English Dub Review: Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card “Sakura, the Clock, and a Hide-and-Seek Game”

I told you something was up with that new girl!

Overview (Beware the Spoilers!)

Sakura and Tomoyo are on their way to school when they meet with Akiho. After introducing Kero to Momo (and nearly strangling Kero with the cell phone strap in the process), they ask her about where she is living. As it turns out, she’s living in Eriol’s old house. She invites them over on Sunday to visit and show off her library. The offer is also extended to Syaoran, but he has another “thing to do”. Hmmm, what is he up to? What he does accept is an offer to come to Sakura’s house on the following week for rolled omelets. More time alone with Sakura. After school, Sakura returns home to be overwhelmed by another vision of the cloaked figure and clocks. This one is strong enough to make her pass out and collapse. These visions are getting really disturbing… Let’s skip to Sunday, then. Tomoyo and Sakura arrive at Akiho’s house. It is, indeed, the same one Eriol lived at, but she and her caretaker/butler have completely redecorated things a bit. As a gift, the two girls brought tea. The aforementioned butler, Yuna D. Kaito, turns that tea and his homemade cakes into a feast for princesses. He’s all too happy to do all the cooking. After all, it is his job. When he says that, Akiho looks depressed. This is most definitely her favorite person, and she isn’t so happy he’s just a job to her.

But, she promised them a trip to her library! Her family collects all sorts of obscure books. It was the whole reason she came to Japan since she’s looking for one. COULD IT BE THE CLOW CARD BOOK HINT HINT? Well, on that note, Sakura has a funny feeling. Could it be another Clear Card? She asks Akiho if she could see a particular book she had referenced earlier, just to get rid of her for a while. After a hunt all over the library, they come upon a strange sight. A set of books on a shelf, but with volumes 10-17 missing. There’s even a hole in the shelf. Sakura gets an idea and reaches for where the books should be. Her hand touches something. There’s a card here, making stuff invisible. She captures it, and just in time! Akiho returns with her special book. It is called Alice in Clockland, and it is completely unrelated to Lewis Carol. It’s in a strange and incomprehensible language, and its cover looks awfully familiar. It’s the clocks from Sakura’s visions! As she makes this revelation, Eriol’s familiars start freaking out. Sakura is in danger!

Our Take

Wooo! The plot returns! Did you have any lingering doubts that Akiho is involved in all this? I’m glad we’re finally getting on with the story here since the previous episode was more of a training plot. Thing is, we don’t learn anything here we couldn’t already put together in previous episodes. The sheer number of parallels between Akiho and Sakura up to this point were enough to confirm she’s involved. My big question is with Kaito, whose name is way too particular to be a simple side question. Is he merely her version of Yue, or is he manipulating Akiho for his own purposes? Her book is loaded with language that looks like symbols we saw in the ruins in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. This could be hinting at an origin of the magic used to craft the Clow and Clear cards.

Unfortunately, this episode is rather slow, consisting primarily of the characters staring at each other to figure out how they feel. Introducing Kaito did end up slowing things down considerably. Without him, we could have had more time to investigate things. Instead, the episode’s pacing crawls past until the card appears.

The voice acting is good, though not stellar or deep. There were a few places where Amanda Lee could have given us a few more levels in her acting as Akiho. However, her shy, quiet, almost depressed voice really only captured the top level of emotion, as she tried to cover the true feelings. Like I said, it isn’t bad. There are just opportunities where she and the others could improve. Similarly, the animation could have been better. There wasn’t as much personality in the character movements as I’ve been used to seeing from Madhouse. Even though it’s still far better than some other shows. This feels like it was the B-String animation crew.