukimine Shrine), but also to be able to retain his memories/change at will...

Awwww Kero-chan got so angry that he transformed!!

Suppi notes that Yukito’s very similar to Nakuru---I wonder if this also explains why Yukito and Nakuru have been bonding so well as of late.

Wow.... these Touya & Yukito montage scenes... I was not ready for this and I’m getting emotional over it T__T and a BIT teary too...

We get a new card!!! And it looks like Yukito. I’m curious about its functions too :3

Ahhh my thoughts too Sakura!! I hope it will help Yukito out... maybe in relation to whatever price he has to pay for his powers.

Momo’s like pissed cuz Kaito’s going on and on about being “alone” and Momo’s probably like “WHAT AM I TO YOU??? DO I EVEN EXIST?!”

---

Thoughts/Theories/Etc

Oh mannnnnn what a chapter! What revelation too! I’m very surprised that Yukito has revealed all these things, and just the amount of action he has taken?? I think from like the early Clear Card chapters, and the anime, we get hints that Touya’s the one getting his powers back and he’s possibly trying out something new and just “waiting for that moment” to come, but we don’t really think much about Yukito. Nakuru also knows quite a bit about Yukito’s situation, and I wonder how much Yukito (or Yue even) confided with her :3

Yue/Yukito has always been like an interesting subject because with the other guardians, their transformation is more of a matter of switching forms, but like their memories are intact and they’re like the same character regardless of which form they are in. With Yue/Yukito, it’s very different because Yukito has had all this time to create new memories separate from Yue. They each kind of have their own personalities too... I wonder if in the end of all this we might find these two characters either assimilating (possible, since they revealed that Yukito will retain his memories, so that’s sort of a step towards them assimilating), separating (like in the actual physical sense), or just maintaining whatever status quo they have (similar to the assimilating, but not really). Is it even possible for them to separate? I think it gets a little TOO deep once we get into the metaphysical/existential aspect of things >_< but maybe I’m thinking too much into this.

Also, this whole thing also made me think a LOT about TRC/HOLiC. With Yukito making a contract of sorts with the Tsukimine Shrine to achieve his current powers (barrier powers), along with being able to retain his memories and changing at will, I wonder if his price is anything similar to like what TRC-Clone!Sakura had to pay... also is it a price he has paid ALREADY, or is something going to be collected later on? Or maybe it’s something he paid already but we will see the results later on? Like WHAT IF he like gives up his very existence (Tsukishiro Yukito) for this?????! I’m too scared to find out, and I might find myself crying when we do :( 

Annnnd the Promise Card!!! This card reminds me of Nothing/Hope from the CCS Sealed Card movie. I’m hoping this will provide a sliver a hope for any suffering Yukito (and subsequently, his loved ones) might go through.

#clear card arc #clear card hen #cardcaptor sakura #ccs #clamp #manga #haro thoughts

[roxstarash]

Cardcaptor Sakura Episode 70 – Sakura to Hontou no Omoi ( Sakura and her true feelings) episode review

Have you ever watched an anime as a little child and dreamed of being the main character? Did you ever imitate the way they dressed, talked and behaved? Well, I did! As a little girl and even now an adult, I did that and it was always, always, always Cardcaptor Sakura! Ah, yes. It was the dream of every girl of my age. And though it embarrasses me a little bit, even now as I am reaching my very late twenties, I am still a very huge fan!  Not only particularly Sakura, but other Mahou Shoujo themed anime as well. What is that anyway? To give you a short background, it is an anime revolving magical girls. That’s actually the translation itself. Another popular magical girl anime would include Sailor Moon, Akazukin Cha-Cha, Saint Tail, just to name some. Sadly, I don’t think I can name more that are contemporary since I have so much anime to watch that I hardly have time to search new magical girl themed ones. Or do they even make one anymore? But the good thing here is that this type of anime isn’t so often shown that when they make them, it lasts!

Going back to the main focus, I’d like to talk about Cardcaptor Sakura. As we all know, it has been more than a decade since it was last shown. That is why there is a gap between me and my fellow magical girl enthusiasts, and the timeline of being a fan. They stopped long time ago and now they started up on the story again! To give a recap, Sakura Kinomoto, the protagonist is a middle schooler who stumbled upon a magical book containing magical cards in her dad’s library. She unlocks it and scatters the Clow cards all over the city and awakens the guardian creature of the book, Keroberus or Kero for short. The whole plot goes around to her and her friends trying to retrieve the cards. Then eventually, having to turn the cards into her own. The cards and the book belonged to a magician from the past, Clow Reed. He also happened to create these cards and the guardians as well.

Now before I spoil even more so than I already have, I would like to take note that the following statements may contain more spoilers and that my opinions are my own, not representing any entity, organization or whatsoever with which I am or ever to be affiliated with.

Now we can recall from the previous episode before this, Eriol Hiiragizawa is conducting the final test for Sakura. She had to turn all the Clow cards into Sakura cards. With the help of Yue, Kero and Shaoran, things went smoothly and Shaoran even manages to finally confess his feelings for Sakura! Now in the last episode, Clow Reed has already revealed the reason for his return to the present time, reincarnated as Eriol. He had a mission to help Sakura be the new master of the cards. And why he hid these facts were because if Sakura knew everything, then she would not be able to perform to the best of her ability. For me, this has become a minor highlight because of the other stuff that happened in the episode. The facts are out in the open. Eriol will be moving to England, but they could still write letters to communicate with each other. Now for the bigger highlight is that finally, as mentioned above, Shaoran manages to tell Sakura about how he feels for her! Many episodes previously showed that Shaoran was falling in love with Sakura. He just couldn’t find the right moment to confess to her. As Sakura finds out about his feelings, there are awkward moments especially at school but they had important things to do so they end up not focusing on this yet. (This was the time they went to Eriol’s house and that’s when Eriol explained everything then.) Later on, Shaoran receives a call from his mother, asking him to go home to Hong Kong since all the Clow cards have been caught and converted into Sakura cards, thus there was no need for him to stay in Japan. Shaoran then talks to Sakura but not about this, throwing Sakura’s heart in a more confused state. He says how thankful and inspiring Sakura has been but cuts off and leaves her. He plans to go home without telling her nor waiting for her response to his confession. As Sakura went home, she pondered about how she felt for Shaoran and even noticed that it was different from her own feelings for Yukito. Even Eriol is aware and claims he did not foresee this. He initially expected Sakura and Yukito ending up together! But it seems that Shaoran and Sakura’s love prevails! (Well, not yet at this point.) Later on, she finds out from Tomoyo, that Shaoran was leaving for Hong Kong without saying good bye. It upsets her greatly and creates the Nameless card. In the airport, as Shaoran gets ready to leave, Sakura arrives in time to take a few moments to talk to Shaoran. Sakura asks for Shaoran’s bear to be hers for a while as he will be away in Hong Kong. The tale behind is that if you give a bear to someone, that person will love you forever. It was customary to give it to each other so you can be together forever. The episode ends in that way that it was almost unsatisfying. It was almost not an ending at all! But the musical touch of playing the third and final opening song, “Platinum” by Maaya Sakamoto was really great. That’s another great thing about this anime, all their opening and ending songs are catchy and beautiful. I still know the lyrics to this day even! Personally, my favorite are the first two opening songs but this song has a mellow feel to it. Another trivia is that the same voice actress/singer, Maaya Sakamoto sang the opening song for the Clear card arc!

More trivia: The Nameless card is an original card and is not found in the manga at all. If you are interested to know more about this and the other cards that will relate to it, you can watch it from the two movies, Cardcaptor Sakura the movie and the second one, The sealed card. Partly because for me, I think the second movie serves as the actual ending for the series. However, it is different from the prologue episode. The prologue episode is a special episode before the new arc, Clear card. The story focused on how the new series of Cardcaptor Sakura was about to start.

Things were a little different in the Prologue episode and you can compare the endings! Some differences were that Shaoran was a bit more confronting and tells Sakura that he was to leave for Hong Kong. And that Sakura made a pink bear in exchange for Shaoran’s gray bear. They also said their goodbyes not in the airport, but rather at the bus stop. Not exactly finale-like but I think it is nice for comparison. The second movie too is good for comparison because it ends in the way most would’ve anticipated that time - Sakura also confesses to Shaoran’s love! It also takes place a year after the last episode. I think this is the reason why the last episode seems unfulfilling in terms of her relationship with Shaoran. It was because they wanted to make it really end in the movie!

Overall, I think it is a fair ending for the series but lacked impact. But the movie itself would fill the shoes for that. The anime itself is great and I think having different endings to the anime is a plus because fans can pick out their personal favorites.

The last episode does not stop me from daydreaming of becoming a magical girl. Oh well, I have to go and catch some cards!

Note: This is one of my handwritten review that I submitted last Nov. 18, 2020 to Aniradio+ for my anime reviewer application. Unfortunately out of a rough estimate of 2400 applicants, I am not one of the 20 who were chosen.

Copyright

Star Ashley Cruz

#anime #manga #review #cardcaptorsakura #writer #writing #journalism #literature #journaling #contentwriting

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 79: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

Welcome back to our monthly appointment, CCS fans! This chapter comes right after this month's full moon, the Hunter Moon! (lol yes I will feature the name of the relative full moon till the end of the story). And speaking of the end of the story, I will start this analysis and translation post from the end of the chapter, where I found the confirmation to the rumour that had been going on for hours before the official release on Comic Days:

yes, dear readers, this is not a drill, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc will end with chapter 80, after 7 years of serialization! 🎉✨ When *the last chapter* is announced, there's no turning back! No more sudden announcements of extensions! 🥹 But at the moment of writing this post, no mentions have been given about any "epilogue" or extra chapters that might be serialized in the upcoming months leading to the big release of volume 16 on April 1st!

On the translation side, I have to sigh in relief because no major misunderstandings happened in the ENG version, just some minor inaccuracies! I was kinda scared because this chapter is pretty important and complex in itself.

And let me say that what happened in this chapter 79 definitely marks the end of the climax, so I can totally see it ending in next chapter. The chapter tackled some very important thematics regarding the presence of "evil" in this series, that I will talk about extensively in my analysis.

The announcement today made me already a bit nostalgic and sad, but I want to strive hard to accompany myself and all of you towards the end of this arc with excitement and a smile, therefore I won't let myself be prey of the sadness yet and introduce you immediately to the gif of this month, because there's a lot we need to talk about and analyze and we can't waste time!!

This is entirely dedicated to our protagonist and heroine Sakura-chan, because damn, she really slayed this chapter!!! Under the cut to see what miracles she made happen!

The Color Page

My dear readers, after years of countless pleas on my social media, after being let down month after month, CLAMP FINALLY GRANTED ME A COLOR PAGE SOLELY DEDICATED TO KAITO AND AKIHO TOGETHER ON THE SECOND-TO-LAST CHAPTER!! Yaaaay!! Excuse me while I celebrate this event here in my little corner, especially after having a rough month! 🎉🎉🎉 I hope my followers thought of me when they saw it? Like "finally she'll stop asking for it" (breaking news, I'll keep asking for more even after the series is over) 😂 It took them 79 chapters to do so and honestly I'm laughing because....yes, I admit it, I expected another vibe for such an important color page coming after such an important emotional scene in chapter 78, but honestly the first thing I thought when I saw it was "....they had to wait 79 chapters for this? 😧" 😂because it's very very "regular", I think it would've been ok for this to come out long ago. LOL I'm being brutally honest here, I hope no one gets offended, especially because that pet peeve aside, OF COURSE I love this precious color page to bits, and I know under its "normalcy", its got a very important meaning to the both of them.

Akiho and Kaito are depicted together clearly during one of their travels....but the question is, is this from the past? Or the near future? I'd daresay they look the same age they are now, so this might probably be a foreshadowing for the future...? They'll keep travelling the world? But seeing the content of the chapter, this might also be just a call-back to their memories together and everything that they experienced during those travels, tightening their bond. Travelling the world is, after all, really their thing, their element. I really like Kaito's expression, with his usual smile that almost turns into a smirk, he gives off a vibe of being finally free to express his emotions. He looks carefree, and that's really something for him. Akiho, on the other hand, is always so much more expressive than him and you can literally feel the joy and excitement emanating from her delighted expression. Travelling with him makes her happy, so yes, should this be what awaits them in the finale, it's fine by me as long as they're happy (I'm rooting for the other option though, the "stay in Tomoeda with your newfound support network" route).

But as you know, I always have to analyze the color pages a bit deeper, especially when they're about these two. And since I had to keep myself distracted, I made a bit of research. Other than the "travelling" vibe, this illustration gives off also kind of a "vintage" vibe (which is another strong element to Akiho and Kaito). It seems Akiho is dressed in a sleeveless coat with cape and wearing a bonnet fully inspired by those worn by children in the second half of the 1800s, in the Victorian era.

(pic courtesy of Etsy) This is a model from 1896, for example. When I pinpointed the period, I immediately thought "uh, the Victorian era is also the period when Alice in Wonderland came out", although that was more towards the 1860s. I found it really interesting and a nice touch for this illustration with a retro flavor (the suitcase and purse also look kinda vintage).

But another thing that immediately caught my eyes were those cute birds landing on Kaito's shoulder and Akiho's bonnet. I immediately tried to look what kind of birds they are, and it seems like they could really be eastern bluebirds, typical of North America. Searching further, I found out that in several cultures bluebirds are harbinger of happiness and symbols of hope. I couldn't honestly have thought for a more fitting symbolism, for these two. Especially cause birds often are associated with an imagery of freedom, and this is something else that these two need, after being hunted by evil people for so long. They really do look free, in this color page. Also, the presence of the birds in this color page immediately brought me back to the color page of chapter 62, where we can see baby Kaito in a wintery setting, sitting on a lamppost, extending his little hand to a swallow coming to him. Swallows are a symbol of hope and bring a message of "spring is coming", and continuing from that message of hope, of "spring is coming for you too", we can finally see here in chapter 79 our Kaito with his true happiness, symbolized literally by the birds most associated with happiness. Another thing that caught my eyes is of course the lily depicted on the cover of the book Akiho is holding, a nice callback to Akiho's mother and Kaito's torment, Lilie. She's always going to be with them ❤️

The Japanese editorial text over the picture is an excerpt of what Momo was musing to herself in chapter 39, while imagining to talk to Kaito: "You traveled with her, and spent time together with her". I think CLAMP chose to feature this line to indicate an important thing that will be restored at the end of this chapter.

Everyone Is Doing Their Best

The chapter starts with a panel showing some light coming off Yukito's house, and we find out that even Touya fainted, exhausted by the effort to keep time stopped as much as possible. Ruby Moon is cradling his head on her lap trying to assist him and "recharge" his magical power, in hope to be able to maintain time "stopped" a bit more. In fact, if you notice, the "black covering" that symbolizes the time-stopping spell isn't completely destroyed yet, but only riddled with "holes", an indication that the spell is still somehow active, even if feebly. I imagine this might "slow down" the attacks, which are still coming but probably not at full speed like they would if the spell came undone completely. I have to point out immediately a mild inaccuracy in the ENG version, that I want to specify in order to dispel extreme theories before they're born: no, Ruby Moon didn't give up all of her powers to Touya, the verb used here is simply 補える, "can replenish (your magic)", not "give all".

Touya doesn't lose his sense of humor even in a dire situation like this, and comments sarcastically "What are you, a battery?", a clear recall to the whole "batteries" matter that came out in the un-rewritten world. Touya isn't supposed to remember about that, and he probably doesn't, but this is just a way from CLAMP to show that even in a situation where memories have been rewritten, some things will be unconsciously said again, because they're just meant to happen.

Ruby Moon calls for assistance from her "brother" Spinel Sun (love how even in these true forms, she still calls him "Suppy"), whom rejects the appellative of "battery" but agrees to give her a hand with "recharging" Touya to keep the spell up a bit longer. Everyone looks outside, only one thought in their minds, which is voiced clearly by a serious Tomoyo: "Sakura and everyone else are fighting with all they've got". I have to point out a typo here in the Japanese version (nothing serious, it can happen and will be surely fixed in the tankobon version): Tomoyo calls Sakura "Sakura-san". I loved the "sparkles" around Tomoyo's eyes, as if indicating that her extraordinary intuition is "at work" and just telling her that, even if they can't see them because they're quite far away, Sakura and the others are doing whatever they can to stop these attacks. And the fact they can see the attacks, but not their friends and their condition, must be really hard to witness, for all of them. But no worries, there's Touya nii-chan who's always ready to lighten the mood even in this challenging situation, joking that "If they don't get back before the curfew, they won't be getting their snacks tomorrow!". Here the ENG adds "squirt" to make Touya refer specifically to Sakura, but truth to be told, in the JP there's no subject, so he might be referring to everyone. It's amazing how he's able to keep his spirit up and be sarcastic even in this situation....he really believes in his little sister so much!

I'll Make Them Forget About You

Back where our heroes are, the attacks keep coming relentlessly, countered by Syaoran, Yue and Kero in tandem. Sakura reflects on the fact that the only transparent Cards she's got left are these two she's holding in her hands (Time and Rewind) and Flight. This statement leads me to believe that when Record transformed into that crystal that entered her, that meant that the Card completed its duty and disappeared inside of her. But Sakura isn't worried at all, because she knows that she can create more Cards. Yessss, this development that I've been anticipating since quite some time is finally here! ✨🎉 Sakura seems to finally have a concrete plan, but before proceeding, she needs to ascertain something. She asks directly to Kaito: "The people who are using these spells were trying to hurt you, right?". Kaito, with a pensive face, answers affirmatively.

But it's when Sakura asks again "Were they trying to hurt Akiho too?" that his expression turns really painful, the background after him portraying well his raging emotions and, while Mokona-sensei chose to leave Akiho hidden by Kaito's black wings in the previous panels, now she finally shows how both she and Kaito are holding onto eachother, while our boy answers with a "...Yes" dripping with sorrow. It really squeezed my heart with pain, this scene. Because as long as Sakura was asking about him, his expression was pensive but almost as if it's something he's used to, that didn't shake him too much. But when Sakura mentions Akiho, god, that wrecked him. Any mention, any reminescence of what those bastards did to her and how they were chasing after her to put their filthy hands on her again wrecks him even now, and it's like Mokona with her visual skills is showing how Kaito seems to be holding Akiho a little bit tighter, while he answers Sakura's question. I also have to point out something that I had noticed already from last chapter, but a panel tricked me into believing I was just seeing things: CLAMP here use a dark screentone for Kaito's eyes, that he never had before (actually, no other character in CCS got this effect in their eyes). This effect will be used on him for the entire chapter.

And it seems like it's the very same screentone that was used for the dragon. I think this might be an indication that the wings aren't the only reminescence of his dragon appearance!

Sakura shows once again an incredible empathy that allows her to go right to the heart of the issue without investigating much. If Kaito rewrote an entire world, and if it's true that Akiho in the previous world didn't have all the love and familiar support she's got now, it means that she was probably in danger too. And seeing as these people are attacking them now because they freed Kaito from his "punishment", Sakura doesn't really need much to make 2+2 and understand the situation. Sakura believes in Akiho, therefore she believes in Kaito too, and knows that if he came to this point it's because they were in a desperate and dangerous situation.

Showing an incredible insight, Sakura shocks both Kaito and Akiho by asking:

Sakura, JP: "In that case, can I make those people forget about you both?"

Because our girl needs to make sure that the plan she came up with won't have any undesired consequences. But most importantly, she needs to have their consent. She reiterates this once again, actually she will make sure to ask Kaito and Akiho's consent 3 times in total. She says: JP, lit. "If going back to before the world was rewritten will put you through hardships once again, then, can I just make them forget?" Kaito is even more shocked, because he finally understands Sakura's intent. A generous, selfless intent born from a loving heart. Our girl wants to make sure that these two will be safe and sound once she fixes this situation. She can't take risks, because their happiness is all she's really caring for right now. And in his shocked expression, I can also see some kind of "omg YES, PLEASE" vibe. Because probably, having those terrible people forgetting all about them is everything he ever wished, but couldn't achieve. And I think it's really funny how we berated Kaito so much in the past chapters for making Akiho and the others forget facts that happened before and forgetting about him, but here Sakura just takes "inspiration" from him and actually decides to use that same "trick" in the right way. Because it's not fair that it should be them, the abused people, to forget about their most important person, in order to achieve a happy life for at least one of them. It isn't fair and it isn't right that Kaito was driven into making all the mess that he made, pushed by desperation. The abusers, that clan and Association of magicians, should be the ones forgetting.

But this is Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card's finale, and Sakura definitely hasn't finished with being amazing yet, she actually just started. Her very strong power at this point allows her not only to see things that were difficult before, but also to connect the dots more easily thanks to that renowned instinct that I've always talked to you about, and that she learned to finally listen to.

As if she were seeing through him with X-rays, she confidently affirms that there's a book inside of him, a white book where you can inscribe magic on. And she also knows that that same book was inside Akiho, once. I guess this might be even coming from past memories of the unrewritten world (do you remember when, before the play started, Sakura said that she could feel something inside Akiho?). Akiho of course is shocked to hear that, and from her expression you can almost feel the chill that went down her spine in that moment. Sakura affirms that this book knows both Akiho and Kaito (thanks to the fact that it was inside both of them - something that I've always found painfully heartbreaking but also quite moving, for my ship), and it's got a very strong power inside of it. These will be two crucial things for Sakura's plan. In fact, our heroine is hellbent in attempting something pretty arduous: utilizing that artifact's power to create a new Card. For impartiality, I have to point out that the ENG added (completely on their whim) a "you, her special person" that isn't there in the JP version! Of course it's all the better for me, since they repeat (finally with the right adjective) that Kaito is Akiho's special person, but it's kinda funny that they messed it up so much in the previous chapters, and now they're adding it where there isn't any mention of it!

Sakura will be using a tool that knows the both of them, therefore she is sure that her plan will succeed, because the Card will know what it will need to erase. Sakura asks for Kaito and Akiho's agreement one last time. After hearing how those people wanted to hurt them both and even implanted the same magical artifact inside of her, Akiho is quite resolute and doesn't have any doubt: on with the wiping off! It doesn't matter who those people are, they've tried to harm her most important person and her too, so she doesn't really seem to give a damn about proceeding with this plan. Kaito, on the other hand, seems to be giving a more lackluster affirmative reply, but it's not that he's uncertain: he's just still riddled with guilt for all the mess that he's done, and he's probably realizing that now Sakura will need to put herself on the line in order to fix this and protect both of them, hence his sad face.

Still surfing the confidence wave, Sakura guesses that once those people have forgotten about Akiho and Kaito, then the magic arrows will stop too, and Kaito confirms that: forgetting about the person who had the Seal of D enforced on him will be equal to "undo" both the activation of the Seal itself (when Kaito removed the book from Akiho) and also the rescission of it (what Sakura did when she freed Kaito from the cage). This will therefore stop the arrows too, because the Seal wouldn't have been triggered in the first place. However, Kaito warns her that, although time is still barely "stopped" (because the time-stopping spell is still weakly on), it's necessary an enormous amount of power in order to do what Sakura wants to do. I have to point out another inaccuracy in the ENG translation in this part, which makes Kaito say "before things could get worse" and I have the feeling they misunderstood the word 辛うじて, "barely" or "narrowly", which is also written with the kanji of 辛い, "hard" or "tough". So Kaito isn't saying "before things could get worse" but actually meaning "although time is barely stopped".

Sakura doesn't seem to be scared by Kaito's warning, and activates her wand without a second thought, and immediately we can see that her task wil NOT be easy, as she can feel the strain almost right away.

Here we go with another inaccuracy of the ENG translation:

Sakura, ENG: "Great book, please show yourself! My power alone won't be enough...!" Sakura, JP: "The book....doesn't want to come out. (it's too difficult to pull it out) with just my power..."

Basically, Sakura isn't begging the book to "show itself", she's actually actively trying to pull it out of Kaito, and she's aware that it's opposing a lot of resistance, and her power alone isn't enough to take this damn book out. Sakura refuses to give up, because everyone else is doing their best too. Yes, everyone else.

And that's when CLAMP decided to bring us a big surprise for this finale.

A pair of hands seem to be appearing next to Sakura's, as if a spirit is hugging her from behind. We can see the famous fan that we learned to recognize so well ever since her first appearance in Movie 1. Sakura feels immediately the same magical power of Syaoran surrounding her, and with her instinct she finally recognizes her: it's Syaoran's mother, YELAN!!! We can see her, sweating and all, in her sacred chinese pavilion, lending her power to help in this difficult task.

What a great, welcome surprise for this finale!! You might have heard me saying on Twitter that Clear Card is really a celebration of motherhood, with this constant presence of mothers and mother figures who try to help these kids growing up without removing their right to choose for themselves. And since Yelan is the only mother figure who can concretely help Sakura in this moment, with her immense power, I really loved to see how this woman didn't hesitate to assist her future daugher in law. For any SyaoSaku fan, this scene here is a huge thing. We have seen in the anime how Yelan doted on Sakura ever since she met her in Movie 1, even before her own son realized his feelings for this girl. Yelan and Sakura haven't met in the manga yet (and hello, CLAMP, now this is a good chance for letting that happen, after the madness is over), but the woman didn't hesitate a moment to lend her power. I can really imagine how along these two will get, in the future. ❤️

Sakura thanks her aloud, while her eyes show that she's really really tired. Yelan's assistance is finally effective in summoning the artifact book out of Kaito, and we see again those countless book pages that we saw both when Akiho used to go "berserk", and also in the most heartbreaking scene of chapter 70. Kaito, still holding onto a worried Akiho, seems to suffer physically from this removal, and I can't understand if it's because removing something magical from inside is naturally painful (we've been shown something like that before, Syaoran crouching to the ground in pain while the Sakura Cards were being removed from inside of him) OR if the removal of the artifact also triggered his poor health conditions in which we left him, before he disappeared in chapter 70.

Sakura tries with all she's got and finally manages to turn the artifact into its "true form": a book filled with countless of spells written in strange magic runes.

You have spotted it, right? ☝️ I haven't seen many fandom reactions yet, but I guess this "cameo" made more than one person scream: it's Fay D. Fluorite's tattoo, yes! This page of the "book" is probably describing the procedure to cast that tattoo (which was also a kind of "seal", if I remember correctly). So that spells exists in this CCS world too! 😅 The magic Sakura is weaving starts "working" on the book, literally removing the spells from its pages and turning them back to their original form of magical books (remember that the Squids used to say that they would inscribe "magic books" and their power onto Akiho?).

Then, solemnly, we hear probably for the last time ever the magical incantation that accompanied us in the beginning of the story, used by Sakura to secure the strange manifestations of power into a transparent Card:

ENG: "Force without master, heed the call of my Staff of Dreams and become my power! SECURE!"

The countless of books and all this tremendous amount of power get secured into the birth of a new Card: BLANK!!!

Blank got the human appearance of Akiho, but also the protective wings of Kaito. The girl is holding a book (of course, how perfect for her) which is the representation of the artifact that was inside both Kaito and Akiho. This card is really so meaningful for someone like me who loves Akiho and Kaito. It's representing them united in their suffering (the artifact) but also in the hope for a better future (Akiho is smiling and the Card will be used to grant them safety, away from their abusers). I've always imagined that one of the last Cards Sakura might have produced would have Akiho and Kaito's elements, and here it is.

Also, how AWESOME is that Sakura managed to dispose of that damn artifact and succeeded to use it for Kaito and Akiho's sake, and turned it against the monsters who created it??? HOW. AWESOME. IS. THAT!!!!

Producing the very first consciously created transparent Card sucked almost all of Sakura's power and strength, and she's close to fainting, under the terrified eyes of Akiho, who lets go of Kaito for a moment in a gesture of going towards her "sister". But Sakura isn't done yet, no. She can't give up yet because her job isn't done.

And I Will Make Them Remember About You

Sakura wants for Akiho and the people who care about her (the ENG decided to translate this with "the people SHE holds dear") to remember who Akiho really is. She wants basically to "undo" what the rewriting of the world caused on the people who know Akiho, making them believe that she was born into the Kinomoto family and that she was Sakura and Touya's sister.

After pondering for a while and discussing with my friends over at my Discord server, I decided I'm not gonna go out on a limb and assume things from this decision, because I definitely NEED to read the next chapter to see how much Sakura intends people to remember, with this move. It's really not clear at all, as of now.

Anyway, other translation inaccuracy incoming!

Sakura, ENG: "I'm going to make another new card for that...and I might not have the power to do it alone" Sakura, JP: "It might probably be really difficult to create one more new card with my power, right now..."

As you can see, the nuance is different, because Sakura in the JP addresses how it's almost impossible for her to create another new card in the situation she is in right now, exhausted and all.

That's why, very cleverly, she's going to do something different. (My gosh how proud I am of this girl!!)

Saying "But these two Cards will surely help me", Sakura skillfully manages to merge Time and Rewind to create a new Card, not from scratch (which requires more power) but using what she's already got: and that's how the REMIND Card is born!!! The name of the Card originated by just replacing the "W" of Rewind with the "M" of Time. Ingenious, isn't it???

And as the two Cards merge, they give us lots of flashbacks, like the "effect" used here resembles a lot the one that used to happen when Sakura was changing the Clow Cards into the Sakura Cards back in the old arcs, or how the merging of two Cards seems to also be a callback to how the "card without name" and the "Nothing" merged to create HOPE in the very last minutes of Movie 2! What a nostalgic trip down the memories lane!

And the appearance of this Card is even more touching, because it features Syaoran (with his current age) holding Nadeshiko's pendant watch. I found that so sweet, especially coupled with Yelan's assistance to Sakura in this chapter. Yelan associated with Sakura, and Syaoran associated with Nadeshiko. How sweet. And when you think that even Lilie, Akiho's mother, was associated with Kaito, you really can realize that this is some kind of "theme" that CLAMP seemed to be wanting to portray in this story.

I Can't Be On Everyone's Side

And now, the scene that I think is worth the whole chapter, but probably the whole Clear Card Arc in its entirety. As usual, with important scenes, I'll use the literal translation from Japanese:

Sakura, JP: "It might not be right that there'll be people who will forget things (after this), but....I can't be everyone's friend/ally/can't be on everyone's side. So I won't go back...but actually, along with the people important to me... I WANT TO GO ON"

Wow. Let that sink in.

Sakura, of Cardcaptor Sakura, just came to the realization and spelled out clearly that she cannot be on everyone's side. That she cannot be "everyone's friend", like in a cheesy fairytale.

And I really, really, want to thank CLAMP-sensei for this scene and this line because for a period, long time ago, I was worried that this story would go down the "let's be friends" or "let's show sympathy to them" route. But as the chapters continued and the things CLAMP told us about the Association and the Squids were more and more cruel, and they made me more and more sick, I started to realize that there was simply no way CLAMP could've had Sakura try to justify or compromise with them. Because when cruelty is real, there's no compromise to be made.

This scene also shows how Sakura realizes for the first time ever that in her world, contrary to what we all believed previously, evil exists. It might not touch her or her "entourage" directly (and she's really blessed for that), but it exists out there and it's hurting people, people who can also become really important to her. And she decides to not stand idly by, blessed as she is with the luck of not experiencing that evilness, but actually using whatever it is in her power to bring those suffering people to safety.

Sakura cannot fight those people on equal terms. She's just 13, and although her power is very strong, she's still inexperienced. Moreover, she cannot really bring herself to deny her current nature and use violence on other human beings. That's not Sakura. I want you guys to reflect on this because I know that one of the favorite things expected for this finale was to have a direct magical confrontation with the true villains of this arc, defeating them and restablishing the peace. And I am sincere when I say that I would've wished for the same too, because you know how much I love Kaito and Akiho, and how much I was disgusted to read about what they did to them. I've spread my "burn the squids" gifs all over the fandom. I wanted someone to vindicate them. But not here. Not in this manga. I realized that after the initial satisfaction, I would've probably felt like the series would've been "defiled". And that's exactly what happens when you answer to violence with more violence.

Sakura just could not go hunting those bastards down and defeat them in a magical battle. Because, powerful and corrupted in their greed as they are, the only way to "fix" this situation would've been to exterminate them. I just could not picture this story to cross that boundary, no matter how much the bar had already been raised well over what we initially thought.

So, if someone out there is disappointed by this outcome, I'm sorry for you, but it was just not meant to be and I'm actually really glad that this series kept true to its fundamental values. Of course it would, CLAMP really do care about this series and they know very well how far to push the plot, and when to actually stop.

So what is the role of Akiho's clan and the Magic Association in this story, especially considering that we never saw their faces at all? Talking with lots of fans in these years, especially Japanese, I've come to the conclusion that they are not in this story to fill the "villain that needs to be deafeated" role, but actually they're a representation of abusive families that smother and suffocate their children with expectations, completely disregarding those children's natural inclinations, and abuse them when they do not meet such expectations, but also the society as a whole, that looks at you only basing on how it can take advantage of you. Which is exactly what happened to Akiho and Kaito, driving them to very dark places. The absence of faces for those characters makes it possible for the readers to see the Squids and the Association as the representation of whatever environment they relate the most to. It can be family, society, school, workplace etc... It also helps us focusing on their actions, rather than their faces, and not attribute any prejudice to them (because of religion, race, skin color, or whatever other attribute they could have).

Seeing as the story treats them more like a concept, than an actual entity, it's basically impossible for Sakura to defeat them (and their great power is an indication of that impossibility). Just like in real life, darkness will always exist, along with light. Good and evil will always be side by side. It's bigger than any of us. Then, what can we do, in a situation like this? What Sakura is choosing to do, here, is not to confront directly with violence these people who are way out of her league, and not even to sit back and look, but actually finding a way to make them forget about her friends and keeping her friends safe, granting them the possibility of living a happy life, finally away from the darkness of the past, healing the wounds on their souls together with the people they love and who love them back. Because even if you've been abused in the past, you can still hope for a happy life.

The focus here is all on helping the abused people. And Sakura, in order to do that, is okay with coming to terms with the fact that she can't be on everyone's side, and she needs to choose. In the end, the thing that really matters the most is to GO ON with your most important people. Not going back to what is lost, but going forward. And I know that this is such a CLAMP theme, and I'm glad that they reiterated it in this arc. When I say that Clear Card brought Sakura so much more closer to what's usual for CLAMP, I mean this.

The panel with Sakura raising her staff and shouting she wants to go on is absolutely beautiful, with those wings growing so big and unleashing Sakura's power in a storm of cherry blossom petals.

Sakura is exhausted, she finally reached her limit by using her ultimate magic. As she faints, her eyes just make it in time to catch a glimpse of her prince, the love of her life grabbing tightly his girlfriend's hand, to not let her fall, while the watch of Remind and the book of Blank do their job in the background. And I really loved this spread too, because even if it's not a conventional romantic scene made of physical display of love, this in my opinion is even more powerful. Many were reminded of Tsubasa, but I was also reminded of the long time those two spent unable to touch one another, and this scene here seems like a catharsis for that hardship they went through. Syaoran will always catch Sakura everytime she falls, he will always be there to grab her hand, no matter if he can really touch her or not. Cause his love is stronger than any kind of impediment. He will always be by her side, no matter what. When she's exhausted by her heroine's duties, she knows that she can always count on him to support her.

And speaking of "always be by her side", I just can't avoid mentioning how Akiho and Kaito stayed "glued" to eachother for the entire duration of this chapter, protecting and supporting one another. Kaito, in particular, kept holding Akiho even as Sakura's magic was hurting him like hell, because it was extracting the book from him. Even in excruciating pain, he did not let go of Akiho, intent in protecting her and keeping her safe in his hold. Akiho let go of him just for a moment when she was scared out of her mind for Sakura, but went back to him when she saw that her "sister" was hellbent in completing her task no matter what. Kaito, as the good "moon boy" he is, is someone who shows his feelings through his actions rather than words, just like Syaoran. And his constant grip on Akiho in this chapter, such an opposite act compared to how he used to stop his hand everytime it started reaching out to her, told me all that I needed to know about him: she's his most important person, and he will never let go of her, ever again.

Sakura wakes up in her bed. The scene is a direct parallel with an almost identical scene in chapter 3, as you can see here:

Kero is next to her and is relieved to see her awake, so he goes to shout in the hallway, directed to Touya, that Sakura is finally awake. Sakura seems a bit surprised to see Kero talking so nonchalantly with her brother, and he tells her that he chatted with him back at Yukito's house, together with Suppy, so I guess now he finds it "natural" to talk to her brother too! 😂 I'm kinda glad to know that, I like this "change of relationship", compared to the old series (and it was also kinda long overdue).

Sakura opens the palm of her hands and she finds the Dream Key, still intact and all. She also asks about Remind and Blank, and Kero confirms to her that she was able to use them successfully! Sakura is absolutely delighted to hear that, and says "We were able to go on!"

And thaaaaaaat's how the second-to-last chapter of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card ends! Solving a lot of the pending situations, but still leaving some secondary questions that will surely find a (more or less) detailed explanation in the final, next chapter. And well, we also have to prepare to not have ALL the answers to ALL the questions we might have. This is usual for CLAMP, and especially in their Spaces they never made it a secret that they love for their fans to wreck their brains over theories and imagining the characters' future after a series is over. They love for the fans to give their interpretations to things, they encourage that a lot (also because it creates more long-lasting engagement with their series).

Alas, I expect they'll leave something in particular to everyone's interpretation, but we'll see. 😅

Overall, I really loved this chapter and it was really emotional for me. I think it's fitting for a "climax". Sakura was ABSOLUTELY running the show and after this I dare anyone to say that she isn't the main character of her story. She pushed her limits, and even questioned her own morality in doing so. What a wonderful thing. She reminded me so much of Sakura-hime when she shooted all those monsters in order to take the precious egg, back in the Acid Tokyo arc of Tsubasa. She knew she was doing something bad, but her wish to do everything needed in order to "have him back" was stronger than anything else. And she made her own choice. Here, Sakura, on a smaller scale, made her own choice too.

Now, I hope in the last chapter we'll be granted the possibility to delve a bit more into Kaito and his thoughts, I need to see his character development, I need to see that he learned something from this. That he -at least- started to interrogate himself over the nature of his feelings for Akiho. I know it's reasonable to think that with him, things will take looooong time, but as least show me the signs. Because I need to know that Akiho will be truly happy with him (I know she will!), and she can only be if he's learned to be honest with himself. And learned what Lilie meant with the last conversation we saw between them.

Also, WHERE'S MOMO, I NEED TO SEE MOMO BEFORE THIS ENDS!!

Okay, this is probably the longest post I ever did but I think as the second-to-last chapter it deserved to have some big thematics explored in depth, because they're very important. I'm still pondering if I should divide the post of the final chapter in two because, in addition to even more pages, I expect there'll be soooooooooo much to talk about (cross your fingers with me that there won't be any translation mistake).

I also hope there'll be room for an epilogue or a couple of extra chapters, to help us coping with the separation in a more gradual way, cause after 7 years it's quite hard. I was curious to see the end, of course, but also not entirely ready to let this wonderful story go. I really, really enjoyed it and I say this from the bottom of my heart. I don't care what everyone else thinks, I can only be grateful to CLAMP for Clear Card Arc. 🙏

Chapter 80, along with all the tears that will come with it, is expected to be uploaded on November 29th on CLAMP's Youtube channel. Yes, it's less than a month away! I also expect some news about the anime (BLESS THE ANIME!! Something to cling onto when the manga is over 😭).

Well, see you at the end of November (please come to hold my hand cause I cannot do this alone, lol) !!!

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #ccsakura #clear card arc #ccs spoilers #sakura card captor #chapter 79 #sakura kinomoto #akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito #syaoran li #translation differences

[smokeybrandreviews]

A Tale of Mages and Servants Eternally Retold

I’m on record as being a massive TYPE-MOON fan. I’ve been one for years, since the initial release of Fate/Stay Night way back in 04. The original ero-game was my first flirtation with the company and i fell in love with it almost instantly. The story told, behind all of the boobs and sex scenes, was incredible. It was awash with unique ideas and creative force. The more I played, the more I was endeared to the characters and the world and, ultimately, the entire universe Nasu crafted. Over the years, as i delved deeper into the lore, i realized there was a real backbone behind that initial conflict between mages. There were Vampires, Outer Gods, True Magic, Magecraft, Reality Marbles, Noble Phantasms, True Ancestors, Grand heroes, Type-planets, Beasts; This web of stories was vast, intricate, and full of passion. Tsukihime, Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, DDD, Kara No Kyokai, Melty Blood, NOTES; All of them connected, adding to the over mythos and mystique of the Nasuverse. I’m a sucker for narrative and what Nasu birthed is one of the best. But Fate, specifically, holds a special place in my heart.

I absolutely adore Fate/Stay Night. When I heard it was going to be adapted into an anime, I was all over it. I remember watching the show when it originally dropped back in 06. While i enjoyed the hell out of it, i always found my interests falling more toward the other two routes; Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel. UBW eventually got it’s own, gorgeous adaption. Two actually. The series is far superior but a lot has to be said about the original film. I don't think, without that initial movie, we'd be sitting here with such a resurgence in the property. As much as I enjoyed the UBW animations, Heaven’s Feel definitely captured my heart. I’m a sucker for a good tragedy and Feel is one of the most tragic stories in the entire Nasuverse. It eventually got a film trilogy and, my oh my, is it a gorgeous watch. Of all things Fate, Feel is the most beautiful by far. Also, i mean, i adore Sakura Matou and Medusa Gorgon. They are my favorite heroine and servant, respectively. Well, servant can be disputed. Medusa was the first i really enjoyed, then came Alter, followed by Nero, Semiramis, and Mordred, but none of that would be possible without the very first Fate/Stay Night. The fact that it was so well received, bore a plethora of spin-offs and alternate tales, all of which are incredible in their own right, is testament to the powerful storytelling therein.

Watching the Fate franchise explode in popularity has been a real joy for me. Seeing all of the individual tales get their own fleshed out narrative is absolutely amazing. Fate/Zero was an outstanding prequel and Fate/Apocrypha turned out to be a pretty spectacular experience. Apocrypha actually carries two of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, Mordred and Semiramis, even if the overall narrative is a little wonky. It’s kind of a muddled mess story-wise, but it’s still a great watch with interesting ideas. Those are two of my favorite tales under the Fate umbrella but i have to say, Fate/EXTRA is, as an entire franchise unto itself, my favorite after the original. EXTELLA, CCC, Link, and Fox Tail all have their charm. Even if they’re all derivatives of the EXTRA tale, they are given their own, unique, twist on the formula.

The EXTRAs are so diverse with how they tell their stories, you can’t help but love them. Plus, Nero. I mean, all of the introduced Servants are dope in their own way, I actually really enjoy Gawain, Elizabeth, Attila, and Charlemagne, but it's definitely Nero. Look, I'm a sucker for a good Saber and Nero is one of the best. She's haughty, gorgeous, hilarious, and an absolute cinnamon roll. Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, the anime adaption of the first EXTRA narrative, goes a long way to endearing our darling Red Saber to the audience, even if it is the most SHAFT animation ever. Fate/Prototype, Fate/Type Redline, Carnival Phantasm, Fate/Requiem, Prisma Illya, Fate/Strange Fake, and Lord El-Meloi II Case Files all take place in the Fate universe. They all deserve their own essay to gush about each of their respective merits. They all enrich the Nasuverse as a whole. They're all incredible stories in their own right. Each has a universe, lavish and diverse, but contribute to the greater narrative, none of which would be possible with out the very first Fate route. The original Fate/Stay Night series will always be my favorite, even if it’s not the gem of the entire franchise anymore. No, that honor definitely belongs to Fate/Grand Order.

Grand Order’s genesis as a gacha game is problematic but, having played it for a few years, you kind of get over that. I hate mobile games and it’s one of the only two i actually play so that’s testament to it’s strength of world building. Indeed, Grand Order is almost all fan service if you know Fate lore. It pulls from every aspect of the Nasuverse and creates it's own, intricate, web of stories. Some are better than others but the few that stand out, do so with extreme prejudice. I can’t speak on the Lostbelts as i haven’t got a chance to play those but the original Singularities all have charm to them. I was partial to the Babylon and Camelot arcs but there is something for everyone in all of the tales. I can't say any of them give Heaven’s Feel a run for it’s money but they are still some of the best stories told in the franchise. More than that, i love the expansive background the Servants get and the seemingly limitless amount you can summon. A lot of the more intimate detail is lost for the all age demographic, but there are little conversations and interactions you can unlock, growing a relationship with the player. It's dope to see and, if you're like me, mad addicting. Hands down, Ritsuka Fujimaru, the player's avatar, is probably the second best protagonist in the entire franchise after f*cking Deadface. Watching a few of these stories getting anime adaptions is pretty cool, too, even if they seem a little convoluted in motion. The way Babylon turned out on TV is a little embarrassing but i have high hopes for Camelot and even Fuyuki was dope to see. I heard rumblings of a Solomon animation and, if true, I can't wait.

I love the Fate franchise. I love how even throw away ideas like Prototype and Apocrypha, can be fleshed out, giving those stories a proper chance to garner a fanbase. I love the intricacies of the world and the laws set to guide them. I love how Fate/Type Redline and Fate/Strange Fake take what we already know, and remix it into something brand new. I love how Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is basically a Magical Girl anime a la Card Captor Sakura but it still plugs into the Fate universe perfectly. I love how El-Melloi II and Today's MENU for EMIYA family all take place in the aftermath of the Holy Grail War, each looking at completely different aspect of the fallout. I love how all of the principal characters get completely fleshed out, given life and pathos, but allowed to be flawed. I love this entire universe. As a creator myself, i envy the depth of storytelling, the expansive lore being demonstrated, and i use it as a blueprint to create my own worlds. It’s rare a universe can be filled with such complete characters and narratives and I respect what Nasu was able to create. TYPE-MOON has come a long way from it's humble Comiket beginnings and I hope it continues to grow. I hope Fate continues to grow. Also, Mordred is best girl.

#Fate #Fate/Stay Night #Unlimited Blade Works #Heaven's Feel #Fate/Grand Order #Fate/EXTRA #Fate/Zero #Lord El-Melloi II Case Files #Type-MOON #Saber

[lilover131]

New CCS Oneshot

I’ve been on and off writing this oneshot for several months now, and I’m so glad to finally have completed it, just in time for Syaoran’s birthday, so I can share it with you all!! 

TITLE: Closer

SUMMARY:  While Syaoran is away in Hong Kong taking care of the things he needs to do, Sakura struggles to deal with the pain of their separation, and only his letters are able to quell the anguish. Will the letters be enough to help her hold on? Or will they find themselves drifting even farther apart? Takes place after the original series and before the Clear Card arc.

LINKS:  AO3 and FANFICTON.NET

You can also read the story under the cut if you do not feel comfortable with links! 

Closer

There was always this feeling of anticipation when the school day was over. Every day, Sakura would come home and eagerly open the mailbox just outside the house, and she would hope and pray that she would find what she so longed for.

 Ever since Syaoran went back to Hong Kong, they had had relatively little communication. Sakura imagined it was because he was busy doing whatever it was that he needed to do that had brought him back in the first place, but amongst his busy schedule, he still found time to write to her, and it was through those letters that she would feel revitalized. She wasn’t exactly sure why this was, but there was just something about it that made him feel closer to her. Maybe it was his handwriting. Maybe it was the way he described his day or how he seemed to ask so many questions about her as if they were having a conversation in person. Or perhaps it was even just the fact that the letters smelled faintly of him.

 Sakura would wonder silently while reading ‘I wonder what the weather was like when he wrote this?’ and ‘What sort of expression did he have? I wish I could have seen it…’. She hoped that Syaoran had the same thoughts about her when reading her letters, and her heart fluttered just at the idea of it.

 Much to her delight, a letter addressed to her with a stamp from Hong Kong was waiting for her. She rushed upstairs to her room and immediately opened it.

 Dear Sakura,

 I hope you are well.

 The summer is quite hot here in Hong Kong, and I hope you are staying cool in Tomoeda.

 The house is lively as always, especially with Meiling and my sisters spending more time together. They ask about you all the time and send their regards.

 The bear you gave me has gotten a lot of attention here, and everyone who has seen it has remarked at how well made it is. You’re really amazing at so many things, and it is almost hard to believe it was handmade! ‘Sakura’ sits on my desk so I can see her whenever I write to you.

 I’m working hard every day to finish the things I need to do so I can return to Tomoeda, though it has kept me very busy and I apologize for not writing more.

How are things at school? Are you and Daidouji still in the same class?

 I hope everything remains peaceful for you, but please let me know right away if strange things start to happen again.

 Sincerely,

 Li Syaoran

 As Sakura finished reading the letter, her fingers stroked over the surface of the paper, just above his name. Seeing his name at the bottom made her heart flutter, as it felt that he had somehow imbued a part of himself within the characters. Kero had told her once that this was not unusual, as there was magic even in a person’s name, and that by knowing a person’s name, you had access to their soul.  This was one of the reasons why she had to write her name on the cards after she captured them.

 The girl safely tucked away the letter in the drawer of her desk, the same place that she often kept the cards. Sometimes the cards would glow in response, as if to tell her that they were happy to see her in such good spirits.

 Sakura wasted no time pulling out her favorite stationery, a pale pink paper with star designs littered along the borders, and started to write her response. She could not hide the blush on her cheeks as she wrote, and it wasn’t as if she were writing anything embarrassing. Just the thought of Syaoran brought warmth to her cheeks, and she was asked frequently if she had a fever by those who saw it out of context. Kero saw her like this more than he’d like to admit, but ultimately he only wanted her happiness, and until the ‘kid’ was back in Tomoeda, this was the best way to keep Sakura happy.

 Dear Syaoran-kun,

 The summer has been very hot here in Tomoeda as well, but we’ve done everything we can to keep comfortable. Yesterday, Otou-san and I made shaved ice and had lots of different flavors to try! It was so delicious! I wish you could have tasted it. Maybe when you’ve come back to Japan, I’ll make some for you! You like lemon flavored things, right?

 I’m glad that your sisters and Meiling are doing well. I’d really like to see them again, and every time I receive a letter from Meiling, it makes me really happy! She’s been teaching me a bit of Cantonese in her letters, and it’s made me realize how difficult it must have been for you to read Japanese at school. There are a lot of characters that look similar but have completely different meanings! Meiling told me I should write this for you the next time I sent you a letter.

 一百個心都裝唔晒我對你嘅愛。

 I’m not sure what the direct translation is, but Meiling said it would make you happy if I wrote it and that it means something like “I care for you a great deal”.

 The ‘Sakura’ bear is not really that well made, but I’m glad you like it! I only had an evening to make it, and I’m happy that it didn’t turn out looking like Kero-chan this time! ‘Syaoran’ I feel is much better made and sits on a drawer in my room, right beneath my bulletin board with the post cards of Hong Kong you’ve sent me. I love the pictures on them, and they remind me of the time I visited and got to see your home. Your family was so kind, and your house felt very warm and inviting. I hope I can return someday and see more of it!

 I’m sure you must be working very hard in Hong Kong, but please don’t overwork yourself. I will wait for you, so please take as long as you need to finish the things you need to do.

 Summer break will be starting soon at Tomoeda Elementary, but there’s no shortage of summer homework for sure. It seems like there is more than usual, but Onii-chan says it’s probably so they can prepare us for the middle school entrance exams. I’m really nervous, but at least we have several months before the exams! I’ve never been great at math, so I’m worried that I’ll struggle with those parts of the test. But Tomoyo-chan does really well in all classes and said she will help me study, so I am sure everything will be all right! We’re still in the same class right now, and I hope that stays the same for Middle School too. Even still, I feel like school isn’t quite the same without you sitting behind me…

 I’ll be looking forward to your next letter!

 Sincerely,

 Kinomoto Sakura

 Sakura finished with her signature and gently blew on the wet ink to dry it before carefully folding the paper and placing it within the envelope. She’d send it out first thing tomorrow and couldn’t wait for her next letter to arrive.

 A few weeks passed, and summer had ended. Autumn was on the horizon and the heat was starting to die down, much to her relief, and thankfully along with the end of summer also left the rainy season. It seemed that every day during that time, Sakura could look out the window and the sky would be covered in gray clouds. However, even the gloomiest of seasons, she felt she had Syaoran’s letters to look forward to, and continuing the same pattern every day, she checked the mailbox after school. The rainy season unfortunately passed without a single letter, but just as the sun returned, the letters did eventually as well.

 Sakura immediately rushed upstairs to read it, and not even Kero dared to bother her. This letter had come a bit later than usual, and it seemed Syaoran’s communication was becoming more and more spaced out. It was concerning to Sakura, and even Kero didn’t like the silence, but he disliked seeing her sad face even more.

 Dear Sakura,

 I hope you stayed dry in the rainy season! It appears that the sunshine is back again, so I hope it’s the same for you in Japan! I recall the weather being similar in some ways to Hong Kong at this time of year, though not quite as hot and humid!

 I wish I could have had some of the shaved ice you made with your father in the summer time, and I’m sure it was delicious. I tried to imagine it whenever the heat was starting to get to me, and I think it helped a little bit.

 My sisters would certainly love to see you again, and Meiling talks about going back to visit Japan frequently. I had no idea she was teaching you Cantonese, and admittedly I was a little surprised at what she had you write.

 一百個心都裝唔晒我對你嘅愛。actually translates as “A hundred hearts would be too few to carry all my love for you”

 Sakura stopped reading briefly and cupped her face, which was beat red at the realization of the Cantonese words Meiling had advised her to write. She couldn’t believe she had her put down such a thing! The girl also couldn’t help but notice that Syaoran’s handwriting appeared to look a bit irregular and shaky in that particular part of the letter, and she wondered what had caused his hand to become so unsteady. After regaining her composure, she continued to read.

 I’m sorry she asked you to say such an extravagant thing without explaining the meaning, but I spoke to her about it to make sure it doesn’t happen again. She says it was all in good fun. But…regardless, I know what you intended to say and the feelings behind them, and it did make me very happy. You’re my most important person, and I’m doing everything I can to come back to Japan like I promised. I will try not to keep you waiting too long, and knowing that you’re waiting for me makes everything worth it. Thank you for that.

 I’m glad that ‘Syaoran’ bear has been so well taken care of, and I hope he’s been watching over you in my stead. ‘Sakura’, who I still insist is very well made, is always with me, and I feel like I have you by my side and am encouraged and made stronger by it.

 I’m sure someday you will come back to visit Hong Kong, and I’ll show you as much as I can when you do. There are lots of beautiful places that aren’t printed on post cards.

Don’t be worried about the entrance exams. You’re plenty smart, and as long as you keep working at it, you’ll do just fine. Study a little bit each night, and it will come naturally to you when the time comes.

 School in Hong Kong also does not feel the same without you sitting in front of me, but I’m glad to hear that Daidouji is still in your class. She is a very good friend and I’m sure she will encourage you all the way through.

 Keep working hard!

 Sincerely,

 Li Syaoran

 The rest of the letter made her heart flutter, and her fingers brushed over his name once again. She would have to write him back right away! Without wasting another moment, she got out her favorite stationery and pen and started to write what was in her heart.

 Dear Syaoran,

 Like you said, it was raining here a lot, but I didn’t mind it. The rain can be very calming at times, however it definitely limited the amount of things we can do outside. The sunny days are back now, so I’m excited to be outside more! 

 Fall is starting here, and Onii-chan said that now that the chestnuts are in season, he’ll bring home some dorayaki from the bakery he works part time at. I’m sure it’s delicious, but there are a lot of other really yummy desserts there too! When I think about it, Onii-chan really does have a lot of part time jobs. He says he’s working so much because he wants to pay for college on his own, but I think there’s more to it than that. He may be a jerk sometimes, but he is really hard working and is always looking after me. I have the feeling your sisters care a lot about you too and are always looking out for you. It must be nice having such a big family!

 I had no idea that the words Meiling suggested I write meant that, and I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. It’s so embarrassing! But I am glad that it made you happy, because you are very important to me as well. I hope you’re taking care of yourself.

 ‘Syaoran’ bear has also encouraged me, and anytime I feel like I am struggling, I can look at it and imagine you’re here with me, cheering me on! School has been getting a little bit easier, and I’m not as nervous about the entrance exams anymore. Tomoyo-chan and I have been taking a little bit of time each week to study, and I think I’m finally starting to understand Math a bit better.

 I’m sure everything will be all right, and I’m looking forward to becoming a Middle School student! I know that everything will be all right for you as well in the important things you need to do, and I’m cheering you on from Japan!

 Sincerely,

 Kinomoto Sakura

 Sakura smiled as she signed the letter and sealed it in an envelope for mailing. She hoped that she would receive another message from Syaoran as soon as possible, but she also hoped that he knew she was encouraging him even from a distance, just as he had done for her.

 Several months passed, and there was no letter. Sakura became worried that something had gone wrong, but every once in a while, she would get a small text message from Syaoran. The conversations they had via text were often short and more frequent than the letters, but they just didn’t seem as satisfying as those letters written by hand. They were special…

 The lack of hand written letters gave her this agonizing sense of distance between them that appeared to be growing. Of course there were already many miles between them, so it’s not as if the feelings were completely out of the ordinary, but the letters had made her feel as if they were just the tiniest bit closer, if only in their hearts. 

 It was finally when the autumn had come and gone and winter began to emerge that the next letter arrived, and Sakura let out a sigh of relief at the comfort that they were not over. There was a warmth that grew in her and made her forget about the bone chilling cold temperatures outside, and she made her way to the kitchen table with a fresh cup of tea and the letter in hand. 

 Dear Sakura, 

 I am sorry that it took so long for me to send this letter.

 I hope that the autumn was peaceful for you! I remember the season being very beautiful in Japan, but here in Hong Kong it is difficult to see the changes in the seasons from the middle of a large city. Even so, there are still some spots I can retreat to that remind me that nature is never far. 

 The winter in Hong Kong is thankfully warmer than in Japan. I always struggled with the cold, but the scarf you made me feel much more comfortable, almost like it’s made with some sort of warming magic. I believe this is simply because you made it. 

 However, of all the seasons, spring is my favorite. Nothing really rivals the beauty of the blooming cherry blossom trees in Japan, and I hope to see them again soon…

 I’ve never been quite sure how to act around your brother. I feel like he dislikes me still for how I treated you when we first met, and I don’t really blame him for that. He clearly cares about you a great deal and I believe that he is a very good brother to you. I hope I can apologize someday properly for my behavior back then. 

 As for my own family, it is just as you said. It is nice to have a large family, and I can’t really imagine what my life would be like without them. My sisters, although very lively and sometimes loud, are very smart, strong, and kind women. I know they care about me too, but I wish they could show it without being so...suffocating. By ‘suffocating’, I mean that they hug me so tight I can’t breathe! 

 As Sakura read the letter, she briefly glanced down and saw the bright smile that reflected in the tea within her cup. She blushed a bit upon seeing herself, and it was almost strange to see herself react like that to something written. Was this what love looked like from the outside? 

 She continued to read the next part of the letter, and her face quickly changed to a different expression; one that was far different than one glowing from feelings of love. 

  I have thought about you the entire time and kept your letter close until I had the opportunity to respond, but I am afraid this will be the last letter I will be able to send. 

Please keep the ‘Syaoran’ bear close to you and remember that I am still always supporting you. Don’t forget your invincible spell. 

 Sincerely, 

 Li Syaoran

 Sakura stopped before the tea cup in her hand was rested back down onto the plate on the table. Her face had gone pale, and her emerald eyes were burning with tears threatening to fall. She read the line again, feeling a pain in her heart as she did. 

 I am afraid this will be the last letter I will be able to send. 

 Sakura read it over and over, trying desperately to understand its meaning. Did Syaoran mean to say that he was too busy to write any more letters? Was he telling her that he no longer wanted to write them? If he wasn’t able to come back, he’d tell her, wouldn’t he? Her mind was swirling with the possibilities, but even if it were something innocent, the thought of losing those precious letters was almost too much to bear. The letters and the teddy bear...they were all she had to remember him by…

 The girl made her way upstairs and opened the drawer of her desk containing the letters and sadly rested it atop of the others. From the privacy of her room, she allowed a few tears to fall and was thankful to see Kero was in the middle of a nap so he could not see her in such a state. The Sakura cards began to glow a soft pink, floating up from their stationary position and surrounding her, as if to try and comfort her in her apparent distress. She continued to cry until she gazed to the ‘Syaoran’ bear that rested on the small table across the room. 

 Slowly, she made her way to it and held it tightly in her arms, remembering the last words in the letter. 

 Please keep the ‘Syaoran’ bear close to you and remember that I am still always supporting you. Don’t forget your invincible spell.

 Sakura slowly nodded, her tears beginning to fade and her heart starting to understand the meaning. He was telling her to hold on...to keep waiting for him. 

 “Everything...will surely be all right…” 

 She whispered softly, still clinging to the bear and making a desperate wish that soon, they would be together again…

 Sakura rushed back to her desk, eagerly writing her next letter. She had to let him know...she must let him know…! 

 Dear Syaoran, 

 I promised to wait for you, and I will continue to do that, even if it means I won’t receive any more letters from here on out. 

 I will keep waiting, because you are my number one person. 

 Everything will surely be all right! 

 Sincerely, 

 Sakura Kinomoto 

 The girl held the short letter close to her chest, muttering a wish and hoping to engrave her feelings in the small piece of paper. Surely, her feelings would reach him...and the distance between them would lessen. 

 Several months passed since the heartfelt letter was sent, and just as Syaoran had said, no more letters were received. Although Sakura was generally very cheerful, the slight sadness had not gone unnoticed by those close to her. Even the text messages they shared had become farther apart in frequency, and Sakura couldn’t help but wonder if those too would soon disappear. 

 Even still, she had decided to wait, and she continued to believe that everything would be all right. She focused on the other aspects of her life to distract herself, and the middle school entrance exams soon came and went. Thanks to her hard work and encouragement from Syaoran, Tomoyo, and those she cared about, she passed with flying colors. Starting in April, she was going to be a student at Tomoeda Middle School, and this change made her realize just how much time had truly passed. 

 It would be so strange to be in a completely different school with new faces and Syaoran not beside her through it all. The time they shared in Elementary school was almost starting to feel like simply an old memory that would fade with time, and she prayed that no more time would pass before they were able to make new memories. 

Even still, life went on. She received her middle school uniform, and she attended the middle school entrance ceremony. Sakura said goodbye to her Elementary school life and prepared for the next step in her life. Why didn’t anyone ever tell her that growing up could be so...scary?

 Her birthday arrived, and she grew another year older; another reminder that as she waited for Syaoran, time would continue to flow forward without their consent. 

And then the first day of her middle school life finally came…

 Even if it was scary, she was still excited by the new opportunities and friendships she would find as a middle school student. It was a new adventure, and she’d tell Syaoran all about it when they saw each other again...if they saw each other again.She shook her head at the thought. No, Syaoran promised, and he never broke a promise...

 The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom and brilliantly lined the streets she walked, and they always managed to put her in a good mood. She remembered how Syaoran had spoken fondly of the springtime in Japan as well, particularly because of the trees. Sakura spoke to herself cheerfully about the springtime plans she had, excited for the good times to come. 

 “I should go flower viewing with everyone! I should ask Tomoyo-chan and…” 

Her footsteps halted as she thought of what she had wanted to say next. 

 ‘I wanted to see them with Syaoran-kun too….this year’s cherry blossoms’

 The feelings of loneliness washed over her again as she thought of possibly going through another year without him. His favorite season was here, and he wasn’t even here to enjoy it. 

 Then, her eyes fell upon a figure standing at the end of the street, almost not visible behind the flurry of falling petals that rained like snow. The silhouette seemed so familiar, and she could almost swear that it looked like Syaoran...was she seeing things now? Perhaps she had wished for him so strongly that she was now beginning to see him in places he was not. 

 However, as the blossoms settled and her sight became clearer, so did the image of the figure before her, and it now looked too real to be an illusion or dream. She saw Syaoran, wearing the Tomoeda middle school uniform and holding in his arm the ‘Sakura’ bear she had so painstakingly made for him. Her vision had now pulled her in so deep that she could not help but speak to it. 

 “Syaoran-kun…?” 

 It was when her vision spoke back that she suddenly began to realize that this was no fantasy, and the tears instantly welled up in her eyes. 

 “We finally wrapped up the business in Hong Kong. From now on, I’m a permanent resident here in Tomoeda”

 The words had shaken her so violently that she almost could not comprehend it. 

 “Really…?” 

 “Yeah” 

 Almost needing more reassurance that this was not some sort of cruel dream, she asked more questions to verify the reality before her. 

 “You mean I don’t need to settle...for letters or phone calls anymore?” 

 Syaoran smiled at her, and it was then that she could no longer deny it. Even a dream could not replicate the effect her beloved’s smile had on her. This was the real thing...

 “Yeah” 

 In a sudden rush of emotion, she flung her briefcase down to the ground and charged towards him, quickly embracing him in a tear filled hug. He felt so warm, and the solidness of his body and strong arms wrapping around her in return further grounded her to reality, which still at moments seemed so surreal. The happiness she felt was overwhelming, and having him close to her again was something she almost didn’t believe possible. 

 “Now we can be together forever!” 

 The painful waiting was finally over, and the part she felt she had been missing for the past year was now back, making her feel whole again. Sakura now understood what his words had meant...the reason he had told her that he would not be able to send her any more letters was because he knew that they would be together again soon. He must have worked so hard in those last few months, especially since he said it would take a long time to come back. She hoped that he would tell her all about it. 

 Sakura felt so connected to him now, but what she found most incredible of all, was that even with the physical distance and seasons that passed, it was through the letters that they somehow found a way to become even closer, and it took them reconnecting now for her to recognize it. The distance was never really there, was it?  Now that they were together again, there was nothing in their way and so many memories to make and seasons to experience. They would do this all...together. 

 ‘Everything will surely be all right…’

 THE END

#cardcaptor sakura #fanfiction #oneshot #chrissy writes sometimes #syaoran #sakura #letters #love letters #romance #angst #humor

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hello! I don't know if you've seen the Trollhunters series, but in the third season Jim has the opportunity to become a troll/human. However the effects would be permanent, and in the words of Merlin "Part of you will remain Jim, but the other part will never be the same." I've been thinking that something similar could happen with Oscar. That he has the opportunity to "fuse" his soul with the soul of Ozpin. Feeling not like Oscar, nor as Ozpin, but as someone else.

Hi there Los! I have actually seen Trollhunters and was a fan of the series for a while when it first dropped. However I sadly never finished the series (or checking out all it’s other spin-offs). I made it as far as I think the sixth or seventh episode of S2 and never got around to finishing it. So…yeah, thank you for that nice spoiler there XD Just kidding, I kind of already know about the Jim turning into a troll bit but mostly from spoiler screenshots on Twitter. I didn’t really know the context behind it until you explained it. Again, thanks for the spoiler but it’s cool.

In regards to Oscar and Ozpin and the Merge—well once upon a time, in a RWBY Musing of mine way back before V6, I shared my own views on the merging of the two souls that was not so different from your theory fam. 

I figured that the Merge would’ve been similar to fusion in Steven Universe and I even used the character of Garnet as my example. Not sure if you’re a SU fan but in the series, Garnet is a fusion of two gems named Ruby and Sapphire and the embodiment of their love for one another. 

While Ruby and Sapphire are their own individual characters with their owndistinctive personalities, what’s interesting to note about Garnet is thatinspite of being a fusion of two gems, the show and by extension, the other characters within the Steven Universe world have always treated Garnet as her own character outside of the two gems she’s comprised of.

As a fusion, Garnet possesses physical characteristics, mannerisms and of course abilities that she inherited from Ruby and Sapphire respectively. Nonetheless, Garnet is still seen as her own gem and thus her own character. This is how I originally pegged the Merge to be with the treatment of the ‘new Oscar’ afterwards.

This squiggle meister has NEVER 100% bought into the holdnotion of Oscar completely losing himself to the Merge. Ever more after I recapped V5 and remembered how Ozpin told RNJR that HE is the one destined to change with the fusing of the two souls. NOT Oscar.

I originally pictured the Merge would’ve involved Oscar and Oz forming a new persona who I dubbed the Wizard—the embodiment of both minds,inheriting all of Ozpin’s original memories and abilities while still retainingOscar as the dominant personality since he is supposed to be Ozpin’s successor.

Despite the CRWBY Writers attempting to sort of convince the FNDM with the idea of Oscar disappearing entirely by having that be a concern of said character, I still don’t buy into it because there have been other little breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout the last few seasons that highlight Oscar’s experience with the Merge being different from his predecessors.

Hence why I’ve now dropped my original theory in favour of a new one. Nowadays, I’ve deviated to my Pinehead headcanon where I think that Oscar is actually Ozma

I’m going to tag @daggerpawstudios​ here as well since my points in this response post also answers her inboxed question:

Hey squiggles!! I read your theory on Ozma and Oscar joining souls to just make Oscar whole again. I think you mat be on to something. I recebtly just rewatched eipsode 3 of volume 6 and i never noticed that Oscar and Ozma have the same voice actor as well. You can hear it wheb Ozma says his lines in the stories. I also find it interesting because it is implied that Oscar is the last recarnination of Ozma by the way he speaks in volume 5.

Basically my idea was that Oscar is possibly the teenage re-embodiment of Ozma’s original form that he never regained after his soul was first resurrected in the body of Diggs (Ozma 2.0). In the Lost Fable, it was highlighted that only Ozma was only brought back soul form. He never truly regained his original body; hence Ozma’s genuine surprise when he realized that he wasn’t in his old body and was instead inhabiting the mind of somebody else’s (Diggs). 

It also justifies Oscar’s reaction to seeing Ozma’s shock of being paired with Diggs the firs time and his solemn “He didn’t know” remark since Ozma didn’t know the Gods would bring him back in the body that wasn’t his own.

The narrative has placed too much emphasis on Oscar being his own person to just have him become somebody else.

Not to mention there’s the whole important bit with Ozpin’s allies and enemies reacting to his sudden reappearance as if they weren’t expecting him back, at least not so soon.

My hunch with that the Ozma Cycle doesn’t work like the Avatar Cycle or the Doctor Lineage. Instead of being brought back almost immediately after the death of their predescessor within the same time period, my guess is that a new Wizard is reborn every half a century or so. I do a much better job at explaining this theory in this post right here. 

But the general consensus is that Oz was NOT supposed to be back this soon.

I initially figured this was the case after recalling Lionheart’s reaction to Oscar back in V5 and Tyrian’s reaction to the news of his return in V6 and now  Ironwood’s reaction to Oscar being revealed as Ozpin’s successor in V7 further supports my theory.

“...This can’t be...I knew you would be back, but...you made it here! You found Qrow! How?” - Lionheart (RWBY V5 Chapter 11) 

“...Ma’am. I have more to report. Qrow and the children are taking the Lamp to Atlas...” Hazel Rainart.“...Not if I can help it...” Tyrian Callows“...And they’re being led by Ozpin.” Hazel“...So soon?!” Tyrian (RWBY V6 Chapter 4) 

“Oz? I’m so glad you’re here. I didn’t think you---” Ironwood (RWBY V7 Chapter 2) 

Here are three examples of characters being surprised to see Ozpin back so prematurely so clearly there is something is very, very different about the Cycle when it comes to Oscar. 

Instead of being reborn in another like-minded soul possibly years down the line as the cycle probably works, Ozpin’s soul took an unexpected detour and was instead paired up with Oscar.

You might be asking why though? 

Why would the cycle suddenly do this all of a sudden and why would it suddenly chose Oscar Pine—a 14-year-old farm boy from Mistral all of a sudden.

This brings me to my headcanon. I’d like to believe that Ozma’s cyclehas been pretty consistent up until Oscar’s lifetime. While the show didn’thave Ozpin make a big deal about him suddenly being brought back sooner than usual inside the body of Oscar Pine, it’s the characters associated with Ozpin and the Ozma Cycle that give me this strong impression.

I’d like to think there is something very special about Oscar that sets him apart from other Wizards and Ozma successors and it’s why I strongly believe his experience with the Merge will be much different and much more significant. 

This is why I like my theory of Oscar secretly being Ozma’s original body that he never regained after his first reincarnation, now resurrected in Modern Remnant and given a second chance at life.

This theory of mine was inspired by a similar scenario in the magical girl series Sakura Cardcaptors where the character of Eriol Hiraigazawa is one half reincarnation of the great wizard and creator of the Clow Cards: Clow Reed while the second half was Sakura’s father.

Both characters were two halves of Clow Reed, only Eriol was the younger half who inherited all of Clow’s memories and magical abiltiies while Sakura’s father---Fujitaka Kinomoto---didn’t. 

My idea was that since Ozpin is the current version of Ozma’s soul (theculmination of him and all the other Wizards over the years), if Oscar is revealed as the other reincarnated half of Ozma---his body--- then that could mean that our impression of the Merge has been wrong.

What if...the Merge isn’t meant to erase Oscar. It’s meant to make him whole. Body and Soul together as one make a person, right? 

So my idea was that merging with Ozpin would help Oscar see the truth of who he really is. That Oscar is in fact the one true Ozma. 

This also ties into my theory where I believe Oscar is meant to represent the end of the Ozma Reincarnation Cycle. He’s meant to be the last life. 

This is also why I love the idea of him being revealed to be the true Ozma. This whole shebang with Salem began with him in his first lifetime and therefore should end with him in his last lifetime. 

Ozma was the beginning so Oscar will be the end. The end of a cycle. 

I love the concept of the Merging of the Two Souls actually representing the reunion of Ozma’s soul with his original body, therefore fully resurrecting the original Warrior of Light from First Remnant to become the Warrior of Light of the New Remnant. 

...or at least one of them.

The irony with this is that neither Ozma’s soul nor his body are the same anymore. They’ve both been changed. Ozma or rather the soul of Ozma has definitely changed from all of his lifetimes spent living in the company of the like-minded men he was paired with while his original body was given a new life and purpose in the Modern Word. 

Ozma has been a lingering sentiment of First Remnant who has withstood the ultimately test of time. This all started with him and Salem basically. Ozma is a primary player in RWBY’s key arc with Salem. All the more reason why I think it would be so cool if Ozma and Oscar are actually one and the same.Thinkabout it.

I also really love the concept ofor the obvious nod to the Wizard of Oz and its sequel story--- The Marvelous Land of Oz. 

Wasn’t the Wizard original believed to be the ruler of Oz until  later it was ultimately revealed that Princess Ozma was the true ruler.

Princess Ozma was the true ruler of Oz. Oscar is true reincarnation of Ozma. Here we’re all thinking that Oscar is going to become the Wizard when it actuality, he’s the true ruler of Oz.  Think about it.

Imagine…how compelling of a twist it would be if, here we have Oscar believing that he’s going to lose himself entirely to Ozma—becoming someone he didn’t recognize—living as just another one of Ozma’s many lives when in reality, he’s not meant to lose himself.

He’s going to be made whole again. He wouldn’t become someone he didn’t know. He’ll be himself again and instead of living another life as Ozma, Oscar will be the proper second chance at a new life that Ozma never thought he’d get.

I really like the idea of Oscar realizing he is in fact the real Ozma and then afterwards deciding for himself who he wants to be. 

Now that he knows the truth of who he really is, courtesy of the Merge, does hetake back his original Ozma name or will be continue forward as Oscar? 

Naturally, Oscar chooses to be Oscar. Although folks can still address him as ‘Oz’ if they’d like for those who were more familiar with him under that nickname. 

Fun Fact: Did you know that ‘Oz’ is actually a pet name for ‘Oscar’.

As Oscar, our little barn prince now fully reborn as a Warrior of Light, still plans on fulfilling his duty to save humanity from Salem but he now does so under the firm motivation that his life as Oscar will be his final one. No more innocent souls being dragged into his war with Salem. It may have began with Ozma but it will end with Oscar.

This is my current impression on the Merge and my main theory for where I think Oscar’s Arc might go. I could essentially be wrong but nonetheless, this is one of my favourite Pinehead headcanons that I really, really love at the moment. And I hope you like it too, Los.

I hope this post also answers your question along with Dagger’s. 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#loscardonofrio #squiggles answer: rwby #oscar pine #professor ozpin #oscar and ozpin #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons

[cardcaptorcoconut]

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc Chapter 33 Translation

Happy April, everyone! Hope you’re having a good month so far. :) I went for a walk on Tuesday and got to see some nice cherry blossoms (thankfully before the wind started knocking them all off the trees!)

Here is the translation for this month’s chapter. Thank you to @meimi-haneoka as always for proofreading for me and for her help with a few tricky lines this time.

☆★Translations Notes Reminder★☆

Disclaimer: These are just fan translations. Please support the official release. 

Chapter 33

Cover Page:  “Come on! Take the hand of someone important to you.”

P1 Akiho: (They’re) delicious! Kaito: Thank you very much. Akiho: These are Dacquoise, right?

[Note: Information on the Dacquoise dessert can be found here.]

Kaito: Yes. I made them with buttercream this time. Akiho:  Strawberry with coffee flavor! Kaito:  And also…

P2 Akiho:  Chocolate (ones).

[Lit:  Chocolate flavoring.]

Akiho:  (These) are delicious too! Momo: <thinking> Chocolate… Momo:  <menacing thoughts and aura> You’ve left some (for me), haven’t you, Yuna D. Kaito? Akiho:  Are (these called) Dacquoise because they resemble duck’s bill?

[Note: I think because Akiho speaks English, she’s comparing the sound of Dacquoise to “duck”…?]

P3 Kaito:  Oh. Akiho: Oh. Momo:  <to herself> Oh? Kaito:  (If I recall, I believe) the word originates from the French hot spring (resort area), “Dax”…

[Note: It looks like there was a spelling error in Nakayoshi this month – they spelled ダクス (Dax) as ダスク (Dusk). Google-fu confirms that Dax is spelled as ダクス in Japanese.]

Akiho:  I-I-I-I-I’m sorry!  I guessed wrong! Kaito:  Not at all. They certainly do look like duck bills.

P4 Akiho:  <blushing> I really… don’t know… anything… Akiho:  I’ll (keep) reading a lot more books! Akiho:  And I’ll remember a lot more things for sure…! Akiho:  …Kaito-san? Kaito:  Akiho-san, you’ve already committed (more than) enough to memory.

[Lit:  Akiho-san, you already remember enough things.]

P5 Akiho:  …… <Kaito abruptly gets up to exit the room> Kaito:  I also made plum jam.  I’ll go bring (some). <Akiho looks on with concern> Momo:  ……

P6 Kaito:  Tina, Rie, Atropos. Reveal in broad light what was hidden.

[Note:  It’s interesting to note here that Kaito’s chant has changed to include “Atropos” – one of the Three Fates in Greek Mythology. On second look at the word Tina, it’s possible that this too refers to Greek Mythology, specifically "Tinia” (Zeus).]

P7 <A portal of some kind appears to open>

P8 Kaito:  …They really never learn, do they? Kaito:  Even if the Sorcerer’s Society elites all gather together and (cast their spells), they’re weak and afraid of destroying (their) bodies… The (results) will be the same so long as (you refuse) to make use of time magic.

[Alt: …so long as time magic isn’t made use of.] 

P9 Kaito:  (I command that time stop.)

[Lit:  Time, be stopped.]

P10 & P11 Kaito:  As time stops, so does (the) spell. Kaito:  And… if it’s stopped, then it’s easily broken.

P12 Kaito:  (As) I’ve already explained many times. Kaito:  Well, (they) know the “magic tool” (they) worked so hard to create is almost complete, so (it figures they) won’t just wait around (doing nothing).

P13 <Kaito’s hand and/or existence(?) flickers> Kaito: …… Kaito:  “This” can’t be stopped. Kaito:  Hopefully this time, (you’ll) make the card (we’re) aiming for, Sakura-san…

[Note:  I put “we’re” here because Kaito’s sentence is a bit ambiguous.]

P14 <Scene changes to Sakura and toddler Syaoran> Sakura:  Hoeeeeeeeee!! Sakura:  I-I’m (so) sorry! Sakura:  Uh… Um! Syaoran-kun… now (you’re)… little!! You’ve turned so small!!

P15 Syaoran:  …It seems that way, huh. Sakura:  Wha!? Wha!? Syaoran:  (Physically, I’ve turned into a child, but I’m still me).

[Lit: My body/appearance has become a child, but my consciousness is the same as present day.]

Sakura:  I-is that so? Syaoran:  Yeah.  (I can tell), Sakura.

[Alt:  Yeah.  I still know you, Sakura.]

<Sakura breathes a sigh of relief> Sakura:  ……

P16 Sakura:  <to herself> He’s adorable! Sakura:  <to herself> So this is what Syaoran-kun was like when he was (young).

[Lit:  …little.]

Sakura:  <to herself> I wonder roughly how old this is?  His voice is a little higher too. Sakura:  <to herself> He’s. So. Cute!!

P17 Syaoran:  …This is probably because you’d just wished that “we’d met when we were even younger.” Sakura:  So that’s why you turned small…? Syaoran:  I think so. Sakura:  I’m sorry! Syaoran:  (You) can’t control the magic, so it can’t be helped. Syaoran:  But, at this rate…

P18 <Syaoran trips and falls> Sakura:  Syaoran-kun!? Sakura:  Ha… ha… Sakura:  HANY~AN! <3

P19 Syaoran:  Wha? Sakura: <embarrassed> AH! Sakura:  D-Did that hurt!?

[Lit:  Didn’t that hurt?]

Syaoran:  <cuffs his pant legs> I-I’m… I’m okay. Syaoran:  If this is also (caused by) your power… Sakura:  …then if I (capture) the card, you’ll return to normal.

P20 Sakura:  Release! Sakura: … Syaoran:  I want to be the me who’s the same age as you, so I can be of some help.

[Lit: おれはさくらと同じ時間を生きているおれで力になりたい…the “me” who is living the same time as you.]

P21 Syaoran:  Besides, we can make memories from this point on together. Sakura:  …Yeah. Sakura:  You who is without a master, by (the power of) this staff of dreams, I command you to become my strength. Sakura:  Secure!

P22 <Sakura seals the card>

P23 <Syaoran returns to normal> Sakura:  …(What a relief.)

[Lit: I’m so glad.]

P24 <The Rewind card looks just like baby Syaoran> Sakura:  Hany~an!! <Scene changes to Kaito> Kaito:  It’s a cute card, but that’s too bad. While it’s close, it’s not -that- “magic”. Kaito:  (At this point), it can’t be helped that Sakura-san’s realized she’s been making the cards by herself.

[Alt:  Having come this far, there’s nothing to be done about Sakura realizing…]

Kaito:  However, it would still be somewhat troublesome if (I was to be mentioned.)

P25 <Kaito uses a spell> Syaoran:  There’s something else I want to tell you. Syaoran:  What happened today (was) Shi… Syaoran:  …… Sakura:  Syaoran-kun?

P26 Syaoran:  …Sa…kura. Sakura:  Y-yes? Syaoran:  Yu…… Syaoran: <thinking to himself> When I try to bring up Shinomoto or that butler, my voice won’t come out…

P27

Syaoran: …… <Syaoran tries to write down what he’s thinking instead> Syaoran: <thinking> I can’t move. <Syaoran tries to write, but ends up writing “Sakura”> Sakura: …Y-yes. Syaoran:  So (I’m) being (restrained) by a spell.

[Lit:  …stopped…]

P28 Syaoran: <thinking> Considering (how powerful that guy is), even (the others) won’t be able to tell Sakura anything.

[Lit:  Considering the strength of that magician… / Note: The actual Japanese for the second part of the sentence here is おれ以外からでもさくらに伝えることは出来ないだろう – meaning help can’t be given “even from someone other than me.”]

<Syaoran hugs Sakura>

P29 Syaoran:  No matter what happens, I will protect you. Narration:  Ordeals come at Sakura & Syaoran…!  Don’t miss the next issue either!!

[Alt:  ...You (won’t be able to look away from) the next issue either!!]

<To be continued in the June issue of Nakayoshi, on sale in May>

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura clear card arc #card captor sakura clear card arc #clear card arc #ccs #ccs clear card arc #translations: clear card arc