Slow Posting Again (Updated with some CCS)

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it before. Work’s a bitch; I’m coming home brain dead. We’re trying to do 15% more job on 40% less employees. No, automation doesn’t make up the difference; in our case it’s backfired and made things worse. That 15% is more like 30% after you factor in the botched upgrades. I think that estimate is low.

I’ve started CardCaptor Sakura; will watch the fifth disk tonight. I figure I’ll do 1-2 per day for the next week or so, and work through it. Mildly interesting — it’s ok, but preteen mahou shoujo is not really my speed. If it hadn’t been for the insanely good deal, I’d have passed on it.

Some thoughts about the show: I have been convinced since the middle of the second DVD that her family knows she’s the Cardcaptor. For one thing, there’s the entire question of how the book came to be in her father’s study. And her brother has three times mentioned or displayed abilities which might be magical: he talked about making up ghost stories to scare Sakura, except he talked as if he really could see ghosts–and Sakura can’t. He definately saw his mother’s spirit in one episode, whereas Sakura didn’t notice it looking over her shoulder. And finally, Li hit him with a fire charm, and he just brushed it off. I’m therefore of the opinion that Sakura gets her magic from her father’s side of the family–I’d wondered if, thanks to his backstory, he’s actually from the Li clan. However, the real answer hit me today (though I wonder if I read it somewhere before and am just remembering it instead): Clow has to be Sakura’s paternal grandfather. It explains why the book was in the study, and why she is such a powerful sorceror. While it would be funny if Shaoran, Tomoya and Sakura were all distant cousins/in-laws, I believe that to be the answer. No, I don’t want spoilers.

Speaking of which, I thought it odd that Tomoya and Sakura never commented on the discovery that they are second cousins.

Then there’s Yukito: he probably knows something too, if not the whole story. The first meeting between him and Li was just too strange. (aside from the yaoi vibes.). I just can’t figure out if the show is hinting that the two guys have a yaoi thing going, or if it’s just CLAMP being CLAMP, or if they’re engaging in misdirection. I’m definately getting the “everybody has a secret” vibe from this show.

I can see why the WB cut it to ribbons though. There’s some really creepy sexual undertones, what with the one girl that’s got a crush on her teacher, Sakura’s mom marrying her dad when she was 16 and *he* was her teacher, the siscon references, and the parallels between Tomoya and Sakura on the one hand, and their mothers on the other. I cannot imagine this show airing uncut in the U.S.

Could we get through ONE episode without Tomoya and her weird Sakura obsession? Also, I definately skip the Kero segments after each episode. Pointless and unfunny.

Well, this isn’t much of a series review; not one picture even. Well, I said I was brain dead. (At least it’s +5 to save vs. brain-eating zombies, since they prefer the live variety…)

Update: Hahaha! I love Melin, after just one episode!

Update 2: And now a picture! I promised Steven I’d look this up. At 20:48 on the third DVD, Shaoran throws a charm at Toya that bursts into flame. Both he and Yukito witness it, but Toya just brushes it off. It’s presented ambiguously; so that they might assume he Shaoran threw a burning piece of cardboard. I don’t think they’re that dull though, either of them.

Oh and I forgot, Clow married into the Li clan, didn’t he? So if my theory is correct, Shaoran and Melin are distant relatives of Sakura and Toya, though by marriage.

Update 3: Well that was a short-lived romance. Melin’s “I can do anything better than you” routine got old quick. I’m finding her quite annoying now.

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10 Responses to Slow Posting Again (Updated with some CCS)

  1. Andrew F. says:

    It was a given that the creepy parts would have to be cut for the US TV version, but Nelvana did a lot more than just that. Changing the characters’ names (Tomoyo becomes Madison), skipping the first seven episodes, trying to pass Shaoran off as a lead character along with Sakura and having everyone call him Li… the general consensus among fans is that they were trying to market the show to preteen boys – “Hey kids, this is just like Pokemon, only the hero captures cards instead of monsters! Bug your parents to buy you the toys!”

    I actually saw several episodes while it was airing on Kids’ WB and liked what I saw (this was long before I ever got into anime); now that I’ve seen a few episodes of the uncut version, it’s fair to say that the original’s quality managed to shine through even the clumsiest of hack jobs.

  2. Don’t worry about Meilin. You’ll like her again. And as I mentioned to you in email, if she doesn’t make you cry before the series is over, then you have a heart of stone.

  3. Wonderduck says:

    See Steven’s comment above regarding Meilin. I had the same reaction to her you did, only faster: I hated her from the start. The mere sight of her made me cringe; the only time I had anything other than loathing for her was when she got her butt handed to her by one of the Cards. She grows on you.

    So does a fungus, but that’s besides the point.

    Everything else you’ve said? Heh heh heh heh heh.

    That’s not a spoiler, by the way, I promise.

  4. >>It was a given that the creepy parts would have to be cut for the US TV version…

    Only by the very restrictive standards of CHILDREN’S television. By the standards of U.S. prime-time TV this is very mild stuff, particularly since it is mostly just hinted at.

    One nit… Sonomi says that Fujitaka was “a teacher.” Since he is a college professor and Nadeshiko was a high school student, it is unlikely that he was ever Nadeshiko’s teacher.

  5. Ubu Roi says:

    D’oh! If Toya can see spirits and tell living things from not-living, of course he knows his sister’s not hauling around a plush toy bear! And Ms. Mizuki knows exactly what her two students are, too. Obviously a powerful priestess in her own right, to slap down the MAZE card like that. Good grief, is there a named character who doesn’t have a secret yet? Maybe this is the series Gravion was making fun of with that…

    Edit: OMG. SHOT is Sonic the Hedgehog! Well, perhaps a bit technicolor, but it’s Sonic….

  6. Ubu Roi says:

    Jonathan: just released your comment. Sorry I didn’t see it earlier but you should have no trouble in the future. Actually, I’m fairly certain that they said he was student teaching at the time; although I agree that the story of how they met doesn’t jibe with his being her teacher.

  7. Ubu Roi says:

    Another DVD down. Does anyone else think there’s only one cat in this town, and it’s black and white? And fat? I didn’t like how the “solution” to the CREATE card was to make Sakura BIG so she could go arm wrestle the dragon. Too contrived, so she could realize her dream of squashing Toya was actually possible. The obvious solution was to use LITTLE on the dragon instead.

    Incidently, I think I may just keep appending my CCS impressions here for the time being. Don’t want to create a post for every DVD or two.

  8. I managed to snag a copy of the CCS set before they disappeared…not sure when I’ll start watching it, but at least it’s in the house…

  9. With 52 cards in the deck, it was inevitable that a few of them or the solutions to them would end up being lame. What’s amazing is how few of them ended up that way. I agree with you that the solution to that dragon should have been “little”, not “big”, but that episode was supposed to be humorous.

  10. Ubu Roi says:

    Yep, although they seem to be hitting a string of “let’s have a hard time thinking of the obvious solution,” such as using SONG to capture VOICE, and using the key/baton to unlock LOCK. Of course she didn’t know that Toya could tell MIRROR apart from her, so she has no idea the cat’s out of the bag, and has been long since. I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate that Toya’s spirit powers may extend to a charm-like ability and a bit of precognition, since he seems to get hired on at so many different places just before Sakura gets there.

    Not, of course, that the writers are above pulling a common gag like that without any explanation….

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