If you haven’t watched any episode of Clear Card-hen aside from the first couple, I’d recommend watching this one, if only to see how fucking cute it was. Seriously! There was a first date, lots of “awww!” moments between Syaoran and Sakura, and a bunch of throwbacks to the original Cardcaptor Sakura anime. In terms of favourite episodes, this one is right near the top of my list. But anyways!
The episode begins with Sakura having a quick video conference call between herself, Kero and Yue in which she fills Yue in on her newest card capture. He confirms that current events follow the same as when Sakura captured the original Clow cards, but unlike the first time around, no one has any idea about what’s going on with what’s happening now. Sakura’s dreams, the mysterious robed figure, her clear cards – Yue (and the others) have no idea about what any of it means.
Sakura ends the call from her phone when she realizes she has to leave to meet Syaoran. They have a date together, a first-time event that they are both clearly very much looking forward to but are also painfully shy about. When Yue asks Kero why he’s not tagging along, Kero shares that he got a video call from Tomoyo, who asked him to let Sakura go to the aquarium alone because Sakura doesn’t get many chances to be alone with Syaoran. And she’s right, if you think about it. Usually Kero’s there, or one of their friends from school. So yeah, going together was the plan, but once they actually get to the aquarium… ^^;;
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The cute couple does indeed get to their destination and they want to look at everything. I love going to the aquarium as well (although I have more of an issue with things like animal shows, but that’s a tangent I won’t get into), so I totally understand their excitement. Sakura points out where she first encountered the Watery card back in the original CCS anime, and the “tea room” (what looks like a small cafe-like area) she remembers too. But when Sakura and lean over the railing to look more closely at the tea area….eheheheh.
Because you see, Toya is filling in for a coworker at said tea room, and he is not happy to see Sakura with Syaoran. Not because he knows Syaoran will treat Sakura badly or anything, but the look on Toya’s face gives me the impression that Toya is… sad? Regretful? Seeing his little sister on a date with a guy she really likes must remind him of how much she’s growing up, and how one day she will eventually leave home. Toya fights a lot with Sakura and provokes her into bickering with him, but deep down he really loves his sister.
Anyways during the awkward scene with Sakura and Syaoran attempting to order food, a new card causes the tank behind them to break and water to sweep Syaoran away. With Sakura’s leg pinned by the force of the card and holding her underwater, it’s Toya who saves the day by pulling an emergency lever, causing all of the water to drain outside. But poor Syaoran didn’t get to finish his question, ne? Now he’ll have to get up the courage to ask Sakura all over again. >.<;
Later Sakura calls Tomoyo to fill her in on what happened, and Tomoyo pulls some strings with her family to sneak her, Sakura, Syaoran and Kero into the aquarium again that night, like in the episode with Watery. Furthermore Tomoyo has also gone and made custom costumes for both Sakura and Syaoran. Sakura’s looks very similar to the costume she wore when capturing the Watery card, and Syaoran’s looks similar to what he wore in the original anime as well. Ah, so many references to the original series – I love it. ^_^v
All four of them sneak into the aquarium, and man the building must have absolutely no security cameras anywhere because they are not busted once. Well they have one close call with a guard, but Sakura uses Lucid to turn their group invisible. But even later when the new card breaks the glass ceiling over some of the tanks, no alarms sound, nor do any guards come running.
Eventually the group encounters the new card, and it looks like a slinky, or a DNA helix. I had absolutely no idea what card it was until Sakura captured it, which I appreciate because sometimes it’s nice to have to guess at things instead of having it handed it to me (as the viewer) on a platter.
Anyways, in another neat throwback to the original anime and the Watery episode, Kero remembers that Sakura captured Watery by freezing it. And while Kero is dejected because he thinks they have no way to freeze this new card, Syaoran proves him wrong. Syaoran quickly summons his sword and casts an ice spell, freezing the card in place. Sakura doesn’t hesitate to capture it, and it’s revealed to be… Spiral? Wha? What possible use could this card have? Maybe Sakura can ride it like a staircase…? Anyone else have any ideas? (I feel like it could have some super obvious uses that I will totally see and understand as soon as it’s pointed out to me… XD )
Back safe at home and in bed, Sakura calls Yukito to fill him in on her aquarium trip with Syaoran. (Or maybe he calls her; who calls who isn’t shown.) Sakura’s feeling a little down about what happened, and is still a little annoyed about the encounter with Toya, but Yukito cheers her up by reminding her that this time she had Syaoran with her. After the call ends, Sakura looks at a picture Tomoyo took of Sakura standing next to Syaoran in their new costumes and she gets all blushy.
I have a question though: what’s with the close-up shots of Sakura and Syaoran’s homemade bears? Are these items that are going to be useful somehow in the final battle? Will someone’s life be saved due to one of these bears? I haven’t read the manga so I don’t see their importance just yet, I guess.
So! If you don’t want to read more about me fangirling over how freaking CUTE this episode was, you can stop reading here. I watched this episode with a big fat grin on my face, and I caught myself madly giggling more than once. Especially whenever Sakura and Syaoran were alone together and were looking at each other meaningfully, or when Syaoran was trying really REALLY hard to ask Sakura out. (Damn you Spiral card!)
ACTUALLY the scene with the foreigners who didn’t speak good Japanese might just be my favourite. It was freaking hilarious and it showed Sakura that Syaoran has really good English skills, something she shares she hadn’t considered before. Plus Syaoran was a great boyfriend-to-be by offering to teach Sakura what he knows, and I think if there’s a future scene with Sakura and Syaoran talking to each other in English I might just die. x3
I know it’s not likely to happen but I really, really hope we get another episode like this one. It’s a good breather from the plot without ignoring the new clear cards Sakura’s capturing, and just yeah. Overall this was just a really fun, cute episode.
I’m probably in the minority here, but that scene with the tourists was freakin cringe. Look Japan, if you can’t hire native English speakers to actually speak English, don’t put English in your dialogue! It’s just distracting.
Also next time on Clear Card: you jokers best get hype because THE ROLLER BLADES ARE BACK.
I actually thought they did a relatively good job with the English speaking tourists – you could tell that the VA for Syoran was the best of the three, though.
My take on the tourists was that English might not have been their first language. Or they were using more basic English to make it easier to communicate. I know that I speak a little differently when I’m speaking to someone who doesn’t have English as their first language.
Was the pronunciation a little cringy? Yeah, a bit. But I didn’t take it in a negative manner. That’s just me though. 🙂
And yay for roller blades! I haven’t worn those since I was a kid. xD (Too hard on my weak ankles.)