Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen

'The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.'
~Milan Kundera


Nostalgia, while is a strong tool to make a sequel successful with high ratings, is not enough if you are banking only… and only on it.

The act of watching the sequel of a beloved show itself brings on enough nostalgia. The older audiences feel happy inside, thinking of good old days when the original show used to air and how they enjoyed it and talked about it with their friends; or enjoyed the show alone while cuddling up with their house pet, ... and parents moved around doing daily chores, smiling secretly at their kids’ lit-up faces.

Your etc. is part of that older generation audience, and is a huge admirer of CCS. And precisely that is the reason Clear Card-hen has disappointed me. Big time.


Regarding Story and Character, I am going to be in rant-mode now, please bear with me.


Story 3/10

Yes, of course I shall compare this to the original saga. The original saga was not simply about a girl who can do magic and plays around with cards. It had decently paced narrative with immense character development, surprisingly good exploration of love, gender identity, sacrifice, family and most importantly, efficient magical world-building without expanding it in an out-of-control manner, in only 70 episodes.

On the contrary, Clear Card-hen has a pace that certainly reminds you of all the bad fillers of shounen animes, the SOL way! Even after 16 episodes, the story reaches nowhere, taking quite a test of patience. When a season is only 22 episodes long, this is certainly not the ideal way to advance a narrative. The new narrative has such limited amount of new elements - only introducing new characters does not imply the story will immediately feel new. While there were SOL-ish elements in CCS, this sequel has stretched that into “I-will-read-a-WHOLE-story-to-kids-and-use-up-an-episode” level.

Why are the episodes consuming so much time by revisiting the same locations to catch similar cards? Was a new location so hard to design? No. The answer is, “remember, we had <done this and this> here? Now we are here, doing <placeholder for similar this and this>, so lovely memory… etc etc”.

In a dynamic medium like Anime, if one does not follow the audio-visual rule “show, don’t tell”, then it quickly becomes a boring tale. The lunchtime banter among friends or “remember that?” between Sakura and Kero / Tomoyo/ ANYONE added surprisingly little to the actual story.


Characters 5/10

This show does not give detailed attention to an important factor like character development, given the fact that it takes place some years later. What happened to the MC? Mind that, Sakura is fourteen now. But her behaviour still does not feel like older than that of CCS. Her “Oyeeeehhhhh”, the frequency of which is much more than her younger years (how??) and endlessly thanking and praising Akiho-chan, while are very cute for the first couple of times, quickly become repetitive aspects of her behaviour. Sakura can do better.

The only possible answer to this is that Madhouse is trying to grab the attention of the new younger audiences of Japan and around the world, for whom this sweetness of Sakura is new. But while nostalgia is the trump card, it is surprising to see Sakura herself not maturing with time. Even Anime-only Meilin has come a long way, she does not behave as she used to. Syaoran, while having frustratingly less dialogs except in the last three episodes, has grown up from that brat-y type of CCS.

As for the other characters, well, we come to know very little about the old characters and even less about the new characters, rather than seeing them saying endless thank you to each other and praising each other. Meanwhile, Syaoran boy keeps saying just “yeah” to everyone.

Romance of Syaoran and Sakura certainly took a backseat, which it shouldn’t have, after all those build-ups in CCS series and the movies. Interaction of Touya and Yue, while remained interesting, was SO short that I am sure many viewers were left feeling unfulfilled. A tease? Okay. But Touya’s secret power, which he will unleash whenever he feels right, serves no purpose in this season except being all words.

Akiho is a puppet and is painfully and repetitively so. Had the season been longer, we could have dived deeper into her and Kaito’s backstory, but the conscious decision of the director and animators to keep everything as the material for the next season is hardly the right way to keep the audience interested throughout.

Sound 8/10

The OP1 “CLEAR” and the ED2 are my favourites. Background sound is not as adorably cheesy as CCS, but not exceptional either.


Art/Animation 9/10

The art is beautiful and the animation feels refreshing. It’s 2018, and it’s Madhouse, so of course! This is a good update.

Enjoyment: 6/10

I was elated as the show started, and was quite forgiving in the beginning. It was great to see Sakura and others again! But then, I grew tired of waiting for the big reveals, new magic by new characters, new power of old characters and so on. Nope. It never really took off.

Overall: 6/10

To me, Clear Card-hen has clearly gone overboard with nostalgia and the SOL trend. Only the last two episodes are comparatively decent ones. The season leaves everything so open-ended that one is bound to feel cheated by the brains behind this show; ‘okay, so you simply want me to watch another season, you never had any intention to make it a concise, self-sufficient narrative’.


Will I watch the next seasons? Yes, I will. But this “hen” needs to step up the game. Else it is nothing more than an okay-kind nostalgia-fest than being the true successor of arguably the most interesting magical girl show.

I'll wait, Sakura and friends.

If there’s anything worse than a bad sequel, it’s a disappointing one. Nothing about Clear Card is overtly offensive or insulting. It just sort of… exists in a weird space of its own. It has all the characters you love and remember doing their usual shenanigans. In a lot of ways, Clear Card just feels like an extension of the classic original, and after all, isn’t that what a second season is supposed to do? Well, yeah, but… let me try and explain.

The series starts with a beautiful opening performed by Maaya Sakamoto, who did the third and final opening for the original, which was ... why personal favorite from that series. First impressions are looking pretty good! Then the actual show begins. The first thing I noticed was that the overall color design felt significantly more washed out than the original. The hand painted backgrounds, fluid animation, consistently great storyboarding, amongst many other things, made Cardcaptor Sakura feel warm and alive. Clear Card’s digital backgrounds doesn’t even hold a candle. Nothing about this show pops quite the same way. Even the animation feels a lot less lively. Characters rarely go into chibi mode, which is something that is often very typical and commonplace for Clamp series, which wouldn’t really be a problem if the facial expressions weren’t also so consistently dull.. Again, the original does a way better job at portraying emotions across the board, giving those funny scenes more comedic value and those sad scenes more weight.

But visuals aren’t the only element that factors into a show’s overall quality. What about the plot itself? Well… it sure is Cardcaptor Sakura. The overall story structure is pretty much the same, characters act exactly the same, even some of the music and most of the cards are lifted straight from the original. Gale is just Windy, Labyrinth is just The Maze, Mirror is just… The Mirror. You get the idea. It’s honestly pretty frustrating that I have to talk about the original in comparison so much, but Clear Card seriously feels like it has a bit of an identity crisis, and that’s my biggest problem with this show in general.

The manga and the anime came out about 20 years after the original. With such a huge time gap, I would’ve wanted them to either do some changes, such as make the characters older to better reflect the audience that would’ve been excited for this show in the first place, or start over from scratch and remake the original or introduce a new cast to sell the show to a new generation of anime fans. Instead it’s in this awkward in-between spot where it doesn’t quite offer enough new for older fans, and isn’t accessible enough to new fans because they would have to watch 70 episodes of a show that’s over 20 years old now beforehand.

With all that being said, I wouldn’t be honest if I said I didn’t like anything about Clear Card. I really liked the first ED. The song and animation is very lively and playful, and I also found it cool how they reference cel animation in the first shot of the ED with the name plates. The characters are only colored within that small frame, with the full character sketch taking up the rest of the picture, just like how cel animation is done. The original was obviously made before the era where digital animation was the standard for anime, so I thought that was a cute nod. There are also certain moments that do capture the spirit of the original show, with my favorite episode being episode 19. That was a great episode.

So how do I feel about Clear Card as a whole? As a huge fan of the original Cardcaptor Sakura, I was very disappointed that the sequel didn’t feel like much of an evolution of the series, but instead more like the exact same thing we already watched 20 years ago, just not quite as good due to its lackluster presentation in comparison to the original, as well as reused plot points and ideas, making it an overall exhausting watch.

Would I recommend Clear Card to you? Eh, probably not. You might get more out of this than I did, but I wouldn’t raise my expectations too high. Just be aware that it ends on a massively unsatisfying cliffhanger. I won’t spoil what happens, and we may still get a second season someday to resolve the plot. I’m just throwing that out there for anyone who hates cliffhangers as much as I do. Actually, maybe watch Saint Tail if you’re clamoring for more anime like Cardcaptor Sakura. That show doesn’t get nearly as much love as it deserves.

Firstly, let me say that this is a series which is not strictly necessary. The original series ended satisfactorily some years ago. This isn't a reboot which is accessible to newcomers, either. It's just a bit of fanservice for fans of the original, basically.

The show acknowledges this pretty squarely. The first episode is enough of an introduction to work as a reminder for returning fans, but probably wouldn't suffice for new viewers. That said, it hits its mark very quickly. If they were looking to hit that nostalgia target, they couldn't have done much better than opening with Kero-chan's ... voice.

Aya Hisakawa as Kerberos is one of my favorite vocal performances in all of anime, and she's on point as ever. Mascot characters have been a sore point for me in a lot of magical girl shows; I dropped the original Precure because of one. Many others are merely tolerable, but Kerberos is actually enjoyable in his own right. The way he speaks is beyond bizarre and incredibly memorable.

The original cast of Cardcaptor Sakura is in attendance and in character. Sakura herself is my favorite magical girl protagonist. These have tended toward being endearingly flawed; Sakura goes in the other direction. Particularly for a middle-school girl, she's a rather well-rounded character. She's responsible, compassionate, fair, and trusting. If anything, her one flaw might be that she's too trusting, but it suits her fairly well in the overall narrative. Her challenges rarely come from antagonism. Instead, her challenges mainly come from encountering the unfamiliar. The unknown is naturally scary, and she encounters it on a regular basis. This is the meat of the series, recapturing various cards.

I wasn't sure what to expect on the production front from Madhouse in the current year, but this is pretty top-notch. It might be the best-looking TV anime on right now, and the OP/ED are both fantastic. One could be forgiven for confusing the ED for an OP, because it's much more visually interesting and energetic than these tend to be. Unsurprisingly given recent trends, some CG is incorporated into the show, and there seems to be some digital after-effects. Perspective, or depth-of-field, shots are almost common enough to not be worth mentioning anymore.

One was used in an insert song sequence, for example. I never knew I was a sucker for this kind of thing until Girls' Last Tour last season. Insert songs are kind of nice on their own, but it's better when they're attached to an otherwise memorable scene. As with everything else, execution and context still matter. The soundtrack is nice in its own right and its usage fits the show. I already mentioned one notable vocal performance, but the rest are quite good too, even that of the newcomer, Akiho.

All in all, though I don't think this series was necessary, I'm quite glad it was made regardless. It feels nostalgic, and I think the feeling is well-earned. For my part, I only finished the original series last year sometime, so it hasn't really had the time to get that hazy sort of nostalgia. I don't think I could recommend it to people who haven't seen (or read) the original series, but that just means this is a great time to get out there and experience a classic. If you watch a lot of anime, and if you're on this site you probably do, you should watch this one too.

Possible spoilers ahead.

I've both watched the first series and movies, and read the manga (the final volume). Like other anime I've been watching at the time, this show helped keep my spirits up during some dark times in my life.

Madhouse and CLAMP have come a long way since the original CCS 20 years ago. Madhouse re-entered my radar with Hanayamata a few years ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and the animation and production quality there belied their struggles in the early 2010s. Likewise I haven't really kept up with CLAMP since the early episodes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, a series I just couldn't keep up ... with like I could with CCS.

Then the preview episode, "Sakura and the Two Bears" came out. Sure, there were a handful of shortcuts ("stick figure" like kids), but overall this was a "reboot" from the final episode of the series, modeled rather faithfully after the final chapter of the original manga, but with a more understated coloring compared to the first series' saturated coloring. "Oh... could this be?" I wondered. Yup, new anime confirmed with Madhouse as the production house. This is a welcome reunion in my book.

Possible spoiler: At first I thought this was manga canon, but... well, yes and no. The preview is straight from the final chapter of the (edit) manga, but in the series proper there are shots from the anime series finale, as well as references to the 2nd film in dialogue. It's entirely possible we're looking at parallel universes here (which appears to have been a fascination of CLAMP's since Tsubasa Chronicle, and it's a tempting pitfall for any fantasy or sci-fi writer). I think if they're careful, CLAMP could have a badass show/manga that not only delivers a great story in its own right, but resolves the differences between manga and anime, or, even better, preserves both and brings them together somehow. It really seems to me that they enjoyed what Madhouse did by expanding the manga into a 70-episode hit kids' anime series and 2 films, and they wanted to bring that expanded world into the manga as well (not sure if they actually talk about content exclusively from the anime in the manga, this is more intuition than anything).

The first cour (12 episodes or so) feels like a tribute to the fans of the first series. From the opening animation, to Maaya Sakamoto singing, to the continued use of the first series' soundtrack and voice cast, to familiar scenes here and there, the callbacks to series 1 are legion. Having watched the first series, it was fun looking at all the ways the production staff drew from series 1, and I think this was absolutely the right thing to do. We are picking up right where the first manga left off, so it makes sense to start with the familiar and have fun with it.

Clear Card repeats the tried and true episodic formula from before, but with new dangers, new cards, a new key, and a new twist. The slow pace might be a turn-off for those who demand faster-paced storytelling, but remember, this is a sequel to a 70-episode production where the first arc was almost an entire year's worth of anime. Not only this, it's a kid's show that's heavily character-driven-- if you move the plot too quickly, you will leave the younger viewers in the dust, characters won't develop organically, and it simply will be too jarring a difference in a world where fans pick apart everything in a sequel with an electron microscope.

Visually, the more understated coloring lends itself to brighter, more dramatic action, and a less "cartoony" look. The coloring reminds me of Honey and Clover in a good way, and their experience with particle systems/effects from Hanayamata (and probably other works) serve them well here.

As I mentioned, the soundtrack is largely the same, but there are some new additions, like the battle theme, transformation/release theme, and the capture theme. Honestly, this is a good (if economical) choice to me. Even though the older synth tracks might sound dated now, they've held up well. Rocket Beat is a fantastic OP, even if it's not something I'll put in my car playlist; Clear by Sakamoto is all right, but I think Platina is much better (because Yoko Kanno). The ED in the second cour features Akiho's voice actress, and she's a good voice to listen to while the mascots play out a funny scene; while she doesn't play a voice role, Saori Hayami sings the first ED. She's pleasant to the ears, and yet, again, I wouldn't put Jewelry in my playlist.

I suppose if there's one gripe I would throw at this, it's that the gang seem like elementary school kids but with different uniforms and a different school. This is partly due to the character design and the voice acting/direction. I know it's a kid's show and you don't really want to be discussing the birds and bees here, but it kinda makes it seem as though people go from dwarves to giants as they reach high school age. Not a deal-breaker for me, and the suspense element does help convey the passage of time.

SPOILER: I'd thought they would wrap up the entire arc in this series, but that didn't happen. I actually think they're fixing for a film, if not season 2. I think the kind of showdown that's brewing is too small for 22 or even 44 minutes of television. There's a possible contradiction between manga and the finale, so I desperately hope that (a) Madhouse does NOT fall into the same trap that sank Rozen Maiden and a few other series (i.e. rushing ahead of the manga), and that (b) CLAMP does NOT rage quit or completely wreck the world with their fascination of alternate universes.

I've seen 6 of the episodes so far.
I love Sakura cardcaptor, I recommend it to all you have watch the first series. In this series we watch Sakura capturing new cards. It give a very similar feeling to the first series. Personally I love it, its very nostalgic, characters are the same as they were when we left the show. Except for Syaoran, who's acting different, but looks like he finally admitted his feelings towards Sakura! If you enjoyed the first series and want more from your beloved characters I recommend it. Art is beautiful, the music is nostalgic, characters are the same. Overall ... 9/10.

Not necessarily a review, but I wanted to share something that brainiac1530 said he lacks. The last time I watched Cardcaptor Sakura was almost 20 years ago and I haven't re-watched nor read anything about it ever since, so when I came across the news of this new series I thought I should give it a chance, for nostalgia, I may be a bit off, but I guess this series follows the same steps as Sakura's first arc where she is supposed to collect the cards, nothing wrong with that, it is even bitter-sweet to remember watching her when I was younger, specially my huge ... crush for Tomoyo, I wish there was a girl like her in my school, she was really cute.

I don't think there will be many like me that will be watching the series for my last contact with it was almost 20 years ago and I don't particularly like the Mahou Shoujo genre (didn't like it back then as well, but Sakura was an exception); so what I can say is that I'm glad to enjoy Sakura once again, Tomoyo, my girl, looks amazing and Kero is still cool, I remember Toya and Yukito with broader shoulders though, they seemed stronger, robust, but I might be off here it has been sometime, anyway, I'll keep watching it and I hope that I will enjoy Sakura once again, for this last time.

Been almost 17 years since the original series graced us and LA watched it not knowing it was anime, now Cardcaptor Sakura finally got it's sequel and LA was hyped let alone what new adventures Sakura would go up to, for what it's worth, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card-hen was a good sequel that expanded on Sakura's magical world...just with a few upsets.

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card-hen leaves off directly after the Sealed Card movie & the first season with Sakura now entering middle school with a cloaked figure appears in her dreams and Sakura's cards turns blank however she now collects the new "Clear" cards with ... a new key to "secure" them all...but who is the cloaked figure and what's up with the new cards?

So by the synopsis itself, it has the same notion of collecting "new cards" much like the original series but with some mystery elements thrown in, mainly the mysterious cloaked figure. The "new cards" however is something like the upgraded versions of Sakura's and Clow Cards but the "upgrade" does signify Sakura's development as a character as well as her entering middle school, but it also signifies Sakura's romantic development to Syoran even further with this as well to a certain extent. With this, Sakura's tactical prowess has been greatly improved this season using her new cards to great efficiency as she collects more and more and LA wasn't expecting some cards to not be used (like some from the original series) but Clear Card-hen DOES implement these new cards quite well.

On speaking of Syoran, Syoran greatly develops as a character mainly on steeling his resolve in helping Sakura and not getting her hurt in a ways and though both Sakura and Syoran are "twice shy" in terms of romantic relationship, well to be honest they are 14 years old so LA kinda gets the twice shy thing but nonetheless Syoran and Sakura develops together both in a slight romantic sense as well as partners in the new threat they face.

We also have some new characters in Clear Card-hen and the only thing to note of if not going into spoilers would be of Akiho Shinomoto voiced by Minori Suzuki, who quickly becomes friends with Sakura who is VERY similar to Sakura as well and yes Akiho is a MAJOR part of the plot but again spoilers but nonetheless since Akiho and the new characters have significance in the plot, they are implemented well into the plot if only because of their importance in the plot and aren't one-off characters.

So, LA does have some small gripes in this season and that some of the episodes are fillery to say the least especially with some of the cards just dedicated to getting cards and sometimes rushed in some cases where Sakura gains one right after the other, but LA will defend the "filler" episodes as at least those episodes some sprinkle in subtle hints to the mystery at hand as well as slowly develop Sakura, Syoran or Akiho in many cases. ALOT of people might be angry at this season at how slow the pacing this season is and LA says yes this season is slow paced BUT LA will say it's at least consistent it's slow paced nature and it keeps to it for the most part and LA will say that is kinda how this season wanted to be and LA won't fault the season for that. The next thing would be of Sakura's denseness of the situation she is in and though to be honest many of the other characters KEEP her in the dark thus makes Sakura's denseness justified and "for the plot" but Sakura as a character goes with the flow either way to make people happy at the expense of her own, so yeah LA can kinda see why the characters keep her in the dark either way add in the new threat this season complied to this makes it even more justified, though Sakura isn't just dense and that's it as again, Sakura's tactical prowess is nothing to laugh about let alone she knows something is up and sometimes is close to it, but she just doesn't get into the bigger picture and likes to focus on the threat at hand instead to protect everyone. Lastly would be of the new cards which are pretty much "upgraded cards" of the Clow Cards just with similar but different names attached to them, they do have a metaphorically meaning like LA said at the start of the review, but it makes many of the cards Sakura secures to be ALMOST copy and pasted from the original series ALMOST as Clear Card-hen gives securing these new cards with a new twist OR trying something new to it all which kinda makes it worth it.

In terms of animation, once again done by MADHOUSE, well the animation is like a modernized, yet beautiful rendition of the original series' animation yeah LA knows it's almost 2 decades difference and the original series has it's own notable animation for it's time but nonetheless Clear Card-hen's animation is beautiful to say the least right down the each frame, from the solid updated character designs, beautiful backgrounds (and oddly this season, it was fixated on food porn for some reason) and great battle animations. LA really didn't see any sense of derpiness in ANY of the episodes either and the comedic moments don't count as they used intentional chibi animation for comedic effect, soo either way the level of dedication the animation had gone into this season by MADHOUSE was amazing.

Voice acting, well the original cast is back so the voice cast is utterly amazing but the MVP easily goes to Sakura Tange...as Sakura having reprised her role after 17 years and still having the same inflictions as her first major role is AMAZING. LA would say the same thing to Aya Hisakawa, Junko Iwao and Motoko Kumai respectively as Kero, Tomoyo Daidouji and Syoran. New cast members like Minori Suzuki and Natsuki Hanae as Akiho and Yuna D. Kaito was great additions to the cast and for Minori Suzuki mingling with Sakura Tange, Junko Iwao and Motoko Kumai, well she had great chemistry with them especially Sakura Tange!. In all, the voice cast with the new and old was GREAT, LA loved this voice cast.

The finale though gave Sakura something about Akiho but with how it ended, at least I think Sakura is in the loop even after the events. Unfortunately, Clear Card-hen still has MANY plot threads left after the ending from Kaito and Akiho themselves and how it all adds up, Touya's growing power and his deal into all this, Sakura's power and what that has to do with Kaito and Akiho, just none of these are answered by the end of it. Be it if it's the manga itself or Clear Card-hen could only adapt what it could but still I will say this is probably the biggest detriment to the season soo far.

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card-hen was a nostalgic blast to the past to an anime series that hold a dear place in LA's heart as one of LA's favourite animes of all time and though Clear Card-hen was a long time coming LA was happy with this season of Cardcaptor Sakura from both it's strengths and weaknesses. Clear Card-hen had it's many upsets from it's fillery moments, same as the first verse with the new cards and it's slow paced nature but they were remedied by it's mystery elements, subtle hints, the new card metaphors and character/romance/plot developments progressing with it's new major plotline it had going for it. Clear Card-hen obviously learns and brings in the flaws from the original series more than half the screentime the original series (remember it had SEVENTY episodes compared to the 22 of Clear Card-hen) had such as learning from the formula and giving it a twist to getting the new cards and adding in the mystery element into the mix this time (though the original series did it to near the last 1/3 of the series but still LA sees Clear Card-hen doing it better) but since the formula has a new twist, it IS still the same formula of collecting the same but upgraded cards and fillery moments the original series had and though that is a detriment it's something LA can't fault this season for as it's slow paced nature makes those 22 episodes worth it for what it had, the one thing I can fault is the non-conclusive ending it gave itself and we don't even know if there is gonna be another season out or OVA's might finish it, but where it is now, the finale and how it ended is the biggest black mark on this season.

However with all that, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card-hen was one of LA's favourite animes of Winter 2018 because of "nostalgia" but LA genuinely did enjoy watching the series and having nostalgia of the original series as this season adds to it by referencing it as well. Now does this season beat out the original series, well no, it falls off the mark if only little, maybe because it's just a strong nostalgia keeps LA from giving Clear Card-hen the original series' place but still Clear Card-hen is a good sequel to the original series and though this season has it's flaws, many are remedied by this season's strong elements of the series in making every episode worth it (well everything besides the ending), be it the plot, animation, character development and voice acting, but Clear Card-hen definitely SECURED LA's place one of LA's favourite anime of Winter 2018 and a good sequel to the original series.

(one of my first time writing a review so it may not be good, but I hope it helps)
mild spoiler(?) but I'm sure you have called it too, because I did.

I started watching the original series last week, so I'm not a long time fan, but I really enjoyed watching it.

I see many people are comparing both seasons. Yes, there are major differences, especially in terms of animating the story. All I can say is I liked both styles, both have each their own points. This sequel has some sort of "hanyan" (as Sakura would say) feel to it, or maybe "fuwa fuwa" is ... better to describe it. The animations are cute, imo.

I haven't read the manga yet, so I'm not sure how this is supposed to be related to both manga and the predecessor anime. I'm still confused about whether the second movie (and prologue) should be considered canon or not if I'm watching this sequel as sometimes it conflicts with each other.

(I think that there are some parts that are predictable idk why but not that I hate trying to guess what's next)

I like romance stories so enjoyment 10/10, love the development!
Also I like the fact that Sakura doesn't go "hoeee" as much now.

tbh I never really liked the songs they play on piano and make it sound like an organ (or is it organ?), I felt like they don't really fit the story (episode 19).


is it just me or did it really end like that??? felt like a cliffhanger but may also be the end??



well, I still think that this anime is great, all in all. I had a great time watching it.



update : I read both the original manga and the clear card manga and boy is there a lot of differences between manga and anime, confused but tbh the manga explains a lot more than the anime

(there's one major difference in sakura's dream in clear card arc, the person who's in the robe, I'm not saying, you should read the manga yourself so I won't spoil the fun)

looking forward to the continuation of clear card arc, I love it!

I assumed the people watching Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen is for nostalgia-purposes and curiosity as to what they can do after such lovely ending in Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2. Personally, I think the ending could have been exploited better but at least it wraps up a lot of things.

If you haven't watched Cardcaptor Sakura and this is your first Cardcaptor Sakura, there will be a lot of references you will not get and there will be characters and backgrounds assumed to be known (70 episodes worth) so do I recommend? No. And it spoils everything if you plan to backtrack to Cardcaptor Sakura original series.

For ... fans like me, am I really happy with what I am getting? Not quite. The art is superb. I do not keep much up to date with seasonal animes but the quality is super top notch. Although this is an adaptation of the manga and staying as close to the storyline of manga (with the occasional addition of extra cards as usual), I do not feel the need to break the 4th wall on every single frame even on the simplest situation (skirt twirling). Sometimes it reached that point where it gets me dizzy because it keeps penetrating that wall of 4D dimension because it is not like every anime we see has the biggest blown budget like CCS. It is nauseous at times.

And because you are too busy focusing on how fluid the animation is, 90% of the time I don't appreciate the filler time. Maybe it is a great thing because the filler time is rubbish, slow and questionable. They just fill up the time with just random daily things like cooking, showing one minute to solve a problem and every nonsense conversation with Syaoran.... which Syaoran after 60+ worth of episodes could have played a bigger role in Sakura's life?! Not just stay on the sidelines and look like a typical normal boyfriend. And when they get to the main storyline (capturing the Clear cards), it felt super rushed and there is not enough time to develop a connection with the card captured. There are so many issues with the current CCS storyline, the previous CCS as all of us can remember was a typical child living her life in an elementary school, she has her ups and downs. Now, this Sakura is living the perfect school life with no issues whatsoever other than the villains portrayed. Even her friends seemed so lifeless than just full of old references. And even some of the old references are not so accurate. If it wasn't for the exact old soundtrack and the voice actors, this anime would be trashed so badly.

Not only Syaoran, all the side characters deteriorated exponentially, including Kero, Yue and Tomoyo. All of them just supported Sakura on the sidelines and after 12 episodes of what felt like a milking anime, Sakura is gonna be like a super Saiyan pokemon master, magical girl style, doing everything herself with no idea how to use her cards properly. Even though she is the strongest magician. Which is why I felt there isn't a need right now to introduce new cards because nostalgia is what we seek. 53 cards is a heck a lot of cards and she admits halfway through the episodes she doesn't even know all her cards well. And CLAMP decided to add on more cards? Great job. Do you want real nostalgia? Revisit the old cards in a different way. Nobody can master 53 cards after changing them to Sakura Cards.

The storyline is predictable, slightly different but the pattern is recurrent which gets annoying. After knowing Sakura's trio, transfer student Syaoran, transfer student Mei Ling, transfer student Eriol and trio, you sure hope that the next villain isn't a transfer student who knows foreign languages, and so on, so on predictably.

Should you watch it? If you really like CCS but don't get your hopes up. It is either you like it or you don't. I suppose we all want to re-experience nostalgia in a different matured manner but if that is the case, revisiting the old episodes is a better idea.

Oh and heads up, this isn't a spoiler, but this is a very nasty trick by CLAMP as always, it is a typical Tsubasa ending. A suspense-no ending-ending. Which I DO NOT EXPECT TO SEE IT IN A LIGHT-HEARTED CARDCAPTOR SAKURA ANIME.

Most people have a member of the big three, Evangelion, Sword Art, or some other action show as their gateway anime.  Me?  It was Cardcaptor Sakura.  So you can imagine my excitement when I learned that a sequel to the show that I have since left behind in the back of my memory was being made in the modern day.  And indeed, it was quite the nostalgia trip.

Story:

Our story brings us back to Kinomoto Sakura, who has since aged four years from the time of the original Cardcaptor series and is now entering middle school.  While her life seems to have returned to as normal ... as a fourteen year old's life can be when you're dealing with magical cards created from magic from both sides of the world, a strange dream snaps her into a vision involving clear crystals and a looming threat.  Upon waking up, she finds that the Clow Cards have turned clear, and a new key has appeared in her hands.  From here, she encounters a new card different in appearance to the Clow cards, setting her off on a journey and task very similar to the one she did years ago.

Clear Card is more or less the same as what the original Cardcaptor was back in its heyday: an episodic show where each episode had our protagonist encounter a new card in her daily life where she must capture it in order to stop it from causing more harm, all the while an overarching plot happens in the background and becomes the penultimate thing that the series leads up to.  It's what Madhouse and the members of CLAMP did when the original was being made, and it's the same story here.

As such, the show can really be simplified to being 'more Sakura'.  But saying that wouldn't give the show as much credit as it should.  Because the characters themselves have matured, it feels like the topics that the characters touch up upon have also matured as well.  Things like Syaoron and Sakura's relationship take more of a forefront as the two learn more how to be in a relationship (which honestly caught me off-guard), and the mystery of the 'Clear Cards' and the 'Clear Mage' (as I call them) start to take more of a forefront in the series early on rather than have them be things in the background waiting towards the end.

I will say that despite these things, the show does still deviate from the 'overarching' stuff in order to do more of the happy go lucky slice of life aspects that the original Cardcaptor was known for, but considering how much more involved the series is with its plot and mystery by comparison, devoting almost its entire second half to being build-up, it's something I can look over.

Overall, Clear-hen is a definitely taking what the original was and giving it a new, shinier coat of paint with more involved story elements.  Pacing is a tad slow in the beginning, but is otherwise a fun ride to go on, especially if you were a fan of CLAMP's original.  I will say however that the series is not complete.  My guess is that sometime down the line, they'll do a season 2 and it will serve as the finale for the Clear Card arc.  When that happens, I don't know, but I hope they do cap off the plot cause Madhouse has got to learn how to make season 2s.

Overview:
+ Very true to the original with an interesting arc
+ Improves upon the original
+ More involved story/character moments
-  Kind of slow in the beginning

Characters:

Kinomoto Sakura is the same, cheerful, ditzy, airheaded girl that we knew from the original.  Aged up four years.  Much of Sakura's personality and attitudes towards the series is to protect those that are near to her, and that remains steadfast throughout the entire show.  Though my memory of specifics for her from years past are hazy at best, a lot of what I find about Sakura this time around is the fact that she really seems to come out on her own.  Many of the card captures feel technical with the strategy on how she goes about them, and from her interactions with Syaoron in particular feels like she has grown to become more of a multi-faceted character that's worth investing into, even more than what I would regard that fans of the series have already become accustomed to.

Syaoron Li by a similar margin, gains similar growth to his significant other, but in a way that irks me from a storytelling perspective.  He comes back from Hong Kong and attends the same school as Sakura, helps to blossom their relationship even more beyond just a lovey dovey trope, into a real, actual relationship involving confining and seeking comfort from the other during harder or struggling times.  Which is something I never expected from a magical girl show, but is very welcome anyway.  My problem with Syaoron however is how secretive the show pushes him to be.  He hides away for a good chunk of the series doing some things behind the scenes, but we never really get to know what that is.  It's a cheap way of building suspense and it's annoying considering how often the show plays the pronoun game or uses vague terminology in order to create tension.

The last character worth mentioning is a new addition to the cast, Shinomoto Akiho.  Akiho first appears as a new student accompanied by her butler, Kaito, who cares and watches over her in place of her parents.  Much of Akiho's story doesn't appear until the second half, and until then, is treated more as one of Sakura's friends who gradually gets used to the new neighborhood and town.  Personally I don't really see her as much of an interesting character despite the importance to the plot that she holds, since most of what we know about her so far is vague flavor text for buildup.

Supporting cast is largely the same as the original.  You have Sakura's school friends, Tomoyo and her obsession with dressing her second cousin like a doll, Keroberos and his shenanigans, Sakura's family, Eriol, Yue, all of whom add into the vague mystery of the series, and Meiling who until watching Clear Card did not realize she was an anime original character.  (It's been like fifteen years, so cut me a break.)  Overall, the side cast is still solid, with much of the latter ones mentioned getting devoted time in the spotlight for plot development.

Overview:
+ Sakura and Syaoron become better characters
-  Secrecy of characters are very annoying

Art:

All you need to know is the fact that Madhouse kept Clamp's style, and brought the work that they did from the original into the new age.  Yep.  That's about it.  More or less what you're getting when watching this show in terms of visuals is an updated version of the style you're already used to, featuring lighter, less saturated colors, and very good consistency in quality and effects.  Really there isn't much to say beyond that.  The style of Cardcaptor is iconic of the late 90's and still remains unique to this day.  So more than anything, the art is a nostalgia trip, and a very good one at that.

Sound:

Both "Clear" by Maaya Sakamoto and Kiyono Yasuno's "Rocket Beat" are cheerful, upbeat songs for the show's OP that bring forth Carcaptor's cheerful and magical demeanor as a hallmark of the magical girl genre.  Personally I find 'Clear' to be the better of the two because it to me is catchier than its counterpart.  But that's just my opinion.  Objectively I regard both songs as being very fitting of Cardcaptor as a whole.

In contrast, we have "Jewelry" by Saori Hayami and Minori Suzuki's "Rewind", which inversely, I think that Rewind is the better ED.  Despite being a fan of Saori Hayami, Rewind has a consistent aspect of having a 'tick tock' beat about it that makes it unique whereas Jewelry just has just its beginning to make itself stand out.

Personal Enjoyment:

It's been about fifteen years since I was first introduced to Cardcaptor Sakura, and anime as a whole.  The show has a special place in my heart like all gateway anime do, so watching Clear Card was one of the biggest nostalgia trips I've ever had.  I like how they built up on the original series, yet made it friendly enough for new audiences to jump in without TOO much drawback, though there will be some missing details which I think is always a given.

I think my favorite part of the series is the fact that despite the show having only progressed four years in-universe, shit like the Nintendo switch, smartphones, and other modern devices are in the show despite the fact that during the original Cardcaptor, they had early 2000's technology.  It just amuses me how there's such a large jump in technological advances when in-universe, they shouldn't have been this fast.

All in all, Clear Card I would primarily suggest for those who really want a nostalgia trip and are fans of the Cardcaptor series.  It's somewhat unwelcome to newcomers, but still manages to be a good series regardless.  Personally, I had a great time with this blast from the past, and I hope that they do complete the story in animated form someday, otherwise it'd be a bit of an injustice to the original series.  That, and I would really like to have a conclusion.  I think we can all agree on that one.

Having hated the OVA previous to the new Sakura's series I was really scared that I would hate Card-Hen, it however met all my expectations and even surpass some of them.

Having watching the old series recently I came to Card-Hen knowing exactly what I would get: an episodic slow progression towards the big revelation at the end of season, where we would get to watch Sakura having fun with her friends and sometimes capture a card two. It is exactly that, but having 22 episodes instead of 70 it got a much better pacing to it.

With the exception of the clumsy CGI here and there ... the animation was great, compared to others animes of the season it is much more fluid and detailed, there is a constant change of camera, and it is just as good at convey emotions as the one, although I don't think anything can beat 90's anime aesthetics.

Characters and plot are probably the higher points, and the ones that impressed me coming into the series. In the older adaptations, except for the second movie we never really felt like Sakura really was in dangerous (I mean, you can always find someone new to love), it was always some sort of test or trial, where we were assured that the character, that will later become Sakura's friend, don't mean any harm and will make sure she doesn't get hurt. On Card-Hen on the contrary that were moment were I legit thought Sakura and her friends were in danger, and the fact they didn't foreshadow the whole plot and made sure to establish the antagonists of this season as a real threat make you imagine for the first time that things may not end up ok.

The characters appear here in much more emotional depth that probably any of the previous season, we see a lot more moments of sadness, regret and melancholy that are not simply sporadic and brief, but that continues trough the season. The moment that to me evidence the most how great these characters is at the beginning of episode 21, where we get a scene of Toya and his father alone and they talk about family, worries, the future and just how greatly and naturally they are able to show the emotional depth of these characters, also the ending of that episode...

BEAUTIFUL JUST GIVE ME SECOND SEASON

up till episode 9 and honestly watching it because of sakura and syaoran , I'm so confused what each of the new card do and also i miss the old cards so much ;( althought some eps are interesting, i still found it a bit boring since all the card is just similar to the old cards and i feel like i will never being able to see the clow cards anymore. I wish syanran can tell sakura what is going on soon as it seems that he has something in his mind and don't want to tell her. also i hope the ... story focus more on the clear card background somehow instead of having too much couple because this anime is about sakura capturing the cards not sakura and syaoran

There seems to be a common claim around Clear Card-hen stating that the only way to appreciate this anime and think it is good, is wear nostalgia glasses and let this sequel pass with the power of its predecessor. The reality is the polar opposite, from my part at least. Without any hesitation and doubt, I can say that the only way to think Clear Card-hen is inferior to its prequel, is to wear those given nostalgia glasses and look back 10-15 years in the past when most fans watched the original series. This is nothing but a corrupted memory. CCS was not better. It ... was much worse. I care to claim that most of its fans would realize the same if they were to watch CCS with their current standards as off today and not look back in the distant past with those nostalgia glasses that supposedly make Clear Card-hen seem better than it is.

I have just recently seen the original Cardcaptor Sakura. I didn't like it very much and for that reason, went into this sequel with expectations lower than normally. CLAMP has been rebooting franchises in the past just in the name of milking them, without the sequels ever accomplishing anything. Moreover, I had some major problems with the original CCS to begin with. Saying that, I have been positively surprised by both: MadHouse and CLAMP themselves.

When it comes to the original CCS, it was simply too long, dragging, and always afraid to go anywhere and to do anything. The romantic subplot became the main reason for its fans to follow the series, but CLAMP failed to deliver so bad they even had to make a sequel movie just to offer some sort of canon pairing to it. Unfortunately even this "conclusion" was practically a copy-paste of the generic, open ending mainly seen is harem series. With this sequel, CLAMP has seemed to finally learn what the fans want, and offer at least some amount of content like that.

The writing is still a mixed bag. The slice of life moments vary from heart-warming picnics to explanations on how to use a microwave. Needless to say, the latter type of slice of life silliness is awful to watch. The comedy writing can be equally hit and miss. The weird sounds Sakura makes, and the scenes where her brother teases her are all great to watch. Any other comedy doesn't really relief anything. The romance aspect has changed from annoying to rather cute with the sequel. Our main couple's awkward blushing really does serve the atmosphere of the show overall.

The actual story is bit more believable than last time, and also the events around our cards are often way more original and memorable: take the walking trees for example. However, the balance of the show is pretty weird. Half of the time it feels like the cardcaptor side is just an excuse to fill the series with slice of life silliness, but on the hand, the same can be said about the school and family life of Sakura who seems to so often have her thoughts in nothing but the cards and current events. The fact that she has to hide her magical girl side from so many other characters is really splitting the show in two which limits the writing and makes it repetitive, moreover, makes the people who do not know her secret seem stupider than they are.

Our characters are still pretty much kids. Long time skip would have been a good idea, considering that the series was on hiatus for over 15 years anyway. Sakura is identical to the character we saw in the movie 2. Outside the romance, there isn't much development on her character. Still, some of her behavior is simply stunning. Like that dancing scene from episode 9. She radiates happiness so much it's practically impossible not to feel the same when watching her. Syaoran acts rather inconsistently in this. His dialog 50% of the time consist of him replying "yeah" to whatever anyone says to him. The other 50% of the time he seems to be the same character as before except the whole "annoying brat" aspect of him has been removed completely. Great decision right there. Tomoyo still sounds like she will die if winds blows on her too hard, and once again only exists because Sakura exists. At least her singing scenes are great to watch. Touya is obviously real bro because he is so skilled at teasing Sakura, and creates some funny comedic situations by doing so.

Having watched the original anime from bluray, I can't be but surprised how much better the sequel looks and sounds like streamed. Some of the scenes were clearly created in the purpose of being screencapped. The moe faced comedy segments are just really good addition, and practically the whole production is -- art-wise-- an improvement. Especially some of the card "fights" were just ridiculous color effects in the original. In this one, everything is pretty and serves the show. The OST on the hand is also pretty weird. The BGM mainly reminds me of those cheesy tracks you can hear in children adventure games when you enter a shop to buy consumables. Not all that good decisions were made when these tracks were picked. The ED1 "music video" is still simply amazing. One of the best ED's in recent years.

There really isn't all that much the sequel adds to the franchise outside the overall length of it. The source material is of course ongoing and all. That's hardly a problem, tho. This series has been made for the fans to enjoy it, and as far as I can agree any series accomplishing what it tried to do: this one hit a homerun. The series often comes with such a charming atmosphere it almost looks like Kobato the early years. Unfortunately, it suffers from quality differences so bad that the show is definitely more enjoyable to watch than it is good, but personally, I am still very pleased with it.

One of the most promising series of the year came a little weaker than expected, compared to the original series. The 1998 Cardcaptor Sakura is arguably the best mahou shoujo anime ever, so this Clear Card Arc needed to at least stand up to their 20 years old prequel, but Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card-hen is a little disappointment. Small spoilers ahead.

Story (6/10):
In a story where Sakura never confessed to Syaoran as in the Fuuin Sareta Card Movie, this totally resets as it never happened. 13 yo Sakura Kinomoto reencounters Li Syaoran after a few years and they're entering middle school, but a new danger awaits ... as new enemies come making the Sakura Cards useless and now our dear Sakura-chan must seal new cards called Clear Cards who have the same equivalent on the Sakura Cards.

This of course is basically the old series repeated, but have many flaws that dimishes the experience of waching this new arc, as it not rushed and have the big error of not closing the arc that makes the ending is so lame and open that it actually makes you wanna see a second season, not because the arc is great, but because it leaves things open and unresolved. Such is the case of Toya and his powers coming back doesn't even have an explanation, just a good talk to Yukito's real form, Yue; the old Clow Cards and Sakura Card arcs have decisive conclusions.

Also the SakuraxSyaoran romance is very weak and they still have the same struggles to confess each other, when they were 10-11 yo, it was understandable, but not now after spending quite a lot time, on the very few SakuSyao moments, it actually delivered, so it's very puzzling that Clamp didn't insist bigger on this. However, I haven't read the manga yet.

Art (10/10):
Madhouse really improved the art and animation, all the characters look fluid and cute, specially Sakura-chan as always, the colour panel is a little brighter IMO, but this doesn't affect anything of the overall quality of the animation. Despite many nostalgic fans may want to see the old animation back, this is a very good improvement, one of the very few, actually.

Sound (9/10):
The same excellent CCS soundtrack is back, and it really gives you the old feelings by moments, the new pieces are equally great that it never fall out of place with the classic pieces. The OPs and EDs are hits and misses, the first OP Clear is really bad quality, but Rocket Beat is a huge improvement, not Platinum level, but CC Sakura standard. Jewelry and Rewind are charming EDs, but still a bit lower ranked than the classicals Groovy or Honey or Fruits Candy.

The old seiyuus are back and simillary delivered perfectly, Sakura Tange, Aya Hisakawa, Motoko Kumai, Junko Iwao and the rest really nailed and despite having a big 20 years of difference and possible voice tiredness, they made a really great job keeping the old spirit of the series here.

Characters (7/10):
All the characters are the same, but Clear Card made their personalities a bit more exaggerated, Sakura is still cute, adorable and gentle to everybody, Syaoran is still stoic and calm, but have huge problems to express his feelings to Sakura-chan, Tomoyo is the one that really hit low in Clear Card, too exaggerated, trollish and obsessive to Sakura, so much that I started to get upset of Tomoyo, even more than in the original series. Kero and Yue are still the same and care deeply to their master, Toya and Yukito keeps the same, as the rest of Chiharu, Yamazaki, etc.

The new characters are Akiho Shinomoto who, as Tomoyo says, is the same as Sakura Kinomoto, it's like Akiho was clonned with the same mind and personality of Sakura-chan, in spite of that, she's very loveable and caring. Yuna D Kaito is the butler of Akiho who has a strange clock which can time travel with it and use it for dark purposes, and with the help of Momo, his familiar and plushie of Akiho, they left open.

As a personal recommendation (or mandate), you must have watched the original Cardcaptor Sakura, the two movies and the Two Bears OVA prologue.

Enjoyment (8/10):
If you're watching this series without watching what I mentioned, you may enjoy the series, but a true Cardcaptor Sakura fan will feel very disappointed by the reasons that I've mentioned above. I'll be honest, I really enjoyed the new theme and cards, along with the obvious slice of life-y situations that make Sakura-chan endearing. As a final recommendation, this arc could have very great if Madhouse have went for the 40ish episodes, rather than leaving a very inconclusive story.

Final Score: 8/10, just for the potential and the technical aspects of Clear Card.

Cardcaptor Sakura was great, and I think Clear Card gets a little too much credit because of that. I don't think I'll be able to avoid spoiling the show entirely, but for the most part anyone reading this already knows if they're going to watch this show or not.

Story: 3
Clear Card's story is drip fed to the audience so much, it makes modern American cartoons look like they're proceeding at a fast pace. Sakura's cards become clear for... some reason... making them unusable. Gradually, they start manifesting again based on Sakura's wishes (though she's not aware that this is the reason the cards are ... coming back), and she has to capture them again. Meanwhile, there's a new transfer student who acts very similar to Sakura and even has a similar last name, and her suspicious butler. The student, Akiho, is just a perfectly nice kid, but the butler and her little bunny doll thing act all shady and suspicious just because. Additionally, Sakura keeps having dreams, sometimes in the middle of the day, of a mysterious figure wearing fancy robs and just sort of standing there. Every time she realizes who the figure obviously is, she conveniently forgets when she wakes up so the story can continue. The majority of the time is dedicated to slice-of-life scenes where every character is polite and courteous basically all the time. The only enjoyable part of any given episode is the card capturing, and even that is hit-or-miss. Sakura has clearly gotten much better at using her powers, and when she swaps quickly between different cards it can be really cool, however Clear Card can't seem to make up its mind about whether or not Sakura needs to subdue the cards before she can capture them. At one point she just realizes she's trapped in a labyrinth, pulls out her staff, and captures the card right then and there. In other, notably earlier, episodes, she does need to subdue them, so it's almost like they just sort of forgot, got lazy with it, or were rushing through the cards due to time constraints.

Art: 7
The one thing I will give Clear Card is that it's pretty. Sakura and Tomoyo are adorable as ever and the scenes where Sakura has to actually do something in order to capture the card are animated well. Early on I actually had high hopes for this one because of this.

Sound: 6
I'll admit this is basically a moot category for me. I can just never remember much about the sound of an anime. Sakura's "hoeeee"s are cute as ever and Rika's replacement voice actress does a good job in her scene. That's about all I can say for this category.

Character: 3
The characters in Clear Card are like a poor imitation of the characters from CCS. On top of their near universal blandness, a lot of their other personality traits seem to have been removed too. Tomoyo still has an obsession with Sakura but she doesn't seem to be in love with her anymore. Toya and Yukito don't seem to have any romantic tension anymore. Kero's personality has devolved into "plays video games and eats food" and Syaoran isn't remotely impulsive or irritable anymore. Even Meiling, when she shows up, doesn't do much to stir things up. I'd been hoping that her reintroduction would spur things on and make the characters do things, but she was just as watered down as the rest of them.

Enjoyment: 2
Clear Card is not a fun show to watch. There were times in the middle of the season where I skipped through episodes to get to the capture scene. To be clear, I like slice-of-life shows, but Clear Card's slice-of-life is just so dull. Why would I want to watch Sakura and her friends drink tea together and tell each other how delicious it is? There are also a lot of little things, like how the characters have smartphones despite the show canonically taking place so soon after CCS, and Eriol not doing anything the whole season for no explained reason. The way they dangle the plot in front of your face and let the characters take their time coming to the same obvious conclusions is really frustrating. There's also a lot of obvious pandering to nostalgia, most notably in the episode where Sakura goes on an aquarium date with Syaoran and it's as if they remade the Sakura/Yukito aquarium date episode from the original show, to the point where a lot of scenes can be compared side by side.

Overall: 3
I love Cardcaptor Sakura, but Clear Card is a bad spinoff/sequel. The few good points are drowned out by the agonizing bad ones. The worst part is that it doesn't even get a complete ending. The ending of the season is just sequel-bait for the next and Sakura still doesn't get the answers she wants, and the convenient "oh she figured it out but forgot" plot device is still firmly in place. Usually when a show is a 2 or 3, I'm mad when thinking about it. For Clear Card I'm just disappointed.

A big 22 eposode nothing burger, where nothing happens and nothing gets resolved. Lost faith with this one boys. Can't say i didnt like watching the first CCS but this one was just bad.

Slow pacing, no real substance to the plot, doesnt actually start to get intresting till the last 3 episodes and then nothing. No movie, no second season, just leave you there with a clif hanger and no explanation. I am very disappointed in this season. I feel this was a waste of my time. I try to do diligence and give evey anime i watch the benefit of the doubt but ... they just droped the ball on this. Sad to say.

Oh Mokap’s balls this is one of the most boring pieces of media I’ve ever seen the original ccs was a very legbeardish anime do to it's questionably aged romantic leads but had decent and likable characters such as Kero and Eriol who are practically no where to be scene in this boring food network anime the show is supposed to beat about them finding the new clear cards (hence the name of the sequel) but the plot progression is soooooo slow half the show is just sakura and syaoran being super lovey dovey and for some reason the background turns bright pink every time ... they look at each other like what did Dokkan battle release a Majin Buu with a domain skill or something and speaking of our 2 romantic leads they’re both really bland protagonists who don’t work off each other conflict is no where to be found and conflict is what makes these shows interesting it’s why Thanos Doctor Doom and Galactus exist in marvel or why Darths Vader Maul and Sidicus exist in Star Wars even dora kinda had conflict with that annoying fox that would try to rob boots and dora all the time

ZERO Plot
Outstanding animation. Every detail is well animated. It really has a very polished feel unlike the anime series nowadays.
The art is very clean and the movements are very good.
I would have liked that they put some plot/stakes in the series. I could not relate with the characters at all because there was no stakes in the anime.
Honestly, i felt like every moment was a treat because of the animation and how well the series was composed.
I am not sure if the anime just simply followed the manga, and the manga had no plot in it, such that there was no plot in ... the anime.

Kwik-E

Clear card sakura is just an ok enough show to watch. The plot goes through the same rodeo that it had done twice before in the original show. There's enough differences in the plot line, including a whole mystery aspect that just makes it different enough to not feel to samesy. Most of the characters relatively stay the same and sakura and syaoran relationship feels a tad underdeveloped. There are also some new characters including one that is almost a mirror to sakura and also has some purpose in the plot. Yet by the end while the whole mystery had been revealed, even though there ... were unsubtle clues about it, the whole thing comes off as a means for setting up for another season rather than being a well developed story.
Audiovisualy the show is still good all around like it's predecessor, and with what i believe many voice actors reprising their roles and many of the old soundtracks coming back into the show.

So although the plot may feel derivative with an unsatisfactory payoff, and the characters being the same throughout. The show still has its charm that makes it a decent watch.

Well, it's something called nostalgia. I think that every anime fan must have at least heard of Sakura and for some it may have been the first show they've ever watched.

My review may be a little harsh because it's been quite a while and I'm not a kid anymore. From the story's point of view, most of the show is exactly like good old Sakura. In fact if you take away the differences in art and sound (more about that later on) you probably won't be able to tell them apart. I have two reasons I can't give the story a great score - the ... first (a little subjective) is that most Sakura fans have grown-up by now so it may not be as enjoyable as when we were kids when the original Sakura aired. I do believe that for kids it is just as enjoyable as the original, though it does build on the original show - which I'm not sure that children these days will be excited to watch (even if it's just because of art and/or that "it's too old"). The second reason is

MINOR SPOILER AHEAD

That the show has the same Sakura capturing cards routine for 20 episodes and then it tries to squeeze the climax into 2 episodes, which isn't nearly enough. Furthermore, the ending does not see to conclude everything, I'd say it's even a little bit of a cliffhanger, so I believe they're aiming for a sequel (otherwise I'd give the story 2/10). Let's just hope it takes less than 20 years.

END SPOILERS

Bottom line: I wouldn't consider this as a separate show. What we're seeing here is a second season of Sakura and it hasn't changed at all - if anything we have.

Art & Sound - It's been 18 years since the last show and it's obviously reflected in the quality of the art and sound - even for a nostalgic show no-one would find a 4:3 SD show acceptable these days. Still, the show does not attempt to make radical changes or any sort of new concept - this is the same Sakura only + widescreen + HD. It therefore gets a score obviously way higher than the original show even if it's only due to the progress of TV quality (and due to the fact that they did not mess with it any further. If for some reason you think that a show cannot be nostalgic without looking crappy then it's not us, it's you.

Bottom line - I don't really think of this as a new show, I think of it more as a second season, therefore if you still enjoy the original Sakura today then you will enjoy this one just as much. If you're not very connected to your inner child and/or your sense of nostalgia then move on.