Cardcaptor Sakura – 67 – Scarfknitter Sakura

When Sakura wakes up in the morning, it’s the first time she does so knowing Yukito’s answer definitively. When Syaoran lent her his ear, he enabled her to get all of the sadness out and accept that answer.

Sakura wants to show her gratitude to him for helping to cheer her up, so first thing in the morning during class chores, she asks Syaoran if he’ll join her at the Tsukimine Shrine festival, even getting him to pinky promise!

As the school days pass, Sakura gets sleepier and sleepier in class, concerning Syaoran, who thought she’d gotten over the fatigue of card-converting. Sakura promises she’s fine.

While walking home with Tomoyo hand-in-hand, Sakura makes sure to thank her for all of the many ways she’s helped, including being living proof that you can be happy with the one you love being happy, even if you’re not the one they chose.

We learn that Sakura had been staying up late not going to underground raves, but knitting Syaoran a scarf. She knows the Hong Konger isn’t a fan of the cold—it’s why she initially hesitated to invite him out to the festival—but the choice of gift shows just how kind and thoughtful she is, and why Syaoran fell for her so easily!

That said, Syaoran confides in a disappointed Tomoyo that he’s decided not to confess to her after all. Now that Sakura knows the pain of rejection, she’ll naturally empathize with him in that same scenario, and he doesn’t want to trouble her with that. Ah, but kid, you’ll only “trouble” her if she doesn’t return your feelings!

Yukito is similarly needlessly guilty about having taken all of Touya’s magical power, especially when Sakura unwittingly sneaks up on her brother (Before, he’d have been able to sense someone coming with his eyes closed), and now that Touya is as sleepy as Yukito once was. Touya sets Yuki’s mind at ease: he did what he wanted to do, because keeping Yuki around was more important than his power.

This brings us to the Eriol-fuckery of the Week, which takes a form somewhat similar to the hell-horse that greets visitors to Denver International Airport. It emerges from a moon pool where Sakura learned from Mizuki Kaho (remember her?) how to tell one’s fortune.

Sakura and Syaoran work together to bring the horse to heel, the former converting the Thunder card in the process, but the damage is already done: the horse clipped an electrical wire, shrouding the festival in darkness. Rather than let it be shut down, Sakura converts one more card—Glow—in order to re-illuminate the festivities and enchant the festival-goers and her friends alike.

As Syaoran lets one of the glowing orbs settle into his palm, Tomoyo tells Syaoran to reconsider his refusal to confess to Sakura. No one has watched Sakura closer than Tomoyo, and she knows Sakura isn’t someone who “keeps sad things in her heart as sad things forever”. Basically, he owes it to himself and Sakura to tell her about his feelings, thus giving her the chance to accept them. Syaoran seems convinced!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 66 – These Bitter Tears

Nakuru’s movie is a big hit, with particular praise going to Sakura’s cuteness, but as Yukito sits with Touya in the projector room, his heart is uneasy, since now Touya knows he’s not human. Touya assures him it doesn’t matter what he is, as long as he doesn’t disappear and stays by his side.

After some post-movie drinks, Sakura, Yukito, Syaoran and Tomoyo enjoy the other diversions of the school fair, with Syaoran watching wearily at Yukito and Sakura in particular. Nakuru then insists only two can enter their class exhibit at a time, thus separating Yukito and Sakura from Syaoran and Tomoyo. Nakuru is following Eriol’s orders, but it ends up working in Sakura’s favor, because this gives her the ideal opportunity to confess to Yukito.

It’s also fitting that she does so while surrounded by stars, the source of her magical power. But when Sakura tells Yukito that she really likes him, he says he likes her too, but asks her to look closer at her feelings. He posits that her feelings for him are quite similar to those for her dad, which is understandable since he looks so much like her dad and is a kind lad besides. But his point is, there’s someone she likes more than anyone…and it’s not him.

Sakura is thus rejected by Yukito, but in the softest, gentlest way possible. He also admits that the person he likes most is indeed Touya, who saved him, after all. And while he’s unsure if Touya feels the same way, Sakura grasps what he’s getting at. Alas, their talk is interrupted when all of the glass stars around them start to shatter, and Yue appears to protect her.

When other students enter the exhibit, Sakura uses both Maze and Illusion to cover up the damage, as well as hide the two of them, though they’re soon separated. Even so, when Syaoran senses Clow’s presence, he’s able to cut through the illusions with his sword. As he and Yue search for her, Sakura encounters Eriol with his staff and Clow’s magical circle.

Admitting he’s been “found out”, Eriol puts Sakura to sleep. When she comes to, she remembers Clow’s presence and the circle…but not Eriol. She leaves the school fair with Syaoran, Yukito, and Tomoyo, but when the latter two split off to head to their respective homes, Syaoran insists on walking Sakura all the way home.

Sakura asks a favor: that they stop by the park first. While they sit on the swings, Sakura tells Syaoran how she confessed to Yukito and was turned down. And while Yukito is right that she mostly thought of him as family, a little part of her liked him in a way differently than that. And while Tomoyo told her there’s no greater happiness than seeing the one you like most happy—Sakura can’t help but weep bitter tears.

Syaoran offers his handkerchief, a smile, and the promise that she too will find that someone, and they’ll be just as happy when she finds them. Of course, Syaoran wants to be that very person, but wisely doesn’t press that issue. Here and now, he’s there to be an ear to listen a shoulder to cry on…and a friend to console the heartbroken Sakura with a hug.

My goodness, that was one emotionally heavy episode, but absolutely flawlessly executed, and one of the all-time best episodes of CCS as a result. The show can spin its wheels with diversions to pools and ski slopes, but when the time comes for a major development it does not hold back the feels. And now, of course, with Yukito officially eliminated as a potential love interest for Sakura, Syaroan’s path is clear.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 65 – The (Near) Disappearance of Tsukishiro Yukito

Sakura is blading home from the grocery store when she spots Touya grabbing Yukito and moves to intervene. That’s when she learns she’s rolled into the middle of a scene being filmed by Touya and Yukito’s class for their school fair.

The director, one Akizuki Nakuru, offers Sakura a role, knowing her cute factor could pay dividends. This elicits a hoeee from both Kinomotos in unison, which I believe is a first! She also gets approval from Eriol to use the old European-style mansion they live in with Spinel.

Tomoyo laments she can’t design Sakura’s costume for the movie, but she does help with hair and makeup, while her Taisho-era garb made her closely resemble a mini-Yuna, especially when she breaks out her wand later. Sakura’s look is a big hit with Nakuru and the high school girls.

That said, Sakura is super-nervous and her movements become super-mechanical as a result. Even so, she’s able to film her scenes to Nakuru’s satisfaction, though we don’t get to watch her performance live, Tomoyo is also filming the “making of” movie.

Sakura ends up finishing before Touya and Yukito, whose final scene takes place on a balcony. Unfortunately Yukito passes out and goes head over heels over the railing. Distressingly, it seems Nakuru AKA Ruby Moon was actually hoping something like this might happen.

Sakura quickly hides behind a bush, summons her wand, and invokes Windy in order to cushion Yukito’s fall, while an uncharacteristically anxious Touya climbs a tree down to him in order to carry him back inside.

Yukito is awake again when Touya decides it’s time to finally say what he’s wanted to say all season, but kept getting interrupted by Nakuru: he knows Yukito isn’t human…but it doesn’t matter. He just doesn’t want him to disappear. With the proverbial snow rabbit out of the bag, Yue reveals himself to Touya for the first time.

Yue tells Touya that Yukito above all didn’t want Touya to find out, but he’s kinda out of options, so he asks Touya if he understands what needs to be done to ensure Yukito (not to mention Yue) don’t disappear. Touya does know: it means giving Yue all of his magical power, which up to this point has allowed him to not only see his mom and others who have passed, but detect when Sakura is in danger.

Even so, Touya doesn’t hesitate, and after the transfer, he’s the one laid up in bed, recovering from the shock of losing all his magic. In exchange, Yue is stronger than ever, something Nakuru was trying to avoid all this time, but ultimately something neither Spinel nor Eriol believe will matter much in the long run.

Sakura feels bad about not having sufficient power for Yue, but he tells her not to cry lest she make her brother sad. So Sakura resolves to be strong and protect her brother now that he’s lost all his power. When she comes home, she learns Kero-chan knew all about Yue’s risk of disappearing, but kept it from Sakura lest it get her down.

But she’s down now anyway. Things have worked out for now, but having come so close to losing Yukito has spurred her to step up her efforts to confess to him. This is somewhat surprising, as her crush on Yukito has been markedly underplayed this season as Syaoran’s crush on her (and many a failed attempt to confess) has been at the forefront. Even so, she’s poised to make her move next week.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 63 – Waves, Listen to Her!

It’s still winter, but that doesn’t stop Sakura & Co. from donning their swimsuits and hitting up the new state-of-the-art indoor water park. It’s an episode heavy on character count and slice-of-life and light on…well, everything else! But that’s okay; sometimes it’s nice to just kick back and relax at the pool (though I’ll admit to being envious; pools in my city were closed all summer due to you-know-what!).

Like Tomoyo, Syaoran is smitten with Sakura’s swimsuit, but things have gotten to the point where all he can do is stare at her. Naturally, Touya and Yukito have part-time jobs at the park’s restaurant, but this time Nakuru joins them, lending her another opportunity to glom onto Touya, who is otherwise still concerned about Yukito’s tendency to, uh, fade out of existence now and then.

Even Kero-chan manages to smuggle himself into the park in Sakura’s bag and steals her cream soda when she’s not looking, only to get harshly scolded (Sakura even bears a fang, a rare occurrence unless she’s protesting her brother’s teasing). Otherwise everything’s peachy until Eriol summons a  massive wave that threatens to drown Rika (who is still learning to swim from Sakura), among others.

Sakura can’t very well summon her wand and cards out in the open, so she has a clever solution: do it while she’s in a water slide! She conjures and converts Watery to a Sakura Card, who proceeds to make it rain inside the park, which has the effect of lowering the water level, thus rescuing Rika.

In another private corner of the park Nakuru straight up asks Eriol why he insists on “doing cumbersome things” like this; he tells her she’ll find out soon enough. I certainly hope so!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 56 – Kero-chan v Suppie: Dawn of Plushtice

In a tale of two teams, Kero-chan is excited about Sakura’s upcoming bazaar, because it means a good deal of tasty sweets will be on hand, while Spinel Sun is far less enthusiastic, as Eriol hints that “something” happens when he eats sweets. Spinel is as calm and subdued as Kero-chan (not to mention Nakuru) is brash and excitable. His voice is very soothing, without a hint of a dialect.

The day of the bazaar arrives, and Sakura is cute as always in her handmade outfit (a Tomoyo original, natch). Tomoyo is nearby with her camera, Eriol beats Syaoran to complimenting Sakura, Yamazaki goes off on a string of rambling lies, Rika has a nice moment with Terada-sensei, and Touya tries to fight off Nakuru as Yukito eats a lot. Pretty standard CCS stuff, really.

What this episode offers that is unique and thus more compelling is the first meeting of Spinel and Kero-chan, though due to Spinel’s ability to completely mask his magic, Kero-chan doesn’t quite know what to make of the guy, but in any case doesn’t consider “Suppie” a threat…especially when he learns his name is “Suppie”.

We then learn why Spinel avoids sweets: they make him drunk, alternating between happy, goofy, crying, and vacuuming up all of the sweets in the school with no regard for whether he or Kero-chan are seen by witnesses. Spinel’s seiyu makes the necessary changes in their delivery for a convincing transformation.

Kero-chan decides to go to Sakura and implores her to convert Sleep and cast it in order to prevent exposure. Sakura is confused, but does so, and Kero eventually finds Spinel, who is now started “vomiting” his red laser beam. Kero counters with his fire breath and Spinel flees, essentially framing Kero-chan for the sweet-stealing spree, which Sakura assumes was his fault.

It was a close call for Spinel, but he was saved by Kero’s cluelessness. It’s also somewhat frustrating that Sakura and Kero still have no idea they’re being targeted by Eriol, Spinel and Ruby, and this episode failed to move that needle.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 54 – The Calendar Watchers

Every so often a CCS episode comes around that focuses on the Kinomoto family, a family full of almost impossibly warm, kind, talented, charming overachievers. They are almost always happy and always look out for each other. Touya may seem moody at times and tease his little sister, but he also adores her, and she him. They’re truly an ideal to aspire to.

They’re also an absolute treat to watch whenever they’re in the spotlight, as they are this week. Sakura is given her mother’s calendar, complete with handwritten notes regarding birthdays. There’s Sonomi’s (which just passed), Touya’s (February 29!), her own (April 1!). Seeing her name in her mom’s handwriting brings her closer to her mom.

Sakura discovers another birthday—November 1, which is tomorrow—she hadn’t noticed earlier: that of her mom’s grandfather; her great-grandfather. While she just missed Sonomi’s birthday, Sakura is determined to give him a gift just as her mother did every year.

She’s given more motivation when she learns her great-grandfather and dad only ever met once, and her dad describes himself as “the bad guy who stole his granddaughter”. Sakura won’t take that sitting down; she wants her great-grandfather to know just how happy and we’ll she and everyone else is.

After sewing a handmade gift late into the night and converting Flower to a Sakura Card so she can conjure a bouquet of flowers (the need in her heart was legitimate, so the card cooperated; plus Flower is a mild-mannered card), her dad contacts someone who will be able to make a same-day delivery so the gift arrives in time for the old man’s birthday.

That someone is Tomoyo’s sister, Daidouji Sonomi. While she’s always harbored a one-sided enmity towards the man she still calls sensei, because it’s for Sakura’s sake she’ll gladly deliver the gift to her gramps in time. The next day her dad gets a call, and for a moment my heart sank—will he have to tell Sakura her great-grandfather passed away the day she sent him a gift?

Thankfully, no…this is not usually that kind of show! Great-gramps is fine. He just wanted to meet with his estranged grandson-in-law. Sakura’s dad is shocked to see the old man’s hands shaking and tears forming in his eyes. Through the love he felt from Sakura’s letter and gifts, her great-gramps felt compelled to reach out to her dad in order to thank him for marrying him and apologize for taking so long to meet with him again.

He also has gifts for Touya and Sakura, the latter of which is a blue dress and bonnet no doubt worn by Nadeshiko when she was around Sakura’s age. Just as a larger-than-life fairy-like version of Nadeshiko watched over her dad and great-gramps as they finally formed an emotional connection, she also watches over Sakura’s family from her portrait on the table.

In effect a spiritual sequel to episode 16, Sakura ends up connecting with thebold man she’d actually already met and bonded with while on vacation, but it was never revealed to her that they were actually related, due mostly to her dad’s reluctance to open old wounds. Turns out the greater wound was the distance between them, which Sakura helped heal with her love-infused gifts.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 53 – Tour de Dash

Sakura’s chronic fatigue is such that it’s starting to interfere with her daily life, from staying awake during class to being able to sweep the yard without passing out. Fortunately (from her perspective) there’s kind, refined Eriol to the rescue, helping her complete her outdoor chores before dinner. Little does she know that Eriol is behind all the strange goings-on lately. This time he puts a spell on Touya’s bike, something he notices immediately.

Until now Sakura had been content to convert the Clow Cards to Sakuras as needed, but when she feels the Clow Cards and they’re not warm as usual, she becomes very concerned with their well-being, and decides the best thing to do is to convert them all to Sakuras…at the same time! Somehow she stays awake after the exertion, but the last card she converts, Dash, is released without a clear target, and so panics, dashes outside, and possesses Touya’s bike.

During the a thrilling nighttime rollerblade chase that ensues, Sakura makes sure to keep her promise to Tomoyo and Syaoran to call them if she’s in trouble. Tomoyo’s phone goes to voicemail, but Syaoran is Johnny-on-the-spot, saving Sakura from suffering a serious fall after using Jump fails to catch up to the bike. Syaoran moves to shock the bike with lightning, but Sakura doesn’t want to hurt Dash or make it more riled up than it already is.

Instead, she makes clever use of Loop to let Dash basically run to its heart’s content until it realize it can’t escape Sakura’s embrace. Once she has Dash, she’s able to calm it down enough to return it to card form, having learned a valuable lesson about only invoking cards when she needs them, not willy-nilly!

While she’s encouraged that she’ll eventually be able to convert all of the Clows to Sakuras, it’s not long before she’s once again fallen asleep from using far too much magical power. Tomoyo arrives too late, having been in the bath when her phone rang, and when she tries to salvage the night by filming Sakura’s sleeping face, her camcorder’s battery is dead. Shake it off, Tomo—everyone has the occasional off-night!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 52 – Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Sakura has a problem. Because she’s drawing upon her own source of magical power to use the new Sakura Cards, she is in an almost constant state of fatigue, and a slowly, calmly told story about sheep in class soon puts her to sleep; Syaoran has to grab her before she falls out of her desk. All the while Eriol is watching and grinning his smug grin. Such a prick!

Yukito is suffering similar problems. Since Yue also draws from Sakura’s power, he’s low on energy as well, and Yukito’s overeating isn’t making any difference. Touya can seemingly sense all of this without explicitly bringing it up, and is concerned for his friend, leading to a wall (or rather tree) slam and a near-confession that’s interrupted by Nakuru, who warns Yukito to stay out of her way. What a bitch!

If things keep going this way, Yue fears he’ll disappear altogether, which means his disguise Yukito will disappear with him (Kero doesn’t have the same problem since he draws power from the sun). Still, Kero needs Sakura to stay positive and cheerful if they’re going to get through this. Tomoyo tries to help by providing a new battle costume and devises some new poses for the Sakura Cards. So cute!

Sakura is responding to a call from Syaoran (on the new cell phones issued to them by Tomoyo), who sensed a powerful Clow-like presence at, where else, Penguin Park. They find a large hole where the King Penguin slide should be, and Sakura flies down it to investigate. No one can follow her due to a strong magic barrier, and she’s soon buried in plush sheep!

Going over the cards in her arsenal, Sakura settles on Erase, which I don’t believe she ever used even in Clow form. Once converted to a Sakura Card, it does the trick, but after having to also convert and use Power to put the slide back where it belongs, Sakura is once again out for the count. Eriol is impressed and amused by her performance, but promises even more “fun” down the road. This shit can’t go on!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 51 – Bearing the Brunt

Sakura can’t quite make her homemade teddy bear not look like Kero-chan, so Eriol volunteers to help her fix it. When a delighted Sakura asks what he’d like as thanks for his help, he simply kisses her hand and walks away. Thus begins Eriol’s Fuckin’-with-Sakura Session Number Four: MegaBear.

Teddy Bears are big at Sakura’s school. They’re like Pogs when I was in grade school. The idea has developed that if you give a bear with your name to someone you have feelings for, you’ll be together forever. Syaoran has made his own bear, but while Yukito has classically been the only one to make his heart race, Sakura has lately been having the same effect.

Yue later tells Syaoran that his feelings for Yukito are a result of Yue’s magical power, and that if he searches his heart, he’ll discover the person for whom he has real feelings. That Sakura is still so far from noticing Syaoran’s feelings portends a continuing of their slow-burn romance.

As for Sakura, she’s sure Yukito is the one who should have her bear, even though she may be subject to the same effect as Syaoran. Tomoyo insists on coming along with her new camcorder and dressing Sakura up for the event—a different kind of battle costume, for the battle of love! Only due to some magical mischief committed by Eriol, the bear blows up in Yukito’s face.

As Eriol, Spinel and Ruby observe, the teddy bear grows to the size of a building and attacks Sakura. Yue rescues him from its first strike, but loses his wings and grows weak, leaving Sakura on her own (Syaoran isn’t around this time).

Sakura converts Jump to a Sakura Card in order to evade the bear, but it’s causing a great deal of collateral damage, so she has to separate it from the magical core in its ear, which she can cut off with the converted Sword. The only problem is, Jump isn’t precise enough while Fly requires she ride the wand like a witch’s broom.

Sakura determines that in addition to converting Fly to a Sakura Card, she can modify it so the wings sprout from her back, not the wand, freeing her hands to use Sword to successfully de-ear the bear and return it to its original size. Rather than a card, she recovers a purple talisman bearing the same magical circle she used to capture Clow Cards.

While Sakura seems as far away from discovering the identity of her tormentors as she is from noticing Syaoran’s feelings, Cardcaptor Sakura’s third season is definitely integrating more serialized elements into the quest-of-the-week format that drove most of the first two seasons. Slowly but surely, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

As they do, in the meantime we have wonderful set-pieces like Tomoyo’s quasi-confession and Syaoran’s romantic realization. And while much of Eriol’s machinations come off as cruel, I’m heartened by the fact Sakura has deftly handled everything he’s thrown at her so far—even as I’m apprehensive that he’ll soon be upping the difficulty level.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 50 – Thread and Thrum

Sakura wakes up early, but seeming a little down. Kero-chan tells her whatever the deal is with the Sakura Cards, she needs to keep her spirits up and stay positive. To that end, she goes to school early to watch Touya and Yukito play soccer. Naturally, they’re a dynamic duo on the pitch—and Akizuki is quick to pounce on Touya and glare at Yukito.

Sak’s friends have noticed she’s seemed not quite her usual cheerful self, so Rika makes her some delicious homemade cookies, and also shows everyone the teddy bear she’s making for Terada-sensei. Syaoran lounges in a tree high above Sakura, about whom he’s worried, when Eriol confronts him about all the nasty looks he’s shot his way. Eriol seems to have plans for Syaoran, deeming him “useful”.

While she seems to have the blessing of her friends, I do wish Terada-sensei would give Rika a tactful yet firm word about not falling in love with an adult when she’s still in fifth damned grade. As for Tomoyo, she holds firm in her position that she’s happy if Sakura’s happy—even if Sakura doesn’t requite her feelings. It’s an incredibly sweet sentiment…but also deeply sad considering how clueless Sakura seems to be!

Sakura’s attempt to make a bear for Yukito hits some snags when she suddenly senses Clow Reed’s presence once more. She meets with Tomoyo where the feeling is most powerful, and calls Syaoran to be by her side as she promised. However, this works against Sakura in this case as Syaoran’s body is being controlled by someone, and it’s making him attack her! A heroic Tomoyo tackle stops Syaoran from slicing Sakura.

This costs Tomoyo her camcorder, but she can buy more cameras. She only has one Sakura! Syaoran manages to regain control long enough to summon the water spirit, which makes visible the puppet threads in which he’s tangled. Sakura quickly releases her wand, converts Sword to a Sakura Card, and slashes the threads with authority, freeing Syaoran.

Having expended considerable magical power, Sakura passes out once more, this time in Syaoran’s arms. This side-effect of using Sakura Cards could prove a decisive liability if shit really hits the fan—say if a second threat appears after she falls asleep battling the first. It seems inevitable Eriol is going to make that scenario happen in the near future, because he seems determined to, in the parlance of our times, fuck Sakura’s shit UP.

And why, do you ask, would he want to do that? Well, the same reason Sakura and Kero-chan sense Clow Reed before something bad goes down: Hiiragizawa Eriol is the reincarnation of Clow Reed. Further, he’s created two guardian equivalents to Kero and Yue in Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon, AKA Akizuki Nakuru. Not only is Nakuru not human, she’s not a “she”, and doesn’t want to date Touya, but eat him!

Clearly, Eriol is testing Sakura’s powers, and while they’re impressive, I’m sure he’s just itching to regain control of the Clow Cards. Hopefully Sakura and her friends can keep that from happening and send Eriol and his minions back to merry old England. But since twenty episodes remain, that’s probably going to take a while!

Stray Observations:

• Sakura’s all-white and gray battle costume was gorgeous, making it a dreadful shame when Puppet!Syaoran slashes it with his sword.
• I also want to note this third season’s OP is probably my favorite so far, which isn’t too surprising since it’s anchored by the lovely vocals of one Sakamoto Maaya.
• It also features my favorite OP Battle Costume, though Sakura seems awfully sleepy throughout the OP…no doubt since using her cards is so tiresome!
• GROOVY! was the most toe-tapping end theme but the New ED has the best visuals, with a glowed-up Sakura and Tomoyo having an absolute blast baking a cake.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 49 – Beware of Grand Pianos

After ending the rain with her first Sakura Card, poor Sakura is wiped. She can’t even sit up in bed! Thankfully, she doesn’t have a fever, and Sakura assures her dad and brother that she’ll be fine. Touya, who has a sense for magical things without being an active participant in that world, assumes “something has happened” to cause the fatigue.

Sakura misses cupcake-making in home ec, but Tomoyo knows that a visit from her and a bashful Syaoran is just what the doctor ordered, while Syaoran can’t help but stare daggers at an increasingly suspicious Eriol. Similarly, a Yukito suddenly eating far more than usual gets a knowing, not-at-all friendly look from Nakuru, who competes for Touya’s attention by kicking ass at basketball.

When Tomoyo and Syaoran show up with sweets, Sakura is awake, alert, and back to her chipper self, and Syaoran can’t help but blush at her smile and earnest thanks, while Kero is amazed “the kid” was able to make something so tasty. Kero also deduces that Sakura’s fatigue was caused by her instinctively converting the card along with her wand, using a new magic circle in which the star (not the sun or moon) is most prominent.

Kero warns that since Sakura is relying on only her own power (no longer Clow’s) to release and use the cards, it’s going to be tough going. Even worse, he and Yue were stopped in their tracks even in their true forms, something only their master (Sakura) and Clow himself should be able to do.

Back at school while writing a letter to Mizuki-sensei, Sakura hears a lovely tune being played on the piano and discovers it’s Eriol on the ivories. Sakura is heartened and soothed by the music, and when Tomoyo shows up, she suggests Eriol accompany Tomoyo as she sings a new song. While playing, Eriol does…something magical and fishy to the piano.

That evening, while Sakura and Syaoran are walking in the hall wondering what to make of recent events, they hear Tomoyo singing, followed by a scream and a loud noise: the grand piano in the music room has decided to start moving on its own, and it’s gone berserk! Sakura grabs Tomoyo and they run from the pursuing piano, which Syaoran damages but doesn’t destroy with his thunder sword.

Eventually Tomoyo determines the piano is following her voice every time she speaks, which gives Sakura an idea for how to defeat it for good. Assembling on the roof, she asks Tomoyo to sing once more in order to lure the piano to their location. Then she releases the Song card, converts it to a Sakura Card, and uses its ability to copy Tomoyo’s voice to lure the piano off the edge of the roof to its destruction.

All’s well that ends well, but once again Sakura is completely wiped out by the magical exertion, and passes out in Syaoran’s arms. We then pull back from the school to see that our trio of shadowy villains has been watching. The central figure—who let’s be honest, is Eriol—declares that this is going to be “fun”. Sakura passed another one of his tests, but he doesn’t seem the type to keep going easy on her!

Cardcaptor Sakura – 44 – Feeling the Moon

Something new has shown up in Sakura’s dream: someone with long, silvery hair and black wings. When Sakura wakes up, Kero-chan takes note of the Sakura doll by her bed. Tomoyo made it before she became a Cardcaptor, and yet the doll is wearing an outfit very similar to the one Sakura is wearing in her dream—which has already been established as foretelling. We’re getting into some trippy territory here, and I like it!

Sakura is up early on a weekend in order to travel to Tokyo, watch Yukito’s traditional archery competition, and provide him with three or four bento boxes for lunch. Tomoyo and Syaoran tag along, with the former always up for hanging with Sakura, while Syaoran says “being around her is useful for capturing Clow Cards”, to which she innocently replies “that’s true”.

Kero-chan tags along as well, not just for the chance to eat some of the lunches Sakura made, but because the description of her dream points to Yue being near, and Kero doesn’t want to be unnecessarily separated from the Cardcaptor. While on the train to the competition, the Tokyo Tower comes into view and Sakura spaces out…but both she and Syaoran space out upon seeing Yukito in traditional Japanese archer’s dress!

Everyone is also surprised to find Mizuki-sensei not only participating in the competition, but making it to the final round along with Yukito. The two exhibit grace, elegance, and strength as all their arrows impact on or near bullseye…that is until something distracts Mizuki and she misses her shot. Even so, she’s gracious in defeat and congratulates Yukito.

While he has lunch with Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo, Kero sneaks out of Sakura’s bag to meet and chat with Mizuki. Throughout the day he’d been “feeling the moon”, or rather the power of the moon, which Mizuki admits she draws upon for her magic. She also seems to know about Yue, who we learn is Kero’s guardian counterpart. Finally, Touya reveals himself as working as a balloon-peddling mascot at the shrine.

Both Touya and Mizuki both forebodingly declare that there’s no such thing as “coincidence”, only “inevitability.” Sure enough, a Clow Card makes its appearance on the shrine grounds, and judging from the fissures and mountains it creates, it looks to be an earth-element card—and a tough one to boot! In a break from most CCS outings, the credits roll before the card is captured…lending it special significance.

Cardcaptor Sakura – 42 – A Light in Dark Places

It’s the big day of the performance, and Tomoyo pulls a double all-nighter to make the perfect Prince and Princess costumes for Sakura and Syaoran. I have to admit Tomoyo really outdid herself—Sakura looks outstanding—but for gosh sakes, get some SLEEP, girl! The play commences without a hitch, with the sleep-deprived but resolute Tomoyo providing narration.

Meiling steals the show as the villainous witch, despite the fact she didn’t want to play the villain! The crowd has a great reaction to Syaoran as the princess, but his performance suffers once he spots Yukito in the audience. Sakura, less so, since she mostly relies on her athletic ability in the fight scenes.

After defeating the witch and being told by the three faeries (played by Sakura’s three girlfriends) she can wake the princess with a kiss, Sakura gets right down to it. Her lips draw so close to Syaoran’s, neither he nor Touya in the audience can bear it. Syaoran pushes Sakura away, and just then a great inky blackness swallows everything whole…leaving the two of them in a void.

Syaoran soon vanishes too, leaving Sakura all alone. Not knowing what’s going on, she starts to cry, then realizes this could be the DARK Clow Card, in which case she can do something. When her magic doesn’t work she again despairs, but soon realizes that despite being surrounded by darkness, she continues to glow. Sure enough, the LIGHT Clow Card has resided in her heart since the first time she opened Clow’s book.

Because LIGHT and DARK are two sides of the same coin, they are portrayed as either sisters or lovers—I lean toward the latter. LIGHT mentions the name Yue to Sakura before she seals them both for a twofer, leaving Sakura to wonder who Yue is. The show seems to be indicating that Yue is Mizuki Kaho—or that Mizuki is Yue’s vessel. With four episodes remaining in this 11-episode second season, Sakura is sure to find out soon!