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.
