「さくらの透明なカード」 (Sakura no Toumeina Kaado)
“Sakura’s Clear Cards”
That was such an awkward place to end things — but considering that the source for Clear Card Hen is still on-going, I guess this wasn’t the worst place to leave things for a potential sequel.
Final Impressions
Boy, after years of not watching anything Cardcaptor related, it was a real treat to see a new adaptation finally making its way to our desktop and television screens. Pacing problems aside (which we’ll dive into in a little), the power of nostalgia combined with a solid IP is nothing to scoff at. I don’t know about you, but there’s something powerful about seeing characters that we grew up with getting a chance to continue their story. Between Kero-chan doing his thing to new character Akiho appearing to round things out for the non-magical characters, there was a nice mix between old and new that helped Clear Card Hen stand out on its own.
That said, I must say that the story for this sequel was something that I had some problems with. At its core, it wasn’t bad per se. It had all the elements of what one would expect from a Cardcaptor show except the execution of some of those elements felt a little lackluster. The biggest of which being the pacing and episode after episode of things happening, but nothing really pushing the plot forward. Because as much as this is as how about Sakura capturing Cards, the true meat of the show comes from the story (and mysteries) that are constantly moving and changing amongst the set pieces of capturing cards. That said, I suppose there isn’t much you can do when the source material isn’t finished and making an anime- original ending isn’t really an option. Luckily, as with all shows, the open-ended ending of the second-cour leaves it wide open for another season to swoop on in and continue right where things left off.
Backtracking to our characters, I don’t think there’s much to say here except it was a treat to see everyone. With the timeline ever-so-slightly ahead of where the original left off, you didn’t have to subvert your expectations too much since everyone involved did age a bit. And if anything, everyone had “aged” just enough to make it feel like the events of the original were way in the past.
Overall, I don’t think there’s much to say about the show as a whole at this point. As a sequel to an insanely successful and popular show, I think it did the series justice by staying on topic and giving fans both new and old exactly what they were promised — Sakura being a Card Captor. And as I said earlier, with the way things ended, it’d be very easy for another season to pick up right where things left off once there’s enough material to do so. Maybe then we can have a nice analysis on more specific parts of the show once there’s some material to actually talk about!
In any case, thank you to everyone who has been able to keep up with the post! I know that this show wasn’t the easiest to tackle (especially if you didn’t have nostalgia amping up all the slower moments), but hopefully another season in the future will wrap things all up and make it all worth it. Anyways, be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming Season Preview and I’ll catch you guys later!
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