Goood morning! And welcome to my next thread on my journey to Magical Girl literacy. Following on from watch the original Sailor Moon series, I'm gonna watch Cardcaptor Sakura! I'll be watching the Subbed Japanese version where possible.

Episode 1! What a peppy theme tune! I love that!

Oh my days! This anime is actually beautiful. I wasn't expecting to feel the difference in production quite so much. That skating animation through the trees. Wowee.

Ah theeere's mister heart eyes. The magical girl staple!

There's a clear difference here already because Sakura is already showing proficiency at things, which is something that Usagi never did.

Holy crap! That's here Dad's study!? I want an entire library for a study!

Now this is super interesting. And I can't wait to watch a third series to compare. But chosen one makes huge mistake which is also the source of their power is a cool difference to chosen ones are predestined to defeat an antagonist they had no hand in creating.

Cute talking animal side kiiiick.

Another pretty big difference here is that we're getting the entire thing explained in episode 1. Huuge amounts of exposition compared to almost none in Sailor Moon for a long while. Sakura also seems to just know what to do.

Holy crap! These action scenes are friggin awesome! I love seeing Skating animated and this looks amazing,

I really appreciate Sakuras family a lot more than Usagi's. I think that makes sense considering the story in Sailor Moon. But I just think Sakuras family's so cute.

Sakura gets loads of outfits as well! That's awesome.

My days. I love Tomoyo's all lady squad of bodyguards!

There's a lot less hidden in Cardcaptor Sakura and again, Sakura just seems to be super competent immediately. It's seems much more about the surface stuff, at least for the moment. Very different to Usagi and Sailor Moon's much slower reveal.

One thing I'm finding frustrating is that Cardcaptors so far feels like it just makes up rules as and when it needs them. And doesn't seem to even be paying attention to it's own continuity. Which Sailor Moon was really good with.

It is adorable and very cool aesthetically. And I know that people really care for this show. So I'm super interested in seeing where it goes; what structures and systems come up.

Hang on. He just sees ghosts now? I feel like this could have had some foreshadowing...

An opposing force! New mystery! Yukito's still a weird thing! Woohoo! I need more threads to be uncoveerred. But also Li makes Sakura feel like this show makes me feel atm. =P

Like there are all these rules set up which you have no idea about and it just goes, "well duh. Obviously that's how it works." But I might just be being too harsh. Not everything needs explaining, but I feel like a lot of things are revealed with no lead up or consequence atm.

I don't understand most of the character's motivations in this show...Li doesn't seem to try to get *any* cards. Despite the fact his introduction is entirely focused on this fact. He lucks into a couple, but he hasn't tried very hard yet.

I'm still waiting to see how much of this is intentional build up and obfuscating some plot in the background.

It *is* a very cute show though.

WHAT!? I thought this was a cute (if slightly creepy) fluff thing with a random old dude. They're related?? Why wouldn't he just tell her? What is with this weird ass family pretending this girl doesn't exist and then obsessing over her like she's an extension of her mother??

On the flip side, the music in this show is just adorable. I love those calm electric piano sounds. So chill.

I am loving this festival episode. I really like how different Li and Sakura act with Yukito. And how cute and supportive Tomoyo always is (though again, the whole creepy obsessive family thing).

Yesss. We finally get to see inside Li's life a tiny bit!

Meilin is the worst. And I don't know why she's heeeere.

Aha! Progression! New techniques! Foreshadowing! Yessss

Also I really appreciate the whole Toya-Yukito and Sakura-Tomoyo relationships. They're adorable.

Oh man! This is great. I love this mystery behind Kaho. This is what I waant. Now we just need to dive into some more cardcaptor lore. That's really what I'm reaching for here....also less Meilin...

I still really feel like the whole Toya sees ghosts thing is really brushed over in this show.

I've not mentioned it. But I'm really fan of how there's no fanfare about Sakura and Li's love for Yukito. It's treated basically the same and they just chat about it openly.

Wow. This series has really hit a stride in it's last couple of episodes.

I'm still watching this! Though a little less regularly. Meilin has become a little more manageable....kind of And I really like this slow introduction of Li's feelings for Sakura.

This quiz episode is also super cute. Yukito and Sakura running around just solving puzzles. And I really love how supportive the Sakura friend group is. Every time any of them does their best at anything, they all yell excitedly at each other. Love iiit.

And I'm appreciating that we're finally getting to the point where there's prophecy and mystery coming around. There was a lot of dead time in the show, which felt pretty filler-y. But I finally have *questions*.

So....there are rules for using the cards at the same time? When was that decided? And why was it actually so easy to do something that's meant to be impossible?

But also Sakura's Christmas outfit is adorable.

A new opening! We're making progress!

I honestly thought they were going to tackle the dream much sooner in this series.

Ohh! We're in 5th Grade now! I actually quite like all these reestablishing pieces of dialogue for the opening of a new season. But I think it shows that not tooo much actually happened in the first 35 episodes. It didn't take much dialogue to give you a sense of each character.

Daaaym. Fiery is just on some other level!

Okay. The Mizuki mystery is set up pretty well I think. I'm really interested to see where that goes. I'd be really happy if it was just a straight play, and she's some kind of antagonistic force. But my guess right now is it's a double bluff, and she's good really.

Holy crap! I haven't added anything to this thread since May?? I know I stopped commenting when I watched for a while. But this is a way too far back. Anyway! We're back and on Ep. 45 of Cardcaptor Sakura!

I stopped literally at the episode called Sakura and the Final Clow Card??? Of course I did.

Phew! Tomoyo's alright. She is by far my favourite. Wait. Why didn't sleep effect her? It usually does.

Ho- what!? Since when could Kero freakin' breathe colossal amounts of fire? Dang.

Why does she all of a sudden have to think of what to do herself? For this whole series people have just told her how to do stuff without preparing her for it at all and now she has to do it herself for the last one??

Woop woop! She did it! We made it! Now we get to figure out the real mystery in Mizuki.

WHAT!? YUKITO!? How did I not see that coming??? Then who the heck is Mizuki?

Why did no one explain to these children that they'd have to fight some super magical entity at the end of this relatively innocuous contract of collecting cards?

Welp. That got really exciting right as I stopped watching it apparently! Looking forward to getting back into this habit again. Surprised there are still 25 episodes after this one O_o

Wow. I really thought they were gonna go a little easier on Sakura in this fight.

How would she know that these cards are entirely under Yue's jurisdiction!? Again, I feel like if they knew this had to happen, maybe literally any of the experts around her should have taught Sakura literally anything.

Wait, that's the great and terrible fate? Clow was such an asshole, man.

The way the show has built up all the tangential relationships to then just remove them in this scene is actually really powerful I think.

Wait. So Clow put a restart into the final judgement and this (still unexplained!?) lady just delivered it, but that doesn't count as the help the loses her the judgement??

:O Magical transformation for the waaand! That's so cute!

Okay. That was a pretty cute end to the initial adventure. I like the stars thing. But-

DID I LITERALLY MISS THE PART WHERE THEY EXPLAINED MIZUKI?? If you've watched this and it was explained in the first 45 eps and I just missed it please let me know. It's killing me

Okay! The last arc! Let's do this!

New more mature opening. Very pretty. I like that a lot.

I can't believe Mizuki is out of the story and I just don't know why she was theeere. I must have just totally missed it.

:O Ominous magical people! That child is definitely not Clow. 100%. Nope. Nothing to do with him.

I like the use of a string section for Hiiragizawa. It's very on the nose with the "refined british kid" thing. But I like it anyhow.

Tomoyo making fun of Li is excellent and I want more of it please.

Ohh. I like the mystery set up this time.

Ohh hey cool. I'm definitely a sucker for arc based progression. So having the wand and all the cards have to change slightly is pretty cool. And now everything's pink!

Okay. I admit it, I wanna know who Akizuki really is. With her creepy knowing looks. Normal people with knowing looks is definitely how they build mystery in this show and dangit I fall for it EVERY TIME

It's a bit of a theme in this show that if Sakura ever feels a little sad (which is fair enough considering the COLOSSAL PRESSURE this child is under) people just tell her to stop being sad because it won't help. Very "You're too cute not to smile."

I assume they won't play on that, but I'd love to see it acknowledge that shes allowed to be down. It's perfectly reasonable for her to feel the pressure and need help. (Which they actually did do in Sailor Moon!) But I think it might be too much for this show.

On the flip side of that. You do see her friends immediately all do nice things as soon as they realize she is sad. Which is really great.

Nooo. Don't use Shaoran like thaaaat T_T

Ohhhh Akizuki's the new Yue. Thaaaat makes sense.

I actually love this dark mirror cardcaptor thing that's going on. It's pretty cool.

I am pinning this thread for myself so that I can come back and remember where in Cardcaptor Sakure I am. I need to finish watching this show!