This episode starts rather than ends with a cardcapture, and the rest of it deals with the lingering effects of the card. Because it’s the Change card, and both Syaoran and Kero-chan were in contact with it when Sakura sealed it, the two end up swapping bodies. As soon as I heard Kero speaking in a normal Japanese accent while Syaoran broke out the full Osaka dialect, I knew we’d be in for a rare treat. Even Sakura can’t quite contain her delight at such a development!
Naturally, neither Kero nor Syaoran find this remotely amusing, as they’re not exactly fond of one another. However, since the effects of Change won’t wear off for 24 hours, they’re stuck in each other’s bodies. Interestingly, Kero!Syaoran heads to his home while Syaoran!Kero stays with Sakura, leading to him blushing over her for the second time. As luck would have it, Yukito stays for dinner, but when Kero leaves the safety of Sakura’s room, he’s almost accosted by a cat!
Meanwhile, Kero does his best to make dinner, but the taste of the soup and the sound of his accent immediately cause Meling to be suspicious. After all, he’s the love of her life, so she’d be the first to notice if he’s not himself—which of course he isn’t! That suspicion only intensifies the next day when he animatedly gives the class video game pointers…despite the fact Syaoran doesn’t play video games!
Like Meiling with Syaoran, there’s no fooling Tomoyo regarding what’s going on, especially when she holds up her camera and Syaoran!Kero strikes a classic Kero pose. Similarly, Kero’s clumsiness in Syaoran’s body is plain for all to see during a soccer match when he runs on all fours. Syaoran doesn’t fare any better in Kero’s body—he can’t fly, and he’s accidentally carried off by Terada-sensei, who bought a plush toy for his niece that’s a dead ringer for Kero.
Meiling also learns the truth, and joins Sakura and Kero as they track down Terada, who exchanged Syaoran for a different toy. Kero then has to play a claw crane game for the first time in order to pluck Syaoran out of the glass box. He gets fired up and eventually succeeds, and the two put their differences aside long enough to enter an embrace while Sakura re-activates Change in order to switch them back to their rightful bodies.
The episode pulls a clever fast one when Syaoran arrives back at school to find Sakura and Kero have now switched (Sakura’s Osaka ‘lect is great, though I wish Kero had gotten a good HOEEE in)! Then Syaoran realizes he’s swapped with Meiling, only to wake up in his bed; it was just a dream, and Meiling is glad Syaoran is Syaoran—as he was meant to be.
While normally standing out with its gorgeous visuals, the success of this ultra-entertaining outing primarily came down to the performances of Hisakawa Aya (Kero) and Kumai Motoko (Syaoran), doing impressions of each others’ usual performances. They pulled it off without a hitch! Now if we could just get a Sakura-Tomoyo swap (desu wa!)…or Touya-Yukito for that matter!
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