Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc – Revival of a classic Magical Girl

As the quintessential Cardcaptor Sakura fanboy around the blogosphere, I felt it was only right for me to start writing about my thoughts on this at some point. A continuation of the series after 20 years is a pretty big thing, after all. You could mess around with Digimon Adventure tri. or Dragon Ball Super to my dismay all you want, but if a new Cardcaptor Sakura storyline isn’t done right, I’d go apeshit.

「Localization Decisions For Literal Dummies」 Syaoran the Bestie

When Nippon Ichi Software America released their premium edition of the Cardcaptor Sakura Blu-ray collection in 2014, I was obviously the happiest person on Earth finally being able to own the definitive viewing experience of possibly one the cutest anime series in existence, at an affordable price. And everything was almost perfect, especially the video transfer. It’s exactly the same as the Japanese release.

But there’s one thing that went wrong with this release: the subtitles. Now, it’s no secret that NISA translations are really, really bad. True to form, the subtitles are pretty iffy here and there. Naturally, it’s not a bad as Nelvana’s retool hackjob of a dub “Cardcaptors” back in the early 2000’s, which was quite frankly the devil’s incarnate. In comparison, iffy subtitles are incredibly minor and a godsend. But there’s one translation flub present in this release that is rather bothersome. And that is, Sakura calling Syaoran her “bestie”.

Fanime 2015 Haul

Image Credit: さこ from Pixiv

Alright, I’m back from Fanime 2015. Unfortunately, I’ve come back to a horde of school projects I’ve neglected in favor of my special once-a-year geek-fest, so for now I’ll just go over the merch I spent my moolah on this year and share the rest of my Fanime 2015 experience later.

Cardcaptor Sakura 【HD Rewatch】 36

DREAMING DREAMING

そして扉が…

ひらくよ~

I realize that it’s already April 2nd in Japan, but since it’s still Sakura’s birthday/CLAMP Day here at least, I should get off my lazy bum and continue with these posts!

Now that our little detour in Hong Kong is over and done with, the second season blogging of Cardcaptor Sakura is finally underway. Whereas the first season is pretty hefty (35 episodes!), this is actually relatively short – it’s just comprised of the very tail-end of the Clow Card arc, and let’s just say that the second season of CCS is as “long” as one average anime series (one cour, 11~12 episodes).

Happy New Year!

Image Credit: あきのん from Pixiv

よいお年をお迎えください!

It’s finally 2015 on my side of the world, guys! I didn’t do a “12 Days of Anime” countdown for the end of 2014, but I’m still up to share some blurbs of my Japanese-related highlights of 2014 all in one post (excluding Fanime, you can see that post here).

Cardcaptor Sakura 【HD Rewatch】 THE MOVIE

Sakura goes to Hong Kong!

When we last left off on my rewatch-blog of Cardcaptor Sakura, the first season of the series had concluded with Sakura enjoying her final moments of Christmas day.

In the original television broadcast of Cardcaptor Sakura, the anime was put on-hold until April 6, 1999 for its second season. Gekijouban: Cardcaptor Sakura didn’t premiere in theaters until after the second season had ended and Sakura captured all the Clow Cards (the movie premiered in theaters on August 21, 1999). However, the plot of the film clearly takes place around/between episodes 35 and 36 (it’s winter vacation in Tomoeda and Meiling is still around), so for the purposes of the re-blog, I’m placing it before the second season.

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie Blu-ray Review [Discotek Media]

SECOND MOVIE NOW PLEASE, SECOND MOVIE NOW

こにゃにゃちわ! I return from life’s trials and tribulations known as school and work. You know, some college students decide to spend their hard-earned money on textbooks, tuition, and other junk, but I choose to use my money for far more important matters.

Like tossing it at my computer screen and demanding anime companies to bring me more Cardcaptor Sakura.

(I’m only half-kidding.)

After going through some complications with the order, I’ve finally received my Blu-ray copy of Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie. I’ll do a post about the feature itself later (because it’s next on my rewatch-blogs), but for now, let’s take a look at the quality of the release.

Cardcaptor Sakura 【HD Rewatch】 35

Sakura will take over the world…soon.

We’ve finally arrived! The final episode of the first season. I was hoping to get to this a lot sooner, but lo and behold… college and work.

Aside from the axed Leave it to Kero-chan! segment, as the first season’s last episode, Studio Madhouse decided to end it off with a bang by packaging it with a handful of goodies – making you want to jump into the second season immediately. It all goes up from here.

Cardcaptor Sakura 【HD Rewatch】 34

Riddle Me This

Here we are: it’s the second-to-last episode of the first season until we get to DO-DO-DO-DREAMING (and the movie)!

This is also the first episode where no Clow Cards are captured at all. In fact, the “antagonist” in this episode was… the full moon (no, not that moon). In Cardcaptor Sakura, magic (at least when it comes to Clow Reed’s magic) draws power from the sun and the moon. The full moon clearly has an effect on Sakura, once again triggering precognitive visions of what appears to be the Final Judgment (the viison with the silhouette of a person who is obviously Ms. Mizuki) and also puts her in a daze.

[SPOILER]
While there was a red herring in the previous episode, this episode also gives us a crucial hint of who Yue actually is…

Yukito: “My grandparents love to travel and are hardly ever at home.”

Ms. Mizuki: “I see.”

Ms. Mizuki: “Yukito, you’re…”

Yukito: “Yes?”

[CUE INTERRUPTION][/SPOILER]

Cardcaptor Sakura 【HD Rewatch】 33

CCS Month ended, now I declare it CCS *year*.

UPDATE

Sorry for the brief hiatus. With the remains of summer already coming to a close (I return to college AND work @ college in a week) – I’ve been doing all the leisurely things I can possibly do in this hot weather. I’ve already plowed through entire CCS Blu-ray set a long time ago and with the English release of Tales of Xillia 2, I’ve been doing a Tales marathon as well (it doubles as family time with my little sister, since these JRPGs are multiplayer!) as well as gnawing at my VB backlog.

It’s gonna be weird crawling out of the rock I’ve been under these past several weeks. Returning to civilization, what the hell is that? Mind you, I’m still going to write reviews about the anime I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet that I promised to review ages ago.

END UPDATE

Without further ado, time to continue this Cardcaptor Sakura project! Snowy weather hits Tomoeda and our beloved heroine + Tomoyo and their token Chinese friends go on a school trip to learn how to ice skate.