Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 10
カードキャプターさくら クリアカード編 chapter 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakura has her vision of the figure and the gears. When she comes to at dinner, she learns she wasn’t asleep, but merely had stopped responding.

The next day, Sakura and Tomoyo walk to school where Sakura explains why she’s bringing Kero-chan, who’s tethered to Sakura’s smart phone as a charm. Tomoyo has brought a spare bag with a costume for Sakura to wear, should the occasion arise. Sakura hears a noise, but since they are late for school, they race off.

In literature class, they learn about prophetic dreams, which Sakura thinks may be what she’s experiencing. Sakura reads a passage aloud, then the teacher picks Akiho to read next. She’s very nervous, but Sakura encourages her and she does fine. During lunch, Akiho is encouraged to join the Chorus Club, which she does, pleasing everyone. Again, Sakura hears something, but she gets distracted before she can pursue it.

Tomoyo takes Sakura and Syaoran off somewhere so that she can get his measurements and make something for Syaoran and Sakura. The trio, along with Kero-chan, sense a wind-like thing around. Syaoran summons a sword and attacks. Sakura asks him to stop as she has a plan. When it gets close enough to her, she asks it to become her friend. It forms a bow and attaches to Sakura’s back. With that, Sakura can now fly as the bow becomes like butterfly wings.

Sakura again hears the noise. This leads her to capturing a new card called Record.

Thoughts/Review:

With Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 10, a new card gets captured, but there are only more questions.

Sakura Flies…Again

The weird element in this chapter is that we apparently have a couple of things going on when it comes to the mystical side of the story. Sakura kept hearing noises, and that turned out to be the Record card. Capturing the Record card really didn’t do anything other than solve the noise issue. I presume that like Tomoyo, it loves recording things.

That said, there’s this massive disconnect in this chapter. While Tomoyo is fitting Sakura and Syaoran for their costumes, presumably another Clear Card shows up. Sakura doesn’t capture it, but befriends it and now she has bow-like wings and can fly. Then everyone acts like this is a first for Sakura — she can fly! And yet she previously had the card The Fly, which started as wings on her staff, then became wings on her back. Sorry The Fly; you’ve been forgotten.

Still, isn’t it lucky that what I presume is another Clear Card allowed Sakura to fly and capture the Record card?

Prophetic Dreams…or Not

Sakura keeps having these cryptic visions with the mystery person and now a whole bunch of gears. CLAMP decides to have Sakura remember that she used to have prophetic visions in her earlier cardcaptor adventures. One would think Sakura would have thought about that after her first dream/vision. I wish CLAMP would have Sakura really start researching things rather than go on as they have been.

Syaoran Gets Involved

With Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 10, Syaoran finally gets into the action. It has been annoying seeing him looking worried all the time while basically sitting on the sidelines. OK, yes, he’s been a support for Sakura in other ways, such as listening to her and such, but he’s not done jack. Not only that, he seems to know more than he’s letting on. The fact that he’s not cluing Sakura in is annoying as well.

I found it interesting that Syaoran summons his sword the way Syaoran from Tsubasa did. Well, I say interesting, but there’s a part of me that goes on yellow alert. Tsubasa was an interesting concept that CLAMP then took to awesomeness for a time before making a complete and utter mess of things, causing it to kill xxxHOLiC and such. So when all is said and done, I can’t help but worry that CLAMP will hose Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc as well.

Same Old Same Old

I know we are only ten chapters into Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc, but the series just isn’t jazzing me. Maybe it is because I’m older, but CLAMP still feels like they are phoning it in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m cool with Tomoyo’s excitement over dressing Sakura (and Syaoran) in some new outfit. I like the cute romance between Syaoran and Sakura. Many of the nostalgia elements are good and indeed should be in this series.

However, I’d like to see something new and fresh. I’d like to see Sakura doing some research. Not only that, I’d like her to pull Tomoyo and Syaoran into the mix. She’s not dumb, but doing research on her own would help. Yes, she’s consulted with Syaoran, Kero, and Yue, but she needs to do more. With more knowledge, it would make her sudden ability to charm those “wings” make more sense.

As to what else could be done, I’m not sure.  I just wish things felt fresher.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

As is normal these days, I’m ages behind, so let me wrap this up.

• Tomoyo’s hair style reminded me of LI Meiling from the anime series. She was never in the manga series, though I believe CLAMP did do some artwork of her. Regardless, I wonder if CLAMP is making a nod to the anime character.
• I feel terrible saying this, but I’m bored with the Akiho character. I still feel she’ll be the figure from Sakura’s visions, but we’ll see. In fact, if she is that figure, I predict that Akiho won’t be shy and nervous when revealed, but confident and haughty.

In the end, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc 10 is OK for what it is. We continue the nostalgia of Sakura capturing cards, Tomoyo getting excited, and we have a new bit with Akiho. However, it just feels like more of the same.