Well. That was anticlimactic.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Magical Girl

CVoyage: There’s uh… there’s not really a lot to go with, here.

EvilBob: Nope.

CVoyage: The first half of the episode was just them basically talking about the previous one. That and showing off the book Sakura forgot before. We also got a little bit of Akiho and Kaito. But we’ll come back to that.

EvilBob: Instead, let’s skip to the capture of the episode.

CVoyage: Yes. The incredibly short capture.

EvilBob: It starts out innocently enough. It’s right back to where it all began – the Tsukimine Shrine. And they even take a bit to stop and reminisce.

CVoyage: It’s cute. And then the card shows up. Turns out it’s a firebird. Go figure.

EvilBob: About time they finally get a fire card – something they’ve direly needed.

CVoyage: Now. Naturally, since it’s the friggin title of the episode, one would assume the clash between this fire card and Sakura’s “Aqua” card is going to be the main highlight, right? Nope! Instead, it’s a quick little scuffle that ultimately leads to a beam clash of fire and water. One that basically goes like this-

CVoyage: Eeexcept Sakura’s card loses.

EvilBob: But the saving grace was, once again, Syaoran. When Aqua’s beaten, boyfriend-kun steps up to the plate. He does that thing, again, where he says something inaudible and this time he’s able to summon some sort of wind sylph… thing that subdues the new card.

CVoyage: Aaand Sakura captures it.

EvilBob: Yay Teamwork! Or something!

CVoyage: At least it was pretty.

EvilBob: Oh, yeah!

CVoyage: And then it was back to talking.

EvilBob: Oh… yeah…

CVoyage: This time it’s on Toya and Yue to deliver our bit of exposition. Well… sort of. This brings me back to the thing, earlier, with Akiho and Kaito. See, one thing this series is doing, now, is just “filling space.” None of the episodes really constitute as “filler,” but there are stretches of time in the episodes, themselves, that basically are. And I’m not really talking about all the cooking and the hanging out with friends. That’s sort of a given and a staple of the series as a whole. Again. Target Audience. But whenever the characters are standing around, usually in a dark room, talking about something that sounds all important, it sort of tricks you into thinking the scene’s a big deal. The fact of the matter is that a lot of it isn’t. Sure, things like Momo’s reveal were important. But this episode really only shelled out a bunch of non-information or information we already knew. So the scenes just didn’t really carry any weight.

EvilBob: …Ditto on everything he just said in that long paragraph that no one wants to read. TL;DR – They talk a lot without saying anything important. Actually, I think the original show was better paced somehow. And it had more seasons. A lot more.

CVoyage: They could stand to compress some of these episodes, for sure. But that would produce a lopsided episode count (somewhere around 18 – 20) that doesn’t really abide by the seasonal approach. So they’re padding stuff out as much as they can. Overall, the episode’s Harmless. The best thing about it is that Best Girl apparently learned Shadow Clone Jutsu.

EvilBob: I’d say this episode is about as Evil as a Villain (9). I wish that capture was a little more engaging. And that the episode wasn’t so crammed with fluff. It was nice seeing Syaoran still being useful. But they could’ve done a lot more with what they did. If you wanna see something a little more… involved-

CVoyage: That’s certainly one word for it.

EvilBob: -Then check out his coverage of Toji no Miko. Or, if ya wanna laugh, we just started a brand new series of Overwatch videos, featuring funny edits and stuff like that. See for yourself.

CVoyage: Or, if you’re still on board with this, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card is Simulcast on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 8:00pm EST. That’s pretty much all we’ve got for you today.

EvilBob: Thanks for letting us waste your time, people.

CVoyage: As always, thanks for reading, folks. Remember to keep up the awesome.

EvilBob: And keep it classy.

CVoyage: Take care.