Have you ever watched an anime as a little child and dreamed
of being the main character? Did you ever imitate the way they dressed, talked
and behaved? Well, I did! As a little girl and even now an adult, I did that
and it was always, always, always Cardcaptor Sakura! Ah, yes. It was the dream
of every girl of my age. And though it embarrasses me a little bit, even now as
I am reaching my very late twenties, I am still a very huge fan! Not only particularly Sakura, but other Mahou
Shoujo themed anime as well. What is that anyway? To give you a short
background, it is an anime revolving magical girls. That’s actually the
translation itself. Another popular magical girl anime would include Sailor
Moon, Akazukin Cha-Cha, Saint Tail, just to name some. Sadly, I don’t think I
can name more that are contemporary since I have so much anime to watch that I
hardly have time to search new magical girl themed ones. Or do they even make
one anymore? But the good thing here is that this type of anime isn’t so often
shown that when they make them, it lasts!
Going back to the main focus, I’d like to talk about
Cardcaptor Sakura. As we all know, it has been more than a decade since it was
last shown. That is why there is a gap between me and my fellow magical girl
enthusiasts, and the timeline of being a fan. They stopped long time ago and
now they started up on the story again! To give a recap, Sakura Kinomoto, the
protagonist is a middle schooler who stumbled upon a magical book containing
magical cards in her dad’s library. She unlocks it and scatters the Clow cards
all over the city and awakens the guardian creature of the book, Keroberus or
Kero for short. The whole plot goes around to her and her friends trying to
retrieve the cards. Then eventually, having to turn the cards into her own. The
cards and the book belonged to a magician from the past, Clow Reed. He also
happened to create these cards and the guardians as well.
Now before I spoil even more so than I already have, I would
like to take note that the following statements may contain more spoilers and that
my opinions are my own, not representing any entity, organization or whatsoever
with which I am or ever to be affiliated with.
Now we can recall from the previous episode before this, Eriol
Hiiragizawa is conducting the final test for Sakura. She had to turn all the
Clow cards into Sakura cards. With the help of Yue, Kero and Shaoran, things
went smoothly and Shaoran even manages to finally confess his feelings for
Sakura! Now in the last episode, Clow Reed has already revealed the reason for
his return to the present time, reincarnated as Eriol. He had a mission to help
Sakura be the new master of the cards. And why he hid these facts were because
if Sakura knew everything, then she would not be able to perform to the best of
her ability. For me, this has become a minor highlight because of the other
stuff that happened in the episode. The facts are out in the open. Eriol will
be moving to England, but they could still write letters to communicate with
each other. Now for the bigger highlight is that finally, as mentioned above,
Shaoran manages to tell Sakura about how he feels for her! Many episodes
previously showed that Shaoran was falling in love with Sakura. He just
couldn’t find the right moment to confess to her. As Sakura finds out about his
feelings, there are awkward moments especially at school but they had important
things to do so they end up not focusing on this yet. (This was the time they
went to Eriol’s house and that’s when Eriol explained everything then.) Later
on, Shaoran receives a call from his mother, asking him to go home to Hong Kong
since all the Clow cards have been caught and converted into Sakura cards, thus
there was no need for him to stay in Japan. Shaoran then talks to Sakura but
not about this, throwing Sakura’s heart in a more confused state. He says how
thankful and inspiring Sakura has been but cuts off and leaves her. He plans to
go home without telling her nor waiting for her response to his confession. As
Sakura went home, she pondered about how she felt for Shaoran and even noticed
that it was different from her own feelings for Yukito. Even Eriol is aware and
claims he did not foresee this. He initially expected Sakura and Yukito ending
up together! But it seems that Shaoran and Sakura’s love prevails! (Well, not
yet at this point.) Later on, she finds out from Tomoyo, that Shaoran was leaving
for Hong Kong without saying good bye. It upsets her greatly and creates the
Nameless card. In the airport, as Shaoran gets ready to leave, Sakura arrives
in time to take a few moments to talk to Shaoran. Sakura asks for Shaoran’s
bear to be hers for a while as he will be away in Hong Kong. The tale behind is
that if you give a bear to someone, that person will love you forever. It was
customary to give it to each other so you can be together forever. The episode
ends in that way that it was almost unsatisfying. It was almost not an ending
at all! But the musical touch of playing the third and final opening song, “Platinum”
by Maaya Sakamoto was really great. That’s another great thing about this
anime, all their opening and ending songs are catchy and beautiful. I still
know the lyrics to this day even! Personally, my favorite are the first two
opening songs but this song has a mellow feel to it. Another trivia is that the
same voice actress/singer, Maaya Sakamoto sang the opening song for the Clear
card arc!
More trivia: The Nameless card is an original card and is
not found in the manga at all. If you are interested to know more about this
and the other cards that will relate to it, you can watch it from the two
movies, Cardcaptor Sakura the movie and the second one, The sealed card. Partly
because for me, I think the second movie serves as the actual ending for the
series. However, it is different from the prologue episode. The prologue
episode is a special episode before the new arc, Clear card. The story focused
on how the new series of Cardcaptor Sakura was about to start.
Things were a little different in the Prologue episode and
you can compare the endings! Some differences were that Shaoran was a bit more
confronting and tells Sakura that he was to leave for Hong Kong. And that
Sakura made a pink bear in exchange for Shaoran’s gray bear. They also said
their goodbyes not in the airport, but rather at the bus stop. Not exactly
finale-like but I think it is nice for comparison. The second movie too is good
for comparison because it ends in the way most would’ve anticipated that time -
Sakura also confesses to Shaoran’s love! It also takes place a year after the
last episode. I think this is the reason why the last episode seems
unfulfilling in terms of her relationship with Shaoran. It was because they
wanted to make it really end in the movie!
Overall, I think it is a fair ending for the series but
lacked impact. But the movie itself would fill the shoes for that. The anime
itself is great and I think having different endings to the anime is a plus
because fans can pick out their personal favorites.
The last episode does not stop me from daydreaming of
becoming a magical girl. Oh well, I have to go and catch some cards!
Note: This is one of my handwritten review that I submitted last Nov. 18, 2020 to Aniradio+ for my anime reviewer application. Unfortunately out of a rough estimate of 2,400 applicants, I am not one of the 20 who were chosen.
Copyright
Star Ashley Cruz
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