I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.
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OLD:
I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.
After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.
Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.
I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.
Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.
Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.
As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.
With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.
And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.
So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?
Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.
Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:
AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now!
