Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Hen – 15

「さくらのおもいで鑑賞会」 (Sakura to Omoide Kanshoukai)
“Sakura’s Nostalgic Viewing Party”

I love it when the show splits up the setup and the payoff into two separate episodes.

General Impressions

For those of you who aren’t sure if that previous statement was sarcasm, it wasn’t. Because as much as I love this show, I’m not a big fan of it repeating the same single-episode-card-capture formula week in and week out. Which is why I get really excited when an episode dives really deep into story territory and then saves all the jam packed action for the week after. This week’s episode in particular I think did a great job at giving us a fun episode that used a bit of nostalgia to really make a big impact and then left us at the perfect point where we can be excited to see just how Sakura takes care of whatever’s causing all these earthquakes around Tomoyo’s house.

Rewinding back a bit back to Tomoyo’s awesome home theater setup, I’m loving how gungho Clear Card Hen is at using the power of nostalgia to its fullest. Instead of shying away from the past, there’s always been at least one if not more things that harken back to the past. And while it’s normally specific scenarios or places, you have to hand it to the show for showing us the best part of the play that Sakura and friends took part in way back when. Not only was that a really cute moment back when it first aired, but it’s nice to see anything help play up the romance aspect between Sakura and Syaoran. Toss in a little extra humor when you have the tables flipped and Tomoyo ends up on screen and you have a hilarious segment that (probably) wouldn’t work in any other scenario.

However, I think this all pales in comparison to the ominous feeling and build up we felt during the first few minutes of this week’s episode. Seeing how the bunny that Akiho is carrying is obviously more than just a stuffed animal (thanks ending sequence!), it makes you wonder just what is the world is going on behind the scenes at Akiho’s. As other’s have pointed out Akiho seems like a nearly perfect carbon clone of Sakura, her mysterious book seems to have all of Sakura’s cardcaptures appearing with in it, and her butler has set off so many alarms that it’d be a surprise if he wasn’t some kind of crazy evil magician. At this point I think it’s obvious that there’s something going on beyond the surface over at Akiho’s, but the question is just what in the world is going on?!

Overall, a pretty good episode that managed to hit a high note on just about everything. With this week’s episode cutting off right before diving into the action, I can’t wait to see what happens when an episode starts off with a fun card capture instead of a typical hello from our characters. In any case, I’ll catch you guys then.

See you later!

Preview