The fourth DVD of Card Captor Sakura, entitled "Sakura Fight!" in what is possibly a clever way of referencing both the episode containing Sakura's and Kero's flare-up as well as a generic encouragement often heard in anime, contains the following text as a blurb:

Sakura challenges the Power Card to a game of tug-o-war, but thanks to Li, the game could be over in no time! Then, Sakura goes to see her brother in a peculiar version of Cinderella that is brought to a crashing halt by the Mist Card. What will Toya do? Next, after a fight with Sakura, Kero runs away and accidentally befriends a lonely child. Will Kero be able to see Sakura again if it means breaking a little girl's heart! Finally, Sakura's family takes a vacation where Sakura meets an old man in a mansion – who could he be?

I get the feeling that whomever comes up with these probably has nothing much to say about the episodes in question, and can see the looming future of so many DVDs to go and nothing to say about them too.

Extras outside the DVD would be one pencilboard, with rather nice pictures on both sides. One side has Sakura in her episode 2 battle costume framed by very large wings from the Sealing Wand (plus random glowies scattered around), and the other side has Sakura in her opening animation outfit posing against a backdrop which resembles a Clow Card. I might put the pictures up someday when I find them.

Extras in the DVD consists of an Art Gallery, with twenty-four line-art pictures and cleaned-up production sketches, a large number of which are basically Kero-chan in different poses. Standard "art gallery extra" stuff, essentially, and nothing particularly eye-catching, especially at the default resolution; one drawback of relatively older anime is that they don't really age well with regards to Bigger Better Screens and the ability to note every little pixel.

Anyway. Episode 13 is called "Sakura and the Elephant's Test of Strength", which I suppose technically counts as accurate if one kind of squints for a bit at the events in the episode. Sakura does have a test of strength, and an elephant does help out, and that's pretty much all one can say about it. I mean, it's just one elephant (well, technically two), not one thousand, much to Dibbler's disappointment.

Once again, the number of screenshots for this summary has been drastically reduced, or we'll be here all day staring at Tomoyo (Daidouji, I have to add, after the incalculable number of times I have to explain that I do not mean the CLANNAD Tomoyo of the Super Combo Hits). While I am perfectly content to while away the hours basking in Tomoyo's presence, I dare say that not everyone shares my view. (More's the pity.)

Therefore, every time Tomoyo appears onscreen, have another CHECK!Point. It's the right thing to do.

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(Reposting to fix several bits of bad coding. Never HTML when drunk, people.)

I'm not entirely sure why, but this episode did not really seem as appealing to write about as others. I suppose that even though it had a great deal of future plot points introduced, the actual episode itself was not, well, dramatically charged or otherwise compelling. It was one step up from filler, so to speak. (Note that I have absolutely nothing against filler, and indeed, in some cases, prefer filler to actual plot.)

Anyway. Episode 12 of Card Captor Sakura, "Sakura's Never-Ending Day", deals mainly with one of the basic truths of the universe, being Time. Experience with playing a Time-focused character in Mage: The Awakening implies that it is a tremendously powerful ability (I mean, seriously, it's near-broken), but also quite draining (I blow Mana points like water). This matches up quite well with uses of the Time card in future episodes.

I should also note that I'm finding fewer things to say about this episode as I go on. So if this summary seems less entertaining than usual, well, there's always next time. Or the next one after that, if needed. I do have fifty-eight more episodes and two movies to go.

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Now that I've sufficiently apologized for my prolonged lack of CCS episode summaries by scarring your minds, let us continue.

This episode summary suffered from Great Indecision, regarding which pictures should be kept and which should be discarded. As mentioned previously, this meant that even if I had inexplicably lost interest in blogging CCS (which, to head off any unfounded rumours, I have not; I just haven't found the solid chunks of time needed to write these up), I would definitely have finished this episode summary anyway, since damned if I would let all the anguish of "but it's Tomoyo" go to waste.

Episode 11, Sakura, Tomoyo, and a Mansion, deals mainly with Sakura's first visit to Tomoyo's house. It also has plenty of flashback scenes, more evidence that Sonomi is a Former Tsundere, and a box containing Precious Things.

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If this episode summary seems somewhat less than entertaining, it's probably because I'm feeling rather under the weather at the moment. It's nothing serious, just a persistent cough and cold, but it does place me in the frame of mind that is not quite the optimal balance of discomfort and clarity of thought which seems to accompany some of my Finest Work (or so I'm told). Apparently my snarkiness is directly proportional to how irritated I am.

Sadly, this cold appears to have stolen a great part of my vocabulary. I may descend into monosyllabic grunts by the time this summary is over.

Episode 10 of Card Captor Sakura, "Sakura and the Sport's Day of Flowers", deals with, unsurprisingly, Sport's Day and flowers. I remember Sport's Days back in high school (equivalent) or elementary school (equivalent) as being rather, well, boring affairs. For some weird reason, the Track and Field events were reduced to simply Track events, and the Field events were done before the actual Sport's Day event. What we random students did, therefore, was sit in the hot sun for several hours, while periodically (every half an hour or so), several of the more athletic members of the student body ran varying distances. And then we clapped. And then we waited some more. Being a decidedly unathletic sort, Sport's Days were pretty much just one in a long line of Things Which Do Not Interest Me.

Apparently Sport's Days in CCS-verse Japan are more interesting. For one thing, we didn't have cheerleaders.

This episode summary is also fairly light on the CHECK!Points, but in this case, it's because there really isn't a lot of CHECK!Pointable stuff in the episode. The art isn't bad (unlike episode 5), but events in the episode just did not result in a great deal of screenshots that would make one melt into a puddle of hanyaa~n. Still, it's not utterly dry either.

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The third DVD for Card Captor Sakura is called "Friends Forever", which probably refers to all the various adventures Sakura inadvertantly leads her friends on, thanks to the Clow Card. Well, it's a nice enough sentiment, even though it's probably been associated by now with all the "frenz 4eva" stereotypical chatspeak.

The blurb on the back of the case reads as though someone is trying to string together the plot summaries for three admittedly episodic, er, episodes, and trying to make it seem exciting:

The Sword card takes control of Sakura's friend and attacks! Still, Sakura is able to use her head and her heart to save everyone. Next, Sakura discovers that her mother was best friends with Tomoyo's mom, and learns important lessons about friendship. However, none of these lessons prepares Sakura or Li for the challenge of the Time Card. How can you battle something that can turn back time?

We'll just leave aside the whole thorny debate of that "best friends" bit for now.

Extras in this DVD are a postcard enclosed in the DVD case, as well as an "Art Gallery" in the DVD extras portion. The Art Gallery is pretty much a bunch of black-and-white sketches (some pencilled, some inked) of various things, ranging from Sakura to her classmates (Chiharu and Rika in particular) and her battle costumes and random views of Tomoeda. There are twenty-nine of these sketches in total, seemingly thrown together for no reason other than to have a DVD extra.

The postcard itself has Sakura, Tomoyo, and Meiling (who hasn't even turned up yet, and won't for two more DVDs) in kimonos (well, Meiling is in a qipao) in a fairly traditional Japanese setting. There's a large "Happy Girl's Day" caption on top (in pink), and I should probably scan the thing in if I ever figure out how to make a clean scan of reasonable size that won't seem utterly pixellated. Or maybe I can see if the picture is already in my CCS collection… no, doesn't look like it. May as well wait until Sagubooru comes back online.

Anyway. Episode 9 of Card Captor Sakura is "Sakura and the Mysterious Brooch", and appears to have a rather artsy animation direction, with a lot of Dramatic Still Scenes and high light exposures. Everything just seems a tad too bright, and slightly blurred. It feels like a precursor to a SHAFT production or something. I'm not sure if it's "good" or "bad", but it's certainly eye-catching.

Also, there's a great deal of Tomoyo CHECK!Pointing that I had to leave out, since otherwise we'll be staring at thirty-plus screenshots of Tomoyo-chan throughout this summary. So again, whenever Tomoyo comes onscreen when you watch this episode, have another mental CHECK!Point.

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I believe the last time I said that volume two of Card Captor Sakura only had the creditless first ending animation for an extra. When opening the DVD case for the last episode on the disc, however, I discovered a postcard that was packaged inside the case. Basically, it's this picture (which I posted back during Valentine's Day), except with a few changes to the background, a large "Happy Valentine's Day" at the top, and a small CCS logo at the bottom right. So there's an extra, um, extra. I may scan it in if I ever get my scanner working again.

Episode 8 of CCS, "Sakura's Rival Appears", introduces Li Syaoran (also often romanized as "Shaoran", and it really is the same thing; I'm just used to "Syaoran"), perpetually-scowling kid from Hong Kong who seems to have a better grasp of Japanese than most ten-year old Hong Kong kids. (Not to mention the whole bit about his name being technically in Mandarin instead of Cantonese.) While he does turn up as a rival, I think it's safely far past the statute of spoiler limitations to say that he doesn't stay as a rival for very long.

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Like many blog posts wherein I talk about something close to my heart, I started and restarted this entry many, many times, trying as hard as possible to get it just right. There comes a time, however, when I have to stop, step back, look at it, and realize that either I spend the rest of my life working on this, and never actually finish it… or I should just post it anyway, dissatisfied about it though I may be, feeling that I could have improved it in a hundred different ways but never actually knowing how. A poor, pale shadow of the platonic ideal of the tribute I envisioned in my mind.

I've been told that I should maybe make it something like an essay, with well-defined points and screencaps to back up my assertions. I tried that approach, but quickly felt stifled and restricted, mostly because with a topic such as this, I'd much rather be able to convey my passion, my love for the subject, rather than a dry, clinical statement, thoroughly researched and as free of errors as any actual academic paper.

But maybe that's why an essay might have been a better idea: it's difficult to put emotions and feelings into words, and to convey these feelings, to make a reader experience the same feelings as the author. It's easier, perhaps, to win over readers by use of logic rather than rhetoric, or at least safer. Emotions are a very personal thing.

I've decided, in any case, to just go with the flow, to write what I want, and let my own meagre writing skills be the outlet for the rather extreme fanboyism regarding my favourite character in my favourite anime, Tomoyo Daidouji from Card Captor Sakura.

The following will assume knowledge of the series, both in anime and manga. If you'd rather not be spoiled or utterly confused, it's probably not a good idea to read any further. (Well, more utterly confused than you already are.)

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You had to have seen that joke coming. (If you're not sure, that's the Codec frequency Solid Snake uses to contact Otacon in Metal Gear Solid. Yeah, gamer joke.)

Episode 7 of Card Captor Sakura, "Sakura's First Attempt as a Thief?!", apart from being punctuated, deals mainly with Sakura and Tomoyo infiltrating an art gallery to, as usual, capture a card. There's a lot of use of the word "kaitou" here, which is often translated to "phantom thief". (Literally, the kanji are "strange/mysterious/suspicious" and "thief/robber".) I would assume that this refers to the sort of gentleman thief who uses smarts and tricks and illusions to effect near-magical getaways, and which seem to be a fairly popular anime trope, on both sides of the protagonist/antagonist line.

The kaitou in Yoshinaga-sanchi no Gargoyle, Hyakushiki, states (whether he personally believes it or not) that the duty of thieves such as himself is to "liberate" various valuable items and put them "where they belong". I suppose in this case, it kind of fits.

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Am I the only one curious about the nekomimi ghost? Oh, really? Never mind, then.

Volume two of Card Captor Sakura, as mentioned in my previous post on episode 5, is called "Everlasting Memories", probably based on the events in this episode, and contains episodes five to eight. Since I deferred talking about the DVD itself last time, I'll get around to it now.

The blurb for this volume is as follows:

As if capturing 40-foot tall plush dolls (the Jump) wasn't hard enough, now Sakura has competition! Li, her new classmate, has come from China to capture the Clow Cards for himself, so their relationship isn't entirely friendly… Still for ten-year old Sakura, everything else pales in comparison with meeting her mother's ghost! Can her heart take it?

This makes it sound as though Sakura has a cardiovascular problem or something.

Extras in this DVD are scarce: there's only really the creditless first ending animation. With this many DVD volumes to fill (eighteen in total), there's not a lot Geneon (then Pioneer) can do to make up for it, I would think. We have the various creditless openings and endings, and, um, that's probably about it, really. Especially considering the gap between show production and DVD release.

Episode 6, "Sakura and Memories of her Mother", has the appearance of not one, but two battle costumes. Also, there's a lot of flashy lights, although not really up to epileptic levels.

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Volume two of Card Captor Sakura is called "Everlasting Memories", possibly in a reference to episode 6. But for a change, I'll be putting aside the various DVD items for this post, and instead talk about the episode itself.

Episode 5, "Sakura, Panda, and the Cute Shop", apart from sounding rather awkward, shows signs of (dare I say it, what am I saying, of course I do) lower production values than other episodes. This is mostly noticeable in the animation and character designs, where it appears to have been drawn by an outsourced studio (rather than the "in-house" Madhouse Studios) or the B-team of animators or some such. It's not utterly deformed and horrible (like some of the broadcast episodes of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and its sequel, or Utawarerumono, or even the infamous bits of Lost Universe), but when looking at the episode closely for making AMVs or blog posts, it's fairly obvious.

In addition, there were also plenty of strange and unexplained actions and occurences in this episode. It's not the worst offender, but it's up there somewhere. Yes, I know about the whole "it's MAGIC" explanation, and even now, as before, I still don't entirely buy it.

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