All in all this was a rather slow slice of life episode. As seen in last week’s preview, this week’s episode centred on Sakura volunteering to read to children alongside Yukito. However because it’s Sakura, she also volun-cruited Akiho to read with her and Syaoran to play a piano accompaniment, with Tomoyo of course creating outfits for both Sakura and Akiho and then volunteering to record the whole thing. Sakura’s cuteness attack is just too much for both Syaoran and Akiho to resist. ;D
Having been suckererd coaxed into playing the piano for Sakura’s engagement, Syaoran calls Wei and asks him to find a piano accompaniment piece for him to play. His sisters sneak themselves into the conversation and he gently chides them to stop sending him large videos and pictures of food through text messages. They are not put off though, and resolve to send him even longer videos in revenge. Mwhaha!
At home Akiho is practicing reading the book she’s to read with Sakura the next day, “Buying Mittens”. While she practices hard, Yuna prepares some sweets and tea for Akiho. Momo is sitting nearby, and now that we know she’s alive we are starting to hear some of her inner thoughts while she’s around Akiho.
The next day is the big event. Yukito reads first, with Sakura and her friends watching. Then it’s their turn! The kids get really into the story, reacting out loud and even getting upset when the little fox child in the story has a chance of being endangered by a human. However Syaoran’s quick thinking on the piano changes the room’s mood very quickly, and Sakura and Akiho’s progression with the story smoothes the situation over.
Later that night Kero helps Sakura dry her hair, and she shows him the footage she filmed (using the Record card for the first time) of their reading. Or rather, footage she tried to record. Sakura doesn’t fully understand the scene she sees when she plays the footage back for Kero, but he understands immediately – Sakura has unintentionally filmed a scene from the past. Yeah that’s right. Instead of recording herself and Akiho reading to children, Sakura has filmed what looks like some kind of party or celebration from the past. No details are given about what the occasion is, but references to the scene from earlier in the episode hint that their group is in the “recreation room”. Maybe it was a party to celebrate the opening of the hospital? Or the building of a new recreation room?
Sakura’s disappointed that her magic “didn’t work”, but Kero comes up with a white lie to get him out of the house so he could go see Yue. Once there Kero shows Yue some old pictures taken at the hospital on the hospital’s website. Kero and Yue both realize that this incident is significant, for only people with very strong magical powers can record “footage” from the past. Clow Reed would have been able to do it, but who are the others? Eriol? Kero and Yue agree that Eriol must be contacted immediately, regardless of whatever the circumstances are.
These last few lines really made me think about how I view Sakura as a character, and her magical powers. Sakura is a young middle school student, and she’s fairly naive and gullible about the world and about how her magic works. To be fair some of that ignorance is due to Kero and Yue maybe not always telling her everything up front, but still.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I obviously know that Sakura can use her magic to capture and summon cards, but when compared to Kero/Yue’s magic, or Clow Reed’s magic, Sakura’s magical abilities pale in comparison in my mind. I’ve never really considered her to have super strong magical powers. ^^;; So to hear Yue and Kero say up to bluntly that yes, Sakura is a very strong magic user is a bit of an eye opener to me.
I suspect it might be due to how Sakura’s magic is portrayed too. She uses her magic through cards; she can’t cast spells like Syaoran, not in the usual sense anyways. Or maybe it’s because to me her cards seem more like creatures than inanimate spells. Maybe I’m just thinking about this all way too much. xD
Anyways, we’re getting down to the final episodes now and (having not read the manga) I’m starting to wonder (and worry a little) about how it’s all going to come together. There are several big revelations that I would think have to happen before the end of the season, and I’m going to be annoyed if they come off as rushed because they weren’t allotted enough time to have a full impact.