Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 04
カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編 chapter 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakura, Tomoyo, and Kero-chan make a no-bake cheesecake from Chiharu’s recipe. Touya arrives with Yukito in tow with the ingredients to make okonomiyaki. Touya steals some of Sakura’s cheesecake, angering her. After dinner, as Tomoyo fits Sakura for an outfit, Sakura still fumes about it, more so when Kero-chan defends Touya for his excellent cooking.

Once the outfit is completed, Sakura remarks on how good she feels wearing Tomoyo’s creations and thanks her. As Tomoyo films this, the trio find themselves in a transparent, bubble-like cube with string substance running through it. Sakura and Kero cannot sense anything from this trap they are in.

Elsewhere, a concerned Eriol looks at his phone as he receives a report from Spinel that Kaho finally calmed Ruby down. Spinel wants to know if Eriol is going to call the girl in Japan. He says he won’t until the time is right.

Sakura and Tomoyo agree that the rubbery walls of the cube make it seem like a balloon. Tomoyo suggests popping it, so Sakura activates the key to summon her staff. After an incantation, the cube turns into a Clear Card. Touya knocks on the door, but doesn’t seem to suspect what they are doing. She looks at her new card, called Siege.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, while I liked this chapter, there really is too much of the “been there, done that” feel to everything here. For me, that doesn’t bode well for the series.

Tomoyo

Tomoyo steals this chapter, starting with this color page.

In addition to being cute, being the perfect seamstress, and the ultimate, supportive friend, Tomoyo is the one who comes up with the solution to the trap they were in. Yes, Sakura executed it, but were it not for Tomoyo, Sakura would pretty much be out of luck.

Sakura

Sakura does what Sakura always does in Cardcaptor Sakura. She’s troubled, but trying her best. She’s happy that Yukito is staying over (but she’s not fawning over him). She’s still battling her oniichan, Touya. She’s thoughtful to her friends. She’s tolerant of Tomoyo’s video obsession. She has a hard time problem solving, but then somehow knows how to force a Clear Card back into its card form.

I’m sure all of these things are what fans expect of Sakura. And to a degree, I’m there as well. However, I want there to be character growth on Sakura’s part. I want her to actually understand (and thus pass that understanding to the audience) her powers. She can remain who she is, but she needs to progress as a character. And by progression, I don’t mean just capturing a new deck of magic cards.

Eriol and Company

One thing CLAMP has managed to do here is make Eriol mysterious again. While I’ve no doubt he’s somehow involved in this whole Clear Card mess, there appear to be other things going on. For starters, he’s holding his smart phone as if he’s expecting a text or call. Not only that, but he looks worried as well.

Then there’s something going on with Ruby. Ruby looks very troubled and apparently needed Kaho to calm her down. Whatever is going on with Ruby appears to be delaying a planned trip to Japan.

So I’ll give CLAMP credit for bringing an element of interest to Eriol and his bunch.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Despite having 32 pages, counting the Tomoyo color page (but not counting the color promo page for Cardcaptor Sakura stuff), not a whole lot went on in this chapter. Everything feels too much like “been there, done that.” CLAMP mostly feels like they are going through the motions, looking to get a cheap score from nostalgia. I hope I’m wrong about this.

In the end, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 04 is a fun and entertaining chapter, but fails to really get my juices flowing for the story of this series. It does remind me that I need to finish reviewing the Dark Horse volumes of Cardcaptor Sakura. 😉