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meimi-haneoka · 1 year

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Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 73: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

Welcome back everyone! We're here once again for another chapter of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, one more that's guiding us towards the grand finale! In this chapter we finally get more things coming full circle, one in particular that I've seen many wondering about (and also many ready to dismiss as a plot hole 😅give them time, people, give them time). To be honest, I needed some time to brainstorm and ponder if I had understood certain parts of this chapter correctly 😅, since the content is quite complex, and each language decided to translate certain pivotal parts in different ways, adding to the confusion (because there doesn't seem to be a version everyone is agreeing on). In one specific case, that's normal (at the very end of the chapter) because the lack in the Japanese text of specific words (subject) to lead the interpretation in one direction or the other allows to get the translation in either way (as we'll see ahead). In other cases, it's just translation mistakes and omissions that make things a bit confusing. We also have to consider that it might totally be normal if we don't seem to get a clear, well connected answer in this chapter, because maybe the rest of the puzzle pieces will be in the following one: in this case we don't have to fret and just have faith that everything will be connected properly and be answered in due time. It's normal, this is a serialization, we should always look at the big picture and not at the single chapters, because in the future the whole story divided in volumes readily available will be all that the future readers will get. The "confusion" that we feel as lasting for a month or more, for future readers will last only some minutes, maybe one hour, the time needed to get to read the right chapter where everything gets solved. Sorry for this long introduction but in light of this chapter that made me sit down and reconsider multiple times how I understood things, I felt like it was worth mentioning it even here. Maybe, who knows, that will help sedate someone's frustrations. Alright, before diving into the chapter, as usual, the gif of the month! This time it's dedicated to Sakura 😂

Let's see what happened this month and if there are translation differences to point out! (spoiler, there are)

The Color Page

AAAAATTTT LAAAASTTTT!! FINALLY! After appearing with her back facing us, and then on the background with her eyes closed, we finally have a nice close up of our dear Lilie! With her eyes open!!! 😆 Predictable as it may sound, her eyes are indeed blue like her daughter! But....wait a second....her hair color changed or what??? 😂

After being consistently drawn with a mix of blonde and grey/dark blonde color for the darker parts of her hair, this time around we have a more uniform coloring that's veering more towards taupe! If I have to be honest, this color looks more similar to the shade they chose for Akiho in the anime! But....I like the ash blonde better ☹️ also it bothers me quite a lot that Mokona sensei changed the color at the end of the manga, after consistently drawing her blonde for 2 color pages, first because it's hard to get used to (at first glance my first thought was "WHO'S THIS? O_O), and then because my fanart is incorrect now 😂 But as you know, I always have to find the positive side to everything so I have to say that, while it'll take a while for me to get used to this change (should we consider it a permanent change or sensei just ran out of yellow copic?? 😂 *winks at her friends on a certain discord server*), I also appreciate it because it helps differentiating Lilie from her daughter even better 😊 especially considering they both have blue eyes now. They really would've looked like one another's clone (UGH O_O) if they kept it like that.... (Unless they want to change AGAIN Akiho's hair color too but then I'll riot). Lilie appears here in all her glory and beauty, with a heavily decorated dress as per CLAMP's tradition, she looks like a goddess 🥹 The color scheme is similar to that of her clan robe: white-light blue-golden. And no wings. Maybe this is from a time when she was still alive (she's got wings in the double spread with Nadeshiko). Sooo finally the mystery of the color of her eyes is solved 😆 (I wonder why they dragged it so long?) The JP text of the color page is simply the last thing she said to Sakura in last chapter before disappearing together with the dream: "I believe...in the two Alice". We also get a big text informing everyone of the decision to produce a sequel to the Clear Card anime! A bit late, but the news finally came for the magazine readers too! 😊

You're Unique

The chapter starts with Sakura going back home from school, in the afternoon of the same day we left her off in chapter 72. Kero and Suppi hear her from her room (are those Nintendo Switch Lite consoles? 😂) and they notice how she goes straight to Akiho's room today, without passing by her own room to drop her stuff first. From Kero and Suppi's words it's easy to infer that Sakura got a very close relationship with Akiho, and she often goes to talk to her after school. It's understandable, after all, they're convinced they have spent many years of their lives apart, and it's like they're really starting to know one another only now, so there's a special attachment between them. Attachment which Kero and Suppi don't miss to comment on, reiterating the "sister complex" comment that's honestly become the recurring joke of this series 😆 This also serves as an opportunity for Kero to comment on Touya, another Kinomoto sibling "plagued" with sister complex. 😆 Our elusive big brother seems to be staying at Yukito's today, and that's really not a weird thing in itself, but the fact that we couldn't see him ever since the forbidden spell was activated and we had the time skip, to see his reaction and whether he noticed something or not, is certainly suspicious. Suppi comments that even Nakuru is still staying at Yukito's home, and argues that it should be really time for them to go back home in England (he's had enough, poor Suppi 😂). Kero tells him that they can always come back as tourists in the future, and he will be their guide - Suppi agrees on one condition: that next time he must take them to a place where he doesn't need to pretend to be a plushie anymore 😆 So this apparently useless comedy skit actually manages to give us two interesting info: that Touya is at Yukito's place, apparently still eluding us (and Akiho??), but also that the forbidden spell didn't change the fact that Nakuru and Suppi came in Tomoeda, it's just that the memory change made them believe they simply came for tourism (of course, without Sakura's powers going berserk and failing to "feed" her creatures correctly, there wouldn't be any other need for them to come). In the meantime, Sakura knocks on Akiho's door and she goes inside, school bag and coat still in her arms. She asks Akiho if she came back early, and she confirms that today there wasn't any choir practice (so confirming also that Akiho is still part of the choir at school - told you, everything is still the same as before!). As soon as she enters, Sakura can't help but point out aloud how this room's plan is exactly the same as hers, but you can tell right away this is Akiho's room: it filled my heart with joy to see how the forbidden spell didn't change anything of Akiho's interests, she's still very much in love with books and got a tall bookcase full of them, and....my heart literally jumped when I saw a moon-shaped lamp on her nightstand!! CLAMP, are you toying with my heart? 😭🥹 Sakura remarks that despite everyone telling them they look very much alike, Akiho is actually her own distinct person.

Thank you, Ohkawa-sensei, for putting these words in Sakura's mouth. Thank you for clarifying to the whole fandom (who worried and in some cases complained about this so much) that no matter how much these two are told by other people how similar they are, each of them still retains their own unique personality, their hobbies, their interests, their dreams. You can really feel that their vibe is different. Not even magic can change that. No two human beings are the same, CLAMP was very adamant on that concept even when they talked about clones in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. This is because our soul is unique across the universe(s). And these two are no exception. I always found so wholesome how none of them tries to "imitate" or "wish to have" something the other has. There's no need for jealousy. This is particularly true for Akiho whom, before the forbidden magic was activated, had experienced so much pain in her past and wasn't blessed with many things Sakura had instead. We haven't caught her envying Sakura, not even once, but actually admiring (it's different!) her friend for being able to do the things she didn't think she was capable of doing (remember her comment "Being able to do things by yourself without depending on others is amazing" ?), taking inspiration and even being brave enough to ask for help to improve in those aspects. That's not imitating, that's taking inspiration and strength from your loved ones to become a better person. This crucial theme will be reiterated in just a few pages.

The Pocket Watch

Akiho replies that the same goes for Sakura, she's also unique (JP, lit.: "There's just one Sakura-san in the world!") (I agree very much!) and Sakura bashfully laughs at that, when something catches her eye......a pocket watch, resting on a handkerchief on Akiho's desk, surrounded by certain tools. Kaito's pocket watch. The watch case is still broken, but the glass seem to have been repaired. So, for those who thought that the watch had been inside Akiho due to the exchange with the artifact book, this actually clarifies the doubt at once, and I think it makes perfectly sense. A book inside Akiho -> a book inside Kaito, and a pocket watch in Kaito's hands -> a pocket watch in Akiho's hands. The exchange is even. Sakura seems surprised at the sight of it, and it's apparent it's the first time she sees it ever since Akiho came living with them. Akiho explains that she found the watch back at Masaki's home, and no one knew how old this watch was or whom it belonged to. And yet, it seems Akiho had the urge to have it repaired, she says they tried to bring it to many watch repair shops to make it work again, without any success.

Sakura asks Akiho if she's actually trying to repair it herself (since the tools on the desk seem to suggest she'd been trying to do so), and Akiho replies something that made my heart melt at once:

Akiho, JP: "I don't know why, but the moment I met (this watch), I thought I had to make it work again" Akiho, JP: "Because I had the feeling it was very, very important (to me)"

Go on, CLAMP, keep stabbing my heart! 😭Gaaaah!! OF COURSE! Of course she would be getting that feeling!! Whatever function that watch will have in the finale, it's always been strictly correlated to Kaito, it seems there's a deep connection to him as the weaker he got, the more damage the watch took (randomly breaking on its own at different points of the story). It's as if Kaito literally left a part of him with her, consciously or not. And Akiho saying that is a testament to the strong bond between those two. A bond that not even a powerful, forbidden magic can erase. She might not remember now, but as soon as she found that "part of Kaito", her instinct told her to try to have it repaired at all costs, and in front of the failures of normal watch repair shops, she realized she had to try to make it work on her own. I'd like to think that it's because deep down she felt she was the only one capable to (this is actually what the French translation says, and although it's technically incorrect, it's a nice way to put it).

Akiho excuses herself for saying something weird (she didn't change even in that!), but as usual Sakura is super supportive of her and she tells her that she's absolutely sure she'll manage to make it work again. Foretelling powers, Sakura? 😏😆😆😆 This gives so much courage to Akiho, of course. And taking the chance of "weird talks", Sakura decides it's time for another kind of strange talk.....she finally decides to tell everything to Akiho about her magic and what happened in the years they spent apart, just like she announced in chapter 71!! We skip directly all the details we know all too well and get directly to Akiho's reaction, which is speechless at first (with Sakura fussing and apologizing that she blurted it all out on her and overwhelmed her 😂) but then excitedly thanks her sister for telling her about this, she's delighted because it feels just like a story coming out of one of the books she usually reads, and actually wants to hear more (complete with her usual 'excited flowers' like I usually call them 😂)!! Aaaah, it was so nice to see her reaction because it was exactly what I've been expecting from her. Akiho adds something really, really important: Akiho, JP: I just thought, 'We're twins, and yet so different, and that makes me so happy'. Akiho, JP: I can't use magic, but... If there's something you can't do and I happen to be good at it, then I might be able to help you out, precisely because we're different. The wording the ENG version uses is also very good, I liked how they specified (even if not present in the original text) "It's good we're different". Because it's very important.

And then, in the very next panel, a surprise: Akiho (involuntarily) quotes her own young mother Lilie in chapter 72, expressing herself with the same words, gesture and all, saying "It's what I can do...and what I can't...that makes me who I am". As you can see above, Akiho and Lilie are almost identical, save for Akiho's cowlick and the length of the hair. Little trivia: the line both girls are saying uses the very same words, except for the pronoun 私 / わたし, which is assigned appropriately basing on how it's usually written when the two characters are speaking - 私 for Lilie, and わたし for Akiho. I absolutely loved this line in last chapter and I felt it had even more significance now, coming from Akiho's mouth, in fact it's so important that it's Akiho speaking in this whole scene (and not Sakura). Because ever since she appeared in chapter 7, she's been considered as someone very similar to Sakura, and sometimes perceived by the readers as someone who wanted to steal her spot, her friends, her capabilities, long story short, to steal her identity. But nothing could be farther from the truth. You can be told you're similar to someone else how much you want, but you'll always going to be your own person in the end. Even freaking twins aren't the same person, after all. Each one of us is unique, with our qualities, good sides, bad sides, peculiarities, quirks, personal baggage, no one can take our place in the world. Our identity is the most precious thing we have and it's important we try to do our best to know ourselves the best that we can (heard that, Kaito???), so we don't end up doing just that, trying to live someone else's life, which is always going to be a lie anyway. As I was saying before, Akiho never tried to live Sakura's life and is well aware of her qualities and limits, and is accepting that.

The Magic I've been Preparing

Luckily, this involuntary reenactment of Lilie's scene of last chaper gives the spark to Sakura to remember she had heard those same words before. "The same words...?" "And the same feelings (they gave to me)". And right after that, Sakura also remembers that she has to find the important magic she had been preparing. Akiho says that if this is about magic, she probably won't be able to see it, but Sakura answers that she can't see it either, and wonders why....so, what to do? Akiho thinks. She looks at her books. And they give her an idea. She tells Sakura that she's read a book once where a magician hid his familiar from other magicians so they couldn't find it, and this familiar would show itself only when its magician called its name. Sakura starts having the realization this could be the right track. And here we have our first real translation difference of this chapter, although not particularly serious like the ones that will follow: Akiho, ENG: I'm sure to you, this magic is very important...but to me it'd be like....something out of a book.

Akiho, JP: I'm sure this is a very important magic to you...just like a book would be for me.

As you can see, the meaning is different, quite the opposite actually. Akiho isn't dismissing Sakura's magic as something like a fictional story out of a book, but actually she's telling her she understands that this magic must be very important to her, just like books are to Akiho. And "books" is all Sakura needs to hear to get more recollections of something she heard before, this time even from the facts of Clockland itself! (This is huge! Because it's coming from their life before the forbidden magic was activated! She's defeating the magic that's trying to keep her memories changed, she is JUST THAT AMAZING OKAY) "Books are people's memories...they're RECORDS"

See why it was so important to keep the word "records" in the past chapter, whenever the word 記録 came up in the Japanese text? Because 記録 is also the kanji spelling of a Clear Card we were all waiting to see, in fact....Sakura utters "RECORD"!

The Record Card appears out of nowhere, responding to the call, surprising the two girls when it starts displaying a recorded scene: from what we can see in the blurry "screen" (we can see the couch and the door of Syaoran's living room), this really looks like a scene (that we didn't see depicted in the manga) coming straight after Sakura captured the Dreaming Card and confessed to Syaoran about her recurring dreams in chapter 46. In that occasion, Sakura used the Record Card to show him what she saw, but apparently after that Syaoran proposed to keep the Record Card perpetually turned on to record whatever happened, since Sakura sometimes created Cards without having knowledge of how she did it, and couldn't shake the feeling that someone was making her forget things. In this way, they would've been able to check what happened in case they were made to forget again. From the "video", we see Sakura apologizing to Record and asking to the Card to stay hidden till she would've called the Card's name again. Which is exactly what happened now. Sakura is surprised because she understands that this is a new Card that she's been making on her own. But then, the "video" changes to another scene, that happened later on the story and we probably remember well because it often comes up in the fandom's questions about the unresolved mysteries of this story: the scene of chapter 59, when Momo visited the Kinomoto home, unbeknownst to Kaito. Finally we get to see what happened afterwards.

Momo knows the Record Card is present in the room, so she asks to the Card to be recorded, and addresses Sakura directly. Much to both Sakura and Akiho's surprise, she introduces herself once again as Momo, guardian of a "certain book", telling Sakura that this isn't the first time she meets her in this form, but since time had been rewound, she must have forgotten about it.

With a very painful expression (that made my heart squeeze, I'm weak against Momo's suffering), Momo says that she knows what's going to happen, and she cannot stop it. She also explains why, indirectly addressing other questions from the fandom as to why she never interfered more, if she didn't want Kaito to go on with his plan:

Momo, JP: A guardian cannot show bias towards "white" or "black". We must always stay impartial. So I cannot tell you, nor Akiho, about the core of this matter.

The ENG version is also good, but they translated "white" as "light" and "black" as "darkness" and while I can see why they did that and it could also work well, it ends up hiding the reference to her personal color scheme: on her outfit, but also in the Clockland world that she created on Kaito's request. Everything is black and white. An indication that she's always, constantly reminded of her duty as an impartial guardian, to never lean towards one or the other side (this is something that even Kaito reminded her of precisely in Clockland, becoming irritated that she was giving "hints" to Sakura). And therefore, she's got her hands more tied than ever, unable to tell anything not only to Sakura, but to Akiho too. How many problems we could've avoided if she was able to tell Akiho the truth about this? This is also probably the reason why she had to hide from her and take the guise of a bunny plushie: she needed to protect her, but at the same time she couldn't interact with her. It would've probably been impossible to stay neutral, with Akiho. If Momo's situation wasn't already unfortunate to begin with, having a contract with a boy she ended up caring about, who's literally risked his life to protect his most important person, we also get told to what extent she wasn't allowed to interfere, and get a glimpse of how painful that must be. To be honest, when this will be over, I really hope the Time Book gets destroyed and Momo freed from her duty over it, so she can finally have a normal life, free to interact with her beloved kids as much as she wants.

"The Boy"

Akiho hears Momo calling her name, though she doesn't seem to have any recollection of her beloved plushie (a bit sad for me). It's kinda "ironic" that she gets to "meet" the true form of the one creature who stayed by her side the most in her "old life", and she doesn't even realize it, nor remembers about who this creature is. How could she, her memories not only have been messed up with, but she also just knew her as a plushie, after all!

Momo shows that she isn't stupid. She says that she knows "the boy" is hiding something concerning the "forbidden magic" he wants to activate, but she's sure he won't ever tell her anything about it... So Momo knew Kaito was lying about something (the exchange of the two artifacts), but still wouldn't have had any way to know exactly the details of it.

Upon hearing the word "the boy", Akiho literally lights up, wondering "...The boy?". Her soul responds to it, as if knowing exactly whom Momo is talking about (loved it!! this is the kind of reactions I was waiting for, from her! ❤️). As usual, Kaito gets called "the boy", and when I was checking the Spanish translation I was a bit sad to see that they removed any reference to that word, making Akiho ask "who?" instead. Of course Momo can't mention his name, not even his fake one, because she's bound by a contract.

Momo explains that once the forbidden spell will get activated, the Record Card would disappear too (just like the other Clear Cards).

And here we have one of the biggest translation mistakes of this chapter, of course when there's a major scene!! Momo slowly removes her crown, and with magic she brings it back to its original state: the ring Lilie gave to her long time ago.

Remember? Lilie said she was going to make a request to Momo, and we saw a flashback of her removing the ring her fiancé gave her (a ring enchanted with a protection spell) to put it on the ear of Momo's plushie form. While Momo shrinks it back to its ring form, she says:

Momo, ENG: So that he'll never find you...and so that you'll never go away, no matter what happens...I'm going to cast a spell.

Momo, JP: So, in order to never let him find it (note: the Record Card), and so that it'll stay (note: survive even after the forbidden magic) no matter what happens...I'm going to cast a spell.

As you can see, in the ENG version Momo is saying "you", as if she's talking directly to Sakura, and so, as if she were going to cast a spell to hide her (?) from Kaito, and so that she'll never go away (??). Honestly, you can see by yourself that it doesn't make sense. Maybe with that "you" she was talking directly to the Record Card, in the translator's head? Well, very counterintuitive to translate it like that, of course it's gonna cause confusion because here Momo is addressing Sakura directly. No, the correct interpretation is that Momo is talking about the Record Card, while explaining to Sakura what she's about to do.

And, unfortunately, I'm not done complaining about this month's translation yet (god, they were doing so okay in the first part!).

Momo, ENG: I have held what I need to cast it...since long before I entered into my contract...with the boy.

Momo, JP: And I've already received the price needed to do that, long before I entered into my contract with that boy.

The ENG translation makes it sound like the ring Record is showing was somehow necessary to Momo in order to cast the spell. It isn't exactly like that. The ring was seemingly THE PRICE Lilie paid in advance, in order to make a wish to Momo and have it granted.

Yes, exactly like the customers do with Yuuko. But also what Yukito had to do to obtain the powers from the divinity of the Tsukimine Shrine. Basically it's safe to say that if you have a wish in any CLAMP series, you'll always have to pay something of equal value in exchange. And removing the word price from here, wording it in that misleading way, is honestly really annoying. We're reading a CLAMP manga, we love to see keywords and references to common CLAMP tropes and thematics present in other works too, when they've been put there on purpose by CLAMP. Can you please keep them, K-USA?? Note that here, we shouldn't give 100% for granted that the ring was exactly the price Lilie paid. It could be that, but also something related to the ring, something not physical. Like the fact that Lilie remained unprotected after giving the ring away (for a further purpose in the future). Some people gave away their time, freedom, luck as a price, in other works. Maybe it's something along those lines, and the ring gets to be passed over to those who need it the most now. Or maybe it was really the ring all along, I'm just pointing out that there are multiple options here to take into consideration.

We see Momo holding the ring between two fingers, and on the other side of the screen, Sakura's hand takes the same pose, with some "magic sparkles" around it: did Momo indeed pass the ring to her, magically? It's pretty unclear but it's legit to imagine so. Momo continues saying that there are other Cards that haven't disappeared yet (beware, the Spanish version here seems to be implying that ALL of Sakura's Clear Cards haven't disappeared, but from how it's phrased that's not what the JP text is saying here, and the ENG translation is actually right - wtf is happening, hahahah), and they're waiting for Sakura to call them. Yes, just like she did with Record. Then, Momo finally tells her "(please,) Remember" (and not "find them" like in the ENG version!), and Record turns into a magic crystal, the same that appeared everytime Sakura captured a Clear Card, magically going through Sakura's chest. Yes. Should we say "stabbing" her? 😂😂Good lord was this imagery really necessary?? Moreover, people are also being reminded of how the feathers used to enter Sakura's body in Tsubasa exactly like this 😂😂😂it's a continuous reference-fest, with Tsubasa.... Sooo, as you have guessed, Sakura starts recovering all the memories of her life before the forbidden magic was activated: in this beautiful display of countless film strips we can see many scenes coming from the most disparate chapters, mostly related to Sakura (shots from the Two Alice play are included, but NOT futher than that, so I don't know what's the situation for what concerns what happened in Clockland). We can see many characters in those strips, Momo included (so she recovered also her memories that were erased by the time rewindings - I knew she would!! ) but....there's still one major absentee in those memories: Kaito.

And yet. Sakura opens her eyes, after processing all the memories that came back to her. And her eyes are filled with tears, tears and extreme sadness. Akiho, of course, gets immediately anxious when she sees her like that. Sakura runs to the one whom she probably knows by now is not really her sister, to hug her tight. This is a scene that's very reminiscent of when she hugged Akiho in chapter 35 after witnessing Akiho's past on her skin. She didn't know how or why, but her intuition and empathy told her that she had witnessed something related to Akiho. And that's exactly what's happening here too.

I'm not sure if Sakura saw Kaito, in those memories (while not being shown to us). But I'm fairly sure that what's making her cry, thanks to her awesome intuition and empathy, is the blind awareness that they lost someone along the way. Someone very, very important to Akiho, hence why she runs to hug her tight. And that can't help but breaking Sakura's heart too, because she loves Akiho and she would never want to see her "sister" suffer a loss of that magnitude. She knows what it feels like, she had to scold Syaoran before for that same risk. Therefore, with one of the most determined faces I've ever seen her making, she utters:

Sakura, JP: Let's get it back. The thing/the person you didn't want to lose.

There's a lot to say about this last line of the chapter. First of all, the interpretation: the international translations have interpreted in different ways this line, because there isn't a subject or a clear specification of what they're talking about. Some translations made Sakura say something like "I've got to take back what we should've never have lost", like the ENG and BR-PT versions did, making Kaito's disappearance her matter too... Some others decided to translate in a way that's more personal to Akiho, like "Let's get back what you never wanted to lose", like the FR and ESP did. This is possible because this line uses the word もの, which can both mean "thing" but also the hiragana reading of 者, "person" (as usual, a clever way from Ohkawa to not disclose who she's talking about yet, even though we all know). At the same time, it also doesn't specify who is the subject of the verb "didn't want to lose": it could be Akiho, or Sakura and Akiho together, just as each translation decided to infer. Therefore I'm not inclined to indicate one or the other as the correct one, though I have to say that the idea of Sakura making it a personal matter too despite knowing Kaito very little, just because she's that much empathetic, kind and genuine, is quite endearing. Kaito made Akiho feel loved, the happiest, and that alone is enough for Sakura to put up her warrior queen face (seriously, it's so heartbreaking but also beautiful) and declare war to whatever is keeping him away from them, trying to get him back. Ohkawa did say it, in one of the last Twitter Spaces where she talked about the upcoming events of the finale: "Sakura will take care of it in her own way". One last thing, this line is also a reference to what Touya told Sakura in chapter 58, that night when he prepared the honey milk to her, after his sister asked him "What do you do when you don't know what's true and what's not?" and he told her...."I choose what I don't want to loose".

And that's exactly what Sakura is doing right now. We knew this advice sooner or later would've come useful. Sakura chose to bring back what they shouldn't lose. A precious existence that deserves a second chance. Sakura made her choice. She's on board with this. Will Akiho make the same choice? (don't you dare, it's a rhetoric question!! 😂)

Surprisingly enough, for this chapter we have an editorial text in vertical, on the right side of the last page, which translates to: "A wish entrusted from the past, (what will) Sakura (do)...?"

Aaaaand here we are, we reached the end of the chapter. 31 pages...we're back to longer chapters, as expected from those very close to the grand finale! We're currently 79 pages in for volume 15. It is interesting to note that, as I'm writing this post, no notice of "2 chapters to the end" or anything like that was printed on the Japanese color page (but there still could be something in the usual color ads page - I'd need to check the actual Nakayoshi magazine for that). Aside from the things I have already mentioned in the post above, I have to say I really loved to see Sakura and Akiho collaborating (and so immediately after Sakura revealed everything connected to magic to her sister!), effectively putting at work Akiho's extensive knowledge thanks to all the books she reads! Her suggestion of "calling" the magic Sakura was looking for, because it was hiding, was super useful and put into practice something she just had mentioned a few pages before: if you need me for something I happen to be good at, I'll always help you. That's what's good in us being different. Talking with an user on a Discord server, it was mentioned something that I personally really agree with and I would like to talk more extensively in a separate post (maybe someone can send an ask about it so I have the excuse? 😂), which is the fact that in this chapter Sakura talked honestly and clearly with an open heart to Akiho, trusting her reaction to be strong and positive enough, and that lead to a quick resolution of an immediate problem they had, as opposed to the other characters of the cast (Syaoran, Eriol, Kaito etc) who did things on their own, hiding - and even lying in some cases - to protect their loved ones, leading to unforeseen or terrible consequences (Kaito is the extreme example). I think there's definitely a fil rouge here connecting these situations.

Well, this post unfortunately already turned too long so I guess I'll have to stop here, but I'll be glad to answer to asks, if you want to discuss something else (or get more clarifications!). If you found this post useful, if it helped you clarifying some things, please share it - I'm always told of people being so confused by this finale and if I can help in any way I'd be only happy about that, but my posts need to reach those people first.

Chapter 74 is slated to be released on May 31st on CLAMP's Youtube channel (digital), and on June 2nd on Nakayoshi (digital and paper). The next Nakayoshi magazine will come with Sakura on the cover, the chapter being at the very beginning of the magazine (so it's probably going to be a double color page) and even a furoku - a pretty SyaoSaku foldable fan! I'm not sure how things will be with the release of the new K-Manga app, so for now I'm not gonna include it here.

See you next time!!

#card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura #ccsakura #clear card arc #ccs spoilers #sakura card captor #kinomoto sakura #akiho shinomoto #chapter 73 #translation differences

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