Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Cardcaptor Sakura – episodes 30 to 35

May 28, 2004 on 10:48 pm | In Cardcaptor Sakura | Comments Off on Cardcaptor Sakura – episodes 30 to 35

Why do magical girl programs so often give tantalising hints of continuity and overarcing story just to dash all of our hopes on the rocks? Actually, that’s probably not symptomatic of the genre. It has to be Cardcaptor Sakura itself. Most other things have the “story” happening in the background, no matter how much this week’s monster is at the foreground.
The good thing about these episodes, though, is that Kero-chan is frequently sitting by himself in darkness, uttering a name; vaguely recalling a triangle of Clow Book powers. Yes, the underlying story is interesting, and it is being denied.

As for the episodes themselves … the DASH episode is a fairly standard tale of “earning it for yourself”, but Yamazaki was brilliant. “Let me tell you about cheerleading …” he says, launching into a story. At the end Chiharu says “That’s a lie,” to which he replies “Let me tell you about lies …”.
The episode in which Meilin demands to know where Sakura’s cutter attack is was pretty good, especially Kero-chan’s “Hyoo!” bit. So many wingéd animals, it existed a lot for the cuteness value.
The crowning achievement of nonsense episodes was the CHANGE episode. Shaoran with Osaka accent was priceless! Kumai Motoko got a lot of value out of that performance, and as Tomoyo said, serious Kero-chan and comic Shaoran made for the perfect comedy match up. The TV drama tactics were hilarious and on the whole it got the characters to do things in each others’ bodies that you wouldn’t physically see otherwise. It also makes it harder to see, with every episode, how Kero-chan and Kerberos are one and the same.

Finally it happens, and Shaoran begins to blush in the presence of Sakura. The rudeness, as has been noted, is gone. He’s just uptight and serious now. The way he treats Meilin has softened also, but it does not seem yet that she realises they can’t be together. They both see something in Yukito, still … their Christmas day together is truly awkward.

The hints: the dream, the utterings of “Yue” in the darkness, they’re all so tantalising. If only Cardcaptor Sakura could give us more. Most of the time it’s a good slice of life, but there’s no urgency to it. The cards just appear as they appear; that they pose no real threat themselves is a bit of a worry. We need Yue, whoever he or she may be.

The last two episodes of the first series are the most interesting of this lot; of particular note is the meeting of Mizuki and Yukito, particularly in the light of what she had said to Toya in the Shrine of Memories. The tension was palpable. Mizuki definitely knows more than she lets on. And in the final episode, Kero-chan offers “dai sabisu” (great service) because it’s Christmas. Now that he’s got some of his power back, perhaps he will return to the fore.

Basically Cardcaptor Sakura is enchanting, but the enchantment fades when it distances itself too much from what makes it great. Hopefully in the following 37 episodes, more shall be resolved. After all, Keroberos has to show up, yet!