Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card – Part 1 (a Neo-Tokyo Anime on Blu-ray Review)

“Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card” will no doubt entertain longtime fans of the series. Featuring the return of Sakura and friends several years later, Sakura must return to her role and capture more cards, while an ominous person is trying to steal her new key!

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TITLE: Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card – Part 1

DURATION: Episodes 1-11 + OVA (275 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: TV PG

Release Date: February 5, 2019

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Originally Created by CLAMP

Director: Asaka Morio

Series Composition: Ohkawa Nanase

Script by Ohkawa Nanase

Music by Negishi Takayuki

Character Design: Hamada Kunihiko

Art Director: Shimizu Tomoyuki

Anime Production: Madhouse

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Featuring the following voice talent:

Tange Sakura/Monica Rial as Kinomoto Sakura

Suzuki Minori/Amanda Lee as Shinomoto Akiho

Hisakawa Aya/Mikaela Krantz as Kerberos

Hanae Natsuki/Brandon McInnis as Kaito Yuna D.

Seki Tomokazu/Clifford Chapin as Kinomoto Toya

Kotobuki Minako/Jad Saxton as Momo

Kumai Motoko/Jason Liebrecht as Syaoran Li

Ogata Megumi/Justin Briner as Tsukishiro Yukito /Yue

IWao Junko/Natalie Hoover as Daidouji Tomoyo

YamazakiMiyzaki Issei/Alejandro Saab as Takashi

Fujita Saki/Alex Moore as Sasaki Rika

Alexis Tipton as Akizuki Nakuru/Ruby Moon

Touma Yumi/Apphia Yu as Spinel Sun

Yokoyama Yuri/Caitlin Glass as Mrs. Morita

Onosaka Masaya/Christopher R. Sabat as Big Cake A/Kerberos (Big)

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The power of the Clow is back! As Sakura settles into a normal routine, she prepares to face her newest challenge – junior high! While her classes are challenging, things start looking up when Syaoran reappears and says he’ll be staying for good. But when she has a strange dream about a mysterious figure and wakes to find her Clow Cards completely clear, she must return to her duty as Cardcaptor.

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Way back in 1996, the manga group CLAMP wrote and illustrated the manga series “Cardcaptor Sakura”, which was serialized in “Nakayoshi”.

The manga series would last through 2000 and a total of 12 graphic novels (tankobon) were published by Kodansha and would be adapted into a 70-episode anime series.  And eventually captivating fans worldwide.

The original series took place in the fictional Japanese city of Tomoeda and focused on a ten-year-old girl named Sakura Kinomoto who accidentally released a set of cards known as Clow Cards from a book in her basement created and named after a sorcerer named Clow Reed.

Each card has special abilities and can assume any alternate form.  The guardian of the cards, Cerberus, chooses Sakura to retrieve the missing cards and with each card, she must battle the magical personification of the card and seal it.

The series introduced her best friend and second cousin Tomoyo Daidouji who likes to film her and also creates battle costumes for her, while her older brother Toya watches over her (and pretending he is unaware of her power).

The series also introduced Syaoran Li, a descendant of Clow Reed, who comes to recapture the cards for himself and at first an antagonist, starts to respect and support her.  Also introducing us to a transfer student from England named Eriol Hiiragizawa, who uses his guardian creatures, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon to cause disturbances in the area.

Nearly 17 years since the end of “Cardcaptor Sakura”, CLAMP has created a sequel titled “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card” and focuses on Sakura Kinomoto as a junior high school student hanging out with Tomoyo and Syaoran (her boyfriend).

And in 2018, a 22-episode anime series from Madhouse was created and now it’s available on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Funimation.

It’s important to note that the Blu-ray + DVD release also includes the OVA, a prologue to the new series titled “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Prologue: Sakura and Two Bears” which revolves around Sakura and Syaoran together and both giving each other a gift before saying goodbye to each other for the next two years.

So, you may want to watch this prologue first and then the series.

In “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card”, the new series takes place two years after the prologue.

Sakura and friends are now attending Tomoeda Junior High School and she and Syaoran reunite.

One day, Sakura has a dream of cards turning clear and seeing a mysterious cloaked figure.  Sakura goes to check her book to see the cards and all have turned clear and transparent.  She also woke up with a new key in her hand.

While on her way to school, she is attacked by wind and when she uses her key, she realizes she has a more powerful staff and she is able to capture the wind as a new card.

Meanwhile, why is this ominous figure trying to capture her key?  And what other cards will Sakura be cable to capture?

The Blu-ray release features vibrant animation and the voice acting is well-done.  In fact, in Japan, the cast of the original anime series returned to reprise their role, as did the series feature a reuniting of director Asaka Morio and writer Ohkawa Nanase, it was great to this reunion of the original cast, director and writer.  Madhouse did a great job with the animation and new character designer Hamada Kunihiko (known for his work on “NANA”) and art director Shimizu Tomoyuki (known for his work in “The World is Still Beautiful”, “Chihayafuru”) did a solid job.  The English dub was also well-done.

As for special features, there are no commentary tracks but it does come with the OVA prologue and opening and closing songs.

Overall, the return of Cardcaptor Sakura ala “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card” will no doubt entertain longtime fans of the series.

Many people grew up reading the manga or watching the original anime series, so the return of the series nearly 17 years later is pretty cool and CLAMP made sure to incorporate the elements of what made the first series entertaining with the characters now a little older and the mystery of the cards that she recaptured now turning clear and transparent.

This is just the first half of the series but it’ll be interesting to see how things turn out for the second half of “Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card”.  Recommended!

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